Doctor Mead Labels Pumpkins

Good Morning All!
Cloudy, dark, dreary, rainy day....but good none the less.
Hope everyone has been well since our last chat. Been busy since then, not as much on my art work as I would like, but busy just the same.

Ready to catch up?
Here we go....

Made a trip to the doctors. Time for my blood pressure medication refill. Had to laugh at my doctor. He wanted to know how I made six months worth of medication last 14 months. I said 'you gave me a years prescription'. He insisted he only gave me a six month script. "Gee, I guess it was a year" after he looked at the records. :)
He also prescribed me Ambien. As you know (or do now), I don't sleep very well. Never  have. If I manage six hours I'm doing great. It's usually closer to 3 or 4 and then I'm awake. I read an article recently that says you need less sleep as you get older...I figure at this rate I should stop sleeping altogether in the next few years. LOL. The ambien really worked for the first couple of nights. Now I'm back to 4 or 5 hours. It does seem to help me get to sleep. Although there was a couple of nights were it took over an hour to get to sleep. My doctor seems to think I need to 'reset' my sleeping pattern. So this past week was a whole pill. This coming week will be a 1/2 pill and then none on the third week. I hope this accomplishes something but I'm really having doubts. Even when I was younger 6 or 7 hours was my max. If I sleep longer than that I wake up stiff and sore. Wish me luck!
I also had to go in for blood work - after all, it's been a year. I got the message in the mail a couple days ago. "you're blood work is not normal - make an appointment". I'm sure it's cholesterol and triglycerides, just like last time. Guess I'll find out at my next appointment.
Now that you know more than you ever wanted to.....onward we shall go.

My newest batch of Mead is doing great! I racked it about a week ago. It smells really good. You can smell the alcohol as well. My neighbors, Amy and Barb, tasted it for me. Their reaction was 'are you trying to get me drunk?" So I must be doing something right. HA! I tested it this morning and the reading was 1.000 which puts the alcohol content at 11.54%. As far as I can tell that is fairly high for wine. This batch isn't as dry as the first one. I think it will be much more drinkable as a 'just have a glass with friends' mead. I've managed to get the mix right. It's not sugary sweet (like the ones they server at the RenFest) but not so dry that people make faces. We shall see. It has another two weeks before I can rack it again. Then an additional 30 days and into bottles. YAY! I've created the labels for it and have gotten some 'crystal clear' labels for wine bottles. I got the labels from Sheet Labels Inc. I ran a couple of test prints and I don't quite have the right settings. Because they are labels, the sheets are heavier than paper. The laser printer dragged across the top of the label and smeared the ink. I've corrected the settings and still get some drag. The two bottom prints (there's four on a page) look great. Hopefully I can get this figured out without using all the labels as tests. I've called this batch "Loki". Mischievous and high alcohol. :)

see where it smeared across the top?

(fuzzy pic, I know - bad lighting)

Last Sunday (the 28th) was my daughter's birthday. Even saying it now, I can't believe she's 21. How did my kids get that old? Hell, how did I get this old. We took her out for dinner. She decided she wanted to go to La Parrillas. It's an upscale Mexican restaurant in downtown Atlanta. It was nice, quite busy for a Sunday. Amy, Barry, Barb and Desiree were all there to help her celebrate. She requested a 'hot pink' cake, so I made her one. It was a marbled cake (golden vanilla and chocolate fudge). It turned out well considering I was a little out of practice with the decorating and the fact that the icing didn't want to cooperate at all. Not to mention that I am an artist - can you say perfectionist? It was very moist and tasty! Jenifer seemed to have a good time. Although I think she was a little disappointed that she couldn't celebrate her 21st birthday with any alcohol (baby and all). You'll have to deal with a couple of blurry cell phone pictures...my phone still won't let me forward or save pictures from messages. Going to have to make a trip to the AT&T store...

hot pink with purple and black roses

(and sliding icing)

Jenifer and Perry -

the only photo I could get to download 

I've done some outside planting recently as well. I've filled the planters that go on the porch and we've added to our 'rose area'. Which is now not only roses. This is the area from last year that I put the stone blocks around. I've added several perennials to the mix. Looks good so far. Hopefully the Georgia heat won't kill them. 

laying out where they will be planted

holes dug, plants planted

the plant boxes on my porch

(which will be stained sometime this summer, hopefully)

Speaking of plants...I started my seeds last week too. For what you ask? 

Well, for my PUMPKINS of course! My wife walked in the room, looked at them and just rolled her eyes. I have to get pumpkins eventually, right? They already need to be transplanted. I think I'm going to use the temporary pots from the yard plants (above) and let them get really big before I try putting them outside. Maybe that will help this time around. I'm not asking for a lot, just a few pumpkins instead of having to go and buy them. I WANT PUMPKINS! Fingers crossed! 

pumpkins on the left...i kept some of the

seeds from the pears and plums that i used

for my mead, those are on the right. i 

noticed some growth of a couple of them

this morning. :)

Guess what happened the day before yesterday? Give up? My blog passed 10,000 views! Yes, I know, there are some of you out there that 10,000 views is a monthly thing. But it made me happy and I wanted to share! Thanks to everyone who comes and visits my little corner of the world!

That's all for now....

until next time...

Be Good, Be Safe, Be Happy!

TTFN

p.s. We are supposed to go to the Renaissance Festival tomorrow...I don't look for it to happen, it's supposed to be storming tonight and tomorrow. We will likely have to postpone it. Not sure for when, but I will post some photos when it happens.

p.s.s. Did you notice the new header? :)