Apropos of Nothing v.14

I saw that movie. It was not as bad as I thought it might be. Yes, Hugh Grant always plays himself. I was expecting really horrid but it was only mediocre.

Bonehead, 5 of my kids are boys - I would have been delighted to join you in the bar! And I could have used a group called MOG - for the mothers of girls. The boys were easier as young children.

Ha! I just had a flashback of my boys when they were pretty young. They went through a period where they would use as many swear words as they could possibly think of. One day they were on the driveway playing basketball, and from the kitchen I heard such foul language. I usually ignored it, but I was getting tired of it. Their father and I told them they could use the words, but they couldn't direct them at a person. So no f_ _ _ you, or you s_ _ _ head. If they fell off their bike, ok they could say s_ _ _ , but never direct those caustic words at a person! They understood the concept, and it became so much trouble because they had to think so much before speaking, that they finally made up their own words. People used to say there were so many Darin kids that they have their own language. Like a little tribe.

LOL! Well, they do say that boys need a tribe, so it's nice they had their own. I love the concept that you allowed the use of the words in the proper context. That's so much smarter than just disallowing things, which never seems to work. I didn't have a lot of trouble with my kids using bad language. They were basically both only children, so it wasn't until they were both much older (like now) that they began to play off of one another. I do remember at one point having to say to one of them that foul language was fine if they felt like they needed to express themselves that way, but it needed to be done in the bathroom where others didn't have to hear it. That was probably my daughter. My son would have never done anything so openly challenging. Just making him sit in 'time out' was enough.. He could hardly bear it. Probably if he'd had brothers that would have been much, much different!

I have a bigger potty mouth than any of my boys. I did tell them growing up the only time it was appropriate to use the 'f' word was if they dropped a cast iron frying pan on their toe.

And the preferred swear word here is 'shitzky.'

After I got divorced my house was always the gathering place for the kids and all their friends. When my daughters had friends over, the boys were on their best behavior in order to impress them. I've always thought that we women civilize the men.

I learned to swear from my kids.

Gwen, My niece (Jessica) lives in Bellevue, but she's made friends at WSU with people from all over Seattle. She has a Jeep Cherokee and they're a skiing family, besides, so she's got winter driving experience. She's flown over, too. They've used Alaska miles to fly back and forth for parent weekends, etc, also.

As far as cursing goes, my potty mouth is always lots worse when I've only been spending time around DH. He is constantly cursing-He doesn't censor himself around me-it was kind of, er, educational way back when.

Y'know, not having kids, I'm really at a disadvantage as far as having stories to tell, the only ones are lame ones my mom used to tell about me. boooring!!!!

Oh, wait, I do have one! I overheard this one day when I was weeding. There are lots of kids here in my neighborhood. One day, I hear a kid yelling across the street tattling--- "Daddy, Daddy, Tommy said a bad word!!!!!" "He did, huh? What did he say?" LOOOOOOOONG Pause...... then, yelled across the street "F#@&". I busted up....

Hahaha, Susy, that is funny....

When my neice was just learning to talk she heard a family friend say "*hit" just once and it stuck... She went around for weeks saying "*hit" whenever she dropped a toy, or fell down, it was quite hilarious and embarrased my SIL to pieces...

Children do indeed learn by observation much more than by instruction.

Had my appointment with the spinal specialist today. They didn't tell me anything new. Yep, you have pain. Nope, we can't fix it. Too bad so sad. pfffft.

Dang it, Pony!!! I'm with you 'thbbbt'!

Well, at least I was smart enough not to hope for anything this time, so I'm not disappointed... *rolls eyes*

Bummer, Pony. But good for you to keep asking the question. There's bound to be something new at some point.

I'm just in from spraying all of my hostas with ammonia water. Also all of my chrysanthemums.. I think the slugs like those even better than the hostas. There are millions of slugs this year.

so here is a 'word' story about a kid other than mine: Many years ago my dh and I were at a restaurant and some friends of ours and their children happened to be in the same place at the same time. They had a little 3-4 year old boy named Johnny. I guess Johnny had to go to the bathroom because during the meal dad got up and took him to the 'little boy's' room. A few minutes later Johnny came running excitedly back to the table shouting at the top of his lungs 'Mommy! Mommy! Daddy went poop! And it was a BIG one!' I still just about roll on the floor over that one. I will never forget the looks on both parent's faces :)

Not exactly a word story, but I always laugh when I remember this one:

Around the same time in our history another friend took her 5 year old daughter, Samantha, shopping for new shoes. She was chagrined to find out that the shoes her daughter had been wearing were at least one size too small for her. When Samantha tried on the shoes in the store, she started running and skipping shouting 'Look, mommy! I can walk again!'.. OH, the mother guilt....! Any by the way, her mom was a nurse! The kid was already dressing herself completely, so mom didn't know that the shoes were too small.

If there was ever a mother who didn't make some sort of mistake she would be a robot.

When my son who is now 28 was still in diapers he used to sit on the floor in the pantry and stack up the spices over and over again. One day the lid of the hot imported chili powder came open, and when he shook it some went down the front of his diaper. Well, he started screaming and pulling at the diaper. When I took the diaper off his penis (can I say that here?) was red and swollen to enormous proportions. Try explaining that to the pediatrician.

Funny stories!!!

Agent 59 just left my house after completing her mission; Operation Budgie. All three cats are sitting and staring at George and Gracie now, completely fascinated. They're behaving themselves, though- nobody has tried to knock the cage over or anything. Hopefully that's the way it will stay. If not, I'll hang the cage up where they can't reach it.

Katie, your babies will be spoiled rotten and happy. Thanks for choosing me to be their new Mom. :)

And I *just* realized I forgot to load you down with milk jugs.... arrrrrrrrgh! Remind me next time there's going to be a gathering, and I'll bring you a bunch. I have sooo many of them that I don't need!

Pony - Pony - thank you so much. I shed a little tear when I left 'cause I'll miss their twittering, but I know they're in good hands. Glad to hear the kitties are enjoying them from a distance.

Thanks so much for getting your little Leopard Gecko out for me to pet. He's fabulous. I kept saying to myself over and over again - no Leopard Geckos, no leopard Geckos, no leopard Geckos . . .

I'll try to remember, too, to remind you about the milk jugs - they clearly do make an awesome little greenhouse. You certainly have the seed sowing thing going on there, girl. I wanna do that!

Oh, I love leopard geckos! They are so pretty! Kathy, you should have come by. I was out in the garden all afternoon. Everything in the garden was so happy today!

Leopard geckos are wonderful pets. They're sweet, and very low-maintenance. (I'm a helper!) ;)

George and Gracie kick up with the squawking anytime the kitties get too close, so it's like a built-in alarm system. hehe. I think I'm going to be able to leave the cage right where we put it, because other than standing on their hind legs trying to peek closer at the birds a couple of times, the cats are behaving quite well.

I took a photo to put on Facebook:

What pretty birds! You have quite the menagerie, Pony.

Aren't they pretty babies? :)

I don't have that many critters, not as many as Kathy still does! ;) I have 3 cats, 1 gecko, 2 birds, and 4 fish. Sometimes it sure seems like more though.. hehe.

Aaahhhh.... what a gorgeous day. It's been quiet around here, I assume everyone was out playing in the sun?

LOL at all the funny kid stories above. I'm beat from a day bbq'ing and hanging out in the sun. Good to come home and smile as I read the posts here.

Pony, what an awesome photo! I've never gotten one of them as good as that. Thank you!

If your cats are like mine, they'll take awhile to be brave enough to do anything and then they'll surprise you. It'll be something like in the middle of the night when you think they're not interested. But it's good that the birds kick up a fuss, for sure. The cage is pretty sturdy, so I think it'll stay close even if it falls. That's what happened with Gemini, she knocked it to the floor and the top came off . . .

Pix, I seriously thought about coming to see you - but this has been the first day in three weeks that I could mow, so I headed home to do that. It took almost 3 hours to do it. I just came in a bit ago. And I haven't even done the front lawn - that should go quickly, though. The good news is no panic. I really think it's the Vitamin D . . .

hehe... I just stuck my hand in the cage with the camera, waited for them to realize I wasn't trying to grab them and calm down, then snapped the pic. ;)

You know you're welcome to visit them anytime. :) I promise not to be all grubby and sweaty next time. LOL!

Thank you! If you think that was grubby and sweaty, you should see me right now . . .{not}

Sun glorious sun! We were outside all day long! Even the koi were celebrating. A couple have swollen bellies, so they are going to spawn. Last year Nishiki looked like a small, colorful whale. I bought a little silver one with long fins to replace the one that I had last year. (Heron food.) I think she will survive longer. I've had her a couple of weeks now and she still stays to herself out of sight for the most part. Good instinct! Of course I don't really blame her. The other fish are huge.

Yesterday was a beautiful day. I cut the grass in the front garden, which takes about 10 minutes. It's very small and has a big pot in the center. Too small even for a lawnmower - I use a weed wacker. I've always wanted one of those mowers that you ride on, but it wouldn't fit! LOL I had a lot of errands to do but didn't do any of them. The weather was too nice to get in the car.

Portland perhaps you could drive your ride-on for shopping, coffee, library. Do you remember the film where the man drives his ride-on across several states - I seem to remember because he wants to see the ocean before dying? Marvellously quirky film - should probably add this to the film thread. what was the name of that film?

I am not familiar with that film, though I would love to see it. If I rode that thing down the street no one in Portland would bat an eye. Especially if I did it on naked-bike-ride day. It's supposed to be an organized thing but you never know where they'll show up. Has anyone heard of the Naked Man at Berkeley? He was in one of my daughter's classes. She has 5 brothers so what did she care. OK, I must have gotten too much sun yesterday, all this talk of nakedness.

It's called "The Straight Story" and he was going to see his brother.

George and Gracie made it through the night with no stealth kitty attacks. They're eating and drinking and fluttering about, chirping and crooning at each other... I think everything's gonna be just fine. :)

Well your kitties are much nicer than mine. I'll make sure that Gemini knows.

Pony, thanks so much for the updates. I can tell they're sure going to be well taken care of. :-) This morning I saw that the birds' bedroom door was open and panicked for a minute until I realized that they weren't here. When I walked by, I saw Bug sound asleep in the middle of the bed. This bedroom is at the front of the house and Bug loves to sit there on guard, so he's in Heaven now.

Today wasn't such a bad day, either. I spent the whole thing outside and only got drizzled on. Went to Kim's (Kymmco) this afternoon to split our loot from the Bluestone Perennails sale. She lives in a great part of Beacon Hill that, I'm ashamed to say, I haven't seen in my 25 years in Seattle. Her garden is lovely - she has a great eye for combining plants. The house is an awesome 1920's house set in a neighborhood of like houses. We walked around the neighborhood a bit and I saw the incredible view of the city from there and the gardens of some neighbors of hers that we all need to tour. I'm trying to figure out how to introduce myself - the plant variety was amazing and the beds were stuffed full. I'll have to go back and get some pictures.

And, the plants are awesome. Yay for Bluestone (this is the first time I've ordered from them). And, the nice thing is that when combining your order with someone else, you can share many of the plants that come in threes. It's like Christmas!!

I met the boys, Jay and Ian - what neat boys. Smart, funny, cute. Jay showed me his darling hamster. Nice job there, Kim.

All in all, it was a good day for me. I've just eaten and had a shower and now I'm headed for the sofa and a blanket . . .

Ah, thanks Kathy. It was such a treat to have another gardener to walk around and point at stuff with! I'm just glad the weather cooperated.

We did indeed score some great stuff from Bluestone. So unfair I have to go to work tomorrow, when what I really want to do is wander around holding pots and deciding where stuff goes. That's the best part in my opinion - making all sorts of combinations and possibilities in my mind.

It was a long weekend full of gardening, and I'm feeling it a little tonight. But I took a long hot bath, and now I'm curled up about to finish a Mrs. Pollifax novel (which I'm revisiting thanks to the book thread) with my boys reading next to me. Life is good.

I'm reminded of Ian's comment: "You guys STILL looking at plants?" LOL Sounds like a nice evening.

thanks SK - that's the one. I had forgotten about the brother. Must get a copy, so touching.

What did you guys get from bluestone?

Just looking for Daylily information, especially Hemerocallis lilioasphodelus - "Lemon Day Lily", and of course that lovely website Plants for a Future came up- they are amazing. Well did you know that Daylilies are edible? I didn't. Read this from their website:

http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Hemerocallis+lilioasphodelus - this is what they have to say about them:

Moving on from how to grow them, let us look now at how to eat them. The flowers are my favourite part, I like eating them raw when they are fully open, though they can be eaten at any stage from green bud to when they begin to wither. The flower buds are normally cooked, though they can also be eaten raw. They have a taste somewhat like green beans. If the flowers are harvested when fully open they make a superb and very ornamental addition to the salad bowl. I like picking them and munching on them as I wander around the garden. The petals are quite thick, crisp and juicy with a delicate sweetness at their base due to the nectar they contain. At this stage they are also at their most nutritious, containing reasonable quantities of protein (mainly from their pollen) and carbohydrates (from the nectar) as well as good quantities of iron and vitamin A. In the Orient they usually harvest the flowers just as they begin to wither. The flower are then dried and used as a flavouring and thickener in soups etc.
The young shoots have a pleasant sweet flavour and make an excellent cooked vegetable, though older shoots quickly become tough and fibrous. The heart of the shoots is especially delicious. Depending on the species, young shoots can be harvested from late winter and for much of the spring. I have to add a few words of caution here. There is a report that large quantities of the leaves are hallucinogenic. Blanching the leaves is said to remove this hallucinatory component, but the report does not make clear what it means by blanching, it could be excluding light from the growing shoots or immersing them in boiling water. As far as I know eating the cooked leaves is perfectly all right, it is only the raw leaves that have the effect. You would also need to eat quite a few pounds of the leaves to obtain the effect.

Many species also produce tuberous roots, or fibrous roots with occasional spindle-like swellings. These roots are also edible - Ive only eaten H. fulva but any of the other species are said to be similar. The roots can be eaten raw or cooked and have a very pleasant nutty flavour that is like a blend of sweetcorn and salsify. Young tubers are the best, though the central portion of older roots can also be used. Dont expect large crops of roots though, this will be just an occasional bonus crop when you are dividing plants.

Hemerocallis also have a number of other uses. Many species make a very good weed-excluding ground cover, succeeding under and around trees and shrubs in low-maintenance gardens. Plant clump- forming species such as H. dumortieri, H. lilioasphodelus and H. middendorfii about 18 inches apart each way. Running species such as H. fulva can be planted up to 1 yard apart. Since the plants die down for the winter, the dead leaves should be left on the ground to ensure effective cover.

Whilst young leaves are sweet and tender, the older leaves become very fibrous. These tough fibrous leaves can be dried and plaited into a cord then used for making footwear etc. The shoes are not going to be that hard wearing, nor will they be waterproof, but they will make a good sandal for the summer.

There are also a number of medicinal properties attributed to these plants. In particular, the juice of the roots is an effective antidote in cases of arsenic poisoning and the roots also have a folk history of use in the treatment of cancer.



This message was edited Jun 7, 2010 5:31 PM

This message was edited Jun 7, 2010 5:32 PM

Why not leave that nastiness out of the PNW threads...

Laurie, what interesting things you find! It's no wonder Daylilies were popular in Victorian times - arsenic was the poison of choice. Have you tried eating them?