As Seen on TV

I don’t know whether marketing is getting better or if I’m just watching more TV.

Two weeks ago I found myself in a lonely hotel room spellbound by the Air Supply Infomercial showcasing the Soft Rock collection of 10 CDs. They played part of songs such as Lonesome Loser, All Out Of Love, One More Night, Total Eclipse of the Heart, Sailing and Kokomo, ……. It was close to 11pm and I was hooked. It was as if I were back in my basement with my blue and gold roller skates on, skating around the basement pole and around the fireplace listening to B104. (And no, it wasn't pole dancing.) I had never seen Air Supply before. I’ve heard of them, yes, but never sat in their living room talking about music. Do they live together as suggested by the filming of the Infomercial? I needed to go to bed, but those famous words were running through my head, “If you call in the next two minutes, we’ll throw in the Shipping and Handling for free AND the 11th CD.” It took all I had not to reach for the credit card and the phone. Interestingly enough, they never gave the price for the collection if you wanted to keep it after the 30 day trial period. (I have since researched and it is $150.) http://www.timelife.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=9572

Last week, again I was in front of the TV before bed time and saw this really amazing product. It’s called Roll and Grow.
http://www.asseenontv.com/prod-pages/roll-n-grow.html

You just lay this biodegradable green mat on the soil, water it, and VOILA, a few weeks later you’ve got yourself a beautiful flower garden. The mat contains over 1000 seeds of different types, and can be cut to size. I’m watching this commercial, remembering that I had spent the weekend pulling up my ivy patch and needed to plant something there before the Homeowner’s Association comes after me.

Well for $19.95 plus &6.95 for S&H, I thought, what the heck???? Today I ordered my first Roll and Grow. It’s going to be a strip, 10’ x 10” and I’m going to place it over my ex-ivy garden beside the house. It won’t be quite big enough for the whole area, but I wanted to plant some mums in that area too so I have fall foliage. I figured it was worth a shot and if it works well, I’ll buy some more. I’ll let you know because I’m sure you are just as curious as I.

Buck!

Look out, here he comes!

I'm so excited to introduce Buck.

Rob and Ann decided to foster a Great Dane and were excited to hear that this past Thursday, they would get to pick up Buck. Buck is a fawn-colored (go figure), small (relatively) male Great Dane. He doesn't have a lick of manners and isn't yet potty trained, even though he is about 3 years old. Buck is very skinny right now (recovering from Heart Worm) and has a bad scar on his back end.

With that said, Buck is the cutest pup and is very sweet. He doesn't lick or drool much. He's a bit nervous right now as he adjusts to his surroundings, but very gentle, although he did almost knock me over twice. I adore him and had a wonderful time meeting him yesterday. Sean and I are considering adopting him if he learns manners and we feel that he needs us. Although I bet Rob and Ann will adopt him if all works out. He is going to be a great pet. I waited as patiently as possible all week to meet him and I was not disappointed. I even let Buck take me for a walk.

Spring Cleaning

I've started an industrious goal of Spring cleaning early this year. I have a large list of items I want to complete before June 1 this year. I chose June 1 because by that time I'll be ready to enjoy the summer and I want to spend my weekends at the pool and in the woods, and not organizing the closets.

Sean and I have a large closet in our room, a fairly large closet in bedroom 2, a small closet in the office, a small closet in the guest room and a coat closet. We have stuff in EVERY closet and therefore I'm going through everything in preparation for our May yard sale. I'm going to be washing windows, shredding paper, setting up a new file cabinet and lots more. I know this doesn't sound exciting, but if I can where I want to be with a few tough-love weekends, I'll be very happy and ready to enjoy the summer, and hopefully on my new deck.

I've been busy and out of touch, but hopefully I'll have more free time soon! I've also been travelling quite a bit for work. Today we painted and install new closet doors for our coat closet and I pulled up my ivy garden. Next weekend hopefully I'll plant new flowers in the ivy's place!

Snow falling

I was lucky to grow up on 10 acres of land. This luxury seems to be quite rare in recent times. When I bought my townhome in downtown suburbia, I knew I was destined to a life with sidewalks, the noise of 495, the neighbor's washing machine, and other sounds and sights of over development. Wasn't quite what I had in mind when I was 13, but alas, these are the times.

Although I love my house and actually like the area, I was a bit sad that my children wouldn't have the benefit of land, their own basketball hoop, enough space for a legitimate game of softball, and most importantly, a horse!

I feel somewhat better about this now though. Several weeks ago, it snowed for several hours. It was a beautiful snowfall, and since we had no where to go, we could relax and watch the snow pile up on the deck. After a while I indulged myself and went outside. I bent down to pick up a ball of snow and then instinct took over. I began to roll the snow until it formed a much bigger ball. I'll spare you the long-winded description, but in about 10 minutes I had myself a snowman, with Hershey kisses for eyes, a carrot nose and a twiggy smile! It wasn't the best snowman, but he was mine.

Afterwards I took a walk in the woods behind my house. I knew a park was there but hadn't yet explored it. I was mostly looking for a hill where I know the kids go sledding. At one point, I stopped to listen to the snow falling in the trees and I realized, I could not hear 495. And I could not see a single house or structure. I was delighted that in the middle of the woods, I was suddenly not in suburbia, but the middle of nowhere where I could pretend to get lost and survive my way through the wilderness trying to find my way back home. (OK, although I enjoyed this game when I was a child, I did get lost a bit on this day and never found the exact way out that I came into the woods, and did make several circles trying to find it!)

I also discovered that the stream behind the place is quite wide at parts. I felt rejuvenated and could picture my children at 2, on Sean's back as we went on a hike, at 9 playing tag with their friends, at 14 trying to find privacy on the cell phone, at 16 tasting their first beer and cigarette, at ... well hold on, after that experience the woods are off limits.


It was a great walk, a beautiful snowy day and it made me feel good that not all is lost.