Thursday, March 31, 2011

Fight the Attack on the Middle Class - National Day of Action | UAW

Fight the Attack on the Middle Class - National Day of Action UAW
Meow

I want to know who ordered more winter? I'm not completely sure but I'm pretty sure that the official groundhog said this this crap was supposed to be done by now. Its cold and wet and gloomy. April starts tomorow and this mess needs to be over because I have a friend coming in end of the next week and I am not interested in showing her the city through a fogged window, or walking around in the rain or wearing a coat. Not at all.

I successfully gave Small Cat his first dose of his med, I'm glad its in liquid form because I sense that he would not be the easy pill that Tex was. Tex as a pilling dream. Tex was kind of a pill himself so I guess there was some professional courtesy at work but still, he never complained about it. Small Cat was a little bit fidgety during the three seconds it took and I have a feeling that I should be glad I wasn't having to stick my fingers down his throat and unlike Tex, Small Cat has all his teeth and I feel he wouldn't be afraid to show me just how sharp they are.

Until Tuesday, Small Cat didn't have a medical record, by the time Tex was two years old he had logged more time in vets offices than a producer on Animal Planet and he had given up  trying to fight me on treatments. Dogger was shocked that I was going to a vet and not taking her, I think she was a little put out. The vet I saw with Small Cat was the one who sees Dogger and he was shocked that I didn't have Dogger with me. I wasn't. I was glad, the less we see of him the better, as nice a guy as he is and as sweet as his dog themed ties are, the less time I spend with him the better.

I explained that all this time I had this secret pet that I hadn't told him about because I didn't want to jinx Small Cat and I didn't want to give the vet any ideas about how often I should be bringing him in. Small cat lives inside and doesn't visit with other cats and since infancy has been healthy and accident free and hasn't needed to visit a vets office. Of course he has badish knees.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

There are no small problems

Small Cat made his first visit to the vet since before he was officially mine, The last time he was weighed he was just over four pounds, today he was just over twelve pounds. This visit also marked the end my vow that he would never see the inside of a vets' office.

 In the year before I got him I spent entirely too much time in vets offices with the animals and I was emotionally and financially exhausted. I spent an inordinate amount of time standing in those offices getting either very bad or very expensive news.  I decided with this new animal that it was time for a change and that change was going to be a drastic reduction in vets visits.

So I decided that he was never going to the vet.  He got fixed by the SPCA and his shots from the county. Doggers'  primary care vet doesn't even know she has a little cat brother. Her surgeon does.

Now

I didn't even flip a coin. The surgeon is cheaper, easier to get to and stubborn post operative infection notwithstanding, I like him. Did I mention the cheaper part? I like cheap, a lot. If I had to break my vow and let Small Cat darken a vets doorstep, I was not going to pay a premium for it. Doggers  doggy internist is a good vet, a very good vet but I know if I took a gimpy cat in there I would have never walked out for $61 and they would have insisted on keeping him over night and running a grand worth of diagnostics on him to rule out spinal damage. I knew there wasn't anything broken and he wasn't refusing to eat or failing to groom or not voiding or any other red flags that I have been stopped by before. Pretty much as long as a cat is eating/grooming/voiding, they are still okay.

However, limping is a bad thing. We don't like that. Small cat wasn't actually limping yet but he was definitely pre-limping. I was also having a hard time trying to figure out which one of his legs was hurt because he seemed to be favoring both in turn.

After a couple of days of trying to figure out which hurt more, he settled on his right leg. The vet likes specifics like this. If you tell him the back end in general is wonky he starts thinking "spine" and starts adding zeros, "c/o NS leg pain, r/o FX" (complains of non-specific rule out fracture) is much, cheaper than  " c/o NS spine FX?" asking for any "rule out" is asking to empty your wallet.

It turned out I was wrong with my diagnosis and right. He was favoring both legs but the right leg was more hurt than the left but neither leg is really hurt-hurt. He does however have two knees that slip in and out of joint easily  with the right knee slightly swollen p which explains the  slight favoring and the general  back end wonkiness. He'll be fine and to help him on his way the vet gave us ten days of a liquid anti- inflammatory so we both get to find out how he handles being treated.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

ACSblog | The Wisconsin Republican Party Doth Protest Too Much, Methinks | American Constitution Society

ACSblog The Wisconsin Republican Party Doth Protest Too Much, Methinks American Constitution Society
Cat Based

Wow, the things you can get done when you aren't scrubbing baseboards! For instance, last night I ordered new vacuum cleaner bags! Woo! I know, very exciting. I'm having them shipped to me. Its a little more than buying in a store but I don't have to drive  around Robin Hoods barn to get them and with gas prices as they are,  and how much I love shopping for vacuum cleaner bags, I don't mind spending $2 extra.

Tonight, instead of  hanging around on a ladder and  scrubbing fan blinds, I made dog cookies. Not so much because Dogger needed more cookies but because  I was cold and with the oven on, I could spend some time in a warmer room. If Dogger didn't need cookies I would have found something that needed to be baked.

While I was cuddled up under a blanket, in a heavy sweater and ski pants and Small Cat, I started to think  I might have found a solution to both sleeplessness and the orphan cat problem. My idea is that instead of giving people heavy drugs to make them sleep, what they could be doing is giving these people a cat! If there is a cat curled up on your legs you are absolutely not going to get up and the warm squishiness they offer is a natural sedative.

 True, it would mean that each cat would have to be a certified lap cat, and there would have to be some sort of screening process and maybe a training program for the cats that don't score high enough on the tests and perhaps they could institute a Lap Camp for new recruits. I think this could work. Jobs! Teams would be needed to go and scour shelters and someone would have to transport the recruits and then trainers and some sort of housing and supervision for them. I see a whole cat based economy .

Speaking of cats. Small Cat is going to the vet for the first time since he was a tiny baby. I thought he was getting past his fall but I noticed this evening that he wasn't able to jump up to the window sill and he won't play chase with me and he just seems very careful in what he does. This is not like him. I looked online to see if cats do sprain things and if so, what are the symptoms of a sprain and low and behold, Small Cat has a sprain. It is not clear however what he sprained. It could be either leg or both, it could be a wrenched back. I don't like not knowing.  I spoke with the vets office Monday afternoon and they said I could bring him in or not bring him in, since he is weight bearing and not limping, he's injured but he's not badly injured and they do heal up well on their own.

I want someone in a dog themed tie to tell me he's going to heal up well on his own.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Cleanliness is next to ...

I'm back!! And my house is clean! I spent hours preparing for a show that lasted about forty-five minutes. On the upside, when my friend comes in April, I won't have to spend a lot of time cleaning. Thanks to my Aunt and her white gloves, I spent much, much more time cleaning than I would have, in that, I would have vacuumed and decluttered but I certainly wouldn't have detailed the doors or cleaned the oven vents or scraped the gunk off the fan blades.

On the downside, Dogger and Small Cat and I will have to live in the car for the next two weeks.

I also learned that vacuum bags can be reused, a green tip, don't throw that bag away! You can use that bag again! Of course, it takes for granted you have a shop vac and a strong stomach for compressed carpet muck, but you can get a second use from a vacuum bag. I also learned that my upstairs floor can hold a lot more weight than I thought but at the same time it now looks like I sleep in the attic - which I do but now it looks like an attic attic instead of an attic bedroom.

Which leads me to my next job, that thankfully, I have more than a week to get done. All of that crap has to go. I want my bedroom back. It means making lists and bagging it up and then actually taking it away. The little TVs, the plastic plates, the assorted stuff that no longer has a home here. I have been advised that instead of donating my unwanted paperbacks, I should sell the books to a used bookstore. They will get ten tons of books and I'll score a quick $5, but at least they'll be out of my life. I also have a used Christmas tree, this might be a good time to unload that as well. The possibilities are endless. But the priorities has to be the stuff that's out in the open, the stuff behind closed doors can hang out for the time being. Its better to hand things over bit by bit instead of all at once anyway.

The one downside of this weekend, is that Small Cat jumped out of my arms and took a bad bounce. I was pretty sure he had hurt a paw or his knee or hip but I have changed my diagnosis to that he might have wrenched his back when he fell. He wasn't limping and he was weight baring and eating and grooming as normal,  but he seemed to be very purposeful in his movements and he seems to avoid jumping up on things and running up the stairs. He also was spending a lot of time hiding under my chair, and he is not a hider. He's gotten better and seems to be getting his grove back but if my say, Tuesday he's still stiff, we're going to the vet. Yay.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

um, Ibid.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Sorry! Totally would have a real entry but then I found out my Aunt and her white gloves, who was supposed to be spending a bit of next  Saturday at my by then immaculate house  suddenly is going to spending a bit of  THIS Saturday at my  as yet not-at-all-immaculate house. Oops. I had re-prioritize.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Monday

I spent the day wearing a sock on one foot. One stocking on one foot, a sock, a white sock, and a stocking on the other. I start out the day wearing both stockings and socks. On both feet, after I walk Dogger I change shoes and remove the socks. I put the socks back on after work before I walk Dogger. Its a circle of life kind of thing.

I do this every week day. I put the socks on, both socks, and I take both  socks off and then I put them both back on.  I've been doing this routine every day for two years and now, out of nowhere, I forget to take off a sock and then spend the entire day doing some sort of reverse non-sparkly Michael Jackson thing and worse then the reverse, non-sparkly part of it, it took me all day to notice.

I wandered around the Farmers Market wearing a sock. I was at the Farmers Market, ankle deep in shame, looking for flowers, specifically, inpatients. I have visitors coming and I would prefer the front of the house be decorative. There were no flowers and now the reason I kept getting lapped by laughing children suddenly makes sense. It was cold, windy mostly empty and devoid of flowers. I knew I should have wondered what they were laughing about.

Whatev.

I still have no flowers. I'm going to have to go back to Wallyworld to get cat food for Small Cat and while I'm there I'll just pick up more hyacinths. They won't last out the season so I'll be able to get my other flowers and not feel wasteful. And I'll score some bulbs for next year. Yay bulbs.

Anyway. I didn't ride at lunch today but I did wander around  the market, so I get some credit, even better after work, I rode to the post office and still did my five miles. I won't mention that I crashed immediately after I came back from the post office or that when I woke up my first thought was that I was going to be very late to work, I wasn't but I did almost slept through House.

Why is Anthony Bourdain in Vienna? He was in Cambodia, Nicaragua and Haiti, terrible places with almost no food to speak of much less the Food Porn he usually highlights, and as far as vacation destinations, no thank you, to any of them and he worked it hard trying to educate us about how bad it was and how much "better: it is now, except for Haiti  that does not have a "better" as it has been the bad old days there since time in memorial. I got more than a whiff of White Mans Burden from all three episodes and that is off putting . This weeks he's in Vienna at Christmas Lots of Food Porn and vacation ideas and a half hour in, no mention of Nazis. He's falling down on the job, he's been ass deep in horror and now he's  eating  fancy cake and sucking down expensive wine? Come on Bourdain! Embrace it! You like horror, dig a little. Horror snob perhaps?

Monday, March 21, 2011

Weekend Warrior

For a weekend where I didn't really do anything, I got a lot of stuff accomplished. I even did yard work on what was going to be a no-yard-work weekend, because I don't have a yard and I mowed the weeds last week.

Last week I was the only one out there. The whole street, the only one, this week? This week I was woken up by a chorus of four stroke motors. Everyone was out. I said "Humph. Late adopters! I was out there last weekend end. This weekend I'm watched HGTV and trying to decide how I feel about taking a nap".

It was really, really nice out and I had all the windows open, again with the buzzing and the doing. I hate peer pressure. I started to think about what my front yard looks like. My weeds are at a uniform height and they are a laudable shade of green and the dandelions do offer quite the little pop of color and nothing says "totally organic and pesticide free!/I am a friend to our ground water" like having a yard full of those purple flowers.  Go me! I say.

I can't/won't/don't have the energy do anything about the yard itself. I can do something about my shrubs.The shrub under Doggers' window had grown some rather tatty looking extensions and the other shrubs are just ugly all the time without their own new growth making them even more ugly. I also for the first time thought about their even ugly, even bigger siblings in the back yard.

The other folks thought they were being all hard core tackling their front yards, I showed them by going into my backyard to do work! Oh yeah I was all  #tigerblood #winning  there I tell you what. First I took the cute little shrubs under the bedroom window back behind the shed and showed them what for - They are really cute and have a nice flower for about twelve hours but they also throw an unacceptable amount of shade on the plants next to them in the garden and I had to  be a all spare-the-hedge-trimmer-kill-the-plants-I-actually-care-about with them. It hurt them more than it hurt me.

Then I moved on the other big, ugly shrubs. Small Cat loves these because birds flit around inside their branches. This is charming but it doesn't make me hate them less - so I gave them a cut that would make a Marine proud. Small Cat has not spoken to me since.

I spent the rest of the day congratulateing myself for being such a hard worker.

Sunday, I scored some very young hyacinths for the front steps and some nice dirt for my  container garden on the front deck. I don't have  flowers yet, but I rationalized  putting the dirt out early
 by saying it will get warmed up and  get added nutrients and rain water and will be even more better when the nurseries come across with my inpatients.

Oh, and I finally got a bird feeder that didn't turn out to be smarter than me  #winning, #pre-assembled.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Friday Catblogging

Yeah, well, or its Bennies Pre-Owned Magic Carpet lot...
Happy Friday

Well. Yeah.  I kind of had dinner with Broskey and the baby birds and after that I went to Poverty Barn  to buy band-aids that were marked as gentle and latex free - I am not? allergic to latex but I  focused on the "gentle" aspect but as it turns out, they are worse than my band-aids guaranteed to take the paint of off a wall! I got an immediate rash as opposed to a rash appearing within hours. Stupid Poverty Barn band aids.

After that  I spent  too much time playing with Twitter, Charlie Sheen added twelve shows to his tour  but Thank You Jeebus, not in Raleigh because I would absolutely have to go, I mean wake-up-early-Saturday-and-keep-hitting-refresh-until-they-start-selling-because-damn-it-I-want-to-go way... but then I would have to live with going. And there would be so much over thinking involved and as much as I enjoy over-thinking things is Charlie Sheen and his raging mental illness/sudden passion for perfomance art worth my over thinking? But I over think Easter bunnies and hoses and varieties of peppers and nearly everything else, so would an actual human being be worth my over thinking? I think so.

Oh, and Speaking of  the irascible Mr. Sheen, he sold out two shows at Rockerfeller Center and pretty much all the other shows he had on the east coast. I am very disappointed with the people of New York City. I thought they were better than that.

See?! I am all ready over thinking all this and he isn't coming to Raleigh or anywhere else in North Carolina, so its a moot point and I am still putting a lot of thought into it. Perhaps Charlie Sheen isn't the only one with mental illness.

Okay, after all that, I did my miles and then I watched Community, which got picked up for a third season! Woot! and then I ran around and got the trash together and tried to make the cat do something cute - which he refused and then, well, I did this.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

In Honor of St. Pats, lets talk about greening things up

I'm starting this a little later than usual but  the extended daylight is making me dizzy with joy. So joyful that I gave myself a  You Go Me!.

I finished my ride, I missed it yesterday but I decided that holding up democracy was a suitable substitute. Anyway, today I did my ride and I noticed afterwards that it was still light outside and I decided I hadn't visited my potatoes in a couple of days so I should check in. No joy there, no change yet but I;m still hopeful that as it gets warmer and the days are  getting longer that hopefully we'll see some progress on that front. Grumble.

But anyway, I was out in the yard and I noticed that half the yard  is pock marked with yellow phase dandelions. . It is not pretty. I see such pretty weeds in other peoples yards! Real, live blooms in lovely, vivid springy shades. They have flowers that are also weeds. I have weeds that are just weeds. Why can't I have pretty weeds?  Why are my weeds so prosaic?

I decided that since it was sunny and warm and I was already out there, that maybe I could do something about the dandelions. Radical thought, I know. I found a suitably deadly garden tool and went out looking to take care of my dandelion problem. Did you know that dandelions have massive root systems? And that they are very dedicated workers? I had to really work to get them up and then I know for a fact that despite my best intentions and truly valiant effort, I only got about 90 percent of the root-ball up at a given plant, that I never got 100 percent of the root-ball. The little bastards will be back.

When I started I I had  thought it was possible to get more of the yard done, like all of it, but that didn't happen. This is not Alaska in July, it was going to get dark before I got them all out. Also, its hard work to leverage those little bastards out and I was losing interest and I was not in the zone.

I ended up getting about a quarter of the job done. Not much but better than none of it done. On the upside, I learned that the soil in the front is actually nice so that gives me hope for my walkway flower idea being able to happen.

Since it is spring, I have bug bites. Three, two on my shoulder and one on my abs ( I do have abs, they are just padded for their safety). I know about these three because whomever bit  me was a greedy SOB and the bites are merging on puncture wounds.  I am keeping them covered so that my clothes don't irritate them more then necessary, on the downside, the band-aids irritate me almost more than the bites and  I'm allergic to adhesive so around the wounds I have other wounds so it looks like sloppy DIY Lyme disease. They are singularly unimpressed by triple antibiotic ointment, soap and hydrogen peroxide and in fact, I think they look worse after treatment then before. And they itch. Super.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Democrats in non-action

I went to a Moveon meeting of like minded progressive in Garner.  Gawd, what an awful place! But even with the awfulness, the library was still much, much nicer than the library in my neighborhood. It seems to help if the poor people over utilizing your library  are poor white people.

Anyway. I was the youngest person there. It was mostly affluent pink diaper babies with a smattering of  recently pissed off independents who were there to be angry about the union busting in the Midwest. We didn't talk about that much. Pity.

Instead we spoke of all we had in common with our Tea Party brothers! How the best way to win elections to to point out how the Democrats are nice people who the electorate should vote for because we're nice! Lets all hold hands and sing kum by ya while we talk about how much we have in common with the Republicans! Yay!

Bull Shit.

I mentioned that the only thing we had in common with the Tea Baggers is that we are bipeds - and got soundly voted down. They  want to get away from the "We're smart  people and they're dumb people" meme, they all said they feel uncomfortable with saying mean things about Tea Baggers. I think that if they feel comfortable putting our candidates in sombreros that we should feel comfortable putting their candidates in hoods. I said we should use fear as a motivator,  oh, they said "Fear is bad! Fear is so mean We don't want to scare people into voting for us!

 They didn't want to lower ourselves to their level, which is patent nonsense! The other guys won! They aren't lower than us, they are above us! If we want them to stay there we should just do what we do. We can continue to let them win because we don't want to be mean and we don't want to hurt anyone's feelings and we can then keep whining and  polishing our good citizenship medals.

 We can hold hands and sing  kum by ya and  go to meetings where we whine about how unfair it all is. We're nice and yet people don't like us! Its not fair!  We need to educate the electorate about how nice we are.We need to make documentaries about our niceness! We need to write books about our niceness! And then invite them to go see them or we can lend them our copies! The other guys use a few words and simple images and are old meanies and they get elected. Its not fair! The other guys put our guys in sombreros. One of us got elected and in running the country while the other is whining about our feelings being hurt. Super. I wouldn't vote for a bunch of whinny, mopey, film makers either.

 We started out as a bunch of pussy, Democrats - totally  useless and then the guy with the camera showed up. Suddenly we're a dangerous mob of agitators! What we said and did  suddenly meant something! We got scared and suddenly we were important, not just a bunch of pussy Democrats with kum by ya as our ring tones.
He came to make us scared and ashamed to say what we were thinking. He came to do what the Rethuglicans always do, make us afraid to be Democrats, make us feel fearful and shamed.  He said he had a web site and he wanted to record it for his site. 

In the Name and Shame school that scum bags like him pioneered, He came form NC Renegade dot com, a libertarian, teabag friendly site. He came with his camera to scare us and make us afraid Oh, no other people might find out we're Democrats!. The Rethuglican party in action, he has a site, I have a site and facebook and twitter. I'm not posting his name because those people live for that and I won't give him the satisfaction. He came and we still spoke and spoke louder and more passionately than before he showed up. kum by ya ringtones got updated to The Marseille.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

 Okay Kids, lets play Name the Party!

Here are your hints:

1. A  freshman lawmaker who suggested the mentally disabled should be shipped to Siberia.
2. He said he was kidding around with a female caller who supported funding for the homeless when he raised the issue of eugenics and the world's population growth.

Hint -  He resigned Monday from the state House and said he was sorry that his "big mouth caused this furor."  Not that he was sorry he said the handicapped should sent to Siberia, but that he got caught saying they should be sent to Siberia. Answer - If you had  The GOP you are right! Our Eugenicist is Rep. Martin Harty, a Republican from new Hampshire! A freshman lawmaker at 91 years of age. Tea Party City.

ON the Government not run amok, Last night post-shower, I noticed that the water was brown and more than a bit textured . I will admit that I did spend a lot of the weekend outside, even spent some time laying on my back in a field of clover. Hmmmm. Lovely, yes, dirty, debatable, that dirty, absolutely not.

Oh, and while I'm thinking about it, you know the party of "small government", well. Look what happens when you put them in control Take Over Law - There is nothing that says "small government" like taking over towns,  abolishing communities and putting your minions in charge of the towns you don't dissolve, without benefit of an election, crafty move, you can't recall what you never called for in the first place.. Again, the GOP.. I hate that I'll be there this summer and will spend money. On the upside, I'm in a union friendly city that will not be amused by all this.

On the Government not run amok, Last night post-shower, I noticed that the water was brownish orange and more than a bit textured . I will admit that I did spend a lot of the weekend outside, even spent some time laying on my back in a field of clover. Hmmmm. Lovely, yes, dirty, debatable, that dirty, absolutely not. I was concerned. I have to admit, I had noticed that the water upstairs as had a bit of a tint to it but I had chalked that up to bad lighting and that frankly, I didn't think that it was that big a deal.

When I realized I was standing in muddy water, it became a big deal. So I called the city water and sewer and mentioned that my water was yucky. And they jumped. I came home to a door hanger saying they had flushed the system in my area. I ran the water in the bathtub, hot and cold, they are different and you do have to test both, and it was brown, dark brown. I was sad - until I let it run some more and it ran clear. I then tried to shower and it was also tan until it ran clear. Tada! I called the city and they fixed it! Who knew?

Of course, I did find the door hanger notifying me of all this in the shrubs, but they did come by. Democrats, by the way.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Dear Jack-ass Neighbor,


If you  keep my dog awake all night while  you and your friends spend yet another night drinking and laughing in your driveway, I am going to let her out and let her have you.


Love,
Me.
2011 Raleigh St. Patrick's Day Parade

And I took Dogger to Dix and I went on a picnic with Alphagal and Broskey and family, and I got my glasses fixed and possibly found my 2011 glasses and then I mowed the yard for the first time. I should have just used a weed whacker, I have no true grass.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Saturday Cat Blogging!

Friday, March 11, 2011

New Tiller

The tiller arrived! So much yay! The guy from UPS was less than completely over joyed and I had the distinct impression he wanted a tip - which, by the way, pro tip?  UPS guy? 17 pounds doesn't score you a tip or my sympathy.

Anyway! I have my very own tiller and its the cutest tiller ever, its just adorable! Its like a tiny baby kitty Tiller! Its all shiny and clean and such a pretty color!


Isn't it the cutest tiller you have ever seen? Its so feminine and dainty - not at all like those monster tillers that are out there. Not pretty at all and they do not come in cute colors.

And since it is a tiller, look at its very sexy tines!



Aren't they totally fierce?  They are going to just chew up the dirt in my garden and churn up all the lovely dirt and really mix around the green manure that's been quietly feeding the soil since the fall. It is going to rock the world of the new section too, get the nice soft dirt that's native all mixed together with the new dirt - it is going to be so awesome! Yay for spring!

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Through trial and error I learned that riding the exerbike with my Ipod was better than riding in silence.A lot better. I the learned that riding the bike in front of the TV was better than with music. A lot better. I have noticed that while the trip seems shorter but that I ride slower since I have no music to set the pace. Oddly,  the average Law and Order rerun is hardly  all about the beat.  I also have learned that the bike makes a lot of noise, and to make up for it I have to turn the TV all the way up - which I don't like for some reason, I can tolerate Rihanna screaming at me,  but when the TV is loud I feel like I am  being shouted at.

On the upside to all this learning, is that I'm doing five miles a day with no problems. If I had not started by now I was going to have to start so I am ahead of the game.  I could probably go further if I wanted but I'm not sure I want to.

I ride the five miles even if I was able to ride at lunch, which doesn't happen as much as I would like. My plan is to ride at lunch everyday but some days its too cold or too rainy or I have errands that have to be run over lunch, which, as I remember doesn't happen as much over the summer. I chalk this up to the time change making it possible for me to run errands after work instead of doing everything at lunch. Over the summer it is also never to cold to sit in the car and eat a protean bar. I blame the cold for my McDonalds habit.

Oh, and Happy Lent! Woo! I decided that this year I am going to not eat at fast food places period, and I am going to not buy anything I can't eat*, the * being garden related, plants, flowers etc. But it does mean the toaster oven I was very excited about getting, will have to wait.

I have to keep up the embargo on toys, household pretties and clothes - I had been getting a little lazy on that and now I'm going to have to butch up again. I'm not in quit the same financial crises I was in a few months ago  that prompted the embargo in the first place but I think the discipline will be good for me. Just because I have the money doesn't mean I need to spend it. And now, Thank You Lent, I can't.

Oh and no desert type food buying  either unless its desert type food I have to make myself, no pre-packaged cookies or frozen cookie dough, pre made, prepackaged goodies, or ice cream but I can buy all the apples, dried apricots, berries,  or Special K type foods I can handle.

Oh and absolutely five miles a day every day, even weekends, which up to now have been days of rest from the bike. I'm also hopeing that it will be warm enough to ride to the post office to drop off mail again almost daily like I was doing last summer. So. Goals set. Lets go Lent! Woo!

I just saw the news, I hope this makes sure that no cocksucker running as a Republican can get elected in the Midwest ever, ever, ever again. And I hope the King of all cocksuckers they elected Governor know he has no political future ever, anywhere ever again. Cocksucker.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

In Charlie Sheens' Corner

Did ya'll know that Charlie Sheen was completely out of his mind? and not just completely out of his mind on drugs - which he is, by the way, he is completely coked out of his mind. If you punched him he wouldn't bleed, he would just leave a powdery residue on your hands. And then, he would lick your hands like a dog. He's that guy.

He's also bat shit insane. He's the guy on the corner that yells at you, the  creepy lady that swears at you in the parking lot for getting too close to her basket or her invisible donkey or her magic pile of underwear, he's that strung out guy who asks you  for a minute of your time to discus his theory of  how the bus system is really a CIA trick to make us all vegetarians. He's that babbling  pile of fabric at the park.  He is that guy.

You know that guy  we both cross the street to get away from him, we pretend he's not there. If he wasn't hold up in Sober Lodge he would be the face of our failed mental health system but he's rich, famous and for the most part stays inside his house, so he's on the cover of Entertainment Weekly. He's still that guy.

I follow him on Twitter but I would cross the street to get away from him. I'm not enabling him, his other two million plus followers aren't either. We're looky-loos, tacky but harmless. Mark Cuban, that son of a bitch, is, enabling him, as is as that puke from Live Nation who gave him a samurai sword to play with on the roof of his office building, because he thought it would look cute.  Exploiting the mentally ill for your own benefit is evil, exploiting the mentally ill - no matter how much they co-operate with your evil scheme, because you want to see what will happen or you think it would be cute,  is hard core, send-me-to-hell evil. They don't play basketball in hell Mr. Cuban!

For me, Charlie Sheen has become the face of all the frankly, irritating, anonymous crazy people who call my phone at work  fourteen times in a row to rant about how they are being forced to take meds for their crazy but they aren't crazy and they want out of this hospital right now! Hate to burst their bubble but 1) We can't do that, 2) that 2am rant about the department of commerce or how the RNs and the Highway patrol are conspiring against you, doesn't make you sound less crazy and 3)We think you belong there! If you call me seventeen times in three hours to plead your not-crazy case, I'm not buying that you aren't crazy, because you are crazy.

I think the following should be added to our message "If you are calling from a Psychiatric facility and you want us to get you out, hang up now. If you are at that psychiatric facility by voluntary commitment, you can not leave, even if you want to, even if you think you are better, and yes, they can force you to take your meds, they can hold you down and force them down your throat, if you resist that, they can shoot you up with them, you are in a psych hospital  now buddy,not some pansy ass nursing home,  you will take your meds. If you are involuntary committed and want to accuse the sheriffs of kidnapping you, sorry, we can't help you there, you are not being held hostage" Trust us.

I watched a bit of his last Sheens Korner, he looks like death, like a wraith. I think he's dieing. I think it should be shown to every junior high kid in America as a tool to halt drug use. "This, kids is what your brain really looks like on drugs! Look at him! Of course he has to pay hookers! Would you have sex with that for free?  Don't do drugs! Don't be Charlie Sheen! He did that to himself on purpose, with drugs!  He's that guy!"

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Christmas in March

Look at my awesome new toy! Isn't it cute? Its not one of those big monster tillers, I saw lots of those on Craigslist - really, really good, very powerful but also very heavy and hard to store. I need to be able to do the tilling myself, without assistance and the storage issue isn't one I'll admit, I had put much thought into because I don't really think about storing my imaginary yard tools.

New toy is only 17 lbs and it folds away. I can store it in my basement along with my blower and edger. It is  a smaller than I thought I would like  and I am still a little concerned that it might be smallish, more like a garden weasel than a tiller, but all the reviews I read sang its praises and they were all using the machine the same way I will and at least two of them were from people who either had a big tiller or rented big tillers and they all said New Toy was awesome and they loved it and the job it did.

 When I was imagining My Tiller, I was imagining a much larger machine, I kind of like the big vroom you get from the larger machines but  with my little garden, even after being expanded is still a very small garden and to be honest with myself, I don't need the vroom, as satisfying as that might be.

The big vroom also comes with a big weight, close to houndred pounds on the low end. I'm not sure I could or would even want to deal with that over and over. Also, my new toy is coming in the mail, the Craigslist choices I found in the same price range were older models that "still runs/needs a little work" and they were all from distances that with gas the way it is, I might not  be over joyed about and then how would have gotten a behemoth out of my car when I got home? tell it to hop out?

Its going to take longer to do the same task, okay, but where am I going? I needed the power of the big machine because the ground  back in the day was hard and the unit was a rental, the faster the job got done the faster I could get the unit back. I own this one, I can take as long as I want and the ground is soft now, years of cultivation will do that. The addition is all ready soft and I just tilled it by hand so New Toy should not be a big problem and even if it is, the reviews state  that it could and would power through it. New Toy is small but mighty.

I've all ready started to think about other places on the property that need to be tilled. I've been thinking that maybe I might want to plant flowers along my front walk. That would be really pretty and easy to water. I've wanted to do something like that for a while but the dirt in the front is hard and I don't see myself tackling that job manually. In 5-10 days, I won't have to.

Sun Joe Tiller holds the power found in a gas tiller with the convenience of electric power. This convenient electric tiller/cultivator weighs only 17 pounds.


o Garden tiller is easy to use in any situation, such as starting a new garden or recovering an old lawn
o Four steel angled tines enable the Tiller Joe to loosen the ground and make any planting or dirt removal easier than with hand tools
o Relieves strain on the operator by using power and reducing weight and motion by the operator
o No tune ups or oil are necessary for tiller to function
o Machine is ETL inspected and approved and comes with a full 2-year warranty from the manufacturer
o Cultivates a 14-inch (36cm) wide path in one pass
o 7-inch cultivating depth
o Powerful 6.5-amp motor
o Folding handle enables unit to store easily and take up minimal space
o Model: TJ600E

Monday, March 7, 2011

Is it time to go back to work all ready?  I think I need another day off.

But look what I achieved!  People talk about growing things in your garden, I prefer to grow my garden! I didn't actually build the addition, My Dad did, but I did go to the dirt store and dig the dirt and I did help fill it and I did the turning over all by myself. Next stop? GARDEN TILLER!! I can't wait.


I actually did work over the weekend! I hate that. I'm okay with a little laundry doing and maybe, in the spring and summer, some lawn mowing, if its cool and I get to it early enough and the grass is manageable because if it has gotten too long or I waited to long or its past the middle of June, well, I'm not okay with it.

You know what I do when my dog stains the carpet? I just put another piece of carpet over it and move on. Other people might try harder to fight the spot, or discipline the dog or they just could not live with the knowledge that the stain was there . I am not those people. I tried to clean the spot and it just got worse, I can't discipline the dog because it wasn't her fault really, she's a dog and her room doesn't have an on suite.

Back to my working weekend. I did two weeks  worth of laundry!, I could have done one week of laundry but then I would have still had a weeks worth of dirty laundry sitting around and I might need that underwear at some point. I could have done one week at a time but how to pick which week to do first? I don't want to play favorites and once the socks get their feelings hurt they are impossible to cheer up.

And? I cleaned out a closet. So. Really, I deserve another day off.

Speaking of needing cheering up, they closed my Big Lots! My own private Poverty Barn! They're moving it to Knightdale!, I mean its all ready in Knightdale but its in Raleighknightdale, so I can pretend its not really in Knightdale but now its going to be in Real  Knightdale, I'm so disappointed. I'm also hurt that they didn't call me or send me a card or call me or something, we've been close for years. I just feel a little hurt, like I did when they tore down my McDonald's, no post card no call! I had to find out the hard way. Its about customer service.

Friday, March 4, 2011

Friday Cat Blogging

Small Cat keeps an eye out for Spring.
Charlie Sheen quotes as New Yorker cartoons.
Some Reservations

I would absolutely have a real entry for today except that I celebrated Doggers bi- annual well-pet vet appointment by eating a handful of Thin Mint/Peanut Butter sandwiches and apparently went in to some sort of sugar coma that I have just now emerged from and it is well past too late for writing entries.

The last thing I remember was getting dinner from Arby's and feeding Dogger. I'm pretty sure I watched No Reservations but then things got a little fuzzy. Thin Mint/Peanut Butter sandwiches are both evil and food of the Gawds.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Garden 2011 Update 2

Today was the official start of gardening season!. Today I put things in dirt and then added water!


Aren't they cute? just the sweetest little things you ever saw? On the left we have  "yukon gold" and on the right we have "Holland" . I did have two other varieties but I decided that I have only two containers so I did not need four different kinds of potatoes so I returned them to  the Wally World from whence they came and decided to keep  the really nice potatoes from the really nice nursery in hopes that  I will  eventually grow my very own really nice potatoes.  Wally World potatoes probably bully other vegetables and cheat on term papers.

 My directions didn't day anything about covering them with dirt, so initially, I didn't but then I started thinking of all the little beastie things that might pass by and decide they were up for a little carb loading and indulge in some light predation. So I camouflaged them. I think it might also help them stay warm. The containers  they are in used to be the Barrel.

So while I was getting my garden on, I decided to take a tour and see how the rest of my holdings are doing, walk the fence as it were. My first stop was the back yard



The plantings are called "green  manure" and were an Idea I found online. The idea is that you plant something like say, sweet peas in your garden over the winter and they add nutrients to the soil and give you something to till in  to the garden in the spring  to make the soil richer. Mine has done very well, except for two donut holes where I was either standing when I dispersed the seeds or where the birds hunkered down to eat the seeds.



Its very lush and green and I am holding out hope for some blooms. And then I moved on to the front yard. Where we have my re-potted raspberry bushes.


I did some rather aggressive pruning of the plants before I re-potted them and I am afraid I used a heavier hand than might have been called for. If they don't come back this year there is always next year, at least the pots are more attractive now.

I then went and looked at my pumpkin patch. I can call it that because this year I planted them on purpose. Last year they came up as volunteered, this year of course, they won't take because I'm paying attention to them and trying to help them along. But, here they are as of now.


Not much as yet, but I have high hopes.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

The dirt is got.

I wish I had been able to hold out until the dirt store opened but I had to get it nower rather than later-er so Wally-World had to fill in as my dirt store. It is dirty there but its not a good dirt and I don't think things grow well in filth. The dirt I got is guaranteed to be cleaner than  whatever was around it.

I just wish it would stay light a little longer so I wouldn't have had to look like a crazy person hefting bags of dirt across the lawn. You don't look weird doing that in the daylight, in fact, you look industrious and upstanding but you do look odd doing that in the dark, for some reason being industrious after dark takes on a much less upstanding air especially when it looks like you're industriously disposing of a body. I should add that I was carrying a flashlight and scuttling  industriously around my neighbors' car.

The cops wanted to to talk to me, it was cool though, they were just checking I wasn't  screwing with the car. It would have been even more cool if I they hadn't thrown me to the ground before I got my story out and then when I did, I wanted to ask for a second take because while I was trying to tell them the whole saga of the potato and the barrel and the how-tos and all but I was having a hard time staying on message because I was distracted by how much I really need to fertilize my yard.

But. The barrels are loaded. I decided not to add the potatoes as yet because the paper said the low was going to be very low and while my reading as informed me that they prefer cool temperatures and I should really push to get them started soon, and without a doubt they grow better in cooler temperatures, they without a doubt  die in  cold temperatures. I'm going with the idea that I really needed to get the barrels be-dirted because its good for the dirt to be exposed to the air because dirt likes cold air.

(I did not actually have a run in the police)

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Dirty Business

I had these plans for this evening after work. I was going to come home, fed myself because I was starving, walk Dogger, feed Dogger and then maybe watch a little TV while I waited for rush hour to wind down - and then I was going to head out to my home improvement store and pick up a few bags of dirt for the potatoes.

Over the weekend The Barrel was transformed into The BarrelS - so cute now! and I really want to get my crop  going soon. My study of potato growing has informed me that they like cooler weather over warmer weather when they are starting out and its going to get warm here sooner rather than later, it behooves me to get these things to bed now.

I can't plant them until I have a planting medium and so that was my plan. eat, wait, go-buy-dirt. Its not complicated. And then it rained. I don't see myself dealing with heavy bags of dirt and then trying to get them into the car - which is all ready full of Bike - but not so full that I would not be able to get some bags of dirt in, with a little effort. I do not see myself first hefting bags of dirt and then doing a  lot of thinking while standing in the rain. I think it would be the best way to get them all irrigated into their new homes but I don't see myself re-homing them while standing in the rain up to my elbows in mud.

I do see myself cutting up my one very large spud so it can sit for 24 hours and develop a "callus" to protect it from fungus and disease. I approve of this, I can also do this in the warmthish and dryness of my house, inside where it is not wet.

While I was listening to it rain, I had some hope that it might slow down or even stop. I thought I would go out after that - later than in my original plan, but better than not at all, but now I see that its going to be tomorrow at lunch and I will have to count the lifting and hefting of bags as my lunchtime exercise. I might even remove Bike from the back of the car to facilitate the bags of dirt.

 I just have to decide how many bags to get and how many each new barrel will need. The instructions say that I need to start off with six inches of dirt at the bottom of the barrel, but not how many bags of dirt that equals. I really wish the dirt store was open because then it wouldn't be about how many bags it would just be about getting the dirt from one place to another.

 The directions go on to say that I just scatter my seed potatoes over that and wait for those potatoes to  sprout and then wait until those sprouts are 6-8 inches tall and then add more dirt and then repeat this every time the plants get taller until I reach the top of the barrels - an at that point I add bush beans to the barrels to act as a natural barrier to some sort of worm creatures. One kind eats the potatoes and the other eats the beans and if you grow them together ypu don't get either.