Friday, July 27, 2007

Tomorrow's cucumbers will eat us all

Tomorrow we go to Jungle Jim's! And the KitchenAid sale. And maybe to see Phoebe's baby, if she's up for it and isn't annoyed that I wrote at the last minute. It's going to be a lot of driving…with rising gas prices, possibly the closest we'll get to a road trip until we move.

Eric went to the doctor and talked about the problems he's having, and has a new prescription and some advice that sounds good to me, including, "Exercise more." So now we both have a reason to get out and walk in the evenings. And in nine days we'll be flying somewhere that will have lots of opportunity for exercise in the form of swimming.

The mothers asked for a list of what they should do at our house while we're gone. "Take in the mail," Eric said.

"Water the plants?" Edith said.

"Nah, I'll water before we go," I said, and I think shocked her. When they were gone I was instructed to water every other day. But I've only got four plants indoors, two desert plants and two shade plants, and the outdoors ones have mostly been trained not to expect me to water them. I admit the papyrus will need to be good and soaked.

I will need them to pick produce in the garden. Yesterday I got a good number of Taxi tomatoes and cherries and one Brandywine, plus four enormous cucumbers that I'd missed because I let them run free through the garden. "They're baseball bats!" Eric said. "They're enormous!" We dropped off most of my harvest with the mothers. We have a ridiculous number of cucumbers in the fridge already, so I'm going to try to be more creative with cucumber salads and such. I'm sure Edith knows to hunt for vegetables, but I'll ask her to be careful anyway, or I'll come home to find the cucumbers have taken over my garden and are holding the tomatoes hostage.

Speaking of plants, I have a polkadot plant on my desk at work with red and white and pink shoots. The white and pink haven't changed much since I bought it but the red has shot upward, doubling its height. I don't know if that means it's grown or if it needs more light than the others. I don't sit near a window, so I was figuring this to be a gamble anyway. Maybe I should bring in a hosta.

I have done pretty much nothing in the crafting and writing areas. I do have an appointment today to meet a friend at Joann to buy fabric so that I can teach her to make a tree skirt. Since I only ever made one before, and it was a quick-and-dirty affair, this might be overweening, but I'm pretty sure it will turn out fine. She says "I want to be you when I grow up," and that's quite the incentive to do things right. Which I guess means I need to stop writing this so I can finish one last work task so that I can sketch out designs and figure out how much fabric we'll actually need.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

On packing lunches when school is out.

The sky is darkening, and the sound of the Moody Blues is fading. They're playing at the Toledo Zoo, and since we live about half a block away, I got to hear a free partial concert. I spent some time outdoors walking and some weeding (and acknowledging that three cantaloupe plants is probably more than anyone needs, and three slicing cucumber plants certainly is). I'm more depressed than when I went out, which annoys me.

Eric's been off the past couple of weeks, and he's been (a) bored (b) listless because of a lack of a schedule (c) not eating or drinking enough (d) not sleeping well and (e) worrying because of all of the above. Thus he called me today, sounding extraordinarily down. When he's depressed, or highly anxious, he gets in a mood where he's low and self-pitying and won't listen to reason or experience (even his own), and it scares me a bit when he gets like that. It doesn't last, but as he says himself, what if someday it does? And why can't I do anything? I want to be able to do something.

I've been doing well at work these days (I'm not sure simple competence should have me feeling so chipper, but it does) and I suggested that I could start coming home for lunch, at least for the week and a half he's still got off. After that is the honeymoon and after that school starts, at least partially, and he should be fine. Until then, I think I'm either taking longer lunches than usual, or packing lunches for Eric to eat. When he's actually working he does it himself, but part of the problem is that he doesn't think about food until his blood sugar is too low for him to be able to make good decisions. He worries me sometimes. He's a high-maintenance guy.

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Harry Potter, and no, no spoilers

Eric and I went to the Borders Harry Potter party last night, where we witnessed some excellent costumes, overheard a girl sell her number to a boy for $23, and waited two hours to get a book because we had not picked up a color-coded bracelet. The manager shouted "Want to know the ending?" and got a round of "No!" back, and Eric and I discussed whether the manager would leave the store alive if he went through with this threat while reading the other books we were picking up while waiting. ($80 at the bookstore. It's a good thing it's not closer.)

This morning we read it, together, lying on the spare bed mostly. I read faster than he does. It was a lot of fun being able to react to text with someone, even if I had to hold my reactions a few seconds until he caught up to the place I wanted to gasp or laugh or exclaim at. It was a very good book, and satisfying in its tying up of loose ends. We consulted previous books four or five times about things that had been mentioned coming back. My head hurts now, but it was worth it. And now I can go and read the Internet and other media without fear.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Much better

Much better mood today. The movie was good, very good considering how much they had to condense and skip. Eric thinks the first half was very good and the second half fall apart…I agree the first half was better, but they did okay. Umbridge was excellent. The whole thing was definitely more stylized than the previous ones have been. In some places they overdid it. I also wonder what makes a screenwriter deviate from the book. I mean, in some places it makes sense, but when it's purely gratuitous, I don’t get it. As I said to Eric last night, maybe the problem is that the screenwriter is trying to produce the best movie he/she can and the audience is hoping to watch a movie that's like the book, and books aren't made to be like movies. Dunno.

We debated reasons for vegetarianism on the way to the movie theater and that made me feel better about my debating skills.

I'm anxiously awaiting more ripe tomatoes (I've had a ripe yellow, a ripe cherry, and now I'm waiting for a ripe red) so that I can use up some basil. I must think about other things to use it in--and dry some, too, of course. I wish we'd gotten those herb jars off the registry. (Well, we still can.)

I'm feeling very useful at work today. It's nice--though I've now mostly run out of things to do. On the other hand, I could get some writing done. Tonight we clean, make ice cream, and try pickling. (Sheesh, sounds like we're getting ready to entertain a pregnant woman.)

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Harry Potter and the High Expectations

We're going to see the Harry Potter movie tonight. Truth to tell, I'm not so eager about it that I would go see it the first night if it weren't for Eric. I don't think there's been any movie I was so fired up about as all that. And the timing means I need to cook dinner for the both of us (something that very rarely happens) and afterwards I go straight to bed and get up for work a little sooner than I'd really like.

But no more complaining. We're going to see Harry Potter! Right? No matter that Eric has been complaining that 90% of the book will be cut out (though this is the book that I thought could most use some cutting, really). Or that I barely remember the fourth one. Why am I so curmudgeonly about this? Sheesh. It may be because we were going to go with my friend at work and her new husband (we got married the weekend before they did) and she wasn't able to make it. Bah. I was saying before that I need to get out more. A movie is a good start. Plus, I love movie popcorn.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Not a true discontent

I'm sitting here as the minutes tick away to bedtime, caught by indecision and frustration. I can't make a CD backup of my files because my computer can't find a component of the CD burning software and I don't know where the CD of the software is. I should be either writing or spinning, and I could do either, but I can't decide which so I'm just going through old files and things instead. My first tomato of the summer was bland. There are ants in my kitchen. Grr.

I've been having problems with my right arm for too long now. It actually started in my last job, and is now carrying over into the new one. I'm wearing my brace but it doesn't help. I have an ergonomic keyboard but it doesn't help. I'm too young to be having this kind of problem...but I really can't say that for much longer. And it doesn't help that all my hobbies require the use of my hands. I can't be one of those people who are content to watch TV or go shopping, no.

James says he might have to cancel his exploratory surgery because his insurance won't cover it. I need to go see an optometrist because my eyes are hurting at work. (Maybe I just need a vacation from work. The honeymoon's in four weeks. I shouldn't be using my hands for much except putting on sunscreen.)

We planned to put together wedding albums for our parents, but we aren't doing it and I don't know where to go to get prints since we refuse to go to Walmart. I need to attend to something on the garden blog, and I haven't been posting here as much as I'd like. There are a lot of things we're not doing because our schedules don't mesh, and that separation brings out our laziness. Though Eric did go to Andersons today for produce and pickling supplies. All I've done is plant some seeds and do some dishes. I guess that's something.

I'm really not in that bad a mood...just thinking, and tending towards dissatisfied since I feel I haven't gotten anything done. But then, continuing to write down all the piddly things that discontent me doesn't get much done, does it? I still have a little time before I need to brush my teeth.

Friday, July 06, 2007

The weekend outlook

4,355 words today, almost all in my notebook because my hands and eyes hurt too much to type.

Tomorrow I go to Put-In-Bay with ten seventh- and eighth-graders and no vegetarian lunch, because this is the Midwest and nobody thinks of such a thing.

Sunday I go to the old mill and demonstrate knitting and spinning.

4,355 words. I don't think I've written that much this year so far altogether.

That is all.

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Oh, brother

I slept eleven hours yesterday. What a great holiday. I didn't see any fireworks, other than a few scattered sparks of red from an upstairs window, but I harvested my first two cucumbers from the garden for dinner, and watered in the dusk, and sat on my back porch in the dark and watched the fireflies softly glowing. I didn't see fireflies until I was thirteen years old, and they're something I would like my kids to see growing up.

Today, I'm at work, relatively busy but in pain. I don't know what's wrong with my desk setup, but something evidently is. I told Eric last night that I'd been having several days of nausea-inducing headaches, and he suggested I go see the optometrist since it gets better when I'm out for a walk or working in the garden, but this morning my arms and elbow were hurting bad enough that my stomach was unhappy again though my eyes and head were fine. I had a desk job for three years before I moved up here and never had any problems; what gives?

I also spoke to my brother on his birthday, Tuesday ("I never thought I'd be this old," he said. Young whippersnapper!), and he says that he may have to cancel his second exploratory surgery because his COBRA won't treat him for a pre-existing condition. However he's got a job prospect and once he got a new insurance apparently his doctor could fix it to make it a non-pre-existing condition. I don't understand this but as long as it works, I'll not question it.

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

On a Tuesday afternoon

I have achieved empty trashcan! I have also acheived boredom. That hasn't been hard the past several days, but today was especially easy because half of the working force is either off or taking the afternoon off.

To pass the time, I'm transferring automatic withdrawals from my old checking account to the new. Today I need to head to the bank, to deposit my paycheck (real check because I also switched my direct deposit, over the critical period apparently) and a check from my parents to cover the last of the wedding costs. And then to Home Depot to get dirt and mulch for the yard. Figures I'm dressed especially nicely today.

Monday, July 02, 2007

Trash

So I have this trash can at work. Actually I don't, it's a box with a plastic bag lining in it. My first day here I sat down to my desk and had no trash can--I assume the last person to sit here took it with her--and the nice cleaning lady who welcomed me to the company brought this box for me. It's a fine trash can. Wider than an actual trash can, in fact, so when I drop things blindly off the edge of my desk I have a better chance of scoring points by getting them into the container.

But recently we switched cleaning companies. I don't know why. All I know is that for the last ten days, my trash has not been emptied. People around me, with proper trash receptables, their trash is emptied every day. Mine piles up, and even with the nice wide top I can't drop things blind because they will inevitably bounce off. I have e-mailed the facilities person about this twice. He wrote back, "I'll let them know," the once, and there was nothing.

Today, my boss is ordering me an actual trash can, in the hope that this will help. (I only mentioned the problem to him once, the second or third day, and only because he noticed when I stuck my head into his office to see if his trash had also been missed and I was wrong in feeling persecuted. I wasn't.) Maybe now the new cleaning staff will be able to see it. If not, I will have to start thinking up more creative solutions.