Roses, Roses, Everywhere

 

Weed Wacker at 8:45 am Guy: Why Won't You Just Die?

I must admit, this morning I was that guy. It wasn't frivoulous suburban lawn care though, It was for the cause. I had to prepare the location for my new planter box. It is the first one of twelve that I have set aside space for in the backyard. Unfortuately, my ground here is clay, and what's not clay, is rocks. It took an all-day herculean gardening effort to get the first one done, but hopefully, the second and third won't take as long. I'll only do three this spring, because that's all I need with the amount of vegetables I've planted, but come fall, I'll be a busy little *beaver*.
Yesterday I released about 4500 ladybugs into the backyard in order to attempt some aphid control; but as I turned over my compost heap today in order to work it into my new raised garden, I realized the problem was much more widespread. I've sprayed Murphy's Oil Soap on the plants, but it may take drastic ant-death measures to kill the aphids.
This afternoon, I took CK up to the International Rose Test Garden like I had promised. We had a blast munching paximadia and sipping iced coffee in the late afternoon sun. I even whipped out the 35mm for the occasion. Hopefully, something I took will be worth framing, and if not, I'll use it as subjects for oil on canvass. It's like en plein air, only in the studio.

Raised Garden

 

Wine and Roses

CK's Cousin is in town, so I walked up to Washington Square park with her today. We went to the Rose Garden, which was awesome, and I intend to take CK out there on Wednesday. We kept walking up into the west hills trying to find a good shot of Mount Hood. We made it to the Japanese Garden and walked around. This one is very serene, but no where near the color of the Rose Garden. The $8 cover at the Japanese garden makes the Rose Garden (no charge/ donation accepted) the clear choice for cheap date night in the Rose City.
We still didn't get a good photo opportunity of the view from the west hills, so we started further up the hill, on a path behind the Japanese Garden. It wasn't a main path in the park, but it was marked and well used. Not twenty yards up the hill we came upon a photo shoot. A topless photo shoot. An unlicensed, low budget, hey let's get our freshman girlfriend to take her shirt off in the park so we can make 'tasteful nudes' photoshoot. A camerman and a girl with her dress pulled down, bosoms to the world, snapping away in a hardly secluded portion of the park. I was mildly shocked, but CK's cousin from Kentucky was quite aghast that the kids would chose such a conspicuous location to do their topless photo shoot. I must admit the girl seemed as though all the traffic on the trail was making her self conscious. Either the traffic, or the fact she was letting some guy take nudey pics of her in public. We continued up the trail, but when it became evident this trail wasn't going to come off a great vista I was stuck with quite the dilema. Continue on the trail through the woods knowing I wasn't going to find CK's cousin the shot she wanted, or turn around and seem like the perve who wanted to pass the naked girl twice. Then I decided: turn back. It's not my fault naked girls photog couldn't find a more secluded spot to do his 'art'. If you're going to make smut in public you're gonna get leered at, and I shouldn't have to worry about your feelings if you're the one taking your clothes off in the park. My Puritan feelings of modesty on the issue aside;
Rock On Topless-in-the-Park-Naked-Chick . You, your nice sized juggs and their soft pink nipples really made my day.

North Road

 

3-nil

Talk about an ass wuppin'. It didn't even look like we were playing the same game. Now we have to beat Italia to have a chance of getting out of the round, and if we play with the same energy as today we couldn't beat the local girl's JV team.
I've decided to try North Road bars on my touring bike, but the set I got my hands on required some major modification for the shifters to fit in the bar ends. I also didn't bother finding the correct brake levers, so it's gonna look funky. Hopefully it'll ride alright. My gut's too big to bother with road drop bars anymore.

You Can't Get There From Here

What a day. Cross country travel never works out for me. The plane sat on the tarmac in Cincinnatti for 2 hours while I read the Times and then I got to Newark 5 hours ahead of my bags. I only hope the bag gets delivered before morning so I can wear clean drawers tomorrow. If not then oh well. We all get what we deserve.

See the Inside of an Engine Compartment in Your Chevrolet

I had mad plans for my morning, most of which did not involve a wiper motor changeout in the rain. Luckily it went as well as could be expected, 2 hours and zero cut knuckles. This is much more than I can say about the VW, where the wiper motor is behind the dash. The gearbox on this new motor sounds kinda rough, but it'll have to do for now since I leave for NY in the morning. At least the wife will have working wipers if she needs to drive the truck while I'm gone.
I plan on spending the rest of the afternoon chilling, grilling and sipping iced beverages.

The overturned wheelbarrow is an artistic statement, not poor composition on my part.

 

Cacti

I bought 4 cacti at the garden supply this morning and put them in the office by the window. It's nice to have some plants in the house. My wife is the bringer of plant death, so I need low maintenance houseplants. I've also strung up my hops (which you can see in the background) and put in a fence for my marionberries to climb on. CK decided she wants me to plant the entire front yard in something other than grass. I was thinking all apples, but am open to suggestions.
I also scored a new HT yesterday. I decided to go with the Yaesu VX-7R for its multi-band transmitting capabilities and rugged weatherproofness. The other finalist was the Kenwood TH-D7AG and the Yaesu VX-5R. The VX-5R is no longer made and the used ones I saw were overpriced. The Kenwood lost out because I didn't think the APRS capability outweighed it's bulkiness. Packet on the go seemed to be of only limited usefulness, and if I need to transmit my GPS coordinates, I'll do it over FM voice.