May 31, 2009

As you can see, no photo montage this week as the bathroom remains unfinished and nothing from the garden is quite ready for a photo opportunity. I was thinking of using another shot of our orchid in full bloom but there is one last set of petals still to come out. So just get text this week.

June is just around the corner meaning summer is officially here, even if the temperatures and weather is fighting the transition. We had a very raining and cool May - the other night on the news they mentioned that we were 20 degrees the usual daily temperatures. This has delayed our trees leaving out and certainly the vegetables coming in the garden. However, we are slowly getting to the point were we don't need the heat on in the house.

We both had a fairly routine week with no real notable events. Jo was in town for all but one day with just a day trip to the NY office. I was here for the week and spent a portion of the time preparing for a talk I need to deliver at a technical symposium we are holding this week. Evenings were filled with our usual mix of effort at delaying the aging process and fighting off our ever slowing metabolism - i.e., exercising. We did get out for a really nice 10 mile run yesterday morning to begin building our mileage base for the Philadelphia distance run in September.

The garden got a good watering this last week so hopefully all those seeds we planted are beginning to sprout - nothing above ground as yet. We spent yesterday pulling weeds which is the other major gardening chore for the remainder of the summer. We get an amazing amount of grass and other random weeds growing - not sure why grass grows in the garden which is in the woods, especially when I can't get it to fill in the bare spots in the lawn. Got to love entropy and random variation. Not much planned today, catch up on some reading and getting to go back to work - which requires an ever increasing amount of mental concentration and persuasion.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at Mari's wedding next weekend.

May 23, 2009

Memorial Day at last, it has been a long time since our last day off of work. It is amazing how much one single day off can really make you excited. Our Memorial Day weekend started off with perfect weather for the start of the summer season. We were 75 degrees with a crystal blue sky yesterday. Unfortunately, as the day progressed we built in some cloud cover as we are expecting rain today and tomorrow. Apparently mostly passing showers but enough to put a damper on picnic plans. We took advantage of yesterday's heat and sun and planted everything into our garden. We are now done with the planting and into the weeding and praying for a good crop stage. As you can see from the photos that our peas, strawberries and garlic continues to grow - although the proof is always in the yield. Our potatoes - a perennially good crop for us - are up as well, we just couldn't figure out how to take a photo that included them as well. And yes, that is me harvesting our salad for dinner.

As you might guess since this week's photo montage is of the garden and not the shower, we are still waiting for the glass door to be delivered. No word at all on that front and I must confess it is frustrating to have the shower all ready to go, just need some way to stop the water from spraying all over the bathroom. And yes, I have considered showering in it without the door.

Work was busy for both of us this week with a lot of meetings. Jo was in St Louis and had some time with her boss on the way out on the corporate jet. Apparently Jo's job is about to expand as her boss would like her to take on another group. Given that Jo already felt too busy to cover everything this wasn't immediately accepted as good news. But as the week wore on, she is starting already to see how she can redesign her role to adjust. What a trooper. In my role we continue to work to deliver a more robust early pipeline for Pfizer and are very hopeful for some of the programs underway. Of course, the proof is in approved drugs which takes another 5-7 years.

For the rest of weekend, we actually don't have too much planned. Are thinking of getting Kentucky Fried chicken for dinner tonight as this is always a great taste treat and makes me think of summer. Will probably try to get all the various chores out of the way today so that the rest of weekend can be all fun. Jo is off for a massage and some clothes shopping today as she hasn't had the time recently for any of these relaxing activities - although how anyone could find clothes shopping relaxing is beyond me (sorry Mom). I would be perfectly happy if clothes magically showed up in my closet all washed, detagged, and ready to wear.

Hope you have a great Memorial Day weekend - remember our soldiers.

May 16, 2009

As is usual for our spring weather, we are experiencing week after week of rainy weather. While it does make everything nice and green it would be ideal to have some balance - a little more sunshine now and save some of the rain for June and July so the lawn doesn't go all brown. A fairly quiet week. The top news - the shower is all done except for the glass door which will take a week to complete. Unfortunately it can't be ordered until the tile work is all done to ensure it is the exact size so now we wait for that to be installed. It is looking good and hopefully, we'll be able to post the before and after photos next weekend. Although, it is giving Jo and I more together time in the morning as I'm using her bathroom. On the more depressing front, we are once again having problems with our tenants in Madison. The are behind of the rent and therefore we have decided not to re-rent to them after their lease is up. Of course, this means we have to find someone else willing to rent the house - but that is what we have a property management company for.

Joann was home more than she was gone although she did encounter some travel challenges this week. As you can see from last week's post, she was supposed to go to Montreal for a day trip. Well she got to Montreal OK, but the return flight was delayed and then cancelled. Meaning she got to enjoy a Montreal airport hotel without a suitcase. She managed it, but came home a tired puppy. Her only other trip was a day trip to the NY office which went off smoothly. This coming week she is off to St Louis for a day trip on the corporate jet - with her boss. Such the uppity-up executive she has become. One nice consequence is that she needs to be in Trenton, NJ (that's where the corporate jet is stored) early Monday AM so to make it easier and to catch up with an old friend she will be staying overnight Sunday with our PA friends Holly and Paul. Holly recently retired from Merck (as in we are downsizing your position would you like to call it retirement instead?). As Holly is the same age as Joann, you can imagine we are somewhat jealous.

Yesterday we saw the new Star Trek movie at an afternoon matinee. Great special effects and enough of a plot to keep you interested between the almost non-stop action. Plus they manage to weave in stories from many of the other movies and the TV show. Today we tackled the outdoor chores as more rain is predicted for tomorrow. So the garden got weeded and we harvested our first crop of the year, lettuce (check the photos - one of our lettuce crops and the bounty from our yard - asparagus, rhubarb, and the aforementioned lettuce). We don't count the meager number of asparagus spears that managed to claw their way up. While we technically have four beds of asparagus we can't seem to make it grow more than a few spears at a time. Unlike our Hangman Hill friends - check out the link to their blog below - asparagus and the Eisenhart's just isn't happening. Grass got mowed and I played around with my new attachment for my power washer - a 24 foot extender pole so that I don't have to be climbing ladders to spray wash the house.

Usual week planned ahead, we are both looking forward to the Memorial Day weekend. Amazing what one extra day off can do. Have a nice week.

May 10, 2009

Mother's Day - so let me start out right with a Happy Mother's Day to Mom! As I was thinking about what picture to use in the post this week - especially since Joann wasn't anywhere exotic this week - the one that seemed appropriate was a shot of our lilacs that started blooming this week, just in time for Mother's Day. When we were kids we would often cut lilac blooms for Mother's Day since they always bloomed at that point in Wheaton. So since I can't be in New Mexico with lilacs - I'll let the web do it for me.

For the rest of the week, nothing too spectacular. We continued to have heavy rain all week, I think we must have gotten 6 inches this week (yes for those out west, that is 6 inches in one week - not over the entire year) which made getting our usual runs in somewhat challenging. Joann was in New York Wednesday and Thursday and had her annual performance review with her boss - Jo is doing wonderfully, so no worries there. Although there some discussion on loading some more work on to her shoulders - just what she needs. For me, just the usual mix of stuff.

Our bathroom renovation continues to progress and hopefully there will be finished photos of it next week - keep your fingers crossed, you know how contractors can stall out near the finish line. We didn't have much planned for the weekend, we had a bunch of chores to run around and accomplish yesterday - purchase flowers for the front porch pots, Target run for cleaning supplies, bank to get Jo's ATM card fixed (she used in Turkey and that apparently killed it for some reason), and groceries so we can eat this week. Last night we went to see "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee", a Broadway musical about, yep you guessed it, a spelling bee. It was on stage in New London at our local theater. It was very well done and is actually hilarious - especially the definitions and sentences they use to describe the words. The other fun piece is that they have several audience members participate as spellers. One of the selected audience members stole the show when he managed to spell a word that was supposed to be the one that got him off the stage. Had the whole audience and cast laughing. Today, we finally have some sunshine so we'll tackle some outside items today - mowing the foot high grass (again for those in the west, that is a green plant substance that covers the ground here where moisture naturally falls out of the sky), plant another pea crop, and clean up the front flower beds.

Then it is off to another week of work. Joann is heading to Montreal tomorrow for a day trip - early flight in and late flight out to - to meet her Canadian team. I'm here, as usual. Since I need all the Mom brownie points possible, let me sign off with another - HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY.

May 2, 2009

As promised last week, our photo montage today is from Istanbul, Turkey. Joann had a good trip there this week leaving on Sunday and coming back home on Thursday. She was fortunate to have part of one day to tour the city and really enjoyed the architecture, especially the many mosques - all of which appeared to be built on a massive scale. The food was interesting although, and this is the really amazing thing, if you know Jo, she found the desserts to be too sweet. The highlight of her culinary events was getting bread that came looking like a small pillow - which was so cool that it was worth having three photos in this week. The top picture is the Blue Mosque which Jo walked around but not in - she toured the Hagia Sophia instead (Catholic church turned mosque turned museum). The lower picture is the Topkapi Palace, the former home of the sultans. Apparently, very sprawling which is hard to depict well in a single picture.

Once again, I got to tour exciting New London and Groton while my lovely spouse was off jet-setting around the world. Not that this is a bad thing, but as I re-read some of the recent posts to this blog it does make my life seem a wee bit lacking in pizazz. I did finish a book this week and moved tile from the basement to the 2nd floor - more on that in a minute - but that was pretty much the excitement this week. Does seem I should be finding and doing something closer to the edge of excitement than all that. Oh well, on the book - that I finished - " The Fire" by Katherine Neville who authored "The Eight". This was meant as a sequel, and like many sequels, didn't really have the same pacing and excitement. Seemed a disappointing effort and it was apparent she wasn't exactly sure how to end it. On the tile movement, we are finally getting around to redoing the shower in the hallway bathroom and expect the work to start this week. Should be a pretty quick job as we are just removing the fiberglass shower insert and replacing it with a tiled shower.

Last night we had theater tickets with Sheri and Bruno at the Granite Theater in Westerly, RI. Saw Moonlight and Magnolias which revolves around the making of Gone with the Wind. Very entertaining, fast paced, and pretty well acted. This was preceded with dinner - Italian in case you were keeping track - but the cocktails were apparently pretty strong as Joann and Sheri were struggling to stay awake through the production. That's it for this week. Have a fun week and stay tuned for some upcoming garden photos as the peas, onions, and lettuce continues to plug along.