LaurenandLloyd.com

where our wasted time becomes your wasted time

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Plant Prototype

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I was watching a commercial for the AeroGarden, a hydroponic thing that sits on your countertop and costs $150 to have fresh lettuce and tomatoes. Well, not being a gardener but definitely being a tinkerer, I decided to make my own.

As with many things, I made it first, then checked out how to do it. Turns out that the AeroGarden isn’t just a hydroponic garden, but an aeroponic garden – meaning that the roots get sprayed with nutrient solution. Yeah, that ain’t happenin here. I’ve got plastic cups, cotton balls, and seeds.

Behold thy components!

(I also bought a grow-light for the fluorescent light that’s always on in the basement. Total cost: about ten bucks.)

There are holes in the bottom of the cups. I'm not stupid.

So here it is two days later, and I’ve got germination!

basement garden

Aww…they’re so cute…

Baby lettuce - I'll devour you someday.

Weird and sad

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Kathryn, if you’re reading this – I’m sorry.

Kathryn and I were roommates in college, and she has a very nice little plant that she called Sylvester.  (It was some kind of evergreen-fern thing.  Brad will know.)  Somehow, when school was done I got custody of Sylvester and he traveled many places with us – Minnesota, Maryland, and then back to Seward.  Not being a plant person, I have hated Sylvester for many years now.  He just kept growing taller, skinnier and sad-looking.  He’d drop branches like there was no tomorrow, so it looked like a sickly palm tree.  Lloyd and I have argued about euthanizing him, and this summer Brad said, “Put it outside in the winter. It will die a painless, natural death.”

So we did.

Mission accomplished!  Plant’s dead!  On Lloyd’s second day of yard work we were disposing of the corpse and found this!

A miracle it survived at all

Whaaaa?  Still in tiny pots?  No wonder!  The hilarious thing is that I think Lloyd and Brad repotted this from it’s earlier container, but they just put all the dirt in from the small pot.

This was also found in the dirt.  Kathryn, I think it’s your sleeve.

so pretty!

Lauren wises up

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This morning I didn’t get very far with my deception. We had both Monday and Tuesday off, because the band & choir went on a little tour. I was putting my socks on this morning when Lauren came up stairs and said, “I’m wise to you, buddy.” I was surprised that she found out, but at least I hadn’t put on my school socks yet. In a prefect world she would have found out before I got out of bed and told me to sleep in (you can’t get any real yard work done until after 8:00 anyway with stupid Daylight Savings Time). She had a 2 hour break in the middle of the day and brought me some lunch. Then she helped with the yard by doing 5,6 and generally documenting the snot out of things.

Three times over the last two days Beth stopped by and all three times I was sitting at the computer, “taking a break”. I couldn’t convince Tara to do any raking, but I got done anyway. The last leaves were put in the, so called, compost pile a little after 6:30. I can’t wait to get back to work.

hmmm, remind you of something?

God bless Lloyd

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Too bad I don’t have a camera here IN BED, because that’s where I’m writing this post from! This is a donated laptop (for school) that Lloyd got a wireless card from www.woot.com for twenty bucks! He’s awesome.

And now, to sleep. I’ve been making breakfasts at school this week, and it makes me tired. God bless Annette, too – she’s been doing it for two months while we’ve been trying to find a cook.

God bless everyone. Good night.

Cute Plane

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I finally got around to going through my valentines from the children, and this one struck me as pretty darn clever.  It’s a roll of Smarties, with a stick of gum on the back held on by a rubber band threaded through two big Lifesavers.   I’m normally not a crafty person, but this was great!  (AnI think I bent the gum leaving it in the bag too long.) 

I forgot to say, “Thanks, Jarod!  And Jarod’s mom!”

Fly me to the moon, and let me sail among the stars.

Gettin’ old.

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Yesterday Lloyd called to ask if I’d like to go to a spontaneous birthday party that one of his co-workers was having for herself. “Sounds fun!”  I replied!  So, we all met at Red Robin, and it turned out to be us and several of her friends from around Lincoln.  It was very interesting, since all of them had jobs that WEREN’T teaching.  I can’t remember the last time I’ve been with a group like that.  One worked at a company that produced newsletters for other companies, one was a pastor, one was a nursing student, one worked at UNL (but not as a teacher!), one guy was in charge of all the computers for some call-processing place, and one was a grad student.  I thoroughly enjoyed the evening…..until I realized I was the oldest one there.  That’s going to start happening alot, now, huh?

singin'

“Happy Birthday, Customer,  We hope you liked the food, We sing this made-up birthday song just so we don’t get sued.  Stupid Michael Jackson, or was it Paul McCartney? He bought the rights to the real song and ruined all our parties.”