Rest in peace, Simon.

Contrary to how clever everyone thinks they are, no one is actually clever enough to hide their surprise when i tell them that we have guinea pigs. especially once they find out that the guinea pigs are ours, and not our kids that don't exist yet.
a few years back, Neil and i just decided to adopt some pigs. when you have a couple of dogs, some cats, and assorted other small creatures, a couple of guinea pigs doesn't seem like much more of a stretch. Well, we were a bit wrong about that. and thank god.
We adopted Simon and Walter, who were brothers. Walter is the braver of the two. Simon was the cuter (at least in my eyes). they are incredibly social animals, make wonderful noises, and have such a striking resemblance to someone's fat uncle (i don't have a fat uncle) that you can't help but smile when they put their heads up to sniff whatever treats you are bringing them and their big ol' jowls hang down around their chubby lips. they are not to be forgotten in a cage. they just aren't. and thank god.
unfortunately, Simon passed away on Friday. I knew it was coming at some point soon, as the dudes are pretty old. Neil was a teensy bit heartbroken, as he had become more of the primary piggie caregiver over the years and really seemed to enjoy their routine. of all of the animals in this zoo, i am only allergic to the pigs. so they really have been Neil's little dudes.

So I guess now we have just one guinea pig that people can pretend to not have an opinion about.

So many things, though....mama got a job. that is me. i am mama. and i got a job. i am assisting an insanely talented hairstylist. the color she does floors me. she is meticulous, speedy, and always respectful to her clients....and me! respectful to me, damn it! ironically, she hired me because of my age, not in spite of it. and because of the school i went to. and because Lonnie forked over a pretty stellar reference. i will be assisting her for about a year, for 40-50 hours a week. sometimes i get to sit and eat lunch for 10 minutes. sometimes, not so much. it is exhausting and worth every ounce of energy i give to it. and luckily Neil has decided to pick up some dinner shifts, although i wouldn't hold your breath for any food related guest blogging on his part. Maybe some day i will tell you about the meal that we call "it's a bigger hit". neil made a chicken dish once and we liked it so we declared "it's a hit!!!". then, he made a completely different and ultimately superior chicken dish. we now call it "it's a bigger hit". because it is. we never went back to "it's a hit". life is too short for that crap.

we had a wintery spell last week and temps dropped to the mid thirties. since i was knee deep in shampoo and other peoples hair, i crossed my fingers and let the garden ride. i lucked out. so today we harvested the majority of the remainder of our basil.

it doesn't look like much but it is a bushel, at least. a bale, maybe? i like to call it an "s-ton" of basil. we made enough pesto that i don't think i will even want to look at pesto again before it all goes bad in the freezer. and we still had half an s-ton left. so neil did his best to provoke our nosy neighbors into thinking we are growing, or at least drying, pot.

how illegal does that look? i think it is hilarious, actually. i don't have the heart to tell neil that even after all this dries...well....then what? we'll have two pounds of dried basil on our hands? oh well, the garden was a really great adventure this summer. we still have some cooler weather stuff going on, but we are all gearing up for the next phase. you know, the one where i am so busy at work that i don't have time to be obsessed with vegetation.


yeah, we'll see about that.