Tag: Milton

Crankypantsing, My Garden, Photography

Echinacea

Shelly

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These came from another coworker. I was surprised that she dug up plants that were flowering, but it doesn’t seem to have bothered them. The flower heads were a little bent over, the first day, but on the second, the stalks had straightened up. They seem happy.

I also got some liatris from the same coworker. They look like they’re forming bloom spikes, so there should be some purple in that corner of the garden before too long.

In crankypantsing news:

1. Still no progress on the WordPress upgrade. Tech support was supposedly going to import a back-up of my live database into the test database. It’s over the do-it-yourself size limit, so they have to upload it on their end. That was two days ago.

2. Mr. Upstairs has been coming back in the middle of the night to clean. This means being wakened at 2am to thumpings and bumpings and carpet shampooers, oh my! I really hope he’ll be finished soon, because the lack of sleep is quickly losing its charm.

3. The gunshots last week? Remember the Stompy Girls? The woman living below them complained about the stomping and the late night fighting. One girl moved out, and the other moved into a ground floor unit at the other end of the building, with her abusive boyfriend. Well, apparently the gunshots came from her apartment. The theory is that she and her boyfriend were fighting and one of them pulled a gun and started shooting. Nice!

4. My kitchen sink is leaking. This is not completely unexpected, since the plumber told me to keep an eye out for leaks. Only, this was more like a flood than a leak. It looks like I’m going to be spending time at home again tomorrow, babysitting maintenance people.

5. Oh ich! Seriously. The little pleco I got, to clean my aquarium? He looked healthy enough, but he wasn’t. I should have quarantined him for a few days, but I didn’t have a good way to do so. I noticed last night that my goldfish were sprinkled with sparkly white spots. Not good!

I picked up some ich medication after work. Hopefully I caught it in time, because it’s deadly. Poor fish. I feel awful. It’s silly to get attached to goldfish, but what can I say? On the bright side, I’ve now done a lot of research and know how to preempt an ich infection.

6. In researching ich treatments, I ran across something called “hole in the head disease.” I am not making that up.

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Liatris (taken a couple of years ago in Ms. Lea’s garden)

Crankypantsing, Meta

When it Rains…

Shelly

Just when I was wondering what else could go wrong,

1. Mr. Upstairs came back to move more crap out of his apartment, which apparently requires him pounding something heavy against the floor. Repeatedly. I think my last nerve might have just given out.

2. I put a piece of lettuce down the disposal, turned it on, and was rewarded with a deluge of water from the lower cupboard. My disposal literally detached from the sink. So I guess I’ll be calling the maintenance guys in the morning. Any bets on how many days I’ll be without the use of my kitchen sink?

3. Gun fire at 5:30 this morning. Nice! And a parking lot crawling with cops when I left for work, which I guess is a good thing. At least I know that they will show up, and quickly, when they’re called.

4. My web host, bless their useless little hearts, have apparently decided to give me the silent treatment. They marked my last help ticket as “Resolved.” I updated it on the 28th, saying that it was not resolved. No response. So yesterday, I closed that ticked and opened a new one. It’s been over 24 hours, and again, no response.

Needless to say, I’m looking at other hosting options.

5. And last, but not least, it’s supposed to start raining on Thursday. For an entire week.

Crankypantsing, Meta

The Silver Lining

Shelly

Not a very big one, mind you, but there were a couple of good things to come out of yesterday’s blogular melt-town. First, I finally got around to cleaning out the blogroll. Second, I fixed the stupid paragraph spacing. That’s been bugging me the whole time I’ve been using this template.

In other news, it looks like Mr. Upstairs really is on his way out. One of his bedroom blinds has been up for the past week (I’ve never seen any of them open before), and it occurred to me that his lights haven’t been on when I’ve left for work (also unheard of). He’s definitely been AWOL. And then, he was back again last weekend, loading more stuff into his car. Now he’s gone again.

There’s all of that, but I also talked to Across the Hall Neighbor, who works for the property management company. The woman who runs the office told her that Mr. Upstairs hasn’t turned in his lease renewal form. Now, they send those out about a month (or a few days, as I found out last summer) before your lease is up. If you want to stay, you sign it and turn it in by the deadline. If you don’t turn in the form, you lose your lease. Meaning, you don’t have to give notice; you just move out by the final date and that’s that.

Crankypantsing, Photography

BREAKING NEWS

Shelly

I just took some trash out to the dumpster. While I was doing so, Mr. Upstairs carried a couple of boxes down to his car, and then, a microwave. I’m almost afraid to hope, but it seems like he might just possibly be moving.

I really think it might be true, though. The past week, he’s been extra noisy, with serious cleaning and furniture shifting.

Yay!

And if it’s not true, it’s an awfully dirty trick to be playing on me, and he ought to be ashamed of himself.

In other news, I went to the grocery store and the gas station this morning. My cupboards and my car were on empty. Despite everything at the grocery store having gone up in price since the last time I went (for example, the cheap-assed unbleached flour went up 25¢, and don’t even get me started on the subject of rice), it cost more to fill my gas tank–$59.26–than to buy two week’s worth of groceries.

But! I got some very cute little asparagus spears (tiny and tender), vidalia onions, green tomatoes (they’ll be fried, so I thought they were worth the risk), some very nice looking portabella mushrooms, limes, and some gorgeous green peppers (I eat them raw, like some folks eat carrot sticks).

Also, chives, but not as nice as the ones in my mom’s garden.

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Crankypantsing, My Garden, Photography

Coral Bells and Crankypantsing

Shelly

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These silly things are blooming furiously. They seem to like the shady spot they’re in.

And now for a new installment of Mr. Upstairs Theater! I don’t know what the hell’s gotten into him lately. He was pretty good (for him) over the last few months. Yesterday, I didn’t hear a peep out him until I was getting ready for bed, when he turned on some right-wing talking heads and watched TV for a couple of hours. Then he started vacuuming. At 11:30pm. Then he stomped around for awhile. I’m not passing judgment on his fashion sense, but I swear, he wears high heels when he cleans. The clomping noise is distinctive of heels and is very different from his normal thudding. At about midnight, he turned on the dishwasher. A few minutes later, he started playing the same damned song he’s been playing for the past two years on the keyboard. Or maybe it’s a harpsichord. At this point, nothing would surprise me. I finally fell asleep, only to wake up at about 2am to him playing really crappy classic rock and galloping on the treadmill.

And right now, he’s stomping around in the room above my computer room. I think someone would have to really work at walking that heavily. I mean, he’s a little chubby, but he’s not a big guy, so how the hell does he manage to make that much noise when he walks?

Uncategorized

Spring

Shelly

I made a big pot of vegetable soup last night, along with a loaf of whole wheat bread. When I got up and went out to the living room this morning, it still smelled wonderful. Mmmm. And it’s supposed to storm this afternoon and again tonight, which I’m almost half-way looking forward to. It’s Friday for me, and I could use an evening with homemade bread and vegetable soup and a good book and the knowledge that I don’t have to get up in the morning[1].

Also, the forsythia and redbuds are blooming, as well as daffodils, and the grounds folks have planted pansies everywhere. I also saw tons of little violets out in the back field, while Harriet and I were tracking bunnies. Well, Harriet was tracking; I was just along for the ride.

The best part, though? I haven’t had to turn on the heat in several days. It’s supposed to cool off again this weekend, but I think it’s safe to assume that winter is well and truly over. It’ll be nice to have a month or so where I don’t have to use heat or AC.

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1. I think Mr. Upstairs must be out of town, because I haven’t heard a peep from him in a couple of days. There was a fury of cleaning activity on, I think, Monday, then the next day, silence. I haven’t even heard water running. Hopefully, this means I’ll be able to get caught up on sleep this weekend!

Crankypantsing, Photography

Toy Skeleton

Shelly

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I’ve photographed this little guy before. He hangs in my kitchen, from one of the cupboard door handles. He’s got a mechanism that, when you pull on him, makes his teeth chatter. He’s very cute.

Not so cute is the noise from Mr. Upstairs. He’s always loud, but the past few days, he’s been cycling into into another ubernoisy period. Last night, at 3am, I woke up to him pounding away on his keyboard. He had it set on “harpsichord,” and kept playing the same phrase over and over and over and over again. Putting a pillow over my head didn’t do any good. The noise was so loud that I could feel the vibrations from it, and I could still hear it through the pillow.

That went on for a couple of hours, and then, at about 5am, he turned on the TV. I guess the talking heads were finally awake? So I got to listen to some right-wing nonsense until I finally got up. And now, it’s 2:00 and he’s back at the keyboard. And the same little piece of music. Even two rooms away, with the door shut, I can hear it.

Oh, and did I mention that I have a headache? No? Well, I do, and the noise and the irritation are not helping it go away!

Crankypantsing, Photography

Clouds

Shelly

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It clouded up and even rained a bit this afternoon. It was warm, too. I think it got into the 40s yesterday, and today’s high was supposed to be around 50F. Winter in Indiana is not entirely unlike a roller coaster ride, only with less chance of being hit by someone else’s projectile vomit. Hopefully.

Anyway! My camera is supposed to be delivered tomorrow. I may not sleep tonight, though that may be more to do do with the ludicrous amount of noise coming from upstairs than new toy excitement. Seriously. Galumphing on the treadmill at 3am is all kinds of wrong. So is running the dishwasher at 2am. I don’t think he slept all weekend, which makes me wonder if he has some sort of bi-polar disorder or maybe he’s a speed freak.

Crankypantsing, Photography

Blue Sky

Shelly

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It flurried most of the morning, but in the early afternoon, the sky cleared and turned a gorgeous shade of blue. There was a perfect Belt of Venus this evening, too, but I was too busy watching it to take pictures.

No art again today, but there will be something tomorrow. Now, though, it’s way past my bedtime, and a sore throat has been teasing me all day, so I’m going to bed. If Mr. Upstairs wakes me up again tonight, I may have to kick him in the shins. I finally complained about him blasting talk radio all night in the room above my bedroom (boy, does that ever make for weird dreams!), so now he’s spending the night plonking away at the keyboard. How on earth he thinks that’s an improvement is beyond me. There’s something seriously wrong with that man.

Crankypantsing

Poaching Revisited

Shelly

I did finally respond to Madam PoachyPants. I had a hard time not being snarky about it, because I’m in a foul mood today, but I think I managed to be civil.

In other news, I mentioned that we have to do this silly Web 2.0 certification at work? Do y’all have any idea how difficult it is to fake blog? My God, it’s brutal!

In other other news, Mr. Upstairs is on my shit list again. He was up all night, stomping around and banging things. I think he might have been fighting with himself. And the night before last, I woke up at 2am to his radio blaring Hall and Oates. Hall and fucking Oates! And the play list went downhill from there!