Caught, the lazy buggers

My roommate rearranged the clutter in her room. These suitcases have been sitting in the hallway ever since.

She had them standing upright. Each morning, I would find them scattered about the floor.
I finally caught the culprit.
He looks like he is packed and ready to go somewhere.  He certainly does not want to get his coat wet. 

Every day I head home after a long day of working. I like to stop in the kitchen get a snack or a drink.  Head upstairs to change into my t-shirt and shorts.  In the past, as I approached my bedroom, I would hear a small THUMP and then Little Cat would appear.  It was nice to see her at the upstairs railing begging for a pet.  As the years have gone by, I guess she doesn't care to meet me at the front door or before I enter my bedroom.  Lately, she is still sleeping on the bed as I am taking off my work shoes.
She has a special mat to lie upon.  She has apparently begun snubbing it favoring to sleep with a pillow at her head?????? Is she a cat or a person?

She casually lifts her head, stretches, then drops down from the bed to toddle to her water dish.  Heaven save me if it is empty. She will mew at me while I am undressing until I fill it with fresh water.  There is no rubbing against my legs. No purring to encourage me to pet her.  None of that.  Just an "oh, you are home"  attitude.

I wonder if she thinks that I do not work hard enough...

Happy Summer

It is all fun and games unless I can't use my phone.  
Before I begin with the flowers, I want to tell you about my problems with my new Android Eris phone.

It is trying my patience.

This is my second Eris phone. The first phone was destroyed by a drunk girl at the Mexican restaurant before she drank a margarita.  Ruined my evening. Cost me my deductible. I never got my margarita. 

So here it goes.  The phone screen turns to black when I make a call.  This occurs pretty consistently.  I am grieved to consider that this is a function of the phone software.
If this is true, I would like to have a chat with the focus group that determined this was a good idea.

I would like to ask the group to meet me back in 1981.  Back to the time when we used push buttons phones and we never were absolutely sure who we called until we heard "hello" on the receiver.

Cuz that is what it is like to have the phone's screen blacken after I dial it.  Sometimes, it will reappear if I take the phone away from my face.  Not all the time.  If I have mis-dial or forget who I called, I have to wait for the call to connect to the receiver.  Why is that a good idea?
Calling my bank or any voicemail based customer service system is maddening with an intermittently darkened screen. 
Sometimes, the phone does not reappear and I do not see my screen until the call disconnects.

That leads me to another problem I have with the functioning of this phone.
 

Two out of three times and after a call the phone prompts me for my password.  The call could be one minute or 20 and the stupid thing will ask for my password.
If this is a function of the software, I would very much like to meet the focus group that suggested this function at a pay phone in 1990.  I will give each one of them four quarters and tell them to make five calls.

Exactly.

That is how annoying it is for me to input my password after almost every call that I make.

I called the 888 number and the person understood my outrage but could not help me.  I have to take the phone into the service center and demand some explanations.

The applications are nice and all but if I can't use the phone AS A PHONE, I don't need the grief.  
At least it is the summer time.  I like the summer. 
I especially like 1/2 half off sushi at Sakura's.  

dI

It will be another summer of sushi Saturday nights.   It should get quieter, too.  After the 4th the neighbors will have no reason to continue igniting fireworks and sending the damn cats scrambling all over the house.  The cats are really jittery right now. They should be used to the loud sounds. It happens every year.  Hell, I am used to it.


Finally, the allium. I have two varieties.  A spring bloom and a summer bloom. 

One shasta daisy.  I am excited.  This is the first year that they did not die after I planted them.

The pincushion plant is so lovely contrasting with the yellow blooms of the sedum.

And my final, albeit unintentional garden, the gutters.  Someone really needs to do something about the maple trees growing off my roof. 

I will try calling Dude about that on Tuesday.

Metropark plus Zombie, Run app

Yes
This was me at the park

A Better Way

I have a new phone.  I hadn't planned on it.  My HTC Touch stopped behaving.  It would not ring when people called but if someone followed up a call with a text message the stupid phone would ring.  

Very strange.  And random.  I took it into the office and the attendant immediately ordered me a new phone.

I selected an Android phone. 

I downloaded Sudoku.  A wordsearch game.  And Zombie, run!

I have had the most fun with the zombie game.

The other day, I went to the metropark to walk.  To exercise.  I opened the game.  Selected my destination, GPS determined my location and then I start walking.  

Using the screen, I can see the zombies around the park trails.  I avoid them.

Of course, the GPS failed me when I walked under a heavy canopy of trees.  I had been walking for 30 minutes unmolested by zombies and suddenly, I had a blank screen.  

I found a clearing and stopped.  After a few tense minutes, I had my location and found that 20 zombies were coming for me.  I looked in front of me.  I looked in the back of me.  I looked up and I looked around.  Not for zombies........ per se..... I was trying to orient myself.  By the time I started running to get away from the zombies (that only existed on my screen) they were almost upon me.   Sadly, I ran right into them and they ate my brains.  

I played a second game and had a zombie follow me for a mile.  Strange thing is that I increased my pace while the zombie chased me as if it were really behind me.  

I have decided that playing Zombie, run while exercising outside is the best way to include aerobic activity into my routine.  

I finally gave the halter to LilT.  She reminded me that I have made her a "bunch of stuff"  but I have made nothing for her brother.  Well, we will see about that.  I am apparently giving her too much.  It would be best for me to make Trey the focus of my handmade gifts for the next few years.  She will be begging for more by the time I am done spoiling her brother. 

;;;;;

And the Easter lilies from the yard.  I collected these by buying the flowers for my grandmother then heading to her house after Easter.  Since I knew that she will just let them die, I take them from her and plant them in my yard. 

Finally, there has got to be a better way to stay cool this summer. AC is loud and expensive.  Water is overrated.  Vodka needs a chaser.  Being naked isn't always legal.  I need something new.

 I may have found something.    Flying dog brewery has some great beers.  I mean, when the box reads "Good People Drink Good Beer  - Hunter S. Thompson" you can't lose.   I like Old Scratch.       Next time I am getting the Raging Bitch Belgian style IPA. Now you do the same.

  

Natural Habitats

Another mystery flower. I think it is a a visitor from my neighbor's yard. It just seemed to creep under the fence and situation itself. 
And that is okay. The fountain grass that I planted to cover the ugly chain link fence has crept into her yard. She likes it. Using the web, I found it.  It is the Asiatic dayflower and is non-native to the Americas. 

More tiger lilies.  These flowers are like the heralds of summers. 

The easter lilies have yet to bloom.  Maybe next week.
I see that the cannas have erupted from the ground as well as the gladiolas that I planted.

Lil Cat wanted to say goodbye to me today as I left for work.  

 

Or maybe she was just sunbathing.    I suspect she uses the floor mat to sharpen her claws.  It can handle it but my furniture cannot. So carry on.  

I spotted more wildlife on the way to work.  There are lots of ducks and ducklings waddling around campus right now. 

IT personnel in their natural habitat.

  You can observe by their attire that these specimens have reached a higher status among that computer techs.  Lower status computer techs wear red shirts to identify themselves as members of the IT department and the first to die.  These specimens earned promotions this past Fall season.  Unfortunately, the promotions have not increased their skill in identifying the problem with this CPU.  For months the pair have attended to the CPU and its mistress, the assistant director.  She is easily identified by her causal business attire. Finally, determining that user error is the not problem the duo have stopped the mistress from attacking both themselves and  the CPU and have exchanged it for a newer model. 
There had been a lot of beard scratching , shoulder shrugging, and side eyes. 

Just before I snapped this pic I spotted them leaned back in the chairs. One held his phone and appeared to be reading it and the other looked bored at the screen.  When I pulled out the camera they stopped doing what came natural to them and began to look intently at the screen of the malfunctioning computer.  So much for my wildlife study. 


Crafty Update
The skirt that I am making for my conference in July has 500 st in the first row..  I swear that each row takes me an hour to complete.  Damn my big hips.

Here is a picture of a completed project.  The knitter did a fine job. 
I hope mine looks half as good as hers.

I do not like these ads.

These teasers tell me that beautiful women in the Florida Glades have an annoying habit of getting killed.

Sex and violence.  I guess that always sells. 

I am still quite disappointed in the people at AandE for these ads. 




Where are the alligators?

Getting ready for summer

The baby blanket.  Finally, it is finished.   I participated in a granny square swap last year or so.  Each five member group created ten squares and received ten squares.  Adding two personal squares, the total become twelve.
The squares were supposed to be 12 inches.  As I put the blanket together, I found that 12 inches was relative.  To what, I don't know. One square was not a square at all.  I don't know enough about geometry to identify its shape. 
Of course, one block unraveled when I laundered the blanket.  That was fun. 
Of course, the blanket is all acrylic.  Once again, I am assuming the mother will keep her baby from open flames.    That is just good parenting, I think. 

I decided to increase each square to 14 inches on all sides to get some uniformity.  That meant that I did not need to use all 12 squares.  I created three strips each with a different border color then selected one color to combine them all.
As you can see Lil Cat approved.

it

I made this blanket for a student of mine.  I had this yarn that I wanted to use it on something.  I crocheted in the round. Every third row was a DC pattern.  I liked it. It is also acrylic baby melting yarn.
Now that those two blankets are out of the way, I can concentrate on the items I am making for myself.
A white tank top and a skirt . I am asking for everyone to wish me luck.  I needs to be completed by the end of July.

More flowers bloomed this week.

Late Spring clematis. I guess that is it for the vines.  I just hope the vines do not grow into the AC again this year.

I am trying to pull the morning glory sprouts.  Morning glories are not as much fun as you might think.  They spread everywhere.  Like that old movie from the 80s, Creepshow. 

Sedum.  This variety is a great ground cover or around rocks and such. It doesn't seem to be bothered by the kids walking on it either.

 

The mums are making an appearance.  I pulled these out of my mom's yard before she moved. 

And finally the Asian lilies. I love their color. 


I have worked on a campus for more than 14 years.  Each campus has its own type of wildlife.  I encounter both geese and ducks. 


The campus wildlife.  I try to snap photos of the birds. 
There are mulberry trees everywhere.  The trees attract birds of all types.
And stain all of your clothing and shoes.
You can't really text and walk during the Spring, as you might find yourself sliding on goose poo.  Lots of goose poo.
The squawking is fun to hear.

Severe weather is expected this weekend.  If necessary, you will find me in the basement with a ball of white cotton blend yarn and size 3.75 mm needles.

Gardening and Beer

Hello Spring. These are the flowers that bloomed last week.  I am about two weeks behind in my blog updates. Unfortunately, funny stuff happens to me so often that I do not always have the time to stop and blog about it.  My dianthus. 

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Another daisy variety. I have many in the garden.  This one is called goblin. 

More dianthus.  I love these flowers they will bloom all spring and summer for me as long as I remember to deadhead or shear them. 

I have pink, red and pale pink. 

;;

All of my okra plants are gone.  I wish that I had noticed it earlier.  I would have realized that slugs had taken over my garden. I did not and I lost a lot of strawberries.  I can plant another okra plant but the strawberries are the real crime.  

I poured sand around my other vegetables.  A twitter friend told me about using fleece to ward against slugs.  I will try that too.  

I have tried the beer trick. I bought a little slug trap that looked like a frog and held the beer.  I just can't keep beer in the fridge long enough to remember to place some in a cup and in the garden.  Seems like a waste of good beer.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Writing of beer, I missed the World Expo of Beer in Frankenmuth MI because the forecast said rain.  Oh how I missed it.  I hope there will be more beer festivals in the area.   My current favorite beer is Summer Shandy by Leinenkugel.  Yummy.  I really need to stop drinking wheat beer but there isn't much gluten free beer out there readily available.  So I live with the heartburn. 

Dude brought me some Samuel Adams beer the other day. I scoffed at him.  What do Easterners know about beer? I am a Midwestern girl and I want Midwestern beer.  

I didn't drink it on principle.  

The alpaca fleece that I have is now infested with moths.  It is sad really.  It did not occur to me that moths would find the fleece tasty.  You should have seen my face when I pulled the fleece out of the garage.  Ok.

I know what you are thinking. Why in the world would I store alpaca fleece in the garage.  

I don't know.

It was stupid.

So I had to track down a friend with an empty deep freezer.  Not easy.... Not easy at all.

She has agreed to plug it in so that I can freeze the fleece and kills the moths.  I guess that I have to allow it to thaw and then freeze it again to kill any left over eggs.  

Once the freezing process is complete, I might try cleaning and carding it.  

Or I might not.

I ran into the Weaver's Guild this weekend.  They were talking crazy to me.  Talking about me buying spinning wheels and carding machines for the alpaca that I have.  And joining the guild.  In our little town we have a Weaver's Guild, a Spinner's Guild, Knitting guilds (2) and a crochet guild. 

So many guilds and I have to work all day.