Last day of May

What do you want to do next?
Hmmmm.... let's see....

My Vista upgraded to Internet Explorer 8.
It asks "What do you want to do next?"
How about Win A Million Dollars???

That's all I got.... for the last day of May.
Time to start the second coat of paint.
How much can I get done today since tomorrow it will rain?

Buggy

The latest in garden visitors.

Looks like a Harmonia Axyridis. A large coccinellid beetle (often referred to as ladybird, ladybug, lady beetle, ladyclock, lady cow, or lady fly) originally native to eastern Asia but introduced to North America and Europe to control aphids and scale insects.

I'm sure there's more visitors. I'll start looking closer.

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Nom nom nom...

Biergarten

If only it were this simple!

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Things that are yellow

1. Yield signs
2. Some coreopsis blooms
3. Overzealous curb markings
4. Doors on olive houses
5. _________________(fill in the blank...)

Fuzzy poppy update

It was a rainy day today

and I have nothing much to say.

.

Here's a pic from yesterday

to show the fuzzy poppies from the

May 17th & May 8th posts

are in a state of efflorescence.

Farm = crops

I growed things from little seeds! And picked my first snack today!
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An edible root vegetable of the Brassicaceae family that was domesticated in Europe in pre-Roman times.
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I grew the garnish too. Fancy, Isn't it?

Summer starts here

Well, unofficially since summer really starts June 21st.

Today we commemorate the U.S. men and women who died while in the military service by eating and drinking and playing out in the sun for 3 days. In Michigan that means a lot of us will go "up north."

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Memorial Day... in other words.

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I don't remember most of it but I have an extra $85 for some reason.

Summer means garage sale

Please review the post from April 9, 2009 - Garage sale in 9 steps.


This year was much better then past ones. A new location and a global recession made a lot of my old crap sell.... (I mean precious treasures of course). Things I've been trying to pawn off on the unsuspecting for years and years sold in record time. SO step 9 was more rewarding this time around!

Farm update

I haven't blogged about my farm since Tax Day! Okay, maybe since Earth Day. But so much has happened... or grown. All the seeds have sprouted, the lettuce and radishes are doing great and the herbs are growing like weeds (except for the basil for some reason). It's been an unusually hot and dry May so the sprinkler has been put on a timer (because I'm a busy guy).

With all the activity I thought it was time for a food critic... so I called in a professional....

Nom nom nom...

Down time

All the activity that I mentioned as being a "pain-in-the-ass" the other day was actually a pain-in-the-neck.
.

So now it's time to rest.
Darn home projects.
They'll kill you they will.


How much wine to relieve neck-pain?

Mint = Mojito

Growing in my backyard.









Is this:
1) a weed
2) an herb
3) a delicious addition to a summer cocktail

(if you pick #3 you also get to use the word muddle in a sentence!)

Paint my house - the peak part

Acrophobia - Fear of heights.

Okay, 15 feet isn't that high. And I wasn't all that apprehensive.

But painting them was a bit if a challenge.

(Or shall I say pain-in-the-ass.)

Can't WAIT to do the second coat...

Oberon day part 2

Wednesday, April 1 was titled "Oberon day" (no foolin')
since the 6-packs showed up in my local store.
.
Today I came across this... 5 liters of yumm-o!

Local stroll

I took a walk through downtown Birmingham (Michigan) today.
Here is what I saw....

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Merely one city.

Fuzzy poppies getting ready

here is the row of poppies

(see "More fuzzy things")

.

some day they'll bloom

some day soon if it GETS WARM

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but then

I mow them to the ground

.

and they'll come back next year

they always do...

.

what if I don't mow them down

then what???

will they take over my world???

Where's Batman?

Robin is wondering where all the reader comments have gone????
He's probably also looking for worms... and wondering... and worming.... but more wondering than worming. Maybe.

Hose, as art.

More art

.

"Hose,

on Pavers"

.

On display

in my yard

.

Limited engagement

.

Soon to be

rolled up

Spiral and Spikey

Today in the world of art is a sculpture from David Barr called "Dawn" that can be seen close to my hood in Warren, Michigan. Since the sculpture consists of two pieces of different sizes, I will consider this one to be Little Dawn. Don't know what Mr. Barr calls it.

Since it was clear and warm and sunny this morning while I was traveling up through Warren (and had my camera with me) it was a perfect opportunity to stop for a photo shoot.

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Here is a link to his web site: http://www.davidbarrart.com/

My soap box from China

This morning in the news a headline reads "Recall: Bacteria-Tainted Face Paint: children suffering rashes, itchiness, burning sensations and swelling where the face paints were applied." No surprise the face paints were made in China. Do we remember last year's massive toy recall due to lead in the paint? The infant milk formula containing melamine? The pet food recall due to the same chemical? These are just a few. Go ahead and type "made in china recall" into your favorite web search engine and read on and on.

So today (also in the morning news headlines) the story "GM to Export China-Built Cars to U.S. / GM could end up becoming the first automaker to begin exporting to the U.S. from China." I guess they can use up more of their lead and melamine. Hell, maybe they will use unemployed U.S. auto-workers to build the cars over in China. Who wants to commute?

Any thoughts??? Would you buy a GM car that was made in China? Or would you rather buy a Japanese automobile that was made here in the U.S.A.? Is it about where the profits go or about who has jobs?

There is just way too much to say about this... I have to get to my lead free house painting before it starts to rain.

How yellow can yellow be?

Looks like it can be pretty darn YELLOW. Or maybe that's just a second sun rising as the other sun sets. I was told that a second coat will "tone it down a bit." I hope so since this "Warm Gold" door requires sunglasses to be worn to approach it.

(I think I'll try three coats just to be safe!)

Feel sorry for yourself

Today is the second Monday of May.
That means it's International Feel Sorry for Yourself Day.

In a world where we are always told to "look on the bright side," "try to see something good in a bad situation" and to "think positive" we have today to just feel our misery.

Go ahead, feel sorry for yourself!

As for me feeling sorry for me... I have a zit on my lower lip. Sure to some it might look like herpes but it's a zit and I'm WAY too OLD to get zits!

Random snacks

"Random Things"
#5 - I love nacho chips.
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mm mmm
fried goodness!
.
dips & sauces
optional.

The fuzzy continues

The Mount Airy Fothergilla are also fuzzy in the spring.

Full of fuzzy little balls.

More fuzzy things

...fuzzy things from the garden that is!

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(The fuzzy subject started back on April 24th with the fiddleheads.)

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As I've been painting I noticed all the fuzzy poppy bulbs getting ready to bloom along the east side of the garage. Interesting looking. I hope I didn't paint over too many of them!

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Rain day

Finally a rainy day! (So I don't have to paint.)

Rain songs on my iPod:
Only Happy When It Rains (Garbage)
Here Comes The Rain Again (Eurythmics)
Rain (The Cult)
When It Rains (X)
Let Her Feel The Rain (Tara MacLean)
Kingdom Of Rain (The The)
Rain (Patty Griffin)
Let It Rain (4 Strings)
Ice Rain (DJ Tiesto)
No Rain (Blind Melon)
California Rain (Madeleine Peyroux)
Rainbow (Talk Talk)
Raintime (The Wolfgang Press)
Rain (Madonna)

So as not to be a slacker I managed to edge the lawn before it rained. I live on a corner. Theres a lot of edge. The edger should ALSO come with pain killers. But lucky for me CVS had buy 100 ibuprofen caplets get 100 free!!!

With paint comes pain

Pain pills should come with every gallon of paint. I will need to contact Home Depot and let them know this!

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It's hard to believe that the garage only has it's first coat done and the rest of the place remains minty pistachio.

And the winning color is...

Olivine!!!
aka "the bottom one"










In case you haven't been following 'This is Eric's blog' as you should be... I've been picking a shade of green for my new house color. (The pic here is of the garage - by the way - and not the house.) Soon we will start to pick a color for the doors so don't feel totally left out if you're just now joining.
.And before I forget
I have to say
Happy 5th of May!!!

Or as our south of the border amigos would say...

Tacos and a Dos Equis for all!!!
As for me it's a couple of Oberon and some Advil (painting hurts!)

Just a fly on the wall

...wondering when this wall is scheduled to be painted.

Stain my deck

Don't know of a joke about 'stain my deck" but I think the joke was on me. Since I needed things to keep me from starting the 'paint my house' project I decided to stain the front deck. I have the leftover stain I used two (or maybe it was 3?) years ago so it's a free project. Free is a good price for the unemployed! But I forgot about the labor costs. It took almost 3 hours JUST TO STAIN THE RAILS yesterday. Well, today onto the flooring. That should be quick and easy.
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Quick and easy... maybe. Free... not so much when you run out of stain. Maybe this calls for two coats! What could be more fun?

Random complaint

"Random Things"
#4 - I don't like the NAV on the MyGig in my Chrysler Jeep Patriot.
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If one is looking for shopping (as I was looking for nearby Kmart stores) your options are: Bookstore, Grocery Store, Mall, and Motorcycle Dlr. Where is "none of the above?" Sure you can use the function where you type in the name 'Kmart' but NOT while the car is moving. Grrrr.
Also I have an issue with the fact that when typing in the name "ACO" (since I can never remember what mile road the hardware store is on) it sends me either 103 miles west or 321 miles south. Same as when I typed in "Bed Bath & Beyond" and it tried to get me to go to New Jersey. That would have been a fun road trip but not what I was up for at that moment.

Operator error you say? Perhaps. But I never had these problems with the Garmin GPS in my last vehicle.

Paint my house - update

Thanks commenters... so true about the fading. Here is a close up of how the Benjamin Moore faded. Not sure when it was painted but was well over 10 years ago. In this case I think I'm glad it faded. Imagine my surprise last summer when I drug that old can of paint out from the basement and did some touch up. Whoops. BUT after all this time that paint is still usable!














This pic below is the actually garage... not the house.
Down to 2 color choices (bottom two from yesterday). I liked the top more yellowie color from yesterday but I think when on the entire house & garage it might be a bit much. So it's out of the running. Sorry.

AND I put in a new window. Darn I can be handy when need be!

Paint my house

(BTW - "Pant my house" is a punch line to a joke... har har)

GREEN. Going to keep it green.
There's a lack of green houses in my hood.


Current
house
color:
Benjamin
Moore's
Kensington
Green (#710).



The block sitting on the window ledge is the actual color when the paint was new. I have a left over can of it in the basement from the previous owners who painted it this color. I'm not a big fan of Little Minty-Green Houses myself and I'm not sure which is uglier: the original shade or the faded shade.

The final three shades of green to choose from.
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FINAL ANSWER!?
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Just pick one all ready.

Old tulips

These tulips that show up every spring in the back yard are probably as old as the bumper stickers from yesterday's post.

I just can't seem to find a copyright date on them to prove it.

Maybe it's underground on the bulbs.

Garage time capsule

These stickers have been on the walls of my garage

since I moved in 10 1/3 years ago. Time does fly.

From the 1976 album "Destroyer": Detroit...









Detroit loves their baseball. The top one is copyright 1968.

Winners of the World Series Championship that year.












Also from 1968 ‘TWO YOU CAN TRUST’. Too bad they lost

to Nixon/Agnew... two others you can trust?

Avocado on the run - True love

... that line never works for me!

My spring

It's officially the start of spring for me today.
The itchy, burning, watery, red, itchy eyes are here.




(not my actual eye)

The predominant pollens at my place today are poplar, aspen, cottonwood, ash and birch with a total pollen count of about 9.3 (see graph). Monday's projection is 11.5! (That would be pollen grains per cubic metre of air averaged over 24 hours.) Ughhhh. Damn trees!

Luckily the Zyrtec I bought a couple of years ago doesn't expire until next month. I'll still give it at least another year and a half. I like to think the pharmaceutical companies wouldn't risk a lawsuit and double the expiration date. It's a better place in my little world.

Suddenly it's summer!

Today we jumped from the 50s to the 80s. Typical Michigan weather. A hot sunny summer day... and more to come! All the plants are waking up, the weeds are sprouting and the grass needs mowed. Summer always means more work.

The fuzzy
fiddleheads.
.
In the
shade.
.
Very
cool.
.
Many types of fiddleheads are eaten but most contain toxic compounds.
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Anyone want to come over for dinner and try these ones out?