I JUST ... Spent the weekend with Mom

My annual Memorial Day Weekend trip to Mom’s was great!  Usually we eat ourselves stupid and really don’t spend much time at the house – just out and about spending money.  This year I asked Mom to make a honey-do list for me for the house.  And she did.  We did get out of the house once – we went to see Dark Shadows in the theater.  It was pretty good – a fairly tame Tim Burton movie, but as far as adaptations of soap operas go, it was entertaining.  It had all the soap opera drama and the Tim Burton dark comedy that Johnny Depp does so well.  It was Michelle Pfieffer’s second time working with Tim Burton too and she was great (her first time was Cat Woman in the second Batman movie - BEST CAT WOMAN EVER).  We had dinner with Nana Sue - a mainstay of the trip, no matter when or why I come down, we always have dinner with her!  We also went over to Bronco’s house and hung out with his humans, Chuck and Donna.  Mom brought a sampler case of Kona Brewing Company’s beer and I really liked a dark beer that was in the pack – I don’t normally drink dark beers.  Koko Brown was definitely a good beer – a bummer it is a seasonal, but I drank of the ones in the case (over the weekend) and it went well with pretty much everything we had – bbq, tofu, and hardwork. 

The dogs had a blast with my Mom’s dogs, Boo and Linda.  Annie was basically ignored by Linda, she only had eyes for Oakleigh and was constantly mouthing her ears – freak dog.  Poor O’s ears were either soaking wet with slobber or crusty and gross all weekend long.  They did make themselves home on the furniture – surprise, surprise and Mom had a few extra coffee buddies in the mornings while I slept in. 

I only got photos from the big project, the others I was just flying through so I didn’t pick up the camera.  The big project was planting an herb garden for her on her patio.  The bed has been used as a rose garden and as a bed for other plants,

but Mom wanted something she could use, so she picked herbs.  The list included: curly parsley, chocolatemint, spearmint, marjoram, hot & spicy oregano, Italian oregano, uprightrosemary, golden sage, French tarragon, thyme, 6 types of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basil: cinnamon basil, Thai basil, spicy globe basil, Genovese basil, Corsican basil and sweet basil, and she added two flowers to the bed: Shasta Daisies and Cinnamon RedHot Dianthus. 

I had to turn the dirt over,

mix in the amendments she bought for it (four bags or Miracle Grow soil),

smooth it out,

spread out ground cloth (the morning glories grow everywhere, in the matter of seconds), then I had her direct me where to put all the plants,

I cut holes in the ground cloth and planted the herbs, we placed the sprinklers,

then spread mulch on top of it all

and put her hanging brackets and knick-knacks back in the bed for character. 

Done!...with the bed… 

I also mowed her lawns with a self-propelled mower that doesn’t move itself, I had blisters on both hands from the job and will from now on totally appreciate her more when she says she mowed her lawns!  I was struggling and I am an ox compared to her, so when she mows it herself, she is SuperWoman – love you Mom! 

Wish I could mow her lawn for her every time after that experience.  I cut a roll of chicken wire in half – lengthwise – for her so she cordon off her veggie beds and keep Linda “The Destroyer” out of the beds. 

I installed a barrier behind the herb garden to keep The Destroyer out of that bed. 

Mom sprayed all the weeds around the house and planted her veggies – tomatoes, peppers, cantaloupe and squash. 

We trimmed the front yard – rose bushes, palm trees and crazy ferns.  I pulled out a storage shelf on her patio and two rats jumped out.  One ran one way into the side yard, followed by the dogs and the other ran in the opposite direction, along the house behind the dog houses to be found (and killed) by O later.  We cleaned the patio off and left the storage shelf pulled out so she could get an irrigation specialist out to fix the damage the rats did to the wiring for her sprinkler system.  Then I went home!  Spent three full days with her and they were all worth it – I wish she were closer so I could do things like that for her more often!