Random-osity, or something....
Ok, I'm just going to fire off random things.
We had an "incident" with the hot water heater over Memorial Day weekend. This involved the following: a recreation of the Nile River on my back patio, swampy carpet in my "weird room", lots of muddy pawprints in the house, a very nice plumber dude coming with a brand new hot water heater, and finally, the depletion of my checking acount. Sigh. The new hot water heater works lovely, and has a high energy star rating. It also appears to have solved the mystery of the Sand in the Dishwasher. Evidently, at some point, the previous owner of my house (aka "IDIOT") had done something Wrong to the water line, and a bunch of dirt, sand, crud, etc got sucked into the water heater. Everytime we used hot water, the dirt/sand would come out. Hence, my dishwasher actually made my dishes dirtier. I dont know about y'all, but this is not what I have in mind when I load the dishwasher. The very nice plumber dude checked it out when he saw the dirt/sand sludge in the old hot water heater, and said we should be ok now. And, voila, CLEAN DISHES! Miracle.
Speaking of the back porch, now that its no submerged, we've covered it in PLANTS. We're growing a variety of stuff, all in containers. AZ dirt is terrible stuff - its HARD, rocky and lacking in all kinds of stuff. After killing like our 500th tomato plant, the decision was made to try this container gardening stuff. We planted: cherry tomatoes, Mortgage Lifter tomatoes, Tiny Tom Tomatoes, Fresca Strawberries, White Alpine Strawberries, Sweet Bantam corn, Ruby Queen corn, red summer wheat, tomatillos, ground cherries, two different kinds of cucumber, honeydew, Thompson Seedless Grapes, zucchini, green beans, lima beans, artichokes, asparagus, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, red cabbage, giant radishes, 4 different kinds of carrot, jalepenos, banana peppers, bell peppers, celery, 4 different kinds of cotton, Giant Mongolian Sunflowers, poppies, soybeans and tea. We're still working on a setup for the rice. Yeah. The first thing you discover in this container gardening thing is you need A LOT of containers! We found some on clearance at Home Depot, and I scouted some from Craigslist. I'm not hitting up restaurants for empty 5-gallon buckets that werent previously filled with bleach or the like. We also built more shade for our patio, so we would have more room for the containers, without exposing the plants to the relentless AZ sun. So far, we've lost the spinach, broccoli and cauliflower. I'm going to replant them this weekend. Everything else seems to be growing along though.
Oh, but we arent done with the back porch yet! We ALSO have acquired a commercial-grade 110-gallon lobster tank, with built-in sump, skimmer, filter, chiller, and UV filter. (Craigslist, of course.) It's a used unit, but cleaned up well and everything works on it. BF has plans to raise tilapia in it. So far, we've just run water through it for a few days to ensure its in good working order, and that the chiller would keep up with an AZ summer. So far, so good. (Our electric bill may cry though. We'll see.) Next step will be to get some tilapia fingerlings. Its always an adventure in crazy at my house.
Other random news...
I'm going to be an Aunt.
The Hyperbolic Crochet Reef, of which I am a contributor to the Core Reef, is on display in Dublin, Ireland right now. (Does this make me an "international artist"?) When its done with its run there, it will come back to the States, for a display in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. The opening reception will be October 16, 2010. I will be there. (I can hardly wait.)
I'm on a mission to start getting rid of stuff. I have SO MUCH stuff, and I'm just tired of it. I'm determined to pare down my belongings and live more simply. DETERMINDED.
I'm still looking for a bartending job. Who knew it would be this hard to get hired to sling drinks? (I still have my regular job, no worries.)
So.... whats new, y'all?
We had an "incident" with the hot water heater over Memorial Day weekend. This involved the following: a recreation of the Nile River on my back patio, swampy carpet in my "weird room", lots of muddy pawprints in the house, a very nice plumber dude coming with a brand new hot water heater, and finally, the depletion of my checking acount. Sigh. The new hot water heater works lovely, and has a high energy star rating. It also appears to have solved the mystery of the Sand in the Dishwasher. Evidently, at some point, the previous owner of my house (aka "IDIOT") had done something Wrong to the water line, and a bunch of dirt, sand, crud, etc got sucked into the water heater. Everytime we used hot water, the dirt/sand would come out. Hence, my dishwasher actually made my dishes dirtier. I dont know about y'all, but this is not what I have in mind when I load the dishwasher. The very nice plumber dude checked it out when he saw the dirt/sand sludge in the old hot water heater, and said we should be ok now. And, voila, CLEAN DISHES! Miracle.
Speaking of the back porch, now that its no submerged, we've covered it in PLANTS. We're growing a variety of stuff, all in containers. AZ dirt is terrible stuff - its HARD, rocky and lacking in all kinds of stuff. After killing like our 500th tomato plant, the decision was made to try this container gardening stuff. We planted: cherry tomatoes, Mortgage Lifter tomatoes, Tiny Tom Tomatoes, Fresca Strawberries, White Alpine Strawberries, Sweet Bantam corn, Ruby Queen corn, red summer wheat, tomatillos, ground cherries, two different kinds of cucumber, honeydew, Thompson Seedless Grapes, zucchini, green beans, lima beans, artichokes, asparagus, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, red cabbage, giant radishes, 4 different kinds of carrot, jalepenos, banana peppers, bell peppers, celery, 4 different kinds of cotton, Giant Mongolian Sunflowers, poppies, soybeans and tea. We're still working on a setup for the rice. Yeah. The first thing you discover in this container gardening thing is you need A LOT of containers! We found some on clearance at Home Depot, and I scouted some from Craigslist. I'm not hitting up restaurants for empty 5-gallon buckets that werent previously filled with bleach or the like. We also built more shade for our patio, so we would have more room for the containers, without exposing the plants to the relentless AZ sun. So far, we've lost the spinach, broccoli and cauliflower. I'm going to replant them this weekend. Everything else seems to be growing along though.
Oh, but we arent done with the back porch yet! We ALSO have acquired a commercial-grade 110-gallon lobster tank, with built-in sump, skimmer, filter, chiller, and UV filter. (Craigslist, of course.) It's a used unit, but cleaned up well and everything works on it. BF has plans to raise tilapia in it. So far, we've just run water through it for a few days to ensure its in good working order, and that the chiller would keep up with an AZ summer. So far, so good. (Our electric bill may cry though. We'll see.) Next step will be to get some tilapia fingerlings. Its always an adventure in crazy at my house.
Other random news...
I'm going to be an Aunt.
The Hyperbolic Crochet Reef, of which I am a contributor to the Core Reef, is on display in Dublin, Ireland right now. (Does this make me an "international artist"?) When its done with its run there, it will come back to the States, for a display in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. The opening reception will be October 16, 2010. I will be there. (I can hardly wait.)
I'm on a mission to start getting rid of stuff. I have SO MUCH stuff, and I'm just tired of it. I'm determined to pare down my belongings and live more simply. DETERMINDED.
I'm still looking for a bartending job. Who knew it would be this hard to get hired to sling drinks? (I still have my regular job, no worries.)
So.... whats new, y'all?