and tomorrow will be strange. It'll be the first without any kids at home, which is a tough adjustment. This empty nest situation is for the birds!

I spent some time looking around Amazon for potential gift ideas to send to the kids, including a hedgehog statue for the garden (gads, but Amazon's interpretation of search terms is aggravating). I stumbled across all sorts of items for fairy gardens and dollhouses/ miniature gardens, which I didn't know was even a thing! There were some of those at the plant nursery last week too, but who knew it was so widespread? Also, hedgie-themed planters. And at the other end of the scale, a figurine for about $55. Boy, for that kind of money, I want a certified Rodin replica!

We're in the process of re-landscaping parts of the garden, to replace the plants that died when the big shade trees had to be removed. I so miss Capitol Nursery, which went under near the end of the recession. We're left with some smaller nurseries and a larger one with little variety, and none of them is as willing to special-order as Capitol was. In Sacramento, our challenges are the hot sun and finding plants that bloom in the summer (since that's about half of the year here). And on the flip side, avoiding things that can't take freezing temperatures. :O Plus... when the guidelines say "full sun," is that Sacramento sun? Because it's pretty horrific....

Still working on my post-surgery exercise, which has really been hard on my feet. The plantar fasciitis is looming, but the blisters alone would be bad enough. Yikes. Just 2-3 weeks and I should be able to ease back into bicycling, and ideally will be able to add in some elliptical training rather than pavement pounding.

Can't stay awake, so I'll close this for now. Happy Mid-May to one and all.

I still haven't posted my intended Media info-dump entry. What with the extra work before the surgery, the recuperation, and then the extra work after coming back... I just haven't had time. Which means that more stuff has accumulated toward that post, so \o?

Post-surgical news, the lump was fully benign and bigger than I expected-- about 2 inches and sort of ovoid. Had my post-op visit yesterday, and things are looking good. Although there's a big incision (about 2 1/2 inches, yikes), there was very little cutting into the muscle. Just a small cut, and then spreading so the surgeon could remove the lump. That makes a huge difference in healing, so yay! Also, I can start biking outside again tomorrow. \o/ I've been riding the trainer in the garage for the last week, leaning on my left arm and trying not to put weight on the right (where the surgery was done). I'm half T-Rex now, flailing that useless little arm around...

Recuperation time meant reading books and watching movies/TV, and discovering that all the itching I'd had in the days after surgery was not the anaesthetic's fault. Augh-- the only painkillers left in the U.S. seem to be related to codeine, which makes me itchy and restless. Manageable during the day, but it keeps me awake at night. Suckage. :(

I saw a rainbow beanie baby hedgehog at the store the other day that honestly could as easily have been a rainbow pig. Not one of the better toy hedgehog efforts. But in Googling around for it, I came across some wonderful crocheted hedgehog pieces:

I would totally make this hat, and this other one as well. There's also this entire hedgehog family and this single hedgehog variant. And how cute is this hedgehog with a mushroom?

The actual truth here is that I remember maybe one crochet stitch, probably courtesy of muscle memory. I have no idea how to do any of these neat shaped creations. But they're so cute. I feel I should somehow try. :)

The weekend's over, and I got bought at Sweet Charity by three lovely ladies-- jasmasson and tsuki_no_bara for the fics, and jeyhawk for the beta services. I've got my marching orders from Jas already, and I'm curious to see what Cindy's going to want me to write. :D

Saturday, we watched Christopher's soccer team lose their 6th game, but it was the best they've played this season. There was a small disaster early on (I commented that our assist to the OTHER team was the best we'd had all year), but things picked up. The lack of passing (and being in position) has been killing our offense this year. It's like Kindergarten bunch-ball all over again. Christopher is playing really well, though, and he scored his first goal in years (last year, he played mostly defense). This was a 4-3 loss, which definitely beats the 4-1, 3-0, 5-0 losses.

One thing I dislike about this level of play is the "offsides" rulings. I understand, say, penalizing a team whose backfield players cross the center line. They're out of their zone. But I don't get this thing of "your player got between the last defensive player and the goal." WTF? If the other team's defenders lag behind, well, too bad. That shouldn't be your team's problem. In basketball, they call that a fast-break play and it's beautiful! Grrr...

Christopher discovered a new Pokemon character this weekend. Can you guess what it is? ( Dialup cutCollapse )

The funny thing is, despite the flower, Christopher assumes this creature is male. Almost all of his stuffed toys are 'male'-- they're Daddies with babies. It's the sign of a new age! Lauren, OTOH, still thinks Piglet is female and probably also Tweety-bird (Hey, if you've ever heard Tweety's cartoon voice, you wouldn't think that for long).

We re-watched Iron Man this weekend. ( CutletCollapse )

BTW, weeks ago we saw Ghost Town, and loved it. It's almost a 1940s-flavored comedy, and not at all what I expected. For instance, Greg Kinnear is not the male lead. The character who is... let's just say, his incredible lack of social skills is like a train-wreck in progress (on repeat!), and it never stops being gloriously awful. ;)

So, did anyone read either of the funny cat articles in yesterday's post? One was a satire, and the other was, "Wait. How can this actually happen?" Both are fun, I promise. :)

Christopher has the 3rd-grade musical today, which he's been bitching about for the past week. I personally am not seeing the quantity of evil he thinks is involved. Is it because he hates the practicing for it? We confirmed last week that he likely has an eidetic memory (lucky boy!), which means that repetition about kills him. He hates the Spanish instruction.

I'm trying to finish a little something for badboy_fangirl. It's done! Whoo-hoo!!!

I've also been working on my British vs. American listing, and have a bunch of good information down and fairly well-organized... which now has to be coded. Ugh. Tables are involved— more ugh. Maybe someday soon you'll see it, but if you're in a hurry then plz email me!

Oh, and here's a fun seasonal picture offering: ( cut for dialup folksCollapse )

I've been meaning to do a picspam forever of Christopher and his hedgehogs. The visit over the vacation to a hedgehog breeder was just the nudge I needed!


( The story of a boy and his many hedgehogs…Collapse )

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( Hedgehog Farm VisitCollapse )