Garden Update 11 2012

Clearly, I have been busy, but [project complete, it is time to go back to the garden. I have fallen behind an almost all aspects of it and I feel bad. I didn't put up my collected green beans and subsaquently lost about half of them to decay.  Taught me a painful lesson, I was not going to let that happen to my younger peppers so I got those blanched and out up post toastie.

Mother, Daddy and Baby melon. They don't seem to be growing as fast as I thought they would. I had to remove another one last week ebcause it had stopped growing and I was surprised tha it had eatable meat inside and the meat was good. This gave me faith in this varity of melon, if even not growing, it was still tasty.

This one is growing. I wish this one had turned out clearer but I was being swarmed by mosqueteos, really, it looked like I was wearing mesh tights! I had to keep moving. I think this one is going to ripen first

The little baby-est melon.


And now onto the traditional garden.

The peppers are peppy again! They did not care for the heat. Nothing like the heat and everything just stopped growing. It was not a happy time.

The tomatoes are finally starting to produce. I had my concerns but both first and second generation plants are up and moving and heafding towards ripeness. I am disapointed with the first generation plants though because they so far have produced only a single fruit, while the spindly, sad little second generation plants are going like gang busters.

First generation tonatoes and green bean vines.

The peppers, I'm glad I didn't cage them.

Second generation tomotoes and green bean vines. I am glad I caged these bad boys.

The watermelons and their vines.

Family picture.

The backyard, mowed.

Mexican sunflower.

Finish Line

The only thing remaining is the carpet solution. I need a larger one instead of two smaller ones. In the done column : furniture back into room, curtains back up, and the TV and satellite  and computer are all up and running. Yay!

Friday Cat Blogging

Small Cat believes that if he watches his bowl diligently enough, that wet food will appear in it.

Still busy

Do you know what that is? That is a room without staples in the floor, a room missing two generations of staples . Good ridence says the room.

This is the hand that removed the staples. Ow says hand.

Tack strips are evil says every fiber of my being.

Busy

And still so much more to do! Those hundreds of nasty little staples don't take themselves out (ask my blistrers about those staples...) and  we haven't even talked about the tack strips! And of course the floors are not the image of young womanhood that all the other floors in the house were under the wall-to-wall either. Harumph.

It also turns out that the baseboards are painted ( I suspect) with oil paint and the walls are a water based and so I will not be making it do double duty. I have also decided that the baseboards look fine as they are since I have furniture or curtains covering them up any way.Onwards and upwards.

Paint

Sorry! I would have an entry today but I was painting the office. Actually, first I was bringing up all my paint supplies from the basement and then bringing the ladder up and then I was scrubbing the baseboards to see if they could be salvaged, i.e not painted bu as it turns out, post painting, yes they do need o be painted. Super!

I'm going to be cheap and use what I used on the walls because in that room you really do not focus on the baseboards,  and I am not going to put a second coat on the walls so I have lots of it, although I am worried about the doors but they are in better condition so maybe I'll let them pass. Yes, they will be a different color. Deal. With. It. A they say repeatedly on Say Yes To The Dress "Its my vision" or as we said in theatre, "Its a design decision".

I really want to get the carpet padding up so I can see the floor. I found a couple of questionable spots today, but I don't see them as deal breakers and now I want to pull up the padding even more. I also want the curtains to go back home because right now they are just all over everything and its making me tense - not for the mess but for the sharp hooks that I can hear falling out and struggling to lodge themselves in my feet.

The un-color wheel.

The good news is that six shades of paint and to trips to Home Depot later, I found the paint. Its not to dark its not too white its right in the middle between "Did you get your hair cut?" and "Is that a new top?" . On the down side it makes the current paint look really daring and it is a shade lighter than mint toothpaste. If you are brave enough to get brave with color some times you have to brave enough to use non-colors. The unsexy colors are still counted as members of the color spectrum even if you do have to wear special glasses to see them. Change is good  and I do want to take this opportunity to point out my bright blue hallway.

The floor is dark though so there is only so much personality the walls need to have. The floor is going to be very involved with the conversation so the walls can kind of stand back a little. I'm okay with that, and in ten years if I decide I don't like the non-color, I can just change it.

In my defence, it is not builder beige. I think its lighter.

I was talking to a friend at work, an apartment dweller, about the room and she suggested Colonial Gray. I decided to not go with this because I don't think Colonial goes with the Eames era vibe the house has. I don't think I have a large enough room to handle grey - I see it used on my design shows all the time but never is smaller spaces and always paired with some super vivid color like violet or deep raspberry, Hmm, that sounds really pretty. Perhaps an entry way is born...

Among other things I'm thinking about. Why is the cat camped out in front of the stove? He's be en there for hours! He's watching the underside of it like a fan-boy! I looked under there to see if HBO was sneaking the third season of Game of Thrones under there for some reason but there was nothing there. I had been expecting maybe whatever remains of the roach population was down there planing a putch or even worse, maybe I have mice Horror! and Small Cat was discovering his prey drive at last. It turns out he's looking at nothing. There is nothing there. He's just really, really easily entertained.

Over the weekend my dad pulled the drawer out from under the stove to get a wider area to spray and I left it out for a while and I think this was the first time Small Cat realized there was a space there and now he's hooked. A whole new world has opened up for him. A sad, flat world where nothing is happening. Kind of what the Emmy people see when they watch network TV.

Meeting new friends

I got a lot of work done this weekend.  I cleaned out the office of everything I could carry and with some help got the over sized things cleared out too. Then we took up the carpet and discovered that the floors seem to be in good shape - which led to the decision to get an area rug for the floor instead of replacing the wall-to-wall with more wall-to-wall. With one design decision made, I went to the store to make another : What do I want to paint the walls?

As it turns out, I don't know! I thought I wanted one color family but it turned out to be too dark, so back to the drawing board. It might end up being a green - which is what I have now, so a less mint more sage green, but it could also go cream and and end up being a not-white.

The floor is a dark, brown-red so I think the walls should be lighter and brighter

I would prefer a color but if you are fan of color you can't say that not-white is not a color, its just not a very sexy color - but it is a color. And if it is the best shade for the space, its what you have to go with. I could decide that the best possible shade is a really dark, really rich shade of green or brown but that would be wrong, its a small room and I don't want it to become an even smaller cave...

So its back to the drawing board.

I also MET THE PUPPIES!!! Squeeeeee! They don't do very much yet, they just kind of root around and squeak and sometimes they make  little grunty noises. Their little eyes aren't open yet and they have no teeth. They have had their tiny tales docked and their dew claws removed. Their eyes should start opening by Wednesday or so, and then they start moving around more.  Mama dog liked me by the way, and I really liked her she was a sweet dog. I'm going to go back in a  couple of weeks,  or soon and thought er, because puppies! squeeee! - after they have developed a little more personality to narrow down my choices in earnest. I figured out  the real reason why we are leaving for vaca on a  Sunday instead of leaving on Saturday, its so I could go visit with the puppies before I left! Everything happens for a reason.

Friday Cat Blogging

Close friends.



And the Emmy Nominations went to..

COMEDY SERIES

"The Big Bang Theory" (CBS)

"Curb Your Enthusiasm" (HBO)

"Girls" (HBO)

"Modern Family" (ABC)

30 Rock" (NBC)

"Veep" (HBO)

COMEDY ACTOR

Jim Parsons as Sheldon Cooper in "The Big Bang Theory"

Larry David as Himself in "Curb Your Enthusiasm"

Don Cheadle as Marty Kaan in "House of Lies"

Louis C.K. as Louie in "Louie"
Alec Baldwin as Jack Donaghy in "30 Rock"
Jon Cryer as Alan Harper in "Two and a Half Men"

COMEDY ACTRESS

Lena Dunham as Hannah Horvath in "Girls"

Melissa McCarthy as Molly Flynn in "Mike & Molly"

Zooey Deschanel as Jess Day in "New Girl"

Edie Falco as Jackie Peyton in "Nurse Jackie"

Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope in "Parks and Recreation

Tina Fey as Liz Lemon in "30 Rock"
Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Selina Meyer in "Veep"

SUPPORTING COMEDY ACTOR

Ed O'Neill as Jay Pritchett in "Modern Family

Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Mitchell Pritchett in "Modern Family"

Ty Burrell as Phil Dunphy in "Modern Family"

Eric Stonestreet as Cameron Tucker in "Modern Family"

Max Greenfield as Schmidt in "New Girl"

Bill Hader as various characters in "Saturday Night Live"

SUPPORTING COMEDY ACTRESS

Mayim Bialik as Amy Farrah Fowler in "The Big Bang Theory"

Kathryn Joosten as Karen McCluskey in "Desperate Housewives"

Julie Bowen as Claire Dunphy in "Modern Family"

Sofia Vergara as Gloria Delgado-Pritchett in "Modern Family"

Merritt Wever as Zoey Barkow in "Nurse Jackie"

Kristen Wiig as various characters in "Saturday Night Live"

DRAMA SERIES

"Boardwalk Empire" (HBO

"Breaking Bad" (AMC)

"Downton Abbey" (PBS)

"Game of Thrones" (HBO)

"Homeland" (Showtime)

"Mad Men" (AMC)

DRAMA ACTRESS

Glenn Close as Patty Hewes in "Damages"

Michelle Dockery as Lady Mary Crawley in "Downton Abbey"

Julianna Margulies as Alicia Florrick in "The Good Wife"

Kathy Bates as Harriet Korn in "Harry's Law"

Claire Danes as Carrie Mathison in "Homeland"

Elisabeth Moss as Peggy Olson in "Mad Men"

DRAMA ACTOR

Steve Buscemi as Nucky Thompson in "Boardwalk Empire

Bryan Cranston as Walter White in "Breaking Bad" | More: Cranston on Walter White's trip to hel

Michael C. Hall as Dexter Morgan in "Dexter

Hugh Bonneville as Robert, Earl of Grantham in "Downton Abbey"

Damian Lewis as Nicholas Brody in "Homeland"

Jon Hamm as Don Draper in "Mad Men"

SUPPORTING DRAMA ACTRESS

Anna Gunn as Skyler White in "Breaking Bad"

Maggie Smith as Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham in "Downton Abbey"

Joanne Froggatt as Anna in "Downton Abbey"

Archie Panjabi as Kalinda Sharma in "The Good Wife"

Christine Baranski as Diane Lockhart in "The Good Wife"

Christina Hendricks as Joan Holloway Harris in "Mad Men"

SUPPORTING DRAMA ACTOR

Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman in "Breaking Bad"

Giancarlo Esposito as Gustavo 'Gus' Fring in "Breaking Bad"

Brendan Coyle as John Bates in "Downton Abbey"

Jim Carter as Mr. Carson in "Downton Abbey"

Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister in "Game of Thrones"

Jared Harris as Lane Pryce "Mad Men"

MINISERIES OR TV MOVIE

"American Horror Story" (FX)

"Game Change" (HBO)

"Hatfields & McCoys" (History)

"Hemingway & Gellhorn" (HBO)

"Luther" (BBC America)

"Sherlock: A Scandal in Belgravia" (PBS)

VARIETY SERIES

"The Colbert Report" (Comedy Central)

"The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" (Comedy Central)

"Jimmy Kimmel Live" (ABC)

"Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" (NBC)

"Real Time With Bill Maher" (HBO)

"Saturday Night Live" (NBC)

GUEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES

Dot-Marie Jones as Coach Shannon Beiste in "Glee

Maya Rudolph, host in "Saturday Night Live"

Melissa McCarthy, host in "Saturday Night Liv

Elizabeth Banks as Avery Jessup in "30 Rock

Margaret Cho as Kim Jong-il in "30 Rock"

Kathy Bates as Charlie Harper in "Two and a Half Men"

GUEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES

Michael J. Fox as Himself in "Curb Your Enthusiasm"

Greg Kinnear as Tad in "Modern Family"

Bobby Cannavale as Dr. Mike Cruz in "Nurse Jackie"

Jimmy Fallon, host in "Saturday Night Live"

Will Arnett as Devon Banks in "30 Rock"

Jon Hamm as Abner and David Brinkley in "30 Rock"

GUEST ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES

Martha Plimpton as Patti Nyholm in "The Good Wife"

Loretta Devine as Adele Webber in "Grey's Anatomy"

Jean Smart as D.A. Roseanna Remmick in "Harry's Law"

Julia Ormond as Marie Calvet in "Mad Men"

Joan Cusack as Sheila Jackson in "Shameless"

Uma Thurman as Rebecca Duvall in "Smash"

GUEST ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES

Mark Margolis as Tio Salamanca in "Breaking Bad"

Dylan Baker as Colin Sweeney in "The Good Wife"

Michael J. Fox as Louis Canning in "The Good Wife"

Jeremy Davies as Dickie Bennett in "Justified"

Ben Feldman as Michael Ginsberg in "Mad Men

Jason Ritter as Mark Cyr in "Parenthood"

WRITING FOR A COMEDY SERIES

Chris McKenna, "Community"

Lena Dunham, "Girls"

Louis C.K., "Louie"

Amy Poehler, "Parks and Recreation"

Michael Schure, "Parks and Recreation"

WRITING FOR A DRAMA SERIES

Julian Fellowes, "Downton Abbey"

Alex Gansa, Howard Gordon & Gideon Raff, "Homeland"

Semi Chellas & Matthew Weiner, "Mad Men"

Andre Jacquemetton & Maria Jacquemetton, "Mad Men

Erin Levy & Matthew Weiner, "Mad Men"

WRITING FOR A VARIETY SERIES

"The Colbert Report," Barry Julien (head writer), Stephen Colbert, Tom Purcell, Richard Dahm, Michael Brumm, Rob Dubbin, Opus Moreschi, Peter Gwinn, Jay Katsir, Frank Lesser, Glenn Eichler, Meredith Scardino, Max Werner, Eric Drysdale, Scott Sherman, Dan Guterman & Paul Dinello

"The Daily Show With Jon Stewart," Tim Carvell (head writer), Rory Albanese, Kevin Bleyer, Rich Blomquist, Steve Bodow, Wyatt Cenac, Hallie Haglund, JR Havlan, Elliott Kalan, Dan McCoy, Jo Miller, John Oliver, Zhubin Parang, Daniel Radosh, Jason Ross, & Jon Stewart

"Portlandia," Fred Armisen, Carrie Brownstein, Jonathan Krisel & Karey Dornetto

"Real Time With Bill Maher," Adam Felber, Matt Gunn, Brian Jacobsmeyer, Jay Jaroch, Chris Kelly, Mike Larsen, Bill Maher, Billy Martin & Scott Carter

"Saturday Night Live," James Anderson, Alex Baze, Jessica Conrad, James Downey, Shelly Gossman, Steve Higgins, Zach Kanin, Chris Kelly, Colin Jost, Erik Kenward, Rob Klein, Seth Meyers, Lorne Michaels, John Mulaney, Christine Nangle, Michael Patrick O'Brien, Paula Pell, Marika Sawyer, Sarah Schneider, Pete Schultz, John Solomon, Kent Sublette, Bryan Tucker & Emily Spivey

I always thought red juice was a little cloying but now...

Day 2 without any roach sightings. I'm sure they'll be back but for the time being, as long as I can still smell the spray, I feel safer. I haven't seen any dead ones either and I would think they would float to the surface at some point. It makes me a little worried.

Did you know there are a hundred and twenty million mosquitoes in my backyard at any given time? I know this because I went outside to water and every damn  one of them came up to intrudes herself., oh, FYI? Total bitches, every one of them.

Also I am now severely anemic.I am light headed and I have the same complexion as Angelina Jolie - pale, lifeless, patronizing. I feel like adopting a little third world child so I can use it like a juice box...

And of course the Vampiric bitches in my yard aren't those cute, docile sparkly tween vampires in hipster drag either, no,  these were big, ugly Bram Stoker vamps with hook noses and  blood mustaches and tiny little femmy tuxedos. Bitches , and they don't look like Madonna either, they think they do but they don't.

I'm going to go lay down now and later, maybe I'll fly around the hood, bother livestock or  break into a daycare and lie in wait or what have you.

Working other things out

I didn't swim today but I decided I had a good reason. Several good reasons - 1) I needed to buy stamps and mail bills, 2) There was thunder and I doubted the pool would be open anyway and 3) It was an election day, albeit and extremely unimportant election day, I was voter #48 at when I left at 4:20 and the polls had been open since 6:30a . What can I say? I am a completest, I also own all the Harry Potter, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones films.

So I didn't just not go, I would have but I had my civic duty to attend to and that is much more important than working out. I would have bought stamps at lunch but I checked out in the Garden Center and they don't sell stamps back there but they do sell roach fog and this weekend is going to be remembered in the roach community as The Big One. I bought two kinds,  spray to take care of  my acute roach killing needs and the fogger a  more terminal solution.

This weekend will also be remembered as the Weekend The Office Got Cleaned Out And Re-Painted. Its time, it has nee ed to be done and its going to get done and I for one am looking forward to it. The carpet is even coming up, it needs replacing even more than the wall color. Knowing me however, it will be remembered as the weekend I spent the majority of my time obsessing over paint chips at Home Depot . I thought I had found a good shade at Wallyworld but once at home it looked like ass next to the drapes. Clearly the Walton Family has no taste.

I keep waiting for the puppy keepers to post more pictures but clearly they have much different priorities than I do. I want to see every minute of every day carefully chronicled and charted, I want to get to know these puppies, I want to be able to make an educated choice between the natural athleticism of Green Collar and the keen intelligence of Yellow Collar, and what of Orange Collar? is anyone really that sweet? Is Blue Collar always so bossy? Is it a Sign that Purple Collar hogs the teet? I need to know these things! Of course, the puppies are only two days old and are essentially only really capible of hungry, sleepy and poopy. I'm warming up for when they are really athletic, intelligent, sweet, bossy and piggy.

Speaking of : More Baby Pictures!

The what ifs...

Wheeeeee! Puppies! They're so real now,  for something I haven't even paid for yet, I am feeling very possessive over my puppy - Who is all of two days old, who may not end up being the gender I want and in any case, I haven't met and probably won't meet for weeks.

I look at that pile of puppy and wonder who is mine? Will my puppy like me? What if I meet the puppies and I don't like them? I mean, how can you not like a wriggly weeks old puppy? But, but what if I meet the wriggly weeks old puppies and don't like them? I am capable of this. What if I meet them and its a wash out? I didn't meet Daisy until she was (probably) six months old, half grown and packed with bad habits and issues.

What would it be like to have a puppy that had only known love and acceptance and gentle maternal discipline and attention? Instead of being whelped and left to defend for itself in a yard with other older, bigger dogs? God! My poor Daisy!

I thought she was a lot of work and she was a grown dog. Are puppies easier to deal with because they are small? Daisy was never small.  I understand that real puppies are hard to live with at first, lots of work, lots of mess but its made lighter by the joy of a small and fuzzy puppy. Daisy was not small but she was joyful and sweet and loving,  but before she came home with me, Daisy had never even been inside a house before, had never known a gentle mother or discipline of any kind and wasn't near potty trained when I got her, she got her last worming while I was in the vets office watching. What would it be like to start off on a better foot? What would it be like to have a dog that wasn't a health time bomb?

God. I miss Daisy.

What about a dog  that was born into the bosom of a loving family that wanted it and took care of it and cared about it? A healthy, socialize, well reared puppy? What would it be like to have a dog that wasn't scared of everything? What would it be like to have a dog that could wander the house without constant supervision - I know, I know, puppies must always be supervised, I know that but what about a three year old? What would it be like to have a healthy dog? I know dogs get sick, they have accidents, I know too well - but what if they didn't need to be pilled every day? What if they were as solid as they looked?

What would it be like to have a dog that could run and swim and fetch and play for its whole life?

What would it be like to have a dog that knows its name?  - I know, this is my job to make happen, but what about a dog that remembered its name? How about a dog that could visit other peoples homes and be allowed inside?

Are my expectations too high?

Monday, Monday

Its hotter than hell outside right now, if you were interested. Its hotter than Dallas and Dallas is pretty much hell in the summer time so it is officially, hotter than hell here.

You know what is nice about living by yourself? You can decide that its too damn hot for a bra and just go braless - no comments from the peanut gallery, no remarks. Suddenly, you are less uncomfortable then you were and you can move on. And later on, if you decide what you really want to do is put on a halter top, you can do that too. Even if it is a little small.

And ultimately, you are running around half naked but its  all right because this is your house and you can do anything you want. Damn it. Life is good. You might want to stay away from the windows, but life is still pretty good

Speaking of windows, the house a cross the street is now green with white trim and has an orange front door. I'm not sure where I am on the door, it would be a better green if the house was in a thicket of trees or was well set back from the road, but as it is, its surrounded by over grown hedges and now looks a lot like  yet another another over grown hedge. Why would you choose to  camouflage yourself as yet another over grown hedge? And if you were going to do so, why do you not paint the chimney and then  paint the stairs?!

I had an all around good weekend. My friend and I had a terrific visit, we spent Saturday walking the paths around Lake Johnston - got my exercise for the entire weekend - and then we went shopping at Cameron Village,  where we found a sidewalk sale and I scored some new sneakers, and I found a bakery I might have to move into. Sunday, I didn't do anything and I enjoyed myself hugely.


While I was doing nothing, Mama Dog was doing this:

8 girls and 4 boys!

Friday Yay!

And I baaack! Sorry! I had a friend in town and well...its hard to ask someone to cool their heels while you write an entry. Its just not very polite, especially after you have to tell them to disregard the very large dead roach at the bottom of that vase they just complimented. Well. We had a nice visit and I was very pleased with the house, except for that dead roach, that was not pleasing but at least it was dead.

Downtown Raleigh was on its best behavior and it even managed to be not all that hot, while at the same time not raining, so we enjoyed walking around. We did not enjoy the restaurant but that wasn't anyone's fault, the food was just not great and that could happen anywhere - Italian food can be so unpredictable.

For those of you keeping score, my parents cat still refuses to come out of the bedroom. I would understand if there was still a dog to be scared of but the dog is gone - or is she? Maybe she is still in the house and that's why she won't leave the room!  Cats see ghosts don't they? If Daisy is in the house, I wish I could see her too I really like that idea.  I wish the cat would come out of the room because then she could throw up on more things then just my bedspread, over and over and over again! I mean, its certainly easier if she limits her gaking to the one one room, but I would appreciate if she could maybe baptise the carpet instead of the bed every once in a while.  It is easier than playing hide and seek with the gak, but it would be really awesome of she would just stop gaking - I wouldn't mind so much if my parents would buy some non-staining cat food. I'm sure there is some fancy brand that doesn't use artificial dyes so when its gaked up it doesn't leave a stain. Or, even better, they did use dyes but you could buy a food that goes with your decor! I imagine such good product design is expensive and would not be carried by Walmart.

In good news, I swam fifteen laps two days in a row! Yay me!

Got it behind me.

I finally got to go swimming again! Its been over a week! How am I supposed to do this every day when I din;t do it every day? This is no way to make something part of your every day routine.

It had been so long that I didn't even try to get in the thirty laps I had worked my way up to. This make me sad and I bet if I could have gone every day I might have been up to thirty-five! Or not but there is the possibility I could have been there. Today, I didn't even bother to keep count because I knew I was going to disappoint myself. In my defence, I did have a couple of things to do after work other than swimming so I really couldn't spend a lot of time at the pool working though my issues.

I needed to get home and speak with my friend who was coming from out of town - it turns out that he was stuck in Tampa and was going to be running late. This worked out well for me because before I left work  I got a call from Lenscrafters letting me know my lens was ready, I really wanted to get my glasses back to where they were supposed to be, so after work, I told my friend that we would get together tomorrow night instead.

A girls got to do what a girls got to do and I had to go to the mall. I kept being sorely tempted as every store in the mall was having huge sales and I love a huge sale but I decided to stay on mission and keep my eyes on the Puppy. It was my own  forty days in the desert ya'll! I was tempted at every turn : That top is adorable! Puppypuppypuppy! OMG I totes need that bathing suit! Puppypuppypuppy! That skirt is 80% off!?, It was hard, ya'll but I demanded that those retail Satan's get themselves behind me! I managed to get of the mall and eat dinner for under $3.50. Puppypuppypuppy!

How To...

I'm not sure you noticed but Daisy died a month ago.  It feels like its been a million years, everything changed.

I had to find something to fill the time so I took up swimming - although I haven't been in a week! Thank you arbitrary pool schedule and also I had no idea it was necessary to close an indoor pool because it was lightening outside? So . I did try, I was there, I had my ID, I had my bag, I was there and they were closed.

The days last week were out of my control too. One day they were closed, the next day was a holiday and I was busy, the next day I had to go to the pharmacy and Friday I had to go to Lenscrafters to get my lens fixed.

I was sitting at my desk and I noticed that there was a glitch on my lens, like a finger print or a water spot and I  said Hmm. When did this happen? and I took them off and peered down and saw this thing on my lens. I was immediately kind of horrified because it had a color too it, a brown haze and this haze was surrounding a ding!

It was not there in the morning, because I would have been on the phone much earlier in the day. I called Lenscrafters and told them about this new development - expecting immediate sympathy and offers to replace the whole messed up mess. I didn't get it. They asked what I done to them. I told them I didn't do anything and from where I was sitting, it looked like this was their fault because I decided that the lens was too large for the frame and it, over time had enough and burst, I went on to add that I thought the haze was rust!

I skipped another day of swimming to go all the way to the mall and found my way to the store. I actually remembered where it was this time so I didn't have to wander the whole mall to find it. I did have to spend more time in Sears than I would have liked but it was unavoidable.  I entered the store and went to the desk and waited. And waited. The manager was dealing with someone else and that was okay but then a minion  came up and waited on a couple who came in after I did. This did not improve my mood.

Another minion finally noticed me and I  calmly and respectfully, yet making it clear that this needed to be "taken care of", explained my problem - but not before he asked what I did to the glasses.this also did not add to my attitude because I wouldn't be here demanding that they fix it if I broke them. I love it when they assume that all  their customers are trash.

The best time to go into a store and complain about service is when A) the manager is there and B) when the store is full.  A  powerless minion will reject you because it doesn't have the "Authority to make that call" and will suggest you come back when the manager is there, this is infuriating and wastes your time. Their hope with this tact is that you will go away and forget the problem or just get so mad you decide to not let fix it anyway. This is there sincere hope.

 If you go in when the store is empty, there is nothing to make them make you stop shrieking about the bad service you received, but just raise your voice about a service issue in a crowded store and your problem gets solved. I didn't get the replacement frames I had kind of decided I wouldn't turn down, but I did get the pricey lens replaced for free. Yay.

So in a month my dog died, my car broke and my a/c stopped working and then my glasses cracked. When is it going to be winter because summer thus far, as not rocked.

Cleaning up

I have a friend due to visit this week and that made me look around the house and shiver. I had a lot of work to do and then I noticed that Small Cat was itchy. Very.

Small Cat was hosting his own flea circus! I've never had fleas in the house the whole time I've had animals in  the house and all of a sudden Small Cat is a vacation destination. I blame his brief visits to the vet office and then the pet hospital with Daisy for bringing the little monsters into my house. I also think Daisy not being here to act as a host for stray fleas, she always had  Frontline on but I think she may have still played host for some here and there. Now all the beasts are picking on him sand he has much less square footage available.

Or they were until I nuked my house with flea killer powder and vacuumed everything, trust me everything I went through three cans of powdered flea killer! If it could not be vacuumed it got thrown in the wash. I even bathed Small Cat! And now he is going to wear the Frontline.

He is pouting, but he's not itching, so I think he'll eventually forgive me for doing that to him - I wonder if he'll stop hanging out in the bath tub or if he won't put two and two together. I know he'll never look at the kitchen sink the same way again. He was very good for a cat who had never been immused before, and yes, he was unhappy but he didn't try very hard to hurt me or escape, I think because he was in such shock. Next time, he'll know better.

Hopefully, there won't be a next time.


Okay, but before I could do all of the, I went to my neighbors 60th Anniversary Party! It was a fabulous evening.

Is it winter yet?

Since June 9th : My dog died, my car broke down , my a/c stopped working and one of my lenses in my glasses broke. I'm all ready pretty much ready for summer to be over.

Friday Cat Blogging

TGIFish

Oh, is it Friday? I was so hoping for Saturday. Sucks that it isn't actually Friday.

I did get some news that changed my weekend plans a bit. I have a friend from home who is planning on being here next week. He will most likely want to see the interior of my house. Its a little cluttered right now, maybe it needs a little straightening, a bit of tidying, maybe some minor sand blasting and a little renovation.

So. Instead of spending the weekend doing a lot of nothing, I'm going to clean the house Its going to shock the hell out of the bugs and I'm going to have to hope that the brown water is going to be washed out of the system before he gets here. I know its harmless but its brown and I don't remember brown water at home.

 I thought about just trying to keep him on the outside, its cleaner and people expect to see bugs outside, I'm afraid that one of my housemates will decide to make an appearance and will get really annoyed with me when I have to kill him without my usual screaming fit - usually their cue to scurry out of the way. I give them too much warning.

I will try to be much more stealthy.

So what did I do with my fabulous random day off in the middle of the week? I put up two more quarts of green beans and sorted my potatoes and I made more, better non-potato flavored ice cream!  And I corrected my hair color! Yay!

This years long term storage team

Note the tiny, soon to be mashed spuds.


But before I could tolerate spending that much time hovering over boiling water I had to do something about the heat in the house. I had initially chalked it up to a lazy heat pump and thought I would just have to suck it up. I hadn't thought about it but if the a/c is on the outside unit should but "doing" something. Mine wasn't.

My firs thought was that the electric company had messed up my unit. We have an agreement, they can turn off my a/c whenever they want to and  I got $25 from them once. So I called them and told them they messed up my unit and they sent a HVAC guy out to make sure they didn't mess up my unit. He was there two hours later, at 9:30 at night. Do you have any idea how much it would have cost me to have a tech come out from my HVAC company to come out in the middle of the night, the night before a holiday and fix my a/c?! The mind boggles.

As it turns out, it was not the electric companies problem, but he still fixed it - charged me, but I was looking down many days of heat and frustration if I called "my" guys out to fix it. I needed it fixed now and he fixed it. Thank you Jesus.

Now that I wasn't living in a big tent, I could get to some things I needed to do. Did you know if your house is too hot you can't make ice cream? Yay, and when your house is not too hot you can? Yeah, wild.

pre-ice cream, I sorted my potatoes and picked out the little bitty ones and now I have lovely mashed potatoes for three or four meals - and once cooked, potatoes freeze well. Speaking of freezing, I now have more green beans "put up".

July 4th dinner

The mashed potatoes don't really look that lavender, and the butter wasn't that buttery. The camera made some design decisions without my input. Still, an all-American meal, most of it home grown.

Happy July 4th!!!/Happy Birthday Mom!!

Garden Update 10 2012

I don't really know what size ball it is now, but I have a soccer ball. The storm brought me that ball and I can tell how warm it is by how inflated it is. Clearly, its very warm. The melons are also not  crimson sweets! They may have been labeled that way but they clearly are not, they don't look anything like the crimson sweets I planted last year - Oh, they start off that way but these fruits darken, I did some research and I'm pretty sure what I have here are sugar baby water melons not crimson sweets. This annoys me because I wanted the larger fruits and what I'm going to get are small melons. When full sized they will be only about the size of the soccer ball.

Anyway, I have four of these growing now.

In the othe garden everything is A) as advertised and B) finally, growing.

The peppers are smaller than they look,  but I am very pleased by their classic shapes , not many odd, lumpy veggies this time around. In a couple of weeks I am going to have a fantastic harvest that will look damn near store bought. The tomatoes are also finally starting to grow! a little oddly shaped, but I was afraid I wasn't going to have any tomatoes at all or it wasn't going to happen until later and I was going to be on vacation before they finally did their thing.

First generation tomatoes, not how tall these varieties are. These are going to be big plants and grow giant fruits. Slicers for sandwiches.

Second gen tomatoes, smaller plants, smaller fruits. These are all sauce varieties

Family picture.

The melons are moving into the yard and have all ready eaten most of my hose.

The last potato. It loos a little ragged but with just a few weeks to go, its right on target.


Moving on to the front yard.

Clearly, the heat is not good for my flowers at all.

Although, not everybody is miserable. Fern seems very happy and as long as the plants are out of the sun, they seem pretty okay with the heat.


Today's harvest

I'm going to stuff the peppers with some of the venison my father harvested

I didn't get all of these today, but I got the bag filled. I would have put these up but its too hot to spend a lot of time in a kitchen over a boiling pot.