Perhaps I should turn on the AC.

We had quite a busy weekend.

Friday night we went over to a friend’s house to hang out. I had a nice time, had a couple fruity drinks (ice, vodka and strawberry daquari mix), late in the evening and I did a couple shots of Slivovitz, oh I do love that plum brandy.

Saturday morning I got up early, went back to bed around 9:30 and got up again around 10:30 when Michael needed to do some work. Mostly just puttered around for the rest of the morning. In the early afternoon we went out to the Home Depot to pick up some things for yard work the rest of the weekend. We planned on just getting the materials needed to make our compost area and a stopper and trap for the tub, but we walked out of there with a grill and a couple collapsable chairs as well.

So now we have a grill to go with the beautiful grill utencil kit that and gave us!

(Yes , now we can have a cookout!)

We didn’t get home from the Home Depot until almost 4pm. When we did the first duty was setting up the compost area. We bought 5 metal poles, and 20 feet of poultry wire, Michael started getting that together. Eventually I came outside to join him, and he dug the holes for each of the poles. It was awful, it was so hot and humid, and our soil is so unbelievable rocky. Eventually he was finished with it though. It’s not quite as round as we wanted it to be, but digging more holes in the rocky ground isn’t very appealing, and it’s on a hill, like the rest of our yard. It’s just a compost area afterall.

It was around 5 when we were finished. Michael was exhausted from the digging and needed a shower. We just wanted to relax. I called up the friend I we had plans with and cancelled, felt bad but I don’t think either of us would have been very good company. I hate the heat.

By 8pm the temperature had gone down quite a bit and we were feeling much better. We were hungry, wanted some place with good food and good wine. So we headed out to the Road House Grille in Skippack.

Dinner was amazing, probably the best I’ve had there so far, and that’s saying a lot!

Appetizer of their Road House Shrimp Cocktail with Tequila and Lime Infused Cocktail Sauce. That was some good cocktail sauce.

For dinner I ordered Baked Mahi-Mahi over buttermilk potatoes, with mushrooms and a lobster sauce. These are a few of my favorite things! Michael ordered a great looking chicken and shrimp dish.

Can’t forget the wine, we ordered a bottle of Rocca Bernarda Pinot Grigio. Yum.

It 10pm by the time we got home, I watched a movie and was in bed by midnight.

This morning Michael got up early to start working on the yard before it got hot. The job was to clear out the cluttered, unkept compost pile from the side of the house, and remove weeds and junk surrounding our trees, Michael spent all morning doing it while I stayed inside being lazy. He finished the compost area before I came outside. Around 11 I joined him and we tackled around the trees.

Moved a lot of rocks and put nice compost from the old compost pile within the rocks. I’m quite proud of our work, it looks great. The next step will be filling it in with mulch, which we’ll probably have delivered this week.

Around 12:30 we wen
t in for lunch. I then went for a shower and Michael finished up outside. I did some laundry, did the dishes and cleaned up a bit. Around 2 we were ready to go out to get some propane for the new gas grill and stop at the garden store for some herbs.

I had planted herb seeds earlier in the season, but we have an evil chipmunk that likes to dig up and eat all my seeds (luckily it just digs up the flower bulbs, those actually are growing into plants now). So I figured getting seedlings of herbs would be a better idea.

And before we left for the garden store I went online to find a list of plants that are poisonous to cats. I found a few but none were printer-friendly (wasn’t about to print a 36 page website listing them all..), I eventually found a site that listed both poisonous and non-poisonous very nicely, dropped the info in a spreadsheet, and knocked the length down to a managable 5 pages, first 3 are non-toxic to cats, last 2 are toxic. It was great to have with us, and I uploaded it to share nontoxic-toxic-plants-cats.xls.

The garden store was so hot, so I hurried and picked up a couple kinds of rosemary, a small oregano plant, and a small mint plant. We then went over to the houseplant area and got a calathea (non-poisonous to cats!) which looked nice.

After leaving the garden store we went up to the Sears Hardware store in Collegeville for a propane tank. When we entered the parking lot I noticed a Wine and Spirits shop, it was the Super Store that’s open on Sundays! So we went over there, picked up a couple of nice bottles of wine, and I found my beloved Slivovitz, finally!

After getting the propane tank we came home. I planted my herbs. Michael planted our new houseplant, then went inside to install the air conditioners.

And now it’s now. Time for dinner, going to try out our new grill by cooking some veggie burgers, yum!

I was browsing a friend’s website this morning and followed a link to buyblue.org. Within two minutes I found myself reading an article about how evil Wal-Mart is, and laughing to myself about it because I know how evil they are.

Then it hit me.

I’ve been really bitter lately.

So many posts about how I hate things and people annoy me.

So much talking in IRC about things that suck.

It doesn’t feel healthy and I’m sure it’s not fun to read about every day.

Sorry about that.

I had the biggest craving for a chicken cheese steak hoagie for lunch. Only trouble was that it\u2019s raining today and the Pizzeria is 4 blocks away.

Then I remembered I have a raincoat with a hood. So I called up the restaurant, placed my chicken cheese steak hoagie order, and put on my raincoat for a drizzly walk downtown.

It was nice. For once there weren\u2019t annoying kids running down the street and bikes nearly running me over on the sidewalk. The only other person I saw on my walk was the mailman.

I got my hoagie, came back here to work, and ate it while checking email. Yum.

I\u2019ve been swamped with work today since it\u2019s our fiscal month end today (my first one in this department!), but I\u2019m in a great mood.

is picking me up from work to go over to her place for movie night, should be fun, even if Michael is going to the men\u2019s sweat lodge in Malvern and won\u2019t be around %\

And our plans for the rest of the weekend?

Looks like it\u2019s going to rain tomorrow, not so much a yard work day. Maybe we\u2019ll spend that day shopping for when we do need to do yard work, Michael is planning on making a compost bin, so we need to pick up some poles and chicken wire for that. Tomorrow evening we\u2019re planning on spending some time with friends who want to play some D&D, which I haven\u2019t played almost 4 years (still have my dice though).

Sunday will be yard work day, assuming the weather is nice.

And now my lunch break is over. Only about 3 more hours until weekend %D

It’s been a pretty good week so far. I haven’t slept as well as I normally do, but it hasn’t seemed to bother me any.

Tuesday after work we went grocery shopping. When we got home Michael got out his drill and we hung the ropes along the side of the garage for our hops, some of which were getting tall and really needed to start climbing something. For dinner we had Morningstar Farm burgers. We spent the evening just relaxing downstairs, didn\u2019t even touch my computer.

Wednesday morning I woke up at 5am, an hour earlier than usual, it gave me time to catch up on email and things I didn\u2019t do the night before. It was strange being up so early though.

Work day went quickly, I breezed through my work.

Michael picked me up at 5 and we decided to head to a Chinese place that some friends had recommended, Yantze in Lansdale. Trying new Chinese food is always scary, I can\u2019t handle much MSG, so I\u2019ve spent my share of evenings in the bathroom after bad Chinese place trips. But I love Chinese food, so it\u2019s usually worth the risk. I was surprised when I walked into the restaurant, it was pretty nice for being in a shopping plaza. It was a bit different than normal Chinese places, I didn\u2019t even see Sweet and Sour chicken on the menu, they had a lot of good looking dishes, took me forever to decide. Eventually we each ordered a dinner (which came with soup, egg roll and ice cream for dessert), Michael got the sesame chicken and I got a hot seafood dish. It was good, and I didn\u2019t get sick, yay!

When we got home I spent some time online, explained \u201chow domain names work\u201d to a friend who was looking to buy one but didn\u2019t \u201cget\u201d how they worked. After explaining it I realized I wasn\u2019t really in the mood to be online. I ended up spending the evening reading and watching TV.

I got a few books in the mail for the Philly Chix, part of a series called \u201cSpring Into\u201d which I was expecting to be more \u201cnewbie learns $subject\u201d books, but so far have surprised me with their smartness. They\u2019re aimed at professionals and people already familiar with IT who want to venture into new subjects, the Spring into Linux book doesn\u2019t have the cutesy stories and text boxes everywhere insulting your computer intelligence. I\u2019ll write a full review of the Linux one soon, but so far, I\u2019m impressed.

And now it\u2019s Thursday and I\u2019m on my lunch break. Four day work weeks are good.

I’m not depressed anymore.

It’s good to feel normal again %)

I’m going for a walk.

I’ve been on IRC since 1998, there is no public forum I feel more comfortable on.

Over the years I’ve managed to get involved with tech groups that are female-oriented and very female-friendly. From time to time I even allow myself to forget that female geeks are rare. I’m not used to not running into assholes on IRC who freak about about a women being around.

But then it happened. In a software development channel that I’ve been for nearly a year.

< nick_one> yes, my girlfriend knows how to use irssi
< pleia2> my boyfriend knows how to use irssi
< nick_one> pleia2: lol :P
< pleia2> amazing, huh? %P!
< nick_two> Sure.
< nick_two> hehe
< nick_one> pleia2: you are a boy yourself too?
< pleia2> nick_one: no, definitely not a boy
< nick_three> crap
< nick_one> THEN we have a girl!
< nick_three> I thought my girly was the only one to annoy us in here ;P
< nick_three> nick_one: we have had my gf in here before :)
< nick_three> nick_one: she just annoyed $guy and left ;)
< nick_three> thats why I like her ;)

And they wonder why more women aren’t involved in Open Source Projects? As a seasoned IRCer and a user of and contributer to said software I found myself feeling offended and ostracized. I can’t imagine how a woman new to the project would feel. I know I wouldn’t have stayed if that was my first impression of the group.

Saturday was a beautiful day. I spent the morning cleaning the house, while Michael went to a few stores to run errands. When he returned I began mowing the lawn and he got to work on the concrete patching that needed to be done on the side of our porch.

By 1 we were close to being finished. I came inside and cleaned up little things that needed to be taken care of before our guests arrived and Michael cleaned the bathroom.

Luckily our friends were running late, so were we, everything was all together and friends were here by 4.

We had a nice evening, most of it just spent hanging out and talking. Around 7 I brought out the vodka and a few of us had some drinks. At 8:20 the bottle of Ketel One ran out and I went with (who hadn’t been drinking) to the liquor store down the street. I got my vodka with no problem, tried to speak as little as possible and act not-intoxicated, even if I did giggle once leaving the store “haha I bought liquor and I’m drunk!” I’m a bad person.

wanted to watch A New Hope, which I’d been wanting to watch as well since seeing Revenge of the Sith. Unfortunately I should know by now that watching a movie after having consumed a bunch of alcohol is just asking for me to sleep. I was asleep on the chair before Luke and Obi-Wan left Tatooine. I probably shouldn’t exhaust myself mowing the lawn on the day before a movie night either %) So I went to bed early. Friends left around 11:30, I felt bad, stupid sleeping! But at least we had a nice time while we were awake.

Sunday was another lovely day, so we decided to tackle a few yard projects.

In our front yard were a couple seemingly useless mounds. One had a decorative pole stuck in it, which we assumed had some sort of plant on it at one time. I removed the pole last year, and had intended to get rid of the mound of dirt it stood in since then. All I had to do with that was break up the dirt mound and haul the dirt to the back yard.

The other mound was covered with weeds and daisys (which I’m allergic to), we joked about it hiding a dead body because it was such an annoying to mow around useless thing. I started digging around it, pulling up the slate rock that were bordering it and yanking out all the weeds. Then I discovered what it was hiding. Not a dead body. A stupid tree stump! Damn them! I kicked it. It moved. I was able to yank the whole thing out of the ground, it was so old and rotted that it wasn’t too difficult. Yay! I rolled the stump into the garage to dry out, then went back to making piles for compost, slate rock (which Michael needed) and dirt from the mound. When I was finished I was hot and tired.

And we didn’t have a wheel barrel. We were pondering solutions to our wheel barrel-less problem, what else has wheels? Suitcases! Lawnmowers! The trash can! None of these were reasonable %) Neither of us wanted to drive all the way to the Home Depot, that always ruined a significant part of the day. That’s when I remembered a little garden store within walking distance of our house, it didn’t look like much, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to see if they had some. I hopped in the car (sweaty, insect repellent covered, and dirty as I was) and drove down to the store. I was helped by a couple guys who were more than happy to find me a wheel barrel, they had three outside, a small metal one, large metal one, and large plastic, I got the large metal one. They loaded it into the Rav4, I paid them and went home. Yay a wheel barrel!

The wheel barrel made everything so much easier. Michael helped me load the dirt, weeds and rocks into it and roll it out back, once that was done I put down grass seeds on my now flattend mounds. Success! I then joined Michael in the back yard to help him with his projects.

He was cleaning out some areas in the back that were overgrown with weeds (planning to put mulch down for now, maybe plant more things later), and building a firepit (see his entry). He set the stones around the firepit and began digging, by the time I got out there he was ready for a break. I took the shovel and picked up where he left off, started digging. After a few minutes I hit something hard. Started cleaning it off, and it turned out to be the edge of some big, flat, rectangular metal thing. When Michael came back out I showed him what I had discovered and together we worked to pry the whole thing out of the ground. It was about 3 feet by 4 feet! Who the hell is burying this crap in the ground? Yeesh.

Then comes the burning! The firepit looks great, and we had so many sticks and leaves out back to burn, so that got it going nicely. Must have spent about an hour burning stuff until it started to rain around 4pm and I went inside, exhausted, to take a shower. The rain didn’t last long, so Michael stayed outside with it while I got clean and started to relax. He came in later and I made tacos for dinner, watched the newest Doctor Who episode.

I was in bed by 9.

Today I ache all over. Michael’s back in the yard, but it’s my vacation day dammit! %) I might head out this afternoon and help him, but for now I’m letting my achey muscles relax. Will probably read a bit too.

It’s not raining. It’s just cloudy and sometimes drips fall from the sky.

I debated going for a walk during this lunch break, but figured it would start pouring as soon as I got halfway through my normal walk. I’m sure my new raincoat would have treated me good, but it’s not long enough to cover my pants and I’m not in the mood to spend the rest of the work day with soaked pants.

I’m not really in the mood for much, except sleeping. I’m not exactly depressed, just feeling lazy. Maybe I am depressed. I have no reason to be. Little things have been ticking me off all week. People just suck. I’m being all critical of everything everyone in my life is doing/saying, and taking it too far in my head. The other day I told Michael I wanted to take him and Caligula off to a cave in the middle of nowhere and live all alone with no other dumb people.

I have a big ole pile of invoices on my desk. I think I’m just going to listen to some NIN and dive into them this afternoon. 5 o’clock can’t come soon enough.

I hope this mood will pass soon. *puts head on desk*

When Michael and I got engaged we had to start thinking about what our wedding would be like. As most everyone reading this will know, I’m an atheist and Michael’s agnostic, a traditional church wedding is out of the question. But I’m all about tradition, I love my diamond engagement ring, I want a white dress at my wedding. I just don’t want God.

So in our quest to find some spiritual base, we started looking into pagan groups in our area. Why pagan? Pagan groups tend to encompass many beliefs, and I thought that starting there would be good, maybe we could meet someone we trust and respect enough to marry us.

The results so far? One group Michael has gone to (men’s only night) seems good, we’re following up with it and might join a course with them later this year. Another group in the Delaware Valley seems to have some interesting people in it, and if they hold any good meetings we might check them out. But those groups aren’t what this post is about.

This post is about a semi-local group that we’ve had a bad experience with.

First off, it’s not a purely pagan group. They are all pagans, but there is little discussion about it. Most of what is posted is stupid forwards and plans for trips that friends on the list are taking. I deleted most of what I received, it was fairly useless fluff. They were holding “study groups” every couple of weeks though, and I was interested in one, so I stayed subscribed.

Secondly, some of the members have such horrible grammar and spelling that attempting to read their posts makes me cringe. It’s really that bad. And there is plenty of caps abuse, I felt like I was reading something written by an angry 12 year old.

Now I tried not to hold this against them. There are very smart and enlightened people in the world that have terrible english skills.

I quickly realized they were not part of the smart and enlightened.

About a week ago a very offensively sexual and racist “joke” was forwarded to the list. I’m not easily offended, but this one hit a nerve. First off, I couldn’t believe I was associated with people who would drop that sort of thing in my inbox. Secondly, it’s from a pagan group! A group that is supposed to be inclusive of all people and cultures, accepting of all views (this isn’t just my assessment, they say this on their main page). The “joke” bothered me so much that I mentioned it to Michael, who is also subscribed but hadn’t seen it.

Michael was the one who followed up on it, emailing the poster directly, asking why such a racist joke was sent to a theoretically friendly, public list.

The mail was sent back to the list, and it turned into a flame fest. It turns out that the group is not as accepting as they claim to be. Not only did they defend the woman who posted the joke, they accused everyone who piped up and agreed that it was offensive of being “thin-skinned” and encouraged us to “just delete” things we found offensive.

Just delete it? Clearly these aren’t the kind of people I want to be associated with. I unsubscribed.

Sigh, religion. This is the sort of nonsense that made me a private practicer of spirituality in the first place. Hopefully these other groups we’ve found will prove to me more to my liking.