I'll be out o' my office again this weekend, but maybe this time I will get paid for it!
Our HUGE garage sale is this weekend, and I am ready to put it behind me. There are tons of things I am trying to sell to reduce some clutter around here. If I can and raise enough money for a new sewing machine, then that's a bonus. (Not that mine isn't good, but I'm going to take the same route my darling husband took with our unnecessary tv...sometimes, if you can, it's nice to get something better, if you can, even if you don't really need it. Seeing as our perfectly good old tv is on sale this afternoon at an astronomical price set by said DH, who does not really want to sell it because it is so darn perfectly fine, I don't think he will be arguing my logic on this one.)
Anyhoo...I'll be busy with this most of the weekend, then have a sweet grad party to go to for my cousin, Megan, a new U of I grad & fellow lady with a degree in Psych. Gotta love her for that!
Friday, May 29, 2009
Thursday, May 28, 2009
T-R-O-U-B-L-E
Thanks to Patti, who pointed out the obvious to me on a phone call yesterday. I knew it all along, but she had to confirm it.
Lucy is pretty young for this:
Lucy is pretty young for this:
While I was complaining about Lucy's new mobility (and fondness of it), my computer savvy aunt read me some snippets from a baby developmental website.
This is what they said:
'At about 8 months your baby will probably start trying to pull himself
up to a stand while holding onto furniture.'
She's not even 7 months.
Crap.
This is what they said:
'At about 8 months your baby will probably start trying to pull himself
up to a stand while holding onto furniture.'
She's not even 7 months.
Crap.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
The Gardener
With the warm days finally here, we have quickly resumed our summertime hobby of gardening.
It's the latest cool thing to do to profess your 'greenness', however, we've been at it for years. My dad has had a garden as long as I can remember. My childhood garden was filled with all kinds of goodies we used to pick as kids. Carrots, tomatoes, radishes, pumpkins. We used to pick them and eat them sitting in the backyard (after we rinsed them under the hose, of course).
His father had one too. I don't know what it looked like when my dad was growing up, but when I was a child it was an endless pasture of all things veggie. An enormous patch on the far edge of the lawn. There were things in that garden I would never have known existed, if not for the summer evenings spent out there too. Colorful cabbages, leeks, rhubarb, pickling cucumbers.
Here, our garden has grown considerably in the past three years, at least a 10 foot addition to the patch, and I'd say that's being modest. While we were away, my dad let his passion falter, planting only a few tomatoes and peppers every year. Without the time to invest, or the help tending, it was more of a hassle. Especially when there were not many to enjoy the fruits of his laboring.
Now we are home, the gardener is back, and our garden is full again.
We have beefsteak & cherry tomatoes, banana, jalapeno, & sweet peppers, and two types of cucumbers. Asparagus, green beans, yellow beans, eggplant, spinach, zucchini, yellow squash, sweet corn, celery, and rhubarb. There are raspberries, blackberries, strawberries. This year we added a little herb garden with cilantro, rosemary, basil, chives, and parsley. After this season we've already decided to expand the herb garden and move the strawberries to their own little space, creating a wonderful patch for the kids.
It is a lovely summer hobby, but it is a lot of work. Tilling, planting, weeding, harvesting. Then you have to know what to do with all of the stuff. Sharing, canning, freezing, drying.
As with many things, the benefits are so worth the effort. It's 'green' and you can't get much more local. Gardening is good for your body, both the exercise and the nutrition. It is a family affair, a time when everyone can chip in. It is an opportunity to teach the kids where their food comes from. How to spot the plants, care for them, when to pick them, how to cook them. Our kids help in every step of the process, from planting to eating. They help plant them, pick them, then help to make them into dinner or sauces, jams, & salsas. It's an opportunity to teach them skills they will carry with them forever, from the garden to the kitchen.
I highly recommend giving it a try for your family. Maybe you don't have the space or the lack the energy for something huge like we have. Maybe your kids would laugh and shun the idea. Then start small. Go to Home Depot, buy a pot and a tomato plant. Put it on your patio, or windowsill. See what happens. I guarantee, you'll buy a few more next year, and the year after that you'll be the master of your own salsa recipe. Or perhaps you prefer spaghetti sauces. Trust me, that's what it leads to.
You'll see.
It's the latest cool thing to do to profess your 'greenness', however, we've been at it for years. My dad has had a garden as long as I can remember. My childhood garden was filled with all kinds of goodies we used to pick as kids. Carrots, tomatoes, radishes, pumpkins. We used to pick them and eat them sitting in the backyard (after we rinsed them under the hose, of course).
His father had one too. I don't know what it looked like when my dad was growing up, but when I was a child it was an endless pasture of all things veggie. An enormous patch on the far edge of the lawn. There were things in that garden I would never have known existed, if not for the summer evenings spent out there too. Colorful cabbages, leeks, rhubarb, pickling cucumbers.
Here, our garden has grown considerably in the past three years, at least a 10 foot addition to the patch, and I'd say that's being modest. While we were away, my dad let his passion falter, planting only a few tomatoes and peppers every year. Without the time to invest, or the help tending, it was more of a hassle. Especially when there were not many to enjoy the fruits of his laboring.
Now we are home, the gardener is back, and our garden is full again.
We have beefsteak & cherry tomatoes, banana, jalapeno, & sweet peppers, and two types of cucumbers. Asparagus, green beans, yellow beans, eggplant, spinach, zucchini, yellow squash, sweet corn, celery, and rhubarb. There are raspberries, blackberries, strawberries. This year we added a little herb garden with cilantro, rosemary, basil, chives, and parsley. After this season we've already decided to expand the herb garden and move the strawberries to their own little space, creating a wonderful patch for the kids.
It is a lovely summer hobby, but it is a lot of work. Tilling, planting, weeding, harvesting. Then you have to know what to do with all of the stuff. Sharing, canning, freezing, drying.
As with many things, the benefits are so worth the effort. It's 'green' and you can't get much more local. Gardening is good for your body, both the exercise and the nutrition. It is a family affair, a time when everyone can chip in. It is an opportunity to teach the kids where their food comes from. How to spot the plants, care for them, when to pick them, how to cook them. Our kids help in every step of the process, from planting to eating. They help plant them, pick them, then help to make them into dinner or sauces, jams, & salsas. It's an opportunity to teach them skills they will carry with them forever, from the garden to the kitchen.
I highly recommend giving it a try for your family. Maybe you don't have the space or the lack the energy for something huge like we have. Maybe your kids would laugh and shun the idea. Then start small. Go to Home Depot, buy a pot and a tomato plant. Put it on your patio, or windowsill. See what happens. I guarantee, you'll buy a few more next year, and the year after that you'll be the master of your own salsa recipe. Or perhaps you prefer spaghetti sauces. Trust me, that's what it leads to.
You'll see.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
My Pros & Cons
...of Summer.
1. Warm Weather
Pro: We've been bottled up all winter, we want to get out and enjoy the beautiful warm air.
Con: There are only so many weeks before warm and fresh turns into so hot I can't bear the heat.
3. The Pool
Pro: Swimming in it every day, enjoying it's cool sanctuary on those hot hot days.
Con: Pool maintenance.
5. Summer Activities
Pro: The kids are playing sports and making friends.
Con: Shuttling everyone around to practices and games.
7. The Garden
Pro: Nature's bounty, right in our own back yard.
Con: Try to go back there without bug spray, I dare you.
9. The Grill
Pro: YUM!
Con: We prefer charcoal, so yum takes a bit of work.
1. Warm Weather
Pro: We've been bottled up all winter, we want to get out and enjoy the beautiful warm air.
Con: There are only so many weeks before warm and fresh turns into so hot I can't bear the heat.
2. Playing in the Yard
Pro: Catch, soccer, golf, frisbee, t-ball, football, etc. etc. etc...
Con: As soon as the sun goes down, we must run in the house for fear of being eaten alive by mosquitoes.
Pro: Catch, soccer, golf, frisbee, t-ball, football, etc. etc. etc...
Con: As soon as the sun goes down, we must run in the house for fear of being eaten alive by mosquitoes.
3. The Pool
Pro: Swimming in it every day, enjoying it's cool sanctuary on those hot hot days.
Con: Pool maintenance.
4. Walks at the Forest Preserve
Pro: Good for your mind and body.
Con: More mosquitoes, ticks, and mountains of horse poop.
Pro: Good for your mind and body.
Con: More mosquitoes, ticks, and mountains of horse poop.
5. Summer Activities
Pro: The kids are playing sports and making friends.
Con: Shuttling everyone around to practices and games.
6. Weekend Plans
Pro: Hanging out with family and friends, we can't get enough of it.
Con: Goodbye lazy weekends, as of now they do not exist again until next fall.
Pro: Hanging out with family and friends, we can't get enough of it.
Con: Goodbye lazy weekends, as of now they do not exist again until next fall.
7. The Garden
Pro: Nature's bounty, right in our own back yard.
Con: Try to go back there without bug spray, I dare you.
8. Summer Clothes
Pro: Tanks tops, shorts, dresses & skirts. (love them!)
Con: Bathing suits. (ugh...thanks for sucking the summer fun out of that one this year, Lucy)
Pro: Tanks tops, shorts, dresses & skirts. (love them!)
Con: Bathing suits. (ugh...thanks for sucking the summer fun out of that one this year, Lucy)
9. The Grill
Pro: YUM!
Con: We prefer charcoal, so yum takes a bit of work.
10. Vacations & Day Trips
Pro: Days at the zoo & museums, Summerfest, the Taste, ball games, weeks at the beach, camping, weekend in the Dells.
Con: Remembering to pack everybody's everything.
Pro: Days at the zoo & museums, Summerfest, the Taste, ball games, weeks at the beach, camping, weekend in the Dells.
Con: Remembering to pack everybody's everything.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Glory Days
Turbo and his buddies have been playing softball for a long time. Long over 10 years, and if you factor in HS baseball the number is way closer to 20.
When we first started dating I would sit on the benches with the other lady-friends, watching the guys play, sipping rum & coke out of a McDonald's cup, struggling through the bugs, for a well earned evening at the bar afterward.
We would hang out on those benches and gossip to our hearts content while the guys pummeled the opposing team. The guys would give every at bat their all, run like there was no tomorrow around the bases, heckle the other teams. Afterward we would go together, arm & arm to the bar where we would continue to joke and talk and carry on until someone forced us out. (And then we would just go meet Jack or Joel at the Duck. God knows we never tired of that place.)
As the years have gone by, the guys heckle less and less. They still hit the ball hard, but not everyone runs as fast. Some have quit altogether, some only show on occasion. Us lady-friends, referred to as wives these days, don't go very often at all. The drinking traded for diapering, since the McDonald's cups now belong to our preschoolers.
Last night another wife and I decided to join in for a game. We brought the little guys, 'cause they love playing together just as much as their dads do.
We both couldn't resist the urge to giggle at this years competition. A bunch of scrawny fellows, all wearing their old HS tees. A group of ladies perched on the benches, a few showing in the final inning of the game. Not many over the age of 21. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if they had to raid a liquor cabinet at someone's parents house just to have a post-game brew.
My friend & I laughed at them (couldn't help it since one of our friends is the driving instructor at the HS our competitor went to, and we assume may have taught a good portion of the team to drive fairly recently).
Then we laughed at ourselves for becoming the old ladies of the game, surrounded by kids while our hubbies trotted around the bases. Discussing children's apparel and kindergarten, baby buggies and vacation plans. Long gone are our days of heavy drinking on a weeknight.
It made me wonder if they realize where they are headed.
After our games, we used to tell Jack & Joel we'd always stop in after for a drink, they smiled and said they'd see. When we all married we went in less and less, they said they knew it would happen. When the kids came and we hardly went at all, they said they'd seen it many times before. That it wouldn't be long until we stopped altogether.
They were right. We don't go there at all anymore. Drive by it with fond memories, but nothing more. On those bleachers and in that dirty dark bar we cemented bonds that guaranteed us all a lifetime of friendship. For that we are grateful.
I don't think any of us would trade places and go back. For all of the fun that it was, it was also a time of uncertainty for all of us. A time of reckless youth and nasty hangovers, unnecessary arguments and financial instability.
It was fun, but it's not so bad to be the old farts. The guys still win, even beat these young ones with the parks 10 run rule. Us ladies still gossip, only about kid things. We all still love a stiff drink, but over dinner. We're still great friends, even better than before.
When we first started dating I would sit on the benches with the other lady-friends, watching the guys play, sipping rum & coke out of a McDonald's cup, struggling through the bugs, for a well earned evening at the bar afterward.
We would hang out on those benches and gossip to our hearts content while the guys pummeled the opposing team. The guys would give every at bat their all, run like there was no tomorrow around the bases, heckle the other teams. Afterward we would go together, arm & arm to the bar where we would continue to joke and talk and carry on until someone forced us out. (And then we would just go meet Jack or Joel at the Duck. God knows we never tired of that place.)
As the years have gone by, the guys heckle less and less. They still hit the ball hard, but not everyone runs as fast. Some have quit altogether, some only show on occasion. Us lady-friends, referred to as wives these days, don't go very often at all. The drinking traded for diapering, since the McDonald's cups now belong to our preschoolers.
Last night another wife and I decided to join in for a game. We brought the little guys, 'cause they love playing together just as much as their dads do.
We both couldn't resist the urge to giggle at this years competition. A bunch of scrawny fellows, all wearing their old HS tees. A group of ladies perched on the benches, a few showing in the final inning of the game. Not many over the age of 21. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if they had to raid a liquor cabinet at someone's parents house just to have a post-game brew.
My friend & I laughed at them (couldn't help it since one of our friends is the driving instructor at the HS our competitor went to, and we assume may have taught a good portion of the team to drive fairly recently).
Then we laughed at ourselves for becoming the old ladies of the game, surrounded by kids while our hubbies trotted around the bases. Discussing children's apparel and kindergarten, baby buggies and vacation plans. Long gone are our days of heavy drinking on a weeknight.
It made me wonder if they realize where they are headed.
After our games, we used to tell Jack & Joel we'd always stop in after for a drink, they smiled and said they'd see. When we all married we went in less and less, they said they knew it would happen. When the kids came and we hardly went at all, they said they'd seen it many times before. That it wouldn't be long until we stopped altogether.
They were right. We don't go there at all anymore. Drive by it with fond memories, but nothing more. On those bleachers and in that dirty dark bar we cemented bonds that guaranteed us all a lifetime of friendship. For that we are grateful.
I don't think any of us would trade places and go back. For all of the fun that it was, it was also a time of uncertainty for all of us. A time of reckless youth and nasty hangovers, unnecessary arguments and financial instability.
It was fun, but it's not so bad to be the old farts. The guys still win, even beat these young ones with the parks 10 run rule. Us ladies still gossip, only about kid things. We all still love a stiff drink, but over dinner. We're still great friends, even better than before.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
64 Pricks
Stop yourself...clear your dirty head...then let me proceed with this very wholesome post.
You may or may not know that Turbo has this reoccurring problem with hives. A couple years back after a big day of drinking and shenanigans at Germanfest he broke out with them for the first time. We had no idea what they were from, not a clue why they were there, no inkling of what triggered them. (I suggested too much beer, fun, and assholery, but it turns out I was mistaken as he has had many occasions since that involved all three without a 'breakout'. Damn, really thought I had him there...)
They have remained a mystery to us since then. With no way to identify the triggers, he has become a slave to them, popping Claritin, Benadryl, and any other OTC med that provides relief.
We have speculated on the many different possibilities and all of the things that seem to provoke a huge flare up. However, we never find a pattern. They never seem to follow anything in particular.
So, he finally went to an allergist. Our own doc recommended her after he has tried with no avail on many many visits to diagnose the problem.
After 64 injections of various allergens, we found two that Turbo is allergic to...
Dust mites and DOGS.
Now, I know I can be more diligent about the mites. I looked them up, know where they are, know I will now be purchasing bed covers and washing all pillows and linens in hot water at least once a week(there goes my Thursdays). Maybe now he will even let me get a swanky Dyson to vacuum the floors...
But the dog? We've always had dogs. He's always had dogs.
There is no way we're ditching our pooch, and thankfully Turbo told the allergist that was not an option right away. But he now has to watch his interactions with Otis and other pups. Has to limit the amount of time playing with him, should avoid rolling around the floor with him.
Terrible news for a guy and his big black dog.
Looks like we'll be heading out for some Zyrtec.
You may or may not know that Turbo has this reoccurring problem with hives. A couple years back after a big day of drinking and shenanigans at Germanfest he broke out with them for the first time. We had no idea what they were from, not a clue why they were there, no inkling of what triggered them. (I suggested too much beer, fun, and assholery, but it turns out I was mistaken as he has had many occasions since that involved all three without a 'breakout'. Damn, really thought I had him there...)
They have remained a mystery to us since then. With no way to identify the triggers, he has become a slave to them, popping Claritin, Benadryl, and any other OTC med that provides relief.
We have speculated on the many different possibilities and all of the things that seem to provoke a huge flare up. However, we never find a pattern. They never seem to follow anything in particular.
So, he finally went to an allergist. Our own doc recommended her after he has tried with no avail on many many visits to diagnose the problem.
After 64 injections of various allergens, we found two that Turbo is allergic to...
Dust mites and DOGS.
Now, I know I can be more diligent about the mites. I looked them up, know where they are, know I will now be purchasing bed covers and washing all pillows and linens in hot water at least once a week(there goes my Thursdays). Maybe now he will even let me get a swanky Dyson to vacuum the floors...
But the dog? We've always had dogs. He's always had dogs.
There is no way we're ditching our pooch, and thankfully Turbo told the allergist that was not an option right away. But he now has to watch his interactions with Otis and other pups. Has to limit the amount of time playing with him, should avoid rolling around the floor with him.
Terrible news for a guy and his big black dog.
Looks like we'll be heading out for some Zyrtec.
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