It’s cool, damp, and cloudy today. It’s Sunday. These things in combination equal one totally lazy day. I’m just now having my morning coffee. The joy of sleeping late! I probably would have slept even later, but the cats and the husband can’t seem to get along without me. It’s so wonderful to be needed.

No plans at all today. Well, no plans beyond doing the dishes, taking out the trash, and feeding everyone … and whatever other household tasks present themselves as the day progresses. Just a nice, lazy Sunday.

I’m thinking of going to get my hair cut tomorrow. Cut, not trimmed. Whacked off. Shortish. I’ll probably chicken out for the hundredth time, but maybe not. My hair is totally out of control though, and something has to be done about it. I think I am finally sick of long hair. It’s heavy. It’s hot. It suits my face shape only if I wear it up, and I can’t wear it up anymore, because it’s too heavy and gives me headaches. Don’t worry, it won’t be terribly short or weird. I just think it’s time to go back to my little chin-length bob again. So easy to take care of, so light and cool, and everyone says the style suits me well. We’ll see if I manage to get to a salon tomorrow and get the big snip done.

Grrrr. Now my husband is disturbing the peace of Sunday griping about me having parked the truck in the mud. Yeah, well, sorry. I left the truck where it was when I lost traction on all four wheels. The only direction the truck was moving was sideways, and I’m pretty sure the neighbors wouldn’t like me running into their brand new fence. Maybe if there wasn’t a mud pit where a driveway should be, I wouldn’t have parked in the mud. I believe I will reclaim the driveway spot for my truck, and he can park his work truck in the mud pit again. I was trying to be nice, but if he’s going to give me grief about parking in the mud — when that’s really the only option when it’s raining– I’ll just park in the actual driveway. Let him deal with the mud. After all, he has four-wheel drive, and I don’t. It’s his work truck that caused the problem anyway. Let him deal with it.

Need more coffee. I must hold off any grumpiness. I would like to have a nicely lazy and peaceful Sunday. Besides, Obama is about to speak at Notre Dame, and I want to watch that. Off to make coffee and reestablish peaceful relations in my household!

Today I saw my first white-supremacist, Neo-Nazi family … in person and totally certain that’s what they were. I’m sure I’ve seen some before, but they weren’t advertising the fact loudly or at all. This family? The skin art alone was a walking billboard for racist hate and Neo-Nazism.

Stunned into gawping at the recognition of what I was looking at, I actually inhaled sharply and audibly.
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Something needs to be done about our driveway mud pit. I almost took out the neighbor’s new fence skidding around with zero traction, and now I think my truck is officially stuck … in the mud … in my own driveway mud pit.

It’s still raining too. I wanted rain, but maybe not this much rain?

Got a lot done on the more complicated knitting pattern I am working on, but it looks like crap. OK, it doesn’t look like total crap. It’s probably totally acceptable, but I do try to make things that look better than something made in China. I’ll be taking out this morning’s work and doing it a different way. Naturally, this will make it even more complicated. Argh. Hate when this happens, but I like things to be as perfect as possible, especially when they are for other people. I like to be proud of my work and not just satisfied.

I think I’ll work on the other project for a while. It’s not as complicated a pattern, but the yarn is fussy, which means it takes forever to finish a row or two.

Then it will be time to go check the garden for weeds and aphids, after which I believe I will take a little nap. My allergies are making me miserable, I have a raging headache, and I am in the foulest of moods. Maybe a half-hour of snoozing will improve one or more of those conditions so I can get back to the knitting with vigor (plus the other stuff that needs doing today).

Of course, taking a nap will actually be dependent on the state of the cats when I head to the bedroom. At the moment, all three of them are losing their minds and running around the house like crazed beasts. I hope they wear themselves out soon.

More inane and useless babble later. I know you just can’t wait to hear more about my boring and sucky Friday.

87% humidity. Temperature 75ºF. Dewpoint 69ºF. To say it’s a little muggy outside this morning is an understatement. There’s a slim chance of rain in the forecast for today, but I’m not holding my breath waiting for it. It’s just going to be another hot and humid day. Blech.

This morning’s trip to the garden provided no new crisis to deal with. It looks like I might have caught the blight on the potatoes and tomatoes early enough to stave it off a while. The peanuts still look like they are on death’s door, and I am still torn about whether or not to pull them up and call the experiment a wash. Two of the corn plants look poorly, and I have no idea why. The pepper and basil plants are still tiny. The okra still looks like hell. The cucumbers all still seem stunted. In short, the only thing looking good in the garden at the moment are the carrots. I expect something horrible to happen to them any day.

And there’s not a single female flower in the squash today. What gives?!

I am becoming slightly disgusted with the garden. Happened at about the same time last year too. We’ve entered the period of weather when diseases and bugs are really hitting hard. It sucks. At least there isn’t much weeding to do anymore.

Today’s plan, other than hovering around in the garden fretting from time to time is to work on the two knitting projects I am trying to get finished, make pork stew out of last night’s roast leftovers, and catch up on some housework. Though I am feeling pretty crappy today for a number of reasons, so there will probably be a nap penciled in this afternoon.

I’d say I’m glad it’s Friday and the weekend is almost here, but today is likely going to suck, so I really don’t care what day of the week it is. A sucky day is a sucky day, even if it is the day before the weekend.

I’m going to go zone out on the couch, watch some TV, and do some knitting.

I asked for openness and complete honesty, no matter how uncomfortable or ugly. I asked for a little loyalty. I wiped the slate clean yet again. I trusted you would keep your word.

You didn’t.

How would you have me react to it this time?

High points (or low points, really) of my day:

I worked on those two knitting projects, but kept falling asleep while knitting.

Took a little nap.

Mom’s raccoon problem has returned, so had to re-convince her to just keep ignoring them.

I forgot to get the roast in the oven in time to eat it at a reasonable hour tonight.

Currently, I am soaking some pots to wash and trying to decide if I have gas pain, ovary pain, or am about to die of appendicitis^†.

Yeah, I’m having a great day.

1. † OK, I don’t actually think the pain is severe enough to warrant worrying about my appendix, but it is in the right place for it. But … it could be gas or ovulation. Could also be an ulcer or probably any number of other annoying things. If it doesn’t go away by tomorrow, or gets worse, or there are other symptoms of something, then I will actually start worrying. I have too many other things to worry about right now. [↩]

My mother wants to know if there are any good web sites for printable grocery coupons. I know I have some thrifty internet-savvy shoppers who read my blog, so any ideas … or is there no such thing as a good web site for printable grocery coupons?

If all the newspapers die and go away, where do all the bloggers dancing on their graves think they will get news stories to link to and editorialize about? Are said bloggers going to go out into the world and write their own damn stories? I doubt that very seriously. That’s just something that’s been on my mind recently, having read entirely too many self-righteous bloggers eagerly waiting for the death of newspapers (so they can be the shining stars of reporting - yeah, right).

I just got back inside from pruning the tomatoes. I can’t tell if it’s early blight or not, but better safe than sorry. All ugly leaves and stems have been removed and thrown into the trash. There weren’t all that many. It didn’t look exactly like blight. It could have been an air-flow problem or they might be lacking nitrogen. At any rate, pruning them helps with all those things, and I’ll add some compost to that bed tomorrow or so.

The trip to the grocery store to get Lin some ice cream was an outright nightmare. I will spare you the details. Just trust me, it was hell. I did find a very nice all-natural ice cream made with real ice cream ingredients (Dutch Chocolate too), and I bought myself one of the tiny little containers of Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia, mostly because I liked the little container but also because I’ve never had any Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, and I want to see what the fuss is about.

And, of course, I bought some frozen pot pies, because I am a lazy slug who doesn’t feel like cooking tonight. I spent all afternoon and part of the evening yesterday in the kitchen cooking, so I think I am entitled to take a day off and serve some insta-food. Tomorrow, I’ll be spending a whole bunch of time in the kitchen again with the roast and making bread (and maybe cookies). Not really complaining about spending time in the kitchen. I enjoy it a lot, but even things one enjoys are tiring.

It’s only Tuesday, and I am beat already. This is going to be a very long week.

And I tried to have my promised beer out in my lounge chair in the yard, and within 60 seconds I was dripping sweat and being eaten alive by mosquitoes. Not exactly peaceful and relaxing.

I must have hit the wrong button this morning and turned off my alarm the very first time it bleated at me. Luckily, I woke up on my own early enough in the morning to still get some of the garden work done. By the time I got the soil prepped and everything weeded though, it was already too hot and humid to be out there, and all the plants were starting to wilt for want of water, so I went ahead and gave them all a good long drink. The beans will get planted in the morning I guess.

It’s bad enough it’s been really hot, but does the humidity have to be so high I can see the water in the air? If it’s going to be that humid, it should just go ahead and rain. There’s rain in the forecast for the next few days, but it’s such a low percentage chance, I’d be surprised if we see a single drop of water fall from the sky.

Ugh. My phone just rang. It was Lin. “You want to run over to Walgreens?” He needs –NEEDS– some chocolate ice cream. Too bad he didn’t call about 45 minutes earlier. I would have been at Walgreens when he called with his request. Now I have to get in the truck and go back out into the world to get some ice cream. I think I’ll go to the grocery store instead of Walgreens. I’m pretty sure the grocery store will have a much better selection (and probably better prices). I think I’ll get some pot pies for dinner while I am there. I’ve been trying to decide what to make for dinner all day, and I am uninspired to cook anything. Too tired and it’s too hot … and I totally forgot to take the roast I wanted to make today out of the freezer yesterday. I hate when that happens!

Well, guess I better go back out into the heat to find chocolate ice cream for Lin. Grrrr. He better appreciate this!

The cats have awakened me from a pleasant slumber with their excessively noisy running around the house. I can ignore the cats having a late-night game of tag right up until the moment I hear cats running around the house and literally –LITERALLY– bouncing off the walls. I assure you, the sound of a twenty pound cat moving far faster than any twenty pound cat should move skidding from the living room into the hall and smacking into the wall could quite possibly wake the dead^†. The first house-shaking thud was followed by two quieter thuds caused by Ronin’s littler sisters, and then all I could hear was the sound of three cats running full bore around and around the house and all the various and sundry noises that creates.

Had they, perhaps, not come barreling into the bedroom and used the bed as a trampoline, I might have been too sleepy and tired to bother getting up to make the cats chill out. But no … the combined total of forty-five pounds of multiple cats had to carry the game of high-speed tag into the bedroom and onto the bed. So, yeah, I’m slightly awake now. Damn cats!

Though writing this is making me sleepy, so that’s a good thing. Time to go back to bed and take advantage of having bored myself to sleep with one of my own blog posts.

1. † But not Lin. I swear he will sleep through the end of the world one day. Seriously, he can really sleep through anything. [↩]

But the simple Vulcan salute left makers of the new Star Trek film with a galactic-sized headache - because Mr Spock just couldn’t do it.

After much head-scratching, experts on the $150 million blockbuster - which boasts stunning high-tech effects - hit upon a low-tech but logical solution - gluing actor Zachary Quinto’s fingers together, The Mail on Sunday newspaper in the UK reports.

Quinto, 31, admitted he found it impossible to form his fingers into the distinctive V-shaped gesture, saying: “It’s much harder than it looks. Seriously.”

No, Zach, it isn’t much harder than it looks. Seriously.

Shatner couldn’t do it either, and he opted for fishing line to hold his fingers together. He gets a little bit of a pass, seeing as his character was a human (and thus maybe not expected to be able to do the Vulcan greeting 100% correctly), but a person playing a Vulcan who can’t do it? Wouldn’t that be like making a movie about Lance Armstrong and casting someone to play him that is incapable of riding a bicycle? Will Zach be gluing his fingers together at Star Trek conventions too? You know they will be making appearances, and it’s going to be a little odd if the Vulcan can’t do the standard Vulcan greeting.

Also, I have been rethinking my rethinking of the new Star Trek movie, and I believe I have finally decided that I totally hated everything about it except the cool effects and explosions. Expect a detailed rant about it sometime in the near future. I’m too busy today to let my inner Star Trek geek out to play.

Having had some time to mull it over, I have had a slight change of heart about the new Star Trek movie. While I do still entirely disapprove of writers and directors taking long-standing fictional characters, recreating their entire universe, and then explaining it all away with time travel nonsense, I do have something good to say about the movie … other than that lots of things blew up and the effects were great. I’m not wild about the movie, but there was one small aspect of it which might make me want to see it again and possibly even own the DVD.

In a word … Spock.

I have a very firm mental image of Spock. As a small child, I was in love with Spock. Need I remind you of the silly drawings of Spock I did in third or fourth grade? I had a crush on Spock well into my tweens. Maybe longer. OK, forever … I will love Spock forever! Anyway, when I heard who they had cast for the part of Spock in the new movie, I was –to put it politely– peeved. But now I am prepared to announce … I still have a crush on Spock.

Sort of yummy, if you are into Vulcans. I won’t say his character was especially well written, but I’ve decided to like the new Spock, for now. I’m sure they will screw it completely up in the next movie. Well, as far as I am concerned, they have already screwed it all up with this alternate reality bull and destroying the entire known Star Trek reality to create new stories with redesigned and rewritten old characters. Too damn lazy to work with the universe that existed, I guess. Much easier just to make stuff up as they go along.

Hmmmm. Now that I think about it a little more, the only things I liked about the new Star Trek movie were the effects, explosions, and Spock. Both Spocks. Everything else about the movie still annoys my inner Star Trek geek a little too much.

Though the new Spock is no naked Hugh Jackman running through the woods, so I do still want to go see Wolverine. Hugh Jackman naked? That’s worth $7 and the possibility of watching a movie I think will annoy me in the same ways the Star Trek one did.

58,630 people voted in the Austin city elections. That’s disgusting. People can’t be bothered to get involved enough with local politics to go vote on the elected officials who can make their lives hell much more easily than the ones in Washington.

There will be a run-off for mayor between Leffingwell and McKracken. I suppose we’ll vote again in June, because one of these people does not need to be mayor. Neither of them really, but those are the two we get to choose from. Blech.

In the end, didn’t really matter who won anyway. I wasn’t all that thrilled with any of them, and all of them will behave just as I expect the city council and mayor’s office has always behaved … and I probably won’t like much of what they do. For being such a “liberal” city, our city government has always seemed to be a bit too in love with big business.

Oh well. Life goes on, sucky city council or no.