Sunday
Saving log - $125 moved from checking to savings
Spending log - $4 bagel, coffee + $2.76 garbanzo beans, apple
Found money - $0.23 (various sidewalks, Safeway floor)

Another great day for finding change - again, I found two dimes, one on a residential sidewalk, a place where I assumed I would find nothing. (the other was on the Safeway floor, a place nearly as good as an ATM) I don't understand why I've been finding so many coins these days. Dimes especially. Perhaps with the weather change, it changes everyone's wardrobe, and everyone has to be re-introduced to their jacket pockets.

I also found a great deal on canned garbanzo beans at the normally pricey organic food coop - $.89/can. Usually $1/can has been the low price over the winter and spring. October seems to be the bridge month for some food deals - its a good time to prepare for the deals of November.

Got off my duff and planted some lettuce for the winter/fall harvest, and watched my blueberry plants' leaves turn a gorgeous flame red.

Saving log - $0
Spending log - $91 groceries
Found money - $0.01 (parking lot behind a concrete brake)

We now all vote by mail - we got the ballots 2 days ago and the voter's pamphlet today. We have to get the ballots mailed by Aug 18. The 20 cent plastic bag tax is on it - apparently the plastic bags that you put produce in does not count, just the ones at the front. Mr. goodspaceguy is running for mayor, which provided most of the reading entertainment from the voter's guide.

Walked the 7 miles downtown today, picking several blackberries along the way. They are nice and glossy black, but still a tad too sour. Give them another few days. I still don't understand why anyone in Seattle would actually buy blackberries, when there is such good hunting all around.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $3.88 coffee, bagel + $4 grocery + $2 coffee (what? I was sleepy) + $1 parking lot sale
Found money - $.01 (sidewalk in front of Woodland Park Zoo) + $.01 (parking lot)

Did the three miles in 46 min 20 sec. While its not great, it was a minute and half better than last week. The trainer has a goal for me - 44 min. Its funny how if someone sets a goal for me, I work hard at it. If I try to set an exercise goal myself, somehow I treat it less seriously.

I also tried a different tack based on what I read today. Lately, as I jog, its time to myself and I've been thinking sad thoughts this last month. Its not easy to jog particularly fast thinking sad thoughts. Today I thought, "its a beautiful day, I'm strong and healthy and every week I'm moving faster ... I'm not tired ... I'm feeling great."

And I harvested 10 blueberries. From 1-2 year old plants, its all the harvest I will get this year. Blueberry bushes apparently mature after about 4 years.

As promised, this post is to show off the farmette vegetable garden and all the stuff I had to weed and plant. Sister started a little CSA - she has three people in Milwaukee paying her to grow all this.

Peas in front row, then onion, spinach, lettuce, carrots, beets. Yum!


She's doing it organically, which means a lot of water, weeding, mulching, and compost. She has a couple of tricks for all you vegetable gardening newbies.

1. Double and triple rows. Sister plants one row, then a row 3-4 inches to the left, and a row 3-4 inches to the right. Especially useful if you have dogs that might misstep. If you have one row, missteps can really kill you; with triple rows you can consider missteps a way of thinning plants out.

A couple of triple rows of beets, freshly weeded. Compare this pic with the very last one on the post.


2. Mark your rows. Along with the regular seeding, sister puts in a radish seed every 6-8 inches. The radish seedlings come up in about 3-4 days, marking the row. Radish seeds are cheap and easy so if you really don't like 'em, pull 'em when the seedlings you want really come up. (and give them to us)



3. Plant, water, compost on the row, then mulch between the rows for weed control.



The week we were there we helped plant tomatoes. This picture was taken during the Caddyshack phase of planting.



We dug the holes, put a bit of compost in and mixed it with the soil from the hole, then transplanted tomato seedlings, then watered, then mulched around it. Sister let me finish with our secret way getting great tomatoes without blossom end rot - one Tums (with calcium) slipped into the soil about a foot away from the plant.

4. If your water is cold (ours was), let the water sit in a bucket to warm up for a little while. The seedlings won't go into shock. And let the dog have a bite!



The triple row of beets, a few days after the weeding. They really perked up.

Allow me to hijack this blog a bit and post how the container garden is doing. Reader, you are my secondary audience - think of this post as if you were listening a series of spy code numbers on the shortwave.

The two blueberry plants. They love "wet feet", so they should be watered every or nearly every day. If you are in a time bind, I invite you to take 'em home and water them on your porch.


The two lettuce bowls. They like it wet too, so treat them the same as the blueberry plants. Harvest with scissors, and eat as much as you can. No kidding. As the days get long, the lettuce will "bolt", sending up a flower spike and make the lettuce bitter.


The two tomatoes - water about every other day.


Don't forget to water the topsy turvy one. Water from the top. Oh yes, remember that the patio chairs are in that cool, dark corner. If you are in a time bind or we suddenly get into the 90s (hah), if you put all the plants in that corner, they will use less water and you can water less frequently. Extra bonus: closest to the hose!


Carrots, beets and strawberries in the strawberry pot. Water every couple of days.


That sage is going crazy - it loves it hot and dry. Water if you remember, but don't beat yourself up about it.


DH's garbage can potato garden. As the potatoes grow, we add moss and soil until they make it to the top. We'll harvest in the fall by dumping every thing out of the can. Sneaky, no? Water every 2-3 days.


Along the house, more carrots, beets, and some oregano. The oregano, like the sage, loves it hot and dry. There's also an old dahlia plant poking up. Everything 2-3 days again.


The pea plants crawling their way up the screen. They are starting to get flowers - if you get a pea pod, go for it. Water every other day.


Over and out...godspeed.

Put my savings in the tip box early. I wanted to speed things up because I didn't want to make a special errand to deposit a $1.96 check into savings. Much prefer to combine it with what is in the tip box. Total = $45 + $1.96 was a bit better.

I went into the flagship downtown WaMu and saw the gigantic semi-futuristic clear and blue plastic Chase logo perched on a wooden platform. It was a good twenty feet high. All of the WaMu and Washington Mutual lettering was gone. Confirmed that with the ATM interface.

WaMu's bones are dissolving. If next week I have to stick my hand in some goo to interface with my Chase bank data, somehow that wouldn't surprise me a bit. But I have to see the sunny side. There are several Chase ATMs in Oshkosh and Milwaukee; there never were any WaMus there. Looking forward to no ATM fees on vacation.

On another cheerful note, the 403B is doing splendiferous. I'm up about 3% in real return, apart from putting in over $600/paycheck. I've been buying cheap in the 403B since October. From $64K at the end of December, I'm up over $76K right now.

Eating our fantastically tasty home grown lettuce tonight. We are catching up with it.

Saving log - $9 tip box
Spending log - $0

Last Saturday, we also finished the container garden, by finally planting the three patio tomato plants. We put two of the tomatoes in regular pots, one we put in a Topsy Turvy pot for laughs. Last night we had a windstorm. I figured that the poor tomato whipping around at 20 mph couldn't be good, so DH hung it in the shed until the worst was over.

We wheeled and moved the pots during the storm to close to the patio and under the overhang so they would just get watered a bit and not drowned. Love the wheels on the lettuce. We've got to get more of them next year.

By finished, I don't mean totally done, I just mean we'll take care of what we have. If something doesn't make it, we'll use the pot for something else, but no more expansion until next year.

Friday
Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $2 coffee + $15 lunch

Thursday
Saving log - $5 tip box
Spending log - $2 coffee

I got a Rhoomba for my birthday. Its fun to watch. Compared the regular vacuum its a bit quieter - and if I don't have to vacuum, that's fine with me.

Noticed that the I-bond fixed rate is at 0.10% with a zero percent variable. The first I-bonds that I bought are now approaching 5 years old, come August I start to have some that will not have the 3 month interest penalty.

The May Day protest parade right at rush hour marched past our office on 2nd. Nice and loud and went on for a good 20 minutes. We never ever get a parade - its usually 1st or 3rd Avenue that gets it.

Ate a couple of cups of lettuce thinnings - very tasty, but its growing faster than I can eat. DJ friend offered to water our containers while we're away. Hope he takes our offer of eating what he can, too. Up for this weekend is to finally pot up the tomato plants we got when we got our blueberry plants. The blueberry plants are getting itty-bitty cup shaped flowers. Not too many, but some.

Tonight I also saw my first flu masked person out on the street. An older woman. Not sure whether I should be blase about it, treat it with respect, or even try to get it (get sick and build your immunity early). The last flu pandemic I knew about was the Hong Kong Flu in 1968. I remember my parents talk about it in hushed tones, and the seeing the pictures of it in the paper. I was 6.

Saving log - $2 tip box
Spending log - $2 cottage cheese

I got home tonight - my mail contained a $1.96 check from Ameriprise, closing my account. All of gramma's trust money is in my accounts. Consolidation at last. One less set of passwords to remember.

The container garden is smartly moving along. I see little baby carrot seedlings in my orange pot. (Purple ones, hopefully not hairy). Yesterday I looked in a different pot that DH planted and I saw baby beet seedlings.

Talked to sister about vacation plans. DH and I (along with Morgan) are planning a road trip to Wisconsin to visit the farmette. June 1 - June 15. Apparently many of the hotel chains along the way are pet friendly. No doubt it will be a busman's holiday - I'm sure that we will be put to work planting a few things in the 7 acres.

Saving log - $0
Spending log - $1.64 bagel (free coffee) + $8 conveyor belt sushi

Good news today -
Did my 3 mi jog in ...drum roll ... 46 min 40 sec! And I thought that I didn't do that well because I was skirting around parents with strollers, 3 abreast pedestrian chatters, and little kids in the middle of the sidewalk. Apparently the obstacle course made me faster. I celebrated by having a few plates of conveyor belt sushi.

Noticed at the grocery store that some of my favorite breakfast bars have new packaging, and are .2 of an ounce less. Good for the weight loss, but bad for price. Beware - I'm watching you!

Had a dinner salad full of lettuce thinnings, and I'll be having them every day for the next week - DH asked me what you look for and I told him we just play God.

This weekend I took some pics of what took my fancy. None of my subjects have any idea that there is a recession on.

Waitress! Another round for me and my table.


Green Lake egret


I have a lot of thinning to eat.


You are not blogging tonight.

Saturday
Saving log - $40 drp
Spending log - $12 breakfast + $20 dessert

Saturday DH and I cleaned up a bit more of the south facing flower bed in preparation of planting some more veg. We found a few more critters...


I suppose that if DH and I were really in desperate straits, we would put these in a jar for a few days with water and cornmeal, then bake 'em with butter and garlic. Of course if we were that desperate we wouldn't have the butter and garlic.

Instead, they all went crunch underfoot.

The container garden is also moving along.


We also found an eviscerated mouse in the yard. In the last weeks, Morgan had been hunting and bringing in earthworms, so I think she's moving up the phyla.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $12 breakfast + $10 bath salts and apple

I overheard this night as I walked through the Summer Streets program: "If you don't want to learn about memoir, try using our teleporter ... or study alien spores and brains."
(from the guy out in front of Greenwood's Space Travel Company - its a front for a non-profit writer's group).

Made me smile.

Again, I jogged the 3 miles, aka the mock 5K. Also did it in 47 minutes, jogging all the way, so it wasn't a fluke that I did it. Also my hips felt far, far better than last week. I could actually walk back home after the jog - much slower and took much longer than 47 minutes.

Planted purple carrots in an orange po- um, CONTAINER. Who says p-um, CONTAINER gardeners don't have a sense of humor.

Read an article in the New York Times today whose tone saddened me a bit. I'm not frugal as a competitive sport. I'm frugal because greater amounts of savings makes me comfortable in my place in society, and I'd rather have the money rather than greater amounts of branded stuff. I'm quiet about my saving in real life. If times get much worse, its really best not to brag about what you saved.

Saving log - $5 tip box
Spending log - $8 lunch + $5 roast turkey for the weekend

Added up everything that I've saved through my tip box at work: $2504.

Work has been stressful lately; I'm off on Monday for a 3 day weekend. I have 204 hrs of PTO (personal time off)...over 5 weeks. Better start using it, dang nab it.

The pot garden is marching along...


I'm going to try something different, and plant carrots in a pot this weekend. Apparently, as long as the soil isn't too rich (turns the carrots hairy), they do well in pots. I have some purple carrot seeds and everything else.

Friday
Saving log - $2 tip box
Spending log - $2 coffee + $10 lunch/snack + $20 dinner w/friends

Saturday
Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $10 breakfast + $40 two blueberry bushes + $2.75 top + $6 meat for lunches

Spendy couple of days all around. I discovered that I didn't have any turkey or ham for my little bit of rice, so I bought a bit of salmon, tofu, and green beans to augment and I didn't make the afternoon snack, so I bought a little side salad for that. For that one day, I went from $0 spending I went to the typical for six months ago.

Had to refuel my wallet, as it were, at the ATM before dinner. (I'm still old school - I've been burned enough times to be wary of just using the debit card. Way I roll.) General relativity exists - time has to change depending on perspective. How else can I explain why I can get money from an ATM in a bit under a minute, and why I ALWAYS am behind someone who takes freaking forever to get or not get their money. I know what I can and want to do at the ATM before I get there. I guess not everybody is that together. It still burns me, though.

At the little dinner soiree last night I learned that my ex is losing his job at the end of April. Told him about the hiring freeze, and the possibility of no temps working the fall campaigns. But you never know - and I'll be one of the first to hear, either way.

This afternoon DH and I bought two low blueberry bushes. I wanted a fairly low growth habit for two reasons - 1.) we were going to grow them in pots for a year or two or three and 2.) we figure that Morgan's side job will be to go after any bird that tries to snack on a berry, so we went for low to make the job easy and fun for her.

Again, the two lettuce pots are starting to sprout those little four leaf seedlings...(they are green in real life)

The gardener irony: Weed seedlings always look far healthier than your seedlings.

Here's the pot garden, so far. We're also doing a couple of tomato plants in pots - the soil that is the sunniest and warmest also grew potatoes, which are a host plant for fusarium wilt.

Saving log - $2 tip box
Spending log - $8 groceries

Looked in my large pansy pots this evening and I saw baby yellow green leaves. Not surprised that the lettuce took almost 10 days to sprout - its been cold and rainy, in the 40s at night, while Sunday afternoon was the first nice sunny day in weeks. Exciting!

I felt a little itchy to go outside for lunch today, so I went to Uwajimaya. I brought my own lunch so the errand was supposed to be just a box of green tea. I got the tea, plus a small box of chinese greens to augment my lunch, and a packet of miso soup, on sale. I dodged a bullet, in a sense.

But for laughs, I looked around some more. Here's another recession sign - designer lunch boxes. More precisely, Mario Batali lunch boxes. For $28. Kind of rich, because Mario Batali, restauranteur, would much prefer you ate out rather than bring it in. It would seem he was branding at both ends.

Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $22 groceries

I've decided to invest in another DRP - Sysco (SYY). Food distribution is not a terribly sexy company, but you've got to eat, and generally these days, if you are eating out, its probably low-ish end. And when you do eat in a restaurant, you've got to have the plate to eat off of, the cutlery to attack it with, and the plastic wrap to store it. SYY has a reasonable dividend, and even raised it last year. And while they are not traditionally green, there are trying out some green initiatives. The big issue is that this DRP has relatively high fees - high in proportion if you want to put in small amounts, not so high if you put in larger ones. I signed up with Temper to get a share. It will take about 6 weeks to set everything up with the transfer agent.

Food is definitely on my mind. Now that the recycling has changed, the plastic bin for glass isn't necessary. Reading about where to donate the plastic bins led me to the Community Fruit Tree Harvest. Donating fruit and cataloging fruit trees is exactly what I'm interesting in doing. Now to see if they will take me along with our plastic bins.

Saturday
Saving log - $40 Drp
Spending log - $13 breakfast + $57 mixed stuff + $100 public radio

Sunday
Saving log - $0
Spending log - $3.50 bagel & coffee + $10.50 apple, tea, magazine, lunch

Mixed spending yesterday - I bought $30 worth of women's underwear packs, various sizes, for our non-profit's underwear drive, along with three more large outdoor pots at Big Lots, then I broke down and pledged during our local NPR station's pledge drive. I have it on reasonable authority that our local station is doing all right - didn't drink the kool-aid and grow the station unsustainably - however, the PI's demise has hit me hard. Times are a changin'.

Last night I also shut the lights off for an hour at 8:30 pm. However, I also watched a few episodes of Battlestar Galactica, and it felt like cheating. Let's just say that a few of those CGI battles made up for the dark living room.

Today, I jogged about 1/2 the way to the Fremont Bridge, a mock 5K. Last week I made it in 51 minutes, today I did it in 50 minutes. Trainer's goal for me in this is 48 minutes. I'm getting better - heart rate did not go over 145 bpm - but when I start to flag and walk, I'll have to curb that because when I walk, I want to walk the rest of the way. My weight is plateauing again at around 179-180, so I have to provide the trainer with a few days of my food diary.

Rounding out the rest of the day, I looked at my lettuce bowls, and I see sprouting (they were planted shallowly - 3x the diameter of the seed). Another sunny day or two and I should see little green leaves. Also put up a sage plant in a plastic pot. My little patio pot garden is coming along.

Noted that the IRS cashed my tax payment Friday when I mailed it on Monday. As my grampa used to say, "somebody really wanted your money." He hated taxes with a passion - he definitely would have commented that I shouldn't get caught paying so much. Your inheritance is killing me, gramps!

What we did Saturday afternoon, before ghost hunting, see entry below...


These bowls might be a bit tippy, which is our fear, but what we want is a convenient way to grow leaf lettuce. We put them on wheels to be able to move to maximal sun, rain, or to move them close to house in case of frost. Planted them - one is mesclun blend, the other is different lettuce varieties. Similar, except if we can thin around a couple of favored lettuces to get a bigger head or more leaves.

So far the kitty is disinterested.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $12 breakfast + $42 pet supplies + $29 clothes

I feel so contrarian these days. I've been frugal when everyone has been spending like mad, and now I've been spending when everyone else's wallet has snapped shut. Thank me in a few months - shopping's kind of fun when no one else is doing it.

I didn't do a super long walk, just a little jog and a walk along 85th to 15th NW. I went to Petco and got kitty shampoo, 2 finger toothbrushes, a roll of Paws away (double sided tape that inhibits scratching), litter odor neutralizer, and 2 cat toys.

Then I hit the Macy's of thrift stores - Value Village - and picked up a small bowl, a small metal colander, a large cast iron platter/candle shelf thingee, 1 pair of jeans (tossed out a pair last week), 3 spring knit tops. All for $28 and change. I was a tad surprised to find that towels were going for $2.99 apiece...new ones are $4.99, so you might as well get them new. Nothing like cheaping out and getting athlete's foot or something.

I'd like to get some large pots or some ceramic flats - I'd like to grow some lettuce and a few flowers this year in pots on the patio. Seattle has a good climate for lettuce, usually, so the plan is sow the seed densely, let it grow out for about 6 weeks, mow, then rinse and repeat.

Sister mailed me another box of vegetables of various sorts. Mostly root vegetables, but a few ears of corn, husk still on. I'll have to mention that while the corn looked fine, a day or two in dark in the mail turned lovely sweet corn into bits of starch.

Made a ratatouille out of what I got. I only got a little Japanese eggplant, so its less rat and more vegetable stew. I only had to buy a large yellow onion to start things off, which I got for $1/lb.

DH sometimes reads my blog so I really shouldn't write that there was kohlrabi, turnip, beet, that little eggplant ... all the veg that he hates, but what the hey it cleared out my countertops wonderfully.

I also sacrificed our large chard for the stew. I was sad to see it go, so here's a picture in memoriam.


And yes, I got my new camera 2 days ago. I wanted to post a topical picture yesterday - 2 honesty boxes each with the WaMu dead headline - but the picture was too large for the blog. I dropped the megapixel setting. We'll see how well that works.

A couple of economic items at work, overshadowed by the WaMu collapse:

1. A largish law firm is going under; we won't get pledge payments from them from now on. I worked with their payroll officer and sent my condolences.
2. Our non-profit moved in 2003. We use a bond to pay for the commercial mortgage. Apparently the interest rate our non-profit pays has gone from a pittance (0.1%) to not a pittance (+6%). A case where we see the strains.

Monday
Saving log - $4 tip box
Spending log - $11 lunch + $2 Wall Street Journal + $13 groceries + $11 coffee

Tuesday
Saving log - $4 tip box
Spending log - $9 lunch + $4 contribution

I have some of my EF in 4 week T-bills, split into fours and recurring, so every week something matures or if necessary, I have a month of EF coming up for use every week. I looked at the auction rate for this week's 4 week T-bill. Wait for it...

0.3%

It means I make 93 cents in interest on that T-bill. I've found more sidewalk change most months than that. This flight to safety means my little boat is getting swamped by Wall Street cannon balls. Ah well, better luck next month.

Here's an another article near and dear to my heart - backyard gleaning. I live next to a male cherry tree - the flowers are right with a few cherries in it. I've seen its girl friend - that tree lives about 7 blocks away. Across the street lay an apple tree (decent sized apples). In grad school I also lived with a plum tree and a cherry tree, with a neighbor that had a productive pear tree. And then all the blackberry brambles within 3 blocks of my house. In Tucson in November, I used to pick the raw green, purple, and black purple olives on Olive Way at the U of A, and cured them in salt. In Tucson in April in another part of the U of A campus, I used to pick loquats and can them in a sugar syrup. In other words, I think this is a fantastic idea. It would be great to map out all the fruit trees and bushes of Seattle all quietly making a little produce stand.

Oh yes, the collection. In the end I advertised once, did a little once around, collected triple digits, and added a bit more to get the gift card to end in a "0". I passed the collection to the person buying the gift card. Project finished.

Lots of August birthdays in my life:

Ordered sister's birthday gift for her birthday next Saturday and will pop her card in the mail on Sunday. I also ordered a little something for myself - a relatively dressy black trenchcoat/ windbreaker.

Potluck tonight for a lawyer friends' partner's birthday. I made fried green tomatoes because I still only have 1 red tomato. Early girl? I have boy-waiting-for -prom-date girl. But it is nice that I have all the ingredients for a potluck dish.

Fried green tomatoes

3-4 lg green tomatoes sliced 1/4 in or so
1.5 c flour
1/2 c cornmeal
1/2 tsp salt and pepper (I like more salt)
milk (made it using dried milk powder)

canola oil

Mix flour, cornmeal, salt, pepper, milk into a heavy batter.

Heat 1/2 of oil in cast iron pan. Dip tomato slices in batter, shake off excess, fry each side until golden brown - about 3 min per side. Drain on paper towels.

Best if warm, but I'm going to check if they microwave all right.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $1.50 coffee + $1 apple

Actually, the apple was 85 cents. Honestly, that was the only exciting thing to fiscally happen today.

Discovered that my Early Girl and my possible black tomato plants are starting to set fruit. So far, no blossom end rot!

Coming back to life after nearly being chewed to bits...


Its probably never going to a big headed broccoli plant, but its going to be mine, darn it.

Killing things. No, seriously. I discovered what had been munching on my broccoli plants. (the ones I got for free in April when I went to a friend's one act play)


It was a green worm anywhere between 1/2 - 1 inch long. They rest along the rib of the broccoli leaf, hiding out. Me: picked worm off, set worm on grass, stepped on, then twisted, repeated until no worm was seen. Savagery was much, much fun. I think I got them all and it was satisfying to figure it out. One of my plants might not make it (and I'm showing it to encourage the newbie gardeners out there that no one's perfect), but I'm going to kill everything that will try to eat it. RAAAUUUR!


In other gardening news, the tomato that I've been following. It is getting bigger but the leaves are curling in an odd way (odd to me), so I'll be keeping my eye on it. It could just be its quality of the tomato variety--

June 25


June 10

Saving log - $5 tip box
Spending log - $1.70 coffee + $9 lunch

I get paid this Friday, but I just got $40 which is enough for a couple of days, leaving $48 still in the checking account, and I have $37 total in the tip box...

I haven't cut it this close successfully in years. Feeling that frugal burn, but checking to see if I pulled something.

I've been taking pictures of my tomato plants every couple of weeks or so. The weather in Seattle has been crappy, so I'm lucky that my plants are just chilling, instead of dying. This one's the "Taxi" tomato - a yellow/green determinate variety.

May 25


June 10 (with mulch)

Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $1.25 coffee + $8 lunch

Laptop shop called. They got the laptop working, but it kept crashing, so they will have to save some and wipe the rest. I told 'em pictures, spreadsheet, and music, in that order.

The Ameriprise guy sold the mutual fund so I can move the rest of grandma's inheritance into Vanguard. With any luck, I can consolidate everything up by the end of June.

Took a close look at the Early Girl tomato and saw flower buds. The other two tomato plants are just vegetative.

Laptop-less, so this will be quick. I'll hi-jack this blog for a little gardening. With any luck I'll grow at least 30$ worth of tomatoes to break even.

Planted the three tomato plants. One, which is determinate (meaning it will stop at a certain height), we put up against the house, facing south. Its a nice hot corner. Its supposed to produce yellow tomatoes.

The other two, which are indeterminate (meaning they will grow forever if you let them), we put in a 10 ft niche against a south facing wall. One of these is a Early Girl and the other is supposed to be a 'black' tomato. Its hard to tell because it had two tags - an early girl and this one. We'll see. I hope it is a black tomato - those are a very deep brown, not black. I picked them for fun, because I think it would be a blast to alternate sliced yellow and 'black' tomatoes ... I could call it "bee salad".

Added a bit of slow release fertilizer and puffed gypsum for calcium. Hope I don't have to add calcium, but the last time I grew tomatoes they got a touch of blossom end rot.

Oh yes, one other thing. Tomatoes self pollinate. They don't need another tomato, and you don't have to worry about hybrids between two plants. They are nice that way.

Looked in on them this morning. The weather was coolish and cloudy, good for helping them out during their little trauma of getting planted. They all seem to be settling in nicely - no wilting and they seem to be growing straight.

Pictures when I finally get my laptop back.

Still no laptop, so DH took me to the laptop shop...

Me: So how's my laptop repair coming along?
Guy at the Shop: What is your last name?
Me: (told him)
Guy at Shop types a bit, then says: We told you that it can take anywhere between 1 and 2 weeks... (and then blinked at me blankly)

Good gravy, I know that! Could it have killed anyone to say that "we are in the midst of fixing, and we are so very glad you showed up but it will take awhile because we want to do a good job?" Bueller...Bueller?

But then I remembered the stereotype. No social skills. No wonder why computer networking and its multiple components often don't work well together. Their creators don't work well together so they make stuff that doesn't work well together.

But DH and I had some success - we bought 3 very large tomato plants for 10$. I'll put them in tomorrow. Today I walked another 6 miles, tomorrow it will be digging and weeding for a little upper body workout.

More recession-y observations: along my walk I saw at least 30 placards and sandwich boards advertising condos; the ice cream shop is advertising that they are open until 7 (okay that might be weather); at every bus stop along my way I saw at least one person waiting for it, and as the bus passed me, most had a very decent load of passengers (and this was Saturday during a holiday!)

Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $3 yogurt + $6 teriyaki dinner

Put my tip box squeezings for this month into savings - $45. I've been eating the footlong sub over two days, so I didn't spend money on lunch.

DH and I went to a one-woman show at the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) tonight, so I ate a small frozen yogurt while I waited and we had a teriyaki dinner. The dinner was enough for two, so it was eating half and putting half in the box for dinner tomorrow night.

The show was wonderful - about food and nutrition. If you can imagine Anna Devere Smith doing a multiple perspective show about food, you have the gist of it. Our tickets got us into a raffle for a CSA share or $100 worth of organic meat. Lost on both counts ... not surprising. But there was a guy who was selling broccoli, chard, and pea starts. Actually he couldn't sell them outside of MOHAI, so he gave them away. We got four starts of chard and four of broccoli.