Random Thoughts

So, I'm just finishing a week off of work, and feeling remarkably more relaxed than usual. My last work week was very stressful, was eight days long instead of seven (the pouty, two-year old side of me really doesn't like that), and was marred by more than the usual share of difficult patients and families, as well as difficult colleagues. Since then I went to the gym and had a good workout, had a massage, and, most importantly, did a whole lot of yard work.  

One of the reasons I got the Prius V was because it has more space in the back and you can fold the back row seats down as well, giving you almost as much space in the back as a small SUV.  I also got a rubber cargo liner, which keeps the gunk off the carpet.  Thus, I was able to purchase and, more importantly, bring home, three medium sized trees and three tall shrubs, in only two trips.  Yay!  I'm happy that one of the reasons I got the car is working out.  (It also gets great gas milage, can't complain)  I made several trips to lowes during all of this time in yard project land, with a side jaunt into 'I really should replace those air filters land.'  Fun fact, air filters come in a large variety of sizes.  Very large variety.  Do not try to eyeball it.  Fortunately I stopped short of eye-balling it, and air filters are in fact, clearly marked with their dimensions; you just have to remember to look before you go to the store.  I also re-vamped my DIY/home-owner special sprinklers, and, another fun fact, cheap sprinkler timers that go at the hose bib should be brought in over the winter if you want them to work again in the spring.  I now have a controller that will run my grass zones as well as my drip zone for tomatoes and deck planters, which is good, because this will help my new trees and shrubs thrive.  I planted three tall evergreens along my house to help with enclosure for my deck, a red bud, and a pink flowering dogwood in the front and the back.  For those who are not familiar, the picture above shows some pink flowering dogwood blooms.  I also did a lot of pruning, some weeding, and pulled out a number of completely unnecessary yuccas.  To my mind, yuccas are very southwest in appearance, and I'm not really sure why they were planted in my yard to begin with.  One way or the other, they're not anymore.  Wahahahahaahaa.  

Not that things are perfect.  There is a heavy yellow pollen out right now, probably from the pines, though I'm not sure, that is is coating everything and keeps drifting down.  If it weren't for zyrtek, I'd be sneezing my head off.    Not only did I discover that my automatic timer from last year is no good from being outside all winter, but also the pots I bought for tomato growing did not turn out to be sturdy at all, and will need to be replaced when I plant tomatoes after my next work week.  

In other areas, it turns out the kitties did not have a stomach bug; they had just decided that they weren't eating friskies meaty bits anymore.  I assume the initial puking was because there was something about it that began making them puke, and the follow up puking was the low volume, digestive juices are churning but there's no food kind of puking.  When I finally clued in to this and provided different food after several days of them not really eating, they fell on it like a pack of starving hyenas.  So now we have to spend money on expensive kitty food.  :(

In a similar vein, a few weeks ago, ants discovered the kitty food, in a big way, and started swarming it.  Very disgusting.  Moving the dishes only made it take a few minutes longer for the ants to re-swarm, so I searched online and found this suggestion for sprinkling the area with cinnamon.  This actually works, but it has to be a significant amount of cinnamon.  So the ants are at bay, and I have vaguely cinnamon-scented kitties, not their favorite thing, but they don't like the ants either.  Cant win em all...

:)