Friday, May 27, 2005

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary


It has begun. The soil has been tilled, the weeds have been removed, and the rows have been made. I started my garden today!

It started with a trip to VanKampen's where I picked up seeds for peas, green beans, radish, carrots, and spinach. Oh, and some asters for a little floral display.

When I got home I took my wheelbarrow and shovel and headed into the woods. Spent a good 1/2 hour in there digging up some good rich soil to spread over top. I hit a couple of big roots while digging. Sorry trees, I didn't mean to.

So now it's all set to go, or shall i say grow? Hehe. I'm punny. I am very excited about this and will be keeping you all posted on the progress of my garden. And when everything is all grown and ripe, I'll have a celebration and make you all a lovely salad.

And on a side note, I have a day old bowl of vanilla yogurt with bananas in it and it makes my room smell absolutely glorious.

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Never Trust the Blackbird


I figure any of you who read my blog have been DYING to know the further situation of my birdfeeder troubles. I knew you were.

Well that really super sunshiney day we had last week, I put up another birdfeeder, a larger one to accomadate the larger birds. I placed it on a tree far enough away from the smaller one to prevent any outbreaks of avian war, and all seemed to go well. I had lots more chickadees and a lot less blue jays.

So the other day I'm sitting at my living room window and I see some sort of commotion from the corner of my eye. I look at the newly hung birdfeeder and witness a riot of Common Grackles liotering around this new feeder. Now I don't mind the grackels, they deserve a treat just as much as any of the other birds, but they were TOTALLY abusing their bird feeding privaleges. This is what they were doing: One grackle, I'm assuming the mastermind behind this whole operation, was perched at the bird feeder, with between 4-8 other grackles waiting underneath the feeder. The one at the feeder was removing all the seed and throwing it to all his companions on the ground! Can you believe the nerve of these guys! Of course the one at the feeder would take little breaks and feed himself, but was soon back at throwing the rest of the seed on the ground.

Not three days later, the feeder was empty. It remains empty right now because I'm debating whether or not to fill it up. I feel used. These grackles need a little lesson I think. Some more strategic planning must go into this, so any tips will be appreciated. Grackles:1. Ashley:0. But not for long.

Let the games begin.

Saturday, May 14, 2005

8 Words

I am a graduate.

Oh what a feeling.

Friday, May 13, 2005

Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity

Holy hell I just came back from town with Lisa and Devin and had the biggest laugh attack. You know the kind where you have sit or kneel down on the floor because you're laughing so hard it makes walking impossible? Yeah just had one of those. In Wal-Mart of all places. Tears running down my face, me, literally on the floor of the houseware section. Why was I laughing so hard? Well I know you're not even going to think its funny but Lisa was choosing what pictures to print off from her digi-cam on one of those machines. It asked her to enter her name and instead of putting "Lisa" Devin and I convinced her to enter "Shitake." Originally she was goig to put "Eat Shitake" but it didn't fit. What was funny is that in an hour, Lisa had to return to the photoshop and ask for pictures for Shitake! But THEN to top it off the guy working had to give her a little slip with her name on it. Her name being Shitake. Hehe I wonder what was going through his head. Probably nothing. Maybe "She doesn't look Asian...or like a mushroom." Oh I think I'm still drunk. It was really funny. Maybe you had to be there. Or maybe I am just retarded.

But don't you love when you have a good hearty laugh. Like a real uncontrollable laugh. For that moment of time, you are the most happiest person on earth. I always feel so refreshed after one. I wish they came daily. It's probably really healthy for you. And after a great laugh it just sets you in a mood for the rest of the day.

Other things that made my day so far:
-Ate 2 McDonald's hashbrowns
-Granny Formosa served us our tea
-Bought some kettle-corn
-Ran through the automatic doors in the wrong direction at the mall and almost got squished
-Went to the pet store and looked at the pretty birds (the parrot gave me the sexy whistle when I said hello!)

'Tis a good day.

Monday, May 09, 2005

Silly? I know I'm Silly

So here it is. First post on the new laptop. Woo! And guess where I'm writing it? That's right, on my bed, in my pajamas, listening to the compost truck picking up the green bins around the neighborhood. Ahh bliss.

But really, this thing is great! However all I've really been doing is downloading music because I don't really know how to do anything else with this thing. I still haven't really learned the roped of how the computer works. Which is why, Dave, a fellow iBook owner and I are going to have a nerdy Apple date so he can show me the ropes. Just hold on while I tape up my glasses and tuck in my shirt.

This past weekend I attended the Biology grad dinner banquet where we ate, drank, and listened to our profs tell us how smart we are. The food was interesting. A wide array of salads, potatoes, and a mystery meat dish. Adding cranberry sauce and closing my eyes and imagining it was tapioca pudding made the mystery go away for the moment. A few of our science profs got up to give us little encouraging speeches, congradulating us on making it through. It was quite nice. Then to top off the evening, there were door prizes, and low and behold, the gray UPEI XL T-shirt found its way into my hands. Always the XL. Always. Aah well, just another one to add to Dad's collection.

McDonald's really should sell hashbrowns 24 hours a day.

Thursday, May 05, 2005

Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto

Well I am about to enter a new level of geek and technology. I have been informed by my parents that for graduation I am recieving my mother's basically new Apple laptop. Can you say holy EFF!? I mean I use the computer quite often and am fascinated by lap tops and have always fantasized about having one, but never did I think I would own one! This means I can download all the porn I want!

This also means I can sit in my room, on my bed, and surf the Net and put up pretty pictures of dolphins as my screen saver. Oh the excitement! And I'm not one to accessorize, BUT it just so happens to be that I own an iPod shuffle which matches spledidly with my white apple laptop. God I am chic.

So the next post you will be reading will be made from my new computer. What's next, a friggin' cell phone? Yeah, don't let me ever get a cell phone.

Signing off.

Monday, May 02, 2005

Chick-a-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee

All that rain the past couple days has made for a lovely green Monday, hasn't it? It makes the outdoors so much more pleasing to the eye when you have a nice hearty green against a nice hearty sky blue to look at. I really love my yard at home here in Stratford. It's large enough to host a variety of sports, but not too large that there is no one around for miles. Plus it is surrounded by forest on two sides. This makes my yard even more enjoyable because we get plenty of visits from our neighborhood wildlife creatures.

We get foxes, skunks, racoons, and LOTS of birds crossing through out yard daily. The birds are my favorite. Ever since I was a kid I was always fascinated by birds. So fascinated I even had a club for it. However, I am sure I had a club for every activity I did back in those days. I called it the "Bird Watcher's Patrol." I remember attempting to get all my friends to join my club, but I really only had one faithful member, and that was my one-subdivision-over-friend, Lisa MacLeod. Together we had created an outline of our plans as President and Vice-president of the Bird Wacther's Patrol, which basically consisted of us watching birds. It was really fun though. I still have the book we used to look up the birds we found so we could identify them. Familiar Birds of Prince Edward Island by Geoff Hogan. Once I found a nest in one of the old forts I made in the forest and dressed in green everyday and would lay on the ground and watch the birds everyday. It was a family of Cedar Waxwings. When the mother would leave to find food, I'd climb the tree and look at the babies. I watched them everyday until they flew away.

Anywho, what reminded of me of my little bird friends is my bird feeder I have hanging up outside our kitchen window. I was watching it this morning while eating my Mini-Wheats. It was being raided by blue jays! Now don't get me wrong, I like blue jays, but this bird feeder is made for small song birds. And so far I have only observed a chickadee, the rest have been blue jays. And being the bullies that they are, I fear that the blue jays are scaring away the song birds from this feeder. The only solution I can think of so far is to set up a larger feeder for the bigger birds and hope that they will use that one instead.