In the depression of yesterday, we got up this morning, went to Waffles n’ More, blew our diet, and went plant shopping: we got some summer annuals to brighten the garden along with the roses—an everblooming hydrangea, a freesia, which MIGHT be annual if we put it in the right spot; a few snapdragons, some portulaca (well, both those freeze, but they seed; I even sneaked a petunia into the mix—Jane is not enamored of petunias. So…we arrive home and start putting those in, carrying out the house plants from the kitchen, all of which have scale, then cleaning up behind them, plus weeding, plus talking to the friendly Mormons who want to see the garden—they were quite nice, actually, and really did like the garden; and digging and cleaning the filter—snapdragons love our place so much they seed onto the walkway, so we pull them up and put them back in the bed. And we Cloroxed the tables where the plants were—an operational note. Go to a place that sells marine fish and get a product called Prime: it instantly neutralizes chlorine, so it gets that awful smell off things, makes things safe, AND can rescue a shirt Clorox splashed on if you’re fast enough. Use it straight.
Then, good news, not only did our lone survivor from the previous batch of babies show up, a gorgeous black and gold butterfly fin—but the two new babies, a showa (kind of black and orange and white patchwork) and a black and white, both butterfly fins, and very pretty—they showed up with her: they’re about the same size, and while koi will eat fish, they will not eat young koi, so they dive fearlessly to snatch food from really huge mouths…it’s a very nice sight; and if we can just raise these three to adulthood, they’re going to be really pretty fish.
Nothing is safe: Shu and Sei have spotted a fly that got in with all our going and coming with plants. No, wait: they’ve gotten distracted and decided to wrestle each other, forgetting about the fly.
I am so tired—I find shopping exhausting; and we shopped; and then we gardened; and now I am sitting here with a cuppa iced coffee and two Advil.
Work did not get done this morning, but hey, we changed out the icemaker filter (Jane took a bath: one of the filters was defective and leaked like a fire hydrant) and I cleaned out the freezer and washed the thing; and raced to the curb in time to catch the garbage truck with a bag of stuff from the freezer that could have gotten really unpleasant by NEXT Friday—so that was lucky.
I am back to taking hyaluronic acid caps and Joint Juice (glucosamine-condroitin) or I don’t think I’d have survived today.
I am thinking about demanding dinner out, but in the midst of the chaos I did get some bread on to bake, and we have salad, so I may just do the Parmesan Chicken Salad with hot bread for dinner. Hot bread is hard to pass up. By morning it will just be morning toast.
I would suggest a stiff adult beverage.
Scale! Oh man, that’s impossible to get rid of. I tried to rescue two separate plants that had it, to no avail. I found something that did kill the bugs…but it devastated the plant too.
And Jane just spent an hour sitting on the kitchen floor, hand scrubbing areas we can’t otherwise reach—
And went to get a soft drink of the ones we bought while we were out—half a liter of Mountain Dew Diet.
It sprang a leak in the mudroom; fortunately it didn’t get as far as the part of the kitchen she’d just hand-scrubbed, but it was close.
I don’t care for petunias either–it’s the sticky feeling I dislike. But on the other hand some of the dark blue-purples have a very nice fragrance. (News to me when I was walking the streets for the 2000 Census and discovered it by accident at someone’s door.) One must follow one’s nose, some have a modestly unpleasant odor. Generally they’re just for color, but some (old?) strains retain the perfume.
Hope the fishies do excellent well now that the waterfall is better…
Sorry about the bad back. Struggling with my own (having been told, as of two days ago, that I have another five weeks of recovery: sprained my back)….it’s been difficult. I can’t even manage most of my daily stuff, like dishes. Fortunately for me my son is being a trooper and helping out. At least I can still type though! And I’m alive to complain about things.
Feel better soon *hugs*
THanks, all. Hot showers, baths in Epsom salts (good as mineral waters.) I at least got the shower.
The surfina petunias are sterile so you don’t have to deadhead them which avoids the stickiness. They sere bread for hanging pots, but can be planted as a groundcover – each plant will eventually cover a diameter of 2-3 feet – a nice dense cover that really discourages weeds.
Yes the scent is lovely.
Off topic — sorry — You and Jane mention being into anime — which I know practically nothing about. If I was going to start exploring the genre, what is something good to start with?
Struggling…to remain…quiet.
Clarifying question though: what other sorts of movies/tv shows do you like? That would help us rabid anime geeks to narrow down suggestions to things you might actually be interested in.
Lol…we started with Descendants of Darkness, and Gravitation; then moved on to Saiyuki; and then to some sillier things; then Bleach; then Naruto.
I will say that if you love character development, and are willing to suspend disbelief and enjoy filling in the blanks the above set of titles is good.
We also like the often-silly bus often funny and sometimes touching Kyo Kara Maoh (God save our King?)
Cowboy Bebop is one suggestion for anime. Several others are good. I’d be interested in recommendations too. 🙂
Scale is a real buggaboo to get rid of, but it can be done. I got elected to clean up a plant room with a massive mealybug infestation (a type of scale) at work, and finally ended up spraying (drenching!) the plants with a dilution of soap, rubbing alcohol and insecticidal oil, wiping down every surface in the room with soapy water, then attacking any bug left on the plants with a q-tip with rubbing alcohol. Not long after that I found a systemic insecticide with directions for indoor use that I’ve used since. You sprinkle it over the soil and water in, then no more bugs!
Scale…arrrghh…been hand-picking it off the ivies and papyri for years, which of course only holds it at bay, alas. So — what’s the name of the systemic insecticide? I’m real interested!
The active ingredient is Imidacloprid, most products have it for outdoor use only but Bonide Systemic Houseplant has label info for indoor use. Bayer has several products that contain it and call it ‘Merit’. I’ve used the Imidacloprid for houseplants and bonsai trees (all sorts!) with good luck so far. The adult scale just dries up and you still see them, but the crawlers never get a chance so it stops the cycle. I don’t know if it stays in the food-chain, so I’m a bit leery using it outdoors. You have to kill the crawlers and if its in the area, ants will actually farm scale by moving it around. I really hate scale.
Yes, it stays in the food chain. It’s been banned in France because of the damage it does to honey bees. It affects the short-term memory, so the insects can’t find their way back home. Those green discs that some people have in their yards to combat termites are the top of the dispenser of imidacloprid, and who knows where else. The farmers use seed that has been coated in imidacloprid which then stays in the plant. Because the seeds tend to stick together in the seeder, they put talcum powder in with the seeds. Even though they say the coating won’t come off and cause a dust cloud, the talc rubbing on the coating and being blown out of the seeder takes imidacloprin with it. There’s a big push from beekeepers (like me) to have those neonicotinoids banned, or at least, more heavily regulated.
Re: anime suggestions. As a shortcut, there have been at least two extended threads on this topic in the past (not that I’m not willing to discuss it again!), but if you search for “anime” there’s a thread that’s titled “anime…our favorites” and if you search for “kenpachi” you’ll find a thread titled “61048 WORDS. RAIN AND COOL. TRYING TO GET BACK TO ROUTINE.” It would give you a starting place. 🙂
P.S. in the “anime our favorites” thread, one respectfully suggests you avoid the side topic which devolved into the closest thing to a flamewar we’ve had at this site. If a post references a con or politics in the first sentence, one humbly recommends skipping the post entirely. Just a friendly warning. Don’t want you to get sandbagged in what was otherwise a very friendly and informative thread regarding anime. 🙂
So much for good intentions. As for personal recommendations since those threads, I’d add DeathNote for very clever killer vs detective with supernatural elements thrown in; Ouron High School Host Club, Baka and Test, for goofy high school fun; NightWalker, Trinity Blood, Hellsing, if you’re into vampires; Baccano! for immortal gangsters in the prohibition era; Eden of the East which starts with Our Hero coming to naked in front of the White House with nothing but a cell phone and a gun and no memories of who he is; Descendants of Darkness with guardians of death in the modern world; Black Butler for a kid who’s made a deal with a demon in return for revenge. These are just the ones I didn’t see already referenced in the previous threads. I’m sure other people will be all over this thread tomorrow with more suggestions. 🙂
Cowboy Bebop — Film noir and hot jazz meet with cowboys and outer space in this series involving our handsome young anti-hero, his big former cop friend, a sexy smart young woman anti-hero, a frenetic genius kid with identity issues, and a super-intelligent dog, as they run around the known star systems righting wrongs. Quirky and very good. The original music is good in itself.
Trigun — Strange young man with a big, big gun goes around colony worlds doing good but with some chaos thrown in, while he deals with various adversaries, including a brother / twin / clone. Two young women and various others are involved along the way to a final showdown with the enigmatic clone or brother.
Dot-Hack-Sign .//hack — Yes, the “.//hack” is the title. The original / first series involves a mysterious virtual reality global game. A young player is the central character and meets all sorts of characters in the game, while we learn things in the real world, and learn of a plot taking place both in-game and real-world. There is a surprise ending which I won’t spoil.
Gundam Wing — I’ve only seen one short series, but it was good. These center around giant robots piloted by younger people, in battles with human or alien forces.
Inuyasha — A teenage girl falls through a well from modern Japan into the feudal era, and meets a half-demon anti-hero cursed after the death of his love, a guardian priestess. The teenage girl is the reincarnation of the priestess. They are joined by a crw of friends as they try to recover the sacred jewel shards from the demon who caused the curse. The young heroine jumps back and forth through the well into the modern era, and we see her old grandfather, her mom, and her kid brother, and school friends.
While Inuyasha has Japanese lore involved, it is primarily about how the girl and the boy (young man and young woman) grow to independence and maturity, and balancing individual will and power with cooperation and the overall good.
I didn’t quite get into Saiyuki. — I’ve managed to misplace Gravitation midway through and need to find it. — I’ve watched a few episodes of Naruto and liked it, but IMHO it’s aimed more at kids. I might change my mind as I see more.
However, Japanese anime is geared to a wider age range audience than American animation, at least up until fairly recently. Anime and manga are popular with adults too. You’ll find anime generally treat things in a little more mature expectation of the audience’s thinking ability. There will be Japanese culture and lore mixed in. You’ll get glimpses of how the Japanese see Westerners (as mixed in truths and assumptions as how Westerners see Asians). You’ll see wacky comedy and occasional nutty twists along with tragedy and drama and sometimes violence. You’ll see occasionally a different perception of what it means to be a hero, an ally, a villain or enemy, and on forgiveness or vengeance. In other words, if you pay careful attention, you get a view into Japanese culture and thinking, involving historical lore, archetypes, and storytelling, and what it means to be a good guy or girl or a bad guy or girl. Oh, and you may see some different angles on love too.
Anime and manga have gained ground in the West over the past few decades, and there has been cross-fertilization. Anime and manga art styles have influenced Western animation and cartooning / comic book art, and vice versa.
The Japanese are astute, savvy at advertising and artwork and storytelling. You’ll see what amount to ad layouts in some anime chapter / act / scene heads that rival anything you’d see from Western advertisers, for instance, and the art is gorgeous, albeit stylized. The stylistic features are for a purpose, too, there’s meaning in them.
You might also check out the American anime, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and its current sequel, The Legend of Korra. (If you saw the live action movie, don’t judge the anime by it.) These two anime are engaging, good storytelling, good art, and they do a good job of creating a fictional, believable, otherworldly world.
I would say I’m still pretty new to anime and manga, though, and although I saw things like Star Blazers and Speed Racer and others as a kid (yes, anime too) the level of animation and storytelling have increased substantially since then.
Because of these, I have looked at digital comic books and manga. Brody’s Ghost is one I’d recommend. Also check the Serenity comics and the Falling Skies comics. (The latter are free.)
See Also:
http://www.vizmedia.com
http://www.darkhorse.com
http://www.fallingskies.com
And others.
If you like a dark anime hellsing is a good but short series about a vampire that works with a human organization to destroy demons, monster, or other vampires.