Ultimate Garden: Day 30

On June 1st when I planted the second annual "Ultimate Garden", my worst fear was a super-dry summer similar to last summer when I was frantically supplementing my garden with city water right from the spigot. Sure, its void of nitrogen but it saved the garden. Of course, a bit of Miracle-Gro every 7 days transformed the tomatoes from wilted weed-like vines to lush, tree-trunk-esque shrubs which made the tomatoes grow faster than Barry Bonds' head.

So far this year, we've had between 4 and 7 inches of rain. Last year, we had a little over an inch during the month of June.

Stats aside, here are the pictures comparing the first few days in June to the last few days of the month.

My First Father's Day

Nothing against my dad but I never really thought of Father's Day as a big deal...that is until I became a father myself. Last Sunday was my first Father's Day and I must say, it was very special. I know that my son Nathan won't remember it because he's only a year old but my wife and I will.

At the store a few days before, Nathan picked out a new pop-up baby book which we read Sunday evening before bed. Heck, he even got me this really cool "My Dad Rules" coffee mug which I proudly display at work amidst my desk full of family pictures.

But, as with most holidays, there is always some unorthodox set of events that occur at the most inopportune time that make the holiday something to remember. In this case, many of the events didn't occur on Father's Day itself but occurred on the days surrounding it which made the weekend as a whole very long and of course, memorable.

Rather than go into a diatribe of details describing my extended weekend spanning the four day period from last Thursday through Father's Day and ending Monday morning, I would like to borrow and idea that the colonel used in his post describing his Father's Day.

Let's play: "Can you pick what event DIDN'T happen."

Here are your choices. They are listed in random order.

1. Gracie, my dog, ate 7 ounces of chocolate and had to be rushed to the emergency veterinary hospital

2. My wife threw up after eating dinner

3. The computer crashed

4. I ran two miles and then lifted weights for an hour culminating in five sets of pullups in my basement.

5. My dog developed a bladder infection

6. My wife, me and my son Nathan had brunch with my parents, sisters and brother along with his god parents. Everything was great. Nothing newsworthy happened.

7. I was locked out of the house

8. My one year old son vacuumed the family room with a real vacuum cleaner

If you answered NUMBER 3 then you are correct. The other seven items were all true .