Writing Wrongs

1 am thunder woke me up. There was some lightning, mostly blocked by the blackout curtains in the bedroom. Radar app was a major WTF - the storm was coming in from the east. ENE to WSW. That's just plain weird. The normal track comes off the ocean, mostly from due west straight across to the east. Later info is that the storm was bleed-over from the Sierras, the rain was only 3/100ths of an inch, and lasted from 1 am to 2 am or thereabouts. The streets were dry in the morning.

No bananas, so with the egg went the last pieces of dark chocolate covered tangerine pieces.

There were 5 things on my shopping list, and I kept to it for the most part and still spent $160, with two items not bought. Or maybe it was just one. Yeah, just Tim Tams. The reason for the big bill is #5 was microwave lunches, and I practically filled the cart with the one brand/series which I both enjoy and is <= 500 mg of sodium. Healthy Choice steamer bowls. I did cheat and buy one Indian brand of coconut curry chicken which has 600 mg. And a $15 bag of peeled, cooked tail-off shrimp, and a couple of turkey legs.

Now I have bananas and non-food-colored strawberries and strawberry jam. And the Safeway Organic natural PNB was less expensive than all the other brands, so I picked one up even though I have one opened and one spare Laura Scudders.

Safeway did not have grapes as such - they only had them in $5 bowls. GO had clamshells and I struggled but got a red seedless box. I prefer green. Less tannin. Both stores were out of dark chocolate Tim Tams.

This time I went to the nearest Safeway. I remembered the route.

Home, put stuff away. Did some serious job hunting. Email and calls from recruiters were those idiot pimps who don't know how to read. Tivo has been looking for someone to automate their QA, and one bozo wanted ever so much to send in my name even though I told him I am in no way qualified for or interested in that job. I spent a whole month at Tivo, which ticked his box.

Storm chasers were out in force, mostly in Kansas. Three of them almost saw a tornado form. Fab photos. But the closer they get to an electrical storm, the more their signal gets clobbered. Metal detector guy was at a new park, dug up spoons and many oddball pieces of metal. The usual chaser was on at the usual time with the usual chatters.

Lunch was salad and a sesame chicken steamer bowl. Ice cream sandwiches. Safeway was out of the mint chip flavor, but I still have plenty.

Watched PTI, Shark Tank and TMZ. Paused PTI to make dinner. Most of a stick of butter in the cast iron skillet, sliced a red onion (I found a regular onion later, but the red worked better, actually), threw in some minced garlic. Split the two halves of a trout, squeezed a lime over the pieces. Cooked covered for 5 minutes on one side, 4 on the other, and uncovered for a minute.

Whole un-pitted green olives on the side. Yummy! Left the head and tail for Spook, but I don't think she's interested.

Been drinking lime soda all day. Safeway had huge limes - I bought six even though they were 50 cents each.

Streamed for an hour. No trolls. Two chatters. Six lurkers.

Had a surprise garden visitor - monarch butterfly parked on the sage bush long enough to get pictures. I wonder if the nearby milkweed saplings had anything to do with attracting it.



Rider of the purple sage...



Did some gardening, pulled some gone to seed Bee's Friends which were growing up among the CA lilac. Cut off a couple of rose stems which were protruding into the street, trimmed them and put the flowers in 3 vases on window sills.

Plans for tomorrow:

More job hunt
Depends on the weather. It's been cold and windy and overcast much of the day.

Up at 8:30, but Spot decided to keep me company with his purring as I read from the tablet, so didn't get out of bed till 10. 11 on the dot the nice man came to install the new gas meter and take away the old one. While he did that I plugged in the laptop, partly to charge it up and partly to update it.

Watched some CFL football on Tivo, am impressed by two things: 1. They all tackle like they mean it (basics which the NFL rarely gets right) and 2. They pass almost every down - because the field is too long & wide and they only get 3 downs. 2-and-out.

Went to Lowe's as planned and bought one of those flex hoses. Attached it to the car wash brush and it leaked at the connector. Attached the garden spray attachment and it leaked. Used, I doubt it can be returned. May try another brand, either from OSH, Home Despot or online.

Stopped off at Grocery Outlet and bought a couple of steaks, onions, mushrooms, multi-colored sweet bell peppers and forgot the mochi. Also got tempura shrimp, peeled garlic and strawberries - and two cocoa butter based skin lotions. Trying to smooth out a couple of rough sunburn spots on my face.

Home, lunch was tempura shrimp fried in vegetable shortening from the onion fry. Not very tasty. Nuked the onions for 2 minutes, which made smoke come out of the microwave.

Set up the webcams in the office, guest room and piano room to email me when they detect motion. This includes about 10 snapshots which I set to snap every 3 seconds. One of those messages showed Spook peeing on the new futon cover, which is waterproof sort of. None of it bled through, but it spread out on the surface to make a huge stain. Online, ordered a plastic cover like the one on the sofa. Pisses me off, there's a litterbox right there in the room. I think the problem is Spot has radar, and chases Spook away when she tries to use it.

I think the pheromones are working on Spot a little. He isn't running the length of the house as much, and he does a lot more lying in front of me in the livingroom and office. And bedroom, for that matter.

Indoors, took a short nap because I was falling asleep watching football. BP was way low - 75/41 but pulse was 60. I figured maybe I should get outside and do something active.

I got the rake out of the shed and pulled out a huge amount of dead poppy plants, the last of the dead bee's friend plants, and this liberated a very long and robust lilac which had been fighting to break through. Put the rake back and got the shovel to dig out a well established grassy plant which had also been stealing sunlight and nutrients from the lilac and a rose bush. Found three more smaller ones as well.

Pulled the lawn recycles bin out to the curb and shoved it full of what I'd pulled out. Filled to the brim.

USPS email said there should be several items, including a prescription, in my mailbox, but instead were two letters for #8 next door. Opened #6's mailbox, and my stuff was there. Put #8's in their mailbox. Understandable mistake, as #5 currently is an empty lot.

Dinner was a production. Sauteed in butter & white wine garlic cloves, chopped onion, sliced in the Cuisinart mushrooms. Got out the grill pan, covered the surface with olive oil and after it heated up threw on a steak, which was actually two steaks. Ate both smothered in the sautee, on sourdough rye. The first steak was great the second was small and mostly gristle. Ice cream with cherries and sprinkles for dessert.

Plans for tomorrow:
Replacement replacement hose
Take the camera out to Ulistac Natural Area and shoot bees & butterflies & flowers and maybe play Ingress