Goodbye July 2012

This month is either the worst July in weather history or the second worst (July 2011 being the worst), depending on which weather person is talking.  Either way, it's been hot, humid and very dry.  We've had 23 days this month of 90+ degrees.  Of those 23 days, seven have been triple digits.  Adios July, with that heat, it convinces me August HAS TO BE cooler.

One of my work buddies is also struggling to lose weight.  She brought in this endorsement from Dr. Oz's website.  Always the skeptic I am, I did a little research.  A product called Raspberry Ketones is indeed endorsed by Dr. Oz to assist in speeding up the metabolism.  I went online and to our local GNC store. I purchased a small supply, they seem to give me some energy and curb my appetite, so far, so good.

We continue to water the garden 5-6 times a week due to lack of rain.  However, tonight we got a quick 7 minute rain shower with hail.  Tonight, Mother Nature finally helped out with watering - notice, a few more cherry tomatoes.  The white specks are hail.

As you can see, it poured steadily for awhile (click picture to enlarge :)

Moments later, the sun is back out and everything is soaked and steaming.

The corn is growing fast, amazingly fast, almost as tall as the arbor.

Still getting more orange-ish/red cherry tomatoes, green ones not turning - yet.

Finally, I've been glued to the TV since Opening Olympic Ceremonies on Friday.  I loved the UK Industrialization theme they opened with.  The skit with the Queen jumping from the plane and landing Opening Ceremonies was brilliant, especially because she played along with it.

Off to watch the USA get more Gold medals, USA has to catch China and less than 14 days to do it!

Lookin' Good

Hallelujah!!!  We have orange-ish tomatoes!!  It looks like the small ones are turning first.  If the smaller ones turn first, they will be easier to consume, as there are more smaller (cherry) tomatoes than the larger size (actually medium) tomatoes we planted.  Ain't they purdy?

 

I also found more corn beginnings.  Thanks Happyone for your input on the corn (and thanks for the smile too :)    John agrees with you.  Hopefully, we'll get a little crop this year out of this experiment.

Peeled back a leaf and discovered the beginning of corn on another stalk also.  Yes, I'm still smiling at these little pleasures Mother Nature has given me.

Out of the four stalks of corn, three have these corn seedlings.  Maybe corn by end of next month?

Quickie

I'm trying to stick with posting a little more often (and probably shorter posts), so here's my Quickie post.  For that promise to myself, you'll probably get some boring stuff here.  Ya never know as they say, "one man's trash is another one's treasure".  You might find these posts entertaining.  If not, come back, guarantee to change, hopefully often.


Last night, before going to bed, I headed to the bathroom for my nightly dental care (toofie brushing :) and one last tinkle.  As I sat down on the throne, look what I stared at - YIKES!!

Okay, so I cropped this picture to make it bigger.  I also dropped the phone book (weighs about 5 pounds) on this spider, it was pretty BIG, honest!  It was at least as wide as a ping-pong ball, that's big enough for me as spiders go.  I was able to scrape it up and flush it down the toilet - ewww, right?  I found one of these about two months ago in the bathroom too.  It met the same fate in the same process as this one (minus the picture taking).  I hate spiders.  My vacuum cleaner is my weapon of choice.


Prior to heading to bed, I watered the garden, and it's growing!  This (spiral stock?) popped up since Sunday's pictures - really!  I think this is the beginning of my corn.  Oh I hope, hope, HOPE it is!!  I've never grown corn before.  Anyone out there in the know about garden corn, feel free to comment and let me know, please.  I'd appreciate your input.

Finally, as I dug around where I thought there was only ONE green bean, I found two more.  This isn't the best picture, I know.  Can you see all three green beans (click picture it will get larger)?

Isn't always the little things that bring a smile to our face?  Hope you found something to smile about today.  A smile goes a long way, share one, I just did.

Emotions

Thank you Vee for goading me into this return to the blogging world.  I am overcome this weekend with emotions of yet another shooting tragedy.  My heart goes out to the families of the victims.  It has been somewhat heartwarming to hear those who gave their life to save others.  Disheartening to hear the youngest victim, a six year old girl.

My best friend, Colleen, visited this weekend from Annapolis, Maryland.  I was excited to see her again.  It rained here most of the weekend.  Colleen arrived about 11am Saturday morning.  I had a couple of options of activities.  She said "I'd really like to stay here, talk, and catch up".  I was happy with that as well.  I had been grocery shopping after work on Friday and picked up a fruit platter.  I'm still sticking with my healthy living (more about that later).  We munched on cantaloupe, melon, watermelon, and pineapple.  We decided to hold off on the wine until we returned from dinner.

The afternoon passed quickly as we caught up.  I was surprised that my thin friend had lost more weight.  I was worried and asked if she was okay.  She mentioned she was concerned about her cholesterol.  She took her physician's advice and dropped another ten pounds, she's now down to 130 at 5'8".  I shared with her my frustrations of being on the plateau.  I shared my small victories.  I also shared the results of my doctor's visit the beginning of July, high glucose and cholesterol levels, everything else was fine, except of course, the weight.

The doctor recommended I sign up for the weight loss program offered by the local hospital for $800.00.  The doctor said this usually is not covered by insurance so it would be an out-of-pocket expense.  I explained that I have recently returned to work, that money was not available.  In my mind I was thinking "if I paid the $800 and didn't lose the weight, would they give me a refund?".  I don't think so, nor would the hospital weight loss clinic.  At work two weeks ago, they had a luncheon health clinic with My Weight Doctor as guest speaker.  Same cost for weight loss program as the local hospital, about $800.  Colleen mentioned she'd given up bread and watched her carbs.  I've changed my food journaling site to Spark People, it has given me more tracking options for diet and exercise.  I will not give up my journey to weight loss and a new healthy lifestyle.

Colleen and I lost track of time, we decided that we really should have dinner.  I love the Ruby Tuesday salad bar, we had gone there last time she visited.  "Would you like to go back to Ruby Tuesday for their salad bar?" I asked.  She agreed so off we went about 4:30pm.  We were seated at the table, in this area was only another table of customers, the place was mostly empty.  Nice and quiet to continue our catch-up chat.  We both made three trips to the salad bar.  I know it sounds like a huge amount of salad.  It was filling, keep in mind, their salad plates are a bit larger than a bread plate.  After about an an hour, there was a line going out the door, and the parking lot was almost full, when we left.  The word is out on Ruby Tuesday's salad bar I think.

The garden is growing!  I have green (not red yet) tomatoes.  The corn is growing tall too.  Large cornstalks, no sign of corn yet.  I was shocked to see a green bean.  It is only one, but I thought that green bean planting was a total loss.  I didn't know one plant equaled only one green bean.  Those who are not bloggers, clicking on the picture makes it "full size", in case you have trouble seeing these.

and here's the ONE green bean

The tomatoes have grown past their circular cages, the plants almost reach the top of the arbor.

I fear the same may happen as last year.  All the tomatoes turn red at the same time.  I'll have more tomatoes than I can eat or give away.  That's really the fun of playing farmer, sharing the crops!

The rain finally ended early afternoon and Colleen left about 1pm today.  We made promises to see each other again soon.  She has a beach trip planned with her in-laws in a couple of weeks to a beach I use to frequent near Virginia Beach, called Sandbridge.  Colleen has never been to Sandbridge.  I told her I'd be in touch with her when she returned to hear about her trip.  Maybe the four of us can make plans to go next summer if she and her husband like Sandbridge.  Shortly after Colleen left, I had another visitor.  Can you see the eyes and ears peeking out from under the patio table - it's our yard rabbit!

John will be home Friday from his most recent trip to Charleston, South Carolina for work.  It's been a difficult summer, since he's been there most of it.  John left July 9th this trip, another three week trip.  He has been on work travel for two weeks in May and three weeks in June also to Charleston, South Carolina.  He's tired of traveling, living in a hotel room, and eating in restaurants.  He's scheduled to be assigned to a new project out of Norfolk, Virginia starting in August, at least he'll be a little closer to home if he has to travel.

My job is doing just great, I still love it.  They had a company picnic with a dunk tank on Friday, July 13th.  Managers cooked hambugers and hot dogs, everyone brought a dish or contributed to the purchase toward items.  The managers volunteered to sit in the dunk tank while employees bought tickets to take "shots" trying to dunk the manager.  Proceeds went to Feds Feed Families charity.  Here's the food line.

The storm that hit our area June 29th caused the whole area to lose power, along with 2 million other folks.  We were out of power for 27 hours, not too bad considering others were out almost two weeks.  We also have a generator, purchased after the hurricane a few years ago when we lost two refrigerators full of food.  This time when the power went out, John had the house wired.  I had internet, we watched TV in the garage with an oscillating fan going.  It was hot, triple digits.  I'm grateful we were as bad off as some.  Here is a neighbor's house, they weren't so lucky.

Everyone had some small damage to their trees.  The county debris removal trucks were busy for a few weeks around here.

And finally, in these past couple of weeks of triple digit temperatures and high humidity, I pass our neighbor's house twice daily.  No one is ever enjoying this swimming pool, maybe I should.

Hope you are staying cool and enjoying your summer too.