Long, long ago...in a town called Bath...

I met a guy named Ray. He was one of my classmates in my study abroad program.

We weren't as close as I was with some of my female classmates that summer, but I spent a whole day with just him in Dublin, Ireland, as we explored the cathedral and various other sites. We were both interested in seeing some things that nobody else in our class was interested in seeing, so we wandered off together and bonded a bit.

I guess we became pretty good friends. We stayed in touch for awhile after Bath. Shortly after he graduated, he went off to teach English in China. I think I heard from him once or twice after that.

He's been off my radar for years now. Of course, I often think of Bath and he's always a part of those memories. I have a great picture of the two of us in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral.

So imagine my surprise when I opened my inbox this morning and found an email from him.

So we must have been corresponding still when I started grad school, because I only had my yahoo account since then. Good thing I never deleted it.

I sent him a quick response...gave him a very brief summation of the past 5 or so years of my life. I am glad to hear from him.

The internet...it's a marvelous thing.

Garden Notes

Been working out in the garden today. We're now in our dry season (believe it or not, Seattle does have one) and some of the flowering plants were looking a bit dry and wilted.

I cut the dead heads off the roses. I actually butchered quite a bit of the rose bushes because they were growing way too high. They are taller than Lance, and he's 6 feet tall. I trimmed the dead heads off the irises, which have been gone for awhile now.

I evaluated what was left...rhubarb is still growing. I suppose I should actually harvest it and bake some bread with it or something. I'm not a big fan of rhubarb, but Lance likes it. Chives are growing, despite my best efforts to remove it. I like chives, but Reece was sniffing around it a lot and I don't really want her eating it.

Had some onions growing. Destroyed those. Not that I don't love onions, but I don't want Reece getting into them. Not sure what else is growing. I cannot identify the plants. I think the vast majority of them are vegetables. But it doesn't do me any good to have these things growing if I don't know what they are.

I suppose it's time to take the camera out and photograph them again. See if anyone can identify what I have.

I don't really like where the garden is anyway. Lance and I have been talking about putting paving stones down in that area (it's along the back of the house) and just making a nice sitting area...installing a fountain. I'm no green thumb, so really, the fewer the plants, the better.

I still have to pour weed killer in the crevices of our patio...that's on the to-list for later, once the patio dries (Lance was scrubbing the grill and I just hosed down all the flora and some of the fauna...a really pissed-off squirrel was screeching at me from on high, probably because I was soaking an area where he wanted to dig up or bury some nuts). We're ripping out this current patio next year and putting in a new one and actually putting in some Quick-Crete beneath the stones...the current patio has pebbles between the stones and weeds are growing up like crazy.

Seriously...I'm embarrassed by our backyard. We got it when it was already neglected and quite weedy, and the fact that I'm not a gardener isn't helping matters any, but I'm doing what I can. Having Reece doesn't help either since she keeps digging up parts of the yard. But I'll never be sorry that we have her. I'd rather lose the garden.

The front garden is looking pretty good. There are some weeds, but they're not too bad and I go out periodically to pull them up. The plants can very easily get overgrown, so as long as I go out every once in awhile with the pruning shears, I can keep that under control.

Later on, once the patio is dry, I'm going to take care of the weed killer. I'll just have to keep my eye on Reece because she loves to eat leaves and grass and she usually picks at the weeds that are sprouting out of our patio. But once those weeds are gone, they are supposed to be gone for a whole year.

I wish I had some local friends who garden so I could have them come over and give me some advice. None of my local friends, to my knowledge, do gardening as a hobby.

***

Totally unrelated to anything, but I am having my first taste of the new Crystal Light Fruit Punch flavor. Mmmmmmmmmmmm. It's keeping me out of the lemonade, and that's a good thing.

***

Lance and I occasionally get postcards when a house sells in our area. In our subdivision, there are many more 2 story houses than there are one-story, and we live in a one-story. The two-story are consistently selling for about $10K more than what we paid. I'm now really concerned about how many renovation/updating projects we're planning for the house because I think we might lose a lot of money if we go forward with everything we're planning. The new windows alone are going to cost us several thousand dollars, but we have to get new windows. That is something we cannot avoid. You can look right through the window frames in some spots and see outside. That doesn't do anything to help our winter heating bills.

Blah...

I have had absolutely no appetite today whatsoever, and I have no idea if this is because of the ginormous burger I had at Red Robin last night or the heat or my headache or what.

My entire diet today: a container of Dannon la Creme yogurt with strawberries and organic granola, a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios, a peanut butter Fiber One granola bar, a pomegranate fruit strip, a bowl of Grape Nuts...2 cups of green tea, 2 cups of Crystal Light and water.

That's it. That's all I ate today. I practically had to choke down the Grape Nuts (that was dinner). It got hot in the house. I had a bad headache. I ran out of steam to do household chores somewhere around 2 pm.

But the guest room is basically done. The laundry room is finally organized...a project we've been putting off since we moved in (and really, that's not a room so much as it is a closet, so there is no excuse for putting it off).

Time to take a shower and read for a bit before bed. The weekend went by too fast. I've just spent the past couple hours reading back over my travel blog and looking at photos and remembering all my wonderful experiences.

My life is so boring now. It makes me sad.