Showing posts with label flowers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flowers. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 30, 2017

The Past 10 Days or So at Chez Sluggy

Well the "Great American Eclipse" came and went a week ago Monday.
Here in my part of PA we only got 72% totality.......


This photo was taken at our peak(2:41 pm).  Instead of looking like 2:41 in the afternoon it sort of looked like 4:41 in the afternoon. lolz

Daughter's dog in her usual spot chilling under my desk on Tuesday.


On Wednesday it was time to load College Boy up and take him back to school.  He had an audition on Thursday so he needed to be back and unpacked on Wednesday.

This semester he is sharing an apartment that two friends of his(sisters)rent.
He will only be there for 1 semester so this was the best situation for both him and me(me financially).  It is soooo much cheaper than being in a dorm! 8-)))
Since it is a 2 bedroom apartment he is getting the living room for his bedroom.
Before his crap......

After his crap......
He had it all organized and set up before going to bed that night.

Hubs took a couple more pics of the apartment........
Actually it's a nice little apartment with a cute kitchen.
Just wait until College Boy starts banging around in there....it won't be so clean and neat. lolz


You can tell a couple of "20 something" gals live here and not guys.  They even had a little garden out back. ;-)


On Friday last week Hubs and I ran errands.  I wanted to see if I was in time to get and can tomatoes this year from the local farm.


I drug out my canning jars and I had 32 quart size ones to use.


Smile calf!
Seems tomatoes are ripening slower than usual here this Summer so we were a couple of weeks early.

 We'll go back after Labor Day, calling first, to pick maters.  We got some corn and zukes while we were there so as not to waste the trip out.

Then we circled back to the town South of here to hit the Weis Fantastic Friday deals there.

The best deal was 4 bags of coffee for .72¢ a bag that I already blogged about.

On the way to the other side of town there I saw this massive furniture store that has been having a "going out of business" sale since before we moved to this area 17 years ago......


And they actually WENT OUT OF BUSINESS finally!!! lolz


It only took what?.....20 years!?!


Then we hit Aldi for a few things.  I gladly left these deep fried Twinkies in the store though.
ick.

Saturday I kept tabs on Hurricane Harvey down in the Gulf as it made landfall in Texas.  Historic levels of rainfall there and flooding!  Surprisingly the death toll has been low considering the size and scope of the flooding and people seem to be pulling together in this crisis.  Next month, when we have some free income I'll consider how best/where to send a check to help.

The rain is slated to crawl up the coast and inland into Louisiana including where our house there is located.
I'll have to reach out to our realtor there to keep tabs on things for us.


Last Sunday I picked the first ripe tomato out of our garden.
Yah!

Hubs also sat down with me lasts Sunday to go over our money situation.  Since the dust had settled on all the retirement things that were up in the air it was time to see where our $ was sitting and see what needing to be moved and where.
We threw a big chunk of the regular savings we have which were in some higher yield(ha! higher!!)online accounts into a CD.  This will earn us double what they'd been earning...almost double of NOTHING but still, it's a little more.  8-(
We still need to keep quite a bit liquid however because A-we have to pay for work on the house in LA still and B-we need to pay for our healthcare premiums(OUCH!)OOP and be reimbursed from our Retiree Medical Savings Account(RMSA).  Hubs still hasn't started the paperwork for that so no clue yet on how long they take to reimburse this expense.  bleh.

On Monday the mail brought this great offer........for a retirement home/senior assisted living.
Not even a free lunch which was offered to tour the facility would get me to go look at it. lololz

I guess if you retire, even if you retire YOUNG, that triggers a slew of old age services to be offered to you via mail and phone.
Oh yes, we are getting phone solicitations too for stuff like this.
I don't think Hubs nor I are decrepit enough yet to need assisted living. 8-(

Also on Monday Hubs and I celebrated our 35th Wedding Anniversary........

We were low key about it, and just went out to Chili's for lunch(using a free gift card we have had for AGES).
Then Hubs snuck out that evening and bought me some flowers and a card at Weis.
35 years.
Now I do feel old enough for the Assisted Living place. lolz

We did some weeding in the yard on Tuesday.

Here is what the flowers out front looked like mid June after the critters stopped nibbling on them.



And they have made a nice recovery by late August.


And I picked some more veggies from the garden-more tomatoes and our only Summer squash.


Now we've started a big project--dealing with the rotting wood under and around our French doors to our deck.
Oy vay!  What a mess!!

Actually Hubs isn't handy and isn't anywhere near qualified to redo this stuff so we are cleaning it out and cobbling something together to keep the elements out for this Fall/Winter and will have to hire someone to do the "real work" on it come Spring as it will be expensive.
Since it will mean replacing some sub flooring in the den too we'll probably go ahead and have the laminate flooring in that room replaced at that time since it needs to be done before we put this house on the market anyway.(There are holes in the flooring, etc.)
If I get ambitious this Winter I'll think about repainting the room as well, since it needs that also.

I always love to when you start to deal with house problems it's always like opening a can of worms and leads to more problems and money that needs to be spent.
Sigh.

I've got to get going here now.....it's Weis(PMITA)Markets Day and a trip to Rite-Aid for an Rx is also in order while I am out.

What's been going on in your world lately?

Sluggy


Friday, June 5, 2009

This That & the Other Thing

Today is yet another dreary rainy grey day in the Northeastern part of the USA.
After the winter we just had with not many 'Snow Events', we sorely need this rain! But combined with the low temps, this continuous rain pushed back our planting dates here. We were finally able to plant last weekend but this week's rain & cold is keeping my seeds from reaching out their tender shoots from beneath their snuggly dirt blanket.


The only things I have above ground are the transplanted tomato and pepper plants. They are looking a bit scraggly still but I hope to see them make strides toward vigorous health by the end of the month. We have 3 veggie beds planted and these are the only things growing so far.





My little Lemon Magnolia Tree bloomed about a month ago. It was early by our standards, due to a 2 weeklong heat wave here in early May. I never got the camera out in time to snap a photo of it in full bloom, darn it! Then the cold weather came back and we had frost one night. My poor little tree dropped it's flowers and most of it's leaves have shriveled up. It looks like heck now. *sigh* I hope it will recover...

The only thing in bloom now is the Collossal Rhodedendron. I keep hacking it back and it keeps taking over the side flower bed. It overgrew the little fir tree next to it to the point the fir tree's growth has been stunted on one side. It's the bully of the bed & I've been at war with it for years.lol



I've been trying to clean the house, as hubby's sister arrives early Sunday for a week long stay. Hubby's other 2 siblings and the kid's cousin will be here on Monday too for the Graduation Festivities. It's been difficult planning a family party, as the graduation is at 6pm & then there is something called a LOCK-IN from 10 pm to 8 am at the school for the Seniors. It's an all-night party to keep them off the roads/away from alcohol, so there are no Graduation night drinking/partying deaths on the roads. A great idea but the timing leaves me no time to have a family get-together. Well I could have it AFTER the graduation but the Guest of Honor-the Graduate won't be here.lol

I can't wait and do it on the weekend because all but 1 sibling will be gone, as they don't live in state, much less in town here. I'll be hosting a late lunch BEFORE the graduation exercise instead.

At any rate, I have to clean this pigsty up by Sunday am. Remember all that stuff I bought in April AND May from Price Chopper as part of those 2 Unilever Cat Promos?
Guess where all those items I bought are still sitting?
Go ahead.....I dare ya!

Yep.....covering my dining room table!LOL
We haven't had a reason to use the big honking table since Easter dinner, until NOW!
I just put off having to make room in the stockpiles for those things since it wasn't in anyone's way where it was.
Well, NOW it IS in the Way!!!lolol

If ya'll don't read from me by next Wednesday, send a Search & Rescue Party out to PA, k?




Here's a pic of the graduating Senior after the Awards Ceremony that the school held on Tuesday. He won an Academic Award(some ugly pewter plate with a name plaque-no Cash Monies dang it!lol) and got a Pin for Academic Honors(since he already won a Letter & Jacket for Athletics last year, they don't give duplicates of those for Academics even if the kid earns them, so he gets another pin). He then got a different pin at some ceremony during school on Wed. for something he didn't tell me what, and 2 pins for Wrestling. #1 son is gathering quite the collection of Bling before he leaves high school.lol They did the big class photo with everyone in their robes this morning, so he is officially D-O-N-E! except for 'the walking'! ;-))
Gee, it is usually ALOT MORE BORING around here! I can't stand all the excitement and forgive me for rambling on & on. I'll try to be more boring next time.
Ok....I'm off to vacuum & then move cereal and spaghetti sauce and peanut butter and shampoo and body wash and bandaids.........
Sluggy