The "Oasis" in April

 

Andrew and I created "The Oasis" last summer when we wanted a shady place to hang out in out yard. We hauled away the trash, leveled it and put down indoor-outdoor carpet. This is what it's like this spring. 

The clematis that we got on clearance in the fall has buds.

The Oxalis, Bleeding Hearts and Hastas that I got from dad last year are doing well as are the ferns. Those are the Hastas coming up there.

Julius- a brief biography

This picture was taken a month ago. Julius likes to take naps with me ... on me. I found Julius at Heartland Humane Society when I was looking for a friend for Samantha. *See footnote. I fell in love with his huge, floppy, purriness and put a hold on him, so I could take him home as soon as he was neutered. He got a bad case of the feline upper respiratory infection (the cat version of a cold) and couldn't be adopted for over a month. When he finally came home to live with me, he was very thin but his massive amounts of fluff hid it. He was startlingly light when you picked him up. He made friends quickly with Sam and they spent a lot of time cleaning each other. Julius went from being a skinny cat to a very fat one. He also started whining for food even if he already had some. You never met such a whiny cat. Even when he's just chatting it sounds like he's whining. When I realized his fat rolls were making him waddle, I forced him to go on a diet. He hates it, but he is no longer a fat cat. He's not a skinny can either. I think he's pretty happy that way in spite of what he says about it.

Julius had a brief stint of freedom last summer when I let him roam the neighborhood during daylight if he chose. Unfortunately he seems to be under the impression that he still has balls. The people at the humane society assured me that he does not.

They also told me, "you're cat had huge cojones! You should have seen them when we took them out. We wanted to put them in a jar for display." I was not at all sorry to I have missed seeing the giant cat amputated cat testicles, but I had a strange image of showing a guest your house. "This is the kitchen that's my china collection. Those are my cat-balls. Aren't they ENORMOUS." Well apparently Julius still thinks he has them. So he set up to fighting with the neighborhood toms and was doing an excellent job of kicking ass and taking names until I revoked his outdoor privileges.

 Foot Note
*Samantha also called Sam is no longer my kitty. She likes to eat paper, books, homework and notes. I finally realized that it was just a matter of time before I would find myself in a professor's office holding a pile of cat poop and begging for an extension because "my cat ate my homework." So, I took her back to the humane society where I she was eventually matched up with a new family. I hope it is a home where paper is just paper and not invaluable vessels for days of work. It wasn't as hard to give her up as it might have been. She didn't really seem happy living with me. I think she needed more excitement.

So Growed Up

I got my first credit card the other day and opened a joint savings account with Andrew. The gal at the bank spoke with a cute Georgia accent. She asked us if the savings account was for the wedding. I told her that I was hoping it was for a house. I'm hoping the money we put in can stay in and that we don't have to pull it out for a vet bill, medical bill or other un-fun emergency. 

The credit card is cool. I got it through chase. I guess they like me because I've been doing my banking there for nearly 10 years. I'm just getting it so I can build credit. My credit limit is a whopping $200.. The 1% back is kinda nice so it would be nice if I could use it on more stuff. The credit limit will go up pretty quickly but I do most of my shopping at Winco and they don't take credit cards. I'm pretty sure the landlord doesn't take credit cards either. So, I guess I can use the for my electricity and internet bills. I have them on auto-pay and I have the credit card on auto-pay... so I just have to switch the bill to the credit card and I'll get a couple dollars a month back. Over the course of a year that's $24. Such savings! Err well if my electric internet cost $200 a month all year.. which wouldn't be savings at all. It would mean I need to remember to turn off some lights or something. Yeah so the main thing is that I can build good credit so I can buy a house someday with Andrew and have kids and chickens and dogs and cats and ferrets and goats...and gold fish.

Full Metal Alchemist

Full Metal Alchemist is an anime series and manga that Andrew has loved for a long time and I'm just discovering.When they were making it, the anime got ahead of the manga, so they ended it differently from the manga. Fans were apparently not pleased with the ending, so they remade the whole thing the match the manga (also to make more money I would imagine). So there are Full Metal Alchemist-Brotherhood and Full Metal Alchemist. The first one is better until the ending. Full Metal Alchemist-Brotherhood is harder to follow and tends to lapse into ridiculous silliness more.  As they follow the same story arch I think it's best to watch Full Metal Alchemist right up until near the end then watch the last few episodes from Full Metal Alchemist brotherhood so you get the good ending from the manga. Alternatively if you have a lot of movie watching time you could watch both series start to finish starting with Full Metal Alchemist and then starting again with Full Metal Alchemist-Brotherhood which will make more sense now that you already know what's going on.

License to Drive

I discovered that my driver's license was expired. Oops. It was only by a few days but it gave me a strange feeling because I remember when I got it I thought that 2012 was so far away I was pretty much set for life on the driver's license. I felt the same way about the passport. "Ten years. Sheesh! How am I ever going to live ten years. I mean, by then I'll be like 29. " Well apparently the average human lifespan is longer than 25 years so I did have to renew my driver's license. Who knew?

My new diver's license picture is even more horrible than usual. I had my eyes open rather wide in an attempt to avoid blinking or looking completely stoned and my ID photos often look. I also sort of attempted to smile. Bad idea. I had just been to the dentist, and part of my face was still numb. Let's just say I look like I am planning to eat the lady behind the camera.

Well, maybe I was. Fortunately the moment I had the piece of paper in hand that says I can legally operate a car again, I forgot all about my plans to become a cannibal in my joy to escape the DMV and get out into the ridiculously hot April day. Eighty degrees in April!

A Trellis and a Fat Lip

Andrew and I built a trellis to train the rose onto. We used boards that we pulled out of the raised bed that some previous tenant put in the center of the front yard. We sliced the boards into smaller boards and put cool angles on them. By "we" I mostly mean Andrew. I cut two boards and generally assisted. We tied the rose to the trellis with garden twine.

As you can see in the picture at the bottom, I have a fat lip. Ember (at least I think it was Ember) knocked an empty water glass off the head board in the middle of the night. The glass hit Andrew in the forehead and my on the lip. My teeth cut a pretty nice gouge in my lip. The lip bled all over my teeth. It must have looked pretty gruesome judging by the look on Andrew's face when he saw it. He stopped holding the goose-egg on his forehead and started trying to comfort me. Sleepy, disgruntled, and alarmed by Andrew's alarm, I promptly burst into tears. I don't know what it is about ouchies on the face they don't even have to hurt that much and they make me cry. Tweezing my eyebrows makes me sneeze. Go figure. Anyway I rinsed the blood out of my mouth and went back to bed with a package of frozen peas shoved up under my lip. Even so it swelled up huge and made a nice dark bruise which is still there even though it has been nearly a week now. It had gone down a bit by the time this picture was taken.
The moral of this story is: Never leave water glasses on the headboard. They are sure to fall on you one way or another.

Andrew Makes Pizza

Andrew made pizza for dinner tonight. I helped by sitting on the kitchen stool and blinding him with the camera flash. Andrew likes sausage on his pizza. My stomach is iffy about sausage so tah-dah! Half of the pizza with sausage and half with just pure delicious cheese. That is, by the way, the largest cookie sheet that will fit in our oven. Full sized ones keep the door from closing, a fact that amuses me greatly.

Also, see how cute my jars of tea are on the book shelf!













Eating PIZZA and watching Full Metal Alchemist in bed is a fun way to spend an evening. Hmmm.... the bed has crumbs in it. Huh, they only seem to be on my side. Andrew did you send all of your crumbs over here? Magic! That is talent. The crumbs couldn't have been from me.






























The lovely plate here is the work of Mom.

Birthay Surprise

The sickness that I wrote about the other day appears to have been a bout of food poisoning. Mom came down to visit. I was so pleased. I was just finished cleaning the house when I heard a car pull up and Andrew said, "your Mom's here."
When I opened the door. The person standing on the front porch grinning was not Mom after all. It was Sarah. I was so surprised I jumped in the air, squealed with delight and hugged her. "Oh my god. Oh my god!" I shrieked.
Mom stood behind her wiggling with glee and grinning from ear to ear. "Did we surprise you? Did we surprise you?"
"I had no idea," I told her honestly.
"We were so careful," said Sarah, "I went out in the rain to call you so you wouldn't hear Micky barking."


A few weeks earlier when Sarah asked me what I wanted for my birthday I told her, "I told Mom I wanted a visit but if she couldn't do it, a kitchen timer or some glass Tupperware a.k.a. Yupperware." You see because yuppies use it.


Also Auntie was in on it and she didn't give it away when she called me. Well done you guys. I can't remember a better b-day surprise. Mom and Sarah, you scamps!

Suddenly Sick to My Stomach

I went to Eugene this morning to pick up some hot-tub parts for Mom. It turned out that Abi had to do some stuff in Eugene today, too. So we carpooled. How convenient.

After I got home I was feeling pretty out of it so I napped. I've had a cold for the past week or so when I woke up I was sweaty and horse. Andrew called to see about a ride home from school.
"Sure," I croaked, "I'll be over in a minute."
About half way to the school I started feeling queasy.
'Now, this is odd,' I thought. 'My own driving is making me motion sick.'
By the time I got Andrew it was pretty bad. I made it home, opened the car door, got out, and vomited on the street. I stumbled to the lawn, vomited some more, collapsed to my knees and sat the utterly miserable.
"Did you eat the beef?" asked Andrew.
We had some beef that had gotten questionable but I had thrown it away.
"No," I gasped, "that's a carrot cake muffin." I pointed at the lawn. "those are carrot."
Andrew patted my shoulder. "Come on. You just have to make it into the house."
I didn't think I could, but I did.
Now, I get to wait and see if this is a quick passing fluke or a nasty stomach bug that I don't want to give to Mom. She is planning to come visit me tomorrow. I want to go for a walk in the rain, but I don't think that would be wise or even very possible at the moment. Plus the neighbors might not like me vomiting in their yards...

Spring at Last!

It finally feels like spring for real. Everything is waking up a blooming and the air smells so good. I dug out my sandals and wore them all day. It makes me glad.

Mishaps

WARNING: This story contains references to my sex life


Today was a bad day for my head. This morning I was so overcome by my joy at the success in litter box training the ferrets, that I knocked my head into the edge of the plexiglass door on their hutch. The door won and I have a cut on my forehead which promises to be a bruise as well. That hurt but it was still pretty funny-mostly because it was pretty dumb of me to bend down and slam into the door that I had just opened.
The second mishap that befell my head was much funnier and less painful. Andrew and I were making love.
Andrew "I'm worried about stuff falling off the headboard."
Me "Na, it'll be fine."
About 30 second later, a glass of water that I'd left on the headboard fell and dumped its entire contents on my head. It was quite cold I might add. I screeched, then sputtered and burst out laughing. I am sleeping on a towel tonight because my side of the bed is quite damp.

Leavenworth, WA

I told Andrew that I would like to visit Leavenworth. He looked very confused. I confess I did not immediately make the connection to the famous prison with the same name, but everybody I have mentioned Leavenworth to has given me a puzzled look and asked why I am considering a honey moon in a state Penitentiary. I do not particularly want to visit the prison.

Leavenworth, Washington is a town in central Washington that has styled itself as a baravian village tucked away in the Alps. The "Alps" are the Washington portion of the cascades. It's not that far and it looks fun.

Aliens-what happens to Ripley next

I just watched Aliens for the first time. I very much like the happy ending. So what happens after they all go to sleep? Well to start with Ripley does not have good dreams. In fact she has a nightmare that they crash on a prison planet and everybody dies. This dream was so vivid that they made a whole movie out of it called "Alien 3" very original title. Anyway, after her nightmare, Ripley wakes up to find that they have arrived back home. Happily reunited with her cat, Ripley promptly gives up space travel marries Hicks and adopts Newt. She sues the company responsible for the deaths of 147 colonists and pretty much an entire military platoon. The settlement that she get includes a bunch of money and Bishop. Bishop becomes Ripley's butler and Newt's Nanny, but he soon grows bored and so he decides to put his great intelligence and bravery to use by solving crimes. Conveniently, people are murdered in interesting ways regularly in their new neighborhood which surprisingly continues to have a reputation as a safe place, so Bishop is able to be a detective while continuing as Ripley's butler. When Newt grew up, she went through a rebellious teenager phase and decided to try acid. She had a pretty bad acid trip experience in which her early childhood trauma combined with the normal issues a teenage girl has with her mom. She told some movie producers about her bad acid trip and they decided to make a 4th alien movie and call it Alien Resurrection. Being based on an acid trip this movie was understandably devoid of normal story logic.

Bear Chasing Ember

Abi's blog

Abi has an cool new blog. Check it out!
http://mskurf.wordpress.com/

Hunger Games Nightlock

After seeing the hunger games, I was curious if the nightlock berries are based on a real plant. As far as I can find on the web the answer is: no, they are not. I found suggestions that the name might be a combination of deadly nightshade (Belladonna) a poisonous member of the tomato family and hemlock a member of the carrot family supposed to have been used to execute Socrates.

Nightshade in photo above
http://www.troop245.org/ref/poison_plants_or.html



Hemlock in photo below
http://www.troop245.org/ref/poison_plants_or.html

Tip: if you are lost in the woods avoid eating things that look like carrots. They might be wild carrots, but they are more likely to be a poisonous cousin.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell -spoiler alert

After 32 hrs of slow story we get to a completely disappointing end. I am NOT a fan. I say not worth the time.


SPOILER ALERT
I'm sure, I'm misspelling names because I listened to it on CD instead of reading it.
So after all they've been through, Strange and his wife don't even get to be together. WTF! I feel cheated. They were happy. Then she gets abducted and Strange ends up not with Arabella not with Flora but with Norrell. Andrew described this as an anti-love story. And after all of those details and footnotes, we don't even find out what happens to lady Pole or the lady who was in love with Steven Black. She said that she would go anywhere with him, why couldn't she go to Fairy.

SO HERE'S HOW I SAY IT ENDS
Strange gives up doing magic in the public eye and the darkness dissipates. He and Arabella go to their old home and life continues as before except that strange never takes his wife for granted again. Norrell is exposed as an ass and he generally shunned. He returns to the country in disgrace and spends the rest of his life alone with his books. Chilgamess and Vinculus become the worlds greatest magicians. The lady who was in love with Steven Black goes to be his queen in Fairy. THE END

Backpacking Packing list

A list to go backpacking in style:

*Backpack
*Pocket knife
*Flash light
*Batteries
*Camera
*Pepper spray or bear mace (depends on where you're going)
*Hand warmers


Shelter
*sleeping bag
*sleeping mat
*tent
(or alternatively skip the mat and the tent for a hammock)
*Pillow case or compressible pillow (stuff your coat or extra clothes in the pillow case.)


Food:
*Mountainhouse freez-dried food is pretty awesome
*Beef jerky
*Trail mix (fancy stuff without the peanuts if you're like me. I get tired of peanuts really fast)
*Eggs (pack very carefully)
*Oatmeal
*Apples
*Peanut butter
*Granola bars
*Chocolate
*Hot cocoa, tea or instant coffee

Water:
* Water container
* Iodine tablets. You can get these at Bi-mart or Walmart or probably REI
* A water filter

Water container:
2 L soda bottles work okay to make sure you are carrying a lot of water.
A smaller water bottle that you can get to easily it good to have in addition.
Cammelbacks and platypus bags are also really nice. It's im[ortant to make sure that you water isn't going to leak all over your stuff. The most important thing to keep dry is your sleeping bag.

Cooking Gear:
*Propane
*Bunsen burner type stove
* light weight pot(s) if you have space it's nice to have a couple
*silver ware
* lighter or matches (or flint and steel if you know how)
* ziplock bags (a small handful of empty bags stuffed into a pot is always nice to have for trash and whatever)

Antibug- anitsun
*Head net (very nice if there are a lot of mosquitoes about)
*Bug spray
*Sun screen
*Sun glasses
*hat (very important)

Hygiene:
*Toilet paper
*Baby wipes
*Soap
*Wash cloth
*Towel- a microfiber shop rag or shammy cloth sort of thing works. Don't haul anything bigger than a dish towel.
*Hand lotion.
*Little plastic hand shovel (for burying your poo)
*Razor (I have vicious leg hair. It pokes me when I try to sleep.)
*Deodorant (if it's more than a couple of days)
*Comb - my hair seems to keep from being greasy longer if I mess with it as little as possible.
*Tooth brush
*Tooth paste
*Tampons (good to have along even if you aren't planning to need them)
*Hair ties

First Aid:
*Technu (for cleaning off poison oak oils)
*Ibuprofen
*gauze
*Athletic tape
*Neosporin
*Tweezers
*Nail cutter
*Mole skin (for blisters)
*Tums
*Wrap for sprained ankle

Clothes
*Clean socks for everyday (unless you are hiking in sandals)
*At least one change of pants and shirt
*Underwear -thongs take up less space but they have some obvious drawbacks. I like boxers or going commando. More air circulation is good if you're going to be sweating and not showering for a few days.
*warm hat
*gloves
*raincoat