The order from the American seed company arrived yesterday, via FedEx. A large sigh of relief was heard as we confirmed that the order was filled correctly.

We bought chamomile and a few more packs of seeds today. This weekend marks approximately four weeks before last frost in our zone, so there is much seed starting to do.

Much yardwork was done. Ellen was a real trooper, as usual -- I whacked the lawn with the weedeater, and she did the truly disgusting work of dealing with the refuse strewn over the yard by the upstairs neighbours' kids. My hat is off to her, as it would have driven me insane.

With luck, we'll be able to start ripping the turf off the garden plots tomorrow. It's supposed to rain, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Still formulating a plan to teach Ellen XML. I think I will teach her XHTML as a start -- at least that will push back the time required to figure out some sort of tag-substitution tool.

Our order from the American seed company still isn't here. It's annoying. In talking with the company, they admit that it's mix-ups on their end, which is refreshing -- but some of the stuff we ordered was supposed to be started eight to ten weeks before last frost, and that time is now past.

We ordered in mid-January, but we might get our order in early March. Needless to say, we're not impressed.

On the bright side, they have refunded our money, and will only charge us half if (and when) we ever take delivery.

Life is otherwise fairly good, though.

We ordered seeds from a company in the USA, and they're still not here. I'm not terribly impressed. By the time they get here, it will mean starting them later than we should, which means a reduced season. Bleah.

Started chapter two of The Ruby Way. I've done a little bit of work in Ruby, but not much. The book is serving its purpose well.

The burn on my hand is almost gone now. Hurt like hell when it was there, though.

I really need to do dishes. I'm going to go do that. (Translation: I've got something else I should be working on, and I'm procrastinating.)

I managed to burn my mousing hand preparing dinner. It's only first-degree, but it's a steam burn, which means it's pretty painful, and covers a pretty large area. I've been through half a dozen T1s, and the pain is finally starting to die down, which bodes well for getting sleep soon.

Ellen and I planted several more things tonight. Safflower, oregano, scullcap, and a few more. We're running out of space under the grow lights, so I'm hoping for an early last frost this year.

The job situation still sucks, but that's Vancouver for you. I'm trying not to get too down about it, though.

Much more stuff has been planted. I'll post a list when I find an hour to go through all of the seed packets and make the list.

Solved the pipe woes of the previous entry with a Dremel tool and a little bit of creativity. The pipe stem is a little shorter now, but that's the price you pay for trying to skimp on pipe cleaners (and use paper towel and wire instead).

Discovered FLTK (http://www.fltk.org/). Finally, an X toolkit I can deal with.

Just planted a bunch more seeds. Purple onions, wild tobacco, seven types of tomatoes, four types of peppers, a couple of ornamentals, and more. Fun, fun.

Ellen also got the new lights set up, which is a big win. We just have to install the bulbs and get a new power strip -- it seems we're out.

I managed to get a bit of cleaning material stuck in my favourite pipe. I am not amused. It has so far resisted my every attempt to remove the stuck bit, and even Ellen had a go at it. With luck it will contract as it dries and fall out at some point, but until then, the pipe is useless.

After writing a few hundred lines of string and memory handling code for a project I'm working on, I came to the realization that I'm an idiot. In short, I dropped to C where I should have considered C++. It's not like I don't have documentation for that language handy -- I've just never used it for a serious project before. Old habits die hard, I guess.

I just took delivery of our order from Salt Spring Seeds. Two books and about twenty types of seed (or including the variety packs, about three dozen).

Tomatoes, soy beans, kamut, oats, barley, tobacco -- it's all there. We also ordered the two books (the organic gardening one and the garlic book), and they look quite interesting so far.

Karma (our dog, not my +1 bonus) freaked out the mailman with how friendly she was. It was quite funny, really. She's all of fifteen pounds of Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (fluffy little critter with long ears, a shaggy tail, big eyes, and a cute little snout), so she's not exactly the terror of the neighbourhood.

We just have to get the rest of the grow lights up, and that should happen tonight. Then let the planting frenzy begin! :)

Two of the Italian bean plants are closing in on two feet tall. Not bad for only being a couple of weeks old.

I re-potted a bunch of the beans and cucumbers last night. I used a mix of about two parts Gro-Brick (coconut fibre, I believe) to one part potting soil and one part vermiculite. The drainage seems to be good -- better than the peat pellets the seeds were started in (which were falling apart anyway).

I also saw my doctor today. Got a prescription for some stuff that should help me sleep. That will be quite the relief, as the last stuff kept me up, instead.

Ellen and I just got finished picking out the seven varieties of tomatoes we will order from Salt Spring Seeds this year. Combine that with thirteen other things (including oats, barley, wheat, and tobacco), and it'll be quite an order. We're waiting on a similarly-sized order from an organic seed source in the USA, too.

The Italian beans I planted to test for seed viability are thriving! One of the plants has grown almost an inch today. I am thoroughly amazed, and realizing I'll have to move those plants outside in a couple of weeks if they keep that up. I need to look into building a cold-frame in the back yard.

Speaking of the back yard, I'll be building the compost bin tomorrow, unless the weather sucks. It will be nice to start composting now so we have some good dirt for next season.

Finally getting around to doing a little bit of house cleaning. I have three boxes of books ready to go to thrift, and I'm sure there will be another two before I'm done.

The eventual goal is to get rid of everything I don't need -- old clothes, books that have no more use to me (like Perl books), the million and one Cat3/RJ11 cables I've got kicking about (and I haven't used a modem in months)...

I'd also like to get the computer area more organized. Ellen's x86 box just needs a new hard disk to run, and it would be handy to have a Windows box around (for testing web stuff and source portability), and I would like to have the scanner and a few other peripherals out and ready to use.

The beginnings of the garden are coming up well. I'm feeling quite self-satisfied because the tomatillo seeds that I bought haven't sprouted yet, but the ones I saved from last season are coming up just fine.

So far we (Ellen and I) have started several things, some from saved seed (and the balance from bought seed -- cuttings aren't much our thing). I'm really looking forward to the Cape gooseberry and tomatillo crops, as they are such cool plants. Any husked fruit is cool by me.

It's now been something like nine months without a job for this boy. It sucks. Does anyone know someplace that's hiring skilled computing/IT folks? If I hear the word "over-qualified" one more time, I am going to throw up.

If you're interested (or know someone who might be), my resume can be found at http://www.thaumas.net/~kj/resume.text.

I now have a new website. It can be found at http://www.thaumas.net/~kj/. More will be found there.