Angela Law

animal lover, gardener, knitter, and gourmet cook
 
gardening & landscaping, motorcycles

gardens and bikes

Given the beautiful weather we’ve been having this week, each night we’ve been going outside after supper. I’ve been doing gardening and yardwork. I find it very relaxing to do this type of work when I’m not on some kind of schedule to get things done. Typically, I don’t start on the yardwork until May. It’s not that there’s nothing to do before that, I just never get around to it until then. But, this year is different–there are no big spring projects on the schedule (unlike the past few years). So, I can pace myself a little better this year.

I guess I can thank the neighbors for this. It all started on Monday when they cut their grass. So, I put “cutting the grass” on Brian’s Monday evening agenda. While he was outside doing that, I did the trimming. The trimming led to pulling weeds and such from around my vegetable garden (which is well under way–garlic, onions, lettuce, and potatoes, so far).

Each night, Brian has also been working with Jake to help him ride a bike without training wheels. He’s going to be six next month, so it is time. He’s doing pretty well. I’m sure he’ll get things figured out by summer.

And, this evening we went to Cernic’s Suzuki and bought Jake a motorcycle helmet. Jake is all about motorcycles, let me tell you. He and Brian went out for a little ride around Westmont this evening. Here’s a picture of the happy couple.

I see many hours of quiet gardening in my future.

music

10,000 days

God bless the internet.

Brian downloaded the new Tool from the internet last night. The new album isn’t due out for a few more weeks, but we have it now! I’m sure Maynard’s panties are in a bunch if he’s found out that the album was leaked, but he should give it a rest. It’s hard to be patient when you have to wait this long between albums.

I gave it a few listens today. I haven’t been able to form an opinion yet as it takes me a few weeks of listening before I can form an opinion on a new Tool album, but I’m sure it’ll be good. There are some elements that remind me of the last album. I found this kind of surprising because all of their albums have been very different in my opinion. Another first impression is that it is not as heavy as I was expecting, but maybe my ears are just tuning in to the mellow parts. Time will tell.

holidays

happy easter

This morning I was planning on getting up at 8am, but Jake had other ideas. He awoke at 7am, came into our bedroom and said that the Easter Bunny hadn’t left him anything. Of course, he went no further than his bedroom before he made this determination. Brian told him to check the dining room. Jake did and found his basket and a bunch of hidden eggs. He reported back to us that indeed, the Easter Bunny had visited after all. And, he surmised that the Easter Bunny was probably afraid to go in his bedroom because Lizzy was sleeping in there. Makes sense to me.

A little while later, he yelled for Brian to come and check something out. It turns out that darned Easter Bunny left some candy wrappers and a box that contained a toy motorcycle (that was in Jake’s Easter basket) in our garbage can. So, apparently he assembled the basket here, too. Lazy rabbit!

After all of this excitement, we went to church. We’re getting smarter in our old age and actually got there when there were still seats left. After church we came home, got changed, and gathered up some stuff to take to my parent’s where we spent the afternoon eating too much food. And what do you do when you’ve spent the afternoon eating too much? Well, apparently you go home and eat some more. At least that’s what I did.

household stuff

grill

I bought new grates for our Weber grill a few weeks ago. When I tried to put them on, they wouldn’t fit (by approximately 1/4 inch). For whatever reason, the cook box had warped and that was the cause of the problem (I guess the old grates still fit because they were falling apart). So, I pulled out my warranty and found that the cook box had a lifetime warranty.

Since I hate dealing with customer service reps on the phone, Brian was nice enough to call them and report the problem. He had to email them photos of the warpage and a few hours later they called to say they’d be shipping us a new cook box. It arrived within a few days and has been sitting in our family room since. That is, until today. Today, Brian took apart the grill and installed the new box. It wasn’t as easy as that, but things went pretty well once he got all of the rusty fasteners loosened. I was hoping to give the grill its annual spring cleaning today, but didn’t get around to it, but at least the inside is ready to go.

I hate when stuff like this happens, but at least everything went as smoothly as it possibly could and we’re back in grilling shape (just in time for the nice weather).

As an aside, I replaced my stainless steel grates with porcelain enameled cast iron ones and I can’t believe what a difference it has made. I guess it is because cast iron holds heat so well, but I have never seen such beautiful grill marks on my food. Yes, grill marks can be beautiful.

movies

fear and loathing in las vegas

I probably shouldn’t even comment on this movie because I lost interest in it quickly and wasn’t paying much attention to it by the end, but here goes…In case you can’t tell, I didn’t really like this film. The acting was fine–you can’t go wrong with Johnny Depp or Benecio Del Toro (I like saying “Benecio Del Toro”, so I’ll say it again, “Benecio Del Toro”).

The movie was based off a book by Hunter S. Thompson. The book is supposed to be semi-autobiographical. Not that it really matters, I guess. There wasn’t really much of a plot. The two main characters were in a drug-induced haze for the entire length of the movie (two hours). Not much else happened. If that’s your idea of entertainment, you’re going to love this film.