August 5th Challenge

Hi it’s Christina –

Good Morning! To avoid getting drawn and quartered, I spent yesterday tending to the house, which I had neglected during Camp NaNo. I did take a little time to write out one scene for FTQ, but other than that, I straightened, I scrubbed, I recycled and I cooked.

I am hoping the remainder of my day goes better than the way it started. Just like every morning, first thing I do is take Colby to be emptied. Our route is through the family room, and out the garage door. I open the door, push the garage door button, Colby shoots past me, I step into the garage and right into a HUGE spider web. Now, I’m not scared of spiders, but walking through a web had me spazzing out. EEEWWW! How can a little spider build such an enormous web in less than six hours (the last time someone walked through the area)?

So, the garden is doing okay, I guess. We’ve had some zucchini, and a few cucumbers. The zucchini are tricky beasts. I look in the garden every day, then all of a sudden, there’s this baseball bat of a zucchini that I swear either wasn’t there or it was only about four inches big the day before. 

With the exception of one, which turned out normal, the cukes have been these short fat thingies, and they have had a really strong cucumber taste.

I’ve pulled enough beans to make all of one side dish, but now there are more coming on, so hopefully I’ll get another few servings. I do have a respectable amount of grape, cherry and regular tomatoes, but not an overabundance which is good. I had my first tomato sandwich of the season for lunch on Sunday – yummy – there is nothing better than a Jersey tomato!

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING PICTURE MAY BE INAPPROPRIATE FOR SOME VIEWERS.

My carrots, on the other hand, are a little scary. They still are not growing much, and like the cucumbers, have a really strong taste. When I pulled this little guy out, I was nearly hysterical laughing. Something is seriously amiss in my carrot patch. All I could think of were those screaming plants from Harry Potter. LOL.

I have several ears of corn, but I’m not 100% sure when I should pick them. Only one of the broccoli plants has something which resembles broccoli, but it is so small and will probably flower before it becomes anything useful. Not a single onion sprouted. Zippo on the cauliflower too (all leaves, no veggies). My pepper plant has not gotten over six inches tall. The flowers keep falling off of the eggplant, so I doubt it will produce either. We are still in “wait and see” mode for the artichokes.

The one big surprise is, I’m still getting strawberries. The plants are flowering like crazy. Unfortunately, because we don’t have the screened roof installed yet, the birds are getting the strawberries before we can. I thought the strawberries would be spent by the end of June??

Obviously there is still a whole lot I need to learn about gardening. I am going to do things differently next year. One simple thing is going to be placement of where things are in the garden. It would have made a whole lot more sense to put the things which produce first and then are done (like the peas, the radishes, and the lettuce and spinach) in the front of my troths as opposed to the back. This way I can get to them without having to climb over the other crops.

Next year the cucumbers will be using the fence of the garden to climb instead of the lattice, and I will coax it to do so. Both my tomato plants and my dill plant will be placed in cages right from the get-go. The corn will be planted, 3 – 4 days apart, from closest to the edge to furthest from the edge, so I don’t have to reach through unready corn to get to the ripe ones.

The most important thing I have learned is I will need to start the seeds in the house and then plant seedlings in the garden instead of just seeds. I feel bad for my little pepper plants. There are only two left, and they are trying so hard to make something of themselves, but it is not looking good.

This year, I just winged it. During the winter, I’m going to do some research on the plants I want to plant. Maybe if I get a clue, my results would be much better. Even though the garden wasn’t a booming success, I still had fun with it.

I hope you have a great day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

A conversation between two animals…

“What is she doing?”

“Who knows with these humans? They’re a strange bunch.”

“Does she really think those shiny round things are going to scare us away?”

“Looks that way.”

“They’re so silly.”

“Ha Ha. Let her think that. As soon as she’s gone, it’s lunch time.”

“I’m thinking tomatoes first, with a side of those juicy worms she put in to the soil.”

“Yup, and then some strawberries for dessert. I saw a few ripe ones when I did the fly-by this morning.”

“Hey, what’s the guy doing over there?”

“Hmm, dunno. He’s building something. It’s big, whatever it is.”

“Well it looks like he just finished, so we’ll get to see.”

“She has to help him. Why are they walking toward the garden with it?”

“Oh no, oh no. It’s going on the top. It’s covering the whole garden.”

“Well how are we going to get inside now?”

“We can’t you dope.”

“But what about lunch?”

“We’ll just have to go to the neighbor’s across the street. C’mon.”

***

Sorry, I had garden on the brain.

Your Next Challenge is:

You receive a text from an unknown caller…

You have ten minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong, just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count, and NO ONE is allowed to criticize what someone else has written. Go.

July 10th Challenge

Hi it’s Christina –

Good Morning! Did everyone have a good night? Mine was nice and quiet.

Only Joe would understand the
graphic, but I had to do it. 

I did get a chance to chat with one of the authors whose book I edited, and that was fun. He’s at the stage where he needs to publish, so I sent him the templates so he could get started as well as links for getting his ISBNs and getting his copywrite. I also sent him the links to Caligraphics and Riverbench Publishing; I’ve used both for my book covers and I was happy with the results. If he wants something completely original, which I believe he does, he’ll need to go with Riverbench.

It was great talking with Joe, and I’m thrilled for him. This is an exciting time in his life, and I am so excited for him. He has some really interesting, out-of-the-box, marketing ideas, and I’ll be curious to see how they pan out. Marketing is not one of my strong suits, well at least marketing my own work isn’t, so maybe I’ll be able to pick up a few pointers from him.

I have no vested interest in the books I edit, but I do love being along on their ride with them. It brings me great joy to see others succeed.

The girls decided they wanted fro-yo for dinner – the once or twice a year the kids have dessert for dinner is no big deal. My hubby had a stomachache, so he didn’t want any dinner, and I was not making a meal for myself. It wasn’t until after nine when I realized I was hungry.

I had picked some green beans and some yellow beans from the garden. There was enough green beans to have with a meal, so I packaged and froze them. I had picked yellow beans the other day, and froze those as well, so what I picked yesterday was only a handful. I cleaned them and cooked them up, hit them with a few squirts of spray butter, and that was my dinner; not terribly exciting, but healthful and yummy.

The garden is doing well. I’m still getting one or two ripe strawberries every day. The most I have been able to pick at one time was six, but considering I didn’t think I would get any this year, I’m not going to complain. I hope next year they produce enough, at the same time, where I can actually make a dessert or something.

The radishes and peas are shot, it got too hot for them. I never did get enough peas to be able to do anything with them. I’m going to try to do a second planting of them in the fall. I thought for sure I’d have some nice sized carrots because the greens were 18” tall and the stalks were as thick as drinking straws, but when I pulled them out, the carrots were only slightly bigger than my pinky.

The tomatoes are a disaster. My hubby was supposed to stake them up for me, but he never got to it, so they are flopping all over the place, and they’ve commingled so I have big tomatoes growing out of the grape tomato plant and cherry tomatoes growing out of the beefsteak tomato plant. It’s all cafuggled. The corn stalks are as tall as me, but still no ears on them, and the cucumbers are bullies. They are choking out the poor eggplant I planted for my husband, and they are headed toward the zucchini.

The broccoli and cauliflower are growing tall, which is confusing me. I thought they grew in a head, like a cabbage. My pepper plants are still struggling. They are only 6” tall, the poor babies. Next year I’ll need to start seedlings in the house. It’s too much for them to grow from seed outside. I doubt I’ll get a single pepper this year. Surprisingly three out of the five artichokes I planted are growing, but not a single onion sprouted, and I planted over a dozen.

Considering this was really my first garden, I don’t think I’m doing half bad. This year there was a learning curve, and I will do things very different next year – like the cukes are going where the herbs are now, so they have the full back wall of the fence to climb. I’ll just dig up the herbs that reseed themselves and move them. The tomatoes will go in cages from the minute they are planted.

Also, I won’t have as much variety next year. I didn’t want to have an overabundance of anything, because I hate to waste food; but I didn’t figure six pea plants wouldn’t yield enough peas to be able to make one side dish for one meal. I did plant six yellow and six green beans, and so far I have been able to harvest enough for a side dish for three of each. There are more beans coming on, so I hope I’ll get at least the same amount.

Okay, enough about my garden. There was a photo I was planning on posting with this morning’s blog, but Lys forbade me. LOL. It’s 80’s week at camp, so she has been leaving here every morning looking like Olivia Newton John, blue eye shadow, side ponytail, slouch socks, an off the shoulder shirt with a tank underneath and matching headband. I think she looks great – as an 80’s throwback, not that she should dress like that always – but she said, no way, uh-uh, it ain’t happening, the photo goes nowhere. Although I’m really tempted, I will respect her wishes.

RV has an early appointment today, so I have an hour less time to work on FTQ, so I’d best be going. I hope you have a sensational day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

Use the following three: Parrot, Cerulean, Defenestrate

(Read this with a male, South African, accent, it’s how I heard it in my head – lol)

I am the king of the loft. I know it, but more importantly, I am the favorite, and all the other occupants know it too.

King & Honey

Honey would come home from work, briefly scratch the inferior canine behind his ear, completely ignore the flea bitten feline, and walk directly to me. “How’s my pretty bird? How is the most beautiful parrot in the world?” she would ask, as she stroked my luscious cerulean feathers and kissed my beak. She would often bring me a treat or a new toy. She never brought the others anything. They were Dears responsibility, not Honey’s. She only has eyes for me.

I try not to gloat, really I do, but it’s difficult. I am far superior, both in looks as well as in brains, infinitely higher up the food chain. I was, after all, able to foil their sophomoric plan to defenestrate me. Seriously? What purpose would it have to throw a parrot out the window? I am, a bird for heaven’s sake. Fools. It is instances like this which guarantee I will remain king of the loft.

Your Next Challenge is:

Dragons!

You have ten minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong, just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count, and NO ONE is allowed to criticize what someone else has written. Go.

May 19th Challenge

Hi it’s Christina –

Good Afternoon! Dang, I am seriously late for this blog today, but I have a good excuse. I needed to finalize the invitations for Dani’s Confirmation Party and my husband’s surprise party (shhhh, it’s a secret). Plus I had to create maps on Excel to send along with the invitations, which took forever! Now all I have to do is print them all, print the mailing labels, and get them mailed before my hubby comes home. There are folks who are invited to both parties. Do you think it’s cheesy if I stick both invitations in one envelope?

Radishes

Yesterday’s blog was too long to include a blurb about my garden, so I held it for today. Stuff is growing already! I made thirty little holes to plant the radishes, and stuck two seeds in each hole. Much to my surprise, all sixty radishes are coming up. I think I gave them enough space so I won’t need to thin them out, but what am I going to do with sixty radishes?

Corn

Next to the radishes are the carrots, and then I left a section to be able to plant something else. Unfortunately, it appears the rain displaced some of the carrot seeds, so now they stretch completely over the area I had left free. We’re going to end up with a boat load of carrots, but at least I can freeze them without worry.

Climbers

The corn has tripled in size already. There will be no issues getting it “knee-high by the Fourth of July”. The beans have all sprouted and are almost three inches tall already. The green beans are doing better than the wax beans, but I’m sure it will all even out. We did get the lattice up so they can climb when they are ready. Can any of you tell me if they need to be coaxed onto the lattice or if the plants figure it out on their own?

It appears all the broccoli and cauliflower seed took as well, and since they were well spaced, I shouldn’t have to thin them either. The only things which have not made an appearance yet are the peppers, the dill from seed, and the rosemary from seed; but it’s only been a week, so I

Broccoli

really hadn’t anticipated anything to be growing yet.

I spent about an hour out there yesterday trying to get all those annoying maple tree seed helicopters out of the beds. The big ones weren’t bad, but those tiny ones are a pain. I gave up, figuring it will be easier to pluck the saplings when they sprout, than the seeds now.

After I straighten up the kitchen and throw in a load of laundry, it will be nose to the grindstone for me. There are only twelve days left in the month, and I have a TON of editing to do, and I best get to it. I hope you have a marvelous day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

They sat next to each other, but pretended to be strangers

Who do they think they’re fooling? A blind person could sense these two knew each other. No one goes so far out of their way to avoid interaction, even here on the subway. Smiles, glances, an “excuse me” or a “thank you” are inevitably exchanged, yet these two are as animated as Buckingham Palace guards.

Their build and their dress are so similar, and their presence simply screams “Feds”. The real questions are what are they doing here, who are they watching, and should I be concerned? After glancing about the car, and being unable to discern the object of their focus, I elect to exit at the next stop, then take the next available train. Much to my chagrin, the two follow me off the train.

I wrack my brain. Was it me they were following? What do I know? Nothing. Did I see something? Hear something? If I did, I am not aware. As nonchalantly as possible, I climb to street level. Perhaps I can lose them in the crowd. One block, two, I catch a glimpse of them in the reflection of a store window. They are still following me. What if they’re not Feds?

Your Next Challenge is:

You are going to your twenty fifth high school reunion, and the person who was voted “most likely to succeed” shows up.

You have ten minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong, just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count, and NO ONE is allowed to criticize what someone else has written. Go.

May 11th Challenge

Hi it’s Christina –

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there! So, how will you be spending your day? Are you going visiting, or are kids coming to visit you?

I think I may have a combination of both today. I do know we are going over to my sister in law’s for dinner. We do it every Mother’s Day. My mom comes over there as well, and we throw steaks on the grill. We give both my mother and my mother in law, flowering hanging baskets for their back porches. Yes, it’s predictable, but it’s a nice, laid back, pretty much stress free holiday, which is nice.

The reason I said I “may have a combination of both” was, I’m not sure if PJ is coming over to our house today or just to his aunt’s tonight. You may recall, last year my Mother’s day gift was the frame work for a garden which never got quite finished. This year, we will be finishing it. At nine, I’ll be calling over to the Co-Op to have them drop a load of dirt near the garden.

While my husband, and possibly my son, fill the five troughs with dirt, Dani and I will be off plant and seed hunting. We’ll probably have to get the finishing items for the garden as well while we’re out – the screen for the roof, the fencing for the surround, and the netting for the vine plants to climb. (We made the center trough wider than the other four so we can center hang a climbing net for the peas, beans, and possibly cucumbers.)

I also want to pick up the wood for the boys to make me a potato bin, or spud box as some folks call it. It’s a really cool concept. Basically, it’s a two foot square box, which stands three feet high. Three sides are stationary, but the front has removable panels. There is not top or bottom, it goes right on the ground, and the plants come out the top.

You put a layer of dirt down first, then your potatoes, then you cover them with a layer of dirt. In a week or so, when the potatoes start sprouting, you cover the shoots with dirt. You keep doing this until you reach the last removable panel of your container – it will take several weeks. Then, you remove the bottom panel so you can harvest that layer’s potatoes. It’s pretty cool. Supposedly, you can yield around a hundred pounds of potatoes from this small box.

I am also going to pick up some cinder blocks so I can make a cinder block strawberry patch. I thought this was such a great idea. If you have ever planted strawberries before you know they can take over the world. By planting them in the holes in the cinder blocks, it helps keep them contained. Now the trick will be keeping the birds away from them. I had planned on lining either the front or the side of the garden with the cinder blocks, but I may just put a block between each of the troughs so the strawberries will be protected too.

My goodness, can you tell I’m excited about finishing my garden? I certainly had not planned on rambling on and on about it. I had planned on telling you about yesterday’s trip.

We did pretty good, Lys and I left around twenty after six. Dani sent me a text at five thirty, crying off from the trip. I had anticipated as much. Between the class trip and the sweet sixteen, I knew she was going to be exhausted.

Price Auditorium

Lock Haven University is only a handful of miles, and half a dozen turns, off of Route 80, so it was an easy trip; long, but easy. We arrived on campus at quarter to ten, managed to find a parking spot, and made our way to Price Auditorium with time to spare – mostly because Route 80 apparently is the US equivalent to the Autobahn. There was this one strip, where the speed limit is fifty-five. We were cruising, in traffic, at sixty-five in the slow lane (we were on our way home, so I wasn’t in a hurry). Cars were zipping by in the fast lane, at a safely estimated, seventy-five. One of the cars speeding past was a state trooper, no lights, no sirens, just tootling along with the rest of the pack.

Blurry :(

I digress. We were in Price Auditorium because only folks with tickets for the graduation we allowed in the stadium where the graduation was actually taking place. No big deal as far as I’m concerned. We got to watch from comfortable seats, in a climate controlled, weather threat free, environment. They broadcasted the commencement onto a screen, so we probably had a better view of the proceedings than the ticket holders in the stadium.

There were some technical issues at first. Initially the sound wasn’t the greatest, and at one point the screen did go black, but they got all the glitches out quickly, so we were able to see everything. The only thing I was bummed about was the photo I snapped of Lisa getting her diploma came out blurry. Lys got a great photo, but because she took it on SnapChat, I couldn’t get a copy.

Lisa & Lysa

We met up with Lisa and her family when everything was over. We took a few pictures, gave Lisa a card and some graduation cupcakes Lys had made for her, then we left for home. Lisa still had to finish packing up her apartment, so she still had a lot to do, and we didn’t want to get in her way. Yes, it was eight total hours of driving, and we only got to spend half an hour with her, but it was worth it. Now that she’s home, and finished with school, we’ll get to see her more often.

Lisa & Me

Okay, this blog has gone on long enough, and I still have the challenge to do, so I am going to end it here. Facebook folks, there are a bunch of photos, so if you want to see them, you’ll have to visit my blog.

I hope you have a wonderful day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

Write a FIRST person experience from the viewpoint of a dollar bill.

Ooo, I wonder what I’ll be traded for today. Not that it really matters, I’m just glad to be out of Tommy’s pocket. Ugh, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get the wrinkles out, but I really shouldn’t complain. Tommy’s pocket was a step up from that parking lot puddle Mr. Simms dropped me in.

I really don’t know much about Mr. Simms, since I was only with him for a few minutes. He had stopped at the convenience store, that was my latest home, to pick up some orange juice and some cold medicine. He looked so tired and so frazzled. I heard him tell the store clerk that his wife and both of their small children were all home sick in bed, so I guess I can forgive him for not noticing that he dropped me.

Before I came to live at the convenience store, Sally found me folded up in one of her Easter

eggs. I will never forget how excited she was when she found me. She was such a sweet girl, and do you know what she did? She brought me, and a few of my brothers to the convenience store, and she didn’t buy candy or gum, like I thought she would. Nope, Sally traded me for one of the wrapped pink roses they have on the counter. She wanted to have something pretty to give to her mommy.

Before the Easter Bunny put me into Sally’s egg, I have pretty much traveled the country. I have lived in toll booths, vending machines, and too many wallets to count. I have survived a Minnesota winter and a Texas summer. I’ve been traded for hurricanes in New Orleans, deep dish in Chicago, and lobster rolls in Maine.

Your Next Challenge is:

This probably should have been yesterday’s challenge, but since I didn’t have time for a challenge yesterday, you’re getting it today. Write about either your mom, being a mom, or what it means to be a mom.

You have ten minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong, just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count, and NO ONE is allowed to criticize what someone else has written. Go.