How Do You Know When a Watermelon is Ripe?

Apparently, even the experts don't know.

This is what the farmer's almanac says.

Next question:

Where do the seeds for seedless watermelon come from?

And the final question:

How much water is too much?

I Hate Reptiles

I know it is not nice to hate God's creatures, but I really can't help it when it come to green slithery things. Reptiles have to be number one on the list of things I don't like.

It all started back when I was in the first grade (yes, I do remember back that far) and I was walking thru my front yard with bare feet. I don't know what made me look down, but there slithering under the arch of my left foot was a garden snake. I know, they are perfectly harmless (until they bite you). I don't think I even actually touched flesh to reptile skin, but it totally grossed me out. I don't like frogs or toads, lizards or salamanders. Geckos (like geico) are ok. Turtles are OK too. I have been known to move them out of the road to the safety of the shoulder.

But I digress, back to the note and the reason for it at the top of this post. Kitty brought a frog into the house. It wasn't quite dead, but was close. TOM was on the road for work so I didn't have anyone to get rid of the frog. (TOM recently instituted rule 37 which states 'the first one to see it has to get rid of it', but I don't follow that rule. The next best thing for frog disposal is my son, it is his cat after all. He works late so I left him a note. I put an ice cream bucket on the frog and a rock on top of the bucket. My son called me at 10:00 to tell me that the FROG WAS NOT UNDER THE BUCKET! I mean where the heck did it go? I thought is was too weak to move the bucket, now I'm worried there's a dead frog in the house. And to top it off, we have a ferret and instinctively he is not fond of reptiles either. I am afraid he will find it and drag it off somewhere. Think it's a toy or something. What a quandary. I'm surprised that I can sleep with all the slithering going on in this house. Maybe Kitty realized how upset I was and took it back outside. I will probably never know, but I watch my step pretty carefully.

Takin' Down the Fence

This project started because we have to upgrade our septic system. We figured if we had to get some money from our heloc, we would get enough to finish the meditation garden in the back. The first thing we had to do was put a fence at the top of our property line. About 30% of our backyard is atop a retaining wall. We want to use that space and improve access. Because of the privacy fence for the dogs we had to walk all the way around, a bit of a hassle to tell you the truth. Anyway, we decided on a split rail because we have one in the front. This is the site plan for the new project:

This is the meditation garden 'space'. We will be putting a lattice panel behind the bench to retain the feeling of a room. Oops, this photo doesn't have the bench, but you will see it in the next photo. To ensure the dogs don't escape from the back, we put green chicken wire from the bottom rail to the ground. You can't even tell it's there. I really like it.

It was so blasted hot and humid this weekend that we did not get as much done as we planned. TOM is out of town on business this week so this is what the yard will look like until he gets back. You might be wondering why we didn't use the old privacy fence. We are going to use the old slats for the fence expansion we need to make as a result of the septic tank repair. That new fence really stands out and we would rather have it in the back.

OK, I Know I've Been Slacking

I hate slackers don't you? They never finish anything, but they expect you to be at the top of your game. They lack for nothing because they want nothing. Personally, I don't know any slackers. Do you?

On to nicer, happier topics. I really am having a blast with Woodstock. I have started a blog and am planning his movie debut. But how do you script a movie in which the main character is a ferret? We plan to take-off on one or many of the following (real) movies/characters: Indiana Jones, It Takes a Thief, and Mission Impossible. I had a couple of others, but the titles escape me.

And that's another thing. All week long I have been losing snippets of information. Is my hard drive crashing? It's like I have no short term memory. And my notebook is crapping out too. The hard drive is fine but the processor is definitely acting up. Do you suppose my hard drive and the notebook crapping out is systematic of something else, like maybe I spend to much on the computer and too much time at work?

I have been preparing for the notebook replacement. You know doing my research, checking prices, but what do I do about my hard drive? Not so easy to replace. Just can't run down to wally world and pick up a new one.

Maybe I should become a slacker. What do you think?

Happy Anniversary to US

32 years ago I married this young soldier. It wasn't always easy, but it was always an adventure. Boy, we were young.

We managed to get a fellow traveler to take this shot of us in Union Square on our recent trip to San Francisco.

Clairol really had it right when they said 'you're not getting older, you're getting better'. I have to agree. Age adds character (along with a few other things).