Since I stopped drinking caffeine, I’ve also had to stop drinking tea, because every single variety of tea in my stash was caffeinated. But! I remembered this morning that I’d put all my decaf teas in a big tin on the very tippy top of the kitchen shelves. Out of sight and out of mind. In it, there were a bunch of decaf green tea bags, but also peppermint, raspberry, citrus, and chamomile.
Aaaah! I missed hot drinks.
I’ve been having intermittent trouble getting to my WordPress dashboard, but I think I’ve figured out the source of that problem (accessing the admin panel via two different machines, then forgetting to log out before trying to log in on the second machine–duh).
Today, I had no trouble getting to the dashboard, but my blog was gone. Bupkis. I tried an alternate browser. I tried looking at my error log. Hmmm. Lots of activity there, and of the variety that makes me think someone hacked my blog. Again. Basically, they were trying to access scripts and files I don’t use, but then they hit pay dirt. My wp-blog-header.php file was full of wacky code. So, I managed to track down the problem (go me!), but then couldn’t delete the header file via FTP, because the fucknecks had changed the file permissions. Grrr. My webhost provides a web-based way to update files, though, so I was able to fix it that way.
And now, things seem to be back to normal. I’m going to have to hunt around to see if anyone else has had the same problem, and if so, what they did to fix it in a more permanent fashion than just deleting the evil code. Of course, I could upgrade to the next version of WordPress, but I still haven’t mentally recovered from the last upgrade.
My cube neighbor’s African violet plant is blooming again. Another coworker has an adorable bonsai fig tree that’s sporting two wee baby figs. I’m hoping they’re still there on Monday, so I can get a photo of those, too.
Not just the Belt of Venus, but there are also some reflected sunrise colors along the cloud tops. The clouds cleared away within about half an hour, and it turned into a bright, gorgeous day.
Did y’all see that Google has teamed up with LIFE magazine, making millions of images searchable and available online? This is hugely cool! I spent quite awhile going through photos from the dust bowl (just watched a special on that over the weekend), and will definitely spend more time there. They’re large images, too, and I don’t see any restrictions on usage, though the full-sized images are watermarked. I think that’s a nice compromise.
I was vacuuming and looked over to see Harriet watching me, with her nose buried in her fleece blanket. Weirdo.
It’s not arctic outside, but it’s finally coldish. That means it’s time for soup, right? I replaced my missing stock pot a couple of weeks ago, so I’m making potato soup for lunch. Mmmm.
The view from my desk on two different mornings.
I got Harriet nine years ago today. It was a Wednesday night, a week before Thanksgiving. She promptly tried to beat the hell out of Elliott, which was hugely intimidating. I’d never dealt with fighting dogs before and wondered what I’d gotten myself into. By the next morning, Harriet was ready to make nice, and though the two had their share of scuffles, they were bestest friends.
It’s been both a long and short nine years. There were times when I wanted to wring her little neck, but mostly, she’s been awesome good fun. And to be fair, even when she’s at her most exasperating, she’s also deeply funny. Boxers aren’t called clown dogs for nothing.
To celebrate her got day, I bought her a new woobie, and we’re having homemade french fries (about the only people food treat she can have these days).
1. Harriet’s feet seem to be well on the mend. She’s not trying to sneak off and chew them, and the hair is growing back where it was worn away. Her ears are still sore, though. I don’t know if they’re just going to take longer to heal, or if I’m going to have to go back to the vet for drops. I was dubious about using wipes on her ears in the first place, because they only reach the upper parts, and the real infection is much farther down the ear canal. I’ve got six more days of wipes, so I guess we’ll have to re-evaluate at the end of the week.
2. And about those feet! They are snowy white for the first time in literally years. Very exciting. For all the stupid crap she’s had to deal with the past few months, it seems as if at least the allergy problem has been solved. And since that was, to me, the most difficult one to narrow down, well, I’m doing the happy dance.
See the shiny white hair between her pads? A couple of months ago, that was stained red, from saliva.
3. WTHIWWP?!: If you’re going to belittle another person’s artistic abilities, you might want to first make sure that yours aren’t laughable. I read a huge screed on another blog about how X, Y, and Z are amateurish dingbats, and then I went and looked at the ranter’s own artwork. My, but that’s a very low bar! Not to mention the weirdness of being that obsessed with other people’s artwork and whether or not they are doing it “right.”
I finished the poem and painting part of this months ago, but didn’t like where the collage was going, so I got stuck. It’s been sitting on my coffee table since, um, January. Oops!
collage (leaf, yearbook photo, ribbon, coin, buttons, map legend, and raffle ticket) with watersoluble crayon and found poem in altered book
9 3/8 x 11 3/4 inches
The Story
(a found poem)
The story was a riddle
pointing to a shimmering surface
to hidden depths
to inner experience.
The story
neither sought nor found
like a melody continually improvised
full of blasphemy
for many generations venerated
should not be read simply.
The story
found in the garden
between the infinite and finite
above the abyss that separates
the failed and perfection
depends upon the divine
hidden deep within
as well as outside.
As I was driving home from work today, I saw, on one side of the street, a jogger running in the bike lane, and on the other side of the street, a cyclist riding on the sidewalk.
I also saw a guy on a bike wait through a very long light, until the traffic was against him, before he crossed 10th street at the bypass.
What the hell is wrong with people?
red paper boat 