Garden Check In

Benedick suggested that we make gardening and yard work a hobby. Most days, we're out working on the yard and garden for a couple hours after dinner. It actually has been a pretty fun way to spend the evenings. We are renting, so we can't do anything permanent. However, the owner is an older lady who recently went to live with one of her children. According to the neighbors, not much yard work was ever done; even mowing was rare. There are lots of large bushes in the back yard, grass growing over the walk and driveway, and vines covering the fence. There's a lot of work to do, and I'm excited to already see a difference.

Here's the garden after I first started working on it. It was really just one flower bed, with a sad rose bush in the middle.

I still have one side of the flower bed empty. I am regrowing lettuce and celery from the store, and will be planting it there. We dug up then added dirt to the area beside the flower bed. Our yard is on a sharp hill, but Benedick did a good job evening out the ground.  

Two days after I planted this, our dog managed to squeeze through the wire and the wall and dig up half the garden. In his defense, the dog who lived here before used to bury its toys in there. Doctor has found about half a dozen, and din't appreciate us covering up his toy box. I did my best to put it back together, but it will be interesting to see where some of the seeds ended up.

We also found these rocks scattered around the back yard. There was enough to go around one tree out front. There's one other tree out front; we're still working on relocating some tulips from the middle of the lawn to circle around it.

We've also started a compost bin. I'm excited to see how that will turn out. We still have a lot left to do, which will hopefully keep our evenings full for the rest of spring. 

-DearLadyDisdain

I will in the interim undertake 

one of Hercules' labours

Living Below The Line

Earlier this month, I saw an email in my inbox about living for less than $1.50 a day. I didn't look into it to much, but mentioned it to Benedick. He had gone 2 1/2 weeks in college, living on just $1 a day. That was almost 10 years ago. He rattled off his cheap staples, and couldn't believe when I told him that those prices had nearly doubled. Except for Ramen. Ramen is always cheap. I argued that when money was tight I used to spend $100-$120 a month, and that was including junk food. Surely I could go a month spending only $60 if I tried. If you buy in bulk, you can save so much  more than shopping week to week.

But if you're living in poverty, you can't buy a month's worth of groceries all at once. So you wind up spending more.

We talked about trying to go for a month, spending just $60 total. I would of course have to do a lot of cooking, but I thought we could do it. It would show that you need to have money at the end of the week to get ahead-even in something as simple as groceries.

While we were trying to figure out a good month to try the experiment  I read that email. They were encouraging everyone to try to live on $1.50 a day, for 5 days. Starting in 2 days. That seemed doable, so we decided to give it a try.

After discussing what would probably be the cheapest foods to buy, we headed to our regular grocery store: Aldi. We were pretty off about what we could even afford (no rice or beans, which most previous LBL bloggers ate)

I brought $15 cash, and was determined to not go over. Somehow I ended up miscalculating. But for some reason, there was no tax on what we bought. So this, plus counting oranges we had already bought, we spent $14.99.

We bought:

Bread

Eggs

Carrots

Oranges

2 boxes of pasta

2 cans of cream corn

(they were out of reg. corn, but it was the same price, so we're swapping out for one at home) 

Oatmeal

Mustard

Bologna

Green Beans

2 cans Spinach

Tomato Sauce

Honestly, it was a stressful experience. The store was a little more crowded than normal, and it took us much longer to shop. It was embarrassing, adding up the groceries, and negotiating what we could and couldn't afford. We had to choose between cheese for sandwiches, or vegetables for dinner. Should we get green beans or corn? Which has more calories? What are we going to put with the pasta? We couldn't afford rice. They didn't have any small boxes, and we couldn't afford the jumbo bag. It watched the screen as the cashier rang it up. When it came to $13.20, B(forgetting the oranges at home) asked if he should go get an extra can of beans. I added it up in my head and realized we couldn't afford it. I was so embarrassed that I told the cashier we were doing an eat for $15 competition. 

I think the most emotional part was remembering my mom shopping when I was younger. Trying to get by as a single mom, after losing a job, I remember her stressed, realizing it was too expensive. 

I nearly cried while making these decisions. We can't get peas, so get another corn. I could easily have said "forget this, I quit" and walked out of the store. But trying to decide if we can stretch out 1 box of noodles to 4 meals, and maybe if I add water, we can get 2 meals from the tomato soup was very humbling. I have a budget in mind when I go to the store. I don't have to stick to it. I don't know how I would manage working with that kind of stress every week. Or, if I would have had to pay sales tax, the embarrassment of putting something back. 

This experience has already taught me how lucky we are. I am sure I will learn much more as we actually try to eat bologna sandwiches every day. 

I really don't like this brand of eggs, but it was on sale! We also tried very hard to have veggies every day, and some meal variety.

Here's the meal plan for next week. I used to plan out meals, but haven't lately. I have never had so detailed a menu that counted down how many carrots (1 1/2) that we can have with lunch.

I'm hoping by posting this here, and on Facebook  I'll force myself to stick to this. It won't be anything close to actually living without enough to get by, but it will definitely be an educational experience.  

-DearLadyDisdain

he is a very valiant trencherman; 

he hath an excellent stomach.

Diamond Club Tickets

Being from St. Louis, I'm naturally a HUGE Cardinals fan. The Cards only play in DC once this season, so of course we had to go. After hearing how cheaply B's dad had gotten Diamond Club tickets, we decided it was worth it. We decided to go to the first 2 games of the 3 game series. I of course tried to research what we were in for ahead of time. If you're going to splurge on expensive seats, you don't want to seem like it was a splurge for you. I found one forum that gave a little info, but there wasn't much. So, if you're thinking about springing for Nats tickets in the Diamond Club, here are my tips.

What is Diamond Club?
Briefly, it's the section behind home plate, one level up from what you see on tv. The ticket price includes food and drinks and in-seat service.

How it works:
The center gate opens 2 1/2 hours before the game. They keep you just in center field, but you can catch home team batting practice. 1 1/2 hours before game time, all the gates open. This is also when the clubs open. You find your seats by following the normal signs. When you reach the diamond area, just go up to one of the staff and tell them it's your first time. They'll explain everything. But you scan your ticket in a machine in the wall. Then you will be given a wrist band and access to the club and your seat. I snapped some pics inside the club, but was trying to not be obvious.

There is a bar on one side, and buffet tables around the other sides. The gourmet type food seems to change each day, but there were a few standards. There's a hot dog bar, a candy bar, a table with peanuts and cracker jack (and popcorn).

MY TIPS:

1.) Don't buy from the team site.

Normally that's how I get my tickets, but B's dad told us he scored them for much cheaper on Stubhub. Single tickets online go for $170. We got ours for $139. Some people on the forum said they managed to get some on Craigslist for $80 a few days before a game. Once we got to the game, we found out some important information. There is a Diamond Club and a Diamond Lounge. The Lounge supposedly serves the same food, but it has NO field view. Only season ticket holders get access to the club. If you buy single tickets from the official site, you only get lounge access. The tickets we bought from Stubhub were season tickets, so we got club access.

2.) Tip well and upfront.

On the forums, people suggested tipping $5 for the first round, and decreasing each round, ending up tipping about $15. We planned on following suit, but we forgot cash, and had to use an ATM. That left us with $20 bills. One staff member will take your order while 2 or 3 others will deliver the food. You can either tip them individually, or tip one and ask them to split the tip. For the first game, we tipped $20 off the bat. We had excellent service the whole night. The next day, we were distracted by the game and didn't tip until the second inning. We weren't getting bad service before, but we certainly noticed a difference after the tip. One of the servers stopped by and told us thank you. He must have noticed B's drink getting low, because another server stopped by with a refill he didn't order. That annoyed the men behind us to no end, since they were waiting on the ones that had ordered. If you think about it, these tickets go for $170 a piece. There's no way the ballpark is going to employ bad servers. But it never hurts to be nice (or a good tipper) upfront. Also, if you're dropping that kind of money on a game, can't you afford to tip well too?

3.) Get served

It's part of the experience, so don't feel bashful getting served at your seat. Inside the club, you can request seating at a table in or outside the club. But there are also comfy chairs and cocktail tables where you can seat yourself. It's a buffet, so grab a monogrammed paper plate and load up. If you want to head out to your seats, you can bring your plate. Don't worry about trying to balance a drink too; a server will come take your order as soon as you sit down.  The servers came around about once an inning to take orders, so think ahead. You can get food from inside the club until the 5th inning. Servers will come around until last call. That's your last chance for food too. There's a menu at your seat too. When we went, it included jumbo hot dogs, burgers, chicken strips, loaded fries and old bay fries, nachos, soft pretzels, ice cream and salad. For drinks, there was 6 types of beer, 4 types of wine, Coke sodas, hot chocolate and coffee. You can get specialty and mixed drinks for $10 and $12.


4.) Use the club
Any time you're not in your seat, make sure your wrist band is visible. It was chilly when we went, so I ended up just fist bumping the air as I went in to drop my sleeve down. Plenty of people were ducking inside to warm up. A great perk of the club is member only bathrooms. That means almost no lines. You can duck inside between innings and not miss a thing. And if there is a line? They pipe in the broadcast, so you can here what's going on.

I definitely think the tickets were worth it. If you're used to paying well for the view, the price isn't much difference for the food. Considering how much the food fare usually is, not to mention all the time lost waiting in line, it's a huge convenience. I'm not saying I would go to a ton of games for $130 a pop (we only went to 2 games of the series). But if you want the ultimate-feel-like-a-big-shot experience, go for it. Heck, they even wipe down your patted seat before you sit down. If you take the metro, I guarantee, at the very least, you can drink your money's worth.

-DearLadyDisdain
Can the world buy such a jewel?

Doctor Who!

Hmmm what to write about today? There's really not a whole lot going on, but of course I feel like there is. I want to get my garden going, there's still tons to do for the website (mostly just cleaning items then photographing) There's always cleaning that could be done, and there are still a few boxes of odds and ends that haven't been unpacked yet. Tomorrow, I think I will tackle....my garden! I did a teensy bit today, but I didn't realize how late it was, and it got dark fast.

We have some random tulips growing in the front yard, and Bennedick suggested moving them around one of the trees. I took a pic of what it looks like now.

If you look to the left of the tree, you can sort of see the flowers. It looks like there used to be some mulch around the base of the tree, so the grass isn't quite as bad as it could be. I managed to get five bulbs transferred over, but still have tons more to do.

Hopefully tomorrow I can bring over the trellises and get the dirt mixed and loosened. If I have a good playlist going I may even get to planting the seeds!

But as for today's post, how about our adorable puppy, Doctor Who.

I really wanted a puppy, and convinced B to get me one for Christmas. He was a little unsure about getting a dog, so I agreed to let him pick out the name. He had just gotten back from deployment and had been on a kick of a British tv show called Doctor Who. I had seen a few episodes and thought it was pretty good, so I agreed to the name. 

There weren't any puppies listed on the pound's website, but we decided to go to make sure the facilities were clean and the dogs taken care of. While being shown around, we saw an adorable little of lab puppies. They were so cute! The lady told us that a local man never got his female lab fixed, though they had offered to do it for free, so a few times a year he'd bring in puppies. They had just been cleared that morning for adoption, so they weren't listed on the site. I saw one with cute little brown markings and we asked to see him. They took us to a play room to get introduced. The little guy was pretty interested in us for a minute, then he played with a toy, then got bored and decided to sleep. I fell in love with him and we brought him home. 

He was a little fluff ball of energy and so adorable. He was smart and thankfully was house broken in a few days. He did however, find the knob behind the toilet immensely amusing. Apparently if a puppy jumps on it, it will squirt out water. As he got bigger, people started asking where we got our purebred German Shepherd  including a man who ran the local shepherd rescue. He quickly passed what we thought would be the 50lb max for a lab mix.

So off to training we went. With a lot of work, he became much easier to handle, and passed his Canine Good Citizen test as well as the test to become a therapy dog. We decided to go with the therapy training after a friend came over with crutches, and Doctor instantly went to cuddle and lick her, while her own dog was terrified of the crutches. 

One day at the park, a man excitedly reacted to Doctor by calling him a "hovawart" The man had owned two when he was younger, but never saw them anymore. A quick Google search showed us that must be what our rescue was. We finally understood what is up with his crazy fur, and the personality traits of a hovawart fit him much better than those of a lab. 

Doctor is an amazing dog who didn't like to cuddle until he hit 40lb. Then he decided he was a lap dog. He also loves watching cartoons, which was a relief to discover while on a road trip  We left him alone in the hotel room while we went site seeing. We came back, hours later, to find his toys, food, and the hotel furniture untouched. He was laying on the bed, watching Nickelodeon. He also loves car rides and puddles. I don't think I could ask for a better dog. And I know I certainly couldn't buy one. I'll never understand why people spend hundreds or more on buying a pet. There are so many who need love in the shelters. If you want a specific dog, just take your time. One of that breed will probably show up sooner than you think. But the great thing about mutts is they have fewer health problems, since they aren't inbred to be "pureblood" I urge everyone to adopt rather than buy a dog. 

And so does Doctor Who

-DearLadyDisdain

 I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me.

Weekend Recap

It's Monday again. What a busy weekend! On Friday night we finally got our taxes done! I don't know why I always put it off, it's so easy with H&R Block. This year it cost us $330! But they found that while we were in transition of moving, Benedick's company had put in the wrong state for taxes, and we were owed $300 from that state alone! So even including the cost for having the taxes prepared for us, we are getting more back than we owe. Which is always great.


We  went to the library on Saturday. That was strange! I can't remember the last time I went to a public library. We can each check out 75 items with our card! 75?!? I'm pretty sure it was 10 when I was a kid. Benedick found some cool sci-fi books to read. I found some great business books, but they were out of the books B's cousin asked me to read. I can probably go online and reserve them. The library's about 5 minutes down the road, so I think we might stop by there often. I'm trying to impose a new rule that we only buy/keep books that we love. We have so many that we could probably go the rest of our lives without having to read anything else. But where's the fun in that?

On Sunday we went to Benedick's aunt and uncle's house. His cousin was in town. It's so nice that we live near family now. We actually get to see people! I adore his cousins, and we always have a great time hanging out. One thing I have to say for both our families, they accept just about anyone into the fold. Sure there's occasionally drama, but I don't feel like the in-law very often. So we had a great time, with lots of talk about needing to all get together this summer and do something again.


Now, after a great weekend, it's back to the grind. But here's a funny video for your enjoyment!

-DearLadyDisdain 
I warrant thee... the time shall not go dully by us.

Music Makes Moods

I found an interesting article this morning about music's effect on our brains. Which is great because I kind of wanted to make a post with some of my favorite songs!

Here's an excerpt from the article...

The brain scans showed a direct relationship between how strong a response someone had in their nucleus accumbens to a song and how much they were willing to pay for it. This part of the brain was not acting alone, however. Salimpoor also found that it was taking in information from the superior temporal gyrus.

"This part of the brain is the part that has stored all the templates of the music we've heard in the past and will be unique for each individuals," she said. "The way that we like music is 100% unique to who we are and what we've heard in the past and the way that our superior temporal gyrus has been shaped. The brain is working a bit like a music-recommendation system."

 This is exciting for scientists, because they believe they have found the actual part of the brain that enjoys music. A previous study from 2011 confirmed what we music lovers already knew: Music makes you happy. It can actually cause a release of dopamine, or the feel good drug into your system.  They are both short, but interesting articles.
For the original study, people were listening to music, sans lyrics, that they liked but had no emotional attachment to. I wouldn't have been able to participate, because all of my favorite songs have emotional strings attached. With the exception of current songs that I'll like for a bit then tire of, I can remember the first place I heard most of my favorites.

This is my absolute favorite song. I first heard it in my Kindergarten chapel. We had cute little actions we used to do like hold each others' hands up. We ended up performing it for our K graduation, and had to unlearn a few added words. 

Most songs I remember best are from movies. But really, how else are you supposed to hear oldies for the first time? This is a favorite from Inner Space

I've also noticed that if I first heard the song in a movie, where people were dancing during the song, I can't sit still! If I have music playing in the background, without paying attention to what song is currently playing, I'll find myself tapping or bopping along to those songs. I think that's pretty interesting. It's like my brain relates certain music with certain movements. I like to make a playlist of these compulsory dance songs to put on while I'm cleaning. It makes everything go much faster.

I really like an assortment of genres, but I think my favorites are always oldies. I don't know if it's because it's what I listened to when I was younger, or if it's just the life of the music. But I really believe music can affect your mood. Don't believe me? Next time you're a little down, listen to sad songs, then listen to happy Disney songs. See how you feel after both genres. 

So here's a little song I'll leave you with. I need to go do some dishes.

Is it not strange that sheeps' guts should hale souls out of men's bodies? 

Garden Time!

Spring is here! Or summer, if you go by the temperature outside. I'm super stoked about starting a vegetable garden. I've had a garden for the past 2 years, and it is SO much fun. It's also much easier than I ever thought. This week is the first time it's been warm out, and the last frost was about a week and half ago. Time to get digging! (Ironically the song "Dig-Dig-Dig Dig For Your Dinner" is playing on my Spotify playlist right now) 

Here's the garden right now...

And this is our dog trying to bite the first bee of the season. 

The stakes are halfway in, and I need to put the fence up before I start planting. Last year our dog, Doctor Who and our roommate's dog decided that my tomatoes and cucumbers made excellent chew toys. So this year, we will keep doggies out of the garden.

This is our first spring in the new house. We're renting, so I can't remove the rose bush. I don't want to tear up a grassy area either, which is why we chose here. I plan on growing tomatoes, cucumbers, spinach, kale, celery and green beans. I also want to attract some humming birds (because they pollinate but don't sting!) Apparently they like red flowers, so I thought about putting a pot where the hose is, to save my dirt space for food.


I tilled the ground a little this morning and put up the stakes. Then I decided I didn't want to plant my herbs outside. We have a teeny kitchen, so I can't really spare the counter space for an indoor herb garden. But when playing on Pinterest, I saw a lot of vertical herb gardens. So I got the idea to hang mine in the kitchen window. I headed to the thrift store in search of some mugs. Of course I got rid of all our extra mugs last weekend at the yard sale! I managed to find some great ones for less than 50c a piece!

I'm going for a vintage vibe in my kitchen, so I loved these colors! At first I only found one brown, one yellow, one blue and the two striped mugs. I noticed the employees were stocking (it was sale day), so I did some other shopping and came back. I was happy to see they stocked the mates of my mugs! The yellow ones are actually Boy Scout mugs, but I will turn them so you can't see the logos.

I found these while waiting for the cups to be restocked. Rubbermaid bowls for $.20 each (perfect size for my homemade yogurt) and an interesting book "memoirs of a camel" It cost more than $2, but looks like a fun read.

Honorable mentions for herb garden planters.

And remember how I wanted to plant some flowers in a pot?

And today was 25% off for members! I loaned my card to two people who forgot theirs, so good deed for the day also accomplished! The man in front of me saved about $30 by using my card. He bought several softballs, bats, gloves, kites for the neighborhood kids and some cute decorations to make it up to his wife. He spent $100 even, which is great considering that wouldn't buy gear for one kid in the normal store.

Looking forward so sharing pics of the garden throughout the season!

"I will but teach them to sing, and restore them to the owner" 

Sigh No More

Well, I guess I'm what, a couple decades late on getting a blog? I've had a couple before, but I think I was trying to hard to make it a readable blog. This one is really just for me, but I'm sure I will be linking it to family so they can see what I'm up to. But I'm not really worried about making it interesting for anyone but myself.
For anyone who's wondering, the name of the blog is from Shakespeare's 'Much Ado About Nothing'
I absolutely love that play! Even more so since finding the David Tennant & Catherine Tate version.
Here's a great compilation of clips from the play. (This song is my ringtone!)

Lately, I've been using the screen name "Dear Lady Disdain" People get a negative vibe from that, so let me explain it quickly. The main characters of the play are always bickering. "A merry war" if you will. When returning from war, Signor Benedick is greeted with Lady Beatrice's sharp tongue and replies, "My dear Lady Disdain, are you yet living?" In other words, he's acting disappointed that the bi-otch is alive and well. Their bickering continues until their friends convince them that they are madly in love with each other. I always saw a lot of myself in Beatrice. I was lucky enough to find my own Benedick. Anyone who knows us could tell you how much we resemble these characters. It's okay, we've started betting kisses to settle debates. So no one really loses.

"A Star Danced" and "mirth and no matter" are from the same scene. Beatrice laughs off a proposal from the Prince...OOPS! and explains it away by saying that she was born to be funny and never serious. Although her mother cried when she was born (well duh), a star danced in the sky, and that is why she is always so happy.
I am planning on writing happy posts on this blog. Sort of a journal, but with fun pictures and links. Way better I think. I think I write in my real journal a couple times a year, if that. So here's to keeping a happy record of my life!

And remember, when life gets you down, convert all your woes into hey nonny nonny!
-DearLadyDisadain