Haiku Friday: Growing tomatoes

Giant tomato,

Growing, spreading, attacking,

Guarding our door.

It should be said that I have since had to add another small tomato cage to the tower.  Yes, I have one extra large tomato cage and two smaller tomato cages cable tied together as a large tower to keep our Sun Golds happy.  As you can see from this photo taken about a week and a half ago, she is very happy.  It is loaded with so many tomatoes.  It is nice to go pick fresh tomatoes for K-'s summer camp lunch each morning. 

Smiles in my day:
-  Hubs got our light up in the kitchen.  Yes, I'll post pictures on Monday.  It is wonderful!
-  The last day of library group.  It was a fun time and I am glad that I pulled K- out of summer camp a little early to attend.  While she was upset at me at first (it was going to be her turn to go next for the game they were playing), but in the end, she was very pleased that we went.
-  A summer bridge tutor that gives us tips and hints and confirmation that K- is doing normal stuff (like getting b and d still slightly confused and belting out the rare letter backwards.) 
-  Giving my nephew his first actual true hair cut.  Little boy has gotten his bangs cut by me before, but I gave him a little boyish hair cut.  My sister was having a hard time letting go of the blond locks, but after the third time of having him called "her" this week, she decided that perhaps she should let me have at it.  He is the first little boy head of hair that I have cut and I don't think that considering that he was a moving target, I really didn't do a bad job.  LeAnne was pleased and that is all that truly matters.  That and L- definitely looks like a little boy now.  I probably trimmed at least 3" of hair off the back. 
-  Free movies from the library.  I lay down at night and watch them.  On deck I have Precious, Frost Nixon, a National Geographic program called Inside 9/11 and Appalachia: A History of Mountains and People.  (A PBS series.)  I watched Capote last week and loved it.  Because of a gift that was given to Hubs and me, we watched Clockwork Orange.  If you take that one for what it is worth-- an art flick-- you would be okay.  We were warned that it was a little out there and disturbing.  We can safely say that the purchaser of the gift was not at all aware that her gift was tied to such a film.  If she was, she would have never passed the gift along, nor had even purchased it in the first place.  I admit that throughout my 7 year run through art school, I'm more open to art flicks than the rest, so I didn't find it as unsettling as most others had. I went to too many film nights at school to see students work to be completely taken by surprise.  Sad, but true.  Add 7 years of more critiques than I can count.  Yup.  I'm a bit desensitized to shock value in art.  Still, watch that one with caution. 
-  My arm is feeling better.  It isn't completely better by any stretch, but I did sleep with a heating pad and my thumb brace on the right hand.  I took two Advil, which helped some, but not tons.  K- had a bad night though (she's eeked her back at school doing activities on the hard floor).  We don't know if she fell out of bed, had a nightmare or what, but she woke up in big distress.  At first we thought that she had been ill. (She hadn't been.  That one we could figure out.) None of us, including K-, can figure out precisely what happened, but we are hoping for a better night tonight. 
-  THE WINDOWS ARE OPEN!  Oh for the love that is all good and right, the temperatures are in the late seventies and that is glorious!  The windows are opened for the first time in weeks.  The air conditioner is thanking us for the break.  Mid-nineties here for a few weeks and we were just cooking.  The breeze.  The leaves rustling in the wind.  The clothes on the line that took a lot longer to dry today because I'm not completely used to the 20ish degree shift.  The humidity is at a human level.  Glorious.  Completely and utterly glorious.

Have a great weekend!

I should probably not have a list of orthopedic issues at the age of 36.

When my elbow cracked yesterday, I got a pain in my arm.  I thought it would go away, but it has only gotten worse. 

We are blessed to have a woman on staff that is actually a licensed massage therapist.  If we get some sort of weird muscular lurch going on, Sherri does her best to fix it.  I went to Sherri to discuss my pain. 

What is my pain, you ask?  Well, I have a burning surface (skin) pain from the inside of my upper arm down to the tip of my pinkie and ring fingers.  What is it?  Sherri suspects that it is something called Guyon's Canal Syndrome.  What I can tell you is it is something this side of extremely unpleasant. 

Guyon's Canal Syndrome is the opposite side of Carpal Tunnel.  Lucky me, people generally don't get that one.  They usually get the Carpal Tunnel end of things. 

So what am I supposed to do with this extremely unpleasant pain?  Well, it hurts to touch that part of my arm.  Writing is not terribly pleasant at times and a pain shoots from time to time.  It is suggested (online, but makes sense) that I wear a wrist brace at least at night to keep from folding my wrist (which I can do) and causing more irritation.  I know that the thumb brace I bought a year and a half ago for the tendinitis in my thumb is supposed to fit either hand.  I did put it up and praise God, found it in the linen closet.  I can wear it at night to deter the bending, but since it is a thumb brace, it can only do so much.

I can also take Advil.  I have been doing that.  One seems to be helping to decrease the pain.  I took two last night before bed and actually slept. 

I'm not usually a baby about pain.  Actually, I have a pretty high tolerance to pain and am surprised with how much this is bothering me.  Hopefully it is a temporary thing.  I tried a patch on my arm that is supposed to help rid the pain and it didn't work at all.  I kept it on for an hour, up until the point I couldn't take the cold from the patch anymore.  It was actually causing more pain.

Any suggestions?  Feel free to leave them.  I'm going to ride this out for a few weeks to see if it gets better.  If not, off to the doctor I'll go to get his evaluation of it. 

Smiles in my day:
-  K-'s cough seems to be getting better.
-  Hubs was able to mow the lawn this AM.  It was a case of he fought the lawn and the lawn nearly won, but it is done.  It had been a little over two weeks, but we were probably close to near drought conditions, so it was only brown and crunchy.  When it started to rain, it shot up like no tomorrow.  Wow.
-  Plans to day trip on to Amish Country.  We'll be able to stop in at my favorite Amish produce stand, the bulk food store and the chocolate factory.  :)

Have a great day!

You know you have a reputation when . . .

. . . Your friend e-mails you the following:

Claustrophobia combined with germophobia=O*MG it's a port-a-potty!!!

Yes, I have issues that even my good friends that have never personally met me know. :)

Thanks for the giggle, Rachael!

On an aside, I had e-mailed Rachael a bit more in detail the bit about the boxes o' yuck at the super secret movie location the other day.  They were the most disgusting public toilets that I have ever seen.  Consider yourself lucky to have been spared the details.

Smiles in my day:
-  Celebrating my in-law's 44th anniversary with them today.  We were slightly belated due to Hubs' schedule and their weekend day trip, but it was all good. 
-  K- absolutely LOVING! arts camp.  They've even been teaching the kids yoga!  She loves it and I'll be checking into some kids yoga videos from the library.
-  Being moved up the Toyota corporate line.  The dealership?  Oh, after the message that they left for us today, we have and will continue to be sharing our experiences with corporate (I actually played them the message) and I will be mailing a letter to the owner of the dealership.  He's busy running for some type of high political office.  Has he forgotten that he has a dealership group with his name stamped to the outside?  I may need to remind him.  In the meantime, the corporate level of Toyota seems to be taking our concerns very seriously.  We are Toyota owners for life.  We just need to find a new dealership.  Thankfully, there is a dealership about 20 minutes down the road that we plan on checking out.  After the tire cover deal is dealt with, we will no longer walk into the dealership that we purchased the RAV from ever again.  Too bad.  It is 5 minutes away.

Have a great port-o free day!

Tales from the Trenches: Not everyone gets the good stuff.

I told you the story of being extras for the super secret movie that is filming up the street.  There was a particular company that was handing out promotional materials for people to be flashing as the camera panned the crowd.  One of these items happened to be a "blow up green guy."  My daughter wanted one.  She wanted one bad.  Believe me, I heard about the "blow up green guy" for 11 of the hours that we were there.

These little guys were quite a hot commodity and no one was going to let theirs go even for a cute 6 1/2 year old batting her eyelashes and giving a nice smile.  Just wasn't happening.  We came up with a plan.  Our plan was to watch to see if any were obviously abandoned.  I told her that if we saw one under the stands or tumbling through the parking lot that she could probably consider that fair game and I would give her the go-ahead to retrieve. 

She seemed to be okay with that plan.

When we were sitting in the stands and waiting for the drawings to be done for the "thanks for participating prizes," K- had her scoping eyes on.  She saw one.  She saw one take a header over the rail and no one went to retrieve it.  She told me about it.  It had been there for about 10 minutes and she asked me what I thought.  After 10 minutes and no one was even moving to retrieve it, I gave her the go-ahead.  I told her that if someone told her that it was theirs, I wanted her to hand it over and not be upset.  She agreed and completely understood.

I watched her walk to the bottom with a bit of a bounce in her step.  She got to the flower bed that was filled with day lilies and stopped.  She looked up at me.  She knows that to trounce through flower beds is not okay, but I waved her on.  Carefully, she stepped.  She tip-toed.  Then, she got it. 

She beamed. 

She skipped.

She bounced her way back to her seat.

"Mommy!  I've been waiting for this guy all day long!"  [insert hugging]

Then she sat down next to me.  The little girl behind her asked her where she got it.  "Someone dropped it and no one went to pick it up.  I just went down and finally picked it up." 

"Lucky!  I really wanted one!"

Then K- looked at me and said, "You know, Mom, I know the little boy who lost this.  His mom and dad didn't go get it for him, but I'm going to go down and ask him if I can keep it."
"Baby, I think that is very nice.  If you know who dropped it, it is a nice thing to go ask if you could have it.  Now remember, if he does want it, I don't want you to cry there.  Just go ahead and give it back if he wants it." 

She made her way on down the bleachers, bent down and talked with the little boy.  She turned around, head hung low, and made her way back up-- without "the blow up green guy."  She made it up, leaned in and cried into my underarm. 

"Mom, I really did want one of those guys really bad."

I had her look at me and told her how incredibly proud I was of her.  I know that she wanted that all day.  She felt a bit left out from not getting one anyhow, got a hold of one, was kind and gave it back.  This was her own decision. 

I told her that she made someone else happy, too.  "Do you know who?"

"God."

Yup. 

Then I noticed a little boy about 2 years old scooting his way up the bleachers.  He had a "blow up green guy" in one arm and a Silly Band in the other.  It was an offering to K-.  I looked down at the mom who shook her head.  I gave her the thumbs up.  She knew how much K- wanted that.  She knew how happy her son was.  (I suspect that he probably had flipped it over the edge for one last time and they told him they weren't getting it anymore.  Believe me, we've played that ourselves.  He must have regretted it when he saw K- scoop it up.)

So my kid stepped out of her own extreme want and considered someone else. 

Later, K- looked at me and said, "You know mom, I just really wanted to hold one a little while."  That she did.  She borrowed it for a few minutes and passed it back.

I couldn't be more proud of how she handled herself.  Now, she has a pink pig Silly Band to remind her of her thoughtful decision. 

Smiles in my day:
-  My truck has a few warranty issues that needed tended to.  I had tried to have them tended to back at the last oil change, but that was at the height of the Toyota gas pedal debacle and we were still toting a foot of snow on the back tire, so at least the tire cover couldn't be dealt with until later.  I told Hubs that I kind of felt like I got the brush off and said that I would send him for the next oil change and he could tend to the warranty claims for me.  They are replacing my stereo.  It has some big skipping issues when it gets warm.  (Weather or heater.)  The tire cover has been an on-going saga since the car was about 6 months old.  The dealership flat out refused to replace it, even though the elastic is letting loose, making the tire cover a possible projectile hazard as I drive.  They told Hubs that it fits loose since the tire on the back isn't brand new and has a little wear.  (Lifting up from the bottom makes us concerned that it will lift up and off the car, flying into a car and cause someone to wreck.)  Hubs called me at work mad. He is rarely mad and normally doesn't yell, but he was spent.  He put me on the phone with the mechanic (I was busy at work, too) and all I asked for was a number for corporate for someone who could do something for me.  I told him that we paid far too much for a vehicle with a possible safety hazard hanging off of the back.  Hubs, normally a fairly laid back and non-confrontational guy pulled up his big boy boots, talked to corporate who were very apologetic and will be sending my new tire cover to the dealership within a few days.  The dealership?  We've fired them now.  We'll be going to another dealership for service now. 
-  My aunt who comes the little over a mile down the way on her motorized mobility scooter to hang out in my driveway and give offerings of chips and senior citizen meals.  Every few weeks she ends up at the end of my driveway.  It's hilarious.  All the neighbors know her.  We call it Aunt Donna's Zipadeedodah.  Girlfriend just needs to get out. 
-  Leftover Chinese food for lunch. Yum.

Have a great day!

I'm almost too tired to write.

12 hours.

Two downpours.  One was torrential.

Peeking sunshine, requiring sunscreen.

4 hours in bleachers.  8 hours standing near a chain link fence.

Many photos.

Amazed that my normally impatient child actually held up surprisingly well.

We were extras (super secret flick) and now we can officially add "movie" to our resume.  Since we stayed the WHOLE day, our names will appear in the ending credits.

If you'll excuse me now, I'm ready to collapse.

Smiles in my weekend:
-  Lots.  I'll share a very heart-happy moment tomorrow. 

Have a great day!