speaking the truth

First I typed 'shirt takes'. Well, between us, fosveny and I did buy three new shirts over the weekend...

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Last Fruits

Went out to the garden last night -- after dark, in the near-freezing rain, because I've been putting it off -- to pick the last of the tomatoes and peppers. Not a bad haul, given how much I neglected my garden this year. I used some of the tomatoes in taco salad last night, and I want to actually use the rest, if they ripen enough. I don't like wasting food, and I seem to slip the worst with the stuff I've grown myself.

Got me thinking about a number of things. One, that my garden isn't well-placed; it doesn't get enough sun. I'm thinking about possibly moving it to the smaller garden along the side of the house. I wouldn't be able to plant as much but they'd do better.

The other seems to want to get too long to go into a posting called 'short takes' or even 'shirt takes', so I'm gonna break that out into something else.

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Dreams

Snow and mountains (in my mother's backyard, no less) and fighting with my sister and fighting Bad Guys (one of whom was inexplicably page_of_swords in the Florida Keys. Plus a couple other bits I've already forgotten. I was busy last night.

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Sun

Made a brief appearance earlier. Wouldn't mind seeing more.

I'm off to baronadhemar's again for a few days, planning on getting a lot of sewing done and see the Chanel exhibit and stuff. I don't know if I'll be able to get online at all, though I'm bringing the laptop this time. The cats all have each other for entertainment but I hope Siegfried doesn't get lonely without me.

Lewis is in Key West until Wednesday (as of now, but who knows).

It's actually raining, which my garden needed a lot.

Next weekend: Hang out with dr_zrfq and montuos, then work on the yurt.

Friederich Eisenmaus died this afternoon.

I'm only a little upset. I had him for a year, and he was old when I brought him home; mice don't generally live more than a few years at the best of times. And he was _very_ old.

But he was still a sweet little guy, and I'll miss him. And so will Miki, I think.

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It was a long week, what with one thing and another. Not much sleep; not a lot of writing done. Not a lot of cooking, either. I did get an article done for the kingdom heraldic newsletter, with which I am fairly pleased.

Also two logos for Mom, which is more money, whenever I get off my butt and add up my hours for her.

I'm writing this on my new/old computer - this is the one Lewis lent me last December, on which the network card died after three days, with the hard drive from the computer I used most of last summer, which kept turning randomly off. So far it's behaving, and since he installed Gentoo it's quick as shit. I'm loving it.

Though I'm still getting used to having a normal-sized keyboard and stuff. I got awfully used to that laptop. I'm likely to use this as a primary writing machine, but I'll have the laptop to haul around with me. I spent last night and this morning 'moving in', as twere, and I've got all my files copied over and everything set up. Sound doesn't work, but Lewis says he'll poke at that.

I also got a new CD player this morning, since the old one would only play my Machaut CD. It's cool - looks like an old-time radio in a wooden case. Much prettier than most modern CD players, which appear to want very badly to be spaceships and succeed only in looking very, very stupid. So now I'm listening to Clam Chowder and enjoying myself thoroughly.

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We got the lawn mowed this afternoon, during which process we ran out of gas twice and Lewis managed to bend the blade. Fortunately, we have a big hammer.

I also picked up a lot _more_ sticks from the yard, and I'm convinced that I'll be picking up sticks from the yard for the rest of my life, or at least until we move. I'm seeing how much wood chippers cost, so we can do something about the coyote pile. I also hauled some of the now-dead forsythia off of the back porch, but that's going to be a bit of a project.

Apparently wood chippers are insanely expensive. Maybe I'll just napalm the lot.

When a half-hour of hauling cut branches down to the coyote-pile produces an aching, wheezing, sweaty Kate and no really visible difference in the amount of detritus all over the yard, it's a little disheartening...

But I will by God conquer this jungle.

One damn log at a time.

It's been...yeah.

giselle002 was up for the weekend, which was lovely fun but not so much with the sleeping. We planted a vegetable garden on Friday, ate Greek food with Jodi that night, ate Greek food again for lunch Saturday, and went up to the Ukrainian Homestead for a while that evening. Sunday we did a whole lot of not much, which included finding out that Miklos had a smallish hematoma in one ear.

I took him up to the emergency place, and they gave me something to soothe the ear and said that the hematoma was small enough that it _might_ still drain on its own. So I brought him home and really hoped that it would.

By yesterday it became clear that it wouldn't (and Miki was miserable) so I took him to my regular vet. Yup, they said, that wants surgery. So I took him back in this morning, and I'll be picking him up tonight. Then three weeks of ear-cleanings and antibiotics and making sure he doesn't scratch the stitches out. Poor guy; he'll be miserable.

Also on the schedule for yesterday was cleaning everyone _else's_ ears and applying a one-time ear mite remedy. I hope with great desperation that this works, 'cos wow, is that tough. But we got 'em all, with minimal damage to ourselves (though Taltos put a hole in one of the sheets).

Miki's clearly getting used to riding in the car; he spent most of the trip over this morning sprawled in the passenger seat, air-kneading and purring his head off. And it was happy-kitten-purr, too, not big-rattly-scared-kitten-purr. I might just start taking him places with me.

So I got home from dropping him off, and Friederich Eisenmaus was looking slow and sort of tottery. I took him out and held him and warmed him up, and he's looking better now, and eating. I think it's just a matter of time for him, though.

Off to write more.

'Cos it's been a while...

And like I've said a thing about Gulf Wars, but I'll get there.

So Tuesday when I was supposed to be unloading the van...it was lovely and warm and sunny...and I made the mistake of looking at the front flower garden...

Several hours of work later, the front garden is weeded, most of the side garden is weeded, the crap that was growing up around the rosebush is all out, the rose itself is tied up (to the porch railing, for now) and I've got flowers planted all along the front and halfway down the side of the house. Dianthus, alyssium, and goldenrod.

My hands, knees, legs and back ache, but things sure look good outside. And I got the van unloaded anyway.

Off to Coronation tomorrow...

Somehow it seems that KWHSS was the turning point, and things are going to be at least a little bit calmer, now.

I'm caught up on sleep for what feels like the first time in months. My throat's stopped hurting. The house isn't _clean_, but it's not pitlike. And Lewis and I got to spend most of Sunday doing Not Much, followed by a trip over to torin3's place to do some enamelling. Well...Lewis did enamelling. I did a bit of sewing and played with the cats.

I'm taking things out of order here...

( Catching Up )