General update and bleh.

Haven’t really felt like posting until recently as mood and things started to pick up again, finally. In no particular order, the recent stuff:

Went to Ashcombe’s on Saturday with Matt & his mom. We specifically went to pick up our seed potato for the field, as the field is finally tilled. We bought just over 400lb of seed potatoes: 150 Kennebecs, 150 Yukon Golds, 100 Red Norland, 20 All Blue, and 20 Irish Cobblers. I’m also going to buy some samplers of some more exotic stuff online to supplement us up to about 500lb total. Yep, lots of potatoes.

But of course when you go to Ashcombes you have to buy other things, too, so I came out with two pots of Iris Reticulata for half off, a new pot, a few food items, a couple garden implements, etc.

Rock-picking ensued when we got home, then the guy down the road is going to come back and till the field again, after which we will have more rock picking, plowing and planting.

I also got the onions in my veggie bed this weekend, total: 97. Peas are planted, and I hope to get the lettuce, arugala, kale, and spinach in this weekend.

Matt is off all week due to a recent job switch. He will be working for Suburban out of their Gettysburg office, which is really nice and closer to home. No more Frederick hell. He’s taking a bit of a pay cut, but he still gets to use a company vehicle so we’re not paying for gas for the truck for him to drive to the other side of Gettysburg and back every day. So that’s something. And there is room for advancement for him, too.

I also did some work on the computer on Sunday. Matt and I had our taxes done on Thursday, and I took the opportunity to talk to our tax person about accounting and the impending small business venture, and what she said thoroughly confused the hell out of me. Silly me, I thought all I’d have to worry about was money in vs. money out, but apparently it doesn’t work that way. My supplies (clasps, beads, etc) and inventory (finished jewelry) also count as assets, and since I’m a start-up and usually start-ups start with a $0 balance, I really don’t know what to do about all my accumulated ‘stuff.’

So I went to the Kutztown’s Small Business Development Center (SBDC) website, because I know they have free online business classes, and lo they do have an Accounting 101 class available. So I worked on that on Sunday getting not quite half way through it. And you know, it’s kind of interesting and not painful at all. I’ll be taking a few more classes from them as needed.

One other thing I did on Sunday was get all my finished jewelry together (minus the stuff in my jewelry box) and lay it out and take a good look at it. I’d never really done this before. When I had my ‘consultation’ with David the Potter last week, he talked about having ‘art’ pieces versus having ‘bread and butter’ pieces. The former are the truly unique, time consuming pieces you charge a mint for. The latter is what pays the bills. This is the basic strung beaded jewelry.

Looking at my spread I can see the difference, but I still don’t know which direction I truly want to go: art/unique stuff or ‘basic stringing’ stuff. I like to do both. And I was sitting there trying to force myself into one category or the other, but I did realize that it will come with time, one or the other. Or a bit of both. Just my impatience and tendency to want to categorize everything.

But I did really wonder if I have enough stuff to do a gallery show at his place in May or June like he offered me. Maybe the end of the summer, but in 2 months? I just don’t know.

Went out for pizza and shrimp poppers at our pizza-joint-of-choice. Really hit the spot.

Tonight we go to Edward Jones for a consultation and such on our money outlook and future. Since Matt is switching jobs we are taking this opportunity to mainly do something with his existing 401(k), but also getting the ball rolling on really planning out our retirement. I did not know that a consultation with Edward Jones is FREE!! Free, for gods sake. So this should be fun.

And in one other side note, this is not who I want running the country, and especially I don’t want to be lectured about health care and fiscal responsibility from this person. Ready on day one? Yeah, right.

Just stuff

Recent events and such:

Matt's grandma Mary V. went in for her cochlear implant surgery last Thursday and is doing well. She said she had a plastic thing around her head and ear, so Matt and I joked that she had an elizabethan collar on to keep her from licking her stitches. She won't actually get the hearing aid part of the implant for a month.

Still have heard nothing about the fed job, except that they got my application. This is normal, it sometimes takes weeks or longer.

I went up to Ashcombes greenhouses on Saturday to reconoiter and get a few things, including 3 bags of mushroom soil and a pot of white grape hyacinths for Mary V. They smell wonderful. I had a bill over $100 so I know I got more but I can't remember what. Oh, three packs of seeds and 5 peanut butter orgasm cookies. And a quiche. And a fern. And a pot that biodegrades after 5 years. And two bags of coarse sand. And other stuff.

Then I went home and took a glorious 3-hour nap. It was a great, dead to the world nap. Then Matt got called out on a leak call and I got to go with him. It was interesting, nothing really exciting except we got the chance to talk a bit. He's looking for another job, too. Again.

I'm bummed that Hillary did so well in the primaries last night, but I still think Obama's going to take it. I really thought Obama would take Texas.

I have seeds started inside: the romaine and butterhead lettuces, a tomato, some kale, moonflowers and marigolds. Middle of the month I start the broccoli inside and the sugar snap peas outside. I still have a lot of work to do outside before that happens, and I'm hoping for a couple nice weekends and a nice Wednesday morning next week so I can get some of this done. If not, I may take a day off the next nice day to do the work.

My arm stick is doing well, I have no twinges of pain or anything. I also haven't had any of the in-between spotting they warned me about. I also haven't had my monthly cycle at all, which does not thrill me like it would other women. Women are supposed to have periods.

Max is well, he's in sore need of a haircut and I'll do it after I get the peas in. We got the first tick of the season off him this weekend.

And that's about it!