Week of walks

Finally warm enough for walking in the yard and around the neighborhood. I've started carrying my iPhone to take pictures. I could have a fancy, expensive camera and not do any better. I'm a terrible photographer, and I always blame the camera. However, after going through four cameras...I have to admit it's moi.
I love my spring scilla.

 The daffodils will bloom any minute now.

Love to see a  sundog in the sky!

A mallard couple has taken up residence along the runoff from a drainage culvert. I swear to Gah...I have worked on this picture for an hour...and can't get it to load right-side-up!!! That is just the kind of week I have been having...to heck with it....just lean your head sideways to view, please.

Really Wheel-worthy Wednesday

I didn't attend SXSW in Austin, TX, last week, and of course, I'm a week late catching up. SXSW totally rocks, btw, if you don't mind 20,000 people and are able to stay up for 24 hours at a time.

I love checking out the winners of the annual SXSW Web Awards. You'll discover some web sites that I promise will amaze, impress, and delight you, even if you are not a "geek". That's what our computers are for, right? And, ummm...yea...sometimes we actually are supposed to be doing our jobs at a computer too, but...ummm...that's boring.

One of my favorites - Waterlife . Enter the site and then hover your mouse over the words "Water Is" in the upper left corner. Click on "Poison". Read all the info. Pretty horrifying, isn't it? We are beluga lovers here in la Casa de Wheel and we had no idea that water pollution is causing cancer in beluga whales. Obviously, what.are.we.doing.to.ourselves?! Personally, I think web sites like this should be required "browsing" in school. Web sites are the new books, and what an inventive way to get a message out to young people who are on the internet all day anyway.

Now I need to get busy and check out the rest of the Web Awards winners.

Carpe Diem

My left eye is much better today, thank you. I did not go to work on Thursday because my eye was still all red and watery and just icky scary looking, and no one wants to see that in the office.

"Carpe diem quam minimum credula postero." "Seize the day, trusting as little as possible in the next." Wise old Roman Horace. I decided to follow his advice on Thursday. Seeing as how the Dr. had advised that "if your eye looks worse by Friday, call immediately and I'll send you to an ophthalmologist right away...and if you have any stabbing eye pain or see stars or your vision goes blurry - go to the emergency room." Which seemed to indicate that I might be in imminent danger of going blind or dying.

The Dr. also said "stay away from any allergens or pollen." But what the heck, Thursday was a rare Iowa March day - sunny and in the 60's. So I spent the afternoon outside in the sun, happily cleaning up all the moldy leaves and stirring up fresh pollen, and searching for signs of spring flowers. And I survived. And it was worth it - because the weather forecast for tonight is SNOW!

How I celebrated this St. Patrick's Day

• Woke up - left eye felt funny. No, actually itchy, and irritated, and sticky.....ewww. WTF?
• Rubbed eye. Looked in mirror. Oh My Gah!
• Took shower, thinking maybe the eye just needing a scrubbing with soap and hot water.
• Looked in mirror - still ewww.
• Called Dr's office - luckily, they could work me in right away.
• Nurse asked if it would be all right if an intern from the local medical center could do a preliminary check-up before the Dr. saw me. Ok, what the heck, give little Doogie Howser a break.
• In walks - Oh My Gah! - DR. McDREAMY!
• Definitely movie star quality doctor...the color of his blue-green eyes brought out by his (St. Patrick's Day appropriate) crisply pressed, celery green shirt.
• And I am looking like Popeye; Popeye with an oozing, infectious, disgusting (not St. Patrick's day appropriate) red left eye. And no make-up.
• Tried to act cute anyway...who am I kidding...Dr. McDreamy was young enough to be my son. *Sigh*
• The official Dr. came in and put a bunch of icky stuff in my eye and said he wasn't sure if it was pinkeye or just seasonal allergies. Was that why I was paying for an office visit?
• Got a prescription for eye drops to put in my eye, which I end up squirting all over my face.
• Couldn't go to work because I look icky scary. And I still don't know if I'm contagious.
• At least the sun came out at noon and I got to sit in the sun on my front stoop for awhile this afternoon. *Sigh*

the usual weekly blogger requisite food post

*Sigh* Finished the last of these delicious sun-ripened Texas Rio Star grapefruits and oranges from California. Every winter about the first of February, there is a man who comes around the neighborhood selling citrus fruit. He says he drives straight to Texas and gets fresh tree-ripened fruit and drives straight back. (notice that in Iowa in the winter - you can use your garage like a refrigerator) It's like getting sunshine in the middle of winter.

Made this dip, but instead of using 2 cups of sour cream, I creamed 1 cup of organic low-fat cottage cheese in the food processor and added 1 cup of plain organic low-fat yogurt, then stirred in the dip mix. It's great with red and green pepper strips, baby carrots, celery sticks, any veggies, really. Meester loves dip; he can go crazy with this one and not feel guilty.

My good friend Krissa mentioned a recipe for Savory St. Patrick's Day Potato Muffins from JennyMac. I made them and they are delicious; a meal in themselves. I wonder if they could be made in a mini-muffin pan and be served as hors d'oeuvres?

You call this a weekend?

Oy, it is 9:00 pm on Saturday...and I have just now sat down for the first time today. Having a hamster-type metabolism, I do tend to run in circles...but today was ridiculous.

Got up and it was windy and pouring rain - no enjoying the outdoors today. So I cleaned the master bathroom. The bathroom cleaning ritual by the female of the species always provokes an immediate response by the male of the species to engage in a messy personal grooming activity, like mustache trimming or toenail clipping...spreading the detritus of said activity throughout the clean bathroom.

Meester immediately decided to clean his electric razor(in the clean sink). Somehow, along with all the little beard stubble...a small part from the razor went down the drain. Meester thought it was a little part that the razor could do without...so I cleaned up the beard stubble. Meester decided to take another look at his razor to be sure it would work without that part. Somehow?...more parts from the razor get jammed in the sink drain stopper?? Meester got out some dirty tools from the basement(and my good tweezers!) and spread them on the clean! countertop. Somehow!...said razor parts end up going all the way down the drain, WTF?!! So now everything under the sink had to be taken out so that Meester could get out the extra-dirty, heavy-duty pipe wrench and take apart the drain pipe...and you know what comes out of bathroom drain pipes! .....I cleaned up under the sink afterwards.....

Went to Target to get more parts for the razor. While we were there, I nagged persuaded Meester to buy a new showerhead for the master shower, because ours was clogged with mineral deposits and spraying in funny directions. What was I thinking?! Now I've added shower cleaning after the shower plumbing project!!

Why did I choose a cream-colored bathroom counter top? Next time I'm choosing a countertop in greasy-granite black color.

To every thing there is a season...

It poured rain here in Iowa last night, believe it or not, instead of snow. And the temperature was actually above freezing all night. A lot of the snow cover is finally gone.

This signals the end of the "Oh my Gah, there's going to be another blizzard...and we are going to be trapped in our houses...and we will have to eat each other...it's.the.end.of.the.world" season here in the Midwest. Now the weather and news announcers can start a new "Oh my Gah, there's going to be flooding...it's.the.end.of.the.world" season. Good, because I was getting so tired of reruns of death by snow and it's time for a plot twist.

Yesterday I trudged through the glacial remnants of ice in my backyard to see how my garden looked. Miracle of miracles,
I discovered GREEN.

Daylily shoots!

The green and purple sort-of-heart-shaped leaves will be golden moneywort when they get enough sun.

My "Plum Pudding" heuchera is plum purple!

And my rock cress is green already. *sigh*

What is a Hamster's best friend?

A dog, of course.

 

A couple of years ago I discovered this deliciously toasty stuffed dachshund neck wrap from Warm Whiskers. They have an assortment of heatable(I'm all about the heatable) and freezable aromatherapy pillows in the shape of cuddly pets. There are neck wraps, body wraps, slippers, even therapy wraps for your own pet dog.

I wear my dachshund constantly during the winter...well, at home anyway...I'd wear it at work but it's goofy enough there already without me wearing a dog around my neck. You should see me walking around the house all evening with a stuffed dachshund around my neck! When I had the chills, he was draped across my body while I slept; when I had stomach cramps he was wrapped around my waist. My trusty, toasty little companion.

Yea, I know I sound so weird...but at least I'm warm.....

How I survived this winter

Now that it's March, the outside temperatures in Iowa may start to rise above ass-freezing, and Meester and me may be able to start sleeping like a "normal" couple again.

For some reason that we have not been able to fathom, our master bedroom is absolutely freezing in the winter. Maybe it's the three bedroom windows, (that are so charming and sunny in the summer), or the fact that an open stairway is just outside our bedroom door, but whatever, the temperature in our master bedroom is way colder than the rest of the house.

And I loves me a warm bedroom. Yes, we have an expensive down comforter. Yes, Meester is perfectly comfortable with the cold bedroom temperature. Actually, Meester puts off quite the body heat under the covers. But is it enough? No, being the eternally dissatisfied bitch sensitive woman that I am...I require total warmth in the bedroom. Being warm under the covers is not enough...if even the tip of my nose pokes out from under the comforter, that nose tip needs to be breathing warm air!

So in January, when I got a virus and cold that I just couldn't get over, and I had the chills, and our bedroom was at its coldest...I decided to move to the sofa in the living room for a few nights.

 

I could leave the fireplace on all night...and mother mercy...was it warm! 

 

I was so comfy in that broiling inferno nicely toasty living room - that I decided to stay for a few more nights. And eventually...the living room became my winter bedroom. And Meester rolled himself up in the whole down comforter and took over our whole bed. And we both lived happily ever after.