Thinkingthinkingthinking...

Aloe was given a quick appraisal this past weekend...I brought in everybody but the Big Boys and set them on the worktable, where surprisingly Figaro has been only wandering amidst, not attempting to chew on...good thing too, since I'm unaware of just how caustic they might be to her...better look that up ASAP and see if I need to be covering them too.

Crap, checked the ASPCA website and will be probably moving the plants back outside, so don't worry about Fig...last thing I want is another anorexic cat. Shit. Really liked having a porch you could move on. Ah well...as it is, I'll transplant them outside provided I still have a porch when I get the supplies. May see if I can get away with putting one or two plants outside of the front door.

Need to appraise the rest of the house and see what's next. Talking Husby into Windows Home & Student 2007, which will effectively empty every binder in the house if I use it right (OneNote looks like a dream come true for an anal, yet scattered, soul like me.

So what's next?

I want to start some seeds.

1. Weed aloe.
2. Take a count of how many "plants" there are. This is to assess number and manner of giveaways.
3. Give away as much aloe as possible. Subtly suggest to Mom the concept of an aloe grove in their back or side yard (might make a nice selling point when she's trying to unload the house!)
4. Purchase decent almanac. Can anyone tell me if that yellow paperback is still the end-all, be-all of almanacs for gardening, knowing moon phases, etc.?
5. Look online for suggestions on Zone 9 planting schedules.
6. Retrieve supplies from plastic bin on porch, and throw out plastic bin (passed its usefulness point awhile ago).
7. Take a count of your planting containers. Categorize them, measuring their depths. Based on those categorizations, make a list of what seeds you'd like to start.
8. I'm working mainly with plastics here, so irrigation holes are needed in the bottoms of the vessels, as well as some kind of tray set-up for underneath them, so I'm not always dealing with water spillage (especially since I'll be moving them so much, at least in the beginning).
9. Bright idea where irrigation/ventilation is concerned: a plastic grate of some kind inside the container, separating roots from bottom...the roots won't drown, and I won't be creating leaky containers with lots of holes (maybe just a side hole for if the plants get flooded by accident?)

I'm thinking a container for herbs, one for lettuce...still deciding what else. Since lighting is fairly limited in our apartment, I'm thinking of putting the plants under mesh out on the porch during the day (weather permitting), and bringing them in at night. Not ideal, I know, but hey, I'm just starting out and you learn by doing. I'm thinking of keeping the plants on the worktable at night, and covering them with a box setup to keep the cat out. She'll tear up or eat anything before it has a chance to grow, if given the opportunity. Love her to death, but she is NOT the poster kitty for low-maintenance critters. Maybe if I grew her some catnip, she'd leave the other stuff alone? Hey, I can dream...

A great start

I am so happy with myself! Really productive weekend. Wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be...started early afternoon Saturday, digging the boxes out of the dining area and glancing inside them to see what I wanted to go where....then moving the end table and boxes with DVDs, CDs, games, etc. over to the other side of the room by the TV...then creating a foundation for my worktable on the other side of the dining area, situated so that I didn't even have to move the litter boxes...then moving the glass coffee table and boxes so that the easy chair and ottoman could also go in the dining area...so wide open now! Vacuumed as I went...and then Sunday morning, sorted all the paperwork I'd unearthed as a result of the moving so I'd have a clean work surface. Tonight, I finished off the dishes and emptied the fridge of scary food, so the kitchen is clean too. Such a difference!! I keep saying, clean house, clean mind.

New lists

My head is back to planning, planning, planning different things with regard to the apartment. We will definitely renew our lease in April, and if we have any sense, it'll be for another full year, so we might as well get that place more liveable. We live surrounded by boxes and clutter, and after almost-10 years, our curtains consist of a sheet and a beach towel. Yes, we're f-ing lazy, plus the money's always seeming to go toward something else, like food. The beach towel is pretty enough where I'd like to make it into a curtain, put it on a rod at least, but still...

I'm chipping away at the dining room this weekend:
1. Go through boxes, see if anything else can be tossed or Goodwilled.
2. Restack boxes on right side of dining room and recreate worktable.
3. Purge bookshelves again.
4. Purge movie posters of the real junk, consolidate, decrease size of Shawshank board down to quote.
5. "Build" DVD and CD shelves

That's a good start :)

2008

A year for creating stability hopefully. Last May knocked everything so far off its flocking axis, I'm only just now standing on two steady feet again. I still can't believe he's gone.



So it's a new year. Our bank account's still in the hole, but we survived Christmas with no one's feelings hurt significantly, thanks to my bonus. Now it's time to dig out and get stable.



Financially we're in real trouble; have been dealing in cash and prepaid debits since Thanksgiving. We received our first nastygram from the bank around Christmas, threatening to close our account if we don't start depositing funds. Going to hit them at lunchtime with my questions, because I'd really rather not lose an account at so reputable a bank; our credit's in enough trouble.



The only way we're getting out of Florida is if Husby gets working and/or gets assistance. We filed the SS papers, he has a 2nd set to file as well, and he has a pain management appointment next week, where hopefully they'll tweak his meds more, make him more functional. He needs a different regimen, both for pain and depression. I'll prod him in those directions. My job is secure, but I need to create prep folders for both of us in case of emergency. My tenure keeps me confident, but the fact remains that business has been down for 6 months now. Given the economy, it stands to reason any job I went looking for right now would be a pay cut; might as well be prepared.



We'll renew our lease in April (please God, let that be an option!!), probably for a year. I can't stand the idea of continuing to stay in Florida, but we really have no choice, so it's time I accepted it for awhile. Bloom where I'm planted.