Nation author: Terry Pratchett asin: 0385613717 binding: Paperback

What I'm reading now.

A nice way to make a mom's day - and a very cool look at instant video customization technology.

http://news.cnnbcvideo.com/index2.html?p=

They arrived last month.

Evil, seductive things that they are, they started showing up in my
mailbox, unbidden, but promising miraculous results and weeks, nay,
months of gratification. And I am powerless to resist.

I'm talking, of course, about flower catalogues.

Spring is finally here in the northern hemisphere, and that means
every nursery from here to Guadalupe wants to lead me down the garden path. Which wouldn't be such a bad thing, except that I'm a lousy
gardener. Never mind having green thumbs, I'm all thumbs when it
comes to flowers, bushes, and even vines. It's true what you've
heard - I'll never make the ivy league.

I start out with the best of intentions. I look over all the
catalogues, looking at every gorgeous full-colour photograph at least
twice. I get silly about shastas and I fantasize about phlox. Then I
open my wallet, make a ridiculously large order and from there, well,
my plans all go to seed.

The first time around, for example, I ordered several trays of
annuals from a German-owned greenhouse in a nearby city. I also
bought a load of topsoil, figuring that the garden dirt looked pretty
depleted. After two days of planting, I had a magnificent garden.
Until it rained. At that point I realized my topsoil order also came
with approximately 6,756 crabgrass and dandelion seeds. The little
plants struggled valiantly, but in the end I had to bid them auf
Weedersehen.

My second time out, I decided to try perennial flowers like dahlias
and daffodils. That was the year it hailed, and the lilies, being dim
bulbs, didn't have sense enough to lean out of harm's way. With the
mixed glads looking very sad, and the rest of the garden looking like
so much mulch, the dandelions moved back in. In fact, the tulip
section got so bad that a smart alec neighbour posted a sign there
that read: Weed my `lips.

I considered planting wild flowers this year, but I'm not sure that
even they would be tough enough for a rumble with that rough bull
thistle gang that moved in last fall. Besides, I'm sure the people
across the road would vetch about the late night ruckus - I've heard
those purple coneflowers can throw one heck of a garden party.

I even thought about doing the trendy thing and installing one of
those elaborate ponds. However, with my luck, I know that one of the
following would happen: A) The store clerk would sell me coy fish
instead of Koi fish, and I'd never be able to find them in the pond,
B) I'd find the neighbourhood dogs doing paddle laps around the water
lilies or C) the heron that lives at the nearby creek would take one
look at the pond and think: Sushi bar!

With that in mind, I figure I might hedge my bets this year and plant
some really tough flora. None of those prim roses, bleeding hearts or
pansies this year, no sir. I'm thinking of something with some real
flower power, like a mean dogwood or a snapdragon. Or perhaps one of
those shady characters called white edged hostas - so it could
say `hosta la vista, baby' to the weeds, and mean it.

Or maybe I'd be better off taking the sage advice of a frond, erm, I
mean friend: pave over the garden. I suppose with a few strategically
placed garden gnomes and a pair of rose coloured glasses, it might
make a credible substitute Eden.

Until the next time the catalogues arrive of course, at which point
I'll be green with envy all over again.

Now here's an interesting way to visualize what you're eating/drinking. Take a look at:

http://www.sugarstacks.com

Particularly the drinks section.

Finally! At long last I've had a chance to change the platform I was using. I started out using Serendipity, but unfortunately I was having issues with spammy trackbacks and cross browser compatibility. Now I'm using Drupal, which I'm more familiar with, and this theme seems to work across most platforms. I still need a proper logo, but at least I'm functional again!