So much for doing a little each day. It just ain’t happening. At the end of the weekday for most of the past three weeks I’ve been either Facebooking, reading the Poldark series (starting on book four soon!), drinking beer, playing solitaire, hanging out on the front porch with the boys, or going to bed early. I spent a couple of good weekends at the studio, though.
Yesterday I got serious about cleaning up the house and yard and while it is still a hot mess, the kitchen is clean, the front porch is mostly clean, and some of the yard is cleaned up. I bought a lettuce seed mix and green peas and sugar snap peas to plant, as well as a few other seeds for later. Since the next door neighbor absentee landlord finally came through and cut down the jungle in the front, I might have a sunny patch for a while on the south side of the front yard and I’m considering adding an herb garden there, at least until they let it grow up and block the sun again. (Who called the city? Not me, I swear. I don’t do that, but my neighbors down the street have done it to others so I suspect that they did.) Susanne and I plan to put it a garden in the back yard of the studio house also.
I’m going to try to get it together about eating healthy again. I actually got down to 179.8 on the scale a couple of weeks ago, stepped off, did a double take and rechecked it. I haven’t seen the south side of 180 for a long, long time. Then I went on a food and drinking binge, partly because of my birthday but mostly because I didn’t want to think about reality, and gained a few pounds back. I don’t care about my weight so much but the cholesterol is something I have to get under control because I’m getting pressure to go on statins. It may be that I won’t be able to get it under control, but I’m going to stay on the niacin until June, and then if it hasn’t made a difference I’ll do the statins for a little while to get it down. Trying to do better about my vitamins too, since I have a D deficiency.
Bright spots: the weather has been wonderful. Sunny weekends with high in the 70s. I love my new hair cut. I bought a new mattress and I am sleeping much better. Sandy took me out to Blue Moon Oyster Bar and I ate some of the best scallops I’ve ever eaten. I’ve had some fun times with friends.
The cats are loving the front porch. Miss Penny from across the street most definitely does NOT approve. She considers all the porches on this street her territory, and it was bad enough that we blocked her access by screening it, but now there are TOMCATS on it. She stalks around growling, howling, yowling, and attacking the screen. Diego, the alpha cat, is terrified of her. Pablocito, my puppy cat, is curious but staying the hell away.
(click through to see the video on Flickr)
Theo, my old geezer who is constantly bullied by the younger two cats actually stepped up to the plate and took her on (although with a screen in between; I wouldn’t have allowed it otherwise). Then he went after Diego! I wrote this from Theo’s point of view.
Theo to Pablocito and Diego: “Step aside, children. You think I’m an old geezer but I haz combat skills you can’t imagine. I did time in the muthafuckin’ shelter. I got the ears to prove it. Go hide, you pussies. I got this.”
Theo, badass feline, goes head to head with Penny and her attack fails. She runs off in evil shame.
Of course, there was a screen between them.
Theo to Diego: “You still wanna piece of me, son? It’s go time.”
There is no screen between them.
Diego runs.
Unfortunately it was back to business as usual with the cats this morning.
Susanne is here in the studio and I’m ready to get started. I did have some artistic progress in the last few weeks and here’s some proof.
Since I don’t seem to be getting around to updating the blog very often, I’ll mention that my 12th blogiversary is coming up soon. Maybe I’ll get a post up, but I wrote about the history of the blog a couple of posts ago, so maybe I’ll skip it this year.
