Catching up...

So it's been a while since last I blogged... I was sick, and then Paul went to Ireland and I got more sick, which I didn't think was possible, but it was, so I spent a good part of that week sleeping in a restless Nyquil haze and eating Chocolate Velvet Soy Delicious because it was the only thing I really wanted, and then eating various noodle soups because I thought I needed the hydration... Then I spent the weekend with My String Bean and her dog Rocco and they both wanted desperately to be held, but an Auntie X only has so many arms. We managed to compromise by me holding Charlie and Rocco lying across my legs so I couldn't go anywhere :) I used my captive time taking advantage of my brother's cable and watching the first 5 episodes of Big Love and thanking the gods that I neither have to share Paul with anyone, nor feel any sort of religious obligation to go forth and multiply :)

Then Paul came back and we spent the week celebrating his birth in various ways and just generally being grateful that he got home safely. This past weekend I weeded, fertilized, and planted some new things in my herb garden. My life is way too chaotic right now to do a full vegetable garden, so I figure as long as I have my most commonly used fresh herbs in my mini garden, my store bought food never has to be boring and I don't have to worry about buying them and then not using them before they get slimey. Here's the pic: From the top left we have a lily of some sort that was there when we moved and survived, a row of Italian parsley, a patch of oregano that is struggling to thrive from last year, a lonely dill plant that I planted this year, and a giant bunch of lemon balm that came back from last year in the top right. In front of that is a bunch of basil plants on the left and a small clump of cilantro in the front left corner. We love cilantro but it doesn't transplant well. The big mass in the front slightly left of center is a purple sage plant that is doing rather well from last year. The front right are 4 creeping thyme clusters, 2 red, 2 white that I'm hoping will fill in that area. Behind those are a couple of clumps of chives that keep coming back year after year, though they're a little less full this year. And last, but hopefully not least are a couple of rosemary plants that I'm hoping will thrive and keep coming back. I'm shooting for a fairly low cost, low maintenance garden.

On Sunday we went up to Paul's mom's house and helped her plant her vegetable garden and strip the sod off a strip of lawn that she just didn't want to mow anymore :) After all the hard work we had a BBQ dinner (boca for me), some birthday cake for Paul (chocolate cinnamon and raspberry go surprisingly well together), and I turned the heel and made lots of progress on my very first sock! I'm using microspun in lilac on size 4 needles. On Monday, Paul had to work, so I slept in, did some more knitting, and then cleaned up the remaining rubble from the hearth and ripped out more of the old felt insulation. We rented a jackhammer over the weekend and Paul did most of the heavy lifting to break up the concrete that was left over after the brick was removed. Here's what's left now:

And just for completeness, here's the sink area:

The past couple of nights I've been ripping up more of my house to make room for the forced air heating system which will eventually go in a closet next to my snazzy new combo laundry machine. It goes "bing!", or rather it makes Zelda noises according to Paul.