One of the strangest things for me to learn in my adult life has been the concept of landscaping designs.  Having grown up in apartment buildings all of my life, I had never had the responsibility or opportunity to learn about plants or yard care.

So, when I moved out on my own into a duplex that had grass, and a yard, I just didn’t know what to do.  I rushed down to the library, and searched for as many lantana care guides as I could find - at least I knew that those were the types of plants we had in our yard.

Now, many years later, I have a better grasp on gardening and I now am able to come up with my own landscaping design ideas.

Not bad for a kid who didn’t know how to mow the grass or water plants, right?

It may be Memorial Day but I’m working, not playing. I’m not feeling like a martyr. Not exactly. I’m dreading tonight.

I work in front of a window and our neighbors across the street are loud and sometimes obnoxious, so I hear things. Most are not fit for polite society.

But I digress. I don’t know if I’ve blogged here about this, but my sister is little-by-little fixing up Mom’s house. She had a window company install replacement windows downstairs. Well,  today I’m feeling jealous of my own mother.

See, if I had vinyl windows up here, I could shut out the noise emanating from the house across the street.  That would include exploding firecrackers that are threatening to send me into premature incontinence. But as it is, this old wooden window next to me is stuck wide open. I hope it doesn’t rain tonight. But if it does, maybe that will curtail the firecrackers. Oh! There goes another one. Oops. Gotta go…

My grandma had someone come out and talk to her about a water softener system for her home. She signed up for one of those car giveaways at the mall and for her free chance at winning the show, she got to listen to an in home presentation from the company sponsoring the prize. The company was a water filtration and softener maker.

Anyway, some of what they said was pretty interesting. Apparently hard water is caused by too many minerals like calcium and stuff being left in the water after it goes though the water treatment plant. This causes all kinds of trouble over time not the least of which is causing appliances to not work well or to corrode into a state of total stoppage.

The sales rep told her that getting soft water will help with cleaning costs because it will take much less of everything to get clean. He said the dishes will dry clear both in the dishwasher and by hand. The clothing will be brighter and not seem faded over time and that it would take less shampoo to get her hair to look and feel clean.

I don’t know how much that all is true but she sure was convinced. I hope she didn’t get rooked by a sharp fast talking sales man.

Is there are three people living in our house who have sleep apnea and we seem to have a room full of CPAP equipment.  It is not that I’m complaining because I know the stuff is important to the health of my family, but I would really like to have the room for something other than a medical storage facility.

Really wondered if we needed a CPAP machine for each of them, but then I decided that obviously it was important.  Since we got them my husband and children are doing much better and I’m glad that we found something that could help them out and help them to breathe a little bit easier.

My youngest child, Ally, just got a brand-new sleep apnea machine and I have seen tremendous improvements in her attitude and personality since she seems to be getting a much better sleep than she used to.  I don’t know if my children will outgrow it but I do hope, if they don’t, but they take their machines with them when they move out.

After we added a deck to our home, I convinced my husband it was time to have his coworkers over. When he agreed and they accepted — even his boss — I got a little intimidated. I didn’t know these people well enough to be certain how important their military rank was to them off duty.

I was six months pregnant, so we divided up the preparations. I took care of the food; he took care of the outside. That included a thorough deck cleaning. The new brand of deck cleaner I’d bought took care of all the deck stains, and everything looked beautiful.

For something a little different, I prepared a Puerto Rican feast. The pinchos (beef shish kabobs) , rice and beans, plátanos (fried green plantain) and sliced avocado were all a hit. Everyone was delighted with the food, with the ambience and all our guests were gracious. One of the wives gave me this advice. “Take care of yourself for two years after your pregnancy. It takes that long for your body to return to normal.” And she was right.

My brother moved out of town a little while ago and we offered to store his stuff in our garage.  It was a great idea at the time, but now we have purchased a second vehicle and we need the space.

We tried to move some of his stuff into our house, but there just isn’t any room.  So, we will have to rent a self storage unit, and move the stuff there.

I have never had to rent self storage units in the past, so I would have to wing it.  I called around to see if I could figure out if I would be smarter to rent a self storage unit, or rent a garage.

After making some phone calls, it was clear that I would be smarter off renting an insured self storage unit.

It took awhile for us to pack up his furniture and move it out of the garage, but when we were done, there was room for my new car.  I just hope he doesn’t mind when he gets back - he can reimburse me for the costs associated with the storage unit.

I was looking around my house the other day at what we may need to do for a project this summer. In doing this, I realized many things that I did not really pay any attention to before. I noticed that the walls definitely needed a fresh coat of paint and I noticed that a lot of my furniture was in really bad shape. Particularly, the office furniture.

I am not really that into computers, so I do not send a lot of time in the office, but my husband and my son both spend a good deal of time in there and I never realized how badly we needed some new home office furniture. Most of what is in there is threadbare and I can’t imagine that it is too comfortable to sit at for any length of time.

I thought that even if we got a couple of new office chairs that would be enough. I was wondering how my son could sit there for hours at a time and not have to take pain relievers when he was finished. But, somehow he managed. He was, however, not at all disappointed when I suggested some new chairs.

For those of you who are my friends out there, I invite you to come over and see my new, modern furniture. 

I can thank my new surroundings to my wife - she was fed up with our old furniture and she thought that some contemporary furniture would spice up our place.  You see, she was ashamed with our old ratty furniture.  Sure, it wasn’t the nicest stuff in the world, and it looked like we bought it at the Sally Ann, but it was comfortable.

The one thing I was not sad to see go was our bed.  We had it for over ten years, and you would usually wake up with a sore back - which kind of defeats the purpose of sleeping.  The new bed and contemporary bedroom furniture she picked out has made a big difference.  I don’t mind going into the bedroom now, and when you wake up in the morning, you feel very refreshed - almost like you have slept longer than you did.

I think I will go read the paper on my new recliner… too bad I can’t sit in it all day - I have work to do.