drugs

For some reason Z and I thought it would be hilarious to compile a playlist of every song in our iTunes libraries that had references to drugs in it. I think it might have been prompted by a comedy sketch in which Bob Marley was being interrogated by two cops who were baffled that he was making his case that he hadn't shot the deputy by confessing to another completely unrelated crime. "So... you didn't shoot the deputy." "Jah." "But you did shoot the sherriff?" "Jah." Muttered, to the other policeman, "I think he might be high."

I can't remember the title or the artist or anything or I'd find the video on Youtube again. That's the kind of useless memory I have. Anyway,
( the playlist, which is amusing )

On another topic, the cats are doing quite well. Chita and Remi will tolerate being in the same room, and have progressed to the point where they can eat, simultaneously, from their matching bowls which Auntie/Mommy Fi bought them at Target, separated by a space of about a foot, and neither hisses or growls at the other. Though there's a lot of finishing, walking away, grooming oneself, then dashing back to the bowls just after the other walks away, and eating from the other's bowl. Remi will not stop trying to bury Chita's bowl after Chita leaves. Remi has a compulsive thing about burying food dishes, though, so I'm sort of resigned to doing a lot of shouting at her.

They will be within a few inches of one another, but are wary whenever this happens, and there have been a few raised paws. Not much hissing anymore. Chita doesn't growl anymore, but she was never a growly cat-- she makes a higher-pitched whining growl, but only when she's in real high dudgeon. Remi has always been growly, and growls to herself and growls to Fi all the time, so she still growls, low and quiet, from time to time-- not always at Chita.
She seems quite settled-in by now, though. There's been no out-of-litterbox experimentation, and not a lot of scratching of things. She's happy to follow us around and be generally cheerful. One weird thing is that I cannot go to the bathroom without her help, and she will come running from anywhere in the house when she hears me go into the bathroom. I've been going to the bathroom sink a lot to rinse brushes, as I'm doing some fabric stenciling.
She tries to drink from the sink, but is no good at it and just gets all wet. Mostly she watches it and then watches me and seems to be asking me for help, though I've no idea what she wants.
Then Fi told me that X used to, instead of refilling the cats' water bowls, just turn the sink on for them and leave it for them to drink from, even though none of them were very good at it. That sort of disturbed me a little, especially knowing that in September he left them for two days without water except what they could get from the leaking sink.
We keep telling Chita to be patient with Remi because she comes from Circumstances.
Though to be honest, Remi acts more like a typical cat than Chita ever has.
Chita's latest thing is that since we have to shut the door so Remi can't get out, she'll just jump in through the busted screen door and then be trapped between the screen door and the kitchen door, and we'll hear it rattling and come rescue her.
I have got to get her a cat door...

Anyway. Increasing gray-cat cuteness. Not that there isn't Drama from time to time, but it's apparently quiet. They chase one another around the house after we go to sleep, but I'm not sure it's both of them; it might just be Chita running around. She kind of does that.

[garden] obsessed

I am completely obsessed with gardening. Perhaps it is because the weather has been so fine of late? Sunny, clear, but cold-- the grass is growing as though it were midsummer, but everything else is beginning to die back. I hadn't thought there had been a frost, but both of my tomato plants abruptly died, leaving healthy-looking green tomatoes hanging as if stunned from the dead branches.
I find myself unable to get much done in the garden, though. I am paralyzed by indecision, or too easily wearied when I do pick a task. Which is just as well; several of the things I was determined to do at the end of September, I have since decided against.
But I have spent hours and hours and hours on the Internet.
My latest obsession is with Wintersown.org. It appeals to my by-turns-fussy-and-lazy temperament. I think I am going to try it.
I went through my stash-- this year, my garden was minimal, and I only had a few cucumbers, some herbs, the strawberry plants I got from heebiejeebie, two tomato plants, and two pots of peppers. I didn't get around to sowing all the seeds I bought. I kept the seed packets in a bag in the sunporch, so the seeds have at least been dry and somewhat protected. So I have half-packets of a bunch of things. That'll cut down significantly on the expense for next year's garden, and allow me to purchase more infrastructure-type stuff. I need to put some kind of edging around the beds, especially if I get off my ass and put a bed out front. That one will have to be very slightly raised, I think. If nothing else, to keep the grass out of it. In this kind of neighborhood, if one is going to have a vegetable garden in the front yard, one had better make it pretty damn tidy. And I am slightly worried about the kids sabotaging it. So I know I've got to make it ornamental, and keep anything really appetizing for the backyard. I'm thinking wacky-but-cool-looking stuff like rainbow Swiss chard and leeks and sweet peppers, all intercropped and cute. I'll have to plan it out. (I initially thought 3 sisters, but I really, really don't think I can pull that off. I just don't have the space for corn.)

I don't know why I'm this obsessed with the garden right now. Maybe because it's something I've been wanting to do for so long? Maybe because the weather is so pretty? (But I'm obsessed with planning, not with doing, which is a problem.) Maybe because I just got a big double handful of raspberries from the surviving canes of the ones I planted three years ago? Maybe because I'm worried about the future and the environment and the economy?
Maybe.

Anyway, today I picked one of the overripe tomatoes hanging sadly off my suddenly-dead plants, and I cut it open and followed the directions for saving tomato seeds off wintersown.org. I don't know what kind of tomato it was, I don't remember. I got it at Home Depot almost too late to plant it. It was pretty rootbound. It did OK, produced some decent fruit, with no fertilizer and almost no care and not quite enough water.
I don't know if it's a hybrid. I figured, what the hell? It was free; I was just going to throw the tomato out anyway. So I have an envelope of tomato seeds to winter sow, just to see if it works. I saved some Kentucky Wonder pole beans too, so I'll try those. I'll go through any seed packets I find and see what might suit, and try it out.
I'd better get some groundwork laid so I'll have some beds ready come spring, though. I can't do much heavy labor in spring as long as I'm skating-- heavy gardening risks injury at inconvenient times, and spring is when my derby league holds bouts. January through June, and by the time I'm freed from the concerns of thrice-weekly tests of strength and agility, it's really too late to plant much of anything, let alone properly double-dig a new bed. Which I've been meaning to do. I really had better get to it.
But things are still blooming and I am so, so, so lazy...