Happy Thanksgiving! Here's a snapshot of James and me at the parade. It was supposed to be a family picture with all three of us... but my mom's photo skills, er...um...yeah. Well, you get it.

And just ignore the freaky, detached alien hand, huh?

Fun day today. Went to the zoo with a friend and her kids. Baby elephant. Two baby giraffes. The weather is GORGEOUS and I love the zoo! My friend and her girls are wonderful too. An all around great day.

And... good news about the AreoGarden...

I retract all that stuff I said about their customer service. I got a lovely email from them:

Hello Jessica,

Thank you for your email.

Regarding the 'add water' light on your AeroGarden, it sounds as if the float that monitors the water level is stuck. As you look inside the garden bowl, you will see a small tube with 'Fill to Here' printed on the top - the float is inside of that tube. You can loosen the float by straightening a paper clip and pushing it into the hole at the top of the tube. Wiggle the clip around until the float is dislodged and the 'add water' light goes off.If the light is still blinking, please call 1-800-476-9669 and a customer care agent will be happy to offer other solutions.

Thank you,
Tracy L.
Customer Care

So, I was able to get my garden running. (Thank you, Tracy!) I plan to take a daily photo just for fun. Photobucket is down so I'll post it later.

Okay... it's later. Nov 21st AreoGarden

WHAT A WEEKEND! My husband's B-Day party. Friends over for the weekend. Ren Fest.

Whew.

So, today my new AeroGarden arrived. It's a all in one, indoor kitchen vegtable grower that is supposed to be easy--no weeds or dirt and it shows you when to add water and plant nutrients. Sorta like Gardening for Dummies or SpaceAge Gardening. I had seen one at Sur la Table, but they only had them in black (grrr!) and I wanted a white one, so I ordered it direct from the company. I thought it would be fun because I've had no luck at all growing tomatoes at home (although my neighbor grows beautiful tomatoes.)

Anyway... here's the saga:

Unpacking it:



Then I set it up with the Cherry Tomato kit--which included two reds and one yellow tomato seed pods plus four "space savers." Looks pretty cool, huh?




The "low water" light (a small red light on the front) was blinking so I added water--the water started running through the pods--makes a nice sound. But the low water light didn't go off. (Grrrr!)

I called customer service... was left on hold for a long time, (grrr!) so I left a message and decided to try emailing them. The website doesn't have a specific edress to contact them even when you click the contact page. (grrr, grrr, grrr.)

Anyone else frustrated with today's "customer service" departments? It's more like you push 15 buttons and then talk to someone in India. Oh, wait, that's insurance companies.

Back to gardening...

Now, I don't know if I should add the nutrient pack or not. I read the manual and didn't see instructions on what to do if the low water light doesn't turn off. There is definitely plenty of water. And I turned it on and off several times. Hit the reset button. What else is there? Am I missing something? What if I have to return the thing for a new one?

Well. Phooey. I realize that if this is the worst thing I have to deal with today, that the day still gets marked down as a success... but grrr on hassles.

Today's moral dilemma: A box shows up on my doorstep. It's not something I've ordered. Do I open it? Hmmmm... might be a Christmas present for me.

So, no, I shouldn't open it.

But... I'm no good at waiting.

And if I don't open it now, my husband will get home and HIDE the box. Then it will be a whole month before I see what's in the box.

So, yes, I should definitely open it.

Or no.

Or yes.

I glance at the invoice. Doesn't look like anything for me.

Ha, I'm safe. No dilemma.

So I open the box.

And guess what is in there?

NEW BOOTS! My husband has ordered me black lace up Harley Davidson boots!



OMG! And they fit. I LOVE 'em!

So... okay... now I've snuck into my Christmas present. Do I wrap them back up, pretend I didn't see them? Do I pretend I just didn't know, just opened the box up accidentally? Do I tell the truth--it was a BIG FREAKIN' BOX and I'm like a bad kid who can't wait?

Oh, delimmas, delimmas.

He said he's coming home early.

What should I do? Wrap them back up or leave them out?

Brrrrrrrrrrrr... the weather turned cold. I bought a new pair of fuzzy pink pjs the other day and its nice to get to use them.

I don't watch much TV, but I managed to catch the last Dancing with the Stars show. WOW, WOW, WOW! Emmitt Smith. Mario Lopez. Whew. I see this morning that Emmitt won. (Congratulations, Emmitt!) But I don't see how anybody picked a winner. Emmitt's smile. His charm. His wide, wide shoulders and fancy feet. And that one-arm lift. Then Mario--his out-and-out intensity and passion, his flexibility, those gorgeous dimples--not to mention the mouth-watering cut of his arms, that bad-boy stuff and just amazing dancing. Yum. Just yum.

WHEW! Definite inspiration for my writing.

I keep wondering (and this is only a philosophical question)... Do problems cause complaining? Or does complaining cause problems? Or both?

You ever know people who seem to whine and complain about everything? Their lives aren't perfect--heck, they might even have *real* issues to complain about--but they seem to dwell on the negative. They complain and resent their kids, spouse, house, pets, bills, job, co-workers, neighbors, position in life, etc, etc. It's like they live to complain.

But--here's the odd thing...I've noticed that for this sort of person their life never gets any better--no matter what new job or new house or new car they get. In fact, it seems like their life gets progressively worse. They file for bankruptcy. They get divorced. They loose friends. Their house becomes a pit or they loose it altogether. And on and on and on.

The reason I've been wondering about this is that it strikes close to home:

There have been times in my life where I have gotten myself into a downward spiraling hell because I have dwelled on the negative. I haven't counted my blessings. I haven't seen the positives, the beauty of life, the miracles or the thousands of helping hands. So... I've grumbled and complained--and guess what?--the circumstances all got worse. Much worse.

One time when I had reached a real lowpoint, out of sheer desperation, I began to take daily Gratitude Walks. This was a 20 minute spiritual fast from negativity. I would start at my front door and begin to mentally list all the things that I was grateful for. At first it seemed like a big stretch to think of anything--"I'm grateful for legs that walk. I'm grateful I got to eat this morning. I'm grateful I haven't killed myself yet."

Then, slowly, my gratitude muscle seemed to get stronger. "I'm grateful for where I live. I'm grateful for a husband who loves me. I'm grateful my mom lives close and helps me with my son. I'm grateful for the sunshine. I'm grateful for clouds. I'm grateful for purple flowers."

You know... when you stop and look around there are things from the silly and mundane to the wondrous and miraculous to be grateful for.

And you know what else--every single time I've forced myself away from the negative and began to feast on the positive, my life improved. My marriage improved. My relationships improved. My house became cleaner and more organized. Even my bank account improved.

Which leads me back to my original question... and I honestly don't have answers. It's just one of the many things I ponder.

Oh, how I want to rant today. And you know what about... about fun. Because I think that fun gets a BAD rap.

Based on the divorce rate, the number of issues at schools, etc, I think families are in serious crisis.

Now...I have this theory, and it may be way off base, but here it is: part of the issue is that fun and leisure and pleasure are so judged and discarded by society as unimportant.

People don't spend time with their spouses, their kids, their neighbors, their friends just hanging out laughing. nope... it's all work, work, work. Dad's pulling overtime, Mom's pulling overtime, then on day's off it's work, work, work at home to catch up on all the things that didn't get done. And... geez... the billion activities some parents put their kids into. I've seen some families where the kids don't get any down time. They look exhausted.

All this running around makes humans eat junk food and fast food, which puts their bodies into some sort of crisis mode because they don't get the vitamins they need.

Emotionally they are defunked from dealing with one stress after the next.

And spiritually... well, heck... many churches don't seem to be about giving people something that lifts them up and gives them hope.

People aren't nourished... not spiritually, emotionally, physically, or mentally.

And don't get me started on the over-commercialization of holidays which leads to financial crisis and more stress and more work. When did we become a nation of more, more, more and never satisfied with anything?

It's more important to a child to sit for a parent to play a game of uno with them than to get the biggest, latest, most special, popular gadget on the market. It's more important for a husband and wife to sit out on the porch with a glass of wine and make out than to buy a new 60 inch flat-screen TV (which often they don't have time to use because they have to work more overtime to pay for it!)

But, nope... fun gets a bad rap. Relaxation gets a bad rap. Between our Internet, blackberries, cell phones, pagers, etc, etc... people are just on, on, on all the time. Working. Doing something that is urgent. There is no time left for quietness. No time left to play ball with your kids. No time left to have sex all afternoon.

I don't know why feeling good is looked on with such suspicion. I think people owe it to themselves this weekend to just RELAX. To talk. To read. To have fun with friends. To do creative projects at home and enjoy life.

Just my 2 cents..

Today has been scatterbrained. Kid lost his shoes, had to chase all over town to find them. On the good side...I FOUND my car keys. (WAHOO!) I really thought I'd lost them for good. They were--duh--in a jacket pocket.

The weather today was wonderful. Perfect. Fabulous. I walked a lot and just enjoyed the sunshine.

A friend emailed me this photo from a Halloween Party that we went to. We had a blast. Total riot.



Here's another photo of me dusting my husband, the pirate...

So glad my husband is BACK AT WORK today. He's had a miserable flu and I'm sucking down vitamins to prevent myself from getting sick. The kiddo was sick the week before. All of us went to bed last night at 7 or 8--just too tired to go any more.

Other news: My emailed crashed. My computer is dying. I've LOST my car keys... like, lost-lost them, not misplaced them. ARRRRRRRRRRRGH!

I have a recipe for Cold "Cure" Tea that I made this morning-wish I would have been able to make it 2 days ago:

1 lemon
1 orange
2 large cinnamon sticks
2 Tablespoons of cloves
1 can frozen concentrated apple juice
2 pieces of ginger the size of a man's little finger
10 cups water

Cut lemon and orange into slices. Boil lemon, orange, cinnamon sticks, and cloves for 30 minutes. Peal and slice the ginger and add it to the mixture--boil for 20 more minutes. Remove from heat and add the apple juice to sweeten.

I'm planning to slurp a ton of this over the next 3 days and give it to my husband too. It seems to help.