Tuesday, 1 June 2004

june to-do list

House:

  • Map electric system in basement
  • Paint pantry doors
  • Make new shoe and floor moulding
  • Prime kitchen trim
  • Paint kitchen trim
  • Prime kitchen walls
  • Paint kitchen walls
  • Receive new refrigerator (6/21)
  • Cut tile for and apply it to west and other walls
  • Actually do all that, even though we slacked this past weekend and have obligations through the next two
  • Paint porch swing
  • Mount blind in W.C. (nope--too narrow)
  • Scrub front door
  • Cook a meal (I dream big)

    Garden

  • Get lots of vegetable pulp and coffee grounds
  • Transplant some vinca to north easement
  • Transplant cuttings of agastache and sage to ex-pine spot
  • Transplant more bishop's weed to north side
  • Pressure-clean north fence
  • Stain north fence
  • Pressure-clean other fence
  • Stain other fence
  • Pressure-clean patio furniture
  • Oil patio furniture
  • Begin to fill in slope with any remaining dirt
  • Build better trough for bishop's weed
  • New pavers for north side
  • Turn on north spigot and uncover swamp cooler
  • Pluck bindweed (ongoing)
  • Weedwhack south side
  • Buy ladybugs to sic on aphids

    Errands

  • Cardboard and new, different phone books to recycling
  • Plastic bags to recycling
  • Home Depot: trellis for raspberries, tomato cages, pavers for path
  • Target: Supersoaker watergun, for squirrels

    Stuff to look for

  • Blind and W.C. sign for watercloset (since January 2004)
  • Rugs for kitchen floor
  • White unscented tapers for candelabra (for a long time)
  • New glass "art" for front door (since May 2000)

    Kinwork and Lisaism

  • Lou's wedding
  • CLH later next week

    Reading:

  • Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code
  • Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quijote
  • Tracey Chevalier, The Virgin Blue
  • David James Duncan, The Brothers K
  • William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury and Absalom, Absalom!
  • Henry James, Portrait of a Lady
  • Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees
  • Rudyard Kipling, Kim
  • José Saramago, History of the Siege of Lisbon
  • Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace (audio)

    Exercise

  • At least a little bit of calisthenics at home? Please?
  • Bike to work 20 times or 150 miles

    06:06

    • ees finish meester joyce, yah?

    I might say de Cervantes and Faulkner and James but right now I'm reading Watership Down for the first time in at least four years.

    07:07

    bike

    Two 3.8-mile city rides.

    21:09

    productive evening

    How I do love long summer evenings.

    On the way home I fetched DWJ's photographs*, returned the four children's books I borrowed Thursday, and picked up a bag of grounds from Starbucks. At home I changed, packed the car full of cardboard, and set off again. To Tri-R, to drop off what was maybe only half the cardboard but a lot of volume (the remainder is flat and maybe too wide to fit in Cassidy, the cabinets' boxes), plastic bags, and phone books; to Home Despot, for pavers and an additional trellis; and to City Floral, for ladybugs. Home again, RDC and I walked down to Heidi's for sandwiches.

    * Talking with DWJ awhile ago, I spoke fondly of Rocky. DWJ is more RDC's friend than mine and I had not spoken to him since Rocky's death. I mentioned I had pictures of Percy and Rocky together, of Percy singing to Rocky (see? not all cockatiels are afraid of all dogs, you coward, Blake), and DWJ said that when he visits he would like to see them. Three minutes after I handed the phone to RDC, I had the negatives in my paw. So he can not only see but own them.

    I moved the five round brickish pavers to the back, stepping stones between the brick walkway and the compost bin, and laid the new, faux sandstone pavers on the north side (I need two more). I weeded the raspberries and pounded another trellis into place to try to keep their prickers off the patio.

    I hosed the cherry tree, mercilessly using the "jet" setting. This was "to disperse pests," as if aphids don't have grippy little toes and jaws. The Botanic Garden Ask-the-Expert dude said there was a pesticide that wouldn't hurt animals, as if insects weren't animals and leaving ambiguous whether it would hurt birds. I didn't believe him. He also said that aphids aren't dangerous to the tree, don't damage its vascular structure, and only suck out water and nutrients, likening them to mosquitoes on humans. Okay, but the more moisture and nutrients the aphids suck out, the less goes into the fruit or, more important, the roots. So I poured 1500 ladybugs onto the cherry tree, and I hope they have big, vicious, chompy jaws. Ladybugs and their larvae can eat several times their weight every day. Hop to it, ladybugs.

    21:09