July 20, 2011
July 19, 2011
The Mostril Story
For end of the year teacher gifts, I turned the kids loose with sharpies on some white plastic flower pots. The hubby sprayed them with clear coat... They came out cute. It was father's day, and the kids wanted to make one for the hubby. Since this is a big secret surprise, spraying the clear coat on this one fell to me. The application of the clear coat went uneventfully. I left the Father's Day Flower pot in the driveway to cure. I capped the spray can an headed back to the garage, and then it all went south....
Once inside the garage, it made sense to leave the spray can with the other flower pots in case a second coat was deemed necessary. The other pots were set on a rubbermaid lid, balanced on a go kart stand (you can picture a saw horse with a little foam padding across the horizontal part). The riding lawnmower was parked between the garage door and the stand. The regular mower was angled in front of the stand. Beyond that were bikes and trikes and power wheels... you get the picture, its a real garage for a family with a mechanic, mom, and 2 kids...
I stepped over the pushmower to set the paint on the lid beside the pots. I picked up my back foot, promptly tangling it in the pull cord to start the push mower. I had one of those moments of panic where your life flashes in front of your eyes... I had too much momentum to stop, and besides, in that instant, I wasn't thinking "Hey, I'd have to squeeze the lawnmower handle to start it" but rather, if I pull this cord with my foot I'll start the mower and cut my leg off. I toss the spray can near it's intended location and put my hands out to break my fall. My left hand fails miserably at this task, missing all things I could possibly grab on the way down, so I focus in that instant in making contact with my right. Well I did... My right hand catches the very edge of the rubbermaid lid... Except we have to remember, this is balanced on the stand with nothing but light plastic pots holding it down. So the stand acts as a fulcrum, the lid as a see saw, and the pots, spray can, and lid are all catapulted into the air, flying across the garage and tumbling in various locations, and my hand once again is falling.
The stand is getting closer and closer to my face, so I turn my head, and catch myself with my nostril. Well, really the whole side of my face from my pointy teeth/lip area to my brow bone. Then everything stops... I wait for a second, get my bearings, stand up, check my foot (no longer tangled). Breath a few times, collect all the flower pots and things (this time MOVING the lawn mower to put them in their designated location.
For the most part, the story ends there. However, the next day, sitting all alone, I start having a little stinging burning sensation along side my nose... so I announce to the world "My mostril is hurting" and the world replies back with "" and the world responded: "I hate it when my mostrils bruise" and "yeah, bruised mostrils are the worst!"
This, of course, resulted in the need to explain the mostril story. Explaining the mostril story, when don't in person, is accompanied by pantomiming the events and reliving the momentary fear of death... and at least one coworker crying from laughing at me so hard. So, sorry if you need a tissue now... Next time, I'll try to get it on video!
July 16, 2011
A new trend- Salad as Landscaping
When we bought our house, we worried about the neighborhood, the schools, the commute and more. One of the last things I considered was maintaining the landscape! The VERY first thing we did when we closed on this house was dig a trench through the front yard. It was mid december, and there was snow on the ground. Thankfully a close family member just purchased a backhoe, so he hooked us up... Unfortunately, this means that we displaced a lot of landscaping. Did I ever mention that the previous owner was a landscaper?
So for the past year and a half, we've struggled to decide which projects to do next. What makes sense? What can we afford? What will we later destroy in efforts to fix something else? What do we need to put minimal effort into because it will be a while before we can really do it right? Landscaping has mostly fallen into that last category. Hopefully the downstairs bathroom can be our next priority (once we clean up the mess from the current project, that is, demolition of the illegal sun room off the back of the house...)
When we moved in, the hubby and I discussed the garden. I need a garden to feel whole. A garden can be a big commitment, and depending on how it is done, a big expense. Then my mom bought the kids about $20 in seeds that they chose. So we both caved... We dug (by hand) a little plot, planted some stuff straight into the dirt, and nutured what we could until the deer ate up 2/3 of our crops. I also tried to plant a little herb garden behind our roses. The second bag of compost I opened should have been labeled "mulch." It was 1" pieces of bark and wood... It was 10:00 at night, I didn't have the energy to return it, so I decied I'd make it work. I got some sprouts, but within a week, they were gone... At the time, I blamed the dirt, and moved on...
We started with fresh resolve this year, building a better fence with some lumber scraps (and some bought lumber) and some hand me down fencing. We started tomatoes, peppers, cauliflower and broccoli inside at the end of March. When the farmers market opened the first week of may I picked up some more varieties of tomatoes, peppers, and the kids BEGGED for lettuce. How does a mom turn THAT down? But we had a problem... while we enlarged the garden this year, we had plans for every square inch of it... so where to put the lettuce? Well, for a week, it sat in a sunny window in the kitchen. And then it came to us... We bought one more bag of garden soil, filled up the area behind the roses a bit more with nice fresh dirt, and planted those lettuces right in our front flower beds. I dropped some seeds for green looseleaf and swiss chard in as well. We discovered that the dirt probably wasn't the issue last year... as the purchased seedlings dug right in, the sprouts we tried to start from seed would disappear about 2 days after we saw them... critters... The bigger plants didn't seem to attract them, so for now, we'll stick with some already started varieties!
Hopefully we don't get arrested for this front yard implementation. I'm wondering if we can start a new trend instead. Tired of pulling weeds? Lettuces are pretty good for keeping them at bay (or you could just eat your dandelions, they're possibly more nutritious than the domestic leafy greens!) We interspersed some marigolds for pest prevention. Artistically arranged our varieties... It's quite possibly the prettiest part of our landscaping... well... like I said, the rest will have to wait for later!
So for the past year and a half, we've struggled to decide which projects to do next. What makes sense? What can we afford? What will we later destroy in efforts to fix something else? What do we need to put minimal effort into because it will be a while before we can really do it right? Landscaping has mostly fallen into that last category. Hopefully the downstairs bathroom can be our next priority (once we clean up the mess from the current project, that is, demolition of the illegal sun room off the back of the house...)
When we moved in, the hubby and I discussed the garden. I need a garden to feel whole. A garden can be a big commitment, and depending on how it is done, a big expense. Then my mom bought the kids about $20 in seeds that they chose. So we both caved... We dug (by hand) a little plot, planted some stuff straight into the dirt, and nutured what we could until the deer ate up 2/3 of our crops. I also tried to plant a little herb garden behind our roses. The second bag of compost I opened should have been labeled "mulch." It was 1" pieces of bark and wood... It was 10:00 at night, I didn't have the energy to return it, so I decied I'd make it work. I got some sprouts, but within a week, they were gone... At the time, I blamed the dirt, and moved on...
We started with fresh resolve this year, building a better fence with some lumber scraps (and some bought lumber) and some hand me down fencing. We started tomatoes, peppers, cauliflower and broccoli inside at the end of March. When the farmers market opened the first week of may I picked up some more varieties of tomatoes, peppers, and the kids BEGGED for lettuce. How does a mom turn THAT down? But we had a problem... while we enlarged the garden this year, we had plans for every square inch of it... so where to put the lettuce? Well, for a week, it sat in a sunny window in the kitchen. And then it came to us... We bought one more bag of garden soil, filled up the area behind the roses a bit more with nice fresh dirt, and planted those lettuces right in our front flower beds. I dropped some seeds for green looseleaf and swiss chard in as well. We discovered that the dirt probably wasn't the issue last year... as the purchased seedlings dug right in, the sprouts we tried to start from seed would disappear about 2 days after we saw them... critters... The bigger plants didn't seem to attract them, so for now, we'll stick with some already started varieties!
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