How is it that it's already almost JULY? I have no clue where the first half of this year went, but it's making me a little annoyed that we haven't even come close to doing a lot of the things we had talked about doing this year. Anyway, smaller projects lie immediately ahead:

+ Operation Stumperella will hopefully play out this weekend. Again, fingers crossed.

+ We desperately need to take laundry in. If the next place we live doesn't have on-site laundry, I'm going to weep.

+ The apartment needs cleaning, and in particular we need to figure out what to do with all of the crap that we hastily boxed up when one of our wall-mounted bookcases came crashing down. I'd like to remount the thing, but probably not in the same place. We need to put something in that spot, though. Maybe a framed poster.

+ We're hoping to get to the Greenmarket EARLY tomorrow so we can stock up on goodies for the coming week. Our favorite grass-fed beef/bison guy has been running out of the more popular cuts by the time we've gotten to him, and while I have no problems with a nicely prepared flatiron or hanger steak, I'm jonesing for a ribeye.

+ We're also hoping to take a trip down to Red Hook. We've yet to make it out to the famous ball fields, and it's been far too long since we've paid LeNell a visit. (And also, chocolate-dipped frozen key lime pie on a stick. Yes, please.)

+ I doubt that we'll get to it this weekend, but I really want to see Ratatouille.

+ I'd also like to pick up a book or two. I'm midway through two books, but I want to have something on deck for when I finish them. Recommendations are always welcome.

+ There's crap in both the front and back yard - some of it ours, some not - that I'd like to dispose of. I think it's time to replace the dead flowers in our front windowbox, too.

+ I'd like to pick up more plant stakes over the weekend. Our tomato plants are getting huge and need the support.

+ I also need to get on the ball (heh) as far as canning goes. I've frozen a bunch of produce over the last couple of weeks, but I'm going to want to be ready to go once tomatoes and cucumbers start to appear.

+ We need to get back to planning for the second annual Dietschyblossom Cocktail Shindig. We pretty much decided to hold it later in the year this time around so that we will hopefully have cooler temperatures, but because we were talking about September, and it seemed soooo far away at the time, I kind of feel like we let it slide. I want to get back to the planning on this. I've got the entertaining bug, and bad.

Yeah, more hours in the day would be welcome.

Welcome to the world, little Brendan Elliott Searles.

Hoople was particularly horny yesterday, and Stumpy was having none of it. He was like a drunken frat boy, or one of those skeevy guys you see at the bar, approaching her from all directions, eyes fixed on her, totally fueled by testosterone. He was aggressive toward her, really not like himself, and it was more than a little creepy.

While Mike and I sat out back with the cats last evening, Stumpy was constantly having to swat Hoople away, and was sticking very close to us, even spending time in each of our laps. She seemed a bit distressed by it all, which broke my heart, but I was happy at least that the final pieces of the puzzle were falling into place. She's obviously quite done with that life, and I don't blame her one bit. She's earned the right to be a pampered lap cat and not have to deal with that sort of unwanted attention anymore.