Jeremy's week off by the numbers

8 number of days Jeremy was home with us

2 children's science museums visited

1 staple* inserted in Dorian's head to hold it together after a playground mishap

1.5 hours spent in emergency room to get said staple

1 cavern explored

52 degrees F inside the cavern

100 degrees F outside

1 night in a hotel

8 times we went swimming

1 pair of socks for Jeremy finally finished

2 average number of cucumbers picked from the garden each day

4 days, starting today, that Jeremy will be in Chicago on business-- feast or famine, I guess.

* Can you believe it's actually a metal staple with no discernible difference from the kind that holds papers together?! It makes me shudder every time I see it.

Who's busy?

It has been a whirlwind month around here. Jeremy took that second business trip of the year-- I survived. He was a little worse for wear, having lost not only the 3 hours from flying back from the west coast, but also the hour for springing forward.

Sebastian continues to maintain his perfect attendance record, despite going into school at 9:30 last Monday and then calling home sick at 1:30. Of course his teacher thought I was pushing him to get perfect attendance and neglectfully sending him into school sick, but it is all him. He wants that Friendly's gift card at the end of the year. And he didn't have a fever when I dropped him off. I can't control what happens when he's not with me. (I can barely control what happens when he is.)

Thursday we went to Boston to visit Jim, who was an awesome host as usual. I highly recommend his chicken cutlets. Yum! I got some cutie stuff for myself and for the kids for Easter and for someone else over in Berkeley who should look for a package at some point. (But not too soon-- it isn't in the mail yet.)

We got home Saturday night, Sunday I worked, and Monday my cousin Emily and her beau Michael came to visit until Wednesday. It was a nice visit, if rainy, and now I'm trying to get my life back in order.

So far today I have raked out all the flower beds and admired all the buds emerging from the ground, swept the sidewalk, and left all the leaves in piles around the yard waiting to be stuffed into those giant brown bags. (Cross your fingers that they don't blow around too much before I can finish the job after I pick up Sebastian from school.)

And I hope to finish my March Miss Lady sweater which is only a couple of rows from being finished in the body and a couple of rows each for the cap sleeves. I can't wait to be done with that. Then I've been asked to knit a gecko for the store, but when it is done, I think I'll take a little break from knitting. I am really lacking for inspiration and maybe a few weeks off is what I need to get back in the swing of things.

Rainy weekend activities

It is nice to have a rainy weekend every now and again to catch up on things instead of running off to find a spot of sand at the lake. So, did we make good use of our time? I'd say so.

Yesterday, Jeremy and I primed the walls in what was the music room. We did, that is, until we ran out of primer with only 7 square feet to go. Then we went out to lunch and to the grocery store. A brief respite at home and then we were off Chez Flapdoodle for a pizza party to celebrate a variety of things including their refinancing of their house and our friend Henry getting out of the "clam shell" he has been wearing all summer after breaking his spine. Yes, his spine.

Today was spent making banana muffins from some fruit fly magnets, taking a quick trip to the hardware store for more primer, and blocking Dorian's sweater.


All that remains is to sew it up, add a collar, and insert a zipper I have not yet purchased. Details, details.

I also harvested some stubby little carrots. 4 months of growing for that.
And our first eggplant! Yum!

I also went to see Food, Inc. It was okay. But here's the thing. Even though I am all for organic agriculture and try to shop locally as much as possible, that movie was so over the top at some points that I basically left the theater wanting to eat a Mickey D's hamburger just to spite the filmmakers. Whoever was in charge of the score saw fit to have a horror movie soundtrack during portions involving Monsanto or slaughterhouses. We got it already! And any time there was a corporate farm or a corn field depicted, everything was brown and dusty; but if an organic or small farm was on screen, all you could see was green mountain vistas and idyllic red barns. Please. And don't make Stonyfield yogurt out to be some fabulous company whose president is raving about all the tons of pesticides and antibiotics that aren't being used because they are "organic". Well, I have to ask about all the oil that went into both the plastic packaging that went swirling past as the film went through the factory and the trucks that will transport these dairy products across the country.

But enough of that little tirade. If you've been under some sort of rock lately and have no idea about sustainable farming or the horrors of corporate agribusiness, maybe you should see the film, but otherwise I wouldn't waste my time if I were you.

After I came back from the movie, Jeremy and I painted the ceiling in the former music room, and then I broke out a pane in the window simply by painting the frame. And now for the room news: the music room aka Dustin's room is going to be Dorian's room (or miniDust's room). The drumset will go in Sebastian's room. Dorian is excited to have his own room, since he never has, and I think Sebastian will enjoy having a room of his own again.

After dinner, I cut the boys' hair.

And now I have 2 hours to kill until Mad Men...

What happens when Jeremy is gone

The first day (after crying quietly for a few moments) I take the children for a walk to the farmer's market on the off chance that there will be raspberries. We just get a small container to eat on the spot. No jam today. Then we head to the thrift store and buy a Spiderman comic pajama top for Sebastian and a DDR shirt for me. Who cares that it's a child size shirt? It says, "I can't dance without arrows." We go next door to the discount natural foods store where I stock up on such necessities as organic pop tarts, all natural strawberry daiquiri mix, and cheese filled pretzel sticks.

We stop a couple of times on the way home to gossip about the 16 year old pregnant girl down the street and my neighbor who passed away recently. We arrive at home where I leave Dorian unattended for 10 minutes and come back to find this:

The kids have a minor breakdown later when it is discovered that Wipeout has been postponed by the President's press conference. I put them to bed, then somehow don't go to sleep myself until 1am. I did watch Very Young Girls about prostitution in NYC on Netflix Instant and get some knitting done, so it seemed worth it at the time.

The second day we keep ourselves busy by going out to lunch, enjoying the lake despite an obviously emotionally disturbed child terrorizing us, and then going to the library to pick up Dorian's prize and fill out their reading program cards. Sebastian has read 46 books so far and Dorian has read 18 books all by himself. We go home to have a little dinner which Sebastian proclaims seems more like lunch, and I prepare to take the kids with me to knitting night.

I bring what the shop owner calls "cuptails" that I manage to make taste like liquid Jolly Ranchers. I also bring what I hope is enough workbooks and magazines to keep the kids occupied so that I may actually knit. I do manage 10 more rows on my sleeves before the kids start acting up and then Sebastian finds a way to get his finger stuck in a peg hole in the adjustable table. It almost didn't come out, but it did. We cleared out shortly thereafter. Again I put the kids to bed on time, but stay up until 1am. This time I tried to watch Lisa Kudrow's show The Comeback but it just wasn't doing it for me. So I cut it off halfway through the third episode and wasted time online instead.

Two days down, the last day is a lazy one. Well, for the kids anyway. I puttered about the house doing laundry, weeding, and sanding and spackling the spare room. We played some Memory (I kicked their butts) and they watched some AstroBoy. After they went to bed, I watched Birth, a lame "mystery" starring Nicole Kidman that I would not advise anyone watch. But I got more knitting done, so it achieved its purpose.

And now Jeremy is home and life can go back to normal, ie. my falling asleep around 10:30pm.

Coming to fruition

Finally, some of my work is paying off. Last night we had a salad that came entirely from our garden. Granted, like some chintzy restaurants, there was only one cherry tomato for each of us, but damn it, I grew those tomatoes. So that was pretty exciting.

And after making some cowboy cookies with Dorian (yum!) I finished the right front of my summer sweater, making a grand total of 3 finished pieces.

And assuming that my plan works out (which, based on recent experience, it will not) I will be going to knitting circle tonight and getting a solid start on the sleeves. I'm hoping this sweater is flattering; I know it is soft and silky, and I know I like the color. But I'll tell you what, for such a simple looking sweater, it has been kind of annoying to knit. I have to note every fucking row on a slip of paper the entire time. There are no stretches of just mindless knitting. I don't like that one bit. This is the second sweater in a row from this book that I have not loved knitting, the other being the orange baby jacket. When Dorian and I were out yesterday, he chose some yarn for sweaters for himself (yellow) and for Sebastian (charcoal gray) which I plan on designing myself for maximum enjoyment.

The home and garden report

Today's news brought to you by my dirty fingernails and eyeglasses.

It has been raining a lot here. Some might say too much. The only thing I can think of that is good about it is that I never have to water the garden. And lots of things are blooming!

The day lilies:

The rosebush I uncovered last year, and the bachelor buttons Dorian and I planted this year:

The miniature rosebush Christine gave me as a housewarming present last year:


And the copious amounts of grass I cannot seem to keep out of the kitchen garden. It rains so much that I can barely keep on top of mowing the lawn, much less weed. Because I'll tell you what: the kids want to go to the lake and so do I and it sucks to have to waste precious lake time weeding the damn garden. So, after I took this picture, I went back out and spent an hour weeding between rainstorms. The peas are almost finished, so I will be planting another batch soon. There are green tomatoes on all the plants except for Mr. Stripey. The second round of radishes is doing well, and there are baby cucumbers on 2 of the plants. God, that looks shameful!

And, I was a little overly eager in picking this carrot:

Lots of greenery, but not much of a root.

And now we go inside, where Jeremy and I have almost finished the wallpaper stripping and spackling in the music room. Soon, it will be painted and I can get the drum set out of my bedroom.

And because I don't want to leave you with that picture, here is a more pleasant one:

Jam! And lots of it. Last year, I didn't get to make any strawberry jam, so this year I have gone a little nuts. So far I have made

• 2 12oz jars,
• 4 8oz jars,
• and 4 4oz jars of strawberry rhubarb jam
• 8 8oz jars of strawberry jam

All of which required 5 lbs of sugar. Yum! That should last us until blueberry season at least. We now return you to your regularly scheduled web surfing.

The pictures you should have had for the last post

zucchini blossom

azaleas

moon and stars watermelons

peas!

the sweater so far

(pinker than real life)

and a bonus shot of Sebastian's goofy outfit of the day. Sporty!

The post that should have pictures but doesn't

My aching back is a testament to all the things I've been doing but not documenting here lately.

I've gotten a lot done in the yard/garden in the past few days. Everything edible is planted, including my "Moon and Stars" watermelons which for some reason I thought were small melons, but, if the picture is to be believed, are actually ginormously long melons. (They get their name from the distinctive yellow markings on the rind that look like, you guessed it, a moon and stars.) I also purchased a couple more perennials for the bed out front-- poppies and coral bells. And the azaleas that I got for my birthday from my mother-in-law also went out front along the fence. Fence + shrubbery = more privacy. Oh, who am I kidding? This corner appears to be the least private spot in town.

I have been trying to get a little more exercise, and so has Jeremy, so Sunday we did a DDR workout which almost turned into a DNR. Then on Monday I did a bunch of gardening and went to exercise class which didn't have a whole lot of the ab action I need and instead crippled my glutes. Today was more gardening and lots of hobbling due to the sore glutes, but at least I had the sense this time to bring a chair to T-ball practice so I wouldn't hurt my back sitting on the lumpy ground. Go me!

I finally got around to cutting open the biggest squash I bought in October today. I have been more than a little afraid of what I would find inside after an autumn and a winter and most of the spring (that's 7 months, people!) of sitting on the floor of my pantry. Would it be rotten? Or just plain old moldy? Neither! Miraculously, it was still fine and smelled as sweet as a cantaloupe. So I baked the bejesus out of it (just in case) and mashed it. Then I made squash biscuits for tonight's dinner and my plan is to use the rest for a pie.

I also got a little more knitting in on my summer sweater. One and a half skeins down, 9.5 to go. I may not be wearing it until fall. Whatever-- it will get done eventually, along with all my other half-finished projects. Big knitted blanket... picnic quilt... wallpaper stripping in the dining room... baby socks for a baby that doesn't exist anyway...

We're ALL crazy

Our garden, Wednesday: Dorian holds an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie in his hand.

Me: Do you guys want to pick some radishes for dinner?

Boys: Yeah!

Me: Dorian, which color do you want to pick?

Dorian: Purple.

Me: Okay. You can pick this one. Sebastian, what color do you want to pick?

Sebastian: Red.

At this point, I look up to see that Dorian has taken a bite out of the radish he just pulled out of the ground and has dirt/mud all over his mouth and chin. He doesn't even like radishes. Did he forget which hand held the cookie? Or is he just nuts?

*********************

Also Wednesday, after a trip to the river wherein Christine's wallet went missing and we feared it stolen.

Sebastian: You know, Dad, we stopped in at the police station on the way home. I bet the police are lining up the suspects now.

No, but how optimistic. Lucky for her, no one has tried to use the cards at all so it seems to just be lost and not in the hands of criminal masterminds.

*********************

Today, approximately 8:50am.

Jeremy volunteered to chaperone Sebastian's field trip to a farm an hour and a half away. He will be driving the minivan loaded with Flapdoodle's son, the boy who skipped school and had to be tracked down by police, and Sebastian. This is the same crew I drove (+Dorian) for their other field trip to the co-op which, shockingly, I did not blog about. This trip resulted in my children, who were riding in the middle seats, being reclined onto the laps of Flapdoodle Junior and the Skipper. This happened during a 5 minute drive.

Having some idea of the insanity he was in for, Jeremy asked Flapman to ride shotgun, but as far as I know Flapman had to back out at the last minute. Keep the man in your thoughts and prayers today, please.

************************

As for me, I have a little new evidence of my own lack of sanity for you. Next Wednesday is the election for new officers for the PTA next year. I will be on the ballot for Treasurer. If I am elected, I will have to go to every meeting. (I already do, but I have had a pretty easy out up until now.)

************************

If you spot any of our lost minds, please return them at your earliest convenience.

Not totally slacking

I know that my percentages on the knitting projects have been completely stagnant, and there hasn't been any info about the picnic quilt or anything else. Things have been quite busy around here what with broken pipes and volunteering and gardening and stripping wallpaper, so the crafting has fallen by the wayside.

But I just couldn't take the fabric draped over my chair in the laundry room, all cut and ready for sewing Dorian's second pair of pants. So the other night I finally bit the bullet and got started. And then Thursday I finally finished them:

That's Dorian's special pose. Ask him to pose for a picture and that's what you get. Go ahead. Try it for yourself.
I know it is hard to see the pattern. You can click on the picture to get a closer look. This time I added a large side pocket. And when Dorian saw it, he decided he needed two. That is not happening. I am done with this project. Done. Check it off the ever-expanding list.
And then yesterday, I just couldn't wait to try one of the radishes. This one is purple, but we also have red and white. I know it is small, but I am impatient. I did get 4 slices out of it so we could all try and it was the juiciest radish I've ever had. And just the right amount of spice.

I also planted the garden on Friday. Here's what we've got growing:

• snow peas
• carrots
• parsley
• basil
• Swiss chard
• pickling cucumbers
• lipstick peppers (red and sweet)
• jet star tomatoes (red)
• Mr. Stripey tomatoes (yellow with pink stripes)
• chocolate cherry tomatoes
• sun gold cherry tomatoes
• green grape tomatoes
• dusky eggplant
• Easter egg radishes
• red and green lettuces

I also planted some mint and some oregano. And there are blooms on the black raspberry canes... Oh, it is so hard to wait...

People are nuts

I'm guessing most of you know that the White House is going to have its own 1100 square foot garden, producing 55 different vegetables. Of course I think this is great. I am jealous of its size, but then I don't need to prepare state dinners, so it is better that I will not have that many perishables on hand. Good for the Obamas.

But this line from the article in the Washington Post just cracks me up:

With the Obamas as role models, it could also be a turning point in their battle to overturn the perception of organic food, farmers markets and gardens as the preserves of the elite.

Because the President of the United States of America is not elite?

Veggies

It was a gloriously sunny day today, and so the seeds were planted! Dorian helped me plant approximately 40 pea vines (maybe there will be enough that I will get to eat some this year), and a row each of radishes and Swiss chard. Dorian is excited for all the different colors of the rainbow chard and for the white radishes from the Easter egg mix. "I think they'll be very yummy and sweet," he says. I hope that means he's actually willing to try them. Then, when Sebastian came home, we planted the carrot seeds. That leaves 5 rows open for all the stuff that has to wait for after the danger of frost has passed.

I can't wait for tomorrow!

And not because Sebastian will go to school all day and then to Chez Flapdoodle all afternoon. And certainly not because I have a meeting about the future of the PTA to go to at lunch time. And definitely not because I have to get up early to go chop up some healthy snacks.

No. I can't wait because tomorrow... tomorrow I get to plant my seeds! In my new big garden!

[cue gospel choir singing "Oh Happy Day"]

I have the rows all ready to go. I have the seeds anxiously awaiting some soil. I have dirt under my nails. And I have a song in my heart.

There will be snow peas, and Swiss chard, and carrots, and Easter egg radishes! And later there will be tomatoes and cucumbers and peppers and melons and pumpkins... and herbs, lots of herbs! (I hope this all works out.)

And after I finished preparing the garden today, I planted my rhubarb and raspberries. I still have the blueberries to plant, maybe also tomorrow.

And while my grubby hands were patting the soil around the rhubarb, the estimate came in the mail for the fence. The cheapest one costs $500 less than the one in the middle, and the most expensive costs 3x what the cheapest one does. So I think I'll go with the cheapest-- the split rail fence. Not just to save $500, but because the slightly more expensive model would have to be painted every year or two, and that sounds like more trouble than it's worth.

This town is full of nuts

I love my house. I really do. And I love that we have a biggish yard. What I don't love is that our yard is right at the corner, totally exposed to any crackpot passing by, or, you know, living across the street. If it isn't one of the TP-less neighbor children begging to come over, then it's the woman who throws all her snow back out into the newly plowed street hollering to me from 50 feet away about my garden.

Well, now I've met a new crazy who is chockful of information he is more than happy to share with me. After a rousing game of "soccer" yesterday, the boys were playing on the ice pile next to the porch while I dug in the garden. I can't help it. The spring fever has me in its deadly grippe. Suddenly, I hear a voice announce something about "little daredevils" and turn to see a guy I can only vaguely describe as a Caucasian male, 16-30, wearing a hat and child-size backpack. We'll call him "Shaun"-- mostly because that is what he later told us his name was.

I sort of smirk and go back to my digging, but he continues to lurk around at the end of my walk, finally asking if I am working on a garden and offering me "tips to grow the perfect garden." I politely demure, and again go back to digging, avoiding the lingering snow piles. At this point, he seems to have gotten the point and walks across the street to the corner where he removes a red lighter from his pocket, drops it in the gutter, and kicks it down the sewer grate. I shake my head, jam the shovel into the dirt, and hear him yell, "Hey! You know your ball is way over here?" "Yes, thank you." The ball was about 5 feet from the sidewalk, still in our yard, minding its own pink swirly business.

I turn my back, dig, and hear the sound of the ball being kicked and hitting the telephone pole support wires in the corner of our yard. I look up to see him running back from the street to put the ball back pretty much where he found it. "I'm putting your ball back here because it blew into the street." I sigh and tell the kids they have 5 minutes left until we go inside, hoping against hope that they will stay where they are and not engage this man-boy in any way.

Ha! They of course hear the 5 minute warning as an invitation to run around the front of the house to roll around on a different ice pile right where the sidewalk should be. I kick the dirt clods off the shovel, lean it against the house, and go around the corner to see Shaun now lingering near the snow. "Dorian, please move away from the street," I call just as he rolls off the snow into the road. Shaun picks him up and deposits him back on the snow and gives the kids various warnings about the many dangers of snow and ice while Dorian yelps excitedly, "The man helped me up, Mama!" and Sebastian says, "Thanks for the advice, sir." "You can call me 'Shaun'-- 'sir' is my father's name."

Then, he starts asking the kids their names. "Where did you get the name 'Dorian'?" I don't know why I said it, because it isn't even true, but I mentioned The Picture of Dorian Gray. He surprises me by asking if my Dorian is two-faced, thereby displaying some knowledge of the story. I told him not yet and gave the kids the one minute warning. Then he asks if I know why Dorian Gray was inhuman. "Why's that?" His answer involved a voodoo woman, among other things, immediately shattering my briefly high opinion of him.

I inform the children the time has come to go inside, and after a cheery goodbye, Shaun vanished as mysteriously as he appeared.

In your face, groundhog!

I'm going to ignore tonight's forecast for "wintry mix" and the upcoming highs in the 30s to declare spring! Or at least mud season. We've got a lot of mud.

You know what else we have? Buds. Little buds emerging from the millions of bulbs Dorian and I planted last fall. I found 20 little red ones and one big green one. The red ones might be tulips and the green one is probably one of Dorian's "purple puffballs." (I should probably have made some sort of notes about where I planted things, but it might not have been so exciting that way.)

We also have had open windows! Fresh air in the house! And some spring cleaning! The workshop is finally sort of organized and, at a minimum, it is possible to walk across the floor which is a huge improvement. The whole house was vacuumed yesterday morning, and then the dining room a second time after a styrofoam fight the boys had. (I'm the one who lost.)

I don't care if it does get cold again. It was just nice to get the cobwebs out of our heads and corners and let a little sunshine in.

CSAgony

The decision I have been dreading has finally arrived, even earlier than I thought it would. I received an email today regarding the CSA we belonged to last year, inviting us to join again.

And I'm afraid we're going to have to say "no", but I feel kind of bad about it. I mostly feel bad because I was certainly one of the farmer's biggest supporters. It was her first year, I thought she was doing a fine job, but some people were giving her grief. I was perpetually reassuring her or telling her how happy we were to get such wonderful food and how excited we were for the new things we were trying. I really did enjoy the experience.

Then we bought our house. And now I have room for a big garden. I won't need all of her vegetables if everything goes according to plan and I have my own. Not to mention that my biggest draw toward that particular farm were the fruits. But they have announced that there will be no peaches, plums or cherries because of how cold January was.

And that's not the only thing that has changed for the worse. Eggs will no longer be included in the share. The discount for members buying extra items has dropped from 15% to 10%. And there isn't going to be the in-town pickup option this year.

So, I think I'm going to have to pass this time around. I'm still committed to buying from them. I will happily frequent their PYO berries and apples. But I'm going to try to strike out on my own this year.

That's news to me

Our 4 year old neighbor came over to play with Dorian yesterday while I finished hoeing the garden. (It's done! Sort of.) As usual, she had no shoes on despite the 39 degree temperature. She fell off our swing and was crying which led to a runny nose. I went inside to get her a tissue so she would stop using her shirt. (No coat either, of course.)

I wiped her nose and she said, "We don't really believe in these tissues. And we don't believe in toilet paper either. That's because we're Jews. I'm a Jew."

Is there something about this in the Torah?

They say pimpin' ain't easy

Well, the hoeing ain't either. That's my future garden up there. I really want to finish digging it before the ground freezes. But it was raining yesterday. And today? Snow flurries. I kid you not.