A Question on Kids Raised by Stay-At-Home Moms

I'm a bit of a nerd. I've always had problems fitting in with people my age. I assumed it was due to a blend of my Mormon upbringing, moving around every few years, being book-smart and having dorky clothes. (During my tween and teen years, my clothes were a really big issue for me.)

Well, a couple days ago, Nick suggested nerdiness is based on having a stay at home mom. His theory is that home-school kids are typically on the far end of super social awkwardness and kids who have two working parents are go to public school are socially normal. Because my mom was a stay-at-home mom, I was destined to be a nerd.

Your thoughts?

The Best Weekend Ever!

(Ok, I admit I've been meaning to post this for over a month now. But late is better than never right?)

So, for my birthday present this year, Nick bought me tickets to the U2 concert in Chicago, on Sunday, September 12th. Seeing that this was our first out of town trip together, since our wedding, that didn't involve our either of our families, we decided to make it our honeymoon. (Yes, three years after getting married, we finally had a honeymoon. Again, late is better than never.)

The weekend started after Nick got off work Friday, the 10th. We drove to Milwaukee and stayed with Nick's Aunt Karen. Then, we continued to Chicago Saturday morning, with plans to spend most of the day at Soldier Field, hitting the Field Museum, Adler Planetarium, and Shedd Aquarium.

We approached the Museum Campus from Roosevelt Road, and could see the Aquarium right in front of us, however, we couldn't figure out how to actually get to it. We ended up northbound on Lakeshore Drive, and couldn't figure out how to turn around. Five miles later, we we way past Soldier Field and finally hit a road we could use to turn around. However, we then had a difficult time getting on Lakeshore Drive going southbound. After going in circles a couple times, we finnaly got our lanes right and made the turn onto Lakeshore Drive southbound. So, we headed back towards Soldier Field, and waved as we passed it, and again, didn't see a turn off to actually get into the Museum Campus. At this point, it was after noon, and we had dinner plans that night. We called it a day, got on the interstate and headed to our hotel in the suburbs, The Hilton Garden Inn in Schaumburg to be exact.

So, we signed into the hotel, went to our room, got cleaned up. And spent the rest of our exciting Chicago afternoon at a mall in the burbs. At this point, I was pretty discouraged about the trip and felt like we wasted the day. But, we still had dinner coming, and what a dinner it was.

Nick bought dinner tickets for Medieval Times, and he didn't go with the standard package, he went with the King's Royalty package. So, we got to sit in the front row of a jousting tournament and eat a four course meal. When we first got there, I had my doubts. The lobby is a cheese fest of a tourist trap, selling over priced beverages and some really gaudy gift store items. But, there were some cool swords to look at. Nick and I decided that in order to have the best time, we would just ham it up and enjoy ourselves, despite the corniness.


All the diners were split into six separate sections, each with their own night. We were in the black and white section, and our knight was the warrior-priest knight. We had our own Paladin/Crusader to cheer for. (And, part of our King's Royalty package included a cheering banner.) So, each time our knight went by we cheered and waved out banner.


Then, the actual show started. Wow. It was amazing. The performers really did joust, on real horses. The horsemanship was amazing, the choreography for the weapon fights were amazing. The swords sparked, one knight used a pole-arm. It was spectacular. I still think it was one of the coolest things I ever saw. And, Saturday was no longer a wasted day in Chicago.



After the show, we went back to the hotel, had a drink at the hotel bar, and then crashed so we could get up early for the next day.

Sunday morning, we headed back to Soldier Field, hotel directions in hand, so that we could make it into the Museum Campus. We had a couple different plans for parking and figured out how to get from point A to B without any problems. In other words, we did research and planned in advance. It was early and traffic was light, so we got to Solider Field and parked on the Museum Campus without too much trouble. In fact, we got there before anything opened.

We decided to visit Shedd Aquarium first. I love fish tanks, especially salt water tanks, so out of the different places at Solider Field, this was the place I was most interested in seeing. So, when the aquarium opened, we were in line and got tickets.

I think my favorite part of Shedd Aquarium was the shark tank. Unfortunately I didn't get good pictures of sharks, but I did get a pretty good shot (with my phone) of a (sting?) ray.



We hung out at the aquarium for a few hours. I bought a hat for working in the yard, hiking, and doing other stuff outside in the sun. Nick bought a cool hoody with fleece lining. As far as gift shops go, Shedd Aquarium does pretty good. I wanted a shirt that said "Shedd Aquarium is my happy place." But it was in the tight girl-shirt style that does not work with belly fat. So, I got the hat instead.

We finished up at the aquarium around 4:00. The concert started at 7:00, with the gates opening at 6:00, so we still had time to kill. Unfortunately, the other museums on campus all closed at either 5:00 or 6:00, and were still charging full ticket prices to get in. So we walked around for a bit. I put my feet in Lake Michigan, and then we went to wait in line.


When we got in line around 5:00, we were about a mile from the stadium. You can see it in the distance. The line was about 10 feet wide, too. At this point, I had been standing for most of the day and my feet hurt. So I decided to sit in line.


A half hour after the gates opened, we ended up in the stadium. We had General Admission, floor tickets.

This is part of the stage set up for the concert. There's a bunch of interesting stats scattered around the internet, along with much better images. Nick likes to call it the stage-o-saurus. I've also seen it referred to as a claw or a space ship.

The opening band, Snow Patrol, started at 7:00. I enjoyed their performances. Then, after an intermission, U2 came on around 8:45. They played a full set, plus two encores. The show ended around 10:30.

Because of the stage set up, we were able to get pretty close. There is a main stage, and then a ring around the main stage. There were seats between the main stage and the ring, and the band used a rotating bridge to move from one stage to the other. We were only about 20 feet from the outside ring. Unfortunately I'm pretty short and still had to deal with heads and shoulders above me. But if I angled myself just right, I was able to see the drummer for most of the show. I got a bunch of good views of the Edge as well. The pictures below are all from Nick's camera-phone. They are better views than what I could see, but it does give you an idea of how close we actually were.

Bono on the bridge between the stages.

The Edge on the bridge between the stages.

The band performing on the main stage.

The light show display.

I absolutely loved this concert. It is my favorite one so far. Nick isn't a U2 fan, and he still enjoyed the show. A large part of why I loved the show so much is because U2 is my favorite band. I like the music for the other concerts I've attended, but I didn't know the songs as much. At this concert, I was able to jump (my equivalent of dancing) and belt my heart out and it was great to be one with the music and the band, and the other people at the show. It was the best birthday present Nick could have given me.

After the show we went back to our hotel, got about 6 hours of sleep and headed home the next morning.

Between the sword fighting, sharks, and the best concert so far, this weekend was amazing, and my favorite weekend. Thanks for the honeymoon Pookie!

Installing my flowerbed

Labor Day is past and I can tell fall is coming. Last week I started wearing a light jacket to work. Some of the trees are changing from green to yellow. My dahlias are blooming. The rest of the garden (flowers and vegetables) are winding down for the year.
This also means it is time to start planning my flower garden for next year, by preparing beds and selecting spring bulbs.
So, over the three-day weekend, I installed (or expanded) my flower bed. It is to the right of the driveway, running against the south-side of the septic mound and parallel the raspberry bed down to the tree near the end of the driveway. (I have a map of the entire yard on my Easter 2009 post.)
(Sorry for the poor quality pictures. My real camera is MIA so I'm stuck using my phone.)


I have hostas and phlox transplanted so far.

I'll be adding crocuses to the hosta part of the flowerbed, and I'll transplant some hydrangea to go in front of the phlox. There will be peonies by the septic mound, covering the access pipes. I'll have my dahlias behind the peonies/septic pipes. Hollyhocks will run along the back of the bed parallel to the raspberries, until they reach the phlox. I'll throw in some bearded and Dutch irises, day lilies, Asiatic lilies, daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths.
Once I'm done with my planting and the mulching (with the huge pile in the background), I'll be putting some grass seed over the dead spot in front of the flower bed. (That spot was going to be my flower bed, before I realized it was way too wide, before it got way to weedy, and before I learned about proper landscaping techniques.)
And, I start the Master Gardener's program tomorrow!

Dahlia Mystery

Something has been taking my dahlias. When I got home from work last Tuesday, one of my dahlias was missing. It was three feet tall, and had a flower on it, and it was gone! All of it. There was a hole in the ground where the bulb used to be, and there was crumbly dirt in the hole.
My initial thought was that someone came into my yard and dug it up. The dirt around the hole was smooth and compacted, like someone used a shovel.

But this evening, I took a quick walk through my dahlias and found another one missing. This one was over 4 feet tall, and tied to a stake. The plant below the tie was gone without a trace. But the plant above the tie, with a flower and several bulbs, was sitting on the ground, still connected to the stake. I figured if someone stole the plant, they would have taken the flowers too.

Any ideas?

Holy Squash!

I got back from a family reunion in Colorado, and found these growing from my summer squash plant. (Sorry it's so blurry--camera phone picture.)
I guess it makes up for the artichoke.

Reflections on the Garden, Summer 2009

I apologize for going so long without an update. Life has been keeping me busy. And on the days I'm not busy, I've been too exhausted, mentally, to post anything here.
I still feel worn out, but I am contemplative about the yard right now, and where better to share those thoughts than here.
I'm about halfway through the growing season and here's a list of successes, and non-successes, and items that fall in between.

Success:
Beets
Arugula
Cabbage
Sugar Snap Peas
Sweet Peas
Lettuce

Semi-Success:
Broccoli (They aren't producing a whole lot.)
Tomatoes (I lost a lot of the seedlings, and the ones I grew from seed aren't doing well.)
Frisee (I think I just waited too long to harvest it.)
Spinach (I think I just waited too long to harvest it.)

Non-Success:
Starting a bunch of plants from seed in January
My marigold border
Asparagus from seed
Strawberries from seed
Artichokes (I got one bloom, one tiny bloom that isn't doing anything, 2 plants not producing, and that is out of about 100 artichoke seeds that were started)

Still Waiting to See:
Peppers (Still too small, but a few are flowering)
Eggplant (Look like seedlings)
Brussels Sprouts (Looking Good)
Watermelon (Looking Good)
Winter Squash (Looking Good)
Summer Squash (Looking Good)

So, what I've learned from this:

1. Make a better effort harvesting my produce
2. Do a planting rotation on peas, beets, salad greens
3. Start most seeds later
4. Start artichokes earlier, transplant them sooner, and keep them in the basement longer
5. Harden off my plants
6. Don't bother with seed starts for: squash/melons, peas, salad greens, strawberries, or asparagus
   
7. Don't inter-crop broccoli or cabbage with peppers or tomatoes (broccoli and cabbage are way too big)
8. Do inter-crop beets with tomatoes and peppers. It helps keep weeds back, and they are a good size.
   

And here are some pictures:

My first spinach harvest. This was from "thinning" the plants. It was honestly my best spinach harvest, because I slacked off on all the rest, until the plants bolted and it was too late.

The peas as they were growing. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of them at their prime. Now they are turning brown and falling off the trellis. But just imagine the green plants growing all the way to the top of the trellis, and you can imagine what they were like at their peak.

This is my artichoke plant when I first realized I had an actual flower (the part you eat).

My artichoke flower was still really small, but since it was starting to open, I realized I had to pick it. I wish I could say it was the best artichoke ever, but it wasn't. It was on the tough side. Maybe I just needed to cook it longer, maybe it was because I picked it too late....


Here's a picture of my garden taken recently with my phone. I noticed a bunch of yellow birds sitting on top of the tomato cages and I was trying to get a picture of them. You can see the compost bin Nick made for me on the right.

It's Easter and There's a Bobcat in my Yard

So, when I left-off yesterday, Nick and I realized the project for the day was to work on the landscaping in the side yard and dig a trench to help deal with the drainage.

So, we got out the shovels and started digging. After about 10 minutes, Nick decided he wanted to get a pick axe, and took off for the hardware store to buy one. I continued digging.

Thirty minutes passed and Nick wasn't back yet. I thought it was taking him a while to run into town and was starting to get concerned. But I didn't worry too much, yet, and kept digging with the goal of connecting the hole I was working on to the hole he was working on. I felt that 6 feet of trench work would be a significant accomplishment. Once I finished it (probably after an hour), Nick still wasn't back yet. I went around the house to go inside and call him when I noticed someone coming down the road on a Bobcat. After a few seconds, I realized the driver was wearing an olive green shirt, just like Nick. Then I realized it was Nick.

It turns out that once he got to the hardware store, Nick remembered the store was closed on Easter, so what was typically a 24 hour rental was going to become a "til Monday morning" rental. He decided to rent a Bobcat.

So here's a bunch of before, during, and after shots.

Before:
(These shots were both taken last September, when we had the initial house inspection.)

Garden site, where 20x60 feet of sod needs to come up.

Unused driveway, where we'll run a trench to direct the water away
from the foundation; plus some grass would be nice.

Saturday work:

Nick using the Bobcat to dig a trench in the unused driveway.

Saturday's Results:

Unused driveway area, dug up.

Sunday work:

Nick lifting sod out of the garden.

Putting sod down along the dug up driveway area.

Close up of Nick putting down the sod.

It's coming along.

Sunday Results:

Dug out 20x60 food garden plot.

Finished laying the sod on the old driveway.

Nick applying finishing touches: grass seed.

Now, I don't want you to get the wrong impression. I know in all the pictures Nick is doing the work. When I wasn't taking pictures, I was helping get the sod off the Bobcat, filling in holes, and making the sod lay down as nicely as possible. Some of the spots were a foot thick. Sometimes the sod came off the Bobcat upside down, so I had to flip a lot of it over. Also, the sod wasn't in nice perfect rolls, or anything like that. The edges were jagged and there were a lot of chunks.

We definitely don't have a golf course grade lawn from this, but it is a huge improvement, the drainage coming off the hill should be a lot nicer. And, Mother Nature will level a lot of this out.

I can't imagine how much time this would have taken by hand. We're guessing Nick spent 10 hours on the Bobcat.

It's Spring!

I have to say that Spring has finally arrived to my corner of Wisconsin. Things have warmed up and its continued to stay pretty warm. Granted, there was a frost a couple nights last week, but Spring is definitely announcing itself.
The tulips I planted last fall with my mom, aunt and cousin started to come up. And a bunch of stuff that was already in the yard is starting to come up.
We started the day running to a horse farm where my roommate is boarding her horse. Then Nick and I went to an awesome garden and landscape store in South Saint Paul (or one of the suburbs in that area) called Gertens. It was amazing. It was basically a mall, but gardening stuff. We'll definitely be making a trip back when we start our full out yard planting.
After Gertens, we hit lunch at Champs and had our roommate wait on us. Nick splendidly split his drink all over the table, himself, and the floor. And I thought I was the clutz in the family.
Next Borders, where I bought WAY too many books. Then to Dick's Sporting Goods where we both made major purchases. After that, home.
Here's some of the things that were around the house after I got home today.

My tulips, that I planted. We had survivors!

I'm not sure what this is, but it looks like it will be a flower.

Look, bikes!

The bikes were the major purchase at Dick's. Nick had been thinking about a bike for a while now, so he could start riding to school. He convinced me to get one too, to help me with my exercise. We went for a very short, probably 5 minutes, bike ride. It was long enough to convince me to buy a new bike seat because that one hurt my rear. I think I have bruises.

After our short bike trip, we started doing garden stuff. I got out stakes and twine and staked out the 20x60 foot vegetable plot. I wanted to start digging it, but we want to move the grass there to a different spot on the yard, which was determined to be the part of our driveway that we aren't going to use anymore.

(We have a U-shaped driveway, but part of the second half of the U is on our neighbors land, and he is putting a fence up along between our yards, so we haven't been using that part of the driveway and will be filling it in.)

Before we can put the grass over the driveway, we need to dig it up. And that also involves fixing the bad drainage on our property. So, the next thing we did was start digging out new driveway. More about that after I get more pictures tomorrow.

Winter Gardening

On January 1st, I started my first batch of seeds (Tomatoes and artichokes). Pretty much every weekend since then has involved my garden. So I feel it is time to show it off.


These are the indoor greenhouses we bought at Fleet Farm (our new favorite store) for $25 each. (They were $50 each at ShopKo.) They are upstairs in the computer room, and I can smell the greenhousey-ness as I type. (The Kleenex box is sitting on my computer desk.) The greenhouse on the left belongs to Nick, the one on the right is mine.


This is our basement set up with our grow lights. We aren't using regular florescent lights. We are basically using aquarium lights that "stimulate plant growth." Each light is 4 feet long. The table is big enough for about 6 rows of lights. Part of my container garden from last year is on the floor under the table. All those plants are dead though.

My 144 Marigold seedlings, to go around the garden.

My peas (sugar snap and snow), along with some squash and a few other items. The peas are doing too well. I'm going to have to come up with some sort of transplantable trellis for them.

Emerald Green artichokes. These were part of my January 1st plantings. They have 180 to 360 days to harvest, and need to go through a "winter" period before they produce. They are in the basement to go through their "winter" period now. The containers are made from newspaper, and I feel it is very ironic that my office Wall Street Journal issues are being used for gardening. Each pot is about 4 inches high and 2 inches in diameter.


These are supposed to be beets, and I'm supposed to be able to eat them in April. I wonder if it is too cold in the basement for them. I planted them 2 weeks ago, and nothing. Its not safe to bring them upstairs and put them in a window. The cats already used my kitchen salad greens window boxes as a litter box.

Annual Weigh In

I had my annual doctor's exam this past week, which includes my annual weigh-in. I don't own a scale, and nor do I want to own a scale. So, I only get on one once a year, when I have my physical.
Ever since I got out of the Army (in 2004), I've been gaining weight at the rate of about 10 pounds a year.
I did not gain any weight this year!
This was a major relief. While I do enjoy food, I don't consider myself a glutton. I don't eat many sweets, I don't eat all my food from McDonald's (it averages to about 1 fast food hamburger meal a month). I was starting to think there were health issues associated with my weight, such as a thyroid problem, because I thought my sedentary lifestyle weight would have plateaued 20-30 pounds ago.
So, now that I've reach my plateau, I will be turning my weight around and beginning the process of losing it. I've already started making changes to my eating habits. Now I need to stop coming up with excuses to not exercise, like my cold Wisconsin winters. (Hello -20 weather.. I thought that only happened in Fairbanks!)

Tattoo

I've been thinking about a tattoo for a long time. I first got the idea into my head when I was on crutches, in the Army, in language school, working out each day with one of the SF guys in my class. My arms were starting to tone pretty nicely, and I thought it could be neat to get one of those arm bands. Then I remembered that tattoos are permanent and when I'm an old lady with flappy skin, that tattoo is going to look really silly. So I didn't do it, and the idea went away.
Then I met Nick and we stared dating, and occasionally he'd harass me about getting a tattoo. My response was always "No, they're permanent." But it did get me to thinking. I knew immediately I didn't want to get a rainbow, star or Tinkerbell on my ankle. I didn't want anything cliche. If I were to get a tattoo, I'd want it to be symbolic--Something I'd be happy having on my body forever.
I thought a Celtic knot could be cool. (I was thinking about something along that theme when I thought about the armband.) It would be a nod to my heritage, my English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry. So I contacted an artist friend of mine, Bobbie, (also on deviantART) and asked her to draw something up for me. I wanted a Celtic knot, with Heather flowers worked into it.

Bobbie's drawing for my tattoo.

After I got the picture from Bobbie, I tried contacting a tattoo place in town, but they took to long getting back to me. So I stopped by a tattoo place in the next town; they set up an appointment for a week later (I don't know why they couldn't do it right away).
Last Saturday I went to my appointment, and received my tattoo. It hurt. It hurt a lot. I didn't cry, but I sure did complain and whimper, and I cussed a little bit.

Brian working on my tattoo.

My tattoo while it was getting worked on.

Basically, they took a copy of Bobbie's image, and put it on carbon paper. Then they applied the carbon paper onto my body, and traced it with the tattoo needle. The process took about 45 minutes. After he was done he cleaned the ink off, bandaged it up, and sent me on my way with an instruction sheet. The next day, Nick removed the bandage and cleaned it off for me. The antibacterial soap made the wound sting. The tattoo scabbed over along the ink lines, it itched some for a few days, and now it has pretty much healed up.

So now I have a permanent image on my right shoulder, but I'm very happy with it, and it is something I feel I can relate to for the rest of my life. I'm thinking about getting color added, eventually, but I haven't decided the coloring will be yet.

Roxi (With Pictures!)

A few weeks ago Nick told me he wanted to get a second cat, so Lulu would have a friend to play with. I told him he could if he kept the litter box clean. So Nick decided to get a self cleaning litter box. Now we have Roxi, and a litter box that looks like a robot.
Roxi has adapted well and is far more affectionate than Lulu. We were able to interact with Roxi on the first day, Roxi is more amenable to holding, and she'll hop up on my computer keyboard while I'm typing. Lulu likes to stick to herself.

Roxi in our paper compost bin.

Roxi in the bathtub checking out the soap suds after my shower.

Roxi and Lulu playing.

The litter box.