Sweet & Sour

     This post marks a new beginning for me.  I posted my last over at WLS today.  The endless messing by the techs over there drives me up the wall.  Simple things like notifications come and go without warning and that's a basic on just about any other blog or social networking site out there.  This time they took the stats away which I don't care about but many do.  My point is that I don't want to live with the inconsistencies over there any more.  I figure I won't be the last of those that depart as they continue to show their disregard for those that use their site.  While it's true that it's a free site it's also true that I can freely leave or stay just like anyone else.  This will be my home mostly for now though I will truly miss Windows Live Writer for posting...ah well, nobody has everything perfect.  My love/hate relationship with Face Book will contiue I guess.  I've never seen a more shallow stupid social networking site in my life but I digress.

     There is some other things that I feel a bit sour about besides the blogging and social networking woes.  We have to start jumping through hoops now for our visas for Ghana.  It's annoying beyond belief to me that we have to now show our bank account info etc. to go to Ghana and if they aren't satisfied with that and reject us for whatever the reason we are out thousands of dollars for the tickets we just bought and have to have before we can apply for our visa...talk about dumb!  They also require four passport type pictures so we will have to run to Sam's Club to get that done after Lovely comes home from work.  The things that irritate me most about that is that it's actually pretty expensive to do this and four?  Why the heck do they need four?  Can't we just pay the fee...which is almost as much as it is to get a passport in the first place mind you?  Tomorrow then we need to go first thing in the morning to get our interview for our continued medical insurance taken care of...I hate that place so bad.  The only good thing about it all is that Love will be there and can go get some coffee...or whatever it is she drinks now that coffee seems to upset her stomach.  Geez!

     Okay, there's the sour, God knows there's enough of that.  So, what's the sweet?  Well, there's a lot that's sweet.  One thing that's a simple pleasure perhaps is the flowers we have right now.  Lovely and I get flowers every year so we can try to lose our very black thumbs and have something that's not only alive but actually pretty to look at.  This year we have tried a little flower called "juicy fruit".  Sounds kind of unspectacular perhaps but these suckers are really popping this year!  Just look at these little things: 

!  They have been doing so well that it does my heart good!  How about that we don't kill absolutely everything we try to grow!  These even look wonderful from the back!  If you visit my wife's site you can see that we purchased some ladybugs to deal with the aphid menace.  This helped a lot though it didn't completely remove the aphids.  The pansies actually seem to be doing much better at this point.  I'm so glad to see that!  The bleeding hearts are another matter.  I'm just not sure what the heck is wrong with them.  I think they're going to make it...I sure hope so.  Right now they are more bleeding than heart!  Another very sweet thing about today?  It has been one of the coolest (not in a good way) and rainiest springs I can remember in a while.  The sun has become all too precious.  Imagine my joy seeing it shinning so brightly through our tree in the backyard!  I take my bliss where I can get it!  Mom used to look up at the clouds and say:  "There's enough blue up there to sew a Dutchman a pair of blue britches."  I love that saying and she's right:  there's enough blue for all of Holland I'd say...at least for now!