We have cement! Also, kitten update

First, the love that should not be named will be impossible by noon: the kittens are at the vet getting their love torn asunder. No Doppleganger Dolls in my house! (And they're not even blond.) I pick them up at 4, where they will come home, be snuggled and loved and fed delicious wet foods. <3 I was a sad cat mom dropping them off with their terrified mreows. :( SOON, MY DARLINGS!! Wah. A necessary evil.

Second, the under-layer of cement is in, dried, and is now being "watered" repeatedly by me. Well, not NOW, now I am typing. ( LOADS - no really - of pics for Day 7 and this morning, Day 8! This is going very fast, yeah? YAY. )

Yesterday I finished up all of the school supply shopping, then bought the girls school clothes. Last to accomplish is getting the boy to wear something that doesn't look like he traded a half-smoked cigarette to a bum for their clothes and shoes for #2 because her feet WON'T STOP GROWING. She's wearing an adult's 9. *cry* One day she'll level out, but it can't come soon enough for me. Or my wallet. One full week and a weekend and they're all in school!! AND I GET THE POOL TO MYSELF, HAHAHAHAHA!

I'm so boring now, sorry. It'll all be over soon, honest! (Oh, and tonight is Jersey Shore! I've needed more material to work with, so after last week, I'm guessing there will be loads to talk about in the morning. And there won't be new pool stuff happening of interest to distract me from what's important: making fun of ridiculous people.)

In other news, dovil and I are planning our epic road trip across the western part of the US, culminating in a drunken 3-days in Las Vegas. YAY SPRING OF 2011! She's pretty much the only person aside from my husband that I can see doing this with. Hikes! Booze! Killing drifters! Drug muling! Oh, the memories we'll share. (And we're taking a convertible, too. IN STYLE, Y'ALL. We're going in style.)

POOL CASUALTY

Oh my god. It's not a person or an animal, IT IS FAR WORSE. They've ripped out my front flower bed - unbeknownst to me - to access the main water valve. IF I HAD KNOWN, I WOULD HAVE SAVED THEM. *cry*

I know it's lame, but I am SHAKING. Like, a huge Texas sundrop, several zebra mallows, all of my meadow sages, a MEMORIAL ROSE you know, to memorialize someone, my tiger lily bulbs, and that's all I can tell by peeking out the window. I can't bear to go out there and look. (It would have been nice to know about them digging there ahead of time so I could have dug up the plants myself and saved them. AUGH. I'll be letting my pool man know I'm frustrated by this. I'm sure other people don't care, so he didn't think to tell me but MY PLANTS ARE MY FRIENDS. *cry again* I know I'm a dork, I KNOW.)

Still. D: First person to make fun of me for crying gets a brown grasshopper in their nose.

Quick update and a massive thank you for the commiseration

I'll sum up since it'll make me sad to go through each comment and say this over and over.

1. Things were ripped out and sitting in our 104 F heat on pavement for who knows how long. So no, most cannot be saved. They burned up/dried out.
2. I WAS able to save the rose, which made my heart feel much better. Someone knew what they were doing and used a pitchfork to get that out, not a spade.
3. They didn't toss everything into a dumpster, so I've soaked the debris pile, hoping to find some of the bulbs (there were over 200 bulbs in the bed) and salvage them.
4. The pool man was horrified, he knows how dear my garden is to me (he wants to HIRE me to help him landscape, for pity's sake) and knowing him, he is giving/has given the guys an ass chewing.
5. Once I figure out the damage, he'll work with me because he is a very nice man (which is what led me to being so upset, I didn't want to think he wouldn't take my feelings into consideration.)

It's just... construction crews work in crazy heat here, they work hard, and they don't care about things like succulents, etc. It's just a plant. I'm not excusing them, I'm explaining them. They tried to stick everything back in the ground, but they're plumbers, they're not gardeners. So. *sigh*

Thank you all so very much for making me not feel like a titty baby for being so upset over some ajuga, phlox, lilies, gayfeathers, stonecrops, firebushes, meadow sage, and I don't even know what else. Oh, all of my bearded irises. And daisies, but those jerks never bloomed so, eh. :) They were the first things I put in my garden when we moved in 6 years ago. I guess this means I get to re-do a flower bed? I'll be okay in the morning. Thanks again, you all are aces in my book. <3