First seedlings out

Just took these lettuce/mesclun seedling outside to start hardening off. It's amazing to me how good this Gardens Alive seed starting mix is, compared to how bad the mix I got at Walmarts is. Those seedling planted long before these are barely hanging on. I think I'm going to replant them in this mix and throw that Walmart stuff in the trash.

My Dell laptop is giving me way too many blue screens of death the past two days; but the good news is that yesterday morning, Jim informed me that we have a lot of reward points from our Master card; and I found that it's enough to buy me a new, basic laptop computer if this one completes it's dying process any time soon. So yesterday morning I signed up for the rewards program and found out that there are all sorts of goodies to get; but with further comparison research, I found that taking the cash is better, since you can buy a lot of the products they are offering in the rewards program, cheaper through Amazon or other sources. One Dell computer they're offering was a hundred dollars less from other sources.

After breakfast and other time consuming morning chores done, we headed out to the garden center for some planters, soil, plants and other supplies. A stop at a great new (for us) cheese shop, and a lovely Thai lunch, followed. Then it was back home to unpack, get my two new planters drilled, filled and planted, and get my hand watering done.

We're trying to get ready for our daughter and son-in-laws visit next week, so we're getting a lot of work done around the house and back yard.

George the handyman has been here to help us get all the outdoor furniture in place and treated, and he's coming again today to continue power washing. His machine broke down yesterday after two hours, and his truck broke down two days ago. Seems mercury retrograde is still rearing its ugly head.

I have this morning and early afternoon for studio time after I go through some of this snail and email; and then I need to get out in the garden when George the handyman arrives and plant a few things and then start on dinner. It looks like I can make the time to make a nice crab cake dinner tonight.

Time for breakfast, feed my sourdough starter, and head to the studio. Jim is taking Bodhi to the dog groomer so his aroma will be more worthy of next weeks house guests.