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The rain post worked! I now have a (very) full rain barrel. Perhaps I should have gotten two and linked them. *grin*

All the company has come and gone; it’s just us now. It was fun while it lasted, but I have white dog hair everywhere. (I love my cockapoo – no shedding! Just incontinence and a wheelchair and deafness and daily medication and…)

The composter is eating my grass clippings, newspaper, and (meager) kitchen scraps. It highlights just how few “greens” we eat when I’ve pondered taking a compost bucket to work (where I eat one to two fruits per day, plus tea bags. And so do a lot of coworkers in “my area.” Hey, they fill the can recycling and I profit. *shrug* Why not something else?) But I digress…our kitchen scraps are usually eggshells and their carton, a fruit rind or two, sunflower or pumpkin seed shells, and occasionally a partial onion or pepper. We are mostly *gasp* lean red meat  or chicken carnivores with the occasional pork or turkey substitution. Dairy (in the form of milk, yogurt, and real cheese – not that processed cheese food shit) and carbohydrates (cereals and sourdough bread) are big in our house, too. And beans (baked beans, refried beans, pork ‘n beans). We like our bean sides.

Now that you’re either totally grossed out and/or totally amazed that we’re still alive and in moderate health, I’ll tell you I fell in love with Diesel, a white pit mix at the shelter. He’s a little underfed – his ribs and backbone stick out painfully – but he is a smart fellow with a fair amount of training. Good on a leash. Knows “sit,” “lie down,” and “shake.” Doesn’t respond all that well to his name but sometimes we rename them if we don’t know their names. I can’t take him home, but one lucky family is going to just love him to pieces. Hopefully he’s already gone!

This week has been really busy…we currently have 7 people and 3 dogs staying here right now as Handsome’s dad and 2 dogs (Jerry and Bogey) are here as well as Havok’s sister and sister’s boyfriend.

We are one big happy crew right now, but we still don’t have as many as Lilymane!

Ahhh, smell the accomplishment!

So my rain post didn’t accumulate any rain, but it did allow me to work outside for the rest of the afternoon.

I got one of the rose bushes relocated (keep your fingers crossed it survives!) to not only a better location for me but also a nicer, sunnier location for it. Then I filled the hole and put the composter in its old location on the side of the house and filled started it with the compost material I had been acquiring in preparation. Hopefully by the end of the summer I have both a happy rose bush and new dirt!

I also weeded in my flower bed, which REALLY needed it. I had have an infestation of some as of yet undetermined weed that is fairly small and easy to pull yet populates faster and more efficiently than a bunny/guppy cross. I cleared about 1/2 of the bed this afternoon, and with my previous effort only have about 1/4 left. But then I also have another area to weed as well.

I didn’t make any progress on the actual lawn clearing, but I did set up an appointment for a free (yay!) onsite consultation from a professional retaining wall builder for Tuesday afternoon. I’m very excited, except to see the price tag. I have a lot of ideas and a very complex sloping lawn, and I need both expertise and advice. Hopefully he provides both. For cheap.

I can’t believe after 6 months of gloom and rain I’m now hoping for more, even as every other bone in my body is screaming for nice spring weather, but I have an empty fully-functional rain barrel, so rain already!

See the pics!

My aunt got her results back and they are very positive! The kidney is worth keeping, the stones are lodged so they will probably stay put, and there’s no indication that the good kidney is in any danger!

Yay!

Happy St. Patty’s Day!

1. I play video games.
2. I can sleep in on the weekends.
3. My dog is my child.
4. I live with roommates.
5. I rarely eat meals at regular times.
6. My schedule varies so widely that I try to avoid things that need regularity.
7. My ideal morning starts around 10am.
8. I do not have any flowered wallpaper in my house.
9. My family and coworkers still refer to me as “Kid.”
10. Older people don’t always understand my lingo.

1. I’m excited to go to the Home & Garden Show this weekend.
2. I have been for about 2 weeks.
3. I went to bed last night (a Friday) at 9:48pm.
4. I like to read the *gasp* actual physical newspaper.
5. Teenagers are looking younger and younger to me.
6. I don’t like the latest fashion or much of the latest music.
7. I cannot text faster than 20wpm.
8. I enjoy puttering around in my yard.
9. I take vitamins.
10. I play the stock market.

Big steps in the garden process: secured 55 gallon rain barrel and related pieces; started tearing up sod in the general garden area; and started a compost pile. I must go buy a composter very soon!

Worse than Alone in the Dark. I know it’s hard. But Blindness was terrible.

It’s about a worldwide blindness epidemic where the afflicted see all white instead of all black. Julianne Moore stars as the only person immune to the disease.

At first, the blind few are quarantined, and armed guards are posted around an otherwise completely unsupervised hospital. Conditions get filthier and filthier as the three wards overcrowd with more blind. Moore’s character takes care of them, but she doesn’t make her sight public. Those who get too close to the “outside world” are shot and left for the blind to bury in the small front courtyard. Food is shipped in periodically and one ward takes control and requires payment in the form of money, valuables, and eventually women for food. All the while the ONLY seeing woman allows the blind dictator to rule! Finally she comes to her senses, stabs the man and burns down their ward, which burns down the hospital, which is when they find out that no guards exist anymore and they are free to roam a desolate, blind city; presumably world. She leads a few to her house to live safely and once they are relatively safe in her house, the first infected blind man regains his sight and the people rejoice, assuming their sight will also return. The End.

Sadly, much of the film is shot in low light, total blackness, or total whiteness, presumably to make the viewer feel blind, lost, helpless, and confused. However, it comes off more as poor videography at illogical times (i.e. when we’re following Moore’s character into the basement stock room of a grocery store. She can see; why are we listening to her rummage around in total blackness? Why didn’t she take a flashlight? They’re sure to be in abundance.)

Also, the director inserted random sexual scenes for no apparent reason. A lingering shot of naked woman lying on a bed. A hooker’s sexual engagement previous to her blindness. Blind women in the shower. Then, when the women are raped for food, he chooses to nearly black out the screen during the entire hellish night.

Furthermore, one of the couples is Japanese and their long conversation in Japanese isn’t subtitled. The conversation rambles long enough that much of the content cannot be surmised.

Time is at the very best vague; I would guess somewhere between a few months and a year pass. However, none of the blind gain any skills throughout the movie; they all walk and function as if they’ve been blind mere minutes

The characters acted with complete idiocy and at times large plot holes or inconsistencies became blatantly obvious.

Needless to say, throughout the two-hour movie all of us were groaning and wishing it were over, stating multiple times that it is the worst movie we’ve seen. Thankfully we didn’t pay for it.