Angela Law

animal lover, gardener, knitter, and gourmet cook
 
pets

tomato challenge

Have I ever mentioned how much Buster loves tomatoes? Let me count the ways…

Buster has always loved vegetables, but he has a special affinity for tomatoes. In fact, I taught him the “tomato” command wherein he will stop barking and sit for a tomato. Unfortunately, in seven years, this is the only thing I’ve taught him.

Recently Brian disputed how deep Buster’s love for tomatoes is and challenged me to a treat-off of Bil-Jac vs. tomato. And, it was a loaded challenge at that. Buster happens to love Brian more than anything (except tomatoes) and represented the Bil-Jac end of the challenge. I represented the tomato end. Buster stood between us and we held both treats in front of his nose, then we walked away in different directions in order to find out which treat he would follow. The result? The tomato, of course.

movies

prisoners

This was a long one but it was worth it (at least after reading the Wikipedia entry to fill in the parts I missed). It was a story of the abduction of two girls and the search to find them. Hugh Jackman played one of the fathers and the main investigator was played by Jake Gyllenhaal. Both were great in their roles. It was a pretty complex story, though. You really need to pay attention to the details to understand what’s going on (or read the Wikipedia article the next day).

My rating: 4/5

gardening & landscaping

the pond

I’ve finally had enough of the pond’s leaking stream (every year on at least one occasion, it develops a leak that is sometimes difficult to track down and fix), so it was removed yesterday. In addition, we will be rebuilding the waterfall using a waterfall box (since the water has to come from somewhere). While we’re at it, I got a new pressure filter that I’m looking forward to installing. My old filter had to be cleaned all of the time and it was a bit of a pain but the pressure filter works more like a pool filter in that you flip a switch and it cleans itself.

Once we get everything running, I’ll be able to restock the pond. For some unknown reason, all of the fish but one died last fall. We’re going to try the “feeder” fish route (from the pet store) first. If that works out, it will be quite a savings. If not, the one fish that’s in there won’t be hungry for a few days.

Once all of the above is done, I will need to address the plant situation–some plants are spreading all over the place, the stream area needs some vegetation, etc.

gardening & landscaping

gardentastic

The beautiful weekend was filled with garden activities. All of the plants (an oak tree, two blueberry bushes and a bundle of myrtle) I purchased at the county plant sale are now in the dirt. Additionally, I did some weeding in the garden and planted onions. I’m a little behind on my planting schedule due to the crappy weather, but I expect to get caught up this week, which is supposed to be pretty nice out. Not only that, but I went to a garden seminar on “extending the harvest” at the Sandyvale Greenhouse yesterday. At this point, there’s not much you can tell me about gardening that I don’t already know, but I did pick up a few tips and some other things to ponder, so it was well worth my time.

movies

st. vincent

We queued this one up for Family Movie Night last night. It was a hit all around. It starred Bill Murray, who played an old crotchety guy who was befriended by his new neighbor, a 10 year old boy. It also had a good supporting cast, including Naomi Watts and Melissa McCarthy. The movie started off on a humorous note, but then switch over to an inevitable dramedy at the end. Still, it was quite an enjoyable watch.

My rating: 4/5