A sweet kind of day

Happy Saturday everyone! I woke up in a great mood this morning because it's a bright sunny day and the beginning of a week off! Now I can sit down and enjoy my blog and catch up with all my blogger buddies.

Last week I put up a post, complaining about work, but then after a wise word of advice from Joanne I unpublished it. The last thing I need is to have someone I work with stumble upon my blog and take offense at something I've been venting about! In fact, I went back and unpublished some other recent posts. Better safe than sorry, and all my regular readers know about the issues I've had this year anyway. Suffice to say that things haven't gotten much better, and I'm still looking for a promotion elsewhere. No one can argue with a person wanting to better themselves, right? *

I started my tomato and pepper seeds on Sunday afternoon! I want them to be a good planting-out size by mid-April. Next week while I'm off I plan to sow lettuce and spinach in part of the raised bed, fertilize the fig tree and blueberry bushes, and attempt to build a compost bin out of wooden pallets. Gregg's been bringing them (the pallets) home from the pet store for me. Even someone of my limited (nonexistent, really) building skills should be able to attach hinges, hammer in nails, and screw in screws. Directions for simple bins are all over the internet, and I need a good, free source of compost! So we'll see what I can throw together. Of course I'll share pictures of the finished project if I manage to build something use-able.

I've been on a bit of a reading spree lately. I haven't posted a book review in a long time, but I'd like to write one or two next week if time allows. My book club met last week, but unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this month's selection enough to even finish it. I mainly went to see everyone and to partake (sparingly) of the treats. I'm still plugging along with my efforts to lose weight and get healthier, and it's working! Since the beginning of January, I've lost 15 pounds! And less exciting (but just as important) the last time I had my blood pressure checked it was the best it had been in over a year. I've just been eating very sensibly, walking more, and avoiding alcohol, and it's working without too much angst on my part. I've just got to keep sticking with it, and hopefully this will be a very good year for my health. 

I'll end on some photos I've taken recently with my phone. Have a great day, everyone!

Luella's glorious tree is in full bloom next door. We sure miss her.

When a small budding branch hanging over the road got knocked down by a car, I brought in a small bit to see if the flowers would open in water. As you can see, they did!

Our neighborhood turkey, Theodora, paid our yard a visit last week. Yes, she's still around.

Flowers I got for Valentine's Day, and also a box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts I picked up this morning. Marla and her little girl Carsen are coming over this afternoon to share the sweet treats with me! (We had gotten a K.K. gift card at Christmas, and I've been saving it for a special occasion since I'm on a diet. Whatever we don't eat this afternoon will go home with Marla and Carsen}.

*On Wednesday an open position was posted on the district website that I'm interested in. It would be at another school, and would also be a promotion for me. Please wish me luck! I had to submit three references, and the three people I asked were all very encouraging. One of them was the principal who first hired me. After she left our school, she got promoted to one of the top positions in the district. When I called her and asked to use her as a reference, she said she would be "delighted" to do that for me. Then she said, "You would do a great job at that school!". That made me feel so good! Even if this particular job doesn't work out, with so many good references and people looking out for me, sooner or later something will. 

Time off

It's wonderful to be off work this week, and a much-needed break. Work continues to be a mostly unhappy place, although far more tolerable than it was at the beginning of this school year. We've just finished our first quarter, and in six months (when contracts for the next year have to be signed) there should be plenty of job openings in the district to apply for. I'm crossing my fingers that something comes open at this school because it's only about a mile from my house, it's a very nice new building/campus, they have a really good staff and principal, and it serves younger students, kindergarten through fifth grade. Marla's little girl, Carsen, will be starting kindergarten there next year in their Spanish immersion program. This would be the ideal transfer for me! But of course, there has to be an opening first. 

Even though I'm off this week, I've been busy. I've washed and vacuumed out my car, organized and cleaned my pantry, gave the refrigerator a major cleaning, and taken comforters and other large bedding to the laundromat for a good wash (things that wouldn't fit in my washer at home). 

Marco "helping" me clean the pantry. :)

The big chore of the week was finally chopping down the dead dogwood tree in our front yard. Gregg has a small chainsaw that we used to do the job.  I took a final picture of the tree before we got started.

It was bigger than it looks in this picture. We got it down and also cut up a bunch of firewood from it, to be used for a bonfire later on. Now that it's gone, our front yard looks strange every time we forget about it and glance outside. Hopefully the little crabapple tree will make it to next spring (despite the deer damage) and will begin to grow into the empty space. We've contrived a wire cage thing to go around it to give it a chance to grow out, so hopefully the deer won't be an issue anymore.

This morning I had to go to the dentist to get a crown re-done. I was dreading it, but it turned out to be much easier than I expected. Afterwards I drove down to the allergist's office to get my weekly allergy shot, so now that's out of the way, too. Tomorrow I'm going to see my parents. I haven't seen them in a long while and my dad's been back in the hospital. His health keeps deteriorating, and I need to go see him more often while I have the chance. After that, I plan to relax and enjoy my last few days off. 

These two love it when I'm at home all day!

It's already Sunday

 I finally gave in to my compulsion to own a food dehydrator and ordered one from the bad "A" place (sorry, Maddie) after being unable to find one to buy in person here in town. It took three days to get here and when it finally arrived and I unpacked it, the handle on the door was completely broken off. Shame on Mr. Bezos and his minions! Now I have to return the stupid thing and wait up to a week for my refund. Sigh. So disappointing! I already had a big bundle of bananas and apples I had planned to dry for healthy snacks next week. That won't be happening any time soon, now, and to be honest once I saw how much counter space a dehydrator will take up I'm not sure I want to try to reorder at this point. All the wind went out of my sails when I saw that broken handle.

One thing that did arrive safely was a little red-haired girlie that was a gift from Fresca. She and Marco were instant best friends, and she's brought a little cheer to the house this week. She  hasn't shared her name with me yet, but Marco seems to know it. For the moment, they're keeping their secret.

The girlie was watching me make an apple pie the evening after she arrived. She says that Autumn is her favorite season!

My friend Martina works for a veterinarian. She was upset on our behalf about the puppy situation last month, and yesterday she sent me this via text:

A sweet, 5 month old spaniel mix that was an owner surrender and needs a good home. Martina is having this lucky puppy thoroughly vetted and vaccinated, and she asked me if I'd be interested in setting up a meeting with George. She knows I have a soft spot for spaniels, and this one has lovely, shiny, soft black fur and a nice temperament.

Although we're (once again) sorely tempted, this puppy is a male and we think George would do better with a female. Also, late May or early June would be the absolute best time to adopt a new dog, when I'll have the long summer break at home to help everyone acclimate. I'm afraid we're going to probably pass on this cutie. Martina assures me that they can find him a great home either way, and that we can have a little time to think about it. At least there's a zero percent chance that Martina would flake out on us! She's as trustworthy as they come, especially where animals are concerned. This dog is lucky he landed with someone like her to see to his welfare.

Well, today is the last of my week off. It hasn't been all I hoped for, but the break from the office has been very welcome. The four-day Thanksgiving weekend is still over 6 weeks away, but there's book club and Halloween and Gregg's birthday between now and then to look forward to. Going back is easier with stuff to look forward to.

Enjoy your Sunday, friends.

Tuesday ramble

The search for a crabapple tree was a total bust. Although there were two or three vendors selling good-size fruit trees at the festival, the only apples were standard size varieties, not crabs. One Asian family had the best selection of trees, but (and this shocked me) they had never even heard of crabapples! It made me wonder if they were just running the stall for someone else. They obviously didn't know much about trees in general. Their little son was adorable, though, and kept trying to help me (aka sell me something). After making calls to several local nurseries, it looks as though we'll have to order a crabapple tree online if we're going to get one. I'm surprised by that.

It was still fun to look around the Fall Festival, though. I had a corn dog and fresh lemonade for lunch, then bought a big bag of fresh apples straight from the North Carolina mountains to bring home. King Luscious, Rome, Granny SmithIt , Fuji, and Golden Delicious were the varieties I picked. I'm planning to make pie tomorrow, but I like them just as well fresh and eaten in thin slices. 

Speaking of apples, I've been on the hunt for a food dehydrator. No one around here seems to carry them in store so it looks like I may have to use Amazon to get one. I would love to start making apple and banana chips for healthy snacks among other things. 

Yesterday I began building a raised bed for next year's garden in my back yard with the border stones that were here when we moved in. There's still some work to do, but I'm excited with how it's turning out so far. You can see the bananas in this picture, and don't they still look good? That's because we keep trimming off all the yellow leaves! They'll be gone before too much longer. 

This afternoon I had lunch with two friends and that was really nice. I had a yummy grilled chicken Greek salad with pita bread and tzatziki on the side.

It was so good to see Marian and Paulette! We passed a pleasant hour, talking over our lunches.

Now I'm back at home, spending the afternoon with George and Marco. I'm making homemade soup for the first time this fall for our dinner tonight, and the house smells wonderful! It's not all that cool outside, but it is overcast, so soup seems appropriate. It's fun to cook and do things around the house on a weekday when one would normally be at work! I'm enjoying this little break.

An interesting week

Even though I've barely left the house this week, things have been....interesting....around here.

The good stuff first:

It's been a banner week for birdwatching. About three days ago a Facebook friend posted about a rare sighting of a Rose Breasted Grosbeak at one of his feeders here in Florence. I told my husband about it that afternoon while we were sitting on the porch watching our feeders, and not an hour later one showed up! This was a first for me.

And if that wasn't exciting enough, we had another feathered visitor a few minutes later that was even rarer in this part of the state: a Painted Bunting!

I've seen Painted Bunting before, but only a couple of times at Huntington Beach State Park in Murrells Inlet, SC. They tend to stay close to the coast. My dad, who grew up in Murrells Inlet, talks about seeing them there as a boy. I've never even considered seeing them 50 or 60 miles inland. What a treat!

Unfortunately, the Rose Breasted Grosbeak and the Painted Bunting only hung out at our feeders for a few minutes, and then they both disappeared. We sat outside all afternoon yesterday hoping they might stop back by, but no luck. They must have been passing through on Monday and it was just sheer luck that we were sitting outside and got to see them.

Speaking of birds:

Somebody kept trying to sneak up on the dyed eggs to see what they were all about! I had to stop him twice or he would have broken into them. I finally just took them away. Brat!

I also got a much-needed haircut:

In January and February I started losing an alarming amount of hair. Every time I took a shower there would be gobs of hair around the mesh drain covering. Of course I googled it (thanks Doctor Google!) and discovered that stress can make that happen. Apparently you're supposed to think back two or three months before the hair loss started to see what was going on in your life. Well, we bought a house and moved in November. So there you go. I'm beyond thankful that the loss seems to have gone back to a normal amount, even though now I have tons of 1-2 inch new hairs that stick out all over. Hey, at least it's growing back, right?! I hadn't had a haircut in several months and my hair was looking bad. Limp and tired, thin, with dead ends. I usually go to our local Great Clips to get my hair cut, but that's always a crapshoot. I've had some of the best and some of the worst cuts of my life there. I went yesterday hoping to get someone good, and as luck would have it a woman named Wendy who has hair very similar to mine in texture and color was assigned to me. She listened sympathetically to my tale of hair woe, assured me that she's seen lots of people lose a bunch of hair when they're stress and that it always grows back, and then talked to me about  the best method of cutting fine hair like mine. I was very, very pleased with the results. The cut is good (hard to see that in these two pictures) and now my hair looks much healthier and shinier again. Wendy was a godsend! I feel so much better about how I look right now.

Finally.....the weirdest thing that happened this week. I've been looking at the fence line in our back yard, planning how we need to get back there and do some weeding. On Tuesday afternoon I went out there again while scooping up dog poop and this had appeared, hidden in the bushes just behind the crazy old man neighbor's property line:

What does that look like to you? The crazy old asshole has set up a surveillance camera! It's pointed at our back yard and porch, although when you're sitting on the porch the angle of our garage blocks it from view. It's hidden in thick bushes about 6 inches behind his property line, and it definitely wasn't there the day before. There is absolutely NOTHING on his own property that he could be filming. Not his yard, not an entrance, nothing at all except our yard and house. What a creep!

I texted the sheriff's deputy that works at our school. He said he didn't think anything could legally be done, since the camera is outside and on his property. He said he would put up something to block the view of the camera, and see if it moved. He thought it was hilarious. I was furious at first, but now I think it's kinda funny, too. There's nothing for him to see, and our dogs rarely bark anymore (not to mention they spend over half their time in the house these days) so I can't imagine what he gets out of it. I've gotten close, leaned over the fence, and flipped off the camera a couple of times but now I'm trying to think of something funny to put right there his view. A sign of some kind, maybe? I would LOVE any suggestions you all might have!

So that's been my week so far. Today I'm planting a few tomato seedlings around the back porch (I'm sure Crazy Neighbor will be watching from inside his house) and then going to lunch with a friend. Spring break is going by a super light speed, but once we go back to school we only have a little over a month and then summer vacation will be here! Then I can spend three months thinking of ways to get revenge on the nutty neighbor! Hahaha.