First Strawberry

The strawberry plants froze at 15° this winter, then drowned this spring, but didn't seem bothered by it. That tulip-eating squirrel nearly got the first ripe strawberry this morning, but I armed for battle, drove off the foul beast, and rescued the treasure.

Blueberries, Part 2

As recounted in Blueberries last month, we had blueberries but no marauders...at that time.
A week or so later, we saw a squirrel helping himself to Our Blueberries. I shooed him off, but he just went over the edge of the deck and waited a few minutes before slipping back for a second helping. This time, I quietly got the hose out, turned the water on, aimed...and Mr Squirrel got an instant bath, which he didn't like at all. In moments, he was off the deck and three trees away, and I haven't seen him come back.
And then a male cardinal discovered the buffet, and his method was to land in the bush, nab one berry, and dash off. He wasn't taking many, and he was such a handsome bird, and anyway he was gone before you could do anything about it, so we didn't. And then we looked out one afternoon and there was the male, swooping in and dashing off as usual, and furthermore there were three females who swooped in and stayed for second helpings and dessert. There were a few unripe berries left, plus empty husks of blueberries on the ground.
Diana has decided to let the birds have them, and just buy blueberries.

Blueberries

We got a pair of blueberry bushes last winter, and we've just had our first blueberry harvest. Most of them are a paler blue than what you'd see in a store, but some of them are as deep and intense as you could ask for. I have no idea why the birds and squirrels haven't gotten them.

Snow Day Retirement Party

At three in the morning it got down to 1°F, although it didn't feel that cold; presumably the thick blanket of snow helped. The roads had been plowed enough that the office was open, although we were told "get here when you can" rather than "at the usual time".
Today was my retirement lunch! The people from Accounting (Karen, Des, Tina, Ashley--Jocelyn hadn't made it through the snow) and Customer Service (Jimmy, Rich, Georgette, Greg, Zoe, and Ryan who's moving into my spot) were there. My "speech" was "Hi, y'all"; they asked me if I would change my mind about leaving, asked whether we were moving and what our plans were, and said that the eight years I'd been with them had been fun. "You should retire more often!"
We got out early so people could drive home before it got dark and before the melted snow could refreeze. When I got home, there was all this fresh, untouched snow in front of the house...so I made a snow angel.

Long Walks

Today was mostly a Zoe day. Took the muttling out for a 90 minute walk around Mount Trashmore around noon, and took her for another 90 minute tour around Great Neck Park this afternoon. Petted her and fed her and gave her treats. Diana said "It's odd how, we're treating her so well now, and why haven't we been doing that all along?" I'd had that thought myself: when you know someone's dying, you start treating them the way you should always have been.

Other accomplishments for today:
Started Christmas e-shopping.
Threaded a needle, which with my hands is something of a feat.
Lit the gas fireplace, for the first time this season. In some ways the pilot light is a nuisance and I keep thinking "let's tear this out and convert it back to wood burning"--that would certainly put out more heat and be more satisfying. Yet the gas is what's here, and it's enough of a fire to encourage curling up with a book.

.

Tile Backsplash

The grout is done, most of the haze is polished off the tile, the electrical faceplates are up and the trim pieces are in and caulked. Finished, huzzah!

Home work

Finished putting the aquamarine and bronze tile up on the kitchen backsplash. Next step will be grouting but that can wait a bit, and in the meantime, it looks better than I'd expected. Also painted the kitchen trim, installed the shade in the office, cleaned this, scrubbed that, fixed the other, and generally scrambled around getting things ready for Gwen to arrive at the house tomorrow.

Tiling the Backsplash

Over the past few days I've been chipping the eggshell and brown tiles off the kitchen walls. We've received three boxes of aquamarine-and-bronze glass mosaic tile, and we've gotten mastic and a special order of grout and a trowel with 3/16" vee notches. Diana painted the wall white, so the brown and grey drywall doesn't show through anywhere, and then I sanded it to rough it up a little so the mastic would grab better.

So, all preparations being complete, tonight I started putting up the sheets of tiles. Drag the stove out of the way. Lift off the counter tops. Get out a level and draw vertical lines and horizontal lines for guides. Spread white goo over the wall, making neat lines with the trowel because the tiles are transparent and I don't know if you'll be able see the ridges and furrows in the mastic after I squish the tiles on. The first three sheets go on reasonably well, and I can slide them across the mastic well enough to get them lined up evenly with each other. Number four is a problem, as I have to cut out some tiles to fit over an electrical socket, and when I try to slide the sheet to adjust the position, individual tiles start coming off. It's intensely frustraing, but I eventually get the sheet more or less into place. Then to finish off that size I need a third of a sheet; fortunately these sheets are fifteen tiles across, so it's easy to cut. I stick that on the wall, press everything down, put the stove and countertop  back into place, and call it "done" for the night. It only took about two hours although it was more laborious than I expected.

Chasing a bird

I left the deck door open this morning so the Mutt could go out and enjoy the sunlight. A bird took the Open Door Policy as an invitation, and flew in. Josh tried to shoo him out, but he was happy where he was.

Josh reported "Managed to chase the bird out using your rapier. He really did not want to leave."

I wish I had video...

Bonsai

Diana got me a bonsai juniper. Kind of an odd looking example of bonsai, as there's a mass of branches up to about four inches high; the central trunk stand up out of that mass about another 8 inches, then makes a 90° turn to horizontal and sticks out sideways for a foot. I really have no idea what to do with it.

Strawberry

First strawberry from our deck garden today.

From the Silk Road

Gwen sent us silk place mats and table runner, along with chopsticks, from her trip to China. Not just Chinese silk, but the right colors for our living/dining room. Plus a handmade card, which scored yet more extra bonus points. Josh knew the package was coming, but it was a complete surprise to us.

Strawberry

We got the first strawberry from our garden boxes. Or possibly the second; I suspect a squirrel got the first.

Condo board

Our condo association board meeting was tonight, and one of the first items of business was to elect a board member. Two of us were running. Mano a mano. Mark your ballots. The tension grows. And then someone said "Can we only have six board members? Can't we have more?" And the administrator said "You've only had six, for the past three years, but you can have up to ten." So we both got voted in by acclamation.

Yet more snow again

It stuck to the grass but not the pavement, and it seems mostly gone now, but I'm ready for this "global warming" to kick in.

This afternoon, Josh and his buddy The Other Josh trooped upstairs, hauled down Josh's Lego supply, spread them across the living room floor and spent a couple hours building things.

Yellowjackets

Diana was out walking the mutt this evening just before I got home from work, and came across yellowjackets, with about forty stings. So we took a quick trip to the hospital ER. No allergic reactions, just painful stings; an IV with antihistamine and steroids seems to have taken care of most of it, at least for now.

Happenings

Where there's an airshow at Oceana Naval Air Station, you can't sleep too late. The Blue Angels roaring by overhead make sure of that--and it feels like they're right overhead, like "I can stand on the balcony and hand them a cup of coffee as they go by". It doesn't just drown out conversation, it shakes the house. The coolest thing I saw today, though, was an F22 which went vertical and then just hung there in midair until the pilot got good and ready to let the nose back down.

Put together a new bookcase that Diana got from Ikea for the living room. I actively dislike adding more stuff to the house, but it's hard to say "no" to a bookcase which will, at a minimum, be a place to put excess stuff which would otherwise be on the coffee table.

We've had a plague of pantry moths, so this morning's tedious-but-necessary project was cleaning out the pantry, throwing away the oatmeal, flour, pasta, cereal, and other carbs, then wiping down all surfaces with bleach. I also applied peppermint oil, just to discourage any survivors.

Went to the Norfolk Book Fair. Think of a very small local-interest bookstore with limited stock, set up under tents in Waterside Park, with about twenty authors available for signings. Think of it as being in downtown Norfolk, with no parking except in the city garages (that's $5, please), and next to Waterside, which should be filled with retail shops and bustling with activity, but instead looked deserted. If you have a special interest in local authors, I suppose it might have made sense to go there; otherwise not. It was a pleasant day to be in the park, though, and watch the fountains, get a little sun, and see a schooner heading out to the Bay.

Labor Day weekend activities

• Move all the stuff back onto the deck after the "hurricane"
• Transplant crepe myrtle tree out of the power company right-of-way. Transplant azalea from the spot where Diana wanted the myrtle to a new spot.
• Uninstall and reinstall Open Office, and verify that spellcheck works now. Set up templates for Character, Scene, and Chapter Log
• Kayak. I saw a heron, a batch of snails, and a swimming snake. The snake had a diamond pattern and might have been a moccasin, although I suspect it was just a water snake. The snails climb grass stalks to get a few inches above the water. Herons are very timid and it's hard to get a good shot of them unless you have a zoom lens.
• Set up new landline telephones. 
• Set up and tear down sound gear for church. Our church is starting a third Sunday morning service in a hotel ballroom, more centrally located than our church building. I volunteered to help, which means getting up early and hauling speakers, stands, and cables, and watching the actual sound crew plug them in. 
• Read You Can Write a Novel by James V Smith Jr. Despite the cheesy title, this is an excellent guide--particularly the chapter on editing your first draft.
• Walk on the beach
• Chinese food at Forbidden City.

Hurricane Earl

The storm track looks about the same; we'll probably have winds of 40mph, maybe 60mph, but 75mph is unlikely. The only real thing to worry about is a tree falling on the house, but there are only two trees to worry about and they've both been through hurricanes before. Our house is several feet higher than the highest recorded storm surge (which is around nine feet). As long as Earl doesn't jog left, I think we're fine.

Edit Thursday 11pm: Earl has been downgraded to Category 2 and looks like it's farther offshore than previously predicted. The forecast still calls for 40-50mph winds but no more than an inch of rain and a storm surge of 1-3 feet. Nothing to worry about.

Edit Friday afternoon: A branch fell from one of the trees near our house, and I had to turn my windshield wipers to "medium" for part of the drive in to work.

Hurricane Earl

Yes, it's headed kinda sorta more or less this way. At the moment, odds are that we'll get rain and 40mph wind and that's about it. However, just to be safe, we have stocked up on this and that, and we're watching the forecasts.
If you see news reports that parts of Norfolk and Virginia Beach have flooded, well, parts of Laskin Road can flood due to heavy fog. We're used to it.