How is it Sunday again already?

No, really. Last week kind of flew by.

The torts are absolutely loving their new home, and I still haven’t even made it as awesome as I have plans for. And they’re so happy with the plants I put in there for them (spider plants, aloe, and a few other things that the research I found on tortoise care sites said were fine for them). They’ve been eating less given food lately, because they love the plants so much. Poor plants… I’m going to have to get two or three times the amount of what I put in there, so I can switch out every few weeks and let the chewed-upon ones recover!

Monday I went to Mojo for lunch, and then Jenn and I went to go see our friend Bill. Then we came back for Mojo for snacks and more whiskey. Have I ever mentioned why I like going to Mojo so much? I mean, besides the most excellent whiskey selection? Old times Gainesvillians will remember that they’re in the location that used to be The Sovereign Restaurant. When I was growing up, it was by far the most ritzy place in town… which meant of course that I could never afford to go there. It was the kind of place that the rich kids went, where the girls who shunned me in High School got to go for dinner on prom night. Historically, the building is an old livery stable and carriage house from back in the day, when downtown Gainesville was the only part of Gainesville. I tell ya, the light on that beautiful wooden floor gets me every. single. time.

Tuesday I came into town to meet my friend Susan for lunch at her favorite restaurant (maybe one day I can get her to go to Mojo’s with me). I also took a quick walk around the loop of the Oaks Mall, and man, the more that place changes the more it stays the same. Does anyone go to the mall any more? Is it no longer “the cool thing”? Because – and granted, it was lunchtime on a Tuesday – that place was empty af.

I acquired a new gadget this week, one of my two Amazon Prime Day purchases (the other being a Fire TV stick which along with changing my Verizon phone plan to unlimited data is finally letting us see some of the movies and series that y’all have been telling me forever that I need to watch … at least on less cloudy evenings, when I can get a signal. My kingdom for some damn hard-wired internet! But that’s a rant for another time.). ANYWAY. My point is that I got a little gadget that’s an adjustable light and phone holder, so I can use it to help me take some crafting videos that I haven’t been able to take because I can’t hold my phone and craft at the same time. My Patrons over on Patreon will get a little taste later today of how those videos are going to go.

Thursday and Friday were a pretty good blur of work; I got a lot done, making up for taking Monday and Tuesday off. So much work that I kept forgetting to go to the grocery store to get stuff for dinner, which means we ate a lot of pasta last week. I’ve been trying to make smart food choices, like bringing more salads into our meal plan, but… that means remembering to go to the store, eh? It’s just that when I’m in a good groove, working… I don’t want to take time to change clothes, go run errands, come home, put everything away, and change back into clay-covered clothes. I just want to keep working.

Yesterday Tim brought in what he’s pretty sure will be the last of the kale from his garden. He’s been doing nutrient-rich cover crops this year in part of his garden, to get the soil (or as we call it, “sand”) (because it is) ready for actually growing something next year… at which point he’ll do cover crops again, in a different area, so that he can practice crop rotation. Anyway, the tortoises don’t care about that, they just care about fresh food. NOM. I’ve tried giving them spinach, lettuce, and collard greens, but they only really like kale. And spider plants.