Monday, May 25, 2015
The best laid plans...patio edition
Every Memorial Day weekend we, like millions of Americans, get our patio/yard together for the season. I had the bright idea of doing everything on Friday.
"We'll do the cleaning while the Mr has lulls in teleworking!" (ha...they are rare)
"We'll do our herb/flower shopping at night so when the rest of the world is out on Saturday, we'll already be done!"
We drove to one nursery that had the best sale, sat in traffic only to find that they only had 3 herbs in the sale containers and all the rest were $1.00 more. Then the flats were $5 more than the sale I missed at my favorite nursery in the city. So I decided to grab the herbs that I use most instead of forcing 12 of them for a sale price that I would never use. Chives, oregano, thyme, rosemary and basil it is. I thought I'd try my hand at zucchini this year. I'm sure because it grows so well for everyone else, it'll tank for me but we'll see. I also got some jalapenos for one pot and because we just came from a vacation in the south, pimento peppers in the other so I can make my own pimento cheese when they ripen. At least that's the plan. I say every year I'm going to make a mondo batch of homemade pesto and before I know it, the basil has bolted and so have my plans.
The Mr unloaded the furniture to the yard while I swept up a winter and early spring's worth of crap from the tree from our outdoor rug. Then I was left with the pretty algae and stains so it was on with the gloves, a dump of Mr Clean and liberal watering so I could scrub away with the stiff brush. I burned 1100+ calories doing that chore. We got everything planted and by the nights end, we were pretty much done with the main stuff. We did have some side plants to get but those would wait until later.
Cue the next day, we're already out and I decide to go to a nursery up the street for a banana plant. I spy one so we grab that...and some portulacas...and I spied some star jasmine that aren't rated for my zone but I want to see how long they'll bloom anyway and it'll remind me of Charleston.
I told myself I would only spend $100 on the lanai this year.
I think I spent $230. *face palm*
So I was planting crap in pots well into the night Saturday. Then that left Sunday. Usually that is when we're doing stuff like the last of things that need cleaned up, planted, etc. Instead, it just left us with nothing to do and in a mood. I was bored. I was irritated because I know we need to de-clutter but it'll all basically fall on me because come on ladies, when you and your spouse are cleaning things out, how many things does he hold up and say "where do you want this?" or try to throw away something you know you need but he has no idea what it is. I also knew our cushion of videos for the other site was dwindling and we are almost in a do it or lose momentum situation. We're both in an "eff it" frame of mind on a lot of things so it's not good.
We decided to throw together a video to check something off the list. Then we were giving half assed answers to what kind of workout to do so we ended up doing a circuit since we only did one strength last week.
It was a classic struggle over what you want to do versus what you have to do.
I'll just warn you guys, my posts may get a little vinegary over the next few days as I'm going into an Aunt Flo visit after skipping one for vacation so that always doubles the bitch switch.
How was your holiday weekend?
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The lanai is beautiful and you'll have lots of fresh herbs and vegetables this summer. It sounds like money well spent to me.
ReplyDeleteI've been on-call all weekend and it's been ridiculously busy. I did manage to clean my upstairs bathroom and have the new rugs in. Also did 3 loads of laundry and just have 2 (possibly 3) loads left, so I'm happy about that. Today is grocery shopping and a meeting at noon. Then it's continuing to work on these schedules for work--a never ending process. Yech.
ReplyDeleteWhen you look at the finished product, you know it's worth the money and effort. We just have to make sure we use it whenever we can. That outdoor time is good for us!
ReplyDeleteIt's a beautiful outside space. It may have cost you more than you planned, but what would you give up to get it back under budget?
ReplyDeleteSaturday was my nephew's graduation party. There was extended family from out of state to the boy got to play with a bunch of kids well into the night, he had such a good time. It was nice for me too, getting caught up with people I haven't seen for a while.
Yesterday was chore day and some kids over for a while. Today... Zumba at 9 since its a holiday and the teacher wanted to get it done early in the day and then after that I have absolutely nothing planned. I'm giving myself this week to relax and then next week I have start tackling my summer projects.