Stranger than Fiction

So, theres this movie that I've watched a couple of times recently. I adore it:

It's about this guy that is living a mundane life. He hears voices and realizes that an author is writing his life.

Then he meets a girl (Maggie Gyllenhaal , who I love). She's a baker, and he's supposed to be auditing her. The voices are scaring him, so he is trying to change things in his life, to change the story.

Oh and the best scene, he decides he's going to take a chance with her, and he brings her Flours! (cause she's a baker..)

Isn’t that the sweetest thing?!

I love her apartment, and her bakery is really cute.

I love Harold’s weird blue suits and Dustin Hoffman’s character. Emma Thompson plays the neurotic author that’s trying to kill Harold. Love her too.

The ending is the best, and it made me cry, which prompted me to write a post about it ha! I think it’s so underrated. This movie just makes me happy

top pic Via Google

Bakery Window

Flours

Almost April

So...DAMN! This year is flying already! I have numerous friends with babies due anytime now. The weather is finally getting to be bearable. I've planned my garden out and started my seeds. I even spent St. Patrick's Day working on the yard and beginning to refinish my deck.

I'm glad winter is over. It was a long hard one. The hardest I can recall in my life. I had strep 3 times, then the flu, then I had 2 panic attacks in VERY public places. Ahh, I can be such a mess!

I start a new job next week. I'm happy I'll have something to do again.

(This is going in random directions)

I saw these very cool pics this morning, of tulips growing in Holland. It made me want to grow a field of monochrome flowers!

TULIPS

I am planting some flowers, including a silver rose bush. I picked it out because it seemed so unusual. As long as I manage not to kill it anytime soon, we'll see how odd they do grow.

I finally had a chance to see Hawk this weekend. That's always nice ha! He works so much that we don't really see each other during the week. I'm hoping with the nicer weather coming we'll have more opportunities to get out and do things. It's been a long boring winter. Our spring projects are about to begin and I can't wait. We've chosen flooring and paint colors for our home remodel. I do most of the work myself, and I think it's the most useful hobby I've ever had. I'm going to tile my bathroom in a month or so, and I'm planning on documenting the overhaul here. Our house is stuck in 1975 and I love the modernization I've done so far. I just wish I had before pics. You guys would die.

I'm talking a wood paneled CEILING in the Master!

I have carpet to rip out and a popcorn ceiling problem I've yet to figure out yet.

But I'm excited :)

Off Day

I had, just the worst day today. I had a second interview for a job and my F'ing car wouldn't start.

I'm trying to not let the never ending Winter bother me, but it is. I am starting to thing I have S.A.D. My Dad has it and I swear I'm turning into a grumpy old guy.

COME ON SPRING!

I want to wear sunglasses and sun dresses. (& SPF 75) And I'd like it to be warm enough to get out of the damn house more!!

Valentine's Day 2011

I think that may be the first time I've written the year out. 2011 WOW.

Ha, anyway...

Last year I spent Valentine's Day skyping my deployed fiancée, while eating Hardee's. There was a Hardee's by his barracks and there's one a couple miles from my house so we decided to have a Skype date.

Fast forward to this year: I awoke to a random bright blue car in my driveway. (I have a turnaround drive, and huge picture windows) I didn't recognize it so I hooked my scary looking (bahahaha) German Shepherd on a leash and went to see why someone was sitting in my drive.

I knocked on the window closest to me and all of a sudden 4 big guys got out of the car. They were all matching, in bright red vests and bowties. (I didn't take a picture, I was frazzled).

It turns out that my crazy husband set out to make my day unforgettable.

It was a BARBERSHOP QUARTET.

They brought me roses, a card with my favorite poem inside and a box of chocolate truffles. And, oh yeah...THEY SANG TO ME. OUTSIDE! They did a little V-day song I've never heard before, and an old standard "Let Me Call You Sweetheart".

I started to cry and I was speechless. It was so sweet :) it makes up for all the V-days the Army has kept us apart.

Later that day, hubs came home early from work and took me to Bravo

It was WONDERFUL. I had only been there once before, and I like it as a semi-fancy place for minor special occasions. I had a type of pasta I haven't eaten since I was a kid and my mom used to make it from scratch and it didn't disappoint!

After that we went to see Gnomeo and Juliet. I am a huge Shakespeare lover, but also (&I can't believe I'm admitting this) I have a weird love for gnomes. I have a collection of one of a kind ones somewhere that has yet to be unpacked.

I loved James McAvoy as Gnomeo. The animation was really cute, and he's one of my favorites.

I also loved celebrating this silly holiday with my Husband! We're having fun commemorating all these married firsts (Christmas, Vday, etc.) and overall, having fun as newlyweds!

Chop wood, camping and bear traps

I keep seeing these and they're always hilarious to me. This one is to show how ridiculous conversations with my husband are:

Every single evening begins this way!

Insomniac Gardener

Well after another fun filled day (sarcasm) I have found myself unable to sleep. Again. What else is new?

Anyway, staring at the dark ceiling just wasn't working anymore. So, I've found something constructive to do with my ample time: Planning this years garden!

We bought our house in June 2008 and didn't really get unpacked and situated until early fall. We knew that when we bought a house we'd like to have a garden every summer, but the first year it was too late in the season. The summer of '09, my husband was off in the sandbox, and I didn't want one without him, so I held off again. Finally, this past summer we were able to plant a good sized garden.

We had 5 different types of modern and heirloom tomatoes, a few kinds of sweet and hot peppers, cucumbers, snow peas, lettuce, zucchini, eggplants, 2 kinds of onions, and we had a smaller separate plot for herbs.

It started out well, but we ran into so many problems that it ended a complete disaster in early fall. The problem was (still is) that we have a very dense clay soil. There had never been a garden here, so we had to remove unruly, weedy grass and then cultivate the soil. By hand. It SUCKED!

Another problem we had is the garden was planted adjacent to the side of the garage, so when it rained, our poor garden flooded. Every. Damn. Time. And it rained a LOT last summer in Ohio.

We dug trenches and salvaged what we could, but that clay is a worthy opponent.

Anyway, this spring we intend to redo the entire thing and make raised beds. I grew up having huge gardens, but never with raised beds, so it'll be another learning experience, which is fine. I'm a vegetarian so I would like to grow a diverse range of plants. I find myself missing the fresh, flavorful foods I got to enjoy last summer/fall. The stuff at the store just never tastes as good :)

So, in summation, if you have any advice on raised beds, gardening in general, or you'd like to suggest things for me to grow, I'd appreciate it!