Drive-by post
I have real content planned soon, I promise.
State of the cat: He has discovered that there is catnip hung to dry in the refrigerator. When I open the door, he tries to get in. Now I worry that he will pry open the door, as he pries open the cabinets.
I have acquired a cat-sitter to stop by when I'm at Readercon. Yes, I have given my keys and alarm code to a stranger, based on recommendations from Angie's List. WHAT THE HELL.
CAT JUST CRASHED INTO THE WINDOW OVER THE DESK SO HARD I THOUGHT HE BROKE IT. Holy crap. Some days I hate my little beast.
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State of the Barbarienne: I have two post drafts under my-eyes-only that I didn't post because it was a lot of whining on the theme of "Having systemic arthritis sucks!" Which it does, particularly during a big flare. (Also, he had started me on a medication that had some bad psychological side effects--I love living under the pointy end of bell curve!--so we stopped those.) But that seems to have settled down in the last few weeks, and I met with the doctor today and he was very positive about the last round of bloodwork. It remains day-to-day and I'm never sure how many spoons I have, but I have more spoons lately than just a few months ago, so that is something.
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State of the garden: Something attacked and ate most of my fuckton of basil. I was willing to let that go, maybe, but then they started on the catnip, which is SO NOT HAPPENING. I have upgraded from organic bug spray to pyrethrin. Fuck that noise, I want those bugs DEAD. But I limited it to use on the herbs, so as not to interfere with the pollinators on the tomatoes and string beans.
The string beans have lots and lots of flowers! As do the tomatoes. I may have crops in a few weeks!
The tomatoes are funny--they're not getting all that tall, but they are getting wide. But here's the interesting bit--they are self-bracing! By which I mean in a couple of places where a branch grew out and up to the side, another branch developed as a cross-beam bracing it so it doesn't fall over. The cross-beam branch reached out and curled around the main branch to hold it. Very cool!