Thursday 13: Hi

Since I haven’t blogged in almost three months, I thought a Thursday 13 would be a good way to start back and catch up.

1.    Since cat pictures are always a good way to start, enjoy this one of Caroline.  The bed she’s in clamps to the side of my desk, so she has a comfy place to “supervise” me on my work-from-home days.

2.    Caroline has had a lot of work to supervise during my blogging break.  I got assigned to help another team with a project that had a very tight deadline, so I was putting in some extra hours.  We made it, though, and (fingers crossed) it should be January before I’m dealing with any more super-tight deadlines. 

3.    Charlie does not involve himself in my work. 

4.    Nick and I celebrated our 17^th wedding anniversary in September.  It doesn’t seem like it has been that long! 

5.    Theodore turned one at the end of August.

6.    It’s beginning to look and feel like Fall is really here.  We’ve had highs in the low 70s and lows in the mid-40s. 

7.    I’ve switched to my Fall cards for my buddies with Chemo Angels and Senior Angels.

8.    I’ve been crocheting again. 

9.    I found this tutorial and liked the way it looked, so I made one (with no plan for giving it to any particular person).  I enjoyed making it, and I love the texture the stitches create.  (Note:  I used an H hook and a shorter starting chain for a narrower scarf.)

10. During the decluttering/organizing that we did during the spring and summer, I realized that I have A LOT of yarn I had forgotten about.  I came across this green, which is our neighbor’s (Lori) favorite color.  I asked Lori if she’d like a scarf in that color, and she said yes. 

 

11. When I dropped off Lori’s scarf, I asked if anyone else would like a scarf.  Fortunately, a few people said yes.  I’m almost finished with a pink scarf for one of the girls.  Next up is a light blue one for one of the girls, and a dark blue one for one of the boys.  One of the other boys really liked the original gray one, so I gave that one to him. 

12. We got the cats an ice cream truck (remember how much they loved the taco truck), which they enjoyed.

13. I’m working on catching up with visiting everyone’s blogs and hope to “see” you soon.  

Thursday 13: Hi

Since I haven’t blogged in quite a while, I thought a Thursday 13 would be a good way to start back.

1.    Since a cat picture is always a good way to start a Thursday 13, enjoy this picture of Tara.  She’s camera-shy, so I’m always happy when I’m able to get a picture of her.

 

2.    I don’t really have a great reason for not blogging much.  One of the main reasons has been that I find myself alternating between ridiculous amounts of doomscrolling and then taking myself entirely offline for a while.  Also, I tend to blog about very unimportant things, and that has felt wrong lately.  Recently, my friend at my work showed me where they keep all of their documentation to be here.  I’m not sure what else to call it.  This person legally immigrated here over 30 years ago, has multiple advanced degrees, and works for the government.  (I want to be clear that I am not saying that this person’s degrees or employment status make them more worthy of not being snatched off the street and potentially sent to a concentration camp.  I’m just trying to make the point that plenty of people, regardless of other factors, are living in fear simply because of their skin color.  And that is not OK.)  But, recently, they came to me and said, “Because I’m brown, I want to make sure someone here knows where all of these things are.”  They then showed me where to look in their wallet for various forms of documentation.  On one hand, I’m glad they showed me because, unfortunately, I think it’s good for someone to know.  On the other hand, that is not a conversation we ever should have needed to have.  I hate that they’re in a position to need to pick a person at work to have that conversation with.  It’s hard to come home and write a blog post about groundhogs or flowers after something like that. 

3.    I don’t want to make it sound like it has just been misery that has kept me from blogging,  It hasn’t.  I have a very bad habit of trying to start way too many projects at once.  In April, I decided to start a massive decluttering/organizing project on the whole house, sign up for the A to Z Blogging Challenge, take on a fourth Chemo Angels buddy, start the garden, continue working on our big drainage project, and work on some other projects in the yard.  Some of those things have gone better than others, and some have spilled over and are still going on.

 

4.    On the decluttering/organizing front, we have made tons of progress.  This closet used to have things falling off the shelves.   We didn’t keep track, but between donations and a few things that went to the dump, we got rid of probably dozens of carloads of stuff. 

 

5.    We each got rid of about half of our clothing and reorganized where and how we store a lot of things.  It makes keeping up with laundry, putting away clean laundry, and getting dressed so much easier.  Plus, it makes me ridiculously happy every time I see my shirts organized by style and color.

 

6.    Theodore absolutely loves storage cubes!

 

7.    With our neighbors’ help, we have finished one of the French drains we were working on.   After this project is finished, I will be very happy if I never have to shovel gravel again!

 

8.    We are almost finished with the second French drain.  We just need to add the overflow valve and finish filling in the trench with the pipe. 

 

9.    We haven’t started on the third one yet.  Between heat advisories and storms, it has been hard to do much work outside.  We hoped to be able to hire someone to finish the project and do some grading work, but after the estimate, that’s off the table for a while. 

10. Some parts of the garden are going better than others. 

 

11. The Orange Chef’s Choice tomato plant is doing fairly well.

 

12. The Roma tomato plant is barely hanging on.

 

13. I’m working on catching up on visiting all of your blogs, and hope to “see” you soon.  

Visitors

V is one of the harder letters (at least for me) in the A to Z Challenge. 

That means it's time for another critter corner video!

This one at least has V (Visits) in the title. 

Umbrella

 

Actually, it's another groundhog video!  But, it's one with an umbrella, so I think it counts for my U post.

Time for More Groundhogs

Since I went two days in a row without posting a groundhog video, I thought it was time for more groundhogs.   That works for my T post.  

So here's more of the groundhogs. 

Squirrels

In addition to the groundhogs and possums, we also have squirrels that like to visit our critter corner. 

The squirrels also enjoy eating out of the bird feeders in the front yard.

I'm still not sure how this one got in this feeder! 

Raccoons

While the groundhogs are the most frequent visitors to our critter corner, we do have some other visitors, especially at night while the groundhogs are tucked into their burrows. 

Here are a couple of videos of our raccoon visitors. 

Q Is One of the Harder Letters

Q is definitely one of the harder letters (at least for me) during the A to Z Challenge. 

Since I  couldn't come up with anything interesting for Q, I decided to share another groundhog video. 

They're just too cute not to share!  

Possums

Groundhogs are definitely the most common visitors to our critter corner, but we do occasionally have other visitors, including possums.

Of Course I'm Sharing More Groundhog Videos

I have a lot of groundhog videos, and they're adorable. 

Of course I'm going to keep sharing them whenever I can make it work for the day's letter. 

They like watermelon. 

They also like tomatoes. 

Now That Someone Asked

I didn't have a plan for my N post, and I wasn't sure about a way to make the groundhogs work for N.

But, now that Live and Learn asked (on my M post) if the groundhogs like the bananas you can see in the video, I can make them work for N.

Now, I can show you that the groundhogs definitely do like bananas. 

They definitely enjoy their bananas. 

 

Mom and Baby Groundhog Eating Carrots

The groundhogs might be the closest thing I have to a theme for the A to Z Challenge. 

Enjoy this video of a mom and baby groundhog eating carrots. 

Lilacs

The lilac is blooming!

It's not quite in full bloom, but there are lots of blooms, and it smells amazing. 

It has gotten huge!

Fortunately, the colder weather we had over the weekend doesn't seem to have hurt the blooms.

Kale

My kale seeds have sprouted.  

I think they're so cute.

We had a freeze last night/this morning, but the little kale seedlings still seem to be doing well. 

Are you having colder weather this weekend? 

Jellyfish

I wasn't sure what to do for my J post.

So, I scrolled through my pictures hoping for inspiration.  I came across these pictures of jellyfish from when we visited the SC Aquarium last year.   

  

I definitely wouldn't want to encounter one at the beach, but I think they're beautiful. 

They just seem so peaceful.   

If you're doing the A to Z Challenge, was J hard for you?  If you're not doing the challenge, is any particular letter the reason?  

I Couldn't Think of Anything Else

I couldn't really come up with anything for my I post.

So I decided I would share another groundhog video. 

I could watch them all day.  

Here Are a Few Random Things

How about a little midweek randomness?

My arugula seedlings are doing well. 

We're still working on a lot of decluttering. 

And no random things post is complete without at least one cat picture. 

How is your week going?