Author Archives: joelignacio

Official Start of My Fall/Winter Garden…

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I haven’t been gardening much during the summer, but on Saturday, I made a point to get my butt to Mid-City Nursery to see if they had any fall/winter vegetables to plant. They had a lot of variety of cool weather plants and I ended up with three kinds of Kale plants, a White Alpine Strawberry and Brussels Sprouts in my cart.

When I was at the counter, the cashier asked if I found everything okay. I reply yes… then remembered that I wanted a Chilean Guava plant, so I asked if they carried it. She actually knew what it was because she called it Ugni (its genus). She then lead me to the shrubs area and found the plant right away. There was one left and it’s now mine :)

When I got home I took photos of the plants, but I haven’t uploaded them to my Mac yet, so those are still to come.

Can’t wait to start planting!!! :)

Calli…

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Our dog Calli passed away today.

Calli

This is a photo of her resting in the garden, which was one of her favorite pastimes. She didn’t learn many tricks, except “shaking hands”; she was a pro at that. Calli was such a gentle dog and a big sweetheart.

We actually don’t remember exactly how old she was, but she had a litter in 1996 and she was probably about 1 or 2 at that time, so our best guess is that she was 14 or 15…

Calli, rest in peace… We will miss you!

Spring/Summer 2009 Garden Plan (v01)

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Spring/Summer 2009 Garden Plan (v01)

I really need to start planting my Summer veggies, so I drew up a preliminary plan. I will think this over and probably move things around, but I think I have most of my veggies accounted for. I will probably either buy more plants or sow more seeds to plant in the blank spaces.

click for a long list of plants

Shirts + Nanay’s Online Banking

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Hi LiveJournal… Long time no see… Dang, I haven’t posted forever…

Couple of items for today…

I been looking for shirts online, cuz many of mine are getting tighter… I think I may be getting a bit bigger in my old age. Dang it!

I’ve been eyeing some graphic tees on threadless.com but never ordered… So I placed an initial order of two $5 shirts, one medium and one large, to check out their sizes and quality. I’ll get more later.

This evening, I signed my Mom up for online banking… She’s 77 years old and doesn’t use computer (although she loves playing with my iPhone), but I’ll be the “banker” and help her along. In order to create an onine account with her bank, I had to create an email for her, so I set one up on Gmail. Wow! My Mom’s first email account!!! :)

The main reason for setting up online banking for her was so she can do bill pay. She ‘s been asking me about it, because her bills say “pay online”… and she’s tired of writing checks and buyings stamps to mail the payments…

Now I have to try to get her to stop using checks in the store and just use her ATM or credit card… so she can collect reward points too… Baby steps…

Good night :)

Hippeastrum ‘Apple Blossom’

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Hippeastrum 'Apple Blossom'

First Hippeastrum (Amaryllis) bloom. I grow these outside, so they bloom much later than ones forced to bloom during Christmas time.

Bad Coleus Caretaker…

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Today, I checked up on my Coleus cuttings which I have neglected and, um…. many are not in good shape. Dang it! I thought the mini-greenhouse dome would keep them watered and healthy, but I guess I left them too long. I will be going through them and saving what I can and take some inventory to see what I have left and see if I can still place an order with Rosy Dawn Gardens for some new varieties for this year.

Driving Home

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I am actually typing this on my laptop on our way home. It’s about 9:30pm and I am so tired and kinda home sick. I can’t wait to get home… plus, my but hurts from sitting in this car since this morning.

Our trip has taken so long, because we made numerous stops, to gas stations, fast foods, rest areas and a lunch break in Santa Barbara, which I never been to before. There was also pouring rains along the way and the accidents go along with that. We took 101 again, because Interstate 5 was closed down in some locations.

I can’t wait to take a shower and watch my recorded show Battlestar Galactica, Kyle XY and The Big Bang Theory in bed. I also am very anxious to see if any of my other sowed seeds have sprouted.

 

Vacation Continues + Legoland

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We were not sure if we were going to be able to go to Legoland today, but luckily the weather was nice and there was no rain in the forecast. I’ve never been to Legoland, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I knew it had legos and some rides, but I thought it was going to be the size of something like a miniature golf course. It was actually the size of a full blown amusement park and my friends who have been there before said that they have expanded it my adding a aqurium-like attraction, althought that was an added cost.

If you are into Legos, this is like a dream come true. They have everything made of lego or Lego themed. There are numerous sculptures that are larger than myself throughout the park. In one section called Mini Lego Land (or something like that), they constructed entire miniature cities like Las Vegas, San Francisco, New Orleans, New York, Washington D.C. and more. They even constructed a new Capitol building depicting President Obama’s inauguration. This was very popular.

They also had some rides, but most it were kiddy rides. I would describe this more as a viewing attraction… and great for taking photos… and I took tons and tons of photo.

One thing that surprised me was that the plants and landscaping was terrific. They had many plants which I don’t see often including a black Bird of Paradise, Variegated Abutilon, many succulents like Aloes in bloom, Cacti, Plectranthus and many, many more. I wanted to take cuttings, but theu were not within reach. One in particular I saw was a beautiful Begonia.

After Legoland, we met up with Rachel, and went to see the movie "He’s Not That Into You". It was a romantic comedy, which I then to like… and I enjoyed this one.

Afterwards, they wanted to get some stuff from Walmart and I found larger peat pots, which I’ve been looking for and a plastic container that matches my existing one where I keep my seeds. I’ve been looking for this for a while now and haven’t found it til now.

We then went to dinner, where I just got a salad, because I’ve been eating so much this vacation.