Saturday, May 26, 2007

I has a robin! A robin built a nest on my porch (well, just outside of it, but next to the porch door) during a two-day period last week when I didn't go out there. I figured the robin abandoned it once I started using it every day, but no! This morning I looked outside and there was a lady robin sitting on the nest.

determined mother robin

Uh-oh. I opened the door from the house as gently as I could, but she still flew away. I stretched up my arm and took a pic to see if she had laid some eggs already. And look!


and her potentially doomed eggs


{edited to add new, much better macro image of the eggs.}


And here's the nest itself. See how close it is to the door that I use at least a couple of times a day, and usually many times more?


the well-made nest in a foolish place


I am worried that I am going to scare her off with all of my comings and goings, and her eggs will die. It's a lot of pressure! Luckily for my conscience, robins aren't exactly an endangered species...

Monday, May 21, 2007

I have been keeping this on Twitter, but now I will tell you all: I got a bad poison ivy rash last Sunday (woke up with it on Monday morning) and I've been feeling like a troll ever since. Actually, that's not entirely true: It stopped itching so distractingly after a few days, so by Thursday I felt a lot better. The nasty-looking rash remains, however, and new tiny patches keep appearing. I don't know what to do except keep using the special soaps and creams, and my nightly sacrifice to the gods to deliver me from vegetative Satan. Last week I printed out some photos of poison ivy so I could go hunting for it around the outside of my house. Yesterday I may have found one. I pulled it out using an inside-out baggie as though I were picking up dog shit. And then I scrubbed my hands and arms like in Silkwood and burned everything I had been wearing. Well, not really, but I've done many loads of laundry. I was wearing a pair of leather sneakers when I supposedly got the first bad exposure, and I don't know how to wash them. I am considering throwing them away, which would hurt me and my thrifty nature.

I also did a bit more work on my garden plot, and I am now at full capacity. It's hard to stop! I was thinking of putting in some broccoli and eggplant, but I'd have to dig into virgin soil to get more room. I need to stop.

Random note: If you've got a small spot on your wood floor that needs cleanser, don't use Pledge, unless you'd like to turn that section of floor into an ultra-slippery skating rink. In fact, it would be better to not make the mess in the first place, though that would require going back in time and deciding that after midnight and a couple of drinks isn't the best time for cutting your cat's rear claws. I never thought the bleeding would stop, but miraculously it did, after about ten minutes of horror and guilt...

Monday, May 14, 2007

I've joined Twitter. If you want to keep tabs on me, let me know and I'll invite you or whatever I need to do. It's fun! (If you don't know what Twitter is, there's this great site called "Google" you might want to look into it.)

Also, I got my first check from the art-o-mat people! The modest check came with an Activity Report listing how many pieces I've sold and where. I sold 10 at a museum in Sacramento CA, 5 at Faces (step it up, local people!), 5 at a museum in North Carolina, 5 at a museum in Charleston S.C., and 10 pieces at the Whitney. I repeat: I sold 10 pieces of my artwork at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Awesome. The art-o-mat people asked for 50 more pieces to sell. I think I'd be able to finish them within three years, this time around...

Friday, May 11, 2007

We got the tiller to work. It's a beast. Old and greasy with hot stinky breath and dull teeth. It wants to just go skittering across the top of the ground, so to make it actually bite into the soil, you have to hold on and lean back to keep it in one place. It's like wrestling with an angry badger who'd enjoy chewing your toes off, if only you could let them slip a little further underneath... Anyway, I did till my entire plot, which is about 8 feet by 12 feet (totally guessing). And then I spent an hour and a half raking through the soil to sift out the big weed clumps and root systems. It was dusk and the black flies were out and swarming excitedly all over my sweaty body. Apparently there are black flies in this state; you just have to get into the woods for them to really party. They seem to like to slice off the top layer of skin and lap at the blood, leaving behind an itchy red welt (as opposed to the pink welt of a mosquito). So focused and OCD-ish was I that I couldn't stop sorting out the weeds from the dirt to go home and spray myself with Off. Instead I kept smearing my arms, face and neck with dirt, which didn't really help with the flies but made me feel kind of Survivor-ish. Now my legs are covered with red spots and bruises and I look like a ten-year-old at summer camp.

Tonight my apres-work plan is to garden: add composted manure, make mounded rows, plant what I've bought already, and cover everything with mulch. I am already tired from two nights in a row of bad sleep. It's been humid and sticky, plus my brain wants to hurt me by not shutting off. Pray for me, my people. I know you're out there even though you never comment.

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Another short post:

My local peer group gathers to play an informal game of baseball at a park every Sunday afternoon. It's been happening for at least three years now. They call it the Hangover League or something... I tried playing with them back when only a few people would show up, and let me tell you: baseballs are very hard. Like, even when you manage to hit one with a bat — even though there's a big wooden stick between you and the ball — it will hurt your hands. And once when I was pitching, the batter hit a grounder and it popped up and hit me in the kneecap, making me queasy and faint from the pain for a few minutes.

I would only participate in this if it were softball, ideally put on in this manner, but stoned-optional.
Thanks to defective yeti for linking to one of my favorite Mr. Show sketches, The Story of Everest. It makes me laugh so hard that I sputter and gibber and spitfle and gerhurk. I have this on DVD, and in the commentary they tell the story of how the increasingly-impatient audience had to just sit there and wait while the crew set everything up again, which took like 10 minutes each time. Hee hee!

Friday, May 04, 2007

Trying to keep busy from feeling broken-hearted again. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Trying to stay positive, and luckily it's gorgeous outside. Tilling is scheduled to happen tomorrow afternoon; hopefully I won't accidentally till my toes. Going to buy a lot of plants at the farmer's market and get ready to go. Just got a coupon in the mail for Hadley Garden Center, my gardening store of choice, so I'm pretty happy about that. New tires are scheduled to be purchased on Monday after work, so I don't pop a tire on the way to and fro NJ for yet another depressing family obligation. Sigh. At least I have lots of plans for this weekend...