November 18th

Its a beautiful day in the neighborhood.

(to steal a line from Mr. Rogers)

The deciduous trees are loosing their leaves.

There's not a cloud in the sky.

Ahhh.

South Louisiana in the fall and spring

are my favorite times of the year.

Never too cold or too hot.

But,

that can all change in a heartbeat.

Ya just never know.

So....

I'll take today as it is.

Practically perfect in every way.

(to steal another line,

this time from Mary Poppins)

Hope I don't have to pay royalties

to Disney.

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When the temperature went to the low '30's last week,

I thought I'd lose some of my Aloe plants.

Luckily for us, they didn't succumb.

This is the Mother Ship.

She is always making babies.

We've put about 8 or 9

into their own pots.

Grow babies, grow!

This is Elvis Parsley,

and his cousin...

Curley Parsley.

They still like the cooler weather.

I harvested some last month and put them into 

an ice tray with olive oil.

Then I freeze it to use later.

The olive oil never freezes hard

and doesn't damage the herbs.

Mint flower.

The flowers are edible too.

My succulents.

They are growing into beautiful plants.

Desi the Cuban Oregano.

He doesn't like low temperatures.

I don't want to prune the dead pieces yet

because they'll protect the ones under them.

Nugget and Pepper.

Pepper.

Nugget, Lucy and Ethel.

They are better trained than some dogs.

They always come when called,

they like to be held,

and

they always want to come inside the house.

Nope,

ain't happening.

They aren't house trained.

*****************************

The ongoing kitchen reno project.

The CEO had to replace some old wiring.

Glad that he found it because

it'll prevent an electrical fire in the future.

I like the idea of fixing up my 40 year old home,

but the reality is exhausting!

I watch some of those home improvement shows

but admittedly some are ridiculous

and

the home buyers are unrealistic.

They use several terms that grind my teeth!

Here's a few: 

1) Clean lines - Ok, I get it but some may prefer

an actual kitchen or dining room.

They act as if they need to be observant of all

areas of the home at once. How much time

do they really spend in the kitchen cooking?

All freakin' day?

Doubt that.

2) Open Concept - same deal. They need everything

open to see everything at once. 

Sight Lines, another pretentious word,

 means the same thing.

3) Complete Gut Job - Yeah, yeah, you don't like

something about your potential home and would 

like it completely changed. 

4) Turn Key - I don't know if this is completely

true because most would like something changed.

5) Man Cave, City Center, Outdated - these are also

useless and sometimes not based in the reality of

a budget.

So, watching the First World problems of young

professionals who make the rest of us feel 

like we live in hovels,

can be highly entertaining!

Just sayin'

And this one because I couldn't help myself...

Read this on Pinterest,

"HGTV be like....

I work part time at a daycare for goats

and my husband breeds salamanders.

Our all-in budget is

$1.3 million."

**********************************

So now that I've had another rant...

I'll just close with pleasant thoughts

(dunno about those ants and spiders...)