Sluggy Sluggerton.

That is how I'm feeling today.  I don't know if I'm flirting with another stomach flu or what, but I just don't feel like doing anything today.  I will eventually but for now I'm just going to play with my Photoshop. 

I've decided which camera I'm going to get and I'm bummed because it's going to take FOREVER to save for it.  I'm going with the Canon EOS 40D.  I have two lenses picked out and now I just need to wait.  Those of you who know me, know that I am not the most patient person.  Thankfully I will have gardening to distract me.  Interestingly enough Nancy told me yesterday that one of the local nurseries that we shopped at last year asked if she or I wanted to work part time through the spring.  Hmmm, maybe that would help in my camera savings...although knowing me I would be spending my paychecks on plants.  I'll have to ponder that a bit more.

I'm kind of excited about tomorrow.  I'm going with Nancy to some garage sales and an estate sale.  I've never really been one for going to them, but I'm going to consider it a treasure hunt and have fun.  I am limiting myself to 30 dollars cash.  I'm looking for some vintage dishes and bowls.  It's supposed to be nice out tomorrow too.  Maybe when I'm done treasure hunting I'll work out in the garden beds and clean them up a bit.  I think we are a couple of weeks from putting things out, but I'm dying to get outside.

Not much else going on over here.  School is running smoothly.  Connor is taking his PSSA tests in a couple of weeks and I think he's ready for them.  We are planning a quick trip next weekend.  The birds are back and singing.  I know, that was random, but I really enjoy hearing the birds at 4:30 in the morning.  They always sound so happy.  The kids had a lot of fun last weekend on our fossil hunt and are asking when we can go again.  Actually, I think Tim found a crystal cave that we are going to venture to soon.  Pretty soon we'll be able to  hit the hiking trails full force again.  We were going to go last weekend after the fossil pit, but it was so muddy and we were all covered in mud from just digging for fossils.  I can't even imagine how bad it would have been if we had hit the ten mile trail.  It was really wet.  

So, yeah, this is  a pretty boring, random post.  I think I'm going to go make a cup of tea and work on some knitting.  I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of impending Spring.

Tulips starting to peek through the surface.

My new shamrock.  I had to get Martin a little buddy. I actually got two new ones.  One of them has red leaves.  I love Shamrocks!

I hope everyone is having a great day/week/month.  Oh, and yes Brian...you should start your tomato seeds NOW.  =)

Daily show TONIGHT!

Cramer is going to be on The Daily Show tonight. It should prove to be entertaining after this. Have I mentioned that I love Jon Stewart? Yeah, I think I have.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

In Cramer We Trust

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Economic Crisis

Camera question.

For those of you out there in the blogging world, I have a question. I am finally going to get myself a digital slr camera. I'm saving money for it and hope to be able to purchase it in a couple of months. My last two digital cameras have been Canon Powershots and I can safely say that I will be purchasing another Canon. I really like the ease of use and the quality of the pictures. The question is which model should I be shooting for?

The Canon Rebel XSi? or the Canon EOS 50D? I've been doing some research and I'm leaning towards the EOS because it seems to be a higher grade camera. I don't want to "settle" for the Rebel and then want the EOS in another year. I don't want to be dropping down that kind of money.

Is there anyone out there that could maybe lend some support into my decision making? Of course, I know that I'm going to be researching various lenses as well. Like I don't have anything else to do, right?

I ♥ Jon Stewart!

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

CNBC Gives Financial Advice

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

As Promised.

A gardening update. My little baby seedlings are growing into fine young adults. I have transplanted all of the veggies into bigger pots and they seem to be doing ok. I have had to move them out to the table that I have in my kitchen which thankfully is under a very large window.

My flowers are all (except for my sweet peas) still in the seed tray. A couple of my zinnias have kind of withered up. I guess they should have been transplanted. They grew up pretty fast though and I have seeds still, so once the ground thaws out, I'll plant some more seeds out in the garden.


My kitchen garden. They are patiently waiting to go outside.

My zucchini. I am very happy with how these little guys are looking. I can almost taste the zucchini casserole and zucchini bread now.

30 tomato plants. There are 15 red and 15 orange heirloom plants growing here.

A little mater. I'm cautiously optimistic about these tomatoes. I am so curious to see how big these plants get outside. I will be shocked and amazed if they grow into full size shrubs that produce fruit. Fingers crossed.

Some green beans. There are four plants in that one pot and three of them are dying. I was trying to figure out why. It then dawned on me that when I transplanted them into bigger pots, some of the roots were kind of ripped out of the dirt. Ooops. I guess I need to use a more tender touch. Again, these grew pretty fast and I think once we can plant outside, I'll throw some more seeds into the ground. We are going to plant these babies out where our potato patch was last year. I have plenty of room to work with. The question is, do I really need all that many green beans? Although, I have been loving eating my dilly beans that I canned last year. They are PERFECT on a salad. Yum.


So, now we just wait until this shows some warmer temps. I can only hope that it's around the corner in a couple more weeks. I'm tired of the cold. Oh, that reminds me. I need to research if the time changes on Sunday. On our city calendar it's listed as changing on Sunday. Didn't that change? I guess I'll have to go figure it out. Yay to longer days though!

I'll leave this post with a couple of cute pictures. The first one is of Patchy. Yesterday he put his front paws up on my legs and stayed like that for about 2 minutes. He was watching the crazy squirrels in the back yard. As I type this right now, I'm watching 8 different ones race back and forth on the power lines, into the trees, into the rhododendron and on the to the fort. They are crazy. Patchy enjoyed watching them too.

Patchy

This next picture is of a bird we've seen recently out on our front tree enjoying some suet. I thought it was a woodpecker, but now I'm not so sure. I'm going to have to dig out our bird book and see if I can figure it out. For now, we just call him zebra. =)

Zebra...woodpecker?

I hope everyone is gearing up for a warm Spring.

Handsome little devil.

Handsome little devil.
Originally uploaded by busybeebiz

This is a test of my using Flikr. I've been playing around over here with some of my pictures.

Quick Post.

This is just a quick little post because I'm getting ready to get into bed and try and warm up.  It's been way to cold today.  At least we didn't get all the snow that others around us have.  I'll grumble about the cold and the wind but at least I'm not out shoveling snow right now.

I wanted to post a picture of the cake that Tim and I made for Aidan.  Now, history on this.  We had a hamster up until two weeks ago.  She died peacefully in her sleep and honestly, we weren't that sad to see her go because she was mean.  Aidan had said that for his party he wanted a hamster cake.  When he had made this request, Rhino was still alive and he was watching dvds of Hamtaro.  So, he had hamsters on the brain.  After Rhino passed we asked Aidan if he wanted to change the theme of the cake.  I was thinking maybe he would change it to Kirby or Bolt or something that is relevant to what they are watching/playing right now.  Nope.  Aidan just said, "Let's make a dead hamster cake".  Voila.

I made the cakes on Friday.  It was a fiasco.  I made four round cakes and the 13x9.  I sprayed all the pans and thought it would be ok.  Every single one of the cakes stuck to the pan and broke as I tried to ease them out.  We, at this point, also realized that I should have made 6 round cakes so that the hamster would be taller.  So, I redid all of the cakes.  We crumbled up the broken cakes and fed them to the birds.  This time I put parchment paper on the bottom of each pan and they came out beautiful.  I was beat after all of the baking though. 12 cakes in one day is a bit much.

Saturday morning Tim got up and pieced the cakes together.  I made a huge batch of buttercream frosting and he stacked everything up.  He carved the shape and then covered it with frosting.  Then he covered it with fondant and painted it with edible paint (corn syrup and food coloring).  All in all, it was a great success.  The cake recipe was very tasty and moist.

I think that is all for now.  I promise I will do a gardening post soon. I got a bunch of my seedlings transplanted into bigger pots and now I am in a holding pattern until spring.  Oh Spring, where are you?