Newest obsession

One of my projects lately has had me out in the garden taking pictures to document the progress of my veggies, fruit and herbs. I've been very surprised at just how well they're doing. The tomatoes are getting bigger every day, I'm always finding new cucumbers on the vines, and some of my strawberries are just about ready to be picked. But that's not why I'm posting here, I've got a whole other blog for that.

No, photographing flowers/plants/etc is my newest obsession. I took a picture a few days ago of this amazing flower that is now happily blooming along my front yard. (Check out my profile picture or this blog entry for more details.) What I discovered in that picture was a need to replicate the amazing success I had with that one picture. Yes, I'm aware that it was probably just a flash in the pan (found out what that means in Williamsburg!!), but that doesn't make me any less determined to find a way to repeat it. So, I've been roaming the yard, armed with my trusty Canon PowerShot SD1000, looking at the blooms that have popped up in the last few weeks. Oh yeah, and discovering that I want a much better camera for my birthday. ;)

I have to admit, some of these pictures turned out pretty nice. I really love the first one, because it's presence was a complete surprise in our yard. I'm not even sure what it is - it's this amazing three-tiered lily that just popped up amongst the vinca that we're trying to eradicate. I like the second shot too, because Taylor and I had just watered these flowers and you can see the droplets clinging to the petals.

So what do you think? Should I continue to take more pictures or should I direct my energies elsewhere? I know, I know, that mountain of laundry ain't gettin' any smaller...

My first tomato!

To be honest, I was really beginning to worry about my tomato plant. It was becoming quite the monstrosity; it had grown nearly five feet tall, and was threatening to overtake my spinach, carrots and cucumbers (until I pruned it, that is). It also had any number of beautiful flowers, but they were all dropping without so much as a hint of things to come. But just as I thought all hope was lost, there it was - my very first little tomato!! I was so excited that I actually ran inside to get my kids to show them the tiny thing (and to grab my camera, hence the picture). I even called my mother to share in the good news. You called your mom when you discovered your first tomato, didn't you?

So the question now is: What do I name it? It needs a name. Not a boring name, like "Bob" or "Tomato #1". It needs something with flair, character... Any suggestions?

Field trip madness

I am currently sitting on a charter bus with 40 4th graders (there's another bus following us) on our way to Williamsburg and Jamestown. The kids are generally well-behaved (must be the parents strategically located around the bus), but VERY loud. Taylor has actually been very good; I'm hopeful that will continue all day.

It's a little crazy that I actually volunteered for this, but I think it will be a lot of fun today. Well, the weather is terrible, but I'm excited about where we're going. I'm such a history nerd, and I'm really looking forward to sharing some of my knowledge with Tay and her classmates.

Just wish me luck in staying sane (such as it is)!

Never forgotten

We visited Grandma and Granddaddy yesterday, and they've been in my thoughts all day today. I can't think of a better place for them to rest than Arlington National Cemetery, especially as it affords us the opportunity to visit often. They, along with the countless men and women who have served and sacrificed for our country, have earned a place of honor. I, for one, will be forever grateful and will never forget.

 

I've died and gone to caloric heaven...

I had some (all too brief) free time this afternoon before I had to pick up the kids, so I decided to fit in a long overdue haircut. As I'm walking to the salon, I see a cute little cafe table outside a new store next to the salon, where three young ladies were chittering over cupcakes. My interest piqued, I wandered inside.

Lo and behold, I had come upon a place a glory - a cupcake heaven placed conveniently next door to my favorite salon! And what's more, there were adorable cake stands nearly overflowing with cupcakes of all the colors of the rainbow! Oh, it was a beautiful thing to behold. Let me tell you, it was really hard not to order one on the spot. But, my common sense actually kicked in (for once) and I decided to wait until after my haircut.

*fast forward 40 minutes*

Back in the delightful confines of Cupcakes Actually, I had an extremely difficult time deciding what to order. I finally decided on one of their signature "actually dipped" cupcakes - dreamy, light and fluffy peanut butter frosting dipped in rich fudge and then placed like a pillow from the gods upon an amazingly moist chocolate devil's food cupcake. Oh, and I got a cupcake for the hubby (flourless chocolate cake with vanilla bean frosting - yum!).

I'm not sure how, but the cupcakes actually managed to make it all the way home and into the fridge without being devoured. (At this point, you should all be applauding me for my incredible restraint. Seriously, I deserve a medal or something.) In order to avoid upsetting the wee beasties (aka the children), hubby and I waited until they were in bed before breaking out the cupcake goodness.

And oh, what goodness it was.

Seriously, if I could bake like this, I'd quit my job and open a cupcake boutique too. These things were AMAZING. They were definitely the best cupcakes I've ever had, and as my hips can attest, I've had quite a few cupcakes in my time. If you do not stop what you are doing, get in your car or hop on a plane and get yourself out to Fairfax Corner for some of these cupcakes, you will never forgive yourself. I may never forgive you. They are that good.

So now, I just have to hope that my job, my school, my hubby and my children all keep me busy enough to keep me away from Cupcakes Actually. Otherwise, I might soon find that I cannot fit through doors and I certainly won't fit into my suits for work. I will work on reinforcing my willpower and keep to this promise: I will only go out to Cupcakes Actually for major celebrations.

I just finished this post - it's cause for celebration!! Who's up for cupcakes??

;)

Cox Cable is terrible!!!

I've been trying to talk to my mother for the last half hour, as I know that I won't get a chance to speak with her tomorrow for Mother's Day (too much going on between visitors, lacrosse double-header and a term paper that's due). Unfortunately, she now has digital phone (they switched to one of those horrible bundle things for their cable/phone), and we were cut off FOUR TIMES. I got a tip-off each time because her voice would become digitally garbled, and then the call would drop. It happened twice while talking to her on my VoIP phone (started to think it was me!), then two more times on my cell phone. It took several minutes between calls just to stop getting her busy signal so that my call could go through. The final call lasted less than 30 seconds before it cut us off again (garbled voice upon pick-up until cut-off). Apparently my Aunt June is having similar difficulties with her recent bundled service (Mom and June both live in Tucson).

Rant for today: Cox Cable digital phone service is worthless and should not be used - EVER!

Our newest experiment!

I know I haven't posted in awhile, but we've been busy around here! I finally had a few seconds and wanted to post an update on one of our biggest projects yet: a fruit/veggie garden!

After tearing up more vinca (vines) than I thought possible, we built a 4'x4'x2' raised garden bed. I've been working for almost 2 weeks to fill it with compost (LeafGro) and topsoil, along with a layer of terracotta pot shards (Mom's suggestion). Last week, while Taylor was on spring break, we finished filling the bed and started planting our crops. We started with two rows of butterhead lettuce, three rows of spinach (which, in hind sight, was spaced too close together, so I'll have to thin it eventually) and bordered off an area with marigolds. (A friend recommended per her mother that marigolds were good companions for tomatoes, so I took her advice.)

Last weekend, Cameron and Taylor helped me to plant some mint (already established), cilantro, basil and parsley in smaller pots. I didn't want them to overgrow the plants in the bed, so I decided that pots were a better idea.

Yesterday I purchased an established "Better Boy" tomato plant, two cucumber plants, three strawberry plants and two spiral posts. The tomato plant was placed in the area bordered by the marigolds and a spiral post was placed as a support for the tomatoes to climb. The cucumbers were placed in the left corners of the bed (I'll need to go buy more spirals for them as they grow). The strawberry plants were placed in a separate pot (about 18-20" in diameter) next to our neighbor's fence. It's at the kids' height and I thought they'd enjoy "helping" them grow. Finally, the second spiral post was placed halfway between the tomato plant and one of the cucumber plants; I've got some green bean seeds soaking overnight and we'll plant them tomorrow. (The spirals were only $5 and look much nicer than the wire cages that were $15/each!)

Finally, I tilled the ground around the garden bed and mixed in some more topsoil and LeafGro, then Taylor helped me throw out some wildflower seeds. (The seeds came from a package called "Bring Home the Butterflies" and the wide variety of flowers is designed to host butterflies at all stages of life. I thought it would be something for the kids to enjoy.) I finished off with some mulch around the edges of the garden bed to hide the newspaper that we had put down before we started filling the bed with soil.

Today, Cameron helped plant three short rows of carrots in addition to watering the entire garden. He was a terrific helper, and he is really excited about our project.

Whew! As you can see, we've been pretty busy around here. We're really looking forward to watching our garden grow and truly enjoy the "fruits" of our labor! I'll try to keep posting the details of our project so that we have a record of what we did in case we want to try this again next year. I've posted a link to some pictures that I've taken during the process (mostly just the beginning and the end!). I'll also keep taking pictures and will update the album as I can.

Wish us luck!

Garden Bed

Post-Inaugural Ball exhaustion

We didn't get back from the GWU Inaugural Ball last night until around 1am, and William and Thomas (our friends from AZ) didn't leave for the airport until 2:30am, but here I am at 8:15am updating my blog! I should still be in bed, but the kids have school this morning and Hubby has work, so someone has to be the responsible parent around here and get everyone moving. ;) I'll head back to bed in a minute, but just wanted to get a quick post out about last night. Pictures will be up as soon as I'm feeling more awake.

Our ride into DC was blissfully uneventful. There were more than a few well-dressed guests on the Metro, including an adorable Navy couple that scored tickets to the Commander-in-Chief Ball. (I gave them my email address, so hopefully they'll send me pictures of President Obama's dance with Michelle!) Once we got off the Metro, we hailed a cab to our pre-selected restaurant of the evening, Napoleon. The service was ok, but the food was fabulous! My Coq au Vin was divine, and the appetizers we ordered (Apple & Brie Crepe Chips and Croque Monsieur) were perfect matches for each other. Honestly, I think that I had a better time at dinner with Hubby and friends, having a great conversation over great food, than I did at the Ball!

The big reason that the Ball wasn't such a hit was the fact that they waaaaaay oversold the event. I read somewhere that there were 5200 attendees expected, and for all I know, there may have been more. You could barely move in most places; the coat checks were crowded (though we managed to get in and out quickly due to our exquisite planning!) and the ballrooms (several were reserved for our event) were so packed that you could not move for several minutes in any direction. There were far too many overprimped and inappropriately dressed young co-eds, though as Hubby mentioned, the painfully skewed male-to-female ratio made the evening more visually enjoyable for him (grumble!). We also felt like the old fogies of the night, as at least 80% of the crowd consisted of undergrads. It really was a prom-like atmosphere. I did manage to bump into two girls from my grad program, so the evening wasn't a complete wash. Hubby and I also got to do some dancing (if swaying in a cattle car is dancing) in the ballroom with the "swing" band. The dance floors were way too small, the areas set aside for food were way too big, and there was no place to sit down. And not only did we have a heck of a time finding the bar, drinks were $8 each! Even my tiny water bottle was overpriced at $2.

Still, it was fun to dress up with friends and have a night out, and at least I can say that I got to go to one of the many inaugural balls for the 44th President. I'm glad I did it, but unless I can score tickets to one of the "official" balls with the A-list performers and guests, I don't think I'll be going to another ball any time soon.

Merry (belated) Christmas, everyone!

Yes, I'm a slacker. I have long since accepted this about myself, so it really should come as no surprise that it's taken me until 27 December to post my "Merry Christmas!" blog entry. Besides, we're still receiving (and mailing, but that's another story) packages filled with Christmas goodies, so I figure it's okay to prolong the merriment. Ho ho ho, dangit!

Our Christmas was filled with orange frosty rolls (a family tradition), stockings and presents piled so high you could barely see the Christmas trees. Yes, that's plural - we found the glowy, fiber-optic tree that Hubby and K#1 had in Houston oh-so-many years ago. We needed it for all of the ornaments we had, and we still ended up hanging some of them on the garland around the fireplace mantle and on the wall next to the big tree in the living room. Note to self for next year: find a way to pare down the ornaments, or discover a new and creative way to display them.

Pretty much everyone got what they wanted this year, even me - I got lots of fabulous yoga and pilates equipment for my morning workouts (and a promise from Hubby to get up and work out with me!), a gift card to Williams-Sonoma (which I'll spend on Monday, my CWS day), some books and a new TV to replace the one that has been slowly dying in my bedroom. Hooray for new technology!

I hope that everyone out there had a wonderful Christmas, though it appears that folks on Oahu had a bit of a bumpy holiday. What I think is funny is that the media only now finds this phenomenon a big deal since the President-Elect is staying in HI for the holidays. As anyone who has lived on Oahu in the last 5-10 years can tell you, power outages aren't exactly rare. I seem to recall scheduling time every third Sunday to be out of the house and doing something at the park or the beach since we knew that the power would go out at home. Oh, and the major outage after that earthquake - that was great fun. Ice cream for breakfast, being jealous of our neighbors for having the foresight to have a gas stove to cook bacon and eggs... Yeah, lots of fun.

Anyways: Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Happy Kwanzaa, or whatever else you celebrate - hope you had/have a great time!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Things I am thankful for this 27 November 2008: the world's greatest husband (who never complains when I have class or need to work late or travel); three adorable kids (who I love even when they make me crazy and leave Legos out for me to step on); extended family; amazing co-workers; my health, such as it is; the opportunity to attend grad school in Washington, DC; the batch of Joy the Baker's pumpkin pie bars that should be on their way back from Dayton at this very moment; fabulous friends all over the world; positive political change; crackling fires and hot chocolate; good books; Thanksgiving leftovers (which I won't get until Saturday!); one successful year in a job I love; tickets to GWU's Inaugural Ball; pancake breakfasts with my children every weekend; my newly discovered theme song; and the chance to keep on truckin' every day.

And here's a shout-out to Liz, who is thousands of miles from a homemade turkey feast (though at least she's in Germany, where the good beer floweth): I'm going to try and send a batch of these cookies your way. Not sure how, but I'll figure that out later. Hopefully Customs will let them through...

*Special thanks to Deb over at the Smitten Kitchen, whose recipes continually inspire me to try new things (and whose blog post gave me the inspiration for this entry)!