Three things I'm loving this week:
1. Queen Anne's Lace. One man's weed is another man's flower, right? Queen Anne's lace, the quintessential ditch weed is one of my all-time favorite flowers. I love its intricacy and its resilience. I even love the onion-y smell of it's stem when you cut them. And, cut them I do. I am forever collecting bouquets of Queen Anne's lace to stick in plain glass jars all over the house. They look so quaint all lined up on a windowsill. (Just call me Martha).
2. My Tomboy tools garden snips. Finally...a pair of garden snips that will cut just about freakin' anything (of course, this also means I'm likely to lop off a digit, but ...) I got these at a Tomboy Tools home party for $9. Best money I've ever spent on gardening supplies.
3. The Victorian Princess. I took my first cruise aboard the grand lady yesterday at the Women-In-Action's work-life seminar (read about it here). It's the first time I've ever been on the Princess and it was really great. A lot rougher than I'd have thought -- you definitely get to rockin'. The food (by Marketplace Grill) was great, the boat was beautiful (the bathroom was just ridiculously gorgeous) and the company of 100+ vibrant women was inspiring. All in all, it a really nice out-of-office luncheon treat.
Things I'm not loving this week:
1. P.C. shopping. It's time. My home P.C. is grinding so loudly that we can't leave it on (that's not very environmentally friendly anyway) and it's become nearly impossible to do anything more than check the email (and even that requires ignoring fourteen pop-up warning and messages and "I'm-going-kill-myself" threats).
I've been putting off a buying a new one for years now (our current PC is a 2000 model) and I can wait no longer.
Same old story for me though -- just thinking about shopping for one is overwhelming. Ugh..what do I buy...do I need a dual core or a quad core...do I need all the fancy graphics and video cards...what the hell is a GB of memory and how many do I need? I wish there were someone I trust (not a salesperson!) who could just say...OK, blondie, here's what you need...give me your credit card...it will cost $XX dollar and arrive on Thursday.
Ah...but...alas...there is no Fairy PC buyer for me. I'm going to have to bite the bullet, trust the Circuit City ad's rating system ("Photos, music & movies' or "High performance") and just buy the darn thing.
2. The flowers on hostas. Am I the only one who hates those ugly spiky, purple (or white) flowers that come shooting up out of my pretty, green hosta plants. I am obsessed with cutting every one of them off. And, I've got hosta in every single flower bed on my four acres of land.
3. Japanese Beetles. They're eating all my plants alive and I've resorted to outright aggression and cruelty toward them. I used to be kind about killing them...now I'm taking pleasure in using my beloved Tomboy Tools garden snips to cut them in half. I especially love it when there are two on top of each other (which is..um..pretty much all the time) and I can slice two beetles with one snip. Sadistic? I'll give you that, but so is eating giant holes in the leaves of every single one of my beautiful hollyhock plants.
Comments (3)
I nipped those hosta weed appendages as soon as I could every year. They are unsightly, have no bearing on my hosta growing so big, that I can divide it next year, and the color is...as you noted...hideous.
Chop them suckers off!
The Queen Anne's Lace is another story.
Delicate Beauty can be found in these flat laces of wonderment.
On the Preque Isle walk over the bridge (just after pedestrians cross the road to wetland area) there is an expansive growth of Queen Anne's Lace on either side of the bridge.
I got out of the car to inspect them closely a day or so ago.
They were as beautiful as I recalled, as a kid. We would snip the stems long and take 'em home (from fields; not Presque Isle).
Coke bottles were filled with food coloring and water. Queen Anne's was nestled into the Coke bottles after the stems were varied in height to allow a display of several in each bottle at low, middle, and high heights.
Each day brought a change in hue to match the water color in the Coke bottle.
Your kids will love doing this even today in our hi-tech generation.
How flowers suck up water and bloom is a nicer story to learn than how people suck up to bosses and burn out.
Get some Queen Anne's Lace and food coloring and Coke bottles (if they still make em).
Then, get some kids with imagination....and patience.
This is a good show-and-tell in the first week or two back to school.
Now Heather, about that new computer.....
just mail your credit card to
Danny Lucas......:)
Posted by Danny Lucas | July 24, 2008 4:05 PM
Posted on July 24, 2008 16:05
I have bought several computers from Tiger Direct online and they have great prices. This one is a good deal at $420 not including monitor and one that I would consider for home use.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3776545&CatId=2630
To give you an idea of what you are looking for if you go to circuit city:
1GB will hold about 300 pictures from a 7.1 mp camera.
You can probably reuse your current monitor or else get a new one.
I've found that with Windows Vista, you need at least 2 GB RAM (memory).
A dual core is fine.
Good luck!
Posted by Laura | July 25, 2008 8:58 AM
Posted on July 25, 2008 08:58
Laura,
Out of curiosity, why do you need to buy "several" computers from Tiger?
You buy one house; living needs are met.
You buy a car; off you go.
Peanut butter needs replenished.
But computers?
Windows Vista is getting to be standard fare.
The Government needed aid at Gitmo and asked Bill Gates to design torture systems. Voila!
Vista!
Be the first in your neighborhood to scream so loud that ambulances show up. Why the scream?
Because you will learn all about computer crashes, and why your peripherals like that trusty printer of yours DOES NOT WORK with Vista.
Take a look at your Word program that you have used since cutting the umbilical cord.
When you see Word on Vista, you will be on a new planet.
If price is the only variable, get the cheapest laptop you can find. On garbage day, these suckers are the easiest to aim at the back door opening of a Waste Management truck as it snails by your house. Throw it as hard as you can and give correct meaning to the term "crash".
Whatever you buy, it is obsolete as you leave the showroom (or logoff if you buy online). Think of it as your new car losing 40% value as you drive off the lot.
Buy as much memory as you can afford.
(Maybe more....would you not buy spare brains for YOURSELF if you could?)
Tomorrow's computer edition will likely have tiny people built inside the system. They will walk the corridors of your computer and unplug chips, stuff dust balls in circuits, and rip the tag off little mattresses in there...under threat of law.
Your best bet is to send that credit card direct to me. Save time and send your Social Security number too.
Posted by Danny Lucas | July 26, 2008 11:44 AM
Posted on July 26, 2008 11:44