I've been meaning to post this the last couple of days:
Happy birthday, USA! 232 years and you don't look a day over 200.
As my Quebec friend said: "something's old"
Yes, my poutine-filled friend, old indeed.
]]>I've been meaning to post this the last couple of days:
Show us a puppy.
Our puppy Oliver is such a cute handful though our senior dog Maddie will always be our puppy too.
In honor of Canada Day, show us your favorite Canadian.
Mum would kill me if I posted a pic of her. So I'll just say, "Luv you, mum."
And, of course *Ahem* "Eh?"
]]>This summer we volunteered with a cat rescue as bottle-feeders/fosters. I've raised two kittens on bottle before. One for another rescue, where she was eventually adopted. And the other was private and we still have that baby.
However, today we brought our two foster kittens to Petco for the rescue's weekly adoption day. Our first foster kitty of the summer, Layla, was adopted. We expected her to be the first to go since she's a gorgeous calico. I feel happy that she was adopted (by a grandma and her 10 year old grandaughter) but I also am a bit sad that our second foster kitty, who was so attached to Layla, was not adopted. We volunteered to keep her at least one more week and take her to Petco again on their next adoption day. I really hope she's adopted too so that she might start settling into her forever home.
Here are pictures of Layla:
What are five things that make you unique?
Submitted by RA<3TA.
I really don't dilude myself into thinking that parts of me are unique. I think it's everything put together and a little touch of something untouchable that makes each person unique. However, I'll list some things about me that are unusual.
1. I love frozen peas. They make a great snack, a great side dish, a great dessert. They are all-around yum nom-nom-nom.
2. I write sideways even though I'm right-handed. Often, I turn the paper/notebook so sideways that it's nearly upside down. It's just always been the way I wrote.
3. I had an eye surgery when I was five. I have a great scar across my eyelid. But most people don't see it unless I show them since the surgeon was kind enough to make sure it fell in the crease of my eye. So I have the coolness factor of being able to show off a big scar without the drawback of it being easily seen.
4. Loose joints. So that comes with all the cool things of being able to pull my thumb back to my wrist, touch my thumb and pinkie finger over my hand, and even at my (not twiggy) weight almost put my ankles behind my head. It also comes with the drawbacks of my ankles sometimes sliding out of place and causing some really bad twists or for my wrists to be injured by being too loose or even my back to get injured if I don't hold it right.
5. I see the world through the eyes of a writer. I notice things. I think of people in terms of poetry and character. I catalogue all the senses to every experience. And I think of words in terms of texture, sounds as taste, music as color.
]]>It was 109 F. today. I bet I could have fried eggs on the car hood...You know, if I ate eggs.
Thankfully, Rain and I know how summer goes here (we do technically live in a desert). With these high temperatures in mind, by the middle of May we set up cooling proceedures as if we were on Red Alert. Because of the condition of our house's ceilings (the house is nearly 90 years old) we knew we wouldn't be able to put in central. Instead we invested in top quality window units. One in the dining room which is at the moment blowing my hair like those shampoo ads. It's the biggest one and should have been able to cool our house on its own if you just looked at square footage. But the front bedroom was a special case, receiving both northern and western sun exposure, having huge windows, no insulation, and attic access. It needed a window unit to itself.and still is much warmer than the rest of the house. However, the number one life saver? The hundred year old trees we have shading the house.
I love trees.
We need more of them.
I think I'd live in a tree house if I could. You know what? That'd be awesome. A tree house! With central air and plumbing because, you know, we aren't monkeys.
With temperatures so high, we are spending a good deal of time just watering. When we moved in, I knew the land here had been majorly unloved but I didn't realize years of bad tenants had turned this lot into glass-ridden, weed-infested rock and clay. You don't even want to know all the work we've done just to get it at the point we have it now. It's involved tons of imported dirt, sand, and stone. With all that work (a lot accomplished with help) and water, our veggie and fruit beds are doing better than I entirely expected. We've had huge zuccini and our tomatoes (without warning labels) are starting to ripen and our melon plants are starting to stretch out. Our strawberries are still pouting but our corn is doing wonderfully and I think will bear cobs this year maybe. Our sunflowers are surviving. All our herbs are thriving. Our flower beds are doing well. There's calalily blooming outside the backdoor and I saw some of the canas popping up through the bed we created out of the old water feature (it was a hazard). The cutting garden seeds are sprouting. And the Joseph's Coat rose I got for my birthday has beautiful form and just got done with an explosion of blooms. The front yard is full of daylillies and roses and petunias and the hollyhocks are surviving and will bloom next year. The grass we laid down in the front (salvaged from my sis's school) is almost entirely green and filling out very well. The backyard's grass is starting to recover. We had to lay sod in the backyard over that hauled in dirt. Still, it's struggling because of how bad the land was here and the temperatures. Plus, sod seems to have a pretty bad die off it's first season. But the bermuda is starting to fill in and I think it'll be better later on. We'll need to seed over it with a winter grass so that it doesn't turn green just in time for winter to come and turn it brown.
Just a short update for the neighborhood.
]]>I am alive.
Remarkable, huh?
Same-Sex marriage legal (cross fingers that it will continue) and Obama getting the nomination? Obviously, I was shocked into silence. Good shock. But silent shock. So woohoo and all that. What an understatement.
The Hakawati by Rabih Alameddine.
Buy it.
Read it.
Love it.
Today was a good day.
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