Tuesday rambles

This blog (and graphic) brought to you today by the US Blueberry Council. I picked blueberries for the first time on Saturday; Les and I (yes, folks, the husband woke up at the crack and joined me...I still think it was because he didn't trust me with the new car) hoofed it down to Middleburg to pick blueberries, which I turned into a rather tasty dump cake the next night. Dump cake is a southern concoction normally involving two types of fruit, a box of cake mix, and at least a stick of melted butter. We used the mashed blueberries, a can of crushed pineapple (should've used 2 cans), a box of Duncan Hines Butter Recipe Golden, and a stick and a half of melted butter. Layer blueberries in 13 x 9 pan, add pineapple, sprinkle cake mix evenly over it all, and drizzle the melted butter evenly over that, trying to wet as many dry spots as possible. Bake at 350 for about a half hour or until the top is golden brown. Probably not an ounce of nutritional value, but damn, is it delicious!!! I only wish we had vanilla ice cream to go with it :)

It dawned on me around 4:00 a.m. today (Tuesday) , as the winds of Alberto were pummeling our little apartment and soaking us with rain, that I forgot to take all the aloe down from my porch ledge.

Crap.

Granted, aloe is a tropical plant, so I'm sure to a certain extent it's used to this kind of weather. But it's also a succulent, which I think means it's susceptible to drowning once it's all filled up with as much water as it can take. Hell, that's probably true with any plant. I know the one in the biggest pot is probably safe, but the others, the ones who've been trying to take root in straight, not-nearly-dense-enough potting soil, will probably reach floating capacity this afternoon.

Shit.

You know it's time for a new computer when.....was all set to download a new stole pattern from my Yahoo email last night, because I fell in love with it and wanted to start it (because I'm into stoles right now apparently, and a big chicken in that the stoles aren't nearly as intimidating as those shawls that start from the center top back with like, 8 stitches...apparently you can't think too hard when you're starting those, but if you just follow the instructions, it works out--kind of like turning the heel on a sock). Umm, where was I...oh yeah, thing is, if I'd left my computer to download it last night, I think it would've been finishing up right about now (it's 9 a.m. the next morning). Holy craptastic, it was slow! So I printed it out at work, but that has its own level of suckiness because the paper that it's printed on is practically unreadable in black and white. There's no pleasing me.

Performed full moon ritual on Sunday night, for the first time in an age; really helped bring me back into my witchy self. I performed a healing spell for a friend of a friend, and the visualization was as good or better as the one I performed to protect Cyril when I thought he was heading to Iraq. My friend Katherine's friend, Spring, has cancer. I met her at Kath's college graduation and her wedding; nice girl. Her bonehead doctors thought it was ovarian, performed a hysterectomy, and assaulted her body with chemo only to discover that it was actually colon cancer, which had spread to parts unmentionable. Now that she's had reconstructive surgery to fix that mistake, and spent the last 5 months being treated for the wrong cancer, now they're finding spots on her liver and lung. There's gotta be a lawsuit in there somewhere, but in the meantime, she has 2 boys, ages 5 and almost 2, who'll probably lose their mom far too early.

The visualization was excellent though (wish I could write about it, but I'm superstitious about that. It's like telling a birthday wish after blowing out the candles; I'm afraid it tempts fate somehow. Suffice it to say that it was powerful.), and silly me, I forgot to ground afterwards, so it took me forever to fall asleep, but I think I was still riding the good feelings from that ritual well into the next day. Pulled out Silver's To Light a Sacred Flame, because she has a great method for rededicating yourself in there, and I've pulled out Starhawk's Spiral Dance to bone up on the basics. I'm glad Solstice is just around the corner; I keep skipping holidays and then wondering why I feel so lapsed--that'll be the perfect time to rededicate myself.

But first, earning the ole paycheck :(