The Big Freeze

Sooooo, it's time for a little update from ye old garden. First of all, the weather in Montana is so bipolar, you can never trust it for a SECOND! Two weeks ago, it was snowing all day. Yesterday it was 90 degrees.

The sad part is, that when it snowed, that night it got below freezing. That means my garden died that night :( Here are pictures of the massacre:

Sad, sad zuchinni:

My poooooor green peppers. I only ended up getting 3 of them.


And lastly, my pumpkin plants. As you can see, my pumpkins did eventually start to grow, but not very big.

Here are a few pictures from my other pumpkins that grew:



As soon as it freezes, all of the leaves pretty much get all soggy looking and limp. This is the end of the road for my garden :(

In the beginning I planted Corn, zucchni, peas, green beans, cucumber, cantaloupe, green peppers, carrots, broccoli, and pumpkins. What I got out of the garden was: about 30 ears of corn, 6 zucchini, LOTS of peas, a handful of green beans, 3 green peppers, no cucumber, no cantaloupe, LOTS of carrots, no broccoli, and five very small and very green pumpkins.

Conclusion: The hail storm back in June took out a few things and set back the rest of my plants. I would have had about 100 ears of corn if it was given longer to grow, as well as about 20 green peppers. My zucchini plants were too big and I had to cut them back so they would actually produce. Same with the pumpkins. The peas and carrots ROCKED! The bugs took out my broccoli.

Sooooo, I have a lot of thinking to do for next year. But overall, for the first year of my garden being so big I think I did ok! I can't wait for next year to fix/change some things, and grow different stuff!!!

Kenny Chesney - The Boys of Fall

Here is an amazing song from Kenny Chesney's new album, Hemingway's Whiskey. This is the perfect video and song to sum up fall football.

Me vs. Them

I have yet another edition of my "Me vs. Them" section. This time I am focusing on my favorite fall accessory. Mine is the scarf. I LOVE LOVE LOVE putting a cute scarf with a sometimes boring outfit. It just makes the whole outfit come alive!


However, in Eastern MT their favorite fall accessories are a bit different....

They usually enjoy the silk scarf, which is more for keeping warm than actually looking cute :)

Kindred Spirits

Once in awhile, we meet someone who we feel we have known for ages within minutes of talking to them. I have only experienced this a couple of times in my life, but I had another experience with it while I was in Helena for my work conferences.

The last night of the conference, my boss took a coworker and I out to dinner at the Brewhouse in Helena. She also invited another friend of hers who lives halfway across the state. He showed up right after the appetizer and man, he was a talker! This guy Dan is probably in his late 50's early 60's. The minute he sat down and started talking, I was amazed! This guy told such a good story and I swear I could listen to him tell stories all night!

His family is from Ireland, and so is mine. One of his best friends happened to be my middle school counselor. He was one of the leaders at a summer camp I went to in 8th grade. He used to work for the same company that I did, and has worked with some of the same clients that I did when I was fresh out of college several years ago. One of his other best friends is my old boss.

I find it fascinating that our paths had crossed several times, we knew several of the same people all over the state of Montana and had never met each other.

The group of us ended up listening to him tell stories for several more hours; about working with the high security people in Montana State Prison, about his family in Ireland, his wife, family and workplace. We were at the restaurant for a total of 4 hours! The time flew by so fast just listening to his fascinating memories.

I left there knowing that this older man, who could be my grandfather, was a kindred spirit. He's not going to be the kind that I keep in touch with weekly, or even monthly. I may only see him once a year at these annual conferences. We had so much in common between our families and work, I felt so strongly that he was a kindred spirit. I guess I thought it was a little odd at first, because when I had these experiences in the past, it was with someone my own age, and usually a female. Then we became BFF's and still talk. This one was strange and strikingly different, since he was an older man.

If none of you have ever felt this, I hope that you get to experience it unexpectedly, out of the blue like I did. It's an amazing experience that is hard to put down in words.

And with that, Happy Saturday!!!

Flip Off Friday!

I know, I know, I've been MIA since last Saturday, so I apologize to the people who actually do look forward to reading my blog :) Things have settled down a bit for me now, so you'll be hearing from me more often!

As my fun tradition continues, here is this week's installment of Flip Off Fridays!

1: To the stupid flies in my house that seem to multiply faster than I can smack them with the fly-swatter...Flip Off!

2: To the ridiculously expensive grocery bill that I had today, because I haven't been grocery shopping in about a month, Flip Off!

3: To my house that needs to be cleaned since I haven't done that for awhile, Flip Off!

4: To the 3 rock chips I got in my windshield last weekend, FLIP OFF! That totally sucks! At $30 a pop, that's not gonna be cheap to fix!

5: To the weather that hasn't been warm enough to finish harvesting our wheat crop, Flip Off! You would start to freak out too if you had $600,000 worth of wheat sitting on the ground! Yikes!

Ok, ok, enough complaining for one week. Hope you all have a GREAT weekend, and hopefully I'll get more things posted this weekend!!!

Flip Off Friday-Saturday Edition

I was working for about 13 hours yesterday, and didn't have time to get to my computer to do my new weekly edition of Flip Off Friday. So, here is the Saturday Edition of my column.

First and foremost....FLIP OFF to the snowstorm that came through yesterday. YES, I said SNOW STORM. Fortunately, none of it stuck to the ground, but it was cold enough to destroy what I had left of my garden. Pictures to come of that mess tomorrow.

Flip Off to the September weather who thinks it needs to be 34 degrees in the middle of the day. So much for summer!

Flip Off to the person who say behind me in my work conference all day on Wednesday smacking her gum! One of my biggest pet peeves!

Flip Off to the woman running the conference who let presenters get off task, and then decided we couldn't have a lunch break because we were too far behind our agenda. UGH! Not cool!

Flip Off to my hair because it's just being dumb this week.

Flip Off for having to work 10 days in a row...I'm on day 6 right now! It's not shift work, but I have 2 conferences scheduled one right after the other, and a fundraiser for work today, the one day I have inbetween my conferences.

Flip Off to long drives! I had to travel 8 hours to one conference on Tuesday. Came back Friday. Leave again Sunday for another 8 hour (one way!) drive to a different conference!

Ok, I think that's enough for one day....whew, I feel relieved!

Skeptics....

Alright, for all of you SKEPTICS out there who didn't believe me about the Simply Slender wrap I mentioned HERE but have I got news for you!!!

After I told my mother-in-law about this amazing new discovery, she immediately booked two appointments this week. Well, her results were PHENOMENAL! After the first appointment she lost a total of 4 inches all over her body! 1.5 inches from her waist, 1.5 from her thighs and 1 inch off of her arms!!! After her second appointment today, she lost another 4 inches! She didn't give me specifics of waist/thighs/arms, but that's a total of 8 inches lost all over her body!!!

All of this for about $100.

When I get off of my current 10-day working spree, I'm definitely booking a couple of appointments!

State Capital

I am currently on a work trip to Helena, capital of the great state of Montana. I have been here a couple of times before, and every time I visit I get a sense of historic nostalgia. There is just something about being in the capital city that makes me feel patriotic, prideful, and I get the sudden urge to become a history buff. This is where our state was created. This is where laws are created. And this is the place where all those dirty hippies from Missoula come to lobby for things like marijuana and environmental crap.

Aaaannnnyyyywaaaaayyyssss....I found some beautiful pictures of Helena (pronounced Hell-en-uh, NOT Hell-ee-na) that I thought I would share:


This is our capital building. It was built in 1901, with East and West Wings being added on between 1909 and 1912. The most notable feature is the dome on top, which is made completely of copper on the outside. Here is the inside picture of the dome:

Each of the four circles in the corners represent the people in Montana at the time the capital was built: the Indian, the gold miner, the explorer, and the COWBOY!

Here is the next piece of beautiful architecture Helena offers: Cathedral of Saint Helena

Construction began in 1908, and it was not completed until 1914. There are 59 stained glass windows, which were made in Bavaria. Since then, it has undergone numerous renovations and repairs.

Lastly, another historic place in Helena is Last Chance Gulch. It was basically the main street of Helena back in the day. Here's a picture I found from the later 1800's:


Today it is the pedestrian mall at the center of Helena's downtown district, hosting farmer's markets, street festivals, shopping, dining and everything fun!


I just find it absolutely intriguing that a town has lived on long enough, that it's legacy is still continuing today.

And that's all for today's history lesson kids!

New Tradition!

One of the blogs I follow, Designer Wife, does "Flip Off Fridays." I decided I'm going to continue her tradition...this is a chance to free myself from all of the stuff that aggravated me during the week, and vent to my followers! So here goes....

1. To my side-swept bangs that have been utterly annoying all week, FLIP OFF! It's definitely time for a haircut.

2. To the pile of laundry that's been glaring at me all week, FLIP OFF! I WILL conquer you this weekend!

3. To a colleague who calls himself a professional, yet he's creating so much drama he could compete with a hormonal teenager, FLIP OFF! Seriously, you're older than I am, you have more experience in the working world, and yet I still can keep my dignity and get my point across in a professional manner. Maybe if you did YOUR JOB instead of pointing out others' flaws to take the heat off of you, people might like you more! Huh, weird how that works.

4. To the other "professional" person who seems to think they need to spout off their opinion on how wrong everyone else is, a BIG OL' FLIP OFF TO YOU! I got news for ya buddy...Opinions are like assholes. Everyone has them, and everyone thinks everyone else's stinks!

5. To the month of September, who apparently is bi-polar, FLIP OFF! As far as I'm concerned, it's still summer! Act that way! Enough of this windy/cloudy/rainy nonsense! I'm not done wearing my cute open-toed shoes!


And now I breathe a sigh of relief......aaaaahhhhhhhh. That feels much better!!!

See, it really does happen!

A little while ago I talked about the Wagon Train that happens every year here in Eastern Montana. Well, now I have evidence! This is a picture of the Wagon Train from this year!


It really is like Oregon Trail!

Success!

Here is the garden update for 2010:

My corn is coming in strong. I have about a week before I start picking some of the ears!

My broccoli was brutally attacked by some bugs...it's safe to say that it's not going to come back.
Sadly, my pumpkin vines are growing like crazy, but once the pumpkins get to be the size of a golf ball, they die! My soil is pretty bad, and I think they need more space. So next year, I'm hoping to give them their own pumpkin patch, along with LOTS of Miracle Grow!

I got about a pound of green beans, and I have 4 green bell peppers growing!
My most successful garden veggie happens to be:



Those are some pretty good-looking carrots!!!

Ummmmm.....

Why did NO ONE tell me about this before?!?!?! And if any of your friends have done this and haven't told you about it, you could consider at least defriending them on Facebook.

It's called Simply Slender Body Wrap. It's a detoxifying wrap that helps take 6-8 INCHES off of you all over!

Here's the description, given to me by my massage therapist:

This luxurious system is formulated to cleanse the body of toxins that can collect due to such factors as aging, improper diet, lack of exercise, smoking and stress, while reducing inches and firming and toning the skin. (Who doesn't have one of these? Seriously!)

I will work with you to determine where you want to lose the unwanted inches. You can begin by slenderizing your problem areas such as thighs, hips, abdomen, arms, etc. or you may choose to wrap your entire body. You decide where the inches need to come off.

Simply Slender Body Wraps are not a dehydration or water process wrap. The inches you lose will not return, unless you gain weight or put on new inches. In fact, I strongly recommend you to drink plenty of water before and after the wrap process.

After the wrap-It takes about 10 days fro your skin to fully adapt to the tissue reduction. You can assist the process by avoiding toxic foods such as sugar, salt, caffeine, carbonated beverages and alcohol for several days following the wrap, in addition to drinking 8-10 glasses of water daily. I recommend not using any cream or lotion and only taking lukewarm showers during these days, keeping the solution in the pores to continue extracting toxins. After 3 days, you should take a hot shower, open your pores, and flush the toxins out.

How often can you wrap? This is a safe and effective process; you can do it as often as you wish. For example, you may want to slim down for a special occasion, and do several wraps in one day. For best long-term inch loss results, I recommend a series of 4-6 wraps about 3 days apart. If you are losing weight, a continuing series will show results and keep tightening the skin to your new shape.
Basically my massage therapist said it goes like this: She measures around the areas you want wrapped. You can do from your knees to just under your breasts, or the whole body. After she covers you in the wraps that are coated with the detoxifying solution, you get put into a black suit. Then you jump on a gazelle for an hour. Due to the movement, it gets your pores to open up and absorb the detox solution. She said the first time people do it, they are literally DRIPPING with toxins off of them about halfway through. She even has to put a tarp on the floor below the gazelle to catch all of the stuff coming off of you.

And the good part? It's $50 for a partial-wrap! So basically I can lose 6-8 inches all over my body, for $50??? SOLD!

I plan on trying this in the near future, so I'll give an update to everyone on how it went!!!

Me vs. Them

Here's my next installment of Me vs. Them....the ponytail. This really doesn't need any explaining!

If my hair was long enough, I would do this messy, lower ponytail with wispy bangs.


And then here is something you may typically find in Eastern MT:

Sad.

Words of Wisdom

I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

There is great need for a Sarcasm font.

How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

Was learning cursive really necessary?

Map Quest really needs to start their directions on # 5. I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

Bad decisions make good stories.

You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.

Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blu Ray? I don't want to have to restart my collection...again.

I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report that I swear I did not make any changes to.

"Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this - ever.

I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Damn it!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voice mail. What did you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?

I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.


I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Bud Light than Kay.

I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.

Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the heck was going on when I first saw it.

I would rather try to carry 10 over-loaded plastic bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.


I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear or understand a word they said?

I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!

Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

Is it just me or do high school kids get dumber & dumber every year?

There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate bicyclists.

Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I'd bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time!