Zombie

I'm not sure if this is technically called a zombie but I'm trying to figure out how to get him into Kate's locker at work.  Shhhhh.  Don't tell her...

Really?

All week long, we've had inspectors at the hospital where I work.  They're checking to make sure proper paperwork is in place and that we follow procedures for safety and that sort of thing.  Its kind of like having company over for dinner, so you know the entire place is spotless and we're all on our best behavior.  Man, is that hard!  We all live in fear that the interviewer will pull us aside and start asking questions.  I've worked in this hospital for 25 years and have managed to avoid this scenario.  Until today.  However, I was asked brief, meaningless questions before the inspector turned her attention to my co-workers.  Whew!

So the surveyor starts looking around the department, heads into our playroom and looks at the only electrical plug that does not have a plug protector in place.  The one thing we missed!  Of course! That kind of made me mad though, because in the general scheme of things, a missing plug protector doesn't mean our patients aren't well taken care of.  And I'm certainly not going to ignore a patient's needs while I go look for a plug protector.  I guess I'm not detail oriented.  And maybe I have a bad attitude.  Im just glad we don't have to do this again for another 2 years.  

Happy
About a month ago now, my daughter was very ill.  She had gone away to college with what we now know was a kidney infection. Unfortunately, we didn't know that until it was almost too late.  The poor thing went to class every day feeling just awful, and finally came home a week later.  By the time she got in to see the doctor, she was in kidney failure and almost at the point of vascular collapse.  I think if she had waited another day, she would have died. She spent several days in ICU, where I slept in a chair at her bedside, watching the constant display of her blood pressure and pulse.  To say that I prayed constantly would be an understatement. 

Thankfully, she recovered and quickly got back to school.  She had a really rough start and once back at college, was extremely homesick.  What's making me happy is that she's doing very well now.  She's healthy.  She has her sense of humor back.  And her beautiful face now has a smile.  Jeremiah 29:11 has always been a favorite of mine. Its a comfort to me in times of trouble, and an inspiration to me when I look at my kids.  Paraphrasing here, "For I know the plans I have for you", declares the Lord.  "Plans to give you hope, and a future."  I'm so thankful for the prayers of so many friends, and so thankful that my daughter is once again back to her normal, wonderful self.

 

Here's what I've learned:

Now that gardening season is done, I'm writing down what I learned about having a big garden so in the future, I will learn from this year's mistakes. 

Lesson #1:  No one needs 50 tomato plants.  Unless you're a farmer, or plan on making a living selling tomatoes, 50 tomato plants is just too many.  I had planned on canning lots of different versions of tomato products but that just didn't happen.  First of all, it was a bad year for tomatoes, and second, and probably more importantly,  I just didn't have time to can much anyway. 

The weather was hot and humid most of the summer, rather than just the one or two weeks we usually get.  Good beach weather, but apparently bad for tomatoes.  I really thought that I'd have enough tomatoes for the neighborhood but I got a relatively small harvest, considering that I had...say it with me...50 tomato plants. 

Lesson #2:  Planning is essential.  I had a master plan for my big garden and did a pretty good job of following it, but got enticed by some plants that weren't in the plan.  See Lesson #3.

Lesson #3:  There is no point in growing eggplant if no one in the family likes it. 

Lesson #4:  Mulch is also essential.  My idea of putting down newspaper an inch beneath the soil kept the weeds at bay...for about 2 weeks. 

Lesson #5:  Everything takes longer than you plan.  And by this I mean that it took twice as long to plant, weed, prune, and harvest than I had scheduled.  It also took twice as long, in some instances, for stuff to grow.  Seed packets give you the number of days from planting to harvest, but I guess these are just general guidelines.  Stuff just grows in its own good time.

Lesson #6: This is probably the most important thing I learned.  You have to have time to devote to taking care of your garden.  I was willing to overlook the fact that this garden is 20 minutes away, and thought it would be no big deal to run up there a couple of times a week to care for it.  But then, lesson #5 was quickly learned, and there were very few days that I had enough time to devote to doing the garden justice.  In the mean time, my own yard suffered because I just didn't have time to take care of it properly.  Maybe some day, when I'm retired, I'll have a big garden again, but for now I'm going to stick with my tiny little garden and grow stuff in pots on my deck.  I guess for now, I'll be a frequent flyer at the farmer's market! 

I don't mean to sound like gardening was a negative experience!  It was quite relaxing to go up to my garden and see the entire farm growing.  People planted some of the most beautiful flowers I've ever seen, and a lot of people personalized their gardens making it fun to wander around.  I also learned a lot by being up there and watching how people plant their stuff.  Much of the time, I was the only person there and I enjoyed being outside listening to the birds.  You can do a lot of thinking in a garden!

Happy
The reason I started this silly blog in the first place was to keep myself accountable for 2 goals I had set for the new year.  One was running a 5k, which I still haven't done, and the other was paying off a bill.  Well, I paid that bill off last week and was thrilled for about 5 minutes.  Then I realized that I still have other bills to pay (well...I didn't just realize that, but reality has a way of being a downer sometimes).  And it only took me 6 months longer to do than I had planned.  Sigh.  But hey, I'm making progress!

Sunday Confessional

Not only has it been a long time since we had a confessional here, but its been a long time since I've been here at all.  The last part of August turned out to be quite a busy time.  Preparing a child to leave for college is rather time consuming.  And then going to retrieve that child because she is sick consumes even more time.  But then sitting with that child in the emergency room, the ICU and the medical floor for 5 days takes up even more time.  Poor kid!  I wouldn't have been anywhere else.  She's recovering nicely, thank God!  And the knowledge that many, many people were praying for her really comforted me - and helped her too!

So what to confess...what to confess... hmm... ... ...

This is not a shocker to those who know me.  And I hope its not something that is exclusive to just me;  but I can't seem to find my car in a parking lot.  Ever.  You could suggest that I use the panic button on my key fob, but that whole thing hasn't worked in a really long time.  I've tried memorizing just where I park (section G, or whatever) but that doesn't seem to work either.  So instead, I wander the parking lot, trying to act nonchalant about it. I don't want to appear uncool, you understand.  I'm sure people can figure out that I'm lost anyway. 

I've been known to get in the wrong car too.  Which mortifies my kids.  But really, people should keep their car doors locked!

Please tell me I'm not alone!

You'll Thank Me

Allright my friends, I'm gonna say three words that are going to make your life complete:


Green Goddess Dressing


Maybe that's a bit dramatic, but seriously, Green Goddess Dressing is my new favorite food product. 

My 17 year old daughter told me about GGD (I'm too lazy to keep typing it out) a few months ago when I was going to make taco salad for dinner.  She insisted that the salad had to be made with Doritos, but that it also had to have GGD.  "Trust me", she said.  So I went to the store and bought a bottle of GGD and a bag of Doritos, and I'll be darned!  That was the Best taco salad in the world!  And I'm not being too dramatic here! 

Yesterday at work, a security guard gave me a recipe for a seafood salad that contains...you guessed it, GGD.  He said that without that dressing, the salad is nothing.  He's tried substituting ranch or other various creamy-type dressings but that the GGD really makes it good.  Thus began a discussion about GGD.  Just what is in GGD?  Thank God for Google!  It contains tarragon and chervil which we think makes it green. 

A lot of stores don't carry GGD anymore because, while it was popular in the late 70's, not too many people use it anymore.  Kraft still makes it but I'm a little nervous that they'll stop.  So before it disappears completely, go buy some!

Harvest

I found myself with some unexpected time off of work today so I decided to pay a visit to The Big Garden.  I brought containers to haul home whatever was ready to be picked... the last time I went, I didn't have enough carrying devices.  I had an hour and a half to pick the ripe tomatoes, and whatever else was ripe. 

I ended up staying there two and a half hours, which made me late for a good-bye party.  But I was on a roll!

I picked one watermelon which may or may not be ripe.  I'll know later.  About a month ago I picked one that wasn't even pink inside.  The limits of my patience were really tested with this watermelon...its one of the reasons I had a garden in the first place.

And then I picked tomatoes.  Gobs and gobs of tomatoes.  You should see the ones I didn't bring home;  my harvest would have doubled in size.  Many were unusable because in my stupidity  lack of judgement, I failed to properly stake my plants, and tomatoes were growing all over the ground.  And it seems if they're on the ground, something has burrowed into the fruit, making mushy, icky, nasty spots.  And then there were the ones that were so ripe that they cracked or were rotten, still hanging on the vine. 

What you can't see are the tomatoes I picked on Sunday.  There are just as many as this on my back deck.  Plus I've given some away, and made salsa.  My God!  What did I expect with 50 tomato plants!?!

After the tomatoes, I picked some eggplants, squash, and peppers.  I must say that it was really hard to see some of the ripe stuff because my garden is a hot mess.  There are weeds taking over everything, and since this is an organic garden, I can't use weed killer.  My brilliant idea of using newspaper under mulch to keep the weeds at bay didn't succeed.  At least not long term.

The basil was almost ready to bloom so I knew I had to get that picked.  The problem is cleaning all that basil.  Plus I have so much more that needs to be gathered.  I'm gonna have enough pesto for the neighborhood!

Finally, I decided to dig up half of my potatoes.  The plants have almost all died so they're good to go.  It wouldn't hurt to leave them in the ground another week I suppose, but I'm nosy and impatient.  Digging up potatoes is like digging for buried treasure.  Seriously!

20 lbs of potatoes

I weighed one of those containers of tomatoes (the styrofoam one) and that alone weighed 25 lbs.  There are hundreds of tomatoes still on the vines, still green.  I may, at some point, have to abandon them due to tomato overload. 

Last week I picked all of my onions.  Here they are drying on my back deck.

I can't seem to do anything in reasonable quantities.  Maybe I'm a little obsessive? There are more on some chairs that aren't in the picture.  (she said, sheepishly)

If you've been reading about my garden from the beginning, you may remember Peggy.  She was my crabby garden neighbor.  I feel I must take back what I said about her because last Sunday, when my son and I were picking stuff, Peggy told me that there were strangers in my garden helping themselves to some produce.  Interlopers!!  She told them that it wasn't very nice to help themselves and that had I put a lot of time and effort into that garden and she was sure that I wouldn't appreciate stealing.  Wow.  I guess I was wrong about her.  Of course, I thanked her. I guess she's not so bad... and really, most people aren't.  Meanwhile, my cabbages are gone, and my cauliflower, which was labelled as cabbage, has rotted right there in the garden.  It smells terrible! 

Happy?

Tomorrow's the big day here at our house.  My oldest heads off to college.  Sniff.  We've packed up her car, packed up my car and have additional stuff to be packed into a pick-up truck.  I hope I've prepared her well for whatever she faces.  Maybe all parents feel this way, but I think that I didn't do as much as I should have.  I could have been a better parent in a lot of ways.  Hindsight is always 20/20 I guess.  But she has a really good head on her shoulders; she's a smart girl with a lot of common sense.  I really don't worry about her - I know she'll be fine.  I'll just miss her...

Hey

Have you ever gone to the video store and just stood there waiting for a movie to jump out at you?  It happens to me quite frequently; I know I want to watch something, but nothing looks particularly good.  "Just pick something!" you say, but for some reason, its just not that easy.  Here are some movies I've seen that I really enjoyed, and may be rather obscure.  Maybe not.  Anyway....   take these as suggestions...and if you end up really hating the movie, you can blame me.

Love Potion # 9 -

This is a really old movie (1992), one of Sandra Bullocks first I do believe.  It also stars Donovan Somebodyorother.  They're both scientists and they get ahold of a love potion and hilarity ensues.  Wait, his name is Tate Donovan.  Anway, there's a really funny part involving a hooker, the love potion, and the scientist.  (Those are words I don't think I've ever strung together in a sentence before.)  If you can find this at the video store, you should rent it.  Its a good light movie that doesn't involve a lot of thinking. 

Waitress

Another good, rather thought-free movie.  It was made in 2007 and was written by a woman named Adrienne Shelly.  She was later murdered in her New York apartment by a neighbor.  Wow, that was uplifting and makes you want to run right out and see that movie, right?

Anyway, its a good movie about friendship and marriage and kids and all that stuff.

The Majestic

One of my co-workers cannot watch Jim Carey in any movie.  She can't stand his facial expressions.  He doesn't bother me at all, and I really liked him in this movie, one of his few serious roles.  In this movie, his character loses his memory and ends up in a small town, where he looks just like the son of one of the townspeople.  I thought this movie was really touching, but required more thought than some of the other movies I've suggested here.  Still a good rental.

Frequency

This movie was made in 2000 and stars Jim Caviezel and Dennis Quaid.  That much information alone should get you to watch it.  Two handsome men... in the same movie....sigh.  Now where was I?  Oh yes, this is a time travel/thriller kind of movie which kind of asks the question, "if you could go back and change the past, would you?"   This one you HAVE to pay attention to because if you miss a bit of it, you get lost.  But again, the handsome men thing makes that very easy.  : )

Well, that's enough to get you started at the video store.  And if you have suggestions for movies that I should watch, just let me know.