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A Rose is A Rose, Isn't It?
Jun. 28th, 2009 11:25 pmI help take care of a largish rose garden. John, Jet, and I filled about five 5-gal buckets while dead-heading the bushes. There are cabbage roses, stem roses, lots of hybrid tea roses, and even miniature roses. Nearly all are modern roses, the ones that bloom for months, one or two bunches of blooms at a time, or with the stem roses, sometimes even just one or two at a time. Elite, vain, gorgeous, picky about their care, very sparing with their blooms and fragrance, they are beautiful but not my kind of rose.
At home I only have primitive/old roses. The type of roses that bloomed in Shakespeare's time. They're lavish, frivolous, prolific, vulgar in their eagerness, these roses bloom hundreds of masses of blooms all at once, weighty enough to bend all their branches and fill the air with their scent. When the house heats during the day, at night we open all the windows and turn on the house fan to blow all the hot air out of the top of the house; and we fill the house with the scent of roses. The bees love them.
They'll all wither a few weeks, and I'll probably prune whole bushes back to plain shrubs and know they won't flower again, but for now, they're a delight.
At home I only have primitive/old roses. The type of roses that bloomed in Shakespeare's time. They're lavish, frivolous, prolific, vulgar in their eagerness, these roses bloom hundreds of masses of blooms all at once, weighty enough to bend all their branches and fill the air with their scent. When the house heats during the day, at night we open all the windows and turn on the house fan to blow all the hot air out of the top of the house; and we fill the house with the scent of roses. The bees love them.
They'll all wither a few weeks, and I'll probably prune whole bushes back to plain shrubs and know they won't flower again, but for now, they're a delight.
A Rose is A Rose, Isn't It?
Jun. 28th, 2009 11:25 pmI help take care of a largish rose garden. John, Jet, and I filled about five 5-gal buckets while dead-heading the bushes. There are cabbage roses, stem roses, lots of hybrid tea roses, and even miniature roses. Nearly all are modern roses, the ones that bloom for months, one or two bunches of blooms at a time, or with the stem roses, sometimes even just one or two at a time. Elite, vain, gorgeous, picky about their care, very sparing with their blooms and fragrance, they are beautiful but not my kind of rose.
At home I only have primitive/old roses. The type of roses that bloomed in Shakespeare's time. They're lavish, frivolous, prolific, vulgar in their eagerness, these roses bloom hundreds of masses of blooms all at once, weighty enough to bend all their branches and fill the air with their scent. When the house heats during the day, at night we open all the windows and turn on the house fan to blow all the hot air out of the top of the house; and we fill the house with the scent of roses. The bees love them.
They'll all wither a few weeks, and I'll probably prune whole bushes back to plain shrubs and know they won't flower again, but for now, they're a delight.
At home I only have primitive/old roses. The type of roses that bloomed in Shakespeare's time. They're lavish, frivolous, prolific, vulgar in their eagerness, these roses bloom hundreds of masses of blooms all at once, weighty enough to bend all their branches and fill the air with their scent. When the house heats during the day, at night we open all the windows and turn on the house fan to blow all the hot air out of the top of the house; and we fill the house with the scent of roses. The bees love them.
They'll all wither a few weeks, and I'll probably prune whole bushes back to plain shrubs and know they won't flower again, but for now, they're a delight.
A Fifty Cent Vase
Sep. 4th, 2005 04:30 pmJohn, Jet and I spent most of yesterday morning helping to prepare a house for one of the displaced families from New Orleans.
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( Read more... )
A Fifty Cent Vase
Sep. 4th, 2005 04:30 pmJohn, Jet and I spent most of yesterday morning helping to prepare a house for one of the displaced families from New Orleans.
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
Written on Aug 7.
Saturday was errand day. Half a dozen stops and Jet getting more tired and whinier with each one. Now that I have his cold I can kind of understand why, but I think he's just in one of those phases. One of the early stops was Home Depot, to get a bit of cedar for cooking the On Special sockeye around here. It's only $6.99 a pound for wild, NW caught, sockeye salmon!! One of the few fish still on the OK list to eat. Anyway, John and I wanted to try it on a cedar plank, and an untreated cedar picket was something like $1.25! Yay! So we bought it, John sawed it down, and we soaked our cedar plank for the evening.
At the same Home Depot was a kind of sale on potted rose plants. One plant, in particular caught my nose. It was that rich, honey scent of a great tea rose, and it was an unprepossessing flower and plant. White, frilly flowers and pale pink stripes, and the strip on it said, "ORANGE something blah" but it was only $5.99, and we had some credit, and there were two sad holes in the rose garden for bushes that hadn't survived from last year. So I bought it and it filled the car with its scent as we did other Stuff.
When we finally got home, we had some lunch and Jet declared that he was NOT HUNGRY and was NOT TIRED and was NOT GOING TO DO ANYTHING... and... uhm.
I helped him build a little fort of pillows and told him that if he lay for 10 minutes with his eyes closed I would turn on the green Thomas movie for him. He tossed and turned and told me his eyes were closed, and I said, "Just be still and close your eyes for ten minutes." "You'll tell me when my time is up?" he asked. "Yes. I promise I'll tell you when your time is up," meaning that when his hour and a half nap was up I was going to definitely wake him up.
He lay there and was still and within six minutes he was snoring. Whew.
That's when John urged me to go and just get the rose bush planted. So I did. Watering can and shovel and rose and gloves and some organic compost with mineral additives to put in the hole. Of course, when I arrived it was a little after 2 pm, or when the sun was still really high in the sky and good Southern people everywhere would be having their siesta if they were intelligent.
I wasn't. I did, however, turn on the sprinkler system, tried to fix what I could, and then in the mist and spray, I dug the hold, added the compost, turned out the plant, opened up the roots a little, and then planted it. Deep. And covered it as best I could with that clay soil, and watered it some more. Then I paid attention to the other bushes that weren't getting quite enough water, and took notes on the problems with the system.
When I got home, I emailed the rose group about the problems, and felt pretty good.
I also woke up Jet after a 2 hour nap and started the Thomas movie for him, and we made peanut butter, chocolate, yogurt, ice, milk, and banana smoothies. I'd tried to stop at an "Inta Juice" but they were so busy that they had a line of three cars and asked me to wait for at least five minutes. So I finally drove away just as the girl said, "Okay..." So I was craving a smoothie, and Jet, still fresh from post-nap depression needed something too, and he laughed when I squirted chocolate sauce into it. He liked it. Yay! Protein boost!
After his movie he was pretty happy, and John wanted to ride again, so they went down to the basement, and had fun while I went back to King Soopers and bought salmon for dinner. Just that, the cold was catching up to me, and I had no need to think if I just got what I had to get. So I did, and went home, and started Jet's rice before doing some video games with Jet. Then I started the corn and salmon on the grill.
The corn is from a stand just across the Diagonal from us. They just started a vegetable and fruit stand this summer, and they seemed pretty earnest about it. Small farm syndrome, have to find a way to make the ends meet and selling it direct gets a FAR better price than taking it to the processors. The guy there took John and Jet on a walk across the fields to see how watermelons grow and they peered at the irrigation channels for crawdads. Good to get the personal touch that we paid for.
The salmon took longer than I expected, but then I had the grill open to not burn the corn. Plank cooking really needs the top to be closed. Next time I'll probably do the salmon first, make sure its cooked, then take it off and do the corn in the open top. The salmon would have been fine a bit cooler, I think.
It all tasted wonderful. The salmon was good and smoky and the corn was chewy and toasted and nicely caramelized. Yum.
Jet ate his dinner, and then demolished three mango mochi balls quite happily, promising me to help me anywhere I might need it when I'd given him my second one. I took that promise at its heart when we went upstairs and had showers and baths. Jet loves his bath and shower time, so much so that he just won't get out. I suspect that if we did the bath every night routine, it would be easier, but it was extremely hard to get him out. But when I invoked my promised "help", he looked at me, and then pulled the plug. He wanted to see the water go down, but when it was down, he climbed out, got dried off, and then did pajamas. With some protests, but he did it, and then when the routine of getting his teeth brushed and everything happened, he just went with the flow of it and got to sleep about 10:30. Yeah. Late.
I was tired, but felt better than I felt this morning. It was good to get the rose bush planted.
Saturday was errand day. Half a dozen stops and Jet getting more tired and whinier with each one. Now that I have his cold I can kind of understand why, but I think he's just in one of those phases. One of the early stops was Home Depot, to get a bit of cedar for cooking the On Special sockeye around here. It's only $6.99 a pound for wild, NW caught, sockeye salmon!! One of the few fish still on the OK list to eat. Anyway, John and I wanted to try it on a cedar plank, and an untreated cedar picket was something like $1.25! Yay! So we bought it, John sawed it down, and we soaked our cedar plank for the evening.
At the same Home Depot was a kind of sale on potted rose plants. One plant, in particular caught my nose. It was that rich, honey scent of a great tea rose, and it was an unprepossessing flower and plant. White, frilly flowers and pale pink stripes, and the strip on it said, "ORANGE something blah" but it was only $5.99, and we had some credit, and there were two sad holes in the rose garden for bushes that hadn't survived from last year. So I bought it and it filled the car with its scent as we did other Stuff.
When we finally got home, we had some lunch and Jet declared that he was NOT HUNGRY and was NOT TIRED and was NOT GOING TO DO ANYTHING... and... uhm.
I helped him build a little fort of pillows and told him that if he lay for 10 minutes with his eyes closed I would turn on the green Thomas movie for him. He tossed and turned and told me his eyes were closed, and I said, "Just be still and close your eyes for ten minutes." "You'll tell me when my time is up?" he asked. "Yes. I promise I'll tell you when your time is up," meaning that when his hour and a half nap was up I was going to definitely wake him up.
He lay there and was still and within six minutes he was snoring. Whew.
That's when John urged me to go and just get the rose bush planted. So I did. Watering can and shovel and rose and gloves and some organic compost with mineral additives to put in the hole. Of course, when I arrived it was a little after 2 pm, or when the sun was still really high in the sky and good Southern people everywhere would be having their siesta if they were intelligent.
I wasn't. I did, however, turn on the sprinkler system, tried to fix what I could, and then in the mist and spray, I dug the hold, added the compost, turned out the plant, opened up the roots a little, and then planted it. Deep. And covered it as best I could with that clay soil, and watered it some more. Then I paid attention to the other bushes that weren't getting quite enough water, and took notes on the problems with the system.
When I got home, I emailed the rose group about the problems, and felt pretty good.
I also woke up Jet after a 2 hour nap and started the Thomas movie for him, and we made peanut butter, chocolate, yogurt, ice, milk, and banana smoothies. I'd tried to stop at an "Inta Juice" but they were so busy that they had a line of three cars and asked me to wait for at least five minutes. So I finally drove away just as the girl said, "Okay..." So I was craving a smoothie, and Jet, still fresh from post-nap depression needed something too, and he laughed when I squirted chocolate sauce into it. He liked it. Yay! Protein boost!
After his movie he was pretty happy, and John wanted to ride again, so they went down to the basement, and had fun while I went back to King Soopers and bought salmon for dinner. Just that, the cold was catching up to me, and I had no need to think if I just got what I had to get. So I did, and went home, and started Jet's rice before doing some video games with Jet. Then I started the corn and salmon on the grill.
The corn is from a stand just across the Diagonal from us. They just started a vegetable and fruit stand this summer, and they seemed pretty earnest about it. Small farm syndrome, have to find a way to make the ends meet and selling it direct gets a FAR better price than taking it to the processors. The guy there took John and Jet on a walk across the fields to see how watermelons grow and they peered at the irrigation channels for crawdads. Good to get the personal touch that we paid for.
The salmon took longer than I expected, but then I had the grill open to not burn the corn. Plank cooking really needs the top to be closed. Next time I'll probably do the salmon first, make sure its cooked, then take it off and do the corn in the open top. The salmon would have been fine a bit cooler, I think.
It all tasted wonderful. The salmon was good and smoky and the corn was chewy and toasted and nicely caramelized. Yum.
Jet ate his dinner, and then demolished three mango mochi balls quite happily, promising me to help me anywhere I might need it when I'd given him my second one. I took that promise at its heart when we went upstairs and had showers and baths. Jet loves his bath and shower time, so much so that he just won't get out. I suspect that if we did the bath every night routine, it would be easier, but it was extremely hard to get him out. But when I invoked my promised "help", he looked at me, and then pulled the plug. He wanted to see the water go down, but when it was down, he climbed out, got dried off, and then did pajamas. With some protests, but he did it, and then when the routine of getting his teeth brushed and everything happened, he just went with the flow of it and got to sleep about 10:30. Yeah. Late.
I was tired, but felt better than I felt this morning. It was good to get the rose bush planted.
Written on Aug 7.
Saturday was errand day. Half a dozen stops and Jet getting more tired and whinier with each one. Now that I have his cold I can kind of understand why, but I think he's just in one of those phases. One of the early stops was Home Depot, to get a bit of cedar for cooking the On Special sockeye around here. It's only $6.99 a pound for wild, NW caught, sockeye salmon!! One of the few fish still on the OK list to eat. Anyway, John and I wanted to try it on a cedar plank, and an untreated cedar picket was something like $1.25! Yay! So we bought it, John sawed it down, and we soaked our cedar plank for the evening.
At the same Home Depot was a kind of sale on potted rose plants. One plant, in particular caught my nose. It was that rich, honey scent of a great tea rose, and it was an unprepossessing flower and plant. White, frilly flowers and pale pink stripes, and the strip on it said, "ORANGE something blah" but it was only $5.99, and we had some credit, and there were two sad holes in the rose garden for bushes that hadn't survived from last year. So I bought it and it filled the car with its scent as we did other Stuff.
When we finally got home, we had some lunch and Jet declared that he was NOT HUNGRY and was NOT TIRED and was NOT GOING TO DO ANYTHING... and... uhm.
I helped him build a little fort of pillows and told him that if he lay for 10 minutes with his eyes closed I would turn on the green Thomas movie for him. He tossed and turned and told me his eyes were closed, and I said, "Just be still and close your eyes for ten minutes." "You'll tell me when my time is up?" he asked. "Yes. I promise I'll tell you when your time is up," meaning that when his hour and a half nap was up I was going to definitely wake him up.
He lay there and was still and within six minutes he was snoring. Whew.
That's when John urged me to go and just get the rose bush planted. So I did. Watering can and shovel and rose and gloves and some organic compost with mineral additives to put in the hole. Of course, when I arrived it was a little after 2 pm, or when the sun was still really high in the sky and good Southern people everywhere would be having their siesta if they were intelligent.
I wasn't. I did, however, turn on the sprinkler system, tried to fix what I could, and then in the mist and spray, I dug the hold, added the compost, turned out the plant, opened up the roots a little, and then planted it. Deep. And covered it as best I could with that clay soil, and watered it some more. Then I paid attention to the other bushes that weren't getting quite enough water, and took notes on the problems with the system.
When I got home, I emailed the rose group about the problems, and felt pretty good.
I also woke up Jet after a 2 hour nap and started the Thomas movie for him, and we made peanut butter, chocolate, yogurt, ice, milk, and banana smoothies. I'd tried to stop at an "Inta Juice" but they were so busy that they had a line of three cars and asked me to wait for at least five minutes. So I finally drove away just as the girl said, "Okay..." So I was craving a smoothie, and Jet, still fresh from post-nap depression needed something too, and he laughed when I squirted chocolate sauce into it. He liked it. Yay! Protein boost!
After his movie he was pretty happy, and John wanted to ride again, so they went down to the basement, and had fun while I went back to King Soopers and bought salmon for dinner. Just that, the cold was catching up to me, and I had no need to think if I just got what I had to get. So I did, and went home, and started Jet's rice before doing some video games with Jet. Then I started the corn and salmon on the grill.
The corn is from a stand just across the Diagonal from us. They just started a vegetable and fruit stand this summer, and they seemed pretty earnest about it. Small farm syndrome, have to find a way to make the ends meet and selling it direct gets a FAR better price than taking it to the processors. The guy there took John and Jet on a walk across the fields to see how watermelons grow and they peered at the irrigation channels for crawdads. Good to get the personal touch that we paid for.
The salmon took longer than I expected, but then I had the grill open to not burn the corn. Plank cooking really needs the top to be closed. Next time I'll probably do the salmon first, make sure its cooked, then take it off and do the corn in the open top. The salmon would have been fine a bit cooler, I think.
It all tasted wonderful. The salmon was good and smoky and the corn was chewy and toasted and nicely caramelized. Yum.
Jet ate his dinner, and then demolished three mango mochi balls quite happily, promising me to help me anywhere I might need it when I'd given him my second one. I took that promise at its heart when we went upstairs and had showers and baths. Jet loves his bath and shower time, so much so that he just won't get out. I suspect that if we did the bath every night routine, it would be easier, but it was extremely hard to get him out. But when I invoked my promised "help", he looked at me, and then pulled the plug. He wanted to see the water go down, but when it was down, he climbed out, got dried off, and then did pajamas. With some protests, but he did it, and then when the routine of getting his teeth brushed and everything happened, he just went with the flow of it and got to sleep about 10:30. Yeah. Late.
I was tired, but felt better than I felt this morning. It was good to get the rose bush planted.
Saturday was errand day. Half a dozen stops and Jet getting more tired and whinier with each one. Now that I have his cold I can kind of understand why, but I think he's just in one of those phases. One of the early stops was Home Depot, to get a bit of cedar for cooking the On Special sockeye around here. It's only $6.99 a pound for wild, NW caught, sockeye salmon!! One of the few fish still on the OK list to eat. Anyway, John and I wanted to try it on a cedar plank, and an untreated cedar picket was something like $1.25! Yay! So we bought it, John sawed it down, and we soaked our cedar plank for the evening.
At the same Home Depot was a kind of sale on potted rose plants. One plant, in particular caught my nose. It was that rich, honey scent of a great tea rose, and it was an unprepossessing flower and plant. White, frilly flowers and pale pink stripes, and the strip on it said, "ORANGE something blah" but it was only $5.99, and we had some credit, and there were two sad holes in the rose garden for bushes that hadn't survived from last year. So I bought it and it filled the car with its scent as we did other Stuff.
When we finally got home, we had some lunch and Jet declared that he was NOT HUNGRY and was NOT TIRED and was NOT GOING TO DO ANYTHING... and... uhm.
I helped him build a little fort of pillows and told him that if he lay for 10 minutes with his eyes closed I would turn on the green Thomas movie for him. He tossed and turned and told me his eyes were closed, and I said, "Just be still and close your eyes for ten minutes." "You'll tell me when my time is up?" he asked. "Yes. I promise I'll tell you when your time is up," meaning that when his hour and a half nap was up I was going to definitely wake him up.
He lay there and was still and within six minutes he was snoring. Whew.
That's when John urged me to go and just get the rose bush planted. So I did. Watering can and shovel and rose and gloves and some organic compost with mineral additives to put in the hole. Of course, when I arrived it was a little after 2 pm, or when the sun was still really high in the sky and good Southern people everywhere would be having their siesta if they were intelligent.
I wasn't. I did, however, turn on the sprinkler system, tried to fix what I could, and then in the mist and spray, I dug the hold, added the compost, turned out the plant, opened up the roots a little, and then planted it. Deep. And covered it as best I could with that clay soil, and watered it some more. Then I paid attention to the other bushes that weren't getting quite enough water, and took notes on the problems with the system.
When I got home, I emailed the rose group about the problems, and felt pretty good.
I also woke up Jet after a 2 hour nap and started the Thomas movie for him, and we made peanut butter, chocolate, yogurt, ice, milk, and banana smoothies. I'd tried to stop at an "Inta Juice" but they were so busy that they had a line of three cars and asked me to wait for at least five minutes. So I finally drove away just as the girl said, "Okay..." So I was craving a smoothie, and Jet, still fresh from post-nap depression needed something too, and he laughed when I squirted chocolate sauce into it. He liked it. Yay! Protein boost!
After his movie he was pretty happy, and John wanted to ride again, so they went down to the basement, and had fun while I went back to King Soopers and bought salmon for dinner. Just that, the cold was catching up to me, and I had no need to think if I just got what I had to get. So I did, and went home, and started Jet's rice before doing some video games with Jet. Then I started the corn and salmon on the grill.
The corn is from a stand just across the Diagonal from us. They just started a vegetable and fruit stand this summer, and they seemed pretty earnest about it. Small farm syndrome, have to find a way to make the ends meet and selling it direct gets a FAR better price than taking it to the processors. The guy there took John and Jet on a walk across the fields to see how watermelons grow and they peered at the irrigation channels for crawdads. Good to get the personal touch that we paid for.
The salmon took longer than I expected, but then I had the grill open to not burn the corn. Plank cooking really needs the top to be closed. Next time I'll probably do the salmon first, make sure its cooked, then take it off and do the corn in the open top. The salmon would have been fine a bit cooler, I think.
It all tasted wonderful. The salmon was good and smoky and the corn was chewy and toasted and nicely caramelized. Yum.
Jet ate his dinner, and then demolished three mango mochi balls quite happily, promising me to help me anywhere I might need it when I'd given him my second one. I took that promise at its heart when we went upstairs and had showers and baths. Jet loves his bath and shower time, so much so that he just won't get out. I suspect that if we did the bath every night routine, it would be easier, but it was extremely hard to get him out. But when I invoked my promised "help", he looked at me, and then pulled the plug. He wanted to see the water go down, but when it was down, he climbed out, got dried off, and then did pajamas. With some protests, but he did it, and then when the routine of getting his teeth brushed and everything happened, he just went with the flow of it and got to sleep about 10:30. Yeah. Late.
I was tired, but felt better than I felt this morning. It was good to get the rose bush planted.
Flower and Library Friday
Aug. 5th, 2005 08:51 pmWritten on Aug 7.
Jet and I started, on Friday, with getting up really late. I think he has a cold, and I've definitely gotten that cold since. Just a head cold, nothing debilitating other than my wanting to sleep, a lot.
There was one thing we HAD to do on Friday. It is my weekend to take care of the rose garden. I'd had a stint that was supposed to have happened in early July, and I was gone, so I'd missed it and I'd informed a bunch of people, so someone did take over, then. But I missed my time in The Garden, as Jet calls it. I had to weed, dead head, and water, but the night before Longmont got dumped on, so I think they were okay for the week.
In order to buy myself the time to do all that I filled two buckets with water balloons. A whole lot of water balloons, little ones mostly, but some big ones buried in there so Jet could have some fun both finding them and using them. It was a little nerve-wracking driving with them in the car, but we got them there intact, and Jet hopped down, took one of the buckets and manfully picked it up and struggled with it all the way to the garden.
I took everything else. Then Jet got started with "watering the roses" while I wandered through and dead headed everything, weeded, etc. It's soothing work for me to just stride through and check on each bush. I cut off all the dead flowers and what rose hips as have formed, and then I weed around it and make sure that the watering system is getting it good and wet. It's comforting work. Jet found that the thorns on the bushes were excellent for popping the balloons. I found that it made it less than handy for cleaning up the rubber after the balloons were spent. Oops. Luckily, I had my gardening gloves, and I did what had to be done, grazing through after Jet to just get as many of the balloons up as I could.
The balloons gave me the hour I needed. Yay!
From there we went to the Library, and Jet got his Loot. I'd found the reading card just this morning, and frantically filed in as many books as I could remember, and even went up to his shelves to fill in a bunch more. Jet recycles a lot of books for night time reading, and we'd gotten through Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Stuart Little, though I'm still not entirely sure Jet gets all the words, just hearing them in context seems to be good enough for him.
We took it in, and the Librarian accepted his form and asked him about who had read books to him, and Jet promptly hid behind my legs. Yeesh. So he didn't answer any of her questions, but did accept looking through the treasure chest for some toys. She handed me the three packets of coupons and gift certificates that "Jet" had earned by listening to stories. I think that if we'd actually been around we could have done this in stages and he would have spoken with her about the books. But so it is. We did read all summer, so I don't think it was a cheat, but it still felt a little odd to do it all in one day.
We hit the Asian grocery store in town next, as Jet was craving mango ice cream balls. We bought two packets and, predictably, Jet ate half of one for his lunch. He also ate half a peach, but other than that... I let him believe it was a mango, so he slurped it up happily "because Crash eats mangoes!"
I had a scallion streamed bun with "hairy sprinkles", i.e. pork sung. Yummy and not too nutritious, so I added the rest of the peach to my diet as well.
We spent a bunch of the afternoon in the basement, playing video games, staying cool, and doing some exercising, as the Dance Dance Revolution was put into exercise mode. Thanks, Anita! It was a great idea, and Jet can bounce to his heart's content and never have the machine boo at him. And I get not only a good workout, but actually get better at some of the dances! Goodness.
John came home, and he rode the exercise bike. We ended up deciding to use one of Jet's coupons and went to IHOP, where he got his smiley face pancake for free! Happy Jet. He also fell asleep in my arms at the dinner table when we were done. So John and I changed him, and I rocked him in my arms for a bit until he was completely asleep. Then we laid him down and we enjoyed our early evening.
Jet and I started, on Friday, with getting up really late. I think he has a cold, and I've definitely gotten that cold since. Just a head cold, nothing debilitating other than my wanting to sleep, a lot.
There was one thing we HAD to do on Friday. It is my weekend to take care of the rose garden. I'd had a stint that was supposed to have happened in early July, and I was gone, so I'd missed it and I'd informed a bunch of people, so someone did take over, then. But I missed my time in The Garden, as Jet calls it. I had to weed, dead head, and water, but the night before Longmont got dumped on, so I think they were okay for the week.
In order to buy myself the time to do all that I filled two buckets with water balloons. A whole lot of water balloons, little ones mostly, but some big ones buried in there so Jet could have some fun both finding them and using them. It was a little nerve-wracking driving with them in the car, but we got them there intact, and Jet hopped down, took one of the buckets and manfully picked it up and struggled with it all the way to the garden.
I took everything else. Then Jet got started with "watering the roses" while I wandered through and dead headed everything, weeded, etc. It's soothing work for me to just stride through and check on each bush. I cut off all the dead flowers and what rose hips as have formed, and then I weed around it and make sure that the watering system is getting it good and wet. It's comforting work. Jet found that the thorns on the bushes were excellent for popping the balloons. I found that it made it less than handy for cleaning up the rubber after the balloons were spent. Oops. Luckily, I had my gardening gloves, and I did what had to be done, grazing through after Jet to just get as many of the balloons up as I could.
The balloons gave me the hour I needed. Yay!
From there we went to the Library, and Jet got his Loot. I'd found the reading card just this morning, and frantically filed in as many books as I could remember, and even went up to his shelves to fill in a bunch more. Jet recycles a lot of books for night time reading, and we'd gotten through Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Stuart Little, though I'm still not entirely sure Jet gets all the words, just hearing them in context seems to be good enough for him.
We took it in, and the Librarian accepted his form and asked him about who had read books to him, and Jet promptly hid behind my legs. Yeesh. So he didn't answer any of her questions, but did accept looking through the treasure chest for some toys. She handed me the three packets of coupons and gift certificates that "Jet" had earned by listening to stories. I think that if we'd actually been around we could have done this in stages and he would have spoken with her about the books. But so it is. We did read all summer, so I don't think it was a cheat, but it still felt a little odd to do it all in one day.
We hit the Asian grocery store in town next, as Jet was craving mango ice cream balls. We bought two packets and, predictably, Jet ate half of one for his lunch. He also ate half a peach, but other than that... I let him believe it was a mango, so he slurped it up happily "because Crash eats mangoes!"
I had a scallion streamed bun with "hairy sprinkles", i.e. pork sung. Yummy and not too nutritious, so I added the rest of the peach to my diet as well.
We spent a bunch of the afternoon in the basement, playing video games, staying cool, and doing some exercising, as the Dance Dance Revolution was put into exercise mode. Thanks, Anita! It was a great idea, and Jet can bounce to his heart's content and never have the machine boo at him. And I get not only a good workout, but actually get better at some of the dances! Goodness.
John came home, and he rode the exercise bike. We ended up deciding to use one of Jet's coupons and went to IHOP, where he got his smiley face pancake for free! Happy Jet. He also fell asleep in my arms at the dinner table when we were done. So John and I changed him, and I rocked him in my arms for a bit until he was completely asleep. Then we laid him down and we enjoyed our early evening.
Flower and Library Friday
Aug. 5th, 2005 08:51 pmWritten on Aug 7.
Jet and I started, on Friday, with getting up really late. I think he has a cold, and I've definitely gotten that cold since. Just a head cold, nothing debilitating other than my wanting to sleep, a lot.
There was one thing we HAD to do on Friday. It is my weekend to take care of the rose garden. I'd had a stint that was supposed to have happened in early July, and I was gone, so I'd missed it and I'd informed a bunch of people, so someone did take over, then. But I missed my time in The Garden, as Jet calls it. I had to weed, dead head, and water, but the night before Longmont got dumped on, so I think they were okay for the week.
In order to buy myself the time to do all that I filled two buckets with water balloons. A whole lot of water balloons, little ones mostly, but some big ones buried in there so Jet could have some fun both finding them and using them. It was a little nerve-wracking driving with them in the car, but we got them there intact, and Jet hopped down, took one of the buckets and manfully picked it up and struggled with it all the way to the garden.
I took everything else. Then Jet got started with "watering the roses" while I wandered through and dead headed everything, weeded, etc. It's soothing work for me to just stride through and check on each bush. I cut off all the dead flowers and what rose hips as have formed, and then I weed around it and make sure that the watering system is getting it good and wet. It's comforting work. Jet found that the thorns on the bushes were excellent for popping the balloons. I found that it made it less than handy for cleaning up the rubber after the balloons were spent. Oops. Luckily, I had my gardening gloves, and I did what had to be done, grazing through after Jet to just get as many of the balloons up as I could.
The balloons gave me the hour I needed. Yay!
From there we went to the Library, and Jet got his Loot. I'd found the reading card just this morning, and frantically filed in as many books as I could remember, and even went up to his shelves to fill in a bunch more. Jet recycles a lot of books for night time reading, and we'd gotten through Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Stuart Little, though I'm still not entirely sure Jet gets all the words, just hearing them in context seems to be good enough for him.
We took it in, and the Librarian accepted his form and asked him about who had read books to him, and Jet promptly hid behind my legs. Yeesh. So he didn't answer any of her questions, but did accept looking through the treasure chest for some toys. She handed me the three packets of coupons and gift certificates that "Jet" had earned by listening to stories. I think that if we'd actually been around we could have done this in stages and he would have spoken with her about the books. But so it is. We did read all summer, so I don't think it was a cheat, but it still felt a little odd to do it all in one day.
We hit the Asian grocery store in town next, as Jet was craving mango ice cream balls. We bought two packets and, predictably, Jet ate half of one for his lunch. He also ate half a peach, but other than that... I let him believe it was a mango, so he slurped it up happily "because Crash eats mangoes!"
I had a scallion streamed bun with "hairy sprinkles", i.e. pork sung. Yummy and not too nutritious, so I added the rest of the peach to my diet as well.
We spent a bunch of the afternoon in the basement, playing video games, staying cool, and doing some exercising, as the Dance Dance Revolution was put into exercise mode. Thanks, Anita! It was a great idea, and Jet can bounce to his heart's content and never have the machine boo at him. And I get not only a good workout, but actually get better at some of the dances! Goodness.
John came home, and he rode the exercise bike. We ended up deciding to use one of Jet's coupons and went to IHOP, where he got his smiley face pancake for free! Happy Jet. He also fell asleep in my arms at the dinner table when we were done. So John and I changed him, and I rocked him in my arms for a bit until he was completely asleep. Then we laid him down and we enjoyed our early evening.
Jet and I started, on Friday, with getting up really late. I think he has a cold, and I've definitely gotten that cold since. Just a head cold, nothing debilitating other than my wanting to sleep, a lot.
There was one thing we HAD to do on Friday. It is my weekend to take care of the rose garden. I'd had a stint that was supposed to have happened in early July, and I was gone, so I'd missed it and I'd informed a bunch of people, so someone did take over, then. But I missed my time in The Garden, as Jet calls it. I had to weed, dead head, and water, but the night before Longmont got dumped on, so I think they were okay for the week.
In order to buy myself the time to do all that I filled two buckets with water balloons. A whole lot of water balloons, little ones mostly, but some big ones buried in there so Jet could have some fun both finding them and using them. It was a little nerve-wracking driving with them in the car, but we got them there intact, and Jet hopped down, took one of the buckets and manfully picked it up and struggled with it all the way to the garden.
I took everything else. Then Jet got started with "watering the roses" while I wandered through and dead headed everything, weeded, etc. It's soothing work for me to just stride through and check on each bush. I cut off all the dead flowers and what rose hips as have formed, and then I weed around it and make sure that the watering system is getting it good and wet. It's comforting work. Jet found that the thorns on the bushes were excellent for popping the balloons. I found that it made it less than handy for cleaning up the rubber after the balloons were spent. Oops. Luckily, I had my gardening gloves, and I did what had to be done, grazing through after Jet to just get as many of the balloons up as I could.
The balloons gave me the hour I needed. Yay!
From there we went to the Library, and Jet got his Loot. I'd found the reading card just this morning, and frantically filed in as many books as I could remember, and even went up to his shelves to fill in a bunch more. Jet recycles a lot of books for night time reading, and we'd gotten through Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Stuart Little, though I'm still not entirely sure Jet gets all the words, just hearing them in context seems to be good enough for him.
We took it in, and the Librarian accepted his form and asked him about who had read books to him, and Jet promptly hid behind my legs. Yeesh. So he didn't answer any of her questions, but did accept looking through the treasure chest for some toys. She handed me the three packets of coupons and gift certificates that "Jet" had earned by listening to stories. I think that if we'd actually been around we could have done this in stages and he would have spoken with her about the books. But so it is. We did read all summer, so I don't think it was a cheat, but it still felt a little odd to do it all in one day.
We hit the Asian grocery store in town next, as Jet was craving mango ice cream balls. We bought two packets and, predictably, Jet ate half of one for his lunch. He also ate half a peach, but other than that... I let him believe it was a mango, so he slurped it up happily "because Crash eats mangoes!"
I had a scallion streamed bun with "hairy sprinkles", i.e. pork sung. Yummy and not too nutritious, so I added the rest of the peach to my diet as well.
We spent a bunch of the afternoon in the basement, playing video games, staying cool, and doing some exercising, as the Dance Dance Revolution was put into exercise mode. Thanks, Anita! It was a great idea, and Jet can bounce to his heart's content and never have the machine boo at him. And I get not only a good workout, but actually get better at some of the dances! Goodness.
John came home, and he rode the exercise bike. We ended up deciding to use one of Jet's coupons and went to IHOP, where he got his smiley face pancake for free! Happy Jet. He also fell asleep in my arms at the dinner table when we were done. So John and I changed him, and I rocked him in my arms for a bit until he was completely asleep. Then we laid him down and we enjoyed our early evening.
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