Summer Eye Candy, Part 1

This is one of my favorite views in my yard right now: Icelandic Poppies as viewed through the artichokes.

















One of few Peonies that bloom in our yard.

















My favorite rosebush. It's also the healthiest, right in front of the house.



My Oregon strawberries (not actually from my yard) before vacuum-packing and freezer treatment.

Summer Music Meme

Thanks, Notorious Ph.D for another opportunity for a non-house/garden-related post (and also: happy birthday!)
The following list is my "what music is shaping your summer, right now?" meme. The instructions are as follows:

• List seven songs you are into right now.
• No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now, shaping your summer.
• Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs.
• Then tag seven other people to see what they're listening to.
  

(The last one is irrelevant, because I only know 4 or 5 people who read my blog.)

• She Left Me For Jesus--Hayes Carll (I just saw him open for Old 97s last week, and was very impressed. If you're not into traditional or alt-country, or any country for that matter, you'd best stay away. Clever lyrics, though.)
• Rabbit Fur Coat--Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins
• Tree Hugger--Kimya Dawson/Antsy Pants
• Barrier Reef--Old 97s
• No Hiding Place--Elvis Costello
• Baby Let Me Hold your Hand--Detroit Cobras
• Pot Kettle Black--Wilco

There are a ton of other songs, since I drive about an hour a day for work...windows down, stereo turned up, chugging down the road in my 12 year-old Mazda...yeah. I'm a bad-ass. But at least I have awesome shades.

Because it's fun

36 As a 1930s wife, I am Poor Take the test!

I suspect I would be better if I didn't warm my cold feet on my husband at night and dressed in my pearls and heels for breakfast.

76 As a 1930s husband, I am Very Superior Take the test!

I hope he knows what a good husband I am.

Thanks Notorious, for a fun time-killer!

So long, sucker

Part of being a grown-up, in my eyes, is getting enthused with the purchase of a seemingly-mundane household item. The kind of item my 22-year-old self might roll her eyes at. My 37-year-old self, however, relishes it. When The Queen purchased us a dishwasher for Christmas the year Cal and I bought our house, I was so happy. And when we figured out we had enough Sears gift cards from our wedding/birthdays/etc. to put toward a huge chunk of the fridge we wanted? Again, happy. Ditto for our new range. And the new washer and dryer.

It seemed like we had what we needed for the house, appliance-wise. Then I realized, with 2 dogs and 2 cats, all of whom shed like crazy, how old my upright vacuum was. It was one of the first "adult" purchases when I moved out of my parents' house in 1989. Actually, I think it was a gift. It's vacuumed 7 domiciles, been repaired once when the Crazy Ex-Roommate decided she would just vacuum up the cat litter she spilled (like a whole bag's worth), and suffered through me having lost attachments for it and over-full bags. And its vacuuming power just wasn't for our needs anymore.

I mentioned to Cal that, at some point in the future, I was looking forward to getting a new vacuum. Being a pragmatist, not to mention frugal, he said when Hoover gave out, we would get a new one. About a month later, he came home from work and told me they were in need of a new vacuum at their office, and he was going to donate Hoover.

Not only is my beloved pragmatic and frugal, he is thorough and methodical. He researched new vacuums, compared features, and went to Stark's, which is sort of in our neighborhood and has been in business since 1932. When he found one he thought would fit our needs, he had me go check it out and buy it if I liked it.

Introducing: Simplicity 'Verve', the newest member of our household.

Is it possible to have a crush on a vacuum cleaner? The answer is "yes", when it's this sexy.
I'm thinking of some flame decals or maybe some sexy-lady mudflaps.

Lack of Sleep, Lack of Sun, Abundance of Canadians

What have I been doing in the past month or so since I've written a true blog entry? Hmm...

Work
Lots of personnel changes means The Lazy Gardener is not The Lazy Wine Steward. Since I travel from site to site filling in, it's been an especially busy time for me. This is the first week I've had time to breathe, and I'm essentially taking a 3-day weekend.

Home
We had a few nice days a week or so ago (honestly, I've lost track of time), and everything in the yard just seemed to pop. Because of our unseasonably cool weather, a lot of the performers in our yard are a little behind. The Lilacs didn't seem to last as long as usual this year, same with the Dogwood and Golden Chain. The Mock Orange is almost blooming (2 weeks later than usual) and so is the Mountain Laurel.

Remember last month when I planted some seeds in the egg cartons? Yeah, I fried them in the garden window without having remembered to water them for a few days. This was during the freakishly hot weather last week. Incidentally, forgetting to water is why most of my house plants eventually died.

We bought a new minor appliance, which I will write about in another entry.

I'm hoping for a break in the weather to finally got my starts in the ground and a few weeds pulled. The weekend (Mother's Day) I usually plant the tomatoes and such, it was far too wet. The following weekend was far too hot, and I was afraid they would wilt or fry. I don't even care if there's a light drizzle, I will plant my starts. This is Oregon after all. I was born and raised here, so I should hardly let a little rain stop me.

Life
Mother's Day was a little different this year. Normally, The Queen and I go down to Salem to Schreiner's Iris Gardens to stroll through the gardens and purchase 12 cut stems of various iris for a ridiculously small amount of money. But, knowing what was, and wasn't, happening in our yard, I called ahead of time to see what was happening in their gardens. They, too, are about 2 weeks behind.
So instead, The Queen wanted to go to Ikea. Ikea opened a Portland store last year, and she has admired some of the attractive, affordable kitchen paraphernalia Cal and I have purchased. And she was also interested in their ridiculously inexpensive tasty breakfast that I rave about. Breakfast was eaten (I had Swedish Pancakes--yum!), shopping and browsing commenced, and The Queen was duly impressed with amount of goodies she bought for such a small amount of money.

That night, I went with 6 of my friends to see Kids in the Hall, the Canadian comedy troupe extraordinaire who recently reunited and are currently touring. Four of us have been huge fans since...well, a long time (the other 3 in the group were significant others.) A few of us have even had a contest going to see how many Kids we could meet before they die ("Better hurry, then," as Dave Foley told Paige when she met him on the set of "NewsRadio" some years back.) Kevin and Bruce have been the elusive ones, although honestly, since we met Dave, Mark, and Scott in 2000, we have settled into our adult lives and haven't had the time or money to travel around fulfilling a silly dream.
...This time, however, our silly dream came to us.
As for the contest, AudGirl, Paige, and I all won together! Some members of our party, however, didn't think it was such a big deal since all they had to do was show up to one show in one city. We didn't let their smugness get us down. We're still beaming.

Briefly...

[Yes, I have been away from the blog for awhile. I wish I had a better (read: more glamorous) excuse for my absence. But the truth is, I've been working an extra lot the past month.

I have quite a bit to tell you, nothing earth-shattering, just little things. I hope to have time tomorrow to write it all down.

But until then, one thought from today...]

One who has PMS, and who is also an animal-lover (or even an animal-liker) should never just "drop by" the Humane Society to visit the kitties and the doggies. If that individual has no self-control, there might be tears. Not to mention fighting the urge to bring home 2 more cats and a 65-pound dog.

Im April macht das Wetter was es will

I just heard on the news that the high temperature for tomorrow, in Portland Oregon, will be lower than the high temperatures in Moscow, Reykjavik, and Anchorage.

Seriously?

Seriously.