Peppered Thought – The Spice of Life

Enjoy the day off, but don’t forget to further the man’s dream.

King said in an interview that this photograph was taken as he tried to explain to his daughter Yolanda why she could not go to Funtown, a whites-only amusement park in Atlanta. King claims to have been tongue-tied when speaking to her. “One of the most painful experiences I have ever faced was to see her tears when I told her Funtown was closed to colored children, for I realized the first dark cloud of inferiority had floated into her little mental sky.”

Also, this day wouldn’t be complete for me without watching this hilarious, but still touching commentary by Chris Rock. I couldn’t embed the video, so click the link on the left side that says “Martin Luther Kind Comment”

(picture and quote via Niesypedia)

Although the title is a misnomer compared to the rest of the U.S. (even Florida had a cold spell while we were up to 76 in some parts of the state), I’ve been in a rut of sad, wintry grey-blahs.

So I will be taking five to remind myself that some fun spring things are right around the corner.

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5. Spring Training – lawn seats, seeing th A’s with The Beau, beer, and most importantly BALLPARK PRETZELS!

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 4. Hiking, playing darts on the patio and being outside in general.

3. Making plans for adventures

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2. My semi-SAD ending. Hard to think of someone living in a place that has sunshine 300 days out of the year could have any sort of winter depression seems obvious, but it happens every year around november, and it goes away by march. It can’t just be holiday stress.

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1. Planning things to do with friends. Game Nights, scavenger hunts, camping and road trips, photo shoots and mini-movies. You name it, I’m planning it for my friends. With fantastic invitation flyers to go with it.

Unless you refuse to watch news or read newspapers, you know about the devastating earthquake (and numerous aftershocks) that hit Haiti yesterday. If you, like me, were watching the news and felt you had to do something, you felt a little bereft. They tell you about how bad it is, but leave you wondering the best way to help. If you try to just google it, you can easily become overwhelmed, so I thought it might be easier to list a few links. With straightforward and helpful information, these links can help you to the road of aid. To make it even simpler, you can also text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to American Red Cross relief for Haiti.

Haiti’s Presidential Palace before (photo credit)

and after…

• CNN’s list of organizations
• Chris Sacca’s list of 6 ways you can help
• Esquire’s plea for the masses: food and blankets won’t help right now, just send money.
• Operation Nice says donate to the International Response Fund.

• Mules don’t like you laughing at them.

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• Russian tattoos have intangible power. Kind of like sent-i-mental value.
• Always say ‘bless you’ when somebody sneezes. They might just be the Angel of Death.
• Don’t f*** with Mother Nature.
• Just because New Orleans is a party town, doesn’t mean you won’t get murdered.

• Michael Ironside doesn’t have a lot of luck with appendages.
• Insects don’t have politics. They’re brutal.

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• Constantly talking isn’t necessarily communicating. (That one stung because it rings true for me.)
• Friendships can be run through hell and back if they’re meant to be. Oh, and nobody tosses a dwarf.
• There’s always a time and an age for Thriller dancing. It’s now.

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• Not all people are in touch with the darker sides of life. But they can have multiple personalities that are.
• Guitar cases are the best defense.

In the last couple of months living at my place, I wanted to add a garden to a spot that was just a bare, weedy scorched piece of earth. But, I also wanted to do it cheap since we weren’t going to be living there much longer. So, I wracked my brain for some easy things to do. The biggest cost was the labor-but since it was just me, it only cost me time.

The first thing to do was to get rid of all of the weeds and crabgrass. That is no small task. Crabgrass is very good at rooting itself in hard ground. It was no small feat. We will fast forward through the swears and sweat, to a clear dirt bed. This is what I put into it:

Steer manure $.97
Garden soil bale $7.50
Aloe FREE
Marble chips $3.50
Aptenia FREE

Less than $12 for a beautiful starter garden!!

I put the manure on first, then watered. The ground beneath it is very malnutritioned in regards to minerals and such, so spreading the manure on the bottom helps the present soil while adding a strong base for the other soil. I put the whole soil bale on top, even though it was more that what was needed to cover it. I wanted to have a kind of raised garden in terms of soil. Something that plants could be put into rather than the hard and uncooperative soil below.

I like to propagate new plants from old ones, and I have learned that Aptenia, or Ice Plants, are very hardy and great to do this with, as well as jade and aloe. A note though, jade is more of a container plant, it likes small spaces so it doesn’t do too well in open ground. Stick to the other two for a garden like this.

The aloe in the aloe-only bed had started to become so overgrown it was choking itself brown. So I dug and separated several stems and replanted them in the new garden. Now they have all gone back to being green as could be! I placed the marble chips in a little pathway kind of pattern to give it a little visual oomph. It’s too small to actually walk around in it, but the white against the black soil really makes it pop. I like it, at least.

I was pleased as punch that I was able to create a little space of life where there was nothing before. I can’t wait to create another – with VEGGIES!- in my new place!!

Since I have been in a tizzy the last month (moving, holidays, etc.), I completely forgot to post a Take-Five last week! So, for this week, things I am thankful for already in this new year:

5. This song, which I listened to way too much. No, really, I am forbidden to play it in the house for a while now; The Beau might hurl the cd out the window!

photo credit from my favorite PB post

4. Quotes, Fire-starting blogs and Helpful pushes. I always need a little visual support when I decide to do something, and these things have helped me start my new year on a journey of personal…clean-uppiness.

photo by liz wolfe

3. Liz Wolfe showing me graciousness. I found her page on FB and told her she was an inspiration to people’s imaginations. She took the time to answer back, which gave her a huge gold star in my book.

forgetful gentleman cards. le swoon.

2. Letter writing. Now that I have (pretty much) unpacked all my stuff, I can get back into some of my habits. The big two i’m excited for are letter-writing and reading. With the library only a bike-ride away that will be easily caught up. Letter writing is a bit tougher. I am ready to rise to the challenge of turning everything off to focus on one person though. Anyone want a letter?

1. Possibility. The year is fresh and filled with so many different choices and pathways laid out. I know it’s just an arbitrary date on a calendar, but I like to have deadlines and start dates (that i like to think of as guidelines) , and the new year fills me to the brim with goals and freedom. A carte blanche I can doodle on at my leisure.