Nikki’s Friends and Family

Wednesday Stuff

2008-07-23T15:13:54Z

So much to do to get ready for camping this weekend, and here I am sitting on my butt. I don't have much choice but to do it today, as tomorrow morning I've got my annual physical. So here goes:

make a menu
go shopping
take some pictures, try out new lens
pack

I'm anxious to try the new lens out, it is a 12-24 ultra wide angle, for landscapes. I am so going to have fun with this lens in Chama! My problem nowadays is, do I want to zoom or macro. Luckily my 18-200 can do both, although it isn't near as good as the 105mm for macro photography. Now I've got another lens to pick from! These are the three that are going on vacation, for sure.

I love this picture of the lower garden, and everything is accurate color and brightness, this is what it looked like when I took the picture, and last night I loved it, but today, it looks kind of blown out.

Coreopsis

This is my coreopsis, I'm not sure if I spelled that correctly. It doesn't seem to be too happy where I planted it, only one or 2 blooms at a time. I want to go after this one with the macro lens. I guess I just need to decide what I am going outside for, birds or flowers when I make my lens decision. I hate switching lenses, as I've read that the more you switch, the more likely you are to get dust on the sensor, but I have a sensor cleaner, but I still hate risking a trip to the store for cleaning.

My black hollyhock seems to have adjusted to replanting, I hope it is happy where it is, and I hope it decides to grow straight up next year.

My black flowers

After all the "these plants attract bugs" comments, I decided I'm going to spray my garden regularly, or as often as I can without killing anything I do want in the garden, ie bees, butterflies etc. I sure don't want those nasty earwigs and jap beetles. The flowers are definitely worth the work! The only problem I am having is capturing the hollyhocks the way I want too. I've got white and black. Both colors are hard to get right!

White hollyhocks

The sunflower plants are going crazy!! I guess letting nature take its course works out better sometimes than actually planting seeds.

3 and a bud

I actually got inside the kitchen garden yesterday. Pulled a couple of weeds that were big enough to come out with a yank.

Inside of the kitchen garden

Sunflower 2

Sunflower of the day:

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

My Daily Tweets

2008-07-23T05:02:15Z

08:04 good morning people! welcome to Tues! #
08:04 Monkey Tues! #
12:21 why is it so difficult to print a list of the files in a folder in windows? #
12:37 " file:///C: " is the key apparently; when the OS fails you use your browser :) #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

on tuesday

2008-07-23T03:08:49Z

free fall

Originally uploaded by gamany

things I enjoyed:

chai tea with milk and honey
my camera
instructables.com
photography
3D browsing

things that made me go "hmm":

plastic coffins in the middle Georgia (I think someone ordered too many)
genes that could turn ordinary people into supergeniuses (I wonder if Heroes will be back this season)
hi-tech shoes with heel height extenders

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Today in Pictures

2008-07-23T01:07:24Z

Critters

Denim dragonfly

Grackle and morning dove

Wildlife

3 stargazer buds

Here are my 3 stargazer lily buds. I'm definitely going to plant more of these this year.

I didn't think I took too many pictures today, but when I hooked the camera up to the laptop, well, there were 82 of them! Digital photography rocks! Oh, and may I say this: I LOVE these girls!

I love these girls

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Blonde Jokes

2008-07-22T22:29:51Z

These are corny but funny.

Blonde Cookbook

Monday

It's fun to cook for Tom. Today I made angel food cake. The recipe said beat 12 eggs separately. The neighbors were nice enough to loan me some extra bowls.

Tuesday
Tom wanted fruit salad for supper. The recipe said serve without dressing. So I didn't dress. What a surprise when Tom brought a friend home for supper

Wednesday
A good day for rice. The recipe said wash thoroughly before steaming the rice. It seemed kind of silly but ! I took a bath anyway. I can't say it improved the rice any.

Thursday
Today Tom asked for salad again I tried a new recipe. It said prepare ingredients; lay on a bed of lettuce one hour before serving. Tom asked me why I was rolling around in the garden..

Friday
I found an easy recipe for cookies. It said put the ingredients in a bowl and beat it. There must have been something wrong with this recipe. When I got back, everything was the same as when I left.

Saturday
Tom did the shopping today and brought home a chicken. He asked me to dres! s it for Sunday. I don't have any clothes that fit it, and for some reason Tom keeps counting to ten.

Sunday
Tom's folks came to dinner. I wanted to serve roast but all I had was hamburger. Suddenly I had a flash of genius.. I put the hamburger in the oven and set the controls for roast. It still came out hamburger, much to my disappointment.

GOOD NIGHT DEAR DIARY. This has been a very exciting week! I am eager for tomorrow to come so I can try out a new recipe on Tom. If I can talk Tom into buying a bigger oven, I would like to surprise him with a chocolate moose.

A blonde goes into a coffee shop and notices there's

a 'peel and win' sticker on her coffee cup.

So she peels it off and starts screaming,

'I've won a motorhome!

I've won a motorhome!'

The waitress says, 'That's impossible.

The biggest prize is a free Lunch.?'

But the blonde keeps on screaming,
'I've won a motorhome!

I've won a motorhome!'

Finally, the manager comes over and says,
'Ma'am, I'm sorry, but you're mistaken.
You couldn't have possibly won a motorhome

because we didn't have that as a prize.

The blonde says, 'No, it's not a mistake.

I've won a motorhome!'

And she hands the ticket to the

manager and HE reads...
(YOU'RE GOING TO LOVE THIS !!!!!! . I PROMISE !)

'W I N A B A G E L'

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

note to self

2008-07-22T18:06:36Z

buy more chicken 'n sausage gumbo
ask dad to make more cornbread
ask mom for more cucumber kimchi

Lunch was so good.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

swimming with bugs

2008-07-21T21:53:57Z

My neighborhood has a bunch of beetles lying around on the ground these days. I'm not a big fan of bugs but a part of me wants to collect and study them.

belly up

beetle

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

How to save the airlines

2008-07-21T21:12:37Z

HOW TO SAVE THE AIRLINES

Dump the male flight attendants. No one wanted them in the first place.

Replace all the female flight attendants with good-looking strippers! They don't even serve food anymore, so what's the loss?

The strippers would at least triple the alcohol sales and get a 'party
atmosphere' going in the cabin. And, of course, every businessman in this country would start flying again, hoping to see naked women.

Because of the tips, female flight attendants wouldn't need a salary, thus saving even more money. I suspect tips would be so good that we could charge the women for working the plane and have them kick back 20% of the tips, including lap dances and 'special services.'

Muslims would be afraid to get on the planes for fear of seeing naked women. Hijackings would come to a screeching halt, and the airline industry would see record revenues.

This is definitely a win-win situation if we handle it right -- a golden opportunity to turn a liability into an asset.

Why didn't Bush
think of this? Why do I still have to do everything myself?

Sincerely,
Bill Clinton

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Stuff on Monday

2008-07-21T19:48:50Z

Things I need to do:

weed kitchen garden
weed veggie garden (that has only mint, strawberry plants and 1 lone tomato plant in it.
laundry, am working on that now, as I sit here
cut some flowers
go somewhere and buy something
put dishes away
figure out how to use this:

Mandolin
- figure out if I really needed it or if it was an impulse buy lol
- find something new to do with pork chops
- find my smile
The US Open was hot. Michael decided to sit on the bleachers at the 18th green. It was in the 80's and very humid in the shade, but the bleachers were out in the open, no shade. There was a breeze every once in a while, but not near enough. I tried to sit with him for a while, I saw a couple groups come in, but then I had a flash and I just couldn't handle it, I had to find cool quick. After sitting and sweltering for about 15 minutes, I went and bought a bottle of water and sat at a picnic table where I could see nothing of golf, other than the players walking by. It was too hot to take pictures. It was too hot to watch golf. They did feed us lunch, we were in the US Bank villa, but we should've brought chairs. They would have been a pain to carry but so worth it. So anyway, I people watched. On the way home Michael asked if we could golf I said "no wayyyyyyy its too hot!"

When we got home, it was actually pretty nice here, in the 70's I think. I wanted to fill the bird feeders and get the hummingbird liquid out. The boys wanted to go see Batman. I was so torn, couldn't decide, but the birds won. I now have an Oriole feeder out there!

Bird feeders in the shade

I realized something yesterday filling the feeders. Birds poop all over them. yucko. Oh well, I washed my hands when I was done. The humming bird feeder is really messy to work with, the stuff is so sticky. The green ivy feeder has seed sprouts growing in the bottom 1/3rd of it. Its pretty hilarious, the birds can only get the food out of 2 or 3 of the feed holes. I guess I just decided what to shop for today. Bird feeders.

I've got some sunflowers sprouting in a pot on the front porch.

Sunflower sprouts

I haven't decided if I am going to thin them and let just one or two grow, or try repotting them, but that seems like so much work for something that sprouts so easy. Add "plant more sunflower seeds" to my list.

I've got a ton of new blooms. There are a lot of pretty white things starting to bloom now!

Phlox exploding

New blooms

I don't remember what this is called, but whatever it is, the black flower is a variation of it, they grow the same, on a stalk, and the leaves are about identical, right down to the bug holes.

Black

The sunflowers are going crazy now! I'm going to be able to cut quite a few of them once I get off my butt and go outside!

Reaching for the roof

The reason my walls look red is because no one told us the outside water didn't pass through the iron curtain downstairs. Last October when Rick was here, they did some of it with muriatic acid. The stuff is dangerous deadly though, and they didn't finish it, and I'm not about to do it, so we just have some orange tinted walls. LOL ! All the white trim was stained orange too, and the pillars out front.

The tiger lilies are just about done.

Last of the tiger lilies

This is one of the last. The stargazer lilies are budding now though, shouldn't be long till I get them. Three. 3. Tres. Thats how many buds I have. Whoopdeedoo. lol Well, hopefully next year I'll get more. This is the second and third year for them though!

Here are some more things around the garden

Bee balm complete with bee

Black eyed susans

Columbine seed pods

Chipper

Hanging out in the sunflowers

Gold finch

Gold finch 2

My favorite place to hang out is out front. Hopefully, it won't take the orioles long to find the orange and grape jelly!
Look who came to visit yesterday

I think its time for me to take these down a little, and you know I'm going to have a zillion of them next year!

Vertical chipmunk

Ok I'm off to move laundry around. Hopefully some out front time today too :))

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Sunday

2008-07-20T15:51:58Z

We are headed to the US Bank Championship at Brown Deer. No cameras allowed. :((

Find karen in the drop

Read and post comments | Send to a friend