in which I use too many Capital Letters

susans birthday candle holder
Originally uploaded by mygothlaundry

The weekend is fast approaching and with it, naturally, are coming thunderstorms and rain and much colder temperatures and maybe snow and, you know, plagues of locusts and tornadoes and earthquakes and probably a volcano or two and maybe, who the hell knows, a meteorite strike and the sun going nova. That's what always happens on weekends; they're a dangerous business. However, I am more than usually cranky about this weekend not being sunny and in the seventies (like it's been most of the week while I was stuck deep inside my windowless orange bunker) because I have Things to Do. Things which require being outdoors, like helping A move and going to a DITLOA meeting at the park and S' official Birthday Party (as opposed to her unofficial birthday dinner on the actual day - this is the Big Party) and, of course, that perennial favorite activity of weekends: mowing the lawn. Be still, oh my heart, at the excitement that this weekend is likely going to deliver. Hopefully while we're at it M won't kill me - I neglected to mention most all of this stuff and he's going to be here and taking part in it, most specifically some of the heavy lifting and mowing parts. Poor M.

In other news, I rescued the first ladybug of the season. I spend most of my summers being something of a professional Bug Rescuer. Someone has to do it and I'm well qualified, since I spend a lot of time outdoors smoking and looking aimlessly around and, most importantly, insects don't bother me much. You will notice that I do not rescue mice. I took the ladybug out of an ashtray - ashtrays are very bad places for ladybugs - carried her across the courtyard and put her on a leaf. All good and I felt that little hint of nobility that I get when I do something virtuous. Then, alas, she fell off the leaf and I'm not sure where she landed. That's sort of the equivalent of me falling off the Empire State building but hopefully she survived. There was nothing I could do, short of rooting through the mulch looking for her, which seemed a little too extreme. Basically, I only rescue once and when the second rescue is necessary because of the first I kind of twiddle my thumbs, look away and whistle. One can only do so much in the selfless world of bug rescue.

The picture, in case you were wondering, is the mosaic candleholder thingie I made for S for her birthday. I actually made two but the other one is so unbelievably, frighteningly ugly that I couldn't bring myself to give it away. It's truly hideous and so it is sitting on my kitchen windowsill, being atrocious. I'm getting kind of fond of it. The one I gave away is, as you see, a work of beauty and a joy forever. If, that is, you define forever as "however long it takes before all the jewels fall off because Fliss got fed up with the stupid tile adhesive and how long it took and how everything was slipping off so she used hot glue which actually never holds all that long and in fact one of them already fell off, so, uh, well, enjoy it now! Ars breva, vida longis!"