More Vermont

A few more pictures from our trip:

Our tent
It's a 4-person tent, but Jason, Rachel and I slept in there with me and Rachel on a queen-size air mattress. To add to the posh camping experience with the zen garden-fountained bathroom.

Jason is not so much about the mornings
The dew on the picnic bench showed us we had a little animal friend visit during the night.
Autumn is just starting to appear in Vermont.

Vermont

My first year of college I went to Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont. I wish I had liked the school more because I loved Vermont. Maybe sophomore year would have been better, but for better or worse, I wound up finishing at the University of Arizona. This past weekend was a giant Vermont flashback for me, starting with getting out of the car right after crossing the border from New Hampshire and commenting, "It SMELLS like Vermont." (Most people who have spent a lot of time in Vermont would ask, "It smelled like cow poo...?" No, it smelled like pine and woodsiness. Cow poo is also a very Vermonty smell, though.)

We went up to Smuggler's Notch State Park to camp and hike. If you're looking to ease your way into the whole camping experience, I highly recommend Smuggler's Notch. There are real bathrooms, one of which has a shower, an electrical outlet, potted plants AND a zen rock fountain. Poshest camping ever. I mean, we still slept in our sleeping bags in a tent, but having real bathrooms makes a lot of difference when you're talking about "roughing it".

We arrived Friday night and Jason grilled us up some steak tips on his camp stove. I must say, the camp stove is a brilliant invention. You just hook up a little propane canister and you're good to go. Over the course of the weekend we made steak, pancakes (Jason is in awe of Bisquick mix and pour), tacos and pasta on the stove.

Saturday we planned to climbed Camel's Hump. Which we did, though it was kind of a painful experience for me. You can read all about it at my other blog, but suffice it to say, my lung capacity was not up to snuff after getting bronchitis a few weeks ago. I felt extremely frustrated, but what could I do?

Jason got some nice pictures.

Our goal, the Camel's Hump
Me and Rachel heading up
Scrambling over rocks to get to the summit
The summit

As Jason noted, it was windy and cold at the top
Looking toward the White Mountains in New Hampshire
After the hike we headed back to the campsite and stopped to get gas. As we pulled into the gas station, I noticed a sign for "Creamees" and completely freaked out. When I was at Middlebury, there was a little market at the bottom of the hill below campus that sold Creamees seasonally. Basically they are giant soft serve ice cream cones, with optional sprinkles. I was not disappointed by the gas station Creamees! I got vanilla with rainbow sprinkles in homage to my standard Middlebury fare. The small I got was so big that I can't even imagine how big the large is. Monday morning on the way out of town we stopped there again and this time I got maple soft serve. So. Good.

Sunday everyone else climbed Mount Mansfield and I drove up the toll road to meet them. There is still a mile to the summit past the parking lot and I planned to hike it with them, but my new boots had given me a blister and the other shoes I had with me offered limited traction and no ankle support. I scrambled over a few rocks and made it about halfway to the summit and then I called it a day. Since I hadn't climbed the rest of the mountain I wasn't too put out.

Mount Mansfield actually has some Arctic tundra
The guys on Mount Mansfield's Forehead
Before I pooped out walking to the summit at the Chin
The trail they took down. Jason said it was pretty brutal, but the views were great
Back at camp
Everyone else had an awesome time hiking and I'm glad they did. I had fun camping and enjoyed my little drive around the Vermont countryside by myself on Sunday morning. I stopped at a local farm to pick up some firewood that the farmer was selling more cheaply than the state park and we had a roaring fire.

Smuggler's Notch is near the town of Stowe, which is very cutesy. Someday I would like to go back with some people who maybe would like to take a day to roam through the town, rather than hike all day long. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the hiking. But I also enjoy exploring cute little towns.

All in all it was a fun weekend, and today my thighs still feel a little bit like they might fall off. If I feel this way after a 6 mile hike, it's no wonder Jason is hobbling around stooped over like he's 95 years old after hiking 14 miles.

Suit

I bought a custom-made suit yesterday. I bought the cheapest one they sell, but it was still more than I've ever paid for a suit before. However, after several years of squishing my hips into pencil skirts and being completely limited in my options because my top and bottom are 2 different sizes and most stores don't even sell separates and if they do, they have like 3 options, I thought this might be a good move. I'm supposed to be a polished professional and it's hard to relay that when I never really feel like I look that good in a suit.

Thankfully, my office is business casual so I don't have to dress in a suit every day. If I did, I probably would have gone the custom route ages ago. I do have to wear a suit if I'm going to meet a client or on the extremely rare occasions that I go to court. Right now I have one, ill-fitting suit, that, frankly, is starting to look kind of raggedy.

My boss uses the custom clothier and so I decided to talk to the salesman about options. When I told him my issue with my waist being about 10 inches smaller than my hips, he immediately said they have A-line skirts. A miracle!

In addition to needing to look good for our clients, I need to look good for the boss. He's kind of into clothes and appearances and I know he wants me to look a certain way and project a certain image for the firm. Generally I think I pull myself together pretty well, but I know I need to look sharp.

So those are all my rationalizations. I'll let you know in 4-6 weeks how it all comes out.

Recipes

I made some new recipes this past weekend, taking full advantage of my farm share squash, eggplant and tomatoes. Here are the results:

Friday Night: Garlicky Squash Fritters
Saturday Morning: Vegetable Frittata
Sunday Night: Eggplant and Feta Rolls

(I need to get better about taking pictures of the things I make. I don't really want to commit to pictures until I actually taste the thing and know that it's good. But then, the food is gone and there are no pictures. Vicious circle.)

Feeling Domestic

- Yesterday I bought a flat of imperfect tomatoes from Farmer John of the Farm Share. I will be using home-canned diced tomatoes this winter!

(I know my Farm Share updates have petered off. Jason has the little camera in Florida right now, so no pictures this week. Yesterday's bounty included kale, summer squash, 2 pounds of tomatoes, onions and garlic. I'm going to really miss my fresh zucchini and summer squash when the season is over.)

- This morning I couldn't sleep past 6:30 so I got up and watered all the herbs and tomatoes, and set up my one indoor tomato plant with a tomato stand in the planter. I was going to forego nurturing the indoor tomatoes this year because since there was no sun in June and July, the plant isn't even flowering yet. But when I told Jason my plan he looked sad and said he really liked having fresh tomatoes in January. Well, ok, then.

- Tomorrow I will be cleaning out my closet, my desk and the under bed area of the guest room. Main goals include consolidating, throwing away a lot of junk, and getting rid of superfluous shoes that hurt my feet because my feet are so messed up that I should really just wear sneakers all the time. If you know me in real life and wear a size 8 in heels, I may have some shoes for you.

- My head is bursting with homemade Christmas gift ideas. Um, I probably should have started making all of them in January...

Autumn Is Coming...

I am so excited about the prospect of Autumn! (I prefer Autumn to Fall, don't you? More old-timey and romantic, I guess) I think I write a post every year that is effectively an Ode to Autumn. But seriously, it's the best.

Today is a beautiful late-summer day, but I can already tell by the changing light that Autumn is on its way. The leaves on the bushes near our house are starting to change from dark green to brilliant red. I noticed their edges turning last week.

I'm getting that nesting, hunkering down for the season feeling. Jason is out of town for a few days and I am determined to clean up my desk and clean out the space under the spare room bed while he's gone.

I can't wait for Autumn! Apple picking! Crisp chilly evenings! Fires in the fireplace! Beautiful changing leaves! Cozy sweaters! Cinnamon and clove-spiced foods! Pumpkins! Butternut squash! Breaking out the fall-scented candles!

Our house perpetually smells like spiced pumpkins or similar during Autumn. We have a candle problem. What are the odds that I would marry a guy whose candle addiction is worse than mine?

Yes, I know, winter follows. But, actually, it's not SO bad. I love the Christmas season. I love being inside all cozy during blizzards. I admit, I start getting a little frustrated with it all during March and April. Growing up in Arizona, I learned that it starts getting warm again in February. Not so much in Providence. However, next April we're going to Hawaii for a week so that should help a bit with the winter depression.

I'm looking forward to the remaining weeks of warm weather, but I can't deny that I'm excitedly anticipating Autumn.

Young Women

*FYI, Mormon-lingo heavy post to follow*

This morning when I was getting ready for church, I thought to myself, You know, I really like working with the kids in the Primary, but it would be really neat to work with the Young Women.

You can see where this is going, right?

In the middle of Primary, the bishop called me and Jason into his office and asked if I would be one of the counselors in the Young Women's presidency. I actually laughed out loud and told him I think someone already told me about it this morning. I'm not supposed to be sustained until next Sunday, but I think everyone who would read this knows about it by now.

I'm not sure which counselor I am. Our Young Women's group is so small that everyone is combined into one class and I think everyone just kind of pitches in with all the girls, rather than there being strict divisions among Beehives, MiaMaids and Laurels.

I am sad to leave the Primary. As discouraging as it can be when I don't feel like I'm getting through to the kids, it has also had its really fun and funny and heartening moments, and I've made some great friends. I'm glad we have our ladies craft night because I'll still get to see everyone to chat every week.

I am excited and intimidated by this new calling. I want to be good for these girls. I don't really know any of them, except for one who just graduated from Primary. I know that as concerned as I have been about the challenges facing the little kids in Primary, those challenges are greater by a factor of 100 for the girls in junior high and high school. All of the girls are from families whose economic situations can best be described as struggling. All of them go to Rhode Island public schools, which are widely recognized as pretty dismal. Many of them have parents who aren't very interested in their lives. Our bishop considers it a great victory when we can get one of the girls through high school without getting pregnant.

I remember so vividly those Young Women's leaders who I loved. Who seemed to understand the girls and connect with all of us as not just a leader, but also as a friend. I hope I can be that type of person in their lives.

The Young Women's president and I are already pretty good friends, so I'm looking forward to talking and planning with her and figuring things out.

{Deep breath}

Culling the T-Shirt Herd

Any of you who know Jason knows that he has a formidable T-shirt collection. Most of them he got free from some career fair or trade show. I did purchase a Stuff White People Like T-shirt for him because it's hilarious, but I doubt he's ever spent more than $5 on a T-shirt himself.

Since he works in a lab, T-shirts and shorts are standard. However, his T-shirt collection is out of control and there is literally not enough space in his closet for his piles of T-shirts. Also, since he has so many T-shirts, he never needs to do laundry so our hampers are jam packed with his T-shirts even before I add anything to them. In addition to having at least a couple hundred T-shirts, he has a sentimental attachment to most of them. Often for reasons like, "That corporation no longer exists and I think it's hilarious."

You're the only one, Jason.

Over the course of our 2 years of marriage I have gotten him to admit that, A) the house is a much more pleasant place to be when it's tidy and (relatively) uncluttered, and B) we have way too much stuff. My most recent coup has been to get him to agree to limit his T-shirt collection to 100 shirts. I know, it's still kind of a crazy number, right? I'm not being unreasonable here. If anything I think I'm being extremely understanding.

The culling has begun! Every couple of days I do 2 loads of T-shirts in the laundry and then we go through them one by one deciding whether each one stays or goes. Thus far, he has kept 21 and gotten rid of 5. Frankly, I am amazed at those 5 and feel like we're actually making progress.

I also got him to agree to get rid of a shirt every time he acquires a new one. I know! It's like when I got Tiny to listen when I said, "No!" Miracles can happen!

Anniversary

Jason and I officially met and had our first date 4 years ago today. I sort of had an inkling that I was in trouble when that date lasted 9 1/2 hours.

I told him Happy Anniversary this morning and I think that will be the extent of our celebrations.

New York, New York

This past weekend marks my 2nd trip ever to New York City. Despite the 90 degrees with the 80-something percent humidity, I still loved it. There's something about the energy that appeals to me. If only it didn't cost a small fortune to live there.

The Christ Church choir sang at St. Thomas Church* on 5th Avenue and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (the largest cathedral in the world). Since Jason was wrapped up in rehearsals for several hours on Saturday and Sunday, I had a lot of time to explore on my own.**

We stayed at the St. Thomas Choir School at 58th Street and 7th Avenue, which is a pretty ideal location. They put up groups that come to sing at the church at the cost of $75 per person per night, which is a steal in Midtown Manhattan. The Choir School is near all the action and 1 block away from Central Park. If only we could take advantage of the accommodations all the time. Alas, only when the choir is actually singing at the church. Or if you're married to someone singing at the church.

Saturday afternoon I met up with my friend Rachel from law school. We decided to head to the Village for lunch and wound up at a Mexican place, talking for hours. Then we walked over to Washington Square Park, where everyone was playing in the fountain to get some relief from the heat.

Tip: if you're going to New York in the heart of summer and you know you'll be walking a lot because, you know, it's New York, wear black or white. Otherwise, the whole city will know what a sweaty mess you are. Sadly I wore dark pink and was disgusting looking by the end, but we had fun. I got back to the choir school, feeling pretty sorry for myself, until I learned that the choir had just finished rehearsal at the Cathedral with no air conditioning. At least I wasn't standing the entire time and expected to perform on top of that.

A couple of ladies from the choir had decided to go to Coney Island for a corn dog and other foods on a stick, and they invited me and Jason along.

We had corn dogs from Nathan's and ice cream from Mr. Softee.
They went on the Cyclone, but since I'm not really a big rollercoaster person and I wasn't feeling so hot by that point (probably the heat combined with the corn dog), I waited on the sidelines for them.
If you like rollercoasters, they recommend the Cyclone. Apparently it's a pretty good ride for being old skool.

We listened to the pitch for the freak show, but decided not to pay $3 to see people humiliate themselves. Seriously, the Rubber Woman who he brought out front to tantalize us just looked sad. That didn't stop us from taking pictures of some of the great signs.

Sunday morning Jason had to be at rehearsal at 9, but I took my time getting ready since the service didn't start until 11. I picked up an almond croissant at a bakery around the corner I had spied the night before, and then walked through Central Park to get from 7th Avenue to 5th Avenue.





St. Thomas is lovely (and I can't imagine the sort of revenue they bring in being right on 5th Avenue). It was all very formal. All of the people who passed the collection plates (deacons?) were coordinated in blue and white seersucker suits.

Afterwards, we stopped at a restaurant ostensibly for sandwiches and cheesecake because Jason really wanted to get cheesecake while we were in New York. Only once we were seated we opened up our menus and discovered a run-of-the-mill turkey sandwich was $20. !!!! No, seriously. $20?!?! For a sandwich? That's just taking advantage of people at that point. Like, oo la la, we're on 7th Avenue. We can charge you $20 for a sandwich just because. So we got some cheesecake, which was still more than it should have been, but not as much as the sandwiches and Jason REALLY wanted some cheesecake.

We went back to the choir school, packed up, and headed for the subway to the Cathedral. The subway stations were very, very hot, but the cars were blissfully air-conditioned. In fact, on Saturday afternoon after leaving Rachel, I watched 2 trains go by before I finally looked at the subway map and figured out an alternate route for myself because I didn't want to keep standing in the stifling station waiting for my train. I am public transit savvy.

At the other end we bumped into Elaine from the choir and the 3 of us stopped at an Italian place across from the Cathedral for sandwiches. $6 sandwiches. That's more like it. And they were HUGE. I ate half for lunch and half for dinner. I got a meatball sub and, for my Florida family, the sauce tasted just like Antonio's. Yum!

The guy at the Italian place asked us where we were from and when we said Boston, he said, "Oh! The enemy!" Then, "Don't worry, I'm not a Yankees fan."***

Jason and Elaine went to rehearsal and I wandered down to a bookshop on 112th Street, where I proceeded to buy 2 books and a canvas tote because the tote was cute, only $3 and more environmentally sound than the plastic bag. That's what I told Jason, at least. Mostly, it was because it was cute. It being only $3 tipped the scales in its favor. Then I just walked around the neighborhood and apparently my all-black ensemble made me blend because someone actually asked me for directions. That's right. I pass as a New Yorker. At least in that neighborhood.

Frankly, I know Midtown is posh and I'm supposed to be all agog at 5th Avenue, but I felt more at home up near the Cathedral. The neighborhoods felt more comfortable and the retail outlets more within the realm of possibility.

So, I think this is just the nature of New York City, but it seems like everywhere you go is a landmark. On my way to St. Thomas to meet Rachel on Saturday, I walked right by Carnegie Hall and the Russian Tea Room. Walking back to the choir school, I passed by the MOMA. Sunday morning I popped out of Central Park and, oh look, it's The Plaza.
Then on Sunday while roaming around the Cathedral neighborhood, I happened upon this:
In case you can't tell, it's the exterior shot of the Seinfeld diner.

At 4 I went to the Evensong service at the Cathedral and sat up in the fancy chairs near the altar.
In fact, I wound up being one person away from Jason, which was nice since I could look right at the side of his face while he was singing his little solo.

It was hot inside. HOT. As I already mentioned the Cathedral is not air conditioned. I just sat there and perspired, periodically waving the program in front of my face to get a bit of breeze, and feeling really happy that I was not wearing a choir robe on top of my clothes.

The Cathedral is amazing.

I had one of those moments where I looked up at the vaulted ceiling waaaaay above me and was overwhelmed by the beauty. I won't lie - I teared up a little.
I took a picture of The Poet's Corner, dedicated to American Literature. I thought it was appropriate since I am a Master of American Literature.
After Evensong we met up with a friend of Jason's from his mission in South Korea. She was a high school student when he was there and was a dedicated participant in the English classes they taught. It's been about 12 years since they've seen each other, but over the years she has called or emailed him periodically. Now she's living in New York and just finished a nursing program and is absolutely adorable. She gave Jason a hug and then looked at me and asked, "This is your wife?" and gave me a big hug too. The three of us went to Pinkberry and got yogurt and chatted. Then Jason and I had to hit the road if we were going to get back to Providence at anywhere near a reasonable hour. (We realized after we drove away that we didn't get a picture with her. Dumb.)

Despite the sweat, we had a great weekend. I really do like New York, though if I ever live there, I'm still rooting for the Red Sox.

* If you go to the website, you can listen to the service online.
**Thanks to all of you who made suggestions on Facebook. I now have a long list of what to do NEXT time I go. Kelley, sorry we didn't get to meet up. Someday...
***Despite the reputation, everyone I met in New York was nice. Kind of like when I was in Paris.

Crafty Times

I do the majority of my crocheting and knitting in the winter. I'm not really so into being covered by a bunch of yarn in the summer when it's hot and muggy. In the winter, I love working on a big giant afghan because after a point, I can cover myself up with the afghan while I'm working.

Well, since I've been sick the past few days, I've spent some quality time with my yarn. I have a really difficult time sitting completely still. I have to be stimulated in some way. I mean, in addition to the TV. I drive Jason nuts because I constantly pause whatever we happen to be watching and jump up to go do something real quick. However, with a cough that gets worse when I move around, I have to sit still.

I am notorious for starting a project and then getting distracted with another exciting project. I get excited about new yarns and new stitches (especially since I'm still learning to knit), but then I tend to lose my momentum. I have finished things, but sometimes projects languish for awhile. One bad effect of letting things sit for too long is sometimes dye colors change slightly, even when they're supposedly "no dye lot" and if you didn't buy enough yarn to start and you have to supplement your yarn, say, 2 years later, you might wind up ending the project with a different color than you started with. As I found out recently. The color isn't THAT different, but to me it's glaringly obvious.

I have recently discovered the perfect way to do things for me. First, work on 2 projects at once. Second, make sure those projects can be broken into discreet segments so that I can easily bounce between the two.

In an effort to use some of my extraneous yarn, I have started 2 projects in the last few days. One is something that I won't discuss because it's for someone who reads the blog and I want it to be a surprise. All you need to know is, it's crocheted and it's made of squares. The second is this:
It's called the Morris Park Blanket and those are knitted squares. I bought some super soft red and blue yarn to make an adorable rugby-striped blanket for a baby. Only after I bought the yarn, it occurred to me that the baby was really more of a toddler and was probably too old for a blanket.* When I saw this pattern, I thought it looked so cozy and would be great for the red and blue yarn. Then I went to the yarn store and found complementary shades of green and brown in the same type of yarn. On sale even! In the same shades as the slipcovers and pillows on the couch and loveseat in our living room. 'Cause what Jason and I really need is another blanket.**

The Morris Park Blanket is made of 3 different stitches - one for each of the 3 colors. However, since I'm using 4 colors, I'm going to vary the stitches among the colors. I went through the pattern yesterday and marked out which squares would be which colors and I'm excited. I've made 2 1/2 squares so far and I'm loving the way they feel. Hopefully, it will be done by winter and I can enjoy it soon.

My point is, having these two projects made of squares has turned out to be perfect for me. I crochet for awhile and get a couple squares done and get bored, so I switch to knitting and work on one of those squares for awhile.

Jason always asks me why I bother when a machine could do it in a fraction of the time for a fraction of the price. My answer is a combination of I get a satisfying sense of accomplishment, it's cathartic to work with my hands and I like to be able to give people I love something that I took the time to make myself. Just like I like getting handmade gifts. I think there's something in my genes too. My great-grandma used to make all the grandkids and great-grandkids homemade presents for Christmas. We all got variations on the same thing and it was so fun to see what she had made.

My mom used to be a wonderful seamstress. She made a lot of my clothes when I was younger, and also outfitted by Cabbage Patch Kids. I have a box of doll clothes in storage that are full of little treasures she made. She also used to cross stitch all the time. I used to cross stitch more, but lately I find working with needles and yarn the most satisfying.

Here's a question for other crafters: why do you do it, whether it be knitting, crocheting, whatever?

* If I know you well and you are having a son, I have an adorable rugby-striped blanket in my head that I may bestow upon you.
**We have a LOT of blankets. But this one's going to be awesome. And soft. Also, since we never turn on the heat in the winter because it would cost a small fortune to run and not really heat the place very well because the furnace is ancient and we have a million windows, blankets are very, very useful long about January.

Farm Share Week 10

Squash. Lots and lots of squash. And some carrots. Then I got sick and it got really hot and muggy and I REALLY haven't felt like cooking at all. So there the veggies sit in the same bag I brought them home in, on the top shelf of the fridge almost a whole week later. I have a feeling I'll be making some zucchini bread in the next week or two.

I think we might be in-between some growing seasons because the fare seems to be dwindling. Here's hoping the tomatoes start showing up soon, though even Martha Stewart has been affected by the tomato blight. I'll have to ask the farmer how his tomatoes are doing.

Farmer guy set up the food under a small tent in the parking lot because, oh my gosh! it was sunny. I told him how nice it was to be outside and he said, Yeah, well, this is the first sunny Thursday we've had since the season started. The first sunny Thursday since May. And it's not like every other day was sunny to make up for our oddly crappy Thursdays. This has been the grayest summer and it's wearing on me. By the time November hits, I'm going to be in full-on SAD mode.

Sputtering

From Satoshi Kanazawa’s "Why Modern Feminism is Illogical, Unnecessary, and Evil"

"Another fallacy on which modern feminism is based is that men have more power than women. Among mammals, the female always has more power than the male, and humans are no exception. It is true that, in all human societies, men largely control all the money, politics, and prestige. They do, because they have to, in order to impress women. Women don’t control these resources, because they don’t have to. What do women control? Men. As I mention in an earlier post, any reasonably attractive young woman exercises as much power over men as the male ruler of the world does over women."

Thank you very much for patting us on the head and taking us back to 1840. I don't need to vote or be educated or earn a living or have any power. As long as I can smile my little smile and get a man to do all of that for me, I am ALLLLL set.

Gah!

Go to Kate Harding's Shapely Prose for more, though I will warn you, Kate has a potty mouth. I understand being outraged, because I feel it too, but sometimes the number of f-bombs is a wee bit distracting.

Loving

New favorite blog: Sociological Images

Also love:

Farm Share Week...Um...9

I missed a few weeks there. We've been very busy the past few weekends and since I pick up my farm share on Thursday nights, sometimes it gets lost in the shuffle.

Last week I got zucchini, beets, cucumbers, carrots and pattypan squash. I've been indulging in my new favorite zucchini (and baby bok choy) recipe (you don't have to have bok choy. Apparently the baby bok choy was only a one week thing at the farm share. It was tasty while it lasted!)

I've been collecting beets for the past few weeks and storing them in preparation for making borscht, a Russian beet soup. My brother-in-law lived in Russia for 2 years and has a genuine recipe. I thought my attempt tasted great. Jason told me it was the wrong color. Despite the color issue, he managed to choke down a few bowls. Apparently the tomato paste I put in overwhelmed the bright red beet color. (If you've never worked with beets before, beware the staining red juice.)

A friend told me she just roasts beets in the oven like potatoes, which I'm going to try with this week's batch.

Anyway, on to Week 9. Behold!
3 large zucchini, 3 short but thick cucumbers and a bunch of beets. It doesn't look like much, but one of those zucchinis will make enough for a large side dish for me and Jason for 2 meals. As for the cucumbers, I like to chop one up, drizzle a little balsamic on top, and eat it with my lunch or for an afternoon snack.

And How Was Your Morning?

We live on the 2nd floor of a Victorian house built in 1876. Next to the house is a giant old tree. The tree has three large sections, one leaning toward the house, one leaning toward the parking lot, and one leaning over the side street running alongside the house. Every time there is a storm with any sort of wind, a branch or two breaks off of the tree. Jason and I learned a long time ago that the best place to park our cars is at the far side of the parking lot, as far from the tree as possible.

Mike, the contractor guy who has been working on the 3rd floor and who is also a co-owner of the house (and who is also hilarious with his thick Rhode Island accent), has been telling the landlady for months that they needed to get rid of the tree. Not only is it weak and rotting, but the flowers that bloom on it in the Spring smell like cat pee*, which, as you can imagine, is very pleasant. The landlady kept putting him off, not wanting to pay to remove the tree.

You see where this is going, right?

This morning I walked outside to get something out of Jason's car and noticed the tree didn't look quite right. Then I realized that during the big rain and wind storm we had last night, one-third of the tree had keeled over.


Amazingly, nothing was damaged. If either of the two other thirds of the tree had broken, it would have either crashed into the house, or fallen right on top of our cars.
(That's Jason's red car in the picture above, right in the path of one of the other thirds of the tree)

There was a car across the street, but the power lines neatly caught the tree and are currently holding it suspended over the car.
Amazingly again, we didn't lose our power and none of the power lines actually snapped.

I've never been so glad to not be a homeowner. Jason called Mike, who had a few choice words, not the least of which were "I told you so" aimed at the landlady. He called the power company and the tree company and I have a feeling when I get home, the tree will be mostly, if not all, gone.

Farewell, old friend. I will not miss your cat pee aroma next Spring.


* These trees are ALL OVER Cambridge. For about one week every Spring all the neighborhoods smell like a litter box.

Have I Mentioned I Talk in My Sleep?

Conversation between me and Jason last night at 11:41 PM, which Jason promptly emailed to me:

Me: "she's like a horse"
Jason: "who?"
Me: a lot of mumbling, then "the soap"
Jason: "the soap is like a horse?"
Me: "yeah"
Jason: "what are you talking about?"
Me: "doesn't matter"

Seneca Falls

This past weekend Jason and I went to Palmyra, New York to camp with our ward and go see the Hill Cumorah Pageant. Insane bishop who woke us all up at 6 AM aside, it was a fun time, if very quick.

On the way back, rather than go straight out to the New York Thruway (ie, I-90), we took the parallel backroad that meandered through a bunch of little villages, including Seneca Falls. Jason wanted to make a point of going through Seneca Falls for me because I recently watched Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: Not for Ourselves Alone, a documentary by Ken Burns, and Jason knew how much it had impacted me.

If you are a woman and have ever done anything crazy like vote or own property or go to college or express an opinion with impunity, you need to see this documentary. I had no idea how much it would affect me, but when I realized what these women, and all the suffragettes, had done for all of us, I was overwhelmed. I spent a lot of the documentary holding back tears of gratitude. It's unbelievable to think that less than 100 years ago, women could not even vote.

A Couple Pictures

Molly just emailed me a couple of pictures from our weekend in DC. I still haven't gotten pictures off of Jason's camera. We are lazy with the pictures, as anyone who might be waiting for a wedding picture or two can attest.

Me, Jason and Baby Liam (who looks less like a baby and more like a little boy in this picture). He's wearing the outfit we bought him for his birthday (we also bought him awesome train cars because we're not total squares).Jason helping Liam put his new trains together. I love the looks of concentration on both of their faces.
So how sad-yet-adorable-and-endearing is this? We had been driving around in separate cars all weekend because 2 baby seats kind of fills up Garrett and Molly's car, and Liam had come to expect that when he got out of the car, Jason and I would soon appear. Even though we all hugged and kissed and said our lengthy good-byes, Liam still expected us to show up back at the house. Molly said after he got out of the car, he went to the edge of the driveway, waiting for us to pull up. So Molly had to tell him we had gone back to Providence and apparently he was very sad and asked about us all day long.

Farm Share Week 5

I didn't post about week 4 because after I picked up the farm share on Thursday evening, I rushed home and started prepping for our friends' going-away party. This included slicing up one of the zucchini from the farm share for a veggie tray (paired with parsley hummus made with the out of control parsley from the AeroGrow). Then we left the next day for DC. Week 4 consisted of beets, onions, sugar snap peas, broccoli and zucchini. Since we were leaving for 4 days I focused on getting veggies that would wait until we got home for me to prep them.

Here is the score from last Thursday:
I got sugar snap peas, beets, garlic, pattypan squash, zucchini and baby bok choy. I was only supposed to get a pound of zucchini, but since they were all mammoth sized, he said we could grab whichever one we wanted, even if it was more than 1 pound. The one I got was almost 2 pounds. Nice! The broccoli is gone from the selection, which makes me sad. Having fresh, local broccoli to roast was awesome. However, other things are coming into season and it's getting more and more interesting to choose.

Trip to DC

Jason and I had a great weekend trip to DC. Even though the drive is kind of a drag, it's really not ever as bad as I think it's going to be. On Friday night we wanted to wind up in Frederick, Maryland, so we took the back way through Pennsylvania, which I've never done before. It wound up being a lovely drive and a lot less stressful than the normal passage through New York and down the New Jersey Turnpike.

We noticed that we were going to skirt right by Gettysburg so we decided to take a little detour and stop. I've never been there and was really moved by the monuments and the displays.* It was getting dark quickly, so we only saw a few things. I would like to go back. There is large monument to those who fought for Pennsylvania that includes all the names of the Pennsylvania soldiers. My great-great grandfather fought in the Civil War and I think he fought for Pennsylvania. I'll have to find out for sure and if so, find his name on the monument.

We stopped for the night at Sarah's parents' house and stayed up late talking with Brandon and Sarah who were also in town. The next day we headed first to Sarah's dad's running store where he totally hooked us up with shoes, and then to Virginia to meet up with the Summers family at Chuck E. Cheese for Baby Liam's 2nd birthday party. Jason and I are just as enamored with that kid as we were when they moved away almost a year ago. Probably moreso now since he talks and cracks us up constantly.

Molly and Garrett have a 5 month-old now too who is sweet and mellow and just needs to feel like he's part of the activity around him to be content. He won me over by falling asleep on me during church.

Monday morning, Garrett took us on the tour of the Pentagon, where he works. It was great to just be able to wander around and see everything. The place is almost like a museum with all of the informative displays about the history of defense in the US since Colonial times. I found it fascinating and wish we had more time to really peruse everything.

We drove back Monday afternoon and evening. We had a great weekend and are grateful to good friends who let us sleep on their air mattress and hang out with their awesome kids. Oh, and, you know, Molly and Garrett are pretty cool too.

As soon as I can get some pictures from Jason, I'll post them.

* Hundreds of Harley-Davidsons there for a rally notwithstanding.

Happy Feet

On Friday while I was home alone doing chores, I watched Happy Feet, which we Netflixed, but I knew Jason wouldn't want to watch with me because he's not crazy about the animated movies. FYI, when we have kids, I'm totally whipping out all my Pixar and Disney movies on a regular basis.

Anyway, Happy Feet. Has anyone else seen it? Because I thought it was kind of weird. I mean, it's obviously a kids' movie, but some of the songs the penguins sing in just the first 10 minutes are not really kid-friendly. When the line, "Let's talk about x, baby" comes up and everyone knows what they're REALLY talking about, I call that inappropriate. The rock penguins made me laugh some and the baby penguin was achingly adorable and I now want a baby penguin, which is how I felt after watching March of the Penguins, but I know there are ways to slip in grown-up jokes and themes without including so many things that are really straddling that appropriate fence.

On the other hand, I am super-impressed with how the animators made a penguin look like an expert tap dancer. Because penguins aren't so much known for their agility and fancy footwork.

A Happy 4th of July Indeed

Thanks to some good friends, we had a pretty amazing 4th of July celebration. Our friend Dave works for Microsoft and they happen to have an office at 1 Memorial Drive in Cambridge. In case you don't know, not only is that right next to the Charles River, but it's positioned basically parallel to where they put the fireworks barge in the Charles.

We started out by having a small picnic BBQ with just us, Dave and Jessica and their two girls. I absolutely adore the girls! And the feeling is apparently mutual. They have a lot of energy and wear me out, but I do like spending time with them. Ever since Naomi, the almost four-year-old, was a baby, she's always come to me, even when she wouldn't go to most other people. I used to say it's just because her mom and I had similar color and length of hair, but now I prefer to think it's on my own merits. Well, Annika, the almost two-year-old, has decided that I'm pretty awesome as well. At one point in the evening, we were on the 14th floor of the building looking down at the boats and the people below, and Annika was standing next to me on the window ledge, with one arm wrapped tightly around my neck. She would run around and do something else for a few minutes, but then come back and wrap her arm around my neck again. Being in a headlock works if the headlock giver is not quite 2.

Annika also loves Jason, although they had a falling out early in the evening. Jason had some popcorn and Annika reached into his box to grab some. He said, totally kidding, in a sweet voice, and with a smile, "Hey, are you stealing my popcorn?" Annika looked shocked. She is a very good talker and understands everything you say even though she's very small, and despite his tone, I think she took him literally and thought he was mad. He spent the next 15 minutes or so, bouncing around and grinning at her and trying to get her to eat some more popcorn from his box. She just stared at him with her huge blue eyes, very concerned. But by the end of the evening, all had been forgiven and she reached for Jason at one point and sat on his lap happily watching the Boston Pops with us. I know he was relieved.

So anyway, after our early dinner, we headed over to Cambridge. Jason and I found a great parking space that wasn't too far from the building, but we thought wouldn't be too much of a pain to get out of when the celebration was over. Upon reflection, I don't think a parking space that's not too much of a pain to get out of exists in Cambridge on the 4th of July.

If you have the chance to work for Microsoft, I highly recommend it. I have no idea what day-to-day work conditions are like, but they throw a great party. At the very least, go get yourself some friends who work for Microsoft. We needn't have eaten beforehand because they had amazing cheese and veggie and fruit platters, not to mention the hot dog, cotton candy and ice cream carts stationed all over the 4 Microsoft floors. I'm not even going to tell you what I ate. Let's just say I have had my goat cheese quota for the month.

They had big TV screens showing the Boston Pops concert, so we watched that, and sang along with Neil Diamond to "Sweet Caroline" then headed outside to a deck basically looking straight at the fireworks barge. Everyone sang to the patriotic sing-a-long and then the fireworks started. They were amazing! And being so close was amazing! They were right overhead and the booms echoed back and forth off the buildings from one side of the river to the other.

We had a great time and even though it took us a half hour to walk to the car and an hour just to get out of Cambridge afterward, and then we got home at 1 and I still had to plan Sharing Time for today and Jason had to go into work for a half hour and then plan his Elders Quorum lesson and we were walking zombies at church, it was totally worth it. So thank you very much, Dave and Jessica!

UPDATE: Jessica just posted these pictures on her blog and I snagged them. Note me in the middle left in an Annika headlock.

Farm Share Week 4

The bounty is getting more diverse:
2 heads of lettuce, a couple pounds of broccoli, beets, onions and zucchini. I'm going to try to roast the zucchini with a bit of salt, pepper and olive oil, since roasting is my favorite way to do vegetables lately. Also, I'm going to make my brother-in-law's borscht recipe. He went to Russia on his mission and so not only is it tasty, but it's authentic. I don't know if I have enough beets, though, since they're kind of small, but I'll give it a whirl.

Since I had the day off work today, I got a lot of little chores done, including prepping the veggies for the coming week. Have I told you all how much I love to chop? It's soothing to me.