You couldn't make this stuff up, I swear.

I know I'm starting to sound like I wear a tin-foil hat most of the time, but let me ask you this--are things around you kinda weird lately? The last two weeks have been so bizarre that it's left me walking around in a daze. I had hoped today would be better, but it turned out to be just as strange as the last two weeks--not a good start, believe me.

I feel like the world is starting to move into some big, black hole that is sucking us into a totally different universe. (Okay, I feel that way most of the time anyway, but this is getting ridiculous--and I just had a deja-vu that I've typed those very words before on this blog--I need to go back and see if that's true.) I can guarantee you that I don't remember everything, but in the last two weeks, we have had:

one director fired

a VP and another director suspended for a week, resulting in both of them quitting

a senior VP walking in at 8 am and resigning (and he'd only been there 5 weeks)

another director resigning

at least 2 other employees quitting

The big boss's daughter is now working for us, and she likes to make everyone feel like a serf in some sort of weird Dickensian novel (and I know "serf" is probably not correct for Dickensian times, but you get my drift, right?).

My boss ran in the Memorial Marathon yesterday. He's a cyclist, not a runner, and decided that he didn't need to train for this race, so he ran almost THREE MILES without having prepared at all. He couldn't understand why he was so wrecked this morning--go figure.

Then there was a whole screwup with a videoconference call that caused me, who had obeyed the rules and done everything right, to have to rearrange everything at the last minute at 5 pm, when everyone had already gone home for the day.

My electric bill last month was something like $7.08. It's usually anywhere from $35 to 100, depending on the time of the year. I checked my bill--they didn't read the meter. So I figured this month it would be double, right? Nope--$40-something. (Yeah, I need to call on this.)

One Saturday afternoon I looked up to see a police car in my parking lot. I watched for a while (yes, I spy on my neighbors sometimes--don't you?), and the cop finally came out from one of the upstairs apartments in the building across from me. A few minutes later, here comes the couple down to their car--with matching towels around their shoulders. Did they have a martial spat that involved water balloons? I guess we'll never know.

My downstairs neighbor pulled a probably 6-week-old puppy from the jaws of something, we think a raccoon--apparently it grabbed the poor thing and ran off with it. It wasn't hurt, thank goodness; it was young enough to still have a lot of loose skin around its neck. It now has a nice new home with a lot of other doggies, because there was no way to find the owners.

But the weirdest thing of all was at work--seeing someone sitting at her desk in the middle of the cube farm with curlers in her hair and a scarf around her head. Then there was a little picnic on the floor of her director's office in the middle of the afternoon, with all the participants wearing curlers and putting on their makeup. When we reported it to HR, the director told us that their boss had given them permission (she was in there, too), so it was okay--not a problem.

Yes, Catherine, I've found the Cupcakes--they're working for us now.

Thanks a lot.

Some day I might learn to control my big mouth.

This morning someone in my office asked me when Mother's Day was.

I said I didn't know.

He replied, "Well, a mother should know these things."

And before I realized it, I had replied, "Well, I'm not a mother and I don't have a mother, so there's really no need for me to know when Mother's Day is."

He didn't appreciate my response.

I really didn't mean anything by it--it just popped out of my mouth before I had time to even think about it. It's just the way I think.

I guess most people just assume that everybody celerates every holiday and everyone has parents and children and big families and that birds sing in their presence and that life is wonderful and that they don't have a care in the world--just like THEM.

However, I don't think this was as bad as when the BAC (that's "born-again christian", or in this case, the MC, "megachurch christian") asked the only Jewish person in the entire office the day after Easter if he enjoyed his holiday--"whatever ritual it is that your people do."

He thought he was being cute. Then he offered to take the guy out for a beer.

Some people just need a good slap upside the head.

And I doubt I'll ever be able to control my mouth.

"I Don't Like Mondays" by Tori Amos--

with some fourth season "West Wing"--seems eerily appropriate right now . . . .

Oh, my, look what the Easter Bunny brought me:

This is an epiphyllum, or "epi" for short, also known as "orchid cactus." They are many different varieties and colors, including some that are scented and that bloom only at night.

When I bought my first orchids, I was doing some research on the internets and found "orchid cacti." The flowers are drop-dead, show-stoppingly gorgeous, and I was instantly hooked. (Shocking, I know.) Pretty much the only way you can obtain these things without having to do something illegal is to buy cuttings. You root the cuttings, and in about 3 years you have a plant that could possibly bloom.

It's basically a gamble--just like my retirement fund.

The flowers can be anywhere from 2 inches to 12 inches wide--really, that's not a joke, 12 inches. This bloom is about 4 inches wide, and it's freaking GORGEOUS. Although many cuttings will bud, you're not supposed to let them flower because it sucks all the energy from making roots into the bloom, but I just couldn't let this go by, knowing that it could be years before I'd actually see a real bloom. So, although I've been a bad horticulturalist, I'm glad I did. The cutting seems to be surviving and is actually getting new growth, and once this bloom fades away, I will be giving it lots of extra lovin' as payback.

My biggest challenge with these plants is that they get LARGE--I guess I didn't really do very good research. I was blinded by the flowers, and it was totally worth it, but I'm definitely going to have to figure out where to put them. Cuttings are great--plants, that's another story.

My research did tell me that there's a cacti and succulents show and sale here in OKC in June, and I hope to see more of these there (and maybe spend a few bucks, as well).

I didn't mention the cacti and the succulents? Oh, well, I'll leave that for another day . . . .

Unfreakin' believable--it's SNOWING!!!

So a week ago we were living through end-times rain and flooding, and now it's snowing--welcome to springtime in Oklahoma!

I happened to look out the window a few minutes ago, and it's SNOWING--and pretty good, too, not just a few flakes. It actually seems like it's getting heavier each time I look outside.

I guess my hesitation about planting anything was not just my imagination after all. All my plants have been inside since Wednesday night because of low temps and frost/freeze warnings. I feel like I'm living in a greenhouse, but it's actually quite cozy, and so far they seem to be happy.

I LOVE days off, even if Mother Nature doesn't cooperate!!!

I missed Saturday Sky!

And I had a picture and everything!


Yesterday and today have been absolutely amazing, weather wise. After Thurday and Friday's torrential downpours--and I mean torrential, we had almost 5 inches of rain in less than 24 hours--the weather is crisp and cool with a warm, sunny sky. It makes me itchy to be outside all the time. What I wouldn't give to live somewhere with this kind of weather all year long. I'm really dreading our summer--I have a feeling it's going to be long and damned hot.

Thursday afternoon we had a tornado or something close to it pass about a mile west of my office. It had been dark and rainy all day, but there were no tornado warnings posted until about a minute before the sirens went off. It was insane, and of course no one knew what to do. Luckily the conference room right behind my desk has cable access, and we were quickly able to find out that it was west of us and moving straight north (very unusual, because these things usually always move northeast). So we lucked out, but there was some damage and several injuries north of here.

Friday was dark and rainy again, but in the afternoon it began to POUR. By the time we left at 5, every street was covered in water. I came home via the highway, and it was very close to being flooded, too. I didn't realize how bad it was until yesterday, when I saw this photo in the Oklahoman of a street about a mile from my office:


This was right in front of WalMart--oops!

Today everything has that shiny, fresh look that you get after a rainstorm. You can almost see things growing:


Clematis "Miss Bateman"


"Origami" red and white Columbine


Ossteospermum "Jamboana White"

I hope to get my strawberries planted today, as well as starting my sunflower, morning glory, and moonflower seeds and a few other things. I just want to sit out in the sun and enjoy the breeze, kinda like my neighbor kitty:


Doesn't that look like heaven?