All Systems A-Go...... or?

I recently purchased a nifty water timer so I can sleep at night when I'm away on business and it's eight thousand degrees outside. The only thing is, it's a bit tricky to operate, and I'm not sure if it's working.

I went to Canadian Tire and bought the only timer on the rack that can be set to come on every day at the same time and water for 15 minutes (or whatever). I set it for 9 pm just to see if it works, but then I left town and asked my boy to watch for it and see if it's working. He forgot each night, but it rained on the weekend so he wasn't concerned. Only thing is, since the weekend, every day has been around 30-32 degrees and sunny, and if the garden's not being watered we have a big problem. My tomatoes won't be happy.

So tonight I'm going to write a note on my hand and try to remember to look out the window at 9 pm to see if the timer worked. If not, I will swear at it and try to see what I'm doing wrong. I followed the instructions to the letter so I don't see why there'd be a problem.

In other news, I went away for 4 days and when I came back I discovered that the squash are truly out of control. I am growing zucchini, cucumbers, acorn squash, and mystery squash. I call it mystery squash because I think the seeds lived in my compost and they popped up all over the place where they weren't invited. They're the same size as the ones I carefully started in my basement, so I'm thinking maybe next year I can try to direct-seed all of my squash and free up some of my personal time and space (ha). However, I have no idea what they are. I hope they're pumpkins, perhaps from my jack o'lantern last october. Who knows. But this year for the first time (knock on wood) I haven't had any powdery mildew whatsoever. My garden is covered in squash. They come up to my knees and beyond. They've literally crashed the gate and grown out onto the lawn. They're starting to grow up the garden ornament/trellis that I got in early June. They've usurped my peppers and are threatening my beans and basil. I am going to have to start pruning the vines down if they keep trying to smother everything else.

It's also very difficult for a sprinkler to do it's work when it keeps hitting the bottoms of these giant leaves. Ah well - I love acorn squash, and I figure all of these things are good to grow because I actually eat them (unlike beets and radishes, which I really don't care for at all).

Needless to say, the garden looks like crap because it's a solid green lump and I can't weed in all of that mess. Perhaps I'll take an hour or a day or something this weekend and try to boss those vines around. I'll take some pictures of it too.

Wedding countdown: 9 days. I met my brother-in-law last night for the very first time (they live in Austria). Hubby and I have been together 7 years. It was very strange and surreal, but I loved every minute of it. I have a feeling this will be the most magical and surreal week of my life - the combinations of people who will be in my house at once will be unthinkable. It's really very special for me to meet his family, since my family is so close. And it's special for him too, to say the very least.

Tomorrow's my last day at work, then I'll be off-line until the end of this wedding blur.