drumcorps

Parade Aftermath

I really need to stop going to bed so late, being tired all day, and taking hour-long evening naps after work. It’s just not working out.

So, on Sunday I was in a parade in Birmingham, Michigan. Why was there a parade in the middle of May in Michigan, you ask? Well, let me tell you: it was the Basset Hound Parade. I shit you not. Upwards of 500 Basset Hounds brought up the rear of this relatively short parade (and those of us who marched in it were glad they were at the back of the lineup, so as to avoid any… surprizes).

Anyway, it was the first public performance of the full Lakeshoremen Drum & Bugle Corps, and we did fairly well. I did discover that I need to do some more aerobic cardiovascular-type exercise, because after the first run of our parade tune, marching uphill—hell, remembering how to march at all—I was pretty winded. But once I remembered how to breathe properly and pace myself, I did OK. I’m not really muscle-sore at all, except for my shin muscles. The… gastrocnemeus, is it? I seem to remember that from stretching and calisthenics in the BGSU Marching Band. Yeah, my shin muscles. The ones that crank your toes really high when you march in a parade. Those are still sore today. Other than that, my face got a little sun, despite my application of sunscreen, and my bare forearms got a little toasty.

But worst of all: the part in my hair got sunburnt. My scalp. A teeny little strip of my scalp.

Last night, I sat watching TV, and realized that it kind of hurt and was a little moist, like it wished it could blister, or like it had. I picked away the few gummy nasty parts I found, thought little else of it, and went to bed. This morning when I woke up, I had freaking little crystallized crusties growing in my part. It was like rock candy or some shit, kind of crusty but gooey and clingy to my strands of hair. Really, really gross. I managed to get it all out and look presentable, since I didn’t have enough time this morning to shower before work, but all day it was still sore. In a while, I’m going to go upstairs and take a cool shower and ever so gently massage my scalp. Maybe I’ll put some lotion or something on my scalp, although I’m not so sure how that’s going to work out…

I was sick of the cat bugging me a while ago, so I closed the door down here to the basement for a little peace and quiet. I’d better go open it now and make sure the cat isn’t causing havoc.

gardening

My New Garden

This is a plan of my new garden.

The Better Homes and Gardens website kicks ass—they have this nifty Flash application that’s kind of like the Tony Hawk Pro Skater park building feature, but with gardens. That’s how I put this loverly design together.

This depicts my back yard, by the way. From left to right, I have planned: lavender, hydrangea, coral roses, yellow roses, ground cover in front of said roses, a rose of sharon, forsythia, catmint, more lavender, and butterfly bush. In front there, on the curve where there’s still a bit of dirt with no plants, that’s where the herbs go. Three varieties of basil, parsley, catnip, creeping thyme, coriander/cilantro, and whatever else tickles my fancy.

I’ll provide photos when I have some stuff planted. Until then, wish me luck… I hope I haven’t bitten off more than my little first-time-homeowner self can chew.

randomness

It’s official…

Gas is not only expensive—it is motherfucking expensive. Never since the first Gulf War did I ever believe that I’d be paying $2.039 a gallon for gas. Ten bucks barely got me half a tank of gas. That’s not too far from normal, I guess, but it’s just the principle of the thing. I mean, holy shit.

At least we don’t live in California. God knows what we’d be paying there.

randomness 3 Comments

How Much Is That Kitty In The Window?

Saturday was the Waterville Community Garage Sale. We had a pretty decent haul—some cast-iron shelves, wooden knick-knack shelves, a big shelf/table for my plants, a Ventures record, and some other stuff. Fun day, got some sun on my neck and shoulders.

But on Sunday… we adopted our kitty.

We got our kitty from Planned Pethood. They don’t have a shelter, but do foster homes instead, so we met one of the foster “moms” at a local vet’s office in Maumee. She was showing a litter to someone already, so we hustled to meet them there. We had a choice of two kittens: Mel, a black male, or Mia, a grey tabby female. Aaron and I held and petted and swapped and hemmed and hawed and decided on Mia, the grey female. For what we paid, she was already spayed and had her first set of shots. She also comes with a 30-day guarantee; if she gets sick, we can take her to the vet’s office where we adopted her and they’ll treat her free of charge. Not a bad deal.

We’d already bought kitty implements last weekend, so we were set on that front. Outside of having to fashion a new kitten-sized litter box out of a cardboard box, that is (don’t worry, we have cat box liners). She was a little skittish at first, but after a while, she calmed down and ate her kitten chow and drank her water and used her litter box.

Aaron and I decided that we needed to name her ourselves, instead of taking the name the Planned Pethood people had given her. So, we threw around some names all evening, and finally settled on Mei, after the young girl in Tonari no Totoro. The final decision was between Mei, Neko (Japanese for “cat”), Rei (from Neon Genesis Evangelion), or Troi (from Star Trek: The Next Generation).

It’s been a full day now, and she seems just fine. In fact, she’s laying on my lap as I type this.

I do have a whole kitty picture page up on my site already, so go check it out! It’s under the Photographs section.