curing garlic, tree art and a missing fan

it's thursday! woo! dang it...it's only wednesday, and just saying it's thursday doesn't make it so. boo.

the other day when i was taking the boys for a walk, bruno stopped for a minute and said, "hey! what's that person doing trying to climb into that tree??" 

hmm. it does kinda' look like someone getting sucked up into the trunk of the tree.. (if you can't see it, squint your eyes a little)

 and my passport came in the mail in record time (which was a relief, since i booked my ticket to HONDURAS in faith that there would be no hang-ups!) the guy who originally helped me actually did his job-even if he did look like an snl character-good job, passport office guy!

the new passports are sharp compared to the oldie i have from the late 80's! wow!

 and here's what's going on in the garden...i am hoping that pre-k, kinder and first can get some herbs going so that they will at least begin to sprout before the kids go on vacation! i got seeds in the mail for stevia and cumin. i'm hoping the stevia plant leaves are sweet-as that is where the sweetener comes from, and i am hoping that perhaps we can experiment to make our own little sweetener. and the cumin, well, hands down, one of my favorite spices! i use it in salsa and pretty much anything spicy to add a hint of the old taco scratch and sniff sticker smell. the carrots-yum...and swiss chard-which is one of my main staples for green drinks-

seed savers exchange if you garden, check out their seeds and varieties!

 we've also had some of our flowers come out-roses in fuchsia, yellow and off-white, the irises have come out as well for a short spell. i have loved seeing different groups in the garden for different reasons-the kids absolutely love it!

yesterday i harvested a bunch of the cilantro, parsley and mint, washed it, bagged it and put it out in the teachers lounge-it went fairly quickly. today i wanted to go back out and dig up the garlic-it was time. so i carefully dug them up, and while i was at it, i found a colony of fire ants...THAT CAME STRAIGHT FROM THE FIERY DEPTHS OF HADES. we must rid the earth of these ridiculous nuisances before we plant anything else in that bed. so, after i dug them up, i strung them up to let them cure-this could take a few weeks. in fact, garden betty says that it can take up to a month or two, depending on the humidity.

i hung them on the back side of the gardening shed because it is the most shade, least sunlight, and well ventilated...the only problem is that if/when it rains, they're going to get wet, delaying the curing process...i am tempted to 'make the shed more ventilated'...i will discuss this with the powers that be...plunge cut a small hole near the top overhang and install screen..no problem...

anyhoo, soon enough, there will be garlic! i'm a little obsessed.

for those of you who are wondering how the wen is going...I LOVE IT!

and i finally did go back to walmart to get that blower fan that i had previously asked about. i had to convince chaco that it was not a monster-by offering him treats in front of it, and showing him how he could sit there and let the wind blow through his hair and pretend he's a super model...or pretend he's in a convertible (neither of which he really aspires to, so that didn't last long). but in the meantime, i have been patiently waiting for ups to deliver a bedfan...i know, a what? look it up! anyhoo, as i tracked it, i was expecting it today, and it has not arrived, yet it says delivered. and signed for by E WADE. so...i may have jumped the gun and sent a 'firm' message about it, because no one in the office is named e wade, and it wasn't down there when i checked, so in my head, they delivered it to the wrong person...now i'm wondering if this E WADE person is someone who received it for ups at the docking station or something...not sure, but i may have told the lady down at the office that i was going to the other side of the complex to the other apt with the same number to have a heart to heart, because it seems kinda like kidnapping...ever seen TAKEN? enough said. i want my fan, or i might have to pull out a "particular set of skills i have acquired over a very long career..."

let's call it a night-
julie

hulie beat up the rolling cube handle...and had to get a new one.

i am so glad today is friday! i needed it! only i didn't tell the boys (and they haven't learned how to read the calendar yet)because i will be gone most of the day tomorrow. so our weekend will just start late-and instead of the three day weekend that everyone else is enjoying, we'll make the most out of our sunday and monday!

ups-person has not delivered my calendar yet, so i'm a little bummed. i checked the tracking and it arrived in mesquite at 6.45 p.m...so if they deliver tomorrow, i'll be out all day-and i don't know if i'll get back in time to catch them at the office or not because sat. and sun are their early nights. grr.

this morning i made my frequent early stop at walmart to grab something for a coworker and i got some pens for the kids and a great new sharpie PEN for me (that doesn't bleed). so when i got to school, i used a knife to carve notches into the pen so that i will recognize them and hopefully deter the students from 'permanently borrowing' them.

you can kinda see the notches-you can certainly feel them...ok, maybe YOU can't because it's a computer, but  you get the idea

i've been using the sharpie all day and i love it! i was skeptical, but it really doesn't bleed through!

after school i had to go get bindings to bind some student books that they made (school didn't have any in stock). while i was at office max, i decided to go ahead and get a new "stuff" cart...a rolling cube to put my junk in. they seem to have cheap handles with plastic innards. the first one i had last me a long time before the handle went arthritic on me, so i got a new one. it also had handle problems, which i may have made worse by my foot trying to coax it to extend to its proper height...not so gently. today i used the broken handled one (although i had to tape the tar out of it so that i could pull it; i probably had more in it than i should've). 

while i was picking a cart, a store associate came up to help and noticed my cabell jacket and said his sister goes there. so i asked who his sister was and when he told me, it was one of my students from last year. that started a whole conversation. when i finally got up to the cashier, i was searching for my rewards card, and since i couldn't find it, i had to fill out a new one. i wasn't going to, but the cashier kept saying it'll only take a minute. so to make him shut up, i just filled it out. when i got home, i was supposed to go in and register or something, and of course when i accessed it, he input my name as Hulie. great.

enjoy the long weekend!
julie