Our house is surrounded by a chain link fence.  This is not nearly as attractive as it sounds.  I give it a scowl every morning when I look out the kitchen window.  I should be thankful because it keeps Asa contained in the backyard, but I have not reached that level of enlightenment.  Chain Link Enlightenment.  (Comes right after you achieve Barred Window Enlightenment.)  Twice a year the links out the kitchen window are obscured by a beautiful flowering bush in the neighbor’s yard.  I tried to take a picture, but the iPhone camera doesn’t do justice to the hundreds of little yellow flowers.  They’re a little boost of happiness every time I catch sight of them.

So I have a plan for the chain link.  It involves bamboo.  When we were at the garden store two weeks ago, they were selling rolls of cut bamboo that you could attach to a chain link fence.  Meditative Zen garden, here I come.  Of course, the pre-made rolls were wildly expensive.  I figured I could make my own.  So the last time we were at the zoo, I acquired some bamboo.  (No pandas were harmed.)  I put the small shoots in my purse and forgot about them for two days.  Then I put them in a glass in the front window — and watched them wilt over the next two days.  So now my plan is to buy a bit of bamboo and grow it for harvesting.  You hear stories about bamboo taking over people’s yards and forcing them out of their houses — as if it were kudzu or something.  And, of course, it is an invasive, non-native species.  But I’m going to keep it carefully contained.  I swear.

I could go on forever about my thrifty home improvement ideas, but Asa wants to play fire fighter and I need to turn my full attention to deciding which furniture is burning.

Run at Eisenhower Park tonight at 5:30 and Willies afterwards if you’re in town.  No drop — from either place.

Food log: