And then there were two

On Tuesday morning I took the dog out for a walk before work and I noticed a shallow hole in my front yard. It looked like a dog had been digging in the yard (or an army of squirrels). When I looked down I saw a lot of dirt on the sidewalk and it was the good dirt, the birthday present dirt* so I kind of scraped it back to the yard best I could with my flip-flop, then continued with our morning walk.

When Yoshi and I round the block from the other direction I happened to look at the yard again and noticed that one of my plants was GONE! That hole, that's where the plant was. I had three 'Autumn Joy' Sedums in the front about 8" apart in a triangle and now, there are just two of them. First, "who steals plants from people's yards?" Really, who just pulls an entire plant up? They aren't little anymore either, about 8" across and a foot tall. Then, "Who steals 'Autumn Joy' Sedum?" It's a great plant for zone 5 (where we live) and probably a lot of other places too. It's easy to grow, easy to maintain, looks cool in the winter, and easy to propagate. Just take a shovel to the plant every few years for a whole new plant. Ask anyone with an established clump and they could give you some without disturbing their landscape. So, people give this plant away, but someone stole one from my yard.

There isn't much I can do about the thievery. Nothing else had gone missing, and I can easily replace the missing clump by dividing one of my remaining ones. But it's the principle. It's things like this that make you want to put a fence up around the front yard.

*2 years ago my parents gave my a truck load of dirt for my front yard to amend the dead soil under the compacted lawn.

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What to wear?

A few mornings a week I go to the gym before work and "run" (really I use one of those machines that are like an eliptical but have things you hold onto and move your arms in opposition. I don't know what it's called, and frankly, for the first six months I went there I was terrified that I would injure myself on it.) This morning after my 24 minutes on the cardio machine I went back to the locker room to shower and change and discovered that I forgot to bring...shoes. I've forgotten things before, mainly undergarments which, as gross as it is to put the sweaty bra back on after a shower, is still hidden from the general public. But with no shoes, leaves me only several options. It wasn't even like I had brought pants to wear today either where I could hide my gym shoes, sort of, but today I brought a black skirt and black/grey striped top. Just so you know, my gym shoes are white and turquoise.

I still had to shower, so I gathered up my towel and shampoo and went to shower while thinking of my options:

1) Wear my gym shoes anyway. It looks a little like the women downtown that wear suits and jogging shoes between the bus and the office, but I could carry it off.

2) Wear no shoes. I go barefoot a lot. Inside the house, around the yard, the whole time I was in college, but barefoot at work is a little iffy.

3) Go buy new shoes. The problem is that Liberty Lake is a small suburban town and that means it has two grocery stores and a Walgreen. But the Valley mall is only a few miles back on the freeway...

I finished my shower and went back to get dressed and remembered, "it's only 8am, the mall isn't open at 8am." So if I want shoes that don't say Adidas on the back Wallgreens is my only option. I even tried to think if I had any spare shoes in the car: I have my winter boots in the trunk, a pair of t-strap character shoes, and my costume boots for Pirates. I used to have a pair of ballet flats in the trunk for a long time, until I decided to take them out and wear them one day.


I finished dressing and slipped my gym shoes back on to go to the car. As I walked out I thought, "this isn't too bad, I mean they're comfortable." I drove the to Walgreens though figuring I should give it a shot. Well if you're in need of a bra, gym clothes, a fleece vest, nylons, or slippers - head on out to Walgreen. However if all you're looking for is a pair of beach thongs - you are out of luck.

Right now I'm sitting at my desk with my gym shoes slipped off and I've been padding around in my green ankle socks. Kind of a compromise between barefoot and bulky gym shoes. Maybe I should keep a back up pair of flip-flops in the trunk just in case.

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