Easter?

I don't think it's been much above 35 degrees all day. The tomato plants are covered with plastic bags, and I wrapped the Meyer lemon tree in a sheet. The rest of the plants will have to fend for themselves. If this were say November in New York, I'd think "what a nice rainy cold day to stay inside, eat soup, and read a book." But it's April, and it's Texas. Jesus Christ.

Speaking of which, J., G., and I tried out our gospel trio act in church today. I'm a little unclear on what kind of church it was. It had a name with "Methodist" in it, but their web site says they're adherents of something called "creation theology." They have a big banner on the wall about 12 principles of something, and there seem to be a lot of queer families among their members. Queer in the modern political sense, not in the sense of odd. Nobody there seemed any odder than us.

They were having some sort of children's Easter thing with eggs, and we sang our songs. It was more like a rehearsal for us, one, because nobody was listening, and two, because we weren't very good. (Yes, I'm exaggerating. Two or three people were listening and during "When the Roll is Called Up Yonder" a bunch of little kids danced. And we weren't really that bad, we just need more practice.)

On the way home, it started sleeting. J. said, "If Jesus woke up on a day like today, I think he'd go back to bed for a couple months."

Slow cooking.

I put everything in the slow cooker for the soup, and I spent the afternoon writing. The soup was done when I was done. Oh boy, it was good. With it, J. and I had an organic South African cab (the same wine I used in the soup). Yum. And crusty bread.

Here's what's in the soup. I started with a recipe in Everyday Greens and added stuff:

sauté:
sweet onion
celery

deglaze with:
red wine

add:
a spice blend of toasted cumin, coriander, black pepper, cayenne, and cinnamon
garlic
fresh grated ginger
chick peas
canned diced tomatoes
vegetable stock

simmer till the tomatoes fall apart (a long time)

add and heat through (because they were already cooked):
sweet potatoes
beet greens

and garnish with:
chopped cilantro

I've written about 30 pages, which is roughly the first act. All the characters are in there now, doing what they do. The story is set up; I just have to run with it now.

Freaky weather.

It's downright chilly this morning, and the paper says it's going to get down into the 30s tomorrow. Just a couple days ago, I was sure it was summertime already.

I cooked a big pot of chick peas yesterday thinking I would make hummus, but in honor of the temperature drop I decided to make Moroccan chick pea soup, with garlic, ginger, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, tomatoes, red wine. It's a Greens recipe, and I'm adding some diced, roasted sweet potatoes, and some chopped beet greens. Because they're here and need to be used up.

(I saved some chick peas to make a small batch of hummus -- it was a big pot of chick peas! I know because I put them in a bowl in the fridge to cool, and later when I went to grab something else on the same shelf I snagged the bowl and spilled all the chick peas and liquid onto the floor. I scooped them all up and rinsed them off, but our soup may have a couple cat hairs in it.)

Presto chango.

I just realized that I haven't blogged about my big attitude shift this week.

All this back and forth about the drug studies recently -- first I'm in, then I'm out, first it's $7000, then it's $3500, first it's April and May, then it's not -- making me crazy about my financial straits. For the last couple of weeks I was feeling more and more strung out. I was anxious about my evaporating bank balance, but that stress reproduced asexually and suddenly I was worrying about my writing, about the garden, about Z.

The weekend was bad, I drank too much on Saturday (apparently, though I only had 3 beers), was sick on Sunday.

I hadn't smoked any marijuana for several weeks because, for the drug studies they test for "illicit" drugs as part of the screening process, and pot can stay in your urine for weeks. But Sunday night I said fuck it and I got high. God, I feel better. Ever since, I've been relaxed and cheerful and focused.

So I'll smoke for a few days and then give it up again for a couple weeks before I start looking again for a drug study to take part in. These drug studies are always going on, there are always more of them coming. My financial situation is not going to be any worse two weeks from now, so I might as well relax and make the most of this time I have for myself.

I'm a firm believer in the medicinal use of intoxicants!

Go!

I'm burning through the first draft of my screenplay. As I'd hoped, I had written enough scenes and bits of dialog and done enough pondering and considering so that, once I started putting it into screenplay format, it's all just flowing out onto the page. I've spent several hours every day this week writing -- about 6 pages a day.

The numbers are good too. I have 18 pages written, which is 5 scenes, which averages to 3 pages per scene. In my outline, there are 40 scenes, so that makes about 120 pages, which is just right for a feature screenplay. Of course it's still very, very rough, but to be in the ballpark is encouraging.

Moon & Stars.

I feel much better about the garden.

Z. seems to know everything about horticulture. I haven't known him very long, so it's possible he's a psychopath posing as someone who knows everything about horticulture, but my intuition tells me he's for real.

He told me the small patches of mildew on the cucumber leaves are minor, nothing to worry about. The one soybean plant whose leaves are turning yellow can be doctored by putting some coffee grounds around the base of the plant.

The herbs will be fine when it gets warmer and drier. Basil always gets brown spots on some leaves, they just look worse now because the plants are so small. The beetles on the Meyer lemon are, as I hoped, probably there to eat aphids. At any rate, it doesn't look like they're eating the tree.

And the yellow spots on the watermelon leaves are supposed to be there. I planted an heirloom variety called Moon & Stars which has yellow spots on the inside and outside of the fruit as well as on the leaves. Duh.

Bugs, etc.

All kinds of problems in the garden, most of which I have no idea what to do about. The cucumber and watermelon plants have yellow spots all over the leaves.

My internet research didn't help. I think it's mildew, but I couldn't find any advice on what to do about it, except to do things I'm already doing, like not watering at night. All the herbs seem to be covered with mildew too. The basil is doing especially poorly -- all three varieties look sickly. It's been a little humid and rainy the last couple weeks but no more humid than Indiana where my mom's basil does very well every year.

The Meyer lemon is on the verge of blooming. I noticed some red and black beetles sitting on several of the buds this morning. They're about the size of lady bugs, but they aren't. I also noticed one aphid, so I hope the mystery bugs are there to eat the aphids. J. released some lady bugs in the garden last week, but I didn't see them this morning. I hope they're still around.

Something seems to be eating the leaves of the chile plants -- they have big holes in them -- but they seem to be thriving in spite of it. The jalapeños and Thai chilies have a few blossoms already.

I'm discouraged. Maybe Z. will have some advice for me. If he comes over tonight before it gets dark, he can take a look.