What I've Been Up To in the Back Yard

This year, my 4 foot X 4 foot garden has the following:

• grape tomato
• yellow pear tomato
• beefsteak tomato
• red bell pepper
• jalapeno pepper
• yellow banana pepper
• 8-ball squash
• radishes
• flat leaf parsley
• sweet basil
• thyme
• cilantro
• green beans when the radishes are done

I took this picture earlier in the week. Everything has pretty much doubled in size as we've had plenty of rain and warm weather. 

Everything else has been blooming for a while. The begonias up front look great. I'll take a picture of them once the Asiatic Lilies open up. There have been several baby birds in the yard. A few very young cardinals and assorted "chee-chee birds" as my dad calls them. I potted dahlias this year in some new blue pots I got a good deal on and one old one I've had for ever. 

All that warm weather and rain has been sticking around. Last night my friend Elisabeth and I ran a 5K out in Blue Grass, IA. It started at 7 PM and was 86-degrees and high humidity. Elisabeth was great and ran slow with me and walked and was a great running buddy. I beat my 5K personal best by a little more than a minute. Finished in just over 43 minutes.

For the record:

Top 5 shows of all time (in chronological order, because I can't possibly pick a best one):

Rollins Band, Helmet, Sausage @ International Ballroom in Houston, TX with Mel House

Hum, The Toadies, Bush @ some place I can't remember in Springfield, MO with Alex Silvius and Josh Sutterfield

Murder City Devils, Supersuckers @ Fitzgerald's in Houston, TX with Mike Quinn, Jason Kwiatkowski, Dave Hahn and Rich Macy

Ben Folds @ The Adler in Davenport, IA with Jim Purins

Robert Earl Keen, Bruce Robison, Todd Snider @ The Capitol Theatre in Davenport, IA with Robert and Lisa Burnett

So, the guy just stands up there and talks?

Either you have heard of Henry Rollins or you haven't. For those that haven't, here's what the wiki has to say about him and what he has to say about himself. I've now seen him twice. The first time was at the International Ballroom in Houston, TX. Mel House and I saw Sausage and Helmet open for the Rollins Band in the early 90's. That show is in my top five of all time list. I don't even know if the International Ballroom is still there. I think it used to be a grocery store. Anyway, that was an awesome show...so much bass it made me a little sick to my stomach (but in a good way) and I am pretty sure my ears rang for at least 2 days (this was back before I practiced safe rock). But I digress. Last night, I saw Henry Rollins for the second time. He was doing spoken word at The Capitol Theatre. Items of note:

• He talked for 2 hours and 45 minutes. Straight. Non-stop. No long pauses at all. Very few brief pauses at that. Never once took a drink of water. 
• I am fairly certain that he only knows one way to hold a mic: cord wrapped around his fist a time or two. 
• He's friends with William Shatner and Ru-Paul and had great stories to share.
• I now have a new favorite way to say spastic: spastique (as though it were a French word). Like me, Henry Rollins is apparently rather clumsy. 
• He does a good George W. impersonation. 

It was really quite fun. Josh, Emily and Chanda joined me. So yeah, the guy just stands up there and talks. But what he says is good, interesting and often quite funny.

W

No, not "W" as in former president. W as in a WIN for the Cubs. Today, I was moonlighting as a Cubs fan. It was a great game. I went with my friend Chanda. We drove in to Forest Park and took the "L" to Wrigleyville. It was Chanda's first Cubs game and my first trip on the "L." I LOVE public transportation! I didn't bring a camera and left my phone in the car, so I have no photos to show for it. 

I am thinking that now I need to make a similar trip to see a White Sox game. :)

New Stuff

Somehow, through a series of moves and the dividing of the stuff, I've found myself without a socket set. My friend Rob would tell you that this is a most unfortunate position to be in, particularly when you've just purchased a 1970 automobile. I kindly remind him that I have friends like him with well stocked garages and mad car-fixin' experience and skills to hold me over until I get off my duff and buy new tools. I finally got off my duff a few weeks ago, marched myself down to sears, and bought a new socket set. It has about eleventy-seventy pieces in it. It's a beautiful sight. Now that I have a set, I have not yet had a need for it. Now that I've said that, I will. This is the first in a series of tool purchases that are becoming necessary. Next on the list is likely a saw of some sort.

In other new stuff news, I finally found some new towels for my bathroom. I had pale yellow ones that matched a shower curtain that I no longer use. The pale yellow went with nothing else in the bathroom. The pale yellow does not get clean enough. The pale yellow is stained from using it to wipe off Miner's paws after late winter/early spring walks. And I really wanted some striped ones. And I really wanted some that had the blue-ish green color of the bathroom walls in them. And I really did not want to spend a fortune. As luck would have it, I scored big at Marshall's/TJ Maxx this weekend and found the perfect towels at a great bargain. I know, I know, I sound like a commercial, but seriously, don't they look great?! I wish you could see the photo my cousin Stephanie took a little better in this snapshot. It is so beach-y and looks great. Also, on the shelf, whose reflection you can see in the mirror, is a thrift store vase full of the seashells I picked up in South Carolina. I am so in love with my bathroom this week!

And lastly, there's a new blog I am following. A high school friend named Kevin has what I would call a foodie blog that I am really enjoying. Check out The Mighty Rib. I am thinking Mom and Dad will dig it. Kevin ranks Teotihuacan Mexican Restaurant in Houston, TX in his top 20. I always knew he was smart.

Neglectful

So, I realize I have been neglectful about posting lately. I must apologize. There's no real excuse, just nothing major happening on the home front lately. I've been running, Miner goes out with me most times. It's finally starting to warm up and the Bumble Bee has been out 3 times already this year. 

I did have a very fun long weekend and vacation this weekend though. The only bad thing is my throat and sinuses are messed up enough that I lost my voice on Sunday afternoon. I am going to do my best to not talk at work tomorrow, though it was difficult not to this afternoon at the Training Center.

My vacation was to South Carolina. I ran the Cooper River Bridge Run with my friends Jada, Tim and a group of their friends from Texas and the Carolinas. Here's all of us on the beach Sunday morning. Left to right is: Julia, Toby, Jes, me, Jada, Tim, Sara and Walt. 

It's a 10K and you go over this big pretty suspension bridge. The run ends up in downtown Charleston. We stayed out on Folly Beach which was great. They all headed home on Sunday afternoon and I stuck around two more nights. I didn't do a whole lot...I wandered around the beach and went and saw this huge tree.

I got up very early this morning to fly home. I got to pick Miner up all clean from his bath at the kennel. Since Easter is coming up, he got this little bandanna. This is only the second time he's ever had a bath there that they put a bandanna on him. I am thinking it may also be the only other time where I have picked him up right after his bath and not the following day. 

Miner's New Nick Name

Crash. That's his new nick name. This morning, he fell out of my bed. Those of you who've been to my house have seen how my bed is kind of ridiculously tall for someone my height. Yeah, Crash, boom. Little bit of limping and now he's OK. Maybe this was the universe's way of telling me that I need a new mattress.