a wolf angel is not a good angel

Why was someone ringing my doorbell, then knocking at my door, at 11:30 at night? I assume if it’s someone who knew me, they’d have phoned. I don’t really understand, but I can’t see how it can be good.

I live right near a market, and now that it’s nice out I like to walk there and buy overpriced (but fresh) fruit and veggies. I can’t bring myself to buy many of the supremely overpriced flowers, though, since it’s a one shot purchase instead of a regular one, which is why I am planning to head to other markets this week.

But it’s pretty and there are other pretty places to sit in the sun and read and think nearby, and it all smells of flowers.

Oh summer, you are so wonderful and so short.

I got another (hopefully uninteresting to cats) plant. I am debating getting a strawberry plant, too. I didn’t think about it when I bought the place, but top floor and south-facing means I get to plant full-sun plants! (And only full-sun plants. Or shade ones, in the front.)

But what I want to know is, what is this flower?

It sort of closes up a bit at night.

This is the somewhat shy but very pretty (more and better photos coming soon) cat who I see around now and then.

She came for a nice visit today, and I gave her a cat treat.

Yesterday it was sunny and beautiful, and I went to the market to buy groceries and a few herbs. Basil is not available yet, but they had cilantro and oregano and catnip! And others too, of course, but those were the three I ended up buying.

Matilda was — unusually — uninterested in the catnip plant. I held her at it, and nothing. Eventually I pulled off two leaves, and she ate those. Okay, I thought, catnip plant wasn’t an ideal choice, and I put it in the box with lots of other herbs. During the night Matilda started meowing weirdly, and when I looked she was at the back porch, meowing at a (non-stray, but new-to-me) black cat who was sitting on my pillows and my downstairs neighbour’s cat who was again sitting on the top of the door. I went outside and shooed them away. No making my cat crazy!

This morning when I went onto my back porch, I noticed that my herbs had been totally trampled, and hey, where’s the catnip?

There are now a few little baby shoots left, so the plant is still alive. The back porch is the sunny area, but it’s also not possible to keep cats from getting onto it. It will apparently be safe inside, but then it’s not as sunny. It could go on my front balcony, but my front balcony faces north. On the other hand, the seeds I planted there are growing ok, it seems, so far.

I am now on season 3. Season 2 had such good moments, and ended so terribly. I actually saw the ending of season 2 before, but not the good episodes from that season, so no wonder I gave up. Maybe JW wanted to balance out the super depressing ending on Buffy with a wacky ending on Angel? Why does Fred’s accent sound so stupid, when Amy Acker is apparently Texan and should be capable of sounding it? (This vaguely excuses David Boreanaz’s terrible “Irish” accent.) What is up with annoying accents in general, DARLA? What happened to Wesley’s hair — is Angel’s bad-hairness spreading? Why is Daniel Dae Kim not featured in every single episode, when he’s much more interesting than Lindsey was and way more attractive?

Condo meeting next week! This should be exciting. We’re finishing the nasty argument discussion about last year’s work, and discussing sealing the balconies. I’d like to add “meeting scheduling” to the meeting. And I am sure there are a huge list of other things on the agenda. And I will get a sneak peak this weekend, when I and some of the other co-owners (the sane ones, plus me) who conveniently have a majority in the building (50.8, or something, I can’t find my agreement to check) will discuss our game plan for this meeting. Part of which better involve trying not to be too obvious that we pre-agreed about things, especially by doing something silly like publishing that fact on the internet.

Meeting scheduling needs adding because: we had a meeting set for some time late April or early May. I kept the day free. Heard nothing, neither ‘yes it is on’ or ‘no it is cancelled’. It was cancelled. Another one was planned for shortly after. Kept the date free, same thing happened. Kept another day open (Monday next), heard nothing. This time I left a note saying that without one week’s notice, I might not be able to show up. Another person then said the same thing, and hey wouldn’t it suck to organise ANOTHER day? Suddenly, meeting confirmed. This is a fairly typical story. (One of the problems is that one person in the building seems to have moved out. No one is entirely sure. But it’s hard to organise with a missing person. Especially a missing person who has the minutes from the last meeting and never gave them out.)

This time it will be my turn to take minutes, which will at least be something to do during the fights. Especially if I take minutes on my computer. (A minute playing freecell, a minute playing spider . . . )

[1] There’s something about condos having to be new properties. I live in a (divided) co-ownership.

So, I watched the season finale of House and here there be spoilers:

(more…)

I heard that a new neo-opera group were doing some free show here last night (opening for someone else, who I didn’t bother to look up), and, in a stunning departure from my hermit-like ways, I decided to go. The description sounded cool, anyhow, and free, so the worst I could lose was a bit of my time.

So a friend and I are sitting front and centre (last table available, before all the tables disappeared), watching them set up — one of them played a really cool accordion, all glittery, and another played some traditional Chinese instrument which I recall having seen before, in Chinatown in Honolulu, but forget the name of. (The third played guitar.) Other people hand out lyric sheets, which my friend reads.

Then suddenly two people in jeans and holding beer get on the stage. I’m a little startled — this other group is dressed up like they’re in some film noir, and anyways, they’re supposed to be the opening act. But no: the two people in jeans suddenly start singing Verdi. Ah! The other group is two people singing opera. Until the people at the table next to me join in, too.

Liederwolfe are a collective of professional musicians (I think many of them are graduate students at McGill) who bring opera to more public spaces, aka bars. The show was phenomenal, too: I like opera, inasmuch as I am happy to listen to it at any time, but I don’t know very much about it, and don’t really have the chance to hear it performed often — and live performances are, of course, much better than taped. (The other group performed a few songs during the show.) And this will give me a place to start to find opera I like (along with the Coco de Mer album I have and need to listen to again really soon).

I should also start trying to pay more attention to all the things I can do here when I de-hermit.

Matilda, sitting with Alley Cat, my favourite stuffed animal for most of my childhood, on my favourite comfy chair *again*.