Put on the Glasses

Yep, we all knew it was coming. They found me, they sent me a questionairre and we all knew that it was going to happen eventually. I have been summoned. I will let you all know the details after it happens in a little over a week. Bah humbug.

In this installment of the tale of our garden I bring you the flower bed. Brian and I used chunks of wood found in the backyard to section off the side of the garden. I aded a layer of top soil to it after I dug out most of the weed roots, big rocks and garbage. In the corner closest to me in the picture you can see the toy car and domino that Brian found while digging in the grass patch. We like to keep the more amusing things that we find. For plants, Brian and I first brought his huge ivy plant out from the kitchen where it spent the winter. Then I bought some day lily and canna bulbs and planted them in the box. There is also a mixture of flower seeds coming in near the front of the box. The pots are some random things I am growing. So far I have marigolds, forget me nots, onions and chives coming in. My cilantro seems to be dying already but that's okay. I went into this with little hope for any plant's survival under my care! So far it looks rather pretty, the l...

At the risk of sounding sickeningly cutesy I am posting this email. Earlier today Brian sent me this message in an email. I laughed so hard that I had to share it with all of you. Here it is: Let's do a quick choose your own adventure: 1) Does Brian love you more? If yes, go to question 2. If no, go to question 3. 2) Are we drinking tonight? If yes go to question 4. If no, go to question 3. 3) What are you, stupid? Yes, I'll go back to question 1 and try again. 4) Damn straight. Brian always makes me laugh.

Our latest installment of Garden Project '09 takes us back to the section of the garden that we worked with last year. Yes, in the very spot where Brian's poor zinnias met their tragic end due to flooding, Brian is now trying to seed grass. We have no idea if this will work. Really, we just want something that isn't dirt or weeds. Also, we don't want to put the effort into flowers again just to see them perish. Here is Brian digging through the dirt removing rocks. There were a shocking amount of large rocks under the soil. It is now no surprise why Brian's flowers fell over last year: their roots just hit rocks. Here are all of the rocks that Brian removed (to the left of our path). We later used them to line our sitting area. Here is the area after we seeded it. We really have no clue what we are doing. Sunday, when we went out to water the seed, a cat had dug a hole in the soil, using the area as a litter box. Later that evening, Oreo dug a whole and us...

Above is yet another cat that is frequenting our backyard. We are calling him Nero. He is pretty scared of us but likes to sit and watch us from a distance. Nero seems fitting since he has such fiery orange eyes. Oreo is still doing well, aggravating Livia every chance he gets. Here he is under Livia's favorite window taking a nap. You can just barely make our Livia in the window glaring at him. Here is a good picture I got of Brian and Oreo: Since Oreo seems to hang around every time we go outside it is almost as if we have multiple cats. We have our indoor Livia and our outdoor Oreo. Hopefully the other feral cats will continue to keep their distance so that we do not end up caring for the whole neighborhood!

This weekend, the garden project continued with a new addition to the garden: mulch. Late Friday night, like the dorks we are, Brian and I trekked down to the Home Depot in Bed-Stuy to look at gardening supplies. Brian decided that he had to buy something to cover the dirt where our bench and table sit. I admit, I was skeptical at first. Brian wanted cedar mulch and I had never dealt with mulch before. I don't know anything about it or what you have to do to maintain it. However, I set my reservations aside in view of the fact that each bag of mulch was only $3. Plus, Brian offered to carrying all of the mulch home on the subway (I only had to carry bulbs and a mini-Weber grill; I am spoiled). Any doubts I had about the mulch quickly dissolved as I watched Brian spread it out in the area under our bench and table, as seen above and below. Not only does the cedar smell great, but it is nice to be walking on something that was not only cheap but also significantly prettier th...

Last weekend, Brian and I went back to Minnesota for Easter. We had a lot of fun visiting Brian's family at his grandparent's house and my family at my sister's house. Lots of ham and good conversation! We also had fun at Berns and Brandon's house party! Livia stayed home in Brooklyn with Jay checking in on her. Jay said that Livia was a great hostess, even if she ate Jay's hair again. When we got back Livia would not let us out of her sight. In the above picture, she sat on my luggage when Brian and I were leaving to take a walk. She clearly didn't want me taking off again and made her point clear by keeping me from taking any luggage with me out the door. The picture below was taken at my parent's house. My mom hid chocolate around the living room for me and Brian to find. I just wanted to post to let everyone know that Livia is doing well, Brian and I are back in Brooklyn and to thank everyone who we saw over Easter for showing us such a great time...