Garden rising

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The garden, 12 June 2011

The garden, 12 June 2011

Yeah, yeah, the lawn is brown and grotty – that’s what comes of 3+ weeks of no rain. I’ve done about everything I can do to bring the rain: Today I watered in front for about 5 hours, and I washed my car. In a little bit I’ll be barbequeing, which might just tip the scales in our favor.

The garden, though, is loving the hot sunny weather. The fastest-growing tomatoes are about walnut size now, and I’ve got some 6″ zucchini on those vines. The onions are doing well, and some of the peppers are starting to become fecund, as well. I think we’re going to have a bumper crop out of the garden this year. But only time will tell. Back later.

 

Hey! Potatoes!

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First harvest - red potatoes

First harvest - red potatoes

Yep, first out of the garden, just a few weeks after going into the ground, I’ve got fresh red new potatoes. These were literally hanging out at the surface of the soil – I spotted them when doing a bit of supplementary watering. And joy of joys, it appears we might get a small smattering of rain tonight – I hear the thunder bearing down on us. The radar confirms that rain is nearly here … but often it seems to split north and south, and miss us altogether. We haven’t had any rain to speak of in perhaps three weeks. All the lawns are brown. Anyway, I’m pleased about the potatoes. Now, back to Oracle database work for school.

More Zoë

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Zoë Keating, last night. Two items of interest: First, Wil Wheaton introduced me to Zoë’s music with this blog post. Second, listen to Zoë talk about her music and play in Musicians@Google: WNYC’s Radiolab + Zoë Keating. In the latter, Zoë describes how the version of each composition gets selected for an album, and how that relates to what gets played live. When she loops and layers music so intricately, there are infinite variations for every work. I could recognize the bones of nearly every piece she played last night, but deeply appreciated the nuance and freshness of each piece. I’m so, so happy she added Annapolis to her tour, and I can but hope she returns to our area someday soon.

Zoë

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Just back from Ram’s Head Live, where we saw the amazing Zoë Keating. Did I mention amazing? There’s more to say, but I’m whacked and it’s a school night. We had great seats, at a table abutting the stage. I cannot recommend enough seeing Zoe live – she rocks!

Zoe Keating at Ram's Head On Stage

Zoe Keating at Ram's Head On Stage

Sacrifices on our behalf

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The day winds down, and I have my obligation to fulfill. Our condolences to these fallen warriors:

  • Lance Cpl. Peter J. Clore, 23, of New Philadelphia, Ohio, died May 28 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.
  • Pfc. Anthony M. Nunn, 19, of Burnet, Texas, died May 30, in Paktika province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using an improvised explosive device.
  • Capt. Joseph W. Schultz, 36, of Port Angeles, Washington, died May 29, in Wardak province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device.
  • Staff Sgt. Martin R. Apolinar, 28, of Glendale, Arizona, died May 29, in Wardak province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device.
  • Sgt. Aaron J. Blasjo, 25, of Riverside, California, died May 29, in Wardak province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device.
  • Spc. Richard C. Emmons III, 22, of North Granby, Connecticut, died May, 31, in Logar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with a rocket propelled grenade.
  • Sgt. Jeffrey C. S. Sherer, 29, of Four Oaks, North Carolina, died June 2, in Zabul province, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device.

 

There be tomatoes here

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First tomatoes

First tomatoes

It makes me happy to find the first tomatoes set in the garden. The basil is going like gangbusters, too. Just thought I’d share that snap. Back later.

Not insane after all

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At least, I’m not insane for any of the usual reasons. A few times over the last couple of weeks, my Linux system here would be dark. When I got home from work … when I woke up in the morning. That’s not normal, because as the home storage, DNS, and mail server, off is a bad state to be in. I figured it was the system, though, and was waiting for some logged evidence of the sub-system I need to replace.

Last night, I left the Windows box running, too, mostly out of laziness. This morning, both systems were dark. Ah-HA! It’s the APC. This is a Back-UPS XS 1500, and manages power for the monitor and two systems. Time for a replacement.

*    *    *

I’ve had one negative review of me going to WordPress, and not even addressed to me, but on another site altogether. I suppose that I could maintain these in parallel, by posting in one place, then pasting in another. Do enough people feel strongly enough that I should add that work back into my schedule? Drop me a line and let me know. This change was for me, because it makes life easy, easy, easy. This is triple-true (that’s easy*9) of pictures, which I plan to do more of, but not if I have to also cross-post them into the static site.

*    *    *

On tap for today:

  • Feed and water the front flowers
  • New UPS
  • Roast coffee
  • Cleaning up further in basement
  • Keep an eye on work email – big project going on
  • Get another project ahead in classes

I think that’s enough to occupy my day.

Triskaidekaphobia

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Not really. But it is our thirteenth wedding anniversary. Marcia and I were married in Sunnyvale back in ’98, and we’re pleased to have surprised almost everyone with the longevity of our second date, errr, marriage. My present to her this year was to wake her up and tell her that she could go ahead and get the Handi Quilter HQ24 Fusion system with something called ProStitcher (which means that Marcia hands the computer a design, the computer stitches the quilt). It doesn’t even sparkle and I got her to cry. Yeah, it’s a few years earlier than we originally planned, but with her car paid off, we can afford  to do this now, so that she can start getting the experience with this that she needs to make money with it down the road. Me, I got a quilt – a wall hanging that Marcia made for me. Turns out my gift to her is super-appropriate for the occasion: the thirteenth anniversary is traditionally to be celebrated with Lace, Textiles, or Furs. Well, she can work on that middle thing with my gift, so I’m in the groove. And I guess I’m glad she didn’t get me something made of lace … I might be required to wear it.

First Post! Natali Portman and Hot Grits!

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Yeah, I’ve always wanted to have my own little bit of Slash* over here.

If you’re looking for the older stuff, you can start over there, on the Site Map. Search on the main site is currently broken, and that’s on my to-do list.

So, WordPress reappears on the OrbDesigns site. I’m going to be moving Marcia over to WP soon, and figured I’d better be using it first. Hmmm … what about pictures?

2011 Garden, May 30

2011 Garden, May 30

Hey, pictures are easy, too! That’ll be handy. Now, back to work.