Bluejay's Friends
(Latest entries) (Calendar) (Latest friends) (My Website) (User info)
Navigate: (Previous 20 friends)
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
3:01AM
I am getting old. J & I were pretty much the oldest people in the theatre besides parents. We were surrounded by high schoolers who were idiots and cheered at the dumbest things before the movie started. Every preview is NOT a cause for explosion. End grumpy old lady moment.
And now, initial thoughts...
( Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince spoilers )
Monday, July 13, 2009
11:11PM
Time for another funny Life with J moment.
To recap- my 6'4" 315lb fiance (and I'm no dainty flower myself) and I share a full size bed. I am not entirely sure how we do this in the first place. I am not strong enough to push him over and he sleeps like a log. He gets up several hours before I do to go to his job working in seafood at the grocery store.
I'm ready to go to bed so I poke him in the thigh to try to get him to roll over and give me back my pillow so I can sleep. His eyes flutter open and he says "Thats right!" I, mistakenly thinking that tonight will be easy, expect him to roll over. But his eyes close instantly and he doesn't budge so naturally I ask "what's right?" and he explains (still asleep) that he doesn't think one tray of tilapia is going to be enough. I ask how much tilapia I'm going to need in order to get to sleep and he says 3. Now I dont have any tilapia so I'm stuck without my bed. Damn you tilapia!
I will try again in a minute or two. Perhaps I can negotiate him down.
Daniel and I went for an evening walk and heard a lot of them out there...
chic chic chic chic chic chic chic chicchicchiczzztttEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Anyone else heard them?
Some day I can tell my grandchildren, "Yeah, I remember the year the giant cicadas got here."
"You mean you were alive before they were here? Wow, you're OLD. I thought there's always been giant cicadas here."
"Yep, it was the summer of 2009. I'd never heard them before, but one evening, there they were all over the place. Came up from Mexico because of the Earth getting warmer, and been here ever since."
Sunday, July 12, 2009
8:24PM
Well yep. This weekend has been one exceptional, unabashed, and transcendent flying of my freak flag. I will take that bold silliness, freedom of attention/intention, and wild sassiness for the win, thank you.
It's much easier being here in this way. I think I shall keep doing it.
6:57PM
more later on how the universe is beautiful...
9:03AM
The heat is messing with my eating schedule. Its just too hot to eat. In an attempt to save money on our AC, we have it set at 80 but lately its been so hot I dont think the AC has made it down to 80 during the day. Its working so hard but its just not getting there. When I'm home all day I really just want two meals- breakfast and a late dinner. I dont want to digest anything, I just want a glass of water. If its a weekday, I eat a lot all day long because my work keeps the AC up high. Then I come home and dont want dinner cuz its too bloody hot. So really most days I'm only eating 2 meals but I dont think its really hurting me. I know I eat a lot more than my body needs anyway. Note the 30lbs of extra fat I'm carrying around as exhibit A.
I'm not actively trying to lose weight, but it would be nice to drop a few pounds before the wedding. Maybe the heat is a blessing in disguise.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
9:14PM
I am exhausted.
Thanks to everyone who came out to the Harry Potter party. We kind of ran out of room to put people but we had just enough food and I had a ton of fun. I love you guys.
Then I got up this morning and helped Allison move and saw some cool people. Ran some errands, went to the library (and saw cute library boy), did all the domestic crap for the week (laundry, bills, grocery shopping) and a load of dishes. Watched a documentary about the deaf with J while eating tasty sandwiches. Ran by the moms' house to give the cat a shot. Ran by PCN and saw all the other people I hadn't seen yet this weekend. And about an hour into it I realize I'm exhausted and overheated and just want to sit in the dark quiet with my air conditioning. I managed to stay for an hour and a half but then I just had to come home. J was good enough to take me despite having an interesting conversation. Best husband ever. And now my couch awaits. Mmmmm couch.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Pregnancy issue #354: food craving are okay till you start craving things that you are allergic to, brought to you today by Shrimp and onions
Thursday, July 9, 2009
7:32PM
J is the best husband ever. I came home today to find okra, tomatoes, and sausage working on the stove and a bunch of rice in the rice cooker. Also, a load of dishes done and all the shopping done for the
HARRY POTTER PARTY TOMORROW AT 7!
Please note that we're starting at 7 on the dot. I have 2 movies to get through and I'm going to want to go to bed eventually.
J will be making a shepherd's pie and a chicken pot pie. We have butterbeer and jelly bellies. I've heard other people mention bringing cupcakes and eclairs. All signs point to it being a fantastic evening. You should come.
So, if you're the sort who pays attention to happenings in Nature around here, you may be aware that we've been having some tropical species which were historically known to only live in the Rio Grande Valley south now being found as far north as Austin.
Here's another critter to add to the club along with Crested Caracaras, Green Jays, and Green Tree Frogs. This email was forwarded to me by Daniel, who got it from Craig the park interpreter (and my former boss), who got it from a higher up Parks and Wildlife guy (Mike Quinn, who works in Bastrop), who got the word from Dr. Huffman, one of my professors (to close that neat little circle).
For those of you that didn't know about or don't remember the appearance of the Giant Cicada in the past few years in South Central Texas, I have included the following information. They appeared in the Austin - San Antonio area in 2006. They appeared in the Bastrop - Smithville area in 2008. I just started hearing newly emerged adults again this week in the Smithville area. Since they have such a distinctive sound and are relatively new to the region - some park visitors may ask about them. Historically, they were present from the Rio Grande Valley through South America. They have been moving their range northward during the past few years. You can click on the link, below, for a sound clip.
From David Huffman - Texas State University 07/23/2006
The giant cicada is a prehistoric-looking bug that measures well over 2
inches from nose to wingtip. Adults are known to inhabit treetops, but
immature bugs can spend as long as four years below ground eating tree
roots.
The earsplitting insect is among the loudest on Earth, with a sound that has
been often compared to a locomotive whistle. Unlike a cricket, which makes
sound by rubbing its legs together, the cicada makes noise by "vibrating
special membrane-like structures (tymbals) on their abdomen," according to a
description from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
The critter is common from far South Texas to Argentina. There are records
of the insects in the San Antonio area in the 1930s, but not in recent
decades. A few were documented last year, but they are much more prevalent
this year, said Parks and Wildlife biologist Mike Quinn.
He doesn't have a definitive explanation for the re-emergence, but said
climate change could have something to do with it.
"We're going through a warming period here on Earth, and lots of species are
creeping northward," he said. "I know of no other reason than that."
For more information on the giant cicada, see
http://www.texasento.net/Cicada.htm
Dude! You gotta hear the mp3 of that thing on that page! I haven't heard those guys yet, just the regular old buzzy Green Cicadas I've been hearing for my whole life, but now I'm kind of eager to hear my first Giant Cicada.
So yeah, to look on the bright side, global warming is causing a bunch of interesting tropical species immigrate to Central Texas. I found a green tree frog at Daniel's parents house in New Braunfels just the other day, and those guys have only been found around here in recent years. Cute too!
Maybe I should start looking into what tropical fruits I can try growing... if we ever get rain again, that is.
7:03AM
if time makes children of titans
driving them to their hands and knees with its relentless advance
robbing reason from their tears and abandoning
them to quail in their beds
what will we mortals become
as we walk its forced march?
will we find ourselves but beasts, pawing for scraps, silently
wanting something beyond the grasp of even
our minds?
no, perhaps we will be spared
and we will not fear to unclench our fists if
we never believed they’d captured the world
and with open hands, perhaps we will find
there are still things we wish to grasp though
what we once held is gone forever
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
I would post this on GardenWeb, which I've been reading lately, but I'm afraid I'll start some kind of flame war.
I just don't understand why gardeners get their knickers in such a twist about compost. You'd think that making compost wouldn't be that hard. You put a bunch of organic stuff in a pile, let it rot, and once it looks like dirt you put it in your garden.
But the Compost, Soil, and Mulch forum is just full of people going, "oh my gosh, is this ok, am I doing this right?"
There are all these "rules" to composting, but I always saw them as being more like guidelines to either make your compost rot faster or make it less disgusting as it does. I mean, I get that if your pile is too dry it will take forever to break down, if it's too wet it will stink, etc., but really, when it comes down to it, doesn't decomposition win out in the end?
There was just this big long thread on whether it's ok to have maggots or grubs or other insect larvae in your pile. I'm thinking, "hey, they're decomposers, what do you expect?" but the OP said she had been pouring boiling water in her pile to kill them, and she got a lot of comments suggesting better ways to get rid of them because you DO NOT want insect larvae in your compost!
I'm still not sure why not. Aren't they just doing their job?
I also don't understand why you're not supposed to put cooked things in your pile. When I was a member of Austin Community Gardens I had someone tell me, in a "duh everyone knows this" sort of way, that you should NEVER put cooked things in because "it makes it too acidic."
Ooh, heaven forbid in these limestone hills we live on that I should put something ACIDIC in my garden! I really don't get that either. Isn't cooking just basically breaking it down a bit already? Do cooked foods not rot? Doesn't seem that way from what I've seen in my fridge.
So... maybe I'm just a bad composter. I have had some... mishaps. Once my compost got a bunch of beetle grubs in it. Which was, um, intersting, but I wasn't too worried. Another time I was turning it and hit some kind of gas pocket where it had gone anaerobic and the smell almost made me puke. And I do have trouble keeping my pile wet enough. Oh, and it always seems to attract a lot of roly pollys and cockroaches, but those are more decomposers just doing their jobs, right?
But most of the time it seems to just rot well enough with very little stress and fretting on my part. Like I said in a previous post, a lot of compost goes a little way, so I don't feel like being too picky*.
So I really don't understand how people can write whole books about compost. When really all you need to know is: Put anything made of plant material in pile. Let rot. And then add on a SHORT list of OPTIONAL things to do to help it along, like keeping it moist, turning it, having the right N/C ratio, and so on and so on.
I mean, humans have been working hard for thousands of years to keep food from rotting! Why do we have to work so hard to make it rot?
*Things I won't put in: Cat poop is a no-no because of toxoplasmosis, but any herbivore poop is great. Bermuda grass runners I pull up don't go in because those things will come back to life and grow out of the compost, and any diseased plants stay out so that I won't spread the disease further. Meat and dairy don't go in because rotting meat is too disgusting, but I'm sure that's just for me and probably doesn't do anything to hurt the compost or the plants it goes on. And that's pretty much all I can think of that's off limits.
Last night it RAINED! YAY!
And today it's forcast to "only" get into the high 90's. Yeah, it's pretty sad when 98 degrees F seems like a relief.
Tomorrow it's forecast to be 105. :-(
But at least we got some rain. I'm sure my plants really appreciated it. I sure pay attention to the weather a lot more when I have a garden. I just planted some corn day before yesterday, counting on rain to come and give them a good start, so I'm glad my gamble paid off.
It was also nice to see the birds enjoying the rain yesterday evening. The trees were scattered with blue jays, wrens, woodpeckers, and other birds fluttering their feathers happily in the shower, and I heard my neighbor's rooster crowing, so I imagined he was enjoying it too. I haven't heard him crow much since we've moved here. I don't know much about chickens, but I assume they don't like this weather either, and probably just sit around in the shade all day.
I realized we've been in a drought since the crazy wet summer of 2007 when it rained EVERY DAY. That was kinda fun (for me anwyay, since I like rain), but it's not good for the plants and wildlife to have such extremes. What the flood didn't kill the following drought did.
I wonder when it will get to a point when we have to re-define "drought". Like... when does it change from drought to "this is just how much it rains now." Or is that an idea that people just won't accept? Like how our "average first frost date" is still November 15. It's been that for as long as I can remember, and I really think that needs to be moved back a bit. I think pretty soon it's going to get so we have a lot of years with no frosts at all.
I want to go to Burning Man: Evolution.
I'm growing out of my skin. It's uncomfortable and yet necessary (the 2 often go hand in hand). I feel I am on my way to "leveling up". The next big step for me.
Months ago I had a dream where I was at BM, in the Temple, having an epiphany. As I walked the land in my underwear, I realized I had never been so comfortable in my own skin. In my body. In my essential being. I met someone there... don't know who or why. There was an unexplainable connection that unfolded in graceful layers throughout the dream. He made me let go and I helped to tend his wounds.
I woke up and knew... I have to figure out a way.
I'm not sure I'd forgive myself if I don't go. Listening to my intuition... I'm trying to get better at that.
There are about a million ways to do it (all near crazy). Though currently, I am ticket-less, camp-less, and mostly money-less. Needless to say, I am open to suggestions, good mojo, a cosmic pull to do it the way I need to experience it, and somehow trusting that things will unfold the way they need to. Trust. that's a biggy.
I've been sent some suggestions by sweet comrades who have gone before, but thought I'd open it to the floor because nothing has pulled me one way or the other.... though I know this road trip with Sun up the west coast will guide me the right way :)
Current mood:  in my unknowing Current music: fan: white noise
Monday, July 6, 2009
7:10PM
Today I was finally pissed off enough to go off on the maintenance man. If you've never been to my apartment complex, there is a little area for parking directly behind my building. There are 5 or 6 spots in between my building and the maintenance shed. Now the maintenance man likes to park his truck in the driveway, in front of the "do not park" area. Why is it a "do not park area"? 1- it is a fucking fire lane and 2- it blocks larger cars from parking in the 5 or 6 spots. J & I have small cars so we can usually get out. But about once a week, he has friends or helpers or whatever the fuck they are...and they all park in the driveway, which blocks every single parking space. Now granted, J & I are usually the only ones parking back there unless we have company. Most of our other neighbors park in the side lot. But it pisses me off when I come home from work and have to park really far away when there's a spot right next to my back door. So today I come home and there are 2 big trucks wedged in there, blocking 5 empty spaces, including "my" space. And there is nobody there to move the truck, which they usually do with an apologetic shrug while I glare at them. So I park really far off, march into the house, grab my camera and go outside to take a picture so I can complain to the complex tomorrow. And the guy is out there with that sheepish look saying he'll move his truck. Fuck yes you better move your truck. And you better start parking in parking spaces. Tool.
This week's things that make me happy is a completely random smattering:
Theward ran across The Awesome Foundation, which gives out grants for awesome ideas.
And speaking of awesome ideas, I'm very interested in one of Austin's newest non-profits, The Front Porch Project - they are starting a cafe in September that will host all sorts of dialogues and important conversations, hold workshops and lectures, and serve as a gallery for artists.
My tribe - the 4th of July fundraiser at the warehouse knew exactly what we would pay for. The Austin crew that is building this years Temple at Burning Man raised almost $3000 by featuring roman candle karaoke!
I want the newest edition of Six Word Memoirs based on love and heartbreak. The original one, Not Quite What I Was Planning really shocked me with the honesty it brought out in people; it took on almost a Postsecret quality. The whole concept of six word memoirs are based on what Hemmingway listed as his - "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."
B corporations - A new class of corporations that uses the power of business for the public good.
Hooray for openly bisexual politicians!
Cathyrenne Valente and her husband were in a pretty tight bind after he was laid off, so she went to work creating an incredible online YA story. Though she asks for donations if you can give, the weekly chapter updates are free and already has an interesting community springing up around it.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
10:02AM
I didn't do a damn thing for my nation's 233rd birthday. Which is a little disappointing, but not because I'm real patriotic or anything, but because blowing stuff up is fun, and it's neat that that's the traditional way to celebrate.
Oh well, it's too damn hot to do anything outside anyway. Even well after sunset.
And of course to Daniel, holidays just mean extra work for him.
I did put the sacks of compost I bought from Lowes in my garden, and was reminded how a lot of that goes a little way. It didn't cover nearly as much as I hoped it would. I'm eager to plant something, but it looks like I'll have to buy several more sacks of compost or manure first. And those things are heavy.
One of the biggest virtues gardening teaches you is PATIENCE. I can't think of anything in a garden that doesn't take a long time to accomplish.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
9:44AM
One of my goals for the year was to read 52 books. Thanks to reading 45 minutes every day during lunches and breaks at work, I need to reset my goal. Today I finished #53. Lets see if I get to 100!
Navigate: (Previous 20 friends)
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
blue_jay's Friends Page