Sunday, May 18, 2008

looking for cucumbers

My tomato plants arrived from Burpee a couple of days ago and I want to get them into the ground. So I decided to get some of that mesh plastic sheet stuff for several reasons: to try it, to see if the black will keep the temperature high enough for it not to matter that it’s not quite warm enough to plant them, to keep the weeds at bay, and to keep the roots moist while we’re away. Normally I would plant the tomato plants the last weekend in May, but we’re going to be in Michigan then so I need to get them in now. So Stanley agreed that we could go to Home Depot today, on a Saturday, which he hates to do, AND HE DIDN’T EVEN WHINE ABOUT IT!

While we were there, I wanted to price getting a piece of carpet cut and bound to replace the threadbare, filthy, and tattered rug we have in our, uh, Media Room. Yeah, that’s what it is, a media room ... anyway, we need a rug 11-12’ x 8-9’ and since it will be a good many years before we can afford that exquisite oriental rug with the tree of life pattern I want (like 50 years), we figure it would be a lot less expensive to get a piece of carpet bound. Neither of us cares for wall-to-wall carpeting, which is why we went for the area rug size since the room gets too cold without something on the floor.

Well, we ordered one—made out of this polymer that’s made out of corn sugar or corn cellulose or something like that. A “green” carpet. Only, we didn’t select it because it’s green (it’s actually this pretty blue color they call sapphire), but because this stuff is supposed to clean up like a dream if it gets stained. With three or sometimes four animals in the house, this seems like a good idea. I am pretty pleased that it’s made out of eco-friendly stuff. It should arrive around the time we get back from Michigan. A 12’x9’ area rug that is under warranty, no less, for about $250. Instead of getting the snowblower for our anniversary, like we sort of meant to do (our anniversary was January 23), we got the rug. Plus there’s the HD gift cards we got for Christmas.

Then off we went to get the mulch sheeting for the garden and in search of some basil, pepper, and cucumber plants. Found the basil, found the pepper, but we had to search and search for cucumbers—Stanley finally found what is probably the last cucumber plant they had. We had to stop at Wally Mart, so looked there too—no luck. It’s so odd—they had everything from eggplant to Brussels sprouts to collard greens, but no cucumbers. We got a packet of cucumber seeds just in case we continue to have no luck finding a couple more cuke plants (like at Stew Leonards maybe?) Was there some kind of cucumber blight or something that made most of the plants sterile? Did some mad gardener corner the local cucumber market (and what is she going to do with them all, make pickles?)

With all that, didn’t get any actual gardening done today. Mañana.

Friday we wanted to play hooky and go see a movie, but there was nothing opening that we were interested in (the first Narnia was so awful neither of us have any desire to see the new installment). We did see Ironman on opening day, and that was really good. I didn’t think I’d like it since I never read the comic book, but I liked it a lot. We always watch the credits (I like seeing the locations and the names of the songs) so we got to see the trailer for the sequel, which I hope is just as good (though hope it will move along faster, plot-wise).

I remembered last week to take a picture of the Japanese dogwood from an upstairs window—even this photo doesn’t do it justice (alas, the blooms are finally falling):

Japanese dogwood, May 9, 2008

Slink is a very strange cat. I finally realized what he reminds me of: the black cat on the bags of Tidy Cat cat litter. This photo show him stretched out with Stanley, legs in the air, very comfortable on his back (click to enlarge):

lazy cat slink with legs in the air, May 16, 2008

“The dog looks so much nicer when she’s upside-down ... ”

slink's world, may 16, 2008

Note to self: Call Ben and find out what he wants for his birthday. Which was May 13th. I’m a terrible aunt. I did remember it was his birthday, called his dad to get his email address, but didn’t follow up. It’s so unreal that he’s 16 years old now. I’m, such an old, terrible aunt ...

We’re leaving for Michigan on May 27th, after Ginger gets her chemo treatment. Spending the night in Macedonia, Ohio, at a Days Inn that takes pets. Was thinking about booking at that old Comfort Inn in Warren again, but the last time it was so awful (not our usual room) I’m not ready to go back and try it again yet (awful room plus I was so sick, what a nightmare that was). I am so looking forward to seeing Mom and Dad. We have to leave there on June 11th though, since we have to be back so Ginger can get chemo on June 13th, and Stanley has a dentist appointment on the 13th as well.

posted by lee on 05/18/08 at 03:59 AM

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