Weekend of July 8th - 10th, 2011 - What are your plans?

Not doing anything special. It's hard to wander far from home these days unless someone else is here to keep an eye on things. I'll probably do some gardening and, if I can find the energy, some cleaning.

What will you be doing?

Three day weekend! Yay! Also not doing anything special. My little ole ladies with no money group meets on Sunday, but 2 have dropped out. Just too scary to think about how quickly small resources can get smaller, especially with no cost of living increases scheduled. Maybe I'll go take some pictures.

Dance class and board games as usual.

I'm also trying to make plans to hang out with a friend I don't see too often, dunno how that's going to work out.

I'll probably watch some Hornblower with my sister, too, depending on when her dvd arrives.

*Space shuttle launch today

*Birthday part tomorrow

*Countdown until A Dance with Dragons arrives in my mailbox

#4 - Haven't decided if I'm going to order it from B&N or buy it at Costco. I know I won't be getting to it for quite a while, either way.

Yipes. What time is the launch? I will plan my errands around it so I can be home.

Launch is scheduled for 11:26 EDT. Weather's still only 30% go. Here's the live coverage from NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/135_splash/index.html

Thanks, drn00t! :o)

No plans, but wish I did have some! I have three photos displayed in another local showing. I may go to that opening Sunday.

GD, I am so yealous! Go, go, go...and make positive comments about your photographs so the person next to you will think they are worth buying! Have fun.

hahaha Maggs! Maybe I should do that!

Weather permitting, I'll spend a large part of my weekend milling lumber. Lots of work, but I enjoy it (at least for the first couple hours each day). I'll also need to calculate how much siding I need for my garage and order that this weekend as well.

There's a storm in the Gulf so our plans are, ahem, fluid. Actually, we desperately need rain here but so far it looks as if it will stay to our east.

I'll be reading, and also counting the hours until A Dance with Dragons arrives via download....

ETA: OH! And Watching Torchwood - Miracle Day tonight!!

Having a quiet weekend with the cats, as my husband is acting as a liaison officer for the Tall Ships Race at Greenock (his vessel is Eendracht), so I get three days of unaccustomed silence (apart from some loud purring!) and lots of reading ...!

ETA - I'm also "snake-sitting" a python for a friend of ours, which seems to consist of checking he hasn't knocked his water bowl over. Such a boring pet!

Newt, that is the coolest link ever. I shared it with my sister and she agreed. THANK YOU.

Going to the movies and dinner, shop and talk with my friend. I think we will go see Super 8, or if she isn't up for intense sci-fi action, Larry Crown. I looked at Monte Carlo, but think it might be aimed more at teenage girls.

Tomorrow will be padding around the house picking up, putting away, sweeping, sorting. That kind of stuff with a healthy dose of reading on the side. Then I work for seven days straight, the 6-2pm shift. Ugg.

Drnoot: love the link, thanks!

Final count down going on right now..... there she goes! Happy final lift off.... continuing the dream!

It is truly gorgeous to see that powerful rocket lift the craft up, up and away!

Watched the launch with my barely awake son. I cried a bit. The tears came more easily because about 3 minutes before the launch I discovered my st00pid dogs dug up about 15 of my plants this morning. (I'm beginning to wonder if the the root of the word 'dog' is related to dig and dug.) I'll be out shopping for much taller decorative fencing soon. *mumbles obscenities*

What we'll do partly depends on weather. If it'll turn out sunny we'll go to the beach. Otherwise I guess we'll focus more on chores ;-)

We're looking into replacing our car with another, bigger, one. Perhaps we'll go try one candidate out come Saturday. We now have a VW Golf.

clamairy: electric fences?

#19 - I wish!!!
}:o(
Already have one to keep them in, but I don't feel like spending $$$ to keep the little one from going into the beds. I have ugly functional ones around the veggies, and another kind around the herb garden. This bed had pretty (but obviously not high enough) wrought iron fencing, but this bed is purely ornamental, and very visible when you come up the walk. I'll find something...

You have my sympathy, Clam. I know about dogs providing me with one little household challenge after another.... gotta love, 'em. It does keep the creative juices flowing.

I took Thursday and Friday off to work on my garden - Sunday I'm hosting an Open Garden for the Hort Society - not like a garden tour (my yard is NOT fancy enough to be on the garden tour), more like a day for friends to drop by and see how I'm doing. But like any time you invite friends over, there's a pile of cleaning first :) Plus, Monday is judging day for the annual garden competition and I've entered my vegetable garden again so even more cleanup required there because everything has to be PERFECT. Good thing I love gardening!

I got a lot done in the garden on Thursday, which is good because today (Friday) is rainy, cool and windy so won't get much done outdoors. Most of what's left is lawn mowing, edging and a little more weeding.

Other stuff: pedicure and facial on Saturday, pick up supplies for Front Yards in Bloom (signs and addresses for nominated gardens - won't get the distribution done for my section of the city until later in the week), dinner with friends on Saturday evening (get to admire their newly renovated garden) and an assortment of the usual chores.

Glad y'all liked the link to the launch!

I've got a job search seminar tomorrow, grocery shopping and church Sunday. My big project for today will be to try to get my desk built. I've been working on it over the past few days and its finally starting to come together. I've got the pieces assembled, now its pretty much a matter of putting them together and building the drawers for the built in cabinet.

I celebrated my birthday yesterday with family and friends.Way too much vino!(Malbec) I loved having my daughter back home so she can celebrate with us! The son will be home end of the month for a visit.Yea!
Today working on one of two Masters courses I am working towards.I can't wait till 2013!
Tomorrow I will be heading into Boston to celebrate a good friends birthday in the North End and then going to a n Improv Comedy Theater. Can't wait.The best part is we are going in a limo. Hmm.... I think more Malbec is on the menu. Have a great weekend everyone

#25 - Hope it was a good one. Go here and enjoy some of your cake! :oD
http://www.librarything.com/topic/119843

clamairy, would black pepper work, I wonder? You would have to buy it in bulk for a bit and sprinkle it often, but maybe it would discourage them? I really don't know whether it does or not.

I'm convinced she's after the organic fertilizer granules I used. They both hang around sniffing the bag when I'm planting and I'm sure I recall that it's made with tasty things like dead fish and dried cow turds. And now that it's in the ground mixed with the wet dirt the smell must be wafting on the Summer breeze. Right now it looks really lovely. There's lots of bamboo spikes and yellow hazard tape to keep her out until I can find something a little more classy. :oD

Well, at least your plants are probably safe from vampires!

But there's no garlic! There are some leeks, though, but on the other side of the house! :oD
Oh... you meant the stakes. Heh heh...

I have heard that red pepper is great a discouraging critters and is totally not a problem to the plants. But you might have to use a great deal of the red pepper spray to cover all your beds. sigh

Going to visit my MIL to return some CDs we borrowed, bring her a new audiobook to try, and visit over a cup of tea.
Going to visit one of my BILs. #1 Son's CD player is acting wonky and he's arranged for one of his Mr Fix-it uncles to have a look at it.
And the usual weeding and reading.

My dog hates dried sage. If she was digging in the garden I'd be tempted to sprinkle a packet of powdered sage over it. I can just see Loki going for a dig and coming away sneezing and confused, as she does when I'm making stuffing and she comes nosing around.

I've had good luck with moth balls.

Spent the day at a job search seminar. Came home to find my aunt who knows a few people who work at a local bookstore had sent me a copy of the job application. Hoping I can convince them to hire me, but I'm not holding my breath (literally at least :D). Going grocery shopping tomorrow, reading a bit, and church. Couldn't sleep last night so got up and spent like an hour cleaning and organizing the apartment. Among other things I found the book of bus tickets I thought I'd lost almost a month ago. Rather a nice surprise as I don't have the money to replace them at the moment.

Still in Scotland... I'm not sure how to share any of the mobile photos I've been submitting to twitter here on LT, so no picture from me this week... Sorry.

I'll make up for it next week, I promise.

I hope everyone has a good weekend.

Overcast here so going to the beach got postponed. Instead we're going shopping for running shoes. The irony of it is that it's an immobile activity ;-)

I don't enjoy running, in fact swimming would be my preferred activity, but constraints in time etc makes running the only viable one. And I'm down to the reality that if I spend even ONE day not doing much besides reading my body starts to ache to the point at which I need to medicate it to be able to sleep (not to mention behave in a way that don't alienates my family...).

Sigh. My open garden looks like it will be a very soggy event, and probably poorly attended. I can't even mow the lawn or do any of the final clean-up. Oh well. Time to find my wellies and rain coat and go out and see what I CAN do.

My girlfriend and I bought Droid X2s yesterday on a joint plan. It's my first smartphone, and I'm still getting used to it and figuring it out.

Got about a 3rd of my lumber cut up yesterday (drank water by the gallon). Currently trying to finish my last paper for my class and then I will be back out at the mill. I'll try to remember to get a couple pictures to share.

A weekend of mostly unproductive pottering for me... frantic house clean tomorrow in advance of the arrival of my parents. Some bad films knocked off my to watch list, oh, and my tomato plants have three fruits... quite a success for me!

Back yard grass is mowed! Strawberries are doing very well, and I get to harvest some every day. Guess who loves fresh strawberries: Nicky, Greta Garbo, and me!

My biggest disappointment was THE CLOUDS so we could not see the launch from our front yard.

I have the hardest time with these weekend threads because more than not, I never KNOW what I'm going to do with my weekend until I'm in it, and in it, the computer is seldom on.

Friday we hosted the book club dinner (neighborhood) which meant a lot of cleaning and cooking. The title was Seabiscuit: An American Legend which went over very well. (great book)

Saturday, with a surprise house guest who's also a luthier - became a music day/refurbish instruments. One guitar got the action lowered (yay!!!), two got restrung, I restrung the snapped strings on the hammered dulcimer and retuned it to concert pitch, the wire strung harp got re-glued where a glue joint was pulling apart from string tension - and - then to play with the toys, up till wee hours recording tunes to share. So out came the shuttle pipes and the mandolin....

Today - band practice and other Sunday stuff. Too much rain to do outside stuff, but the beans planted last week are now four inches high. Florida grows....

Janny, I don't think any one would mind your not posting "what I will be doing" in favor of posting "here's what I did do". Either way, it is fun to peak into one another's lives. I think that is part of the reason I read...to peak into the life of someone, not me.

Your musical weekend sounds very satisfying.

I had about 20 people come through the open garden - might have been more but I wasn't keeping very good track. Considering the weather, that's not bad at all. And for a wonder, the rain held off most of the afternoon. I still didn't get the lawn mowed until after they left, though.

On yesterday's shopping tour I caved in and agreed to a Wii. I know, but ages ago we bought a PS2 and it got sold a year later, after having seen approx. a total of 3 hours of use. So I have been firm in my belief that whatever gaming will go on will have to do so on a computer. Only the dedicated gaming laptop died on us about 6 months ago and replacing it... let's just say with the criteria we have it would had been a super-expensive machine. And honestly - NO computer lives longer than 5 years. 2-3 years, then you notice its decline but because it was expensive you give it some more time.

So, at last even I had to agree it was better to buy a game console instead. Guess what went on in our house, the rest of the weekend? ;-)

#42 a weekend of tunes sounds wonderful!

I visited my parents we went on a 20 mile steam train ride (2 hours!) to the beach, ate icecream and flew the kite. I'm not a kid any more - honest!

46 reading_fox - That sounds like so much fun!

#44 - I want the tour! Tell us some of the highlights, or better yet, take a couple of photos of them? *pretty please?*

She dug up two of the newly planted tomatoes this morning. :o( I added more fencing AND sprinkled about 2/3rds of a container of cayenne pepper around the two new beds. If that doesn't do the trick then she is staying on her leash for a while.

48> since you asked so nicely :)

The front yard, various angles:





Slice of back yard:


Veg garden (my pride and joy)


Compost bins (well, I think they're a highlight :) )

Thank you! I love compost bins and that barrel for the rain gutters looks great too. That's how to get all those other beds to be lovely. For your compost, do you use the three to toss and turn the compost, or are they progressive, the last one being that which holds the compost ready to use?

I'm also admiring your various walkways. A lovely yard and tour, and we get to see the lawn mown. ;)

Yayy to lots of hostas! I love hostas and always feel the need to plant more in my garden. I also like the bricks around your vegetable plots. I may steal that idea. Thanks for sharing, Tardis!

Lovely, maggie. Just lovely.

I spent the weekend introducing my international visitor friend to Sydney. I can heartily recommend the Aquarium in Sydney. It's stunning!

51> My bins are supposed to be progressive, although it doesn't always work out that way.

Sandragon, steal whatever ideas you like :) Those bricks replaced crushed shale, which was a weed-infested nightmare, and I've been very happy with them. And I also love hostas. I have a new shade bed along the fence that needs many more :)

Little late for the weekend, I know, but here's my first shot from Scotland (aside from those taken on my phone)... in the style of Michael Kenna - well, kinda (which reminds me, I need to update my reading thread...)

Black Cuillin by Scott Fisher

Impressive. The spine of the earth.

That is stunning. I was just on the isle of Ulva, which is a lot less spectacular (although still lovely). I've always wanted to spend time on Skye.

Is Mount Doom around there Tane, by any chance?

Just lovely, tardis. All of it! There's no chance my beds/yard will look anything like that as long as I have dogs. LOL

#50 That is amazing! Exactly one's mental image of the pluperfect North American garden!

# 56 That is a fantastic bit of scenery!

# 50 - maybe next year my garden will look as good as that but I doubt it...

>50 tardis: Tardis - what a fantastic garden... wish mine looked like that.

Thanks for all the comments folks, you really are the best.

Clam (>59 clamairy:) I did spot a couple of short fellas and pointed them in the right direction... they went off grumbling about some ring thing, or something. I didn't hang around to find out ;-)

>58 Sakerfalcon:, you should go to Skye - when the conditions are right it can be a truly breathtaking place. Of course (as you no doubt know) when the conditions are wrong it can be horrible :-P