wake up a bit hung over from a friend's 40th birthday party. get gas, coffee, and cigarettes and head back to maryland. work long enough to check my mail. head to the elementary school to vote.

i am unsatisfied with the presidential candidates, but i gleefully punched in my votes for local officials -- i feel that they do more for me and how i live within my community. i am still wearing my "I voted" sticker.

so now i work from home (and write this to take a break). i am anxious about the elections -- it's a close one this year. i will be watching the returns.
i am running out of room for my plants -- at home i don't get a lot of good light so i have an area with a grow light. i will be rooting some wandering jew cuttings in water and planting them as a ground cover in a big planted pot with a dracanea (dragon tree). the dracanea is very leggy and i will try air layering some of the long branches as well as directly cutting and rooting others. i want to train a jade plant for bonsai, but i am having difficulty finding information about how to properly prune this specific plant. i still haven't identified my cactus. it did not grow for so long and recently had a growth spurt after being moved to appropriate light -- so i don't know if it is a misshapen barrel type cactus or a small column type cactus. i would like to cut the top healthy green portion off to propagate it, but until i know the genus i don't know if this would be successful.

being fall/winter, all the plants are growing fairly slowly. it's just as well, i can learn more about pruning them before spring comes.
hopefully my apartment will be painted today. there is a lot of work being done on the apartment, a new roof is in the works now, i may have new windows (i heard from the handyman that many people have complained about the windows and that about 90% of the complex will get new ones), and soon i will hear if i am to get new carpet. i hope i get new everything. rent just went up to $1100. a price i would expect to pay for a brand new three bedroom instead of a ten year old two bedroom.

i desperately want a place where i can paint the walls and put up crown moulding and build in shelves... put down the floor tiles and counter-tops i want. ugh. apartment renter's frustration.