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Sock Snuggler
• Wednesday, March 29, 2006 • 11:25 PM
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When I came home from work, I discovered that Keith had found the next manga in the series I read and bought it for me. It wasn't supposed to be out until late April, so I was very pleasantly surprised! So, of course, I had to read it right away. I curled up on the bed to read, where Mao was already snuggled in. Luca also made her way into the bedroom, but she wasn't so easily satisfied.
Luca has a new obsession with our dresser. She tries to open the drawers herself, which usually results in a lot of scratching, so we begrudgingly open a drawer for her. She promptly curls up in our socks and goes to sleep. This evening, she made a big fuss like usual, not being able to open the drawers herself and Keith opened up the middle drawer for her. This is his drawer, which is divided into two parts, one for underwear and one for socks. She first chose the underwear side, though found this unsatisfactory, so she migrated to the sock side. The socks were not arranged to her liking, so she began rearranging them to make a little nest. It still wasn't quite right, so she chucked some completely out. Her little furry behind still wasn't fitting properly, so perhaps it was time to move to the top drawer, my drawer. But, this one was still closed, well, unevenly closed. The drawer was open about a 1/2 inch on one side, just big enough to wedge a paw in there. After working the drawer open enough for two paws to fit in, she slid her front legs in as far as they would go and used the weight of her body to pull the draw open half way. But, this drawer was also not to her liking, so she proceeded to pull out all of my socks and underwear and throw them all on the floor. Then she left to sleep on a afghan in the tv room.
This reminds me, I took this picture of Mao (showing off for the camera) some time ago and kept meaning to post it. So, in keeping with the cat theme, here it is. Keith tried to take a picture of Luca's panty raid, but the camera was out of battery.
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All Green
• Tuesday, March 28, 2006 • 6:34 PM
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While I was watering my orchid this weekend, I very gleefully noticed a thin green shoot emerging from it's base. This means it is growing a bloom stalk! I have been reading my gardening encyclopedia, a gift from Keith's brother, regarding orchid care. It seems to have paid off! It's a very interesting book. It makes me want to try all kinds of complex projects.
Amaryllis number three bloomed again. Luckily, the bloom stalk didn't break this time (or perhaps the cats were not in the mood for destruction?). Instead of the muted pastel of the first set, the later buds emerged with deeply pigmented petals. The blooms finally faded last week after a nice two week run. The bulb also sprouted some leaves, which means that it might be able to get enough nutrients to bloom again next year!
Amaryllis part II: with leaves. There is a very interesting article on You Grow Girl about Amaryllis.
Ahh, another weird day at work. It's a strange and stressful place these days. But just before I rip up the only copy of my SOP, laugh maniacally, and escape by jumping out the window (for dramatic effect; the door is actually closer), some one sends me a friendly email or gives me a call and then I remember why I like working there. Yesterday, I got a call from one of my phone transfer buddies (I know a lot of employees simply via transfer calls) just to tell me she was sorry so many of my emails were lost when our email server went down. A student wrote me an email thanking me for being so helpful over the phone. I have great coworkers within our office that offer me tea when I look stressed and email me jokes. So despite a particularly frustrating day, I'm still willing to go back tomorrow. (Mostly, haha!)
P.S. I added a new gardening Flickr photo set. There are more crocus and amaryllis pictures posted.
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Optimism Abounds. I Think.
• Sunday, March 26, 2006 • 6:05 PM
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I've been pretty busy, hence my absence from my blog. It does finally seem that spring is approaching. I'm ready for spring, and ready for things to move forward. Things have been turbulent at work, which have probably been the most disruptive. I have had to do twice as much work as my job description implies. This is stressful to say the least. But, nonetheless, I am optimistic. I think that eventually, the work situation will improve.
And aside from that, spring is an optimistic time of year. I have lots of garden plans, which I will be happily working on very soon. I've been frugal all winter, and it looks like I will have a small landscaping budget this season. I have already had a landscaping contractor out to look at my front yard and he should have a quote ready for me early this week. Honesty, I have no idea how much this will cost, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed, hoping that my savings is enough to get the job done. I have a very simple plan, so hopefully it will be modestly priced.
I planted 50 plus crocus bulbs all along my front side walk in the fall, and now I have tons of little flowers emerging. I'm glad it was worth all of the work! Ha! There are yellow, white, purple, and and funny little white ones with purple stripes. They all have bright yellow stamens lining their centers. I also have quite a few daffodils starting to bloom. I made a fluffy bouquet of them for the table yesterday afternoon. Yesterday afternoon was particularly satisfying; I was supposed to go in to work overtime. There was a big disaster with our email last week, and we were barely able to function for four days. It was supposed to be functional yesterday, but it was not and so I didn't have to go in. I would have appreciated the extra money, but it was equally nice to relax at home in the sunshine and pick daffodils.
Here's one of the purple striped crocuses. They make me happy on my way out the door to work.
Here's the fluffy daffodil bouquet, and below, another vase with misc. purple flowers that are popping up all over our lawn. The cats have been nibbling on them, so they might not last long.
With all of the new spring flowers emerging, I've started painting a little more. I've been putting watercolor to old sketches from my botanical sketchbook, but hopefully with the increasing abundance of subjects, I'll feel inspired to create some new sketches as well.
I've been saving up our eggs so that I have plenty for egg dyeing. I already have a little stockpile of egg dye. My birthday is on Good Friday this year. It will be fun having my birthday so close to Easter; my family is coming to my house for Easter, so it will be fun to have people around for both Easter and my birthday.
During my hiatus, I also took a four day trip to Chicago with my mom and dad. We had a great time, especially at the Field Museum, where we saw the Pompeii exhibit. We also went to Shedd aquarium.
This is one of the sea themed light fixtures at the aquarium. I like the squid panel.
We also went to see two of Frank Lloyd Wright's houses, his home and studio in Oak Park and the Dana-Thomas house in Springfield (on the way back home). I have a lot of books about his work; I've always thought his designs are fascinating. His spaces are even more amazing in person. There are very limited photos on the website devoted to his home and studio (they seem to be very controlling about what photos are released). The Dana-Thomas house was spectacular, but the website is terrible. I'm not even going to link to it. Let me just say that a picture of a teddy bear tea party in a Wright-desighned space is grossly inappropriate (it's nauseating; who thought that was a good idea?). Oh ok, here is a link; be appalled! (It's the third picture, to the right. Creepy!)
P.S. I was looking at the Wikipedia article on Shedd Aquarium. Apparently, when it was completed, it was the one of the first inland aquariums. A railroad car (named the "Nautillis") had to be filled with sea water and fish to be dumped into the exhibits. That must have taken awhile, not to mention really confused some fish.
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