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My backyard is green! *dance* I love it!

Memorial weekend I bought plants and dirt for my backyard; they were delivered this afternoon and we got right to work on them. I didn’t expect help from any of my roommates, but both Eric and Lee helped me and we got all of the bushes planted along the fence, from one end of the concrete to the other. They look great! Anything is better than just dirt. It was sooooo brown.

The bushes are Portuguese Laurel, which are hedge-type plants with a sweetish scent and pretty white flowers in rows, sorta like tiny foxgloves. They are all about 2 feet tall right now, but will get upwards to 10 feet tall and 3 feet wide if not more unless shorn. I also bought a pile of dirt, as we have reddish claylike crap with gravel right now. For behind the deck, I bought 2 trees – sorry, I don’t know what they are offhand – but they have white flowers too, I think, and turn yellow and red in the fall. They should get 10 feet tall and as wide, which is just about perfect to fill up the space we have available. For ground cover around the trees, I bought “steppable” moss, which is a light green color. I also bought some red brick-style edging stones that interlock to keep the dirt off the cement both in the front and backyards, and if I like them well enough, I’m going to use them as borders between my grass and flowerbeds. I can bury them so they’re flush with ground level and then mow over them! Great idea.

The trees are still in their pots, and I have a huge pile of dirt I’ve barely made a dent in, plus all the rocks we dug out in the pots the plants came in. We’re planning to finish tomorrow with the planting, and perhaps the next day I’ll get the edging stuff done.

It looks soooo wonderful!

My car just cost me $850.

Its temperature kept fluctuating badly between 200 and 250 degrees Fahrenheit; we found the coolant system had 2 leaks. One was a hose – cheap and easy to fix. The other was the intake manifold gasket, which requires tearing the engine apart to put in the new piece and then putting it all back together. While they were already charging me $525 in labor, we had them do a system flush, replace the thermostat, and change the oil as well.

Now my car is happy and I am broke. *pout*

Today George and I took in our first baseball game together as PGE Park in Portland hosted “Bark in the Park,” a day dogs are allowed to attend a Portland Beavers (San Diego Padres AAA farm team) baseball game. We met my friend, Jen, and her dog, Vader, at the game as well as countless other new humans and canines. George was well received.

Highlights from the trip:

• Dual raincoats (It rained. So much that they rain-delayed the game).
• $9.00 beer and $5.75 bratwurst. At least the seat was only $8.00.
• Handling George’s business outside the ballpark.
• Getting told by a perfect stranger that George should be in the movies because he has such a cute face.
• Peanuts!

My household may not function as a typical household on a daily basis, but sometimes we break down and normalize.

Today’s spring cleaning day; we rented a carpet cleaner and did the entire vaccuumable floor (like, right now there’s no furniture in the living room) – the water was naaaaasty. We also did mass dusting and washed the walls, kickboards, and cleaned the blinds. Once all the living room furniture is off the kitchen floor, we’re moving everything in there and mopping, as well as in the bathrooms and the washroom/laundry room.

George is freaking out. He keeps pacing and looking longingly at all of the inaccessible furniture in the kitchen. Just wait ’til later when we finish his haircut – he hates those.

Wish me luck! – We have 2 candidates coming in tomorrow and 2 more Thursday, which means I’m not getting hardly any work done either afternoon. Myself and our plant manager will be conducting the initial interviews; once we narrow the playing field a bit, our CEO and COO will sit in on the 2nd interview, and hopefully we’ll make our decision soon thereafter. And hopefully they’ll work out.

As for me and my new position (physically as well; I moved to the other desk), I am doing well. Although I’m certainly not looking for things to do, I’m not swamped either. I’m enjoying myself and “settling in.” Many have asked if I get lonely in the room all alone, but I really haven’t yet – I get wrapped up in my work when I’m focused, I have music, people walk in and out all day (I’m also a main hallway in the plant), I have plenty to keep me busy, and I get along fine by myself. Sometimes I prefer it.

PS – Thanks to my family and friends who have congratulated me and wished me well during this newish venture. Such a strong support system is a rare and beautiful gift.

Work has been anything but ordinary the last, ohhh, say month, month and a half or so.

Last month almost every piece of equipment we use on a daily basis was modified (for the better) in some way, which means each had to be re-calibrated to align properly with the print gods. I met with 4 different technicians and talked to another 3 on the phone. On top of that, some of our materials were discontinued and we had to find different vendors and learn to use the new stuff.

This month, my supervisor quit. her last day was yesterday. We are hiring, so if you’re interested in production artistry with some design work, please see our posting for a graphics associate on craigslist. Until we find someone, however, I’m by myself in a 2-person department. *shrug* Oh well; my philosophy is that I can only accomplish so much today, and the rest I’ll do tomorrow. What’s more nerve-racking is the prospect of someone new. I’m going to be the head of the department so-to-speak, and I’m going to be showing someone new the ropes. Hopefully we find someone that works out well; I don’t want to have a new person every two weeks for months. The good news is that all of my coworkers say my patient nature makes me a good teacher, so perhaps things will go well. That and I got a raise! – guess I’m doing something right. *grin*

Wish me luck!

This DVD should be shown in every high school across the planet. Scratch that; every household.

An Inconvenient Truth has no political agenda. Its no wild left-wingist, ultra tree-hugger, everyone should be hippies film. It IS a presentation of factual evidence cataloging our hasty demise through the destruction of nature. Al Gore does a terrific job of presenting scientific data in an easy to understand, very impactful manner while forming a bond with the audience and addressing all of the reasons people discount global warming. And although this film left a deep, sorrowful, emotional impact on me, it also left me with a feeling of hope because as he mentions, we have ALL of the technology now to reduce our environmental impact to below what it was in the 1970s. We are capable of saving the planet starting today, and for our future’s sake, we need to.

Critics of the global-warming “theory” – watch this film. Parents – watch this film. Children – watch this film. Politicians – watch this film. Environmentalists – watch this film. If you anticipate being alive in the next 35-50 years – watch this film. EVERYBODY – watch this film!