Relentless Inquiry

I am reminded yet again that I need more icons– I even have some, just haven't uploaded. Oy.

Didn't go to the Master Gardener Harvest Festival at Prusch Park, since I was still way tired and didn't feel like dealing with crowds. Spent the day napping and reading my long-packed-away Calvin & Hobbes books, which recently surfaced as we unpack boxes from the storage unit. Got out in the evening to buy cat litter, discover that I'd have saved $40 on something I bought at the other pet store if I'd bought it there (doh).

Next door, picked up my comics subscription from Lee's. It had been much longer than I thought– they sent me a letter, to the old address (which forwarded, luckily) saying they were going to close my folder. I had 3 Usagi and 2 Finder. Cool. I'm really looking forward to re-reading some of the old Peanuts stuff being republished as hardback editions– saw a few there. Also on my someday list is Osamu Tezuka's multi-volume manga set of the life of Buddha, a real eye-opener if you've only read Hess' “Siddhartha”. A review of the first two volumes that I just found to give y'all a ptr mentions that O.T. has done a manga version of “Metropolis” as well– that sounds *cool* and I need to look for it.
Definitely having an extended **headdesk** moment about selling off my boxes of comic books in 1998. Was trying to be 'more normal' and get rid of stuff. Bah. Stupid.

Went over to Krispy Kreme in the same parking lot, had a cinnamon apple and a boston cream and a bottle of milk, and read my comic books. Raised a donut in the general direction of , who prefers Happy Donut, but that's not in the same plaza with the pet store and the Lee's. Later on, to continue the pre-PMS Festival of Bad Good Food, I had dinner at Inn&Out, munching a double burger (no cheese), fries, and a vanilla shake, while reading Jared Diamond's excellent “Collapse”. Boy, there's a combo for ya– “Collapse”, PMS, and the required High Holidays honest soul-searching. Did I mention Saturday I was really, really, REALLY down? I got over it, but gah. There's some *stuff* gonna come outta this.

Then off to OSH around the corner, to get some kind of color for the dead-dead-bare planter in front. The alyssum, which had been kinda holding it along, senesced during the heat wave, and the heat and drought-hardy snapdragons in the middle got killed off by the mid-40's cold snap. Found some nice calendula (c. officinalis) in bright orange and yellow, and a six-pack of white alyssum that wasn't too doggo. All the nice alyssum was in 4-inch pots and I didn't want to spend the extra money. Got a bunch of fall bulbs and a red-onion set. BTW, if you're a local garden buddy and you want a dozen or so red onions, ping me. The set has about a zillion of 'em, and unlike seeds I can't just save them arbitrarily. Set me back all of a $1.59, woo, but I don't wanna waste 'em.

Yesterday was 'rip out garden' day. We got the two middle beds cleared, and planned the garden railway (in a very rough fashion). Found another MONSTER banana squash hiding in the foliage, even bigger than the previously most-giant-one. The sunniest beds are doing ok– looks like my indian corn *might* just make it to the ear stage, we'll see. We got top-tassels over the last few days, and I think I see the start of ears. That would really rock! The corn palace over on Lawrence looks to have put some in around the time I put mine in, so maybe it'll all just work.

Roma and Early Girl tomatoes in sunny corner bed still producing, and put out suckers and flowers in the recent heat wave. Ditto yellow pear tomato-TREE, still reaching over neighbor's carport. Am torn about when to take them out– not yet, at least. Butternut squash vine has nascent squashlets on it, with unopened flowers. It brought itself back from near-death after the weather cooled down in general, and I've been clearing other things from its sun-path, getting it trained up on the fence netting. Another finger-crosser. Regret taking the kabocha vine down a couple of weeks ago, especially *before* we'd tasted our first kabocha. Whoa. I should have taken everything ELSE down and paved a royal path for that vine, in the hopes it would start up again. Really, really, REALLY good. We are *so* growing these guys again! This was supposedly an Ebisi-Delicata cross, looked entirely Ebisi to me (big n green n warty) but the taste– cartwheels! festival! woo!

Finished my coffee and processing my payroll, and really GOTTA get into work. We did more stuff. We had dinner at Tung Kee Noodle in downtown View. S'okay, Mike likes it more than I do, but I'll eat there w/o reticence. Get the egg/turnip/daikon cake– yum!