Ugly grass

First a focus on a crocus of some kind, at the end of its bloom, courtesy of previous owners who did most things wrong.

Lawn, it's all random-specied and patchy, though you will notice that dandelions and some crab-grasses have been removed, seed applied without much forethought.

This is the site of a snake sighting. Baby garden snake was curled up under a brick I moved. Reptile did not remain in place long enough for me to get camera from inside the house; rule: always have camera on hand.

We *heart* John Raux

This work is on view at The Bad Seed and Beige on the 1900-block of McGee.

Ruax walked all but the final 50 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail" (I believe) last year and has documented the journey in photographs, many of them self-portraits held at arm's length, poetry, journal entries, and other paraphernalia (such as an ice axe, which has many apparent uses in the wilderness, the accompanying scrawl points out) — and seven 66-square-foot canvases full of roiling color, distinct as the short titular poems that accompany each.

Yes, I said titular.

Cheesy art chickadee recommends:

Turtle portent

They believe that seeing this ancient turtle signifies the coming of an extraordinary event.

Hmm …

… researchers say they have become virtually extinct because of hunters who killed them for food, loss of nesting habitats and pollution. The Asian Turtle Conservation Network says as many as 15 million turtles are traded a year in Asia, most of them ending up in China.

Not too hard to figure out.

Makes me want to give money to the Turtle Survival Network, too.

Delusions, faults

Even I think I'm off, that there's some slippage, but I swear I woke up at this time this morning because I heard a sharp crash. Then the birds started thrashing around for no reason, a condition in avians known as night fright, only there was nothing ostensible going on.

The quake just before 4:37 a.m. was centered six miles from West Salem, Ill., and 66 miles from Evansville, Ind.

Yes, the confluence of the Missouri and the Kaw is too far away to feel a 5.2 from the Wabash fault.

Right?

Now you see it

yes, you know …

good-bye fire signal building; i remember that when you were "sold," the so-called women's fountain on paseo at ninth was to be restored with the million…

this is an apartment i will also miss seeing (2400-block of troost)

Product freak

You all know I am "well" under 40 — at least, no where near the age when Americans stereotypically start getting crazy about having enough "free time" to write to companies and complain about products; however, if you have read C.G. long enough, you know I have written fan mail to Art's Mexican Products and lately have asked the Burt's Bees company why they are not like Neutrogena (et. al.) in offering an oil-free or at least non-comedogenic form of moisterizer. Thank the convergence of age and Internet for the following entertainment.

So, girl of mid-30s, who has been intermittently consuming junk food for well over 25 years bought some candy. Here are her insane-Sunday thoughts transmitted via e-mail to an unwitting media representative. Do you expect a reply?

Ms. B___,

It it likely you will dump this e-mail, as I am not inclined to call the 1-800# to express what other brands accept willingly via the Internet, and that is regular product feedback, which, I know, has no place in your in-box. I willingly am abusing my media privilege, and to disclose, I am related to a member of the former Purina Mills company, though both of those relationships are now moot.

I am sure your focus groups are in the majority and I in the minority, but I wanted to say that as a 34-year-old who still craves sweets, I am disappointed by the changes in the fruit flavors available in (regular) Runts. I just bought some, and I thought that all flavors might still be present. The answer is "no," and so I am disappointed.

I do not mind the inclusion of mango and pineapple, and I understand the attempt to reach the growing market with piña y mango — but I truly miss cherry and lime. They were, with orange, my favorite flavors and main reason for eating this candy. I find it odd that in a time when many candies are moving toward the sour-type, that the one that pioneered a good mix of both sour and sweet has given up such basic fruit candy flavors.

Banana was always the least-eaten in my boxes/bags when I was a child, by the way.

I suppose I could go eat a bunch of cherry Nerds, but the experience is just not the same as when chewing the satisfying full-roundedness of Runts.

I would support a "tropical" style of Runts, if only the rest of us were given a choice about being able to eat the regular "old fashioned" ones. It's bad enough that the Mars corporation abandoned lime two decades ago in Starbursts and Skittles. I think it's probably boring for kids, too, that there are two yellow flavors in one box/kind of candy, even if the pineapple color is slightly greenish. Besides, they (the pineapples) look like arachnid bodies or something less mentionable in child/polite society — not like a fruit at all!

Feel free to share this with market researchers or with fellow co-workers who might need a laugh. Sorry if tooth-rotting sugar is what gets us non-smokers through the day!

However, I remain "very much missing the cherry and lime,"

etc. et. fin.

Off to brush my teeth. At least Bottle Caps are unadulterated, if only one can find them!*

(*CVS carries them, yes, I know. Artist Laura Beamer will also send you some in her PR if you are on her list.)

Recent color

Tonsils

No research, nothing. Just a title. Mine hurt, seem to be unswelling; it's been a week of it. You probably think that all I do is nothing, that all I was was a cat-thinker, that all I have is un-time. Well. I'm alone at work. Yes, work, yes, alone, yes, not working. I am daunted. Stunted. Clogged.

Want to hear about how I am disappointed in a Burt's Bees product? No? Here we go: let's say that one's face can not be "radiant" with oil-based moisturizers unless radiance-definition includes new constellations of red bumps. I disagree completely on the claims of non-greasy. Sesame and castor seed oils are not for my face, apparently. Good-bye $15. What's the point of trying to keep chemicals out of the system if the alternatives are akin to wiping on salad dressing? (Yes, I sent my comments to the company.)

In other news, it's cold here despite the April-ness, and I guess I'm glad that I've been too preoccupied to dig and plant things so far.

Coincidence

It's odd, since "frosty freeze" was one of the nicknames Gear gave to la gata, based on her chilly feet.

BodyMind

PBS last night featured a program about hypnotism and the powers of the mind. Watching people have surgery (one lady, varicose vein work) without anesthesia is encouraging.

So, I wake up today, after having not a bit of prior indication, with wheezy lungs and aching legs. This had better not be the flu, but it's intriguing, nonetheless, how the immune system works and how it can be defeated through sheer sorrow.

Having trouble with memory card on camera. Not encouraging. Have some memory-necessary footage. Had already lost some, due to same issue. No understand the feckless unreliability of technology.

Last day in the sun: 4-2-08

And, today, well, it's like Paris in springtime, drizzling and chilly and grim. Thank, you, Kitty, for sitting on my lap all night and this morning and helping me study. I'm sorry I'm dripping tears on you now. I don't want to convey this sadness to you, to make these last hours tense and terrible. But here we are. Come back when you can.

Wish it Were a Joke