Cats-up. Ketsup. Ketchup. Catch-Up.

So, here's what my garden looks like these days... I'm excited! I can't remember what I've planted over in the little planters, but I love to watch them sprout. I can tell for sure that the Crocuses are blooming, and they're going to be yellow, because I can see the flowers that haven't finished growing yet. On the left, I forget what I have planted in the back, but I am excited to see everything together in the spring. I might still put some Dahlias in behind what's already growing, but I'm not sure. I still want to clean up the twigs and other little weeds. Not to mention the other flower beds around the house that I didn't plant--I don't know what they're growing, but stuff is sprouting too!

So, I started shopping at Costco last year. Sometimes it's great. Having an Italian in the house, it's just kind of smart to bring home 1-2 gallons of olive oil at a time. Except they're really awkward to cook with, especially with a semi-gimpy dominant hand. But. I happened to remember that I had a stopper spout like bartenders use. And of course, I'm a bit of a packrat, so I have tons of glass bottles. The first bottle I tried fit perfectly, so I ran it through the dishwasher, stripped the stickers, and behold! Easy to pour EVOO.

So I says to the Italian, "What should I put in here to flavor the oil?"
"Hmmm... How about garlic?"
"Yeah, okay, but... do you really want everything we cook to have garlic taste in it? ...Nevermind, don't answer that question."

Bless His Fishy Heart. So, when we all moved into the big house, way back when, I had a small tragedy. I thought John Snow was going to die... because I didn't take everything out of the aquarium when I moved them, and he uh, well, he got squished. I felt so bad that I broke into tears. Luckily [I suppose?] he didn't die, but since one of his belly fins did get squished, he was unable to swim normally. He would flit from leaf to leaf to stone to leaf, and you could tell how tired it made him. I -just- recently came up with this idea to make him a "handicap accessible" fishy-apartment. I added a tiny castle for him to sleep in. He seems to like it better, but now he's got a bump on one side that I'm guessing is constipation.

So much this. Story of my life. My daily struggle.  I wish I could trust more, and let life unfold. There's so much at play right now, so many details hanging up in the air, and it's both frustrating and really exciting. This is going to be a good year. But more on that later.

Got that Dutes...

or for the lay person, Duty. Meaning, I sit around on the ship and wait for things to break and-or catch on fire. Best way to ruin a weekend, if you want my opinion. But I'm trying not to get up on a soapbox here.

I took this picture halfway through cleaning the wall behind the bed.
ewwwwww....

Aside from wasting most of today, I did have a fairly productive Saturday. My buddy recommended to me the Mr. Clean 'Magic Eraser' and I don't know whether to thank him or hate him... oh, the grossness that came off my walls. So, walls are clean, kitchen is clean, living room tidied but still cluttered, bathroom is cleaned, bedroom is somewhat picked up and I made the bed [but it got slept in again], burnt out light bulbs replaced, and I cleaned the fish tank. Like REALLY cleaned it. Like scooped out the lil fishies and scrubbed that thing. I feel like I did more, but I guess that was really all.

Getting excited for potential moving. Getting scared about getting a 'real job' again. Very much appreciating how wonderful my life has become, even with the military still clutching at my soul, but having someone around who appreciates you and cares about you is a big help. Especially when you can play Cards Against Humanity together and die laughing at the same things. Extensive irony, much? And a 'bad day' culminates with a bottle of the best wine ever and bringing home Diablo 3 on Xbox.

 Obligatory 'cat in a box' pic. If you aren't familiar with Maru, spend a couple minutes [or hours, if you get sucked in] looking him up on youtube. Mr. Bill Apollo is on his way to becoming the American Maru. He hates collars but loves the harness, loves boxes, and will fetch mousies. He's only about six months old right now and already almost as big as Miss Z. So he'll be pretty ginormous one day. Don't mind the geeky mess behind him... boys will be boys.  

PS, upcoming dates to be excited about:
[asap]: Still need to see Captain America
23 April: Lyrid Meteor Shower peaks
16 May: Godzilla hits theatres
23 May: new X-Men movie in theatres

Another Longwinded Nutshell

Greetings, fair readers, assuming you exist. I know I have been very inconsistent with this bloggy-ness-thing. Life happens. Fortunately, I do still take lots of pictures, and duty days of boredom and loneliness are actually a good chance to write, if you want to start doing that glass-half-whatever thing. I have been up and down and dabbling across many fields [as I tend to do], so I'm going to repeat a previous format and see how it goes. This promises to be long-winded, so by all means feel free to skip to the parts that interest you.

 

Yarn Stuffs:

I finally got ballsy and decided to see exactly how much I knitted and crocheted while on deployment. This is the result. I'm not sure I'm quite ready to start putting the blanket together yet, and I'm actually starting to get a little nervous about how many various qualities, textures, weights, and sizes there are of squares. Girl night scheduled soon in order to divvy up squares for everyone. In related news, I have so much scrap yarn from this project that I have decided to start a random side-project blanket, which I have deemed 'the Ugliest Blanket in the Universe.' It is mindless, simple, and we'll see where it goes.

I am considering starting a file or notebook titled 'Cozy Compendium,' because if there's an inanimate object out there, there's damn sure a cozy for it. So far the only thing I have successfully completed in the cozy department is a skillet-handle-cover, and wow, yes, that was so worth it. My list of tiny things to make for friends is ever increasing, and I should probably get to work on those if I want to have ANYthing ready to go by Christmas.

Critter Stuffs:

What originally started as Hubs randomly suggesting 'Let's get a fish for the kitties!' has endured much research and much startup capital, and now results in us having a full-blown aquarium. Nothing too fancy, just a 10 gallon tank. We're starting the nitrogen cycle with a [Half-Moon] Betta [Hank, named after Henry Rollins], a snail [Etienne, because that's French for 'Steve'], and a small handful of ghost shrimp. I still really want to get some sort of Pleco, and hubs is gunning for some tetras since Bettas are supposed to 'tolerate' them. Hank is actually a darker blue, but he gets shiny and aqua in some lights. So far Miss Z is fascinated, she has tried to pat the tank a few times [she is a very feet-y cat]. Orange is mildly amused, but seems to think that he needs human chauffeuring to get from floor to desktop. The Princess could care less. 

Plant Stuffs:

So far, so good. Aside from occasionally forgetting to water them [the sunflower is the only one that can't handle it], me being home really does make all the difference. The aloe pups are still growing, and the sunflower will bloom... eventually. The only thing I'm not sure about is the mystery plant might be getting too much sun and I'm thinking it might be time to repot it into a larger home. 

Also, I was cruising through Safeway the other day and found THIS little guy... er, big guy rather! It was a little more expensive and I was skeptical of buying him from a grocery store, but upon closer inspection, this plant is WORLDS better than the ones I have bought from actual 'plant stores' via Amazon. I am excited to repot this sucker into some peat moss and perhaps settle him in to a shelf over the kitchen sink. [Note to self, build shelf over kitchen sink.]

 Music Stuffs:
Maybe I will do full reviews later on in an effort to blog more often, but, I have a couple new albums. Cursory listen to Middle Class Rut left me somewhat unimpressed, while the new MSI album is exactly what I'd expect from them plus a little more edge.

As far as personal music goes, well, the pendulum tends to swing between extremes. We were overdoing it a couple weeks ago, and followed that up with almost no musical activity to speak of. We're trying to reach a balancing point between the two, but we'll see. Still feeling kind of suck/dumb on keys, and haven't learned or practiced anything in a while. For bass, I managed to solidify a couple newer covers and hammer out a couple of Corson's originals. Hubs eventually wants to record them for an EP. The tour has also been postponed, and that band has petered out as a result.

Geek Stuffs:
Definitely not as active in this department as I was a few weeks ago. Have put a bit more time into Civ5 BNW and come to the conclusion that Brazil is just not a good strategy in a multiplayer game. Tried XCOM for about a half a second but was feeling impatient with the tutorial.

Read the Oatmeal.
Can't remember what else I was going to put here.

Work Stuffs:

We made a lot of progress on our actual work, and the contractors still love me. I recalculated my scores and I should probably make the next promotion pretty easily. However, getting very discontent and frustrated with the drama and politics. Starting to lean towards 'FTN I'm OUT!' instead of reenlisting. Some days it's just not worth it and I want my life back. But anyways.

 

Gym Stuffs:

Perhaps this should be filed under 'work stuffs,' but it's hard to say since the two are so dreadfully intertwined. I need to shave a whole minute off my 1.5 mile in about a month. I'm sure it's doable, but I'm not having the best time trying to make time to run at home. I'm sure you can imagine. However, with a little effort I should actually be able to make it into the 'excellent' category for pushups [37] and 'good' for situps [54]. That would equate to like, a B and a C if we were talking school grades. My run is a metaphorical D-.

Kitchen Stuffs:

Another rather dull section, really. I still cook, all the time... Because I EAT all the time... but, really, nothing fun, new, or interesting going on here that I can recall.

Mind & Body Stuffs:
Sleep is still very much out of whack, and my back hurts more often that not. Today is a pretty bad hand-day, but I have an appointment with a neurologist next month to continue the diagnostic process. Finally have an appointment to look at some new medications... just so happens to fall on my 'day off' about four or five hours after I WAS going to get to head home. And again, I live roughly an hour away, so it's not like I could go home for lunch or a nap or anything and go back out. Hopefully better updates on this topic in the future.