Look Who's Coming to Dinner

This place needs a lot of things, but one of those things was not another cat. That, however, doesn't seem to matter. Yesterday I brought a new cat into the palace. His previous owners adopted a baby from Ethiopia who, as it turns out, is allergic to cats. So, he needed a home. I had no desire to get another cat, but he's a Devon Rex. I've always dreamed of owning a Sphynx, but know I'll never go through a breeder and so the chances of getting on are pretty much nil. But, a Devon Rex is like the next best thing. So, without further ado, here's Simi:
Look at his curly coat:
He's currently residing in one of the spare rooms to allow everyone to adapt to his presence before the big introductions. Josh, lucky guy that he is, may get the honors since he'll be alone here all weekend while I'm in California. I don't think he knew what he was getting into. Speaking of, we have another new addition to the palace:
At least it's a lot like having a new addition. The real question, though, is what Aspen will call him now. Granola Guy no longer seems to fit.

Black Thumb.

Tucson taught me many things. I do not adapt well to hostile environments. Heat makes me sweaty which makes me cranky which makes me hide out in my little apartment with the shades drawn--for six months at a time.Desert hippies are scary. One city cannot have too many head shops. Beetles come with antlers that rival any deer. And I cannot be trusted with plants.

In the course of doing time there, I managed to kill every cactus I bought. Cactus that were native to Tucson. Dead. And it didn't take me long. I took this to mean that I should in no way take responsibility for living plants. But now I think I something may have changed. While most of the yard is in dire need of TLC (which I'm slowly but surely attending to), we've had random tulips and lilac and even a baby aspen popping up--in close proximity to me.


At first I steadfastly ignored these obvious signs of life. Then, however, I came home with a mint plant (I blame spring fever) fully intending to kill it for basil mint pesto and it refused to die. In fact, I had to put it in a bigger pot and even gave a cutting its own little pot. Then, I bought a pothos which my mom immediately labeled a loser plant--as in even a loser can't kill it. For a while though, it seemed like my green streak was over. It wasn't looking good despite my care. Noticing that it was an awfully big plant for such a small pot, I transplanted it and it's now looking happy again. It's like I learned to speak plant or something.
Now, in usual dalyn fashion, I'm feeling cocky. My little plant collection has grown to include a table full of (hopefully) sprouting basil (I even bought some crazy rock shit to put in the bottom of the soil to help with drainage which I managed to spill all over the garage, but I think some got in where it was supposed to go), a lemon thyme plant, and two different pepper plants. The real challenge, though, is going to be the fuchsia I just bought to hang in the dining room. I hear they can be temperamental. More so than cactus apparently. Move over Martha...

Spring. I Think.

While I do love spring, I do not love a tease. We barbecued over the weekend and enjoyed 70 degree weather, but today I huddled indoors doing work since it was 37 degrees and rainy. It'd be nice if it'd make up its mind (though I'm sure many people have said the same of me). I did manage, however, to get some pictures of Pearl Street on my way to a meeting last week.
And, no matter how much I try, I can't help but be impressed by tulips. And daffodils. And seemingly dead stuff springing back to life.

Spring?

Hello Hypocrisy...

When Amy packed up and moved to the suburbs, I made fun of her relentlessly. Her reasons for doing so were perfectly logical: more space, more amenities, new baby, and with a much cheaper price tag. However, I still couldn't imagine what madness would prompt a person to move to Temecula, land of subdivisions, chain restaurants, oppressive heat, and even more oppressive soccer moms. I would, I declared rather vehemently, sooner die--or at least be seen wearing Crocs. I couldn't decide which fate was worse.

When I saw Amy's new house, I felt vindicated. Yes, it's beautiful. Yes, it's clean. Yes, it's a great deal. But still...such excess.

Then I moved to Lafayette. True, the heat is tolerable when it's not snowing and the population is certainly more diverse. But I also live on the edge of the plains. Indeed, our backyard is, for all intents and purposes, the plains.



This is not only the 'burbs, it's practically the Midwest. I had grown used to sharing my commute with cattle, but, while heading east, I found myself sharing the ride with bison. And, this morning a fox nearly ran right into me as it casually loped across my path. There is an excess of nature and space here that goes beyond the vast empty landscapes.

Such excess has breached the palace walls. What once seemed like maze of rooms half-filled with boxes and echoes has quickly transformed into a home--though I'm still not sure how. I once sternly lectured Josh on the dangers of 2100 square feet and the compulsion to fill it. But Josh has since gotten used to my afternoon emails, which inevitably begin with, "Guess what I found today...?" Furniture seems to follow me home no matter how much I protest. Hello suburbs.

We are currently looking for a third couch.

Cohabitation

Signing a lease together was a big deal. But, it didn't really make an impression on me. I mean, I put my name on a piece of paper and put it out of my mind.

Moving in together was also a big deal. Sure, we'd basically been living together since the day we met, but, having never lived with someone before, it was significant. It was also seamless. I barely felt it.

Getting a joint bank account was a pretty big deal as well. The account is only for household expenses and there's no way to do anymore damage to my credit than grad school has inflicted already, but having the checks arrive with both our names on them was exciting for a moment.

Admittedly, this has been the easiest, most natural transition I could ever imagine (even if I couldn't imagine actually moving in with someone 8 months ago). But, it's the books that gave me pause. Josh easily has as many books as I do. Luckily we have the room for a library. But he also has a ridiculous number of manuals and other nonfiction books which challenge my system. How do you alphabetize a book on Linux that has no author? And should it be regular nonfiction or some special computer category? And how many editions does a person really need? More importantly, does anyone really read those things?

Seeing all our books jumbled together was a little disconcerting. Going through them to get rid of duplicates (together we had 3 copies of Fast Food Nation) was even more so. If I turned away for a moment, I'd be unsure whose copy of Wicked was whose, but I felt compelled to make sure mine ended up on the shelf and his ended up in the donation pile. Plus, what happens if we split? Who gets custody of the sole remaining copy of Into the Wild? Or Vegan Planet? Or Nickeled and Dimed?

Suddenly, I understand why people get pre-nups.

Brrr.

So the projected high today is 12. The low is -1. That would be in degrees. I can't even wrap my head around how cold that is. Polly (the dog) certainly can though. I took her out for a walk this morning. Since it is techinically freezing, I just took her to the local school so she could run around a bit. I let her off the leash and she promptly opened her mouth, stuck it in the snow, and ran along full speed shoveling piles of snow into her mouth. In theory, she was searching for wayward sticks. She succeeded only in making criss-crossing tongue tracks across a beautiful field of snow.

So, where did I get Polly the dog? She actually belongs to Josh, but I figured I better start getting used to her since we signed the lease on a house yesterday. It's true. In just five weeks, we'll be one big happy family living in sin. As it turns out, we found a wonderful townhouse in Lafayette (about 10 miles east of Boulder). It sits rather unironically at the corner of Merlin and Sir Galahad. Clearly, this is fate. But even more remarkable is that we--along with the aforementioned dog and my ever-expanding felines--will be occupying 2100 square feet. In short, it's practically a palace. This could be quite convenient since it's located within walking distance of 5 Mexican restaurants and I'm sure to start expanding right along with my kitties.

Other than the cold and the potential move, I'm just trying to finish getting my classes together. School started last week and I have the first half of each course planned, but I'm still trying to get as much prepping out of the way as possible. My TV class seems like it's going to be great. It's nice to have students who are already interested. Hopefully being forced to watch TV for homework won't take all the fun out of it. Anyway, I promised myself I'd get some writing done today and this , unfortunately, doesn't qualify....

Nico is crying pitifully. I'll just give him a little love first.