t
o
n
y
a
n
g
'
s
 
w
e
b
l
o
g


my new GE microwave isn't that much bigger than my old samsung.

the biggest surprise is that the microwave turntable plates have the same diameter, despite the ovens being different sizes (0.8 cubic feet versus 1.1 cubic feet). both have "3RD-06" stamped into the plates as further proof that they're both the same. it's nice that i have a spare but i don't think the plate will break anytime soon.

i also discovered that the GE microwave was manufactured in january 2010, 2-1/2 years ago.

using the plates as a reference, i could see that the GE microwave was in fact bigger. in my old samsung, the plate almost came up to the edge of the door; in the GE there's about an inch of clearance (although not in the back, surprisingly). using my microwaveable steamer container as another reference point, i could also see that a lot of the extra roominess was vertically, which i guess is useful if i'm ever cooking something tall, but i don't imagine that happening very much.

i hadn't been in my community garden for a week (it'd been raining on most days) so i was shocked to find my plot covered in a carpet of fallen mulberries. there were a few unripened berries the last time i was here, but now black berries were everywhere. at first i wanted to scream and yell at the community garden committee for giving me such a crappy plot to work with. i could be a master gardener in the making but when i don't have good material to work with, i can never produce my horticultural masterpieces.

i began by clearing the berries off of the plants. once they begin rotting, they can transfer that decomposition to healthy plants as well. next i did some weeding, as much as i could anyway, squishing the berries in the process, many of which i've already converted to jam by stepping on them. finally i layered a new layer of mulch (i brought a bag of it with me). i thought about postponing the mulching until after most of the berries have fallen, but the salt marsh grass forms a barrier between the fallen berries and dirt; berries on the grass tend to dry up instead of rotting when they come in contact with the soil.

after i mulched my plot looked much nicer, but that might all change the next time i'm here because it could get covered in another layer of mulberries again. i'm glad i wore all black because i could feel the berries landing on my t-shirt and the top of my head while i gardened.

activity-wise, my snapdragons seem to be doing well, and are the only things that provide a bit of color in my otherwise drab garden. so far i only have pinks, but i think i see a white snapdragon plant getting ready to bloom. i'm going to call my milkweed experiment a failure; there are still a few surviving plants, but growing under the shade of the tree they don't do well at all and you couldn't even tell they're milkweeds from looking at them. a few of my golden raspberries have ripened; i was so busy taking their photos i forgot to eat them.

my mother called me just as i left the garden. they were going to the restaurant depot and i expressed an interest in going. on my doorstep was a package from 6pm.com, my order of a pair of converse european ox in black ($25). i don't even remember the last time i bought new shoes.

at the restaurant depot i got a box of plastic gloves (for those times when i'm working on bikes and don't want to get my hands dirty, or possibly for gardening) and checked out prices on clam knives (to take make homemade fried clams). the oyster knives they carried weren't any cheaper than what i could find online so i passed on getting one.

next we went to costco to pick up some additional supplies. late thursday afternoon there was nobody around, the parking lot was mostly empty and so was the store. while we were pushing our cart to the car, we witnessed an automobile accident. the screech drew our attention and the collision happened so fast we still didn't know what happened. 2 cars were approaching the same intersection inside of a parking lot, both going pretty fast. one car cut across the other car which couldn't break in time and hit the cutting car in the rear axle, spinning it 180°. the car that spun was a large SUV, the other car was a sedan with a few children inside. both drivers were women, which made one foreign observer note, "empty parking lot, how could they have an accident? they don't know how to drive!"

finally we went to michael's, which for my mother was the whole reason for this trip. while i went to go return some yarn, she was browsing the knit aisles looking for new yarn. she ended up getting $50 worth of yarn on sale. i bought a mini kacha-kacha with a 50%-off-one-item coupon ($5), which is a bit ironic because i haven't knitted a stitch since this past winter. i'm definitely not at any level yet where i'd need a counting machine to keep track of my rows! but i got one anyway, for the future.

i returned home by 5:45 and was surprised to find LJ already home with the washing machine running a load of her laundry. i ate a homemade pastry that my mother had given me in the car (a croissant stuffed with bits of bacon). later for dinner i made another chicken caesar's salad; i didn't have a reaction this time to the blue cheese dressing sprinkled with additional parmesan cheese.

my neighbor renee knocked on my door this morning and i pretended i wasn't home. she knocked again in the early evening, i ignored her once more. she came back around 9:00 and this time i couldn't pretend anymore. i knew what she wanted: my support in her ongoing feud with our other neighbors jen and franz, to get them to prune a large elm tree through legal means. i'm friends with both (actually, i don't consider renee my friend, more of an annoying neighbor) and don't want to be involved in any sort of feud. she talked my ear off for 15 minutes, all the while i was missing the first quarter of the NBA playoffs. i finally agreed to meet with her arborist on tuesday, just to make her leave.

OKC lost! but barely! one could argue that the botched referee called cost them the game.