... and that is my excuse for not having taken down the Christmas decorations. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it ( Read more... )

So, we had about 50 people over for a party as is our peoples' custom at this time of year. It was a great party, as usual. One of the couples who came used to live on our street and we miss them hugely. I was very glad to see them again ( Read more... )

This world of social networking is getting fraught. LJ, Facebook and Twitter, not to mention email lists that I've been on for seemingly decades; it's getting so I can't remember which audience has been apprised of various mundanities of my life. Since there is considerable overlap amongst all of these networks, some folks get to be bored to ( Read more... )

Things are looking good in the extensive perennial gardens at beautiful Wynderly. The spiderwort is about to bloom and the Rose Campion is next. Salvia is growing like crazy, not blooming yet. The two false mallows that I planted last year are suddenly getting big, the balloon plant has emerged (they show up late and I'm always worried), the ( Read more... )

I am a fan of Ghost Hunters. My fandom springs from a few disparate sources. One of them is that I want ghosts to exist. Seriously, I want ghosts to be real. Mr. OddP is a total skeptic, but I am only a partial skeptic. Partial because I want to allow for the possibility of more things under heaven and earth than are dreamt of, and also ( Read more... )

Oh, my! I set up the hose and sprinkler for the first time today. Since we got the new water service, wow a wow wow, do we have water! This is great!

We have a lot of garden beds on our small property. The one I pay most attention to is in the front, a kind of paisley-shaped blob anchored by a huge magnolia tree. Much of it is taken up by ferns and hosta and some shade-loving perennials, and that part looks pretty good most of the summer. All I really need to do is clear out the garlic ( Read more... )

After five years (OK, four and a half for you purists out there) we have bitten the bullet and had new water service run to the house. And what a difference already! You flush a toilet, and it actually refills in fewer than three minutes! Yes, I'm serious! I went up to the third floor and turned on the shower, and there is actually enough water ( Read more... )

I'm home healing quickly from this reconstruction of my shoulder. It's a little better every day; tomorrow I see the doctor for the first time after the surgery. The staples will be gone! Whoo hoo! High fiv.... no, maybe not yet. There's still some distance to go ( Read more... )

(ETA: I have been trying to embed theme music for this post here, with a controller. Apparently, LJ embed does not allow the controller; if you embed media, it by-God is going to play, and the reader has no option to stop it. That is unacceptable. So, if you'd like to have appropriate music by which to read this entry, I invite you to click ( Read more... )