Finally

I got to do serious gardening today. I cleared about 5 wheelbarrows of old leaves, clumps of grass and weeds from the semi-shade garden beside the front porch. I usually leave a light layer of old leaves for mulch--but since the slugs have already been out and chewing up the spiderwort and hosta I just decided to go for it and clear it all.

I've made two nursery runs and just bought like crazy: two huge japanese painted ferns, two smaller cinnamon ferns, three columbines (burgundy and creme colored), two mourning widows cranesbill geraniums, four coral bells (silver scrolls and midnight rose), four alumroot (snow angel), two white bleeding hearts, and a rosey colored astilbe. I transplanted the chartreuse leaved lungwort from its original bed along with a giant bleeding heart (which divided nicely into four), a large creme astilbe, and a nice clump of hellebore. I still need to transplant some hosta sometime this week, but for now I'm happy.

Step-Cat Bloggin

Brian sent these pics of Jaxper to me last night. I'm feeling awfully "aaaaw, cute kitty" today. I blame the rain. I blame my jello brain. I blame not being able to sleep today. My own cat is not so cute. He's been in a fight with something and has a little bald spot in the middle of his forehead. I am now of course terrified he'll become rabid.

Bluh

The past few days my brain's felt like a jello-mold brain: wiggly and sort of impermeable. Over my days off I've tried to read a few books I've been looking forward to and nothing sticks. Even simple sentences either don't get through or they don't deliver. It's like you're standing over a big old jello concoction, full of carrot shreds, grapes, mandarin oranges and apple bits, and you drop a quarter onto it. There's a thwack and a jiggle but the quarter sticks to the surface. I think it's apricot flavored, too.

OUCH

I have a couple days off so I'm at a friend's place watching his apartment and insanely person-centered cat. This has nothing much to do with anything, except I stopped on the way to get gas. 4.00 a gallon.

Thank God It's Tuesday.

Primary day is here. I hope to god that we can just acknowledge Hillary wins WV and move on. Like Aaron said a few weeks ago, I'm starting to hate the Dems as much as the Republicans at this point. All that said, I'm still going to stop at the polling place this morning on my way home from work and vote. Then I'm going home, poaching some eggs and eating ham.

~*~

And if you're feeling ageist and partisan--check out this website: Things Younger Than John McCain. Chocolate Cookies, Plutonium, and Alaska for just a few.

~*~

And in the unintended irony dept.

GOP's New Slogan Already Being Used To Market Anti-Depressant

Can the makers of Effexor sue?

The Body

Just before my senior year of college I had to have an emergency appendectomy. All told it was a horrible experience. I had to have a drain, a small length of the stitches got infected, I dropped weight like crazy, the surgeon didn't believe in anything beyond minimal pain management. I was never one of those people who felt like my body was infallible, that I had boundless energy, but that whole year (August to August) was just punishing.

I developed (and still have, though to a lesser degree) an obsession with surgical photography and anatomical art/studies. I had a copy of Max Aguilera-Hellweg's The Sacred Heart for about a month during grad school (tucked out of the way lest friends got too skeeved out.)

A few weeks ago, Peter posted about the Medical Venus and I was entranced by that confluence of religious iconography, the fine arts and anatomical study.

Sometime after that (it's been such a blur the last couple of weeks, I can't remember where or when), I found a link to The Kaibo Zonshinzu anatomy scrolls, painted by Yasukazu Minagaki. They're gruesome but more fascinating to me because of how they incorporate Eastern aesthetics with anatomy. Trust me...they're not really for the squeamish. But I've meant to blog about them for a while so I thought I'd toss this out.

Happy Mother's Day

But Think of the Dog!

From the Kitsap Sun:

Highly intoxicated and dissatisfied with her sex life, a 28-year-old woman was arrested Tuesday for stealing her husband's wallet and later assaulting the deputy who booked her into jail.

The meltdown, which deputies witnessed along with the couple's 3- and 4-year-old children, started when the husband, 24, had told his wife they had three hours to quit smoking, drinking, swearing and engaging in some sex acts because "they were going to be good Christians now," the woman said.

The man said she had woken him up to have relations, but then became disappointed and angry.

How dissapointed and angry? This disappointed and angry:

When deputies arrived, the woman denied any assault had taken place, and repeatedly, without sparing a vulgar euphemism, told the deputies about how unsatisfied she was with her sex life — some of the time carrying around a half-gallon of whiskey while doing so.

During an argument with one of the deputies, the woman picked up the family's 20-pound dog and threw it at the deputy, who caught it, the report said.

I love that: without sparing a vulgar euphemism.

But she wasn't done for the night:

The deputies convinced the couple to separate for the night, and the man said he was taking their children to a hotel. But the 28-year-old returned to the apartment and took her husband's wallet, military identification card and keys.

The woman resisted being arrested for theft — her screams were described as "blood-curdling" by one of the deputies. The deputy who drove the woman to jail reported she questioned his manhood, asked God to forgive him because "he knows not what he does," and "donkey-kicked" him in the shin while he attempted to walk her from his patrol car to the jail, reports said.

She was booked for second-degree theft and third-degree assault.

Like a Locust in a Pantsuit

I woke up this morning to discover that the Clintons have hit WV, defying massive debt and mathematics they drag this freak show out . Bill and his waggy finger will be in a little town about a half hour from me tomorrow. Great.

She'll win this state. She'll declare it a gamechanger or a tideturner or some other hackneyed piece o crap that allegedly shows she's a fighter and tough and in it to win it. She'll ask for people to go to her website and give her money three or four times in her post primary speech. The pundits will pretend that she still has a chance and drag this Bataan death march of a primary on. She'll hemorrhage cash. Her negatives will hit new highs.

Can it be Wednesday, May 14 now? She was in Shepherdstown, WV today for a presser. (If Dana Milbank's blog post is right, the behind the scenes action was much better than the actual presser,if only for the parade of ironies.) As soon as she gave her line about "If this was the Republican primary, I'd be the nominee now" line, I tuned out.

Her every appearance reminds me of this:

Nights of the Living Dread

I am knackered. Work has been insane. I've not had a proper day off in about two weeks and have logged an ungodly amount of overtime since then. The overtime pay's nice--but the sense of life being nothing but a cycle of "work, home, work home" is just harrowing. Today, the phones are going off and I'm going to sleep and sleep and sleep. Maybe I'll play in the flowerbeds if I'm motivated later...they need it. Desperately.

~*~

This movie is playing on pay per view right now. I really want to see it. I need some trash. A trailer--huzzah!--can be found here.