I have to do a garden update for the memory archive. It was exciting to see the changes that came from just a week of being gone. Everything is coming along nicely, but I will only highlight a few items.
The hesperaloe parviflora is blooming. I think it might be my favorite latin name from my garden. Go ahead. Say it a few times. Hesperaloe parviflora… hesperaloe parviflora… It’s fun, isn’t it? This has bloomed only once before. That was two years ago. I’m very excited to see the blooms again. They’re magnificent! The bloom spikes are about nine feet tall and they last forever. I’ll try to remember to document when they’re done. I’m guessing August.
I tried to grow special varieties of bee balm (monarda) from seed this year. Out of the hundred plus seeds I planted, I got two plants. One monarda bergamo and one monarda lambada. If they make it to adulthood, I’ll see if it’s worth trying again next year.
I’m very excited about developments in my pond. I’m slowly training my goldfish to take prepared food. Up ’til now they’ve just been living on whatever they could find in the pond. If they get used to me feeding them, they will come to the surface whenever anyone approaches.
And my little tadpoles are growing up. They’re miniature frogs now. It’s hard to catch a glimpse of them because they are very shy.
The single cherry in my cherry tree is gone. Stupid squirrels.
Last night I used my truck to help move a bed. Denis’ friend Alfred is moving out of state and is giving his bed to Jun. (It’s pronounced Joon) Jun is the friend who babysat Max last week. Anyway, we went to Alfred’s apartment and got the bed loaded into the truck, along with some clothes for the Compassion Center. Then Alfred said we should come up to a different apartment where some people were gathering to say goodbye to him.
It turned out to be another Filipino party. How many of these have I stumbled into now? Three? I always feel a little weird because nobody knows who I am. And I also feel weird because I can’t understand what anyone is saying, except every once in a while when they say an English word. A typical exchange:
“Boiwn skiodgh soldilngnlsh pqoek microwave.”
“Hahaha!”
“Wiosiodgn spoih Ryan Seacrest dwpqoin abncxklei.”
“Yes!”
Anyway, they took pictures to commemorate the event. I passed them my camera so I could get a picture too.
Jun, me, Denis, Alfred, Marjorie
Jun and Marjorie work with Denis. Denis and Alfred have a mutual friend named Ninfa who is from Denis’ hometown, but came to the US the same time Alfred did. Small world, eh?
When I travel, I always think about how nice it would be to have a laptop. I used Denis’ all last week and finally decided enough was enough. I’d been saving money in a box for a while and had $420 to show for it. I decided to get my own laptop.
After doing some searching on Consumer Reports, I settled on a simple model from Toshiba. It has a wireless antenna of course. It also had a DVD player, and a 15 inch screen. It’s best feature is it’s price: $399. I got it at Best Buy. You can read more about it HERE on Best Buy’s site. I particularly like the customer reviews. They seem fairly reliable to me.
The total was $423.99. Since I already had the $420, my out-of-pocket expense was $3.99. I handed the guy a stack of twenties and ones and he handed me a penny.
While I was at Best Buy, I almost got a bluetooth headset for my phone. I don’t need one, but seeing Jesus wear one almost conviced me to get one anyway.
Max survived my absence. A friend of Denis babysat. I was a little worried because I didn’t know if he would pet Max enough. But there doesn’t seem to be any psychological damage, so I think he must’ve done a good job.
I left a clean litter box so Denis’ friend wouldn’t have to deal with that. It was super-gross when I came back. I decided to just throw the entire contents out and start with new litter. I haven’t been able to find my favorite brand for a while. It’s Scoop Away Unscented. I can find other formulations of Scoop Away, but not the unscented kind. Today I asked. The pet store girl said they stopped making it. Dang. I’m trying Scoop Away With Crystals to see how it works out for me. It doesn’t reek of perfume as much as the Multi-Cat formulation, so I like it better already.
I’ve had Max on lower-calorie food for a couple of months now. He’s been slimming down, but it was hard to notice when it was day-to-day. After being away for five days, I’ve really noticed a change in his size.
The flight home was kind of long. It takes a while to get from the west coast to the east coast. The trip went from Los Angeles to Phoenix to Baltimore. Landing in Phoenix was kind of rough. There was some kind of turbulence on the way down. The airplane was doing a lot of shimmying. It was very unnerving. And it seemed like we were circling. So immediately I thought there was a problem and the pilot was trying to burn fuel before attempting a crash landing. By the time we touched down, I was a nervous wreck and was slightly airsick.
After what seemed like too short of a layover, we were in an airplane again. The pilot made some pre-flight announcements. I didn’t entirely catch what he said because there were people making noise, but I was sure I heard him say we were going to have to “fight our way off the ground” because of turbulence. Fortunately, I had taken some Dramamine. Unfortunately, it hadn’t knocked me out yet. We shimmied our way out of Phoenix. I was scared. Then I was asleep.
