Saturday: Planned on sleeping in, taking it easy and doing more work. Maybe improving Wii baseball and tennis games.
Saturday, actual:
Up at 8:00 a.m. Cleaned dining room and part of kitchen, cleaned living room.
Did more work.
Drove in Amy’s van (thank you, Amy!) to Chicago with Adam, his best friend from daycare, friend’s older brother, and their mother to the Allstate Arena in Rosemont to see The Wiggles!
Car ride down: minimal drama, going pretty well. Thinking that this will be pretty easy.
]]>Saturday: Planned on sleeping in, taking it easy and doing more work. Maybe improving Wii baseball and tennis games.
Saturday, actual:
Up at 8:00 a.m. Cleaned dining room and part of kitchen, cleaned living room.
Did more work.
Drove in Amy’s van (thank you, Amy!) to Chicago with Adam, his best friend from daycare, friend’s older brother, and their mother to the Allstate Arena in Rosemont to see The Wiggles!
Car ride down: minimal drama, going pretty well. Thinking that this will be pretty easy.
Concert: some drama, but not too much. Concert kinda sucks. Wiggles officially too old to do good concerts anymore.
Stop at Woodfield Mall to go to the Disney Store and the Lego Store: Incredible, four year old screaming, crying drama (not my kid): LOTS
Drive back to Madison: Drama, then calm with food and Happy Meal toys, then drama, then sleeping by all boys except mine, then wide-awake and wiggly boys: much screeching and yelling and laughing and misbehaving.
Arrival time back at home: 11:15. Adam in bed at 11:45, asleep at approximately 11:47.
Sunday: Awake at 6:15 worried about work. Up at 7, working until 11:30. Then nap, despite being jumped on repeatedly by 4 year old. Then shopping. Then teaching Adam to use Wii controller for car racing games. Then relaxing dinner with friends.
Lessons learned:
4 years old is too young to bring a friend along on an extended car trip.
4 years old is too young to be on your own in the back of a car for that long without immediate adult supervision.
4 year olds are very good at entertaining themselves.
Juice boxes should come in waxy, food-grade boxes. Capri Sun is not a juice box. It is a juice bag. Juice bags are evil, especially in cars.
Adam seemed to have fun and was very well behaved for most of the day. The last 2 hours of the day were a bit too much for him, but overall I was proud of how he conducted himself. Hopefully his last(!) Wiggles concert will be one he remembers as being fun and exciting.
]]>Tonight I thought my dinner was missing something. So, once again, I braved the mosquitoes and plucked 2 more red, ripe tomatoes from the garden.
I chopped the roma up in slices, drizzled olive oil over them and lightly peppered them.
Tonight I thought my dinner was missing something. So, once again, I braved the mosquitoes and plucked 2 more red, ripe tomatoes from the garden.
I chopped the roma up in slices, drizzled olive oil over them and lightly peppered them.
Here’s the problem: I have tomatoes ripening at an alarming rate. I have a ton of Romas ripening and some larger ones just turning a brilliant red and begging to be picked. I also have jalapeños and green beans ready to pick.
Won’t someone PLEASE come and pick from my garden? My chest freezer won’t be operational until almost October, so I can’t freeze everything, and since I’m the only one who really wants to eat tomatoes or jalapeños, I need some salsa fanatics to make their way over and pick some.
Please.
The produce is free. The only thing I ask is this: while you’re picking a couple things, pull a couple weeds in return. And be sure to wear some bug spray, those little buggers will eat you alive!
These things are all related, but it took #3 for us to actually tie them together.
A detailed search in the back recesses of our basement where we seldom venture led to a curious discovery. The window back there was missing half the pane of glass. Lest you think we’re incredibly stupid, there was something else in it’s place – the previous owner had set up some venting tube for doing wood working ventilation.
]]>These things are all related, but it took #3 for us to actually tie them together.
A detailed search in the back recesses of our basement where we seldom venture led to a curious discovery. The window back there was missing half the pane of glass. Lest you think we’re incredibly stupid, there was something else in it’s place – the previous owner had set up some venting tube for doing wood working ventilation.
So… we decided to inspect all the basement windows and came to the conclusion that we need to replace all 6 windows. Approximate cost parts and labor $2000.
But wait, there’s more…
Two Thanksgivings ago we tripped the whole house. 2 Nesco roasters, a large percolator-style coffee pot, and the various appliances in the house shut our whole house down. Not cool. It’s very difficult to cook a turkey in a roaster when there is no electricity. These power problems have been vexing us ever since.
So we called an electrician for an estimate on an upgraded service 200amps. Our problem, it appears, isn’t overuse (or lack) of electricity on our part, it’s the fault of 50 years of questionable re-wiring of the house. That and about 5 obvious code violations in the basement. Yikes. Oh, and while you’re estimating, I said, how much to actually install vent fans into our bathrooms and fix some other wiring issues. At one point the guy half-jokingly says for about eight thousand I can re-wire your whole house. ha. sure. let me write you a check.
So every couple days another guy walks through our house and sends us an estimate. Sooner or later we should actually be finished with what needs to be fixed and can move onto silly cosmetic things that we just want to fix, like paint color and kitchen cabinets.
]]>I may try and turn some of the shots I took into panoramas. If that’s successful, those photos will go up there as well.
]]>I may try and turn some of the shots I took into panoramas. If that’s successful, those photos will go up there as well.
]]>I love mountains and the west. I haven’t been out west since 99 and really forgot how much I love the fresh smell of pine forests. I even enjoyed our second night of camping that actually involved sleeping in a tent.
]]>I love mountains and the west. I haven’t been out west since 99 and really forgot how much I love the fresh smell of pine forests. I even enjoyed our second night of camping that actually involved sleeping in a tent.
If you’re ever in the mood to go visit the Grand Tetons and Jackson Hole, but find the facilities in the immediate vicinity to be extortionate, cross the Tetons into Idaho and spend the night in Victor, ID. Great view, great prices, starry skies.
So now we’re back and I want to go back again and again. I can’t believe I stayed away so long.
Of course, there are vast forests in the west and we’ll have to hit all those sites, too, but I think the Yellowstone/Teton area is some place you could visit again and again and always find something new to see and appreciate.
The ride home was mostly better. I vowed to not take 12 home when I noticed Saturday traffic backed up several miles outside of Wisconsin Dells waiting to exit. I couldn’t even imagine how bad it would be on Sunday afternoon. So I used an actual map, not just a GPS, to plan out a new route home that avoided Hwy 12 in every way possible. Although I ran into an unforeseen closure around La Valle, I avoided traffic all the way home. The closest I came to actual traffic was about 12 cars all the way from Spring Green back to Madison. That’s it. Why more southbound travelers didn’t get off at New Lisbon or Mauston is beyond me. Even if I didn’t have my new GPS with me, I would have still had a map of WI in the car and the ability to navigate by the seat of my pants. I did get to see some scenic parts of the state on my drive home. I also saw a depressing amount of flooding everywhere. I can’t even fathom what the poor farmers must be going through right now.
If the Interstate is gulp STILL closed when we leave for Montana and Yellowstone on Friday, I will be seeking an alternate route to La Crosse and I don’t think it will be hard to do.
I’d considered posting a googlemaps pic of my route, but I don’t want anyone stealing it. It’s mine, ya hear me, all mine!
“Costochondritis is an inflammation of the cartilage that connects a rib to the breastbone (sternum). It causes sharp pain in the costosternal joint — where your ribs and breastbone are joined by rubbery cartilage. Pain caused by costochondritis may mimic that of a heart attack or other heart conditions.”
It’s pretty damn uncomfortable.
]]>“Costochondritis is an inflammation of the cartilage that connects a rib to the breastbone (sternum). It causes sharp pain in the costosternal joint — where your ribs and breastbone are joined by rubbery cartilage. Pain caused by costochondritis may mimic that of a heart attack or other heart conditions.”
It’s pretty damn uncomfortable.
]]>I assumed I’d make it up to King@Wilson and my legs would give out and I’d look like a moron pushing my bike up the hill. Oh well… nothing ventured.. blah blah blah.
So I started out and kept shifting down and I made it to the King St. intersection and a red light which fortunately turned green before I had to come to a complete stop. I kept pedaling and made it all the way to the Capitol and around to the bank.
]]>I assumed I’d make it up to King@Wilson and my legs would give out and I’d look like a moron pushing my bike up the hill. Oh well… nothing ventured.. blah blah blah.
So I started out and kept shifting down and I made it to the King St. intersection and a red light which fortunately turned green before I had to come to a complete stop. I kept pedaling and made it all the way to the Capitol and around to the bank.
OK, so it’s not Everest or anything, but I’ll take my accomplishments where I can get them.
]]>
and...
That is all. ]]>and...
That is all. ]]>Today I also decided I needed a front basket on my bike instead of just the saddle bags. My first reason for needing them was farmers market. One simply cannot bring plants home in saddle bags. My second reason became evident when I retrieved my birthday meal leftovers from my saddlebag and found that my Bang-Bang Chicken had all-but exploded. Fortunately, I had put it in a ziploc bag, preventing a much bigger disaster than a ruined lunch and yogurt.
]]>Today I also decided I needed a front basket on my bike instead of just the saddle bags. My first reason for needing them was farmers market. One simply cannot bring plants home in saddle bags. My second reason became evident when I retrieved my birthday meal leftovers from my saddlebag and found that my Bang-Bang Chicken had all-but exploded. Fortunately, I had put it in a ziploc bag, preventing a much bigger disaster than a ruined lunch and yogurt.
So I picked up the boy and we rode down to Willy Bikes (confusingly on West Wash) to get a front basket for my bike. I went on a spending spree and bought a basket, a nifty little front handlebars purse for non-basket days, night front and rear lights, a bell/compass thingy, a Dane County/City of Madison bike trail map and a tire patch kit. And I discovered why bikers would want CO2 cans, but I didn’t buy any of those kits. I mean, really, who gets flat tires anyway?
So we decided to ride up to the Great Dane for dinner. My legs were a bit tired, but I was feeling the urge to go out again and we’re so close to downtown, it seemed like a great idea. When we returned to our bikes we discovered that my rear tire was completely flat. Completely, utterly flat as a freakin’ pancake. Seriously, universe, W T F?
Did I have the portable bike pump? Nope.
Did I have the patch kit purchased mere hours earlier? Nope.
Would I have even known how to use the patch kit had I been in possession of the first 2 items? Uh, no, probably not.
My bike is still parked up at 1 W Wilson waiting for me to return tomorrow to take it down the street to get repaired. I have NO idea how long it was flat, or why it was flat. I just know I have to walk it down the street tomorrow to get it fixed.
What. A. Pain.
Update
Inner tube blew out completely. Apparently someone *cough*Mike*cough* over-pressurized my tires by 10 psi. Inner tube replaced and an extra one has been purchased just in case another one blows out.
Yesterday I looked a the weather outlook for the week and decided that if there was going to be a day to till up the garden, Tuesday would be my day. After my co-worker pointed out the chance of t-storms for the afternoon (which, obviously, did NOT happen) I decided that Tuesday morning was my one shot this week to get the big back garden ready. I called the supply rental place a few blocks from my house and had a small rototiller reserved for Tuesday. After I got home I dug out the rubber garden border so that I could expand the garden space by a foot or 2.
That brings us to today. I stayed up too late last night, woke up tired and, er, crampy. A bad start to what was supposed to be a promising morning.
I ran Adam over to daycare, stopped at Jamba Juice for a treat, and then headed to the hardware store for more garden supplies: 2 huge cubes of peat moss and 2 more bags of manure/compost mix. I dropped those off at the house and went to pick up the tiller.
Many things:
1. Until today, I’d never laid eyes on a rototiller
2. I had no idea a small one weighed 125 lbs
3. I had no clue how to use one
4. The yellow jackets will NOT leave our tool shed alone.
5. I have a wonderful husband who will cater to my crazy whims;
The guys at Badger Contractor Supply seemed a bit skeptical when I said that there wasn’t anyone to help me get the thing out of my car. They showed me how to use it and loaded it into the Forester. I’m sure they were convinced I was going to break it.
Well, fortunately, gravity and some core body strength were working with me today and I managed to fairly easily lift out the 125 lb tiller without scratching my car, hurting the tiller, OR hurting my back.
I went to work fairly immediately. It took me a few passes to get the hang of how to run it efficiently. Once the soil got broken up, it got a lot easier to manage. Unfortunately, it also started getting a lot hotter outside. I spread the peat moss and manure and went inside to take a well-deserved iced tea break. Then I called M. and begged him to come home and help me get the tiller back in the car over his lunch break. There was just NO way I was going to get that back in by myself.
I went back out and tilled in the peat and manure and finished up just as my knight in shining armor arrived to save me from my own lack of planning.
I was hot and sweaty and covered in dirt, but I actually got something pretty major accomplished. I still have loads more to do before I can plant tomatoes, peppers, green beans, peas, jalapenos, and some other yet-to-be determined veggies, but I’m over the major hurdle.
It feels good to be productive.
]]>Your steps:
Step 3a: Post your guesses in the comments.
Step 4: I’ll strike through bold them when someone gets them right
Step 5: Looking them up on Google or any other search engine is CHEATING.
Here’s my 25…. Good Luck
1 Midnight, On the water. I saw the ocean’s daughter…. Can’t Get it Out of My Head – Fountains of Wayne (cover)
2 Rain falls, I fix my eyes Stinging Velvet – Neko Case
Your steps:
Step 3a: Post your guesses in the comments.
Step 4: I’ll strike through bold them when someone gets them right
Step 5: Looking them up on Google or any other search engine is CHEATING.
Here’s my 25…. Good Luck
1 Midnight, On the water. I saw the ocean’s daughter…. Can’t Get it Out of My Head – Fountains of Wayne (cover)
2 Rain falls, I fix my eyes Stinging Velvet – Neko Case
3 Ten Years ago, on a cold dark night Long Black Veil – Chieftains & Mick Jagger
4 How’s hope feeling today, tired and sick of this place Outro with Bees – Neko Case
5 Ever close your eyes, ever stop and listen? Wild Child – Enya
6 Well I guess it would be nice if I could touch your body Faith – Everlast (cover) I have ZERO idea why I have this MP3.
7 Lying beside you, here in the dark Open Arms – Journey
8 I see you on the street and you walk on by Open Your Heart – Madonna
9 Pretty soon we were taking it serious Delirious Love – Neil Diamond
10 Aaaah, now I don’t hardly know her, but I think I could love her Crimson and Clover – Tommy James & Shondells
11 When I was a little boy (when I was just a boy) Loves Me Like a Rock – Paul Simon
12 I’m Coming out of my cage and I’ve been doin’ just fine Mr. Brightside – The Killers
13 Gonna find my baby, gonna hold her tight Afternoon Delight – Starland Vocal Band
14 Sometimes you’re better off dead West End Girls – Pet Shop Boys
15 Put it on, And don’t say a word Blue Dress – Depeche Mode
16 This bed is on fire With passion and love Laid – James
17 I keep hearin’ you’re concerned about my happiness Flowers on the Wall – The Statler Brothers
18 No More Talk of Darkness, forget these wide-eyed fears All I Ask of You – Phantom of the Opera
19 We skipped a light fandango, Turned cartwheels ‘cross the floor. Whiter Shade of Pale – Procol Harum (the original version
20 Like a ghost don’t need a key Don’t Leave Home – Dido
21 Once in every show,There comes a song like this The Song That Goes Like This – Spamalot
22 When I see you alone, I see what’s in your mind. Baby Love Child – Pizzicato 5
23 I lied and told her I loved her, She didn’t care, But Anyway – Blues Traveler
24 Oh is this the way they say the future’s meant to feel? Sorted for E’s and Wizz – Pulp
25 I close my eyes when I get too sad Wonderful – Everclear
