Keep Calm

Finally

Spurs 3, Manchester United 2.  First win for Spurs at United in 22 years.  I need a beer..

Dear Arsenal...Lasagna, It's What's for Dinner!!

Final game of the Premier League season tomorrow at 7 am PDT.  Our beloved Tottenham Hotspur take on Fulham at home as we sit in fourth place.  Arsenal sit right above us in third.  A win by us combined with anything other then a win by Arsenal put us third.  I expect both of you will be watching!!  And to all the Arsenal players out there, I understand lasagna is a fantastic pregame meal.  Eat up, lads!

Also, it appears Fox is putting a game on nearly every channel it has on cable television (although, surprisingly not on FOX).  Spurs will be on Fox Soccer Channel, but the following channels will be showing games, as well:

• ESPN2 (not Fox) -  Manchester City v. Queens Park Rangers
• FX - Sunderland v. Manchester United
• Speed Network - Chelsea v. Blackburn Rovers
• Fuel TV - Swansea v. Liverpool
• FSN - West Brom v. Arsenal (come on Baggies, win your last one for Hodgson!)
• Fox Soccer - Spurs v. Fulham
• Fox Soccer Plus - Stoke v. Bolton
• FoxSoccer.com - Everton v. Newcastle
• Fox Soccer 2go - Norwich v. Aston Villa
• Fox Soccer 2go - Wigan v. Wolverhampton

And, for those of you outside the U.S., yes, we have a lot of freaking TV stations.

P.S.  Also, Premier League executives, the final matches on Mother's Day?  Really???  Throw a brother a bone!!  Do you know how much of my Father's Day I now have to trade away to get the game on in the morning.  Crikey!  Yes, I felt an Australian saying was appropriate.

P.P.S.  For those of you unfamiliar with the lasagna reference, several years ago going into the final game Spurs sat fourth and Arsenal fifth.  Spurs lost, Arsenal won resulting in a flip-flopping of positions knocking us out of Champions League qualification.  It was blamed on bad lasagna the night before, although that's probably a load of hooey and in ten years it will be said we were attacked by ninja's, I'm sure.  So, let's just get that ball rolling.  You heard it here first:

Headline for May 8, 2006:

"Spurs Attacked by Ninjas!  Lose Fourth to Arsenal!"  Story at 11!

The Next Time You Think Something is Too Hard...

...or will take too long, or your team has just lost their 900th game in a row and dropped to fifth behind Newcastle watch this.  Then, shut up about it.  And do it.  Or deal with it.  If this guy can do this, you sure as hell can pull some weeds or silently curse Harry Redknapp and the FA for firing Capello.

Yea, he's using his feet.

Thanks to Kari at The Village Carpenter for this one.

Style: Cufflinks

Note to self:  clean lamp next time

Are there some things in life that just bring you joy?  These are some of those for me.  

I don't wear cufflinks every day, but when I do I make sure they count.  I don't own too many pairs, although that may be a good idea for a future post, but the one's I own I wear.  Several inherited from my grandfather, a pair that was a gift from my father-in-law and a few I've purchased myself.  These beauties fall into the last category.  E-bay.  Great place.

Today we play Wigan, so I'm wearing the lucky links, as we seem to need some help after the theft we had at Manchester City.  I haven't kept track of our won/loss record while wearing these, but no matter.  I'm sure the lads feel empowered with me wearing them.

As I stated previously, I don't wear cufflinks every day.  Not even every other day.  You see, I live in the suburbs.  And work in the suburbs.  I'm happy if my co-worker's are wearing a laundered shirt...and shoes.  But, I choose to try.  So today, at 11:45 am Pacific Standard Time (tune in), I'll be wearing my cuff links.

When Spurs Lose, I Booze

Oy, that's a little blurry.  Sorry about that.  Anyway, heartbreaking loss this morning to Manchester City.  We came from two down only for the dirtiest player in the world to score a last minute penalty.  A player who shouldn't even have been on the field after stomping Scott Parker.  Anyway, I felt black and tans were in order.  Especially with my nifty brolly.  That's it in the front.

Anyway, first goes in the Bass followed by the Guinness.  The Guinness gets poured through the brolly that sits on top of the glass.  When done...perfection.

Hope both of you enjoyed the weekend.  I did.  Minus two hours.

My Ticket Quest Update

For the two of you concerned about these matters, do not fear.  I have gotten me hands on three tickets for Spurs versus Chelsea at White Hart Lane, granted from what I'm pretty sure is the Irish mafia.  And, no, the family doesn't mind eating macaroni and cheese for the next three year's, and I've convinced my son that college is overrated, despite what some people say.  Hey, he gets to come to the game.  No whining.

Dear Tottenham Hotspur,

Can you make it any more freaking difficult for an American to buy tickets to one game!?!?!?!?  Granted, I understand there are about 5,894,506 people on the waiting list for season seats, but sweet Jesus, they live there!  There are other games they can go to!  I'll only be there for Chelsea at home and Norwich away!  I don't even know where Norwich is!!!  Alright, I'm done.  Maybe someone can recommend a good pub to go to.

Listen Up, Wankers!!!

Honestly, quit setting crap on fire over there!!  You're now seriously about to disrupt my Saturday morning of coffee drinking and enjoying our beloved Tottenham Hotspur beat the bejeezus out of Everton!  I've been looking forward to this since May, so don't fuck it up!!

Don't make me open this, damn it!

Go Watch TV!!!!!!

I am usually not one to promote the idiot box, but your beloved Tottenham Hotspur and AC Milan start in a little over half an hour.  You should be glued to your televisions!  Come on you Spurs!


Update:  We did it!  0-0 against Milan and the lads are through to the quarterfinals!  It couldn't have been done without the support from both of you, of course!

Seeds: Sweet Jesus, What Have I Gotten Myself Into?

I received my first two seed catalogs in the last week.  First two catalogs...ever.  One from Burpee and one from Johnny's Seeds.  There are really 13 types of carrots?  Really?  Not just "orange"?  Oy, what have I embarked into?  Well, we've made our first attempts.

First tray.  Ever.  There are 8 sections.  Three of the sections contain catmint (27 plants, hopefully), two sections of Snapdragons (18 plants), one of English Daisy (9 plants), one of Forget-Me-Knots (9 plants) and one of Foxgloves (9 plants).

The catmint goes back to our plan post for the east side of the backyard.  (Look, a link!!)  I need 14 plants, so I roughly doubled it with the 27.  We have plenty of spots should any survive above 14.

The remainder of the plants will go by the front door and around the small vegetable garden we're putting in.  I'm drawing the plan up for that one, and should have that in a near future post.

Those of you who know these things are probably saying, "but, Turling, those plants all have different germination times."  Yes, they do.  I planned for that.  Because, I'm now a planner.  Didn't you see the binder?  I'm a planner now.  It's actually come in handy, as I had no idea how many types of seeds I planted until I went and consulted the journal.  I then noticed I had written everything down and typed in that I had planted a total of seven sections.  But, as you can see from the picture, I planted eight.  Thank God for markers.  Let's just go with I "plan".

Anyway, germination.  The Catmint and Forget-Me-Knot packages state they germinate in 10-14 days.  The others in 7-14 days.  So, in my infinite wisdom, I planted those two three days sooner then the others.  That way, they should all start about the same time and I can move them to sun at the same time.

Well, slap my ass and call me Fannie, if those damn catmint didn't pop up after four days.  And, the English Daisies...two!  I'm sure there's some, "the English are always early" joke, but I don't know what it is.  Make up your own.  I'm bitter about my seeds timing, right now.

The tray I purchased from the local garden center came with a plastic dome.  You can sort of see it propped up in the back of the picture.  It said to crack the dome open when the first seedlings (that's what they're called, right?) appear.  So, that's where we're at.  After the other pop up, I'll move them to our south facing bay window in the kitchen, and trim all but the strongest looking from each section while removing the plastic dome and leaving them uncovered.  I don't think I'm going to wait more than a couple of days, though.  It seems to me that they will grow just fine without the dome in the sun, so I don't want to lose the one's that have started waiting on the others.  We'll see how that goes.  I'll write it all down in the journal.  Well, 7/8's of it, at least.

SPURS UPDATE:  Big win against Sunderland yesterday at the Stadium of Light.  Three wins in a row now, even with a mass of injuries and we're back in fourth pending the outcome of Chelsea's game Monday.  Champion's League Round of 16 Tuesday against AC Milan in Italy.  I'll be taking the day off of work in order to enjoy the game from the comfort of my couch.  Now, go plant something.

I'm Breaking Down and Writing Down

And here it is:  the journal.  Yep, we need one, like you wouldn't believe.

My wife picked me up a big ol' notebook.  I'm breaking the journal up into a few sections:  watering, fertilizing and planting for now.  I think I may start a section just for vegetables when we get to that point.

I've discussed previously that I have the attention span/memory of a cucumber.  That has been solidified by the experiences of the past year.  I have a tendency to forget the last time I watered the potted plants (the "watering" section) and when I last fertilized (the "fertilize" section).  I always think I watered yesterday and fertilized the previous weekend.  Then, the plants get droopy and I realize I fertilized last in February...2008.  So, I'll be tracking each of those in the appropriate section.

The third section, planting, is where I'll be tracking a few things.  First, obviously, is what has been planted.  What goes with that is that most dreaded of four letter words, the "Plan"

Over the past year, we have gone to the nursery, we have shopped, we have purchased plants, we have even put them in the ground.  But, we're finding that once you get to the nursery, it's overwhelming.  We end up doing one of two things, either buying nothing, saying we are going to go home and create a plan we never do, or we have a bizarre mixture of plants that we're not really sure what watering, light or feeding requirements they have.  So, we're going to pick plants prior to going and stick to the plan.  More on that this week.

Also, I'm going to create a yearly calendar, which I'll try and figure out how to put on the sidebar or a separate page of this site with my limited technical abilities.  I always seem to be a couple months ahead or behind in whatever I'm planning on doing, such as pruning, splitting perennials or reseeding the lawn.  That should at least give me an idea of what to plan for in the coming months.

In the meantime, I'm going to go grab myself a pint, as our beloved Tottenham Hotspur were absolutely demolished this morning by Fulham in the 4th round of the FA Cup, 4-0.  We are still sitting fifth, though, in the league and I think we can still qualify for Champion's League (4th or better).  Twenty four hours left in the transfer window, and no talk of a central defender or realistic option at striker.  We'll see how that goes.

Giving Thanks

This past weekend was Thanksgiving here in the United States.  A time to get together with family and friends and enjoy their company along with good food and drink.  Unfortunately, it's also the start of the sickening shopping season, but that's a different story for another time.

This past weekend we spent Thanksgiving day with my father-in-law, whom we don't get to see nearly enough.  We had a fantastic time with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, my wife's soon to be world famous yams and my father-in-law's cranberry sauce that I really, really need to get the recipe for.

After that, we drove up to Big Bear, which is a mountain town where my wife's family has a cabin.  It's about 75 miles from where we live; however, we don't take advantage of it nearly enough.  We're going to work on changing that.  We spent the weekend in the snow, as there was a storm that passed through a few days prior.  We also got another snow on Saturday night, but not enough to snow us in and keep me from work on Monday.  Damn.  Maybe next time.

I do believe that one of the best parts of going to the mountains is that the cabin doesn't have a television.  Well, it does, but only plays dvd's and vhs tapes (remember what those are?).  It allows you to spend more time with everyone.  And, that's what's important.  Because, when all is said and done, you won't remember the meal so much as who you spent it with and the value of that time spent.  That's what I'm thankful for most...my lovely wife who puts up with my crap...my two beautiful children who are young enough to think of my crap as normal...and the time we got to spend together.

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.

P.S.  Not to fear, we'll be back to gardening posts soon.  As I'm sure you all figured, the bitch is back.  Mounds on the far side of the planter where the previous vermin was extinguished.  We'll be breaking out the new contraption, keeping ol' medieval in the wings just in case.  In the meantime, since it's winter (yes, yes, yes, I live in California, but we still get winter!!  See the snow!?!?!?!) and there is not time for gardening except on weekends, we'll be updating on more indoor activities.  We have a nice floor going down at the moment that I just KNOW you're both on pins and needles to see.

P.P.S (P.S.S?) Whatever.  Spurs 2, Liverpool 1 over the weekend.  Another spectacular comeback.  I know I had no television, but my lovely wife has a phone thing that gets used for everything except what a phone is actually used for.  Followed the victory on that.  Spectacular.  Fifth place.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone here in the United States.  Happy Thursday to everyone else.

I have not vanished, changed my name and appearance to stay one step ahead of Johnny Law (although that is always a possibility).  Nor, am I dead.

I'm just pondering what I want this blog to be.  Or become.  Or go back to.  I'm not sure.  I've been putting a lot of thought into it and, eventually, I just need to say "screw it" and start down a path and see where it leads.  Soon.  In the meantime, enjoy the links to other blogs written by people who actually blog.  In the meantime, I'm going to grab another pint (it's noon!!) and bask in the glory of our beloved Tottenham Hotspur advancing to the knockout stages of Champion's League!  Come on you Spurs!

And, I Know When It's Done...

...when?

These are the pot onions.  No, not onions you smoke, onions I'm growing in a pot.  For Christ's sake, pay attention!

The largest one in the top picture is about two inches across.  However, from reading other blogs, I'm finding out size doesn't matter.  Although, my wife....anyway, back to the onions.

How in the name of all that is good and holy do I know when they're done?  I looked for one of those little plastic pop-ups like you get in a turkey, but no luck.  Apparently, these are the "gardener" variety, where you're suppose to know what you're doing, as opposed to the "greenhorn" variety, where you're utterly clueless.  I think the greenery is suppose to die back, but then I read about bolting, which I still have no idea what in the hell that is.  It has something to do with tastes great, less filling tastes crappy.  I'm pretty sure lightning might be involved.

Then there is a whole drying process, which is another post, I'm sure.

P.S.  My previous post on my trip to see Spurs play in San Jose is by far my most popular.  Thanks to the newsgroups that posted the link.  But never fear, faithful few, we're all about the plants here.  With a little Spurs thrown in for comfort.

Finally. Game Day.

Yesterday was the day.  It has felt like years since I first purchased the tickets to see our beloved Tottenham Hotspur take on the San Jose Earthquakes.  The day started, yesterday, with a 4 am wake up call, followed by a six hour drive north to San Jose.  The game was originally scheduled for 7 pm, but was picked up by ESPN (as you all know, since ALL of you watched it) and had to be moved up to 1 pm.  Apparently, we weren't the only peeved Spurs fans trying to check into the hotel early.  We navigated our way to the stadium with plenty of time to spare.

Starting line ups.  It's not a very big stadium, so yes we were that close.  We sat in the section reserved for Spurs fans, but it honestly seemed like we took up half the stadium.  Attendance was 10,700, which apparently was an all time record for San Jose.

Unfortunately, we decided to bring our small camera, with two kids and all the attachments they require, we thought it would be safer.  Needless to say, the pictures could have been better.

During the game, these chaps below stood the whole time and sang.  It was all fine until about the 80th minute, when a few drunken San Jose supporters realized their team wasn't going to get slaughtered and began singing back.  I have no idea what they said, but our boys started in on their sisters.  It was all downhill the last ten minutes.

The game ended 0-0.  We had one disallowed goal for an offside call.  Spurs were short about half their starting line up, as World Cup players were allowed to skip the trip.  San Jose had their full squad as they have, well, no one that played in the World Cup.

The fun really began, though, afterwards.  While at dinner, I overheard someone say, "aren't those soccer players outside?" (were in America, deal with the word)  I turned around to see Robbie Keane, Jermaine Jenus, Tom Huddlestone and Alan Hutton.  After throwing the baby across the table, she's rubbery still, she was fine, I sprinted outside as they were getting a cab.  Just in time to say, "Robbie Keane!" and have him turn around, shake my hand and say, "how you doin', mate?"  Then, off they went in a cab.  But wait, it gets better.

We decided to head to the Fairmont Hotel for a drink only to find that was the hotel Spurs were staying in.  See, this drunken problem is paying off finally.  We walk into the bar and the first person I see is...head coach Harry Redknapp.  My son (yes, I brought my son to the bar, shut up) quickly grabbed the pad of paper from his "Spurs Starter Pak" he got at the game, and I walked up to Harry and said, "Coach Redknapp?"  He then started in as if I was a long lost relative with the how are ya's.  We asked for an autograph, and my son got his first Spurs autograph.  As we were looking at his autograph, Harry walked over and struck up a conversation with my father-in-law.  But wait, it gets better.

Next up, Younes Kaboul.  We spotted him in the lobby and my son got his second autograph.  He seemed like a nice guy, as I was completely taken aback when he was asking where we from and asking about the area.  I didn't expect a conversation!  But wait, it gets better.

Next up, Vedran Corluka, Luka Modric and Niko Kranjcar!  There in that order below.   Our three Croatians.  Hopefully, you realized the short one is my son and not Croatian.  I'm terrible with remembering to take pictures, but we remembered this one.

My wife now has a crush on Niko.  Need to remember to leave her at home next time.

Lastly, our backup goalkeeper, who is our starting keeper on this tour as Horelio Gomes played in the World Cup, was Carlo Cudicini.  He was hitting on a woman and her daughter, so we had to wait politely a little while for this one.  Again, no picture.

All in all, a fantastic time was had.  Almost time for the season to begin.  August 14th.  Mark your calendars.

Irrigation Update

We made some progress on the irrigation for the back planter this weekend.

We were able to replace ten sprinkler heads that spit out 510 gallons per hour ("GPH") (10 heads, .85 gallons per minute) with four drip lines (soon to be five) totaling 30 gallons per hour.  I actually had to walk out and count the number of emitters right now, as we have 1 GPH emitters on most plants, with some soaker hoses on others (I guessed 3 GPH on the soaker hoses, they aren't very long).  That's a 94% decrease in our water for this area.  Granted, it will increase as we put in more plants and they get bigger, but I don't believe we'll surpass 200 GPH for this bed.  We plan on packing a lot of plants in there and making them as drought tolerant as possible.  This is where we put the Jerusalem Sage and Lion's Tail.  That potato vine in the background of the bottom picture doesn't have any irrigation going to it at the moment.  I may add an emitter as it gets hotter, but we'll wait and see.

For full disclosure, I went to Toro's website and looked at what they said the output of a 180 degree sprinkler head was, as all 10 of ours were that.  I may even be low, as our sprinkler heads were at least 13 years old, and I took the specifications of the latest and greatest.

Running all of the drip line took about three hours.  It probably could have taken a little less, but it was hot, so there was beer involved.  And, there aren't any leaks, so that shows you how damn easy it must be if a drunk can do it!

Being in Southern California, water is our most precious resource, in my humble opinion.  I've even done some research that shows it doesn't pay to recycle paper here, because of the extraordinary amount of water it takes to turn recycled paper into another usable product.  Apparently, to remove all of the toxins in the dying, bleaching and whatever else they do to it process.  I'm not done with that research, yet.  Another post.

In the meantime, I hope you'll be motivated to at least look into drip irrigation.  I'll even be happy to come out and help.  For a price, of course.  Unless you're in London, in which case I may come out for Spurs tickets!!!

Recent Acquisitions

It has been a long week.  Between marble filled children, football and the a-holes at the Securities and Exchange Commission, there has been precious little gardening time.  Never fear, with the elimination of the US this morning, I am now down to one team to root for.  Come on, England!!!!  I do want it noted that a Tottenham striker, not that useless United striker, propelled England out of the group.  I'm just saying...

Anyway, back to the task at hand.  Picked up a few plants this afternoon, since I had run out of booze at noon, which surprisingly opens up one's day.  We picked up a couple of daylillies to go in the front yard.

Hemerocallis Purple Galaxy.

Hemerocallis Velvet Red

The flowers are from the end of the day, but they still don't look too bad.  We'll be getting them in the ground tomorrow, along with some of the other items we picked up.  After England and Germany, of course.

Day Off. World Cup. Enough Said.

Tomorrow, the World Cup moves into the second day, with the United States of America taking on England.  There will be no gardening tomorrow.  There will be football.

I do not expect the boys from the US of A to win.  A draw would be a spectacular result.  If (when?) we do lose, I hope it's only by a goal or two, as goal differential is the first tie breaker.  Over the next couple of weeks, we take on Algeria and Slovenia, two teams we should be able to beat.

Now, before anyone screams "UN-AMERICAN!" this is football.  This is reality.  There are no false hopes and winning the World Cup is not the ultimate goal.  This is NOT the National Football League, where the rules are rigged to, at some point, make all teams equal.  There will be teams that will NEVER win.  I don't think the US is one of those.  We will win the World Cup.  Someday.  There are teams that will win consistently, such as the homelands of my ancestors, England and Germany (that made for fun family years in the early 20th century), as well as Brazil and Argentina.  Hopefully, we'll be amongst those.  Someday.

A good result in this World Cup will be to finish second behind England in our group (there are four teams) and then put on a good showing against Germany, our likely second round opponent.  We outplayed Germany in the 2002 quarterfinals, but lost.  Ce la vie.

As you will hopefully remember, I went on a multi-day drinking binge when my beloved Tottenham Hotspur finished fourth.  Fourth, people.  F-ing spectacular the lads were.  Championships are hoped for, but not expected.

England currently has five Spurs playing out of the 23 man roster.  As I tell my friend Pete (he's Irish and a Liverpool fan, but we still like him), Spurs are going to win the World Cup.  Write that down.

GLORY!!!!!!!!

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Tottenham Hotspur 1, Manchester City 0.  Fourth place is ours!!!!!!!!!!  Win on Sunday, plus an Arsenal loss gets us third!!!!  No matter!!!!!!  Glorious day!!!!!!!  More gardening tomorrow!!!!!!  Just football today!!!!!!!