{"id":11597,"date":"2022-12-29T15:41:05","date_gmt":"2022-12-29T21:41:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/?p=11597"},"modified":"2024-06-29T15:37:30","modified_gmt":"2024-06-29T20:37:30","slug":"random-thursday-the-phoning-it-in-edition-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/2022\/12\/29\/random-thursday-the-phoning-it-in-edition-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Random Thursday: The Phoning It In Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Welp, here we are…the last Thursday of 2022, and I’m sitting at my computer, hopped up on DayQuil, a semi-domesticated Corgi named Clifford snoozing contentedly under my feet, and absolutely nothing meaningful to say. Well, I<\/em> have nothing meaningful to say; I can’t speak for Clifford. This seems to perfectly sum up my year, except for the dog. But let’s work with what we’ve got, shall we?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Clifford and Sophie. They really do love each other.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Say, do you recall this post<\/a> from a few years ago where I foolishly disclosed my plans to grow my own pecan pie from scratch, thanks to the efforts of a neighborhood squirrel? The tree that we carefully shepherded into the arborist equivalent of advanced childhood never even made it into puberty; the squirrels giveth and the squirrels taketh away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’re hoping for a different outcome for a different tree. Debbie harvested a few seeds from a local Texas mountain laurel<\/a>, scarified<\/a> and planted them, and lo and behold, one has sprouted and is growing like a…well…weed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It’s about eleven inches tall as of this writing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If you read about propagating TMLs from seeds, it sounds like there’s nothing to it, but we haven’t had a lot of luck in the past. Perhaps 2023 will be the year that we’re able to plant a homegrown tree that will eventually fill the air with the sweet aroma of grape soda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Christmas at Casa Fire Ant was a quiet affair…just the two of us, plus Clifford and Sophie, pictured above. At this time of life, Debbie and I pretty much pick out our own gifts and then feign surprise when we open them, although nowadays I can be surprised by something I wrapped myself, IYKWIM. I hit up James Avery for a couple of things she had picked out, and she gave me a custom creased cowboy hat from the Serratelli Hat Company<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s been decades since I’ve worn a so-called cowboy hat, but I’ve had a hankering for one ever since we move to the Hill Country and started frequenting dance halls. I had also never heard of Serratelli (and was a bit skeptical of the western styling capabilities of a company based in New Jersey) but as it turns out, they’ve been at it for almost 150 years. I was further reassured when my Army cavalry officer nephew informed me that while lower-grade officers wore Stetsons, higher ranking officers were often partial to Serratellis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have yet to try it out on the dance floor, but the most important person in my life likes the way it looks, so I’m pretty happy, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Self-portrait<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Art comes in many forms, including ripped paper and black ink<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I may have one last 2022 post in me, but I doubt that it will be very educational, and you know how I love to be educational. In fact, I’ll close this post with a lesson on how to be a better conversationalist at your NYE soiree. No need to thank me; this is just how I roll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Meme<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’re growing our own Texas Mountain Laurel. Also, I have a new cowboy hat. But wait…there’s more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,55,66,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","category-fashion","category-plant-life","category-random-thursday","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/cherubschanginglightbulbs.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11597"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11614,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11597\/revisions\/11614"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}