"With respect to the theological view of the question. This is always painful to me. I am bewildered. I had no intention to write atheistically. But I own that I cannot see as plainly as others do, and as I should wish to do, evidence of design and beneficence on all sides of us. There seems to me too much misery in the world. I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidae with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars, or that a cat should play with mice."
--Charles Darwin, Letters

"TV is chewing gum for the eyes."
--Frank Lloyd Wright, architect (1867-1959)

My eyes are chewing gum more than I would like, mostly art or nature-related programs and "The Weakest Link" or "Jeopardy." I should try to chew more of the healthier, outdoor stuff. Mmm Frisbee.

I'm not sleeping as much as I would like. Can't seem to stay asleep for longer than 3 hours after I take Ambien >:[ Grr, I must be developing the dreaded tolerance to the sleep drug. Tired as usual.

I went to 2 pet supply stores and OSH today at Hilltop. The resident squirrel's back and has been depleting the bird food supply too quickly, so I decided to get some squirrel specific feeders and food to distract it. I also restocked on birdseed, yogurt drops for the bunnies, and hay. At OSH, I got two potted plants, and lucky me, came across the parts I needed to fix the toilet flushing problem while walking/browsing every single aisle of the store. My eyes like to chew a lot of things and my legs don't complain ;)

Oh, I almost forgot. I got praying mantis eggs to help me combat the on-going territory dispute with the aphids. With the ants' help, the aphids are almost indestructible and reproduce so fast!! Efficient creatures. The mantis eggs are supposed to hatch within 2 weeks and baby mantises (?) are going to start crawling all over the place :) Reminds me of the little mishap I had in Japan... at least this time the eggs are going to hatch outside, not into the living room :P OSH sold units of 1500 ladybugs/packet too, but last time they all just flew away, so I decided to try something else.

Once back at the apartment, I made and ate dinner (rice with sauteed spinach and mushrooms), then set about putting up the new feeders and refilling the others. I like how the balcony looks after I strung up the lanterns Mom got me. Gives the place a nice warm glow at night.

With the help of Mom, Chu, and Aiko, my jungle/ junkyard of a room back home is slowly getting cleaned and transferred over to Richmond, poor Lyle. He transported the boxes from Cupertino to here yesterday. I am so grateful and thankful for the help.

Hurrmph. I've been wanting to draw/paint more lately (but haven't) and I've been meaning to clean/ organize the loft (but haven't). Now would be a good time to do something about that.