Good News And Bad News

Good News And Bad News
Jim and Mary were both patients in a Mental Hospital. One day while they were walking past the hospital swimming pool, Jim suddenly jumped into the deep end. He sunk to the bottom and stayed there. Mary promptly jumped in to save him. She swam to the bottom and pulled Jim out. When the medical director became aware of Mary's heroic act he immediately ordered her to be discharged from the hospital, as he now considered her to be mentally stable.

When he went to tell Mary the news he said, "Mary, I have good news and bad news. The good news is you're being discharged because since you were able to jump in and save the life of another patient, I think you've regained your senses. The bad news is, Jim, the patient you saved, hung himself with his bathrobe belt in the bathroom. I am so sorry, but he's dead." Mary replied "He didn't hang himself, I put him there to dry."

Isn't Spring Wonderful?

This is so cool. My roses are in. 6 varieties. Mister Lincoln, Peace, Tournament of Roses, Midas Touch, Medallion and Lagerfield. 6 different colors and styles. All of these roses were bare root and so we are starting them almost from the beginning. It's hard to see, but they are all there. We did replant the Tournament of Roses variety since is started leaning over.

Last Saturday, Lindy and I made the soil. Added all of the ingredients (Compost, Vermiculite and Peat Moss). It doesn't look like much in these pictures, but the soil is very rich and should hold water well. I'll let you know how well in future posts. Our square foot garden is looking good, for us starters.

So far Lindy and I planted Tomato (Early Girl and Beef Master), Lettuce, Cucumber, Broccoli and Asparagus. Of course in the near future, we will have carrots and radishes and peppers. It looks like we will not have a Jacquier family favorite of Zuccinni. This may surprise many of you, but my kids make the best Zuccinni bread in the world and I will miss it.

We added some flowers to for color. The marigolds also help keep to tomoto bugs away, so 4 marigolds are planted at the base of each tomoto plant. WARNING TO PESTS: I try my best to use avoid using chemicals, but if you still infest my garden I WILL USE CHEMICALS.

As you can see, I enjoy my garden. It is fun to make things grow, and I'm learning more every

time I have one. But the best thing in the world to me is my family. No matter what happens in the world, politics, weather, work etc. Either going the way I want, or not, doesn't match up to how much my family means to me.

Lindy, Jim, Andrew, Matthew, Becky, Sarah and Kate, you are the garden of my heart. Isn't Spring wonderful?

The Mote

The original owner of this house did some peculiar things around this house.


1) Plants planted into the ground in their original plastic containers. This isn't a real problem except for the roots. There is no where for the roots to go. Because of this, we lost a beautiful palm tree during 1 of our Santa Ana wind days.


2) Chains around palm trees to keep them together. This isn't a real problem except when 1 of the palm trees gets blown over due to the wind (see #1) and you don't have a key for the lock.


3) Chain link fencing buried in the driveway. This isn't a real problem unless you have a new driveway put in, and the contractors who were to spend 3 hours demoing the driveway needed 3 days.

The most interesting is the mote. This is the name of a trench along the back wall running the length of the property. It's dimensions are 110' x 7'2" x 1' 6". That's about 1,183 square feet (Please check my math and let me know if I'm wrong).

The explanation that I got for the mote is simple, but I've never heard anyone reacting this way. In most cities in southern CA, the city and utilities have run underground pipes and overhead wires. These same cities and utility companies have a right of way to improve/fix/manage these same pipes and wires. To do this, it may be necessary to dig up the ground. The previous owner handled this by building a mote the entire length of the backyard so that if the city/utility needed access to their pipes/wires, they could reach them without digging up the grass. Well, in 40 years, they have yet to dig up the yard. They did an upgrade to some of the pipes, from the street side a couple of years ago, so it looks like the mote was unnecessary. Now the mote has 2 horseshoe rings in it for entertainment. If I was to add a fence to it, it would be a great dog run. Of course, then I would need to get dogs.

I don't want to sound like I'm complaining. This is a great house, and I love it. Just a few things I think are odd.

20 years at Assistance League for Lindy!

As of Jan. 2nd I have worked at Assistance League of Long Beach for 20 years. When I began, I never envisioned being here that long but for the most part it has been a great experience. It was great when the kids were young because I was home by the time they got home from school. Assistance League of Long Beach is a non profit organization and every year they have a new president, consequently, I get a new boss every year. When this year's president found out about my anniversary she and the treasurer took me out to a nice lunch at a well known place in Los Alamitos, the Shennahdoah. Had a very yummy chicken cashew croissant sandwich!

My First Post

Well here goes my first post. It is Jan. 3rd and we are officially empty nesters. Becky left today with Andrew for Provo. Matthew and Sarah left last Monday. Mighty quiet in this old house. Today we bought roses for the yard and a couple of dwarf orange trees. Maybe next year we will have fresh orange juice.