My sad sad container garden

First the happy news.

The arugula that I started indoors and transplanted to the patio planter did wonderfully. In fact, it took over the entire planter. The poor gardenia hiding in the back had little say. I've picked the seed pods and I'm drying them. Hopefully they'll do just as well next year :)
Now the not so happy news...

The last few super-hot days have not been kind to my sugar snap peas. I water every evening and on the super hot days I tried to water in the morning as well, but not watering while at work really took it's toll on the poor plants. Here they are looking so very promising at the beginning of the month.


We were able to get a single harvest of around 20 beans before the heat hit. Now the poor sugar snaps are looking rather dry. At least the cucumbers seem to be thriving and the bell peppers are finally sprouting :)


Next year we plan to do some raised beds with the water tied to the automated system so it won't be quite so dependent on me being consistent. Also, it would most likely be better for the plants to have a bit more space to spread out. I'm probably doing a million other things wrong too. If anyone out there with a greener thumb than I has any advice, it is welcome.

Wilder Ranch

Zeb has been itching to go mountain biking for ages. It's been at least two, maybe three years since our last ride.

The last ride I remember we rode the Frog Lake trail at Henry Coe. This was the trip where I failed to see a rock on a sharp corner and flipped...into the brush...which was mostly poison oak. It is not a happy memory.

Since we are going to try the Flume trail when we go to Tahoe with my parents in two weeks we figured we should at least try to get in shape. To that end, we took my parents to Wilder Ranch today. Grandparents are the best! They took the 'bee for a walk along the coastal cliffs while we went on a ride.

We did the Old Dairy trail. Considering how out of practice we were it went pretty well. It was nice and low key. I had to take a few 'moments' here and there to recuperate and there was some walking of the bikes, but we were only passed by three people and we made it!

Open Letter to the Long Suffering IT Guy at Work

Dear LSITGAW,

I miss you. Please come back from vacation.

I promise I won't interrupt you on your call with other end users....much. The only exception will be when you seem to be on hold or something and classical/elevator music can be heard faintly from your earphones.

I promise I won't touch anything in the server room without asking you first. The last time I had accidentally turned the Linux build machine off was a complete misunderstanding. I thought I was turning it on since I couldn't ping the box from my desktop.

I promise not to spill coffee on my machine. The last time it happened it turned out ok after allowing the box to dry over the weekend, but I agree that coffee covered electronics do tend to break more easily.

Please ignore my past transgressions and just make the beeping from full tape drive in the server room stop. In keeping with my previous promise not to break anything in the server room I have not touched it. I promise.

Sincerely,

Me

Cardboard Cutouts

We've been looking at getting the 'bee some kid sized table and chairs. She LOVES being able to sit in a chair her size. The trouble is that most of the kid stuff is still too tall for her or really expensive.

So far we've been using the bumbo which is getting a bit small and the portable booster seat that is meant for dining out...but we are missing the table part.

I ran into this super cool site that has some patterns for cardboard chairs...and perhaps a table similar to the ones here.

...modern sensibility
...cheap, possibly free
...green
...can be customized to a size that would fit her

I don't know how long it would last, but kid furniture is outgrown so quickly it wouldn't matter.

I am totally smitten with the idea. Now if only I had a spare day or two...