Applefest

We headed out to Westin with a few friends this weekend for Applefest. It was a fun day in a charming little town but it did leave me with a few questions:

• Where were all the apples? There was one vendor selling apple dumpling and that was it for apples. I expected cider and candy apples on sticks and carmel apples, etc. Instead it was mainly craft vendors who sold things I did not need.
• Why and how do people poop in portable toilets. I have trouble peeing in them. But since I'm pregnant and so is the friend I went with we had to use the port-a-pot quite frequently. And there was ALWAYS a big poop in there. Who has to go that badly? And if you do - toss some extra toilet paper over it so everyone doesn't have to check out your leavings.
• Could I really live in a small town? I think the answer is no, but every time I visit I think it would be great to live there.

Oh, to suppliment the lack of apples at "apple"fest I picked up a bottle of Simply Apple at the grocery store. It is quite possibly the best apple juice - EVER.

Beautiful Weekend

This was a weekend of wonderful weather and I tried to make the most of it. Today we took Tallulah to the park to swim and then to "U Wash Puppy" because she was SUPER smelly. I nice combo of fish and dog poop. Yum.
We gave her the bath of her life and then spent 20 min just brushing her out and fighting mats. But we let her air-dry since she HATES to be blow-dried.

Then we came home and Michael got to work on the pergola and I thinned out the zinnias that have over-run the patio. Unfortunately the zinnias irritate my skin. But, that's okay because after a liberal application of lotion I'm in the clear again.

I'm thinking that this evening we'll sit outside, enjoy the backyard and the wonderful weather.

The big Three-Oh

Michael turns 30 tomorrow. Last night we celebrated with a few friends and family and Shawnee Mission Park. I was nervous about the weather at first but it turned out to be fantastic. The view of the lake was breathtaking, there was a campfire with all of it's fragrant goodness, great food and lots of fun as we celebrated Michael's advanced age with a Transformers birthday cake!

I'm so pleased that we managed to pull off a small party for him. 30 is a birthday that should be celebrated.

Hot Hot Heat

Today I dragged Michael out to Lawrence, KS to go look at fabric. And I didn't really have to drag him. He willingly drove over an hour on the hottest day of the year to spend $20.00 on burgers and fries at local burger and then go to Sarah's fabrics so we could scout out fabric for the little bird's room.
I'm shocked that I get him.
I'm also shocked that we found some fabric that we like - for now. We decided to hold off getting anything until September when we find out if we will be bringing home Eleanor or Henry/Finnegan/Oliver/Jonah/Zorro/Beauregard. It was also nice to see what kind of things Michael envisions for the room.
Upon returning home - covered in sweat and utterly exhausted we crawled into bed and took a nap. Aside from a quick trip to the grocery store, I have been unable to do much else. The heat and the growing a person has taken it out of me.
I think I'll wait for it to cool off before asking to be taken on any more excursions.

One of those days

Today I headed downtown to go to the courthouse to figure out the hoopla that is my personal property taxes and then to the DMV so I can renew my tags. Well the DMV is open but the Collection office wasn't and I needed the one prior to the other. So it was a worthless trip downtown. Sigh.
Upon arriving home from my worthless trip I found that our water pressure was all messed up. Seriously we have very little water pressure - and the water department is closed until Monday.
Yep. Good times.

The Roma Has It!

Thanks to everyone who voted on the replacement tomato. I'll search out a good Roma plant today. My mystery heirloom plant is growing like gangbusters. We put up the tomato cages last week and I think it likes it. The Green Zebra is still looking puney, but I think if I wasn't comparing it to heirloom it would be fine.
Rabbits have been invading and eating my swiss chard. It is strange to go out there one day and see lots of leaves and the next its been nibbled down to the stalks. I'm not too worried though, they seem to be leaving everything else alone and the chances of getting Michael to eat Chard was slim at best. The lettuce is getting huge, so we will be eating lots of salad. The crookneck squash and zucchini have put out little blossom nodes, so in a few weeks we will have squash. Oh, and there are tiny carrot sprouts! I just tossed some carrot seeds in the empty spaces in the garden and they have taken off. Now I regret not planting them in rows - oh well, live and learn.

planted

The garden bed has been planted! Tomatoes (Green Zebra and Mystery), Peppers (Orange Bell and Little Sweet Reds), Rainbow Chard, Lettuce (Buttercrunch and Red Leaf), Zucchini, Yellow Cookneck Squash, Cucumbers, Basil, and Carrots. I plan on planting some Green Beans and Sugar Pumpkins once we build the little wall for the back raised bed. Hopefully next weekend.
We also planted flowers in the 3 front pots and the 2 small back pots. I've got one more to plant that currently has last years lavender - which to my surprise came back. The rosemary that shared the pot unfortunately did not.

The weekend of 1/2 projects.

We started lots of projects this weekend and finished none of them. Here is a sample:

• We laid 1/2 a yard of sod. 35 rolls = less than 1/2 of our tiny yard.
• I made 1/2 a bag. Well actually I cut out and assembled it then realized that I was doing it all wrong - and had to tear it all back out and start again.
• I also realized that the last 30 rows on the wrap dress I've been working on for weeks were totally wrong. So I had to rip that back out too.
• We cleaned about half the house and then decided we were too tired/lazy to finish.
• I also bought lots of plants, but then didn't actually plant them. The sun porch is now a greenhouse.
  

I'm just hoping that sometime this week we can finish all of these projects.

Graden Bed #1

There are 5 garden beds planned for our little backyard. Today we planted the first one. I'm tired, sunburned and really pleased with how it turned out.

Michael, laying the ground work.

Holes dug and plants placed.

FINISHED!!

It only took ALL DAY to get this done.
It will look so much better when there is grass.

Close up of the plants. We have 3 Hydrangeas, 2 Peonies, 6 blue-green Hastas, 1 veragated Hosta, 2 Columbines and 1 Minnesota Faux Orange tree. Whew!

Making Cornish Pasties

I've wanted to make Cornish Pasties for a long time now. So on this snowy February day, while Michael paints in the basement I decided to make some. I used the recipe out of Cooking: A Commonsense Guide, a British cookbook that is about as straight forward as it gets. (I really recommend this cookbook, aside from having to convert the measurements it is a great tool with wonderful and easy to follow recipes.)
They turned out great and I have big plans for the next batch. Really anything wrapped in dough has to be good. Plus they are a great lunch box food!

Check out my tutorial and make your own.

dog tired

This was a big weekend for Tallulah. On Friday we headed over to our friend's Nick and Kelly's where Tallulah ran around with their dog Justice. Justice is a very calm and mild mannered dog, but they still had some good running around and playtime. And then Nick started playing with Tallulah which made Justice mad, I could tell she was thinking "Keep your grubby paws away from my man!" It was a really fun night.
Then today since it was finally warmed (YEAH) we decided to go to Shawnee Mission dog park. It was a nice, though muddy hike for us and some great really muddy running around for Tallulah. She was FILTHY. Then we came home and the park across the street was packed with dogs so she went and ran around there before coming in for a much needed bath.
This is one tired dog. I wish our camera was working because she is awfully cute right now.

beets

For Christmas I received the Deceptively Delicious cookbook and last night I pureed a bunch a veggies for a weeks worth of health meals. It was messy, especially the beets. They are so magnificently red - staining my hands and the counter top magenta. Plus they smell bad. Michael says it made our kitchen smell like Russian Peasants lived there. And it did.
This morning I set about to make Pink Pancakes (with beets). The beets turned the mix a violent shade of hot pink and no matter how much cinnamon and apple was added to the mix it still smelled like dirt (and not good fresh dirt). The first pancake was still gooey after it had cooked for 5 min so I tossed it and started again. The second appeared to be cooked through so I sprinkled it with powdered sugar and a little syrup and took a bite of the brilliant pink pancake.
And spit it right back out.
Normally I can go ahead and swallow down one bite of about anything, but this was so terrible. Just awful.
When I made Brussels Sprouts a few weeks ago (which I loved by the way) Michael made the comment that some foods are eaten because there is no other option. That people ate Brussels Sprouts because the didn't have corn or other veggies that taste good. After the Beet Pancakes and think that he is on to something. I know they are highly nutritious and they probably kept many a peasant family alive, but they will not be sustaining this family.

My Dance, Dance, Revolation is:

That DDR is not my strong suit.
Last night we had a bunch of Michael's friends over for some DDR and hanging out. I was terrible at the dance, but then everyone who knows me expects that - this girl has no rhythm.
Or feet eye coordination for that matter. But it was fun.
People stayed over until midnight which is just crazy, but really lots of fun.

And they said it couldn't be done.

We finally cleaned the guest room!

That's right...it's clean...and awesome.

The furniture has been rearranged and the room looks much bigger. We also rearranged the office, cleaned and reordered the basement and cleaned the garage. All in all we cleared out about a dozen bags and boxes of things to take to the Goodwill and filled 2 giant trash bags. Whoo!

I feel so much better with the house clean and de-cluttered. And I sit and drink my hot chocolate in my freshly cleaned office I'm finally feeling Christmas-y. Clearly all it took was to finish the guest room project.

whilst iced in i

- made the first of several Christmas presents
- knit a flapperish hat for myself out of yarn I purchased in Liberty 5+ years ago
- watched The Golden Compass, The TV Set and Stranger Than Fiction
- made tostadas for the first time
- finally figured out how to knit with double pointed needles
- gave up on making a baby blanket
- stayed in bed until noon with my family
- ate orange cinnamon rolls...and toasted marshmallows
- cleaned the bathroom with gingerbread scented cleaner
- enjoyed the quite and the stillness (even for just a moment)

Another weekend over

And I managed to procrastinate my way out cleaning the guest room. It is the one room in the house which I hate to clean - and the room that looks the best once I break down and do it. The problem with the quest room is it has become the room where I dump everything that I don't want in the rest of the house. Don't know what to do with the electric blanket that we don't need since we added the electric mattress pad? Toss it in the guest room. What about the teapot that we don't use? Guest room. All of our clothes before they are iorned and hung up? That's what the guest room bed is for of course!
Sigh.
I will have to clean it up soon - with the holidays coming we may actually have a guest and they will need to be able to find the bed.

The rest of the house looks great though. I borrowed my parent's Dyson and let me tell you that thing works. I am disgusted by how well it works. Tallulah, I love you but we were sold a false bill of goods. "Non-shedding" dog my Aunt Fanny. It's a good thing she is so cute.

Home Again, Again

This time its home to my little yellow house.
No matter how lovely the trip, or nice the company, finally walking through your own door is delightful. I'm a Cancer - a home body and this body couldn't be happier to be heading to her own shower and bed.

Tallulah About Town

I took Tallulah with me to the Farmers Market this morning. We walked around, picked up some tomatoes (one yellow and one green zebra), a tiny melon, a patty-pan squash, some purple potatoes, a head of garlic and some organic, grass fed beef. Quite the haul. Lula was great. Walking around with me, sitting when I asked her to (for the most part), and being sweet and letting people pet her. She was barked at once by a big dog and she barked at a puppy once. Then all was well. We walked around a lot and by the end of our walk she was walking on the leash like a pro. I think we will continue this for the rest of the summer.

Where has Morgan gone?

She's been busy reading Harry Potter.
Lots of Harry Potter.
And if she wasn't sharing the book with her husband she would be finished.
Of course she did go ahead and read the epilogue and last 4 chapters first, but that is besides the point.

(she's also been knitting and playing katamari damacy. good times!)

My day off

In honor of my recent promotion I decided to take the day off. I wanted a day to myself where I could just get some things done that I have wanted to do for awhile but never seem to find the time. So here's the run down. (Updates throughout the day!)

7:15am - I'm up. Why am I up? I could be sleeping-in but apparently my body is ready to get on with the day.

8:00am - After a breakfast of waffles and taking time to empty the dishwasher and make the bed I surf the web looking for a hat pattern to knit with my leftover Cotton Ease Yarn for nearly an hour while listening to Radio Lab's episode on "Memory and Forgetting".

9:00am - Pull out the pieces of the quilt top I started nearly 2 years ago and finish the top up. So the quilt top is finished and it is pinned to the batting and the backing. Then I got nervous about the actual quilting and rolled it up and put it back in the closet where it might live for the next 2 years.

10:00am - Went to the basement to tackel the mold issue, but after about 5 min decided that was a less then fun way to spend my day. So I drove to Sonic for a giant Dr. Pepper and then headed to Brookside to look for a nice spray bottle. It doesn't exist. But I still wandered around The (New) Dime Store for quite a while taking in all the interesting items and buying some sliders to put on the legs of the ottoman Michael and I will be building this weekend and a little notebook with an accordion file to hold my coupons - in a stylish way.

11:15am - Ran through Wendy's for chicken nuggets and then headed to Angelo's Nursery for some plants to liven up the front garden.

11:30am - Set the flowers out and realized that I needed more! So I packed Tallulah into the car and headed back to Angelo's where I picked up some more beautiful plants.

11:45am - Planted the pots on the front porch and set out the rest of the plants and started digging! Tallulah hung out in the shade of the big elms while I toiled in the sun.

1:00pm - Realized that it is silly to be planting in the garden in the sun and if I just wait an hour the area will be in the shade.

2:00pm - Went to grocery store for strawberries, bananas and swiss rolls.

3:00pm - Started digging and planting. Lots of digging. Very messy, muddy digging.

4:00pm - Tried to water the plants and clean up but Tallulah decided to run right through all the freshly planted flowers, breaking the stems of many of them.

5:00pm - Exhausted, drug myself into the shower and then proceeded to take a small nap before getting ready to go out to dinner with the extended Amick-Brownfield family.

7:00 - 10:30pm - Super long dinner.

10:30pm - Crash into sleep.