Over the River and Through the Woods

Today begins leg 2 of my cross country road trip to visit my baby sister. I am heading up and over to Minnesota to spend time bugging my sister who is away at college and I couldn't be more excited.

Road Trip 2009...we visited every single college on the east coast

Leslie is ten years younger than me, which, when I was growing up, was a heck of a big age difference between the two of us. I mean, as I was entering high school and focusing on boys, she was learning her colors and abc's. Then, I went moved away to college, graduate school, and got married all before she graduated from high school. So, we've never really been on the same page when it came to interests, life milestones, living in the same house, etc.

Road trip to NYC

Recently, though, we've gotten to know each other as adults and I must tell you - Leslie is a pretty awesome person. First, she is almost the spitting image of me. Not in the physical sense (she's 5 feet much taller than me) but in the every other sense.  Second, she's hilarious, intelligent, and kind...all my favorite qualities. Third, we communicate without speaking. It drives my husband nuts.

So, I plan on drinking lots of yummy coffee while chilling in a coffee shop for the next week with Leslie. People watching is a must, as is exploring the nooks and crannies on her super duper old and haunted campus.

The Garza Sisters circa 2006

Needless to say I won't be posting much for the next couple weeks...well, except for some sure to be awesome fall pictures of Minnesota and perhaps some new crazy sister pictures.

Running Away

When I was younger I ran away. Many times. You see, my parents wronged me often and running away was the surefire way to punish them and make them realize the error of their ways. Making me do more chores than my sisters, not allowing me to extend my bedtime even though I was old enough to stay up later, punishing me for something my sister did...they needed to be punished. And so I would write an angst-filled letter, leave it on my bed, and climb under my bed to hide and wait. 

Yes, I never really ran away - I was too scared.  But I wanted them to think I had run away for I knew that would work just as well. A healthy dose of fear would remind them how wonderful I was.  Unfortunately they never seemed to come looking for me. Perhaps it was because to a six year old 10 minutes under a bed felt like two hours or perhaps because when they send me to my room, they knew I was in my room and not slinging my bag over my shoulder and running away.  Whatever the reason, I always gave up, threw away the letter and went about the rest of the day like normal. 

Well, last week I ran away again.  I didn't run away from anyone but instead decided to hide from the stress and guilt and pressure and fear.  I didn't leave a note but I eventually gave up, unpacked my bags and resettled into my normal life.  That is why there wasn't a blog post in a week. That is why I ignored all the emails alerting me to nice comments people left. That is why I refused to read a single blog entry.  Instead, I spent time with my littlest sister and father. I ran away to Virginia and played games and ate delicious food and stole figs.  I laughed until I cried, practiced funny faces, and became a child again. 

I am home again after crawling out of my hiding spot, an adult once more, and I've unpacked my bags and re-faced the real world. Yes, I couldn't really run away - I am too scared. 

While hiding out in Richmond, I did visit the neighborhood Goodwill and found some wonderful things...I mean, who doesn't need a banana Halloween costume in July or a broken music stand? 

  We thought this chair looked like a butt. It was too tall to climb into a try it out, but I'm sure it was very comfortable. 

Listening to the ocean in Goodwill...who knew a sea shell was worth $4.50! At that price, we all took turns listening to the waves and then put it back.

I had never seen Apple Bottom jeans...my life mission is now complete.

And here is proof that Leslie is illegal (although we did coerce her to steal the figs)...

They were delicious!

It's nice to be home and I've missed you all!

Vacation Watering System

Summer is a time for vacations and for that I love summer.  Summer vacations, however, tend to bring up a lot of obstacles when you're new to a city and don't have any friends to casually leave your house keys with and ask that they water your plants a few times while you're gone. We just left on a road trip to see family and we had almost forgotten about the fact that we didn't have any of those old amazing friends we were so lucky to rely on for help.

Just a day before the big road trip did I remember our balcony container garden as well as my very loved houseplants.  The heatwave we've been having for the last three weeks worried me about how our plants would survive for ten days without water. I immediately went to google for some suggestions and learned that almost everyone alive has close friends to ask (at least that's what all the suggestions were on the message boards to those few loners who had no trusted friends, like us).

I guess the saying is true - necessity is the mother of invention.  Sitting down with my thinking cap, I came up with two ideas. The first was to fill empty bottles with water, stick them in the plants and allow the water to slowly moisten the soil.  I came up with this while remembering those self-watering bulbs you can buy for $10-$15 at garden stores. I decided to try it out and soon realized that, unfortunately, my idea was flawed. The opening of the beer bottle was too large and the water drained into the soil within a couple hours. That would not work with our ten day vacation coming up - we needed something that would slowly ensure that our plants were hydrated for at least a week or so.

Enter idea number two: fill the bathtub with water and place the plants on top of something that would wick the water from the bathtub into their soil.  I have a large variety of pots and plants and therefore a garden with a large amount of varying water needs. Some of the plants get upset with too much water - so I couldn't just dunk them in the tub of water.  Some other of our plants fear dehydration and beg for water constantly - so I had to ensure they'd be kept moist.

I ended up gathering up our baking dishes and placing them upside down in the bath tub.  I filled the tub until the water was slightly above some of the smaller baking dishes and not quite covering the other larger baking dishes.

I then covered them with a towel, making sure to drape the towel into the water between the baking dishes. I knew the towel would wick the water up and stay moist.

I carefully arranged our plants in the bathtub, placing them on the towel-covered baking dishes. The plants that love water I placed on the lower baking dishes that were covered while the plants that enjoy some drying out were placed on the higher dishes that were not submerged in water.

I also have a couple pots that don't have holes in the bottom. For them, I watered the soil extremely well and placed them on the edge of the tub hoping that the extra humidity from the water-filled bathtub would help them a little.

I've been keeping my fingers crossed that my plants will survive our vacation.  After starting many of them from seeds and taking in dying plants from friends and nursing them back to health I would hate to come home to a plant-less house.  I'll keep you updated on how this watering system worked, but until then, perhaps you could cross your fingers for us too?