Thursday, March 20, 2008

First spring

This is my first spring in a house with a backyard and, despite my heretofore complete inability to keep a plant alive, I've decided to start a garden. I'm starting small at first and sticking to pots so as to not spend too much time building something huge in which these poor plants can die. Hopefully I'll develop some skillz this spring or next and be able to just pop out to the backyard for salad materials. I've started with green and red peppers, romaine lettuce, cucumbers, basil and strawberries and placed them along the small strip of land that consistently gets sun in my backyard. The lettuce in particular is looking pretty tasty.


One of my (many) sisters warned me that I'll need to get netting to keep the birds away from my strawberries. That advice is likely more necessary than she even realized as we have some pretty badass birds that visit our yard. This red shouldered hawk was grabbing grass clippings about 4 feet away from Mr Toybox as he had the lawnmower running. He doesn't look even a little concerned.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

The Last Dance/First Wedding Present




Yay for presents. My best friend from college sent us this lovely print (which looks even more lovely against the red of our office wall) and which also qualifies as our first official wedding gift (assuming that bridal shower gifts count separately).


The wedding has been very much on my mind of late. We're getting married on June 14th.. a date that was far off in the future when we set it over a year ago but seems to be coming up quickly. Thankfully, almost everything is planned. Now I'm just trying to take care of small details like how exactly one applies makeup when trying to look more pretty bride than clumsy clown. I've made it 33 years without mastering this art but the frugal side of me decided I'd rather figure it out now than spend money for someone else to do it come wedding day. In pursuing this goal, I think I've spent more money on hair and make up related items in the last month than in the last 10 years. Mr. Toybox has been highly questioning the frugality of this plan but he also always got his hair cut at super cuts for many years so we clearly have slightly different philosophies on how much should be spent on appearance.

Bloggage!

I've tried this blogging thing before. It always sounds like a good idea - a place to rave about all things raveworthy and rant about all things rantworthy. A place to let everyone know all of the exciting details of my life like how I filed my nails the other day. Yep, that was exciting. But..then I get distracted and the blog dies out for lack of updates.

A few things have happened, however, that make me want to give this another try. First, I'm reading blogs more often these days as I seek to ignore the ever growing pile of work on my desk. Apparently I enjoy reading about when others do important things like file their nails and who am I to deprive the world of these exciting events in my life. Second, I've had a few more things happening in my life of late (new house, new job, upcoming wedding) which gives me slightly more things to post about on said blog. And, perhaps more importantly, I'm the youngest of a large family and, being the youngest, I should be more technologically inclined than those old farts. BUT, two sibs and now my own mother have beaten me into this blogging game and, given my competitive nature, that just can't happen. Sooo.. I give you bloggage.