Late afternoon ramblings under the influence of green tea

I spent the 1st part of the afternoon at Kure Beach — the water is starting to actually be warm.  It’s not that biting cold it was a month ago and now it’s just refreshing.  It also helped that today’s high was 33.

I came home for a quick bite of kaesebroet, German for cheese bread (i.e. a French baguette with shredded mozzarella) and then decided to head out into the homeward stretch of reclaiming my yard from the onslaught of green-briers.  I wasn’t all that successful.  I got the last flowerbed cleared out of brush from the past decade, but was thwarted by the mosquitos. One bit me on the face, just below my left eye so I can actually see my cheek when I look straight ahead…..I mean really!  Bug spray does not affect these creatures.  I was willing to let it go until I saw a snake slither into bushes.  It was just a garter snake – as I say, I’d much rather have a snake problem than a rodent problem – but I figured that was a good stopping point.  Garter snakes are harmless, but we just killed a baby water moccasin the other day, so I’m a bit on edge still.

There is a neighborhood block meeting tonight about the neighborhood watch program they are starting.  I should go.  I need to meet more people in the neighborhood.  The General and I went to a HOA meeting last week and I am by far the youngest homeowner here.  They went over a lot of the info there and I really don’t see how another meeting about it would help.  I’m not going simply because I just don’t feel like it.

I’m making this for dinner.

I need to clean up the kitchen.  I need to do laundry.  I work 16 hour shifts both Saturday and Sunday so I need to have not only my game face on, but clean socks.

Rhett, my tabby cat, is watching me type all this by sitting on my printer and staring at me.  He wants to go out on our enclosed deck and I won’t let him because I have the AC on.  He fails to understand how expensive it is, especially when you have the door open.  Why not just close the door, you wonder?  Because in addition to being a scardy cat, he’s also claustrophobic and will rip out the weather stripping on the door if in feeble attempts to open it.  Speaking of which, I need to replace it.  He ripped through it again.  If he only he paid rent….

One of my favorite bands, Halestorm, just released an album of cover songs they did…..wow.  Here’s one of my favorite Beatles’ songs they did:

And Lady GaGa:

And in some really good news, the crepe myrtle tree we moved is making new leaves after some TLC.  If there were an ICU for plants, it was there.  It’s condition has been moved from critical to stable.  Yay.  Water an compost seems to fix most problems around here.

And now for some more tea.  But 1st, a shower to get all the salt and mud off of me.  Ah, summertime in North Carolina.  How I missed ye.