Something vaguely Christmas, I suppose, is appropriate.

Well hey, it looks like at least one reindeer was here.

Or maybe it was a Mule Deer?

Ok, let's try this again.

If I'm yet again scarved, wearing penguin earrings, and taking photos of the side of my head, it must be Christmas. Right?

Actually, Christmas almost didn't happen for me this year; at least not on Christmas itself. After yet another bout of insomnia, I was left headachy, brainless, and knowing full well that I wasn't fit to hit the highway (sleepless driving is still impaired driving, folks. You don't have to be drunk to be charged). I was planning to be in at Dad's place on the 23rd, but it was the 24th before he got the teary, probably slightly incoherent call that I just couldn't do it even then. What would have happened? A day's delay, maybe, which doesn't sound so bad except... well, Christmas, you know? Christmas should be on Christmas, if you're going to celebrate at all.

Long story short (too late for that?), I did manage to get some sleep that night and was able to make it in for Christmas morning. Gifts happened, turkey happened, and that evening we drove around and looked at Christmas lights. That's become a bit of a thing with the two of us: tooling around town, Christmas carols on the radio station because pretty much everyone has the night off, and both of us singing along. That last part is accidental. It just kind of happens.

It ended up being a good day, and I'm glad that I made it.

What else? Well, it was the Turkey Brothers' first Christmas with a tree, and they didn't destroy it. Granted, it was only partially decorated, but it's a good sign for next year.

In the gift department, you'll no doubt be hearing about my latest tech toy, so I'll save it for now. I did get a much nicer bluetooth speaker than the one I would have picked up at the after Christmas sales, though. Guess I'll be making more use of that Spotify deal from Rogers than I assumed that I would. And I won't just be throwing my phone into a cup to amplify it, although that works better than it should.

Also, tea. And when I make it back into town, my yearly art supply geek-out. So now you know what to look forward to on the blog in the future.



All in all, a pretty good day, and I'm glad I had it. I'll try to get out the camera and get some better (or at least a little more interesting) photos for the blog soon. Hope everyone's having (had, or whatever) a good holiday.





Don't let the Boxing Day sales wear you down.

Sleeping on a bed

Tom may choose towels (proving that he is, indeed, a cat; albeit a smallish one still), but most people don't. I mentioned yesterday that I'd been sleeping on the recliner since I came home from surgery, but last night I thought I'd see how the bed worked out.

It was... ok.

I mean, I did get some sleep. Maybe not as much as I would have if I wasn't flat, but it was definitely possible to sleep. On my back if my knees were bent, or on my right side but not my left yet. That's all right, though. I sleep on my right side more than my left anyway. And it'll get better now that my body knows what to expect, and of course as I continue healing.

I'm tired of this healing crap by now, you know. Can't we just get it over with already? Yeah, yeah, I know that's not how it works, but it's kind of frustrating when otherwise I feel fine.

Anyway, actual sleep on an actual bed means I'm that much closer to getting back to my actual life. And that's a good thing for the boredom factor, let me tell you. It's definitely not my father's fault because there are plenty of things that I could be doing, but not having any targeted thing to do is making me sooo bored...

Ah well. We'll try for some art or something later today, I guess. In the meantime, today's rock:

This one's leopardskin jasper. I've talked about jaspers before, and the main difference with this one is that it has orbicular inclusions. My sample looks nothing like real leopard skin, but maybe some of the pieces out there do. It's just an interesting-looking rock to me, but of course to the crystally-types out there it's...

(deep breath as she searches the weirdness)...

Good for dealing with animals, both real and spiritual. It will help you find your totem animal if you're so inclined, and is good for healing.

Healing what?

A little bit of everything, apparently. General healing, detoxing, removing body odour (ha!), and a bunch of shamanistic stuff that it's not my business to get into, really.

Can you tell that I'm getting a little tired of looking into the mysticism of perfectly good rocks? I am, really, but I still have a few pointless pictures left and I'm going to use them all, dammit.



With intermittent cats.



Because I can.





I'm done typing now.

Pointless something whatever of the day:

Yeah, I'm that tired.

If you'd called me at 2 am (which would have been a neat trick since my phone wasn't on) you would have found me reading Wuthering Heights. And again at 3 am.

I don't even like Wuthering Heights. I was trying to bore myself to sleep.

By 4 am I just gave up and watched my Craig Ferguson recording. Sort of. I stared vaguely into space and the recording played.

To top it all off, we had a notice to be out of the parking lot by 8 am today for maintenance, whatever that means. Probably just leaf sweeping since I don't think that there are any lines that need painting. Either way, it means the inconvenience of fighting three buildings' worth of cars from the apartment complex trying to find space to park on the street, or leaving an hour earlier than I normally do.

So I left the apartment at 7:45...



Sigh. You have basically two choices when you have to leave an hour early if you're me. You can either wander around one of the early-opening grocery stores pretending that you have an hour's worth of shopping to do, or you can go to a fast food place and pretend that you have an hour's worth of sitting to do while you dawdle over some variety of egg sandwich. I didn't manage that part so well today, to be honest. Between the homeless people and the retirees, the place was packed. I only lasted about twenty minutes before I just had to get out of the noise.

And sit in my car.



Yes, seriously. It was a fantastic morning.

Ah well, enough whining for today. And hopefully some sleep tonight. At the moment I'm just considering it an absolute triumph that I managed to NOT get my fruit salad mixed up with my hummus at lunch. And that I remembered to put on pants before I left the apartment.

Pants. Always a good thing.





I think that I'll stop typing now, if that's ok with everyone.

Zombified

It's orange daylily time!

And in other news, it was 31C in my apartment when I left this morning. This morning, mind. After a night of open window and fan constantly running.

31C. No wonder I slept like crap. Or, rather, I didn't sleep. Nodded off a bit, maybe, but no sleep worth mentioning. What I did do was play with the 3DS, read some philosophy (you know you're desperate when), and watch a couple of things on my dvr. They say that when you can't sleep you should do something for a little while instead of getting frustrated about not sleeping, but for me that can be all freaking night.

And of course I had planetarium this morning. Perfect.

Ah well, sleep will happen. Eventually. I'm assuming.





I wonder if it'll be 35C by the time I get home...

Ow. My brain.

I spent the morning talking about owls. Which was good, don't get me wrong. It's just that doing three hours of programming like that is just really starting to make me feel old. I'm wiped afterwards.

Of course, it doesn't help that I had a very interrupted sleep last night. I had to be at the school reasonably early, and as usual my brain decided to be its own alarm clock every hour or two. I hate that.

Anyway, that and a lack of lunch (because I wasn't in the mood to pack one this morning. Yes, entirely my fault) has meant that I'm definitely lacking in brain at the moment. You're lucky you're getting any words at all.

Even if they're not really saying anything.

Anyway (again), I'll try for an actual post tomorrow. For now, though, and to make up for the Ukraine scarediness from yesterday's post AND to show you just how tired my brain really is, this bit of internet silliness is really making me laugh right now.

Later.

Pointless photo of the day:

I kind of like this one, actually.

After this weekend, though, the scenery won't be looking much like that. There's forecasts of doom ahead, boys and girls.

Or at least of winter.

And since we all know what kind of a mood that puts me into...



Ok, seriously? Just lacking sleep here at the moment, and unless you'd like to read completely aimless blather I think I'll just give the blogging thing a pass today.

Hell, I'm going to give it a pass even if you did want to read completely aimless blather.

So there.

----------

Tea of the day: Pumpkin Chai, which was apparently part of their fall collection so I can't give you a link. Good, but funny to call it pumpkin chai when it doesn't have any actual pumpkin in it (carrot and squash, according to the package). It has pumpkin candies, though. Do they count?

Pointless photo of the day:

I'd tell you what it is, but I'm not sure I can make it out through my eyelids.

Yeah, truck's still on a roll.

Pun not intended.



And I'm really starting to loathe that guy, in case anyone's wondered.

Oh, I have thoughts

I don't know how many of them will actually make it into the post, though, because one of my current thoughts is that I have a massively ignorant truck for a neighbour at the moment. Downstairs neighbour, even, which lets you know the extensive effort it must have taken for him (I'm assuming him, just because) to be so annoying to me and probably everyone else in every apartment anywhere near him.

Listen, I know it's the time of year when the college students are moving into the building and that it's possible that this person has never lived away from home before, but c'mon. Common sense, right? Even if you have nowhere to be and have the leisure to be playing with the audio after midnight doesn't mean that we're all in the same boat. Night before last I wasn't sleeping (yeah, where have you heard that before?) when around 12:30 the distinctive thumping of house music started. House music? In your one-room apartment after midnight? Really? Last night I was especially tired and was sure I'd finally get some proper sleep, when what I can only figure was one of those very cinematic video games started playing. And went on and on and on and was still going strong when I finally got to sleep sometime around 2 am.

Idiot. Headphones, ok? And you've probably guessed that this person isn't actually a truck. Just play rhymes with and it'll make much more sense.

----------

In other annoying news, I decided to wear my hair loose in the back today rather than ponytail it for the first time in months, and boy is this never happening again until I get a haircut. I have about a two year growth on this ratty head of mine just now, and to feel it all over my shoulders and getting caught up between my back and the chair is really frustrating.

My two fans have heard this before many times, but I'm not all that fond of my hair. It's very fine and very straight (those ads for shampoos that will flatten your curls bemuse me a whole lot), and on top of that it grows very fast. So, fine hair that's just going to grow out of a style anyway doesn't get styled much. I usually at least pin it in front (like it is right now), but lately I've just been tying the whole mess back and ignoring it. Except today, and I wish I hadn't suddenly decided this morning that the clips would be fine on their own.

Stupid hair.

Stupid lack of sleep.

Stupid trucks.




I think that I should probably stop typing now, before everything else becomes stupid.

headdesk

Not quite one o'clock and I'm fading fast, boys and girls. It's been an interesting couple of days. My neck's been out so I've been working at home, which would be ok except for the part that my apartment's been literally (proper use of literally, not internet I-don't-know-what-literally-means version) running at 30C for over a week now. So, discomfort and bad sleep. Fun times.

The planter dog looks like he understands, though.

I'm going to have to get the silly thing a proper bedding plant for a friend next year. This is two years in a row that he hasn't done well being seeded. I think that he's a bit depressed about the whole thing.

Or maybe just about being a scrap metal dog with a pot for a body, I dunno.

I did warn you about the tired part, right?

Well, maybe we'll keep this short for today and just take a moment to acknowledge the very nice rooibos chai that's been accompanying me through the fog (although, given the fog, my mate chai might have been a better choice). It came special delivery via my sister-in-law, and is NOT from Teavana.

It's from here. I've had a browse through the catalogue, and it's tempting. I'd have to go to Edmonton for a physical store, I guess, but I see that there's free shipping on internet orders over $50. Doesn't take much to get over $50 in specialty teas...



Definitely tempting. I'll keep you posted.





Because I just know you're all anxious about my source of teas.

tiiired...

Kinda busy

Kinda busy not sleeping.

Yeah, it's been a heckuva week for finding out what silly garbage is on television at three in the morning.

Ah well. Eventually I'll get some real sleep. Either that or my brain will fall out.

Not sure I'd notice the difference at this point.

----------

I'm also kinda busy with work just now, so I'll have to make this short. See that dripping water? Or that puddle of water that doesn't look like it's actively dripping, I guess I should say. It was dripping from the upper floor of our birding deck here at work.

Dripping water.

Dripping, melting snow.

That's what spring's supposed to be like, last I heard. Why, then, are we expecting still more snow this weekend? I mean, it's not supposed to be like the blast that Ontario's getting (I feel for you, folks), but it's the end of freaking April and the snow should go away.

Apparently spring's giving the entire country a miss this year, and I, for one, am tired of it.

Of course, I'm just tired generally, but dammit spring. Give winter a kick in the butt already.



I want more melting things. And sleep. And lunch, but that last is my own fault for not bringing any.

And now I want to stop typing, so I will. That at least I can control.

Well, that's odd

No, not the pointless photo. Well, the photo is odd, I suppose. And somewhat out of focus. I let the camera choose what it was focusing on, you see. Might not have been my choice, but by that point on my walk I was getting cold and didn't feel like taking my mitts off to focus the camera myself.

At least there's some interesting shapes to look at. And, of course, the knowledge that the pointless photography on this blog will continue being pointless, no matter how nice the equipment used is.

----------

Ok, now on to the real oddity. My two fans will know that I have a long-running problem with insomnia, and like I said yesterday the past couple of days hadn't been great. Or... great for insomnia, maybe, but not great for sleep or general functioning. When I left work yesterday I left with a plan of attack to solve the problem. I even detailed it to Wheat. Go home, do my best to eat a proper meal (I don't know about any of you out there, but when I don't sleep properly my stomach decides that it's not all that into food. It's kind of inconvenient, really), do absolutely nothing that might get my brain engaged (that's right -- no books, no art, and the stupidest television programming possible. Sadly, that last part isn't too hard), have a warm bath with the aromatherapy products (helpfully -- or hopefully? -- labelled SLEEP) that I was given for Christmas, and go to bed. The same kind of thing I've tried in the past when this has happened, you understand. Now here's the weird part.

It worked.

I damned near fell asleep in the bathtub, but that's not surprising. Warm bath, nice bubbles, tired person. It'd be surprising if I wasn't drowsy at that point. What was surprising is that I went to be at about 11 pm and the next thing I knew it was 5:30 am. That part? Almost never happens. Too often, by the time I get to bed my brain's all fired up for round two (or round whatever, depending on how the day went) and I'll either be up until stupid o'clock or wake up at stupid o'clock. 11 - 5:30 might not sound great to some of you out there, but to me it was fantastic to the point of being disorienting.

I'm going to try it again tonight.

Maybe I'll allow myself a BIT of reading, though.

But just a little bit.

What do you suppose would happen if I got used to this sleep thing? Interesting thought, anyway.





Don't worry, though. I'm pretty sure that the blog would still be pointless. Sleep can't change everything.

So, maybe this not disappearing thing isn't quite working out yet.

Yeah, sorry about that.

On the plus side, though, you are getting the joy of a completely pointless photo from the new camera. May as well start as I mean to go on, after all.

I have to be honest -- I've had very little sleep in the past couple of days (as in, VERY little. As in kind of feel a little bit queasy very little), so this probably won't be much of a post even now. Ah well, what can you do besides ramble on in this kind of case, right?

Well, I suppose you could stop typing, Dee.

Oh, but I can't do that until I say thanks for the Christmas gifts, especially since my enablers yearly suppliers of gift card to get art supplies with have no idea what they bought me yet. They bought me a lot this year, actually, since I got in on a 30% off sale. It was pencil year, I guess, since there were no pens in the haul. Ok, maybe a few pens. Less than ten, anyway, and some of those were clearance items so I saved a bit on them even without the discount. Other than that? Tinted charcoal, water-soluble tinted graphite, water-soluble metallics, and some verithin pencil crayons so maybe I can not use the Laurentiens quite so much in the future. I always try to pick up at least one thing that I wouldn't get otherwise so that I can experiment, and this year's experiments might be... interesting. As in, my first attempt didn't scan worth crap.

Maybe I should take a photo of it with my new camera?

Yeah, that might work.

I'm going to stop typing now, ok?



Ok then.

More sleep weirdness

I probably could just re-title this blog Sleep Weirdness and have done with it, yeah.

Anyway, this time around it was sleep at unusual times. I was in the middle of what I thought was going to be yet another of my mostly-sleepless nights. I was watching Letterman, which for us comes on at 12:35 am. I remember listening to the band (and wondering why they didn't just stay gone. Not that I find them offensive or anything; only bland). It was about 1:35ish, I'd say.

Then it was ten to nine.

Yes, that's right. 8:50 am.

Apparently my brain decided that it might be a better idea after all to get some sleep. Yay, right? Well, except for one thing.

I'm generally at work by nine.

Ah well. One quick text to Wheat saying that I'd be there eventually, one rather lame attempt to get my sorry butt in gear (where does that phrase even come from, anyway? Did butts ever really have gears? I'd think that'd be painful), and I did make it in a little after ten. Pretty much completely disoriented, yes, but I made it.

Which, incidentally, is why this blather is going to be short. I need to get back to work.

I wonder if this little escapade means that I'm in for another sleep change. It was after a bad bout of insomnia years ago that my stupid brain decided to fix things by switching me from being a nightowl to a morning person, after all (boo on that decision, by the way. I used to love my nights). Maybe stupid brain is finally considering sleeping like a normal human being.

I'd be all right with that.

Back to work now.

Here I am...

And here's an apple.

Um, the end?

Ok, sorry for the unexpected disappearance. I'd tell you what happened, but you'd just start to wonder if I should be allowed to use things like chairs and scissors.

Scissors weren't involved, by the way. Chairs, on the other hand...

Oh, I'll leave it to your imagination. Suffice to say that I had a pretty strange last week, and I currently have an interesting limp.

And let's move on.

My sleep's been a little erratic the past few days (not unusual for me, I think my two fans will already know), and it's led to a couple of weird things. Like dreams, for instance. Now, of course I know that I dream anyway, but I very rarely remember my dreams. I've mentioned this before, but I think it's sort of a self-protection thing from back when I used to have freakishly scary dreams as a kid. The brain finally got to the point where it said fine. You're going to insist on doing that to yourself? Then I'll just turn off the memory function until you smarten up.

Or something like that, anyway. The point is that to this day I find it a bit odd when I wake up remembering a dream.

I did this morning, though. And it was a doozy.

You know those prescription "sleep aids" (as they euphemistically call them in the commercials) that occasionally have the side effect of sleep walking or even sleep driving? Well, I'm not on any of those, but last night I had such a vivid dream of sleep driving that I was almost certain that my car wouldn't be there this morning when I went down to the parking lot. It was only a dream, though. Either that or I'm an amazingly good sleep driver, even to the point of parking the exact same way that I did when I drove the car last.

Realistic dreams always kind of freak me out, though. Have you ever had the one where you dream that your alarm goes off (and that should really tip me off that it's a dream right there. Since my brain decided to be up at stupid o'clock I almost never need to use an alarm these days) and you go through a very mundane work day only to have your REAL alarm go off? And then you didn't even get to do anything fun in the dream like accidentally show up naked?

Erm... just me, then? Oh, all right.

Anyway, I should get back to actual, non-dream work. Or at least I'm assuming that it's not a dream. And since I really need to not be breaking into pseudophilosophy just at the moment, we're going to roll with the assumption, ok?

Ok.

One last and completely unrelated thing, though. This is kind of intriguing. What names would you decide on for those colours? I'm not sure I'm creative enough, really. Wouldn't they have got bored awfully quickly with answers like blue. Lighter blue. Darker blue. Even darker blue...

And I wouldn't even get to accidentally show up naked...

Talking with the cat

Today's pointless photo is not of the cat.

Actually, today's pointless photo isn't even the one I thought I'd chosen to use. Must've had a slip with the mouse, I guess. Ah well. I'm willing to go with it.

Another draggy day for me, I'm afraid. I'd thought at first that a quiet, cool basement might do the trick to help me get onto an honest to god regular sleep pattern, but apparently that's not the case. Either that, or my brain doesn't want me to get used to feeling rested just in time to head back to my place tomorrow.

Stupid brain.

Anyway, the Cat Who Is Not Pictured. He and I have been having quite the chatty time lately, which is funny. You see, Max was always the less talkative of the two cats, but now that Penny's gone it's like he's taken it upon himself to fill the void somewhat.

I don't think he quite gets how that goes, though.

He's taken up squeaking, mostly.

Over the past few months he's developed a special I want outside voice, amongst other things. He used to have a very typical annoyed cat howl when the silly humans didn't seem to notice that the cat wanted out (I should say here that he's only allowed out on harness, so getting to go outside takes a bit of convincing on his part). Now? He squeaks. He'll stand at the doorway, look at you, and then do his best the cat wants out sooo badly that he's developed a sudden case of feline laryngitis impression.

It's kind of weird.

But then, so's the cat.

The cat, by the way, will probably NOT get outside today, and will DEFINITELY not get outside tomorrow. Poor cat. Yet another reason why he'll probably be out of his mind happy when my dad opens the door tomorrow evening. I'm ok company (and yes, Max has kept up with the OMG you'd better not leave again attitude he's had since I got groceries a couple of days ago. It's amusing), but I'm just not Dad.

 There's just not a whole heck of a lot that a not-dad can do about that, Max.



Well, one more day of this for me, and then it's back to the probably pathetic-looking plants on my balcony, back to the office, and likely back to more sporadic blog posts depending on what I find waiting for me at the Nature Centre.

At least there are no squeaking cats there.

Pointless question that I never in my life thought I'd be asking of the day:

What am I supposed to watch on television now that the Olympics are over?

----------

Not much to say tonight, because I've been a little off today. You know what a stupid thing to do when you're a known insomniac is? Stay up late to watch a meteor shower. It tends to screw up your sleeping even further. Ah well. It was a gorgeous night, they were gorgeous meteors, and if you haven't been out to stare at the sky for a while (or, you know, ever) there should still be plenty tonight so you haven't really missed it completely.

What else? Oh, I guess I could say that life with the cat has been kind of funny today. First I freaked him out by leaving to get groceries yesterday afternoon. Then I freaked him out by going outside at stupid o'clock last night and staying out for a while. Now? We're best buddies. I guess he decided that he wants me around after all.

That'll be it for tonight, I think. I'll try to get some proper sleep and be a little more wordy tomorrow.

Holding down the fort

I have no idea what this post is going to be. Not that different from any other post here, really, but I just thought that I should warn people that I'll be typing mostly off the top of my head here.

I'm still at my father's place, and rapidly gaining too-many-stairs knee. I guess I should be planning my trips to the basement (home of this computer and my temporary bedroom. The house is still a bit on the warm side to be sleeping upstairs) a little more carefully, since the bad knee is really starting to make itself known. Ah well. Not a whole heck of a lot I can do about it at this point.

The cat? Mostly ignores me, so I know where I rate in his world. I suspected. He's such a daddy's cat that it isn't even funny. Oh, he'll ask me for treats or the occasional rubdown, and if I'm on the couch he'll make sure he's up top on his blanket, but other than that he's just been going about his daily business. He doesn't even ask me too often if he can go out, which is sort of amusing. He's always pestering Dad about it, but me? Not so much. This cat assigns jobs, you see. I'm for treats and belly rubs; Dad's for sleeping with and asking to go outside. Personally, I think that Max is still amazed that I know enough to feed him and clean the litter box.

At least he's secure in the fact that someone's around. The day Dad left for the airport, I left shortly afterward to spend a few hours at the workplace. When I got back I definitely had a small shadow for a while. I think I gave him a bit of a panic by taking off.

Let's see, what else? Well, I should get a few groceries since I still haven't done that (haven't been out much, to tell the truth. Even yesterday's trip into the city didn't happen. Funny how that works when you go to bed at ten, wake up at midnight, and don't get back to sleep at all. I didn't think that I could be trusted on the highway, to be honest). I also need to get some work done, and oddly enough I think I'll have more success at it if I do it here rather than heading to the office. Aaand I really need to do some drawing, for work or just for me. Getting lazy about that, and I shouldn't be letting frustration at the shakiness of my stupid wrist get in the way of practicing.

Sounds like a full day, really. I wonder how much of it will actually happen?

I think that's about it for now. Congrats to any of our recent medallists that I haven't mentioned. My brain made up for yesterday's lack of sleep by letting me sleep in until 6:30 (Shock! Amazement! Yay me!), so I missed the bronze in the K1 200m. Hooray for men in boats, though. Women in boats? Sorry ladies, but you seem to have a bit of catching up to do at the moment.

I'm going to have some lunch now. You needed to know that.

Ok, I'll try for a post tomorrow

No, really. It's just that right now I'm operating on tired brain and I'm not sure I could string the words together.

Which, of course, made my morning program just awesome.



Not sleeping did give me the advantage, however, of being able to watch the live feed of the Men's Eight winning their silver. A very respectable silver, considering that the Germans have been pretty much untouchable this year, and that our guys totally sucked rocks in their heat. Nice to see them get it together, and you have to admit that the last push was pretty darned exciting.

You know, if I could see rowing more than once every four years I might actually watch sports now and then. Just saying.

Now if I could only get my head around synchronised diving...

Meanwhile, at the workplace...

Hi.

Better mood today, or maybe I should say a more coherent one. There's still not a whole bunch of sleep going on in my life, but at least there was sleep. And a few hours in a row, even.

Yay me.

Hey, at this point even the small victories deserve a cheer.

----------

I just went walking in the rain, or at least in the mizzle. I enjoy the rain, which probably says to a whole bunch of you that I live in a place where it doesn't rain every day. You'd be right, and as a result I'm very fond of rain. That's not saying that I might not be fond of the rain even if I lived in a rainy place, of course, but I know very well that it would be much less of a novelty.

I went out to take a few photos for the work blog (and they'll be going up after, for those of my two fans who know where the work blog is. For those who don't... well, the pictures won't be all that interesting, but if you're desperate for directions just e-mail me via the address on the sidebar of the other blog) and stopped along the way to take a couple of shots for myself.

Those who've been reading this blog for a while probably know that I have a bit of a thing for leaves, but you may not know that leaves with raindrops = even better. I love raindrops on leaves. Not only does the waxy coating of a leaf make drops look extra... droppy? (is too a word. For today, at least), but the drops themselves each act as tiny magnifiers. If you look at a leaf through a droplet you're always going to see things that you wouldn't notice normally.

It probably won't come as much of a surprise hearing this from a myopic detail-oriented person who sometimes has trouble caring about the (literal) big picture, but I like seeing things that I wouldn't notice normally. I like a magnified view.

That reminds me: I once did a small, weird, abstractish dimensional piece that was an impression of a magnified leaf. Maybe I should post it on the other blog sometime. It's not like it would be the first weird thing there.

Anyway, as I so often say about this time in the post, I need to get back to work. Today's photos, for anyone interested, are of Silverberry (up top) and Saskatoon (not up top). Two edge plants; two edible fruits. Although I think you'd have to be pretty desperate to eat the Silverberry. The berries are, indeed, silver on the outside. They're green and mealy on the inside. Very appealing.

And with that, on to my second blog post of the day. Not bad for a bunch of pictures in the rain.





I like the rain, though. Did I mention?

fgh

Those of you who can sleep... well, I hate you.

Just mildly, and it's nothing personal, but I do rather hate you.

Just so you know.

The heat -- my apartment's running at about 30C these days -- has decided to combine with my usual insomnia in a big way, and I had to not be around for a few days.

I'd still not be around, to be honest, but I have a planetarium show to do this afternoon so there was no choice in the matter, even if I've hardly slept. This ought to be a real gong show, ladies and gentlemen, and if you happen to be in the area I might recommend coming to next month's show rather than watching me be incompetent for an hour this afternoon.

Just a suggestion.

The bee's nice, though, don't you think? It's La Bee En Rose, if anyone wondered. And my apologies to Edith Piaf, wherever she may be.

I should probably stop typing.



Yeah, that would probably be best.