… “It was 8:10 this morning. You were wearing black pants and a hooded shirt. I was two people behind you. You walked out then walked back in and I passed you. You said hi i did as well. I could not help but notice you beautiful smile. I could not keep you out of my mind all day. If you are not seeing anyone I would like to get to know you.”

I’ve never understood those ads. Really? Do people see someone and then rush home to comb the ‘I saw You’ ads? Or rush home to post one in the hopes that the other person rushes home to check? I’ve never in my life seen a hot guy or girl, said hi and then considered posting a note to him in the local paper. It amazes me that anyone would ever connect that way. Or maybe they don’t?

By Portia Nelson

Chapter 1
I walked down the street.
There was a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fell in.
I was lost.
I was helpless.
It took me a long time to get out.

Chapter 2
I walked down the same street.
There was a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretended I didn’t see it.
I fell in again.
I can’t believe I am in the same place.
It wasn’t my fault.
Still took me a long time to get out.

Chapter 3
I walked down the same street.
There was a hole in the sidewalk.
I saw it was there.
I fell in again! It was a habit.
My eyes were wide open,
and I knew where I was.
It was my fault,
and I got out immediately.

Chapter 4
I walked down the same street.
There was a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walked around it.

Chapter 5
I walked down a different street.

I picked Ethan up today from school by myself for the first time since last week. My ‘body guards’, as a friend called them, waited anxiously at home for me. I wanted him to feel like today was getting back to normal. No trips to offices of official people who speak legaleze, no paperwork or talk of big things that make no sense. Just me picking him up after school to come home and do homework, eat dinner and laze around for the evening.

I brought him home. And then I cleaned. I scrubbed, I swept, I vacuumed. With one arm. Until I got heart palpitations and had to stop. And remember that I’m still traumatized. And that no matter how hard I scrub, I can’t make it normal again.

I’ve been whipped up into a storm of official paperwork, medical evaluations, legal terms and definitions, security precautions, case numbers, dates and long lists of things to do, take care of, wrap up and begin. Most of all, I’m in pain, recovering from trauma and still a wee bit in shock.

If it had not been for friends being here around the clock to make sure I remember to breathe, friends to go with me to remember the instructions babbled by one official or another, friends and family who called just to tell me they support me and love me, I would not be able to function at all right now.

Thank you all so very much, truly from the bottom of my heart. I promise, when I have use of both hands and all of my wits again, I’ll surface again with something to say. I’m bigger, badder, smarter and harder than your average jane and I WILL get through this. :)

Early September 17th, my husband became physically abusive to me. When I got out of the hospital, I filed a restraining order. That means that he’s not to talk to or come near me or my son. He is specifically not allowed to talk to my friends or family regarding my whereabouts. Please handle any communication with him regarding me and my son accordingly.

I’m physically damaged and mentally and emotionally damaged. My son is going through his own pain and fear. But over all, I am still here and kicking and the man-child is ok and I will fight for him to be ok. I have friends around me helping to make us feel safe and helping me through this process so I think, overall, everything will turn out ok. That is my weak attempt at making this as positive as possible. It really sucks.

Mythic Entertainment’s Warhammer Online goes live for head start folks tomorrow! Yay for being able to actually KEEP the character I play after tomorrow! :)

So far, I’ve really enjoyed the game. I was telling Ryan the other day that there is very little grinding for experience. There are always new quests to do and should I get sick of killing regular ole’ mobs, there is RvR or there are public quests always going on.

I’m a solo player and so far, everything has been really balanced in the way of experience gained and being required to kill stuff I can handle. I made my first gold within a few hours of play, which for me, is good. I did have some help from Penns Warhammer Leveling Guide and Ashling’s Leveling Guides which were the first guides out, really.

Climbing Vine : I have a vine that covers a wall down one side of my house. It has waxy oval leaves that alternate down each stem. Older parts of the plant have woody stems. Newer branches in thick parts actually stick out away from the plant and the parts up high can actually create some very nice shade. It has a milky white sticky sap and it grows odd purple and green pods that are filled with the same gluey sap.

Small Purple Flowers : This one looks like it’s climbing but it’s not… it’s just growing along the fence. I don’t know where it came from or how.

I had a ginormous bromiliad in the front yard that had no less than 20 plants all bunched together into one.

I HAD two of them but I gave one away. Today, I performed surgery on this remaining one and separated out 8 separate plants with at least 1 pup each. I lined 4 of them up along the wall that the big one used to be on. The other 4 I used in the back yard.

The owner of the house has this unnatural attachment to these vines all over the back fence. So much so that they died like 10 years ago and when they up and decided to do THAT… well, he just tied them up to the fence and installed posts to HOLD THEM UP. Some living vines have since managed to crawl down the top of it all but it was literally this hanging wall of death and destruction that you were confronted with when you walked out the back door.

So.. I took matters into my own hands today and pulled out my beloved saw. This saw resides in my crafting area in case I need to cut something. I love it so much that it has moved with me from house to house for five years now. But today was the first time it ever got used. See?!?! Just goes to show you (and Ryan) that sometimes when you keep something around thinking ‘Ill use that someday’, you actually DO. Hmph.

Then I plunked 4 of the bromiliads into the ground. It worked out perfectly. The grass along the back fence dies because the sprinklers don’t reach it so digging up that area and putting plants in it that are drought resistant and that I will actually water now and again is a good thing.

Pop quiz. See that plant on the far right that trails up the fence with the little purple flowers on it? Does anyone know what that is?

When we moved in here, the landscaping had lots of potential and I fell in love with it. I love fix er up type projects - and I love dreaming about possibly one day being able to make something live, let alone grow. Our front courtyard area took off wildly. Things sprouted out of the ground everywhere and started blooming and growing like mad. It already had ferns, rose bushes and ivy, three of my favorite plants. There were two pots of tall bromiliads left by the last tenants that needed to be put into the ground. They were root bound. I planted those. Otherwise, I just weeded, pruned and let it all grow wild.

The back yard was sand, mostly. It was gross for the first year. I was content to let anything green flourish anywhere it wanted to including many varieties of weeds. Hey, green is green, yo. But this year, I fertilized and put down drought resistant grass seed, and whatdaya know, we now have a green lawn! I planted ice plant on the side of the lawn where I needed something to stop the erosion. Ice plant with big pink flowers. Drought resistant ice plant that cannot die from me forgetting to water it. Ice plant that multiplies quickly and covers everything up even if it is neglected. That kinda ice plant.

I transplanted a few lost succulents into one corner of the yard and there you have a perfect little succulent garden. And that’s where my green thumb stopped. Everything I kept in pots still continued to die on schedule. I just stopped swapping them out because it was taking too much time so I had lots of dead plants in pots all over the place.

One of my students lit a fire under my butt a few weeks ago. Her house is beautiful with plants all over the place. It’s so lush and green.. it’s like walking into a tropical place somewhere far from my house. So, we were driving to San Diego and she was telling me how easy it was to get clippings to root and she knew of plants that would be easy to keep alive and she went on and on and low and behold, by the end of the drive, I had confidence and I was inspired! I mulled it all over for a few weeks. She brought me some clippings of exciting plants and I buried their ends in carefully created ‘nursery pots’ along with some spider plant babies. I got rid of all my dead potted plants and replaced them with the new babies. I’m happy to report that two weeks later, they are all still alive! Not only are they alive, but they are thriving!

The big tall bromiliads that I put into the ground last year have flourished and had pups all over the place. I passed off one of the momma plants to the student who inspired me and separated off a pup from the other one to replace it. Today, I finally got to put three spider plant babies into the ground. I pulled up, separated and spaced out a bunch of small bromiliads. Tomorrow, I’m pulling up a bunch of ferns and transplanting them elsewhere. I feel all green and stuff! I’m really digging this whole plant thing. It’s fun when they don’t croak!

• He thinks he is about 100 pounds bigger than he is.
• He is really adorable in this shaggy, big ‘ole sad eyes, pathetic kinda way.
• He sleeps all curled up as if maybe if he curls tightly enough, he could curl up into himself. And he drools.
• He loves cheese.
• He has no use for little dogs. They are annoying what with all the yapping and jumping and panting.
• He totally went head to head with a Great Dane the other day. He don’t care. He’s bad like that.
• Out of a huge dog park, he chooses the 6″ wide cement curb to walk on. Because the dirt. It is dirty.
• The other dogs frolic and play. He pees and scoots. That’s what he does. He does not play. He has no use for this thing called play.
• When the other dogs come sniffing around to find out what is so interesting about the peeing and scooting, they come up empty handed, make that meaningful ‘this dog is nuts’ look at each other across the park and go on about their pointless frolicking.