Progress

There are now fifteen bags of mulch left in the garage, and when it cools down some, I'm going to go see how many I can use up. It looks as if buying sixty bags wasn't too many and in fact, I could use a few more.

The new colombines are gorgeous--dark purple, verging on black and double-petaled. My two double clematis (Empress and Crystal Fountain) in the front are blooming like crazy and very healthy, but it appears that only two of the mini-roses I attempted to transplant have made it. The new Korean lilac looks very tiny and alone in the spot where the old one used to be.

Amy's pictures of her beloved Lexi have been loaded to Photobucket and the KogiMug for her birthday commissioned.

Littlefoot has an appointment to be trimmed to within an inch of his fuzzy little hide.

I've had a lovely nap and am now ready to tackle the evening!

Best dinner EVER

A sandwich made with my very first ever homemade dill bread, cream cheese, sliced cucumbers and black pepper. Perfection.

Halfway there

Apparently, I lost count of my trips to the store and loads of mulch, because I've used thirty-two bags and still have about thirty in the garage. It's okay, though, because I can still use the rest. The front beds are all mulched, and I will do the back in the next few evenings. I still need to get some limestone gravel to fill in the squishy spots in the back flowerbed before I plant a few things, and some potting soil for my tomatos and basil, but I'm pretty much on schedule with the gardening.

I half expected to feel as sore as Zayrina and Santa, but evidently losing the weight and heaving all those bags of mulch into and out of my car has toughened me up a bit. I've got that pleasantly stretched-out feeling that comes from actually using some muscles, but *knock wood* nothing painful. The back flowerbed is going to be a challenge because of the combination of weeds and standing water, but I think I can have it whipped into shape by JammiesFest.

Tomorrow, I need to go put in my time at Mom's office, do laundry, make some dill bread and do some work I brought home with me. All in all, I'd say this was a pretty successful holiday weekend.

Ooog

Not much to report here, except that I've had low-grade nausea and been very tired for about a day and a half. I'm done with the antibiotics for the paronychis, so it shouldn't be that, and I'd think if it was some kind of infection, the Augmentin would have taken care of that.

I did get my clockwork scent locket from the Trading Post, and it's even lovelier in person than in the pictures. There is a tradition among BPALz of taking a headless torso pic when you get a locket, and I've taken mine. I'm waiting for the rest of the friends who were in my gang to get their clockets so we can all post our pics together. I did learn not to wear lavender-based scents in the locket when I'm feeling lethargic--I had to take it off while I was driving home so that I wouldn't fall asleep at the wheel. Tomorrow I'll have to wear something bright and sunny so I can snort it and wake up.

It's almost the weekend, and while I'm not thrilled about the sheer amount of work I have to do on the flowerbeds, I am looking forward to how good they will look when I'm done.

Still alive

Even though I haven't been around much. I'm ready for the holiday weekend--there are fifty-five fifty pound bags of mulch in my garage, three forty pound bags of topsoil, a flat of Dusty Miller, four tomato plants, two peppermint plants and four lamium waiting for planting. I've turned down my mother's request that I babysit my nephews this weekend, and I'm excited to get moving on the garden. =)

Stuff I was going to post yesterday...

until Mallie tagged me. :P

On Sunday, I had a weird, sad dream. I was at a conference in a fancy hotel with a friend who, for some reason, was played in my dream by Whoopi Goldberg. There were cute nerds everywhere, and one of them asked for my phone number. However, it turned out that he didn't actually want my number, it was just part of the setup for a practical joke on one of his nerd friends. I can't even get picked up in my own damn dreams.

The guy who messaged me on Yahoo Personals and seemed so cute and nice never got back to me, so I certainly can't get picked up when I'm awake, either.

Tuesday night, I was almost done running a bath when the power went out. I finished my bath by candlelight, which was nice, but then couldn't read or waste time on the interwebbinetz or rot my brain with teevee or really do anything interesting. I did call the police department to make sure there was an outage and not something wrong with the wiring to my house, and apparently there was a bad car accident involving a power pole which then blew a transformer. I really hope no one was too badly hurt.

The geranium air freshener I was so excited to get smells like rose, pleh!

On the good news front, I used up three bags of mulch tonight, and planted 45 gladiolus bulbs, ten lavender plants, one lamium and potted three geraniums, the licorice plant, the helichrysum and one Dusty Miller.

My "stimulus payment" arrived, which means I can pay off some medical bills and stop the annoying messages on my answering machine, plus I got an e-mail indicating that my Clockwork locket will ship soon!

My latest Barnes & Noble order arrived, and I now have almost all of the Harry Dresden books by Jim Butcher and almost all of the Women of the Otherworld books by Kelley Armstrong. Thanks to Sherri and Heather respectively for those addictions.

On Saturday, I am going to Columbus to see my nephew get his next new Tae Kwon Do belt, and on Sunday my folks and I are having some dinner with old family friends.

Bigfoot is eating again, hooray!

And I'm going to be totally obnoxious and put my ticker on every post until JammiesFest is here.

I've been tagged!

What were you doing five years ago?

Working full-time for my mom, living and gardening at my old house, dating a Civil War re-enactor.

What are five things on your to-do list for today (not in any particular order)?

Finish drying my comforter
Watch "American Idol"
Read the new books I just got
Balance my checkbook
Take a bath

What are five snacks you enjoy?

Garlic bagel chips
Cucumber sandwiches
Whipped strawberry or raspberry yogurt
Lindt dark chocolate truffles
Pizza rolls

What five things would you do if you were a billionaire?

Endow a giant no-kill shelter and put Zayrina in charge
Get a private plane so I could travel and take my dogs with me
Add more floor space, a giant, decadent bathroom and a deck to my house
Pay for lifetime maid service

What are five of your bad habits?

I don't vacuum until I can't see the floor for fur
I don't dust unless there's company coming
I'm middling-bad about putting away clean laundry
I eat in front of the idiot box
I correct people (but I'm working on that one!)

What are five places where you have lived?

Edwards AFB, CA
Hudson, OH
Akron, OH
Cuyahoga Falls, OH
(that's it, there is no number five)

What are five jobs you’ve had?

Cashier at a convenience store
Slave labor at a fast food chain
Night desk clerk at a Super 8 Motel
Graduate assistant/tutor/English instructor
Administrative assistant to an attorney

What five people do you want to tag?

Nope. Sherri tagged everyone when she tagged me.

Stuff I learned today

I probably got home before everyone who bailed out of the office early when they heard about the accident on 480, because by the time I got to the on-ramp, traffic was moving.

Even though it makes me writhe with embarrassment, there is some switch that flips inside my brain and makes me sing along to cheesy '80s songs like "Careless Whisper."

It is amazingly fun to stalk an item of which there is a very limited quantity if you do it with a group of friends.

When a friend calls you at work and you are giddy because everyone in your group got one, stop coding. You do not need to put http://www.blackphoenixtradingpost.com/jewelry.html in volume 14 of the Indiana practice series (scroll down to the clockwork locket and die of envy).

First cousins can marry in Indiana, provided they are both over the age of sixty-five.

My noisy young next-door neighbor can be a complete doll--he's out there right now, cutting my horribly overlong grass and only charging me forty bucks.

And I already knew this, but it is so lovely to come home to a big box o'stuff ordered from teh interwebbinetz. Best part? I have two more boxes coming this week and then my scent locket sometime after that.

I am so excited about JammiesFest 2008 that I made a ticker:




Good day!

Thank you, Zayrina

for giving me the phrase "I have a tumor on my greed gland." That's what I tell myself every time I go bananas at the nursery. I did, in fact, stick to my list, yay me, and came in $12 under budget. However, the burgundy sweet potato vines I wanted aren't ready yet and neither are the butterfly bushes and I need two more helichrysum. I also succumbed to two gorgeous Martha Washington geraniums, which was dumb because I have geraniums older than my nephew and taller than I am! Now I have two more that I'll have to bring in and make space for next fall.

It's also a very chilly, very rainy spring day here, the house is a pit, and I've got a screaming sinus pressure/tension/low blood sugar headache. I've divested my car of my morning's purchases, eaten some yogurt, and I'm about to go take a midday bath with a ton of lavender bubble bath and see if a nap will kill the headache.

I got:

Two each Beacon Silver lamium with pink, white or purple flowers
The aforementioned geraniums
Twelve Munstead lavender
Six basil
Two each Big Boy and Beefmaster tomatos
Ten bags hardwood mulch
One helichrysum
One licorice plant
One delphinium
One blue balloonflower

and I totally forgot to get any ibuprofen!

Please, not another one

One of my message board friends is posting about a medical problem she's having right now. She's undergoing tests because her hands keep tingling.

If that sounds only vaguely familiar, check here. It's all too damn familiar to me, and as I read her post about the EMG, all I could think was, "Please don't let another friend have this shitty disease."

A true friend will tell you when you stink! :-)

Granted, Maresche wasn't that blunt today at work, but she did make me aware that I cannot use tea tree oil-based products if I am going to be around other people. I have been using a Lush shower gel to try to tame some severe skin irritation, and while I thought the smell was fading, it turns out I'd just gotten used to it. Thankfully, I'm now aware that I smell like an ancient medicine cabinet when I use it, and will confine my self-treatments to weekends.

I am Jammies, hear me roar!

No more messing around with this "socializing" stuff. I was up at 6:30, back from the grocery store by 8:45, and out grubbing in my garden while it rained.

I planted two baby Korean lilacs and an iris, made a space at the foot of the trellises in front of the compost heap, brought my tray full of starter seeds outside, and weeded,added topsoil and then mulched the round flowerbed in the front yard. Then I picked up sticks & branches, cleaned out the driveway drain so it could do its job, and came inside.

After that, I took a bath and had a nap, and now I'm ready to revel in a boring Saturday night.

What is WRONG with this country?

Today started out well. My e-mail this morning contained notifications that birthday and baby and cheering-up gifts were all on their way to friends, another friend's cat had come home after her owner had given her up, the sun was shining, I smelled yummy and work went well.

Then in the afternoon, my day started sliding downward. I made two mistakes at work, not huge ones, but they involved other people's work, which sucks. Then on my way home, I stopped at the bank and discovered I'd overdrawn my checking account by $10, which was immediately increased by the $30 fee.

I spent the next ten minutes reminding myself that my paycheck would be deposited Friday morning first thing, and even after the NSF fees, there would be enough money in my account to pay bills, buy gas and food and even have lunch out one day next week. I also went over all the ways in which I am rich, both in luxuries like bath products, necessities like half a tank of gas and a refrigerator full of leftovers, emotionally in terms of family, friends and pets. The sun was still shining, which helped, and I had managed to pull myself out of the little dip of despair.

At the big intersection down in the Valley, there was a very young man (early 20s if that) standing on the sidewalk, holding a cardboard sign that read "NO FOOD, NO DIAPERS, NO JOKE, PLEASE HELP."

I had a visceral reaction to this young man and his sign, a combination of pain that anyone with a small child has to beg for diapers, guilt that I was broke because I spend money on luxuries and anger that our President is making noises about starting yet another war because the one we're in now hasn't sufficiently enlarged his dick and that our candidates are all running around smearing mud on each other and that we as a people are more interested in the "next American Idol" or "next Top Model" than we are in making a damn difference.

I just feel sick.

Things you didn't know you needed, but you do!

First of all, everyone needs a Sock Zombie. They're undead and cuddly--what more could you ask for? You should also go read the blog belonging to Erin, the maker of these undead cuddly cuties.

Everyone needs a Squishable. A foot & a quarter diameter stuffed frog, pig, cow, tiger, sheep, puppy--how have you lived this long without one?

And finally, everyone needs to go read "The Perfect Scent" by Chandler Burr.

What are you waiting for? GO!

This is why I walk

I did the MS Walk because it was fun, it was a chance to socialize with two friends I don't get to see very often, because the money goes to a good cause, Bigfoot got exercise and a ton of attention, and I even got two free T-shirts.

I also walked for a number of online friends with MS, people who are struggling to redefine "normal" and live with this shitty disease.

My fundraising total was $340, and Unnamed Co. will hopefully match the $240 that came from co-workers.

We did the 1 mile short course instead of the 3 mile long course because my one friend had her kidlet with her in a stroller and Bigfoot isn't getting any younger. We got there early and got our walk done before any rain (which is still forecast for today but hasn't shown up) and then ate bagels and talked. I'm not nearly as sore as I was the first time I did this, so I won't need an entire box of Epsom salts in my bath, just a few.

Oh, and I wore BPAL's Pain for my perfume. *giggle*

On the way home, I saw that the local nursery I adore is open for the summer, and while my tax refunds are all going for medical bills, I think my stimulus check is going to be spent on flowers.

Yaaaay! Spring!

Rooter is awake.

All but three of my lavender plants made it.

The lilac trees are just about to bloom, even the baby ones that are just two years old.

It's going to be sixty-five degrees tomorrow for the MS Walk.

My state tax refund arrived, so I can start paying medical bills and end all those annoying messages on my machine.

Oh, and Bigfoot got his spring allergy shot last night, and I've been rubbing aloe on his tummy. He is NOT going to be permitted to chew himself into surgery this year.

And I am too busy to go out and get my paws muddy until the weekend after next, but come May 3, I plan on being unreachable and filthy on the weekends. :D

Another good day

I can't divulge the details, because it would give away the real name of Hyphenated Corp., but I can say that I was productive most of the day and spent a portion of it laughing uproariously with several members of my team. We are going to be in so much trouble tomorrow when people complain to the boss about how loud we were, but it was absolutely worth it.

And on the home front, my adorable little white grape hyacinths have flowered.

TGIM

After the Cupcake of Doom that was my weekend, today was absolutely perfect. At work, I got to help out with Florida, Massachusetts and Washington books, then the page proofs on my current Kentucky book came back from the author and I made a start on getting his changes made. Eight hours just flew by.

When I got home, there was a box from Kogi waiting for me--I thought it was replacement mugs for the two leaky ones and was impressed at how fast she got them done and shipped. However, when I opened the box, I found that it was a very early birthday present from Rogue. She had Kogi make me a custom toad house!





The KogiToadAbode is on my breezeway at the moment, as I try to decide where in the yarden it would be best placed. I keep looking at it and feeling so grateful to have such amazing friends (and psychic, too, to know I'd need a pick-me-up after my weekendus horribilis).

Icing on the Cupcake of Doom

Last night, my dad called while I was making Satin Balls. I was literally up to my wrist in raw hamburger, raw egg, molasses, oatmeal and wheat germ, and he wanted me to drop everything and go reconfigure my computer so he had remote access to it.

I was probably a bit oversensitive (I felt like he didn't think I was smart enough to do updates myself) and definitely rude. What came out of my mouth was "I don't want you accessing my computer." Whereupon he said fine, he'd call my aunt and do her computer and he hung up.

Tonight, I went out to the house to help him take Mom's car in for service, since she is in Texas this week. I attempted to apologize, but got brushed off and told a story about how he will never help my cousin again because she turned down his computer help once. "You only have to tell me once to stay away."

Lord. Don't ever question where I get my capacity to hold a grudge.

This weekend has SUCKED and I hope that my books are back from the authors tomorrow so I have something productive to focus on.

ETA: Last night's injection left me with a quarter-sized, raised, itchy welt, and now my father is sending me e-mails along the lines of "neener neener, look at all the eeeeeeeeevil things that are going to happen to your computer now that I'm not going to work on it." Argh.

A light spring rain

A blue spring mood. Although I had a nice dinner with Doc last night, I am sad and irritated with myself for being sad today. I didn't get to go to Pittsburgh and see Imp & Bel & Dampy because my stupid car needs $220 worth of brake work, and I'm just sort of moping around. Pleh.