jendidy

The office building where I work is replacing the carpet in mid December and we need to be out of the office for a whole week. What to do … what to do … It would be a shame to be stuck in cold and snowy MA just twidling my thumbs, and I’ve never been south of the Mason-Dixon line.

So, a road trip seems to fit the bill. First stop, D.C. and the Smithsonian, the Lincoln memorial and the Vietnam memorial. What comes after that? Who knows ….

Eventual destination … somewhere in Florida (well, somewhere in Florida that ISN’T Disney World).

I’ll have to break out my history book and see what’s interesting that’ll be along the way … all kinds of good Civil War sites and such.

I’m open to suggestions …

I think I’ve killed every plant I’ve had to take care of in an amazingly short span of time. If you gave me a pot of kudzu to take care of, I can guarantee that it would be dead within a year. So, I’m determined this year to learn about taking care of plants by growing herbs. I planted chives and basil in late spring. The chives are going gangbusters in a nice big 14” diameter pot, but the basil only had two weak little bunches. I was so proud of myself last week: during the first cold snap of the season, I noticed the chives were sort of wilting, and figured “maybe it’s too cold and they should be brought inside”. I brought them inside and they perked right up! Problem is, most of my house is shaded by trees so I’m not sure if I can find a sunny window. I may have to buy a couple of those plant hangers and drill a few holes in the ceiling for hooks (which means I’m going to have to learn how to repair holes in the ceiling so I can get my rental deposit back…) I hope to keep the chives and basil going throughout the cold New England winter without overwatering, or underwatering, or temperatures that are too cold, or lack of sunlight. The biggest problem with the chives is that I’m not sure how much I can harvest without damaging the overall health.

I never thought hardwood floors could mildew! Last week I re-arranged the living room furniture and started noticing that tell-tale mildewy smell. It wasn’t the couch. It wasn’t the credenza. It wasn’t the stuff in the credenza. I put my nose to the floor and it was the hardwood floor! I’ve only lived in my house for about two years, with periodic bouts of furniture re-arranging followed by a quick sweep. Moppings are a very rare event. Obviously I need to learn some household cleaning skills if I’m going to survive living in the northeast. Growing up in southern California you could get away with a lot in terms of not having to be vigorous about cleaning. Case in point: I’ve heard of condensation forming on the inside of windows, but in the winter, frozen condensation (e.g., ice) forms on the inside of my sliding glass door! My sister in Oregon cleans the windows regularly, every couple days I think, to reduce mold caused by condensation, but what do you do about ice?! And how many window air conditioners or de-humidifiers do you need in the summertime to reduce the humidity to the reccommended 50-60% or so? One in each room plus one in the basement? What happens if half your windows are too small to hold standard-sized window A/C units? And what do you do about spiders who prefer the luxury of indoor living? The funny thing is, I don’t see very many other kinds of bugs so I can’t figure out how the spiders survive indoors; they must commute from outside for foraging and then come inside for R&R….......