Planting Time

Happy belated Mother’s day to all the moms. Saturday was the Indianapolis 500 Mini Marathon. I torture myself by watching it and wish I would have run it. It is a lot of fun but with 35,000 people it is a bit overwhelming. I ran it a few years ago but, I was constantly weaving in and out of people trying to keep my pace. I will run it again sometime. While all of those throngs of people were huffing and puffing I went and bought some veges for my garden.

Normally, I buy way too many plants for my small garden. I like to describe my garden as a salsa garden. The types of veges are the veges found in salsa. I told myself not to over do it this years. I only bought 4 tomato plants, 3 hot pepper plants, 2 bell pepper plants, cilantro and a bunch of onion bulbs. I like squash so I bought a straight neck yellow squash. I am still looking to add a spaghetti squash plant but, I didn’t find one at the stores. Squash are viney and grow all over the place so it’s hard to handle any more.

I let my 8-year-old design where each plant was going to be planted so, we will see how it goes.

I am trying the photo thing. Not good at all.

Made me go WOW

Without writing at work I am neglecting to blog about my vanilla life.  For the most part, my evenings have been about watching it rain.  When there is a break in the rain I have to cut my grass.  I hope I have enough of a break to get my garden planted this weekend.  My goal is to always have it planted by Mother’s Day.  Here in Indiana we never know when that last frost is going to hit.  Mother’s Day is usually a good day to make sure the frost is over.  With that being said the not so great predictors of weather have issued a frost advisory for tonight.  I have a few flowers I will probably bring into the garage.  As indicated I will show my lack of photo skills and add some pictures of my small garden as soon as a plant it.

Speaking of photos, that brings me to another topic.  Somehow in my adventures of fun in the cyber world, I read about a web site called camfuze.com.  I would link to that page but it is very much adult themed so, I will let Google take you there.  Anyway, I had to check it out.  WOW.  I had no idea guys could be so endowed.  Believe me, I am not gay, but some of these were ridiculously large and stoked my interest.  Of course I would have to ask the question “How big is that”.  Most always, I would follow up with saying my little 5’6″ 140 pound body wouldn’t even have enough blood to support that.  Then usually I get booted out of the room.  I guess the guys don’t think highly of other guys looking.  I guess I just have not seen many naked guys before.  Most I see, is me getting out of the shower.  I am guessing many girls don’t see an over abundance of naked guys either.  I am just amazed at some of these guys.  One person asked if for fun or for topics of conversation would he show it off at a party.  I said the guys would just stop and stare without believing but, the women would run away from it.  I really have no clue what the reaction would be.

Work

A new policy at work is keeping me from venturing too far in the internet.  With that said I am needing to stop blogging from there.  Actually the new policy isn’t really new, it is now just going to be recorded.  Supposedly, they are going to record all outgoing web traffic or at least websites visited.  Once they have them recorded, the managers will have the ability to run reports to see what websites are being viewed.  Actually, it will be interesting to see the sites some people view at work.  I keep my NFW web visits at home but, this got me thinking what sites do I visit in a given day at work.  I will help them out and list them here.  Some I will continue to visit some I will be stopping.

• Yahoo Mail
• Juno Mail
• myYahoo (and all of the local news and sports I have on that page)
• Yahoo (and All of the interesting national news and search trends)
• Yahoo Sports
• ESPN
• CBS Sports
• CNNSI
• Discount Shopping Sites (I have a folder bookmarked that has about 10 sites that have things like daily deals or deals until they sale out.)
• Facebook
• Twitter
• WordPress
• Ebuddy (this is a web-based chat type program that connects to a few different messenger programs–for friends not my work people)
• I am always searching for stuff so a lot of miscellaneous pages…mostly sport related (draft is coming up..who will the Colts pick?)
• Pandora (until my monthly free limit is up)
• Break.com
• Todays Big Thing
• Some Survey sites (I used to fill out about 3 surveys a day…some pay some just added me to a raffle)

I sit in front of my computer all day.  So I am sure I am missing some of my normal stuff. So of the 16 I have listed, I am trying not to visit about 10 on a regular basis.  And yep wordpress is one of those.  So, my posts might be a little more spread out since, I won’t have time at work for any fun.  I don’t have many followers and I have seen a dramatic drop of viewers to my posts since I am not reading other blogs on wordpress (I am reading them in my email) but, that is ok, I started this for myself anyway (I am hooked though).

I don’t like posting about work but, I thought this had something to do with my vanilla life.  Maybe now this will force me to add pictures since I will be posting from home.  But does that mean I have to stay dressed for the pictures?  For everyone’s sanity (especially the people in my house), I know that answer.

Just do it

Last night was my third basketball game.  I am out of my league.  It is really weird.  I used to be able to dribble and shoot.  Now when I dribble it feels awkward.  I know if I had more time to practice it would come back.  I just need to find the time.  I wasn’t expecting to be Kobe Bryant or King James, I was just hoping to be a little more competitive.  Very disappointing.  I am not going to give up (that has never been in my vocabulary).  Maybe, I can blame this on my bum toe?  hehe

I bet you will never guess what I did tonight……………….I cut my grass.  The whole time, I was thinking that I need a new mower.  But the one I have is still going.  It’s dying slowly but, going.  It is supposed to rain the next 3 days so, I needed to get it cut today.  Since the weather doesn’t look very promising for outdoor activities, I have decided to do some inside home improvement.  I am going to replace our broken garbage disposal.  I have read it isn’t that hard.  But, I can turn a three-step easy project into a ten step project with 5 trips to the store and phone calls to experts.

Rompers

Today, I bought a gadget.  I am usually the last person to get gadgets.  My phone is at least 5 years old but, why switch it still works.  I bought a sports watch.  I see people wearing them when they run and they are always checking it for their lap time and stuff.  This one supposedly measures my pulse and then calculates the calories I burn.  At least that is what I thought I read.  Today, I ran 5 miles in 46 minutes.  The treadmill said I used 630 calories.  I wonder what the watch will say.

I spent another part of my morning reading a few other blogs.  One in particular reminded me of  a conversation I had continue to have with my 3-year-old daughter.  I don’t know why this is so funny or even if it is funny to anyone else.  I have a hilly billy brother that for the longest time has always called his underwear rompers or under rompers.  Just imagine this bald 240 pound white guy in overalls (no t-shirt) talking about his rompers.  So, anyway, my daughter was getting dressed.  I told her to get on her rompers.  She says “mommy calls them panties”.  So I told her mommy is such a girl and that daddy calls them rompers as I talk in a scruffy voice and flex my muscle.  And then she says “and mommy calls them panties” in her even higher girlee girl voice and repeats that with “and daddy calls them rompers”  in a manly hulk hoganesque tone with flexed muscles.  This is all funny and cute while she is running through the house.  But when she said it at day care we had some explaining to do.

Great Weekend

To me “great” doesn’t mean a whole lot.  In this case it meant I was able to do some yard work and I like playing in the yard.  I will be getting some mulch next week.  I have always wanted to do a little prep work before I spread the mulch.  Some of this is just getting the weeds out of the current mulch and edging the grass along the sides of the mulch.  This makes the grass harder to grow into the mulch.

I removed an apple tree last year and am having a hard time to get grass to grow there.  Since I was removing some large chunks of sod while edging, I should try to transplant it.  Only time will tell if this will work but, as of right now I have grass where once was a tree.

I suppose what makes working in the yard funny is that Indiana didn’t have that great of weather of outdoor work.  It was slightly raining and about 50 degrees.  I am sure my neighbors were laughing the whole time.  Normally I would rather have less clothes on not a sweatshirt and a raincoat but I wanted to get this stuff done.  The weather forecast for my mulch delivery suggests I will be wearing the same gear.

That night I was pretty tired but, I still managed to fold 2 loads of laundry and them put up.  I even watched a little bit of The Bee Movie while the boys were going to sleep.  Normally, my wife falls asleep but, she was actually awake when I got out of the boys’ room.  Some times (as was Saturday night), this is a good sign for me.  She said the kids are asleep early you want to shut the door.  Weeehooo.  I will spare you the details…well actually it would take longer for me to type than it really lasted.

Sunday was a sunny day.  I pulled more weeds.  Then I cut the grass.  Three times in a a week but, the lines look awesome.

My wife took the kids to the park and I promised to finish making some food for the rest of the week.  I made some sloppy joes.  Well actually just added the Joe mix to the ground burger.  My kids don’t eat much and  sloppy joes are one of the things they love.  I grilled some marinated chicken breast and some salmon.  We are ready for the rest of the week.

I also cooked 3 lobster on the grill.  We bought frozen lobster about a year ago.  We found it over the weekend.  They are already cooked.  I probably should have just thawed it and eaten it cold.  Has any one ever had lobster jerky?  It was pretty nasty.  I think it was the combination of old lobster and over cooking an already cooked lobster.  It stunk up the house and the smell stayed in my nose the rest of the night.  We threw it out.

Asparagus Yum…

Last night was another night of basketball.  I swear I used to be good or at least decent.  I feel awkward shooting the ball.  Kind of like an out-of-body experience.  I know it isn’t supposed to go that way and I know it looks funny but, I just can’t help it.  I am just going to keep going.  My shooting and dribbling touch will come back.  Like riding a bicycle, right?  I hope so and so do my team mates.  In the end, I am having fun and exercising.  So, I am ok with that.

I did hurt my toe, again, last night playing basketball.  I guess I didn’t really hurt it again.  I just made it hurt even more.  I first hurt it last July.  I keep thinking it will get better.  I am pretty certain the doctor will just say stay off it for a while but, I can’t do that.  It only hurts when I move it.  Toes are over rated anyway.  They say they help you keep your balance but, I can balance fine with out them.  My main problem would be how would I wear flip-flops (I grew up calling them thongs)?

The grass needed cut tonight.  Never ending.  You will find out that I am cutting my grass a lot.  While I was cutting the grass, I noticed my asparagus was growing.  I have 3 asparagus plants.  All of those had about 3 big stalks.  Sorry, wifey, maybe you can have the next round.  After the grass was cut, I grabbed my thawed mahi mahi and my 9 stalks of asparagus and threw them on the grill.  This is where most of the people would show a picture of their food but, I haven’t gotten that far in my blogging.  And I was hungry.  See how vanilla I am…fish and asparagus.  I was in heaven.

When I showered I saw my toe is now starting to turn  a blackish blue.  I promised my wife I would go to the doc…after basketball is over.

Birthday Cake

Yesterday was my daughter’s birthday.  She kept saying she wanted more presents.  I told her to tell her mom to stop buying birthday cakes and to use that money on more presents.  Over the weekend she brought a cake with us to the hotel.  That one cost $20.00.  We ended up throwing half of it out.  Well actually gave it away.  Probably my least favorite food is cake.  I like icing, hate cake.  For daycare my lovely wife took a cookie cake (I like cookies) to share with the kids.  That was $15.00.  Half of it was eaten by the kids and the other half she left for the teachers.   We didn’t celebrate ate home until later that evening.  Guess what?   She had another cake ($15.00).  No one wanted cake.  We just are not big cake eaters.  At least it is sitting in the refrigerator.  I can turn my finger pink by sticking it in the icing and licking it off.  Why does she insist on getting cake?  Spend that money on something else.

My daughter did get a new bike/tricycle.  Maybe that is why she didn’t want cake.  She wanted to go outside and ride it.  We had a blast on it and then on the playground.  The boys stayed inside.  One playing his DS and the other opening up the other toys my daughter received.  Get outside when it is nice.  Use some energy.

That pretty much took up my evening.  Then a 2 hour special of Deadliest Catch was on.  I have no idea why I am still hooked on this show.  They dropped pods and some caught crabs and some didn’t.   It is the same thing every season but, I will still tune in every Tuesday night.

G-Baby

This is like a two for Tuesday and I have no idea why I am writing this but, this is me.  I just got done running a little over 5 miles on the treadmill.  I agree running and not going anywhere is boring but, what about running and crying?

I am a big sports fan and I started watching the movie Hard Ball while I was running.  I have seen it before but, for some reason it turned me into a baby.   The eulogy at G-Baby’s funeral had the tears flowing.  Can I blame this on hormones?

Delayed Writing

I was kind of hoping I would get more comments about pet peeves from my last post, but maybe people just aren’t as annoyed as me.  I thought if I left that post for a day longer maybe it would be seen more.  Seen more by the 5 people who visited me.  Now to write about the weekend.

I get sick of sitting in my house for too long.  So, a while back, I suggested we go visit a family member’s house.  They have lived there for five years and we still haven’t gone to see their house.  The kids love swimming so, I thought it would be neat to stay at a hotel with a pool and make it kind of like a mini get away of some sort.   So, much for our little “get away”.  More family members were invited.  That changed  the fun “get away” to full family function.   I like my family but, I just wanted it to be my wife and the kids.   We get to the hotel to find our toilet was messed up from the previous occupant (I doubt I needed to know that).  The air conditioner didn’t work.  BUT…it had a pool.  The pool was cloudy and kind of scared me a little bit.  I know it wasn’t long ago that I would careless what the water looked like.  Now I was thinking, do I have any cuts or hang nails, do not open you eyes in the water,  try not to accidentally swallow any water.  I have turned into a germ-a-phobe.  My kids wanted to jump in right away.  In the end we all had fun swimming.

While everyone was getting ready to get something to eat, I wandered around to find, hopefully, a drink.  I walked into the lounge and asked if that had any drinks.  WOW…no drinks.  I am with in-laws with no alcohol.  I managed to get through it.  Since there were more than 5 of us their now, we still didn’t get to see the house.  Nothing goes how I plan it.

The weather was great Sunday.  I cut my grass for the first time.  I have to cut my grass pretty much every 3 days.  It might seem excessive but, I have a nice green yard that needs proper treatment.  I like being outside so, that is what I like doing.  I was also able to till up my garden.  I am not ready to plant anything yet, nor is the weather ready to stop being cold.

I removed a tree last year and am trying to get grass to grow there.  It is spotty with grass so, I chopped some turf from around another tree and transplanted it.  Hopefully it will take hold and grow there.

I also watched the Masters.  I am not a Tiger fan but, I think golf is missing Tiger.  I probably wouldn’t have turned the tv on in the garage and taken time to watch the golf, if I hadn’t seen Tiger make a charge.  Golf enthusiasts will watch golf religiously, but the casual golfer needs Tiger.  It might just be me.  What are your thoughts?  I am not a fan of what he did in his private life but, I like the way he can tare up a course and all of a sudden he is in contention.