1st Okra Harvest

Just Friday all the okra that had gotten close to ready to harvest had been destroyed by ants, but yesterday when I went out to pick tomatoes I ended up finding some pretty large okra.  I ended up harvesting quite a several big ones and a few regular picking size.  Since we leave for our first summer vacation early Friday and the kitchen is a disaster, there will be no cooking with them now, but I cut them up and froze them for use later.

Mik in our garden for 1st time

Mik was involved in the garden project as he helped pick out what to plant, but until today he had never actually been out to see it.  Tonight for the solar eclipse we already had brought the wheelchair down the steps to the backyard, so it was not too much more to go over the railroad ties to get out to the garden.  He enjoyed seeing everything we had planted and we even found 7 cherry tomatoes ready to pick and eat (yeah, only one made it back into the house!).

Watching the Solar Eclipse

This evening we all watched the solar eclipse in the backyard.  It is not often we all end up in the backyard since it is not accessible for Mik to get out there.  I made the pinhole solar viewer from a cardboard box lid this morning and was ready to watch it when it started, but Mom and Dad did not get my text until 6 p.m. and Mik had to get changed when they got here, so they did not all end up outside until a few minutes before the peak.

It was cool to see the eclipse reflection on the garage.  It was especially cool to get Mik out to do something in the backyard.  If we just got the motorhome out of the driveway, then he could get back there with his powerchair and try out shooting hoops.  Maybe, by the end of the summer and when it starts to cool down again it will be doable, as that is on the list of summer projects to fit in between out kaotic summer travel schedule.

Who knew to look in the bathroom for autumn leaves?

I can remember several times buying fabric leaves or going searching for some autumn leaves to do some craft project.  Today I was working on clearing out what I do not want of what Mom left in the master bathroom and I ended up realizing that there is a dead plant above the linen closet.  I can remember it being live at one time, but it probably has been dead for years now and has very dried out brown leaves.  Actually would be a cool fall centerpiece just as it is.

Today's Garden Harvest

Our garden is producing quite a lot of tomatoes.  The picture is of today's harvest, but it has been about that many every time I go out there to harvest (usually every 2 to 3 days).  Today the two strawberries were also very ripe.

I would have thought there would have been some okra by now, but the biggest I see now is smaller than the biggest last week and no I did not pick that one.  The ants seem to be eating the okra.  The rhubarb is the plant they are totally crawling all over all the time and eating the leaves of, but they are not even touching the strawberries which are one of the plants between the okra and the rhubarb.

Trying to figure out how to get rid of the ants, but at the same time not really going to try anything too major since the rhubarb is still thriving as is the rest of the garden and I could live without the okra if the ants keep eating all them.

Making Mom Try Something Different

Last night I went out to dinner with Mom and Dad to go to a Mexican restaurant for a cultural activity for my current Masters in Education course on multicultural education.  We ended up at Los Portales, which at least Mom and I had not been to before.

The most common Mexican place we end up at is La Salsa, which sure is not the same being a chain, but it is nearby and more fast food.  Mom almost always gets a shrimp quesadilla.  Thus when she said that was what she was getting at Los Portales, which had a lot of different shrimp dish options, I would not let her.  She ended up with a dish with shrimp topped with cheese and a chipotle sauce.  It was spicy, but she did like it.

Painted Switch and Outlet Plates for Mik, too

On Monday I finally got my bed in my room and Mik came over to my room to watch Castle instead of our usual watching in his room.  It was the first time he had seen my room done.  The first thing he noticed was the awesome blue switch plate and he wanted his painted, too.

Earlier this week I talked with him to see what color he wanted his painted.  At first he just wanted his switch plate in his room painted, but we decided to do the two outlets that are not hidden by furniture and the switch and outlet plates in the bathroom.


For his room he choose a red.  Since we wanted to stick to the acrylic paint colors we had in the house, he got stuck with a color that is sort of orange red.  I painted them in my room and the orange seemed to stick out, but once I took them into his room and put them against the lighter colors of his walls they do seem more red.  Even the orangish aspect works, though, as he has a stained glass canyon painting that has reds and oranges as part of what I call his art gallery in his room.  The outlet that he plugs his strawberry wall flower fragrance holder looks especially awesome.

For his bathroom, I thought he would go with red, but he surprised me by saying the bathroom ones should be green.  I did not understand why he would choose green when his towels are black and red, but he explained it would match the green lines in the bathroom flooring.  I actually rather forgot that it in fact originally had a green color scheme.  The green I used ended up being rather dark and almost looks black, but since he has black towels it still works.

I totally jokingly said last weekend that I would slowly end up painting all the plates in the house, but what room to do next?

The Pesky Final Blue Switch Plate

Yesterday I painted most of the switch and outlet plates for my room.  The one I did not finish, though, was the three switch one for the bathroom.  The main reason it did not get painted in the first round was that it was broken, so I wanted to replace it.

I picked up a new last night (splurged an extra $1 for the unbreakable style), painted it, and got it ready to put up this morning.  However, in trying to install it we realized the reason the other one was broken was that it had to be sort of jammed over the light switched because the closet trim is so close to the left side of the switches.  Thus Mom got tasked with sanding the edge down.

Well, by evening it still was not installed, as somewhere along the way Mom stopped sanding.  She made it seem like it was a big effort sanding job, so I just went out to the garage and got the electric sander.  Ten minutes later it was ready.  It would have been ready in five, but I had to stop to come inside to rewind the Nats game and see Bryce Harper steal home.

It still took some finagling to get the switch plate on, but I now have an uncracked switch plate that is also blue to match the rest.

My FLOR Installed!!

Today we got the FLOR installed in the main part of my room.  Just a little to be done in the hallway and my closet at some point soon.  Overall it worked out pretty easy, although Dad did end up cutting one of the corner pieces wrong two to three times before getting it right.  Not a big deal, though, because we have plenty of extra tiles, especially since the one closet Mom is keeping as her "junk" closet is not going to be cleared out to do anytime soon.

I had been looking for just the right color for my room and when this design first showed up in the FLOR catalog I knew it was perfect color wise for my room.  I was not entirely sure how the randomness of this type of tile was going to end up, but it worked out great with only a few tiles having to be switched around because they looked funny next to each other after just laying them out as we unpacked them.

Painting my Switch and Outlet Plates Blue

While Mom and Dad worked on ripping out the carpet and getting my room ready for the Flor tiles, I took the easy task of painting the outlet and switch plates blues before putting them back on the white walls.  After spilling Dad's cup on the counter and a half hour of him nicely cleaning up the mess I made, I painted the plates with the Sorcerer Blue paint, so they match the one blue wall and the blue ledge.  I knew it would make the white walls more interesting, but I was surprised what a simple little color made quite an amazing difference.  I still have a really awesome Sorcerer Hat thing to make for the wall opposite the blue one, though.

A House Divided: Dbacks vs. Nats

Mik trash talks the Nats all the time and of course I have to defend them.  I did not used to counter trash talk the Dbacks, but every since they moved their spring training away from Tucson I totally dislike them, so now I do trash talk them to counter to Mik's trash talking.

Today the three game Dbacks @ the Nats series began.  I told Mik he had to get his online course done before his phone classes because the game started right after his last class.  Of course, he was trash talking saying the Dbacks were going to slaughter the Nats all day.  He only ended up watching the first inning before retreating back to his room for video games, but yeah they ended up beating my Nats.

Mik came back out right as the game was ending as Dad had arrived with Tuesday night dinner.  Dad was with me rooting for the Nats, but Mom came in right after the game ended and Mik asked her who she wanted to win and she was for the Dbacks.  Thus Mik wanted a snuggie for the win and she gave me a snuggie for my team losing while Mik said I do not get one for the team losing.

Now Mik is totally trash talking the Nats and well there is not much defense right after a loss.  The Nats are still doing pretty amazing this season, though.  If they just could get back to winning, especially against the Dbacks so I can get my turn at victory and trash talking about my team beating Mik's team.