Two More Weeks of Hell

And then I can properly tell you about my half-clever idea of using newspaper in the garden to control weeds.  You put it down where you don’t want weeds and as the summer progresses, it disintegrates and becomes part of the soil.  You do, however, need to do this when you’re not having a wind storm.  Otherwise, you’re somewhat cute backyard becomes all white trashy with flying newspaper trapped against the fence and various shrubbery.  (BTW, I don’t think I used enough mulch on top, but still in 20-30 mph winds, paper’s gonna blow)

I could also properly tell you about our first batch of lettuce from the garden and the watercress soup we made from our first real batch of watercress.  I’d also ask if anyone knows if watercress can be harvested only “once” (i.e., the whole plant) or if you can just pull off a few leaves here and there as needed. 

I’d also tell you about all the dill sprouting up in the lower right corner of the garden where last year’s lone dill plant grew and died.  It may have been a loner, but it was a slut.  There are little dill plants all over my garden.  Who knew??? I love dill and lord knows, we didn’t have enough last year, so I’m letting it grow.  I thought dill was an annual, and, ironically, all of my supposed perennial herbs are dead, dead, dead. I also have a mint sprout out there.  Are those perennials, too??

Patches is still having the midnight runs, and after Friday night’s fiasco in which Dave prepared the house so that we could use the doggie door (i.e., put wily Simba in the den, which she repaid Dave by pooping on his chair; don’t blame her as there was no litter box for her), so where was I? Oh, he put Simba in the office so she couldn’t escape through the doggie door but then didn’t OPEN the doggie door so that *I* had to get up at 1:45 and let the whimpering little dog out.  Yes, as I was actually sleeping through the night until that point, we were not amused when he had prepared for NO ONE to have to get up and then didn’t follow through by actually opening the door.  (I was a bit cranky when I figured that all out) 

Last night was not much better except Dave had given me permission to poke him to get up and take care of the dog.  It’s not much better seeing that I am still waking up first, but I certainly enjoyed the good poke I gave to get him out of bed.  I confess that I can tell we both lie in bed waiting to see if the other one will get up and take care of whatever nighttime parenting chore we need to do.  Or that could just be me.  Nonetheless, I have earned a week’s worth of poking and I’m going to use it.

Patches actually scared us yesterday by not eating his dinner.  And he did not eat his breakfast this morning.  We called Dave’s sister the vet to see if we could wait to go our regular vet on Monday or if this was something more serious.  She said it was very, very good that he wasn’t throwing up.  She also thought that as collies are quite sensitive, he could be experiencing collie colitis—a stressful tummy.  Irritable Bowwow Syndrome, if you please.  She suggested cooking some lean hamburger (draining well of fat) with equal amounts rice until he feels better.  I cooked it up and Patches stared at me slack jawed wondering what he ever did to be such a good dog for that meal.  Needless to say, he ate it up and seems OK.  Dave will still be on poop patrol tonight. 

I’m running late, per usual.  I want to get to bed early.  And I still have some chores to check off my list before I’m done.  Bleah. 

9:15:10 PM