Clutching my pearls

Actually, replacing my clutch. *sigh* There is a reason why the Little Blue Neon was being bad. Finally the clutch has gone. As, apparently, so shall my tax refund. Expensive car repair. However, 11 year old car, the clutch was original equipment, so I can't say it went too soon.

Not too happy about it, but it COULD have been worse, so I'll deal. The car will run again come tomorrow nite - but I'm having to impose on Co-Worker "D" again, which I hate.

Just for Croila - photos from the gardening project:

This first one is a very "before" photo, showing the ravages of winter on the former perennial flowers-only garden part. On the right side you can just manage to see the "Octopus" tentacles growing up and to the right out of the frame. All the pots are now out and the last-year foliage trash has been ripped out.



Now, of pure interest value - here is the blue Pot O'Dirt - in which there ARE pea seeds unsprouted as yet:


Here is my make-shift "cold frame" for my lettuces. It is actually just a clear plastic box with a white lid on top of my air conditioner compressor - but it seems to be working:


And to prove it is working - here is a photo of my baby lettuces:


Obviously, this is only "exciting" to me - but it is progress, and all progress is good, even if some of it is slow. I can't wait to see how the lettuces do. I hope they do well. I need a shot of "good" after the word on the Little Blue Neon. *sigh*

Oh - btw - Dear White Castle Advertising Agency Guys:

The term "Sliders"? The one you are bragging about selling in your recent advertisements? Umm, guys? That's NOT a compliment. The original usage for "Sliders" was that they slid right through your digestive system - coming out as fast or faster than they went in.

It's a "bad thing". Just FYI and all.

I have seen the Enemy

Damn grey cat. And me without a bb gun...

It was prowling around the back yards this morning as I drove off for work. No longer a small grey cat - it has grown huge and fat. I suspect that it WAS the thing that was crapping in my plant pots. Grrrrrrrrrr.

It is supposed to get down around 32 F tonite, so I will have to find something to cover up the pots for the peas and the beans. The squash seeds are deep enough and in the mud, so even if it does frost, they should be OK. I can just put the lid back onto the lettuces box.

I am thinking of making a stick teepee for the peas pot if they look to be too leggy and vine-y once they get going strong. I have a few old sticks, and if I put them into the pot and tie them together at the top with baling twine, it should work.

So I did some more work on the Quilt that Shall Not Be Named (Yet) although it actually does have a name, just can't put it here in case a certain happy scottish medical type decides to read a bit. I don't know what is slowing me down so much. I've gotten energy back in other venues - just not this yet. Things that make me go hmmmmm.

hmmmmm

Sunflower seeds are yummy, but for some reason sunflowers themselves kind of gross me out. Something about the seeds in the flower in the circles and bees and guts and gore and yes, I know that is rambling and makes no sense, but neither does my gross-out from sunflowers, so there, neener neener neener. I get grossed out in a similar way by some automotive grille-work. Dunno why.

Nope. Not gonna plant sunflowers.

Very Interesting

The Chinese are said to have a saying - "May you live in interesting times".

It is not a blessing, it is said. This last week has been interesting in, I think, the spirit of that saying.

Someone killed my baby wind-chimes. I had them hanging on a hook in the back - a hook that lives in the dirt, and doesn't attach to ANYthing. The sound they made was so small, so tiny, you really couldn't hear it unless you were RIGHT on top of it. But someone took a scissors and slashed them off their base. I found them laying in the dirt below the hook. Asshats.

Did you know that Osama Bin Dead-as-a-doorknob was 1 year younger than me? How very interesting.

I find this especially interesting because I do know a lot of people my age who are fairly religious - and I don't know that there is any one of them who would perpetrate the kind of stuff that the Dead Beard and his buddies did.

I do somewhat wonder what the Saudi royal family is thinking right around now. It is my understanding that Bin Dead-for-a-day-now-starting-to-stink is related to all those dish-rag heads. (Yes, Kal, I know it's a bit racist - but I haven't any sympathy for the Saudis, nor the Talibans, nor, for that matter, anyone anywhere who would kill others for being gay or female or non-arab.)

I wonder if GWB didn't bother to do a lot of trying to track Dead Osama down because it would have caused repercussions at family dinners with the Royal Saudis. Them being all butt-buddies with the Bushies and all.

Pictures on Yahoo of New Yawkers dancing with flags in the streets like a bunch of ... Palestinians. Seriously, folks, aren't we supposed to be BETTER than them? Let's get back to our British roots and do the minimalist bit, eh? Stiff upper lip, dry humor, minimize the maximum, maximize the minimum and all?

9/12/01 - 1/20/09: 7 1/2 years, noting.
1/20/09 - 5/1/11: 2 1/2 years - Mission Accomplished.

No aircraft carrier. No flight suit prancing. Just quietly, calmly, "Justice has been done".

I planted beans and squashes seeds this weekend. The beans are in the pot with the trellis, they are supposed to climb. The squashes are in the dirt near the hook where the dearly departed windchimes were. I hope I get some squashes this year!

The octopus is out of the garden, yet still in the yard, as I don't have a special bag and sticker for yard waste to throw it out in. *sigh*. I may just have to buy one this year.

I also bought about a flat-worth of small plants - 2 kinds of tomatoes, 2 kinds of sweet peppers, 4 eggplants (aubergines), some dill, some marigolds, some cucumbers that allegedly do ok in pots, and some Gerber daisies. Oh and a big plant of basil. Gonna try and make my own spaghetti sauce one of these days.