The Greatest Shirt in the Entire History of the Universe

Except for my new suit that I got in January, I have been living with one pair of dress pants for the last 6 months or more. Probably closer to a year, but they are pants, so I don't really care enough to keep track. All I know is I got fatter and my pants that I had worn to church for about 10 years did not fit any longer.

I could have dieted or worked out at the YMCA. But I decided that the pants were all worn out and probably out of style anyways, so I decided to lose the pants and keep the fat. Thus, I ended up with one pair of dress pants that fit after the fattening.

Tonight, I headed out to shop for some clothes. I mostly needed pants but shirts that aren't blue would be considered, too. At some point during the my "growth period" I started wearing blue shirts. And now I have a closet full of blue and little else.

I think I did pretty well. $109 and I brought home 3 pair of slacks and 3 new shirts. Evidently I am between sizes now. So I tried on every pair of pants in the store. Finally I decided to buy the bigger sized pants so that I can either get them altered a little or I might decide to continue super-sizing myself. Whichever is easier...

After I found the pants and two of the shirts, I was heading to the cash register. But like a siren's song, I was being pulled to the 30% off rack in the pack corner of the store. And when I got there, I broke a rule. I picked out a blue shirt. Actually, I think this shirt picked me. It was divine intervention or something.

So I bought The Greatest Shirt in the Entire History of the Universe. I barely made it into the house before I was showing my prize to The Boss Lady. She was speechless. I think she was duly honored to be in the presence of The Shirt. Yep, she was in awe.

Some guys might not be able to rock a shirt like this. But AtHomeDaddy is able and willing. Need proof? Here is The 2nd Greatest Shirt Ever. I wore to work today.

The 2nd Greatest Shirt Ever was another shirt that spoke to me. I was in the grocery store. Buying tortilla chips. And there he was, on a rack by the pharmacy. I grabbed that sucker and headed home. I was halfway home before I remembered the chips that I had not bought.

Feel honored. You have now seen greatness. Lucky me, I get to cruise town with my kiddos and these awesome shirts on a regular basis. For some reason, the wife never seems to be around when my awesomest shirts are with us...

One last thing. Can you believe I didn't spend even $15 on either one of these beauties? Sometimes greatness just comes to you.

Look out water, here we come!

The Princess and I have completed our first year of pre-school.

When we started, I was not sure we would make it all the way until December. But the idea of going to school kind of grew on her. And I think that she liked the fact that I was always around. For a girl who will hardly ever give me a hug at bed time, she always ran up to me on the playground and gave me the best hugs.

Also, I gotta say, it was a profitable day to be Mr. Mike. The parents take up a collection for end of the year gifts for each staff member. I ended up with a gift card to our favorite restaurant another to Home Depot and a stack of cash. If the Boss Lady asks, it was $37.54, OK?

The Princess and I blew off our sack lunch sammiches today and used some of that new found wealth to by a pizza. Don't tell the boy.

The Talker has school until next Thursday. Once he is done, you will have to come to the pool if you need to see us.

One more for the list

There are lots of things I can do. But a lot of those things would cause our entire family to starve within days if my salary depended on it. Like house painting. I can do it, but it takes nearly forever.

I can grow veggies in my garden, but I would have to sell each bean for like $1.35 if we were to make a living off of the land. I can make old trucks run. As long as looks and safety are of no concern.

I can cook. Barely. And if I went pro doing it, someone would really have to want to pay big bucks for pizza and mac and cheese.

Thanks to The Queen Mother, I can also sew. A little. Enough to make doll clothes with the assistance of a 4 year old? You betcha. Good enough to sell and live off of the profits? Maybe not.

The Girl and I set out this morning to whip up a new outfit for one of her dolls. The Princess worked the sewing machine foot pedal like a true seamstress. Any flaws in the stitch work or design are totally mine.

Just for the record, The Princess planned to make a Halloween costume. I talked her down to a nightgown for her doll, Emma. Which evidently was just on the edge of my abilities, since we had to make it twice. The first one wouldn't go over that baby doll's gargantuan melon.

As long as it is contagious

The Princess slept 13 hours last night. She went to bed early, after an epic battle to the near-death over cleaning her room. Evidently she REALLY didn't want to clean her room. In the end, she won, since the room is still a mess.

But I'll take losing allllllllllllllllll day looooooooooooooooong if it leads to a child sleeping half a day.

I assumed this morning that she was starting to get sick. Since she finally woke up, though, she has acted like she feels fine and she has no fever.

So now we know 2 things. She isn't sick. Yet. And the room is still a mess.

Your pick

Hey Father of Five. Remember those Dr Pepper prize lids? Well, I finally got around to entering a whole stack of codes from eligible Dr Peppers. And guess what?

We won. Yep. It was a big time prize, too. So which side do you want? After all, half of this digital wallpaper is yours, buddy.

It's going to be a colorful harvest.

Just another week or two and the veggie garden is going to be in full swing. I have been harvesting a handful of green beans every day for more than a week. Today, I picked the first tomato of the season and the first of our purple hull beans.

Today's bounty

Mint, onions from The Boss Lady's Grandma,
'maters, watermelons and potatoes

Dill, sage, green beans and lots of tomatoes

Purple hull beans from a neighbor

Caged tomatoes

Escaping tomatoes!

My baby watermelon

I will hug him, and pet him, and squeeze him
and I will name him George

Irises from Mom and Dad's house

Caladiums from Aunt Pearl

Cheaper than sunscreen

Last year I built a frame that attaches over the playscape, so that we could shade the swings and a good portion of the fall zone. The idea was a success. But the tarp I used had to be re-shaped several times, after it stretched while holding lots of rain water.

Back then I bought a second tarp. Then I lost the second one. So we whittled away on the original design. By trimming and stretching the tarp, we made it through the entire summer with a shaded playscape for about $20.

The Boss Lady found the second tarp out in the garage last month. And we are now fully shaded again.


We made a few changes to the design this year. All the trimming has been done in advance. The Boss Lady hemmed all of the cut edges to help with unraveling, which was the final demise of design 1.3

Over all, the shade is smaller this year, but this is about the shape we ended up with last year. I also added a few brass grommets to the center line of the tarp, to combat the collection of water.

Canopy 2.0 is now online and ready to use, so come on over and have a shady swing.

Off to slay the dragon.

Her Royal Highness, The Boss Lady, has invited the entire AtHomeFamily to come along on her Memorial Day Holiday Weekend quest. We will be heading out soon to go to the Scarborough Renaissance Festival. But proving that she might actually be the Court Jester, HRH, TBL has decided that it is a good idea to take 4 (four, yep, 2 squared) extra children with us.

Hopefully the dragon or the extra kiddos won't get the best of AtHomeDaddy, since The Talker still has a week of school and The Princess has another day or so to go until summer break. And Summer is when AtHomeDaddy really earns his keep around here.

Hope you guys have a great holiday. Drive safe and say "Thanks" to a member of the US Armed Forces if you get a chance.

My MP3 player? It sounds confused...

Father of Five posted up the content of his MP3 player. And he asked what was in mine. If I could find it, it would look something like this...

• Precious Memories Alan Jackson
• Songs for the Daily Planet Todd Snider
• Step Inside this House Lyle Lovett + 3 other CDs
  
• 50 Number Ones George Strait + tracks from 21 other CDs
  
• The Austin Sessions Kris Kristofferson
• Back to Black Amy Winehouse
• Cold Snap Albert Collins + single tracks from 5 other CDs
  
• Corinne Bailey Rae Corinne Bailey Rae
• Craftsman Guy Clark + a couple of extra tracks
  
• The Essential Willie Nelson
• Genius Loves Company Ray Charles
• Lonelyland Bob Schneider
• Pale Sun, Crescent Moon Cowboy Junkies
• Studio Cowboy Junkies
• Tracy Chapman Tracy Chapman + a few other tracks
  
• Waltz Across America Cowboy Junkies + 5 other CJ CDs
  

OK, from this list it is obvious that I don't like ALL kinds of music. Rap? Not much here. Hard rock? You'll have to look pretty hard to find any in my collection. Classical? It's alright, but I only have so much flash memory to work with...

Now the stuff I like, I like a lot. Thus, the need to have 8 Cowboy Junkies CDs and the better part of 23 George Strait discs at my finger tips. And in case you need some church hymns and good drinkin' songs? Those I got.

Somebody MUST love him. Right?

About once a week The Princess and I go to eat lunch in the school cafeteria with The Talker. On a good/normal day, The Talker gets to pick one friend and we eat on the stage, so that all the other classmates can see us and be jealous.

Today was not a good/normal day.

The stage was closed in preparation for a 3rd grade performance tonight. So The Princess and I ate at the table with the rest of The Talker's class. And let me tell you, next time I think I'll just bail out. Leave the boy with his classmates and scram.

What a freakin' nightmare. The staff who supervise the cafeteria see an adult at a table and they assume that the adult (me) can handle whatever requests/questions/demands that 20 kindergartners can throw my way. Guess what? Some people might be able to. This guy? No chance. For one thing, I don't know the cafe rules.

After a third kid asked me for permission to go to the restroom, I gave up. I was trying to get them to ask someone who knows how things are supposed to run. But no adult was coming on that side of the room, so I just started saying "Yeah, sure. Whatever."

Chaos ensued. Which isn't that much different than a normal/regular day from what I have seen from my seat up on the stage. Still, I felt bad for being the guy who caused the noise and craziness.

The entire time we were eating, one of the classmates, whom I shall call Devil Child With the Loudest Mouth this Side of the Mississippi River, kept screaming demands at me.

"Open this! Now this! Go get me a new fork! I dropped this one."

But Devil Child With the Loudest Mouth this Side of the Mississippi River does not realize that I excel in ignoring rude little brats. So his yelling went unheeded.

Towards the end of the meal he started yelling "I am telling on you!" It took me a few times to realize that he was still talking to me. So I finally responded "Go for it. Maybe they will banish me from the cafe for all eternity"

Once a staff member finally came over to see why Devil Child With the Loudest Mouth this Side of the Mississippi River was shrieking at me, he pointed at me and told her "He hit me. That guy over there hit me."

She was obviously concerned, since she gave the type of response I had given all through lunch "OK, sure. Whatever."

That pretty much ended our nice relaxing meal in the school cafe. The Princess and I left pretty quickly after that. Devil Child With the Loudest Mouth this Side of the Mississippi River was still screaming that I had hit him. The Talker and most of his friends were laughing and I was mumbling to myself "...right in the throat if it would make you be quiet..."

Yep. School lunches with your kids. I highly recommend it. Time well spent with your progeny.

Just as long as the stage is open.

The one where AtHomeDaddy bitches about the weather...

A screen grab from our hometown newspaper's website

So keeping in mind that it is MAY freakin' 20th, and summer does not start for another month, who wants to guess how many days we will have over 100 degrees this year?

Or how about taking a guess at how many times AtHomeDaddy blogs/whines about the heat this year? (Just FYI, this makes twice already...)

Welcome to MowDaddy

So The Boss Lady is now hiring her wonderful hubby out for general lawn maintenance. In other words, I have reverted to a 14 year old kid and will be mowing yards this summer.

A friend of the wife's is shelling out big bucks for her yard work. When my lovely bride was talking with her about it it must have gone like this:

"You pay how much? Mike will do it for half that... And he can start this week."

So I have a new mowing job a few blocks away. I also have a wife that seems to have a high level of skill in negotiations concerning how busy I should be.

Lucky me.




Actually, when I started this stay at home gig, I thought long and hard about having some flyers made up to see if I could steal away some of the neighborhood mowing. It seems like every family around here uses a different service. If I could have gotten 3 or 4 houses close by, it would have been easy cheesy. But like most of my million dollar ideas, that one never went too far.

Maybe it is time to revisit that idea.

I see a grocery run in our future

Milk for breakfast? That is boring. Besides, we are out. Apple juice, orange juice, grape juice, blueberry juice, pomegranate juice? Yep, we are all out of those, too.

Cereal? Nope, got none of that.

Cheese toast? Sausage? Pancakes? Right. We are out of all of that stuff, also.

Turns out we are out of everything except half a bag of M&Ms (compliments of Father of Five) and a few snacks. Heck, we are even out of Dr Pepper.

Hopefully nobody from the state shows up at our breakfast table this morning. Otherwise they would take the kids. So what IS for breakfast? Pop Tarts and Kool-Aid of course.

But it IS grape Kool-Aid and they ARE strawberry Pop Tarts. So that counts for something, right?

First thing on the list this morning? Sponge Bob. Then dropping off the boy at school, where he can buy a nutritious lunch for $2. THEN straight to the grocery store. Where they sell donuts and Dr Pepper.

Which will make a mighty fine REAL breakfast, right?

Weekend recap

This was one busy week. The Boss Lady and The Talker's school year is quickly winding down. The Princess and I only have another week or so before our summer break begins.

A quick recap of our week. The Boss Lady worked. The boy had school. Luckily, that storm passed us by without even disturbing a leaf on our trees.

The wife and kids hit the pool once this week. I skipped that trip because I was going to get the yard mowed. I got distracted and started working on another project before I moved to the back yard. But the front looks awesome.

The Talker's soccer season wrapped up this morning. We are planning to enjoy our re-captured Saturday mornings this summer. And since I was coaching the team, I imagine that the kids will be glad not to have to deal with Coach Mike early on Saturday mornings.

Marge hung out in front of the house all afternoon. The best news of the whole weekend, thanks to the wife, I spent the entire afternoon playing with the old truck. If it isn't raining tomorrow, I may drive the truck to church.

Tonight Law Talking Guy and I went out and ate crawdads. 3 pounds of 'dads and I am a happy customer. I was worried that we would not manage to fit in our annual MudBug feast this year. The rest of the two families hung out here at the house and ate chicken nuggets and mac n cheese. Which was probably a lot healthier that all those crawdads.

As you can see, it was a whole lot of nothing too exciting around here. Which is exactly how I like my weekends.

Everybody in the tub

We just spent the best part of the evening huddling in the tub. No, The AtHomeFamily wasn't feeling especially close tonight. But we were under a Tornado Watch. People were calling in reports of a tornado touching down just a couple of miles away to the local news channels. So we hit the tub.

Houses around here, especially those built a 15-40 years ago, usually have a centrally located interior bathroom without windows. Lots of walls between the family and the storm is a good thing. The kid's potty room here fits that bill. So we hung out in there.

We were ready to pull The Talker's mattress over us if the storm actually hit. And the pets were all hanging close by, though I never actually brought them into the 6ft by 10 ft bathroom.

The storm passed us by without much more than a few sprinkles of rain. And so far it looks like most of the region was spared a direct hit. Hopefully that is the last of the excitement for the evening.

The kids were fine throughout. No one was too scared or upset by the change in beds. They managed to sleep through the whole thing. All the while sharing a bathtub.


Now believe me, I am not making light of tornadoes or severe weather. I have seen the destruction left behind first hand and it is not a joke. Besides, neither The Boss Lady nor I would risk scaring the kids unless it were really serious.I just thought that image of my family hunkering down together was nice. The fact that the kids trust us enough to snooze, even if we tell them to do it in a bathtub is pretty amazing.

All the while I was pacing from TV to TV watching the radar screens. Luckily, this storm did not cause serious problems around here and nothing more serious seems to be headed this way tonight.

The Boss Lady and I are pretty well prepared for severe storms. Still, it is good to double check once in a while. Here are some websites with good weather info.

• From Hillsdale County, MI: Tornado Safety Rules - A concise page with good information.
• From FEMA: What to do During a Tornado
• From USA Today - A Guide to Tornado Safety

Somebody ought to screen these things better

I seem to have made the cut over at the Best of Blogs, Best Daddy Blog. Father of Five nominated me for this prestigious honor. Heck it must be high class seeing as they haven't even updated their graphics since last year.

FOF made the final 10, too. And he is my favoritests blogger EVAR. Of course, you start sending me packages of Dr Pepper and M&Ms and you can be my new best bloggy friend, OK? Or just vote this tripe to the top of the heap of Dad blogs and maybe The Boss Lady will throw us all a raging kegger nice little get together with finger sammiches and a punchbowl full of bathtub gin other stuff.

Gotta take the Stupid with the Awesomely Stupendous!

The mailman rang the doorbell a few minutes ago. I was assuming he was delivering a box of vacuum cleaner bags. Otherwise, he would have just stuck the mail in the box at the curb. But no. He was delivering a sugar buzz from on high. Or Minnesota. Either one sounds heavenly right now!



Thanks, Father of Five. I will enjoy and I might even share with the family, as you suggest. But no promises there, OK?

But along with the goodness that is the bounty of the North, we got a letter. From right here in Austin, TX. The address is just about a 20 minute drive from our house. And it was printed yesterday. Which is pretty good time for snail mail.

The IRS sent out this friendly reminder about the economic stimulus payment. And their math is exactly in agreement with the amount that we thought we would be borrowing from the future getting.

In fact, I KNOW the amount to be correct since the direct deposit prefund (Yeah, I made up a word. Feel free to use it) hit our account LAST WEEK!


Regardless of the IRS's ability to get the job done in a timely manner, I can still sit here and enjoy some afternoon 'nack of the highest order. Thanks again, Father of Five.

Scenes from the home front

A nap AND Alison Krauss? How great could a Mother's Day get?

I should just lie and say it has been a few weeks since I recycled.

The Princess and The Pretty Kitty

She slapped me

I was struck by a co-worker this morning. Right in the face.

And the Boss Lady says I deserved it. But she wasn't there. You are on my side, aren't you?

Co-worker: So what did you and the kid's do to celebrate Mother's Day with your wife?
Me: Hey, it isn't my problem. She isn't my mother. If the kids wanted to celebrate with THEIR mom, then they should have come up with something.

I was giggling as I started to walk away. Then she hit me.

Luckily, it was a soft smack. A tap, really.

I was going to tell my co-worker about the 2, count 'em, two, vacuums AND the new blender that I got running this weekend, just in time for Mother's Day. But I was afraid she would break my jaw if I shared that info.




Just FYI, the new blender does a mighty fine job on the other stuff, too.

I've been on a vacuuming and blending bender

Last week we got the much anticipated new vacuum cleaner. And we spanked that machine this weekend. You simply cannot should not have a Great Pyrenees dog who lives inside your house and a half-functional vacuum cleaner. I was so impressed by the quality of the cleaning that I got inspired to dust off an old friend, the Roomba Vac.

That machine was all the rage around here for about 6 months. Then I got tired of cleaning out the brushes after every single room. So it lingered in a corner until I de-dog furred the robot and charged the batteries back up. The floors were basically clean so we just needed a quick touch up. Normally I pull out the broom and dustpan for the little touch-ups. OK, technically I GO FIND the broom and dustpan since it it usually still sitting wherever I used it several days earlier. Yes, I am lazy. Next question?

But this weekend I was able to let the Roomba do the dirty work for me. Ahh! It is good to be the King of Lazy.

So the King needed a reward. This weekend I picked up a new Magic Bullet blender. And let me tell you, thanks to an aversion I developed while hanging out with my often swindled grandmother, I NEVER EVER EVER buy something if it is marked "As Seen on TV". So without The Boss Lady's recommendation, this little puppy would not have jumped into the cart at Costco.

But the wife assured me that she heard it works great for smoothies and other stuff. And I really like the other stuff. A lot. And it is summer. The perfect time for other stuff on the back porch.

Last night, thanks to Texas's blue laws, we could not buy the fixings for frozen margaritas. So we made strawberry/banana smoothies. The new blender lived up to the hype. And the King was happy. As happy as one can be without a nice, slushy frozen margarita.

Anyways, this afternoon the kids and I drank smoothies and watched max and Ruby while the Roomba cleaned up the living room. That is living! And tonight The Boss Lady and I might watch the robot vacuum the rest of the house. If I make to the liquor store before it closes.

Best cow joke, EVER!

And no, this has nothing to do with Mother's Day. A first-grade neighbor told me this joke at the soccer field this morning...

Knock, knock
Who's there?
Interrupting cow
Interup...
Moo!

Wind chill, wind schmiel...

Yesterday I was outside for most of the day. Which is not a bad spot to be on May 9th. Much better than pushing papers around a desk. Except that it was HOT out there.

I think the news said it was 97 yesterday. After the rain we had earlier in the week, the humidity was high, too. So we had the heat index hovering over 100 degrees all afternoon.

Since it looks like summer is here a month early, I added a new feature to the site, a pool-time counter. We may not make much use of our YMCA membership during the rest of the year, but when the outdoor pool opens, we live up there. The pool opened last weekend and we did not make it out, but that changed as of this afternoon. Plus, the kiddie pool has already made it's debut in the back yard. It was out a couple of days last week.

Today we waited to go swimming until after The Talker's soccer game. So we only lasted an hour. Anyone want to start a pool on how much time we stay wet this summer.

Good thing we don't keep her shoes in there...

Our new vacuum cleaner probably thinks it has been UPS shipped straight to the carpets of hell. It arrived here less than 24 hours ago and I am pretty sure I'll need to change the bag before the weekend is over.

In order to get the floors as clean as possible, The Boss Lady has kept the kiddos hopping all morning. The Talker's room, after 30 minutes, is till in need of some time and attention. Or the new vac could just finish the job for him...


I am sure no other children in the world enjoy emptying all of the toy shelves in their closets as much as our kids. Thus, the pile of chaos on the rug. Once the pile is gone, and the vacuum has been deployed in his room, The Talker will be meeting his fate, as his little sister did earlier today.

The Princess is now officially banished from her closet, after spending the better part of an hour sorting everything back into it's proper place. A little painter's tape is as good as a brick wall in this castle.

$1.08 movie reviews

We rent all of our movies out of one of those automated boxes at the grocery store for a buck plus tax a night. Thus, the $1.08 movie reviews.

Juno - We watched it last night. It rules! Teen pregnancy, smart-ass kids and a Toyota minivan. What else can you need in a movie? An awesome soundtrack? Check. This movie has that, too. We will be adding it to the DVD collection.

The 40 Year Old Virgin - F Bombs a plenty, hot grandma and a bloody nose during THE deed. A work of modern poetry. Also soon to be added to our collection.

I am Legend - Will Smith, his dog and his cigar are always supposed to survive these movies, a la, Independence Day. But I guess the formula was tired. A cool flick but the creepy things kept me up for two nights after we watched I am Legend. It will NOT be joining our collection.

Superbad - OK, if The 40 Year Old Virgin made you blush with the bad language, stay away from this one. But if you like shooting Dr Pepper out of your nose, then rent away. Teen drinking, teen sex and a few weeks 'til graduation. Sounds like fun, right? This one has already entered our collection.

So there you have it. Not much info, but I did give you the links to IMDb. What else did you expect for $1.08?

And speaking of things I don't want to hear my teenagers say,

we are finally moving out of the dark ages and sitting down to watch Juno this evening.

$1.08 movie review(s) to follow soon for this and several other movies we have watched lately. Just a hint, no redeeming social values will be found in any of these films...

Just so long as they aren't still saying it when they are teenagers...

The Princess was sitting on the trapeze swing, her brother in the next swing over. I was digging weeds out of a flowerbed on the other side of the playscape when I overheard this exchange,

"I bet I can get higher than you.
No way! I'll be higher than ANYONE!"



(I thought about dedicating this post to the neighbor's 20 year old loser son and his stoner buddies. But that would be catty and sad. So I won't.)

Skipping out

The house is a wreck. The new vacuum won't be her for several more days and the laundry is piling up, waiting for a ride in the washing machine. It is drizzling outside. And the dishes are filling the sink.

For some reason neither the 4 year old nor I feel like tackling the mess in here. So we are going to check out the newly remodeled mall.

The Disney Store always trumps cleaning the house around here.

This behavior sucks! And saves!

The AtHomeFam just got back from vacuum shopping. Yep that is the way we roll on Friday nights. Hot dogs and pizza at the snack bar at Costco and then we comparison shop the small appliances. We are hopping, folks!

Costco had a pretty good price on a couple of Hoover vacs. Nothing fancy, but $75 cheaper than Sears for the same machine. The problem was, we got hung up on the eternal question, bagged or bag-less. They had one of each type and the price was within $10.

While The Boss Lady and I were debating the merits of each system, the kids were climbing on displays, crawling through shelves and generally just taking all the fun out of shopping for power tools. Hey, it plugs in, makes noise and does work, so it qualifies. OK?

So we came back home. Without a vacuum. That's right. Act a fool and I make you walk around on dirty floors! When we got home, the kids were given the bum's rush to bath and bed. I decided to look online to see if there was a better deal to be found. And was there ever.

Thanks to my wife's kids, I found the exact same machine on an Amazon.com Friday Sale for $100 cheaper than Costco's price. They even threw in 3-5 day shipping. The Costco machine came with some extra bags, but not $100 worth. Plus, this way we stick it to the man. Sales tax this, buddeeeeeeeeee!

So if you ever see my children acting like morons at Costco, have no fear. They are just watching out for the family's finances!

Edit - 8 am Saturday - Evidently the kids had great timing. And Amazon was serious about that Friday only thing. The price of that sucker (pun fully intended. I work hard for those bad puns) is back up $42 since we ordered.

Garden Tour

Back just a month and a half ago my garden didn't look like much. Few plants had survived our brutal winter. It looked something like this:


Now that everything is growing and the garden looks a little less like a recently dug cemetery plot:

The tomatoes are coming in.

The sage in bloom, is like perfume (Clap Clap Clap Clap).
Deep in the heart of Texas!

My favorite garden plot. The 'taters!

Some watermelons for the kiddies.

We are already knee deep in lettuce and greens. I planted my snow peas too late, but they are still growing fine. Hopefully we will get a small crop before they give in to the heat. I ended up growing three different types of beans this year. (3 Bean Salad, anyone?) And the herbs that I kept growing through the Not-Summer season are all doing great.

Should be a bumper crop of everything this season.