Update for the month......

Yikes, I'm slacking again! So, to catch you up I'll give you a brief synopsis of what's going on with me lately.

1) Finally have my surgery scheduled. It's going to be July 17, exactly a week before my birthday. What a nice birthday present - to be recuperating from major surgery. That's about right - for Christmas I got a root canal and crown. For Valentine's Day I got Day Surgery for a hysteroscopy and D&C. For Easter I got another root canal and crown. And now, for my birthday, I get a hysterectomy. Joy! I'd rather have chocolate.........or cake decorating supplies. :)

2) I'm not taking well to being a "hosehead". Mr. CPAP and I are not getting along. More often than not, I end up taking the mask off in the middle of the night and turning off the machine. Dr. Maria prescribe me some Ambien, which puts me out like a light but gives me amnesia. Although, from what I have read about some people who take Ambien I am lucky that's all I do. Others have stated that they sleepwalk, and even sleep-eat. One lady said she kept getting up in the morning to find the kitchen a mess and would blame the kids until she found out it was HER making the mess!

But more often than not, on the nights that I take it I wake up to find that I not only took the mask off and neatly hung it up on the bedpost and turned off the machine. I never remember doing that......but at least I'm neat about it! This morning was the first time I woke up and found the mask on the floor. The machine was off, though. One of the folks on my CPAP email group suggested taping the mask on my head with surgical tape for a while. At least if I try to pull it off, it will HURT and bring me into conciousness. I haven't been brave enough to try that yet. :)

3) The Garden is doing all right. Most of the items I planted are struggling because we have had a severe lack of rain in our area. I have been trying to make sure they have a good amount of water. The weeds are thriving, however. I've been trying to keep the immediate areas around the plants cleared of the weed/grass/whatever but the garden looks pitiful. I am hoping one days the baby plants will be bigger than the weeds and I can tell which is a veggie plant and which is a weed! The only plants that have failed for me are my green onion, regular onion, and spinach plants. That's not TOO bad! I planted some cherry tomato seeds in a planter box just after I got the garden planted, and they went NUTS. I had to thin out the tomato plants and at last count I had 50 plants growing in that one pot. Needless to day, several family members, friends, and co-workers are now the proud plant-parents of some cherry tomato plants! And I still have several left that I have re-potted.

I had also planted two types of mesclun (assorted greens/lettuces, in case you didn't know) in two planter boxes and I'm proud to say I had my first successful harvest as well as an excellent grilled chicken salad this past Monday night. YUM! Wonderful thing about this mesclun is that it replenishes itself!

I think I have become addicted to gardening. I am having fun planting seeds or starter plants and watching them grow and develop. I've reached a point where I know I have an empty pot sitting on the patio - it's currently upside down supporting another plant like a stand - an I am itching to go to Lowe's, Home Depot, or Wal-Mart to see what other type of seeds I can find to plant in that empty pot. Oh, wait, I just remembered that my strawberry plants didn't make a go of it......that's ANOTHER pot with nothing growing in it!!! Hold me back!

In spite of the struggling plants, as I've told Tamadge, I don't consider my little garden a failure but rather a learning experience. I've learned that I probably should have started preparing the garden earlier, mulching, applying weedkiller, etc. in the winter time so I wouldn't have so many weeds to deal with now. I've learned that it probably would have been easier to plant many of the seeds directly into the ground rather than start them in hundred or so little newspaper pots that I made for that purpose - completely eliminating the steps of potmaking, filling w/starting medium, and then replanting in the ground. I've learned that it's harder than heck to till hard ground. (I think I'm still suffering the effects from that with tendonitis or something in my right heel!) I've learned that some of these plants would have probably been better off being planted in planter boxes or flower pots! And last but not least, I learned that Miracle Gro Potting Soil is truly the best. The items I planted in pots using this potting soil have been absolutely thriving! (No, I am not getting a kickback from Miracle-Gro - that's just my personal testimony.)

4) My BIL got a job! Anyone want to contribute to the pool as to how long he actually keeps this one before he: A) gets injured and goes on disability, B) gets fired for poor job performance and/or attitude (such as mouthing off at his superiors), C) quits without having another job lined up, D) tries to dictate to my sister how he will be using "HIS" money for frivola (like cigarettes, Mountain Dew, and video games) instead of adding it to Sis's income in order to secure housing, utilities, and other basic life necessities and she FINALLY gets fed up with his BS, files for divorce, and successfully moves on with her life as a single mother with a brighter outlook for her and her 7 and 10 year-old sons' futures. Selection D, of course, is considered the long-shot.

Talmadge has 30 days, Tiger bets 60. I've already lost, I gave him two weeks. I guess Tal and Tiger were a bit more optimistic than I. :)

That's about it for now! I actually need to go do some work before I lose MY job!! :)

Take care, and I'll try not to go nearly a month again between posts!

-Farmer Seraphim.....MOO