More Monkey News and the Truth About My Socks.

I was woke up this morning by a very obviously upset Manly Man yelling, "What did you do?' I got up and found that Baby Monkey's face, neck, and shoulder were covered in blue ink. He had "bit" an ink cartridge during the night. Now tell me why you would get up in the middle of the night, take a pen apart, and bite the ink cartridge? WHY?WHY?WHY?WHY?

Yesterday, I found the giant sheet of bubble wrap in the bathtub. It was wet. Someone had taken a bath with it. Sister#2 says this makes sense as they may have been using it as a floatation devise. I asked her to raise them. She declined.

Later, my mother calls. She is in a big box store with Middle Monkey and one of the girl cousins. I think this is odd as it is the middle of the day. Apparently, she went to eat lunch with the two of them at school and somehow the little creatures talked her into taking them with her when she left. My mother, the woman who never fell for anything and never, I mean never ever, allowed us to miss school unless we were on our death bead, this woman signed those kids out of school early. Did hell freeze over?

Now I have a confession. I have three pairs of fuzzy socks. I love my fuzzy socks. I hate it when my feet are cold. I have been known to wear these fuzzy socks with gardening clogs while taking my boys to school. You should see how fast they can get out of the truck when I do. If socks are going to be outlawed, I am going to become a fuzzy sock wearing criminal. You won't take me alive. I will die with my socks on. There are three days left in the sock poll. So far Ourfriendben is losing quite badly. You could give him and hand and leave me to my life of crime or you could make an honest woman out of me and save the fuzzy socks.

May GBBD

This is one of my Fairy rosebushes. This one is being bullied by a Mutabalis that I planted to close to her. This little beauty still peeks out and blooms for me. The roses dry almost perfectly.

Above is my Confederate jasmine growing on the deck railing. This stuff smells like heaven. There is nothing more pleasant that sitting out on the deck in the evening listening to my little water fountain and smelling the scent of this vine.

Here is a French hollyhock just before Abby tramples it. My dog thought the camera was about her, not the stupid plant.

Now an undamaged French hollyhock in the front yard where the dog cannot get to it.

Thanks to Carol at May Dreams Garden for hosting Garden Bloggers Bloom Day each month.

Go STARS - not a gardening or monkey post.

Manly Man says, "Ozgood knows what it feels like to lose now. He likes it and will continue with it for the rest of the series." GO STARS.

The above statement is not a sentiment of the blog owner and was forced upon her by a very excited husband.

But really, GO STARS!!!!!!!!!

Wildflower of the Week

Indian Blanket - Gallardia pulchella.

This is my favorite legend yet.

There was a master weaver in a tribe of Plains Comanche. Everyone in the tribe had one of his creations and it was always a prized possession. He made blankets, robes, and mats.

The weaver realized his time on Earth was drawing to a close. As his last piece of work he began his death blanket. He gathered all the plants for dye and the wool to create his masterpiece. Several months later he completed the blanket. That evening, the weaver died in his sleep.

With great respect, the tribe placed the weaver on the burial platform wrapped in the blanket. When the Great Spirit came to take the weaver to heaven, he was amazed by the beauty of the blanket and the respect of the tribe for the weaver. As a gift to the people, the Great Spirit sends flowers in the colors of the beautiful blanket each spring.

Find this and more at The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center website.

Again, if you have a wildflower post or link. Leave me a message and I will link you. If no one plays, I will go out in the blogosphere and lurk until I find something. Don't make me lurk.

Home Run and a Sock Rebellion

Middle Monkey is playing his first season of baseball. Tonight he made his first home run. In fact, on his first hit during a game, he hit a home run. The crowd went wild. Oddly, Middle Monkey made the Hook Em' Horns sign as he crossed home. Coach L. picked up Middle Monkey in celebration. Middle Monkey is the happiest boy in the world.

We just hope Opa doesn't find out about the hand sign. Opa is an Aggie and will be hurt. Sister#2 will be pleased. She is a Longhorn. The family rivalry will begin again and it is not even football season yet. One time, at a brother's A&M graduation, Sister#2 and her family wore burnt orange shirts and gave the Hook Em' Horns sign instead of saying cheese during pictures with the graduate. It gets bad fast. Wisely, I went to UNT and can avoid all the insults and craziness.

Now I will completely change the subject. Earlier today I admitted that I hate to fold socks. This is all VP's fault with her meme. Anyway, many of my bloggy buddies have strong feelings about socks. I put up that poll over there on the right. If you have strong feelings about socks, vote. Do not bring up black socks or any socks for that matter worn with sandals. We will not go there. It is universally wrong. Long live the sock revolution.

If the spacing is messed up on this post, it is bloggers fault. I did everything I could to fix it.

It is Raining so Let's Play Tag

It seems like a long time ago Dee at Red Dirt Ramblings tagged me. Well it is raining outside and now is the perfect opportunity to play this book tag game as well as the meme VP at Veg Plotting graced me with. This is also an excellent reason for putting off using this rainy day to clean up my office and catch up on my sewing. Thanks ladies.

Okay, I will start with the book tag. Here are the rules.
Pick a book of at least 123 pages.
Open the book to the 123rd page.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post the next five sentences.

I bought the 'Southern Kitchen Garden." by William D Adams and Thomas R. Leroy while at the Master Gardener Convention a few weeks ago. Happily I was able to here My Leroy speak on the subject.

Here is what page 123 has to offer.

"While there are a number of ways to irrigate, low-volume systems like drip or microsprinkler are the most efficient way to apply water. Leaky tubing is another low-volume system that works well in the kitchen garden. If these systems are set up with a time clock, you can almost forget the the time-consuming drudgery of watering. Of course, it is good therapy to water the garden by hand occasionally, and the "hands-on" approach is best when you are planting seed or setting out transplants. It is most efficient to utilize water during periods of low temperature and light winds."

Next is VP's meme Here are the rules.
Link to the person who tagged you.
Post six random things about yourself.
Tag six people.
Let each person know they have been tagged by commenting on their blog.
Let the blogger who tagged you know that your entry is up.

1. I am not a morning person.
2. My goldfish think I am god.
3. I hate folding socks.
4. I have recently lost five pounds.
5. I have been told that I talk to myself while I garden. Really, I am just responding to the voices.
6. I post about the sisters all of the time, but I have just as many brothers.

I tag these victims/friends.

Joy at GardenJoy4Me
Matt and Jen at Our First Garden
Anna at Flower Garden Girl
Meme who does not blog so therefore must play in my comments.
James and Shala at Double Danger
Curmudgeon and Wing Nut at Weed Wackin Wenches

Feel free to play one, both, or neither of these games. This is just for fun. Don't play if you don't want to and no tag backs. I really need to clean my office and sew.

Okay, there were way to many very strong opinions about socks. Ourfriendben and Silence Dogood actually ranted. To set the record straight I set up a poll. Over there under my profile on the sidebar. Let your opinion about socks be known.

Garlic and Red Onion Harvest and Other Unrelated Stuff

I pulled up the garlic and red onions this evening. Tomorrow I will most likely have poison ivy. I didn't see the poison ivy until I was almost halfway through pulling the garlic. I used the Tecnu soap, hopefully it works. My yellow onions were harvested about three weeks ago. They made better bulbs than the red onions. Did exactly the same thing with both of them. I don't know what happened. I killed the weeds and poison ivy with boiling water. In the next few days I will plant cucumbers in place of the garlic and and peppers in place of the onions.

On a completely unrelated tangent, can anyone translate teenager? Here is one more. Does anyone know why a nine-year-old would put bubble wrap in the bathtub? VP tagged me last week and tomorrow I hope to play.