The Harnation

It's probably no surprise to anyone that knows me, but I love to garden. There's something stress-relieving about digging in the dirt and watching things grow. When we moved into our house a few years ago, we had a nice assortment of grass and a row of trees along the back fence line. We've added a few flower beds and trees and have learned how to properly kill plenty of plants in the mean time. While I've managed to kill my fair share, I've seemed to improve my odds as time has gone on.

The one area where I haven't been able to successfully grow living plants (not a single one), is starting plants from seed indoors. Every spring, I've been enticed by the peat pots and dreams of fresh veggies and early-blooming zinnias, and every spring I've ended up with a bunch of withered sprouts. I decided last year to stick with real plants or simply sow zinnia seeds in the ground (which worked well, but they didn't bloom until almost August).

Lynne inspired me to make another attempt at starting some plants from seed. I told her how I wanted to have a real herb garden and she encouraged me and went through my list of purchased seeds and weeded out the ones that would just set me up for failure.

I got a practical set of seed types and planted them several days ago. I know it's still early, but I'm encouraged by their progress so far. Hopefully I can keep them from all dying before they get planted in the yard.


My ever-patient husband even helped me up my odds of maintaining a surviving plant this year. He rigged up this grow light for me. We went to Lowe's and bought a small UV light and light bulbs for plants instead of buying one of those expensive grow lights. The funny thing is, you can see the bright glow from under the door. I hope our neighbors don't see it and get the wrong idea!

The other day, Matt and I were talking about beer and how differently I feel about the brew from when we first met over eight years ago.

Back in college, I hated beer. Being a girl, I defaulted out of the masculine you-should-drink-beer-and-like-it thing at social gatherings and could happily stick to some sort of pink, sugary concoction.

Once I got married, and moved to Texas where I had no friends with hunch punch, I was left alone with my new beer-drinking husband.

It's not that Matt is a big drinker, but he does like a beer with certain foods (pizza, Mexican, hot wings), and I had to put up with his beer breath on occasion. I was probably complaining about this when my mom told me that she would sometimes take a sip of whatever my dad was drinking so she didn't have to smell it. Hmm.

I tried it. I still didn't like the taste, but the beer breath was gone.

The next time, Matt had a different beer - something milder. Not as bad. I think he tried a couple until he found one that I actually didn't mind so much... Shiner Light, a Texas staple. Voila! My first (enjoyed) beer.

Over the past (almost) five years of married life, Matt has introduced me to a variety of brews and now there are a few that I actually have a distinct craving for once in a while. He says that I've surprised him and am branching out, even if I can't quite keep up with his eclectic beer tastes. (I like Heineken now, but still won't touch Grolsch... yuck!)


We were trying to figure out my top five favorites and realized the number would have to be a top 10... can't pick just five any more.

In no particular order:

• Killian's Irish Red - a little sweet, but not too sweet, with a kick. To satisfy my Scotts-Irish background.
• Old Towne Amber (the local burned-down-brewery is back to brewing, but we haven't found it widely available yet)
• Dos Equis Amber (a staple with Bandito Burrito's No Carne Burritos)
• Modelo Negro (another fave with Mexican food)
• Corona (with lime, of course!)
• Michelob Cactus Lime (the only one I like that Matt doesn't - HP got me hooked)
• Sam Adam's seasonal/specialty brews (Hefeveizen, Summer Ale, Brown Ale, Honey Porter, Oktoberfest, etc.) - except for the Cranberry Lambic... shudder
• New Castle Brown Ale (definitely a top pick, a good beer for those who aren't sure they like beer. AmberBock is another good one kind of like it)
• Yuengling Traditional Lager (in case you thought I was getting to be a beer snob; my favorite cheap domestic)
  
• Shiner Light (can't find it here), Shiner Blonde, or Shiner Hefeveizen
  

Okay, so it's not quite a top 10, but I figured a top ten beer/beer brands list would work just the same.

I've never thought of myself as a beer girl, but I guess I do like a cold beer now and then. I sure am glad that I'm no baptist!

I'm sure it was just an oversight, but the main stream media missed this one:

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MGen John Kelly USMC, CG MNF West, senior Marine in Iraq.

From: Kelly MajGen John F (CG)
Sent: Sunday, February 01, 2009 9:53 AM

Election Day

I don't suppose this will get much coverage in the States as the news is so good. No, the news is unbelievable. Something didn't happen in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, today.

Once the most violent and most dangerous place on earth, no suicide vest bomber detonated killing dozens of voters. No suicide truck bomber drove into a polling place collapsing the building and killing and injuring over 100. No Marine was in a firefight engaging an Al Qaida terrorist trying to disrupt democracy.

What did happen was Anbar Sunnis came out in their tens of thousands to vote in the first free election of their lives. With the expectation of all of the above (suicide bombers) they walked miles (we shut down all vehicle traffic with the exception of some shuttle busses for the elderly and infirm) to the polling places. I slept under the stars with some Grunts at Combat Outpost Iba on the far side of Karma, and started driving the 200 miles up the Euphrates River Valley through Karma, Fallujah, Habbiniyah, Ramadi, Hit, Baghdad and back here to Al Asad. I stopped here and there to speak with cops, soldiers, Marines, and most importantly, regular Iraqi men and women along the way. It was the same everywhere. A tension with every finger on a trigger that broke at perhaps 3PM when we all began to think what was almost unthinkable a year ago. We might just pull this off without a bombing. No way.

By 4PM it seemed like we'd make it to 5PM when the polls closed. At 4:30 the unbelievable happened: the election was extended an hour to 6PM because of the large crowds! What are they kidding? Tempting fate like that is not nice. Six PM and the polls close without a single act of violence or a single accusation of fraud, and nearly by early reports pretty close to 100% voted. Priceless.

Every Anbari walking towards the polling place had these determined and, frankly, concerned looks on their faces. No children with them (here mothers and grandmothers are NEVER without their children or grandchildren) because of the expectation of death. Husbands voted separately from wives, and mothers separately from fathers for the same reason. In and out quickly to be less of a target for the expected suicide murderer. When they came out after voting they also wore the same expression on their faces, but now one of smiling amazement as they held up and stared at ink stained index fingers.

Norman Rockwell could not have captured this wonderment.

Even the ladies voted in large numbers and their husbands didn't insist on going into the booths to tell them who to vote for.

One of the things I've always said was that we came here to "give" them democracy. Even in the dark days my only consolation was that it was about freedom and democracy. After what I saw today, and having forgotten our own history and revolution, this was arrogance. People are not given freedom and democracy - they take it for themselves. The Anbaris deserve this credit.

Today I step down as the dictator, albeit benevolent, of Anbar Province. Today the Anbaris took it from me. I am ecstatic. It was a privilege to be part of it, to have somehow in a small way to have helped make it happen.

Semper Fi.
Kelly

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This (old) video cracks me up every time I see it. How'd they get so many people to crank the news reporters? HC - aren't you from Mobile?






Reminds me of an infamous home video where I was telling the whopper of a story about how a couple kidnapped me, "changed" me up, and ran out the battery on Dad's flash light - all in the thickest southern 4 year-old's drawl you've ever heard. HK - you'll have to post that vid. :)

I read this on my favorite pundit's website under some of the comments...

Every Democrat elected governor of Illinois since 1960 has either gone to jail or been impeached.

WOAH! Is this true? Can anyone verify this?

I don't consider myself a Republican, but I also don't consider myself a Democrat. And if I lived in Illinois, I would definitely not be voting for any of those hooligans.

We generally don't make it out to the movies much, but since I'd been able to see a couple of movies over the last few weeks, I thought I'd post about them.

About two weeks ago, I caught New in Town with a couple of girls from work. Since we were all without our husbands, we decided on a chick flick. The previews looked good, and since He's Not That Into You wasn't playing at our preferred theatre yet, it was our choice by default.

I was pleasantly surprised. The movie wasn't too sappy and really was a cute film. A corporate girl from Miami is sent to small town Minnesota to downsize the local manufacturing plant - in the dead of winter. After managing to insult the entire town, she begins to fall in love with the heavily-accented caricatures of the area and changes her mind about them.


On the opposite end of the spectrum was Gran Torino. We did a double-date this weekend and caught it with the 'rents. I can't remember the last time that I saw a Clint Eastwood movie, but this was also a good one.

Gran Torino starts out with Walt Kowalski, a retired Ford assembly line worker and Korean War vet, at his wife's funeral. He sees his kids and grand kids as overindulged, selfish people who are only interested him when they think they will benefit from it.

The movie is about how Walt deals with the decline of his once-beautiful suburban neighborhood and his own racism when a young Hmong family moves in next door. The eternal grump, he makes enemies with several different ethnic groups and gangs while forging a friendship with his new neighbors.

Clint's real-life son has a small role as neighbor Sue's date who gets cornered by some local thugs.

If you can get past all of the language, it's a very good movie.

I had several people see and recommend Slumdog Millionare to me over the weekend, so maybe I can talk Matt into seeing it with me before we have to put it on our Netflix queue...

This is a big thank you to my honey who spent a good bit of the weekend entertaining my plant obsessions by taking me to Bennett's on Valentine's Day, and then helping me move some monster plants around in the yard on Sunday.


He even broke the "25-Year Warranty" shovel we bought to replace our previously-broken shovel. (Gave me a good excuse to go to Lowe's and get more yard stuff!) This isn't our shovel - since it's now out at the street - but it might as well have been as this is how ours ended up.

This morning, Matt didn't wake up with his usual get-to-work-by-6:45-AM-vigor, and told me it was because he was too sore (from my yard honey-do list). I felt kind of bad, but not bad enough to not ask him for help this next weekend. :) (Hey, I can't lift those 15' climbing roses by myself.)

Last weekend, we went to Atlanta for a dose of culture. Manda Panda pointed out that the Atlanta Civic Center was hosting the King Tut Exhibit while the High Museum of Art was displaying the Chinese Terracotta Soldiers down the street. She was able to purchase tickets in advance for us at < half price!

The King Tut exhibit, going on in Atlanta through May, was pretty good. It featured a good movie on the discoveries of the mummified Pharaohs of Egypt and the 1923 discovery of the tomb of King Tutankhamum, as well as a ton of artifacts from within the tomb and all over Egypt. It was pretty interesting.

As most people know, King Tut became king when he was around 8 or 9 years old and died mysteriously around age 19. What I was most surprised by was the state of his tomb. It wasn't a grand pyramid, but a hole in the ground comprised of three or four small rooms with items stacked up in piles in them. It could have been a different tomb than where he was originally buried, meant to protect his tomb from looters. It is amazing that it avoided discovery and looting, and that it was found and emptied shortly before the tomb collapsed.


My favorite exhibit was the Chinese Terracotta Soldiers display. It was in the High Museum of Art (get there early, or go on a weekday... it was packed!) - which I could have spent several more hours at perusing the other galleries (your ticket gives you access to the entire museum). This display will be in Atlanta until April 19th, and I would highly recommend it. By the way... if the line for the exhibit is really long, you can get to it by going through the Art Museum's adjacent/attached building instead of waiting with everyone else to take the elevator.

The Terracotta Army was very interesting. China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, had a whole clay city built for him to govern when he died. It consisted of over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses, 150 cavalry horses, clay animals, minstrels, acrobats, court officials, mercury rivers, a whole palace complex, and the tomb of the emporer in the middle. The whole complex covers a huge area, estimated at 2 square miles, and has over 600 pits with buried clay figures.

Matt's uncle has a jade replica of one of the Chinese generals (only nine have been excavated) in his home. We made friends with him this summer.

The complex was built around 210 BC and discovered in 1974. The excavators have been working for over three decades and have yet to unearth a lot of the items. The tomb has not been excavated yet and is believed to remain largely intact.

Check out the High Museum's info on the history of the tomb.

(AP) "Nineteen-day-old ox 'Heart,' born with a heart-shaped marking on his forehead, relaxes at Yamakun farm in Fujisawa, near Tokyo, Japan, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2009. Kazunori Yamazaki, 51-year-old farm owner, said, 'Good timing for Valentine's Day.' "

Each spring, Matt and I cringe when we drive by those peaceful, Southern trees called Crepe Myrtles (or, Crape Myrtles, depending on your spelling preference), that have been hacked back to knobby/gnarly stubs.

People seem to want to cut off the limbs of crepe myrtles because they think it will promote blooming (since blooms appear on new growth), but the result is a damaged and mutilated tree that is also quite ugly.

Dave's Garden, one of my favorite resources for infinite gardening information, has a wonderful article on how to properly prune and appreciate a crepe myrtle.


Crepe Murder ("topping") is a very common problem; a quick Google search yielded lots of images and web pages on the subject. The University of Florida has a good article on how to avoid - and recover from - crepe murder.

"Although topping may result in larger blooms, those flowers will grow on thinner, weaker branches that will droop--especially after rain--and may even break. Topping may also shorten the life of your trees.

"To properly prune crape myrtles, use the following techniques.

• Remove suckers from the bottom of the plant.
• Remove crossed, damaged, or diseased branches. For crossed branches, remove the weaker of the two limbs that are crossing or rubbing.
• Prune the tips of the branches to remove old flowers. If old blooms are removed, a second blooming may occur.
• Thin out small twiggy growth to allow air to better circulate in the canopy.
• [Pruning should be done in late winter/early spring before new growth begins. Avoid pruning in late fall because this will force new growth and can prevent the tree from going dormant.]
  

"You have two options for rehabilitating a "murdered" crape myrtle.

• The first method is to choose the strongest two or three sprouts from each stub and remove all of the other sprouts. This will encourage the remaining sprouts to be stronger and the canopy of the tree to be airier. If you follow this procedure for a couple of seasons, the tree is sure to be much improved in health and appearance.
• The second--and more drastic--technique is to cut the tree back to within one to two inches of the ground while the tree is dormant. After two to three weeks of growth, select three to five of the most vigorous new shoots on each trunk and remove all others. Remove any new shoots that emerge later. Within three to five years, you will again have a natural-looking crape myrtle."

Crepe Myrtles come in lots of colors and sizes. You can prune them into a bush or tree shape, but never top them off. They have beautiful bark to admire in the winter and brightly colored leaves in the fall. They're a year-round beauty and put up with our hot and humid summers without a fuss.

Michelle Malkin pointed out this post card from PostSecret and I decided to take a look at their site.


PostSecret is a place you can mail (or email) your secrets on a post card anonymously. They're compiled and posted on the blogsite and/or put in one of their books. The secrets can be funny, sad, thought provoking, etc. I liked this one from 2/1/09:

I got my GRE scores back!

While all of my scores were decent, I thought it was kind of funny when I checked out the mean test scores classified by "broad intended graduate major field".

Next to business students, engineers score the lowest on the analytical writing section of the test, and are right in the middle for their average verbal reasoning scores. While my quantitative (math) scores were on target for my field, my verbal and writing scores were a good bit above the engineering average. In fact, as far as percentiles go, my writing score was the highest of all three categories.

I'm not sure if I should be excited about that or not... does it imply that I'm ahead of the curve, or that the average engineer is behind it??

Matt says that he thinks the average engineer is not known for his skills with the English language. I don't think I'm particularly gifted myself, but I guess I am capable enough - enough that I always got stuck writing the lab reports while my partners were the guys that knew how to wire our circuit before class had even started. I guess everyone has their own strengths (and weaknesses).

My dad sent me this post from NRO concerning Ms. Pelosi's view of our "fiscally responsible" district:

Fiscal Responsibility [David Freddoso]

Pelosi's spokesman Brendan Daly, on why eleven Democrat House members voted against the stimulus:

"The speaker has said many times that the members are representative of their district . . . Many of the districts are more conservative, and they campaigned on fiscal responsibility, and we understand that."

Surely he did not mean to imply that the stimulus bill was fiscally irresponsible.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0209/18274.html