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My oh my, a whole blog about bookshelves! I love internet.

Poinsettias look great. We will begin running the dirt for them next week.

Before we run the poinsettia dirt, we will run the dirt for our first plantings of fall hanging baskets, deco pots and our J6 and #4 fall annuals (dianthus, petunias, pansies, snaps and violas).

We still have greenhouse plastic to replace so we will continue to work on that.

Temperatures are supposed to be over 100 degress the first part of next week. I hope the forecast is wrong.

Stay cool.

In addition to the poinsettias and the mums, we are working on replacing the plastic that was damaged in the hail storms in the spring. Today some of the guys are replacing the gutters in one house while they have the plastic. The rest of the crew is either working on stripping plastic on other houses to get ready to cover, drenching the mums with the iron or cleaning out houses and getting them ready to disinfect in preparation of the poinsettias.

In the office, our new sales person, Annette, is calling on last years poinsettia customers and getting their poinsettia orders for this year. Ron is out traveling in Oklahoma. Leigh Ann is in Nicaragua. Clay is working on product costing. Charley is alternating between the recliner and checking on the mums and crews. Beck is updating our MSDS information. Golden is reviewing our emergency plan and working on payroll, and I'm updating the blog, making collection calls, analyzing our cash flow, checking on the crews progress and working on next spring's items.

Not too bad for one day.

Hubby and I were alright with this plan.  Karen (Alex's mum) said that V would be dropped home by 7pm. 

When 7pm arrived, I was already very excited to hear all about the party from V.  At 7:05pm, I put the porch light on.  7:10pm .... still no V.  I told myself that as it was raining heavily, Karen must be doing the right thing by driving carefully.  At 7:15pm,... hubby started asking me questions - "What time did Karen say she would be here by?  Do you have her mobile number?".  Yes we had her mobile number, but if she was driving we wouldn't want to be bugging her with a call would we!  I know hubby was as jittery as I was, but I was going to be positive and not 'fan the fire' with more worries.  In my mind, all sort of "what if" scenarios were fleeing by. I tried to stop my noisy mind by switching on the TV to distract myself.  Hubby, J and I sat on the couch watching God knows what,.. but I knew that both hubby and I had our eyes not on the brightly lit LCD screen, but on the clock on the wall.  By 7:30pm, I was nearly out of my mind.  Every few moments we would mute the TV, thinking that we heard a car outside.  As I was about to decide what to do next,... we heard it.  The glorious sound of children's voices (coming from the parked car outside of course).  V was back with a BIG smile on his face!  Karen apologised for being late as she got lost dropping one of the other boys home.  I wished her a pleasant evening - it wouldn't have been easy managing six energetic 7 year olds boys for over 5 hours!

I gave V a big hug and a kiss, and smelt the unmistakable scent of ice cream on his skin and breath.  I chuckled to myself thinking,.... this is how mums of teenagers must feel when their children go out.  Staring at the clock and praying that they are safe, and the peace that is felt when they see them home safe and happy. 

2. Produceren Steve Lillywhites udtalelse. Det er blevet sagt før, men det KUNNE jo være. Det ville virkelig varme med et album af f.eks. Achtung Baby-format. Og mens vi venter, kan vi (de hungrende fans) jo hygge os med tre genudgivelser af Boy, October, War og Under A Blood Red Sky-videoen. Dyrt, men mums :)

Update alt for lang tid efter: Ja, der er så ikke nogen stemme overhovedet. Det lover virkelig godt. Måske dette link virker.

In addition to watering regularly, we have already had to weed the pots once.  Some windy days and haying on the adjacent field resulted in a high number of pots having grass and weeds sprout.  We also have the occasion dog chase a rabbit through the field and knock over pots that have to be stood up again.

Finally, we also check the fertilize and pH levels in the soil about every 7-10 days to make sure all our numbers are within acceptable ranges.

This year we have some chlorosis showing up.  Chlorosis is usually a result of nutrient deficiencies but all of our nutrient levels look good.  We are trying to determine the cause so we can rectify it, but so far we haven't had much luck.  We're going to send some samples of plant tissue and soils off to a lab to be analyzed.  Hopefully, they will be able to determine what the problem is.

Mum decided she didn't want to go out for dinner so my sister, her clan, myself, and meggers had a lovely dinner in with her.  Chicken, Risotto, Veggies, Bread, Cheese sauce and ohhh some of her home made chips (french fries).  I had to ward off the vultures to set aside a few of the chips for meggers, everyone (including myself) was eating them as fast as they came out of the kitchen. lol 

Prior to dinner Meggers and Camy Bear made a cool hat out of plants and stuff they found in Grans garden, it actually came out really cute (yep that's a picture of me with no make up on sporting the designer digs below, Kate Moss has nothing on me..lol)  We ended the night with a cup of tea and a bit of left over chocolate cake mum had made a day or two earlier. 

Below are a few pics from the day, the puppy is her beloved Bella or as I like to call her the "Holy Terror", she chews everything, super spoiled.  The kitty is Nubby Cat, a cat my mum rescued after some sick bastard, cut off it's front and part of it's back legs.  An amazing cat, that gets around, much like a Kangaroo and is quite feisty.  I think we should of called her Ali, like the boxer, because when warding off bella or mums other cat Marmalade, she looks like she's boxing.

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What do vacuum cleaners have to do with this blog? It's just one of the more inane things I have to deal with around here. The vacuum cleaners that we use to clean the office and break rooms were both on their last leg so the decision to get new ones fell to me. We had industrial models. Have you priced industrial models lately? If we can get more than two years out of the cheap ones we'll be money ahead. For the record, it is the inane aspects and responsibilities of this job that drive me bonkers.

Believe it or not, our first shipment of poinsettia cuttings will arrive next Wednesday from Ecke. Look for upcoming posts on the poinsettias and their progress.

Lastly, I am pleased to announce the addition of two new sales people to our staff. We spent a large portion of the last three weeks doing interviews and follow-ups. It was quite exhausting. In the end, we narrowed the list down to several great candidates. It was a tough decision, but I think we made the right one by hiring not just one to replace our vacancy but two. Next week, if they are willing, I hope to do a profile to introduce each of them here on the blog. We are excited about having them here and are looking forward to their fresh input and new ideas.

Santiago, 28/06/2008.- En el marco de la celebración mundial del denominado Día del Orgullo Gay organizaciones de LGTB (lesbianas, gays, transexuales y bisexuales) organizaron shows artísticos como el efectuado en la Plaza de Armas y una "Besatón" que inicialmente se realizaría al centro de la Plaza de la Constitución frente al palacio de gobierno, pero terminó efectuándose en la acera norte de dicho lugar. El primero de estos actos fue organizado por el MOVILH, una de las agrupaciones de LGTB más antiguas de Chile y el segundo por el Movimiento Unificado de Minorías Sexuales, MUMS, organización escindida del primero y fuertemente crítica de las políticas sobre minorías sexuales de los gobiernos de la Concertación.

El variopinto show de la Plaza de Armas transcurrió sin incidentes. En el actuaron desde artistas callejeros, comicos travestis, conjuntos de huasos (campesinos) y grupos rockeros. En cambio los organizadores de la Besatón fueron sorprendidos cuando la policía les negó el acceso a la plaza permitiéndoles solo instalarse en la acera más alejada del palacio de gobierno, la que se hizo estrecha para contener la gran cantidad de LGTB que concurrieron a la cita.

Dirigentes del MUMS manifestaron su rechazo a la medida insistiendo que como ciudadanos chilenos les asistía el derecho a ocupar un espacio público, que por lo demás han utilizado en anteriores "besatones". De todas maneras realizaron la actividad provocando gran alboroto de prensa con apasionados besos entre travestis, lesbianas y gays.

La división de los diversos

El acto del MOVILH sacaba carcajadas tanto por los chistes de los travestis como también por la mezcla algo extravagante de números artísticos o el desafine de algunos cantantes. Eso de matizar performances de trans con huasos y baladistas tecnopop exageraba el tono freak al que se sumaban los burlescos coros de grupos de "lelas" adolescentes (lesbianas en jerga juvenil) presentes en el lugar.

El entusiasmo de estas chicas subió de tono cuando apareció en el escenario la curvilínea y pelirroja vocalista del grupo Bipolar a quien dedicaron varios silbidos y l"mi'jita ricas" que de verdad se los tenía merecidos…. (era una suculenta "m'ijita rica", aunque su voz y las canciones que interpretaba no lo fueran tanto).

Freak y todo el acto del MOVILH tenía su mérito pues convocaba no solo a los LGTB sino al público habitual de la plaza.

Mientras seguía el desfile de cantantes y trans chistosas, los del MUMS se juntaban en la acera norte de la Plaza de la Constitución apretujándose en torno al monumento a Diego Portales, el primer ministro dictador del Chile poscolonial. Seguro que de ver la escena algún "portaliano" (derechista fascistoide) habría puesto el grito en el cielo por la junta de "colas" en torno al ídolo de Pinochet.

A diferencia del show del MOVILH acá la asistencia era casi 100% LGBT o GLBTT o como se quiera escribir. Sin embargo a pesar del animo trasgresor había mucha risa y casi nada de besos y los pocos que iniciaron el besuqueo eran rápidamente rodeados por una nube de gráficos y camarógrafos que desalentaba a los demás. Incluso se veían cohibidos las chicas y chicos "poncios"(*) que acudieron al lugar a "comerse" con furia como hacen en las discos y algunos parques de la capital.

Entre los primeros besadores estuvo Felipe González concejal de la Municipalidad de Lampa y único transgénero o travesti que ostenta un cargo de elección popular en Chile. También debieron dar el ejemplo y besarse los dirigentes del MUMS y por ahí se anduvo armando la impactante protesta labial.

El show de los travestis, huasos y demases en la Plaza de Armas y la besatón bajo el monumento a Portales son expresión del desarrollo orgánico pero también de la división y competencia entre las principales organizaciones de los LGTB, donde unos organizan marchas que otros replican con "gayparades", besatones versus varietés o protestas radicales como hacen colectivos de lesbianas de izquierda fuertemente criticas del tono carnavalesco de algunos actos gay.

A pesar de lo anterior es evidente el avance de la acción organizada de las minorías sexuales en estos años. De las tímidas marchas nocturnas de 15 o 20 gays a comienzos de los años 90 se pasó a manifestaciones que congregan a miles de personas y la lucha contra la discriminación, la homofobia y sobretodo la lesbofobia se ha potenciado. Sin embargo estos males se mantienen muy vigentes en la sociedad chilena y una demostración de ello la brindó el propio gobierno al prohibir el acto del MUMS en la Plaza de la Constitución, lo que no habría ocurrido si la besatón hubiese sido entre parejas heterosexuales.

Los del MOVILH

Los del MUMS

__________

(*) Poncios se denominan a cierto tipo de adolescente chileno muy deshinbido que acostumbra a acariciarse y besarse en público con la mayor cantidad de chicos y chicas. Esta conducta ha llevado a catalogarlos de promiscuos. Los grupos que practican el "ponceo" pueden integrar tanto a heterosexuales como homosexuales y lesbianas.

Despite this being one of own down times in sales and shipping, I have been exceptionally busy. Too busy to do much posting last week, and I apologize for that. We have had one of our sales persons take another job. So we've been interviewing new prospects for the last two weeks. After spending 3-4 hours a day in interviews, I had to work late to catch up and neglected the blog. Sorry.

Last Thursday, I attended the Arkansas Green Industry board meeting. We usually meet in Little Rock, but this time we met at the house of one of our gracious board members. After the meeting, we had the opportunity to tour Garvan Woodland Gardens. The Gardens were very impressive. I will be posting pictures of the tour later this week.

We also finished planting the mums last week. I will get some pictures of the fields later this week as well. So stay tuned to more Mum Chronicles. They'll be as exciting as watching mums grow.

I promise.

Finally, I have added an email subscription application to the blog. In the upper right corner, you can click on Parks Brothers's Weblog by Email and type in your email address and the verification code to receive email notifications when the blog gets updated. Not that I don't like you visiting regularly to check things out, but this makes it easy for you not to miss out on updates or other important information. As we all get better at this blog thing, I hope to utilize the blog more to keep everyone up to date.

Staying up to date is becoming more important than ever. There are some major changes coming to our industry in the next few years. Even more so than the last couple of years. Things are about to get very interesting.