Raccoon update and a garden

I've been afraid to actually write this because I thought I might be jinxing it, but it's been more than a week and I feel like it's true: The raccoon and her babies are gone. I haven't heard any scratching in a long time and there have been no sightings. I'll probably never know if she left on her own or because of the chemical they used. I laughed pretty hard when I saw the new Allstate commercial; I think it wraps up the whole saga pretty well.

Even in the midst of the raccoon saga, I really love the apartment I have. But one of the things you notice is that the when the house was renovated the money was spent on the inside, not the outside, which I do appreciate. However, I almost chickened out when I saw the porch that looks like it could fall off at any moment, and the backyard seemed to be where lawn tools came to die. The porch is still in bad shape, though I see it as charming instead of ghetto now. But the backyard has been transformed into an actual garden with beautiful flowers and a variety of vegetables -- tomatoes, squash, broccoli, cucumbers. A few pictures:

Of course this was transformed without any help from me. The guy who takes care of the house did all the work, and it is pretty amazing. I can enjoy it from my back deck and not feel like I live in the city. This week I noticed that several of the vegetables were ripe for picking, but no one seemed to be harvesting anything from the garden. Despite the story of the little red hen playing in my head all week, on Sunday night I broke down and picked a tomato to put on my pizza. I'm hoping to get some in my share this week, so I'm not tempted to "borrow" anymore!

I think I'm actually looking forward to this week, even though it will be busy at work, I have some fun things planned in the evenings and for the weekend.

It was a good week

I didn't have one specific thing to blog about today, but more of a list of things I've appreciated in the last week.

Things have returned to a more normal level of busy at work, compared to the last month which was really crazy. The office celebrated with champagne and cupcakes Friday afternoon.

Also work-related, I am getting some relief from the late schedule I've been working. It means getting to say yes to more things during the week and (hopefully) cooking and eating dinner at a decent hour.

It's been seven months since I first sighted the raccoon, and he still hasn't gone away. I begged my landlord to do something else, and she called in a professional. He's set three traps, and promised me he won't give up until they (convinced there are two now) are caught. They were having quite an evening on Sunday, so no luck yet, but I now have someone to call about it.

If it hadn't been for the raccoons, I would have been in tears watching a family from my hometown get a new house on Extreme Makeover Home Edition on Sunday. It's cool to see my city on TV, but the boy the house went to stole the show. He has a great attitude in the midst of disabling disease. He was hilarious and his smile just seemed to be contagious.

I've slowly accumulated various kitchen gadgets, pots, pans, utensils, etc., but I still have a list of things that would be nice to have. Occasionally, I break down and buy one of those things. Last week I gave myself a salad spinner. It's been great with all the greens I've been eating.

It turns out that I like rhubarb, at least in muffins and pies.

It was kind of a gross weekend weather-wise, but it made for a good excuse to visit an IKEA store a couple of hours away. Of course, no new furniture for me, but it is certainly fun to look.

I took a photography class on Sunday, and I finally know a little something about my camera. And I can now shoot manually instead of on auto all the time.

I am starting the week with the laundry and ironing (very rare) done. Just need to work on the dishes.

And lastly, here's a link to a really good blog post about remembering that we live in God's will in our current situations too, not just the future. It was something I really needed to read and be reminded of. My verse for the next two weeks came from reading it:  "But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare." Jeremiah 29:7