progress

I have spent a total of six hours re-organizing my files and cleaning out my desk per the instructions of David Allen's "Getting Things Done." I have also formulated a game plan to finish 'Love Never Dies' using the Snowflake Method. I'm glad to be better organized, but it feels very compartmentalized. I'm trying to get more than just the house and writing under control, but I'm not too sure how to integrate everything else. According to David Allen, a tickler file would, in theory, do the trick, but it will only work if it's in a place that I actually remember to check it every day. That might be my stumbling block right there. Anyone have a tried and true method?

I have managed to get a few things done today. I procured and planted banana pepper and green pepper plants, seeded two rows of spinach, and pruned the bushes in the back yard. I also eliminated a full file box of crap that had been misfiled and/or was out of date. I just looked up tax record guidelines, and it appears that I'll be able to get rid of even more since I have a full box of nothing but tax records. So, really, I have been productive today. It just doesn't feel like it.

Lift off

It's rained on and off for two days, and apparently our frost danger has passed because I have a couple hundred volunteer baby tomatoes taking over. Honestly, they're blowing my mind. These are third generation tomatoes. I don't even remember what variety they are, except that they're more than likely cherry. They might be Roma. Most of what is available around here are hybrids, but I can't imagine hybrid seeds coming up year after year. They're just not developed to do that.

None of these plants were up on Sunday. The rain started Monday and, as usual, everything in the earth exploded. A couple of the potatoes have not come up yet, but I'll give them a few more days. It might just be that I'll have four mounds instead of six. If that's the case, it's all good. I can plant extra beans or spinach there with no hardship.

We also have a bunny hanging around the house, just waiting for me to plant lettuce this week, I'm sure. Until I can get a picture of it, you'll have to settle for Baby Tomato pictures.

Here are some with a shallot,

and several more with a potato. I think the blob in the middle might be an egg shell. If I'd been paying attention I would have flicked it out before I took the picture.



This is the new bed, which I weeded last week. Obviously there is more to do. The tomatoes and green beans will go out here.

Ditzkrieg

Spring and fall are my favorite seasons, which is strange because they're the ones in which my allergies are the worst. They've gotten better the longer we've lived here; it takes me years to get used to local pollen. The hardest part is how they affect my sleep. If I forget to take my meds for a couple days I toss and turn, and it always takes several days to get caught back up on the sleep I missed.

I'm in that cycle now. I only slept about half the night a couple of nights ago and now I'm in recovery mode. I've come to expect the loss of energy. I'm used to having to force myself off the couch to take care of basic household chores. The worst part is the mental blankness, almost as if my brain is in constant reboot mode. I have to fight to focus on things, especially things I don't much like to do. It's like being dropped in the middle of nowhere, and the only way back to civilization is to pick a direction and start walking. I know I'll get there eventually, and I'll get there faster if I eat well and go to bed a little earlier for a few days. Knowing and doing are sometimes different things.

I read an ancient Chinese proverb while I was studying a week or so ago. I can't give you actual wording without dragging my lazy butt upstairs, figuring out which of two books it was in, and finding the page. The gist of it was that the patient will remain sick until he's tired of being sick. That's about where I am these days.

Day Job

I haven't blogged about the Day Job lately because there hasn't been much of note going on. Or maybe I'm harder to surprise now. This week had a couple of amusing things happen. Last Wednesday we had just opened and a lady called to ask if we could do a wedding reception for about fifty people. The Boss told her we could handle a crowd that size easily. I wasn't paying too much attention to her end of the conversation until she said, "Erm, well, no, we don't have a grill." Apparently, the groom was fairly insistent on having burgers and bratwurst for the reception, and his mom (the lady on the phone) said it sounded like we do 'grown-up food'. In the end the two of them agreed that we are not the right place to handle the reception. Incidentally, the groom is 23. I'm not sure about y'all, but I was a grown-up at 23. I was married and a mom at 23, and I didn't have burgers and brats at my wedding reception. We were laughing about how they had us mistaken for 'fine dining'.

At the other end of the spectrum was the guy who came in yesterday looking for a latte. We don't do espresso in any form; we have brewed coffee and a cappuccino mix. We explained to him three different ways that we could only offer regular coffee before he caught on and asked where he could get a triple-shot latte. (Triple shot! I'm a caffeine addict, and a triple shot would have me above ceiling tiles. I thought I needed to cut back, but I have nothing on this guy.) He was appalled to learn that the nearest place to get his fix is twelve miles away. As it turns out, he was visiting someone here on his way back to Virginia. After he left, we agreed he must have been from Northern Virginia; he definitely had an upper class attitude.

Funny how, in one week, we went from attracting rednecks to yuppies...