faboo mama

Dammit. I’m sick again. Now I have have a horrible cold. I hope it clears up before New Year’s Eve. I’m really looking forward to that night and watching the fireworks in our neighborhood. The next morning, I’d planned to take Ilia up to the Rose Parade and then have our yearly New Year’s Day brunch. That last I’m not to excited about. Especially if I’m still sick. We’ll see. Maybe I can use my illness as an excuse to uninvite people I didn’t want to come in the first place and still have the brunch. LOL…Horrible, I know, but you know when you invite people out of habit, rather than any real feeling for wanting to hang out with them? That’s what I did. And I’m looking at my list going why did I invite this person when I haven’t even seen him since ‘05? Or why is this guy invited when he just makes everyone else uncomfortable? And this lady just clings to me, even though she knows other people…maybe when I wake my nap I’ll have a solution.

I have to admit to being somewhat obsessed with reading Freecycle. I’m on 3 lists for my area, but just the major metro list by itself is fascinating. Since the admins maintain the list, it’s nowhere near as cluttered and headache inducing as craigslist. But that in no way takes away from the items offered and requested. Unlike most craigslist respondents, the Freecycle people have been prompt in replies and reliable in pick-ups.

Lately, I noticed the requests have gone from simple to completely outrageous, and assumed it’s a Christmas thing, . The first week of December, there were 7 different requests from one list for brand new laptops. I have a laptop that I don’t use and it cost me a pretty penny. The laptop is two years old. That makes it completely unacceptable to the people asking for laptops. They were specific in “no more than 6 - 12 mos. old” or “less than a year old”. Not that I’m getting rid of my laptop or anything.

There this was this:

My old Kenmore machine conked out on me and I need replace it. I’m looking for a Whirlpool Duet front-loading machine. Preferbly teh high capacity one.

I looked up that machine. It retails at $1400. Granted, not as expensive as some of the laptops requested, but still.

Asking about, it seems that the people who posts their request only do it because, it’s LA. Ms. Perez, who was looking for appliances asked, “Where but this city, will people throw out perfectly good items just because it doesn’t work in their house or they’ve remodeled?” I can attest to that. In my previous neighborhood, there was a house for sale. I went to see this place and the owners had completely remodeled the kitchen, brand new appliances and cabinets. The place sold in 3 days. Two months later, taking a walk I saw all those brand new appliances, cabinets and tile on the curb. There was a sign on the fridge that said, “free”. It turns out that the new owners wanted a bigger kitchen that looked more Spanish and less Ikea (fair enough). One year later, I saw a $4K stove sitting on the curb outside the house awaiting pick up from a craigslister. Turns out, they and their housekeeper didn’t like having to clean the stainless steel stove and chose a very nice $6500 vintage stove.

I emailed Hamza about his request for a brand new laptop. Actually, Hamza’s request was very specific. He wanted a Toshiba and it had to have certain programs already loaded on it. He was very specific as to where he was willing to go to pick up the item. Hamza emailed me back explaining that he was starting college in January and needed the laptop for school, which explains the software request. He limited it to under a year old because he didn’t want to deal with a machine that could break soon and he was told that nuking the hard drive of an older machine would take too long. He limited the location because he doesn’t drive.

Janine wants an iPod. She got a two $100 gift cards for iTunes, but doesn’t have a player. Well, she has an mp3 player, but says she can’t use iTunes on her PC without an iPod. Janine’s sister talked her into posting on Freecycle. Seems Janine’s sister lives by the philosophy “it can’t hurt to ask” and posted repeatedly asking for vintage designer clothes. She had seen a purse on eBay that was listed at $100 and sold for close to $300, way outside her budget. She posted a request on Freecycle for the same or purse. In 3 days not only did she get a similar purse, but from the same person she received more 1940s - 1960s era handbags, shoes, clothes and accessories. Turns out her “angel” was cleaning out his mom’s old storage unit and it was full of clothes and accessories. He couldn’t afford the time for a yard sale and wasn’t interested in listing them online at eBay or craigslist. He cleared out the storage unit in two days and she told me that she got most of it.

An then there’s Heather. Heather first came to my attention last year, as she was requesting everything for a new residence. I mean everything, from a sofa to a TV, towels to dishes. I gave her a box of dishes, a phone and a lamp and spoke to her then. She was moving in with her boyfriend and he had CDs and a twin bed. That was it. Then I noticed this summer Heather was getting rid of a lot of stuff, everything. The relationship didn’t work out and she moved back home. Recently, on a completely different list, she started offering up stuff again. Her mom decided to move to a different state, leaving Heather to clean up the house. She already signed up for Freecycle in her new state to help her mother replace the stuff that didn’t make the move.

It’s obvious that in the past 4 years, Freecycle has filled niche for those of us with too much stuff and those of us with too little money. I certainly hope that the people really needing items get what they need and I’ll continue reading to see if I have anything to offer. Because the best thing about Freecycle is knowing that your item will be put to use and not filling up a dump somewhere.

Whoa…I’m sorta in shock here. AP is reporting she was killed in a suicide blast.

RAWALPINDI, PAKISTAN — Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto died today from injuries sustained in a suicide attack, a party aide said.

“At 6:16 p.m. she expired,” said Wasif Ali Khan, a member of Bhutto’s party who was at Rawalpindi General Hospital.

A senior military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment, confirmed that Bhutto had died.

I wonder how this will effect the upcoming elections in Pakistan.

NYT has a bit more information:

Witnesses said Ms. Bhutto was fired upon at close range before the blast, and an official from her party said Ms. Bhutto was further injured by the explosion, which was apparently caused by a suicide attacker.
{snip}
CNN reported that witnesses at the scene described the assassin as opening fire on Ms. Bhutto and her entourage, hitting her at least once in the neck and once in the chest, before blowing himself up.

I’ll never understand exactly why the GOP field of candidates always has to have a hunting photo-op. Is this supposed to make them more manly? Do GOP voters think, “Gee, that guy took down that bear in 2 shots…He’d be great negotiating trade with Bolivia!”? If that’s the case, then my departed Grandfather would have made a terrific president…well before he became a preacher, that is. ;P My grandfather was a huge hunter. Judging from the heads on his wall and the packed freezer, I think the only animals he didn’t hunt was reptiles. Still…I fail to see how this proves any credentials for the presidency.

Is it like a “he’s a person” sort of thing? If that’s the case, I’d be much more impressed to see these guys go into a grocery store with $100 and have to feed a family of 4 three healthy meals in a week. And do it under an hour…because you got drop off the dry cleaning and pick up the kids from school. After that, I want to see them get the 7 yearold car tuned up, do 4 loads of laundry, help 2 of the kids with homework, cook dinner and put the kids to bed. Before 9pm.

For whatever reason, Mike “I’m huntin’ wabbits” Huckabee (you must click for the sheer Elmer Fudd-ness of the image) did his prerequisite hunting photo-op today, naturally mocking Romney as that seems to be his latest gag. He said:

“Maybe it will show that I certainly understand the culture of being outdoors,” he said of the expedition. “It’s not something we had to go out and get a primer in. It’s very much ordinary to me.”

Still not quite an explanation on how this qualifies him for the presidency. Look, Cheney hunts in privately stocked enclosures for “sport” and shoots a guy in a face. I’m sure at one time he was brave enough to actually be out in the open with the evil grimace of a possum staring him down, but it’s clear those days are long gone. Does shooting fish in a barrel make him more presidential? Or was it the shooting a man in the face and having the victim apologize?

More importantly, why don’t Democratic voters insist their candidates take the time out for a hobby or sport to show how they’re keepin’ it real? Why don’t we feel the need to watch our candidate do something most of us don’t do to prove they’re qualified to lead? Do Democratic voters (those few that seem to pay attention, that is) actually look at the candidates goals and background in making a decision?

Every election season, the papers are always printing random pointless photos of candidates tossing some kind of ball. Then the men with the microphones, who were probably raised only to play golf or tennis, dissect the photo as if something important can be gleaned from a nanosecond caught on film. As if we should care.

Maybe what we should do is have our candidates do some kind of DDR battle for the nomination. Scratch all the debates (there’s only like 4 million of them left) and get Microsoft and Gameworks to sponsor a debate. And next October, instead of having the 3rd debate, the eventual party nominees have to go up against this guy:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1XwpsMCFtU&rel=1]

That would speak to me.

Late last night, I got roped into watching the incredibly horrible and ad-infested 100 Greatest Songs of the 90s on VH1. I entered on song #42 which was Shine by Collective Soul. Ugh. That song still gives me a rash. It just sucked so hard and I remember my friends (at the time) loved it. All I knew was that at the time if you were white guy with long hair, could strum a guitar and amp up the feedback, then the image-makers would toss a flannel on you and call you ‘grunge’. More than a few people bought into it.

Considering that song was 42, you’d think the remaining 41 would actually be better than such a horrible song. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. There was probably about 10 good songs in the top 40. Many of them weren’t even the best song by that particular artist. In the same neighborhood were many other one hit wonders like the craptastic Spin Doctors, Color Me Badd (we learned that the guy with the freaky eyebrows is now a largish middle-aged guy who runs a tire business in Oklahoma and you can just “Color him Dadd”. He said it.), and Hootie & the Blowfish. What I would really like to do is go through each of these songs and dissect them. Some of them only reach their status because of their videos or a cute person singing them.

Looking through this list, reaffirmed why I gave up being a DJ, left the music industry and stopped listening to the radio. It was a culmination of gangsta rap, bands like Bush, Tool and Third Eye Blind for driving me from the radio. The uprising of the boy bands and teenybopper girls singing about sex sealed it. I had long thought rap was too gimmicky, preferring The Cure or L7 to DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. Suddenly, I was a DJ and introduced to rap groups I had never really been exposed too; KRS-One, Pharcyde, A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul and was force fed crap like Tupac or Snoop. I don’t car about your car, how much ass you get, how much you smoke or any of that crap. Music can transcend and impart knowledge. So Mos Def would give us a quick history lesson over a mad beat or we could have been bored to tears over the pathetic life of a banger. We got a choice of Pearl Jam singing a heartfelt songs on social ills or Sublime affecting horrible rap/reggae to talk about drugs. Yay.

I started wondering what my Top 100 songs of the 90s would be. To be sure, some songs that I would never buy or willfully listen to would be there. I can appreciate a song that introduces something new to the art. I can appreciate that someone that I detest can be influential to other artist. I can appreciate what, in the grand scheme of things, is a pretty dumb song but does in fact have a great beat and some pretty dope lyrics.

Take Dr. Dre’s Nuthin’ but a “G” Thang. The first time I heard the song, there were some serious eyerolls. Me and my rap listening friends were stunned, “Are you kidding me? They’d play this crap on the radio and ignore Low End Theory?” What the shit is that? Then we listened again. The song really doesn’t say anything, but the beats are awesome. You gotta admit that back then any rap song that could get suburban raised white girls up on tables trying to be OGs is pretty influential. That was also our introduction to Snoop Doggy Dog. Besides his laid back flow (which, despite the fact that I think he sucks lyrics-wise, is just one of the best styles in rap), you were guaranteed never to forget his name. And when that beat dropped back and you heard:

Fallin’ back on that ass, with a hellified gangsta lean
Gettin’ funky on the mic like a ol’ batch o’ collard greens
It’s the capital S, oh yes I’m fresh, N double-O P
D O double-G Y, D O double-G, ya see
Showin’ much flex when it’s time to wreck a mic
Pimpin’ hoes and clockin’ a grip like my name was Dolomite
Yeah, and it don’t quit
I think they in the mood for some muthafuckin’ G shit
(Hell yeah) So Dre… (Whattup Dogg?)
Gotta give ‘em what they want (What’s that, G?)
We gotta break ‘em off somethin’ (Hell yeah)
And it’s gotta be bumpin’ (City of Compton!)

You knew that gangsta rap, for better for worse (mostly worse), was on the map. And in the process, effectively killed grunge (with a little help from a heady backlash against grunge in Seattle at that the time). All of a sudden, all those rich, white boys I went to school with, who blasted their Pink Floyd, Metallica and Nirvana, started getting G’d up. They went from having to watch The Wall every other Saturday night, to watching Friday every night. Guys who got nervous going into middle-class neighborhoods after 2pm, were acting like living in the same region as South Central gave them some kind of street cred. To top it all off, this was also the same year Wu-Tang released Enter the Wu giving us hardcore rap too. (Strangely, not one song from this record made it to the the VH1 list, but Sir Mix-A-Lot’s Baby Got Back is #6.) As much as I love Soundgarden and Mudhoney, there was no way any grunge band could compete with the energy on Enter the Wu.

In the early 90s, I was also stuck on trance-infused British bands like The Happy Mondays, Blur, Stone Roses, Jesus Jone and Pop Will Eat Itself. The lyrics, once again were sometimes drug-riddled and often didn’t make sense, but the music was brilliant. Take the Stereo MCs song Connected. British hip-hop, infused with a danceable beats…I can still listen to this song everyday and never get tired of it:

Then the mid-90s arrived and not only did we get the awesome jazz-heavy Blowout Comb album from Digable Planets, and who can forget the first time they heard The Fugees drop Vocab or Nappy Heads? The Score is still a mind-blowingly awesome record too. Baduizm from Erykah Badu was released in ‘97. I still listen to songs off that record every day. The Roots put out back-to-back records in ‘96 and ‘97 and won a Grammy. Neither artist was on the VH1 list.

Obviously, the mid-90s was very good for non-mainstream music. We spent a lot of that time hitting clubs in LA just to see Jurassic 5 or Ozomatli as often as possible…Lots of bands from the 80s released some pretty good records, but then ‘98 hit and all hell broke loose. While the rest of America was steeping themselves in what I call Frathouse Rock those of us desperate for good music were rewarded artistically brilliant albums from groups like Black Star, Morcheeba (Big Calm), Massive Attack (Mezzanine). Mos Def dropped Black on Both Sides in ‘99. That was also the same year half of Wu-Tang Clan dropped solo projects. Sadly, that was also the year we were inflicted with the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears and N’Sync.

Ricky Martin also released his (second) self-titled album, though I believe it was his first English-language record. I must admit, I found it hilarious to watch people acting as if they discovered Martin just because they liked a song that was in English. To me, that showed the sad state of the ghettoization of music in America. La Copa de la Vida was a great song when it was in Spanish the year the before. My kids both love it and sing it all the time.

When you look at that VH1 list, and just think about all the songs that came out in the 90s, it’s hard to understan
d what exactly was the criteria. Yes, my choices above are heavy on hip-hop, but can you seriously tell me that Snow’s Informer was a much better song than Mos Def’s Ms. Fat Booty? Are one hit wonders like Meredith Brooks, Fiona Apple or Joan Osbourne better artists than Erykah Badu? And where the hell is all the Country music? Country came into it’s own in the 90s and crossed over in a big way. Let me tell ya, when I’m going line dancing before a Tribe Called Quest show, that’s some serious cross-overness and I hate Country music. Am I seriously to believe that Billy Ray Cyrus and Shania Twain are the best Country could offer to the list? Why is what seems like 85% of the list dedicated to one hit wonders?

I know that lists like these are always debatable. I get that. But how am I supposed to take this list seriously when George Michael’s Freedom only gets to 102? Come on! Not only are the lyrics inspiring and the music great, but that video…Lip-syncing supermodels. To that song. That’s some devastating brilliance right there.

So I just looked up the forum board on Vh1’s site regarding this. Seems to me that other people are mentioning the same thing; there are a lot of good solid artists missing from the list. I just went on a minirant at my husband about how Boyz II Men was inexplicably not on the list. Others on the forum board had the same thought.

Here’s a list of some of the other bartists people were asking about:
Bone Thugs ‘n’ Harmony’s The Crossroads
Guns N Roses’ November Rain
Smashing Pumpkins
Coolio’s Gangsta Paradise
Stone Temple Pilots
Rage Against the Machine
Faith No More’s Epic
No Doubt’s Don’t Speak

As one poster put it:

I don’t know who voted, but it certainly wasn’t music fans.

That’s for damn sure.

This whole stupid flap over his dad marching with King could have been put to sleep if Romney would just not talk. For those of you lucky enough not to see this, media entities have been writing on this as if it’s news and/or interesting. Romney said:

During his recent speech on faith, the former Massachusetts governor told his audience how he had witnessed his father, George Romney, marching with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Romney repeated the claim that his father, who was the governor of Michigan from 1963 to 1969, had marched with King on NBC’s Meet the Press last weekend, growing emotional as he discussed his own reaction when he learned that Mormon leadership had decided to allow black people to participate fully in church rites. (CNN).

Awwwwww…sounds like somebody like Black people. I’m still not voting for your pandering ass Romney. But this is Romney, so you knew there was a lie in there somewhere. The media–that almost useless entity that couldn’t be bothered with fact-checking shrubya’s campaign claims, flat-out fairy tales on WMD, made only a passing reference to the Plame scandal and who seems to be okay with letting telecoms have retroactive immunity to illegally spying on Americas–they diligently researched (gasp!) Romney’s claims and (yawn) found them to be a lie.

But historical evidence, including news accounts at the time, shows that George Romney never marched with King, though he supported King’s agenda.

Susan Englander, assistant editor of the Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Project at Stanford University, who is editing the King papers from that era, told the Globe yesterday: “I researched this question, and indeed it is untrue that George Romney marched with Martin Luther King.”(BG)

So Romney lied. Again. He’s a Republican politician. It’s what they do.

Ah, but Romney is an attention seeking ego-maniac. Quick to show the world how utterly brilliant he is, he always manages to make more of a mess than before. For example, his explanation for the above lie:

“If you look at the literature, if you look at the dictionary, the term ’saw’ includes being aware of in the sense I’ve described,” Romney told reporters in Iowa. “It’s a figure of speech and very familiar, and it’s very common. And I saw my dad march with Martin Luther King. I did not see it with my own eyes, but I saw him in the sense of being aware of his participation in that great effort.

|:-/

A figure of speech.

I don’t know who that’s supposed to impress, but I’m thinking maybe Romney should take some remedial English courses.

“I’m an English literature major. When we say, ‘I saw the Patriots win the World Series,’ it doesn’t necessarily mean you were there,” he said.

Oh he was an English major. Okay

Did you catch that sample sentence though?

Sports fans will know why that’s such a stupid and funny statement. Let me tell you, that says all I need to know about Romney, the non-marching English major.

I had never seen Las Posadas before and I thought the kids would be fascinated.

First off, let me address the City of LA…Yeah, in regards to parking near Olvera St. Would it be possible to have something affordable? And know-it-alls, it was $14 to park at Union Station, so don’t tell me to walk. YesmI should have gone with my original plan of taking the train from So. Pasadena over there, but we were running late and if we had, we would have missed everything. Besides, even if we snagged a spot in the full lots ($6), then it would actually cost us more to take the bus/train. So that’s that…better parking near Olvera St.

Okay, so we got there a little late. We missed all the dancers. The Folklorico dancers were cleaning up when we got there. Ilia loves Folklorico dancers. I did find out that the bandstand gets turned into a HUGE nativity scene:

Nativity scenes freak me out. Much like clowns or mimes for some people…that’s nativity scenes for me. The bigger and more life-like, the weirder I feel…I find them kind of sacrilegious. Don’t ask me why. At any rate, I must admit that was impressive. The level of detail in the entire scene is awesome. I snapped quite a few photos from different angles, but haven’t uploaded them.

No one could explain to me who these people were and what they did. I’m like, “Why are you taking pictures of them?” “Because they’re posing.” Oy.

And just like in the Bible there were burros and Santa:

Okay, I’m being snarky. The Santa was pretty funny, he was probably like 20 and most kids were hep to what was going on. We were walking behind a dad and his two girls and one of the little girls said, “Ho! Ho! Ho!” and the Santa looking up and Ho’d back at her, she then said, “Ho? HoHoHOHo?” The dad turned and looked at her like she lost her mind, me and Santa are laughing and I said, “Oh great! Your daughter speaks Santa.” Some other guy said, “Yeah, you should be so proud of her being bilingual. Do you call her The Santa Whisperer?”

I already mentioned in a previous post how I had never seen the Church before. We walked around a bit and came up this:

Thousands and thousands of flowers and candles. All that vegetative stuff there? Those are bouquets.

A different viewpoint:

All that on floor are candles. I guess they take them out the church at the end of the day. There were 6 altars (is that the right word?) full of candles in the church courtyard. I was trying to explain this whole thing to Ilia, but I’m not Catholic or Mexican, so it was sketchy at best, pulling from what I remember friends telling me. DH was useless, as every answer was, “How the hell am I supposed to know? I just went to Catholic schools!” Yes, from elementary school through college. You’d think he’d picked up something.

The candlelight procession started at 7:30, so we used the extra time to window shop. Man, I found a bunch of stuff I really, really want and it was dirt cheap. There was a poncho that I just adored. $20. A mask that I seen selling for $85 in a shop over on La Brea was $13 here. But wait! The procession is beginning!

Pretty neat, huh?

I was just looking through my Sitemeter and saw that someone found my block by searching “fine-assed black women”.

Yeah…my blog is number one.

???

BWHAHAHAHAHAHA…you have to search to see what pops up.

OMG…I never shared the horror that was this “event”. I use the term lightly as it was just not well thought out. Okay, it wasn’t that bad, but damn…you’d think that the people putting this together have never gone anywhere before. It was practically insulting. All the typical stuff was touted: Food! Music! Toys! Snow!

Yep.

Snow.

In LA.

Now, this could be a good thing, like Arrowhead’s exhibit at the Fair this summer, real snow coming down. Or it could be bad. Like The-Grove-soap-bubbles-snow-bad. This was bad in dirty-gutter-3-days-after-a-snowstorm-bad.

The event started at 3pm. We got there around 6pm. It was to end around 8pm. When we arrived at “the snow”, we found it be a 20′ wide enclosure (enclosed by old tires stacked 2 high), guarded by what looked to be two old vatos. There were about 60 kids, ages 1 - 57 slipping and sliding all along the ice…I mean snow. Needless to say, this was little more than packed slush at the time. It was utterly and completely disgusting. Naturally, Ilia just had to be there. I was shaking my head in disbelief, mouth agape. Ilia was whining and crying. We were standing about 10′ away from “snow” and had to dodge projectiles hurtling at our heads at 75mph. Ice chunks. I actually almost dove to protect Alton from one that luckily landed about a foot short of his stroller. There was no way in hell I was getting on that ice…I mean “snow” and there was surely no way my kid was going to participate in that. My logic…the “snowbank” at the Arrowhead exhibit was packed ice in a box 3′ above the ground (with no railings, I might add). That box was 10′ by 20′ and kids were throwing ice around. Ilia got hit and started to cry. Yeah, like I’d willing go through that drama again.

So we started walking around. We saw this table and realized they were giving out toys. There were three tents with two tables each, so that means each booth was at least 12′ - 20′ wide. Each tent was broken into 3 age groups. We sat there looking at the booth for 5 minutes. Exactly 3 kids got toys. Meanwhile, the line grew:

Yes, it’s a crappy photo, but I’m doing this as a service!

Of course, the little girl wanted to stand in the non-moving line for some 99 Cents Store toys. More tears and drama raged. In the meantime, Alton had decided that he was mad at me and didn’t want me to look at his pig:

He’s clasping his pig under his hand. I had to deal with these looks for almost 2 hours.

Oh the food? Yeah…there were donuts, churros, pan dulce, hot cocoa, and weak coffee. HUNGRY! And since we got there two hours before the thing was to end most of that was gone too. They did have booths for the kids to decorate an ornament or cupcake and to write a letter to Santa. The Santa booth was shut down by the time we got there. They ran out of cupcakes by the time we got there and 3 of the 4 ornament decorating booths were out of everything but pipe cleaners and confetti. Nice. But there was one beacon of hope…the face painting booth was still open AND still had paints. We stood in line for 10 minutes. It was worth it:

Everyone else was getting Christmas trees, snowmen or Santa painted on them. She chose a butterfly. It matched her jacket. She wouldn’t wash her face for two days. I had to sneak in while she was sleeping with a wipe.

As promised, there was music. Unfortunately, there were no chairs and the stage was sorta pushed off to the side, almost as an afterthought. Oh well, no one should have to suffer through I Will Survive…en Español.

So, that’s how we spent 40 minutes of Dec. 18th on Huntington Dr. in El Sereno. This was the 2nd Huizar’s Winter Wonderland (that’s actually some clever alliteration there). I’ll assume my councilman (Huizar) showed up and gave a speech. I am very curious as to how the event was planned and who paid for it. It really could have been a lot a better, especially if it had been planned early enough. I think I’d like to volunteer to be on the planning committee if possible.

So this is what I did yesterday:

From a different angle:

My arms, back, legs and eyelashes hurt! My right hand is cramped into the shape of a shovel handle. Fun. But I’m excited. I cannibalized my backyard. It’s looking a little bare, but the plants that really need sun in the winter are finally getting it.

Here’s what I planted in this bed:
Tibouchina (Princess Flower) - Has been in a pot since Aug. and needed a home
Nassela (Mexican feather grass) - This was in the backyard along the fence, but it needs more air circulation…nice in the wind
Dwarf mondo grass - those tiny green sproutlets you see.
Sage (Honey Melon) - it smells like pineapple, so go figure on that name.
Teucrium (germander) - I bought 3 of these last year for their silvery color. The other two are in the backyard. One is 4′ by 3′ and the other is 4′ by 4′. This one is still the same size as when I first planted it back in April. I’m getting it some sun.
Cycad (sago palm) - I got this for Adrian because he said he wanted one. Then it kept poking him so now he hates it. It does hurt. Siting was a PITA because of the sharp spines and small yard.
Liriope - Two clumps taken from the backyard. Nice spreading plant with pretty purple flowers.
Cyperus papyrus - Anothe from the backyard. I bought 3 of these, one went crazy. The other two are barely pulling their weight. This is a part of one of the sad ones.
Dwarf Brazilian banana - I cut this from our banana plant in the back yard and planted it along the driveway, where it immediately stopped growing because it wasn’t getting any sun. Hopefully, it’ll be much better now.
Acanthus (bearss breech) - Super cool plant I fell in love with a few years ago. I bought two of these. One is in my backyard and it’s now about 6′ in diameter and 4′ tall. This one has been in a pot since I bought it in March. Let’s hope the summer sun doesn’t kill it.

That’s about it for that bed. On the house side of the front part, I put in some fortnight lilies I divided from the backyard and my strawberries, raspberries and blackberries will be planted there too. That way when we’re hanging out in the front yard, we’ll have snacks! (A lemon tree and grapes are going in the front yard too).

I hope I’m able to get my walkway in before New Year’s. That would be wonderful.