Categories Bleg, Gardening

Gardening bleg: rhubarb, corn, sweet peppers….

4 Comments by

Ok! I don’t remember who it was who posted the list of heirloom seed companies who send out free catalogs, but I’m not sure I should be thanking you.  On the other hand I’m having fun browsing seeds.

 

Rhubarb: I tried to do rhubarb before, planted it in a bad spot, it didn’t do well, then hubby mowed it.  Ooops.  So I’m regrouping.  Anyone have any suggestions as to types of rhubarb?  Theres bunches and I feel like I’m picking one at random….

 

Corn: I’m not sure I really want to do corn, I anticipate having to fight the wildlife for every ear.  But at the same time I want to try my hand at growing popping corn.  Anyone have any experience with growing popping corn who can offer suggestions, advice…..

 

Sweet peppers: I want to try the Sweet Chocolate variety, anyone tried these?

Categories Bleg, Gardening

Bleg: shooting starlings and seed starting

5 Comments by

Starlings: Alright, the general concensus is that the best way to get rid of starlings is to shoot them.  I have no objection to doing so, however I don’t have a good place to put the feeder that will allow me a shot without a house or street behind it.  Admittedly both houses and road are 50 to 100 feet (or more depending on which way and angle) from where I’d be shooting, but still.  Best compromise I can come up with is to move the feeder to a place that’ll put the shot away from the houses, and it would have to go through a couple bushes and trees to get to the road.  The pellet gun we have would go through all that and still go through a car window if I timed the shot badly.  What is the lowest speed/size/etc air rifle (BB or pellet) that will do enough damage to the starlings to make it worthwhile?  (Ok, I’ll admit I could move the feeder to the back of the house and shoot off into no-mans land, but then I can’t SEE the feeder from in the house.  We tried that last year, took all the fun out of it, there’s no good way to watch the feeders in the back from inside the house (yes, thats a failing of the house, one we’d like to eventually fix…..))

Seed starting:  Last year I had surprisingly good luck with my attempt at seed starting.  I didn’t get much off the plants, but I think that was a weather issue and my inexperience more than anything else.  So, this year I’d like to do a bit more.  I’m looking at setting up a proper seed starting tray, with lights, so I can start more seeds and hopefully have them a bit more mature when its time to put them out.  Question: do I NEED a heating mat?  What about anything else equipment wise?  What do you consider essential to seed starting?

Categories Birds, Bleg

Starlings

4 Comments by

The things you notice when you’re home unexpectedly lol.

Anyone have any ideas on how to keep the starlings off the suet without discouraging the woodpeckers?  I know they sell cages to keep out the big birds, but I don’t want to discourage the red-bellied woodpeckers who enjoy it as well, and I don’t want to turn it soley upside down feeders only as all sorts of other birds feed on it too.  I tried leaving it empty for several days, and they were slow to come back, but here they are……and unfortunetly there really isn’t a good angle to take a pellet gun to them…..

Categories Nothing Much

Its the simple pleasures

3 Comments by

With my Christmas gift certificates I ordered several pairs of  heavy sweatpants.  Elastic around the cuff, cause they’re always to long for me and this way they don’t drag.  Soft and fuzzy inside, and not worn out.  They arrived today, and I’m curled up on the couch with my new warm fuzzy sweatpants, a fuzzy sweater, and a pair of puppies.  I think its time for a nap……

Categories Nothing Much

There really has been an up-tick in spam

by

Lots of bloggers have been complaining about a recent upswing in spam, and I’d noticed it myself.  Didn’t realize how bad it was though…..went back through the spam folder today.  Of 256 spam comments, 212 are from the beginning of November or newer…..guess it wasn’t my imagination….

Categories Nothing Much

I just told my boss to go to hell

4 Comments by

Yes he fired me for it. 

And I don’t care.

Finding a new job is going to be annoying.

And I don’t care.

Husband and I can manage just fine off of his income.  Mine has always been backup and extras.  I DO intend to find a new job, and once I’m over this cold I’ve got I’ll start a search. 

But, that was so worth it…..

Categories Nothing Much

How to freak out a doctor

8 Comments by

Wednesday I felt ok.  A little tired, but coming off of Christmas that’s not unusual.  But Wednesday night I noticed my throat was sore, likely thanks to the sudden increase in post nasal drip.  And when I finally gave in and went to bed I noticed a “weight on my chest” feeling.  Lovely.  Respiratory bug here we come…

Thursday I felt bad enough I called the doctor.  Only to be told that the earliest they could see me would be Friday afternoon.  Ok, fine.  I don’t have a fever so I can’t be that sick…..

Thursday evening my temperature jumped to 101.5 and I felt truly miserable…..

Friday morning…..temp normal.  Course it is, I see the doctor today……

Friday afternoon rolls around and I finally get in to see the doc.  Temp normal (98.something), blood pressure normal, heart rate high (normal is 100 for me, I was apparently hitting 120, normal rhythm though)……Doc didn’t like that, and he REALLY didn’t like my description of the “weight on my chest’ feeling…..a listen to my lungs showed no congestion (I told him that, but they have to check), which made him like the whole thing even less.

Flu swab, just to be sure (came back negative for flu), EKG (came back normal, no significant differences from the one they did at my physical almost a year ago), there’s no history of heart problems in my family other than my Grandma who was over 75 at the time anyway, yes I’m on Depo Provera, yes I used to have asthma but I let the script lapse cause I’ve not used an inhaler in years and besides I tried using Husband’s inhaler and that didn’t help…..

Off for chest xrays (normal), and a “cardiac panel” of blood work (normal, except for the white blood cell count, which was high, duh, I’m sick).

End result: a confused doctor, who informed me that if that “weight on your chest” feeling gets ANY WORSE seek medical attention immediately, oh and you have a respiratory infection of some kind, lots of fluids and sleep, here’s a note to get out of work for a few days….

Categories Artemis, Dog, Rants

Dean & Tyler has horrid customer service: A review of my experience ordering from them

by

The Dean & Tyler who sells products for canines in case there’s more than one company by that name.

On 12/4/2012 I ordered a muzzle for Arty (long post coming on that, if I ever get the energy).

It shipped on 12/6/2012.  Nice and quick.  And I had it by that Friday.

Saturday, in the process of training him to not consider it a bad thing I realized I’d screwed up the order somehow.  The whole point of a basket muzzle is that you can feed and water the dog through it, but he couldn’t open his mouth wide enough to do so.  So we re-measured him and got the same measurements as the first time.  So I double checked the muzzle I’d ordered.  Sure enough I’d ordered the wrong size.  My fault.  But hey, D&T offers a service where you can email them your dog’s measurements and a picture and they’ll help you determine the right size/style of muzzle, oh, and put “urgent” in the subject if you need help in a hurry.

So Sunday 12/9/2012 I emailed, with URGENT in the subject line, asking for help fitting the muzzle so I could return/exchange the one I’d miss-ordered.

Wednesday 12/12/2012 I’d not heard from them so I called.  Was informed by a “Lissette” that the sizing folks only worked over email, but if I’d forward my email to her she’d make sure they got it.  So I forwarded it.  She emailed back asking me a couple questions about the measurements, which I responded to.

Friday 12/14/2012 I’d still not heard back about what size might fit him better…..I was starting to get a little peeved.  I sat back down with his measurements, and the measurements listed for the muzzle sizes and styles and finally settled on one that other than being to long should fit him better.  I looked up the returns/exchange process info and it says to email with your order number in the subject line along with whether you want an exchange or return.  Oh goody, I bet I can guess whats going to happen here.

Thursday 12/20/2012 I got an (probly automated) email from D&T asking me to rate my experience with them and the product I bought.  So I did.  One star all the way baby…..

Today is 12/21/2012.  I have heard back from neither the sizing folks nor the returns/exchange folks.  Its not like I’m ordering a muzzle cause its a cute fashion accessory…..I know all this took place the last few weeks before Christmas, and that they were probly extra busy.  I work for a very small company that does online retail (smaller than D&T).  We were swamped the last couple weeks.  Thats normal.  You know what?  We still found time to call back customers who had questions or needed to return items……

Categories Rants

WTF advertisers!

10 Comments by

All I wanted to do was check Weather.com’s forecast for my weekend. 

Type in the address….page loads….and before I can EVEN MOVE MY MOUSE the whole screen is taken over with an advertisement. 

Arg.

Find the little “close ad” option.  Close it, type in my zipcode.  Page loads…..and before I can EVEN MOVE MY MOUSE the whole screen is taken over with an advertisement, AGAIN.

ARG!

Find the little “close ad” option.  Scroll down the page looking for the 5 day forecast since that’s apparently no longer the point of Weather.com and I have to go in search of it instead of having it front and center.  Click on it…….

Page loads…..and before I can EVEN MOVE MY MOUSE the whole screen is taken over with an advertisement……..

WTF!!!!

Different ads for different companies every time too.

I knew there was a reason I mostly used local news channel’s webpages for my weather searching, but seriously, WTF?!