Lizards and Roses

Surprisingly something has happened in my life since I last posted. Yesterday I drove out to Independence, TX to the antique rose emporium where I purchased a rose bush for my mom for Mother's Day. I had never been out there before, and it was lovely. They have an amazing selection of heirloom roses, and beautiful display gardens that are in bloom now. There were butterflies, bees, and birds frolicking as well as some lizards that I had never seen before. My lizard expertise doesn't extend much further than anoles. The nearest I can figure is that it is some kind of whiptail lizard like the Cnemidophorus gularis pictured above. Very pretty and stripy. Anyway, so I went to look at roses, and ended up getting a Souvenir de St. Anne rose for mom. It has several buds on it, and looks like it will be blooming by this weekend which will be nice.

And now for a horrible story: I woke up a couple of mornings ago to find that my cat had gotten poo all over my beautiful white bedding including the pillow I was sleeping on. Not a fun way to wake up in the morning. Needless to say I immediately jumped into the shower, changed my sheets and pillowcases, and then scrubbed Queso clean. He didn't really appreciate the rough cleaning, but I told him I could've given him a bath so he got off lucky. Seriously, if I wanted a needy, expensive creature that makes nasty poos everywhere I would've had a baby. Queso and I have been cultivating our love/hate relationship lately because he needs to be medicated twice a day for two weeks for a bladder infection. The meds make him sick to his stomach so he hasn't been eating well, and he highly resents my grabbing him and stuffing a pill down his throat twice a day.

On a recommendation I'm listening to The Decemberists - Castaways and Cut-outs album which has a nifty album cover but is not inspiring me. Sounds like several British indie rock bands which is intriguing because they're from Portland, OR. Maybe it's the accordian in the background? Rock on.