Suicide Peas

My poor overworked Mr. Bear. Between work and school, he has no time to do anything. He very gallantly cleaned out Butters' kennel last night(it was pretty stinky), and after that was too exhausted to move my peas down off the rack he had placed them on. This morning he woke me as he was frantically pulling his clothes on, apologizing for not moving the peas, as they had tumbled off the rack in the night. I hurriedly pulled my clothes on as well, and at 5:30 in the morning we were trying to repot them as best we could in the cold rain. Here's what they look like now.

Not a very pretty sight. I've been informed peas are hardy and probably wont all die from the shock of it.

The aftermath:

Poor peas.

Let's remember them in happier times.

Look, a peapod is forming!

There are still several blooms and pods on them. I just hope they don't all wither and end up in the compost bin.

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Mr. Bear is so crafty!

I'm trying my hardest to not kill all my plants. A friend, who is also a gardening master, told me that it's "mostly trial and error, experimentation, and getting used to failure". Mr. Bear helped out by cutting the bottoms out of some planters so we can grow our tomatoes and strawberries upside down and plant basil and mint in the top.

Did I mention he built me an awesome set of planter racks? Including ones to hang the upside down plants on so I can reach them 'cause I'm crazy short? Because he totally did:

Someday this corner is going to be a lush jungle of food!

Hanging rack! Yeah! I'm gonna put a planter full of lettuce under it.

And then this awesome rack! Look at all those levels!

These are the survivors of my attempt to seed-start. As you can see, I have no idea what I'm doing.

My potatoes are growing like crazy, but taking a picture of plants at the bottom of a deep box is tricky, so instead I have some comparison photos of my onions, which are also doing exceedingly well.

 

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Something Wicked...

For our anniversary, Mr. Bear surprised me by getting us tickets to see Wicked. I was completely thrilled! The show was last night and it only occurred to me earlier in the week to make something special to wear to the show(even though we got tickets in March...I'm a procrastinator). I decided to take the black and white striped ruffle fabric I wore for the PnP Black and White Show in which I was the Cheshire Cat, and make it into a more flattering tube dress.

Unflattering, too-big-on-top tube dress.

Yeah, it was an awesome show. Bet you wish you had gone now, don't you?

I used my handy dandy new dressform to pin the fabric in a more flattering way and added some sleeves.

Why yes, I only have a limited digital camera, ugly carpet, and never know what to do with my arms. Why ever do you ask?

I then used this tutorial to make a Billy Cardi in Elphaba Green. It's a really fabulous tutorial. I had never thought of using freezer paper to make patterns, but it's completely brilliant. Her entire blog is completely brilliant. There's, like, twelve things she has tutorials for that are now on my list.

And now I have this awesome reusable pattern. Score!

 I also made a belt out of some 2" black elastic and a buckle, to either belt the dress or the cardigan, depending on how I'm wearing it. It can be worn open. thusly:

Or demurely closed for a sort of retro swing coat vibe, like so:

I feel the red shoes really tie the whole look together. Ruby slippers, green Elphaba cardigan, and a dress striped like Nessarose's stockings.

I didn't make my front pieces as wide as she did in the tutorial, so my collar didn't do the cool drape-y triangle thing, but I think it still works. Also, my decorative stitches ended up tearing out a chunk of the collar, so my inside became the outside and there were no decorative stitches. I also had extra fabric at the tops of the sleeves, so each sleeve cap has four inverted box pleats, which I think looks pretty cute. That's called making it work.

Not bad for a first attempt at pattern drafting. I'll definitely be making more of the cardigans. They're comfy and cute.

The show was completely amazing. If you ever get the chance to see Wicked, definitely do so! The sets, the costumes, the music, it is all incredible. Mr. Bear enjoyed it very much, which pleased me greatly. Plus, look where our seats in the balcony put us:

That's right, dead center! It was the best date night ever. 

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Problem Corgi

I love Ponyo, I really really do. She is adorable and affectionate and playful. All around an awesome dog. But she cannot for the life of her figure out that she has to "go" outside. Since we've had her, we've not gone a week without an accident. Carpet, linoleum, it doesn't matter. I take her out first thing in the morning, and she's more interested in eating grass than attending to her business. Sometimes she won't even pee, she'll just bark at things. I've taken to giving her fifteen or so minutes, then putting her back in her kennel for a while if she doesn't relieve herself, and trying again.

The introduction of a rabbit to the house is compounding the issue. Tonight I set up a baby gate to keep Ponyo in the kitchen while I let Butterscotch out in the living room to get some bunny exercise. I thought that would be better than making Ponyo go back into her kennel while Butterscotch was out. However, after putting the rabbit away and taking down the baby gate, I come to find Ponyo, who would barely poo this morning and didn't at all this evening, had taken a massive dump on the kitchen floor. It's like she saves it all up for when she's mad at me.

Mr. Bear assures me we can get both animals to coexist, he's managed it in the past with seven animals in one house. But I'm beginning to worry...

Locally Produced Goodness!

While I wait for my garden to become robust enough to provide my table with produce, Mr. Bear. and I have joined a local food movement in our area called Fresh Abundance, and every other week they bring me a box of fresh produce. Look what we got this week:

Zucchini, blood oranges, tomatoes, potatoes, romaine, mixed baby greens, a cucumber, carrots, an onion, apples...$35 per box, more than reasonable for locally produced food. Plus it's growing our local economy!

It's an awesome program. If you are lucky enough to live in an area to have something like this, I highly recommend you take advantage of it.

Meanwhile, back at Farm Ft. McAwesome, all my onions have sprouted! Huzzah! That's about twenty green onions and ten storage onions. Not bad. Easily the best growing thing in my garden right now, not surprising since they started as onion sets rather than seeds.

It's like an onion jungle!

My black zucchini finally sprouted as well! I was worried it wasn't going to, but apparently it's been hard at work below the surface.

The porch tulips are still lovely as ever.

The peas we transplanted over the weekend appear to be doing well, despite a windstorm that knocked them over the other day. Their little vines are grabbing onto the trellis, hopefully they'll be able to withstand the wind now.

And look! My sweet pea has a blossom!

I can't wait for fresh peas!

My lily of the valley is about ready to bloom, too.

So lovely.

Butterscotch is acclimating well to her new home. She's started getting inquisitive about her surroundings and exploring more. Right now we have her in a large kennel that belonged to one of Mr. Bear's previous canines. It's plently big for Butterscotch now, but she's going to be a big girl. Mr. Bear is building her a beautiful indoor hutch.

I filled a paper towel roll with grass and gave it to Butters, she loves it.

She is so fluffy, you have no idea. It's like holding a cloud.

Ponyo was feeling neglected while I checked on Butterscotch, so she grabbed one of her rope toys in a bid for attention. The way she plays with those toys, well, you just kind of have to see for yourself:

 

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The "SlutWalk" Debate

A friend of mine linked to this article on her facebook page, and it started a dialogue. The authors of the article are of the opinion that using the word "slut" in the name of the event harms feminism, that the word "slut" is too far gone to ever be reclaimed, and that the even itself promotes "general sluttishness".

I think that they are completely missing the point. Completely.

If every woman who is raped is actually a slut, then we must all be sluts, because it can happen to anyone. SlutWalk is not "promoting sluttishness", it's highlighting the hipocrisy in admonishing women to not dress in a way that arouses men while not admonishing men that just because they find themselves aroused by women, that doesn't mean they have the right to force her into sex. Many of the commenters on the original article make comments to the effect of "You don't leave your door unlocked, do you?" or "You don't wear a fancy watch in a bad neighborhood". I find comments like that so offensive it sickens me. If I leave my door unlocked, I don't deserve to be robbed. If I wear sexy clothes or go out unescorted, I do not deserve to be raped. No one deserves to be raped. No one is "asking for it".

On the subject of "don't tempt the rapist", not all rapists are triggered by the same thing, if women are expected to avoid dressing in sexually arousing ways then what is left to wear? Everything is sexually arousing to someone. How about, instead, we get it into people's heads that other people's bodies are not public property, no matter how much you want them. This is, I think, the point that many men struggle to grasp, since they've never lived in a world that regarded themselves and their bodies as public property. When you catcall a woman, when you grope her in passing, you're essentially saying "You're an object of consumption, available to anyone who wants to use you." You take away her personhood.

Also, it's not just about clothes, "slut" is applied to behavior as well. "Why were you out alone at night in that bar/party/your boyfriend's room? What did you expect?" Because women are expected to civilize men. We have to remove the temptation from them because they simply can't help themselves. This is utter bullshit that men should be upset about as well. I cannot believe that more men aren't up in arms about the "she was asking for it, I couldn't help myself" defense of rape, since it paints all men as subhuman and utterly at the mercy of their impulses. I refuse to accept the idea that these men cannot control their actions. Men are just as capable of being good people as women are(I also have a problem with the trope that women are innately "good", moreso than men. It's patronizing bullshit), the overwhelming majority of them are not rapists. To show them over and over that society doesn't think them capable of being human beings is just as big a problem as showing women over and over that it's their fault if they are victimized. Rapists are not gentle, giving lovers who were led astray by revealing clothing; they know what they're doing to their victims. Rapists don't rape because she wore a short skirt. They're bad people. Victim blaming in no way addresses the real problem.

Not all women who walk in the SlutWalk wear revealing clothing. Many wear business suits, tshirts and jeans, knee-length skirts. In doing this, they expose the rationalization of rape as a natural response to displays of female sexuality as the abhorrent lie it is.

If you're going to sit your daughter down and tell her that she can't dress a certain way or go certain places alone, then sit your son down as well and explain to him that he does not have the right to force himself on anyone or use his size and/or strength to intimidate. I don't care what certain political representatives are trying to make people think, coercive rape is still rape. Marital rape is still rape. Acquaintance rape, date rape, it's all still rape.

The bottom line is that this ridiculous double standard of men as insatiable manbeasts who can't control their actions and shouldn't be held responsible for them because it's women's job to civilize them and remove any temptation from them, while at the same time holding women as second-class citizens who are supposed to be subservient to men since men are stronger/more intelligent/more capable/etc. than women, has absolutely got to go. It's not doing a service to either side.

This isn't a battle of the sexes. It isn't women versus men. At least, it shouldn't be perceived that way. I am not a man-hating feminazi because I despise rape culture. I love my man, the partnership we have based on mutual respect. I am not emasculating him by expecting him to treat me as an equal person, I am honoring him as an intelligent, capable, good person. What SlutWalk is asking is that citizens engaging in criminal behavior against their fellow human beings be held accountable for their actions and punished. Why is our society so resistent to that?

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Day of the Lepus

Today is the day we finally got to bring our rabbit home! You may remember me mentioning us getting a rabbit...

 However, our new addition is female, rather than male, so we did not end up naming her Ianto. We call her Butterscotch, or Butters(perhaps this Halloween Professor Chaos will make an appearance!) for short. Before I had a chance to take some super cute pictures of her, she soiled herself, leading instead to Butterscotch's First Bath(at Ft. McAwesome):

Now in 3D!

She actually wasn't afraid of the water and hopped about in it for a bit, before I lathered her up and rinsed her off. She was pretty messy underneath. And none too happy when we were done:

Poor Butterscotch. We're the meanest people ever!

Ponyo was pretty curious about her, but we didn't allow her out of her kennel until we had Butters safely put away in her temporary hutch(which is actually another kennel).

Poor Ponyo has no idea what to think, what with us bringing home a new pet.

Butters was unfazed. She's used to dogs.

We also got the peas transplanted. Mr. Bear was a big help, drilling drainage holes in the bottom of the pot and building a trellis for me.

Ponyo was pretty much just interested in eating dirt.

Here she is just after snatching up a mouthful of potting soil:

"Om nom nom nom!"

We initially had the peas on the back porch, but when Mr. Bear caught Ponyo grabbing a mouthful of snap pea seedlings and trying to run off, they were moved to the front. And Ponyo was(unjustly, she feels) punished accordingly. We took her for a long walk later, to reassure her she's an important part of the family, too.

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