(I’m not rubbing it in that you weren’t a part of them, because I’m sure you would have enjoyed just as much as I did. I say it in more of a wistful tone, as if to say, “See what you’re missing? Wish you were here!”)
D., a friend of Lise’s:
“Creamsicles? Everyone loves creamsicles! They’re like the mafia - you can’t say ‘No’ to them!”
In lieu of actually posting something coherent, here’s a list of things.
1. I love Alton Brown. He cracks my shit right the hell up.
2. My car is giving me more grief - it appears there’s a leak somewhere in the vicinity of the gas tank. There’s a garage which shares the rear parking lot of my office, and someone came over and took a look at it after work tonight. He declared it safe to drive home, and suggested I drop it off in the morning for someone to have a more thorough look at. Still, it was very troubling to find this out, as I have three major trips planned over the next three weekends, and it took three of my co-workers to talk me off of the ledge at work this afternoon.*
3. It always bugs me when I have car problems because I don’t know what’s wrong, and I always feel like an idiot trying to explain it to the mechanic, no matter how sympathetic and patient they are. I think I understand how some of the librarians feel when they ask me computer questions and tell me they don’t know anything about them.
4. There was a bit on The Sunday Edition this weekend, where Michael Enright was talking about a friend of his who came home from her niece’s wedding shower in tears because the girl had decided to take her husband’s last name. My initial and continuing reaction is, “Oh, get the [bleep] over yourself, honey.”
5. You must go take a look at Dave’s (figurative) baby, Armada (which, inexplicably, I kept writing as “Amanda”). It’s a new literary journal, and there are some good stories in there.
6. If you ever find yourself in Parry Sound, you should seriously considering having lunch at Hanson’s Mad Hatter Cafe. They make the best sandwiches, and the bread is fabulous.
* Granted, the ledge is more like a five foot drop off the back loading dock, and it was more along the lines of the four of hanging over the railing, trying to see if we could either smell gas or see any spots under the car.
Week two! And no dead plants!
Earlier this week, I bought a sage plant to round out the Herb Tarleks.
I moved one of the rosemary plants forward, so both are in the front, and put the sage in the empty spot. So far, so good - both plants are doing well, and the rosemary doesn’t appear to be suffering from its move.
On Thursday night, I finally planted the roses.
They’re doing well so far.
Some of the buds are pink, and others are orange, but they’re all pretty.
Everyone else seem to be in good shape. The lavender exploded on Monday, and now there are seven or eight flowers on the one plant. The other two have several buds.
Only one of the portulaca is flowering, but the other one has a bud.
And the rest are healthy, too.
Friday night, there was a frost warning. The temperature went down to the low single digits (!!!), so I brought all the plants inside.
We had a blast! We watched a couple of episodes of Angel, an episode of Supernatural, and part of a Rufus Wainwright concert DVD. There was talk of making popcorn, but no one was ambitious enough to actually get up and do it. Later, I had to get up once or twice in the middle of the night to tell them to keep the noise down, and in the morning I had to break up an argument between the basil and one of the cosmos about whether a flush beats a straight in poker (…yes?) They stayed in again last night because it was still too cold to put them out, but there was much less noise. The Lavender Ladies wanted to join in the book club this afternoon (I was hosting this time) but since they hadn’t read the book, they didn’t really have anything useful to contribute.
And thus ends this update.
If you’re familiar with the Saturday afternoon program on CBC Radio One, Definitely Not The Opera, you’ll know about the Lost in Translation quiz. Essentially, lyrics from a song are run through a bunch of translators, and finally translated back into English. The object is to guess what the song is.
Last weekend, when Alex Trebeck was on the show, he read the translated lyrics*. I knew immediately what song it was - Elvis Costello’s “Veronica” - and emailed in my guess less than 30 seconds after the bit ended. I’ve entered a few times before, but this was the first time I was so certain I knew what the song was.
Thursday I got an email from one of the associate producers of the show. “Just in case you’re a winner, could you send us your address?” It wasn’t much of a confirmation, but I did start keeping my fingers crossed.
So, this afternoon I made sure I was home before the show started, and waited anxiously to hear them announce the winners…
And I was one of the winners!
(If you were listening to the show and doubt my claim, my last name was pronounced as “La…Quoi?” Like that, with the question at the end.**)
w00t! Thanks, CBC! You rawk!
*Sorry, I wasn’t fast enough to write them down today.
**As soon as there was a pause between the names, I knew it was mine. “Larocque” is a name that gets mangled on a regular basis.
Everyone should go check out that crazy girl, Lisa, who is riding in the RONA-MS Bike Tour. It’s a 200km trip, which is just insane under most circumstances, but she’s doing it in August, when most sane people are indoors where there is air conditioning and couches on which to relax and watch TV.
Wait! She’s not doing this for the hell of it, people* - it’s to raise funds for the MS Society of Canada! Her goal is to raise $1000 for the charity, which is very noble and very doable. I would suggest that if you’re interested in donating to the cause**, you should go read her post, follow the link, and sponsor her.
*She did last year, to which I say, “Dude! That’s awesome!”
**It’s tax-deductable!
This afternoon my mother called, but I didn’t hear the phone ringing because I was on the balcony planting my new plants. “Oh, you were out in the back forty, then?” said my mother when I called her back. Ha. HA.
That said, it’s starting to look pretty green out there.
These are the small, single pots of plant, including the small clay box planter. The Lavender Ladies are doing quite well - in fact, the plant on the right is starting to flower already. Beside it are the spider plant (Spyder) and the ivy (Newton Pulsifier the 6th*). The Chives are to the right of the lavender, and they are in a separate pot so I can take them inside in the fall when it gets cold. And down front, we have the twins, the portulacas. I can’t even remember what the flowers look like, so this should be interesting.
Back by popular demand are the Herb Tarleks. Their lineup is significantly reduced due to the fact that: a) I didn’t use all the herbs I planted last summer, and I felt bad wasting them, so this year I stuck with the ones I did use; and b) I waited too long to buy the herb plants and there wasn’t a good selection left. Bummer. What I do have in there is two rosemary plants, two basil plants, and a mint plant. There’s a space between the rosemary and the mint for something else.
These are the Kramers - two pots of cosmos. Get it? (They are for flanking the balcony door.)
Here we have the Rose Kennedys. They’re 4″ mini-roses which were on sale at 4 for $5. I haven’t had much luck with mini-roses in the past, but I though I’d take another shot at it this summer. One thing they require is indirect sun, and I spent the day checking to see if there was anywhere on my balcony that doesn’t get full sun during the day**, and fortunately, there is. The reason they’re not in a pot is because I didn’t have anything appropriate for them.
And finally, we have the suculents - the aloe, the jade, and the orchid cactus. I had them outside for a few days, but the aloe started turning brown, and the jade is red in some spots, so I took them in. The aloe has almost completely recovered, and the jade plant has a whole bunch of little buds where new leaves will grow. (For those in the know - do jade plants like full sunlight? Should I put them back outside?)
* I name all my ivy plants Newton Pulsifier, after the character in Good Omens. And yes, that does mean this is my sixth ivy plant, g/God rest the souls of the previous five.
** My apartment faces southeast-ish.
1. My Dye-O-Rama yarn came yesterday!
This colourway is called Peach Sunset, and was dyed by the lovely and talented Linz of Linz Knits. Since she posted a photo of the yarn resting in her greenery, I thought I’d return the favour and show it hanging out with mine - the ivy, lavenders, and spider plants. The blue yarn is some Lorna’s Laces, which I’m thinking will make a lovely cozy for Gretchen (the Mini iPod), and a square for Justin’s afghan.
2. Kittens!
Note to Giselle: there are more on my Flickr page.
3. Last year some time, I posted a picture I took of a double rainbow. Someone commented that double rainbows were rare. Guess what I saw last night?
It’s not as strong as last year’s, but it’s there.
