Author: Allegra

Born when atmospheric carbon was 316 PPM. Settled on MST country since 1997. Parent, grandparent.

LOTS and nothing

Yesterday I cleaned up under the deck – mostly pulling weeds and garbage removal – with Margot carefully supervising.  She madly loves to supervise humans working, I think, besides chasing flies, it’s her fave thing to do.

Pulled the first pea pod out of the garden for Jeff.

My mint got so sunburned it almost died; I have to find a better place for it  out of the direct sun.  I watered the cedar hedge at the back of the yard as I promised the landpeer I’d do.  She laboured mightily to put them in and the first year she planted them she was coming by every week to water them during the dry of the summer.

Margot has taken to sitting under my car before I fire it up in the morning.  I could wish she wouldn’t do that.

Had a lovely time at Mike’s birthday party last night.  It was good to see Heather and Margaret and Rozo and Tom U., and Jerome briefly dropped by as well. Paul and Keith and Jeff rounded out the gathering.

The quinoa is getting big.  I don’t imagine the corn will actually get tall enough to set ears and ripen, but they are fine looking plants.  The rest of the yard is looking very brown, but we don’t water the lawn, and the roots on this lawn are very very deep, so it always greens up nicely after a rain.  The pine trees I got from work are still doing fine, but I’m going to have to consider where to plant them.  I’m almost inclined to transplant them into a park – but in the meantime all I have to do is keep them alive.

and now – a pit bull doing back flips

yup

I went to strip my bed and when I got interrupted I was not surprised to find Margot kipped out on it.  Never fails.

Yesterday I practiced guitar and mandolin for a couple of hours with Paul, and Jeff and I got an awning, and IT ROCKS!!!!  BEST 140 bucks I’ve spent in a while.  It makes the deck useable in bad weather, which is even more awesome.

Then I made pork chomps for the boys.

I made minced prime rib chile today.  I know, isn’t that an evil notion? Jeff’s comment.  “Yum.”

Day off

Jeff and I are both off today, which is useful, as we have a long list of stuff we have to do before the party on the 31st.  I am SOOO looking forward to it…..  Enough of the fun people have rsvp’d that I am quite sure it will be awesome.

Yesterday was the Town Hall.  The brass fired stress balls into the audience while peppering us with questions about the corporate structure.  Yes, I wish I was making this up.  I heckled them non stop – they were not fazed at all.  Two fucking amazing announcements happened.  One, they communicated that we are moving, when, why, you know like EXPLAINING stuff to us and the second was that now and forever they are going to stop charging for parking.  I screamed, “BEST…. TOWN HALL…. EVAR!!!!!!!” while everybody else applauded in joy at the news.  Yeah, I guess these guys figured out that the single biggest irritant for all the workers was the having to pay for parking and they decided to s-can it.  They were very coy about the location of the new building so I batted my eyes at the IT guys and got to see pictures and layouts of the new place.  Obviously I’m not going to post where on my blog, I’m a dumbass, but only in so far as keeping my room clean and men are concerned, not spilling corporate beanage.  I got off two very good heckles, one of which had people inadvertently smiling at me for the rest of the day, and bounced back to my desk in a super cheery frame of mind.  I got all my work done and went to a massage, and now my glutes feel like I’ve been repeatedly hit with a rubber mallet, but ah, it was nice.  Then I made butter chicken and Jeff and I watched New In Town, another cute little Canadian movie, and I much enjoyed it.

Now I’m thinking of taking Jeff out for brekky and we can plot out our day…

Scrambled eggs

I made turkey snossage-egg-onion fry this morning for breakfast and judging by how much he ate, Jeff liked it.  Now, off to work.

I’ve been practicing – guitar at work and mandolin at home.  My callouses are starting to be a bit snaggy – not compatible with panty hose in any way.

Watched The Express last night.  Effective and sad; the football scenes were well shot and gave some feeling of those two lines of testosterone jazzed young men colliding with all verve.

Computation…. it is powerful.  And FUN.

The weekend’s over

Well, this was certainly a movie rich weekend.  Besides Inception and the inevitable True Blood episode, there was Growing Op and Numb, both hilarious Canadian films with American TV stars thrown in for extra visibility.  The notion of the guy who plays Hodges on CSI playing the paterfamilias of a marijuana farm in the suburbs is brain bending, and he delivers one of the best lines I’ve ever heard in a movie… no, really.  Ask Keith, he was there. Definitely worth seeing. both of them.  Both of them had F8CKING AMAZING soundtracks.  Seriously.

We got the mower back from the lawnmower place (unfixed, may they achieve decomposition in a quiet place) and Jeff mowed the lawn while I edged things and watered the peas and quinoa and whacked weeds.

This weekend we also managed to get Granny’s stamps to the dealer, so between the weed whacking and carrying all the boxes upstairs my back is unbelievably sore.

I read Plantinga’s Breviary of Sin, which Ontie Mary gave me last I was in Victoria.  Very Christian but brilliantly written and very quotable.

I’ve started taking my musical instruments to work so I can practice at lunch.  I am now practicing every day, and I have the callouses to prove it.

Lightning – the Diving Horse.