Tonight

I kept my friend company and helped out with onion chopping as he made the tomato sauce for tomorrow's lasagna and some apples and cabbage.  He wasn't feeling well and was in some pain, so he forgot to order the challah from the bakery, so I went to Kroger and found some brioche loaves that will work.  I also finally got around to getting various toiletries I needed, such as shampoo, toothpaste, and razors.

We talked about 'The Vicar of Dibley', along with ancient Carthage as a Phoenician colony, Latin, Hebrew, etc.  In other words, it was a fairly normal night.

I started out my day getting up early to go get gas, as the light was on, and it was payday. I'm still going to be behind on a couple of bills, but unfortunately, the next paycheque is probably going to go to car tyres.  The flat the other day is no doubt foreshadowing the doom that will happen if I don't. I'm very lucky the tyre went flat while sitting in a parking lot and not while I was driving.  I have to weigh being fiscally responsible and living to become more fiscally responsible another day.  I'm probably going to go to the same place I got the last ones six years ago as they offer a free alignment and I need that too, along with a cheaper synthetic oil change than Valvoline.  I'm hoping I can find a good deal on everything, but I'm figuring it to be about $600.  I'm just hoping the doughnut tyre and the others last till I can do it.  The doughnut is original to the car, which is 19 years old.  Granted, the car still only has 83,700 miles on it.  My grandmother and then mother didn't drive it much.  Six years ago when I bought it there were only 34,000 miles on it. :)  I'd like to keep it in good working order, as several people depend on it.

I'm finally becoming a bit sleepy.  I've been a bit tired (it was a very productive day at work) but I hadn't really been sleepy.  I took the trash to the kerb and did the litter boxes earlier, but YKWIA had already gone to bed when  I treated the animals to their nightly fare, cleaned up the dishes and counters, packed things for tomorrow's lunch and caffeine, straightened up a bit and played with the kitten till he sleepily went in to be with YKWIA.

Speaking of the kitten, the only succulents left in the house are the big aloe and a bit of red velvet Echevarria that is struggling to come back out after he gnawed on it.  But at least he's been leaving the orchids alone.

Okay, time for bed. It's after midnight, and I get up about 6:30 am.  Hope you have a good day tomorrow.

I feel awful

This is not how I wanted to ring in the new year--not at all. My chest cold has moved into my head, which is a little odd, as it usually goes the other way. I got up and took my medicine after a bad night of being up and down, so I'll probably just head back to bed after I drink something. On top of everything else, I was in bed last night when the kitten, who usually goes for succulents, decided to nibble on my bamboo. So he got summarily removed from the room and the door is closed right now. He loves the succulents, the juicy, thicker, probably sweeter leaves. He pulled a Hawthornia up like a bonbon out of its little pot, and I found it yesterday by accident and put it back down in the soil to see if it will root again, even though it's been a little nibbled on the outer leaves. I don't hold much hope for it, but still. The only plant in the house that is questionable as far as being toxic to cats is his favourite, the aloe, which doesn't appear to hurt him but can cause mild vomiting in cats. All the others are safe, and the toxic plants went to our pharmacy. He's denuded most of my red velvet Echevarria. I'm hoping it comes back. But it is frustrating. He was no doubt weaned a little early because he's a very orally fixated cat, and he loves to put fingers and just about everything else in his mouth. But for the most part, fortunately, he's leaving other plants alone, including the orchids. I have two of those blooming right now and then three others have put up flower spikes, so soon I'll have almost half (I have twelve, between what was at work and what was at home), one Oncidium and eleven Phalaenopsis species. The Hawthornia plants are each in two tiny pots in the same pot with a Phalaenopsis, and I'd been having trouble watering it in a corner, so I moved it out and that's when the kitten pounced upon. But he didn't hurt the orchid.

Here's what's blooming at the moment:



By the way, here are some links you might find interesting related to this post. The first is an article on types of orchids used as houseplants:

20 Types of Orchids to Use as Houseplants

The others I keep as a bookmark on my Chrome browser (both on the computer and the phone, in case I'm plant shopping and need to know if a plant is safe. It is the ASPCA's guide to Toxic and Non-Toxic Plants List -- Cats. There is another one for Toxic and Non-Toxic Plants List -- Dogs I also have. But they also have one for horses. It's very good, explaining the effect of each and including those that are good and bad for pets. For example, I loved my shamrocks, which are not true shamrocks and are actually Oxalis, and I had them in the library for years, and then at home at the apartment. But they can cause kidney damage in cats. So they can't be here, as there are two cats, an older one that doesn't really bother plants and the kitten, who is about 9 months old and is into everything. So off to the pharmacy they went. They're looking a little sad there, but they've had a good run. I need to tell them the window's too bright for them.

Alright, I'm going back to bed for a while. Here's hoping that medicine kicks in.

Sigh...

So the kitten has a thing for succulents--just succulents as far as plants go. He has ravaged the red velvet Echevarria, pulled up and nibbled on various aloes, and yesterday while watering the plants I made the mistake of moving an orchid that has two tiny Hawthornia plants in their own tiny pots from a corner so I could water the little ones easier and lo, and behold, the kitten plucked one out just like a bonbon and I have no idea what happened to it. It's just succulents--he leaves the orchids, violets, and bamboo alone, thankfully. The zygocactus he gets occasionally. He likes the leaves thick and chewy, full of sap, apparently. This is why I took so many plants to my office in the first place, and then I found another place for them when I was told to remove the plants at work by my former boss. Speaking of which, we went the other day and the shamrocks were dying. I need to tell them to either water more or get them out of the really big southern window before they're crispy. Everything else looked fine.

Meanwhile, I was cleaning up the soil in the bedroom when I heard a crash and crockery breaking and turns out my roommate accidentally knocked off an African violet from the toilet back, saving the violet itself, which is in a plastic pot, but the saucer underneath broke in two and soil got all over the place. Sigh. At least the saucer didn't break the tile, too. It hasn't been a good day for plants.