Name::The Gradual GardenerFrom::New England, United States
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The Gradual Gardener
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
A Big Accomplishment For A Not-So-Accomplished Blogger
I'm so proud of myself...I made my first link! Clap, everyone!
Posted by The Gradual Gardener :: 9:38 AM :: 0 Comments: 
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My Favorite Website
I just have to say that I adore The Onion. One of this week's headlines is "CIA Realizes It's Been Using Black Highlighters All These Years."
If I ever take the time to figure out how to put links in this blog, I will definately link to The Onion. For those who don't already know it, it's www.theonion.com. Hey, that highlighted blue. Is that a link? Maybe I figured it out!!!!
Posted by The Gradual Gardener :: 9:31 AM :: 0 Comments: ---------------------------------------
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Speaking of clowns...
Decidedly Diplomatic Daughter has pointed out that we don't know what the neighbor across the street's occupation was before he retired-maybe he was a clown.
Posted by The Gradual Gardener :: 4:09 PM :: 0 Comments: ---------------------------------------
More fun with the neighbor
A few days ago when Hubby took the dog for a walk, Harley took off like a bat out of hell as soon as the front door was open. The guy across the street had just picked up his morning paper and was walking back towards his house. You remember the guy across the street, right? The neighbor whose one and only conversation with me centered on whether utility trucks from a heating & cooling company parked in my driveway meant I was moving out? Hubby's never talked with him. Anyway, as he was being dragged down the front steps, clinging to the leash, Hubby yelled out (at the dog) "Hey, ya clown!" and the neighbor turned around and waved.
I rented a cargo van yesterday to get my poinsettias. When I wasn't using the van, do you know what I did with it? I parked it in my driveway. Really, I just like to play with his head.
Posted by The Gradual Gardener :: 10:10 AM :: 3 Comments: ---------------------------------------
Friday, November 25, 2005
Thanksgiving feasts
Two days, three meals.
Shrimp cocktail, cheese, crackers, pepperoni, olives, ham, potatoes, applesauce, rolls, apple pie, pumpkin pie with whipped cream, more rolls, turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, peas, lasagna, more apple pie, more pumpkin pie with whipped cream, chicken, a few more rolls...Did I leave anything out? Ah, yes, the cheesecake. How could I forget the cheesecake?
It should be noted that this was not the entire menu-just what I ate. Vegetables were offered, such as broccoli and turnips. I was concerned, though, that there would not be enough healthy food for everyone, so I gallantly skipped those dishes and filled up on the fattening stuff. Thoughtful of me, wasn't it?So now that I've eaten enough to feed the entire population of North Dakota for a month, I've calculated that I need to spend 5,784 hours at the gym over the next three days to stop me from gaining the body mass of the entire population of North Dakota.
Do you think the juice bar at the gym serves cheesecake?
Posted by The Gradual Gardener :: 7:40 AM :: 0 Comments: ---------------------------------------
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
The Dynamic Duo
A quiet moment...
There are a few of those.
Posted by The Gradual Gardener :: 9:20 AM :: 3 Comments: ---------------------------------------
Lions and tigers and bears...oh my!
Ok, we don't have lions and tigers, but we do have puppies and kittens...well, one puppy and one kitten, but sometimes it seems like alot more. It is starting to feel a little like a zoo around here.
The puppy actually belongs to my mother, but she works in the mornings, and I don't. So we have a part-time puppy to play with. Annoyed With The Situation Daughter feels that this is grossly unfair, since the puppy is only here until around 1pm and she gets out of school at 2pm. So far, however, my mother has resisted all attempts to persuade her to work longer hours just to accomodate her granddaughter's puppy fix.
Sammy thinks the puppy is great fun. The puppy thinks Sammy is great fun, and also tasty. Harley's not sure what she thinks about any of this, and Peppercorn has her bags packed and is waiting for the taxi to come rescue her from this chaos. The puppy's name is Sadie, so when she tries to make a snack out of the kitten, there's the inevitable name confusion: Sammy, stop! No, I meant Sadie...don't let him eat her! Oops, I meant don't let her eat him! Oh, whatever...
One side effect of having Sadie around is that Sammy is no longer afraid of Peppercorn. Peppercorn generally hisses if Sammy gets within 10 feet of her. After a week of being occasionally mistaken for a Milkbone, the kitten no longer cares, and spends most evenings seeing just how close he can get to the big cat before getting swiped at. This does not please Peppercorn. Peppercorn hasn't been pleased in awhile.
Harley finds the puppy alternately amusing and annoying, pretty much the same reaction she has to the kitten. Often I will find her standing over the two of them as they roll around on the floor, and I know she is silently scolding them...Sammy, stop provoking your sister! No, Sadie, Sammy is not a Beggin Strip! Yes, I know he smells a little like one, but that doesn't mean...ok, quit it you two or I'm going to have to put you in a time-out!
Actually, now that I think about, Sadie would be more like Sammy's great-aunt than his sister...
Posted by The Gradual Gardener :: 8:14 AM :: 0 Comments: ---------------------------------------
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Correction on how hot Dan Radcliff is
Growing Up Too Fast Daughter has just informed me that the word hot, when applied to Dan Radcliff, is actually hott.
Posted by The Gradual Gardener :: 12:22 PM :: 0 Comments: ---------------------------------------
The movie...
I have mixed feelings about the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire movie.
Is it just me, or did it seem like Rita Skeeter was trying to hit on Harry in the broom closet?
And the bath scene was mildly disturbing-I don't remember Moaning Myrtle actually joining Harry in the bath. Of course, part of why this scene seemed disturbing could have been because my daughter was sitting next me to whispering "Dan Radcliff is hot."
Posted by The Gradual Gardener :: 11:31 AM :: 2 Comments: ---------------------------------------
Thursday, November 17, 2005
An Unreasonable Mother
I'm not my daughter's favorite person tonight. Despite the fact that I'm sitting by the phone waiting for her to call so I can rush out into the cold and pick her up from a football game, when I'd really like to take a nice hot bath and put my PJs on, I am An Unreasonable Mother. Do you know why I'm An Unreasonable Mother? Because I won't take her to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire at midnight tonight.
See, tonight is a school night. Now, I know I took her to the My Chemical Romance concert on a school night, and she went off to school the next day without a problem. And I didn't even want to go to the concert; I do want to see Harry Potter. But this is Harry Potter. We'd have to get there at least an hour early if we want to sit together in anything but the front row, and the movie's 2 1/2 hours long. We'd be lucky to get home by 3am. And I do want to see the movie, which means I want to be awake during it. Us old people go to bed early, you know?
We're going at 8:45pm tomorrow instead.
A side note on the MCR concert: If your teenager ever asks to go to a "standing room only" concert, be aware that this actually is more accurately described as a "giant mosh-pit full of teenagers with lots of energy and poor judgement." And if the band is MCR, the correct title is "giant mosh-pit full of teenagers with lots of energy and poor judgement, and really bad taste in music."
The phone just rang; I'm off to the football field.
Posted by The Gradual Gardener :: 8:26 PM :: 0 Comments: ---------------------------------------
Bragging
Here is Exceptionally Brillant Daughter's report card:
English 1 (honors) A-
Physcial Education A
Modern World History (honors) B+
Algebra 2 (honors) A
Design 1 (honors) A+
Spanish 2 B+
Physical Science (honors) A
unweighted GPA 4.186, weighted GPA 3.821
The only thing I don't get is the GPA. Shouldn't the unweighted GPA be lower than the weighted GPA? Maybe they mixed them up...
Anyway, to brag further, I just came home from the parent-teacher conference. Exceptionally Brillant Daughter is also A Wonderful Girl, An Excellant Student, and A Very Consciensous Notebook-Keeper!
Posted by The Gradual Gardener :: 7:50 PM :: 0 Comments: ---------------------------------------
Friday, November 11, 2005
Advice to husbands concerning dinner
Husbands: When your wife has told you eleven times over the past 6 weeks that she would like to go out to dinner (not hinted or suggested, but outright told you), and you don't act on it, so she brings it up for the 12th time on a Friday night when you have 2 1/2 hours alone together because your daughter's at her karate class, DO NOT suggest going to a diner and expect her to act rationally. Diners don't qualify.
Posted by The Gradual Gardener :: 9:09 PM :: 0 Comments: ---------------------------------------
What I don't like about politicians
A neighbor just ran for town council, but I didn't vote for her. I don't know her all that well, although I should, considering we've been neighbors for nine years. I knew her son's name long before I knew hers, because she routinely stands on her front porch and screams it when she wants him home. But that's not why I didn't vote for her. And it's not because of the party she belongs to, either.
A few weeks ago, my husband saw her outside and told her some of the neighborhood kids like to hang out in her yard when she's not home. They participate in your typical preteen boy activities-beating each other up, breaking branches off trees and chasing each other with them, etc. etc. My daughter and I refer to them as the "Sign Abusers" for their habit of hitting a certain street sign with whatever they're carrying (one, in particular, always seems to have a stick).
This neighbor's response to what my husband told her was "Well, you should vote for me, because I want to make some changes around here." Um, want changes was she thinking of, exactly? Legislation to force their parents to discipline them? An ordinance that requires people to be able to account for their kids' whereabouts at all times? A ban on trees, so they won't have sticks to hit each other with?
I admit Hubby obsesses a little too much about the hoodlums, as he calls them, and I'm not sure what the right response from her would have been. Thank you for letting me know, I guess, or Maybe I'll talk to their parents...something along those lines. What she did instead was avoid the topic and re-direct the conversation to what she wanted to talk about, namely the election. Not to mention proposing a solution that isn't really a solution. A typical politician maneuver. Probably her opponents would have done the same thing, but there's a chance they wouldn't have. She did. So that's why I didn't vote for her.
She won anyway.
Really, I do like some of my neighbors.
Posted by The Gradual Gardener :: 10:29 AM :: 0 Comments: ---------------------------------------
Thursday, November 10, 2005
He's just sooo cute!!!!
You know, it's very hard to get anything done when there's a kitten in the house.
The monkey Sammy's attacking, by the way, is a Beanie Baby, if you want an idea of how little he is.
I know, I know, enough with the cute kitten pictures already....but blogs didn't exist when my daughter was little, so this is the closest I can get to posting cute baby pictures!
Posted by The Gradual Gardener :: 1:22 PM :: 0 Comments: ---------------------------------------
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Addition to the Family
Meet Samurai, the newest addition to our family. When we adopted Sam at the Humane Society today, we were told we had an 8 week old female kitten. However, after closer inspection, I think we were misinformed. I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure there are boy parts present. So, pending verification from my mother, we're referring to Sam as a he. This doesn't exactly even the scales, since Hubby is still outnumbered two to one, but at least he has an ally now.
The other pets have mixed reactions. Harley, our dog, is not exactly sure what we brought home but thinks he's fascinating to watch. Peppercorn, on the other hand, is less than thrilled, and would like us to take him back now, please. Right now. Please.
I realize that now I've posted pictures of my pets, but none of my daughter. This does not mean I love the pets more. I'm just not sure it's wise to post photos of a very attractive 14-year-old girl on a public webpage. Too many kooks out there, you know? And to any kooks who may be reading this, please note that Very Attractive Daughter is also a Very Capable Blackbelt, soon to be second degree. Be warned.
Posted by The Gradual Gardener :: 10:14 PM :: 0 Comments: ---------------------------------------
Neighbors
We just had our furnace replaced. For a day and a half, various utility trucks were in & out of the driveway. When they left, I went out to move our vehicles, which I had parked on the street, back into the driveway. The neighbor across the street was bringing in his trash cans. He yells "You moving?" at the top of his lungs. Not hi, how are you, nice to meet you. I should mention I've never spoken to him before. I have a vague idea of who he is-I think he's the ex-husband of the woman who lives there, who seems to have moved in with her. So I said "No," and he replies (loudly) "Oh, I saw a truck" and walks away. Now, first of all, if I were moving you probably would have seen a "For Sale" sign in front of the house before I actually started taking furniture away. Secondly, these were utility trucks, not moving vans, and they had "Heating & Cooling" in really big letters on the side. Now, I could have explained about replacing the furnace, but by then he was already on his front porch and I just don't shout that loud. So that was the end of our one and only conversation.
Why are people so weird?
Posted by The Gradual Gardener :: 8:26 AM :: 0 Comments: ---------------------------------------
Saturday, November 05, 2005
The Grocery Store
Hubby had another seizure last night, at about 7:30pm, while we were in the grocery store. He'd taken his medication at 7pm, his usual time. It was pretty mild-he just started opening & closing his hands and staring at them. He was also saying "mmm," like he normally does just after a seizure. We were walking, and he kept going until I stopped-then he did too. It's the first time I've seen him have a seizure without the "chewing noise." Also he seemed confused just before it happened-he went into the lightbulb aisle and when I asked him why he said he was looking for some kind of switch for the dining room light, but he ended up putting nightlight bulbs in the cart. He had the seizure maybe 20 seconds later, just after we left that aisle. We increased the medicine on Monday 10/31. How long before the higher dose will have an effect? Does the lack of chewing noise mean the seizures are becoming less severe, even if they aren't going away completely? One good thing about doing this blog is I can keep track of all this stuff for when we go back to the doctor.
Posted by The Gradual Gardener :: 9:30 PM :: 0 Comments: ---------------------------------------
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Staring
When the dog wants to go out during the night, she stands next to my bed and stares at me. No barking, no whining...she just stares. That's how I woke up at 4:45 this morning-to the uncomfortable feeling of being stared at. I think it's worse when it's an animal because they don't even blink.
Once I discovered a Praying Mantis in one of my flower beds while pulling the plants out in the fall. I moved him(her?) to a nearby shrub and went back to pulling out the plants. The Praying Mantis watched me the entire time. If I moved to the left, he turned his head to the left. If I went right, he turned his head right. This went on for over two hours. I confess I did walk all the way around him once, just to see what he'd do (he didn't turn his head 360 degrees, in case you were wondering, but he did go back to watching me as soon as I was in his range of sight). If you think being stared at by a dog is weird, try an insect.
Posted by The Gradual Gardener :: 11:54 AM :: 0 Comments: ---------------------------------------