Monday, March 16, 2009

8 months, really?

Alright, let's start with photos from the Oklahoma style wedding of my little brother and his lovely bride.



The bride and her maids:


The groom and his men:



The reception:



Instead of cake they had pie, and instead of champagne they had beer. Of course, there was barbeque, karaoke, and a waterslide.

My immediate family (minus the sister) for the first and probably only time in the same photo:



Awww:


They honeymooned in Jamaica. They are expecting their first child (Saedie Rene' Hallett) in about a week -- I guess they did more than snorkle in Jamaica.
***
Since the last post we've done tons of stuff. I can't think of most of it, but you can assume it was all pretty good.


We saw Alanis Morrissette.
We also saw: Phantom of the Opera, Leslie Jordan, Rocky Horror, Barack Obama, and the SantaLand Diaries. Went to zoos and museums. Ate tons of great food. Attended parties. The ususal stuff.


We got some new stuff.


Here's Tony wiring up the TV.

Tony got a new car.

And we got a new mattress set -- yeah for sleep.

Finally, the pets are still being cute (and peeing on the carpet).

Sunday, July 13, 2008

As the World Turns

A lot of things can happen in just a short time. I last posted in mid-May, and life here is so different now that mid-May seems like last year. So I'll start slow and talk about all the parts I have pictures of.

In gardening news, we planted a rose.


We planted a bunch of other stuff too, but I'm sticking with the things of which I have pics. This post will be long enough without listing every plant in the yard.
The bamboo looks great now that it is starting to fill in. We bought a little stone pagoda to sit with the bamboo.

The whole bamboo area is slated to become a large pond with sitting area. We got the hole pretty much excavated, then started the difficult task of leveling and shaping, etc. We also bought the skimmer, pump, waterfall, and filtration system.

But before any of that could go it, it rained for a month.

And every time we get the hole pumped out and about dry, it rains some more. The goal now is to have the pond up and running by the end of the year.

In May the garden was starting to grow. We added paths between the beds and put in a drip irrigation system.



Now the garden is heavy with fruit. We've been harvesting: beans, tomatoes, corn, okra, herbs.

The sunflowers are so neat. We planted three different kinds. I really like this red one. We have one sunflower that is 7-8 foot tall and has flowers the size of dinner plates.



The front yard garden is a bit neglected but looks good just the same.

******

In travel news: not a lot of travel, but we've done lots of things. Including a day at the zoo. I took too many pictures, and here are a few of my favs.

Look at this loafer just standing around.



The flamingos were lazier than the bear and more vain. The stood around sleeping or preening.


The sea lions put on a show. At least someone is earning their dinner. They taught us important lessons about recycling by demonstrating how to retrieve plastic bottles from the water and toss them into the can.


The land lions must be friends with the bear and the flamingos; they also just stood around.


******

We went to a concert: the True Colors Tour. It's a gay pride thing.

The venue:

It was hosted by Carson Kressley. He changed outfits like 5 times.

Here's Andy Bell of Erasure joined by Cyndi Lauper!

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts

Margret Cho!

This tour is Cyndi's baby. So she came out to talk about equality and voting or something. I'm sure the website says what all that's about.

The B-52's !! Tony loves the B52's. They were a lot of fun. I also tried out my camera's video function for the first time during the B52's set. If I can figure out how to add it to this page, maybe I'll post it some time.

After the B52's was Cyndi Lauper. She was amazing! But by that time, it was dark and I didn't get one good picture. They ended the show with all the performers singing True Colors. *tears*

******

So back to the life changing part. I got a job! A real job, not that private-practice-working-out-of-the-house shit. Wheee! I'm a staff attorney at the Tulsa Law Office of Legal Aid Services Of Okalhoma. A salary, health insurance, an office with a window that doesn't look out on to the street in front of my house. And we are located in a really cool building: the Gillette-Tyrell Building also called the Pythian Building. It's on the National Register of Historic Places. My office is on the second floor, fifth window from the right.

Tulsa is known for it's art deco buildings. So I'm so happy to be in one. The lobby is all tile work. Floor, walls, ceiling.

My office. Not a great picture.

Another pic from that first week. It came with furniture. This is how it looked when I moved it. Luckily, I'm allowed to paint the walls and move in/out any furniture I want. Of course, it didn't take me long to start redecorating. It has a way to go, but when it's done, I'm sure to post more.

******

July 4, 2008, was our second anniversary. We went out that morning and bought rings. We are now unlawfully wed.

******

Not much to report on the knitting front. Tony is working on a rug from Mason-Dixon. I finished a BSJ. I'm sure we'll update a little sooner next time. yeah right.

Later,

Eric

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Medieval things and new pets

On Friday we went to the Renaissance Festival.
Friday just happened to be student day, but Friday was the only day we could both go. On student day, they don't serve beer -- and there are so many darned kids. Needless to say, it wasn't as fun as last year. But we made the most of it.

We saw a King,


And a Queen,

Jousting,

Animals,

And the gayest pirate ever!

Too much sun and not enough beer made me a little silly by the end of the day. Here I am impersonating Tyra when she showed the girls how to use pain as inspiration when they draw a blank. Oh, I'm having cramps!

Tony got a bit silly too.

In gardening news: we've started harvesting radishes.

Tony propagated a new staghorn fern from his enormous one in the house. We mounted it to a piece of bark (with good ol' lace weight wool) and hung it in a tree. It shifted around a bit, but it'll fill in.

Lastly, we have a new pet. I was walking through the back yard today and I saw something scurry down a hole. I watched it for a bit and discovered that an Oklahoma Brown Tarantula has moved in. I gave it a bit of wood over its hole for protection and to remind us it lives there.

Boo! S/he's scary! Their venom is less poisonous than a bee sting. They are supposed to be very docile. So it can stay.

In knitting news: I'm working on a baby surprise jacket. Wheee! Hopefully I'll have more knitting content soon.

Later,

Eric

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Eric and Tony knit and garden, didn't you know?

Howdy, Folks!

In knitting news:

I finished the new blanket. Here she is fresh off the needles. This picture is a fairly close representation of the actual color.


Here she is blocking. Somehow the camera picked up a little more blue than is actually there. It's a bit warm now and she will probably be hanging out on the back of a chair for a few months, but I lover her all the same.


The particulars:

Pattern: Feather and Fan Shawl by Eugene Beugler published in A Gathering of Lace.
Yarn: Cascade Eco +; 2 skeins or 956 yards; in color 7009.
Needles: KnitPicks Options US 10 (6.0 mm). I worked up to a 60" cable.
Started March 16, 2008, and finished April 19, 2008.

Mods and Notes: This is the Hemlock Ring Blanket version of the pattern. I love my HRB and really wanted another. But I also wanted some variation. This pattern is similar but a little more complex.


The pattern gives you the option of doing a straight feather-fan throughout or adding an eyelet cable every third repeat. I did the latter version because 1) I’ve already done a feather-fan throughout – see the HRB – and 2) I wanted something more challenging/entertaining to knit. Well I don’t know that it is any more challenging but it did keep the rounds interesting since I got to do something different every three repeats. Plus it was great for marking the sections so if I made a mistake I had a smaller chunk of knitting to inspect.

The Crochet bind off was no big deal. It only took a few hours and my crochet skills have improved!

Otherwise, we are still slowly plugging away on previously started projects.

***
Most of our time has been spent outdoors, duh.

In Gardening news:

We put in some ornamental grasses between the back porch and the veggies.

Here is pink pompous grass. It is the center plant. We are expecting it to grow upwards of 12 feet -- maybe not this year, but eventually.

It is flanked on either side by purple fountain grass. Hopefully, it will all fill in to provide a screen.

We've trapped the bamboo. First we drove a barrier into the ground to stop its spread -- please, barrier, stop the spread! And we added a decorative border. We don't know that this will be the permanent border, but it works for now.


The bamboo is growing like crazy. You can literally watch the grass grow with this one. In good weather, we've seen some of the new shoots grow more than 6 inches during the day. And there are more than a dozen new shoots growing right now!

Tony has spent everyday this week putting in a path -- the first of several planned. As I'm writing this, he is adding the edging, and he has plans to go buy river rock today. He hopes to have the path finished by the end of the week.

When he's not digging the path, Tony spends time willing the cannas to grow.


The cannas are actually growing pretty fast right now. 10 out of 12 plants have poked one or more stems through the ground and most are 4 -6 inches tall and showing their first leaves.

In the veggie patch, we have corn up to 6" tall. Okra and radishes shot out of the ground with a bang. Baby spinach and salad greens are coming along nicely. The tomatoes, bell peppers, shallots, and marigolds are growing. Green onions, cucumbers, nasturtium, parsley, basil, and carrots have poked through the earth. Recently we panted: more corn, more carrots, brussels sprouts, leaf lettuce, thyme, dill, and cilantro. Still nothing from the eggpant yet.

Several years ago, I planted an Impatiens in a pot. I take it inside every winter and it lives! Then I put it back out in the spring. I've never repotted or added anything to the soil and it hasn't bloomed the last two summers. This year I decided to divide and repot the thing. And it has woody stems. I thought that was pretty neat.

We've stared a fern garden in a shady spot. So far we've planted cinnamon fern, Japanese painted fern, and Autumn fern. We have plans to make that whole area into a shade garden paradise. I see rhododendron and hostas in our future.

In the front garden, we are going with a purple/black, silver, and green theme. We've planted an ornamental pepper called black pearl, Persian shield, and palace purple choral bells. Plus we already have two purple barberrys. For the silver we have some lavender from last year, dusty miller, a silver dollar eucalyptus, and firewitch dianthus that has a blue/silver foliage. As for green, we mostly have foliage plants. There is some lemon balm from last year as well as a mum. We planted a mosquito plant (the gardenia kind), and a Big Twister Rush. Plus some water plants in the pond.

Below is the shrubs in front of the porch. They have been there most all my life -- seriously at least 25 years. In the back is a Nandina which we love love love for it's year round interest. In front are two shrubs that used to be more popular but we don't see enough of them around here anymore. They are abelia x grandiflora. They are semi-evergreen (they lose about half there leaves a month or so before re-leafing) so they give year round color. And by the end of May they are covered in little white/pink bell shaped flowers that are so fragrant you can smell them from the street. They attract tons of butterflies, moths, and bees. They stay in flower into July. In a good year, the ground looks like snow beneath them. This year they are bit wonky because I gave them their first ever prune-job in the fall. But they will bounce right back.


Here is another cat that has adopted us. She mostly sits there and watches. Occasionally she climbs the back door screen to torment my indoor kitty.

Lastly, the pink tulips did really well this year. They are still in flower -- one is still holding a bud. The red and yellow striped tulips didn't fare so well. But pink tulips are my favorite so I'm happy.

Later,

Eric