Lucky break on plants!

We were watching TV yesterday morning, and our local Lowe's announced they were having a special one day sale on vegetable plants: buy one get one free. We went down, and along with an additional coupon were able to get a bunch of tomato plants, sweet peppers, onions, herbs and cabbage for less than $1 a plant! Most of them were $3-5 apiece.



Most of the weekend was spent working out in the garden. We have quadrupled the size of the plot we had last year. Hopefully we will have a better Summer, weather-wise, that will be a lot warmer and drier, and minus all the disease we dealt with. So far we have: Watermelon, cantaloupe, radishes, beets, all kinds of herbs, lettuces, five kinds of tomatoes, squash, beans, peas and corn.



The rest of the yard and house are shaping up as well. The giant pine tree in the front yard is reduced to a bare pine post and a heap of branches. The mulcher comes tomorrow. Scott keeps joking that he is going to have them leave the post and he is going to carve it into a totem pole. (Ooookkkaaayyyy.......?!?!?!) I think he has been working just a little too much! The guys are also going to trim off the big oaks lining the driveway, but we are playing phone tag with the electric company as they will have to come drop the lines and supervise because of how close the oaks are to the wires. We also decided to go ahead and pave the driveway and walks, AND re-stain the deck. People driving by are not going to know where they are!



Other than that, things are pretty Spring-y around here. Everyone had good report cards, everyone is getting into Spring. The girls are all going to camp here at Silverlake. Poor Dan is still a few years away from getting to go. He is NOT happy about that. Alannah is still playing Ultimate Frisbee most weeks. Scott started golfing again. We are getting into our Summer plans all around with plans to go to the beach, Six Flags and of course, all the birthday parties for Alannah, Aidan and Susie!



I am still teaching full time, and will find out again this week if I am going to go on any longer, or if the guy is going to come back before the end of the year. My juniors and seniors are finishing up a unit on Capote--if you ever need a book or two to read, Truman Capote's short stories are really fun. My Freshmen are finishing up Romeo and Juliet this week. They are putting together final presentations (acting out scenes) which should be really fun (for most students!) Next up are the final units on Lord of the Flies (freshmen), AP exam practice (Juniors) and "The Way We Were" (or something Vietnam) for the seniors. It will be very strange to return to day to day subbing.... but... OK. I am looking forward to days I am home to work on things here.



My sister Andrea and her family are getting ready to move to Austin, TX soon for Christian to begin a new gameing artist job there. It was nice to have them so close, but time to say goodbye. The girls are getting soooo big and are so cute. I will miss them! Andrea is very good at sending pictures and updates, though, and Hartford is adding direct jet-blue flights to Austin.... so maybe not too bad! :) Mom is going there for a week or so now to help with the girls so Andrea can go house hunting. She will also drive with Andrea there when they move so she can help with the girls and the cats. Mother's Day we will all be able to get together for one last big hoop-la before they leave.

Better squeeze another on in!

Well, here it is: our vacation is over already. SIGH. I had really thought that my long term sub job would be over as well, but I have at least two more weeks before the regular teacher comes back. (methinks I should not being doing my job quite so well?!?!) I procrastinated all week finishing up grading and making new plans. But, I suppose I better get to it! Tomorrow will be coming along all too soon. At least we managed to get a whole 26 hours without kids.... I don't forsee that happening any other time soon!

It is still very chilly and drizzly here, which makes it all the more challenging to get moving. It is very much a day to curl up in a blanket and snore. Not so much going out to the garage and cleaning up the sewing room, or gardening, or even go fishing! It will warm up tomorrow--OF COURSE--seeing that we all will be back to work and school.

Scott and I did manage to meander out to Farmington and do some shopping. He needed new pants for work, and Kohl's was having a decent sale on sheets. We stocked up on both! (Just 300 thread count, mom...nothing to get excited about! But we did pay the extra $10 for the special no-care professional finish chinos....) On the way back home we bought stuff to make a big plate of nachos for the hockey game. Yum!

I have just enough time to take a little nap before the girls come back from their dad's and it is time to make the nachos. ZZZZZ!

hey

hey waz up. at this point i am at grandmas and grandpas house.

Saying goodbye, er...meow, to an old friend

Greetings, all!

We are actually in Owego for a few days. It is a good thing, seeing that Connecticut is being tortured by a nasty cold front at the moment. I believe it is in the 40s and raining there.... Here it is GORGEOUS. I try not to feel too bad for Scott back in Connecticut, but he does have a people free house for three days.... all to himself. It can't be all bad!

Some sad news, our kitty died earlier this week. He was a salty old man at 14+ years of age who lived a very long and exciting life. He has moved six times, navigated city streets and deep dark forests. He braved all kinds of weather to go outside year round. He fearlessly battled alley cats, wild animals, and outlived a multitude of family pets. He terrorized dogs, and many neighborhood children. Mice parents will scare their children with stories about him for generations to come. He was one good kitty!

His health kind of hit a wall in the past couple of weeks, but I just couldn't bear dragging him off to the vet. If there was anything that poor cat hated was the vet--and worse was the car ride to get there. I vowed as long as he wasn't in hysterical pain, we would try and keep him at home.

Up until the day he died he was still heading out to the woods for his daily prowl. Monday morning he could not get up by himself. We wrapped him in a towel and took him downstairs, taking turns holding him out on the porch in the sun. That seemed just what he wanted, because then he (I'll be darned if he didn't) simply smiled, sighed and was gone.

Scott made him a nice box, Alannah wrote a poem for him and Aidan helped find a spot for kitty out on the edge of his favorite prowl spot. Scott had the kids put a bench out there so they could have a little spot to visit Kitty any time they wanted. I waited to tell Susie and Dan when we got here-that just isn't news to share over the phone. They were sad too: Susie wondered who was going to keep her toes warm at night now, since Kitty has always, always slept on her bed! Dan was worried for Coal, because now Coal didn't have a friend to play with.

Coal did seem to understand what was happening. Up until a few weeks ago he would kind of chase the cat around trying to play and be friends with him. It was as if he knew Kitty wasn't feeling well because he started keeping his distance and treating him with respect. While we were holding kitty on the porch, he came up and nuzzled him, and then lay down on the porch with his head on his paws. It was very sweet.

When I talked to Alannah's dad Curt on the phone later that day (he was the one who picked out Kitty in the first place) he was sorry too. Curt wanted to know if he could get Alannah a kitten this weekend. I said NO, but...thank you. I have been a cat owner pretty much for my whole life. It is time to take a break. Besides, after that cat, there just might not be a better one to be had! :)

Happy Spring!