Between mini vacations and general busyness, I've not had much time to blog. In fact, I'm still catching up on Monday's email.

Right now outside my window are 3 men digging away at the bay window base to anchor it so it stops moving away from the house. So far they've dug up 3 shrubs and a peony. They say they can re-plant the peony but will haul away the forsythia and yellow juniper. Oh well, that evergreen was getting too big for the space anyway. Maybe I should ask them to remove the second one! Now they're digging down to the base of the bricks supporting the window. Can't wait to see what happens next.

Had an epidural on Tuesday - it seems to have helped my numb toes as well as pain in my hip and lower leg. Now I can go on our big(er) vacation relatively pain-free. I hope.

Still haven't gotten pictures from the garden. It's looking kind of "spotty" this year. Probably because the new stuff isn't grown to where it blooms yet, plus having a helper who isn't much of a gardener. He's caused some problems, but he's learning. I wish I could get out there with more agility than I now have.

Today I decided to use Safari since I'd signed up with MobileMe for syncing my iPhone. This all started because I couldn't get the calender info entered into the iPhone to show up in the calendar on the computer in Outlook. So I figured that if everything went to the big cloud at Apple (or wherever), it'd all show up in both places. Little did I know I'd have to have a complete record on my computer first. Oops! So I still had to figure out how to get the date information from the phone to the computer. After trying all the instructions on the 2 web sites (Apple and AT&T), it still wasn't happening. So I called my local Apple Store where there is supposed to be customer support - and there was. Around 5 PM yesterday we started a "restore" where everything in the computer calendar is wiped out and then reloaded from the phone. After half an hour, I suggested that rather than waiting for it to finish, the support rep give me a case number and I'd call back if there was still a problem when it finished. At 2PM today it was still running. When I interrupted it, I think it was waiting for me to resolve conflicts. At any rate, I think it's fixed. Oh - and Safari because the Apple website warned me that there were known problems with Internet Explorer 7 and gave me the choice of Safari or Firefox. Did I make a good choice??

Tom has had a bad cold all week, and I seem to be developing my own version of it. The inside of my chest tickles. Hard to scratch!

I spent most of Wednesday morning in the upper garden trying to find the flowers and vegetables among the weeds. Next comes an attempt to get to the lower garden and finish planting the stuff I got from the Garden Center a couple weeks ago. Right now I'd best go out back and water them...

Back from New York.  Saw 5 shows.  My favorite was IN THE HEIGHTS, followed by [title of show].  Tom had same first choice, but his second choice was AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY.  Too much like "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" for me.  A little overwhelming.  I was able to get around using my walker:  we'd chosen theatres not too far from our hotel (or chosen a hotel right in the middle of a bunch of theaters.)

Probably totally messed up my food plan - but had several very good meals while away. 

It was really hot, there, too.  Apparently also back home here in Pittsburgh.  Guess it's summer!

We're leaving for New York in about an hour.  Going to see 4 shows, stay at the Marriott Marquis on Broadway since I can't walk far.  Bringing my walker and planning on shows within a couple blocks of the hotel.  Our luxury vacation for this summer!

Been gardening much of the week.  My "helper" cut down all the bottle brush buckeye, thinking it was Virginia creeper.  I need to teach that guy to look more closely - it took 15 years to get it to be shrub sized and I'm pretty ticked off.  But I won't see him again until Tuesday.  He seems to think anything with 5 leaflets is the VA creeper.  Bummer.  At least I've gotten him to recognize and destroy hedge bindweed.  Except I found some he missed up in the Keria japonica, which also needs some trimming and is up on the slope where it's difficult for me to work any more.  Getting older is also a bummer!

Spent 6 hours in the garden this morning and 3 hours yesterday.  The front, along Forbes Avenue, is finally weeded.  Except for a couple plants I can't identify and don't know if they're weeds or something I planted.  Oops.  I got a couple plants moved and several new "rock garden" type things planted.  I'm tired, but very satisfied with what I got done.

The garden along Forbes Avenue is actually in back of the house, but slopes downhill from the house.  So I seem to think of the front of the garden as the part farthest from the house.  Is that confusing enough?

Somehow, I never seem to have my camera with me when out there.  It'd just get covered with dirt, I'm afraid.  I always find weeds to pull when I'm near the garden.

Went to visit Andy last week and saw the new addition to his house as well as his garden.  Very modern and clean lines both inside and outside the addition.  Also very 'green' - solar hot water, bamboo floors, use of vines for summer shade yet allowing winter sun.

Finally got out to the garden, got the tomato plants I bought 2 weeks ago into the ground, and went out to the hillside garden to weed and plant and, of course, it started to rain.  But not hard, so I weeded and planted anyway.  Didn't get all the lavendar plants in, nor the zinnia, but the wooly thyme and creeping oregano got planted to fill in some bare spots along the path.  2 of the 5 lavendars also got planted, and I got many little weed plants out of about 5 feet of the area along the path.

Otherwise, we've been having a quiet week.  Yesterday afternoon we went to see KUNG FU PANDA.  It was OK - not great, but fun.

Yesterday I got the Wii Magnetizer game (I think that's what it's called), and got hooked into it for a couple hours.  Addictive.

Did my usual Phipps Conservatory Discovery Garden volunteer stint on Saturday.  It was a lovely day for it - tempurature perfect, a reasonable number of kids coming up to pot little plants and look at the display about butterflies.  Kind of relaxing.

Saturday evening we went to see WALL E movie and greatly enjoyed it.  They were handing out WALL E watches when we came out of the theatre, so I took one and even figured out how to set it this morning.  But getting it on may be a problem.  Seems to be more child-sized than I thought.

Sunday we both tried out the Wii Fit - Tom for the first time.  Our Doctor even had suggested it as a way to work on his balance problem.  Tom actually seemed to be enjoying it - which reminds me that the reason I originally sat down at the computer was to write up the instructions for switching the TV from cable mode to games and back again.  Guess I'd better get to it!

Kinda busy day today.  A massage in the morning - all sorts of places get achy these days.  Then worked with an Alexander System teacher early this afternoon.  An estimator came over to tell us what it would cost to shore up the brickwork under the bay windows in front (lots!).  Then I picked up a blouse that was altered and had an acupuncture session. 

I don't know if it's just that it's summer or if all these treatments and such are actually being helpful.  I suspect some of both.

Better get off the computer - it's lightening like crazy out there and getting real windy.  This afternoon, there was a tree blown down over a car near here.

Back again.  Busy day yesterday.  Got a Wii installed on Sunday, and got Wii Fit to go with it.  Interesting.  I think I did in my bad knee yesterday morning trying to do one of the aerobic exercises.  But I need the balance routines, too, and they are not so hard on knees.  It calculates BMI and shows weight - tells me i'm obese (not much of a surprise) and may be helpful with weight loss.  We'll see.

I did a lot of catching up on computer stuff - email, bookkeeping, and such - yesterday morning, then spent 2 hours weeding in the early afternoon.  Soaked in epsom salts to counteract the stiffness from the gardening, then dropped Tom off for a doctor's appointment.  Good thing I didn't stay with him because he hadn't gotten home by the time my girlfriend came to pick me up for dinner and PETER PAN at the Civic Light Opera (local summer musical theater).  Cathy Rigby starred, still flying across the stage as she has been for around 20 years.  Some vigorous dancing and singing, and the familiar story.  Lots of kids in the audience. 

The baseball game let out at the same time as the theater, and traffic was pretty bad for a while there. 

But all in all it was a fun day.  I'm too stiff this morning to try the swimming pool - my left knee and both shoulders are uncomfortable, and while my knee may be helped, I've found my shoulders get irritated in the pool these days.  Guess I'll try more balance exercises.

This morning I spent 3 hours in the Discovery Garden at Phipps Conservatory helping little people learn how to pot plants.  We were potting tiny coleus plants.  The kids get to take home their treasure in a paper bag and plant it outside or keep as an indoor plant.  Some haven't any idea how to put a plant in a pot, even some teenagers, while other wee little ones have been doing this with Mom or Dad and know exactly how it goes.  And I get parents telling me how they potted a tiny pine tree when they were a kid and now it's 20 feet tall outside the house.  I guess Phipps has been educating the public for a long time.  And I get to spend 3 hours in a beautiful garden and talk to lots of people and try to identified plants that have no labels.  Some of them I haven't a clue, while others I've got in my own garden and can discuss at length.

when I got home (having trouble with the editor - if I tell it a different font, then go back to what I really want I can get the one I'm trying for.  This other one was kinda interesting, tho.) I watered house plants outside in both back and front of the house.  Now it's starting to look like a thunderstorm is brewing.  So I guess it worked?

I've still got all those plants purchased almost a week ago - hopefully tomorrow I'll have time to plant them.  And my nasturtium seeds.  And some sunflower seeds (maybe the birds won't notice).  Have to go down into the hillside and see where there may be bare spots now that the daffodil leaves are fading.