Two Days of To-Dos

It took me two days, but I got all of the items checked off yesterday's to-do list. No sewing, but I haven't been wasting my time either.

I started out yesterday by filling the bird feeders. On my way out of the house, I noticed that the daffodils are heading up already. Can spring flowers be far behind?

Oh, and if you look to the right of that image above, you'll see a would-be photobomber. There he is!

After we filled the bird feeders, we headed into the greenhouse to fill 17 cups with potting soil. It took me a while to find a working faucet. They are all shut off for the winter to avoid freezing. Eventually I did, and got myself drenched from the knees down wetting the very dry soil. You know how it bubbles up and runs straight through when it's dry? I swear it took me half an hour to saturate the dirt. And then I took them into the laundry room where all of my tomatoes start their lives. They won't move out to the greenhouse until April. I planted 6 Super Marzanos, 3 Heinz, 2 Legends (all tomatoes), then two each of dill, basil, and Italian parsley. 

I always cover them with plastic wrap until the seeds germinate. I use a spray bottle to keep the tops of the soil wet, and the plastic wrap keeps the water from evaporating off. The seeds must stay wet at all times until they germinate, and since they are planted perilously close to the surface, this is the trick for getting them to sprout.

Once they poke their little heads up, we're going to try setting up the bird cam for a time lapse photos and see if we can make a little video of them growing. Fun, huh? Haven't tried that yet, so it should be an interesting experiment. 

After that, I actually did follow through and make the Orange-Pecan Tea Bread. This turned out so yummy, and it was easy as could be. I'm always grateful for baked goods that don't require breaking out my heavy mixer.

I had a few housekeeping chores to do, and then started dinner. After dinner, I did a little more work on the birdbath embroidery, and finished that up.

And I'm about halfway done with the "Watering the Flowers" piece too. These will be finished in no time at all.

I still had a couple of items on my to-do list that I finished up this morning, and then I went and did my swimming workout. Today I had a different argument with myself. When I stepped on the scale this morning, I had lost another 2 pounds for a total weight loss of 7 pounds in the past month...all from increasing my exercise level. So excited about that, and it definitely motivates me to keep going. The problem was that I was quite uncomfortable after my swim on Tuesday. In a blog post from over a year ago, I talked about the problems I've had from a chronic pain syndrome. I've been working my way back into exercise very slowly, and up until now, it's been going okay.

Tuesday evening was different. I had a heck of a time falling asleep Tuesday night because my neck was really bothering me. This has been my concern about returning to swimming all along. I've been told to use a mask and snorkel, but I really don't want to. Further, I figure it's going to be helpful to my neck if I can regain some ability to turn my head normally. Turning my head for swimming really is not an overly-optimistic goal. Nevertheless, I think the recent flare-up of shoulder pain combined with my chronic neck problem was a little too much. So today's argument was this:

Other me: Now, if your neck or your knee start to hurt today, you have to stop swimming immediately.

 Me: Yes siree, you betcha. I'll do it, Other Me. I've definitely learned my lesson.

Then later while swimming:

Other me: It's starting to hurt. Stop what you're doing right now.

Me: But I'm so close to finishing! I can keep going. It'll be okay!

Other me: Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Right. Now.

Me: (In my most grudging voice). Hooo-kaaaay. (Looking glum.) 

It's probably good that I listened to that bossy Other Me. I still had to go to the grocery store, and it was definitely bothering me. After I got home I took some Aleve, and I think that will help. We'll see how it goes later on this evening when I try to go to bed. I honestly think I can work up to my goal of 60 lengths, but I absolutely have to take it slow. I do NOT want to relapse with chronic pain ever again as long as I live.

So when I got home, I walked into the laundry room and saw that a very bad cat had been here:

There was a trail of muddy paw prints leading from the kitty door, through the kitchen, up onto the counter (which is designated No Cats Land), across the breakfast bar, turning left and heading over the kitchen counter, past the coffee maker, past the sink, all the way to the toaster oven, thence into the greenhouse window.

Hm. Quite a sight. Fortunately, it wiped off easily. Of course, Smitty was looking all innocent and asking for treats...from the floor. He knows better.

Also, there was a very large package at the front door. I could see that it was from Linda G...you might remember Linda. She used to blog at Stray Stitches, but she abandoned us to have more time for sewing. (The noyve of some people.) Linda and I have stayed Facebook friends, however. She recently purchased a bird cam like mine, and she has published some fantastic pictures of the birds at her feeder. We've also had a back and forth about how my birds love the suet I put out for them, and hers won't touch it. So here's this heavy box with her return address, and I think, what could it possibly be? It was heavy enough to be a sewing machine, I'm telling you! And I open it up to find all her leftover suet!

Fantastic! Thank you, Linda. I thank you, my birds thank you, and even Smitty thanks you. This will definitely not go to waste here at the Three Cats Ranch.

So I still had groceries to put away, and had I known that such a bad cat lived here, I would not have surprised him with this corrugated cardboard scratching post. It came with a packet of catnip that claimed to be "The Best Catnip in the World". Well, you'll get no argument from Smitty. He loved it, and licked it, and kicked it.

And then he went absolutely currrrr-azy for it!

He was so crazed from catnip that he lost all sense of modesty.

Not only that, but there's a little sparkle ball thingy inside this here hole, and he spent quite a bit of time trying to capture that.

So me and the birds with a box of suet, and Smitty with a brand new catnip scratching pad....things couldn't get much more sublime here at the Three Cats Ranch.

And now Mike is on his way home, so I'd better get cooking his dinner. I hope you've had a productive day too.