So, the stray we fed all through the winter turned out to be female. She had a kitten. He’s now living around our back stoop. We’re calling him Jim as in the Jim Croce song–Don’t Mess Around With Jim.
He tends to stick his feet in the bowl when he eats. The better-half is working on making friends with Jim. His mother is a lost cause and will always be wary, but she is coming up to the house to eat now.
As if the weeks of 95-105 degree days and months of no rain weren’t bad enough, these bugs have destroyed all of our squash, zucchini and cucumber plants. They are working on the cantaloupe as I type this. I’m sure the watermelon is next.
Two pepper plants died earlier this week. Most of the tomatoes have blossom-end rot. And, something ate all the grapes.
Thank heavens we’re not actually trying to live off our garden.
It’s Friday. It’s not 1,000 degrees. Time to celebrate:
I’m writing this on Monday afternoon. You won’t see it until Tuesday morning and in the intervening time I hope to see this song performed live at Wolf Trap:
My sister gave me this awesome t-shirt last night. I’ve already washed it so I can wear it this weekend.
The next three days should be filled with Awesome:
This is a test of the emergency broadcast system. It is only a test (cue annoying buzzing sound).
I’m sitting in my new office in the town that shall not be named. The better-half and I drove down and to the left yesterday afternoon and have been busting our humps since. Last night we slept on an Aerobed which was better than the floor. Tonight, a real bed. Let me commend the mattress delivery and internet service folks in this town. They each gave us time frames that they’d be here today. They were both here within the first 30 minutes of that 3 hour time frame instead of being 30 minutes later than the agreed upon time.
Today we’ve burned a hole in the credit card and while I’m a tightwad it has been freaking awesome to outfit an apartment nearly all at once instead of the “I’ll get this one month and then wait six more months and get something else” method. I know how that sounds because if my 25 year-old self could hear me now, she’d kick my ass (either that or buy me a beer and say, “Hallelujah, it’s not always going to be like this”). It’s nice to be in my 40s, have a good job and be able to buy a couch if I bloody well feel like it. I did and the fine folks at Grand Home Furnishings let us pull the huge moving truck into their parking lot to pick it up. The AWESOME chair will have to wait until I’m here in August. I wish I’d taken a picture, but you’ll have to trust me. It’s beautiful. The better-half said he could tell when we walked past it that I had little heart shapes in my eyes.
I’m sure there’s something I’m supposed to be putting together or putting away, so until next time: live long and prosper.
The couch (the coffee table/chest is from my MIL’s house):
Garden overrun with squash and zucchini. Tomatoes and eggplant coming in. A handful of pickling cucumbers, lame-o beans finally have blooms and there are okra, cantaloupe and watermelons starting up. I couldn’t even get to the blackberries because it is 1000 degrees and my bucket was full.
I made several grandmothers spin in their various urns and graves by cleaning out the freezer of all of the squash and zucchini from last year. At least the compost pile is happy.
Administrivia: The Niece will be known as Nut1 and her sister, the artist formerly known as Lil’ Elvis, will be known as Nut2. Because, they are a couple of nuts.
Nut2 joined the sleepover club this weekend. She and her sister received t-shirts to commemorate the event. Going to sleep was the hardest part and I had to remember back to when Nut1 was first spending the night that part was the worst for her too. The better-half and I knew Nut2 was tired but she just wasn’t comfortable going to sleep. The four of us piled on the bed for awhile. We read a few stories and we snuggled, but there just wasn’t any sleeping. Nut1 tried pretend snoring, but that wasn’t convincing Nut2.
Finally, the grown-ups left the room and the two nuts got up once to ask me to turn on the radio (I picked disco). The second time we heard little feet I listened at the foot of the stairs but Nut1 took care of whatever issue had arisen. It was about 10pm when Nut1 came downstairs to hang out a little longer. I wasn’t sure she’d make it back downstairs, but I think that was a point of pride for her.
We spent about an hour star-gazing on the back steps. The sky was clear which made it perfect for identifying constellations. We also used the flashlight to see what animals were prowling about and we spotted a grey fox and a possum. At 11 we all agreed we had to go to bed.
Nut2 scared me out of my skin in the morning. I was about to get up and had just rolled over and there was her little face staring at me. I hadn’t heard her walk into the room. Her sister arrived shortly after and we did a pile on our bed for a few minutes until my bladder was tired of being sat on and I had to get up.
I think having Nut2 here with her sister until just after lunch was about as long as Nut2 can handle the sleepover at this point. That’s OK. I know we had to ease into Nut1 spending the night. Last night I realized Nut1 has been spending the night for about 5 years. Wow.
After they left, we quickly made the house ready for another wave of guests (in conjunction with the sleepover we also had a belated 40th birthday party for my sister so lots of folks were here this weekend) and in the time it took the better-half to go pick up his aunt and his mother, I realized how exhausted I was. I shouldn’t have sat in the recliner. It would have been better to stay in active mode.
The better-half accidentally forgot his mother’s medication so our second guests only stayed for a couple of hours. Although short, it was a pleasant visit. I sent the guests home with tubs of homemade ice cream as parting gifts. Not a bad trade. By leaving early they got way more more ice cream than if they’d stayed later.
Today, we’re taking it easy. Our weather has been wonderful the past few days but today it’s heating up to 100 and we have several more 100+ days in our future. If it would only rain, I think folks could stomach the high heat a little better knowing that we’d have a pay off of rain. As it is, we’re in drought mode around here. We can’t decide where the line is between letting the grass go dormant and making sure it doesn’t die completely. Too bad there’s not a little pop-up thing like you see in a Thanksgiving turkey to let us know when to water the yard.
