Ambian is on board. Night night time in near. I hope I awaked to clear blue skies.

yay vacation! Although mine is almost over, so boo! for that.

Yay msbelle for locking down the computer, boo for even needing to. I suspect that might be in my future if Isaac continues to covet everything he sees online. sigh.

I need to get back to grading. unfun.

Mac reminds me of my brother in his smart-yet-evil ways. My brother was very smart and did not believe he needed to abide by rules. Chris took apart everything he could get his hands on--the toaster, my dad's watch, the oven. He also set the house on fire, stuck his tongue in a socket after being told not to, learned how to tie a noose and convinced me to try it by hanging from the tree in our front yard (I was saved by my hysterical parents) and ate laundry detergent. He got suspended in 4th grade for recording 30 minutes of fart noises and putting the tape recorder in his teacher's cabinet, so it played during class. He also hit anyone who disagreed with him, so he was always in trouble.

My mother says that he was one of those kids who had to do everything the hard way, even if the easy way was right in front of him. She claims the only person he was ever afraid of was me, his big sister, and that may be true.

Of course now he's an amazing, brilliant wonderful man, but it was a bumpy ride to get there. He was very hard to parent--and he was just hyperactive and angry, NOT someone with the attachment issues Mac has. But then, Mac has you.

Oh dear gods am I tired. We had a grading day (working from home = yay) today because grades and evil long comments o' doom are due on Monday, and I worked harder than I usually do on a normal school day. Plus I took my car into the dealership this morning to get what I thought was going to be a quick oil change and turned into a five hour lots-of-shit-is-broken-on-your-car fest. And then I went to Pep Boys to buy new wisher blades, because damned if I was going to pay dealership prices for them to install new ones there. And then I washed my car. While all this was happening, I also graded a set of essays, a set of Odyssey journals, and two sets of vocab sentences; I also added notes to all of the comments.

Just finished grading. Tomorrow I have to write the first half of my comments. Sunday the second. Brain hurts. Feh. But one week to vacation, which ROCKS, and then I will be having a gimlet with Perkins in spirit.

I crashed early and hard last night -- halfway through Caprica, so you know I was tired, but already it's warm enough in here that I don't have to turn on the space heaters, so that's a good way to start the day....

Most bulbs won't like or thrive in hard clay - they need good drainage. If you can dig it up and replace it with soil, or mix 1/2 what you've got and 1/2 composted manure (not at all smelly, available in bags from your big box store) that would make bulbs much happier.

You could also take the lazy way that I did. My landlord let me take over an unused flower bed next to my apartment. The soil in it was about 4 inches of crabgrass , weeds, and half-decayed leaves, with several feet of thick, red, NC clay below. So a year ago last fall I covered everything with newspaper, got some 6" tall edging things made of brick to hold things together, set a drip hose on top of the weeds, and covered the lot with potting soil, manure, and compost. The next spring I planted a bunch of things, just to see what would grow there, and last fall I put in a bunch of bulbs. The weighted paper killed the weeds, so now I can dig down nearly a foot before hitting clay. And the upper soil mixture is really easy to work with because it hasn't been compacted by much of anything.

I have a couple of dozen crocuses blooming right now, and a number of things have come back since last year. I'll have to take some pictures.

Thank you for sharing that Scrappy.

mac is not really confrontational with most people and situations. This getting stuff thing is trying to fill a void in him and he is not mature enough to understand that. I just have to fill him with love and compassion and hope that he will eventually get it a little bit.

Timelies all!

When it warms up and stays warm we will buy some plants to put in the pots by our walkway. Probably impatiens and marigolds.

I feel hungover without the pleasure of having been drunk the night before. Ungh. Suspect killer PMS.

This weekend I am finally going to paint the trim in my bedroom. That's about all the ambition I can muster for the weekend, even with forecasts for record breaking temperatures.

I just have to fill him with love and compassion and hope that he will eventually get it a little bit.

I am sure that he will.