What I did on my vacation.

The benefit of selling your soul and most of your waking hours to a corporation like Giganto Research and Healthcare, Inc. is that you, eventually, accrue almost enough vacation time to feel like a human being for part of the year.

I just took two and a half weeks of vacation time. Getting it was surprisingly easy; all I had to do was widen my eyes slightly and mutter about evisceration, and my various bosses gave in and signed off.

So: I had two and a half weeks off. What did I do?

I got a new bed. King-sized, which means Mongo and the cats and I can all sleep comfortably at the same time, and so can The Boyfiend, when he's here. It's amazing how much difference those few inches make. Yes, it's a pain in the ass to change the sheets, and yes, I'll have to go to the laundromat to wash the comforter, but believe me: TOTALLY WORTH IT.

I got the mattress and box springs from Wink on the basis of reviews and their 101-day test period. The mattress is a hybrid--that means it has both memory foam (which I hate) and springs (which can be problematic in terms of motion transfer), combined in some highly-technological way.

My previous mattress was a Sealy Posturpedic metal-frame deal with a pillowtop. The only way in which that mattress was better than this one was in the sag when you sit on the edge. This mattress has some sort of plastic framing that allows you to use it with an adjustable foundation, but it sags a bit if you sit *right* on the edge.

Other than that, this mattress is TITS. I lie down, I turn over twice, I know nothing until the morning. They've somehow managed to combine springs so that it doesn't feel like memory foam and memory foam so the whole thing doesn't shake when Mongo turns over. Yes, it cost hinty-bazillion dollars, but every half-cent of those dollars was worth it.

I cleared two or three years' worth of weeds and dead shit and mulch and crappy low-end weedblocking cloth out of my front beds, then dug in several hundred pounds of composted manure, then re-weed-blocked it, planted things, and laid down mulch.

That alone took me two of those weeks. I have two beds, one 9 x 13 and one 9 x 11, and they hadn't had any attention in a couple of years. (Don't ask me what happened; I don't remember. All I know is I got a nastygram from the city about my weeds and kind of gave up after that.)

Now I have several dwarf yaupon hollies, something grey with purple flowers and the common Latin name "vomica," and a selection of other perennials growing in those beds. There are more plants coming, things like lavender and pentstemon and salvia and honeysuckle. I even planted a rose bush to balance the rose bush I planted when I moved in here. It's all very nice.

And I hung three dozen miniature mirrored disco balls in cascades on either side of my porch.

And I planted herbs in pots and then put tiny, brilliantly-colored plastic dinosaurs in the pots. (Did I mention that I spray-painted the pots' rims different colors? Well, I did, and it looks like Pinterest barfed on my porch.) Oh, and today I built a brick pad with antique bricks I dug out of the back yard so I'd have a dry, stable place to put the trash cans.

Gardening Fever has me by the throat now, so of course I have to build a TARDIS for the yard (a YARDIS) and hang mirrors off the trees and get a bird bath at some point.

Monday I go back to work. Apparently we have a new intern; she has a degree in English lit, which is good.

And I have two weeks off in July, which I will be spending in Seattle, which is better.