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• Fri, 21:31: Poor Mitt, We Know How He Feels http://t.co/uRA0Hn1i via @sharethis
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First tomato of the year!

La!

It came from the raised bed St Pierre, which is one of the varieties from Seeds from Italy. Nice-looking, baseball-size fruits.

As for taste? Unfortunately, meh. Like many of the varieties I’ve tried, yes, better than store-bought. But hell, styrofoam peanuts are better than store-bought. So, they’ll do for this year, but I don’t think I’ll grow them again.

Looking forward to the Arkansas Traveler, which I have heard is a tasty variety. Tried one of the Black Cherry, which look like miniature Black Crim. Again, mild flavor, with none of the salty bite I associate with “black” tomatoes. It’s possible I may have picked it too soon. I will have many more opportunities to sample, though, because the vine just exploded. There must be well over a hundred tomatoes in various stages of ripening, and the vine itself is already outgrowing the double-stacked cage that’s enclosing it.

In other tomato news, I saw signs this morning that a hornworm was about. I hunted for the blasted thing, but couldn’t find it. Checked again this evening, and found some chewed spots on both the St Pierre and the Black Cherry. Kept hunting, and found the guilty party hanging upside down near the remains of a green cherry tomato, so stuffed that it didn’t move when I poked it with the garden shears. I sprayed it with the organic DIE MONSTER DIE and cast it out.

Mirrored from Kristine Smith.

Busy Saturday

Today began with a vet visit. King, for his Adequan shot, and Gaby for a physical exam and annual vax. Herself was so patient–she licked the vet’s face during the exam, and didn’t flinch when she got her shots.

As for King, vet and I talked. At the end of the month, we’ll retest his liver function to see if there’s any improvement. In three months, we’ll redo the ultrasound to check that &^%$# spot on his spleen. Fingers already crossed that it stays the same size or even maybe hey disappears.

Home stuff. I’m having some repair work done on the garage this week–new side door, siding replaced–which means that I needed to buy paint. The house was painted way back in 2001, and I recalled that the painter had left extra paint behind. I didn’t think I still had it given that I had actually cleaned out the garage a couple of times over the years, but I hunted around and found three full gallons of exterior acrylic low-lustre on a bottom shelf. Unfortunately, 1) they were only the main color, not the trim, and 2) paint that has been sitting in a garage for 11 years is paint that is well past its sell-by date.

The paint brand wasn’t one I had ever seen before. I hunted for it online, and wasn’t all that surprised to find that it no longer existed. Not only that, but the paint store that had mixed the stuff closed this past spring. I managed to chip bits of both colors off the siding and door, and went to one hardware big box to see if they could color match. Got a perfect match for the trim color, but not for the main shade–do you have any idea how many shades of cream/off-white there are out there? And “low-lustre”–what the hell is that? It’s a bit glossier than “eggshell,” which is in turn a bit glossier than flat. Neither, however, is as glossy as satin, which in turn is not as glossy as semi-gloss. Of course, it depends on the brand, because some paints have low-lustre but not eggshell, while others have low-lustre and eggshell, while still others don’t have either but go straight from flat to satin to semi-gloss.

So, after three failed attempts to mix the right shade of off-white, I came home. Peeled another paint chip off the garage, then searched around for a paint brand that had a low-lustre finish. Found one. Went to big box that sold that brand. Perfect match.

The garage needs repair–the siding is flaking and the door veneer is peeling off. I’m glad it’s getting done, but it has inspired thoughts of repairs that I would actually enjoy. Like a bathroom revamp. Or new countertops and backsplash in the kitchen. Refinished cupboards.

Rained today. Three-tenths of an inch. We needed it.

Mirrored from Kristine Smith.

In other news

Watching Dr Who. “The Lodger.”

Anyone know anything about that OMG creepy painting in the hallway? I have a feeling that it was just Moffat or someone playing silly buggers, because whoever hung it there must have known it was a scene-stealing prop.

Mirrored from Kristine Smith.