The Green Thumb Project

Today I planted some sort of daisy and a mini rose. I moved some ferns over to the pond garden and planted some Cukes, Clarkia, Pinks and Sweet William seeds. I KNOW! It IS a BIT late to be PLANTING. Oh well! I watered really well and added water to the fish pond and just pretty much puttered about, yanking weeds as needed. It was a bit hot and sweaty. But I got things done. I also rewarded myself with a nice cool bath, a bottle of cold water and my book. Coming soon are more pics. Happy Fathers Day tomorrow for those of you who are daddy's. Going to the Cape for a nice cookout. But since it's going to rain, eating in seems like a sure thing.

She's a surgical case

The day before surgery! Went to SS's to spend the night and take her to surgery. No problems before, during and after... I'm sooo jealous! LOL Any who, she woke up all bright shiny happy like in recovery. (: LOL All hunky dory. Speaking of Dory, she kinda reminded me of her. "Oh look! A shiny thing! PRETTY!" *snicker* She wasn't TOO bad, but hey, it's anesthesia. Tomorrow is the dressing change and I get to do that. SS just isn't into gore, so I'll take care of her and show her how to clean it up. The worst thing are the stitches, because the skin is really folded over, so they feel really tight and there are a few disolving ones inside that feel pinchy. When I had it done, all I wanted to do was rip them all out with my teeth! All in all, she's having a better time than I did on my left hand! Twice. *sigh* GOOD GURL!!!

BEACH DAY! *93 degree heat wth 100% humidity!

UGHS! What an awful heatwave. This is August weather- GO AWAY UNTIL THEN! SHEESH! Went to the beach to cool off and try to breathe. AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Tales From the Front Step

This industrious hawk was diving off the light to get earthworms, of all things!

(Sorry the pics are so grainy, it was twilight and he was at the end of zoom range, lmao.)

What can you say?

Well, I can think of a few things.

The possibilities are just endless.

But I think I shall let this one stand alone.

*SNICKERING*

"Shark attacks boy in his bedroom"

The Green Thumb Project *after and before shots*

This one will be edited! But I just wanted to say I have more garden pics. Well, I will when I take them tomorrow. Updates. The "main" garden spot of choice never got tilled out. So, I used an alternative spot and put everything into the ground asap. The plants were getting a bit upset not being in the dirt, and I'm running out of growing time. I placed them all against the house after doing some digging to get roots and rocks out. I do have to go out and spray some Round Up- the poison ivy is HORRIBLE, and my goal is to COMPLETELY eradicate it. Wish me luck! *pfft* I have some gladiola bulbs to put in the ground, sigh, and I figure I'm going to have to plant them along the back of the dog pen so I can tie them up when (if) they get big heavy blooms. That's where the original garden was going to go, with the glads in the back. I thought the lilies I'd planted had rotted, but I am surprised to see some popping out of the ground. I'd put in some freesia where I had planted them, so I should get both now. I hope. The freesia bulbs looked a bit sad. But you never know. Need more veggies to plant, and a few more herbs. Looking better. Wish I had more money to put into the ground! And I wish I had more muscles, lol. My roses are doing horribly. I think they got frost bitten and buggy. Seems like everything is slow. Growwww!!! LOL! And BTW? The firepit top I rustoleumed purple? That's protecting the catnip from being ripped to shredded sticks by the local cats. Need to let it grow to harvest for our cats!

Celebrity Sighting... The Yummy John Sena

Well, jeeze. He's hot! HAD to post it! Saw him last Saturday at the BoSox game. He threw out the first pitch. Which I friggin' missed. Not my fault I missed it, we will leave it at that. Also JUST missed getting his autograph. *SIGH* Did get some pics though. Yummy. Got to see him and Tek. It was a good day. (: Oh, yeah. The Sox won. Lol.

Wishing everyone a beautiful holiday weekend!

Not much going on for me. Just going to putter outside during the day and see what marathons or movies are on at night. That's all folks! So enjoy your long weekend! Keep it slow and safe!

No nuts here...

Tobes made it ok through surgery. I called at 2pm and he was awake but groggy. Groggy was the key word of the day. He was so happy to see his mommy when we picked him up a little after 4! They took us into an exam room and said no food or water until the next day, and other aftercare instructions. I asked the vet if he was good for him, and he said behavior wasn't even an issue, he had been great. So, PHEW! I have a good cat! (: Well, at least he's good at the vets. (; When we got him home and let him out, he was... Hmmm. He was all out of sorts I'd guess I'd say. He walked like a drunken sailor on leave off a ship for the first time in a year- no sea legs and plenty of booze in the system. And he would not settle down for one minute. Sigh. I knew the signs. He was starving. I knew there would be no way in blazes I'd be able to get away with not feeding him that night. So I took it slow. I put the water bowls back out a few hours after he got home (I'd let him have a sip or two out of the ferret's cup. Yes, the ferret's have their own cup they get drinks from in very dry or hot weather. They will ONLY drink out of this one yellow plastic cup. I guess that's a blog for sometime else, lol.) Then I gave him a few kitty cookies here and there, then after 11 pm I put the food back down and he ate. And then FINALLY settled down to sleep off the drugs. He's doing very well, already healing so fast! That's my boy!

Nut's here! Get your nut's here!

Ok, so it's not Fenway, and I'm no vendor. But Toby's at the vet's as we speak getting snipped... AHEM- neutered. Had to starve him and deny him water at midnight. Poor Tobes. He's mostly Bengal and they are a very food motivated breed of cat. He was starving this morning and I mean tapping me on the face, please-wake-up-mommy starving. Plus the other two were panicking as I had to pull the food and water bowls last night. So three cats were NPO at about 11:35 pm. I was awake at 6 am from being glared at and tap danced on. When Toby gets home he can only have a little bit of water and no food until tomorrow, so he gets screwed twice food wise. Gonna have to deny the other two again and I am sure they will be thrilled. I can call at 2 pm and check on my boy and then go get him around 4 pm. I have to say I am a little worried (the other reason I was awake at 6 am). Anesthesia is never a sure bet. Fingers crossed! He's a strong and healthy boy kitty and this is going to make sure he stays healthy. (: I just miss my boy and felt bad leaving him. This morning after I weighed him, he huddled in my arms and pressed close and was shaking. This vet visit was a little more scary.

Ya freakin' think so? It's about damn time!

Administration to List Polar Bears as 'Threatened Species'

I love how this country (AND other countries) deny species extinction and vulnerability. It disgusts me. We are the only species on this planet that can save all the others. Do your small part. In the end, it will make a huge difference.

Tales From the Front Step

Animals and birds I have seen from the step: UP CLOSE!

2 foxes.

5 different cats.

A hand full of deer.

1 Bluebird.

3 Orioles.

A gillion Hummingbirds.

Various and assorted mousezillas.

Killed one frankensnail. (by accident!)

2 Turkey Vultures

A Kestrel

2 Red Tailed Hawks

1 hawk type bird trying to figure out what.

4 Cedar Waxwings

Tons of Red Winged Blackbirds and Robins.

About a hundred Cardinals.

And the list goes on. I'll spare you. Just didn't want you to think the front step is completely dead!

Toby Cat's first trip to the Vets!

I am so proud of my little cat! He is now 7 months old, time to get his shots and get "snipped"! He pretty much OWNED this visit. He goes in next Wednesday morning to get fixed. I wonder how that visit will go as he has never been away from home (even though it's just day surgery).

He gets into the carrier by himself with no fuss. 5 bonus points there.

He's quiet in the car. Another 5 points.

He came out on his own when I opened the door and called him out to get weighed. (7.4 lbs.) 5 points.

He was a bit hesitant to come out of the carrier when we went into the exam room, but I don't blame him for that- a really loud beagle was baying away across the hall. Tobe's never heard or seen a dog before. So no deduction of points. He came out after I verbally coaxed him.

He met Dr. O'Brien head on, 5 points.

He let her handle him from balls to teeth with no fuss, 50 bonus points!

He butterballed himself up on top of the TV in the room and stared the beagle down through the door, calm as could be. 5 points, lmao.

When Dr. O'Brien came in the room with his shots, he let he take him down and lay on the table and got his shots with no flinching whatsoever! 25 points!

A good 100 point vet visit! LOL! And, I found out he has some Bengal in him... Ultra long legs and his markings on his belly and in the rest of his coat. He also uses his paws a lot like we use our hands, and I guess that is a trait of Bengals as well. We only know his mother (who escaped for two night and got knocked up). No clue who baby-daddy is. I'm just glad my training of him paid off. He is such a boy cat I was a little worried he might be a problem. Handled him from an itty bitty newborn on. Made sure he got used to his paws, ears, mouth and belly being handled. Made sure he got used to the carrier and car rides. It has sooo paid off having a well mannered kitten! When we got home he was a little off from the shots and actually came up on the bed and wanted to be cuddled. I think he was worried going to the vet was a punishment, so he decided to be extra lovey and good that night.

All I can say is YEAY TOBY! Good boy!

Next up, you get snipped!

Unconscious Mutterings *playing catch up!*

#274

1. Thug :: religious cult
2. Slurp :: ice cream
3. Alley :: cat
4. Sweater vest :: um... *snicker*
5. Targeted :: BANG!
6. Snazzy :: dresser
7. Oy! :: iggy! iggy! iggy!
8. Jury duty :: yuck, civil duty my ass!
9. Low fat :: GAG
10. Responsibility :: solemn

#275

1. State :: of the union
2. Lively :: capers
3. Valet :: luxury
4. Traction :: cast
5. Official :: over
6. Red hot :: chili peppers
7. Powder :: Grammy
8. Replies :: tells
9. Flagrant :: floral
10. Tweet :: birdy!

#276

1. Track :: record
2. Snake :: on a plane (do not watch that movie, it sucked!)
3. Assignment :: homework
4. Blockbuster :: movie
5. Bombastic :: mr. lover lover
6. Adventure :: fun
7. First time :: lmao
8. Aged :: antique
9. Grip :: getta
10. Shortcut :: time saver

This is for you Chris, I miss you still. A year ago today, I never thought I'd be saying goodbye.

A year ago today I lost my best friend and long time roommate Chris.

A year ago today I got a call that he had been in a bad accident.

A year ago today I rushed to the hospital, only to arrive too late to see him alive one last time.

I got to say my goodbye, and for that I am grateful. But I lost my Chris. Tears are leaking out of my eyes as I write this and my heart aches fiercely. I miss him so much I can hardly stand it. I still expect him to call or stop by. I still expect emails and to hear his voice. It is so hard for me to accept and believe he is forever gone from my life. Chris was a Firefighter/EMT and was an ER Tech at CCH. He loved being a firefighter, loved village days for the kids, he loved his family. He loved to dive and sail, he loved Cherry Cokes, he loved his Maddie cat. Chris loved history and going on long drives and trips to see places where history was made. If he ever stopped at an ocean beach, no matter where, he brought me back beach glass and pretty rocks. He was thoughtful and remembered things that mattered to other people. That mattered to me. They say only the good die young. A very trite and over used platitude. Yet it's also truth. Christopher, I hope you can know how much I miss you. We all miss you. Why someone so gentle and loyal and funny, that one person you know who is truly good, gets taken away is beyond me. Right now I am just raging at fate. Trying to swallow my grief and write something meaningful about Chris. I can't express myself the way I want to. This will have to be enough. I just miss and love you Chris. You were one of the most important people in my life.

She's Craftyyyyyy...

I made this a couple nights ago for SS's birthday. It's just a pretty thingy I make. Sometimes called a sun catcher or used for a glass slider door to provide something for your eyes so you don't walk into the glass, or to hang on a mirror. Silver and purple are the colors. I really wish I had a better pic of this. Shell disk pendant, with a couple seashell charms and a sea horse charm off of an old bracelet I had, the oval silver beads reminded me of buoys. The round silver beads are frosted, with shiny swirls that made me think of coral branches. The "stones" are purple carnival type glass, very pretty color. I used the sea horse for the sun catcher to hang from. It's tail is the right size and shape to hang from a small suction cup and continues the theme. I used small spacer beads that match the purples in the shell and glass stones. Very subtle color wise, and made from things I had in my craft box except the disk and stones which I picked up because she had asked for something purple. I've made a bunch of these for gifts and everyone who gets one thinks they are really neat. They always tell me I need to make them and sell them on EBay, lol. We'll see. For now they are hand made with love as gifts.

AND THEY'RE OFF!!!!!! 134th Kentucky Derby

An exciting and tragic Run For The Roses today. I always get emotional watching the Kentucky Derby. The pomp and ceremony, the memories of watching it the first Saturday of every May with my family- My Poulie would watch it and so would the rest of us. Great discussion was made on the horses and odds and trainers and such. I never got the odds stuff, But my Yiayia and Poulie would bet fiercely. They were used to going to the dog and horse tracks. So, I cry every time I watch it, remembering my Poulie. Today I picked Z fortune using my own special strategy... I pick my horses by color, the less common the color the better. Yep, highly technical. He's a grey. Beautiful. He unfortunately came in 10th. *sigh* The rest of my family's pics? Yiayia picked Cool Coal Man (he came in 15th), J picked Big brown (the winner), Mom picked Bob Black Jack (he came in 16th) and B, well, I picked B's horse. *sniffles* Her name was Eight Belles. A filly. The first filly in the Kentucky Derby in nine years. She came in second. At the end of the race, they showed her down on the track. She was a beautiful and courageous horse. A true champion. She ended up breaking both front forelegs at the ankles. She was immediately euthanized on the track. Her jockey, trainer and owners at her side, suffering the loss of their horse, their winner, their beautiful belle. My heart breaks for her. I love horses, have since I was a little girl and read every Walter Farley and other horse books I could get my hands on. Another tragic Derby race, bringing to mind two years ago when Derby winner Barbado broke a leg. It makes you wonder... They would have never let her race if she was unsound. Too much money is involved in each horse in this "Sport of Kings". It just saddens me. For her, it was an end. I hope she is over the Rainbow Bridge and at peace.

UPDATE: From CBS Sports, Canada...

Eight Belles put down

Filly Eight Belles finished second but pulled up injured after the end of the race. She broke both front ankles and was immediately euthanized.
"There was no possible way to save her," on-call veterinarian Dr. Larry Bramlage said. "She broke both front ankles. That's a bad injury."
Eight Belles was trying to join Regret, Genuine Risk, and Winning Colors as the only females to win.
Jockey Gabriel Saez slid off when the horse tumbled but was not injured.
"When we passed the wire I stood up. She started galloping funny. I tried to pull her up. That's when she went down," Saez said.

Off The Shelf: Movies

Got some movies sitting on the entertainment center that need to be watched. Sometimes I don't know what is wrong with me when it comes to WATCHING them. It's like I hesitate to throw them in. And when I'm asked if I want to watch one, or even to go see one in the theater, I'm like- "Nahhhhhhhhhh..." No clue why. Jeeze. I have no problem grabbing a book or listening to music, but I just can't seem to get rolling when it comes to the movies. And these are movies I WANT to SEE! *SIGH*. Just another quirky thing about me I guess. Like not liking ice cream with my cake or pie. ICK. Any way. I need to go look in the "To Be Watched" pile, so bear with me a second. I have to leave the computer to do so. *eye roll*

Okay. I have: Jet Li's Fearless, 3:10 To Yuma, The Guardian, Pan's Labyrinth, Hitman and The Golden Compass. I also have season two of Bones, and season one of Dexter to catch up on. The weather for this weekend looks like good movie watching weather, so I'm probably going to catch up a little. I also have things DVR'd I need to catch up on and delete. My problem here is I am reading the Earth's Children Series by Jean Auel over again, kinda backwards, and I miss things in my shows if I read at the same time. I think it's that I know they are there anytime for me to watch that I seem to not get to them right away. Lol, maybe I'm just an anticipation junkie. So my plans are to read, watch some movies and putter about my room this weekend.

Movie Night: Two Thumbs Up!

Saw Iron Man today... It ROCKED! I've never really been a fan of Robert Downey Jr. before. But this movie clinched it. He's lookin' mighty good and also clean and sober, so I have heard. He was perfect for the part. Jeff Bridges was great in his role. (No spoilers in here!) Gwyneth Paltrow could have come off a bit stronger, but no real complaint.

I am a huge fan of the graphic novel (comic book) movie adaptations (EXCEPT DICK TRACY! WHAT CRAP THAT WAS!) Many of my friends don't know this, so I'll have to remember to put in one of those chain-mail "know me" thingies. Avery slick and well done movie with almost elegant special effects and a great sense of humor. Deffinately a summer blockbuster...

I give this movie MY two thumbs up!

BAD TUMMY!

I have been suffering from a bad stomach. I had a bad flare in my 20's and early 30's. STRESS kicks it up. Now it is so bad, if i have a mildly stressful day, I pay for it the next. Just had a flare up the beginning of the year with no end in sight. It's still killing me. You name it, I gots it. Heartburn, Gurd, Severe Gastritis, Erosion of the freakin' esophagus. I'm on meds, meds they gave me while I was in the hospital for a triple play of abdominal badness: Pancreatitis/Gall Bladder/Gastitis. That won me a free one week spa trip to Tobey Hospital. I lost ten pounds and really had a wonderful time trying out pain meds and a fleet of anti-nausea meds. Which, BTW, They didn't believe me when I TOLD them- QUITE CLEARLY- in the ER (right after I curled up in a fetal position and pouted after they told me I HAD to be admitted) that the new ones DO NOT WORK. Compazine or Phenergan period. And yes, lol, I had to look in the Drug Book for the spelling, and I am totally amazed I got them both right. (I do actually have a medical background.) Did they believe me? No. So for a second time, we played let's see if the patient is lying or is an idiot. (I went through that when I had elbow surgery too. Woke up after an extra long surgery to move a nerve and fought hard not to puke my toenails inside out for twenty minutes. They didn't believe me there either. Can we say THREE shots of new and different meds before they finally got it that I wasn't kidding each shot didn't help before I got the phenergan. Right. That got written down on my "Things To Tell The Doc's Before Surgery" list. *SIGH* Doctors? Please listen to your patients, ok?) But I DIGRESS! The NEW med they gave me for nausea in the Er weren't working. I can't even remember what it was or what the other ones were. Surgical anesthesia and agony tend to blunt the memory. I overheard one of my ER doc's bitching that he didn't want to give me compazine because of the side effects, blah, blah, blah... Freakin' come ON! LISTEN TO ME! The only noticable side effect I have with compazine is the freakin' sleepies. And I was so sick it barely killed my nausea! At the same time, they gave me morphine. I had never had it before then. I've been offered it, but never had it. Well, yet another med that doesn't work for me. I had to go to the old standby, dilauded. I have a list of pain meds I am allergic to about a foot long. Thankfully I didn't have an allergy to that, but laying there in agony while waiting for your labs to get done is not fun. FINALLY, they actually took pity on me and got my point. I was loaded up with compazine and dilauded and waited for a bed upstairs. *SIGH* When I was discharged, I was sent home with compazine, but told to try prilosec OTC. Didn't work. In the past nexium was the script of choice. This time they had me on protonix. No clue what it was until I asked a few days into my stay. I am on it right now. I wake up gasping because my stomach contents are in my sinus cavity, mouth or lungs. I run to the bathroom and throw up. Protonix not working. Sooo, next doc visit, which is coming up, I am asking to go back on the nexium. I want my purple little pill back. The whole point of this bitch blog is to vent my frustration about my stomach. Which is so linked to my living conditions and state of mind and life right now. I'm trying to chill out, relax and outright let things roll off my back. But enough seeps through to keep me on that edge. And yes, I am eating the right things.