Gardens, Mice, and Birthdays

Well April has been entertaining thus far to say the least! At the beginning of this month my sister-in-law, Liz, who has a thumb greener than any I've seen helped me plant a garden. It's a new endeavor, I've never actually tried to grow anything before. But I really wanted a garden, I wanted to learn how, and I've managed to keep an aloe transplant alive for a year (and it actually tripled in size) so I figured I couldn't be THAT bad at it. Since we live on the second floor my garden is obviously made up of several different pots on the porch. On the ledge I put some color pots and planted some morning glory and moon flower vines along with different herbs: rosemary, thyme, oregano, parsley, mint, basil, and cilantro. All of those from seeds! I already have sprouts too! On the floor of the porch I put a bleeding heart plant, a hosta, another flowering plant that has these tiny purple flowers, impatiens, these leafy plants that have pink leaves (not even lying, pink leaves), and geraniums. All of them are doing well so far, I am quite impressed with myself! As soon as my sprouts get a little bigger I'll take pictures of my garden and post them.

We celebrated my Dad's 50th birthday a little over a week ago. The "children" made dinner in celebration. We got steak, potatoes, and asparagus from the Fresh Market and grilled all of that as well as made some rosemary yeast rolls, yum! I don't know if anyone is a fan of the Cosby Show but in one episode when Cliff turns 50 the kids put on a "things that are older than Dad" presentation. My parents think that episode is hysterical so we did our own version but we changed it up a bit and did more of a this is your life kind of presentation. We complied major world events, music/tv and sports trends, etc for the past 50 years. It was really interesting to look at everything that has happened in my Dad's lifetime, the world has changed DRASTICALLY. All in all, it was a really fun evening!

Some of you might know that I've been having a problem with blocked tear ducts as of late. Well I went to the eye doctor last week for my yearly exam and mentioned this problem. So she put that blasted bright light in my eye and started pushing on my eyes and taking pictures. Come to find out I have developed a chronic problem with blocked glands in my eyelids. She compared it to acne, how you have oils on your face and if those build up then eventually they block a pore or two and when they do you end up with a big giant pimple on your face. Well apparently, by no fault of my own, I have "oils" that build up under and in my eyelids and when they build up enough I end up with a blocked gland/tear duct (which is QUITE painful). So now I have to start taking fish oil which apparently can help disperse those "oils" and prevent them from blocking the glands in my eyelids... wonderful. At least it wasn't a serious problem.

Yesterday morning I woke up as usual and started my morning routine. Which of course, includes coffee time while watching the news (and by news I mean Good Morning America). You probably remember my mentioning a while back that on our first anniversary we had mouse come visit our apartment. Well, we hadn't seen another one since but we've kept the trap set with peanut butter in the laundry room anyway... just in case... cause I'm paranoid. Anyway, while I was enjoying my coffee I heard this loud noise and at first just assumed that something had fallen somewhere in the kitchen and I would take care of it later. When I finished my cup and got up I noticed that nothing was array in the kitchen anywhere, I couldn't find the culprit of the noise. And then I went to throw my empty yogurt cup away... and was startled to see a mouse caught by the neck in the trap next to the trash can. Lucky, lucky me Steven had the day off so I woke him up and made him take care of it. And by "take care of it" I mean take it out of the trap, dispose of it, clean the trap, and then reset it in case the little sucker had a friend all while I was in the other room. His "job" for the day then became to call maintenance and make sure they found the hole that these two mice found their way through. I don't know if it was "the" hole, but they did find one and plugged it up. I'm not convinced though, so the trap will remain set with peanut butter in the laundry room... fueling my paranoia... just in case.

This weekend is packed with excitement so I'll have more to update on later!