Saturday, January 31, 2009

#1 Song

Through Rat-Terrier.com I found this cool website where you pick the month, day, and year and find out the number one song for that day. It's fun and free! Go ahead, look up your birthday and leave me a comment telling me the popular song on your special day(s).

On my birthday it was Pat Boone singing "Apring Love"
Jerry's birthday was "Nature Boy" by King Cole
Our wedding was "Shake You Down" by Gregory Abbott

Oh! Here's the link: http://www.joshhosler.biz/NumberOneInHistory/SelectMonth.htm

I'm Alive And Well

Thank you all for your kind comments and telephone calls regarding the loss of little Chloe. I appreciate your support and words of encouragement. I'm getting past the "what ifs", regrets, and grief of losing a pal of 14 years.

Today I went shopping for our Superbowl party - a party that include me, Jerry, and my mom, LOL. Jerr works on Sundays but should be off in plenty of time for the game to start. Each year we load up on wings, fried mushroom, and other foods one would find at the local bar eatery Mugs & Jugs (kinda like Hooters but with a bigger fried selection). This year we are going a bit healthier. I went to Costco and bought a small tray of dim sum, which I will steam tomorrow, a plate of shrimp salad, and two large rotisserie chicken roll ups. Not traditional tail gate food but I also won't suffer Sunday night with acid reflux. Oh no! I just realized that the game might overlap the one of the only two television shows I watch - Big Love.

And yes, even though we live in the Tampa Bay area, we will be watching the game on TV. I'm not going anywhere near the city of Tampa this weekend. Two years ago Jerr, my Dad & I went to Orlando to attend the Capitol One Bowl (used to be called the Citrus Bowl) and it took about two hours to get through Tampa because the Outback Bowl was being played at Raymond James Stadium. We must have seen a thousand cars decked out with Tenessee Titan or Penn State flags, stickers, etc. By the time we were near Orlando all of that had changed to Arkansas or Wisconsin paraphernalia - we sported Razorback flags of course!

Oh, and you have to check back tomorrow for Green thumb Sunday. I have orchids blooming! One of them is quite unusual but you will have to wait until tomorrow to see it, LOL.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Chloe Update

It's such a beautiful day today I am almost hesitant to mention it. With all the bad weather other people have had I feel a bit guilty. I'm sitting on the screen porch in my bare feet, a tee shirt, and sweat pants sipping a Coke Zero listening to classical music on NPR "playing" on my laptop. I don't know what the temperature is but it is absolutely perfect.

Here's a photo of little Chloe. She's well enough now to where she wants to be where I am and even well enough to make that desire known. She BARKS and BARKS until I move her. Luckily we have dog beds in everyroom of the house and even outside. Here she is on the screen porch soaking in some rays. What I've read about Vistibular Syndrome says to expose her to bright light. She's actually in dappled light so maybe she'll turn into an orchid! LOL

*update* I checked the temperature and it is 74. Perfect for being lazy on the porch. Also, in case anyone is thinking I am looney for having plants that unable to live outside in the winter, most of the orchids would do just fine in the screen porch during the very few cold days we have here in central Florida. In fact, many are native orchids. The problem is I don't remember which ones are the tender ones and most labels are long lost so I just bring them all in.

Green Thumb Sunday

My orchids are back ouside! Here's a couple photos of the screen porch where most of my orchids live. I believe they are very happy to be in a humid environment instead of a dry house.



Here's a shot of the walkway where 5 orchids hang. Four of the 5 have either blooms or bloom spikes! You get to see your plants up close and personal when you move them all into your house and then move them backoutside.

Speaking of blooms, this relatively new plant has never bloomed before and I was pleasantly surprized to see this! Someone in an earlier post inquired about the name of this orchid. I still haven't found it, sorry. When I figure it out I will post it - promise. Anyway, the bloom is a mystery to me so I can hardly wait to see what it looks like.

My favorite Cattleye has 4 buds! I had no idea until I was putting them backoutside and gave them all a close look and cleaning. Just wait till you see these. They are bearded/ruffled! I promise to post a photo this year. Last year I missed it.

Phalanopsis have huge bloom spikes. Unfortunately, I accidentally lopped the top off one. Hopefully there are still bloom eyes left on the spike :(

This has an amaizing scent when the bloom opens. I am so excited! It blooms only once a year aand usually the beginning of February. Last year it had two blooms but looks like this year will be back to normal with only one. I almost lost this plant to bad gardening this year. I had to water it back to health so I am thankful it's blooming at all. It needs repotted yet it hates being repotted. What's a gardener to do?

This is a bloom spike on a miniature plant. It looks so large in the photo but it is teeny.

A hanging Cattleya in the Key Lime tree. It has two double bloom spikes. This plant looks very happy about it's last year in the lime tree - it's grown, plemntiful blooms, and healthy looking leaves.

I didn't bring my stag horn fern inside but it looks fine. It's protected by it's location under the Key Lime tree. My neighbor had his all covered in a blanket so i was concerned. At our house I only saw frost on the top of the cars and spots in the lawn.

The photos above and below are of my pool garden - boy does it need some work! My plan was to cut it back today but I had a swollen gland last night and this moring a bit of a scratchy throat. I believe it would be unwise to work outside today. Right now if you tried to walk around the pool you would likely fall in being pushed by overgrowth. Jerry suggested I call a landscaper but I had horrible memories of Conan the Landscaper from 2 year ago and said "no way".

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Happy Chinese New Year


Monday starts the year of the Ox. I have no idea why I am so fascinated each year by this celebration. I'm not Chinese.

I used to travel to NYC every year at the end of the celebration and I usually made a trip to Canal street which was littered with paper from fireworks, there was the smell of gunpowder in the air, and the air was hazy with smoke. And this was the morning after! They had many people cleaning up but it was a big job and appeared to take all day.

Flea Battle, Chapter 2

Today I went through their fur and found no fleas on either dog. That was a great feeling, especially after I got 2 off Eddie and 4 off Daisey last night! Next I bathed Eddie in flea soap. I scrubbed it in with my fingernails for 5 minutes and then gently rubbed him for another 5 so that the stuff could stay on him for 10 minutes (direction said let it sit for 5 minutes). Then I used the WaterPik handheld to rinse and then turned it on the massage setting so that it would part the fur and I could see his skin. I found nothing on Eddie. Yippee!

Next I did Daisey. I got three dead ones of her due to the shampooing but the WAterPok massage showed nothing. Great! Or at least I thought......I wrapped her in a towel and held her for a while before I went to towel dry her. When I lifted the towel there was a LIVE flea on her back. Ugh. So I used a comb on them both and raked and raked but found nothing. Cross your fingers it's over.

I moved my orchids back outside today. What a big job that is. I chased a few lizards out of the house as a result of the orchid hotel. They didn't look well. Hopefully they will spring back to life after a nice meal outside. Hey! I wonder if lizards eat fleas! Tomorrow I will post photos of all the little flower buds I saw when moving my plants. I am thinking that in about a month I will have lots of flowers :)

Chloe is feeling good enough now where she wants to be in the same room as me at all times. I took her out to the screen porch today and when I went in for a phone call she actually got herself back into the house. That meant she somehow got herself up about a 6 inch step. I missed it so I have no idea how she did it. She made it across the tile kitchen floor but was stopped by the wood floor in the dining area.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Dang Fleas !!!

I'm fight a battle agaisnt fleas on my ratties. I don't know where I went wrong. I've been using FrontlinePlus on them but they got fleas anyway. Perhaps it's because I did not adjust the dosage when Eddie gained weight or perhaps because I bought it online instead of a known source. The ratties have been getting bath after bath and a couple nights ago I used a flea bath and there are still fleas! Now I've given them a second dose of Frontline only 3 weeks after the last. I was afraid of overdosing them but they seem OK. Tomorrow I will try the flea bath again. Someone told me to put cornstarch on them. Anyone heard of this?

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Another Daisy

Remember the photo a few days ago of my Daisey modeling some fleece jammies that I made and was sending to Indiana? Well, Indiana Daisy received them and here she is modeling them. Ain't she cute in her jammies?



You can see she is thinner than my Daisey. Her mama says she's thin in he body and heavy in the chest.

This poor Daisey didn't get her Secret Santa presents so some of us went together and sent her gifts. She got a new collars, my jammies, chewies and toys.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Orchid Hotel...Plus A Lizard Or Two

Very cold weather predicted for tonight and tomorrow - maybe even freezing temperatures. I believe the high today was 52 and at 8pm it was 49. I'm sure the folks attending the inauguration today think that sounds nice but my orchids sure don't. I brought all eightysomething of them into the house. I'm sure a few lizards have also hitched their way into the house as well.

Our fireplace seperates the living and dining rooms and the floor around it is tiled on both sides so it's a great spot to place wet plants. This year the plants are sharing it with Chloe in her sick bed.
Hope nobody needs anything from the kitchen sink! I made sure to leave space around the coffee pot or I might have a grumpy hubby in the morning, LOL.
Another kitchen shot. Annie the cat eats on my sewing table so I had to leave a space for her to jump on the chair to jump to the table.

I have this rolling rack made for clothes for hanging orchids on since so many are hangers. I also have orchids in the bathroom hanging off the shower rod. Some of my vandas have such loooong roots that they needed the height of the shower rod and to stay out of the way. As you can see by this photo, Eddie is excited to be able to hunt indoors.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Busch Gardens

Today we went to Busch Gardens Tampa with my cousin Diane and her husband Dan. It was a nice day - temp in low/mid 60's but the walking and the sun made it seem a bit warmer. I took a few photos of the park. You should be able to click to make them larger.


This is a lion topiary at the entrance to the park. The grounds are beautiful and they had many topiaries but I believe this is my favorite. They do such a wonderful job on their gardens, even this time of year.

Two butterfly topiaries in the Bird Gardens area.

Flamingo pond

A couple shots from the aviary. It's a very cool, large meshed in area where you can purchase nectar and feed the Lorikeets. They were out of nectar for the day so no birds landed on us.



We saw a 4-D movie called "Pirates" starring Leslie Nielsen and John Clease. Very cool. On on top of the images coming out of the screen to you, it also had water, wind, and movement to further the experience. Here's Diane, Dan & Jerry in the 4-D glasses.

This photo is for Diane. She likes to paint and wanted to do water so I took a couple for her to paint from.

That's my cousin! We though of some other funny poses but they didn't make the good taste cut, LOL.

A couple African masks that I thought were interesting. Having Dan & Diane with us was like having a guide or naturalist along. They've done big game hunting in Africa so they were identifying the animals for us.

More garden shots



Alligators, boy were they big!

Looks like Diane telling an interesting story to Jerr & Dan. It's early Monday morning now and I didn't finish editing this post in time to post it last night, We just returned from dropping Dan & Diane off at the airport. While short, it was a great visit. I'm gonna miss my Wii buddy.

----- THE END -----

Green Thumb Sunday


This week's Green Thumb Sunday was taken at Clearwater Beach in a high traffic area. Tough little plant to survive this tough environment of a parking lot in the cold and salty air.

Protestors

We were driving through downtown Clearwater to get to the beach and ran into a group of protestors starting to assemble. They were wearing interesting masks. Dan asked if he could take their photo and they agreed. A police officer ran us off - I guess we were parked incorrectly.
Who are these people? What is their issue? Appears to be Scientology related.

Clearwater & Sand Key Beaches

Clear Water Beach, looking north, from Pier 60


Dan buying a seashell for a pier vendor. Notice the merchant all dressed for winter and Dan in his summer shirt, LOL.

Beach volleyball at Clearwater Beach

Dan & Jerry at Sand Key Beach

Lifeguard station at Sand Key


Vickie & Jerry in sand :)

Chillin With My Cuz

Cousin Diane and her hub Dan have been visiting this weekend. They escaped tge cold of Chicago for a couple chillyd days in Florida. Diane and I have been staying up way to late talking, playing Wii, and drinking tea - it's great!



Thursday, January 15, 2009

GIVEAWAY!!!

I made this coat for Miss Daisey 3 or 4 years ago. She wore it once and I put it away and haven't been able to find it since. The temperature has dropped here in FL so we've been in the coat closet and there it was! Hubby hung a jacket over it so I couldn't see it. That's the good news....


The bad news is that it is a tad bit tight on her now. She's 15 and a half lbs and the coat really is for a dog between 14 and 15 lbs. So..........I'm thinking of giving it away and preferably to a girlie dog who lives in a cold climate.

If you are interested, please post a comment on this post describing the dog, how she fits the description above (14 - 15 lbs, girlie, cold climate), and why she deserves a "couture" coat. Oh, and spread the word - I wanna meet lots of new doggie friends! Deadline is January 25th.


22 Years!!


Twenty two years ago today Jerry and I were married on the beautiful island of Kauaii. Here's one of our wedding photos from that perfect day.


I sent Jerry one of those edible arrangments today. It went to his work so I wasn't able to get a photo before Jerry and the rest of the crew enjoyed it. This is a photo from the web site - same thing just different container. I've always liked these but have never had one. The half dipped chocolate strawberry was particuarly yummy. Below is a photo of 22 carved in pineapple.


When I got home from work mom had left us a cake, a bottle of dessert wine, and a flower arrangment. Great cake - whipped creamed frosting and 4 layers of chocolate cake with chocolate mousse between!

LOL, here is what was left of our anniversary dinner. We have a busy night scheduled because my cousin Diane and her husband Dan are coming tomorrow for the weekend so I brought home Thai food. A little out of the ordinary for us and not too heavy before doing housecleaning.