Monday, May 31, 2010

HAPPY   MEMORIAL   DAY   !!!!!!!!!

Sunday, May 30, 2010

HAPPY    SUNDAY    !!!!!!

Saturday, May 29, 2010

HAPPY      SATURDAY    !!!!!!

Friday, May 28, 2010

Friday Cat Blogging






Yay Three Day Weekend!

I discovered that it is not a great idea to eat ice-cream sundae's at 4pm. It does a number on your blood sugar and causes you to fall into a deep coma by 5:15. On the up side, you do sleep through dinner.

I had a whole list of things I was supposed to do when I got home from work and in my favor, I actually got most of them done, post sugar coma, hours later than I had planned but still objectives reached. I will end up taking a shower at eleven o'clock at night but still, I will take that shower! I was also supposed to bath Dogger but it isn't going to happen and if I really had been dedicated to this I would have gathered towels and shampoo the night before and I didn't so it is not totally the ice cream and chocolate sauces fault I slacked.

There was also the problem that pre-Memorial Day weekend,  I have no sunglasses again! I knew I was going to lose them because they cost more than the old variety I had been buying, which because they were cheap I almost never lost. I would buy new ones because the old ones wore out and now I am finding them everywhere, there must be three pair in my kitchen alone not the mention the ones I found in Minnie! I actually dug one pair out of the garden last spring.

I have to have new shades because I am going to the beach and I am not going to the beach without sunglasses, so I will have to hit the Wallyworld closeish to campus over lunch and hopefully they will have the kind that fits my glasses - The Wallyworld near me did not when I was there digging through their  rather pathetic selection the other day but I did unearth a Christmas ornament dated 2004!

 I also need to remember I need dog cookies and to look at their selection of bikes. Its a much nicer Wally than mine, so I am betting on a better selection of nicer bikes and  along with the better bikes, I imagine a better dog cookies as well. It is a much newer and better appointed Wallyworld and  it has much nicer stuff in stock and it smells better and has wider aisles, better lighting and they keep it cleaner. It is a lovely suburban Wally while my Wally by comparison is located in an ghetto slash urban hell hole slash war zone.

Lovely.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Bike

I went to all that trouble to finally get my bike tires pumped up and ready to go and then I get ready to go and the back tire is flat again. Totally flat as in no air.

My $48 bike may have passed its sell by date. Broskey has all ready put too much money into new brakes and assorted bikey whatnots that its needed and I can't see putting more cash in it for a bike that cost less than its combined accessories. I am very sad.

But not so sad that I didn't hie myself to Wallyworld to look at their bikes to see if they had any other $48 bikes for me. They didn't this time around but I could score a non-speed with white walls like all the hipster kiddos ride these days and I might like that.I could look really cool tooling around in that. Maybe I would get a cute hat or start wearing overalls... I am digging the white walls. These bikes cost over $100 though so I'm not sure what to do; One one hand I really need a bike because I need to exercise and fitness is priceless, but I could drop more cash on Purple Bike and maybe get it fixed enough to ride around but how long is it going to last  this time? And what if getting it fixed is more than just getting a new cheap bike?

I think I would like a new cheap bike!

I haven't been able to ride nearly as much as frankly I have needed to with my trip back to the Old Country looming at the end of June. I was supposed to be a size six by now and I think I've gained weight. Not good. I was supposed to be down many, many pounds by this time and I am not and I blame this on the bike's continued poor health and not my weakness and lack of self control and poor will power.

All the bike's fault.

There were some very cute bikes at my Wallyworld though, very expensive bikes - Some were upwards of $250!  For a Walmart bike! Which I do recognize as almost free as bikes go but since in my world $250 for a toy is still $250 for a toy and for $250 at Wallyworld I should be able to fill up a container ship with plastic crap and I'm not sure I want to gift Wallyworld with $250 all at the same time. There was a very pretty little mint green number though and it was sweet and it came with speeds and hand breaks and I think it was under $100 - A total win by the way, but my last bike was an el cheapo and it lasted a year but it lasted a year and how bad is that? A mint bike wouldn't match Minnie though and I kind of liked that about Purple Bike, it didn't stand out riding around in the car.

There was another blueish model that was also very cute and it was a white wall model with no speeds or hand breaks - A plus because there would be very little to break or get caught on say, everything on the interior of the van. A Problem I think thus far with Purple Bike.

But even with its various cables being tugged on, the cables are not at issues, most of the breaks still work! Some of the breaks. The bike still stops more or less.  I'm going to go visit other Wallyworlds.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

On the go

I finally puff, puff found the bike pump! In a fit of well meaning tidy-ing I must have decided that under the car port was no place for a nice bike pump like it and it needed to be taking care of. because you know, poor sad little bike pump! I think prior to living in the wild it had lived in Minnie until a previous fit of tidy-ing had moved it. Because it staying in the same place indefinitely would bore it and I might know where it was from day to day but I must believe strongly in bike pump rights and bike pumps get bored really easily, they require a change of scene from time to to time.I also seem to think  deep down,that playing hide-and-seek with it is fun for both of us.  Clearly, I do not want it where I can find it. That would be wrong.

I had moved it to the basement. Where the bike isn't and where I would never look for it if I needed it. I must have moved it there in a desire to keep it safe or out of the rain or some other really-good-reason at the time but as well meaning as it was, it made sure I couldn't find it. For months.

So I found it! Then I had to use it and I was reminded why I thought shelling out a dollar for air seemed like such a good idea. The pump hates me! It pops off the nozzle on the tire and its hard to pump. I can't ell if its getting air into the tire at all or how much is staying in the tire after that. I was messing with the tip and the whole thing fell apart. I took a hint from the moron across the street who thinks that revving his engine is the same as fixing the engine and I smacked the tip on the driveway a few times to "make it work" ands shockingly, it did!  Maybe the moron is smarter than her appears because brute force worked and post smacking it fit better and the tire I had been working on seemed to be less soft. Tire "A" was easy, Tire "B" wasn't and it started off less flat.

But now, the bike tires both of them at the same time! are aired up and ready to go. The rain as stopped or at least stopped for the  moment and Bike and I will be ready to go,go,go! Having a ready bike did not stop me from driving to the post office the other night but in my defence, it was dark and Dogger did really want a ride in the car. It makes her whole day and she has been cooped up in the house more than either of us likes.

But yay! Bike is back! Now I just have to get back on it.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Wet floor

It's raining again and I don't really want to walk Dogger in it. I walked her twice in the rain already today and I don't relish the prospect of doing it again. I feel like a bad dog mama. And damp I feel like a damp dog mama.

I went to the store and bought my cousins baby a card congratulating him on his coming high school graduation. Congrats Kiddo! Go forth and prosper! Don't knock up your girlfriend! I'm going to go with the idea that the genetic stupidity he was born with might not manifest in this generation. But I bought him a card anyway and I'll send him some cash. If I was really mean I would send him Oh The Places You'll Go! because he'll get twelve of them and I don't think he'll ever go anywhere.

I'm really feeling nasty today. Maybe I should take Dogger for another walk, let the rain wash the nasty away. No. I don't want to, Dogger is sound asleep, stretched out on her futon and while she would be happy to go out for a pee break if I suggested it I don't think she would be up for a walk. The dampness seems to be a problem for her joints. Oddly, last winter when it was cold and then snowy and icy, I walked Dogger religiously every night sore joints be damned. Now, its warm and nice and I can't come up with reasons to not walk fast enough.  I guess its not enough of a sacrifice.

I would walk her right now but eh I would have to put my bra back on and go find a jacket and  I'm right in the middle of a really good Law and Order rerun and I am so going to miss Jeremy Sisto. All this sound a fury over Lost phew. I am however heartened that 24 ended with a whimper and not many column inches. Ha.  I do hope that Kiefer Sutherland's next project is not a right-wing wet dream because I used to be a big fan of he and his limited emotional range. James Spader wishes he had aged so well.

Nasty, nasty, nasty!

I harvested some more raspberries this morning and I think that is not going to get old. Three or four a day is just fine, three or four I eat before the damn squirrels or their evil buddies in the raspberry eating business, the birds. I do have some very frustrating mesh over part of the plants left over from last year and it seems to be working well enough. It has tried its damnedest to keep me from my own berries it must be a real bummer to the smaller brained. Good.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Happy Monday

That's what I call a good weekend. I harvested green beans  and raspberries, my hydrangea is actually blooming and I have three of of the four drapes I ordered. And I didn't do a damn thing I didn't want to and that includes when I mowed the lawn - which was the first thing I did  Saturday after I slept 'till noon.

I took pictures of all these great and amazing things -  but not the lawn mowing because I didn't think about it at the time - but for some reason Blogger won't let me post pictures. Again . I may try later or I might let  my blood pressure fall a bit before I get back into the line for the nail-gun-to-the-head treatment. I have a headache now, no clue as to why that is...

Yay. Tried again, couldn't do it. Sucks.

I did learn some stuff. Did you know Wallyworld in its huge, monstrous, multi-national 21 century corporate being self can not do something even the most lowly fake Gap at the mall can do . You go to Fake Gap and you find a blouse you like but sadly, the fake Gap you're at doesn't have it. So sad! but that fake Gap can consult their computer and tell you that their location at Other Mall does have it in the size you want and they will call other location and have them hold it for you.

Wallyworld can't do that. Wallyworld can suggest that you look up the numbers of area stores and that you ask them if they have the shirt in your size. You call them. Not your helpful sales associate, no its your job to do their job.

After I left Wallyworld in a huff, I thought about coming home and digging through my phone book and looking up all the Wallyworlds in the greater Triangleplexian but I decided that I would as soon as do that, never.

See what happened what launched this whole thing was that on back on May 14, I ordered from Wally.Com four curtain panels for my living room. Four of the same kind of panels, I thought this was understood when I said: I want four of this kind of drapery  and then only high lighted one kind of drapery choice. One. It was called Buffalo Plaid, the kind that's pink. I did have some fears that they might on accident send me Buffalo Plaid, the kind that's blue

I ordered it and then waited. And waited. And waited. I kept getting emails telling me that my order had creeped a little closer to my store. Really, I do believe that they strap the "Site to Store" orders to the backs of  winos and tell them to be in X by three doses of methadone. I finally got my email and I was so excited I came thisclose to getting in the car and going to Wallyworld in the middle of the night to pick it up. I came to my senses when I imagined being the Wallyworld parking lot at 11pm on a Saturday night without some sort of police escort.

In most cases, Dogger is usually a pretty good escort but she was  all ready asleep and they won't let me bring her into the store. Bummer, so I didn't go but I did set an alarm and got up early Sunday morning to get my prize. In the pouring rain.

I'm not a little pathetic.

So I got to the store and after a tour of the store thanks to the singularly not dedicated to customer service staff and when I finally tracked down my toy it was the wrong toy! It wasn't what I ordered at all! It was three of the I-don't-have-the-balls-to-order  choice and one of the kind I actually did order. They aren't anything alike! They have entirely different names! How did this happen? Why are they in my head? How did they know?

And thus started the whole Fake Gap envy and then I just ordered what I need online and will wait for too long to get it. And then possibly end up with Buffalo plaid the kind that's blue.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

HAPPY    SUNDAY    !!!!!!

Saturday, May 22, 2010

HAPPY    SATURDAY   !!!!!!

Friday, May 21, 2010

Friday Cat Blogging



Okay.

The computer hates me and I am okay with that. Now.

 I sent the computer to the corner and  turned it on and off about a half a dozen times and then I told it to spend some time thinking about how its behavior made me feel and it agreed after holding its breath and turning blue that it had behaved for most of the evening like a douche bag.

I decided that I just wasn't going to deal with its issues. I decided to wash my hair and watch  my TV  shows season finale's instead with my full attention instead of watching them out of one eye - which always makes me feel like I'm cheating on them. Community, totally put me on Team Annie, by the way, and I think she and Jeff are just sweet and the episode was just splendid and 30 Rock was fabulous and then I watched Bones on TIVO delay and thus far its quite nice.

So of course the computer finally decided to work properly very late and well, that's just fine because well, I really enjoyed my shows and now there is a feral cat sitting on my window sill with the sign that says Will Head Butt for Better Cat Food and I feel like a mean person for not doing something but what the hell does he want? I all ready have a bowl of cat food out there for him and he won't eat it! And I think that's something right there.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

 Wally's World

I thought I was going to get my curtains. I didn't get my curtains. I thought one of the five or six emails I have received from Wally about my order had said : We have your drapes, come and get them" but instead it said :Your drapes have been shipped you can't have them yet. - which is odd because the email also said they were in Charlotte and even if the drapes had to walk to Raleigh on their own, they would be here by now...  Hmmm.

Unless Wally is saving money on gas by strapping individual  orders to the backs of drifters and pointing them in the right direction? Meth is cheaper than gasoline isn't it? Oh Gawd! They are walking from Charlotte!  It could very well explain the lag in delivery! It doesn't take two weeks to get anything delivered! I had an entire chaise rebuilt and reupholstered and it didn't take that long to get back to me.

They are going on and on about their vaunted "Roll Backs"...They sent the same email message to me a couple of days apart so I took for granted that email number two was the one saying they had arrived. No they have not. The good news is that I didn't trek all the way to Wallyworld to find that out. 

The bad news is that my drapes are at the mercy of a meth addicted drifter! who is probably being tortured by a psycho trucker right now! They are going to find his body and  the remains of my drapes somewhere in New Mexico next March.

On the other hand, I wasn't prepaired anyway. I  didn't have the receipt printed out and my instructions are very strict about having my printed receipt in hand as well as two forms of picture ID and my birth certificate and proof of citizenship (I am a brunette)  in order to take custody of my drapes - you know because there is such a black market for Wallyworld drapes. Whatever, I should have known that when Wally says you are going to wait for two weeks, that Wally means you are going to wait for two weeks. If you are too cheap to pay for S&H handling you  clearly don't really need whatever it is in a hurry anyway. Tsk.

*****

Speaking of walking, I thought that since Dogger hadn't had quality walk for the last few days that I would take advantage of the nice weather and take her for a longer walk. I had some bills to pay and since my Mail Man declared another holiday, I needed to mail them myself. So we walked to the post office. I had wanted to do this because I ride my bike there and always see all these cans and bottles and its harder to pick them up on my bike. So we walked and I picked up shiny things. I had worried that it might be too far for Dogger but she was fine, for my part I came home and fell asleep. The question of whether chaise was as comfortable as old chair has been answered. I slept like a rock.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Rain drops on roses

It finally stopped raining and my rain barrel is weeping, earlier, while it was still raining it was vomiting so progress has been made but I think I need a rain barrel for my rain barrel. I think during hurricane season it may be over matched.

I guess if were really to rain hard for a long period as it is want to do during a hurricane, I might open the spigot at the bottom and let it run out. If was over matched by four inches of rain over a couple of days I think that twice that in a hours might prove its undoing. I will have to investigate this.

Speaking of the rain. I'm not sure I mentioned it : It rained for two days. It stopped. Since it was pouring for days I didn't have chance to do my daily flower deadheading. I do it twice a day because its addictive. Anyway, I was not able to do it and when  I finally was able to go outside to check the flowers I was appalled! they looked awful and it wasn't just because they had been rained on for hours. They were all half dead from being old! I never let a bloom get old. It starts to sag or get limp or gawd forbid , fade and it is out-of-there in a hurry.

They looked awful. A mass of limp, faded, wilted socks. They were  really pissed at me. I popped out there for a quick look see and I ended up spending forty-five minutes removing blooms and tying up  limp stems. Everywhere I went were more dead blooms! I felt like a bad plant person, I mean I walked Dogger in the driving rain and yet I was too precious to go out and tend to my other living things? Am I a specisist? If you don't have a heartbeat when the going gets rough you're on your own? A little rain gets in the way of providing care? No wonder my hydrangea spent last summer on strike!

Bad, bad Diana. On the upside the Experimental Garden looks good. The pepper looks a little taller than it was and the tomato absolutely looks better. I hope this is not their way of saying that what they would like me to water them even more than I do now - I already water them a lot and I don't want to hear that they need to be watered more. If I was really on the ball, I would use this heavy rain as a cue to go ahead and dig its new home while the soil is soft and wet and easy to till.

My excuse now is that the plant is completely sodden and too heavy for me to move and the soil is so wet that it might not come out of the pot neatly and it might cause it trauma so I'll wait until um, later. What is not traumatized? My raspberry plants! They gave me three ripe berries today! Nummy! and many, many more to come. Yay!

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Garden 2010 Update 8: The Return of Photoblogging!

Sometimes I appreciate my cat more than others. My cat needed to go so he used his box upstairs while I remained warm and dry. My dog needed to go so we walked around the block in the pouring rain and I became cold and wet. Anyway, thanks to the rain my rain barrel is full again as of yesterday and I am relieved of my twice daily watering duties until the ground dries out.

Speaking of my watering duties...


All in all doing well. I am going to have to spray it sooner than I had thought I was going to and that doesn't make me hugely happy but so far the damage is minimal and localized and may have been the calling card of some transient evil doer.


The first is the aptly named 4th of July variety of tomato as its supposed to produce by July 4th. the second shot is just representative tomato growing and developing. All the tomatoes are about the same height and weight except for the Experimental Garden tomato, its about half the height and weight of the others. This is totally against my original theory that  despite the limits of the container  that all the sunlight would make the plant healthier and stronger than the same plants in the garden with less sunlight.
You can't really tell but both plants are scraggly and small.
Speaking of the not scraggly and small other plants...



True, they aren't as butch as the tomatoes but peppers do things on their own maddening schedule. I am pleased that the smallest plant is growing and I really thought that it would have not made it this long. The other, other plants on the other hand are on a very pleasing schedule.

some of those green things are green beans
Yay for the green beans! And here, a family picture. Soon to be covered with beans!


Speaking of happy, growing, productive things. My raspberry plants are going gangbusters!


There was even a ripe-ish one over the weekend but a bird got it before I did. Bastard bird.

My other little friends, my flowers are doing well too. The flowers I bought are flowering along and growing and getting taller. My little seeds are also growing and getting stronger but they are really flowering yet.


The tall greens are baby plants. I'm not sure what kind of flower they are going to turn into but they are pretty even without blooms. Speaking of blooms, my hydrangea didn't bother blooming at all last summer but this year it has had a change of heart.


Okay. Speaking of old things that are new again...

Introducing my new old chaise!!



Monday, May 17, 2010

Duty

I spent part of Saturday in Pittsboro . I was just about to get real mad at the party for making me drive forty-five minutes to a wretched little town in the middle of nowhere without even a Bojangles to feed myself at when lo and behold, they provided a  free lunch for my troubles. I forgave them for their trespasses.

If it wasn't for that though, I would have been very annoyed.  It was a thoroughly unimpressive little town and I know that for a fact because their hateful traffic circle hexed my GPS unit and made me tour the damned place. The Democrats love send delegates to these terrible little places and over the years I have found that Sanford and Lillington are also unimpressive. Why can't everyone just come to Raleigh? Everyone wants to come to Raleigh. Its almost civilization and if you live in one of the awful little towns that surround it its practicly metropolitan in comparison.

 There was one store  that I saw on my tour that I wanted to go back to but once again, the demonic and completely unnecessary traffic circle thwarted me. The traffic circle willfully confused my GPS so I know it was an evil thing. GPS units, along with puppies are signs that Gawd loves us. No decent thing would hurt puppies or confuse a GPS unit and I would be willing to bet that that traffic circle also does nasty things to puppies.

Once I actually found the convention, I learned that there is a reason that at most conventions there is a section marked "visitors" or "guests" or "big losers with nothing else to do on a Saturday" because we were going along quite well, minimum of un-agenda-ed speakers and everyone who spoke kept it mostly on topic and on time. Good. There was one tantrum but the thrower spoke very rapidly while he was having his  little fit and thus did not waste much time. What is a convention without a little drama?

But then we had to vote on something, actually three somethings and then it ground to a halt. None of the actual delegates had any problems, we all had been there before and we know the rules : 1) Don't ask questions,2) don't leave you seat unless you want to be damned in absentia to the hated resolutions committee and 3) do not under any circumstances stop the proceedings!

A visiter didn't like how we voted.  There was an issue of  should we be standing or sitting? raised hands? ballots?  and dear gawd  the spector of weighted votes! We had a problem because it wasn't made clear who could vote because they didn't separate the can't vote audience from the can vote delegates and then some asshole audience member had to start about how they do it at their conventions and that sent everyone into an uproar. Out of Order! He knew he was out of order and could not speak and yet he did! We go through the most ridiculous contortions to obey Roberts Rules of Order and then this asshole went all OOO! and then some other visitor went off and it got very hot in the lunchroom.

And then I decided that this was bullshit and I went home. I voted and I left. Gawd. The state convention is in Fayetteville which is a real city but I'll have to think if its a real city I want to be in in July. There will be freebies though,,,And when I got home I went to Artsplosure and only bought one thing.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

HAPPY    SUNDAY   !!!!!!!!

Saturday, May 15, 2010

HAPPY    SATURDAY  !!!!!!

Friday, May 14, 2010

Friday Cat Portrait Blogging


by George Zupp


I wear my sunglasses at night

I was beginning to think I really didn't want sunglasses.I would go to the store and not buy them. Over and over and over. Maybe it was a sign. I mean I only really need them to slow the progression of my decline in vision! I could learn to live with the burning and tearing! I could tough it out. Some people look better when they are squinting.

 I had not thought about was the frames and how they would take to clip on sunglasses.Yes, I thought about the frames quite a bit but  I failed to take their appropriateness for clip on sunglasses into account. I mean who does that? They were cool and I wanted them. I don't want to put thought into things. I wanted NEW and I got it.

Cool things should just have nice things. Cool things are cool because everything wants to hang out with them  and sunglasses are cool all ready so they would hang out with my new frames just because, right? And no I can't have traditional sunglasses like everyone else because I would have to get prescription sunglasses that cost a fortune and I would lose in the parking lot  of the frame store. Every ten days. I don't make enough money for that.

Anyway. I kept saying I need new sunglasses and I kept going to Wallyworld with the express intent to buy new sunglasses... and I bought cat food and shorts and  flour and mailing envelopes and all make and model of things and I would go home and dig through my thirteen plastic bags and I would not have sunglasses. Again.

I was annoyed and I realized that when I went to Wallyworld for the sunglasses I always went at night when I don't need sunglasses! and so of course I never thought to look at sunglasses while I was there! Okay! New Plan : Only Go To Wallyworld During The Day When There Is Sun...And I  would go home and dig through my plastic bagss full of asprin and pizza and slug bait and find no sunglasses again. Fine.

So I decided that maybe it was because I just hate Wallyworld! Maybe its just a block and I really don't want to spend more money and time at that hateful place.I hate standing in line for a half hour  so that I could buy a pen!  I hate the rude staff, I hate everything about it. I'm there three times a week but I hate every minute of it. Maybe its just a power thing on my part. I can control one aspect of my relationship with them by not buying things like, say, sunglasses from them. I get it!

 I tried Target. I love Target! I don't mind spending money there at all. Did you know that Target doesn't sell clip on shades?


Wallyworld sells clip on sunglasses that for my plastic frames.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Not Ready for Prime Time Playas

If I hadn't messed around after I got home from work , Dogger and I might have gotten much more of a show than we did. As it was we saw Every Cop in Southeast Raleigh and crime tape and a Detective in a bad tan suit questioning a neighbor and I walked right passed the house before one of the cops even bothered to notice I was walking through their crime scene.! Well,  I think most of the crime took place either inside the house or in the driveway because that was where the cops were clumped together laughing and chatting and shooting the shit with each other as we approached. My tax dollars at work.

I spoke with a couple of neighbors once I saw the cop cars. The first group I spoke with was a group of guys hanging out on a porch about a block away. They said there had been an "accident" down the street. This sounded suspect to me, "accidents" usually don't come with that many cop cars and I could still only see some of them. I found another couple in bathrobes standing around on their yard and they came across with the stabbing news.

Me - What happened?
Bathrobe Lady - Some guy got stabbed.
Me - Shit.
BL - That's what I said!
Me - That's a lot of cars
Bathrobe Husband - There used to me more and an ambulance. They left.
Me- This is a nice neighborhood.
BL - It is. But the people in it aren't.
Me- They kept their yard so nice though.
BL - Yeah. The house looks great.

I went to our local news outlets and there was nothing about it. All those cops milling around and not a word. Well. I thought a stabbing might warrant a little more attention than that. ECiSER was standing around and no media attention? It looked pretty news worthy to me.The big news was a hit and run driver got arrested in Chapel Hill.  I was disappointed because I need to know if this was a domestic dispute or a crime of passion or if it was a more worrisome break in? And who got stabbed? was it the burglar or the home owner? It would be nice to know if I should be freaked out. I have my suspicions that it wasn't a burglary though, The cops always look a little more "cop-y" when theirs been a crime. I drove past a couple of hours later and all the cops were gone and the crime scene tape was taken down and the peoples cars were back in the drive way all ready.

If it was really bad and crimey  the cops would be there for hours and they would have the Mobile Crime Lab bus blocking the street and I wouldn't have been able to walk the dog past the house. Also? there would have been more looky lou's. A shooting always brings out a crowd, I guess a stabbing is less entertaining.

It had happened recently enough that I was around to hear the sirens and I went by there tops, twenty minutes after that and the cops were also not going door to door or checking through backyards or doing anything that smacked of police work so I gathered they already had their man or woman in custody. I better be able to read about it in the paper tomorrow. I'll feel all kinds of unloved if someone can be stabbed three blocks from my house and no one cares.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Super Model Vs. Adequate Model

I was a such a slug today I wanted to curl up in one of my flower pots and munch on a petal. So lazy! I did walk the dog like I was supposed to but I totally blew off the bike, I just didn't want to - which should be irrelevant. I should automatically finish my lunch time protean bar and get on the bike  and ride, which is what I did last spring and summer. I was so good.

I stayed away from my McDonald's so thoroughly that they tore the damn thing down and I didn't know about it! Imagine my surprise when I was tooling past and it was gone! How did they know I was so weak? I mean that's what I call corporate dedication to fitness.

This spring? Not so much. My McDonald's has been beautifully rebuilt. I do want to point out that I am eating my protean bars in my car like I'm "supposed" to but this year I sit in my car and say I should really get on the bike. Last year I was down right  compulsive about getting on the bike everyday.

Okay. I got tired of the self flagellation, thank-you-Gawd for the exer-bike! I did a couple of miles and now I don't have an appetite for flower petals at all. Maybe I should "do" a cleanse or something to get me in the right direction? I think they mostly push you in the direction of your bathroom but... I have that mini-reunion thing the end of June and I don't want to be as thick as I am now then, but on the upside I am practically a stick compared to how I looked at our twenty year reunion so I am ahead of where I was then and even then in comparison to a lot of my classmates I was borderline  Adequate Model. I don't need to be stressing over them.

Maybe if I exer-biked in the mornings before I left for work?

There is the summer issue and I want to go to the beach  and I don't want to look slubby at the beach but there also is the Adequate to oh-dear-Gawd comparison  too. In reality I don't want to show up on People Of Walmart.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Garden Update 7

As ya'll are my wittnessi : I am through planting*

* I reserve the right to replace dead plants. If something dies I will put a new plant in. One out one in. I don't think that's unreasonable. I also promise not to kill anything I decide I don't like anymore. That would be cheating.

I thought I was done. I had all my tomatoes and peppers and beans and flowers in the ground and all was right in the world. And then I remembered marigolds. You can't plant vegetables without marigolds. Its a rule. The plant changes the chemistry in the soil and renders it unsuitable for some grubs and certain fungi and rabbits don't like them. There are no rabbits in my neighborhood. Better to be safe than sorry.

 We have growth but we don't have photos. It took me 45 minutes to figure that out. It may be time to take Mr. Computer back to the computer store and have them do whatever it is that computer guys at computer stores do to computers to make them do stuff like upload images.

The plants are getting taller. Not fuller but taller, one of the tomatoes is getting a little leggy but it might be the variety so I'm not worrying yet, the peppers are as always lagged but the pepper I thought was going to be the runt of the litter has shown some improvement and seems to be gaining  slowly on the others. The Experimental Garden despite getting 23 hours of sun a day doesn't seem to be showing super growth as a result, in fact I think they are showing less growth than the plants in the less sunny garden - however, the EG were not planted until a week or so after the other plants and they might just be behind for that reason. I was really expecting a great deal more from them though and I feel less bad about the amount of sunlight the other garden gets - which is not enough but obviously, but not not enough to be lethal.

The beans are the real superstars in the garden being the first plants to begin making fruits! I have a multitude of teeny, tiny green beans! Yay!

The flowers in the front have gotten taller and prettier and I'm religious about dead heading them and I've fertilized and poisoned and slug -B-goned them. The plants I raised from seeds are still with us but still too young to make flowers. My honeysuckles are doing well, to be honest, two of the three or doing well, one is even flowering while the other just seems to be getting taller. Plant 3 doesn't seem to making any strides at all. In case one or more ultimately fails, I did make a cutting of a Japanese honeysuckle plant I found along Dogger and my walk today, to set on the bench and probably die because I don't know how to raise cuttings.

 I'm going to use it as a threat to make plant three get in line Get it together #3 or I'll bring Cutty in off the bench and you know whats going to happen to you #3 once Cutty is in the line up? That's right, you'll be benched or worse! What? you don't verbally assualt your plants? Really?

Monday, May 10, 2010

Dog Days

Last weekend when I picked up my glasses I was so excited I went into Crate and Barrel and bought an over priced cookie cutter in honor of the event. It is a very well designed ice cream cone complete with cross hatching on the cone and undulating lines indicating where the ice cream is located - all in all adorable and probably worth every cent of the $2 they charged for it.

There should be an asterisk next to the "adorable" and "ice cream cone".  It is adorable in theory,  in practice unless you are working with a very thick dough, which I do not with dog cookies, the cookie cutter makes a not adorable sperm cookie! The finished product looks like it should be staring in an animated after school special  about fertilization! I expected the cookies to break into song at anytime.


Can't you just hear the peppy little jazz inspired ditty about looking for the egg? and the challenges of out swimming the other spermatozoa?
On the upside, I rarely give Dogger treats out in public so there should not be an questions or shocked response on viewing. But if there was, I could always claim it is a tad pole. Why on earth I would feed my dog tad pole shaped cookies or why anyone would design and sell tadpole cookies cutters remains beyond me but it would be a clever "out" if I needed one. Although, I could imagine a very cute series of cookie cutters illustrating the life cycle of the amphibian. It would be popular among little boys I would imagine, they could make little tadpole cookies and little frogs with tails and the finally full on frogs! I still don't think any one wants spermatozoa cookies.

 If there were any witnesses to my sperm cookies, I don't think my explanation of wanting the dog to have seasonally shaped cookies would go over in any way that I would not end up looking disturbed. I could explain that  Of course my dog recognizes the change in season and of course she demands to have seasonally appropriate cookies! I mean, My Gawd, doesn't your dog? Well then your dog is just not very bright isn't it and you don't love it enough. Clearly.  Better to look like a bitch than a person who makes seasonally appropriate dog treats for her dog because she thinks the dog cares. Hmm, how about a line  of tee shirts that say My dog is a bitch and so am I!

I am so full of ideas. Why am I not rich?

Before I made cookies I gave Dogger a much needed bath and I was relived to discover that the conditioner I bought for myself that seemed to be of very good quality but didn't work at all for me (could this be why I was able to buy it at Poverty Barn?) did work well on her. If you want to buy doggy conditioner at the store you get charged a fortune for it. I think its a test. If you are gullible enough to buy dog specific fur conditioner then you are stupid enough to spend a lot of money on it and you should be charged accordingly and if you have the money to buy doggy specific conditioner you most likely would only respect the product if it was over priced. A discounted doggy conditioner would not sell because if you would  buy  discount doggy conditioner, you would not be in the market for doggy conditioner in the first place. The big box dog supply places know this and they never put it on sale.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

HAPPY    SUNDAY    !!!!!

Saturday, May 8, 2010

HAPPY    SATURDAY    !!!!!!

Friday, May 7, 2010

Friday Cat Blogging


Munchies

I fell asleep again but this time I managed to wake myself up sooner. So score! I napped and still had a chance to make dinner, water the plants and take time to visit with the neighbors. I was weak willed about the watering though. I just couldn't bear to do the rain barrel dance so I used the hose. I know, I know bad conservationist! Bad. Weak.

But. There is only so much water in the barrel and sooner or later there isn't going to be any water in the barrel so its inevitable really. In my own way I am conserving because I am saving the rain water by using the city water - which I pay for and now pay more for because they told us to conserve and then they shockingly lost money on the deal - Shouldn't they have known this? Or did they know this would happen and this whole thing is a conspiracy to jack up our rates? while making us second guess ourselves about conserving? Maybe waste is good?

We don't use water, we pay smaller bills and now the water company ups our rates to make up for it. Bastards. They probably sold the excess to some water starved community that doesn't believe in conserving. Bastards, bastards, bastards.

I ate dinner and thought I was done with it. Nice fish, nice broccoli some really nice raspberries and then I was full for about an hour and then I decided that I would be willing to eat anything that walked in front of me...Only to discover I had stocked my larder with  quadriplegic snacks!

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Blah, blah

Okay. I stayed awake! But. Is it better to have spent the evening sleeping or shopping? I certainly spent less money while I slept the evening away but I wasn't stocking my refrigerator with much needed staples either or getting prints I had wanted to get. I'm going to say that  for the greater good, helping the economy is a better way to spend an evening.

Speaking of the economy, lets talk about  the virtues of  Buying Local, my neighbor the upholsterer came by and picked up my chaise and gave a thumbs up to my fabric. her was also very impressed by the deal I got on it. He thinks I'm a cheapskate but I since I gave him his check  he wisely decided he wasn't  going to say anything about my spending habits. He promised to have the chaise back to me in two weeks. I'm putting on my calender, we'll see if he can make the deadline or if I'm going to have to put him on speed dial.

I called Doggers pharmacy last week to get a re-fill of her meds. I do this every month and I do it about two days after I should have which is really playing with fire and its a risk I need to stop taking. Well. I'm still waiting, the risk here is coming into play. So I called them and reminded them about my refill and lo and behold they had electric storms in the area last week and it mucked up their phones. I called at the wrong time and now they have to over night my script to me. I have about a month of extra pills on stand by just for instances like this but  I would much rather have her new pills in hand sooner rather than later.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Sleeping

I came home and walked Dogger and fed her and watered the plants and walked the fence line and made dinner and ate dinner and then I sat down and watched some TV and somewhere along the way I must have muted the set and then I closed my eyes for just a second and the next thing I knew it was seven-something and I said Hmm, its seven-something and I closed my eyes again and then the next time I opened them it was ten to nine and I sad Oh Shit! its ten to nine!

I probably should not have muted the sound. I think that was my mistake.

Earlier, while I was walking Dogger and completely awake, I called my upholsterer to see when he was going to come by, I had understood he said Tuesday and here it was Tuesday and he had not come by and so I was kind of wondering and then I had to talk to his machine. I'm afraid this does not bode well for our relationship, it  just started and all ready I'm talking to his machine? It turns out I am much higher maintenance than I thought because he didn't get back with me and now I'm really concerned about his work ethic. I'm investing a lot with him and I kind of need to have him show up when he's supposed to and then I need to see results and appointments being kept and chaises being picked up and recovered and returned in a reasonable amount of time.  I haven't even given him money yet and he's all ready not calling back? this worries me. Mr. Upholsterer needs to step up sooner rather than later.

When I think about falling asleep, my first mistake wasn't  thoughtlessly pushing mute it was staying up late Monday night. And Sunday night - not directly my fault. About 11pm on Sunday night Dogger started getting dry heaves. Lovely. I took her outside so that she could "heave" outside . Fine. But she wouldn't, we walked around and around the front yard and I walking around and around in my bathrobe and bare feet while Dogger literally hoovered  up the entire yard (when I think about it, I could get some sort of farm credit because she ate all the grass...) and  I was not enjoying this and we had an audience! The renters had everyone they know over and they were in the yard watching me in my bathrobe and I thought that was rude. I mean really, show some ick, class and go inside all ready. But no. he's a dick. I'm totally going to get him arrested the next time the opportunity presents itself. Humph.

Eventually, Dogger ran out of grass to chew and I took Dogger inside where she continued to hack and heave while I hurriedly put on shorts and shoes and took Dogger to the back yard where she ate even more grass and heaved some more and continued to not do her thing. I really needed to go to bed!

I went back inside again and this time I brought out the big guns : Hydrogen peroxide! It can act as a purgative and I needed Dogger to purge. Dogger kindly drank the potion and after wandering around the back yard some more, dutifully did her thing. Finally.

She seems just fine now.

I have no good reason for staying up Monday Monday night was my fault. I stayed up too late because I stayed up too late.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

The more you know...

I was leaving my office after work and I came to one of the little pretend intersections - if they were real streets, if they had real signage, if there were real cops around to patrol them - and I saw my friend the fox again. I said "Hello fox!" and then I looked again and saw her baby, her kit. I tried to take the kit's picture but he was further away and all I had was my phone and it's not exactly well suited for wildlife photography. I parked in the intersection and watched them watch me. Finally baby fox headed out into the street and away from me and Mama fox went after him  because surely she didn't give him permission to play in the street and went off to take hime home.  I went home and learned about my new friends.

The Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) is a small canid native to much of North America and Eurasia, as well as northern Africa. It is the most recognizable species of fox and in many areas it is referred to simply as "the fox". It was introduced into Australia in the 19th century.[2] As its name suggests, its fur is predominantly reddish-brown, but there is a naturally occurring grey morph known as the “silver” fox; a strain of domesticated silver fox has been produced from these animals by systematic domestication.

The red fox is by far the most widespread and abundant species of fox, found in almost every single habitat in the Northern Hemisphere, from the coastal marshes of United States, to the alpine tundras of Tibetan Plateau. It is capable of co-existing with more specialized species of foxes, such as Arctic fox, in the same habitat. The red fox could withstand and sometimes thrive in areas with heavy human disturbance. It is nowhere near extinction, and its amazing adaptiveness is driving many other less competent species into extinction.

Wikipedia
a fox kit. not my photo.
I learned about them and so did you.

Monday, May 3, 2010

2 days in the nab

I did my job this weekend. I flyered and or rang door bells on all the streets that I didn't all ready hit with the dog. I think I fulfilled my duty. I wish the damn headquarters would have sent me the list of registered Democrats like I asked but I held up my end. The election is on the 4th and the people around here can't say they didn't know about it or that nobody told them.

I gave out every single one I had. Now I don't have one for myself and I used one when I got a robocall from some judge. I learned he was a Democrat so I didn't cuss at the recording. The more you know.

I watered my little plants and fertilized and pesticided. Tomorrow, I scatter anti-slug as well as put out some beer traps for the little flower eating monsters. Don't dick with my flowers, one way or the other I'll have your slimy little flower munching ass.

Next year I totally grow the same peas that Alphagal has. Her plants are all ready producing. My beans are only just now starting with tiny, inedible fetal beanlings.

Oh! I got my fabric! It looks like it looked like online - practically a miracle as I was at the mercy of their camera and my screen quality . And even better, it seems like good quality while still being soft and nice. I had my fears that it was going to be the right color but the wrong texture. I ordered some swatches of other fabrics from another site and everyone of them was either scratchy or too stiff and not what I would want to curl up with. I'm also glad I said no to to a pattern. I am going to go totally nuts on my drape fabric though. Crazy pattern nutso. I can't frickin' wait.

 I called the upholsterer thinking that he would over joyed to hear the news and come flying to my place to pick up my chaise and begin work immediately! Yeah, about my job. He has some other chairs he's working on but he'll have them taken care of by Tuesday and he'll pick it up then. How dare he have other jobs? I'm supposed to be the only thing on his plate. The world is supposed to revolve around me. How often do I need an upholsters services anyway? Make way damn it.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

HAPPY    SUNDAY   !!!!!

Saturday, May 1, 2010

HAPPY    SATURDAY   !!!!!!!