Look what the cat dragged in ...

I'd just like to say that this year's spring clean-up is superior to all other spring clean-ups by a mile. I whacked weeds, raked and bagged leaves, pulled rocks and roots out of the ground, dug holes and planted flowers. I beautified the HELL out of my yard.

But more importantly, for the first time in my life I bought and spread mulch. Mulch has always intimidated me. There are so many colors to choose from, so many different materials and scents. How many bags do you need? How thick do you spread it? Where should you put it? And those bags are heavy! I feel like you ought to have a truck if you're going to be buying mulch.

Anyway, the yard does look very pretty, the mulch is neatly (if a little bit too thinly) spread. And the spring cleanup is done, more or less, except for the watering, the mowing, and the occasional weed-pulling.

Oh, and the picking up of the cat poop.

As soon as I spread that first bag of mulch, every cat in the neighborhood came running. Apparently, my yard now looks and smells like a freshly-cleaned litter box. That pine scent--it's irresistible! Those woody fibers--so luxurious to the paw! And look! She's decorated it with a little troll! How kitchy!

A quick search online turns up dozens of lovely ways to discourage the cats: scatter around some thorny branches from a rose bush, spray commercial cat repellents or spread home-made deterrents, such as orange rinds or Vicks Vapo Rub, spray them with a water pistol (though I haven't actually caught any in act and, um, don't really want to, either). If it gets much worse I might have to buy a "cat-crow." (Someone at that company's been abusing Photoshop, I think.)

My favorite idea so far: Bury mouse traps under the mulch. That'll teach the disgusting little bastards.

First swim of the season

Like a little old lady, the dog only went in up to her knees.

Color blocks

The Easter pineapple

On Easter Sunday, I brought my parents a pineapple.

Normally, I would have brought them flowers on Easter. A nice lily, maybe some tulips, something with a bulb that they could plant in their yard. But as I mentioned yesterday, I'm trying not to spend money on non-essentials this month. I decided that food is definitely an essential, so I went grocery shopping on Saturday, and I bought this pineapple. It has leaves and it smells nice. So I brought it to my folks' house, along with a Peanuts Easter card that I bought for them when I was in high school but, for some reason, never gave to them. The envelope was a little tattered, but other than that it was perfectly fine.

Damn, that Snoopy still makes me laugh.

Anyway, I thought that we might eat the pineapple. Silly me. Instead it got pressed into service as the subject of a future painting. Inspired by its lopsided shape, my mom grabbed a small table and a tablecloth and dragged everything out onto the porch, where she started snapping pictures of it.



Next thing you know she's got some pears (she's been doing some sweet little still lifes of pears lately) and arranging them on the plate, too. The dog, though you can't see her in these photos, watched with interest, probably hoping some of the food would roll off the table and land on the porch floor. My dad watched with something closer to bemusement.



He looked at the dog and shook his head. "Poor Sadie," he said. "Remember when they used to take pictures of you?"

A Little Birdie Told Me

Last weekend I bought a painting from artist Julie Kramer (detail at left, see the full image here) at the 2007 Melrose Art Festival. It's a really beautiful portrait of a woman with an interesting expression on her face and a little bird on her shoulder. The pictures don't really do it justice.

Looking at it makes me think of stories.

I couldn't really afford the painting, even though it is small, even though it is unframed, even though I paid a very modest and fair price, but I decided that, to make up for the splurge, I wouldn't spend any money for the rest of the month. I would try not to spend a penny, not even on groceries.

Naturally I ran out of toilet paper the next day. And milk doesn't last a month, so I'll have to buy milk. But other than milk and toilet paper, I'm on a spending diet. We'll see how that goes once my on-hand chocolate supply is depleted.

Speaking of diets, I was looking for some information online about this year's show, but instead found some pictures from last year's show. I am in one of them, and I actually didn't recognize myself. Who the hell is that fat girl in that picture? Oh, shit. It's me.

But next week at Weight Watchers I expect to hit a big goal--I'll have lost one pound for every year I've been alive. And I'm less than 10 pounds away from my ultimate goal weight -- a number I last saw, oh, about 10 years ago.

Sometimes it's worthwhile to sacrifice short-term for something you really want.

Chicken and rice again?

Yet another pet food recall in the news today, this time involving dog treats from Del Monte. Having trouble keeping up with all the frightening news? Check the FDA's list of pet food recall notices.

I'm seriously considering cooking the dog's meals. Apparently, I'm not alone.

For Betty: A list of dog food cookbooks.