We went on a mission today. No, not to go steal more rocks. I wanted cilantro seedlings, and desperately needed some Round-up. Our subdivision's homeowner association decided in its infinite wisdom that it will not run the sprinklers at all this year, in an effort to keep down costs. That means the dandelion population got way out of control, and now they're sprouting up in my flower beds.

They're probably skimping a bit on landscaping too, because the lawn should be cut twice a week this time of year, but they're letting it go to seed. Maintenance costs have soared the past couple of years, and people are really complaining about it. I don't see how letting the lawns go to seed and brown out before the dog days of summer even hit is going to help keep up property values any better than cutting services and increasing fees will. They can't even collect recyclables more than once a week, and then have the nerve to yell at us the commie bins are overflowing.

Basically, anyone who has a garden will now have to water it by hand. Ladies and gentlemen, start your hoses. Even the sedum's wilting, but the termite contractors may have something to do with that. They destroyed a bed of lilies of the valley and most of my bee balm.

We're supposed to get t-storms this evening; it's already muggy enough for it.

Hmm--a friend just IMed me that Peaches Pacione is trying to get her in trouble with the MySpace TOS police for posting her own book's cover art, the the TOS police fell for it and sent her a threatening note about it. Sheesh. Rule number one of being on the police squad is "find out whether the person making the complaint about someone else is career crank before taking them at their word. In this case, he is. Peaches is well known for harassing authors. In fact, he's infamous for harrassing anyone who thinks his writing sucks, regardless of whether they are actually competitors of his. He posts his own cover art and banners all over the internet, then rats on another author for doing jsut that--there's no copyright violation whatsoever involved.

So Peaches, if you're reading this--you're a schmuck. I'd have a lot worse things to say to you, but this blog is read by several god-fearing Christians, who really don't need to be subjected to sailor-speak.