nekosensei

* Blame bottledgoose. It's all her fault.

* Called an arborist to come and look at my two ailing pine trees, which seem to have some kind of borer. They'll be stopping by sometime next week to look at all the trees. [Scratch that....they're coming tomorrow]. I'm hoping they can save the pines because they make a good hiding place for birds. And having bug-eating birds hanging around is a good thing considering the fact that my garden is nearby. They'll control whatever likes to nibble on my plants. Also, I'm thinking that, if they can't be saved, then I'll call a tree removal company that will turn them into wood chips. That way, I can at least use the wood chips to control some of the weeds I have growing back there. Keep your fingers crossed that I can save them though, because they are pretty firs and I'm kind of partial to them.

* That brings me to my garden. Last year I had a huge problem with "something" nibbling on my garden. I was weeding and turning over the soil this weekend and disturbed a nest of red ants. I asked my next door neighbor, who is very knowledgeable about gardening and who was out at the time, if they would be a problem. He said that usually ants are a negative. He told me to put some coffee grounds out there and that should kill off a lot of the problem bugs. The caffeine kills the harmful bugs and, at the same time, is good for night crawlers, which make the soil richer. doomsey left me some of his coffee grounds from breakfast this morning-- I can't drink caffeinated coffee-- and I put them out there this afternoon.

* On my way out to the garden, I heard some rustling by the garage. Turned out it was a garter snake who was out sunning himself. He saw me coming and then slid into a crack by the garage. I love garter snakes. Do you think doomsey would get too pissed off if I kept one as a pet? :)

On second thought, scratch that. I would have to feed them crickets and other bugs. Crickets tend to squick me out. I could probably handle mealy worms though...

* The road construction on my way to work is turning people into assholes. I had not one but two people refuse to let me merge onto the expressway. (grumbles) Also, the exit where I usually get off-- which is already very difficult to navigate because you have to move over two lanes in order to get off-- has been made impossible to navigate with all the road horses they put up. I damn near clipped someone trying to figure out where my lane was and how to get off at the exit...in the dark. At first I thought they had narrowed it down to one lane because of the construction. I was wrong. I hope the guy behind me forgives me for the fright I must have given him. :(

So yeah, I think I'm going to get off at a different, much simpler exit from now on. They way they've got it set up makes it kind of dangerous.

The server holding my email is down, so I probably won't be able to read any of my emails until tomorrow morning at the earliest. What a pain in the ass! Let's hope that the computer it's on just needs re-started and that it doesn't need any other work. Otherwise, I will be email-less for a couple of days.

This morning I studied for German class. Then, in the afternoon fuzzyscribble and samcallahan showed up so that doomsey could help fuzzyscribble with her computer. It turned out that the poor computer died a horrible death. Fortunately, doomsey was able to pull off all the data that she needed. fuzzyscribble and samcallahan also brought their dog, Re-run, who is a Beagle Coon Hound mix. He's an adorable dog. Anyhow, they put him on a tie-down in the backyard so he wouldn't traumatize my cats too much. Don't worry! He wasn't neglected for too long. samcallahan and I sat outside with him for a while while doomsey and fuzzyscribble worked on the computer.

I also got some time today to do some reading, go for a walk with doomsey, and knit. I am four rows from being finished with the hat I'm making for doomsey! Aside from the computer server blowing up, it was a pleasant day.

* doomsey and I went to Sam's house last night. We ate pizza and watched the new Miyazaki movie, Ponyo. Very cute. I highly recommend it.

* Today I looked out the window and saw a hawk sitting on our fence. I went outside and took pictures. I was surprised at how close he let me get to him. Some of the pictures turned out beautifully. I'll have to post them later. (I also got some cool hawk pictures on my walk through the snow on Thursday).

* I've had hard palpitations last night and again today. Seriously not happy. They're PACs (Premature Atrial Contractions) so they're harmless, but it's still uncomfortable. Anybody have any ideas of how to get rid of them? I'm at a point where I'm ready to pour myself a couple of stiff drinks...

-- Oops! I managed to kill off my first eggs on Dragon Cave. Heh heh. Whoopsie!

I think part of the problem is that, while I have been reading my friends list, I haven't been writing very many posts. With the exception of the picture-a-day project, I've been posting memes and updates from LoudTwitter.

-- Here's something that I meant to write about last week, but never got around to. On Easter Sunday, my family and I starting joking around about what toys we wanted relatives to bring us when we were old and living in a nursing home. My brother-in-law said that he wanted toy dinosaurs. I guess I have expensive tastes because I told them that I would like a wii, and I would also like to take up something like World of Warcraft. I could just imagine this conversation going down:

Nurse: Okay, neko, it's time to take your meds.
Me: Not now! I'm on a raid with the guy in Room 116!!!

-- This weekend, doomsey went downstate to go to a friend's dissertation defense. Since he was there for two days, I was left to my own devices on Friday and part of Saturday. All last week, I had a major craving for chilaquiles and horchata, so on Friday night, I went to the local Mexican joint and picked some up for dinner. Most importantly, it had meat! That's something I don't get so much of anymore since doomsey is a vegetarian. Well...actually he's a pescatarian since he will eat fish, but details details. By the way, I like calling him a pescatarian because the first syllable sounds like pest. Tee hee! :)

On Saturday, I took advantage of the beautiful weather (it was in the seventies) and turned over the soil in my vegetable garden. I'm looking forward to planting things in May. I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to be growing yet, but I'm definitely going to get some more tomato plants. Fresh, home-grown tomatoes are divine! Poblano peppers and cilantro would also be nice, but I'm going to have to see how much room I'm going to have out there. By the way, doomsey mentioned that forestdruid had some plants for me to look at...

After I finished the garden, I started mowing the lawn. I figured that doomsey wouldn't have much time to do it when he got back because a) we were going to Doctor Who night that evening and b) we were supposed to get rain over the next three days. That, and the backyard really needed mowing. I was also hoping to surprise dooms. Anyhow, doomsey pulled up while I was mowing, and he thought it would be cute to sneak up behind me and tap my shoulder in order to get my attention. He did this to me twice, and each time I practically jumped out of my skin because I couldn't hear him coming. The last time he did it I yelled, "don't DO that!" loudly. I'm sure my neighbor, who was out planting flowers, got a real kick out of the whole exchange.

Later that afternoon, doomsey and I headed over to blondibritecake's house for Doctor Who night. That evening's theme was the Master, who is one of my favorite Doctor Who villains, by the way, probably because I find the giggly evil types amusing.

*checks non-existent watch on her wrist*
Oh my, look at the time! Off to bed. See you guys in the morning!

doomsey rocks! He managed to recover the pictures from the corrupted card. Yes! I can post the original pictures for my picture-a-day meme!

The last few days have been enjoyable. On Christmas Eve, we had dinner at forestdruid's mother's house. As always, the food was delicious. Christmas Day was at my parents' house. My dad dressed up as Santa Claus and gave presents to my nieces. This year, Emma did not cry in Santa Claus' lap. Initially, she was afraid of him, but once she saw that she was getting presents, she was as happy as a clam. My parents also think that she might have suspected that Santa was her grandfather, so we're going to start changing around who plays the role. It looks like I'll be playing Santa next year. Tee hee! Sounds like fun. :)

I also got a lot of nice presents this year. My parents got me Charmed Knits, which is a book of knitting patterns for Harry Potter fans. I also got two classic Doctor Who DVDs: "The Hand of Fear" and "The Invasion of Time." My sister got me a cute kitty cat t-shirt.

Oh...I also brought the stuff that I baked earlier this week. The fudge was such a hit that it disappeared before dessert. Yeah...we have a lot of chocoloholics in the family. I kind of felt bad for bringing it though because my dad ate a couple of pieces. He really shouldn't be doing that because his blood sugar has been high. I did bring him some angel food cake and strawberries sweetened with Splenda for him to eat so that he wasn't eating all kinds of sugared stuff.

Also, I inherited my great-grandmother's cookbook. (Said great-grandmother came to America from Germany. She lived in a tenement not far from UIC when my dad was a kid. Allegedly, her coffee cakes were legendary). Originally, doomsey and I were going to scan it and give it back to my folks, but my dad can't eat sugared stuff anymore. doomsey and I put it in a safe place, and hopefully, we're going to start scanning some of the recipes soon. I would love to see if I can resurrect some of her coffee cake recipes. I just have to keep in mind that a) cups back then were six ounces and not eight and b) eggs were smaller then. Either I'm going to have to find regular eggs or I'm just going to have to monkey with the recipe and use less egg.

We left my parents' house in the early afternoon and headed over to see doomsey's folks. There, we had spice cake and watched Die Hard 3. My mother-in-law gave us our Christmas present yesterday. It was a new cushion for our papasan, which annoyed doomsey because, according to him, there was nothing wrong with the one that we had. (doomsey has been a curmudgeon this year because he keeps complaining about getting Christmas presents. He claims that he doesn't want more "stuff"). I don't think it's that big of a deal. I'm sure we can freecycle the old cushion.

Anyhow, we're celebrating Hannukah tomorrow with doomsey's family, so there should be even more festivities. I think almeda is also going to teach me how to crochet.

Let's see. What did we do this weekend?

Friday evening, we went out to dinner with doomsey's family.

On Saturday, we went to the barbecue for doomsey's work. His boss has an in-ground pool so, towards the end of our stay there, we played pool volleyball. During one of the games we played, I was directly in front of the person serving getting ready to volley. Her serve ended up bouncing off my head and over the net. Everyone practically died laughing. It was hysterical. Unfortunately, it didn't count as a point. I think it should have. :)

After the barbecue, doomsey and I went to my parents' house to fix their computer. They picked up a computer virus that turned their machine into a spambot. They didn't notice until someone at AT&T cut off their modem. doomsey made sure that their computer was free of viruses and that the modem was back up and working.

Sunday morning, we went met up with some friends who came in from out of town and had breakfast at Egg Harbor Cafe. In the afternoon, doomsey, his family, and I headed over to the Kane County Cougar's game. The game itself was boring because I loathe watching sports, but I enjoyed some of the antics from the crowd and on the field in between innings. I spent most of the game poking fun at the event on Twitter or knitting. I got a lot of work done on my baby blanket. Oh...I also had an opportunity to compete on a Karoake contest, but ended up blowing it because of indecisiveness. (I didn't think any of the songs suited my voice well. My voice has changed since the PE, and I have a hard time singing rock songs. I'm much better at musicals). By the time I had made up my mind, the slot had been filled. And I definitely would have beat the guy who signed up before I would have. His singing was atrocious, probably because he had a bit too much to drink.

For dinner, we went to a new tapas restaurant that opened up in Wheaton about three weeks ago. It's called Cafe Galicia. The service was good and the food was excellent. I'm glad we stopped there because it turns out that judygs had never had tapas before.

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This one is a no brainer. It would definitely be doomsey.

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I blame forestdruid and doomsey for introducing me on LJ in February of 2004. And the rest is history. After that, they couldn't get me to shut the hell up. :)