tougher than mosquitos

alyfromcali needs to move back to dc. i miss that girl. i even miss my mom calling her "cali" the whole time we were all together, as if that's all the identification she needs.

oh! speaking of identification, my co-shakespearian-conspirator (a.k.a. rosie) secured his domain name and the site's up and running, so for cool fight choreography, random geek knowledge (his blog's there too), or just to confirm his existence and kill some time, check him out @ http://www.arthurrowan.com/ (he's also just cast in a production of beauty and the beast that sounds like it'll be major drama).

so me+grims took the weekend off, which we really needed after dealing with the house and then partying hard with alyfromcali, plus our second trip to royal palace- sorry i didn't call jake, this time it was his co-workers. different group dynamic.
but now i know how the rumour of chinese food and brazilian strippers came to be- apparently you can ask @ the bar for a menu and order chinese, which they deliver to you in the strip club. and after speaking to more girls this time, i can confirm the brazilian-ness of at least 3. i also now know that the chick with the different-coloured-light-up-heels goes by "sexy", and is rather, and has a sister who also works there (brazilians). my favourite (tiny asian chick with braces) goes by mercedes, the white girl with a black girl's body is nicolette, and the other brazilian chick we liked is selena. this time i got to spend more time chatting with the girls, which was great, and we sat @ the main stage, which gave us the righteous viewing spot. i still didn't get chinese for dinner, but now i know how. a good time was had by all (i think the girls like grims).
but after a hectic coupla weeks we took the weekend off together, which hasn't been possible in far too long, so the house is finally fully put back together. i feel kinda bad that alyfromcali didn't see it @ its best, but it was comfy and we had everything we needed while she was here. my goal is to have the housewarming before we reach the 3year mark living in it, and maybe she'll be all moved back here by then...

so after our weekend off, yesterday i took it upon myself to build, dig, lay, and plant the second garden box- now as a stage carpenter who hasn't carpented in awhile, i was getting worried that my toughgirl status might be in danger, but after moving the entire contents of our house twice for the floors (grims says our tv weighs more than me, soaking wet- and you can take that to mean the weight of wet dreadlocks, the effects of social lubrication, or whatever you come up with for door #3), then spending hours yesterday digging what felt like a grave, i think i might still be hardcore.
i ventured out with my 4 citronella candles- my backyard takes the fact that d.c.'s built on a swamp very seriously, and as such, supplies the appropriate annual mosquito population- and dug a 2'x8' trench, deeper on one end to create a level area for the box itself (which i built with 2"x12", so moving that heavy-ass box around by myself did wonders for my self-esteem). after an uneventful grave-digging (except for the dead baby bird i accidentally shovelled onto my foot, which i think was a present from my neighbour's cat, who apparently has learned rule #1 of living in the 'hood- leave your kill in somebody else's yard) i hefted that garden box into place, and that shit wouldn't go. i then discovered the tree-root from hell, which came from my neighbour's yard (his cat was prob'ly laughing @ me all damn day) and cut straight across the 2 feet i needed to hollow out. this fucking root was 1" in diameter, and tricky- it kept splitting itself into a "y" and going in opposite directions, so it was impossible to pull out. i eventually found a tool to cut that bitch, and got my box in place. of course, the additional digging to find the big-ass root and all its branches, then tracing them back and clipping them took an extra hour-and-a-half, so about halfway through my project, the mosquitos wised up. they were like "fuck this citronella shit! if a puny human can stand it, we can prosper in it!" and i spent the rest of my time outside fighting for my life.
but i got the box in place, laid in the soil, peat moss and manure, mixed that foul mess, and planted my carrots and corn. grims did the first box by himself, and now i understand why there's random carrots growing in places we didn't think had been planted- carrot seeds are smaller than marvin hamlisch's penis. i spilled them everywhere. but i guess it's cool, since you only get one carrot per seed...at least i like carrots (don't tell my mom).

anyway, i just have 1 more garden box to do this weekend (4'x4') and then we lay in the stone walkways around them, and my sexy husband won't have to mow the backyard ever again and i'll have to find other chores for him that require shirt-removal (like washing the car. every day), and i'll have the few veggies i like in abundance (i hope) so i can be in pummpumm-shorts-condition for summer, which appears to be finally remembering d.c.!
other than that i just have to memorise my vagina monologues for the show, get details about the staged reading of shakespeare's timon of athens i'm supposed to be doing, and (edit so i can) post some damn fiction on this blog!
walk good. and watch out- i'm feeling productive...