Sunday morning

Fave song of the moment, The Diver by Stellastarr*. I have it on single-song repeat on iTunes, and will listen to it until I can't stand it.

Found my first spam comment on My Space, and excised it. Purged the commenter from my friends list after I confirmed that they'd sent the same message to others on their list. I know it's one of the drawbacks of My Space, but I will try to keep the stuff from cluttering my profile. Pushing one's own book or band is one thing. Spamming about earning money by filling out internet surveys--something else.

Spent part of the evening looking up the mechanics of being burned at the stake. Lovely exercise in 'the things people do to one another'. Found another neat feature on Scrivener--I can save research pages directly to a Research file, and can open them directly in Scrivener. Saves a few steps over digging through my database every time i want to open something, and makes it easy to collect all the research for a particular project in one place.

I could probably start writing sample chapters if I wanted to. I have them broadly plotted out.

Sunday morning

Fave song of the moment, The Diver by Stellastarr*. I have it on single-song repeat on iTunes, and will listen to it until I can't stand it.

Found my first spam comment on My Space, and excised it. Purged the commenter from my friends list after I confirmed that they'd sent the same message to others on their list. I know it's one of the drawbacks of My Space, but I will try to keep the stuff from cluttering my profile. Pushing one's own book or band is one thing. Spamming about earning money by filling out internet surveys--something else.

Spent part of the evening looking up the mechanics of being burned at the stake. Lovely exercise in 'the things people do to one another'. Found another neat feature on Scrivener--I can save research pages directly to a Research file, and can open them directly in Scrivener. Saves a few steps over digging through my database every time i want to open something, and makes it easy to collect all the research for a particular project in one place.

I could probably start writing sample chapters if I wanted to. I have them broadly plotted out.

Sunday afternoon

Beautiful day--50s and sunny. Everyone seems to be working outside, cleaning out sheds and readying yard equipment. I don't really need to do that yet--it's too schlucky in the backyard to even think about plowing up the rear garden-that-wasn't, and there's no grass to cut. Trimming and raking are still a few weeks away for this kid.

But daffodils are poking up through the soil, and I have hopes of seeing my scattering of crocuses soon. The rhododendron seems to have come through the freeze--fingers crossed. I tweaked a small branch, and it was green inside. I didn't tweak any branches on the hibiscus, but I'll be amazed it that pulled through. It was a tropical variety that I should have brought inside for the winter, but lugging 100+ pounds of tree and rootball into the house is not my idea of fun, so I decided to take my chances. If it kicked the flower pot, I will look for a hardy hibiscus. Their flowers aren't as pretty, but they do live through the winter.

I'll be surprised if I don't have to replace the lilac by the garage. I just need to decide whether to replace it with another Rose of Sharon, or some other flowering tree. Maybe another flowering hibiscus?

Grass seed that I planted last fall is starting to sprout, to my amazement. It's in the backyard, in a place sheltered from puppy predation. I would have to close off entire stretches of the backyard to really fill in the lawn, but I may do that next month. The next few weeks will also tell whether the organic lawn care was worth the money and hassle. It's supposed to wipe out the creeping charlie that's taken over areas of the yard, yet it's still safe for the pups. It's a corn byproduct, and smells like Ovaltine. King actually ate it out of the spreader when I did the lawn last fall, with no apparent ill effects.

More rain predicted for the week, not that we need it. Snow showers by week's end. We don't need those, either.

Sunday afternoon

Beautiful day--50s and sunny. Everyone seems to be working outside, cleaning out sheds and readying yard equipment. I don't really need to do that yet--it's too schlucky in the backyard to even think about plowing up the rear garden-that-wasn't, and there's no grass to cut. Trimming and raking are still a few weeks away for this kid.

But daffodils are poking up through the soil, and I have hopes of seeing my scattering of crocuses soon. The rhododendron seems to have come through the freeze--fingers crossed. I tweaked a small branch, and it was green inside. I didn't tweak any branches on the hibiscus, but I'll be amazed it that pulled through. It was a tropical variety that I should have brought inside for the winter, but lugging 100+ pounds of tree and rootball into the house is not my idea of fun, so I decided to take my chances. If it kicked the flower pot, I will look for a hardy hibiscus. Their flowers aren't as pretty, but they do live through the winter.

I'll be surprised if I don't have to replace the lilac by the garage. I just need to decide whether to replace it with another Rose of Sharon, or some other flowering tree. Maybe another flowering hibiscus?

Grass seed that I planted last fall is starting to sprout, to my amazement. It's in the backyard, in a place sheltered from puppy predation. I would have to close off entire stretches of the backyard to really fill in the lawn, but I may do that next month. The next few weeks will also tell whether the organic lawn care was worth the money and hassle. It's supposed to wipe out the creeping charlie that's taken over areas of the yard, yet it's still safe for the pups. It's a corn byproduct, and smells like Ovaltine. King actually ate it out of the spreader when I did the lawn last fall, with no apparent ill effects.

More rain predicted for the week, not that we need it. Snow showers by week's end. We don't need those, either.