The Valiant Little Oxalis

Mom and Dad went to Dad's 50th college reunion last weekend, then spent a week up at the lake house with three other couples.  They had a good time, Aunt Sarah wore and got compliments on the nail polish necklace I made for her, and she and Mom did some wallet damage at a big nursery up there. 

Today, I went out to Mom and Dad's to drop off the tomato plants I've been coddling for Mom and to get drinking water (since Dad shuts off the house water when they're gone for more than 48 hours).  The house was quiet when I got there, and I figured Dad was still asleep and Mom was outside working, so I filled my water bottles, put them in the trunk, unloaded the tomato plants and then went looking for Mom.  She was doing cleanup in the side yard, but was happy to take a break and have a cup of coffee and talk with me. 

As we walked back to the house, Mom said, "Oh, look at that!" and pointed to the compost heap.  Growing out of the remains of a Boston fern that Mom had put on the compost early this spring was a big, beautiful burgundy oxalis!  Mom said it was a shame to leave it there, and I told her I'd be thrilled to take it.  We got a pot from the shed (which the plant was too big for!) and I put it in my car with the water bottles.  Then Mom told me that the gorgeous purple calla lilies in a matching pot on the porch table were for me!  So after Mom and I talked, Dad woke up and I said good morning to him and Mom had given me her opinion on the nail polish jewelry I brought, I headed back home, short four tomato plants but ahead on callas and oxalis.

Now I have to go do laundry, bleah.

Once upon a time...

I had a job that became unbearable and I quit.  Before I did, though, I had three years of working in an office that looked like a ski lodge and had floor-to-ceiling windows all the way around the first floor.  In winter, it was like working inside a snow globe.

Driving to and from work, I passed a cute little mid-century ranch with a breezeway connecting the garage to the house and sighed over it.  Three years after quitting the job, I saw a for sale sign on the house and bought it.

The daughter of one of my co-workers at the apartment complex replaced me as Mom's assistant when I went to work for Hyphenated Corp.

So there were a lot of complex emotions roiling around inside me when I heard about this:

Fire rips through apartment complex.

And when I saw this:



I sent one of the property managers an e-mail telling her to let me know if I could help, but I don't know if the address is even still valid.  *sigh*

Beautiful day for a road trip

Mom and Dad picked me up at 6:30 yesterday morning for a quick trip to Columbus.  It was my first time riding in Dad's new GMC Acadia, and it's a nice car, but the leg room in the back is really minimal!  Anyway, we made it to Powell in time to see the younger of my nephews test for and get his orange belt in Taekwondo, and then go out for brunch.

My elder nephew has celiac, and because he didn't want to make his brother choose a different restaurant than his favorite, he ate at the house before we went.  This is pretty typical of The Awesome Nacho, who is very considerate of others.  This is in complete contrast to his grandfather, who pitched a hissy fit about how expensive cigarettes are when I bummed one from him and then said he'd like to spend $10/month for a cell phone that would live on Mom's bike just in case she needed it.  He also made us late leaving for brunch and late leaving to come home, because it's all about him.  He was a little surprised and offended when we stopped at Starbucks on the way back and I refused his offer of a coffee.  After the little display in the car earlier, I was not going to spend any of his money!

The important thing, though, is that SuperDoughnut did very well on his test, got his new belt, and got brunch with his family on a beautiful day.  :)

Why I spent every free minute of the last four days...

reading the same book twice.  That book was Blackout by Mira Grant.
It's a sci-fi / horror / political thriller / love story / action movie novel all rolled into one, and it is intense.

Okay, thing one about this review--spoilers.  I'm not going to put them in individual spoiler tags, I'm going to spoil-code everything after thing two and if you keep reading, on your head be it.

Thing two--you need to read these books in order.  If you haven't read Feed and Deadline, stop reading this review, get your butt to the library or bookstore and read them.  Come back here in a week, when you've read both books and then had a meal, a shower and some sleep.  Trust me, you will only take time away from these books with great reluctance.

Spoilers ahoy!

Tomorrow...

will be the three year anniversary of Stormdog's death. This morning, on the way into work, I heard about a couple who paid $155,000 to have their dog cloned. I said three years ago, that if cloning ever became inexpensive, maybe I'd do it. But now I know that I wouldn't, even if it was only $155 instead of a hundred times that. I miss Stormy, I miss him every single day. But he was the dog he was not only because of his genetic makeup, but because of the experiences he had in his life and where I was in my life and the roads we traveled together. I could not be the same person I was eighteen years ago when a half-grown, all-legs, sweet-natured and much too smart puppy came into my life, and I don't want to be that person. Stormy will never be equaled in my life or in my heart, but I cherish his memory and try to be the person he thought I was. Until such time as Stormy and I are reunited, if such time ever comes, I will give the dogs in my life all the love and care they deserve, and honor his memory that way. I would not cheapen what Stormy and I had by buying a replica.

Ouch on several levels

My feet, my calves and my wallet!  After a long week at work, Mom and I had nice dinner out and then went shopping.  We went to two shoe stores with no success, then Burlington Coat Factory, Big Lots and Gabriel Brothers with a great deal of success.  Mom got red, white and blue pillows for the lake house, several cute tops, a pair of capris and a pair of shoes.  I got light summer dresses for wearing around the house, a pair of cute oxfords, three shirts, two pairs of pants, a grapefruit-scented candle, three Godiva chocolate bars and three new cushions for the wicker chairs on the breezeway.

The best moment was probably when I had found the two pairs of pants at Gabe's--one light aqua and one medium purple, both linen-look, for $3 and $8.  Mom said "I need some tan capris" and I reached over, looked at a tag, said, "Size 10?" and Mom said yes, so I handed them to her--$3!  She was thrilled, and called me this morning to tell me they fit. :)  She also liked her early Mother's Day gift, a necklace and earrings I made with nail polish:

The set is based on a lovely spring jacket of Mom's, which is white with pink and orange flowers, but it would also go with the orange shirt she got last night!

On the way home, we discussed our bargains and what new clothing we were going to wear with clothing we already had.  Mom helped me bring in all my bags of loot and then headed home, and I took a quick bath and collapsed into bed.  This morning, I tried everything on and it all fits, and now I have leftover Mongolian beef to have for lunch.

Still boring, but still here.

Spring is definitely here, because mulch is now available at my grocery store!  I'll be getting some next weekend and for a number of weekends thereafter, which may mean that Bubbles & Baubles goes on hiatus, given what I tend to do to my nails during mulch time. :) 

Temptation Nursery is open now, and Mom and I have a date for May 12th to go shopping for tomatoes and to fight about letting me buy her at least one plant for Mother's Day.  I swear, fighting with her over buying her things is as much of a tradition as giving her a card.

I also need to invest in a good spray bottle so I can get my butt outside and deal with the nettles.  I don't mind like dandelions, plus Snoopy mows 'em down regularly, but I will not allow prickly things in my flower beds!

Doc and I also have a date for lunch on the 12th, so I'll have to coordinate that with Mom, but then I get Doc to myself for a couple of hours.  She's had a lot of changes in a short period of time, and while we had a long phone conversation on Friday, nothing beats face-to-face chat over a bowl of white chili con queso and chips.

May is probably my favorite month of spring.  There are seeds and seedlings to plant, weeds to kill, mulch to spread, flowers blooming, lots of sun and the heat isn't usually ridiculous.  I'm looking forward to the next month.

The Most Boring Person on Earth

That would be me. I wake up, drink coffee, answer some want ads, go to work, come home, maybe go work out, eat dinner, read, play on the computer, play with nail polish, read some more, go to bed.

There are house finches nesting in the tree by the breezeway, which is fun.

There are nettles everywhere in my yard, which is not fun.

I have a ton of supplies to make nail polish jewelry, which is fun.

Other than that, there really isn't anything going on. The dogs are fine, I'm fine, the whole famdamily is fine. I just wish I could find a job for when Mom closes the office.

Yet another book review

Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This didn't wow me--it's much better written than most of the Austen sequels/ripoffs/homages/reimaginings that have hit the market in the last few years, but it's by a professional writer, so that's not surprising. Most of the character have evolved in ways that fit with their original depictions, and the relationships have done the same. The mystery is decent if not innovative, and handled well, but overall, the book just didn't grab me or live up to the standard set by Ms. Austen.



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Another book review!

The Lost Conspiracy by Frances Hardinge

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


It was with reluctance that I closed this book and left the world of Gullstruck. Ms. Hardinge combined splendid world-building with fascinating character-building. Learning about a society reliant on those of its members who can project their astral selves and what happens when that ability is gone was fascinating, but the story of Hathin, the central character, was even more so. Watching Hathin cope with her duties and responsibilities and then with her fears and hopes was a rich and rewarding experience.

I hope that sometime in the future Ms. Hardinge will revisit this world--I would love to read more about it.



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Book review

The Hunchback Assignments by Arthur Slade

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


A note for Brooke--don't read this, I'm sending the book to you.

While the world-building and character-building in this novel are good and the plot is interesting, I just couldn't get past the (view spoiler)[animal abuse in the first chapter and the large-scale child abuse in the main plot (hide spoiler)].



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No more rubber ducks

A few years ago, I read and enjoyed A Year Without Made in China by Sara Bongiorni, and it made me realize how pervasive Chinese-made items were in the US. Then a good friend almost lost a cat due to tainted pet food made in China. Recently, I read Swindled, a very good and very scary book about how food has historically been adulterated and continues to be. The saddest and scariest parts were the New York swill milk scandals of the mid-1800s and the two Chinese milk scandals in the last ten years. Then came the revelation that MAC Cosmetics, which wants to sell to the growing Chinese middle class, will in fact be testing on animals, something which is required by Chinese law.

So the Chinese government does not care about food quality for either pets or babies, but requires makeup to be tested on animals? It won't make much, if any difference to the big picture, but unless it's something I need instead of something I want, I will not be buying anything Chinese-made.

I will be going through my cosmetics to see what has been made in China, and no, I won't discard anything I already have, but I won't buy more from that company. I already know that most, if not all, rubber ducks are made in China, so no more of those. For everything else, I'll look to see where it's made, and only buy it if A. I need it and B. I can't find an American-made alternative.

A Mouse milestone!

Yesterday afternoon, I was trying to take a nap. Little Miss Piggie Pie was curled up on my bed and Mouse was curled up on his bed. Just as I was drifting off to sleep, Mouse got up and trotted out of the room. LMPP followed him, and about 30 seconds later I heard thumps and thuds. When the noise hadn't stopped in five minutes, I gave up on the nap and got up.

Mouse and Little Miss Piggie Pie were playing together, and he was participating with every aged bone and muscle. They were so cute that I didn't even think to grab the camera, just watched them and grinned. Of course, Mouse tired first and had to hide under the kitchen table until she finally got the idea that he was done, and he probably shouldn't have played with her on a full stomach (details omitted), but I feel as though he's finally truly happy to be here.

I think I have recovered from Monday...

I should have taken the flock of wild turkeys crossing my path as I drove to work as a hint from the universe and turned around and gone home!

A good man and good friend of the family died of lung cancer.

There were crises upon crises at work, and I'm finding that I do not function well with Mom out of the office for extensive periods.

I forgot my lunch and the soup of the day downstairs was broccoli cheddar (ick).

I ran out of antidepressant on Saturday.

In the line at the drive-through pharmacy, I was stuck inbetween two cars for fifteen minutes. Then when I got to the window, the pharmacy tech was moving like a glacier. If someone was in her way, she didn't go around them, she waited. She searched everywhere twice for my prescription, went back to the computer in between each location, and finally had to ask for help. It had been another seven minutes by the time she found it and ten by the time I was out of there.

The dogs were so hyper they nearly broke my fingers as I was trying to take Mouse off the chain and put Little Miss Piggie Pie on it.

When I took off my brand new earrings, one of them fell apart.

I would say the week got better, but since I woke up at 5 this morning with my third migraine in ten days, I can't. It's not getting worse, that's all.

Book review

Lady Almina And The Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy Of Highclere Castle by The Countess of Carnarvon

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The book was interesting, although there were various grammar and spelling usages which threw me out of the narrative. These may just result from a difference between British and American English, so I didn't deduct any mental points. Almina, Countess Carnarvon, was certainly an interesting woman, but I did deduct a point for the marketing strategy of linking her life with a popular television show. The book could have stood on its own merits.



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Pennsylvania House of Criminals

The bare bones:

A Pennsylvania legislator decides PA needs one of those trendy new transvaginal ultrasound laws.

A blogger reads the entire bill, then writes him a letter.

The legislator responds with condescension, obfuscation and the disclosure of his own daughter's medical information.

The long version

Dear...

Grump ringing up my purchases at World Market,

If you don't like people, get a different job.

Opposing counsel,

We're in compliance, you're not. Straighten up!

Collection agency person,

No, I'm not going to prove to you that my boss is someone's guardian so you can serve the ward. Call the nursing home and see if you can get past the staff.

Mail order pharmacy,

You have the checking account information, STOP telling the nursing home staff they can't re-order without a credit card. Assholes.

Dog,

Get your stanky butt off my brand-new pillows.

Other dog,

No people food for puppies in this house. Get used to it.

Love,

MondayJammies

One good Valentine deserves another...

I had to stop at Petsmart tonight to pick up a tag for a client's dog, and there was a very long checkout line, and next to it a bin filled with dog toys for $1.47. So of course I succumbed--the toys were adorable, cheap, and they don't have faces. I brought home two toys, and Mouse went "Meh" and went back to sleep, and Little Miss Piggie Pie went nuts. I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.








After Little Miss Piggie Pie had gone crazy, she walked away. Poor Mouse got curious and was left red-pawed with the evidence of the crime. Fortunately, he's got me as a character witness. ;)

She loves me, yeah, yeah, yeah, BLECH!

Valentine's Day is bad enough when it's a daylong reminder that I am a rejected spinster, but it didn't help that my first Valentine of the day was a dead mouse from the dog at oh-dark-hundred!

Oh, well, at least my nails looked pretty and we had a yummy lunch at work, complete with vegan strawberry cake and pitas and homemade snack mix. Of course afterwards, instead of napping my way out of a food coma, I had to help Mom with trial prep, but TANSTAAFL, right?

Happy Valentines to everyone!

Book Review

The Man Who Made Vermeers: Unvarnishing the Legend of Master Forger Han van Meegeren by Jonathan Lopez

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


An intriguing story, a compelling if not particularly likeable subject, crisp writing, elegant language and an author who explains details and concepts without talking down to his reader all made this a wonderful reading experience.



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Book review

The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


Bleah. For a so-called "ghost story," this was terribly boring. The writing is technically proficient, but the characters are two-dimensional placeholders, which makes for absolutely no tension in the scary plot developments. Those plot developments are telegraphed loudly in advance, and there's no leavening humor or humanity to make a reader care enough to be scared on behalf of any of the cardboard figures populating the novel. Throughout the read I was irritated by the use of second person singular for chapters involving the main character, then ticked when the cat was killed for no apparent reason except to demonstrate which "herbalist" was the Big Bad and finally just bored right out of my little fuzzy socks



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Happy Massacre!

When I bought the gingerbread trains for my nephews, I also picked up a gingerbread house for me. Unfortunately, the weekend was just too crazy for me to do anything with it, so it's been sitting in my cupboard for the last two months. When I found out Mom was giving a Valentine's Day talk, I knew what I was going to do with the gingerbread house!







And because Mom mentioned the Valentine's Day Massacre in her talk and I had some extra pieces in the gingerbread house kit, well...

Sick and tired

of being sick and tired. I've had this cold for nine days now, and now when I cough I get a sharp pain in my right side and I can't sleep for more than two hours without coughing. Functioning at work is interesting.

Mouse is doing well, thank heavens. He's eating, he bounces when I come home from work, and he's putting up with Little Miss Piggie Pie's efforts to play with him.

My condolences to Sherri and Jay

who lost their beautiful black and white kitty Ophelia today. I had the pleasure of hosting Ophelia twice, and she was as sweet as she was pretty.

*hugs Sherri and Jay*

Long week

Even with the holiday on Monday, it's been a very long week. I have a nasty sinus infection and a really messy house. Mouse is starting to settle in, although Little Miss is bummed that he's not really interested in playing with her. She's very good about not over-pestering him, though, so yay for that!

The rental company where I used to work put an ad in the paper on Sunday, and I did some soul-searching and some list-making to see if I wanted to apply for the job. Back when I quit, I was specifically told that if I ever wanted to come back, I'd be hired. In the end, though, I remembered how unhappy I was at the end of my time there and decided I'd keep looking.

Hopefully, I can manage to find enough energy to at least do laundry and run the vacuum this weekend.

Mouse is here!

He's absolutely huge, incredibly sweet and pretty needy right now. He's in the spot that has been a refuge for Littlefoot and Little Miss, in the well of my desk. This means I am sitting back from the desk and typing from a very odd position, and I'm thinking this might be a good time to go sit in my recliner, watch "Downton Abbey" on the netbook and stop straining my back!

Mom and I took the boys to Kalahari, a water park in Sandusky, yesterday. It's about 90 minutes from my house, so between that and the seven hours we spent there, it was a long day. Snoopy stopped by in the late morning and let Little Miss outside, and he would have stopped in the evening, but Mom and the boys and I got back early. We discovered that McDonald's milkshakes have gluten, and The Awesome Nacho discovered that he prefers plain hot chocolate to hot chocolate with caramel in it. SuperDoughnut, on the other hand, adored the caramel hot chocolate. Both boys had a wonderful time at the waterpark, and I enjoyed myself, although I didn't feel as though I got much exercise. My biggest victory was not showing how dizzy and sick I felt after riding the big, enclosed waterslide in a 4-person innertube!

I don't know if it's stress, the long day in and out of dryness, heat, cold, etc. or if it's just been incubating for a while, but I have a nasty sinus infection kicking my butt today. Thankfully, Mom took the day off and gave me the day off, and I'm working half-days tomorrow and Thursday, so hopefully I can rest and recover. Mouse has an appointment with his old vet on Thursday, and after that I will take him to my vet for care in the future.

All in all, a good 3-day weekend.

Yes to the second dog!

Apparently, I am getting him if he takes to me, so I'll be meeting him tomorrow morning. I'm still slightly dizzy from all the reversals but pretty pleased!

No second dog

He's fine, I just don't get him. Too upset to write much. :(

New stuff all over the place!

I had asked for a new digital camera for Christmas, so yesterday Dad took me on an expedition to get one. He'd done all of his research and had it narrowed down to three cameras, but decided after we started shopping that only the Nikon CoolPix S9100 would do. So we went to a small chain of NE Ohio camera shops called Dodd Camera in Fairlawn, only to discover that while the website said they had a 9100 in stock, the store computer said they had one in stock, and they had the box, they didn't have the camera! The sales associate tried to interest us in a different Nikon, but Dad asked him to call the Medina store and see if they had one. The SA said he got the fax machine when he called, and told Dad there wasn't a map on the website. Dad asked for and got permission to come around the counter and found and printed a map, and took the Medina store's number.

I have to think that the SA didn't want us going to another store, because as soon as we were in the car, I called the number, got an associate there, and had him set aside their last red 9100. I also got excellent directions from him, and although I hate driving in Medina with all their damn one-way streets, we made it and got the camera. Dad also got the auxiliary kit, which included a spare battery and a mini tripod. After stops at Advanced Auto Parts and Office Max, we headed back to my house, but went to Arby's because Dad was hungry. He treated me to either a very late lunch or a very early dinner, which we ate sitting on the breezeway. Mom called while we were eating and was not pleased that Dad had forgotten she was cooking dinner!

After Dad was done, he set up my new Acer netbook he got for me, and then he talked my brother through some computer problems, then we played with the camera and then Dad left. Aside from the fact that I was a little peeved by his being half an hour late, we really had a great day.

So the new stuff so far is a new red camera and a new black netbook. However, there is one more new and important change coming for me, I hope, on Friday. No, it's not a new job, it's a second dog.

I debated whether I was going to mention this at all, because I'm so afraid I will jinx things, but I'm too excited to shut up. It looks as if I will be fostering an elderly yellow Lab whose current owner can't keep him. If all goes well, I will pick him up on Friday and bring him home. So everyone, please cross your fingers for us as you go through your week!

This could go either way

Mom announced this week that she intends to make Saturdays "SI Days," with SI standing for self indulgence. Knowing Mom as I do, I think either she could turn this into a new project, wherein she sets schedules, to-do lists and deadlines for herself about what "indulgent" things she is going to do, or she'll feel guilty for spending time doing "unproductive" things and abandon the whole project.

I await the outcome. :)

And a good time was had by almost all

Because my sister-in-law insisted that she was prepared for chaos and repeated the invitation several times. on Saturday morning I plopped Little Miss Piggie Pie in the car and headed for Columbus, intending to stay until Monday. About halfway down, I gave LMPP an acepromazine tab and as soon as we arrived, Annabel brought Ralphie out and the four of us went for a walk, per the advice of my friend Bun, the dog-whisperer. Ralph was willing to be friends, but LMPP was not having any of it, so he very quickly stopped paying any attention to her at all after she snapped and growled at him a time or two. On Sunday, when she tried to make friends, he ignored her. Annabel said she hadn't thought he held grudges, and I said that he just remembered the hostile reaction and wasn't taking any more chances, so it was "Talk to the paw!"

Unfortunately, LMPP did not do well at all with my nephews. The Awesome Nacho tried very hard, and semi-succeeded, but after a post-holiday discussion with the above-mentioned Bun, I realize that I was at fault for not giving Little Miss a way to get away from the boys. She couldn't walk away from them without walking away from me, and she was too uncomfortable to do that. Because Annabel and I had both been focused on the dog-dog interaction, neither of us considered possible trouble with the boys, and when I discovered there were five more kids in the same age group coming over after dinner, I elected to skip dinner and leave at 3:30 on Christmas day.

Doggie difficulties aside, we had a nice afternoon and an amazing dinner on Christmas Eve, followed by a good night's sleep, albeit a short sleep, because my nephews were up at 5:40 and the rest of us by 6:15. SuperDoughnut burned through all of his presents and then was a little pouty when he realized there weren't any more for him to open, and both boys AND my brother had gifts that didn't work, but we still managed to have a good morning and a nice breakfast. I got totally spoiled as always--clothing from Mom, an Acer netbook and the promise of a new camera from Dad, a gorgeous ornament from Jeeves and the boys created their own candles just for me!

Jeeves and I both bought each other this year's Life Savers Sweet Storybook, and agreed that compared with the ones we grew up with, it's a ripoff--it has only one side now and half the candy! Still, it was a rare bonding moment with my brother, and I'll always treasure it. Dad really liked the photo collage I did for him, but his favorite gift was the giant spotlight my brother got him.

So next year I know that I can go and take the dog, and I'll just have to keep in mind that she needs an escape route when the boys are too interested in her. Overall, a lovely Christmas.

Merry Christmas

to all of my friends and family--I love you all.

Cars suck.

What they principally suck, of course, is money--right out of your wallet. On the 2nd, I took my car in for new brakes. I had that budgeted at $300, so of course it was $303. Then on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Mom and I had three very rough days at work, and this culminated with me walking to my car on a cold, wet, dark evening only to find that it wouldn't start. The gentleman from AAA advised that I stop at an auto parts store and have them see if the battery needed to be replaced. I did, and the guy who helped me couldn't even get a reading because of all the corrosion. *sigh* So that was another $104 that I didn't have budgeted, and good bye pretty new nail polish, holiday smellies or anything fun.

Dad was still sick all last week, which is hard on Mom, Vegan Lawyer had two briefs due which were driving her and her staff crazy, and I have mice again. *shudder*

Speaking of the mice, I went to Home Depot and asked for some help. The sales associate took me to the area reserved for pest control, waved at the shelves and said "Here you go." When I asked about a poison that wouldn't kill my dog, he said all the baits were the same and that the mice would run away and die. I bought two traps and a bait station with refills, came home and checked the interwebbinetz, only to discover that if Little Miss Piggie Pie ate a poisoned mouse, she would be poisoned! So I set the traps, which are nice in that they are self-contained and you don't ever see the dead mouse. Tomorrow night I am going back to HD and exchange the unused bait station for more traps.

Last night I did have to use a trap that wasn't self-contained, and LMPP was very interested in that corner of the floor this morning. I made her leave it, because I was not up to dealing with a dead mouse before my second cup of coffee. Yes, there was a dead mouse, and the worst part of disposing of the trap was the tail. *full body shudder* I can't wait to get more of the fancy traps.

Dad advised just the simple wooden traps, and made fun of me for "killing at a distance," but Mom has him to dispose of dead mice and I just have me. I told him that if it wouldn't ruin my kitchen (and the house, and the neighborhood, and the city and so on) I would nuke the damn things! So far, I've gotten two, and I will keep setting traps and hope for the best!

Put ze hendle beck!

Last weekend, I didn't really have time to do laundry, so I'd planned to at least wash a few things Monday night. On Monday, work was really rough, and I was tired and a little out of it by the time I got home. Still, I let the dog out and in and fed her, had a cup of coffee, ran downstairs and started one load of laundry. After dinner, I threw the clothes into the dryer and turned off the water softener to fill up jugs to water the houseplants.

After watering the houseplants, I washed a load of rags, then ran the dishwasher, and it wasn't until Tuesday morning when I saw that the water in the toilet was dark orange that I realized that I hadn't turned the softener back on. By then, I had to take a quick shower, get dressed, make my lunch and go to work, so I left myself a note on the basement door.

A wonderful, exhausting weekend

Because my younger nephew's birthday is a week before Christmas, Mom makes sure that the boys come up to her house every year the first weekend in December, and no matter what else happens, we have lunch and presents before Mom takes the boys back to Columbus on Sunday.

This year, although PlaidJammies was miserably sick all weekend, Mom and the boys and I had a great time. On Saturday, I took Little Miss Piggie Pie and met the other three at Gorge Metro park, where we hiked down to the falls and then up to Mary Campbell cave. The dog was not on anything even close to her best behavior, and it took a long time before she would stop growling if one of the boys approached her.

After our hike, I dropped LMPP off at home, and then Mom picked me up and we had lunch at McDonald's followed by a trip to Stan Hywet Hall. In the conservatory, they had a display which included a complete replica in Legos of the hall itself!




In the house, there were painstakingly repaired holiday window displays from one of the old downtown Akron department stores and we ran into one of the Probate Court clerks taking the tour for the first time! Mom found it necessary to tell everyone we met that I used to be a guide there, and I then found it necessary to qualify that it was 30 years ago!

After Stan Hywet, Mom dropped me off at my house and then took the boys home to shower and change (which I did as well). When we were all clean and nicely dressed, we went to dinner at Bricco and then to an Actor's Summit performance of The Winter Wonderettes. It was silly and adorable and a ton of fun, and then we went and had ice cream at Mary Coyle's, where the Jammies family has been going on special occasions for the last forty or so years.

Sunday morning I put together the gingerbread trains for the boys to decorate, then headed out to Casa de SeniorJammies. SuperDoughnut opened his presents, then we had lunch, then the boys played with the new Nerf gun for a while, and then we decorated the trains.

OhmydogOhmydogOhmydog! Boneshaker movie!

I fell utterly in love with Cherie Priest's writing and her steampunk Northwest when I read Boneshaker for the first time, and now it's going to be made into a movie!

It's about time the film industry branched out from sequels, remakes, and reboots and did something original, and I couldn't be happier for Ms. Priest! I don't know if I'll see it, both because I hate to see a movie once I've read the book and I know what is being left out, and also because I'm a giant wuss and scary movies scare me.

After all, I slept with the lights on for a week after seeing The Blair Witch Project. I'm thinking after seeing steampunk zombies, I might have to sleep with the lights on for a year!

Anyway, congrats to Ms. Priest, and to Boneshaker's alive and undead legions of fans!

Why I'm not spending a dime today

Although it may seem that way to some people, Black Friday hasn't been around forever. The phrase was actually coined in my lifetime, and the whole retail circus really only began within the last 20 years. I remember when the day after Thanksgiving was a quiet, lazy day spent with family.

In my family, Thanksgiving is a non-materialistic holiday, meant for cherishing our blessings and especially each other. It is wrong for Target and other retailers to take that away from their employees and it is wrong for customers to fall in line with the materialistic greed that motivates such actions.

As a nation, we have gotten what we need mixed up with what we want, and we will go to any lengths to get it. I refuse to contribute in any way to the craziness, and will not spend a single cent, either online or offline today.

I've been told that's just a drop in the bucket, but at least I'm being true to what I believe.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Or rather, Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends and family, and Happy Thursday to my international friends!

I am grateful for so much:

My family, who love and support me even when I'm not very likeable,

My friends, who do the same thing,

My sense of humor, which has leavened some dark days,

Little Miss Piggie Pie, without whom I would be dogless, which is not a good thing to be,

Bigfoot and Littlefoot, for being such important parts of my life for a very long time,

The ability to learn,

That I am single and not in an abusive or dysfunctional relationship,

That I have decent if not spectacular health,

That I am gainfully employed,

That I have minimal debt,

And that even though I often take it for granted, I am surrounded by a wealth of good things.

What a day!

We have one client who is so stupid it's a shame he reproduced, and he was bugging me all day, two letters from different attorneys being all judgmental and pissy about things that didn't even happen, and two wards in the hospital from different nursing homes, plus all the crap going on with my neighbor.

On the other hand, I sent four kick-ass Christmas presents to Texas, and I have another great Flannel Jammies story to tell.

When my brothers and I were growing up, Captain Crossword did the best turkey impersonation I'd ever heard or have heard since. I thought of that a few weeks ago when I was in Target and saw a hat that looked like a turkey, with legs that came down and velcroed together under the wearer's chin. I bought it, and sent it to Texas with a note for my brother.

Mom and Dad had been there for a while when I remembered to ask about the hat. I was on the phone with Dad at the time, and said, "Did Mom give CC his hat?" Dad said, "I don't know about any hat" and the promptly yelled for my mother. Mom got on the phone and when I asked her, she said "Oh yes!" and handed the phone off to my brother, who told me that everyone had tried it on, they had taken pictures, and Tinkerbell had adopted it as a pet.

So my smart, savvy father failed to notice three adults and two children taking turns wearing a hat shaped like a turkey. *chortle*

*sigh*

Well, now I'm disillusioned and a bit sad--NeighborBoy was apparently busy cutting more wood today while I was at work. So much for doing a favor for a neighbor, if it was that, he'd have quit when I asked him to stop cutting. :(

A great big MESS

Last Tuesday, NE Ohio was hit with big storms--hail, rain, thunder, lightning, high winds, tornado watches, etc. I was trying to get the local radio station's streaming audio to work on my computer so I'd know if I had to grab the dog and head for the basement when I heard a huge CRACK! Since nothing hit the house and I didn't hear anything else, I figured a tree had come down in the back yard and didn't worry about it.

For reference, this is how my backyard looks in the summer:



This is what I saw when I looked outside on Wednesday morning:



When I got home from work and went to take a closer look, this is what I saw:




Forty to fifty feet of tree, in my estimation. Snoopy came out, said it was 90 feet, to which I said "Men think this *thumb and forefinger about three inches apart* is nine inches, so I don't trust your estimation." He hemmed and hawed a bit, then promised me he would do the work for the wood, as long as I wasn't in a hurry. Okay, I'd like the big tree out of my back yard, but I can't afford a professional remover, so yeah, thanks.

When I got home on Friday night, my feckless young neighbor was out back, cutting the tree apart with his chainsaw. While the cynical part of me suspected that he was planning to sell the wood and not tell me about it, I went out and thanked him for the favor, and explained that the friend who mows my lawn was going to take care of it, but he was welcome to the wood he cut.

When I told Snoopy about it, he was furious. Apparently, he thought he could sell the entire tree to someone and give me half the money. After I had repeated that I didn't ask NeighborBoy to cut up the tree, Snoopy gave up being mad at me and just pouted. I did tell him that even if I'd been home, I probably wouldn't have stopped him, because Snoopy hadn't told me about his plans for the tree. He rather lamely told me that it was supposed to be a surprise and he thought he had time to get the tree buyer out to my house.

While some money would be nice, I'm not so in need of it that I'm bothered by not getting any from either NeighborBoy or Snoopy's tree guy. I am irritated by the fact that neither of them elected to consult ME in their plans.

Men. Pffft.

New rule for Election Day

All polling place employees should be required to put their teeth in while at work.

Oof!

four loads of laundry, clean sheets on the bed and twenty-three houseplants brought inside. Join me for a singalong?

Sunday captions

I r not spoiled!



Turn light off on your way out, kthxbai.

MY LITTLE BROTHER WON A GOLD MEDAL!

At this year's Great American Beer Festival, Captain Crossword's Uberbrau won the gold in the American-Style Amber Lager category. Even though the win is listed in the name of the brewpub for which CC is the brewer, it's still his beer, and I could have cried with happiness when he told me. Then I made everyone in the office pay attention while I announced it, then I got to tell Mom when she came back from court, then I told everyone on Goodreads, and next is to tell all my friends on the Lush message board.

I am so pleased and proud and impressed! Way to go, Toulouse! *both thumbs up*

Book Review

Ganymede by Cherie Priest

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


There is no way for me to do a sensible, scholarly review of this book or any of the books in the Clockwork Century series. All I can say is that I loved this, and that Ms. Priest had me before Marie Laveau but I squealed in delight when she appeared. I'm thrilled with the gentle, low-key touch of romance as well as the breathless action, and just delighted to pieces with the whole book.



View all my reviews

Bleah

It feels as though the compliment from Dr. N. was the last good thing that happened to me. There have been daily frustrations at work that I cannot write about and maintain client confidentiality because the situations are too unique to disguise. The weather has been chilly, which is good, but also rainy, which aggravates my allergies. And every time I bother Mom on her vacation with a work problem, I feel guilty for not being able to solve it on my own.

I am declaring that tomorrow is the start of a new week. Goldilocks and I are going to the Ohio Mart in the morning, then at dinnertime I am picking up Mom and Dad, and we are going out to dinner and will NOT talk about work at all.

It's gotta get better!

Crying at work is not professional

To sum up:

It's been cold and rainy the last couple of days, my mom is out of town and I miss her, I had the whole thing with the dog mutilation and the oversleeping and my allergies have been kicking my butt, and then this morning I totally whiffed a telephone interview, so by lunchtime I was not a happy camper.

Then a client called. This client is someone Mom has known since the dawn of time. Okay, since they both taught at The University of Akron (as did his wife, who Mom knew first). He wrote a book, and Mom and I both read through it and made suggestions and copyread and all that in July and August. When he called today, he asked me how to spell my name, and I spelled Pamela for him. Then he asked how I spelled my last name, and I shot off all eleven letters the way I usually do.

"No," he said, "That's how you spell your boss's last name."

"Yes. Same last name."

"That's odd that you have the same last name."

"No, she's my mother."

*total astonishment on his part*

*laughing apology on mine* "I thought you knew--I thought all of the University folks knew!"

Anyway, he asked if I was going to be in for the next hour or so and I said yes, and while I sort of wondered why he wanted to know how to spell my name, I figured it was maybe for a little paragraph of acknowledgement at the end of his book.

Nope. He showed up with a check made out to me for $100, and more importantly, the news that he had used 80% of the changes I had suggested.

At the end of a long few days of irritations and such, validation like that made me blink REALLY hard so I didn't cry right then and there.

Cage Match: House of Blood 2011

In the northeast corner, wearing a blue dress and wielding a nail clipper, Jammies!

In the southwest corner, wearing a sage green sock and a martyred expression, Little Miss Piggie Pie!

Friday night, I noticed that the little beast's toenails were overgrown, so I got out the clippers and grabbed the dog. Between the yelping and the piddling and the nipping and the squirming, I got most of her nails trimmed, but I hit the quick on one of them, and then could not get it to stop bleeding. The fact that the dog kept panicking didn't help, nor did the fact that the blood just flowed right over the styptic swab and swamped it. When I finally did get the bleeding to stop, LMPP chewed on it until it started up again.

I finally bribed her into staying still by giving her a rawhide chew, then stuffed a bunch of gauze pads into the bottom of one of my socks, pulled the sock onto the leg and taped it in place with medical paper tape. It actually stayed on until Sunday morning, so that was good.

Saturday morning, Mom and I were planning to work as long as needed to get the office ready for her to be gone for two weeks. Unfortunately, my allergies decided to attack screaming, so I went in, took two benadrool, wrote checks and sneezed until the benadrool kicked in, and then made copies and other non-thinking activities. Mom chased me out at 11:30 and promised not to stay longer than another hour.

Because Mom and Dad's flight was leaving from the Akron-Canton airport, they were going to pick me up at 5:45 this morning. We would then go to the airport, and I would go to work. Unfortunately, either I didn't turn my alarm on last night or I woke up, got out of bed, turned it off and went back to sleep.

Either way, I woke up at 5:48 to my father calling on the phone and asking my answering machine if I was there. Eeek! I threw the dog in the basement, put a sweatsuit on over my nightgown, grabbed my glasses and house keys, and jumped in the car.

Thankfully, they made their plane, and I came home and had a shower and some coffee, neither of which helped with the sneezing (allergies still going strong, woo-freaking-hoo) or the headache.

I went in to work for half a day, then came home and took a nap. Mom and Dad called, and I told Mom about the various clients who'd called me demanding things, and then told them both to have fun, and while I love them, I hope I don't hear from them until October 1st!

*whew*

Busy weekend!

Yup, still alive

Just haven't felt very post-y. And just in case anyone was missing me, I'll stop that nonsense with the following whine about my Monday:


I started my day by flinging the dog's water all over the floor, discovered I was almost out of lettuce for my lunch salad, forgot to bring the hard copy of the work stuff I've been working on at home for the last three weekends and then got startled by a spider reeling down from my visor while I was driving!

Then work was fairly horrible, although I can actually say that someone literally moved my water dish--Vegan Lawyer rearranged the conference room and waiting room and took the water cooler out of the former and put it in the latter. Unlike a cat, though, I didn't die of dehydration.

Then some really tiny-dicked idiot in a compact felt it necessary to tailgate a middle-aged lady in a white Saturn wagon for three miles, because yeah, that does wonders for your street cred, asshole. Finally, at the store I found out that the food I researched so carefully to give Little Miss Piggie Pie the maximum amount of nutrition for the smallest impact on my wallet has completely reformulated and gone for a higher price point. Thank goodness for a lovely sales associate who knew what she was doing and helped me find a comparable brand.

Okay, whining over.

Book review

Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is an impressive first novel! It's well-written, without purple prose, and while a few of the minor characters are two-dimensional, the main characters are not. The pacing is good, and the plot is engaging. Ms. Habel does an exceptional job of making it seem as if there is always something exciting happening, even in the calmer parts. The romance is sweet and believable. The story of the world is intriguing and not too difficult to picture. While I have a soft spot for the character who shares my name, I wasn't thrilled with the multi-character viewpoints. The transitions between viewpoints didn't seem quite as seamless as the rest of the book. I do appreciate the fact that while the door is left open for a sequel, the book doesn't end with a cliff-hanger.



Well-done and highly recommended.



This book was sent to me for review.



View all my reviews

Three days at Lakeside

I did manage to get the dog to puppy prison in time to hit the road while it was still light, and made the trip from Hudson to Lakeside in about an hour and three-quarters, which is almost entirely due to the speed limit on the turnpike (aka I-80) being raised to 70 mph.

Unfortunately, when I arrived at Lakeside, Mom and Dad were doing her billing, and Dad was working himself into his monthly rage over the people who have never paid their bills. This led (as it always does) to Dad being a totally shit and sulking silently through all of dinner.

Thursday, everyone except for Dad and I went to Kelley's Island for a day of riding around on bikes. Dad slept until noon, rendering him largely human, and then we went to Sandusky to hit Tractor Supply, Ollie's and Big Lots. I got lucky and found a pretty good $4 book at Ollie's, along with some Wonka candy I've been looking for ever since Cybele reviewed it on her blog. On the way home, we stopped at a local orchard for sweet corn and Ohio-grown tomatoes, then the grocery store for Coke, ice, and Triscuits. We got home and found a barely-literate note from Lakeside security on the front door, telling us all three cars parked in the no-charge parking at the local school needed to be moved. So when the triumphant bicyclists returned, Annabel and I went and moved cars around. Dinner was pretty much an Americana feast--pulled pork, tacos, sweet corn, fresh tomatoes and more chips of various kinds than you could shake a stick at.

After dinner, the nieces and I were outside, and they were playing with the sidewalk chalk, so I drew a couple of outlines for them to color in, and they did a beautiful job. When the nephews joined us, they were more interested in stomping on the pictures to raise the chalk dust, so Captain Crossword drew Tokyo for them to stomp on, and Annabel drew Godzilla breathing fire.

Friday morning, Mom, Jeeves, Annabel and Captain Crossword took the kids swimming. Dad slept in, and I was reading on the couch when he woke up. Bookworm Mathgeek had been so very quiet that I forgot she was at the kitchen table doing Sudoko. Then Dad got up and started his morning bathroom routine, which involves a lot of groaning and cursing. I've heard this before, so it doesn't faze me, but Bookworm asked "Do we need to be concerned about your father?" I said no, this was Dad's equivalent of morning birdsong, and it was actually a little less agonized than usual, since we hadn't heard the f-word once. The rest of Friday passed in a quiet fashion, with lots of golf cart rides and lots of reading and I did get a little quiet conversation with my sisters-in-law. Friday night we had a nice dinner out at a restaurant I keep calling Crossroads and Dad keeps calling Tradewinds (which is in fact named Crosswinds). Later, someone took the kids out for ice cream.

Saturday was the usual last day frenetic packing and shuffling of cars and loading up and moving out. I had to go in to the office and get some stuff ready for Mom to take to Portage County Monday morning, then came home and tried to sleep off the sinus headache that had been with me since early morning. Since I couldn't pick up Little Miss Piggie Pie until this morning, I used the chance to vacuum the house without having the vacuum attacked.

On my way to puppy prison, I swung by Mom and Dad's and filled up some water bottles and left the folders for Mom. When I got to the kennel, LMPP wasn't so much glad to see me as she was glad to go for a car ride. She got a glowing report card from kennel staff, and didn't seem at all bothered by her jail time. She's certainly not been at all needy now that she's back home, unlike Bigfoot and Littlefoot, who would both cling to me for a day or two to make sure I wasn't going to leave again.

So tomorrow is Monday, bleurgh, and right now I have to go water my tomatoes and my basil and my hibiscus seedlings. Back to the workday world with one vacation day left for 2011.

Time to run in circles!

I'm leaving for the lake in about 20 hours, and I still need to finish the laundry, make two loaves of dill bread, pack my luggage and Little Miss Piggie Pie's food, and what am I thinking about? The fact that she doesn't have her own song!

Bigfoot's song was always Jimmy Buffett's "Death of an Unpopular Poet". I sang that to him when I wanted him to calm down from the time he was an excited five month old puppy. Littlefoot's song was Sheryl Crow's "You're My Favorite Mistake", which I just sang to him whenever. He was such a lazybutt he rarely needed calming down.

LMPP is always very interested when I sing (or possibly pained, I can't tell) but she doesn't have a song of her own. So I'm trying to think what song suits her and looking for suggestions.

Oh, and I'll be back on Saturday.

This was supposed to be a week in review post

but it's been miserably hot here, our air-conditioning at work is broken, and I am just a tired, miserable slug. If you're still reading this blog, thank you, and one day I hope to return.



In the same vein, by the time I come home from work, I could boil things in my bra!

Snobservation:

One day last week I drove home behind an ice cream truck with two sagging tires on the right, which caused the whole vehicle to list, and a thin stream of blue smoke trickling out of the exhaust pipe on the left. First time I've ever seen a vehicle that had had a stroke!

The Week in Review

Good evening, and welcome to "The Week in Review", in which your lazy correspondent sums up all the blog entries she thought about making and then never made.

Monday, July 4: Holiday! Day off!! Bad patriotic manicure! Slept in, went to Hudson to pick up water and drop off computer but forgot to do the latter, worked out, napped, finished up leftover laundry from Sunday.

Tuesday: Ack! Monday in disguise!! Tons of voice mail, clients going crazy, Mom out of the office to meet with a scary psycho and only Snoopy as backup. Came home to find an amazing box from my perfume forum secret swapper, all full of UK treats and books and cosmetics--thank you, Rachel!

Wednesday: Fairly normal work day, except that I spent time completing a bond application for a bond we not only had, but had filed with the court. Come home, water plants, make pesto, then Snoopy shows up asking questions he should have asked Mom at the office. Also, stripping the leaves off basil (hi Mike!) plants is incredibly tedious, and all I could think about as I worked my way through the double armful was how much fun it was last year with Sherri and how notfun it was this year.

Thursday: Yuck, trial prep! Gotta get all our ducks inna row, in triplicate. Come home, cheat and only water the tomatoes, collapse in front of the computer and die.

Friday: Short morning, started payroll taxes while Mom went to court. Then lunch with Mom and three Probate Court investigators while a thunderstorm pounds downtown Akron. Then a short afternoon, then home.

Saturday: Grocery shopping, tidying up the house, nap, shower, then dinner with Mom and Dad at a local place I really like called Crave. I had two lemon martinis with a stupid name, steak skewers with smoked gouda fondue, a salad and a steak wrap. I brought home most of the sandwich and a bit of the steak kebab. Mom giggled at how inebriated I got after my two martinis, and she wouldn't let me walk to the car with them, but told me to stand still and they'd come get me. Both Mom and I had noticed that the planter outside of the restaurant had a sweet potato plant and a tomato plant with actual tomatoes on it, and that the latter was desperately in need of water. Since Mom and Dad had brought me eight gallons of filtered water from their house, she decided to sacrifice one for a good cause. This led to me declaring that she was guerilla watering, and then trying to explain guerilla gardening with a head full of vodka.

When we got back to my house, Mom helped me unload the remaining seven gallons of water, while Dad fussed over the dog. He continued to do that even while his drunken daughter (wobbling on shoes with one-inch soles) carried her computer out to his car. From a sober perspective, I shouldn't have thumped it into the back where Mom had the trunk open, but then Dad shouldn't have trusted me with it in the first place.

After managing to put the leftovers in the refrigerator and the new spool of line for the weed-whacker on the table in the porch (a decision which took several moments' pondering), I drank a lot of water, played solitaire on the computer, posted on Goodreads and headed off to bed.

So there you have it, all the news that's too boring to print!

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Jammies...

I got my Lexapro Thursday night, and had Friday off from work. I had planned to do a little window-shopping, finding the Ulta and Sally Beauty Supply stores in Fairlawn, and follow that up with a workout at the pool. Since the instructor who does the Friday water classes is the one I think is useless, I decided to shop first, then work out on my own after the class was over.

After a fruitless ton of searching, I found the plaza where the Ulta and Sally were hidden, and managed to get away with only renewing my Sally's card and picking up a small bottle of Orly Cutique at Ulta. Since I was planning to leave my car at the Natatorium for nearly an hour while working out, I talked myself out of going to World Market and buying a ton of chocolate. I did stop at Hobby Lobby on the way home, and that's where my plans hit a snag. I had strolled around and looked at everything, picked up just a few items, and was on my way out when I suddenly realized I needed to find a bathroom. After five miserable minutes hoping no one would come in, I was finished and headed for the car.

Working out while my intestines were distressed did not seem like a very good idea, so I came home, drank a bunch of water and took a long nap. I had more water, and later ate a very cautious dinner. I felt fine yesterday morning, so I worked out for half an hour, then came home and mooched around all day. Today I am planning to clean and do laundry so that tomorrow I can go see my folks for lunch and then make some pesto before I lose another bunch of basil. I was going to go work out this morning, but I overslept and now I can't take the time, so I'll have to do that before I go to Hudson tomorrow.

Happy early 4th/belated Canada Day, everyone!

This is me:

First of all, I've been out of Lexapro since last Thursday and am continually on the verge of tears.

Second, we have three guardianships exploding with crazy family members right now.

Third, I'm planning to take Friday off, so there's a lot of frantic cramming going on at work.

Fourth, I do not want to be around people or have anything to do with any other human beings, so I have skipped working out since Saturday because the pool is a very chatty place.

Fifth and finally, Mom actually apologized for me today when I was angry with good reason with the staff at a nursing home.

I'll be in a ball with my spines out for the foreseeable future.

Another Dad story

I read and reviewed The Passage by Justin Cronin a few weeks ago, then loaned it to Dad. Dad's been very hard to please in regard to books recently, so I just asked him to read the first chapter with an open mind. He started reading the book, and was really enjoying it. It turned out, though, that he only liked the first 250 pages. After that, he finished it hoping for a resolution, but got a cliffhanger ending instead.

Well, I tried. And while I'm sorry he didn't like the whole book, I'm not sorry I gave him something to read for a week or so, and I'm certainly not going to change my review.

Today was definitely a Monday at work, and Mom and I weren't going to answer the phone when it rang at lunchtime until Mom noticed it was from Dad. So she picked up, talked to him, then handed the phone to me. I swallowed a bite of salad and said, "No, I haven't charged the battery on the weed-whacker yet." Dad laughed and said I'd better, but that wasn't why he wanted to talk to me. He wants me to go to Amazon and read all of the 1-star reviews for The Passage. In addition to his earlier caveats, he added "That guy doesn't know shit about electricity." I just said that I didn't either, so whatever errors Dad found in the book (and he has the background to find them) didn't bother me. I also told Dad that I'd bought the book because it has an average 3.86 star rating on Goodreads, and that while he's entitled to his opinion, I'm also entitled to mine.

I'm still not sure why Dad wants me to read negative reviews. Does he want to change my opinion? Reinforce his own? Use other people's reviews to express what he thinks but can't articulate? Okay, the last is not very likely, because Dad is good at expressing himself, but I don't know what he will get from me reading those reviews.

For now, it remains an open question.

Long, long ago,

my mother asked me what I wanted for my 30th birthday.

"Excitement. Adventure. Rubies the size of pigeon's eggs." I answered.

My parents got me a lawnmower.

These days, my mom just starts accumulating things on our shopping trips year-round, and wraps them up, either for my birthday or Christmas, and gives them to me on the appropriate day.

I've never stopped wishing for non-practical birthday gifts, but I stopped telling my parents.

This year, Dad was very excited about the early birthday present he picked out and purchased. In fact, he was so excited, he brought it over a full three weeks early.

It's a weed-whacker. With a bonus leaf blower.

Love you, Dad.

Sadness colors everything

I don't even know where to start to describe the last few days. If I start with the good things, my nephews were up for a visit last week, and Mom and I took them to an Akron Aeros game Friday night. Even though the Aeros lost, the fireworks were even better than last year's, and the boys had a good time. On Sunday, since Mom and Dad had to leave at 10:00 to get the boys back to Columbus, I was at my parents' house at 9:30 to give Dad his Father's Day card and gift, and he seemed to really like the book I got him. Then I headed home, stopping on the way at Temptation Nursery and picking up a peach-flowered verbena for Vegan Lawyer and two black and white dianthus for me. I spent the rest of the day doing laundry, putting away groceries, taking a nap, reading, goofing off on the computer.

I wish I could end there, with just the good things.

But I can't. Because on Friday morning, Mom found out that one of our probate court magistrates, someone I have known since I started working for Mom and someone Mom has known and worked with for twenty years, died utterly unexpectedly at the age of 53.

That loss has colored every day since then. I am sad for the court's loss of someone I thought should be our next probate judge, for community's loss of a woman with an impact above and beyond her job, for her sixteen-year-old daughter's loss. I wish I believed in a heaven, any heaven, and I wish I believed in a god or goddess or whomever would allow Ann to watch over her daughter, but mostly I just wish it hadn't happened.

If you've never had to hear a sixteen-year-old say through tears "I love my mom. I miss my mom." then count your blessings.

EEEEEEEEEEK! IT'S IN THE HOUSE!

On Thursday I carted two boxes of clothing from our Ward who died from the nursing home to the woman who had cared for him and was going to redistribute the clothing.

On Friday I woke up with teeny-tiny fluid-filled blisters all over both hands and my left arm. I checked WebMD, and in a truly disgusting slideshow about common insect bites, found that scabies bites matched the blisters on my hands. I called my doctor's office, and they squished me into the schedule, and then I had about five hours to worry, fret, and try not to scratch.

After seeing the very nice Dr. H., I was reminded why hypochondriacs should not be allowed to search the internet. Without any hint, she asked if I was a gardener and said I had poison ivy rather than scabies. She wanted to give me some steroids to help my skin heal a little more easily, but since they do such a number on my stomach, we settled on calamine and benadrool.

I spent the rest of the day in a benadrool fog, trying to remember if I'd seen ANY three-leaved plants anywhere in the garden. Yes, I've been weeding the lavender bed like mad, but all I really remembered were nettles and lamium. The lamium can't hurt, and I left the nettles in place until I could get back out with my gloves and long sleeves on.

On Saturday, I was reelling in the hose when I saw several three-leaved plants growing up underneath the hose cart. I'll have to get back out there once I have some more Roundup on hand. I know the traditional method of disposal is to burn the plant, but that's a little too close to the house for me to be lighting fires.

Today, I was hauling all the houseplants off the breezeway and outside, and just barely noticed a three-leaved plant sticking up out of the pot I almost had my face in. Like any good last girl, I screamed and backed away, then sat down and thought. Roundup in my geraniums is NOT an option, fire in my geraniums ditto, but I think if I put on gloves and long sleeves I should be able to dig the whole thing out with a trowel.

But that's a chore for tomorrow. For tonight, I have to shudder and try not to scratch all the imaginary and non-imaginary itches.

Book review

Unnatural Issue: An Elemental Masters Novel by Mercedes Lackey

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This would have been 5 stars, except I'm getting a bit tired of Ms. Lackey's overuse of the "Bad guy schemes to take over someone else's body" plotline. Off the top of my head, I can think of three other books, one in this very series, that she's used it in, and I wish she would find some other type of villainy for her villains.



That caveat aside, Ms. Lackey does a good job with the characters and the setting. Clearly, she has done some research into the horrors of World War I, and they are interwoven so skillfully that none of the information comes across as a history lecture. Miracle of miracles, Ms. Lackey even made me care about a character based on Dorothy Sayers's Lord Peter Whimsey, who I cannot stand.



Overall, this is an engaging summer novel, with enough action to make you pay attention, characters to enjoy, and enough bits that make you think without boring you to death.



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Possum: not just for dinner anymore!

Or at least that was what Little Miss Piggie Pie told me, barking at the top of her lungs and straining at the tie-out chain yesterday morning. There was a possum huddled under the dilapidated stone wall on the east side of my property, and LMPP wanted to catch it and kill it and eat it raw. When I hauled her in like a fish on a line, she sulked until it was time for me to leave for work, at which time she was happy to chase the cookies I'd tossed down into the basement.

Because I had dropped my car off for $350 worth of repairs on Thursday (oil change, air filter, new water pump), I had to wait for Mom to stop at a bank before picking me up. We got to work a little before 10:00, and then left at 11:30 to have lunch with three friends from the legal field (and Mom ducked one opposing counsel she'd just left a counter-offer for). After lunch, we got everything Mom needed for Portage County on Monday morning packed up and agreed that while we'd gotten stuff done throughout the week, there wasn't much of a feeling of accomplishment.

Mom took me to get my car, and I stopped for groceries before coming home. My evening consisted of watering plants, finishing the book I was reading, and wrestling the big Norfolk pine outside before LMPP ate any more of the potting soil out of the planter.

This morning I got up early, showered, dressed and stuffed the dog in the basement, and headed for Mom's. We went to a flea market in Chardon, which is northeast of Mom's house. We had a little contest--we each started with $25, and compared notes on how much we'd gotten at the end of the morning. I got three pretty daylilies, a gourmet dog biscuit and two purses. Mom got two hand mirrors, a set of pretty cloth napkins, a basket of sweet white onions and the most adorable birdhouse. She still had money left over, so she won. :) We had lunch at a local coffee shop, then stopped by the knitting store. They were having a big sale for their anniversary, so the $10 skeins of ribbon yarn were only $3 each! Mom got enough ribbon yarn to make ruffled scarves for me and maybe my picky aunt. Or maybe not--the last three attempts at scarves for Aunt Turkey were rejected for various reasons. *eye roll*

I had practiced purling on the way up, since I'd managed to forget how to purl since Christmas. I'm making coasters, because the ones I have are wood, which is nice but doesn't do much to battle condensation in the humid Ohio summer. I didn't knit on the way home, since we went the pretty way instead of the fast way, and I wanted to see everything. I did almost finish my first coaster, though, in a pattern called purl ridges. I'm still just knitting squares, but at least they're interesting squares!

When we got home, both of us slightly gimpy from all the walking and me slightly sunburned and very itchy, Dad told Mom she'd had an urgent call from a nursing home. She called them back, and found out that one of her wards had died of metastized lung cancer, less than two weeks after his diagnosis. Because Mom has been this man's guardian since 1986, she had no idea who his preneed funeral was with, and she was prepared to go into the office to get it. Fortunately, in 2003, I had copied all of the client files off the hard disks she used to use, so Dad remoted in to Mom's work computer, and opened up the Motion. I was able to tell Mom both the name of the funeral home and when she bought the preneed funeral, so unless they demanded the contract, she shouldn't have had to drive down to Akron.

I came home just as Snoopy was finishing up with the lawn, talked to him for about ten minutes, and then LMPP and I took a nice nap. Tomorrow I need to plant my new daylilies, but tonight is going to be all about relaxing.

Book review

The Passage by Justin Cronin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book does a great job of reclaiming vampires as evil, scary, formerly human beings rather than the romantic ravishers they seem to have become. Somehow, Mr. Cronin managed to combine apocalyptic, dystopian, gubmint-conspiracy, questing, horror, sci-fi and a little bit of humor into a book that had me looking away from the page in an effort to stop bad things from happening to characters I like and yet sad when I reached the end and a little bummed that I have to wait another year for the next book.



There are two reasons this got 4 stars instead of 5:



Conroy shouldn't have died. That was just mean.



Mr. Cronin, you're a professional writer. Learn the difference between "retched" and "wretched" before I am forced to beat you with a hardbound copy of Webster's.



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I ATEN'T DED!

However, both the desktop and the laptop are, so I'm using Dad's spare computer and without any photo-processing software, which means all of the garden pictures that were meant to go on this blog have to stay on the camera, along with all of the nail polish pics for the beauty blog.

I feel cheated that the BIG STORMS the weather guy promised us for last night never showed. When I got up this morning, the sidewalk was barely damp. Even if we didn't get the storm(s), at least the temperature dropped. It was in the upper 80s/lower 90s from Saturday through yesterday, and I damn near killed myself getting one flowerbed weeded and mulched. I need to rig up a chain so Little Miss Piggie Pie can join me in the front yard while I work out there, because she took advantage of my absence to eat a large portion of the potting soil out of the planter holding my Norfolk pine.

Otherwise, work is normal, online life is semi-restricted but normal, and my offline life is just as boring as it ever was.

Oh, and if you don't recognize the title of this post, do yourself a favor and read some Terry Pratchett. :)