Preparing for Warmer Weather, and Geek Stuff

Ah, the warmer days are on their way. Patio door can be opened, Dexter can nap under the warm sun, and I can grow my new little garden.


Yes, Gary bought me my own little garden! I was very thrilled. I went off about how excited I am to someday grow my own garden; so he had an idea and bought me one. The first thing he bought me was a strawberry garden. I'm going to grow my own strawberries. It's a cute little indoor gardening kit, although I'm putting it outdoors on the patio. He also bought me bulb flowers: Scilla Peruviana. In case you don't know what they are, this is what they look like:

They come in different colors, but mine will be purple. So yay! Strawberries and pretty flowers. I also realized these specific flowers are major toxic. So when Dexter's outside, we'll have to keep an extra eye on him. He only sniffed when we first got them, but quickly lost interest; so no issues thusfar.


I am most definitely excited for Spring!


Remember how I mentioned Gary and I are trying to be smarter with money? We decided to kick that up a notch. I started making meal plans and menus for 4 weeks. Because of this, I spent half what I normally do in grocery costs. Our supermarkets here are always a bit more expensive, but I did what I could. I know, I could have gone the whole mile with coupon clipping and note-taking, etc. But that's okay; it's just the two of us, and we're taking baby steps. Besides, I think I did pretty well. I found online, a plan for spending $30 a week in groceries; and this was for a family of 6. We spent around that cost anyway, maybe a little more, because of prices here in our city. But that's still half of what we would normally spend. Planning is so much better! A lot of the purchases were done in staples (meaning meals that aren't pre-prepared). So last night, I made homemade hamburger calzones. Everything was made from home except, well, the beef...since we clearly don't own cows. Someday, though. I made my own chunky tomato sauce, beans, etc. They turned out pretty good;

 Not the best quality picture, but it'll do. Yum! I also made ham and cheddar biscuits for breakfast that morning.

Gary took a vacation day today, so it's good to have him here! He also took Friday off as well. So he's been enjoying his 4 day weekend. We went to Taft on Saturday so he could help his parents with their computer issues (and to visit them of course), then made our way to Bakersfield so he could fix my mom's computer. He was clearly exhausted by the time we got home. But I was more exhausted. I currently have Bronchitis, and it kicked into higher gear on Saturday. By the time we got home, I crashed on the couch. I felt like throwing up and had the chills and fever, but felt much better in the morning. My lungs are still mad at me, but it's an improvement. We went to Nursery on Sunday, and Gary helped out since Megan was out of town. Gary did really well with the kids. One kid was crying for the longest time, until Gary miraculously found a way to quiet him and get his attention on something. His crying triggered another kid's crying, but he quickly quieted down thanks to the help of someone from the primary presidency who stopped by to check on things. There were a lot of kids there, probably around 13.  But it went pretty smoothly, surprisingly.


Now, onto the geeky/nerdy sides of things. Gary wants to get back into role-playing. He became thrilled with the idea. This was triggered because a new comic book/gaming store opened up in our city. I think it's the only comic book store in our city. It's a great hangout spot for teenagers and even adults who like to play role-playing type games. So, Gary decided he wants to get back into D&D (Dungeons and Dragons). It took a few nudges on his part to get me to agree to participate. I wasn't really excited with the thought, but went along with it anyway. We went to the comic book place, and made our characters with the help of the DM (Dungeon Master). Once a week in the evening time, we're going to meet together with a group of people for a campaign. The DM decided to throw us in the current campaign since it was just recently developed. So, I'm a Gnome Cleric named Lilly; the daughter of a powerful wizard; and I'm good. Gary's a human avenger named Aiden, a young adult (18 years old), who is a fanatic about changing the world back to the way it was (since the world has been taken over by robots and other technology). I have a feeling I'm going to seriously suck when it comes to playing, but Gary's willing to help me study my character and other things so I don't look like a complete noob when we play. So, we'll definitely have to see how it goes, and hope I don't drool on myself.

Well, I believe that's all for now. Time to shower and spend the day with my lovely darling. Bye!