Cacti

One of the downsides of moving to California is that I had to get rid of ALL of my houseplants. Total bummer, because I had quite a few of them. However, all that no plant having crap came to an end this week. I found a great seller to buy plants from at the Thursday Night Market in Chico. This week I came home with not one, not two, not three, but FOUR cacti!!! I don't know why in the hell I picked them, I've never been able to care for them properly. If you've never tried to care for a cactus, it's pretty tough. Don't judge or be all hateful until you try it. They're really delicate and are super picky about their pH.

Today, we went down to Chico to do some shopping and I was determined to find new pots for my new prickly friends. It took us going to S E V E N, that's right SEVEN different stores to find pots that were awesome enough for me. Whew, glad that's over! I brought the new pots home and here are the final results...

A view from the top, never to be seen again...since they now live in a giant bay window that's about SEVEN feet taller than I am.

I bought a few different varieties, for color and wishful thinking.

Yay for having plants again!!!

Poison wha?????

Poison oak is our new friend. And by friend, I mean the kind you NEVER want to see, you dread their visit, and basically....wait. Not friend. Not even close to a friend.

ENEMY!!!!!

Yeah, that's what I mean. Poison oak is our new enemy, and it is MISERABLE. Exhibit one:


That's the lower portion of my left leg. This patch is BY FAR the worst that I have. I'm thankful it's on my leg, cause anywhere above my hips and I start to have a SERIOUS melt down. Once, I was completely covered from my feet to my ears (and everywhere in between) with poison ivy and thought I would commit suicide before it went away. Two rounds of steroids, an oral prescription for atarax, two topical ointments and almost four weeks later it all went away. Thank Jebus.

Anyhow, I digress. So, now I have "the enemy" on both of my legs, my stomach, my right wrist, and two places on my back. Lindsay however, is having a hell of a time with it. She had to hike down into the canyon the other day to save one of our dogs who had wondered off, and she is slowly but surely showing new spots everyday. Her newest discovery was this morning, under her boob. YIKES!!!!