All the Scoop
Jul. 16th, 2011 03:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mythicalgirlHoly Crap! How long has it been since I posted anything?
No, I didn't fall off the face of the earth. I've been busy, mostly at work, and posting just really hasn't been on the radar.
Work: Well, nothing much has changed here. I'm still on the neverending project from hell although it is possible the end is in sight. Or at least the end of this phase. We have a proof of concept with the vendor this coming week, M-W, and then evaluation to see if we want to keep working with them or just say fuck it, find a new vendor or do it ourselves. If we say no at the end of the week then I expect to get a break for a while until we decide what our next move is. If we say yes to staying with this vendor I likely won't be free of this project until it is done or I quit, whichever comes first.
Garden - veggies: The tomato plants are both doing well. The squirrel is leaving the one on the deck alone this year, mostly because the one in the raised bed is so much easier to get to. I've picked two tomatoes that were just turning red to bring them inside to ripen only to find little squirrel teeth marks in them. I've already gotten two servings of beans from those plants with another two about ready to harvest. There are green peppers that should be ready soon and basil for making pesto. I lost the cucumbers though. Not to bugs this time, just to my own stupidity. I put them in the raised bed where they were doing great. Seriously great - the things were taking over the entire bed and several feet of yard on all sides. I was trying to maneuver them around so that the mowing guys could continue to do their thing back there when, well, I accidentally pulled up both plants. I considered trying to replant them but decided against it. So no cucumber this year. I expect I'll add another bed and try again next year.
Garden - flowers: The flower garden in the back corner is doing very well. So far I've only lost about half a plant, one of the hot papaya cone flowers. The whole plant isn't dead though so I'm hoping I can save it. The colors are great and it looks lovely if a little wild, which is what I was going for. It should be even better next year as things fill in. Although I keep losing the cone flowers form some of the plants. I think something is eating them as they are snapped right off the stem. Birds? The ducks or geese? Who knows. We don't have deer but we do have squirrel, chipmunks, opossum, raccoon, geese, several kinds of ducks, and stray cats.
Reading: My friend B- has been trying to get me to read George R.R. Martin's Son if Ice and Fire for years. I picked up the first book several months ago then just let it sit in the TBR pile. B- finally convinced me to "just read the prologue". I did and then some. In the last month I've read the first four books and I'm not working on book five that just came out. These are some seriously amazing books. I even loaned the first one to another friend, Z-, who was saying he needed something to read. I also gave him an Ian Banks Culture novel and Mira Grant's Feed. We'll see if he likes any of them as he tends to read more straight literature than genre. But since genre is what I have to lend that is what he gets. I'm about 25% of the way through A Dance With Dragons. I don't know the exact page though - I got a Kindle so I'm reading this one electronically. As much as I love the feel of real books I can get used to ebooks. If nothing else there is the convenience of being able to buy and donwload right then and there when I find something I want to read. Plus the ebook is usually cheaper. The bad part is that some files don't contain page numbers (this SUCKS!), it isn't as easy to flip back and forth through the book, and I can't sell them later to HPB. Still, even given the limitations I find myself looking at the e-version of books now. In fact I went to Borders yesterday (had a coupon) and couldn't bring myself to buy much of anything as I kep thinking that it would be so much easier to have the book on my Kindle. I think amazon must have implanted some sort of subliminal mind control in the device or something.
Personal: I think I mentioned here before that I hurt my foot when I was putting in the raised bed. I finally went to the clinic at work (free!) and had them look at it. The NP had me wrap it in an ace bandage and take NSAIDs then come back in a week. I did and the swelling went down a bit but the knot was still there so she sent me for x-rays. Luckily the films came back showing that nothing is broken. The swelling has gone down more and the pain has eased up a lot so I canceled my follow-up appointment this past Thursday. I've stopped wrapping it although I'm still taking ibuprofen at half the original dosage she had me on. I've also been using Blue-Emu on it which has done wonders. It may be a timing thing, coincidence, or the placebo effect but I swear that the foot has healed more since I started using the Blue-Emu. I'm keeping an eye on it though and will go to a podiatrist if it gets worse again.
That's it for now. I'll try not to let it be another month before I post again!
No, I didn't fall off the face of the earth. I've been busy, mostly at work, and posting just really hasn't been on the radar.
Work: Well, nothing much has changed here. I'm still on the neverending project from hell although it is possible the end is in sight. Or at least the end of this phase. We have a proof of concept with the vendor this coming week, M-W, and then evaluation to see if we want to keep working with them or just say fuck it, find a new vendor or do it ourselves. If we say no at the end of the week then I expect to get a break for a while until we decide what our next move is. If we say yes to staying with this vendor I likely won't be free of this project until it is done or I quit, whichever comes first.
Garden - veggies: The tomato plants are both doing well. The squirrel is leaving the one on the deck alone this year, mostly because the one in the raised bed is so much easier to get to. I've picked two tomatoes that were just turning red to bring them inside to ripen only to find little squirrel teeth marks in them. I've already gotten two servings of beans from those plants with another two about ready to harvest. There are green peppers that should be ready soon and basil for making pesto. I lost the cucumbers though. Not to bugs this time, just to my own stupidity. I put them in the raised bed where they were doing great. Seriously great - the things were taking over the entire bed and several feet of yard on all sides. I was trying to maneuver them around so that the mowing guys could continue to do their thing back there when, well, I accidentally pulled up both plants. I considered trying to replant them but decided against it. So no cucumber this year. I expect I'll add another bed and try again next year.
Garden - flowers: The flower garden in the back corner is doing very well. So far I've only lost about half a plant, one of the hot papaya cone flowers. The whole plant isn't dead though so I'm hoping I can save it. The colors are great and it looks lovely if a little wild, which is what I was going for. It should be even better next year as things fill in. Although I keep losing the cone flowers form some of the plants. I think something is eating them as they are snapped right off the stem. Birds? The ducks or geese? Who knows. We don't have deer but we do have squirrel, chipmunks, opossum, raccoon, geese, several kinds of ducks, and stray cats.
Reading: My friend B- has been trying to get me to read George R.R. Martin's Son if Ice and Fire for years. I picked up the first book several months ago then just let it sit in the TBR pile. B- finally convinced me to "just read the prologue". I did and then some. In the last month I've read the first four books and I'm not working on book five that just came out. These are some seriously amazing books. I even loaned the first one to another friend, Z-, who was saying he needed something to read. I also gave him an Ian Banks Culture novel and Mira Grant's Feed. We'll see if he likes any of them as he tends to read more straight literature than genre. But since genre is what I have to lend that is what he gets. I'm about 25% of the way through A Dance With Dragons. I don't know the exact page though - I got a Kindle so I'm reading this one electronically. As much as I love the feel of real books I can get used to ebooks. If nothing else there is the convenience of being able to buy and donwload right then and there when I find something I want to read. Plus the ebook is usually cheaper. The bad part is that some files don't contain page numbers (this SUCKS!), it isn't as easy to flip back and forth through the book, and I can't sell them later to HPB. Still, even given the limitations I find myself looking at the e-version of books now. In fact I went to Borders yesterday (had a coupon) and couldn't bring myself to buy much of anything as I kep thinking that it would be so much easier to have the book on my Kindle. I think amazon must have implanted some sort of subliminal mind control in the device or something.
Personal: I think I mentioned here before that I hurt my foot when I was putting in the raised bed. I finally went to the clinic at work (free!) and had them look at it. The NP had me wrap it in an ace bandage and take NSAIDs then come back in a week. I did and the swelling went down a bit but the knot was still there so she sent me for x-rays. Luckily the films came back showing that nothing is broken. The swelling has gone down more and the pain has eased up a lot so I canceled my follow-up appointment this past Thursday. I've stopped wrapping it although I'm still taking ibuprofen at half the original dosage she had me on. I've also been using Blue-Emu on it which has done wonders. It may be a timing thing, coincidence, or the placebo effect but I swear that the foot has healed more since I started using the Blue-Emu. I'm keeping an eye on it though and will go to a podiatrist if it gets worse again.
That's it for now. I'll try not to let it be another month before I post again!
