odds and ends

Naturally, did not hear back from the EAP person about an updated list. Quelle surprise. Looked on line and discovered the usual labyrinth of stuff--there's Magellan EAP and Magellan QHCP and something for AFSCME people--so I just said a bad word and sent an e-mail to one of the benefits people in HR to ask just what, exactly, it is I have to do to get some help. Geez. I know, they make it this complicated so no one will use it and they won't have to pay for it. Surprise--I'm going to make them help me. I can't remember the last time I had a week this bad.

Have been calm--possibly even smug--about the pet food scare, until the contaminated rice showed up. Annie's Innova Senior and the Ts Royal Canin GSD formula both have rice. I've taped the bags shut and ordered them grain-free Innova Evo, plus canned green tripe for the Ts and canned Innova Evo for Annie. Should arrive, I think, Friday; meanwhile, I've got enough of a bag of Evo left to last the Ts (I was putting it in their Buster Cube and Tug-A-Jug until I realized they're getting fat because they're not getting enough exercise), and I think I have enough canned to get Annie through, depending on how piggy she gets. But I can always get her Fancy Feast, which is, comparatively, not a bad food for a grocery store food (did I say "smug"?). The Innova is more expensive, but hopefully we'll only be eating it for 2 or 3 weeks, and this whole thing will die down. Hopefully.

As long as I was spending money, I went to Little Knits to look for yarn. Nothing really in mind, except I'd like to get some solids for some stitch-patterns, and a nice yarn for those beautiful Garnstudio lace socks. LK has a laceweight cashmere/silk that I thought might do, but I did some figuring--it falls somewhere in between Schaefer's laceweight Trenna and sockweight Anne (which is light for a sockweight), and I could use it doubled, but then I'd have to spend $60, and somehow even I can't justify that. So I sighed and quietly slunk away.

It's cold--into the 30s tonight. It occurs to me that the garden may be ruined for the year, but that possibly it will be a less buggy year. I hope so, since the freeze seems to have killed off the toads--I haven't heard them singing since before the freeze. Maybe they got their eggs laid and the eggs will be safe? Anyway, I'm hoping for fewer fleas, spiders, and mosquitos than last year.

Speaking of the garden--the brunnera is putting out some new leaves--I have my fingers crossed tight. Looks like the hosta will be okay, and some of the tulips are blooming (of course I now regret not having planted my tulips last fall), and the lily of the valley is coming up.

There's a hosta in the shade garden that's a volunteer. It first started coming up, oh, four or five years ago. I remember the first year it came up, one stalk only, I watched it and thought What IS that??? Because I hadn't planted anything there. And it turned out to be a green hosta with ribbed leaves that are probably 18" long and a foot across. I truly don't think I'm exaggerating very much, and to this day I don't know where the thing came from. And every year it sends up just that one stalk. This year there are *ten*. I had been planting foxgloves behind it to sort of fill in the space, but I have a feeling I'll have to find another place for foxgloves if I want them--maybe over by the house (they never did very well near the hosta anyway), because that hosta's coming on like gangbusters.

The striped sedge looks dead. I need to get out with scissors and pruners and cut back the sedge and the clematis and roses. (Henryii actually has buds!) And a friend gave me a couple of hosta roots I need to get into the ground. They've been sitting around in plastic bags for two days. I just don't have the energy to do anything, although I did manage to get the Ts out for a short walk tonight. Poor dogs; they haven't been out since Sunday. All week I've come home at noon and gone to the bedroom and laid down until it was time to go back to work, and then I come home and lie down until it's time to fix dinner, then I lie down again. It's been awful. And they've been very very good and patient, bless them. I cannot wait to get them back out to the puppy pen. I hope that grass seed sprouts soon!