it's been so long, i'd almost forgotten that i had started  this whole thing.  but, in my defense, i have been busy.  moved, and everyone knows that it can be a tiring, maddening, frustrating experience, even in the best of times, but in the middle of winter it is probably the worst thing anyone can do, especially when it all takes place in less than a month, from the finding to the actual move.  and then there's the unpacking and organizing and trying to make everything feel like home.  for the most part, it's all done with, with the exception of placing a few bits and finding room for the little, homey touches.  nerves are returning to normal and paltry things no longer turn into full-on shouting matches.  not to say there aren't those moments, but, in the long run, the urge to kill someone slips onto the back burner to more readily cool off.  and it just gives me an excuse to go outside and have a cigarette...yeah, found out after we moved in there's no smoking in the house.  but it's turned into a good thing since i've cut back to maybe a half-dozen a day.  don't really think i'll actually quit (i don't have that kind of will-power) and we'll have to see what happens when the weather gets nicer and i don't freeze my ass off for a puff or two; when i can take my laptop, sit in the yard and relax. thank god for wi-fi.                                                                                                                                           been spending some time on-line looking into the kinds of plants i want to put in.  very nice that the landlord doesn't really care if i putz around and plant some flowers and veggies.  don't want to go overboard because my back will let me know when enough is enough, and everything will be up to me.  plus, i don't want to spend a lot of money since i don't know what the end-result will be.  my luck with plants is not always very good.  though i did plant some basil one year and it practically turned into a hedge with leaves the size of dinner plates.  however, my tomatoes never fruited and my cucumbers looked like green golf balls, lterally round with inverted dimples...green, bumpy golfballs..very weird.  oh, and with a nipple at one end, or on one side...whatever.  but it all seems to be quite pointless as the snow keeps coming, the cold hangs on and winter just won't go away.  spring starts in two days, so we can only hope...                                                 there's been so much to rant about, but it's all so much the same-old-same-old.  sheriff clark continues his campaign of fear; can only imagine he's revving up for a run for mayor.  would like to think he's got a snowballs-chance-in-hell, but some of what he says plays well in the oh-so-white suburbs, but barrett pretty much has the city vote and, believe me, the city is not a bastian of the tea party and that's who clark plays to.  gun regulation (i refuse to continue calling it gun control) seems to be so all over the board, depending on where you live in the country, one can only hope the saner, more logical minds prevail and pay attention to the support given to most reforms being presented with the numbers being expressed in the polls that indicate a majority of the u.s. saying thing have to be done.  of course, the nra will only listen to the echoes inside their own empty little heads, poring more money into and behind their WE"RE THE ONLY ONES WHO ARE RIGHT philosophies.                                                                                                                                   on the more optimistic front, rob portman and hillary both came out on the side of gay marriage, and the polls show a majority polled have said the same.  rob was criticized for doing it "for selfish reasons" and wouldn't have changed his mind if his son hadn't come out.  sure, he's selfish for loving his son and wanting nothing less for his son than he would want for himself.  his statement was well-said and touching.  but, selfish?  only changed his mind because the topic hit close to home?  maybe, but sometimes that's the only time some things change...when the issue lands smack-dab in your own back yard and you actually have to come face to face with it, instead of standing behind some holier-than-thou barrier and playing to the crowd for the votes and the money.                                                                                                                                   so, there we have it.  thought you could get rid of me??  fat chance!!  speaking my mind does run in the family, although i may not be as up front about it as SOME PEOPLE I KNOW.  but, like it or not, even if they soften A BIT...the rant will go on.  and so will the search for just the right things to plant.  hmmm.....i DO like geraniums....