More summer...

The moon and clouds looked cool the other night. So, with my point and shoot I attempted to take a picture. My camera is definitely better for daylight (or at least some light).In an attempt to take a better picture, I played around with the settings. Then a mosquito decided to eat a chunk out of my arm while I was snapping, and this happened:I think it is going to be a long bug-bitten summer. However, it IS starting off with a two-week trip overseas to visit CF's family and friends, and we leave tomorrow night. Have a good first half of June - I'll catch up with you all when I get back!

(As an aside, I think the last post was my 500th! Or maybe it was the post before that. Blogger counts drafts as posts I think. Either way I'm over 500.)

Cuttin' out early

Well, I do not leave town until tomorrow, but was foiled in posting yesterday as our internet is out again. Oh, well. Not much too much to post about, except that I signed my lease! I am excited to move, but anxious about how the heck I am going to get all my furniture to my new apartment September 1st (or sometime the week before). It is not so much as rounding up friends to help out as it is finding a vehicle, or movers (except I do not know exactly when I will get keys prior to September1st). I am going to do something very unlike me and not worry about it until I get back from out of town...

So tomorrow I head to a week-long course and then invade my brother's house for something like 8 days. Sorry if I am absent from commenting on any of your blogs, although I tend to comment on posts in spurts anyway. I may or may not have a chance to post anything, but will certainly post pictures when I get back and any stories worth telling! :)

I am officially starting my 2-week blog vacation. Peace out.

A break for real

This isn't so much a post as an announcement. I went to the conference for a week and posted a little adventure. Tomorrow I head to my friends' wedding for the weekend and I am not even going to pretend that I will post. This is a dry run for the first couple of weeks in August when I'll be traveling. Maybe I will take a special blog picture everyday. No promises though.

Peace out until Sunday!

Honey I Shrunk the Kids Part 4: The final challenge

This sapling has grown nicely in the protection of the sections of wooden fence to the right. This is a section of the fence in the backyard that was taken down more than two years ago now that has been resting against the house ever since. Good place for squirrels to hide! Now the grill is holding that sapling up too. See, if you were shrunk and just made your ways across the whole jungle of a backyard, then you would just need to gather up the energy to climb right up that tree and park yourself on the grill's tray to get someone's attention.During Honey I Shrunk the Kids, there is a scene in which the older boy performs mouth to mouth on the sister. When the little brother asks where he learned it, the older boy says French class. I did not get the joke until the end of the movie, when the camera closes out then opens back up on the little brother and he says, "French class! I get it! French class!" Give me a break - I was only, maybe 10 at the time!

And it is Friday, so I will get home from the conference too!

Honey I Shrunk the Kids Part 3: The true jungle

Buttercups! [I think...they do not have the leaves I am used to...]
This is a good place mid-lawn to climb up and get a good view...you know, if you have been shrunk. If it has rained, I am sure these leaves would have some potable water collected on them too...you know, if you are shrunk and have no food or water. If your landlord does not mow, he certainly does not apply nasty chemicals you would not want to ingest.
Then we get to the clover. You can suck on the base of the flower and get sap (I guess it is sap). Did you know this? We used to do it with the big purple-y clover flowers when we were kids. With those, you can sometimes taste the sweetness. I guess that is what the bees like.
And there are mini-trees all over the lawn! How convenient - again, stronger stalks up which you can climb to figure out where you are. This one is pretty close to the cement near the house.

Honey I Shrunk the Kids Part 2: The far reaches of the backyard

I have failed to plant tomatoes in the corner this year, so it is a little barren. There are handy fences to tie plants up and everything. Even with expensive soil from Home Dee-pot, the tomatoes required more care than necessary: water, fertilize, water, fertilize. If I were a shrunken person, this part of the yard would be easy to get through.
The strawberries Roommate planted last summer came back up! Chances are, the same furry animal (the darn squirrel again or the area skunks??) that ate them last summer will do so again before we get any berries...Or maybe the landlord will mow, who knows?

Honey I Shrunk the Kids

Remember that movie in which Rick Moranis makes this machine that shrinks the kids and they go through this big adventure in the back yard?

The first summer Roommate and I lived in our apartment, our landlord came and mowed our lawn every week. Then he and his wife moved a little further away and he did not come so often. Last summer was the first summer during which they had a baby and he mowed every two weeks, if we were lucky, but more like every three weeks. I just found out that he and his wife had another baby last weekend. He has mowed our lawn ONCE this year so far. We had a week of rain, and now we have had lots of sun. Our lawn reminds me of that movie.

While I am at my conference this week, you will go on a tour of the jungle that is my backyard. This was my setup while I did some reading for the conference the day it was 94 degrees. Ick. I have my iced tea on my right and my papers right there by the chair. I even read them! Maybe it will be mowed when I get home, but I doubt it!

Not terribly exciting, but very green!

Caught red-pawed

REALLY?! Did the stupid squirrel think I would not see it there????? It totally froze when it heard movement in the house. I chased it or it's family member off the porch THREE times in a matter of 2 hours. I have seen two together this summer. It is only a matter of time before the juveniles appear just like last summer.

The landlord knows there are squirrels living in the house (roof to be specific), as one actually was IN the basement last summer, and has done nothing to get them out. I can see where the siding by the gutter near our porch is bent out and they always go in there. GRRRRR. Any one ever have success deterring squirrels?

My poor flowers.

Crime scene

I noticed some dirt on our porch the other day and thought maybe the hanging flowers had just been blown around in the wind recently. HAH, was I wrong?!

The evidence that was left behind:
The victims: These plants used to look so nice! I moved the other large one to the front of the house to try to keep it out of harm's way.So. One, I think I should add detective work to my list of Plan Bs if the grad school thing does not work out. Two, any guesses who the culprit is? It might not be too hard...The answer will be posted tomorrow.