Fu-free zone

The Viking and I wanted a weekend without fu. Mostly we got it.

Saturday we went to Knight of the Heart for a while. It was so nice to go to an event and not have to drive an hour or longer to get there. It was also very pleasant to be at such as nice-looking event. The Viking has decided that pas d'armes tourneys are just not his thing, since though he is an extrovert, he is not really theatrical, (and the fact that the marshals required him to tighten the chinstrap on his helmet to the point it cut off the circulation to his jaw didn't help) but he had a good time watching.

Keilyn, I'm sorry we pulled out before we got to meet your husband -- the Viking was starting to get antsy about getting home to the dog and a nap, so we left about 3. Give me a holler and let's try to get together sometime.

Sunday afternoon we were supposed to help Sis and the Engineer build a 3-bin composter but Sis had trouble getting the lumber -- she, strangely enough, doesn't want to put CCA-treated lumber in her backyard where the dogs can chew on it -- so instead we spent the afternoon going from one lumber yard to the next trying to get appropriate materials. Sis can redneck with the best of them when it comes to livestock, but she is not so good at dealing with construction rednecks. The Viking, on the other hand, had several carpenter uncles and is a superb general purpose col rouge, so he handled the most of the ordering and translation.

The last place we stopped was a Lowe's, and I left the large carpenter Viking with Sis and wandered off to the garden department because I was out of patience with the lumber departments. (Do not get me started about how dumb the people in the lumber yards were. It was boggling). Sis said something about picking up some things for her garden, and she is not an enthusiastic ornamental gardener, so I told her I'd look for low maintenance stuff. I was not terribly impressed with the bulb selection, but they did have 'Pink Giant' chionodoxa bulbs, so I grabbed a packet of those for myself and another for Sis, and I did find a pack of 'Salome' daffodils for her. The sale perennials were fairly boring (fall is for planting? Not this crud!) but there were a few hardy azaleas and even some white ones which seemed healthy. I had wanted to get some white azaleas for my front yard last spring, and hadn't been able to find any, so I snagged a couple of a variety which promises blooms which resemble gardenias. I doubt mightily that they will very gardenia-like, but since I have no luck with gardenias even as (ack-ptui) houseplants, I will have to take what I get. They can join the other ankle-high shrubs of the proto-incipient border I'm planting down the eastern side of the front.

By the time all the necessary supplies for the composter were rounded up, it was too late in the day to start building, so we went out for chili and then went home. The Viking has a short day at work on Tuesday, so I think we may try to get over to Sis' and start framing then. Sis is making noises about having the Engineer upgrade my home computer (with new parts as a Christmas present) in exchange for the loan of my husband for her project, which seems like a fair deal to me.

verso - recto