I  drop in on blogs featuring container gardening off and on.  Since we only have a small cement patio the only kind of gardening we can do is the container type (unless I find a community garden near here, which I haven't so far.)  I always look for ideas I can use here.  The pictures on this site are wonderful.  Take a look at these creative uses of old tires.  I can't use this notion but they are fun to look at anyway. 

Laura MacCorkle at crosswalk.com has a nice post about what she has learned from her cats.  I have three myself and believe that mine are working from the same playbook.  I have always had cats (except for a very brief time when I resided in a Navy barracks), sometimes a dog, and once horses.  I can't imagine life without an animal companion.  They do tend to keep you grounded and your mind on the important things: cleaning their box, feeding them, and cuddling them.  It is all about them, after all.

I found this by way of Rain at Rainy Day Thoughts.  Andrew Sullivan  sums up many of the reasons I feel pessimistic at the moment.  I think our windows of opportunity are closing or have already closed.  The people in charge of our government are ill-equipped by both temperament and education to deal with our challenges.  We can't get them out of office soon enough.

 I think this will be a light day.  I am going to have breakfast and then do some piecing on a new quilt.  We did not even turn on the news this morning.  We are so totally fed up with the so called 'veepstakes.'  I have described my self as a news junking but the last couple of weeks have made me feel like I am going through cold turkey withdrawal. I did see on MSNBC that Obama chose Biden to be his running mate.  That was hardly a surprise.  But I am afraid that the conventions over the next two weeks are going to drive any real news off the airwaves.  Forget any reasoned analysis.