Wednesday, September 30, 2009

I'm Bad at Being Sick

After two days of exhaustion, an early morning session of sweaty chills yesterday, and a day of a low-grade fever, I found out that I have a little upper respiratory infection going on.

It sucks. I don't like the feeling of being tired when I haven't done anything. I'm at home from work for the second day, and I wish I could do things to capitalize on being here. But instead it's nearly 11 am, and I'm sitting on the couch, unshowered and umotivated.

Blah.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Fast Times on Jefferson Ave

This has been a strange weekend.

Yesterday bummed me out because it seemed the world was against me. I didn't go to yoga at the farmer's market, and then the YogaToday download that I purchased wouldn't play correctly! Then I went outside to take out the Sungold and Black Krim plants that weren't doing so hot, and I realized that the southern army worm issue had escalated into an infestation!

The past couple of weeks have been heartbreaking; every nearly-ripe tomato we had housed one of these gross worms. Ugh! I would check a tomato, hoping that it was clean, only to see the tail end of a worm disappear into it.

I realized the plants were all half dead, so I ripped them all out. Sadness! Now I have a pile of green tomatoes in our kitchen window.

This is in honor of one of our last ripe, clean brandywines. Although odd in appearance, it was super tasty!


I finished clearing out the tomato plants today. And I found that a parasitic wasp had valiantly done its duty on this villainous horned worm:


But back to yesterday...it stormed all afternoon, which meant a bike ride was out of the question. And the internet was out of commission! This double rainbow nearly made up for it all:

But last night, I found myself at the strangest place... the St. Louis Mills Outlet Mall. Porkchop wanted to practice hockey stops on her left side before today's practice, so I went with her and walked around the mall. It was exhausting. The Mills is HUGE. And there are all sorts of things that I find jarring...an indoor skateboard park, a glow-in-the-dark putt-putt course, loud people...I could go on.

Besides the horned tomato worm, today has been much better! I had a morning meeting at Mississippi Mud to review our neighborhood association's website. And then Porkchop and I walked to Benton Park Cafe for lunch. In the afternoon, I dried our last batch of Sungolds and Fox cherries:


And then two crazy things happened. First, a guy was urinating across the street from our house behind Save-a-Lot. This is just a minor crazy thing, but it riled me up a bit. Second, another guy plowed into a car parked in front of our house and sped away!! We ran out the door, but couldn't get his plate number. The bikers at the corner bar were all over this shit and chased after him, but were unsuccessful in finding him. About 10 minutes later, the police arrived. And then, as if it had been rehearsed, a woman in a pickup pulled up and asked, "Did this just happen? Was it a red car? Well," she continued as we eavesdropped in suspense, "it's parked by my house." The police took off, and then a police van arrived shortly thereafter. While the police captured the car, apparently the driver is still at large. But, still, neighborhood justice!

Lastly, fall is here! Even though it was 85 today and I still have melons ripening, I want to wear sweaters, drink cider, and walk through fallen leaves. October, here we come!

Friday, September 11, 2009

Grammarians Against Apostrophe Abuse

This is my new favorite t-shirt!
Because the iPhone camera leaves lots to be desired, I'll transcribe the text for you: Apostrophe's! Extra apostrophe's! Use 'em for plural's! One dollar!

It makes me happy. And it's from the Natalie Dee website (but drawn by someone else).

P.S. Tonight we go to Porkchop's 12-year graduation reunion (they missed the 10-year mark). It will be a small group, but it's large enough for me to be nervous. New people! Ack!