Squashtastic!

Last fall I created another small garden. Yes, the shape made it look like I had recently buried a body in the backyard. My neighbors must've thought I was nuts.

Anyway, the whole point of the new space was to make room for some squash plants. I'm happy to report it's so far a success. In May when I peeled back some of the straw to plant the veggies (one yellow squash and one zucchini), it was just perfect. No excessive digging required!

Despite the severe lack of rain, the squash seem to be doing OK, the zucchini more so than the yellow squash. Mmmmmmm.

Water lily on steroids

After just a week, the water lily in my Father's Day water garden has at least doubled in size. I knew the things spread quickly in the wild, but geesh -- it's only been a week!



Garden contains: (clockwise from back plant w/purplish flower) Pickerel weed, corkscrew rush, water lily, parrot feather, and bloody dock. The parrot feather is mostly below water and not really visible in the photo.

My design is completely unoriginal. I did fall in love with the deep red veins of the bloody dock, which wasn't mentioned in the project description, so I did add an extra plant. Knowing what I know now -- that the water lily is going to take over the world -- I see it was a mistake to go beyond four plants.

Embarrassing Conversation Habit

Since I seem to be one of the only never-married, childless mid-30-something women in the area, I'm always struggling to find some way to relate to my acquaintances when they discuss their families.

I've noticed a startling habit from which I absolutely MUST break myself.

Fictional example:

Acquaintance - "Now that little Bobby is mobile, he just won't stay out of the kitchen cabinets."

Me - "Oh yeah, when L was a kitten she went through a phase where she was breaking into the cabinets all the time. She was also a terror when it came to houseplants."

**panic**

OMG...what did I just say? I just equated my tabby to her toddler?!

I know how awful it is the second it leaves my mouth, but there's no taking it back. Even throwing in "not that kittens compare to toddlers, of course" along with some nervous laughter doesn't make it much better.

So, yeah, this is something I have to work on, or become even more reclusive to avoid such opportunities for embarrassment.

Happy Hardscrabble Birthday, WV!

In honor of the state's 144th, here's a bit of YouTubery.

I Wanna Go Back To West Virginia, Spike Jones, 1942
I heard a piece of this song this morning on Metronews and got interested in the song. It just happened to be offered on YouTube. I'm going to have to do a little more research because I just noticed that Spike Jones was born and died in California. I wonder what the history is behind this song -- is it his or did someone else do it first?

My Home Among the Hills, as performed by the WVWC Chorale
It's not a great recording for music quality, but it's the WVWC Chorale, and in my biased opinion, no one does "My Home Among the Hills" like WVWC musical groups. I still get chills whenever I hear this song.

The feud, then oral sex -- what a school trip!

Oh, those frisky hillbilly teens -- studying the Hatfields and McCoys by day and getting it on in the back of the bus by night!

I would guess this happens pretty frequently. I'd almost bet it did when I was in school, too, along with God only knows what else.

Driving American: "You know what FORD stands for, right?"

...says the car rental lady.

Well, yes, I believe I've heard that little joke before, but it's a product YOUR company offers. Are you telling me it's inferior?

That's like walking into an apparel store and the clerk saying, "Oh, you're not buying those pants are you? 'Cause they're really poor quality."

She was trying to convince us to take a foreign economy car. We had already planned on getting the Ford Focus because that's what we had reserved online, so when she asked us if the other car would be OK, we protested slightly. By that point in the process, we had become a little suspicious of everything she said. So we held our ground and requested the Focus.

OK, she said, and then dramatically pointed out the company's free roadside assistance number "just in case you need it."

So, that was how we got our very first rental car. We were very pleased to find an almost-new Focus awaiting us. For us, that was pretty special -- any nearly new car of any make is very cool.



I admit we put the car through some severe conditions -- dust, extreme heat, severe inclines, etc. And it held up just fine. The car handled well, was comfortable, and over all FELT very much like my four-year old foreign car. It had about the same amount of room in the interior and trunk and comparable features.

There was, however, one very big difference that quickly became apparent:

GAS MILEAGE

OK, my four-year old Japanese car gets about 37 mpg highway, sometimes even more than that. The 2007 model of my car gets 40 mpg highway.

The brand new Ford Focus? 27 mpg.

That difference adds up fast, especially with gas prices ranging between $3 and $4 per gallon.

So, Ford can build a car that feels and looks about like my Japanese car, has about the same amount of interior space, and similar features, but it can't make that car get comparable gas mileage. This wasn't, of course, the first time I'd realized this issue with American cars; it was just the first time I'd experienced it for myself as a driver. To be honest, it was depressing.

6/26/07 Update: According to various websites, the mileage for the Ford Focus ranges from 27 in the city to 37 on the highway for manual transmission (we were driving an automatic). Soooo, take the above as what it is: a random anecdote from a short-term Ford Focus driver.

Road Racers

There's not a lot to look forward to when you drive Route 50 between Parkersburg & Clarksburg, but in the summer time, it's kind of fun when you happen by cyclists or walkers doing a coast-to-coast trek.

On my last trip, I passed a couple of cyclists in Race Across America (Oceanside, CA, to Atlantic City, NJ).

I'm totally in awe of the bikers who do those races. Even in my best physical condition, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't last more than 5 very slow miles on that stretch of highway.

My next career: water lily propagator

This year for Father's Day I broke out of the rut of striped polo shirts and books and bought the supplies to make a whiskey barrel water garden.

It turned out OK, but I think it will probably require some additional work in the next couple of weeks. I did learn a few things during the process:

• Water plants must be gold-infused because they go for $10 a pop. And we're talking small pots. OK, some are $4.97 at Lowe's but darn it, I didn't go there till after I'd shelled out over $30 for 3 plants at the garden center up the street. So, I'm considering investing in some swampland and going into business for myself.
• Um, yeah, that light fluffy Miracle Gro potting soil doesn't work so well for pond plants. When you sink the plants it just floats right to the top. Arghhhh. I ended up putting lots of little stones around the top of each pot, but still quite a bit of potting soil escaped. I don't know if the stuff will actually absorb enough water to keep it down in the pot. If not, I'm going to have to re-pot all the plants.
• Which brings me to sinking the plants in the water -- who knew that would be such a challenge? My pots wanted to float, even though they were really water-logged when I tried to sink them. And it was also quite a challenge to find bricks, blocks, rocks, etc., to balance the pots on and put them at the proper depth in the water.
• A word of advice: If you plan to buy a whiskey barrel and transport it in your car, be sure to take an old bedspread or blanket or something so you can completely wrap it. By the time I got to the cashier, my arms and legs were covered with black. It would have destroyed my car if I'd had to put it in uncovered. Luckily, I'm a total dork and always carry an old bedspread in my trunk because I'm always dragging home random filthy stuff.