Tis the season to start gardening

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Tis the season to start gardening. Not sure whether to put an exclamation point there or a sad period. I’m pretty far behind being that I bought seeds to start and haven’t got them started yet. I also need to clean up and repot the sad-looking ferns I overwintered. Was it worth overwintering them? Probably not. We’ll see how they fill out after I divide and repot them.

I did get some life in my sails today on the gardening front. You see, I’ve been looking for a bird bath ever since I cleaned up the pumpkin patch earlier this year. I knew I didn’t want to do the pumpkin patch this year. I mean all those pests! Let that shit lie for at least a year. So when I cleaned up the vines and mesh layer, I drug the pots over to the fence. Seeing this, I thought “hmm, I could just put plants there.”

Watering my plants is usually such a pain. Especially mid summer when it’s upper 90’s every day. However, last year I set up automatic watering for the pumpkins on that side. So I could use that again. I thought some butterfly bushes might be nice. We have butterflies and dragonflies so I’d love to encourage more. Dragonflies eat mosquitos after, all.

Last year I wanted a bird bath but didn’t grab one. The thought of setting up auto-watering made me want one even more! I can run a line to the bird bath and it will stay nice and full. So I preemptively grabbed a solar fountain off Amazon Vine and have been looking for a bird bath on Marketplace ever since. But people want crazy money for their birdbaths. So last weekend, I went to Home Depot, and two fancy plant nurseries in search of a bird bath.

Home Depot had not ONE SINGLE BIRD BATH. WTF? I had looked on line, but they’re all “free delivery to store.” I should have looked harder at that. So we hopped over to the Enchanted Garden: A very overpriced plant store. Disastrous experience. They didn’t know any prices and wanted to get my number to get back with me. The prices they did know were outrageous. Also, some unknown bugs ate my feet up in there. Like I’d think it was poison ivy rash if I didn’t know it was bugs. Cat Bird Seat is on my way home so I stopped in there. Nothing deep enough to have a fountain in. Both places had their butterfly bushes for about $35, though Cat Bird Seat had much larger ones and they guarantee their plants for a year. I fucking love that place anyway.

So yesterday, I went looking online. I saw Ace Hardware had some birdbaths from Athens Stoneworks. I assumed this was Athens Alabama, but it was Athens Georgia. Not important. I saw that I wanted the “tulip” top. It’s deep enough for a fountain. So I messaged about six nurseries asking if they had anything like that plus the Stoneworks asking for who I could locally order through (since they’re wholesale only). Welp, only one person got back to me this morning. Unique Outdoors in Hartselle – A 40 minutes interstate drive.

They didn’t have the larger version, but they had the medium and small and even took pictures with a tape measurer. Good customer service! But 40 minutes one way? How much is it? $100? Fuck me, OK. People on market place are selling their old ones for more than that! And the rains not coming ’till 2pm! I’ll go now!

I did go and I chose my bird bath. Then I looked at their butterfly bushes. They varied from $11.99 – $13.99. Why did I only but two? Because I’m a dumbass. I got the Cranberry and the Bicolor. Yes, the bicolor I saw online when researching them and had to google if it was real or AI bullshit. It’s real and I got one! So then I take my wagon over to grab the bird bath I want. It starts to sprinkle — “Fuck I better hurry.” It’s getting worse and this shit is heavy. Then god opened the heavens and just dumped all the water out. Awesome. While I’m trying to carry very heavy concrete with my weak arms. In flip flops.

That’s cool. At least someone loaded it to my car for me. He was very strong and made it look weightless. I’m sad that place is so far away because their prices were crazy good.

So I paid half of what I expected for a brand new bird bath. Do you know what that means? Gargoyle.

See, in my quest last weekend, I saw the most adorable stone-cast gargoyle. And I said “NO.” I want a bird bath and some bushes. No gargoyle. But all week, I thought about that gargoyle. I had taken photos and found him all over online — for over twice the price! Ugh. So after the bird bath was so cheap — fuck yeah, let’s go get Gregory! (Yes, I had named him already in my head before I decided to buy him). Then when I got there, he wasn’t exactly where I thought I remembered him being. My heart sank. SOMEONE BOUGHT GREGORY! And that’s when I knew I had really wanted that damn Gargoyle. But wait! THERE HE IS!

Isn’t he amazing! He’s 62 pounds and I love him so much I’m not sure I want to even put him outside. It was pouring rain so I had to get him hosed off and it was totally worth it. I love himb. <3

I thought about naming him Grinderwald, but that’s Harry Potter. Then Gareth, but then people would think I was a big Labyrinth and David Bowie fan which I am not. And so Gregory. They put him in my car and asked if I knew my towing capacity cause that’s a lot of weight in there. It’s fine. Give me Gregory.

I’m gonna be honest, I think he was probably at Cat Bird Seat so long that they lowered his price. Everywhere online (even if it’s a garden center you pick up at) he’s well over twice the price. A lady in the store (customer, not employee) said she has one and it was based on a gargoyle at Notre Dame. I looked him up online again and find nothing to back that up. I think someone lied to her to sell it.

So now I’ve started my 2025 planting! After the storms, I set up the bird bath and planted the bushes. I also moved some solar light spheres over to this fence:

I know, it looks crappy right now, but it will look awesome. I’m going to do flowers in the other bags. I have some small red sunflowers, red poppies, purple asters, and big fancy marigolds I got all in seeds. And I’ll spray the weeds. And of course, you won’t see the plastic bags like that. They’re just like that because last weekend I pulled out all the dead lemon grass and prepped the dirt and wanted to cover it so the squirrels didn’t fuck around with it. Those same bags are in the big 20 gallon ones and tucked in.

Now to get my seed trays out and start some seeds!

A Deep Dark Pit

Posted on | by cursingcats.com | 1 Comment on A Deep Dark Pit

I just sent this text to my besties:

“My bestest buddies.  I hate who I have become.  And that is the crazy lunatic on the street corner yelling about the end of the world.  No really.  Every bit of life seems covered in the black ink of a trump-musk-lovecraftian-cephalapod with  tentacles reaching into every thing.  

I can’t seem to escape it.  It’s everywhere.  I feel like America is just doomed and I need to leave the country.  

I’m serious.  

If I lose my shitty fucking  job, I don’t have health insurance and I can’t live without health insurance and there’s no jobs here.  

I miss my mother so much lately.  I almost reflexively called her leaving work the other day.  At least I don’t have to see her become a MAGA cultist cause she sure would have and I don’t know how I’d have been able to maintain our relationship as it was. 

An online buddy messaged to commiserate about *gestures broadly* and I just wanted for like an hour.  Cause that’s me now.  I’m like the opposite of whatever a MAGA cultist is.  Like if they’re Q-Anon, im like Z-laid-Bare.  

I went with Z because Q is round and curly and Z is straight and spiky.  

How are you getting through?

Send me happy pictures of you enjoying life.  I’m laying on my couch.  Maybe I can nap. “

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here’s me ranting of over an hour to someone who tried to talk to me:

“I hate this place”

You sent: Same same same

*Husband* won’t move though

Like fucking everyone loves Germany

We know people who worked there for years

He’s like “it’s too close to Russia”

AMERICA IS TOO CLOSE TO RUSSIA RIGHT NOW

[…]

How on Earth can a trumper be married to a non?

Cause I can’t even get online and play pinochle with my in laws LOL

Cause I got nothing nice to say

Don’t ask me how I am. Don’t ask about my job. Don’t ask about my hobbies. Don’t ask about my friends.

TRUMP HAS DESTROYED EVERYTHING

we are a military town. Period

It’s being destroyed and half the people here voted for it

We were purple at best

Everyone is losing their damn jobs

Including my husband

Every single company is on a strict hiring freeze

Our savings and retirement has TANKED

my job is constantly under threat

I’m one of those understandable federal workers y’all hate so much

They crippled the unions

I get near DAILY email updates about work changes

4 Cadbury Eggs is NINE DOLLARS

Boardgames are dead

Indi Kickstarters can’t function now

Ive got 200$ in board games I likely will never get now

One was supposed to ship in July.

Oh and Nintendo halted all presales of the new switch 2 and Mario kart to the US

My friend lost her job at ** because she was a contractor and wanted to leave her contractor. She had an offer they couldn’t meet. ** tried everything to hire her, but it’s a hiring freeze. There’s nothing they could do to keep her

Oh we’re going into a depression

Our town is already on the brink

My whole family voted for this

And *husband*’s parents did

And his mom keeps posting crazy as fuck trumper cult shit

Calling the left the Nazis

WTF

and he’s talking about sending US citizens to El Salvador prisons

And he put out another damn EO that federal workers who work on policies are now a new category that can be fired if they don’t do what the president wants

It’s sounds fake, but that’s legit what it says in those words

So only yes men, not actual advisors

Legally

He’s in contempt of the damn supreme court

The unions were trying to fight. And they cut all the autodeduct union dues

Illegally, of course, but most of this shit is

But good luck fighting it with no money

*Husband*’s bro and sis aren’t MAGA thank god

But I’ve honestly gone crazy

I’m ranting as much as a MAGA person

I’m unpleasant

I’m furious

And I can’t ignore it CAUSE ITS MY JOB

Like I can’t stop ranting about this shit because if you ask me about ANYTHING, Trump has wrecked it

Fuck, last night I got a cat bed ad that they were having to close because they can’t source their wool from the US

This is insane

I want to leave but *Husband* won’t hear it

Plus I think he thinks I’m joking

I suggested Germany since we have family that lived there for years on work

Or Scotland. They speak English! Louie wouldn’t even have to go into quarantine

He doesn’t even have a job so only one of us has to get one

There won’t be any jobs here anytime soon

And if I lose mine, we don’t have insurance

And they are restructuring the DOD and literally no one has any idea what that means

Someone in a ** all hands asked if ** might get cut and the answer was WE DON’T KNOW

And it’s so damn stupid

Every single federal salary is less than 4% of our budget

So it’s all for show

And my MAGA family wants to go to a wedding they have to fly to. So they need Star IDs. But every StarID office is booked out for months all over the state and the wedding is next month

Oh you know why? Those were FEDERAL WORKERS

And they’re legit complaining

Also, you’ve had like a decade to get this

Yeah. I’m so sad because for some weird reason the *city* Reddit is just people who actively hate *city*. And they’re cheering this shit

Cause they see all the engineers as snobs or whatever

Oh and I’ve forgotten return to office

It’s hell

And so stupid

None of our work has changed, we’re still on all TEAMS calls, just with other people on the same or different TEAMS calls in the same room with us

Broken pipes

Buildings that haven’t been kept up since 2000

Air quality that fails national standards

Internet infrastructure that can’t keep up

And pipes that literally can’t handle all these people using the toilets

We got administrative leave the other day cause they revoked telework and the heat didn’t work LOL

And a lot of the buildings are completely given up or demoed. So the space everyone had previously isn’t there

And everyone’s just like “oh poor you, you have to go to the office like the rest of us”

My building is getting a new roof RIGHT NOW and the tar smell and burnt rubber smell makes my eyes literally water

But there’s signs posted everywhere that it’s not toxic!

So see, I’m just a mad woman now

I got another antianxiety pill LOL

I think we could immigrate if we wanted. And I totally would

And dude. Dude. This is just the beginning

Tomorrow trump gets the 90 day report on the border

He can declare martial law

And all these CHRISTIANS

Don’t care about the immigrants

But they post that whole “they came for the Jews and I said nothing …” Shit

ARE YOU FUCKING BLIND

EXACTLY!

And Jesus Jesus Jesus

That cabinet?

Kennedy?

Everyone’s like it’ll change in 4 years. There’s checks and balances

If the government collapsed, no it won’t

And Trump is literally in contempt of the SUPREME COURT

and listen I hate that smug motherfucker so much and I’d take a bullet for him cause YOU WILL NOT MAKE HIM A MARTYR

I haven’t seen any actual trumpers I know show regret yet

They spout his lies

Just blatant fucking lies LOL

Like saying that poor Maryland guy was in court multiple times and found to be a gang member

They said that

On TV

But like dude, that’s not remotely in the realm of truth

I want to say you can’t just LIE

But apparently, you totally can

And are we actually going to invade Greenland? I honestly think we are

Now our allies AND our enemies hate us

And DOGE took all the classified info from every database

They have all the info for everyone. Voting registration, immigration status

They literally just marked a ton of legal immigrants as dead in the ss system

And they ACTUALLY SAID they want to “make their lives do difficult they will self deport”

Soon anyone anti Trump in high position will be a terrorist and in El Salvador

He lined it all up already

Especially with yesterday’s EO

That means everyone in Congress who disagrees

Senate

“Policy makers”

[…]

Oh the majority of Christians have never followed anything Christ actually said

It makes me sad it’s so easy to get into heaven but I’m supposed to rejoice in their salvation

But like… Can they go now?

OMG and war plans on a phone chat app

My god

I need more pills

I’m not gonna make it

And *Husband* is just like you gotta get off the news

You gotta get off social media

Stop reading reddit

stop watching YouTube

These are what I do

I can’t even follow gaming now cause board games and Mario kart got fucked

Ugh. I hate myself now. I hate who I’ve become. I hate what this country has become

I’m going to get ice cream

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Also, there is family DRAMA going down. Dad’s in the hospital again. I got disowned last time over this. Now it’s happening again. Yay, text messages…

Make America Great Depression

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I hear “Great Depression” is trending on social media now. We already had one of those. So I propose we call THIS ONE the “Make America Great Depression.”

I’m not asking for royalties, just credit, thank you. Right here, came up with it about an hour ago on April 2nd.

You’re welcome. Now I’m gonna go pray over my car because I’ll never be able to get a new one NOW.

Louie’s Second Adoptaversary!

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Today, March 30, 2025 is Louie’s second adoptaversary! So of course, I gave him gifts! He also had wet stinky food for breakfast (it is usually a dinner exclusive). He got some wands that suction to the wall (currently the coffee table) and he got a set of birds:

So we have had this little goober for two years now! He should be about three years old. He’s settled into a routine. We have food he likes and that works for him. No more bloating and bloody diarrhea. Or, as husband reminded me, stinky farts. Oh my god! I forgot about the stinky farts. Louie was a stink demon when we took him in. It wasn’t his fault, something in his food disagreed with him. He was a bloated mess and has constant gas that could take out an army platoon. I think I blocked it from my memory.

Louie doesn’t sleep with us, but most days, he’s on the bed when I wake up. He’s not there when I pee at night, so he must come up when he senses it’s about time for me to get up. Then he curls up against husbands feet or legs to wait me out. It’s super cute.

Then he gets breakfast! He used to be insanely food motivated. His food has “marshmallows” which are actually just freeze dried meat chunks. He used to have to eat the marshmallows immediately. Now, he’s more of a grazer. Even with his stinky food, he doesn’t clean his plate all at once anymore.

Of course, this year he got the exclusive Jazz Lounge for dining. Maybe he just wants to visit more.

Then he snoozes his day away. He likes to be in the same room as us. So if I’m downstairs, he’ll be in the living room in his bowl, or the window, or his mat, or if I’m lucky — his couch blanket. While I’m at work, he sleeps in his window bed in husbands office. Same with after I got to bed.

If it’s day time he prefers to be looking out a window. I don’t even close the blinds next to his bowl anymore so he will always be able to look out. The main front window also has the blinds raised up about a foot so he can always lay in that window and look outside.

I know husband is in love with him because one day I came home and he had the blinds in the office window by his window bed up there open. Like I do the living room. HA. Crazy cat dad life incoming. Louie loves husband because husband doesn’t pet him as much. So if husband is moving around — oh man, maybe he’ll pet him. And when husband picks him up he’s such a ham.

He loves being in a sandwich with husband holding him and me petting him. He really hams it up for that.

Louie isn’t 5% of the snuggle bug my Jack was. He loves new people. New people must worship him. But we’re old news. However, when his terms decide, I do get amazing snuggles. They are slightly more often now — not every day though — but close! But when he does, he’s a teddy bear. Especially the now extremely rare times he’ll snuggle while I’m laying down. You can totally teddy bear hug him. Until he’s done, of course.

Husbands sister and brother visited two weeks ago and he slept with my brother in law! What? He slept with him on the air mattress in my “previously known as office.” And I got picture of him jumping up and sitting in both of their laps while we played games. He loves everyone because he wants universal love. Everyone must love him. No one is safe.

Also, he still feels like a Pantene commercial.

OMFG BEES!

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I’ve been super busy with the end of telework and my in-laws are visiting. 

Return to work is kicking my ass hard.  Also, my soul.  It’s just so sad.  And it feels so infinite.  Like welp, this is life now.  Cause it is. 

So with in-laws visiting, I don’t get to stare at the wall.  We went the Botanical Gardens today and they had this book. 

Oh my fucking god, bees!

Christianity

Posted on | by cursingcats.com | Leave a Comment on Christianity

Rabbit hole

OK, so out of no where topic. Not REALLY though because I typed this all up as a reply to someone on Reddit. Let me explain the Rabbit hole:

I won’t bother with the Reddit post because it wasn’t even about Christianity, it was about a Muslim chick not wanting music at her baby shower. And then in the comments there was shit about religious people cherry picking what they believe (because some Muslims listen to music and some don’t). So, naturally, Christians got brought up — specifically by a guy with some trauma from his Christian dad who hates gay people. So then someone “explained” that some of the Old Testament laws are applicable and some are not. I think he used the terms “Moral” and “Cultic.” So then someone is like where, exactly, is that laid out? And I said Romans. Literally just that. Cause that’s where most people get that from. I just said “In Romans” — neither agreeing nor disagreeing just answering because the guy who initially said it refused to answer anything and told the guy to google. So THEN the guy asks me “Where in Romans?”

Ok, all caught up? Here’s my answer:

Oh you are asking the wrong person on that. I believe that the letters in the Bible were written with specific intent for their specific audience they were written to. They were written by men after Jesus. It’s not like Jesus pooped out the new testament.

The New Testament was put together over time with humans giving weight to what they thought was most important. Most people cite Paul’s letters to the Romans as laying out the law. But it’s all over Romans. A few examples:

~~~~~

Romans 13:
8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

~~~~~

Romans 7:
4 So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5 For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

~~~~~

Romans 14:
5 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.

~~~~~

Now that in mind, I believe we are bound by what Jesus told us, not men. And that was to love God and to love one another. Paul tries to lay that out in Romans. He also mentions this in his letter to the Corinthians:

~~~~~

1 Corinthians 9
20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.

~~~~~

The Old Testament is the old covenant(s – Adam, Noah, Moses) which Jesus released us from when he established the New Covenant. But Jesus also noted that this was not just free for all lawlessness:

~~~~~

Matthew 5
17 “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. 18 “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 “Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

~~~~~

Now NOTE what he said there. Anyone under the New Covenant who accepts Jesus’s sacrifice still gets into Heaven. That’ all you HAVE to do. THAT’S the requirement. But then he points out, those who do keep the laws will be called great.

I am a nondenominational Christian as I think all the denominations bicker over insignificant crap. Though I do fall into some sort of the non-Catholic’s as I agree with Martin Luther in the 1500’s when he told them they were full of shit. Like I’m with Luther on that.

I think if you asked Paul which is more important — following the letter of the old testament or behaving as Jesus would have behaved — he would go with the latter. And Jesus wasn’t hanging out with the Pharisees, he was with the sinners showing them love.

And there in that Corinthians I posted, Paul even says he himself changed the laws he followed according to who he was with to win them to Christ. Because the laws are not what is important. Winning people to Christ is what is important as he is the only way to Heaven.

So I hate that so many people are driven from Christianity by a bunch of hypocritical Christians who “cherry pick” like this guys says. BECAUSE THEY’RE MISSING THE BIG IMPORTANT PART.

It’s not about all the little things you do and rules you follow. It’s not about the laws. The New Covenant does not require us to follow them. The New Covenant is for us to love and to do what is true in our spirit and heart. Like that part about the Sabbath — those who choose Sunday — awesome! Those who choose Saturday — awesome! Why are we telling each other the other is going to hell cause they picked a different day? They are following what God calls THEM to do. And both are following the rule of Love.

(Keeping in mind that love is not lawless — murder aint love, adultery aint love for your spouse)

In Matthew 7, Jesus is also quoted with the famous “Judge not lest you be judged.”

I firmly believe that we will be held to the highest standards we judged and held others to. And I personally, am a piece of shit. So I’m just gonna let God decide what is a sin and what is not a sin. I also don’t believe there are any unforgivable sins (again, I’m with Luther, the Catholics are wrong — don’t get me STARTED on suicide I will go OFF).

Now

OK, so that was the end of the post. And I think it was beyond the character limit because I couldn’t even post it. So I wanted to share HERE on my blog, because I think it really shines a light on what I personally believe. And it has come up in my life. Why do I curse? And I’ve already defended tattooing on here once.

And really when I read that Corinthians verse I was just like THAT’S ME!

I’ve tried to explain to people before. I am not a perfect Christian. I’m not holy and hoity. I curse and I am who I am. And because of this, I’m a lot more approachable. I could specifically name three individuals right now without much thought who asked me a lot of questions about Christianity on which they were curious but would not have been willing to ask… oh say.. my mother in law. And that’s why I truly believe in my heart, that I am perfectly fine. Because God uses me anyway.

It’s like with mental health. I want you to know that I have issues and it’s OK to have issues! You can talk to me about it. I’ll tell you everything. (Speaking of, I had to RUN from work today due to impending mental breakdown due to anxiety attack — like I emailed my boss, set up my OOO replies, and speed walked to my car cause aint no one here close enough to see me crying and breaking down).

It’s like how I tell people, psychopathy is a scale. And we actually do need psychopaths. They’re not all murders. Most CEOs are psychopaths.

God needs ALL TYPES of Christians. And yes, that include the ones like me who curse and talk raunchy.

And we don’t even have to discuss it cause the “Old Laws” are moot. We have a New Covenant! With Jesus — and Jesus is fucking awesome! I talk to him every night! And sometimes while I’m driving. And I remind him a lot that I fully expect to see my fucking cat when I get there. No seriously, I do say that in my prayers. I might be one of those lower levels in heaven, but I better have my damn cat.

Sorry, I got distracted. Jesus is awesome! God was like these fucking morons can’t follow a rule to save their damn lives. And THAT’S why Jesus came and fulfilled the Old Covenant with Moses and made the New Covenant that has like two rules. Love God. Love each other. AND YALL CANT EVEN GET THAT RIGHT.

First, I don’t believe being gay is a sin. I just don’t. Sue me. God can decide what is a sin. But okay, so you’re argument might be “but what if it IS — love the sinner hate the sin” some bullshit like that. Ok well here’s my reply.

Jesus said to love one another as I have loved you. He was talking to the Apostles. Read that again. HE WAS TALKING TO THE APOSTLES. Who were they? No, don’t name them. Name one of them — Judas. Uhuh. And what did Judas do? He fucking sold Jesus out and got him hung up and crucified. And that is a gruesome death — and they like overdid it with Jesus too. Normally they’d break your legs to let you suffocate so you’d die faster and they didn’t do that for Jesus. That’s why they finally just stabbed him out of pity. Shit, I’m distracted again.

Judas.

Jesus knew he’d do it. He told them one of them would sell him out. He full on KNEW Judas was a bastard. And he treated him no different than he treated any of his other apostles. He didn’t even TELL the other apostles that Judas was a bastard. And they begged him to tell them who it was. He treated them all with love equally.

So yeah, kick out your child for being gay and call yourself a Christian. That’s TOTALLY what Jesus would have done.

Anyway. I’m done. Hope that was helpful to someone one day.

Plant Updates

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The Great Monstera

The Great Monstera Experiment continues. The last update was in September. It seems to have doubled in height since then. I’ve extended the poles twice now.

The plastic D poles are definitely a winner. I can see they are FULL of roots. And I’ve been able to expand them in height. I’m three tall now (2 feet each) and they are stable as all hell. I figured I’d need a plank of wood or something by now, but they’re solid. I put this down to me using two side by side that are attached together with zip ties. They’re giving each other stability.

Now that there is so much moss, they need to be watered every 3ish days. I do this with some plastic bottles (Powerade Zero to be specific). I drilled insanely tiny holes in the lids. So I fill those up (sometimes with some liquid food) and drop them in the pole and the water is absorbed by the moss super slowly. I did finally think to tie some fishing string to the bottle necks to make them super easy to pull back out. I tied ribbon on the end of the fishing string so it doesn’t get lost. Big brain. No way would i be able to keep up with the water in a traditional pole. I’ve noticed if I let the moss get too dry, it takes way longer to soak up new water. So we’re learning together.

The new leaves on the fastest growing vine are enormous. Also, I have been raising up the Soltec light, but it did burn one of the leaves that got too close. So there’s that. I’ve also added those round grow lights in the pole so that the leaves face out a bit and not all directly facing the ceiling. This has also let them grow out a bit and not be in such a hurry to go UP. The lights are anchored in the moss and then I have a string tied to the light head that then ties back to the pole to hold them up.

String of Bananas

The last String of Bananas update was in January. Holy shit has it been growing. Just now pulling that link and seeing how much it grew in 2 months – damn.

She was getting a little too close to the floor so I just gave her a hair cut tonight. Chop and prop. I took all the cuttings and rooted them back into the pot again. It’s like when your bestie gets a hair cut.

YAS QUEEN. Rock it.

It’s funny how this has gone from a plant I hated to wanting to show off. I can’t believe it used to be in a 2 inch pot.

Lemon Lime Prayer Plant

Welp, now that there’s dirt under my nails — time to pot up the prayer plant propagations. They all took like a champ! And looking back for those links, I see they’ve been rooting for a month. Most of these had more leaves but rooted at multiple nodes. So I cut the rooted nodes apart. Look at those roots!

*3 or 4 hours later* OK! Potted up my prayer plants. So the “mother” plant was three vines I bought a long while ago for maybe $20-$25 at Cat Bird Seat. It really took off. But it grew way too long. So I decided to hack it up. A big part of this was also that over winter, most of the leaves got brown tips. I don’t know what happened, but it did.

I’ve heard of people who chop and prop and ditch the old plant. I’ve always thought that was insane! Now I see why. So I separated out the tiny vine that is just now recovering from giving some props to K. It didn’t have the brown tips because it’s such new growth. I repotted the mother plants two vines and I might just give it away. Not the pot, the plant. It’s good roots. Just had brown tips.

I got 9 propagations plus the baby vine. So here’s momma (in red) and her babies (5 in each pot):

Rough First Month

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I don’t know if yall noticed, but this has been a really rough first month of the presidency for a lot of us. Like REAL rough. It’s been hard. Real hard. One very high high and a fuck ton of really low lows. Mr C and I have the privilege of both being in the middle of this hot mess. I don’t have the ability to look away.

BUT. I cleaned my garage yesterday. Fuck yeah I did. I was gonna clean the back yard. But then we finally bagged up the upstairs Christmas Tree so I needed to put things away in the garage and then it just started. Shit started moving and it was on.

I’m not completely done. I ordered a big pressure washer that will need a home. So I’m going to take my bike which currently hangs horizontally and put it on a vertical hanging rack (ordered from vine). That will give me some space. I’m also gonna use that pressure washer to clean out the moldy broken freezer and move it to the not-accessable-without-a-ladder shelf. I’m also going to decide to either put the ladders where that new space is, or over by husbands car. Then I’m gonna put a tool holder where those are (for the composting tools and the brooms — organizer also from vine).

Why am I keeping an old moldy broken freezer? Because one day, I’m going to make it into a free tiny library on the corner of the property by the city greenway. It’s already water tight! I’m gonna build a box around it to make it cute (it might well be a small TARDIS complete with solar light top). Then I’m going to put a basket on the bottom for sticks and dog toys — a free dog stick library! It’s gonna be adorable. Give me some years to get around to that. It’s a plan.

Like two weeks ago, I hung out with K and K2 and did a vine craft. I ordered Easter Eggs filled with generic lego flowers (click here for that link). Each egg had a flower.

I got the dozen, so four for each of us. I did not think this would be a long activity or a hard one. It was just to get together and chat. Lord we had way too much fun though. First, why were these so much harder than we expected? It was pretty hilarious. The best part was the total silence in concentration that would be broken by little tinkering of small pieces falling to the table and muttering.

I started out on a low point. My first flower was terribly ugly. In fact, it was the ugliest flower by unanimous vote. It looked like someone tried to disguise a anti-aircraft gun. K had just put together what was my choice for the prettiest one. But we had more picks, right?

Well somehow my next two picks were also purple flowers. Ugly ones, I might add. So I was getting frustrated because I kept pulling shitty flowers. So on the last turn, I told them to pick their eggs first and I’d take the last one. Nope, K2 had to see if the trend would keep going. FUCKING PURPLE FLOWER. So, as this is a childs activity and I was frustrated, K stepped up and traded her red flower for my purple. And I got to make a red rose bud that K2 says is a tomato BUT IT’S NOT. And then K put together the second prettiest flower of all, in my opinion, with the set I just traded. Fuck.

So that last photo is all the flowers arranged from my picks for best to worst starting in the bottom left and ending in the top right (so closest (bottom row) to furthest and left to right). I put together flowers ranking #5 (the tomato I traded rank #2 for), #8 (the weird geometric thing), and then ranks #11 and #12. So not my best picking.

Ten out of ten, five star activity though! I do not think a child could put these together but we had great fun. It would be fun as an activity like we did to sit around and joke and put them together. Or like an Easter Advent type thing for a teenager+. They came out to about $1.50 per egg. We all agreed that we would rather find this in an Easter Egg hunt than $1.50. But not as much as we’d want the golden egg which is always at least $5 and maybe $20 if you’re at some rich people egg hunt.

And I don’t know about the others, but I’m from Alabama, I know my egg hunts. Easter was always a grand occasion. You got to get a shiny new Easter dress for church — with a HAT. The only time you can wear a fancy hat to church! Gotta look good for Jesus. Eggs were dyed for the Easter Bunny to hide. And all the egg hunts! I was in egg hunts from as young as I remember. So from the three-and-under class where they just throw some eggs on flat grass and the parents try to convince the stumbling children to put it in their basket — all the way up to the teenagers looking in dead tree trunks for that golden egg.

I found the golden egg once. But I’m pretty sure it was just because my moms friend called me over to the bench where she was sitting with my momma and heavily hinted that I should look *cough cough* behind it. You were a real one, Ms Jackie!

Also, to end on a tragic note — Easter was when I found out that I was too old to believe in the Easter Bunny and Santa. We had gone to Fashion Bug (a plus sized clothing store) to pick out my Easter dress. And they had the SOFTEST stuffed bunny. I begged for it. BEGGED. When we got back to the car I asked mom is maybe the Easter Bunny could bring it to me? And she told me I was too old to believe in that stuff. So I got the bunny on Easter but I never liked it because it was depressing and sad and we didn’t have the money for it.

Plants and Glue Organization

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I finally got a Rattlesnake Plant! I’ve been wanting one for a few months. I even priced them around my birthday back around November at the nursery but didn’t get one. I thought it would be a good gift. But now that the holidays are over, I still want one. I babysat K2s over Christmas and then she took it and I was like — OK, I’ll get one. I had priced them at $25 at the nursery for a 4 inch. I found this 6 inch on Home Depot’s website for the same price! It got here and I’m super happy with it! Look how it’s already opening and closing after two days:

Good day, lamp, I touch you. Good night, lamp, no touch.

The packaging was also probably the best I’ve had on a live plant. It was wrapped in a brown pot bag and there was a ziptie around the stem area to keep the dirt in. Nice. Then it was in another brown pot bag to protect the leaves. And the box was special made for plants. It had a lift off top and handles. And it was super clear which side was up. Not that FedEx gave a single fuck because it was on its side on my porch despite the GLARING “This Side Up” all over the box. All you can do it try.

I also trimmed my Prayer Plant (I think it’s a Lemon Lime) in the kitchen. It was looking super leggy. I want it to be more bushy. So I figured I’d try to root some pieces. I’ll report to a bigger pot and make it 4 stems in the pot. Plus there’s a plant swap coming up and I can sell the others if they root. Still rooting my zig zag cactus cuttings too. So in preparation for the plant swap, I split them into two little terrecotta pots to continue their journey.

Part of the inspiration for this was now that Christmas is put away, the side table is back over by the window. And I’m tired of the kitchen counter looking cluttered with the leggy prayer plant and the zig zag rooting. So I moved it all over to the living room where — not only do I not get annoyed by it, I get to ENJOY them!

Look at me using two of the set-of-four serving trays I got off Vine!

Oh, and I moved the money tree back to the window. Dear god, I hope it’s happy. I moved it with a grow lamp for the Christmas tree and well over half of the leaves just fucking bailed. I think it got spider mites too. So I’ve been treating it and now it’s back by the fucking window. It’s so fucking dramatic. There is new growth though. And then its pot started leaking — no!

Almost all of my plants are watered from below. It just works for me. So the money tree lives in a nursery pot that sits on top of a pile of rocks in a planter pot (with cotton string to wick up water). It has been in there for well over a year. And all the sudden one of the holes I had glued shut decides to leak. Mother fucker. Why?

So I had to clean it out and triage.

Does anyone else have a container of various glues and UV resin? Is it normal for people to have to organize their adhesives? There were just random glues all over the place — in both junk drawers, craft stuff, the garage (OK, actually there’s still four in the garage that are not represented here — wood glue and the glue I use for glass mosaics).

It’s kinda funny cause this basket is one of the three I bought to organize all my surgery supplies when I did the plastic surgeries. I had one for meds, one for bandaging, I forget the other… Here, I found it. One was just hygiene stuff cause I had to live in the chair in the living room. I was super-fucking organized for those surgeries. So it was a human triage basket and now it’s a stuff triage basket.

I went with the Gorilla Glue Construction: Clear. The strongest of the gorilla glue line. Like that shit is insane. I just pumped the holes with it and let it dry overnight. Note: There is “Clear Gorilla Glue” and that is not the same as “Gorilla Construction Glue: Clear.” Like you might think — just use the crazy strong one for everything. But no. The crazy strong one is super thick and you don’t have a lot of control. It’s also not gonna wipe off ANYTHING. That’s way above craft grade. FYI