Gardening Fever

Now that Gas Monkey and I have built our garden, we have been eager to plant. About a week and a half ago, we set about planting those cold-hardy plants that would survive frosts. I mentioned to my mom that we had the gardening bug, and she replied "You don't have the gardening bug. You have gardening fever!" So far we have planted tomatoes (complete with walls of water), potatoes (at Gas Monkey's insistence), lettuce, spinach, peas, radishes, and green onion. Everyday I water and hope for those encouraging little sprouts to pop up. Yesterday I found those reassuring greens. Our radishes are growing! Granted I'm the least excited about the radishes, but at least something is growing. And I'll be darned if I don't provide all you eager followers with a taste of my own victory by producing a picture (pathetic though it may seem).

In the meantime, I have spring delirium (something worse than fever). I have a hard time spending even a few minutes in the house. I'd much rather be sitting on our new lawn chairs reading. It follows that I don't get anything done and my house looks and feels like a disaster area (not to mention I have a paper to write for the zoo that I am woefully late on and still haven't found a job yet). I even mowed the lawn yesterday to stay outside while feeling "productive."

Pots and Pans

Here is how the story went. About a month ago Gas Monkey and I were sitting outside, our favorite chatting haunt. Perhaps I was complaining about the storage space in my kitchen, or maybe it was out of the blue. Gas Monkey asked me if I would like a pan/pot hanger. I'm sure I looked at him incredulously (I've been reading Pride and Prejudice, so these words may pop up). "A pan hanger? For me? Those can be expensive!" Gas Monkey assured me he could have his friends make one, if I were to design one to my liking. Thrilled, but skeptical, I came with a tasteful yet simple design. "What?!" he asked me incredulously. "You can make it fancier." I eagerly described the difficulties pertaining from my own experiences with pan hangers. Gas Monkey agreed to meet my criteria. However, he wanted to make it much more complicated. We managed to come to an agreement. This is the result. While we quibbled over the tiniest of details, I am very satisfied and proud of my man. His friends did the welding, and he did the sanding and the painting.

My mother will be glad to know that I have since cleaned the bottoms of my pans, avoiding unnecessary tackiness.

Foxy friends

Today I spent the afternoon hanging out with mum, and while we were driving home from some errands, we saw some adorable foxes. I know what you are thinking, ooh ahh foxes (that is meant to sound sarcastic). But living in a urban area makes the mundane suddenly amazing. There is an old church a block from our house, and in the yard was a mommy fox and three pups. And I'm sure everybody will agree that baby-anything is simply delightful. It was cool to watch, because they kept running around playing, oblivious to the world around them. By the time I ran home to grab my camera, they were in their den, so this was the best I could do. Still cute though.

A good day's hard work

This is how much dirt was left when Gas Monkey came home.

So you know that part in Gone with the Wind when Scarlett and her sisters have to start caring for Tara after the war ended and they were left penniless and decimated? I hope most of you will know what I am talking about. Scarlett, being the go-to b@tch that she is, forces her poor sisters to work the cotton fields. The sisters' basic response is "We can't do manual labor, we're ladies!" Then they whine and moan the whole time. Well, I started the day off with the sisters' mentality. I.e. this is bullsh$t. I'm a "lady", whiny whiny whiny. That was because it was early in the morning and that dirt pile was insanely unreasonable. However, as the day progressed I bucked up like a true Scarlett (not that I want to be anything like her. She is a selfish conniving miserable character. No heroine of mine for sure). I managed to move 4/5ths of that dirt before Gas Monkey came home. I was very proud of myself.

The neighbors even felt sympathy for me. Our neighbor Carol, came up to me and said, "Are you crazy? You should wait until Gas Monkey comes home. Let me give you a piece of advice my mother gave me. Don't learn how to do something you don't want to spend the rest of your life doing. It will always be expected of you."

Like the best of retorts, mine brilliantly popped into my mind after the fact, and this is what it would have been. "This is what my mom told me. You can never wait for a man to get the job done. Because who knows when and if that will happen." Not that Gas Monkey does not do his share, but he didn't come home until around 4, and that would have been too late.

As it turned out, Gas Monkey came home bearing gifts (i.e. tulips and beer. The man is getting good about the flowers). He spent about an hour and a half finishing the job, then took me out to a nice dinner. This morning he even heated a wheat pack without my asking, and stuck it in the bed with me. So sweet. He told me that if I work my ass off like that everyday more flowers will follow. Fat chance, I'm back to the lazy ways. But now our garden is ready to be planted. YAY!

And by the way, I just want to give a huge shout-out to my dad. He spent his weekend doing hard labor with us, lessening our load. Gas Monkey works really well with him, even though the two of them managed to override some of my executive decisions (tsk tsk, I forgive you both). Thanks dad! Another thing I owe you for. I believe a nice dinner with our freshly grown vegetables will be in order.

On a side note, Corin has decided it is to his advantage to join Carson and I outside. It is more exciting and way warmer than the inside of our house. I'm so proud of him!

What made me think this was a good idea?

It is Tuesday morning, earlier than I'd like to be up. Thus I have not had time to recover my senses. We just had 6 cubic yards of dirt delivered. Foolishly, we took down the back fence with the high hopes our dirt pile could be close to our beds. WRONG! The dude tells me his truck is too heavy and he does not want to damage our driveway. So now our dirt is on the edge of our driveway, running into the street. To make things worse, 9news says the wind is at 23 mph. I'm so screwed. I wish Gas Monkey could come home . . .

Maybe whiny, lazy me should go get some Starbucks, as if writing a short blog wasn't procrastination enough.

Carson - Wannabe Ninja Kitty!!!

This story is from last week. It was a fine, warm afternoon. Carson and I decided to spend some quality bonding time outside, her cat napping and me reading. (Reminder: Carson is on a leash that lets her wander, but does not allow her to reach the fence or the tree) Carson was perched on her typical spot by the backdoor, observing the world around her, but not moving around much. While I was reading on the back porch, our neighborhood squirrel started trotting across the patio in Carson's direction. It was not until the squirrel was about four feet from Carson that it realized it was in mortal peril. Instantaneously the squirrel starts running towards the tree with Carson in hot pursuit. About three feet from the tree, Carson decided it was time to jump. With her eye on the prize, Carson maintained her attack until she was about four feet in mid-air. Then everything started going wrong. Suddenly she was pulled back, back away from her prey. Thud! She landed in a disgruntled heap on the ground. Stupid leash.

My reactions progressed something along these lines: "brave squirrel, man Carson can run fast, omg she might actually catch it, OH NO!, hahahahahahahaha, oops I hope she is ok."

I feel a little bad about laughing. It's one of those moments when somebody makes a really stupid mistake trying to show off and hurts themselves. You laugh first, then regret later. Carson was not hurt, just her pride. I wonder if she will ever make that mistake again. At least she was wearing a harness and not a collar . . .

Providing outdoor stimulation to Carson (sp. Felis catus carsonii) in order to determine entertainment value to one human (Homo sapiens amyii)

Introduction:
I have made the radical decision to risk my mental well-being by letting our cats go outside . . . on a leash of course! On the one hand, after cats have been introduced to the glory and independence of the outdoors, they will always want to be outdoors, making it hard to walk near a door without hearing that nagging meowing. However, animals that are "caged" need stimulation to keep their minds young and healthy. For example, at the zoo animals are presented with challenges to keep them active. The cheetahs share a chain fence with the kangaroos, keeping both sides of the fence "stimulated" (i.e. cheetahs pace back and forth, frustrated by the tease, while the kangaroos shit their pants). Therefore, my experiment is to provide our cats, who recently made the stressful move from a fairly large condo to a much much smaller abode, with exciting new experiences. Thus, given freedom within certain limitations, Carson should respond to outdoor simulation in a way that benefits all.


Methods:
-The experiment has been tested on Carson first, because she is more dog-like than Corin. Whereas Corin is more afraid to do something, Carson has no concern for her personal safety. An ideal test subject
- Carson is required to wear a cat harness (not a collar, to prevent any accidental hanging, no matter how frustrated I am with her) and a light rope attached to our awning at all times when outdoors.
- Some human figure must also be outdoors with Carson for monitoring and data recording purposes
-Carson is not to be made to do anything she does not wish (and she makes this very clear)

Results:
- While Carson is annoyed by dragging around the rope, she has explored to the extent of her capabilities. The extent of her capabilities is also an annoyance (she cannot reach anything that may result in a hanging, such as the fence, tree, or shed).
- Carson seems happiest sitting by her safety place (the back door), on the concrete, where she can be discreet in her observations of potential prey, but can also absorb the maximum sunlight. Sometimes said sunlight is a distraction from potential prey, resulting in grogginess.
- In warm but overcloud conditions, Carson is much more likely to "explore"
- Carson has yet to meow when she wants to go outside, but will follow diligently if offered.

Conclusion:
Provided the weather is warm enough, Carson enjoys being outside with company for up to an hour at a time. Unfortunately for her, her human companions do not always want to be outside for this duration, and occasionally her liaisons are cut short. In such cases, Carson goes and sleeps on the couch. The potential benefits of this study are mostly found in the entertainment value, as well as keeping Carson active during her normal daytime nap hours, allowing her to sleep more fully at night, to the well-being of everyone involved.

Further Research:
Should this study prove successful, it will be applied to Corin, who currently wears his sexy blue harness around the house to adjust to the feeling.

Yummy Taco Salad

Gas Monkey and I always make tacos. Last week I decided to vary it a little bit. What is a good variation of a taco? A taco salad! I know . . . GENIUS! To be truthful, I was hoping to find a sneaky way to get Gas Monkey to eat a little more spinach. So, I went to the store, searched everywhere for taco salad shells, to no avail. Instead I grabbed some large flour tortillas, and hoped I could find a recipe for baked taco shells. I was successful. Surprisingly, they did not take too long to make - almost stupid proof. I kept my "back-seat cook" out of the kitchen until it was ready (Gas Monkey has a tendency of "overseeing" my cooking). When I finally presented it to him, his immediate reaction was "WOW!" And that is not a sarcastic wow, it was an involuntary wow. That was the grandest reaction I have yet to receive from Gas Monkey, all from a pretty small variation on tacos. The man is easy to please.



We put the following in our taco salad (I know, it looks like a funky ice cream sundae):

Browned ground turkey
Spinach
Cheddar cheese
Black olives
Sour cream (I can't live without this stuff)
Homemade guacamole
Ranch dressing with fresh cilantro and lime juice added
Hot sauce
Tomatoes
Pepper
Green onions

If you want the recipe on how to bake your own taco shells from flour tortillas, you can go here:

Baked Taco Salad Bowls