ten on tuesday…

ohhh another batch of questions brought to you by roots and rings…

1. What was/is your favorite live action (meaning not animated) kids movie?– not sure if it’s considered a  ‘kids’ movie but i am going to have to go with any Harry Potter movie. i devoured the books and love being able to see j.k Rowlings creations come alive.
2. What is a bad habit you have? Are you working on breaking it?– paying more attention to my ipod then my driving. i never text while driving and rarely talk on the phone, but that ipod? can cause just as much distraction if not more…
3. Describe your father in 3 words.– He’s Tha Bomb!

4. Which character in the Breakfast Club were you most like in the ’80s?–  considering i didn’t see that movie until college i am having a hard time comparing myself to one of the characters. we did however, have a substitute teacher in 8th grade who told my class (all 12 of us) that we were “Totally the Breakfast Club.” i thought that was cool but had no idea what he was referencing…until i saw it in college and it all made sense…

5. Name 5 songs you know ALL the lyrics to.– there are just too many list, that and the lyrics of many songs i know are a wee bit embarrassing to publicly admit to…
6. Do you make pancakes from scratch or a box mix?people make pancakes from scratch?
7. What was your worst job ever? Why?-the summer between freshman and sophomore year of college i worked for a temp agency. during that summer i covered toilets with plastic at a college dorm and packaged formeldhyde.i dont think i need to explain why those were the worst. i also thanked my lucky stars that i was going to college…

8. What was your favorite class in high school?– World Civilization with Mr. Pfeffer. because of that class i know who built the hanging gardens of babylon which led to no-one wanting to play trivial pursuit with me in college…
9. Favorite summer guilty pleasure?– having a nice cold drink outside…
10. Please share your best money saving tip!– stop buying coffee every morning…

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thursday thoughts…

• so connecticut has this stupid property tax thing,  just because you have a car means you have to pay the town a percentage of what they think the car is worth. every year. i got my bill the other day from the bustling metropolis of newington. knowing it was going to be somewhat higher than what i was used to considering we have the new car now, i didn’t really blink at the total. not until i REALLY read what was included in the total. the bill valued my 1999 chevy malibu with almost 200,000 miles at $2400. Huh? where did that number come from, have they seen that car? she is running on neglect!

• last year i only paid something like $23. perhaps north stonington and newington should compare notes…

• michigan never had anything like that. then again, michigan didn’t have a department of motor vehicles either, i got my license at the secretary of state office, well took the test and the picture at the office then went home with  my temporary paper license and waited approximately six to eight weeks to get the fancy plastic one…ahhh simpler times!

• i guess i should also mention that i took drives ed at Sears. yup, mom put it on her Sears card and everything!

• annd i have never taken a drivers test with a representative of a state who should smell bad, be mean because they hate life, and intimidate me while i try to parallel park. not once..

• some people may say this explains a lot…i say…Whatever!

• why are all these thoughts circling around cars?

• nick officially is done with middle school! its hard to believe we will have a high schooler in the house, one who will be driving soon…

• but certainly not mable…

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holy random friday batman…

• i have been out of school for over a month and feel as if i am busier now than i was then…

• i have had every intention of getting a head start on the next semester which equals the last semester which equals thesis type work…

• i am doing the first thing today for said final project/thesis…

• i have a hard time tying to describe what this final project/thesis type thing is. it is for a masters, but it is not a thesis in the traditional sense, but i do have to finish it in order to be done with school, so instead of going through a thirty minute dialogue with anyone who asks what i am doing, i will just refer to it as the thesis, because at least people have an idea of what that is…

• i watch Deadliest Catch, it is one of the only reality type tv shows i really enjoy. (well besides Jerseylicious-but that is a deep dark secret) Tuesdays episode made me really upset what with phils son saying he is an addict and knowing that phil is going to pass away soon…it affected me…

• speaking of Jersey, has anyone seen Jersey Couture, i think one reason why i am drawn to these mindless-train-wrecks of shows is because people in Jersey are really like that…i have seen them…

• week one of gardening done, we have little green tomatoes, and the weeds are still at bay…

• while watching the news this morning and hearing about the recall of spaghettios and meatballs, i got the WORST craving for spaghettios and meatballs, i haven’t eaten them in years, yet seeing the happy can on the screen sent me back to college my youth, when happiness was a lunch of spaghettios and meatballs…

• of course i still refuse to eat real spaghetti and no i have not been able to explain this to my Italian grandmother…

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ouch…

last year we had a community garden plot with a friend of ours. for $20 bucks you get a 20×20 plot of freshly tilled ground. overall the experiment went well, we harvested more broccoli then i have ever seen and threw away a million and a half zucchini because those grow like weeds. this year i decided to go ahead and do the plot by myself (first mistake). this year i didn’t get a chance to plant until this past week (second mistake) which meant the nicely tilled ground had plenty of time to revert to pre-tilled ground. friday morning i got up, got to the nursery and lowes and pulled into the community garden, happily anticipating a nice few hours in comfortable temperatures planting my veggies and enjoying life (third mistake).

in the back of my mind i had a sneaking suspicion that maybe i had waited to long and maybe someone took over my plot. but i pushed that thought out rationalizing that community gardeners are nice people. as i headed down the hill with my tomato plants in the back seat, i saw a heaping amount of greenery on  my plot, my first thought was those nice community garden people pimped my plot!!!

but no, those are weeds. weeds that have been growing for a month and a half. tomato man at the plot next to me, who was there last year and only plants tomatoes (hence the name), was kind enough to point out that the ENTIRE plot is weeds and that it is “back-breaking work” to get them out. Thanks!

i unloaded my car, took all the plants out, the mulch, the tools, and the fertilizer, and pondered how i was going to single-handedly pull up all of these weeds. Gone was my idea of a nice few hours of mainly planting. as tomato man was packing up his things, he said “i hope you have a strong back!” and as he drove off he said “good luck young lady!” his only saving grace was calling me young lady.

so i started hacking, then squatting and pulling everything up. thankfully the ground was soft and everything was coming up without a fight. when i got to this point…

i realized that i had burned the skin off of my thumb, scared the bejesus out of a toad, and had been hacking away at the weeds for over an hour. i paused to take a picture with my phone, i KNEW i had to share this! after a quick band-aid on the thumb and a couple swigs of vitamin water i went back in. in three short (not so much) hours i had pretty much cleared the entire plot. and my back hadn’t broken. then i went on to plant, it’s not straight, and there are still remnants of weeds, but the plants are in the ground…

and i have reclaimed my plot from the weeds. when i left, i had a sense of achievement, a question about what would tomato man say when he came back, and a body covered in mud and sweat. most importantly i came home with that feeling you get after over exerting yourself at the gym. the one where you were shaking and breathing hard, but totally feeling the burn and working through it. the one you know you will pay for the next day.

i woke up this morning moving less than the tin man did after he got snowed on. it hurts to type because of the blisters that have developed on my hands, and its times like these when i realize i am so getting older…ouch! oh yeah and i took a day off from work to do this….

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