Monday, April 19, 2010

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

It was a gorgeous weekend here in HPNC.  Cooler temps...sunshine...blue skies.  Perfect for working out in the yard.  We had 12 new rose bushes that needed to get in the ground, so that set the tone for our To Do List on Saturday.  I know, I know...I said I didn't want another To Do list, didn't I?  Truth-be-told, I operate better when I have some sort of plan.

Anyway, we started the day off with a trip to Ilderton Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep in downtown High Point to get Lillie Pearl her 20K check-up:  oil, filter, tire rotation, and new wiperblades.  If you come in for service on Saturdays, they give you a car wash for free.  Since everything around here is covered in pollen dust, a bath sounded like a great idea.  Of course, if I'd thought about what date it was, I might have thought twice about going through DT HPNC on this particular Saturday:  opening day of the Spring Furniture MarketWhat are all these dressed-up people doing here?  Oh well, it all worked out OK...and Lillie Pearl looks so shiny and healthy, too!

Next to Sam's Club for hamburgers and buns for our cook-out supper...perfect after an afternoon of gardening, right?  Check!  However, when we got home, we had a call from BFF Amelia W., saying she had our pies.  Pies, you ask?  Yessiree.  The Deep River Friends Meeting makes the most marvelous chicken pies for their Annual Chicken Pie Supper (a fund raiser), and we were treated to 3 of them!  Have I told you lately how thankful and glad I am to be back in NC????  Changed our plans:  popped a pie in the oven to stay warm til supper; moved the hamburger cook-out to Sunday.

While AW and daughter CW were over, Gus and Duchess pinned one of their favs down on the sofa...lap dogs that they are.  Thought you might enjoy the picture (left).

OK...on to the yardwork.  While Mr. T and Gus dug the holes for the roses, I potted up some flowers for the deck and the little patio near the swing.  I also added some Wave Petunias to the pots out front, next to the bench (which Mr. T painted a couple of weekends ago).  I thought you'd like to see the guys at work (right).

The twelve new rose bushes are:  Proud Land, Mister Lincoln, and Chrysler Imperial (red ones); Pink Peace, Miss All-American Beauty, and Nearly Wild (pink ones); John F. Kennedy (2) (white ones); Angel Face (lavender); Kordes Perfecta (mix of pink and yellow); and New Day and OreGold (yellow ones).  Whew!  Of course, we have just a spot for a climber, so we are still looking for a Queen Elizabeth climber for it.

After all that work, you know those burgers tasted goooooood...as did those Sam Adams Lights!

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

The Big Day

This is it.  N/M/E turns 90 today!  She said this morning that it was almost anticlimactic, since she's been celebrating The Big Day for almost a week now.  Still...reaching this milestone is truly something special.

Kith and kin began to arrive last Thursday.  By Friday night, we had a gathering of 22 for pizza at the local Donato's (a fav of Missy M and Mom's since our Ohio days).  The winners of the "longest drive" were the AZ nieces/cousins and their DHs, followed by my own DH's sister and BIL from TX.  Other states represented included KY, IL, TN, and NC.  It was a lively bunch!

N/M/E looked beautiful on Saturday as you can see in that photo (above, left).  She was ready to welcome all who came to help her make a wonderful memory of the weekend.  We had everyone sign the Guest Book, then took their pictures right then and there.  When we get those photos developed, we'll put them in the book beside their signature and well-wishes.  We had seven states represented on Saturday.

AZ Cousin Ann is way ahead of us.  She got all her photos developed, then popped them in an album for N/M/E to begin enjoying the memories right away.  You go, girl!  I'm not there yet, but keep watching over there in the left column...eventually I'll get an online album published.

Since some of the folks stayed in town, we headed to the Crafts Show at the Greensboro Coliseum on Sunday.  Then, we got together for lunch at the Bistro 150 on Monday.  And, had by-special-request pancake brunch and a nice visit here at home on Tuesday.  Today seems so quiet and calm after all the activity!

I'm taking a rest from doing taxes (yes, it's THAT time of the year again...:), so that I can give my brain a break.  And, after tomorrow's 15th deadline, I hope to return to normal, whatever that may be.  In no particular order:
  • I want to work in the garden...
  • I want to get those photos of the party developed and in the album...
  • I want to sit on the deck...or the screened porch...or the front porch...or in the swing...and do absolutely nothing.  No "To Do" List(s).  Just enjoy the flowers in bloom (like that iris over there on the right) and veg out.

Update on the dogs:  Elmo had his 3-week follow-up visit on Monday with his ophthalmologist, Wonderful Dr. Nasisse.  His pressures are down to 8 in both eyes, so that confirms that he's pain-free from the glaucoma.  Remarkable!  Even better...he's adapted to being blind, with very few problems that we've noticed. He's still the skittish one of the bunch, but he seemed to be more comfortable around all the people than he's ever been.  Amazing!!

And, Duchess is doing better, too.  We had a wonderful report from loving, caring Dr. Heidi:  those tissue samples she sent off for testing?  All were benign.  Follicular cysts, I believe she called them.  Common in Golden Retrievers and Basset Hounds.  Joy.  She gets her stitches (of which she has what appears to be thousands...) out on Friday.  Then she can get back to making more cysts.  We should start saving money for the next round of removal, right?

Don't worry.  I haven't stopped knitting completely.  I tried to stay true to my resolution in March:  either finish it or frog it.  I resolved most of my WIP's:  finished the Entwined Shawl for N/M/E's Easter present and the belt for Missy M's Easter basket.  Frogged the Clara baby dress; the cotton cashmere yarn was just too heavy for the delicate patterning.  Worked on the blue baby blanket I've been crocheting for-ev-er...will hopefully finsh it sooner rather than later.  That leaves one other crochet baby blanket and the Handmaiden Sea Cell scarf in the works.  Oh, and the dress for the Bunny I knit for Missy M's basket (right now, the Bunny is in the buff, shall we say?)

The strange thing is that I'm stalled at what I want to start next on the needles!  I've organized all my stash yarn that was moved...and I realized how much fibre I have in the house.  S-c-a-r-y.  But, now that I've resolved several projects, I don't know what I want to work on.  So, I keep going back to what's left:  blue baby blanket and/or the scarf (which may or may not get frogged, since I've found a shawl pattern I like better than what I've got going now).  Sigh.

OK...back to the taxes.  Just 31 more hours to file.  And pay.  Don't forget the "pay" part.  Oh yeah, it's gonna be one of those years unfortunately.  Seems like every time we have a moving year, we have a paying year on the following April 15th.

Maybe I'll just have a cupcake instead...

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Wacky Weather, Wacky Week Altogether

Folks, I've got to admit it.  I've been one of the worst complainers about the long, cold Winter we had.  Snow after snow after snow blanketed the Piedmont, and it got to be old after the first couple of them.  Would Spring ever arrive?

Uh...yeah.

I must have blinked, because we seem to have gone from Winter right into Summer...forget Spring.  We hit 96 here today (a record high)...warmer than it was in Phoenix, AZ, which is always my test of whether it's hot here...or anywhere, for that matter.  The tree pollen count is so high that they can't even chart the number in a graph without some distortion on TV.  It feels like we are all going to choke on the yellow dust that covers everything in sight.  Cough, cough...wheeze, wheeze...pass the Allegra-D, please.

N/M/E asked me if I'd taken a photo (above, left) of the pink dogwood that grows in front of our front porch yet...that I'd better do it quickly, 'cause it might not have any flowers on it at all tomorrow.  One day is had tiny buds...the next day, it had beautiful pink blossoms...and then the leaves popped out overnight.  Yikes!  Everything seems to be happening so fast.  All the daffodils are bloomed and gone...and this morning, I noticed both daylily buds forming and some iris blossoms about to open.  Daylilies?  Iris?  The first week of April??  How odd...

Supposedly, we've got another day of high heat before we get some relief...both in lower temps and some much needed cleansing rains.  Maybe that will wash the pollen dust away by the weekend.

Taking a break from the long To Do list of chores to get ready for the upcoming weekend Birthday Celebration for N/M/E, I took advantage of the glorious sunny day and worked outside most of Monday, repotting some plants that survived the winter indoors.  My lemon tree...started from saved seed a few years ago in MO...had outgrown the confines of its pot last year, but I just didn't have energy last Fall.  Ditto the beautiful Mandevilla vine that Realtor Sue sent us as a housewarming gift...poor thing, it never made it out of the plastic "grower's" pot that it came to us in...as well as a hearty bunch of chives that have miraculously survived two winters and a move. Now, they are all hap-hap-happy out on the deck, in new soil and pots.  I also potted up some herbs (oregano, parsley, rosemary, lavender, and basil) and a Super Sweet 100 Cherry Tomato for the deck garden. 

I took a short cut on the flowers for the porches this year:  I got "already potted" groupings of flowers called Container Replacements from Lowe's...you just pop them in your pots and add water.  I did sneak in some beautiful purple petunias to the white geranium and spiky green foliage (is it artemisia?) of one.  I also found some pretty potted-up coreopsis at Walmart which followed me home and are now gracing the front steps.  Those last ones did get a make-over when I added three Hot Pink vincas to each of the bright yellow coreopsis pots...just like we had read about doing in the gardening section of the paper on Sunday.  Like I said about the weather...instant Summer!

Most of this dolling-up of the homeplace is in preparation of our guests for N/M/E's 90th Birthday celebration this Saturday.  Fingers crossed...toes, too...that we can make it happen.  Health issues have sprung up just like Summer weeds...we get one managed and along comes another one.  I've been battling a nasty virus that just won't let go...I was down for the count for about a week...then, I think I've got it licked, but back comes the cough.  And, now N/M/E has developed this odd foot malady of sharp, stabbing heal pain (akin to her gout? not sure...) that kept her from joining us at Easter services at Covenant UMC and then the yummy buffet at the Proxity Hotel in Greensboro.  Speaking of being "dolled-up," check out Mr. T in his Easter finery.  (What you can't tell in that photo to the right is just how much yellow pollen dust is coating that black courtesy car.)

And, the health issues are not just for us humans either.  Duchess got to come home today following her surgery on Monday to remove 7 cysts, two of which had ruptured, one being infected...that's the one we've been trying to deal with for more than a month now.  She was a real trooper, Dr. Heidi said...amazing actually.  For a 10-year-old dog "with a good bit of extra padding," she came through the 2-plus hour surgery with flying colors.  No fever...none, even after the recovery period.  Now, it's all about the healing.  They sent her home in this flexible E-collar thingie (pic to the left; see all her shaved patches, one of which is holding Elmo's interest) to keep her from tearing out her stitches, but that lasted about 20 minutes.  Mr. T removed it because he said she looked miserable...and because it was driving Gus nuts to see her in the thing.  Woo woo!  Still and all, we are ever so happy to have her home and feeling better.  Having had two dogs with major health problems in two months is, well, two too many.  Hopefully, things will settle down for them...and for us.

Time to get to bed for the night.  Lots to do on the To Do List tomorrow!

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