Myrmecology Monday

myrmecology ~ study of ants

Shh! Be very quiet. The sun is out and we don’t want to scare it away!

It seems that mother nature has taken pity on us and spring has finally arrived. The temperature has been rising and the sun has been out more often than not over the last few days. The forecast for the week ahead has a little more rain than I’d like to see, but there’s the promise of the odd day or two of sun as well. The temperature is going to start out around 10 C, if not warmer (that’s around 50 F to you Yankees), gradually dipping down to about 6 C (43 F) by the end of the week. But it's better than minus temperatures.

Saturday was a beautiful day, so naturally I spent it inside, in my office, moving furniture around. I don’t really regret missing out on the beautiful weather, I got a lot of work done and much satisfaction was to be found. Much junk too, which went into the donate pile.

Sunday was an even nicer day, and the hubby and I took a road trip to Peterborough. And I’m sorry, hubby, but the story of why we had to take the daughter’s car is just too funny not to share.

As the hubby was driving home from coaching the kids in the Youth Bowling Canada league, as he does every Saturday morning when he doesn’t have a tournament, he got stopped by the police. Yes, he got a ticket. No, it’s not for what you’d think it was. He wasn’t speeding, he had an expired license plate sticker. Seems he forgot to renew it in February when his birthday rolled round.

His excuse to the officer? “I don’t remember getting the form in the mail to take in for renewal.” Yeah, you did. You found it right where I said you usually stick things like that. In the mail holder on the top shelf of the seating unit in the front hall. To be fair, they send out the renewal forms several months before a person's actual birthday, so I'm pretty sure people forget all the time.

But that meant we’d been driving without the sticker since February – all those trips out of town to bowling tournaments, all those shopping trips, all those trips to Peterborough for my night school course….

Because it was Saturday, the officer gave him a ticket and advised him to keep it in the car in case he got stopped again. The license office is closed on the weekend but he can only be ticketed once over the weekend. But it also meant that we were restricted to driving in town, hence the need to borrow the daughter’s car for our road trip.

So Sunday, while everybody else was outside enjoying the vitamin D, we were stuck behind dumbass slow drivers enjoying a leisurely drive to Peterborough. Our primary goal was to look for a chair for my office, but first we stopped off at one of the big thrift stores to drop off a load of “stuff”. This consisted of the donate pile from my office and a couple of big bags of clothes from the hubby’s closet (which is how he spent his Saturday afternoon).

The furniture store we went to had an amazing selection of chairs. I didn’t want a recliner and I didn’t want a chair that rocked, although I was okay with one that swiveled. There were several I really liked….until I saw the price tag. Call me crazy, but $1200.00 for a reading chair for my office is just a little too pricey for my taste.

As we were winding our way towards the exit, there it was – a dining room table with four chairs. It was pub height, which we always wanted, and could be either round or square. Square, it was 42” across and would fit four people comfortably. Round, which was done by putting up the four drop leaves, it was 60” across and would fit eight comfortably. And it had a lazy susan in the center.

We sat there, thinking about it, for so long that one of the sales staff passing by joked that she wasn’t bringing us our lunch. But the chairs were comfortable and we could totally picture sitting at that table to eat or do paperwork or whatever else people do at dining room tables.

It was twice the price of the dining room set we almost bought at Costco, and missed out on because by the time we decided we wanted it, it was gone and they weren’t getting any more in. And the wood was kind of a barn board grey, which really doesn’t go with anything else in our dining room.

It’s being delivered Wednesday. :-D

Morphogenesis Monday

morphogenesis ~ origin or development of a body part or organ

Just when I thought it was safe to put on my gardening gloves, this happened:

That’s not really snow you’re seeing, that’s the build up of ice pellets from our two day ice storm over the weekend. We were actually pretty fortunate that we never lost power – many communities around us did. Stretches of the 401 were closed periodically because slippery driving seems to bring out the stupid in people, and there was a whole list of closures and cancellations on Sunday.

I thought April showers were supposed to bring May flowers, not ice and snow?

The bulbs I bought last week are sitting on the dining room table sprouting in their little mesh bags. I’m sure this doesn’t bode well for them if/when I finally get them in the ground. But I have 50 iris bulbs, so surely a few of them will survive.

This week I really have to start thinning out the tomato plants the grandbaby and her Grappy started. They are growing like crazy:

The marigold seedlings are holding on, as is the brave little daisy. The forget-me-nots were still not doing anything, so I bought some more seeds and replanted them (which is why their pot is covered in plastic again).

Not pictured is the green divided tray the grandbaby and I planted a variety of seeds in last week – morning glories, stocks, catnip, and dill. Unfortunately, I did not label anything so I have no idea which pot holds which plant. Guess we’ll be surprised. LOL

We also planted a fairy garden last week. This was a kit that I bought from Giant Tiger and I actually had my doubts about anything coming of it because that’s where I bought the little single pots with the forget-me-nots, marigolds, and daisy. So imagine my surprise when I checked them on the weekend and saw this:

In conclusion, it may not be spring outside, but it’s coming along nicely inside. :-)

Museology Monday

museology ~ the study of museums

I’m going to let you in on a little secret…I really like a four day work week. Thanks to Easter, I had two of them in a row – one with Friday off and one with Monday. Yes, it meant a four day weekend in the middle, but it was still two four-day work weeks.

A long time ago a company I worked for set their work schedule by a quarterly shift bid. Bids were won by seniority, which meant those with the highest seniority got first pick of the shifts. Having pretty high seniority meant I usually got my first choice, and my top pick was the extended shift that gave me an extra day off. It was awesome. While it lasted.

Last week sped by (naturally), but at the same time it was pretty busy. And Mother Nature was definitely on some kind of psychotropic drug. The drive up to my class on Wednesday was pretty hairy. I had white out conditions on the way up, and black ice on the way home. And did I mention the extremely high winds that batted the car around like a cat toy?

Then Friday we had this:

Seriously? It's April, for crying out loud. Easter's over. NO MORE SNOW!

A couple of weeks ago the grandbaby and I planted some seeds in tiny pots. So far she’s got three marigolds and one daisy coming up – the forget-me-nots aren’t doing anything. But the tomato seeds she and Grappy planted in a bigger pot are growing like gangbusters. I’m going to have to get another pot to thin them out a bit. If they all survive they’re going to have a bumper crop of tomatoes.

It’s supposed to warm up this week but the big question is, is the danger of frost past? I really want to start planting the spring bulbs I bought. And I bought a divided tray to start some morning glory seeds in, which I’ll get the grandbaby to help me with this week, as well as something I can’t remember the name of that is supposed to be night blooming.

C’mon spring! We’re waiting!

Monophysitism Monday

monophysitism ~ belief that Christ was primarily divine but in human form

Seriously? I’m sitting here looking out the deck doors and I’m seeing a few flakes of snow drifting down. Snow! I was sure today was April 2, not April 1, so why is Mother Nature playing such a cruel joke?

Okay, now I’m seeing more than just a few flakes, and it’s sticking to the deck (sort of). Go away snow! It’s officially spring and I have proof:

Daphne and Donald are back, and they brought a couple of friends. The picture’s not the greatest quality because I was taking it through the glass of the deck door, but I saw Daphne and Donald Thursday morning - they were near our front door when I went out to get groceries. Friday morning I was awakened by the sound of a duck quaking - specifically Daphne. Man, is she chatty! Almost as chatty as the grandbaby. ;-)

I guess she was just announcing that they were back, because she was only annoying noisy that one morning. Every morning since I’ve wakened up to there being at least one duck in the pool, just not all four at once.

Everybody have a good Easter? To me Easter always meant a new outfit to wear to church, in fact I have pictures of my sisters and I dressed in our Easter finery, complete with hats made by an aunt. There was chocolate, of course, usually those big, hollowed out bunnies or chickens waiting on the breakfast table for us.

I’m not much of a church goer, so these days Easter is more about the extra time off than anything else. And if a three day weekend confuses me, I’m sure you can imagine what a four day weekend does. :-D

Normally I do my grocery shopping on Friday mornings, but this time I had to shop on Thursday. And because the daughter had to shop after work, I got home from babysitting around my regular Friday time. Which made Thursday feel so much like Friday that I woke up on Friday thinking it was Saturday.

So Friday I woke up and had my special Saturday morning breakfast (eggs, bacon, and toast) and sat down in front of the TV to watch Flipping Vegas, my Saturday morning indulgence. Only it wasn’t on. That, of course, is when I realized it was Friday, not Saturday.

So yeah, the weekend was pretty confusing and I didn’t get a fraction of the stuff done I wanted to, but that’s kind of normal for me, isn’t it?

One of these days I’m going to get my act together and then watch out world!