blackmoondog

I stuffed several stalks of milkweed in the green waste can this morning. They were nearly as tall as me. With the assistance of my garden spade, the shorter stalks were also pulled from their cushy digs in the remaining front lawn.

My shelling and snow peas are doing well. The sprouts are 2-3" tall and it looks like nearly all the seed peas germinated. This kicks extra ass because they were from seed packed for 2005 which I bought in early 2006 from the 4 for $1 basket. That's right. $0.25 a packet for seed originally priced at $1.59.

The sweet peas are just barely starting to sprout. I've only seen one sprout from the "Starry Night" blend but there are at least half a dozen from the "Singin' the Blues" blend. Hopefully, the weather won't turn hot before they get a chance to bloom. I'm not holding my breath though because I waited an awfully long time to plant.

I'm getting an urge to grow my own strawberries this year. Maybe because my favorite grower has stopped growing them. No one else's berries can hold a candle to hers. I already have several of the terracotta strawberry planters (they came with the house). If I can get them cleaned out and filled with fresh soil, our local hardware/garden store has 6 packs of the "Sequoia" variety available.

The big purchase today was the "Zen Arbor" from today's Target ad. It is a cedar arbor that was on sale for $100 (the cheapest arbor we'd liked before seeing this one was twice that). I'll post pics when it has been assembled and installed. It will support the part of our climbing rose that has been reaching into the yard and grabbing at me when I walk by on the step stones. While I was at Target, I also picked up a New Zealand Tea Tree, a big blue watering can, garden gloves, and a UPF 50 bucket hat. It was also a chance to confirm that something roughly 8 feet long will fit in the Prius if I fold down the back seat and flatten out the front seat. :)

Alas, since the clouds have rolled in and my motivation seems to have dried up, there will probably not be any more garden productivity until this next storm has passed.

I give*. Throw in the towel. At least for a while.

I've been waiting to feel a bit less hormonally deranged before sitting down to write this post. I dunno if I waited long enough or not.

In June it will have been two years since we started trying to conceive. By this time in 2004, we'd already quit actively trying to prevent conception.

It was one thing when every cycle ended with nothing. That was frustrating. Little did I know it would be taken to an entirely new level the past 2-3 cycles as I've had mild pregnancy symptoms and rising basal temperatures that crap out about 4 days before my period starts. I can't do this anymore. Not without a rest from the heartbreak.

So, I'm gonna keep training for the Bay To Breakers. Donate blood. Maybe get a tattoo. Get the tetanus shot for which I'm now overdue. Ask my boss for the raise that is *way* overdue. Hell, maybe even change jobs. Plant my garden. Try to plan a trip to Seattle. Avoid baby related stuff as much as I can and try to heal for a bit. Then we'll re-evaluate the situation.

I'm gonna keep taking the metformin and continue charting my temps (since I'm already in the habit and it is handy to know in advance when Aunt Flo may be dropping by) but that's it. Nothing else.

And now, I'm going to bed since I already know that cursed Daylight Savings Time is gonna kick my ass in the morning.

(*- This really means "we" give. Mark is getting pretty worn down by the whole thing too, and was relieved to hear I was thinking about taking a break from trying to conceive. I don't often enough acknowledge how hard this is on him and just how much his support means to me.)

My waterproof, pet resistant custom fit seat covers for the Prius arrived today! They took the scenic route, as they shipped from Colorado on March 24th, arrived in So Cal on March 28th, then somehow ended up in Parsippany, *New Jersey* on April 3rd. I guess they wanted one more road trip before settling down into suburban life.

The covers are pretty impressive. They're GT Covers. GT Covers makes custom fit seat covers in a wide variety of fabrics for wide variety of makes and models of vehicles. I found them via the PriusChat forums. They happily sent swatches of the fabrics that interested me, without so much as a shipping charge. Because of the dogs, I settled on the "Blue waterproof" fabric. Hopefully, they will keep the dog hair out of the seats. I've had a really difficult time getting it out of the upholstery in the Saturn.

Also thanks to PriusChat, I was fully prepared for the installation of said covers to take hours and lots of wrestling. I am very grateful for the tips that other forum members posted. It saved a lot of hair pulling. Here are pics of the covers:

Front Seat:		Back Seat:

But, dammit, my car seats are now well protected!

OK, maybe not really *fields* per se...

I got it into my noggin that I wanted to plant strawberries so today we went by the hardware store to pick some up and get the cedar fence planks to build my veggie beds (since they were on sale). We arrived to find the parking lot packed to the gills. It turns out that on top of the beautiful weather, everything in the garden department was 20% off today only. Doom was at hand.

We came home with the 16 1"x8"x6' cedar fence boards, hardware cloth (to lay across the bottom to keep the gophers out), 2 6 packs of strawberry plants (Sequoia and Eversweet), probably a dozen or more packets of seeds, 3 terracotta pots, a post hole digger, and a few other odds & ends. Later in the day I went back to the store to ask the garden folk if the odd coloration I was seeing in my potting soil meant that I should replace it (thankfully, she said it should be fine and that sometimes that can come from part of the mix not getting completely composted). I left with a box of citrus tree food, 2 tomato plants, a yellow bell pepper plant, a yellow crookneck squash plant, and a zucchini plant.

I did finally get back to the strawberries. When we moved into this house, there were several abandoned strawberry pots in the backyard. At some point, I emptied out a couple and thankfully one was empty and relatively free of squatting bugs (tho I did have to forcibly evict a couple of snails) so I loaded it on to my hand truck and took it out to the front yard. It turned out that the pot had 12 planting pockets, one for each of my newly acquired strawberry plants. Woot! I filled the pot with a mix of potting soil and sand and placed the berry plants in their cozy new homes. The top is kinda bare so there may be more strawberry plants in my future. Hopefully, I can defend the plants against snails/slugs and birds long enough to actually get some berries. Only time will tell!

After the first run through the Chronicles of Narnia DVD, I know exactly what I'll be working on when I finish bro-in-law's throw blanket. I *must* have Lucy's traveling hat. Oh yes, it will be mine. They're selling replicas on Amazon for $60-$100 but I'm perfectly happy making my own, as I have a bit of a wool allergy (much to my dismay -- there is so much fantastic wool out there!).

So, anyway, this new project should start relatively soon as I'm finally working on knitting up the last piece of the blanket! My goal is to have it finished by the time I head north for Bay To Breakers in May. I still have to get the script 'A' pattern made, knit the remaining 3/4 of the final piece, duplicate stitch the script 'A', and sew the whole shebang together. I'll post pics when I finish! :)

Despite our decision to take a break from trying to conceive, I decided to call the doctor recommended by a couple of people (one of whom was treated by said doctor for infertility). I expected to have to wait to see her so I called last week to make an appointment. The receptionist said she was taking new patients but only for infertility. Pretty handy. Then she said they could see me Monday or Tuesday. A little faster than I'd expected, but I figured I might as well see her sooner rather than later.

I was under the impression that she was an M.D. who also was licensed for Traditional Chinese Medicine. It turns out that she is actually an M.D. in *China* and a licensed acupuncturist here. A little different than what I expected but not really a showstopper for me.

When I arrived at her office, I was given a form to fill out and they copied my insurance card (pretty standard fare). I met the doc, and we moved into a room where she asked me a bunch of questions about my medical history, how I felt my energy level and digestion were doing, info about my cycles (I brought all my temperature charts along), and asked if I had a lot of tension. After that she looked at my tongue (which she said looked pretty good) and took my pulse on both wrists.

Because I'm right near ovulation, she wanted to go ahead and do acupuncture today and also suggested I start taking baby aspirin to help speed up circulation, as she'd determined that I had some stagnation in my system (Traditional Chinese Medicine is all about keeping a balanced energy flow) but that it was mild. Also, I'm supposed to start taking some smelly herbs (they're supposed to arrive by mail in the next few days, also she didn't call them smelly but the lady that runs the front desk did. :)

This was my first experience with acupuncture and it went pretty well considering I'm not so fond of needles (or at least the kind used to take fluids *from* me, acupuncture needles are teeny in comparison). I laid down on the table and she put the needles in my lower legs, ankles, scalp, and a couple about 3 inches below my belly button. One of the belly button needles was attached to a machine that appeared to emit an electric pulse. She asked if I felt it and said it would help me to relax. It was definitely an odd sensation. She turned on some music and then left the room for 20-30 minutes. When she returned, she removed the needles, asked if I had any questions, and we were finished for today.

After leaving the office, I did notice that my neck and shoulders did seem to be less tense. I stopped by Costco for a bottle of baby aspirin. And the kicker? My insurance will cover up to 12 visits per year once my deductible is met.