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September 30, 2006 Today is my cutie pie's birthday! He's 27!!! Wowzer's! :) I am going to make him dinner and desert. It's a recipe out of Martha Stewart Living. I am rethinking my decision not to renew that magazine. It has so many great ideas and I need organizational help! Ok, guess I'll keep the comments up. I know I am not even the best commenter, but I sometimes feel I am just talking to the air! Took some photos yesterday of the garden. It needs a lot of help!  Some fern that Chris bought that is supposedly rare. It has taken probably four or so months since he got it in the mail for a frond to pop out.  A very happy cat.  Orchid explosion  Closer view of the orchids  Variegated shrimp plant. It has been awhile since this one bloomed because it was being shaded out by the others in the pot, but I forgot how much I love the colors on this one!   Dessert Rose  Cucumbers  Dill's Atlantic giant pumpkins  Small sugar pumpkin I've had to put down snail food because the snails are nibbling on things I don't want them nibbling on! Grr! I also have another banana in flower but didn't get a photo of it yet. Might do that tomorrow. Have some yard work to do...yippie! That's sarcasm and fun at the same time. Well, off to be a very bad impersonation of Martha Stewart and make some dinner and dessert! September 27, 2006 Happy Birthday Chelle!!! :) I have uploaded photos onto flickr so you can click on the photos down on the left and look for Texas Sept 1, 2 and 3. I have another cd but haven't been able to get it to finalize. Just catching up on 11 days worth of not being here. Decided I am going to do the ING Miami 1/2 marathon. 13.1 miles. I can do it. Got a plan. Keep me honest people! Thinking of getting rid of comments. No one leaves them anyway and you can always email me. So, if you want me to keep them, lemme know. September 17, 2006 Well, the baby bro is married and off on his honeymoon! They called around noontime saying they were on the ship and getting their room keys! I'm sure they are having a blast out there on the high seas! I have lots of great photos but I want to upload them all at one time instead of just bits and pieces, so it'll be next week before I get them done. Yesterday we went to her parents house for a brunch, ate leftovers from the reception and they opened presents. They raked in the dough with $4,000 in cash plus they have probably almost $1,000 in gift cards I'm sure. Then we went to my friend Becky's house for a bit to see her new place. It's a cute little house in north Ft. Worth almost in Saginaw. Makes me want a house! Then back home to eat dinner at a good Mexican place, Mexican Inn. YUMMY! It won't surprise me if I gain 10lbs this trip! Today I got to see my friend Brooke and her baby (toddler!) Justin. He's such a cutie pie! Love him! Then one of the Stephanie's came and Michelle and JP for awhile. Drove out to Hulen for Freebirds. Another YUMMY! Then on the way back JP decided he wanted to see the Stockyards so I took them down there and we walked around. We were sad 'cause we'd missed the only train leaving for the Grapevine route. It's an old timey train that you can take for about an hour around the area. But we got to look around the shops while it was raining outside. Missed the cattle drive too! Booo. They had to head back to Longview so they took off and now I'm spending the evening vegging out. Yippie! Tomorrow Mom and I are going to go to the Cowgirl museum and Chris will geocache instead. Then it's off to Dallas in the evening. Still have a week left, but it's going wayyyyyyyy too quickly! September 15, 2006 Today my baby brother is getting married!!!! It's hard to believe! We flew into DFW yesterday at 8:30 am CST. Left the house in Florida at 4am to get to the airport where we promptly fell asleep at the gate waiting to board. Slept the entire plane ride home. We got to my parents house and sat on the porch drinking coffee and catching up for a few hours until Mom and I went to Stephanie's (my SIL) for her bridesmaid luncheon. Most of her family was there and her friends and I saw their apartment. It reminds me a lot of our first apartment, minus the fish tanks! The day flew by: dr's appointment, small nap, Sonic (YAY for Sonic's!), rehearsal (where mom already started crying, but believe me I'll be doing it tonight!), rehearsal dinner at La Hacienda Ranch. I got to chat with my old neighbors (they still live there). I took piano lessons from the wife and I baby sat the kids when they were young. Now the son is married and the daughter is almost 21. I saw my grandfather and uncle. Grandad is doing better, but you can tell he has not been doing well and doesn't look how he did last Thanksgiving. But he seems to be chipper and looking like he wants to get better. He's 81. I thought he was 80. Then we came home and crashed. I was zonked. This morning Stephanie, Mom and I went for a massage. I'm going to resolve to get one once a month. I just feel so much better! The only thing the lady liked to talk a smidge too much, but she toned it down about 10 minutes in. I like to lay down and just relax. Now we're just waiting a bit and then Stephanie's hair appointment is at 1 and I'm going so I can take photo's and Mom is getting hers done as well. Then back to the house to get dressed and the wedding is at 7! The thing I love most is seeing housing signs that say "Homes in the low 120's.". Does that make me jealous!!!!! And it's nice to hear Texan voices and see all the university stickers on the cars and Texas license plates. I even get a little bit of a Leo fix. She looks like Leo, acts like Leo but she's a Duck. :) She's fluffy and soft like Samson though so I get a bit of my Samson fix too. Well, I'll post photos probably tomorrow of the wedding and will upload some to Flickr. :) September 11, 2006 Five years ago seems like forever. Yet it seems like yesterday. Five years ago I was a senior in college, living in an apartment in Galveston with my best friend and trying to get through school and plan a wedding. I remember Fall was beginning to set in. I can see the changes in Fall today and I can feel and remember how it was that day. The sun had began to shift positions, goldenrod and bushy bluestems were blooming. Crisp skies, but still warm. I didn't have class until around 1 or 2 for a Cell Bio lab. I was planning on getting up around 9:30 or so to go in to work at Dr. Webb's nursery and do some odd jobs around there. I hadn't been in a week or so and I had a lot of time in the morning on Tuesday's to do work around there. But, I was awakened around 8:00 CST by Chris. I was very perturbed. Didn't he know that I was sleeping? He proceeds to tell me a plane flew into the World Trade Center. I'm still groggy and tell him grouchily that I am sleeping and call me back later. I think some Cessna flew into the buildings, so what do I care? I don't remember when I got up, but I don't think it was much longer than 30 minutes later and I got online to the forum I'd been visiting for awhile. Everyone is freaking out and so I check the news sites and then run to the living room to flip the tv on. I was in dismay. I couldn't believe it. How on Earth did something like this happen? I know I called my mom and dad. Mom was quite freaked out about it as we all were at the time. I can't recall exactly what I did for the three or four hours before I went to campus. I remember being on the computer chatting with internet friends and freaking out. I can't even remember where Erika, my roomate was at. I don't believe she was at home. Everyone in the lab that day was rather quiet. No one really spoke of it and all I wanted to do was talk about it. I felt like I was going to burst because no one was discussing it. Marine Geography was later that night and Bush was supposed to be giving a speech around 7. I ditched class early and went to the Student Center and watched the conference with everyone else that was on campus at the time. The whole thing was surreal. The next day I had a five hour Wetlands field lab and we went to a wetland NW of Galveston on the mainland to id plants. It was peaceful out there. No planes were flying overhead. Even if you seem remote, usually you hear planes in the background unless you are in the mountains somewhere out west. Nothing. That was in itself partly enjoyable, to experience what others did 100 years ago. Nothing but birds in the sky. I knew no one that died that day. But, how easily that could have been anyone I knew on any other given day in any other major city. After that flags were everywhere. The Star Spangled Banner and God Bless the USA played on every station. I felt strongly patriotic. I even liked Bush there for awhile. We were going to kick some ass and get those people back. Yet, here we are today, five years later. I feel we are more divided than ever. I feel we are more hated than ever. No Osama bin Laden. Yet we got Saddam Hussein who never posed an immediate threat to us. Who never destroyed and killed nearly 3,000 Americans in one day. I cannot comprehend where we've gone wrong. Why we've gone the path we have. I've become very politically minded in these five years. It's a good thing, being politically minded. I'm still amazed at the amount of people who aren't, who don't know who is running the country, who their Senator and Congresspeople are, and what is going on in the world. Something I read today really has me wishing we were on this path. It's an alternate version of these past five years. Where we could be now if we'd not gone down the roads we have been on, if the other side of the country had been listened to when we were yelling and screaming and saying "Listen to us! We have a voice too!", instead of being told "Shut up and Sing". Alter: An Alternate 9/11 History. September 10, 2006 Today is delurk Sunday. Come on out and post a comment all you lurkers! :) So, I know there are some subscribers to this blog. Who are you? I can eliminate myself twice to test out if this subscribing thing worked, my mom, and the Garden Voices people on GardenWeb. So, who are the others??? What is up with this Sexy Back song??? I can't even listen to it all the way, but I keep running into people's MySpace pages with that song. It isn't as bad as that wretched bad day song. I HATE THAT SONG! It plays constantly on the radio and the second I hear the first few chords I turn the station. Not to mention if I even listen to it, yes I believe in jinx's sometimes, I have a horrendous day. So, I ban that stupid song. BAD SONG! Ok, got that out of my system. ;) Got a whole lot of not much accomplished today. Watched the Ya-Ya movie, did laundry, cleaned the bathroom and watered and fertilized the garden. Chris did some yard work this morning and he's supposed to be picking up more. Think I may break out some oil pastels tonight and draw a little bit. 3 more days until I go to Texas! YAYAYAY! My brother's bachelor party pics are HILARIOUS! He was pretty much trashed and someone wrote all over him. But, he also posted pics of his little patio garden too. :) Seems we've inherited my grandmother's gardening genes. Speaking of, it seems my grandparents aren't doing so hot. My grandmother has been going downhill for awhile and she's become quite mean to my parents. She's refusing to go to the wedding now. My grandfather may be moving to a retirement center, the kind that you can get food, but you have a little apartment to yourself sort of thing. He had some health problems lately and has Parkinson's. It is sad. It's kinda like the Croc Hunter, just just expect them to be there forever. So, I expect to be slightly depressed when I go home. There's a few plant books I want (write 'em down Mom!). The American Woodland Garden The Nature of Plants Irises Dream Plants for the Natural Garden Meadows Variegated Tress and Shrubs ; Blech, we had Taco Bell for dinner. It has been a long time since I've had it, months really. I'm sure I'm going to regret it here in a few hours. Not to mention it was like 10,000 calories. Barf-o-rama. PS: Robin, message Fiji! You can do it!!!! September 9, 2006 Fifty years ago today, my Dad was born! :)  Happy Birthday Dad! Wish I could have been there to eat dinner with y'all! :) See you Thursday! Today we drove down to the Keys for a snorkel. I had told Chris last week that I'd wanted to do something today instead of hang around the house. Go for a hike or snorkel. He chose snorkel. We got up at 5:30 so we could pick our friend JC up and we took off to the Keys. We got to our spot at the  Ohio Missouri Channel and jumped in. The water was a bit chilly at first but we warmed up quickly. It's been awhile since I'd gone snorkeling. This spot we've gone too many times since we moved to Florida. It's a good collecting spot for snails, crabs and zooanthids for his tank. I saw a lot of fish, the typical blennies and damsels but I did see a trunk fish and two yellow stingray. Chris said he saw about 10 of the stingrays. It was a nice time! Here are a few photos from our spot:  JC getting out of the water  Self portrait...  Through the mangroves  Chris getting some water for the snails he collected   Self portrait!  Railroad vine Then we headed up the Keys to find some lunch. We were going to stop at a place in Marathon we know of and like but they were closed. Many businesses close down between summer and winter seasons for vacations. We found a place called the Captains Table just south of Islamorada. We were the only ones in there the majority of the time, so we enjoyed our fish sandwiches in peace. Afterwards it was time to head to the two plant nurseries we love. Chris wanted some variegated thumbergia at this place called The Banyan Tree but they didn't have it any longer. There was a ton of neat stuff though. Then we went on down the road, almost to Tavernier, to another nursery. This one is probably my favorite since it has unique tropical and native plants. I was walking around when I spotted  white beautyberry! We have a small plant of it but it has never flowered and I've never seen one with berries for sale, or in the wild for that matter. It was only $9.99 so we snapped it up. Then we found a lantana with some bright red flowers so we bought it too! It was hard to limit myself. JC bought a stevia plant and gave us a cutting to root. I wanted a pink canna and some veggies that they had. I always find stuff at that nursery. It's at mile marker 88.7 and doesn't have a website. When we got home I was inspecting the front bed and found these:  Monarch caterpillars. They've devoured the butterfly weed. Need to throw the aphids off of it though.  What's blooming at the moment... I guess that's about it! Thinking early to bed tonight! September 7, 2006 I've been sitting here surfing the internet for an hour deciding if I wnated to post an entry. I have a lot to say, but I am just drained. I took some photos tonight but just don't feel like uploading them. A few weeks ago I found a neat show on PBS called Wild Florida. The show I watched was about the Key deer. Very cool! I've seen a few on Big Pine Key. They are pretty easy to spot if you drive slowly and look down the streets. Just pull off and watch as they are docile. Be sure not to feed them; but we have seen some of the homeowners have put out food for them, which is how we saw the last ones. Last night's episode was on the butterflies of Florida and butterfly gardening. I was getting a kick out of it until they came to a scene of Castellow Hammock and a guy named Roger Hammer. First, Roger was nothing how I'd imagined him. When we first moved to Miami, Chris and I'd had put a geocache in the park. It was doing well for awhile until we got reports of it being missing. So we went to check and then posted that it was indeed missing and we'd replace it. Then we got word that Mr. Hammer had removed it and was thoroughly pissed off that we'd placed it there. That was disputed by another geocacher who'd spoke with Mr. Hammer about the cache and he seemed fine with it. It wasn't too far off the trail and wasn't near any endangered vegetation, but apparently he was miffed about people wandering off the trail due to the rare butterflies that hang out down there. So, here in my mind all this time I'd imagined this wire-rimmed glasses wearing scientist type. Can I say, completely the opposite? Very hippieish. Don't get me wrong, this guy is smart. He's written, I believe some orchid or plant books of Florida and he seems to be well respected. But, geez, he was anal about that cache. I'm just glad the week is almost over. Short week, but it seems like it has been filled with so much stuff. I've lost at least one of the small sugar pumpkins seedlings. Some of the mustard I transplanted seems to have not liked me either. The cucumbers are doing well so far. I'm hoping everything makes it a week while we're gone. Chris is supposed to be lining up several people to come by and check on the cats, tank and plants. I just hope people water the plants well enough. The stuff on the porch is on a timer so it should be ok. The cats will be fine but the litter needs to be scooped. I hate having people do that, but if not it'll be a toxic waste site after a week. And the tank. The last thing we need is it to crash from a power outage or some other reason. I promise photos tomorrow. Going snorkeling Saturday. Happy. Tired of being inside. September 4, 2006 (post #2) I am still in shock that Steve Irwin died. It's on par with Princess Diana I think. A death too young. As much as I think everyone thought or said he'd die of a croc attack, I still think we all thought he was invincible and would be 80 and telling croc stories to his grandchildren. Just a sad day. :( The weekend was non-eventful. Chris was in Melbourne fishing. He said he saw several turtles and even saw a little hatchling about 17 miles offshore. He thought it was a piece of trash at first until it started moving. That's pretty awesome the little fella/gal made it out that far! Its brother's and sisters probably did not have as good as luck. I worked around the house and in the garden most of the weekend. I spent yesterday mowing and working on repotting stuff. I put pumpkins in the ground. Today I finished repotting, arranged the plants back and put some 25 cent stuff I'd gotten at Lowe's in the front flower bed. It is quickly becoming my butterfly garden. Penta's, butterfly weed, salvia, 4o'clocks, porterweed. I've seen monarch cat's on the butterfly weed and today I saw a monarch flitting around. He was too fast for me to get a photo off though. I still have a bit left to do this week like thinning out tomato seedlings and starting some other seeds. Sweep the porch, empty out a box of gardening stuff. Then, hopefully I can sit back and watching things for a few weeks. TD #6 is out there already and I'm praying it doesn't come to anything or come here at all. Just don't want to deal with that this week or the next month since we'll be out of town. I did get quite a bit done in the house. The living room is enjoyable now except for some things Chris has to put in the garage once he organizes it. I still have the piles of garage sale items too, but at least it's open and clean and not so stressful to enter. The spare room is probably the worst. I'm kinda waiting for the new computer to arrive so that I can put the desk stuff up. Chris' laptop takes up too much desk space at the moment, so when that's gone things will be cleaner. Well, here's some photos. Lots today!  Dwarf pineapple  Butterfly ginger. Smells YUMMY!  Butterfly pea  Lantana  Shrimp plant  Shrimp plants and music notes  Rearranged corner  Starfish cactus buds  Cucumber seedlings  Pumpkin patch  Mustard seedlings, tomato, and parsley and mint  Sweet potato along fence  Dendrobium buds  Death to Brazillian pepper and air potato! What RoundUp does!      Squirrel stealing sunflower seeds!    The dress I got for the wedding September 4, 2006 Just a little sad this morning as I got the news Steve Irwin has died. I want to cry too. :( September 2, 2006 My brother has some really fun photos up on his Flickr. They are pictures of us at kids, my parents as 20 somethings (and younger!), aunts, uncles, grandparents. It's just fun to look at and laugh and remember. Flickr Photoset. He's got some other neat photos to browse if you've got the time. Been picking up off an on today. I cleaned a lot of the living room up. Am going to probably stay up and keep working on it. At least get that done so that tomorrow I can work in the garden. I did some more shopping. I got some clothes for Chris and only bought a pair of jean shorts for $8 at Dillards (Levi's). I tried on a bunch of other things but nothing fit right. What is it with jeans having a huge gap at the back??? If I went down a size for that to fit I wouldn't be able to get them over my thighs. Seriously! Make jeans that are proportionate!!!! Grrr! I wanted to hit Charlotte Russe but after walking the mall again I was getting a headache and was tired so I came home and took a two hour nap. Got me some sushi. Yum-o! Tomorrow morning cleaning and working in the yard. Mostly working in the yard. I think I'll run over to Linens 'n Things to get a wrapping paper container. It's driving me nuts and I googled "wrapping paper container" and saw that they had one. Will post some photos tomorrow of the house and yard and the dress I got for the wedding. Didn't want to finalize the cd with only two photos on it! September 1, 2006 Today is Studio Friday. I haven't done one in awhile so I think I'll do one tonight. The topic: "You've heard of 'writer's block'. Well as an artist, I sometimes suffer from "Artist's block". What is this you ask? It's when you sit and sit and can't come up with anything. This can go on for hours, days, weeks even months sometimes. I want to know how you break free of Artist's block! " ~ Gabi I would say that I am in an Artist's block right now. It started a bit before we moved almost two months ago. I'd finished the plumeria pastel and then started another pastel and was a bit frustrated with it because I'd experimented with an oil pastel on canvas and didn't prime it with gesso first. So, the oil pastel was balling up and while the flower turned out alright I was having problems with the background greenery. Then the packing started and I'm finally unpacked I am realizing just which hobbies I do and don't want to spend time on. Scrapbooking is on hold because I am just tired of it. I feel like I am just accumulating more and more albums and I'm going to have a million before I die. You could say I am being negative towards that hobby in that I am forcing a block on myself. As for getting out of a block, just doing other artistic things whether it is taking photos of my garden or things on a hike, or just looking through magazines and thinking of what to do next. I have one photo of a ginger from Fairchild Gardens I took last weekend that I would like to do an oil pastel with. I think I may sit down and start that this weekend to get out of this funk. I also may do a page in my art journal. And that is my Artist's Block Studio Friday topic. I did find a dress for the wedding today at Dillards for $20. I LOVE it. It is black with these lilac polka dots on them. I'm planning on heading back to Dillards and getting some other stuff I saw on clearance, tomorrow. Tomorrow it is cleaning and picking up inside day and I think Sunday is going to be work in the yard day. And Monday is recupperate from my non-vacation. LOL! August 31, 2006 Wow, August has gone by fast! In two weeks we'll be in Texas! I can't believe in two weeks. It will be a fast trip too, though we'll be there about 10 days. Splitting time between families and trying to see friends. It's never enough time. We escaped Ernesto without much more than some gusty wind and rain. Went into work yesterday too. Bummer! Now it's back to regular afternoon thunderstorms and humidity. But I am starting to see some hints of fall. Beautberries are fruiting, goldenrod is blooming and the dahoon holly has berries. I am definitely ready for fall and winter! Roundup is my new favorite friend. A very poisonous one at that. But it has been working wonders on my invasives. The wild cucumber stuff is shriveling away, the air potato has finally absorbed it and is starting to die back and the Brazillian peppers are shriveling up too. YIPPIEEEEE! So, maybe in a few weeks I'll have a free fence to put the passionvine and elephant foot vine on. My passionvine is already being devoured by the gulf frit cat's. It was starting to come back but they found it again. I had a nice surprise when I walked out the front door this morning. A rain lily had bloomed overnight. I suppose a byproduct of Ernesto's rains. A cute pink thing. Will have to take a photo soon. I also noticed we have a dwarf pineapple fruiting and many other things are starting to bloom. I plan on spending at least one full day outside working this weekend, if not more than that. I have to repot a bunch of stuff, need to get the giant pumpkins in the ground and want to start some sunflowers and throw some wildflower seed down in one corner. Another day I plan on doing some art and stuff inside and probably vegging the third day and/or shopping. I'm having the worst time finding a dress to wear to the wedding. I have three in the closet that I can wear. But, you know I'd like to buy a new one! I need to overhaul my dresses anyway. I have a black dress that I love but haven't really wore in about two years because I'd gained some of the weight back and you can see my tummy too much in it. Irritating. More incentive to start running again and getting outside. well, going to decide what to do the rest of the night...'night! August 29, 2006 Ok, I think I have this feedburner thing down. Apparently I'll have to handcode it all, which is a bummerrooni. So, here is an easy thing and some background info on this thing. I've been reading about RSS's for the past two days and it also didn't let me sleep well last night (that and Ernesto!)...What it is is an easy way to subscribe to a blog you like and then you are able to send it to a reader of your preference such as Google or My Yahoo. If you click on subscribe you can figure out which ones you prefer. My Yahoo shows up on your yahoo homepage, you just have to configure it to show up. So, when I submit a new entry you can check and it should show up that I've entered a new blog. Instead of going to my page every day and wondering, just click on the reader and see if it's posted and if not, then you don't hafta come here! ;) But you can anyway! lol...Now the only thing I've gotta figure out is how fast it takes to update. And I am wondering if I have to go through each time on Feed Burner so that'll update. See, I'm a very basic HTML coder. I know enough to write this thing and that's it! So, here we are and TS Ernesto is on his way. We left work at 1 today. It's amazing how most people have done semi-well to prepare. Sure the gas lines were crazy yesterday, but at least it wasn't as bad as last year. We were lucky to have gotten gas early and have most everything taken care of. We brought in some of our plants to the porch. I left a few outside but they are semi-sheltered. We'll see how wind beaten they are tomorrow afternoon. The wind has started picking up quite a bit as I stare out the window at the neighbor's palm trees. I'm very glad our next door neighbors cut down the Norfolk Pine a few weeks ago so it doesn't come down on our house! I did kinda want a Cat 1, just for the excitment. I mean, if it's gonna come, at least let's have some minimal fun. It's kinda like working yourself up and then you're like, ok don't let me down! Just did all this preparing and heck I do want a day off in the middle of the week. But, no destruction, thank you. I was thinking about what storms I've gone through.
And now, finally some photos!                 August 28th, 2006 GRR. I'm trying to work out some kinks. I installed a Feeder so people can subscribe, but also so I could be listed on the Garden Web garden journals. But I'm totally confused. Since I hand code I'm not sure it'll work. I don't have separate pages for each post, it's all on one page! WAHHHH! LOST...LOST!!! So, I'm trying to get it to work. If anyone tech-savvy reads this, email me. I need HELP! I'm not convinced Ernesto will stay a TS. Glad we've stocked up on gas. Don't have to deal with the rush. Got water. Just need to bring the plants in. Do that tomorrow probably. Lots of fun hauling 100+ containers into the porch. Lemme tell ya. And I'm too lazy to even post photos. Trying to finish laundry and I am thinking of going for a run to burn off this fat roll of Mexican food I ate tonight. Blah. August 27, 2006 Flickr Photo Set of Fairchild Garden. Chris and I went this morning and it was nice. Very quiet. We explored the lowlands this time since last time it was closed during the Chihuly exhibit. I really liked that area. We have our favorite spots now: the green house, the Mangosteen house, the baobab, the pond area...ok just about all of it! Hurricane Ernesto may be coming here. They keep moving it further east. Now they having it landfall around Ft. Myers/Punta Gorda and I can see it pulling another Hurricane Charley. Not good. I liked it when it was off in the Gulf heading towards Alabama. I filled my truck up today with gas and I shouldn't be driving much since I carpool. We will have to get some more tanks filled up for the generator tomorrow. Target was already filling an endcap with bottled water. I'm sure at work we'll be preparing, getting things together and making sure it's gassed up. Yippie. I just don't want any storms when we are in Texas. We haven't decided on the plywood yet. I'm leaning towards getting some for at least a few windows. There's a few things blooming in the garden but I'm all photo'd out today. The butterfly ginger has a bloom and it smells DIVINE! Honeysuckle/jasmine combo. I love it. There are more blooms coming up on some of the others. Butterfly pea has tons of blooms. The seeds I started from my mail order are coming up too. I need to get more dirt so I can thin some of the tomato seedlings out. I'm doing mustard greens too. They are itty bitty seeds! I used some of the Roundup tonight on the air potato and balsam apple. We'll see in a few days if they started dying! well, that's about it. Need to get some things ready to mail, and thinking about going to bed early. Sleeppppy! August 26, 2006 The museum stunk. Now I know why it was free. There were two "exhibits". I was looking forward to the Impressionist exhibit but it was closed for maintenance or something. The only things there were was a small room of this idiotic artist who looked like a kindergartener could do the things he did. Now, some pop art is good, but this was horrid. Dreadful. Then there was a room with probably 10 photos of some really nice stuff. I was expecting more though. I believe they were Cuban photographers. Then there was the Highwaymen who are black artists that sold paintings of Old Florida in the 60's on the highway. They had two artists, Harold Newton and Alfred Hair on exhibit. Harold's art was really good but Alfred's needed some help. Lacked depth. Then I saw a video they were showing and it explained why. Alfred was the leader that started it all and basically his goal was quantity not quality. Anyway, that was interesting at least. Lots of marsh paintings and Everglades stuff. A few things I'd like hanging on my walls! Then there was just one other exhibit of some lights or something...sorta cool but not "art" if you ask me. Sort of an interpretive art I suppose. And then I was bummed because there was nothing else. I was expecting The Kimbell Art Museum kind of quality or Amon Carter worthy. I walked around the little area that they are trying to build as a sort of nightlife area. It was pretty and enjoyable but just so HOT and HUMID right now that I couldn't stand it much. I guess that's about it. I added an About Me section and the archives that I have from until 2003. I need a link to my old blogger spot and then it'll be up to date. It's kinda fun to reread some of that stuff. I am a big nerd! ;) And I can't post without a few photos. Just four from today:  we bought this one...! lol...   Just wanted a photo of the elephant ears  August 25, 2006 Mary, it is good to see you back. I'm glad you and baby Nora are ok! I hope she gets to come home soon! Tomorrow I am going to go to the Ft. Lauderdale art museum. It is free for July and August so I thought, why not go? We are going to go to Fairchild Gardens on Sunday as it is free also. We were supposed to go last weekend but when we left it started raining and was afraid of making the trip down to south Miami and it end up raining on us. So hopefully no rain! Can you believe it has been a year since Katrina came??? When she came through Florida I was in North Carolina and Chris was here by himself. Luckily the power was only out for a day and I came back everything was ok. But, once Katrina went to New Orleans she'd obviously gotten stronger. If you want to read a first hand account of a true Katrina survivor you have to read Aimee's blog. She is on the Ingleside (formerly the Avonlea.org) forum and also her friend Belle live in New Orleans. She stayed there during the storm, riding it out in one of the hotels that you saw with windows blown out. Her husband is a dj for a radio station there, hence the reason they stayed. We persuaded her to take her cats with her as she was planning on leaving them in her rental house. It's a good thing she did because her house was not but a few blocks from one of the levee breaks. (I'm elaborating here for all the non-forum folk!). Anyway, start from the beginning. It'll take awhile to read, but it is a in-depth account of what she went through, the horrors of seeing her hometown torn apart and how she's struggled this past year living with her parents again. On to a better note....we've had some rain lately, which is good! YAY! I took some photos of the yard which are posted below. I've been starting TONS of seeds....lol ok, not tons, but a lot. I've moved onto even more seed-a-holic tendencies and have saved two yogurt cups to plant seeds in. Yes, I'm insane. ;) But they were very good yogurt cups. I bought two Brown Cow yogurts at Whole Foods the other day. They had fruit and grains at the bottom that made the whole thing delicious. I'm a Stoneyfield Farm girl 'cause of the creaminess, but this was really good also! Try it sometime! Alright, picture time! 
 Gulf fritillary caterpillar...they are devouring the passionflower yet again  Double purple datura  The brug island  The Banana grove Adding some garden blogs I love to the side. :) August 23rd, 2006 I think I would have been a good hippie. So, once again I've founds a plethora of other subject specific blogs. First it was the crocheting ones a year or so ago, then I found all the scrapbooking ones, next was art blogs, then personal finance and now GardenWeb has a conglomerate of blogs on their website. So, a click and then you are in the land of some nice gardens and homesteads. I really like the homestead blogs. The ones where people have basically grown their food, raising animals. It is nice to look at. A lot of hard work! But it has spurred my interest in a lot of DIY stuff, canning, sewing, quilting, growing my own food, cooking. You name it, I wanna do it. It doesn't help with my hobby collecting. I'm supposed to be downsizing, not dreaming up MORE things to do!!! I started more seeds last night. I had gotten some heirloom tomato seeds from someone on GardenWeb and they also send some sea island cotton seeds. So, in a few months I'll hopefully have a TON of tomatoes! ;) Hence my reason to learn to can more than pickles. I found a recipe in Martha Stewart Living for some polenta bread. But I want to leave out the pine nuts. I wonder if I can do that. I also found an applesauce bread that I want to try. I made fudge the other day. It is pretty good. I think next time I'll try making a peanut butter fudge and use some Ghiradelli chocolate instead of the Hershey's chocolate chips. I have been craving sushi since the last time we went and ate it at work. Last night I went to Whole Foods because I wanted some smoked salmon for a salad and I picked up some crab california rolls. The crab is cooked, but the rolls were delicious!!! Yummmmm....Leo smelled it too and was hovering. He jumped on the sink as I was cleaning up because he was smelling the wrappers and stuff. He is a big trouble maker. Speaking of trouble makers, the other night around 10pm I was sitting at my writing desk and the cats were in the window. We leave about a foot or two up so they can sit in it without tearing up the blinds. I heard this *thump thump*. A really loud knocking sound. I thought someone was at the window and it scared the crap out of me. The cats started going nuts, Leo especially. I looked down and there's the neighborhood alley cat staring in. He took a look at me and ran away, but it was so funny that he'd come over to pick a fight or say hello to my two munchkins. This was the same friendly cat that came and visited us as we were moving in and then decided to spray the area and mark his territory! I saw a snake the other night. I was mowing and had to move the kayak from against the fence and I looked down and at first I thought it was a piece of rope. Then before I reached for the "rope" I looked closer, decided to go for my camera so I could get a picture and then came back and it moved under the grass more. I moved a bit and then I heard it slither off into the neighbors yard. I have lost a few lbs. I knew I had from my own scale but I had to go to the doc this morning and was just there in July and it was down on their scale too. You know it's a good day when the doc's scale even says you've lost weight. Of course their scale is never correct, and always about five lbs higher than mine. ;) It's good for the mental health to go by the lowest number. ;) August 18th, 2006 Well, it looks like we have to get a new computer. Chris' crashed before the move and mine crashed a few nights ago. We've been relying on Chris' work laptop so as long as we can get that we'll be good to go for awhile. Chris found some bare bones computeres on ebay so we'll probably go that route since we already have the software and monitor. Worked a lot inside this morning. Then we went to two nurseries that were REALLY awesome. Well, one used to be awesome but it was kinda wet and muddy for some reason and I wore flip flops so it was kinda bummerish too. But the other we hadn't been to before. Chris ended up getting a nifty bromeliad, which I forgot to take a photo of! Dur! They had a lot of really neat stuff that I would LOVE to have. ;) Then we hit the farm stand to get a few veggies (remember the one we kept driving by mom?). It was alright, but not much variety. I got some cukes, tomatoes and peaches. I got my hair cut last night. I'm really happy because I was VERY unhappy with it. The last time I got it cut I really hated it. It still has a ways to go but at least it's better. Chris planted the banana's in the ground last night and then tonight we ended up finishing them up and putting the angel's trumpets in the ground. Hopefully they'll like that better. I'll take some photos of the 'nana grove and brug's tomorrow after I mow. Well, here's some more photos. ;) You know me, photoaholic. ;)  Some very lazy cats.  Pickles I made with the cukes I bought  Starfish cactus open      Below are the ones from the nursery that we went to  Close up of the below   Mexican flame vine  Stephanotis   A really cool seliginella fern! August 14th, 2006 Thispost on a blog made me think. I am very much about reworking, moving around and trying to be perfect with things. I think I've heard the quote something like "Perfect is the enemy of good". I say this because I was putting photo albums away yesterday and came across a painting I did that I think is the one Mom and Dad have in the living room of a hibiscus. And I thought it sucked so bad. How could I have possibly given them that? Ugh! It was horrible to me and I wanted to reach into the photo and touch up some leaves and redo the middle of the flower. But, I have to let it go. Someone liked it. I don't know if they liked it because I'm their daughter, but hey, it's hanging up and framed! So, learning to accept that things aren't going to be perfect is hard. Just piddling in the yard I want to move this around, that around, work on the weeds. It's frustrating seeing weeds sprout up where I'd just pulled them a week ago. But tonight I just am too tired to deal with it, so I watered and let it go. What's blooming today?:  Blackberry lily  Crepe myrtle  Lantana  Rose bud  Orchid Today is my friend Erika's 2nd anniversary! That's how long it's been since I've seen her too. August 13th, 2006 I actually accomplished quite a bit today. We didn't sleep in as late as yesterday (11-12ish) and got a bit of stuff done around here. Swept and mopped, cleaned the bathrooms, Chris worked on his tank and I started unpacking books. I have a small stack already building of ones I plan on Ebay-ing or Amazon.com-ing. Plus I have a box of beanie babies. Not sure if I should keep the once coveted Peace Bears and Lucky bear. LOL, when they were all the rage I was working at Hallmark and getting calls non-stop about when they were going to be coming in. Now they sit in a box being very nonuseful. Well, I'm a photo nut right now so here are some more I took today. Chris took a few of Leo too. 
  This is a starfish cactus flower. should open in a few days. August 12th, 2006 A few more photos I took today. I had a few seeds sprouting yesterday when I checked from planting three days ago, but there are ever more now!           The last ones you can tell are leaning towards the light. I may have to move them out with the rest of the plant when they get a little bigger. One thing is for sure, a gardener's work is never done. I keep coming up with more things to do all the time. Pull those weeds, kill the Brazillian pepper, plant more vines...alas lots of things I want to do. One of those seedlings are pumpkin seeds, Dill's Atlantic Giant. HUGMONGO!  Um, Hi there. I'm Leo. I'm a little squirt who likes to play with my mice and I keep my mom and dad up all the time in the morning. Anyway, I had such a good time on the porch the other day, but now that my tastes were satisfied I can't go out anymore. Dad is so mean. He said mom should never had let me out 'cause I could get used to it and start running out the front door. So, I'm so sad. But I guess I will watch Sammy when he's rolling on the porch and I can wish and pretend and beg. Ok, thanks for listening to me. If you want you can put a good word in for me with mommy and daddy.   August 10th, 2006 Dum de dum....I have photos! I found the cd's for the camera and they were actually really accesible! WOO! So, you'll be getting two parts of photos...I think. We'll see how long it makes the page. Which reminds me, I need to make an archives section...and I need to buy a domain name and just be. So, opinions on that too. (won't be buying for awhile, but just want to get opinions)...I like www.oceanicwilderness.com obviously, but what about using my name? www.mistilittle.com, www.misti.com (if that's available...sounds like such a porno website doesn't it?? lol), www.mistiandchris.com so chris can blog too (hhhhhhhhhhhhahahahahah, post pictures of tanks probably), www.mistil.com, www.you name the website.com ;)  Jungle Cats...shhh don't tell Chris but Leo went out for a bit. He was very well behaved, though he was looking for those lizards.  Jungle Leo  More Jungle Cats  Plant "pron"...lol Plant "pron" topic on Gardenweb....really funny!  Variegated elephant ears  Siam tulip close up  Shrimp plant  Shrimp plant  Yard area where we got rid of Brazillian Pepper  Succulent/cactus area  Sunset  Beautyberry berries  Datura bud  shrimp plant  Blackberry lily  Snow on the mountain and Siam tulips  Spoonleaf plumeria  Variegated lemon  Sunset/clouds  Bird of Paradise  Row of pots, aka: pot ghetto  close up of ornamental banana  Ornamental banana flower  pot ghetto  Orchids on the porch  dendrobium orchid  Leo exploring on the porch  Seeds I started  Texas sage flower  Front bed  Front bed  Front bed where we are going to make it variegated only. So there you have it! August 8th, 2006 Don't you hate when you want to blog but then you sit down to blog and you kinda feel blah? Just happened to me. It finally rained a decent amount today. Enough for the plants to be happy and for me to not have to water. I organized the porch some after work and then after dinner I sat down on the cooler and used some potting soil from some empty pots and started some seeds. I flipped through some seed catalogs today on the way to and from work. I'm going to attempt some cukes, 'maters, pumpkins and maybe a few other veggies. I've got the room now to at least try and experiment. Samson came out with me both times and really enjoyed it. I feel bad for Leo (hehehe his new nickname is Leona and Chris hates it) because he sits at the sliding window and watches or he gets on the boxes that are still piled up and sleeps. Maybe one day I'll let him out to see what he does. Samson just sits in the corner and looks out or rolls around and meows. He's such a happy cat. So I started a variety of seeds, some daturas that never took last time, bluebonnets, some vines, nasturiums, seeds from an heirloom tomato I ate a few months ago, and a bunch of other things that now I can't even remember. Now I just need to find the box with the cd's so I can take photos. I can't seem to get motivated to work indoors. I need to clean already and am ready to get this last bit of stuff arranged. A little more than a month and I go home to Texas for my brother's wedding. Yippieeeeee! It'll be a busy week. Wedding, visiting friends, driving to Galveston/Houston at the end of the week for a conference for Chris and I get to see Erika whom I haven't seen since her wedding two years ago. It's so depressing not to be around your friends. It's been four years since I've seen Rosemarie, would be five if I hadn't of seen Connie this past September, and I've been able to see my other friends this past Thanksgiving, though I didn't get to see AJ or Michelle, so it has been awhile. I hate it. I get so jealous on Myspace reading about all these people getting together and meeting up from highschool or just the one that have been friends and see each other all the time. I also get so depressed and jealous when I see people buying houses and I think how far away I am from that. Then I have to reassure myself that it's ok if I'm 30 when I buy a house and it's ok if I'm 30 when I have a kid. Why am I worrying about it? This is me, the person that was going off to do "things". Argh...now I'm on a sentimental track. I should just go fold laundry and get some sleep. August 6th, 2006 Wow, no replies. Am I boring??? Let's see, I spent most of the weekend outside. Yesterday I did quite a bit in the yard. Finished mowing the back, started arranging the pots so we can water them easier, hauled all the Brazillian pepper to the front, planted the front flower beds (well what I could of it; still need more plants). I did all this in the afternoon when it was hot so I was taking lots of breaks. I didn't accomplish everything I wanted, but at least it's a start. I'll feel better once the outside is "done" because we were starting to lose a lot of plants to the heat and lack of watering. This summer has just be dry, dry, dry! We haven't had nearly the amount of afternoon showers as we normally have. Even a little bit of the TD Chris would have been nice! Anyway, after all of that, Chris came home from his reef club membership drive at the fish store and then we went to our new favorite restaurant, Emilio's. We saw it one day when we went to DQ to get some ice cream. It is fabulous! The inside is very romantic and decorated nicely. We've been to some family Italian places and they aren't that great. The salads are like half a head of iceberg lettuce, ya know? This place has good greens and not too greasy garlic rolls. Chris ordered lobster ravioli last night and they came out in two big pasta shaped lobsters! It was cute! I'd definetly forgo eating out once a week for finding good places like that and eating out every two weeks and spending $40 ya know? Today was more of a lazy day. I just couldn't get motivated. Chris went for the membership drive again and I went with my friend Lois, a scrapbook buddy, to Dollar Tree and Michael's. I scored some good stuff at DT for scrapping and I could have spent moola in Michael's but I didn't. It would help if I found all of my scrapping stuff first. Well, if I can find a cd for the camera soon I'll take some pictures of around here. August 4th, 2006 This is for Mrs. Impatient (Chelle). ;) Love ya Chelle. She was ragging on me to blog. I should rag on you to blog, chica. Been almost two months!! ;) Lots to talk about. First I'll do Studio Friday. My "studio" is in chaos and not yet put up yet since the move. Boo. :( But, the topic is ok without a picture. It's about your Creativity Roots. I'm not sure where they came from. My parents don't draw or paint, but mom did some crafts growing up, so maybe it came from that? My grandmother crocheted (past tense because her hands are too arthritic to do it now), quilted and sewed. Mom sewed too. She made dresses for me growing up. I think mom took a plastics class in highschool and I think dad took some woodworking or something too. But as for drawing and painting and stuff, that just came from dropping out of band in 6th grade and having to take an elective. I dropped out of band for stupid reasons. Really, it was expensive to be paying for reeds (I played oboe) and other costs regarding the instrument. So, into art I went. I liked it too. Mrs. Walker. Anyway, that's not much, but I guess that's my creative history. I think my parents have it in them, but they don't get into it and really just do it. Mom, you should scrap! :) Ok, back to life stuff. This week has flown by. Which is good because last week creeped by. I finished reading The Grail Bird which was fantastic. It's about the ivory-billed woodpecker, it's history, demise, supposed extinction and then the rediscovery two years ago. It's sad to think about it because it discusses how they were in most of the southeastern US and they were hunted and deforested to extinction. The area it was rediscovered in was in Arkansas in some swamp land and much of that land has been converted to farms for soybeans. I browsed Google Earth for awhile looking at the area and it's depressing. The ivory-billed was once in Florida too, in Big Cypress. That's leaves me hope that maybe, just perhaps, I'd find it on a hike in Fakahatchee. Wouldn't that be exciting??? While I'm trekking here, I'd love to find a passenger pigeon. Yes, that's extremely far-fetched, but I can dream, right??? ;) TS Chris is gonna miss us. Good thing! Got home today and worked in the yard. Been neglecting it a bit. Really just too HOT. But, too many plants are wilting, keeling over and I need to weed. But the front bed is starting to be planted!! WOO! I put some ferns behind the (what we found out to be...)Japanese Yew, planted some amaryllis bulbs that were crowding in a pot, and we're doing a variegated section too. (Chris says to add I LOVE CHRISSY POOH) It'll be pretty cool to see. Tomorrow I've got a long list of things to do, including finishing the the yard and weeding the pots and washing my car. Well, guess that's about it! July 30th, 2006 Today was pretty productive. I slept in a little, though it wasn't much like sleeping in as I went to bed after 1 last nigh and then Chris came in from fishing around 2:30. At least the little runt was quiet this morning. I was up late watching The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio that i checked out at the library. It's a cute little movie, shed a few tears and all in all it was worth watching. There's a book that goes with it, based on a true story. So far today I've: taken out trash, read some in a book, changed the litter, done laundry, made dinner (steaks, potatoes for us and Chris' friend Casey who came down for a frag swap), made collard greens-fresh, went to Michael's for a little out of the house time and artist creativity session, worked on the spare room and got the furniture more or less arranged, swept the porch and fixed a vanilla orchid that had fallen over. Been pretty busy. We want to work in the yard tonight. Try and mow the back and other stuff. Thinking of going for a run too. Been a few weeks since I've done that! Here's a few pictures:      What it took to move the fish tank...!!! July 29th, 2006 We've been at the new place for two weeks now. We finally mowed the front lawn yesterday. It was in dire need of it, too. Some places were calf high!! The back was supposed to have been done today but it was raining/thundering most of the day and when it stopped it was too hot and still wet to bother. So, maybe tomorrow. We still have to chop down some of the Brazillian peppers, bundle them and then haul them to the trash. Luckily bulk pickup is next week. I have just a few boxes left in the kitchen (not counting what's stored there for other rooms), and the bedroom is set up mostly. Oh, I am SO HAPPY....first a backstory....in Jan of 05 we went to a work party for Chris in Tampa. It was semi-formal so I wore a nice dress and a nice diamond necklace he'd given me a few years before. The next time I wanted to wear the necklace was Valentines 05 and I couldn't find it in my jewelery box. I searched everywhere and even looked when we moved both times. Nada. I'd given it up for gone at the hotel in Tampa. Last night I was condensing my jewelery boxes down into one so I could put the smaller one in the garage sale. I pulled one of the drawers from the small one out and found some earrings had fallen back there so I went to reach for them. What did I find??? That necklace!!!! It was just a speechless moment. Chris was working on this new bench for the plants on the porch so I walked out and put it in his hand. He was happy too! So, that is really good!!!! Went to the library today. It's just a few blocks from here. Really small, but not too bad. I picked up like three or four financial books. I am really trying to learn about investing because hopefully in a few months or so I'd like to put some money towards that. I've been reading some financial blogs PF Blogs Aggregator if you want to click around. The things so far I am interested in are a few online banks, which are banks in other parts of the country or world, such as ING or Emigrint. Most have a rate of around 5% right now for returns on what you put into the acct. I'll do more reading of it first and see what they are all about. Got a gardening book and a few movies too. Oh and a Kinky Friedman book and another book on the sighting of the Ivory Billed Woodpecker in Arkansas a few years ago. I saw a ton of books I wanted to read but my list is too long right now. This is a good thing for carpooling though. Two hours of reading each day...woohoo! Either that or two hours of extra sleeping each day. :) WOOHOO! Bought groceries at Winn-Dixie tonight. Well, not major groceries, but meat and some other stuff. Publix is too expensive. We usually go to Walmart but there isn't a Super Walmart nearby. And Winn Dixie wasn't too expensive either. If you use their card you can get good deals and they had some meat specials too. Well, I'm gonna go work on the kitchen, make brownies and chill out. Chris is fishing tonight so it'll be a party night with me and the kitties! :) July 21, 2006 I know I haven't been around for a few weeks. We have moved, finally. There is still a smidge left at the old house and we need to clean it still, but that we will get to tomorrow. The new house is alright. I'm kinda liking having a house. I can see how it would be a lot of work to own one, but rewarding just the same. The yard has a lot to be desired. The Brazillian peppers and other invasives have to come out and we're going to work on them soon. Mom has come and gone. It was nice to have her around. We did some shopping, had some girl time at the spa at the Seminole Casino and just had fun as much as we could considering the move. Let's see what else. Oh, I got sick on Wednesday. I think it was some virus or something, maybe bad food from eating leftovers. Vomitted most of the day Wednesday until I went to urgent care and got a big 'ol shot in the hip. Still trying to eat light so I can feel a bit better. I miss my Bluebell bullets; they don't sell them here. So, it's been soup, jello, and popsicles and a bit of bread today. I suppose that's about it. Not sure how much I'll update as I still need to get internet moved over to the new place. July 8th, 2006 Packing stinks. We are moving right along, but there is still a lot to be done. Hopefully a bigger dent will be made tomorrow. Finish up the computer room, work on our bedroom and gather picture frames and shells and get that done. It's kinda storm out right now, which is fun. Lightning. Leo gets a poofy tail sometimes. He gets riled up or spooked and his tail goes poofy. This morning I walked in to the bedroom and they were playing on the bed and Samson had a poofy tail! We've never seen him with one! I think the move and the boxes are kinda freaking him out a little. He's not exactly a happy mover. But, it's only 10 miles this time. Should be interesting getting them both in the same cage again! July 6th, 2006 I have a New Favorite Band. Ali Edwards (see artistic muses) had mentioned them on her blog before and I decided to check them out on MySpace. And they are right up my alley. When things get settled down I think I'll buy their album! July 4th, 1776 When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, having its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Such has been the patient suffrance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to the Civil Power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their acts of pretended legislation. For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: For imposing taxes on us without our Consent: For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury: For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses: For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies: For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally, the Forms of our Governments: For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever: He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow Citizen taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have We been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connection and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends. We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor. July 2nd, 2006 We found a place. Friday Chris looked up some places and one was in Sunrise. It was a bit further north than we wanted but, it couldn't hurt to look. I called the number that was in the yard and set up an appointment for yesterday. We met the realtor, who happens to own it, and put in an application and deposit and she pretty much gave it to us. It's not as nice as the townhouse, but it's a house! With a yard that we can give some TLC. 2/2 with a big living room and a little outcropping of the living room that will be good for a reading area. The kitchen is humongo! lol, ok for what I'm used to. It's separated off from everything else. It's an older place as you can see in the photo. Chris checked out the property appraisers place and the place went up $100K in two years. In 2004 it was worth $130K, now it is appraised at $234K. And as you can tell that is something you can get in Texas for under $100K, even in parts of northern Florida. But, we're lucky, it was $1350 and you can't find much like that for a house. The neighborhood is ok. Sawgrass Mills is just two miles down the road! WOO! So, two weeks we'll be moving. Today we started packing up the garage. That was a pain. It's not totally packed. The problem is Chris still has stuff that he uses for the tank and that stuff just kinda gets left out. It's rather annoying, but I can't do anything about it. Tomorrow I'll work on packing the storage area downstairs and starting on stuff upstairs. Fun Fun. Tired. Of. Packing. And. Moving.  |
