Gardening Updates

 This summer, I tried gardening again. We started by buying pots and planting seeds. Unintentionally, my "trying" turned into multiple different attempts for different plants. We are currently on attempt number 3 at basil. I last wrote about this in May. This is a continuation of that blog but can stand alone if you're just now tuning in. 

My original pot of basil seeds started to sprout, but something wasn't right about the growing conditions and so they failed to really take off. My little sprouts stayed sprouts for what felt like months and then they died off. Later, they started to grow again, but then my biggest sprout was nibbled before it had a chance to continue growing. For attempt number 2, I used a different soil mix to start my seeds. However, the temperature was much higher so the combination of the elements once again did not yield proper sprouting.

Attempt number 3 was actually an accident. I had mixed soils with ungerminated seeds when moving plants (yes...that's a big no no in gardening but I did it anyway) and then I saw the basil finally sprouting. Rather than pluck them out for the trash, I decided to repot them in little cups to continue growing. Risky as they could have died in the process, but I didn't have anything to lose at that point.

Since it is now mid-September and our temperatures feel more like comfortable summer temperatures instead of scorching ovens, these seeds were able to sprout and germinate.  

Let's see how big they can grow before temps drop below 60.

My other plant babies were my peppers. 

My original pepper plants which had sprouted from saved seeds have grown into very large plants. I did not top off my pepper plants this year just to see what would happen out of curiosity. Various gardeners online gave mixed advice as to whether or not you should. I decided not to because I wanted to see what the plants would do just growing on their own. Because I did not top off, my plants ended up with a taller Y split and ended up being very tall plants overall. 

These pepper plants have endured a lot with me. They started out in pots. These pots were moved to the side of the house when our patio was being installed. Then, these pots came back to the patio with me. After a few weeks, these peppers moved back to the side because of the intense heat. During our sprinkler installation, these plants were moved back to the patio again to evade the workers and their digging. After the sprinklers were installed, these plants endured a transplanting into their permanent home now in our raised bed planter with designated sprinkler system zone.

Half of these plants were revived from the dead...that's another story.

After a really hot summer, I finally saw baby bell peppers sprouting. 

Can you spot the pepper?

It was a beautiful sight. I think I was almost as heart-warmed seeing peppers growing on my plants as when my first baby was born....but not quite. I watched these peppers grow and counted them every few days to see if new ones were coming. 

And then some got eaten. That was a bad day when I discovered gnawed-off stems where I knew baby peppers were. 

I consulted some friends for advice, did some research online, and found a way to cover the peppers so animals couldn't just eat the fruit off the stem so easily. I used some plastic netting that comes with a package of Asian noodle thread I buy. (Anyone already know which one I'm talking about?) I wrapped up my peppers with the netting and used a twist tie to secure it closed. 

My husband said it looked like they had pink wedding veils on. What a great description. I hope this will deter whatever was eating my peppers long enough that I can take a bite out of one of my peppers before this year ends. They still need 2-3 weeks minimum to grow bigger before I should pick them. 

End of post advice from this experience:

1. I'll probably top-off my peppers in the future just to have shorter plants and a lower Y split, especially if I want to overwinter the plant for next year's growing season. 

2. Saving random things comes in handy if you have the space and capacity to store them in an organized fashion without turning into piles of junk.

3. I'm very proud of my pepper plants. They've been through a lot, and they've pulled through. 

Consumables

I've never been a fan of consumables. Specifically for this post, I would be referring to stickers. Are stickers fun? Yes! Are stickers cute? Yes! Would I buy stickers for my children to play with? Nope. The reason is logical but narrow-minded. I specifically don't like buying things like stickers because they end up stuck on pieces of paper or items, and the pieces of paper will eventually get thrown away. 

So why are there so many stickers at my house? I've bought stickers to teach. As early as 11 years ago, I purchased reward stickers for my classroom when I was a student teacher. I used a handful here and there and had leftover which I saved and carried over to my future teaching positions. I still buy stickers to teach. I go through multiple stickers a day and about every 2-3 weeks I need a new sheet. For teaching, I buy bulk ones so they last me at least a year if not multiple years. 

A few years ago, my Christmas gift to my students included a few sheets of stickers each. I had tons leftover because when I bought the set, even though it was advertised as 232 pieces, almost half of the bundle was sticker sheets. 

Only two shiny sheets left...

My children recently discovered stickers. I know, they're very late to the game. I've held off for a long time. It started after a friend babysat for us. They took the kids out on errands and bought them stickers from one of the stores. After that, we noticed how entertained they were by stickers. I remembered my extra stash from Christmas stored away and pulled them out again for the kids to play with. They loved it! I could even teach a 30 minute lesson while they busily pulled off stickers and pressed them onto a blank piece of paper without being bothered. I’ve been able to take a shower without fear of my child tearing down the house. We can make it through a meal at a restaurant without fussy children.

My son's stickers on stickers. 

Specifically, my children love the stickers that are shiny and holographic. They're very keen on this - they prefer the "fancier" stickers and always ask for those first. It's not a taught skill. I didn't teach them to preference the shiny stickers. They just naturally figured it out. Sadly, we are down to the last two sheets of the shiny stickers. My daughter asked me a few days ago if I would buy her more stickers. I went online to look for sheets of shiny stickers and I couldn't find anything like what I wanted.

My daughter, on the other hand, is very organized.
I did not teach her to do this...but she probably inherited my type A 😅

All I want is a sheet of the shiny holographic-type stickers in bulk. And I couldn't find it. I'm actually pretty close to just buying the Christmas stationery set again which included stickers and just save the rest of the pieces for other purposes. 

My daughter also uses the outsides of her stickers now. She learned it from us because we would peel the outside off first so our son could peel his own stickers without the border pieces. 

So my perspective on consumables has broadened. Although they will all eventually end up in the trash, what they afford me along the way is more valuable to me as a parent: time to shower in peace, eating at a restaurant calmly, being able to not have my children say "mommy" 10x in a row and leave me alone for 10 minutes, fostering my children's creativity. I'm sure a child therapist or psychologist could go on and on about why consumables, although not financially efficient, are a wonderful "toy" for children. 

Do you buy your kids consumables? How has it saved your sanity?

Lilly

My mother is not remembered as being someone who would openly buy and spoil us with gifts. Most of what we asked for was rejected, but that is not to say she never bought us anything. I've written about the dollhouse furniture she bought me, and that memory brings a lot of grief. But this one brings joy. 

One year on a book order, my mother let me buy a set - the book, a cassette tape, and a character doll. I think it must have cost her somewhere between $10-$15 for the set. It wasn't like her to buy the entire set considering the book and cassette tape together probably only would have cost around $7. But she did. I vaguely remember the book orders being handed out in class when they arrived and some of my classmates envied the fact that my mother bought it for me.

Pristine condition if I do say so myself...the tag is still attached to her arm.

It's a cute storybook. I still remember swapping out the cassette tape holder to a "cooler" one my grandfather had. Instead of a plastic hinge lid, there's a little button you can press and the cassette tape slides out from the compartment. My grandfather wrote the title on the side for me. It's one of the last remaining pieces of his handwriting I have in English. 

I did a random search online to see what Lilly would go for on the market today. The doll itself is being sold for almost $40! Not to say someone is going to pay that much for a plush doll...but you never know. 

My mother didn't buy random things for us because she didn't see the value in them. If we could convince her an item had a purpose other than "because I want it," there was more of a chance she would buy it for us. I don't remember the reasoning I gave her to justify buying the entire book set including the doll, but she bought it for me. I enjoyed Lilly as a child, but she wasn't played with. However, I never got rid of her. 

Recently, my children wanted to play with the box of stuffed animals in the closet so I pulled the boxes out and let them go nuts. When they cleaned up, my daughter saved Lilly and didn't put her back into the box. She asked me if Lilly could stand, if Lilly could sit. She took off Lilly's purple purse and put it on the flipper of her penguin. A little tight, but cute. She took Lilly in the stroller with her penguin when we went on walks around the neighborhood.

I can't really explain why I've kept Lilly all these years. I think the closest explanation would simply be because my mother bought her for me. And it's nice to keep the doll, the book, and the cassette tape all together as a set. Watching my daughter play with Lilly is special. Although sad, Lilly will probably not stay as pristine as I'd like if she keeps playing with her, maybe it's time Lilly fulfilled her destiny as a plush toy. 

Had my mother known that 25 years later, her granddaughter would be playing with something she bought for her daughter, she might have been more willing to buy things. If only she were here to see it...

Water, Water, Finally

I really don't like spending money. My husband and I have a running joke. He isn't worried about me spending money so if I ever tell him I'm going to go shopping, he has no fear of how much I'm going to charge the credit card. It's true. Spending a lot of money makes me almost physically uncomfortable. I wish I could prove him wrong...but that's one dangerous spite. 

But you know what? I think for the first time in my life, I was really excited to drop a large sum of money (house-buying/car-buying excluded). No designer shoes, dresses or handbags. You know what I was really excited for?

A. New. Lawn. Sprinkler. System. 

Yup, you read it right.

Our house didn't have a working sprinkler system when we bought it. We knew that when buying the house. Our house buying experience was pretty crazy, although the last few years have probably exponentially increased the craziness of the housing market. We decided we didn't really need one. Rain in the spring and hand-watering for the extreme heat periods would be good enough. And for about seven years, we survived. 

This is our 8th summer in this house. This year was a beast. We have had nearly as many 100+ degree days this year as the last four years combined. If this is remotely similar to a repeat of Egyptian history and their feasting and famine, then we may expect to see heat like this for another 6 years...come find the blog in 2028 and see if it holds true. I hand watered a lot this summer. We bought oscillating lawn sprinklers and I created my own "zones" as I set the microwave timer and went outside to move the sprinkler around the lawn to keep as much of the water in the grass as possible and off the sidewalk. I was really good at that. Even when I accidentally forgot to turn off the water (once), I came back an hour later and saw there was no water on the sidewalk. 

Truth was, I didn't mind watering the grass by hand. I liked being able to keep as much of the water off the sidewalk while still keeping out water bill generally low. But my kids were getting older, summer is the time to travel, especially once they're in school, and we should probably think about our foundation a little more carefully than we have been. 

So we pulled the trigger, called a few companies for quotes, and then picked one. Three days after accepting the quote, we had a new system installed. They used a Ditch Witch to create most of the trenches for the pipes. My husband used to work on their accounts and he was excited to see an actual one being used. I was thoroughly impressed with how efficient and effortless they made it look. They arrived in the morning just before 8:30 am, took a one hour lunch break, and left just before 5:30 which included a  30-45 minute walkthrough of the entire system with me at the end. 

Watching them dig channels and place pipes was kind of mesmerizing.

Let me tell you, I've never been more happy to write such a large check and trade it away for a brand new sprinkler system. Ironically, the evening after it was installed, rain was in the forecast so I could not play with my new toy. On the bright side, it was one less day I needed to pay for water for the grass.

Doesn't look great now...but now I can water it at the touch of a button!

The Business Problem

We had someone out on a Friday to come give us a quote for new sprinklers. After over seven years of living in this house, we've finally decided we probably need automatic sprinklers to water our grass, especially with the kind of summer we've had this year. I'm not going to get into that now as that's not what I wanted to share today. 

He came out Friday afternoon, walked around our yard, answered our questions, and told us the following before leaving:

- he was going to get a quote to us that weekend

- he would send a text message when he sent the quote in case something happened

So he left and I felt very encouraged that I wouldn't have to create my own "watering zones" for hours every summer by moving the hose. 

We were out of town that weekend but I kept checking my email periodically to see if the quote had come through. It didn't. On Monday afternoon, I still hadn't received anything in my email from him so I texted him saying I hadn't received the test and included my email in the text to make sure he was sending it to the proper one. Never got a response to my text message. 

On Tuesday, I called the office number in the morning. They said they saw the quote in the system but wasn't sure it was ready so they were going to reach out to him to ask if it was done and then have it sent. Wednesday and Thursday I didn't do anything. Didn't get the quote.

Friday rolls around and I still haven't received it. I called the office again at 4:30 pm. A different person at the office answers from Tuesday morning and it is then that she confirms the email with me which is incorrect in their system. I correct it for her and she says she will send it. At 4:45 I haven't gotten the quote yet so I call back. I got voicemail a few times, so I called three times until someone picked up the phone. She told me she hadn't gotten time to send it yet but she would. I again confirmed she had the correct email in the system, hung up, and waited.

Now I want to make it clear that although I "bombarded" the office with calls on Friday afternoon, I was very polite and kind, no cursing, no name calling every time on the phone. We'll get to this again later.

Friday evening around 9:30 pm, I finally get the quote in my email. We look it over. It's a competitive quote. We had an idea from the start that this company was going to be competitive and wanted to sign with them. But getting the actual quote in my email was a nightmare.

Saturday at noon, I received a text message from him saying the quote was resent (resent??) and I should have received it. I responded saying I did receive it and would be in touch with him when we made a decision. 

Wow.

Are you tired from reading that? Let's break it down now. 

When he originally came out to give us the quote, he told us two things that I specifically outlined. He failed to do both. I got neither a quote that weekend nor a message saying he sent it. Later when the quote was actually sent, he told me it was "resent" which means it was sent it a first time. Why didn't I get a confirmation text that time? After all, he did originally say he would send it. Also, I purposely confirmed my email in the text message to him when I sent it on Monday. There shouldn't have been any kind of email mistake between Tuesday to Friday because he had the email on his phone in a text message by Monday. Most importantly, I never got an apology when clearly the business dropped the ball on something. I can't stand it when people don't own up to their mistakes. Is it hard? Absolutely. Should you? Yes. Especially if you want to be a business owner.

Here's the flip side of the situation. People are manipulative. People are rude. People are mean. These people have ruined the concept of "The customer is always right." I'm positive at some point in business, he was trying to be nice and it ended up biting him in the butt. Why am I positive this has happened? Because I run a business and it has happened to me and people are still people. And the problem with today's progressiveness is that I would be seen as the antagonist. I would be seen as the crazy lady who "bombarded" an office with calls on a Friday afternoon so close to business close. 

But if you knew the whole story, you'd understand that they dropped the ball first. He did not keep his word in doing what he said he would do. And I gave him an entire week. And it still took me calling the offie on the next Friday afternoon before closing to make sure I got the quote. 

The Morning After

Our first conflict as a married couple was the day after our wedding. I was definitely thinking in my head at the time, "Wow, I can't believe we're starting off our marriage like this."

We missed our honeymoon flight the morning after our wedding. Yup, we were the the couple who ended up at the counter trying to negotiate with the ticket agent to do whatever we could to get on a flight to go to our honeymoon saying, "But we're on our honeymoon!" Seriously, that's the only time you can ever possibly need to use that excuse, and we were one of the "lucky" few who did.

It was a series of unfortunate events really. Being an international flight they closed check-in an hour before the flight departed. We probably could have left our apartment a little earlier. We ended up sitting in an idle shuttle bus at the remote parking lot for about 15 minutes waiting for who knows what to go to the terminal. And we did not check in to our flight before arriving at the airport - if we had, that would have solved everything! Sigh. (Alas, we did not have internet at our apartment and walking downstairs to use the spotty wifi in the amenities wing was too much trouble at 5 am. Also, I did not have data on my phone at the time so it wasn't even convenient to get a boarding pass on my phone. Yes...I know, it was the year 2014 and I had no data. I was behind.) The ticket agent said we shouldn't have stayed up so late partying the night before. Guess what? We didn't. We left our wedding at 9 pm and were sleeping before midnight!

The irony is, although a three-hour, albeit international flight, they do not give you free checked bags. BUT they close the check-in an hour before departure. Double standard? 😑

So what caused the argument? The fact that going on our honeymoon, which was already completely paid for, was going to cost us an extra $800. Now if you know me at all, you'll know I spend money wisely and carefully, and an unforeseen extra cost of $800 would infuriate me. It wasn't even that we didn't have the money. It's truly a blessing to have extra money in the bank account and not go paycheck to paycheck, but it didn't make spending it any easier.

For a while I was just really irritated and running the what if game in my head. What if we'd checked in earlier and printed our boarding passes. What if we'd left the apartment earlier. What if the shuttle hadn't sat idle in the parking lot waiting for who knows what for 15-20 minutes. What if the lady had just been nicer and didn't charge us anything extra. Well, of course, if you've ever played the what if game, which I'm sure you have, it's all just wishful thinking because we can't change the past. It happened, it happened the way it did, and we paid an extra $800 to go on our honeymoon.

We got on the next flight to Cancun, arrived at our resort, and had a great honeymoon. The added expense was not discussed and everything was fine. Ultimately, it came down to our priorities at that moment. What was more important: going on our honeymoon or saving $800? 

The resort was really pretty. We were definitely spoiled,
and we haven't gone anywhere as luxurious since. ha. 

I've had to remind myself of this more than once in the last eight years. If your problem can be solved by paying some money, it's not really that big of a problem. Inconvenient? Yes. Frustrating? Yes. Easily fixed? Yes, relatively speaking in the grand scheme of things. Don't fall for the scams though! Stay sharp.

We're still married. 😁

Eight is Great!

We are celebrating anniversary number eight. Actually, we celebrated already a few days early. But wow, I'm still a bit in shock it's actually been eight years. Eight is my favorite number. It just worked out we got married in August which is month number eight. Golden anniversary? Let's just call it that, because two was...well, too early. I don't even remember anniversary number two, or the other seven for that fact. I do remember one was spent in an airport. I think that may have been number two....

We went big this year. we paid for a babysitter for the entire day, dropped our kids off, and went off on our adventure. 

No kids or car seats in the back 😱

We started off with lunch at Korean bbq. We've done Korean bbq once with children, and let me tell you, if it weren't for the other people we were at dinner with, it would not have been enjoyable at all. Constantly moving breakables and spillables away from tiny hands is a tiring task. This time, we got to do it without kids. Amazing!

I enjoy the meat a lot, but that's not my favorite. 😏

After stuffing our faces for nearly two hours and eating at least 4-5 pounds of food, we went downtown to see the DMA. I remember going to the DMA numerous times growing up as a child and teenager, but I never felt like I fully enjoyed it. There were exhibits I still remember to this day which were memorable, but for the most part, it just felt like walking through a giant building "observing."

I enjoyed our visit this time much more. I even came across a painting painted on our anniversary....just 95 years prior! The exhibit actually pointed out the date in the lower right hand corner. But I happened to see it in the painting itself first before reading the card. I'd like to attribute it to fate to discover this little gem, but in all honesty, I think it's because that's the corner of the painting which hit eye-level when I was standing relatively close to it. 😆

I enjoyed reading the descriptions of the artwork a lot more than I used to. Of course an important part of art involves simply looking at it, but the descriptions provide a nice framework which influences the way you look at it. I appreciate that particular aspect more now. It comes with age, go figure.

We stopped by again at the creative station at the museum. We first came across this section about five years ago when they provided some simple materials and let you construct your own sculpture. This time, we went again and created a few more masterpieces. Try guessing the names of our sculptures and who made which!

After we finished our time at the museum, we walked over to the restaurant for dinner. The last time we made this walk was February of 2017 with much nicer weather. Although a hot July day, it didn't feel terrible. Or I just had really good company which made me not notice the heat. But I did notice the naked mannequins at Stanley Korshak 

Love the color scheme artwork. Disappointed not to see more dresses.

We made it to Uchi for happy hour only to realize we didn't make a reservation and their waitlist was quite long since it was Saturday afternoon. Clearly it's been a really, really, REALLY long time since we've stepped into a fine-dining establishment. Oops. We figured we'd wait anyway since we were already at the restaurant, we didn't have other plans, and we had a babysitter so we could afford to sit around and wait without fussy children. We ended up waiting nearly 1.5 hours, ha. It actually didn't feel that long because they served us small appetizer samples and water, and we people-watched from the restaurant lobby. I was newly informed on the newest fashion trend in dresses because I saw about 6-8 women wearing the same style of dress. We watched countless people with no reservations leave after hearing how long the waitlist was going to be. And we watched a couple leave almost yelling at each other after they finished their meal. That was strange. I'm glad that wasn't us after hearing how long the wait was going to be. Don't sweat the small stuff. More on this tomorrow...

They ended up getting us seated right as happy hour was coming to an end, but the waiter let us order off the menu anyway. Really delicious, as we expected. 

This was our second time eating at the restaurant, the first being five and a half years ago. It was as enjoyable as we remembered it to be. Maybe we'll be back in another five years. 

I had a lot of fun spending an entire day with just one person, and an adult for that matter. I didn't grow up with the mentality that paying someone to watch your children while you go out and enjoy yourself and spend even more money was worthwhile. But you know, it really is. We won't be doing this every weekend by far, but every now and then, it's a worthy splurge for sanity and some fun. 

Cheers to more years! 🥂