Angela Law

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

garden time

I was a little behind this year due to the rainy weather, but I finally finished getting my garden in today (vegetables, herbs, and flowers are all in the ground). Now, the never ending cycle of weeding can commence.

We still have to plant flowers at the office, but that shouldn’t take too long. We already have the plants, so the hard part is done. Hopefully we can squeeze that in this weekend. If not, I’ll have to do it one day when I’m at work.

I still have many, many things to do outside at the house. It will likely take up the rest of the summer because just as soon as you think you’re done with something, it’s time to do it again. I do love summer, though. Memorial Day might just be my favorite holiday.

motorcycles

bye-bye, bike

I tried selling my bike last summer, but didn’t get any takers. Granted, I didn’t put it up for sale until mid-summer, so that was probably the reason. Anyway, I listed it nice and early this year and sold it already!

I initially put it on craigslist and had a few inquiries, but none very serious. I figured it would be worth a shot to try Facebook Marketplace out. For whatever reason, I was only getting out of state inquiries through there, so I didn’t give them much credence, but some guy from Michigan actually came here on Wednesday and bought it! And, he bought it so that his dog can ride with him. How awesome is that?

Even though I haven’t been riding, it was bittersweet. Brian and I had some fun times riding motorcycles and I always loved taking Lizzy out for a ride. And, two seasons ago, we took the sidecar off and Jake learned how to ride on it. It was a nice-looking bike and the sidecar made it even more special. That said, I’ve had it for 9 years (and a different bike for a few years before that), so it wasn’t a temporary phase. Time to move on, though.

volunteering

weight pulling

Last week when I was volunteering at the shelter, the director, Jess, asked me if I’d be interested in taking Cinnamon to a 6 week weight pulling class in Latrobe, since I have a good rapport with the dog. Since it’s my goal for 2019 to see her get adopted, I jumped at the opportunity.

It seems the shelter was part a pet expo recently as was the guy who teaches the class. He has been following Cinnamon’s story and offered her a free spot in his upcoming class. He feels it might help her with some of her issues.

Today was the first class. Jess also attended which was a good thing as Cinnamon was a bit of a handful. Still, I thought things went pretty well and Cinnamon was tired at the end of the class. Mission accomplished.

You might be thinking, “what is weight pulling?” Well, it’s a competitive sport where dogs pull carts of bricks. It’s a bit controversial because some dog fighters use weight pulling to condition their dogs. And, others think that dogs should not be made to do the activity. But since we’re not getting into this to be competitive, I don’t really see the harm in it.

Cinnamon isn’t the only one who will be sleeping soundly tonight. The class was only an hour, but I’m exhausted.

celebrations, me

goings on

A lot has been happening, not the least of which are my suspect Ancestry.com results. They’re trying to tell me I’m 38% French. Can you believe it?!? I also got 36% Italian, 9% Eastern European/Russian, 5% German, and a bunch of other minor random stuff. Jake took his test before I did and got 17% French and we were blaming it on Brian’s family until I got my results. The weird thing is that my Mom came back as 98% Italian and 2% French and my Dad doesn’t have any French, so something is not right. They will occasionally go back and update the results, so I’ll be interested to hear the final verdict on this situation.

Yesterday, my niece graduated from college. To celebrate, my in-laws took everyone to Asiago’s for dinner. I don’t like eating out all that much, but I do like that restaurant.

We had everyone over today for a Mother’s Day/Jake’s birthday celebration. So, I’ve been cooking all weekend. Things turned out nice, but I didn’t have a firm headcount so there was a lot of extra food (because one thing I will never be accused of is not having enough food). But that’s ok because I could use a break from cooking for a few days.

gardening & landscaping

fall leaves

We have a couple of oak trees in our front yard that always drop their leaves super late so there’s never an opportunity to rake them in the fall. I’ve been chipping away at them ever since the weather improved, and I’m happy to say that I was able to finish that task this evening. So, now I can move on to more pressing tasks such as the perpetual weeding that needs done all summer. Sigh.

On a positive note, I got a new weed whacker this week and boy is it making that task easier. The old one was electric and the guard was always falling off, so it was a bit of a pain to use. The new one runs on a rechargeable battery and made quick work of whacking weeds this evening.