A rambling chatty bit of fluff

I just found this in my drafts.  Apparently I found it once before in my drafts, commented on its still being there, added some more, saved it, and forgot about it again.  I really need to check that drafts tab more often.

This part is from the beginning of August:

My Mom came down from the mountains on Friday.  We went out to dinner at a local, semi  fancy-schmancy restaurant.  She stayed overnight on my capacious pillow-back sofa (once you take all the cushions off the back of it, this sofa's as large as a twin bed, and it's über comfortable), then the next morning we boxed up the cat and headed north to the wilds of Pennsylvania.  Sophie begged to be let out the whole way there.

It was a good vacation.  There was a slight bobble Sunday into Monday (I think.  I lost track of time there for a while) where the generator did something weird and it looked like we were going to have to last the week on 100 gallons of water in the holding tank.  That got sorted out, though.  I'm kinda disappointed that I didn't get to try the dry shampoo we found in Rite-Aid that we thought we were going to need.  But?  I'd rather use soap and water.

Anyway.

Kitty and I got brought back about a week later by Dad, Mom, and the dog.  You should have seen the dog when I put the cat in the carrier Sunday morning.  She (Pip, not Sophie) was outside on the porch with Dad.  It took Mom and me both to get Sophie into the carrier--she's a pretty good fighter, even without front claws.  We got her in, I shut the door, and turned around to see Pip staring at me through the screen door, astounded.  The look on her face quite clearly said, "But I thought you liked that cat!"  It was as if I'd suddenly sprouted horns or something.

I had taken Monday the 8th of August as vacation as well, because the original plan had called for Mom to drive me back Sunday afternoon, stay Sunday night, and go home Monday morning.  Did I mention Mom retired back in July?  No, I see that I didn't.  Yes, well, Mom retired back in July so now she has the time to do all the stuff she wants.  I'm trying very hard not to be envious.

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And that's about where I saved this post, lo these many weeks ago.  I have no idea where I was going with that last paragraph.  I don't remember doing anything especially meaningful with the extra day that I had on Monday.  As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure I spent it lounging around on the couch, reading and embroidering.

Couple of things I did want to mention:

Last year I crossed "grow a tomato" off of my life list.  Well, I decided I didn't do a very good job last year and I wanted to try again.  I bought a seedling from some Ag Department grad-student run produce stand that pops up on campus in May.  They had a bunch of different varieties available.  I chose one called "Muscovich," because it was described as cold-weather hardy, and not minding a lot of rain.  I don't know how it was where you were last spring, but over here it was extraordinarily wet in May.  I was this close to having moss growing on my upper lip.  I figured a plant that liked wet cold weather just might work in my patch.

Here's a picture I took of it last August.  [imagine there's a picture here] Bit of a monster, no?  It's gotten taller since.  When they dropped me off the Sunday of vacation, my parents took a walk 'round to the side of the house to take a gander at my wee garden.  Dad had to look up to see the top of the tomato. Dad is 6'6".  I think the plant is at least seven feet tall -- a far cry from the stunted little things I grew last year in pots.
I'd say I've gotten about 30 tomatoes from it so far, and the ones I ate instead of froze were pretty tasty.  

We had some pretty strong thunderstorms about a week later, it broke a off a couple of the branches of the vine.  There were a lot of little green tomatoes on those branches.  I turned them into a pretty tasty spice cake, using a recipe I found online.

And that's when I saved it the last time I tried working on this.  Well, they say three's the charm.  There's a picture I want to attach to this (that would be the tomato plant), and then I really, really need to hit publish.  Then I can talk about the rest of August (while I still remember it) and how I got bit by the Canning Bug.

I know. Canning. Squee.  But at least I'm trying to blog again.

Here's that tomato: