Today has been homeowner day, with a few surprises.

Dave and I spent most of the afternoon out in the yard, pretending to know what we are doing.  We have 4 Azalea bushes in the front yard.  Until today, we actually thought we only had three because two of them had grown into each other.  But once we started hacking into them, uh, I mean pruning them, we found out we have 4!  These bushes have looked like crap for most of the year we've lived here.  Even our landscape guy said that they had outlived their useful lives and should be removed.  And THEN this spring, they turned into huge spasms of pink and white.  It happened almost overnight!  They were gorgeous!  So we figured these things are worth saving.  The Garden Lady in the local newspaper said that Azaleas can be aggressively pruned, so we got mean and went out there and cut those bad boys back.  They should have better leaves now and not look so scraggly when they are not blooming.

Dave also spent some time attacking the ivy growing up our trees.  He was actually hacking at it with an ax.  Friends, we have spent a lot of time going after this ivy.  A little ivy is nice, but this stuff is out to take over our yard and trees.  The stuff he was going after has grown 40 FEET up a pine tree.  It looks evil. 

I went after the weeds in our new vegetable garden.  I'm very excited about the garden!  We had fresh veggies growing up, and I am very excited to see what comes of this garden.  So far, not so good.  At one point, we had ONE carrot growing in the carrot patch.  None of the spinach made it, and a cantalope plant lived for exactly 6 hours before it killed itself.  I decided today to replant the "pole beans"--these are southern green beans.  Don't ask me why there is a need for southern green beans, but pole beans are the rage around here. None of the first planting made it, so I thought I should try again before it is too late.

So, when I opened the packet to replant them, I noticed that 1) I had to open the packet to *re*plant them and 2) I didn't recognize the seeds. I don't think I actually planted them the first go round!  I've been inspecting the little area where the pole beans are supposed to be growing for weeks.  Squatting down four inches above the dirt trying to find a pattern among the weeds, and I don't think I ever planted anything there! These seeds are big.  I'm hoping they'll sprout right out and grow now.

Those are today's homeowner's adventure.  The massive surprise for today occurred when I was pruning the Azaleas.  A man comes jogging by, looks at me and says "Are you Anita from Carolina?" I'm like "Yeah" wondering how on earth this guy new I went the Chapel Hill (it is more likely that someone in Los Angeles would know that fact than someone in Charlotte). He says "I'm Jeff P., I live 3 doors down from you.  We had the same major." 

Now for this to be truly impressive, you should know that Chapel Hill had 25,000 students when I went there.  There were FIVE(5!!!) people in my major there. FIVE!  He was ONE OF THEM!!  I met two women when I was in Los Angeles who lived in the same dorm as I did at the same time and we didn't even know each other.  Now, here's one of the people from UNC that I actually knew, one of the few of my (bizarre) kind, living 3 doors down from me.  And he runs marathons!!  How weird is that?

I should be heading to power yoga at exactly this moment. But once again, I'm blowing it off.  Next week.  I promise.

4:26:32 PM