Gardening. And the Litterbox

Even though we live in the treetops of the concrete jungle, it doesn't stop us from scatching an agricultural itch. About 1.5 weeks before Keren left for Israel, we picked up some seeds from the local Walgreens: parsley, basil, dill, and green onions. She thought it would be nice to have some fresh herbs to have on hand, and we get a lot of sun through the South and West windows. Something should be able to grow.

We picked up some "Peat Pellets": little cylindrical blocks of nutrient-rich peat that fit neatly in a little plastic tray. All you do is put the seed in the pellet and add a bit of water. At 50 cents a package, we didn't expect too much. But after two weeks, there's been some activity (see right), even at the high altitude of the 13th floor. The first row at the left are green onions, the next two are basil, then two parsley, and one dill. The dill is clearly out in the lead. There are 2 or 3 shoots that are a couple of inches tall. The basil and green onions also have a couple of tall sprouts, and the parsely is just staring to poke through. All in all, more than we might have expected. In a couple more weeks, they'll need bigger homes.

They don't need a litter box, they don't jump into the sink to poke around in the dirty dishes, and they don't use the bathtub for a litter box (see next paragraph), so they're pretty easy to take care of. Maybe we should give them names too, but we're going to eat them, so we shouldn't get too attatched.

The scroogim have been busy sleeping and playing. Right now, they're sleeping on the scrooge tree. We played pretty hard today with the laser and the various toys have around here, so they need rest.
Something weird did happen this week. I can only imagine how it played out in the offending scrooge's head: 1) have to use litte box, go to litterbox, sniff food bowl on the way to see if food fell from sky into bowl, 2) get to litter box, OCCUPIED (see picture). 3) sit down, wait uncomfortably as other scrooge taunts me by covering up his business for 5 minutes, 4) i can't hold it much longer, other scrooge laughs as I look for another suitable litter box, 5) theory says that humans do the same thing a certain room in the apartment. I'm not sure what happens because they close the door. I refer to prevailing model of the functions of the people litterbox room:


6) Large box at the end of the room looks suspiciously like people-sized litter box with no gravel. BINGO!


I quickly figured out something was amiss when I got home from the work and the stench didn't clear after I emptied the litter box. I have to commend the offending scrooge for choosing that place. It's right next to the real toilet, and NOT the carpet, couch or bed. Whew! They've had two hairballs since they moved in with us: one on the kitchen tile, and one in the bathtub. How polite! I don't know if it's luck or something else. Better than 50% of the aparment is covered, which means that there's less than 12.5% chance that they would hit tile or bathtub three times in a row, if it's completely random and uncorrelated. I will keep you posted on this interesting experiment. A few more hits on the tile, and I'll be forced to conclude that the scroogim are benevolent beings, aware of the anguish caused by "carpet bombs".

More to come on the garden, etc.