tulip vandals

i have waited a long time to finally see the tulips i planted two falls ago bloom and just when they did, i came home to see almost all of them torn from their stems and discarded a few feet away.

squirrels.

it's here...spring

the arrival of spring takes me away to the yard and the projects i dreamed about all winter.

february 1st, i was thrilled with 38 degrees
april 13th, not so thrilled with 38 degrees

today i planned my vacation days

strange illness

so last monday i had the flu. it lasted a couple of days and only cost me a few hours of sick time from work.

this monday i awoke with a new illness that caused me to begin considering going to the doctor or something. it was really strange. i thought i was having a stroke, aneurysm, or brain cancer. i have no idea if any of those three things make a person incredibly dizzy but couldn't think of any other possibilities. the 18 or so hours of sleep was the only thing that made life tolerable.

i felt much better this morning and was relieved when two other people came down with the same thing.

sorry you two. you will feel better soon.

windy but beautiful

i think the temperature got up to 63 or 64 degrees today. it was a bit windy but i'll take it. nearly all the snow is now gone. the wonderfully warm days of spring are just around the corner. life is good.

...and i thought 38 degrees felt good a week ago.

thrilling

when i went to the kitchen to pour out my cold coffee yesterday morning, i saw an bald eagle fly over the house. it was flying away so i was able to see its tail quite clearly. twice in my life i've seen an eagle (without going to an eagle observation area) and both times it's been by chance looking out of a kitchen window.

note to self

spring ahead march 9th (2nd sunday in march)
fall back 1st sunday in november.

the new system is much harder to remember than the old: 1st sunday in april and last sunday in october.



does john boehner look like uglyscott? i don't think so.

noteworthy

it was sunny and 38 degrees today.

7 things i hate about the grocery store:

why do i have to work so hard? at what point did everything change?

1. the isles are way too skinny (and that's all i'll say about that...maybe).

2. people stand and talk completely oblivious to anyone else around them who are actually there to get to the very stuff behind them, behind their family reunion or whatever.

3. shelf stocking should be done in the middle of the night. not at noon on sunday or any afternoon, morning, or late afternoon.

4. bring back baggers and teach them how to do it correctly.

5. design a store correctly. sure, they put fruit, vegetables, and bread towards the end of the journey; however, due to the crazy checkout centers nowadays, the fruit, vegetables, and bread end up on top of the cart. the stuff on the top of the cart end up at the bottom of the cart after it's bagged.

6. don't make me do all the work! where did customer service go?

i had an interesting experience today: i piled my stuff onto the conveyor belt, the lazy guy touching my stuff and tossing it into the miniature plastic bags ran out of bags and space for my items. at the same time, i ran out of space on the conveyor belt and we were at a standstill. i guess he wasn't getting paid to do anything at all other than stand there looking like he had just received a lobotomy, so i ran back and forth about twenty times getting the bags and putting them in a still half filled grocery cart and piling more stuff on the belt. STUPID! if i hadn't just spent an hour getting all my food, i would have shouted f***k this, you, and left all my crap right there half in the cart and half in bags and on the belt to go down the street to pay more at another store. and to top it off, when i got to my car, the cart collecting boys stood in my way--completely oblivious of my presence. why would this upset me? i really enjoy standing around waiting for employees to get out of my way. of course, the boys were having a very important discussion to finish regarding buying a car.

7. the shampoo and pet supplies are on the opposite side of the store. put this stuff closer to the groceries. really, who is buying underwear and coats on their way to the eggs?

dear superstores, all of you, go to hell!

odds & ends

the first day of spring will be here in 47 days. i'm predicting a mild spring this year. the robins are coming back and the song birds are beginning to sing.

"cat" seems to be feeling better. she doesn't act like she's too upset about her adjusted food portions. i can't tell by looking at her if she has lost any weight.

my fingernails grow too fast. when they get long, my fingertips hurt.

why do i have to go to the grocery store? why can't i order everything on amazon.com? those people are efficient and have great boxes--i trust them to ship my groceries.

i'm voting for amazon and google in the next election.

do you know people who don't understand the rules of conversation? maybe i'm the one that doesn't understand the rules, but don't normal people say something and listen to the response from the other? is a conversation really taking place when one person talks non-stop without concern for a response in any way? i know two people that can clear out a bar and make the waitstaff and bartenders want to quit their job after, of course, stabbing themselves in the eye with a pen.

we call her "cat"

our cat is fat. not a little chubby but obese. she's been on a diet for the last five years. due to health problems, she's been on prescription diet food since october. the vet said, "if you want the cat to weigh 18 pounds, feed her like she's an eighteen pound cat." we didn't. we fed her half the prescribed amount...2/3 cup a day. no treats. nothing.

we barely let the dog eat because the cat will try to steal her food.

her health problems have slowly returned so i took her to the vet this afternoon. not only did she not loose weight since october, she gained a pound and a half. i know the vet didn't believe me when i said we don't feed her much. and now we are to feed her like she's a seven pound cat.

two tablespoons of dry food twice a day is what he suggests. i suggested a lap-band, gastric bypass surgery, or possibly liposuction. he laughed at my ideas but seriously noted that if she doesn't lose weight, we'd have to consider plastic surgery. hmmm. i wasn't sure if he was joking or serious about it. i'm thinking liposuction over plastic surgery. weird.

another suggestion was that she get some exercise. right. at least the food will last a while at a half a cup a day.

oddly enough, dr. frank told her she was fat and she was not the least bit offended.

$131.70 for x-rays and food: priceless.

john galt

ok jg, change the name of your blog to where is john galt or post something already. the gloves are off... mister!

now i must bounce on my ball for a while.

land of the lost

sleestak's used to scare me and i don't know why. they were slow and couldn't catch anything. the "lost" were never really in any real danger.

really... the creepiest character was chaka. now that thing was ugly. i never did trust it.

clint eastwood vs. kevin james

compared to -19 on friday, 17 feels like a heatwave; however, it's still not warm enough to venture outside.

we did manage to make our way out of the house yesterday. woohoo! went to a movie which, except for the excellent company of dr. ugly, was basically a bust. we went to see mall cop. don't bother to go. wait until it comes out on dvd. almost all the funny scenes have been shown on the previews.

the late matinée was packed with people and their kids. worst of all, as usual, people who don't parent their kids. after spending five minutes feeling like i was on an airplane ride from hell due to a kid consistently kicking the back of my chair. (i can get pretty mean when these types of things happen and have a passive aggressive approach to such situations. i usually turn around and glare for a second or two. if it doesn't stop, i do it again but glare longer. and on the third turn around, i usually scold someone.) the kid stopped after the second turna round.

i'm not even going to start complaining about the jerks that show up late. if only clint eastwood had been there.

we knew mall cop wouldn't live up to our expectations after seeing the best movie ever made last week: gran torino.

i think we are now done with movie theaters until march.