Lightning Does Strike Twice

I just received another jury duty notice. YAY! This time it's the Justice Court for the City of South Salt Lake. Apparently they pull jurors from all of Salt Lake County. If called, I would serve somewhere between April 1, 2007 and December 31, 2007. Yay! Cross your fingers for justice will be served!!

Working Through Grief With Fabric

Since Kipper died, I've been on a fabric binge. We won't talk about the chocolate binging...no...none of that! I've been buying fabric. Lots of fabric. I think I'm up to about 10 different yardages. Most are patterned in retro floral, as shown above. My fav of the purchases has to be the poplin shown on the left. It's fresh, fun and big ass floral! I've really been taken by the dresses and tops shown at Anthropologie lately. Just gorgeous, young, fresh stuff! Of course it doesn't come even close to my size, so I've got to do what I've got to do...make my own of course. If you said "give up binging on chocolate," you were so very wrong. ;-) I really like the Uptown Paint By Number birdy fabric (the last one pictured), but not so sure it would work as a clothing option. We'll have to see on that.

To make room for all of this new finery, I've cleaned out my closets and have placed a whole heapin' load of stuff up for sale. You can see it ~here~. All told, three garbage bags full. Whee!

Spring is Sprouting

First, thanks to all who sent expresssions of sympathy for Kipper's passing. I haven't had an opportunity to email responses yet, so don't let my tardiness lead you to believe that I didn't appreciate your thoughts tremendously! I really do. Thanks again.

On to Spring and thoughts of renewal. The photo above is that of cinnamon basil sprouts. The weekend just before Kipper died, I started some seeds in a Jiffy Greenhouse. (I don't think it's related to Jiffy popcorn, but it acts as if it is when you start with little peat pots that blossom when wet. Good times.) The first bunch of 72 sprouts were pretty successful thus far. I've had a few seed varieties that haven't sprouted, but hopefully will soon. The seeds were a couple years old and may have gotten wet, so I'm not certain they were viable. In any event, I bought another Jiffy Greenhouse 'cuz the first one was so fun. (It brought back memories of Kindergarten's foam cup, dirt and pumpkin seed excitement.) So, the other day, I planted 72 more little Jiffy pots with seeds. And, no, I didn't stop there! I bought some seed starter mix and started seeds in egg cartons. I hope they'll end up being as successful as the Jiffy Greenhouse, but I have my doubts. I'll be doing a little "how to" page on this crud shortly. I've documented it in photos, so I'm half way there!

Anyway, gotta get back to work. Happy Spring, ya'll!

My Little Whirlwind

Monday afternoon, about 10 minutes after we buried kipper near the garden, a tiny whirlwind started about a foot from his final resting spot and swept across the garden and through the yard. I kid you not! Hopefully, it was a sweet release of his life's energy foretelling of Kipper's future endeavors.

End of the Kipper Era

Ashley Kipper died this morning at around 7:30. He had a really rough weekend and I knew it was time to take him to the vet to get the shot to put him out of his misery. He didn't make it to that shot. Instead, he waited until I woke up this morning. I was able to spend some comforting time with him before his passing. I held him, petted him and told him to "let go". He was close to death at that point, taking only shallow breaths, but was able to move. While I was holding him, he motioned that he wanted to be put on the floor. I put him down, laid on the ground next to him and within two minutes or so he took a violent gasps for air. Finally, he took in one giant breath, released it and let go.

I know there are two camps of people out there. Those who say, "he's just an animal" and those who will probably mourn their own pet's passing or potential passing. To the first camp, he was just an animal. But he was an animal that was with me for over 18 years. A long time to have any living creature in your life. Heck, most marriages don't even last that long. We had our own language and our own history filled with silly Kippy stories. He was there on my good days and bad. He jumped in front of the camera often (if you go through the pix of the week, you'll see him from time to time. Here. or Here. or Here. etc, etc) To those of you who have a cat, give them a little pat-pat, and cat nip today. A little nipper in honor of Kipper.

Celebrate Easter with Hannibunny

Do your Easter lack that classic Silence of the Lambs feel? If so, then get yourself a Hannibal Bunny! Perfect for scaring the kids and making chocolates!

Kipper

I've had a couple of bad weeks recently primarily 'cuz my little boy (ok, he's a cat) is dying of a growth in his throat that is minimizing his airflow and intake of food. Trying to make the decision to euthanize him or to let him die naturally is very difficult. Very stressful. He's got good days where he's fairly full of energy and bad days where he's really, really quite ill. Lately, the latter is more common. He's lost a ton of weight and often makes quite a bit of noise breathes, especially if he's excited or disturbed by something. The poor little guy is on his last leg. When I was at the vet with him two weeks ago, the vet indicated that I could "put him down now". I really wasn't ready for it, nor do I think Kipper was. Now, I'm not so sure. I'd really like him to die in his sleep and not go through the stress of going to the vet. Probably like most cats, he freaks out when even getting close to the car. Yeah, so anyway, it's a very sad time for me. I've been with the little freak for over 18 years. I got him about a week after my mom died of emphysema. It seems really odd that now he's dying of something somewhat similar. When he's struggling for air, I think of my mom's struggles and think, too, that I can't kill him...I wouldn't have killed my mom just 'cuz she was struggling for a breath. Ugh. Yeah, stress.

Proof that our Judicial System Works

Sure, the guy (girl?) may still be breaking the law, but crap, look at that raw honesty!
I snapped this yesterday afternoon in downtown Salt Lake. It brought me a sweet chuckle. You can click the image to see the full railroad car shot. Well, I did shrink it quite a bit down for ease of viewing, but you get the idea.
On a similar note, is it just me or is it really hard to read most stylized graffiti? I mean some of it is so freakin' pretty, but I know they're trying to say *something*, but the stylizing makes it impossible to read. You know, if I were ~out there~ tagging around my 'hood, I wouldn't know who I was competing against. I'd say, "Yeah, that mo-fo, you know the one I'm talking about...the one that does (insert swirly letters here)." We'd never really be sure who we were actually competing against, dig? Maybe they ought to do their stylized versions then in really small letters underneath, put "work done by..." I'm juss'sayin'.