Since I’ve been using Twitter, I haven’t posted here much lately. Funny how that happens. Not much is new, really. After some of my flowers died, I braved it and bought some more and planted those. We’ll see how that pans out. I’m giving serious thought to hiring a landscaper next year, and just starting from scratch. Then again, I would like to do something that I can be proud of and be able to say yeah, I did that! Also, we really need to start saving up for the wedding. That seems like such an impossible thing to do sometimes. Eh.

So I have one more night… I close tonight, and then I’m off until Monday! I need this three day weekend, I really do. We decided that since we have a house now, we’re having a cookout. Twelve or so people will be coming tomorrow around six to tear up my house celebrate the 4th with us. Our community park is having a festival and fireworks Friday night, that I hope will be visible from our backyard. Not sure what we’re making yet, besides the usual burgers and dogs. Gotta make up the menu tonight and go to the store early tomorrow morning after the dog park. Yeah, I’m getting smart about this. Take him for a walk, to the dog park, or both, and tire him out so I can get things done around here. Otherwise, he’s following me everywhere and at my feet. Which, ok I admit, is cute. Ha! So that’s that. Hope everyone has a safe and fun holiday! 

So the community we moved to has a website with a forum/message board type thing where you can post just about anything. People talk about anything from politics, to the city, to posting info about coming events. It’s basically a free-for-all ongoing conversation around town, and a good medium to get to know your neighbors, etc. Anyway, a post caught my attention the other day that is still bugging me.

Hey everyone, I have two cats that I love very much, but… recently they’ve started peeing in our house (at least one of them has). It’s not all the time, but frequent enough to where it’s become a problem because of my 17 month old daughter. The vet says unfortunately it’s nothing physical, like a UTI. He says the only option outside of putting them down is trying to find a new home for them. He said often he finds when cats change homes they don’t have these tendencies in the new environment.

Really? A vet actually said that, over a behavioral problem? I’m gonna have to call bullshit on this. I know how frustrating this problem can be as I’ve had to deal with it before, but I’ve had animals all my life, and have been to a few different vets. NONE of them would ever say something like that. An animal with a medical problem, that is suffering and has a diminished quality of life, well that’s completely different. But this is a behavioral problem that the owners just don’t want to “deal with.” And I know this will garner many eye rolls, but my animals are like children to me. Would someone put a kid down because they urinated somewhere they shouldn’t have? NO.

I’m so mad that I can’t post on the boards yet (waiting for admin to approve my registration), and the person doesn’t give an email in their profile. Either the vet they went to doesn’t have the compassion to help the owners figure something out, or the owner is lying about the vet saying that, is just regretting taking the cats in and wants an easy way out. Forgot to mention, she says the cats were strays until about two years ago. She also claims that she called every shelter around here, and no one will take them - which is also bull because I personally know the people at the shelter we got Leo from, and they will take any animal that comes to them. Anyway, this just bugs me. Animals are not disposable. Get a second opinion, research the problem, take them to a cat rescue, SOMETHING. Don’t end its life just because you “can’t handle it anymore.”

This is a post for the gardeners and flower lovers out there. I think I’ve killed my flower bed. I thought I was doing everything right, but alas, most of the flowers I planted have been wilting to a pitiful death over the past two weeks. I didn’t take a “before picture”, but the pic below is the after. I thought it turned out really nice.

When we moved into this house back in February, the flower bed was already here, so I had no idea what would be coming up. There are four hostas that are doing great, not a dead spot among them. The bigger section of the bed had four small evergreens, a gigantic fern, coral bells (that are doing fine), a few other things I couldn’t identify, and more weeds than I’ve ever seen in such a small space. One weekend, my mom came over and helped us dig up two of the evergreens, the weeds, the fern and some other things. I planted gerbera daisies in several colors, New Guinea impaitens, a big yellow thing and some dusty miller to accent. We mulched, we watered, I talked to them. Most of them are dying. 

Should I have done something to the existing soil and mulch first? After we got the weeds out, I churned up the mulch and soil, and picked out the bits that looked bad before planting the new stuff. Should I have added new potting soil? I’m new to the whole gardening thing so maybe I should’ve done some research on this before even starting the project. We’re out about $70 in plants and that pretty sierra red mulch that I’ve always wanted. I dug up the impaitens and transferred them to a big planter on the porch, because I think they were getting too much sun. The actual flowers are looking good and starting to bloom again, but leaves are looking pretty horrible. (I forgot to mention, the bed gets full sun from about 11am to about 4pm)

Since it’s the end of June, is it too late to dig it all up and start over? I don’t know how to save what I have, if that’s even possible. I know the flowerbed wasn’t taken care of for at least a year (the kid that we bought the house from lived here that long, and didn’t touch the flower bed). So who knows what kind of shape the soil underneath was in. I’m going to take a trip to our local nursery on Thursday and talk to someone about what I should do next, but any tips would be great, if you have any! I’m at a loss. 

Despite me being all pms’y and having some unwarranted crying fits (love being a woman), this weekend was really fun. Yesterday, we went to Kings Island amusement park in Mason with some friends, and had a blast. I’ve never been a big fan of roller coasters (or rides in general, because I’m a big chicken), but they got me to ride some. Ok, really it wasn’t a big deal since they were mostly kid rides because the girl we went with brought her 9yr old sister, but I did ride the one that used to be called The Italian Job with the mini-cooper cars. Um yeah, NOT a kid coaster. That sucker was fast. But fun! I also got a little too much sun, but I’ll live. We left just in time for a thunderstorm to move through, and thank God because the lightning was crazy.

Today we finally made it to the dog park! First time, and I have to say it was also a blast. Leo had so much fun being around other dogs and running and playing. I got a few pictures, and they’re up on flickr now if anyone wants to have a look. There’s a dog we met that I swear could be related to Leo. Their coloring was so similar, but she’s a husky/something else mix. She also has one blue eye and one brown eye, very pretty and sweet girl. Actually, all the dogs were great together. Leo got loved on by children and adults, and made over and given compliments on his eyes and how soft he is, blah blah blah. It’s truly sickening. He’s such a ladies man, but he plays all the angles lol. Con artist, I’m telling you. But he’s sleeping now thank God, and mama can go outside and plant the lilies she bought this morning so yay for that!

The sun is out, it’s not too hot, and it’s just gorgeous. I’m not a big amusement park fan, but we’re going to Kings Island today with some friends that got free tickets from their work. If we don’t stay all day (and I hope we don’t), I’m also going to try to go flower shopping again. My New Guinea Impaitens didn’t like where I put them, and have died off slowly. Someone told me that they’ll make it if I transfer them to a pot and put them on the porch out of direct sun, so I’ll try that. I’d like to find some daylilies to fill in the flowerbed, and also to put by the mailbox. We’ll see how the day goes.

On a site-related note, I found the coffee girl at iStock and had to make a layout with her. This is the first time I’ve designed my site in a few years (first time with EE, at that), so if anything is wonky or otherwise just ugly, let me know! I was definitely out of practice, as I had to use the net to find basic CSS properties many times over the past few days lol. I don’t have categories right now, because I think I’m going to try the tagging system. Anyway, that’s that. Have a good weekend! 

I don’t know how, but I made it through the week (which is another post altogether, so I’ll save it for later). I came home from work today, eager to work on my site because I have a new look to put up, and figured I’d play around with it while making dinner… however, I’m missing about four things I need for said dinner. So some parts of the site will have completely different layouts while I make a grocery run. Oops. Happy Friday!