Happy Go Puppetry

Trick-or-Treat

2011-10-31T23:59:00.002-04:00

I hope everyone is having a happy Halloween! We are wrapping up our first Halloween in our new city and we've encountered some odd trick-or-treating behavior. Does anyone else live where a large percentage of the kids don't knock on the door? They walk onto the porch and say 'trick-or-treat.' Which I really couldn't hear through the door past the living room and into the kitchen where I was working on dinner... because trick-or-treaters come while it's time to make dinner. I don't mind stopping and handing out candy, I just don't know how many kids I may have missed because there was no knocking involved. Sometimes I would check because I heard a suspicious noise and often there would be no one there and once a bunch of kids were almost off the steps heading to the next house and the grown up called them back explaining that the the door is open now... I then made a sign for the front door to aide in communication.

This increased the knocking, mostly, but things still seemed odd. I remember trick-or-treating following a reliable protocol: knock-- door opens-- 'trick-or-treat'-- get candy (while the resident would say their comments i.e. Happy Halloween, or Brush Your Teeth)-- then we say 'thank you' and move on. To be honest when I was young enough to require a parent I remember we had the rule that we were only allowed to go to the houses of people we knew... which weren't that many in walking distance. But I digress. Here even with the help of the sign it went more like: knock-- 'trick-or-treat' -- door opens-- they stare at me-- I give them candy and wish them a good night-- they were pretty good at saying 'thank you'. Just kind of odd to me and I wonder if this is normal other places and I'm the odd one.

Other things I noticed included the practice of trick-or-treating for the absent or infantile, using a backpack as a collection vessel, and I noticed several of the neighbors (three I could see without leaving the front door) would hang out in their yard to distribute the candy. The last one makes a certain amount of sense if there's a rush or if you have a member of the family designated for that job-- but it never seemed quite that busy and I was trying to multitask. We had around 75 trick-or-treaters over a 2 1/2-3 hour evening. All in all it was fun. Yay Halloween. And yay for not having too much candy left over.

We're Expecting a Baby

2011-10-21T10:26:00.000-04:00

That's right! It's very early still and all I know is that I should be due in June (basic math)... but I haven't seen the doctor that gives us the date. I've seen the "the lab tells us you're pregnant" doctor, as well as "we're going to have to watch your thyroid levels very carefully" doctor, but not the "this is how your baby is doing" doctor... but I have an appointment.

So in keeping with blogging tradition I shall post the home pregnancy test photo. I know some folks think it's gross-- whatever-- for me it's the first tangible reason for why I've been sick for weeks.

So... ... We are Moving

2011-08-20T23:30:00.002-04:00

My sweet husband got a new job-- yay! So we are moving to Bay City Michigan, about 2 hours north of Lansing. The job is tenure-track (yay again) so for the first time we could potentially live in one spot for more than a few years-- yay! We tried to find a house to rent that was reasonably nice, reasonably priced and in a safe neighborhood. It proved to be difficult so we started to shop for houses to buy instead. It didn't hurt that there were more houses for sale than for rent.

To make things extra tricky the whole process took place while I was working in California. In my defense when I left I thought we would be renting. So, long story short, after looking at around 40 houses, many long phone conversations, and photo tours of the top candidates, we put an offer in on a house before I came home (so would could stand a chance to move in before classes start). I'm so glad to have a husband I can trust with this sort of thing... he's pretty picky.

I did get to see the house during the inspection and I think he did a good job shopping. We just closed on this house so now that it's too late to jinx it all I would like to show you the photos that he showed me through his flickr account during our decision making process... I'll spare you the photos of the runner ups. Here is a tour of our house with somebody else's stuff inside.

Let's begin:

This is the internet, this is not remotely private... you know, with all three readers I have at times, so I'm not going to post a photo of the front of our house... that would just be irresponsible. But I will post it on facebook or if you're not on facebook you can email me and, assuming I know you and I probably do, I'll email you a picture if you would like. In case you can't tell from the doodle, it's a little craftsman. I was told that according to the county assessor, the year it was built is not known but zillow.com said 1914... but that's zillow. We'll be safe and say pre-WWII.

On with the tour!

Standing at the front door and looking to your right you see the living room fireplace.

Standing near the fireplace, looking back on the rest of the living room. The open door to the left is the front door. The closed door facing us is a half bathroom. The open doorway to the left leads to the den. The ground floor has a circular floor plan so we'll get to the den a bit later. Lynda is our awesome realtor (she's been so great!), she does not come with the house. But if anyone reading this is in the Bay City area and is looking to buy or sell a house I will totally give you her number because you should totally call her... ... totally! (remember my reference to the 40 or so houses Dennis looked at? yeah, she's awesome)

Another view of the fireplace wall. See the arch on the left?

This is a better view of that arch through which you can see the dining room and then, after that, you see the kitchen. But the kitchen will have to wait until after the dining room. I know this is exciting but you'll have to patient-- there's a system!

This photo shows the bay-type bump to the side of the dining room.

This is looking back onto the rest the of dining room and gives you a peek at the coffered ceiling.

I like the feeling this ceiling brings to the room and the house, it, and the staircase, are the type of touches we love in older homes.

How here is the first view of the kitchen... it's not as yellow as it looks in the picture. The kitchen was done in 2008. It seems to be in good shape and has significantly more room than our current kitchen. It has plenty of power outlets along the counters. I am looking forward to the improved kitchen. There are things that I would have done differently. Functionally it's weird that the dishwasher is awkwardly far from the sink and that there is no garbage disposal, just odd for a new kitchen.

Looking back on the kitchen... ahhh the counter space... at long last! A kitchen in which we can house dishes and food!

To the right you see the door that leads to the stairs that lead to the backdoor that leads to the backyard. Not visible in that stair well is another cupboard and more stairs that take you to the basement... those will be at the end of the tour. Now to the left is the breakfast nook.

At first I liked the wainscot but wasn't sure of the benches and table but I think they are growing on me. Each of the three sides can seat two adults comfortably-- although perhaps some cushions would make it more comfortable.

As we continue to the left from the breakfast nook we arrive at the den. It's not large so far we think that the tv will go in here. It is currently pink, something will be done about that. Through the door you can see the base of the stairs back in the living room.

Now that we have gone full circle we'll take a quick dash upstairs. The staircase could use a some love but it's sturdy.

What you can't see in this shot are the stairs off to the left and the first bedroom that is behind the camera. In this shot: the door to the right is the master bedroom, the first door to the left is the bathroom, the second door on the left is a tunnel of a closet and at the end of the hallway is the third and smallest bedroom.

These windows face the street and I suspect will have the best morning light. This bedroom is to the right at the top of the stairs.

This view shows the little nook in this room, cozy.

Here we have the master bedroom. I found it charming.

The closet on the right-hand wall of the master bedroom. Yes, the corner of the door is cut away.

Now we've come to the bathroom which is painted green which was a surprise to me because the picture never looked green on my monitor. While I like the bathroom I think the photo makes it look a little bit nicer than it is. The floor is vinyl/linoleum and the sink has a few cosmetic issues in person.

The tub/shower and a closet which makes up for the lack of medicine cabinet. I think the ventilation fan is good so hopefully we can avoid moisture issues.

Like all the upstairs closets this hall closet will need some creative thinking to get the best use from it. It continues on for another five feet or so.

Now the last bedroom. It's the smallest and still bigger than any room in our current house-- which speaks less to the bigness of the little room and more to the smallness in which we have been living.

This further illustrates the nature of all of the upstairs closets, slanted and needing a makeover. The slant is why the house is considered 1 1/2 stories. These are not as bad as some of the other houses, I believe we can get the closets here to actually function.

--Okay, you made it through all of the living spaces, you've almost made it to the end-- congratulations!

Now here's a photo of part of the basement. We have more pictures but who really wants to see them right? I'll sum up in that it's the full footprint of the house, tall enough work in comfortably, and it's delightfully dry.

Our one car garage with carport. Since the garage will most likely be used as a glorified garden shed we will most most likely still have one car that gets snowed on unless we go down to one car which I am giving some thought. The back yard is pretty much a blank slate and I can't seem to stop myself from thinking about what to do with it-- but I'll save that for later.

Thanks for making it all the way to end! I know I'm excited but I also know that it's not as exciting when it's not your house. I'm glad to share and thanks for reading! Now I need to go pack!

Don't Mess With My Meds!

2011-05-04T15:44:00.002-04:00

I should have been for protective, but I didn't know what would happen. My doctor had me do some blood work to check my thyroid levels. The nurse practioner called to tell me that my levels where on the high side (which is what the blood work said) and that she would like to prescribe a slightly lower dose of my hormone replacement.

"Sure" I said... like an idiot.

For each of my thyroid scans I had to go off my replacements completely and during that process I felt mostly fine so my reasoning lead me to believe that just a mere decrease of a mere 25 mg would be hardly perceivable.

Wrong. Very Wrong.

Now it wasn't all that bad. The thing about these hormone replacements is that they are long acting. A change in dose takes a whole six weeks to take full effect. This can be a very good thing, say, if I forget to take my pill one day it won't make me crash-- that's a very good thing. But about three weeks after taking the new slightly lower dose I started to drag and it took me a few days to realize why. But I would have to wait another three weeks before my next round of blood work to show that this was bad and that it needed to be fixed, which I did.

This was a new experience for me. I've felt tired before, but not like this. I've been lazy before, yet this was different. Tired, but not sleepy, and sleep didn't make me less tired. I faked it, I did what I needed to do and even some things that I just wanted to do when I was coasting on the fake mustered energy. That actually helped a little, it felt good to get some things done but I would pay for it later in extra tiredness. I made it a point to get up and still do things. I know sometimes acting tired or lazy can cause additional tiredness or laziness. It's an odd sensation to just 'run out of gas' especially when I wasn't trying to do anything extraordinary or physically demanding. After a while it just got frustrating. Immensely frustrating.

It was finally time to do blood work again. The next day I started taking my old pills because at that point I didn't care what the results would say, I concluded the experiment was a failure. Typically the nurse practitioner calls me the day after I receive my copy of the lab results to make further adjustments. When no call came that week I made an appointment.

During the appointment she said that my numbers looked fine and I'm grateful that when I told her that the new dose wasn't working for me and that I felt normal with my old dose she agreed to write a new prescription for my old dose. Funny, I was half-expecting her to say 'well you're numbers say you're fine' and leave it at that-- not because of my interactions with her in the past but just because I know that medical professionals can do that sometimes. I was prepared to get defensive... I'm glad that was not necessary... I didn't want to hurt her.

About three weeks after that (long acting is also code for slow acting) I started to feel a slight improvement. I'm now feeling pretty normal and getting back into the usual swing of things.

yay!

Fire Starters

2011-02-23T23:31:00.004-05:00

Emergency preparedness is a great thing. There's more I need to do to feel adequately prepared-- but I did make some fire starters. Some of these were part of a Christmas gift for my brother-in-law (yeah, he's kind of hard to shop for) but having the deadline helped me get it done. I'm finally getting around to posting about it. It was a fun experience I would like to share.

First off, fire starters are great to have in your emergency/camping kit. They function to decrease or eliminate the amount of kindling you need to build a fire because in less-than-ideal situations nice dry kindling can be hard to come across in quantity. So these little guys are easy to light and help get any larger pieces of wood ablazin'. But if you go shopping for them online you will find that they can get a bit pricey... especially for a great number of them.

There are several ways to make your own for a lot less. I made just two kinds (both found in my Cub Scout Leader How-To Book-- handy). The first is essentially coiled strips of corrugated cardboard with a cotton twine wick nestled inside a shallow can then filled (or mostly filled) with melted wax-- it's called a "buddy burner" in the scout book.

See the wax? This is an 11 pound block I bought at Micheals. There might be cheaper places to get large amounts of wax but with a 50% off coupon it wasn't too painful and not bad considering that the rest of the materials are either found or re-purposed.

Next I called up someone I knew who loves her cats. You probably already know a person like this. She has many cats and loves them so much she goes through several small cans of cat food a day (these are also the softest cats I've ever met! seriously). I asked her to save some for me which she did gladly, she even cleaned them out for me! So yay for free!

Here is one with the cardboard coiled inside. I first did a test strip to figure out wide and long each strip needed to be. These were 1 1/4" wide and 29" in length but it can be several strips to add up to 29" not just one long piece. It's not hard to find a beat up cardboard box and I cut them with my rotary cutter which made the operation fast and easy. The wicks are cotton twine (used our used garden twine) with a knot at the bottom to help it not slip out.

I then broke up the big block of wax and melted pieces in a double boiler. Now you don't want to use your food pots for this. I have a pot that I have designated for non-food use (dying small pieces of fabric, shaping thermoplastic etc.) that I boiled the water in and used a large can in which I melted the wax and then poured into the prepared cat food cans. In the future I would use another coupon and just get the metal pitcher designed for making candles-- I suspect it wouldn't dribble as much as the big tomato juice can, that was a problem.

The second type of fire starter (also found in the cub scout book) I made with cardboard egg carton flats, filled with sawdust and then filled with melted wax. *tip* keep the plastic top that comes with the eggs and place it under the carton part so they nest together to catch any wax that may seep through the cardboard (when it cools it can be chipped out and melted down again).

So this is how many fire starters 11 pounds of wax makes... okay maybe more like 10.8 pounds-- I had a little left over and spilled some on my floor (so if you're ever in my kitchen watch out for the slick spots). 51 buddy burners and 60 egg cup starters. Not bad.

Okay so I made fire starters to help be prepared for an emergency or even just to go camping or backpacking. It would be plain irresponsible to neglect to test them! hee hee! For some reason I had it in my head that the book said the tuna can sized buddy burner would burn for about 40 minutes. As I check the book now it says no such thing... curious. But at the time that was what I was expecting. This is what a timed trial showed:

So while I did get chilly (I was in Sacramento at the time so it wasn't as bad as it would have been in Michigan) I was pleasantly surprised how long and how strong the flame was from the buddy burner. Three of them together could form a small campfire. The egg cup starter went up really quickly which can be nice if your fire only need a little help and is pretty dry.

Of course a starter such as these would be useless if you don't have a way to ignite them. For that we have strike anywhere matches made water resistant by painting them with clear nail polish stored in a waterproof container with a strip of sand paper (although Dennis can light them with his thumb-- more cool than the dudes that crush aluminum cans on their foreheads for sure). We also have flint and steel with a ziplock bag of dryer lint as well as a few water resistant lighters.

So figuring that each buddy burner lasts an average of 1:05 and each egg cup starter lasts 9 minutes then the total fire time form this batch of starters would be about 64 hours and 15 minutes. sweet!

Too Bad... ... So Sad

2011-02-01T00:34:00.000-05:00

Oh Drat! I'm a little sad to have this glass break. We received a set of eight of these adorable glasses (each one is different) as a wedding gift from my mother-in-law's neighbor who had them wrapped up for decades. I don't know how old they are but I like them quite a lot. I understand why people never use their favorite things, in order to preserve and protect those things, but in another way it is also sad to have favorite things that never see the light of day. All in all they are just things and it makes me happy to use them... and I do try to be careful with them. Oh well... no more blue bells.

Our set of eight is now a set of six. This one broke while I was washing it and the first one was bitten to death by a child a couple of Thanksgivings ago (thankfully the child was not injured). I had misgiving about a youngster using one of the glasses I like so well, true, but I did not want to offend the parents, and the child did seem to be very mellow. It wasn't done on purpose... and I have never heard of such a thing so I didn't think to ask if they were a biter. Everyone was surprised by that one.

Grandma's Rolls

2011-01-28T09:49:00.010-05:00

A Phillips family favorite. My Grandma Lucy made wonderful rolls that made Thanksgiving complete. When I was a kid the Phillips family would meet at Grandma's house for Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. To keep up busy (and out of trouble) Grandma would give us kids the scraps of this dough to play with at the counter (in sight but out of the way). If we wanted we could for the dough into festive shapes (snowmen and reindeer etc.) and then she would put them in pans and bake them for us. I thought this was great!

This past holiday season my uncle Merritt shared his recipe the Grandma's Rolls on facebook. It didn't take long until other members of the family noticed that his recipe that he had gotten form Lucy was different than other Grandma's Rolls recipes (all from Lucy). Some year we will need to do a rolls bake-off to find the winner but until then I will share with you the recipe for Grandma's Rolls (the real recipe of course!). I am bias toward this recipe because 1) it is the only one I have used and 2) my mother wrote the recipe while watching Grandma make rolls so I trust it knowing that, in fact, she did make rolls this way-- at least once.

Another way I know they are the best rolls ever... I'm eating one right now.

Here is a half recipe (for when you don't have a dozen people to feed) Now it's a little involved but it's worth it!

Grandma's Rolls via Kristen

yields one full 9x13 pan of dinner rolls and a pan of cinnamon rolls (also tradition) but it varies based on how thick you roll the the dough etc.

You will need 1/2 Cup Mashed Potatoes (no lumps)if you don't already have some you'll want to start that first.

pour 1 can Evaporated Milk in a large liquid measuring cup, then add regular milk until you have 2 1/4 Cups --- then in a saucepan scald the milk and let it cool until it is now longer hot, but still warm.

Proof the yeast by dissolving 2 Tbs. Yeast into 1/4 Cup Warm Water and 1/2 Tbs. Sugar

While the yeast gets puffy,

Ideally in a large mixer (Grandma had a Bosch, I have a KitchenAid)

Beat 3 Eggs and combine with 1/2 Cup + 1/3 Cup Vegetable or Canola Oil

Add the mashed potatoes and the now just warm scalded milk and the puffy yeast

Once those are incorporated

Add 3/4 Cups Sugar and 1/2 Tbs. Salt

Slowly we add the Flour (6-8 Cups of it) 1/2 cup at a time allowing the flour to mix in between. You want to be careful not to add more flour than is necessary to keep the lightness of the rolls we are looking for. I try to add just enough flour so the dough is no longer shiny. It will still be a bit sticky but will not stick to the side of the bowl.

Dab the top of the dough with a small amount of oil, cover with plastic wrap or towel and let rise until about double (about half and hour in a nice warm spot but it can take longer).

When the dough is about ready you want to prep the space that you will form the rolls. Liberally apply flour to a clean smooth surface (a counter top or a very large cutting board). Melt a stick of butter and brush the bottom and sides of the pans you will be using (I like to have a butter assistant).

With flour on your hands pull off a portion of dough and roll approximately 3/8-1/2" thick with a rolling pin or a cylindrical drinking glass. With a biscuit cutter or the opening of of a drinking glass cut out as many circles that you can (my uncle Merritt cuts them into squares... he's very efficient, but I have not tried it that way). Dip the bottom half of the circle of dough in the melted butter and place in the pan buttered side down and fold the unbuttered half on top (I just brush butter between the layers as I fold them over). Transfer the unused dough from counter top to a plate to wait. Repeat until you have filled the pan with rolls. Brush the tops with butter and cover to let rise until they are the size you want your dinner rolls to be (it's disappointing if your in a hurry and put them in too soon hoping they'll rise a little more while they're in the oven).

If you only want dinner rolls just keep going until you run out of dough (you can re-roll the scrap dough). Since the scrap dough will have slightly more flour incorporated I like to use it for cinnamon rolls. To do so I roll out a large rectangle of dough as thin as I am comfortably able. The thinner the dough the more layers in the finished roll and the less space between sweet cinnamonny goodness.

Then slather it with melted butter, it helps the goodies stick. There are a few ways it can go from here. I typically apply a cinnamon and sugar mixture (fresh cinnamon is best)-- enough to soak up the butter but not dry-- and crumble on some brown sugar. If you want you can add raisins and/or chopped walnuts/pecans etc.

Before you roll it up decide whether you want a smaller number of large cinnamon rolls or if you want a larger number of smaller rolls-- that will determine which way you roll up your rectangle of dough. (starting with the long side for small rolls or starting with the short side for larger rolls... it's all in the number of revolutions) When you roll it up you want to keep it snug and even forming a log shape. To get a few more rolls out of it I sometimes roll the log back and forth to stretch it out a little more.

(you could toss this baby into a buttered loaf pan to get very tasty bread with a cinnamon sugar swirl-- my sister has done this-- when she used to eat gluten-- she liked it)

For rolls you take about 12" of sturdy thread and slide it under the log about an inch from the end. Bring the ends of the thread upward and around the log so they align on the top. Now pull the ends of the thread to slice a disc off the end. Place the disc swirly side up in a buttered pan. Repeat the thread action until you're out of dough. The first and last disc turn out a little wonky but no body cares. When the pan is full pat the tops with melted butter and sprinkle on some more of the cinnamon/sugar mixture. Cover. put in a warm place and let rise.

With your oven rack in the middle position, preheat your oven to 400 degrees while the rolls are rising and when they are about doubled in size bake for 15-20 minutes (but start checking them around 10 minutes just in case, you don't want to go though all this and then burn them... that's really no fun).

The cinnamon rolls in the back had not been baked yet and needed to rise a bit more. Turkeys are still 99 cents per pound around here so we're having a mini Thanksgiving this week-- yay for cooking a lot one day to feed us for a week. It's weird to cook a turkey and not have company over... but I guess it's weird to cook a turkey for a Monday night.

Oh, and you can freeze the dough too! So far I've had it work best to freeze it just before the first rise, thaw it in the fridge overnight then shape into rolls, rise, bake, yum!

Fun with Contact Paper

2011-01-26T13:57:00.013-05:00

When the weather is not very friendly outside it's good to have some things to do inside. In elementary school it was called a "rainy day schedule" meaning that we couldn't go outside to play which we were always bummed about but that we could play board games and the like in our classroom. While this wasn't exactly appealing I was often surprised how it ended up being quite fun and how we still didn't want recess (in any form) to end.

Now that I'm big I have several options of things to keep me busy when doing much of anything outside would not be great fun. I had been thinking about it for quite a while so it was fun to take a morning and do it.

I decorated my living room wall with stylized dandelion fluff. I cut the shapes out of white contact paper (shelf/drawer liner) then applied them to the wall making sure that a few of the seeds were visible through the floating frames that hold a couple of our wedding pictures.

Using contact paper to make wall decals is a very affordable DIY alternative to vinyl transfers. It was it's drawbacks, for instance it's harder to evenly space letters if your putting up words although it can still be done, I feel the MUCH lower price of the contact paper outweighs any hassles.

And of course because no decorating post would be complete without a dreary before picture complete with bad lighting-- like the infomercials that make the most ordinary tasks (like washing your car) back breaking work. Oh, the jars of tomato sauce on the dining room table were being used as paperweights to hold the contact paper nice and flat.

Here is a close up of one of the seeds. The toys in front is part of the collection of toys we found while working in the garden.

I made a stencil to make things go faster and so each one would be roughly the same size and shape. I flipped the stencil over so the stems weren't all curving the same direction because that would look weird.

So as I'm just about finished sticking them to the wall I'm pretty jazzed and I call my sister to share my jazz-ed-ness. She likes to do projects and I knew she could relate to how I was feeling with almost being done and happy with the results. "That's been around for, like, two years" wasn't the response I was expecting. So yeah, while the idea is not entirely new, mine look different, I like them, they make me happy, I did it in one morning and it cost me 50 cents in materials.

Nina Pinckard Fechtner

2011-01-08T23:55:00.005-05:00

I'm still in shock. Today I learned that my friend Nina passed away. It doesn't feel real. I've work with her for every summer for over ten years. Nina worked at the CSUS doing everything for the costume shop. She's amazing. The first thing I learned from Nina was about circular cuffs and the last thing I learned was about fabric flowers... and there is a lot in between.

She was smart and concise with a great attention to detail. Last summer at the Fair she made the overalls for the farmer on the ladder in one of the small window displays (she did most of the figurine costumes) and made tiny clasps on the overall straps and was a little bummed that the size of the brads that she used for the buttons to a bit to large to allow the clasp to actually function as a real one would.

It seems a little wrong that out of the vast vastness of Nina's wonderful work I would pick this to demonstrate her attention to detail.

As a freshman I was intimidated by her because she was so busy and possessed knowledge and skills I could not fathom. Over time I found her to be my friend and a source of information and inspiration. She helped me become a better at my craft. She taught me through her example to not rush and slap a project together (although there are times when that is called for) but to work on improving my skills and that speed will come but quality can seldom be added later. Her costumes looked great on the inside as well as the outside. She was about Quality. I really enjoyed working with her.

When I see pictures of my wedding dress (which is daily when I am home) I think of her. I was planning on making my own and she said she would help me with it. I met her in the costume shop and we started sketching. After establishing a vintage feeling silhouette Nina paused and said "let me see what we have." She disappeared into the room of closets and emerged with a vintage lace dress that they have had for years and never used. More amazingly, it fit. Nina made some slight alterations and sold me the dress for $75 (which she used to take the students who worked in the costume shop to the end of the year drama banquet). I would really like to know how many wedding dressing Nina worked over the years, I'm sure the number is astounding.

I am glad to have known her and sad to think that I won't get to continue to know her better. My heart goes out to her family during this time of unexpected loss.

Clear Scan #2

2010-11-17T16:23:00.001-05:00

Very good news! My thyroid scan went very well. I needed two clear scans in a row and that what we got! So now I am finished with thyroid scans and getting radioactive every six months-- I won't miss that at all... well... playing with the giegercounter was fun, and being called 'hot' and we were able to make a lot of jokes about it... But this is a good thing and six months from now will be much more fun than getting ready for another scan!

Also I never crashed off my hormones like I was told to expect. I caught a cold and so I had a sore throat and a cough which was no fun but nothing like the horror stories I've heard. It got to the point that Dennis decided that apparently I do not need a thyroid and that thyroids are surprisingly optional. Which is fun to joke about (I had thoughts of making a "thyroid optional" t-shirt to wear to my scan) but I feel the need to give credit where credit is due.

Since this is a public blog I will keep it brief. At the beginning of all this, before the surgery, I received a priesthood blessing (it's a very awesome Mormon thing... if you have questions about it let me know and we can talk about it). It was a powerful experience in which I was told that I would be alright and that I would have strength. I truly believe this made the difference, why the doctor would look at my blood work numbers and tell me I should be feeling sick.

I am Grateful.

...and radioactive...

... Before the Break... Part 4 More Work on the Fair Displays

2010-11-15T19:48:00.000-05:00

These small figures where for another county display at the fair. This display had several windows with different vignettes.

Sleeping old man with snot-nosed kid. (note all the fun outdoors-ie equipment of all the fun things one might do in that county)

A gold miner (because there used to gold in the county and folks would mine for it). Each of these figures are about 12 inches tall.

For the train conductor I channel Stan Laurel/ Dick van Dyke. Makes a fun face to make.

The romantic wine couple are a larger scale. Each head is about six inches tall. If you look closely (or click on the picture) you will notice that the lady had a thyroidectomy scar. After she was sculpted I asked Richard if she could have a scar like me (I may have even mentioned that thyroidectomies are never represented at the fair). He looked at me (perhaps to see if I was serious) then he said okay. I was really surprised at how happy this made me. So when I took the figure to Francine for painting I showed her my scar and she was all for it too. I love the people I work with! It's subtle, just like the real thing.

This one is of a farmer on a tipping ladder. Check out the crazy detail Nina put into the costume-- overall clasps!

This was a quick assignment Richard had me do for another county where we needed two silhouettes inside the tent-- storytime.

The Mark Twain relief and jumbo book were for Calaveras county. I wish I got a good picture of the whole display but none of them turned out. Mark and Dave not only had to design and build a 5' platform that would hold a Jeep (with a pile of props and mechanics) but also design and build a way for the Jeep to get up there. They ended up building a special cradle that would allow a forklift to pick it up but only contact the jack points. That was an exciting day.

It was hard for me to bring myself to replicate the original cover art on the book because... well... it's weird lookin'.

Here is another one of our counties, we do several of them. For me work at the fair goes in several fairly distinct phases. First I carve and sculpt and make things (puppet-type things.. I seem to have a niche for people and animals mostly). When everything for me to make is made (although things to be made can pop up later in the process) I move over to painting. It takes me about a day and a half to change gears and get into the painting groove. Sometimes I paint the things I sculpted sometimes I don't-- we have a very very good crew so I don't feel overly possessive, although when I do have a pretty clear idea of what I would like to see I communicate it (i.e. thyroidectomy scar).

When the painting is winding down the work shifts to placement--setting up the items to be displayed-- often involves pins and hot glue-- sometimes involves artifacts I'm nervous about touching (Richard will often do the really important ones). Placement is like a puzzle. Getting all the items you need to display in a specific space in an aesthetically pleasing way. Sometimes you have too much product with too little space and sometimes you have to make what you have look like more than it is to fill the space you've got. This is also the time when everything starts coming together and starts looking like a fair display. The finishing touches. Then I'm on clean up, dusting and the like, and sometimes some paint touch ups etc.

Those are the main jobs I do. There are many other people doing many other things that get the display ready for judging. It's great to work such a group!

... Before the Break... Part 3 Work on the Fair Displays

2010-11-11T23:44:00.001-05:00

This is the main project I worked on this summer for the California State Fair County Displays. For this display I sculpted all the heads and hands that took about a week of work as I recall. This is the first time I've actually felt fast. I like to think it comes from years of being slow, but paying attentions to what I was doing. I also made the fish, the dog and the instruments (the fiddle took the longest) as well as a tiny little bird that pops up out of the lady's hat and the boat with oar.

Looking at these photos I really miss how the fair used to have theatrical lighting for the fair displays-- it look so much nicer-- but I'm amazed with all the budget cuts that they are still doing the county displays at all so i guess I should just be grateful... and take my photos before everything is in place.

This is how this display looked as a whole. My dear puppetry professor Richard Bay designs them and Mark Baker of Fantasy Builders heads up the carpentry/engineering/ animation. They are great to work with... and I'm not just saying that because they hire me... but I'm glad they do!

... Before the Break... Part 2 my birthday

2010-11-01T17:24:00.005-04:00

This is the first time I've been home for my birthday for eight years. I must say it was quite nice. Games were played, cake was eaten, fun was had! It really was fun to get to spend some purely fun time with the family. It was even worth the sunburn (my fault for forgetting my hat).

The part I got pictures of (on my camera anyway) was the pinata Jayna made! Really how can I not love this girl!?

Seriously!

She said she chose a spider because she felt responsible for making me afraid of them-- which she totally is! ;P The inside was filled with fun little toys and Reese's peanut butter cups which just so happen to be my favorite... and I'm guessing someone knew that! Thanks everyone for a really fun day that I still look back on and smile!

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T18:18:00.006-04:00

I'm interrupting the summer recap posts to wish everyone a happy and festive Halloween!

These are our jack-o-lanterns for this year. We were joined last weekend by our very good friend, Bill. Anyone who knows Bill would agree that he's pretty awesome. I could go on and write a huge post about the great friend he's been but I know he wouldn't really like me to do that so I'll just sum it up with the words: roll-on turf. Needless to say we were pretty happy to have him for the weekend.

We had a great weekend of frisbee golf, cider mills, waffles, donuts, a corn maze, a ham steak, movies and nature walks (sorry no pictures... having too much fun). This has become a mostly-annual tradition starting in Connecticut that I look forward to keeping! My only complaint is that the weekend was too short. Thanks Bill!

...Before the Break... Part 1 the Viking Puppets

2010-10-27T16:56:00.009-04:00

The next few posts will briefly update the happenings of the past several months. To do so I'll start with a pair of puppets that were commissioned, designed, built, and finally sent.

The client needed two viking muppet-style puppets a man and his daughter. These were the designs agreed upon:

Now both puppets had mechanisms inside their heads which adds to size, weight, and complexity. Each puppet has a thermoplastic 'skull' of sorts to support the rigging of the mechanisms.

The daughter had blinking eyes. Isn't she a lovely! If anyone sees a muppet-style puppet lady who is actually "really pretty" please let me know, I would love to see it! I think "pretty" and the across the face mouth are at odds with each other. I figure it is to be embraced.

The Fella had a horn on his helmet that needed to be able to slump forward and back up when needed (to be used as a fib detector, akin to Pinocchio's nose, which I thought was a cute idea of the client).

He also needed eyebrows that went up and down. As you see, apparently the mechanism controls my eyebrows as well. I always knew I made faces while puppeteering, it's still surprising to catch a photo of it in action... especially since in this photo I'm not even performing, we're just posing for pictures. sheesh!

He was a fun puppet to build and movable eyebrows are the most worth while bang for your buck mechanism if a mechanism must be had. ... just so you know... cuz.... well... it's good to know.

Thyroid Scan

2010-06-04T15:24:00.002-04:00

Last week I had a thyroid scan and was completely expecting to find that there were still thyroid cells. I had good reason to believe such because I've been feeling exceptionally well while being off of my replacement hormones-- which is exactly what happened last time. I felt tired for about two days but then a felt a wind of energy and decided to go with it. During that time we planted our garden (more on that later) and I got things done.

Much to my surprise the scan came back negative! WooHoo! Below you will find a visual comparison between my first scan and my most recent scan. The scan detects the radioactive iodine I ingested two days prior.

See how in November there is a very very bright bean shape in my neck and how there is absolutely NO bean in my neck in May? It is, you may notice, more concentrated in my stomach and bladder (again, a good thing meaning the radioactive iodine is just on it way through and not getting absorbed anywhere). What a difference 100 millicuries can make!

We are very happy about this! We will do another scan in January or February and if that one comes back negative as well then we will be completely finished with these scans... which will be fantastic-- even though these scans have been entertaining I'd be just fine not having them be a regular part of life!

yippee!

Blossoms!

2010-04-16T20:58:00.000-04:00

Of the many many wonderful things about Spring I'd have to say among the top five (up there with sunshine and bar-b-ques) are blossoms! It's such a brief period and will be gone before we know it so it's really worth the time to stop and soak it in a bit.

When else to otherwise ordinary trees look so fancy? But I must say the most exciting single blossom belongs to one of our adolescent pepper plants!

Yay! This is the first blossom to open (April 15th) we have a few other plants that are almost there all of which are from a variety called Healthy. Some of the Burans have some fairly developed buds. Lets hope this translates to early peppers. We'll see. You know you'll hear about it; what else do I have to blog about? There's the tomatoes of course which we have re-potted to yogurt cup sized containers. Now everything we started in two black plastic seed flats is currently held in 9 flats.

They spend their days outside and on chilly nights (which is still most nights) they come inside. Last night was their first night out... camping for seedlings.

getting so grown up!

Another garden update

2010-04-08T09:10:00.000-04:00

.

Gee these kids are growing fast. I had photos saved from the 23rd that I was going to post documenting the progress. Well, I didn't get to blogging last week (or two?) and I was astonished by just how out of date those pictures were. So, I took new pictures this morning so I could give a side by side comparison so you can see the growth over two weeks and two days.

first, the table set up:

on the 23rd

today

So not only was another shoplight added but since then the lights have had to get adjusted upward. *Pinky* Bouncey Balls were placed at the ends of the bar clamps to try to avoid potential unhappy happenings that would involve any part of one's head and the thin metal end of a bar clamp.

second, the plants:

pepper seedlings late last month

and tomatoes at the same time-- see how little?

The peppers continue to grow and see that pile of greenery towering behind them? Those are the tomatoes-- not so much like babies.

You can see that the peppers have been re-potted to give them more room-- they were starting to crowd each other out of light-- and that's bad.

I took pictures of the pepper potting process.

This is Dennis re-potting a pepper. First he carefully removed the plant form the seed starting compartment. With the use of a plastic knife he separated the soil from the container being careful to minimize damage to the roots.

He then transferred the seedling to a prepared pot (in this case a yogurt cup with holes drilled in the bottom and with some soil already inside) and added more potting soil where there was room.

Afterward we give them a good drink of water. We left them under the lights inside the next day or two help them recover.

I also wanted to show you my seedling nanny. I use them when leaving very small plants outside for the day. I made them last year after the starlings living in the eave of the house decided it would be great to snip the tips of some of our pepper seedlings. That was something I would like to not repeat. I figure if something really wants in it will succeed but it helps with the lazy opportunists. Our seedlings are too big to use the nannies now.

The latest picture of my favorite gardener. He likes vegetables. I like him.

Katy Spors

2010-03-19T10:45:00.006-04:00

I didn't know Katy as well as I would have liked. I truly regret not making the time to get to know her and her husband Paul better. You always think you have more time. That is not always the case as I was abruptly reminded last week when I heard of her sudden passing. This has affected me more than I might have guessed. She was so nice and so fun and she really did have a light about her-- really, she did, and not just in retrospect either. One of those glowing smiles for sure. The world is a little less bright without her and her smile.

It was a long ride down to her funeral in Indiana and I know that there were many people that would have liked to go but couldn't so I'm glad that since we could we went to support her husband and family as well as to be supported by the others who attended. It was clear that the effect she had on me was shared by so many others. I was told by someone who counted that there were 42 or 43 cars in the caravan between the church and the cemetery-- she was loved by very many I believe because it really didn't take long to love her and feel her friendship. We will also attend her Lansing memorial on Saturday.

I miss her and would like to better follow her example of faith and enthusiasm.

Back Yard Visitor

2010-03-14T09:04:00.001-04:00

For a few days last week I could look out my kitchen window and see this bunny. teehee! He seemed to be standing sentinel by the compost pile (just around the corner of the shed) between 5:30 and 6 :00 in the evening. I began to think it was a bunny style religious service since this is a spot where in the dead of winter pieces of mostly fresh veggies and such would magically appear-- not unlike manna. That's my theory.

It's nice to have the backyard visitors coming back.

cicles

2010-03-13T08:45:00.001-05:00

I was lucky and these icicles decided to be photographed well. These were hanging over our back porch. That is before I knocked them down-- icicles can be dangerous. This year I had one fall and hit my hand. The tip embedded into my mitten. It didn't hurt very much but it helped me gain a healthy respect.

This shot shows how the sky gets here at night sometimes. A weird dusty rosey sometimes kind of purpley color. It's pretty striking actually. I guess this is what they mean by light pollution.

As a California kid I still geek out about how neat they are. Amazing. You'd think I'd get over it by now... I hope I never do.

Butternut Squash Soup

2010-03-12T00:11:00.004-05:00

I want to like squash. I really do! The only problem is that I don't-- with the exception of pie of course. That is until this soup! Now I have hope. Hope that perhaps I have a gateway into squash! We'll see how that goes but for now I know now there are two squash dishes I enjoy-- and one isn't even a dessert. I'm so proud!

I used Alton Brown's recipe. I garnished with bacon and used a stick of string cheese as my spoon. This soup can be made with other types of squash or even cans of pumpkin puree. The fist time I made it I did not have enough butternut squash so I used a can of pumpkin to supplement and it worked well. My batches turned out really thick which is good in many ways except it makes an exceptional mess if you let it bubble on the stove without a lid-- so don't do that.

In the video he shows a great way to cut up hard winter squash... seems much safer.

This was a double batch of soup I made so I could can a portion for later so now I have five pints waiting for when I feel like having it again. Yay for pressure canners-- we'll see how they do from the shelf.

Spring

2010-03-11T16:44:00.006-05:00

We may not have seen the last of Old Man Winter but Spring is on it's way! The past week as been warm relatively speaking (low 60's) and we've been loving it. I still have some pictures of winter that will be coming in the next couple of posts.

We planted the seeds of our tomatoes last Saturday so soon we'll have some brand new babies. The pepper plants are getting bigger-- some are over 3" tall. It won't take long for the tomatoes to catch up and surpass the peppers-- I'll let you know when that happens... because I know you care and I care how you feel.

Seedling update

2010-02-26T14:00:00.004-05:00

We now have 45 visible seedlings in various stages of growth.

Some are relatively big and are starting to grow their first set of true leaves!

And some are still little. If Dr. Seuss had seedlings I think they would look like this one.

And some have yet to emerge (just imagine a picture of dirt).

This is our current growing set up. Not at all fancy. It's consists a cheap folding table, two heating mats from the pharmacy, and a 4' florescent shop light held hung from bar clamps which are clamped to boards which are in turn clamped to the cheap folding table legs. The plastic tray covers come off once the plants are up to avoid stem rot due to excessive condensation and to avoid suffocating them. You don't have to get the special plant/aquarium grow lights either, just get ones with similar lumens and color temperature as the grow lights at the store (isn't it nice that they on the same aisle for easy in-store referencing?). The bulbs we got are 32 Watts, 2950 Lumens, and 4100K (color temperature measured in degrees Kelvin). The pack of two bulbs cost $7. The fixture cost $27. The heating mats each cost around $12 and this is our second year using them. Everything else we already had and everything we bought for this light and heat set up we will be able to use again and again.

I think gardening pays off over time. I think about the jokes of people growing a $30 tomato due to how much money they spent on setting up the garden and for all the plants. It's easy to spend a lot of money but you really don't have to-- especially if you start modestly and work up to larger scale projects. This is our first year with a grow light and I think it works better but every other year the windows worked too-- just with more etiolation (remember what that is?) but we still got a harvest.

A lot of money is saved by starting the plants by seed instead of buying transplants. Most of the expense of starting seeds goes into equipment that can be used in the years to come. The stuff we buy every year is not very expensive and with enough planning and work could be eliminated all together. We are not at the point of making our own potting soil but we do save many seeds from our garden so the expense of seeds is mostly just for trying new types and varieties.

Gardening grows on you (the pun is coincidental but welcome).

**as a completely unrelated side note** It's snowing right now and in my opinion one real perk of living in a working class neighborhood is that it's more likely that your neighbor drives a snow plow-- and that certainly has it's advantages ;)

Brown Sugar and Happy Rants

2010-02-24T09:12:00.001-05:00

The other day it occurred to me that it has been at least six months (possibly more) since I bought brown sugar although I use it almost everyday. I don't remember when exactly but I started making my own I have kept at it quite possibly because it's incredibly easy... easier than remembering to get it from the store.

Jayna was the first person I saw make brown sugar. I had never thought about making it before and assumed it was regular sugar that was slightly less processed than white sugar. I didn't know I could be making it at home, I was just missing an ingredient.

I don't know much about Molasses. It is a byproduct of the sugar refinement process. Brown sugar is simply sugar with some of the molasses mixed back in-- we can do that!

1 Tablespoon Molasses for every Cup of White Sugar (you can make adjustments to your personal taste with less of more Molasses).

I've used blackstrap molasses and I am happy with it although I haven't tried any other kinds. I've learned that blackstrap has more nutrients (I'm not sure how much more), made from older sugar cane (can blackstrap come from sugar beets?) and can have a bit of bitterness to it so I have to be careful not to over do it. Sulphered molasses is made from green sugar and so is treated with sulphur fumes to refine the sugar (I don't have a real understanding on this)-- sounds unappealing to me. Regular molasses is made from ripe cane (and sugar beets) and is lighter in color than blackstrap. My next jar of molasses will be the regular kind so I can see how I like it.

A jar costs under $4 and lasts a really long time. According to my estimates one 12 oz. jar will turn about 10 lbs of sugar into brown sugar.

This is a 4 cup batch most recently made. This brings to another reason why I love my KichenAid and it also brings me to my BladeBeater which makes it even easier to love my KichenAid, not that it was ever all that hard but it's even that much better. Gone are the days of stopping the mixer to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula (I've even seen Martha Stewart do this on her show-- poor Martha-- such a hardship).

This is not my typical purchase. I bought it for about $25 at Hollywood Hardware on Freeport in Sacramento. While this is pricey for me is not at all pricey compared to just about anything else KitchenAid related. I love it when products show that someone somewhere was really thinking (like baking powder cans-- so simple but illustrates that thought went into it-- I save those cans and refill them with other things that are often needed by the teaspoon). The squeegees on the edges of the flat beater scrape down the sides of the bowl as it mixes and when it's all done then the BladeBeater works as a large spatula that just so happens to perfectly fit the contour of the bowl. The only negative thing I could say about it is that if I'm mixing a small volume then it can squeak-- I can live with that. totally.

It's made in the USA and they make blades that fit different types of mixers and models.

Happy rant leading to another happy rant! yay for awesome mixers and brown sugar!

Now you've made all the way to the end-- thanks! I have a question for you... Would you like to see a post about making yogurt or english muffins/crumpets? I've recently started making both and am starting to get the hang of it. Please leave a comment-- thanks for reading.

The Clothesline is Up and Running

2010-02-22T08:59:00.002-05:00

Well, not running but you know what I mean. It's something I've been thinking about for quite a while. The motivation behind it is to save money on our electric bill by not using the dryer which is harder to do in the winter. Last winter I jerryrigged a clothesline that ran from our living room wall to our dining room wall (through the doorway in between). This method made it difficult to use the house during laundry day. So now the line has moved to the bedroom over the bed-- a place I don't use or walk around in the course of my usual day.

This is one half of the clothesline rig. There is a duplicate on the opposite wall. It's looks the same as the one above the bed so I didn't take a picture of it -- it has nothing to do with needing to tidy the top of my dresser. Being in the bedroom I insisted that it didn't scream 'utilitarian' (I had nightmarish images of a 2x4 with ragged edges and big screw eyes bolted to the wall). I needed it to be pretty so it increases my will to not just live, but do laundry. I wanted it to be something that we would want to take with us when we eventually move. I could see using these in a future mudroom or really anywhere. I like the idea that my home contains only things which I find either useful or beautiful (preferably both)-- of course it's a work in progress.

I also didn't have much to spend-- especially since the goal is to save money. The boards I used Dennis picked up for free-- yay! free! The moulding is the cheap kind and to trim both units cost almost $20 and I still have a fair bit left over and have an idea as to how I may use it for another project. The glue, spackle, and paint we had already.

The knobs I found at a local cabinet hardware shop (on Harrison for those in town). It's a nice little shop where it's not hard to find knobs in the $8 a piece range (and up-- I found one type of little sparkly glass knob for $16 ea. and I didn't ask about anything that wasn't labeled). But they had a little clearance section made up mostly of shiney brass but with some other nice knobs. The ones I purchased were $1.6o each which isn't the cheapest knob but a very good price for this quality and aesthetic-- they were going to be put under significant strain so I needed hefty one piece non-plastic knobs. Similar knobs at Home Depot can be found for $20 per pack of 10 so I was still pretty happy with the ones I found. So in total I spent about $40 for both pretty shelvey clothesline rigs.

This is with my first load of laundry. It takes a couple minutes to set up and it can't handle huge loads (because the room is 9 feet long) but it gets the job done. I just have to make sure I do laundry the first thing in the morning so everything is dry by bed time.

(mostly for Dad) Yes they are screwed into studs, three studs per shelf, two 2 1/2" screws per stud. The shelf tips back toward the wall (not square) and the top run of cove is attached off set of the shelf board creating a small lip-- I think both of these things will adequately prevent things from falling off the shelf (and onto our sleeping heads-- we just won't put cartoon anvils up there). See? functional and pretty!

The New Start on My Day

2010-02-20T09:28:00.000-05:00

Everyday an hour before breakfast I take my generic synthroid. I've been at it for a few months and I will be at it for the rest of my life so it's good it's not too annoying and it's good that the pills are tiny and as cute as pills can be. Cute always helps!

The top is a representative of the pills they started me on after my first scan. The little blue one is the higher dose they started me last month. In March I get to do more blood work to check my levels and there may be another adjustment after that. Thyroid medications take six weeks to show their full effect so it can take a while to find my ideal dose. I'm pretty happy with what I have-- the blue ones are so cute! I'll take an increase if it's recommended and wonder what color it will be.

A nice thing about these adjustments is that it allows me the opportunity to build something of a stash since the insurance does not allow me to get more than a 30 day supply at a time. This way I can have some put away in our 72 hour kits (the ones I still have to assemble) and know that I'll be covered just in case-- I'm okay with having an out of date dose in an emergency. It's strange to think this way-- all worst case scenario governmental collapse and such but I find it's part of living with a dependency-- I need these pills-- I will die without them. How many things can you say that about and mean it very literally? At times it's still hard to wrap my brain around this concept when I stop to think about it.

I'm positive I'll get completely used to it. Cute always helps!

Somthing Fun About Snow

2010-02-18T09:15:00.000-05:00

You can tell who came to visit, even if they don't say hello.

Starting Peppers

2010-02-16T16:35:00.009-05:00

Nothing fights cabin fever better than planning the garden. We can look at seed catalogs forever (Dennis is still looking them over even after we have our seeds for the year). Then comes a series of layout plans... "Where should we put the tomatoes this year?" Rotation helps avoid the depletion of soil nutrients but when space is limited you just have to put the peas where they can climb. It all leads to things to think about. It helps us look in a forward direction. The only problem is that the part of spring that includes delicate plants living outside is a solid six weeks away. But we can still get started! Let's Go!

Now it's still a bit too early to start tomatoes-- they'll get too big and start to suffer before we could move them outside (we'll start them in another week or two). But this year we decided to give our peppers a head start because they grow s o o . . . slo o o wly and the growing season in Michigan is significantly shorter than places where peppers would actually enjoy growing. For instance pepper seeds like the soil to be at least 70 degrees in order to germinate-- it's not even seventy degrees inside our house-- we place the seedling flats on heating pads to accomplish this. By the time Michigan is 70 degrees the time for starting peppers is long past... we like peppers (and salsa) ... so we help them out.

In case you're following along it's a good idea when starting seeds in a flat -- especially on a heating mat-- to use the clear plastic dome to avoid evaporation and everything drying out.

In no time at all it starts to look like a little rain forest minus the plants and wildlife and anything else that would be interesting in a rain forest -- it looks like a very boring rain forest-- but since it's a rain forest on my table it's exciting enough for me. I can never resist the urge to tap the top to make it 'rain' ... oddly satisfying... oddly.

I started the seeds on Monday the 8th of February. I planted ten seeds of each of these six varieties: Serrano (hot pepper), Pablano (medium hot pepper), Georgia Flame (ummm.. hot pepper), Buran (red sweet pepper), Purple Beauty (dark red/purple bell pepper), and Healthy (a red bell pepper said to do well in northern climes). Yes that's potentially 60 plants... chances are some will not get started and some may die along the way ... or else we'll have a fun time trying to find places to plant all of these!

And wouldn't you know that exactly one week after planting we got our first babies?

Six Serranos and three Purple Beauties on Monday the 15th and as of today we're up to eight Serranos, six Purple Beauties, and two Burans visible.

Some are bigger than in this photo (it being a single day old). We have a light on them so hopefully they don't try to get too tall and straggly from reaching to find light. Dennis knows the term for this getting tall and straggly from looking for light business... but I don't... so I'll ask him again. It's one of those many things that you're not surprised that the process has a name, it's just weird to think that anyone knows the name and has it readily available for recall.

**note-- "etiolation" is the term for plant baby gangliness-- I'll try to remember that.

Ahhh, they grow up so fast i just have to remind myself to take the time and enjoy this stage. Isn't that what all mother's say? Or is told when she's having difficulty with her three year old?

Fun with Uncle Dennis

2010-02-05T09:34:00.002-05:00

I have to say that of the many fun and memorable moments of trip to California-- and there were many-- I think this one might become a new tradition when Dennis comes to visit. It started on Christmas Eve at my sister's house. My sister has a daughter who is very small for her age and Dennis wondered if she would fit in his backpack. He wondered this out loud and Alisha heard and was all for it!

She folds up very small and likes that she can fit in unexpected places. He carried her around my sister's house for a while that night and the next time he came over she asked him if he brought his backpack. It was so fun to see her head sticking out (although she totally could have fit all the way inside) we had to do it again later to get pictures. She has a twisted little sense of humor.

Christmas Elfing

2010-02-03T09:04:00.000-05:00

Yes 'elfing' is a verb. I had a handful of Christmas projects this year-- not too many but some that would be fun to share.

The sewing project for this year was for my mom. She recently got a very nice and very huge dining table so we wanted to help her dress it. In my family we have a gift giving name rotation-- which I love because instead of getting every person a tiny gift it allows me to focus on one member of the family and make/buy them something nice. This year Dennis had Mom... as you can see I helped but he contributed more than one might assume.

See the fish? and the scales? That's Dennis. He provided input for the design and ultimately decided on this one and he went to the fabric store with me... I did all the needle pushing though.

This shows the table runner's reversible-ness. And my foot in the bottom picture gives you a sense of scale-- yes we can pretend that's exactly why my foot is in the picture-- purely intentional!

This was our gift for my mother-in-law (Dennis got a nice frame for it once we arrived in California). When I was there last Summer I looked through her wedding album and took a photograph of one of their wedding pictures-- one of my favorites-- and painted this watercolor from that photograph... then I took a photograph of the painting to post it here. I think she really liked it. 2009 would have marked their 45th wedding anniversary so I wanted to do something special.

I had my sister Jayna for our gift exchange. I sent her a box of specialty groceries that are expensive where she's living if available at all-- and perhaps the best use ever of the postal service's flat-rate boxes! In that box I gave her a block of watercolor paper because I love these pre-stretched blocks of paper that don't buckle when painted. I look forward to seeing what she paints! I couldn't help but use the opportunity to give her a little painting to show my love. Again I worked from a photograph.

This is from a picture I took while I was visiting Jayna in Montreal. This is her friend Veronica. She was taking us to her marching band practice. She plays tuba. It was raining.

Snowflakes

2010-02-01T09:53:00.004-05:00

It all started when I was put on the window decorating committee at the little store in which I try to sell some of my puppets. (for the locals-- is called The Artisan's Circle in our new location in downtown Williamston, MI go check it out! oh and buy a finger puppet!)

For one of the elements of the window I wanted to paint on snowflakes. I knew I wanted a stencil of some kind and I knew I wanted to use 'frosted glass' spray paint to make the snowflakes look more like etched glass and a bit more subtle and less cartoonish. I had seen cans of frosted glass before and wanted to play with it but I needed a good reason. I was very happy with the result.

The stencil was a bit harder to find. First because I was looking in the stencil section. I ended up using a festive spatula (the pancake turning kind, not the bowl scraping kind) I found at Jo-Ann's-- a stencil with a handle! When you tape on a paper plate with the center removed you then have a self-masking stencil with a handle. And I must say it's very nice-- and very fast. Addictive.

The store window came together well-- in fact we won best retail window in Williamston-- yay! Not bad for the new kids. And I learned that it's a bit tricky to photograph windows well-- at least not without waiting around all day for perfect light so I'm going to ask you to use your imagination and see through the photography.

This is at night... much more magical in person. The flakes kind of glow when back lit.

Early this winter I started feeling a little down. Needing to feel Christmas without really decorating for it since we're not at our house for the weeks surrounding Christmas. So these little guys pulled me right out of it. In fact for a while there I was on some sort of snowflake high! So I guess if these snowflakes where like a drug to me then they were like pot-- because I wanted to share! I started snowflaking the windows others... sometimes when they were not home.

When I asked my beau if he wanted to come with me on a snowflake run he smiled and replied, "I want no part of your petty vandalism."

Too bad, more for me!

We went to California and I bought another spatula and another can of frosted glass spray paint. Yes I spread the snowflake love to Sacramento.

Mine are still on my window. And they still make me smile.

Nero

2009-11-20T10:48:00.005-05:00

This is the last picture I took of my kitty Nero when I was home last summer. When I think of him this is pretty much what comes to mind... my sweetheart snuggle kitty. I already miss him but I suspect it won't fully hit me until I go home for Christmas and he won't be there.

He and his sister, Emily -- who is doing well, have held a very special place for me. They were part of a litter of kittens my sister and I raised since they were three weeks old when their mother went missing. I was a college freshman and had late rehearsals which combined with my sister very early coffee shop schedule helped us feed the pack of six every three hours without it being too taxing on either one of us. Jayna had more feeding shifts during the day but my schedule made it so then she could sleep through the night and go to work.

I often think of those days of bottle feeding the babies. . . especially when they were just old enough to walk and learning to run. . . I called them goslings. This is one memory I would like to share.

When we couldn't watch them they would live in the hall bathroom with their litter box, their 'nest' and other necessities. We kept a night light on. Most distinctly I remember feeding them when I got home from rehearsals. First I would prep their formula and get everything ready in the kitchen then it was time to go get the babies-- my favorite part!

I would quietly crack open the bathroom door. In the dim light I could see a nest of fur and six tiny pairs of eyes all looking directly at me. For a second everyone was still.

"Gooooossssliiinnngs!" is what I would quietly call to them which would trigger the cutest stampede EVER!

They would follow me down the hall to the kitchen where they would be fed one by one starting with the smallest one (another orange boy) working up to the largest ones with feeding the undersized ones in between. I would sit at the table with my legs curled up onto the chair to avoid the over eager leg climbers. As the kitten became full they would form a new nest of fur in front of the refrigerator. Nero was the second to smallest kitten and he melted my heart. . . and he had a way of doing that over and over and over again.

I will always have an affinity for the big orange kitty who loves to snuggle.

Geiger Counter Fun

2009-11-08T22:44:00.004-05:00

At first it sounded like we had crickets in our house... occasional little chirps. Then it abruptly sounded like we had several very angry crickets...

"That was your toothbrush." Dennis called from the bathroom.

Really what's the point of being radioactive if I don't get to play with a geiger counter? Well, to be honest I don't get to play with it much of course because being the source of the radioactivity makes impossible to measure anything else accurately. But others get to play so that's fun... except when I can't be in the same room... but when they provide a nice narrative of what they're scanning and how it's reading (we turned the beeping off after not too long-- when I got close it turned into one solid, very shrill, beep).

It was fun-- thanks Honey-- and educational! I learned a lot more about radioactivity because of all this.

taken this morning almost 48 hours after dose
set on the second to least sensitive setting, measuring the I-131 that is "sticking"

We went in for the scan at the hospital on the 5th. When we met with the doctors to review the results they asked how I was feeling and I told them that I was feeling quite well.

"Any guesses as to why that is?" surprisingly sarcastic for an oncologist.

We suspected as much when the scan was days away and I wasn't feeling exhausted-- there were a lot of thyroid cells left over and the little over achieving stragglers where producing enough hormones to keep me functional and feeling fine.

It kind of makes me sad to kill them -- very cruel but then I remember that (collectively) they fired the the first shot and that this is no time to get soft.

My dose of radioactive iodine [100 millicuries (mCi) of Iodine-131] was ready for me the next day. It has a half-life of 8 days and comes with restrictions to protect others, namely, Dennis.

To keep the loved ones safe it comes down to Proximity, Time, and Hygiene.

Here is my brief science lesson some of which I actually remember learning in high school:

There are lots of types of radiation (notably from the sun etc.). Like light and heat, the closer you are to the source the more potent it is.

Unlike light waves radioactive waves can travel through things including people --this is what we're trying to limit because as it's passing through it can damage one's molecules along the way which can have an accumulative effect of being bad.

Different radioactive particles/wave types have different strengths. I'm sending out beta (kind of a sissy) and gamma (more of a school yard bully, not a real thug) both of which drop off in strength significantly with distance. **Dennis noted different ways of personifying these particles. That the beta particles are pretty big schoolyard bullies but they can't climb fences or run very far and thus not much of a threat once you're out of noogie distance. He then said that the gamma particles are like a pipsqueak with a B-B gun in that they can hit you from further away but the chances of it really hurting much is slim... especially the further away you are.**

To illustrate this the medical physicist measured me directly after taking the dose up close I measured at about 500, at three feet away I measured roughly at 75, and at six feet away I measured a 4. This shows why proximity (aka cuddling) is bad.

It also stands to reason why the amount of time someone spends in proximity makes a difference and why the restriction recommendation is to keep seven feet away from the people you see all time but they say I can go out in uncrowded public now that it's been a couple days. (keep in mind the rooms of our house are about nine feet in each direction, making it challenging to hang out even in the same room)

The third area of consideration is hygiene. I'm emitting radioactivity all the time but I'm also secreting it-- mostly through urine, then through mucus, then through saliva. In this way it's like the flu and obsessive hand washing really helps cut down on the creation of new radioactive surfaces. The couch where I've been sleeping had very little radioactivity but the waste basket containing my discarded tissues was on fire (I made it a point to discard all of my tissues in the same basket). And since my computer keyboard measured clean it shows I've been keeping on top of the hand washing.

Other odd precautions that make sense:

Flushing toilet several times after each use
keeping toothbrush completely segregated
using my own tube of toothpaste
making a few dinners ahead of time (just so Dennis doesn't have to after he gets home... although he is more than capable and willing)
covering my sleeping couch with blankets that can be easily washed once I get to move back to the bed.
having my own dishes and disposable flatware
my own box of tissues and waste basket
my own hand towel and segregated laundry
no kissing (bummer!)
no cuddles (total bummer!)

So yes it's very inconvenient and not very fun but before the week is through I'll be able to go about business as usual. I'm going to add extra time to the limitations because we know that there are a lot of thyroid cells that the I-131 is sticking to.

Questions? I might revise this when I re-read this tomorrow and give Dennis a chance to point out any glaring errors. The logical thing would be to hold off on pushing the publish button until then-- but it's late and I want to get this up.

Doing Well

2009-10-22T17:45:00.005-04:00

We have been enjoying our visit with my husband's mother. Yesterday I took her to Old Town Lansing where we got to look at cute little shops and walk along the river. and for dinner we roasted a turkey and had biscuits and mashed potatoes along with some other goodies-- It's been great to have Lois with us-- we really like her! (I have some nice pictures of her, and I'm glad to have them but I think she would be happier if I didn't post them on the internet even though the pictures are nice and she looks very nice in them)

So far we've gotten out of house every day and I hope that will get to continue as this afternoon we sticking to rainy day activities-- because today it turned into a rainy day.

Rainy day activities have consisted of sewing and reading... but mostly sewing. Between the two of us over two days we've finished 5 quilt blocks which is pretty sweet as I have many more to do and it feels good to whittle down the number of unfinished blocks.

"But Kristen, where did these quilt blocks come from in the first place?"

I'm so glad you asked! These are all from 'quilt block of the month' programs-- which are very fun and get you to try new things. It basically works like this: your local quilt shop sells you a pattern and fabric to make one quilt block (about five bucks) with the idea that you come back the next month with that block completed to receive another pattern w/fabric which you finish and bring back the following month so in theory you can make 12 coordinated quilt blocks for $5. This is great and fun... and just the beginning. Once they get you in the store there are all sorts of things they sell at you (it's a store, I don't hold it against them, I just don't have the cash). The most common, aside from all the little things you can buy that do one thing really well, is the "finishing kit" which gives you instructions and fabric to turn your block into a quilt top-- these typically cost at least $60 (so I never buy them) which sometimes does not contain the batting backing or binding that you will also need to truly finish. They also get you with 'bonus blocks' which cost a little extra and often look so nice and if you don't complete your previous month's block then it will cost another $5 to start up again.

And then sometimes you can get behind (like me right now) because inevitably life gets in the way. This problem is compounded by the fact that I still have blocks to do from last year's block-of-the-month program in Sacramento that I didn't get to because we got married and moved out of state (but I still had very nice people pick up my blocks for me). It's fun to see how different shops run their block-of-the-month programs. All in all I'm having a good time of it and learning new things but will probably take next year off with the hopes of finishing some of these quilts.

Since this afternoon I've felt considerably tired... a little more than I think is normal. We'll see if this is the beginning of the downhill slope or just a lazy rainy day.

A Quick Update

2009-10-13T13:37:00.003-04:00

In recent days I've had a slightly noticeable influx of "how are you feeling?" It's not bad to ask but it reminded me that perhaps I should give an update since it has been a little while.

I feel fine, quite normal, it might take me a little longer to get going in the morning-- but I think that that is really more of a motivation issue than a chemical imbalance issue. I usually have been getting my first wind around 1:30 or 2pm-- but other days when I know I have something with a deadline to do and somewhere to be I've been able to get up and at them without a problem-- so I'm being lazy lately.

I stop taking the temporary replacements on the 20th. This is also the same day that Dennis' mom, Lois, is coming for a visit. We're looking forward to that-- we'll see how my energy goes. I could see it going either way-- down because I'll loose thyroid hormones or level or up because we'll have out-of-town company and I like to have visitors! ... especially when they are nice like Lois!)

I'm reminded that life is good by times like yesterday morning I had a visit from a cardinal just outside our kitchen window. At that moment I was really glad I hadn't yet pack up the humming bird feeder. Perhaps there is something to be said for procrastination? no.

Toadies!

2009-10-12T10:18:00.002-04:00

Mid to Late Summer is when you find little toads-- it's too cold to find them now so I like to look at these pictures and think of July and tiny toads!

He's pretty little!

But not this little!

It's a good thing these guys hop around, otherwise you'd never see them! So tiny!

In this shot it easy to see just how new this toad is... he still looks like a tadpole.

On my first visit to Michigan, the July before we were married we saw tons of these little toads crossing the trail in the park behind the house. It's a pretty brief window when these guys are out and about in large numbers. I'm so glad we got to see them again this year.

And I hope we get to see them next year!

oh and you can click on the pictures to see their tininess even bigger!

Sew, What Have You Been Up To?

2009-10-10T09:08:00.001-04:00

I haven't written about sewing for quite a while which is weird because I sew and haven't stopped sewing for any noteworthy length of time but just noticed that sewing has not been fairly represented. So let me present:

This is a my contribution to a wedding quilt for Katy and Andrew's Wonderful Wedding. Each guest was mailed a 10" (or maybe 12" ?) square of white muslin and asked to personalize it and mail it back. The mother's of the happy couple then covertly assembled and quilted it all and displayed it at the wedding. It was very sweet!

I had the idea buzzing around my head to make a quilt using only white fabric and create the pattern through texture and piecing alone. I would still like to do a whole quilt that way some day but it was great to actually do something along those lines. I also thought it would be fun to send back a square of white fabric... but I did end up writing on it since the directions said to be sure to include your name-- and I always follow directions.

It reads: "Wishing you both the best kind of happiness-- the kind that comes with love. from Kristen & Dennis"

Sappy I know but it's for a wedding and weddings are the best time to be sappy!

A great book that I used for reference and inspiration is The Art of Manipulating Fabric

Bee-Bop-a-Ree-Bop Rhubarb Pie

2009-10-08T09:22:00.001-04:00

We have a neighbor down the street-- one of those guys that's lived on this street for the past 60 years. He used to own about five houses on the street (including the one we're renting now). Now we just owns three (not the one we're renting now) . He's a nice guy. He grows rhubarb but doesn't do much with it so this spring he asked us if we'd be interested. We said "yes." And he said "I'll be right back."

It was a lot of rhubarb he brought over so I made two pies using my apple pie recipe and delivered one back to him. See? It pays to be nice!

Wouldn't this be a good time for a piece of rhubarb pie?

... I think it's quite fitting that my 50th post is about pie...

Two Pints of Cream

2009-10-06T17:17:00.002-04:00

We were invited to a waffle breakfast and I was asked to contribute whipped cream topping. And since these were friends that would appreciate it, I decided to whip it 'in house' and since these are really good friends that would appreciate it I picked up and extra pint and made butter.

So I learned that a pint of whipping cream will make a cup of butter and a cup of buttermilk (which I used for biscuits). It's fun to make butter but we'll have to wait until we have good friends that own a cow and so we get cream on the cheap since currently it's not exactly cost effective-- but still nice for special occasions-- and super tasty on waffles with their homemade blueberry syrup!

Time Line

2009-09-30T18:48:00.005-04:00

This morning we met with the radiation oncologist for a consult and now we have a working time line for the first test to find straggling thyroid cells.

So I will continue to take my Cytomel (thyroid replacement hormone with short half-life) until the 20th of October (it's a Tuesday)... which means I have just under a month of feeling relatively well-- yay!

The Tuesday after that (the 27th) I get some lab work done and stop eating certain things and taking certain drugs (nothing I regularly consume was on those lists-- i.e. Slim-fast shakes).

On Monday the 2nd of November I do more blood work.

Then the next day (the third) I go to the center to take my little dose of radioactive iodine.

This allows us to do the scan on the 5th and review it with the oncologist. They say about 80% of patients still have thyroid cells on their first scan so I'm guessing I will too. If I do we will schedule a time when I can come back and get my big dose of radioactive iodine. They used to be able to give the big dose on the same day as the scan if needed but there is a shortage of radioactive iodine so I must wait until they have a pill for me. (they say it takes about a week)

After I take the big dose and live secluded for a few days I may start hormone replacements again-- yay!

So now you are updated! Thanks for reading.

New Update

2009-09-25T14:16:00.004-04:00

We got back from the doctor's office with some news with which I am quite happy-- although not that much has changed.

First we have an appointment to see the radiation oncologist Wednesday morning (the very next happening Wednesday-- yay) and will find out more info about that process (how long will I be radioactive? will I leave something like a radioactive snail trail behind me? and important things like that)

Second and more exciting is that I got a prescription for a temporary hormone replacement. Here's the cool thing that I learned today:

Thyroid hormones have a pretty long half-life so it takes quite a while for them to naturally dissipate (about six weeks) taking the thyroid-less person on a slow gradual decline into a pit of despair. Where as this version of thyroid replacement has a short half-life so it dissipates roughly twice as fast as the stuff my thyroid left behind. So this is roughly how I think of it. This has no scientific bearing... it's just my current understanding.

The x axis is time in Weeks, the y axis is how I'm feeling (very measurable).
The red line is my perceived progression with taking the temporary hormone replacement, the blue line is my perceived natural progression.
The aqua shaded parfait illustrates bonus better feeling time, the brighter the better.

Hormone Dissipation: Feeling vs. Time

(channeling my father here)

So now I'm feeling just fine! It's nice to know that I can somewhat rely on feeling fine for a given time but there is still a lot that we'll just have to wait and see.

Park Lake... or is it Lake Park?

2009-09-24T15:52:00.005-04:00

Feeling the need to update. The last post seems too serious... especially for hanging out on top of the list. We see the doctor tomorrow... would you like to add to my list of questions so I can be sure to answer them for you? I'll check the comments tomorrow morning and add anything to my list.

Earlier in the month was our ward picnic and afterward we went for a bike ride around the lake-- technically around the lake... more like the on the streets that surround the lake. which is why I didn't even know there was a lake there (mostly private). Then we walked one of the trails around the park and here are some things that we saw.

pretty marshland

little froggies
(I guess it's pretty obvious how we like to see little frogs and toads)

and deer... little ones!

with spots!
how can you not be happy and see little deer with spots?

Pathology Report-- and the Envelope Please...

2009-09-21T17:50:00.007-04:00

-

cancer

You know it's a bad sign when it's the day you're supposed hear back, it's 5:45 pm, the phone rings and it's not a nurse, it's your surgeon.

Cancer on both sides so it's good we took the whole thing out. Only one lesion was on the surface, the rest were safely tucked within the thyroid tissue. We have an appointment on Friday and will schedule a meeting with a radiation oncologist who will oversee my radioactive iodine treatments. It will be probably about six weeks before the first treatment because right now I still have thyroid hormones inside and they have to be completely gone before we send radioactive iodine after any rogue thyroid cells. And in a very brief description of the feeling of getting the thyroid hormone to zero my doctor said, "you'll be pretty miserable."

I'm going to ask for clarification on that.

It's been just under a month since Dennis and I celebrated our one year anniversary. I cannot help but liken this situation to when someone buys a new car or washing machine... as soon as the warranty expires ::poof:: the thing falls apart and you're just out of luck. Sorry Honey. And I bet it's even worse when you're still making payments! I told him that he should have gotten the extended warranty.

Even though we knew that the thyroid could contain cancer and the cancer has already been removed I'm surprised by how it feels, relating oneself to having cancer. I think it's a very loaded word, perhaps because it runs in my family it carries a lot of weight with me-- but I think it carries a lot of weight with everyone-- cancer = bad, that's pretty clear.

Then I feel a little betrayed by my own body-- we're supposed to be on the same team-- seems you can't trust anyone, especially your own freaking body, how could she do this to me?

Then I realize that's not very productive and that I just need to process this a bit more and adjust. hmm... I'll be back a little later.

Back from the Hospital

2009-09-17T15:08:00.004-04:00

So I just had a total thyroidectomy... and in case I didn't know what it was called before arriving at the hospital I would be sure to know after being there for ten minutes. It was like a quiz with every new person I encountered leading up to the procedure, that and my birthday and how to spell my last name.

I'm fine with them being thorough-- please please be thorough!

So I'm feeling alright. My throat is sore, it hurts to swallow, and the muscles in my neck are stiff. None of this is surprising.

It was scheduled as a outpatient procedure but I was held overnight for observation. I was glad for that little extra time to make sure things were fine before sending me home.

Dennis has been especially sweet. Before heading into the hospital he braided my hair-- into pigtails. I got a couple of blisters on my left hand the day before so did not have the dexterity to do it myself. The braided pigtails were a stroke of genius as they allowed me to be in bed for days without getting into a tangled mess-- so if you ever know anyone with long hair who will be in bed for several days, do them a favor and braid their hair into pigtails! It was nice to have something be comfortable.

We took some pictures before leaving the house, knowing I'd never be quite the same. Here is one of those pictures (the lack of glasses and the button-up shirt were part of planning ahead):

So naturally when you have a before picture you have to have an after picture. This one was taken this morning almost two days after surgery:

So yeah, no bandage-- I was surprised by that too. I'm stitched on the inside and glued shut. The surgical tape in the center is from when the doctor removed the drainage tube the next morning... but we don't have to talk about that. This is about as high as I can currently lift my head comfortably without feeling any pulling. If your gruesome sense of curiosity is not yet satisfied you may click on the above picture to see it larger.

So I'm off to take another nap but just wanted to let my three readers know that I'm doing fine and I really appreciate all the prayers and well wishes and good thoughts sent my way-- I feel it made a difference-- Thank you!

-- and the free slipper socks are totally worth it!

Last Day

2009-09-14T09:45:00.001-04:00

I'm going in for surgery tomorrow... wish me luck!

Not Dead Just Busy

2009-08-31T14:29:00.003-04:00

Hello!

Well I had a great month of sculpting at the fair... pictures soon! It was great to see family and friends in the area-- almost made me sad to leave! But there's something about being home and seeing the beau that surprisingly tips the scale.

I do not have a ton of time to write as you see I got home just in time to start canning and as you know tomatoes do not wait for long! About 35 plants made it through our scary wilt that had us both depressed earlier in the summer. For a while it seemed that every day more plants were showing the inexplicable symptoms that promptly leads to death. All it seamed we could do is watch. Toward the end I tried burying the steams of the very newly infected plants so the tomato could make new and hopefully more effective roots. I don't know if this made a difference but most of those plants recovered and the spread stopped-- although that could have been lucky timing.

The wilt claimed just about a dozen tomato plants and decimated our zucchini... but then stopped... and we are grateful. Of course then the counters are covered with impatient tomatoes yelling at me to make decisions and do something yummy with them-- and hurry up about it. It's not too bad and so far I've been able to keep up reasonably well and even can salsa at a friend's house with her tomatoes last week. But I'm just barely keeping up... if I finish my two batches of salsa today I would have cleared the house of harvested tomatoes. .... ... but I know there are more waiting in the garden! Part of me is thinking about how things would be had all of our plants lived-- I doubt I'd be at the computer right now.

In other news I have surgery scheduled for the 15th . I'm getting my thyroid removed. This has been a little while in the making. It started with a routine physical that lead to a thyroid ultrasound to measure the larger bumps thereon. From there it was suggested that the largest bump (or node) on each side be subject to a fine needle aspiration (tiny biopsy). When both sides came back "highly suspicious" for cancer the decision was made to remove said thyroid. Of course a few days of freaking out were included in there too for good measure-- can't skip the freak out!

So I have a lot to do before then... the tomatoes are calling!

We're feeling that it is the best decision given the circumstances.

Puppet Festival-ness

2009-07-23T11:36:00.005-04:00

I recently returned from the Puppeteers of America National Festival and had a great time!! A really great time! Perhaps the best time I've ever had at a festival which is saying a lot since I always have a good time... but this time was even better!

I think it helped that at this festival I taught a workshop... a long one. I think it helped to be more involved. The workshop went really well! I had a great group and we had a good energy for all three days-- fantastic!

I made an effort (though it wasn't hard) to be more social this festival... that probably made a difference too. Yay for new friends! and yay for strengthening not-as-new-friends! Yay!

There were great shows a well! (and no painful shows!)

And fore the first time I had items for sale in the Puppetry Store... and did pretty well and it also inadvertently served as a place to display my work. It wasn't uncommon to talk with someone and have it come around to "oh, I saw your masks in the store..."

s w e e t !

I also need to redo and downsize my carry around portfolio-- eventually. It's currently 11x17... a little obnoxious and since now I have a website, oh yes I have a website, I can hone the portfolio to make it more straight froward... 'leave them wanting more' as it were.

Andrew and Katy Got Married!

2009-07-09T12:43:00.006-04:00

You may remember when they got engaged-- but now they're hitched! I'm so glad that I got to go back to Sacramento for a week and help out... not that they needed much help.

I did get to take pictures, however, lots of pictures-- more pictures than I've ever taken in one day. Then I got to edit those pictures... I know what you mean Andrea! (although this was child's play compared to what you do!)

I wouldn't call myself a photographer, just a willing friend with a camera. So here's a sneak peak-- I'm mailing off the disks to the happy couple today... I suppose I should ask their permission before posting these...

Each table had a row of vases containing Gerbera Daisies... very pretty!

I couldn't possibly be happier for these two! Two great people making one great couple!

Mushroom Hunting

2009-06-23T10:31:00.006-04:00

The season is passed but I thought I'd share a little bit about this fun experience.

I first heard of morels from the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle where the authors had morel mushrooms growing on their property and where a prized treasure. So I was exited when I was told that our wonderful park out back also provides a season of Morels (just when I thought it couldn't get any better).

I never thought I would be a mushroom hunter. never. I always pictured short stout fellows with bushy gray beards, dirty clothes, missing teeth, and a hat made of tree bark with moss growing on it. And don't forget the mesh bag.

We did some research online and found that this type of mushroom is pretty safe to gather and eat if you know what to look for (if it looks like a morel-- there are a couple different types-- and it's hollow then you're good).

Here's a closer look at what morels look like:

in the "wild"

in the hand

and on the plate!

Since the park is public there are a lot of other mushroom hunters so we never found a ton of them. It's not exactly easy but it's really fun when you find one-- makes me feel feel very 'hunter/gatherer.'

It seems the general online consensus to prepare morels fried with some sort of coating (other wise they shrivel to nothing). They were pretty tasty... especially for free!

a few more pretties

2009-05-14T08:41:00.000-04:00

I love this picture

These white flowers are one of the common understorey plants along with the may apples (below) that have umbrella forms that remind me of Dr. Seuss.

Couldn't just grow around the leaf, this one had to bust through.

..and oh.. hello? A tree frog about 1 1/2 inches long and candy colored . It's the only one we've seen here to date but we will surely keep an extra eye out for them now that we know they're here.

Cuteness Overload

2009-05-11T09:20:00.001-04:00

Baby Foxes
There you go...
...Bask in the Cuteness

love the black sox

More Pictures of Animals

2009-05-09T17:20:00.004-04:00

We have better pictures! yay! Dennis did a good job getting these shots!

I like how they lift their feet up!

The Heron has proven difficult to photograph but I'm pretty happy with these.

GOSLINGS!! Two of them! The whole little family hit the road over night. I'm sad to no longer have them in the pond but I'm glad we got pictures when we did-- these little guys are maybe a day old.

And so it appears there were two geese tending the nest (we only saw one at a time and assumed mama goose was on her own-- we were mistaken). But oooh soo cute! Baby Gooses!

Graphic Design?

2009-05-05T17:08:00.003-04:00

Here's an example of "just because you've never done something, doesn't mean you can't do it." Now I'm not saying anything about: "doesn't mean you shouldn't do it."

Here I've designed a logo for a farm that keeps bees and chickens -- the client is very happy and that makes me happy. This was a different type of experience for me and it all sort of happened suddenly. I didn't hood wink anyone, he knew I was a puppeteer before we started. I think Dennis help me talk myself into this.

Here is the first set of samples with a few different ideas:

When the beau came home the day I sent these off his comment was: "You made clipart!"

After a few drafts we landed here:

Adventures Out Back-- The Toad Pond

2009-05-04T14:40:00.007-04:00

About a week or so ago we had a night of thunderstorms and we heard the toads calling. The toad mating time is pretty short so we decided to take advantage of it. We suited up for the rain and took a couple of flashlights.... and it was amazing!

Surprisingly, the pond featured in the last post held no toads, they has all congregated in another pond further off the main trail. There in the rain and in the dark with our flashlights we saw a different side of this piece of nature. The toads weren't skiddish so we took extra precautions not to step on anybody because they didn't jump away-- even the few that we bent down to get a closer look and stroke their back-- they seemed almost in a trance.

Of course we didn't dare take a camera with us that night as it was very wet and muddy. But the toads were still calling the next day so we thought we would try to get a few shots-- which we did-- but the action was certainly dying down.

The Toad Pond

Toad calling... we didn't see many lady toads around... poor fellas

I think toads are cuter in person

Then as we were on our way back, we had a surprise!

Baby Foxes!

Toads? What toads? Sorry guys but you just can't quite compete with a den of baby foxes! They were very curious! We think there are six.

This place has gotten even better!

Adventures Out Back-- The Main Pond

2009-05-01T18:10:00.003-04:00

First I must say that my husband did a great job of finding a home for us! He did it by himself, as I was working in California, and he did it on a very tight time-line-- I'm not ruling out divine intervention here-- this is a good place for us. The house has it's quirks and is not amazing all by itself. What makes it all noteworthy is what's Out Back.

We have a fenced in yard to call our, rented, own but behind our back gate is not another house, it's a park. A wooded park with a walking trail loop-- the typical playground and sports field is on the other side but most of our time is spent surrounded by trees and with spring comes a lot of cool things to see. the next few posts will be about those!

This is the main pond. This photo was taken a couple of weeks ago and the place as greened up a bit since. I left this photo large so you can get a closer look of you want. This shows roughly two thirds of the pond. It's not huge but is not small and lots of folks live here.

The nesting goose is one of my favorites for many reasons: 1) she's always there so I look forward to seeing her 2) it's neat to watch her nest (not quite as passive as one might think-- still a lot of sitting though) and 3) I'm really looking forward to goslings! The thought makes me beam inside.

And if you look behind and to the right you'll see the Heron-- not the best picture, I know, he's on the other side of the pond. He's more of a visitor than a resident-- but pretty awesome. That day I watched him catch two fish. They wriggle as they go down his throat!

I went out on the first really sunny day we've had in a long long time and was surprised to see turtles... we had never seen them here before. There are 9 in the photo above and as I sat I counted no fewer than 25 ranging in size between 2 1/2 to 5 inches long. Times like this I wish I had a telephoto lens/ camera with telephoto lens capability.

These Green Frogs are pretty common (they can withstand higher pollution levels than many other frogs-- and this pond receives runoff from an adjacent golf course) but they typically don't stay still long enough to get a good look. These are the ones that croak a "meeerp!" as they jump into the water to hilarious effect especially if several jump in succession.

I learned that sitting still, and having a nice toasty sun out, will coax them to hold still. A few days later I learned that it's a different game at night!

Bready Goodness

2009-04-29T09:20:00.003-04:00

Above is the very first loaf of bread I made using the methods described in a really neat book called: Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day (it's a pretty nifty website as well). Notice that we had already eaten half of it before I remembered that I wanted a picture of it to share. This book is not new, it came out last year, I read about it on Angry Chicken, I put a hold on the book at the library, and about two weeks ago got the book... I think we may have to buy it as I don't want to give it back.

The book has many base recipes that you may then tweek slightly (mostly in the shaping) to make many kinds of bread and is based on the idea that you can make a large-ish batch of moist dough, keep it in your refrigerator for up to two weeks, and just pull off hunks of dough to bake that day so you can easily have fresh bread in your home without starting form scratch nor running to the store. So far I've only done the basic recipe-- and it is really good-- who knew what four really basic ingredients can do? Water, yeast, salt, and flour-- that's it!-- and oh so good! I'm still working on my technique and we're learning what we like-- as the dough ages it develops a sourdough flavor and aroma which is interesting but we haven't decided if we like it better.

I like how convenient it is although you do have to plan ahead a little-- once you've shaped the loaf you leave it on the counter for 40 minutes-1 1/2 hours (but you don't have to attend to it) then you bake it for about half an hour (for the little loaves that we make). The five minutes the title talks about refers to the hands-on time which is minimal.

I like that I can make loaves the size that we need them and I like that I know exactly what is in them. Another thing that I like about the book, besides it's straightforward nature, is that they also give you dinner recipes that the bread should compliment. I'm always open for good dinner ideas!

----------------------

As a side note I wanted to mention one of the many reasons I love my husband:

It was the Saturday before last. I had a busy day. I attended Women's Conference in the morning. When I got home I laid brick borders around the new flower beds (one is 10 feet long, the other is 3o feet long-- Dennis helped!) then proceeded to plant over 100 Gladiola bulbs. I came in, showered, made dinner and a new batch of bread dough to have on hand. At the end of the day I was tuckered out and hadn't done the morning or mid-day dishes so the kitchen was showing signs of neglect (tiny kitchens show neglect very quickly). When the beau came back home I apologized for the kitchen being a mess and walks over, gives me a hug, and says "but the bathroom's clean so 'Thank you!'"

Now it's not that I always keep a spotless house-- that's just not the case! Nor do we as a couple consider it my "wifely duty" just I make an effort since I am at the house a lot more than he is. And since he's so nice about it it makes me want to get more done around the house so then when he is home his time can be spent either building something useful or spending time with me-- not vacuuming-- because he will vacuum if I don't and that in itself makes me want to vacuum. Well played, Honey, well played.

Happy Birthday to Dad

2009-04-27T15:36:00.002-04:00

Since he has already received (and eaten) his gift I may now post about it. Earlier this month my dad turned 60-- I'm glad he made it thus far! So for this monumental occasion I made him something he's always said he'd want...

Chocolate Chip-less Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yeah, Dad's an odd duck. I remember growing up and my oldest sister, Heather, would make chocolate chip cookies... she liked doing things like that every now and then-- I'm glad she did. And I remember on several occasions as she transferred the freshly baked goodness from the cookie sheets to the over lapping rows of tin foil that covered a portion of the table (in our house, we never made small batches of cookies!) our dad would walk through the kitchen and say something to the effect of: 'It's too bad you had to ruin them by putting those chocolate chips in there.'

Of course that didn't stop him from eating a bunch of them!

Here are the cookies with the card I sent along. On the inside the card read:

The Bad News: we're all headed there eventually

The Good News: you still have a few years until you get there

I'm glad you liked them, Dad, Happy Birthday!

Road Trip! episode 3

2009-04-17T10:41:00.005-04:00

I've had some connectivity issues lately, and sadly they are not quite resolved... but I'll do what I can. So here is the last installment of the Canada Trip with Jayna. We had a good time!

Jayna has an affinity for trains so of course she really likes having a few sets of tracks right outside the door! I thought it was pretty cool however I would have liked it if the trains stopped at night. I found myself waking up four or five times a night. I was able to get back to sleep quickly but over a few days it started to catch up with me.

This is Jayna's friend Veronica-- she's super nice! She's part of a community marching band (umm she plays the tuba). Jayna and I went with her to a rehearsal-- Awesome!

And of course I have to include a picture of the dog-- we love him! I haven't seen him in a few years and was looking forward to hanging out with him. His age is starting to show... he doesn't like to go for walks and things so much anymore which is kind of sad but he does seem to enjoy his time on the couch. He's a funny cutie with many many nicknames... my favorites include "Floppy Ears," "Dog Face," and "Kitty." Yes we love the dog.

Road Trip! episode 2 Niagara Falls Picture-palooza

2009-04-06T11:34:00.012-04:00

We had a great time at Niagara Falls! Of course pictures don't do it justice so... of course I'm posting a lot of pictures-- stands to reason right? Above is Jayna in front of the Horseshoe Falls-- which was completely and mind boggling-- all that water-- every second! It's huge... and this being the off season there was not as much water as one would see in the summer.

This was taken from an observation deck "Behind the Falls" that you can pay to go down an elevator. Again with the off-season the ticket was cheaper but the lower deck was closed since it was filled with ice. I'm still glad we went down.

He was cute

This one looked melancholy

The amount of ice is pretty amazing in it's own right

Lots of ice

You can see that weather conditions were ideal for scenic viewing

I don't think this requires comment (says the comment)

I love the sister

Between the falls and our parking place there was this highly trimmed garden that we both thought was interesting.

Road Trip! episode 1

2009-04-03T14:43:00.005-04:00

I love my sisters (especially when they make funny faces)! So I was very happy to have an adventure with one of them: Jayna! Nothing against Heather and all, she's just far away and didn't fly to Michigan to take a road trip. I love you too Heather so when you come to visit I'll blog about that. And if you get your passport I'll take you to Canada.

Jayna flew in on a Tuesday afternoon and we had an action-packed day and a half while she was in town which was fun and included making a batch of CranApple Butter for her to take with her and her getting a hair cut. After the action-packed day and a half we got in the car and headed for Canada-- which is only about two hours away. I took her to see a friend in Quebec and we planned to stop by Niagara Falls on the way since it was not too great a detour.

We left the house a little after 8 am which is a little later than I was planning but it was good that I got full night's rest since I had a long day of driving ahead.

At out first gas stop I noticed this apartment complex for birds. In this shot alone there is no fewer than eight birds and there were many more flitting about... these were just the ones holding still.

We got to Niagara Falls a little after 1pm. The real Niagara Falls pictures will be in the next post so I will close with pictures of Jayna and I having our lunch in the deserted restaurant. Yeah, it's the off-season.

Yum! At this point of the day I was very much awake and enjoying these tasty vittles.

M.I.A.

2009-03-28T15:44:00.004-04:00

You won't hear from me for a few more days. shhhh! I'm on a trip with my sister Jayna and having a very good time and will share much more after I get back and can go through all the photos!

yay!

Baby Tomato Plants

2009-03-24T09:20:00.000-04:00

It's fun to see them enjoying our window. Soak it up little dudes! Let's hope they get big and strong and make very very tasty tomatoes!

Our tray of pepper seeds aren't showing anything yet-- but peppers are supposed to take longer-- I just have to keep that in mind.

Paper and Tape

2009-03-23T09:29:00.003-04:00

Friday night I participated in the ward talent show. I dusted off my Paper Puppet Piece and I think it turned out well, it was fun. It's hard to believe that I originally made this puppet ten years ago and have been performing this piece periodically ever since. It changes based on the performance environment (interactive vs. traditional staging) but it seems to go over well which of course makes me happy. Funny how this never prevents me from being nervous beforehand.

There were tons of other fun talents on display! Although I must say that the 'synchronized swimming' act alone was worth the drive hands down. I was not previously aware, but this apparently is not entirely uncommon at ward talent shows. Many versions can be seen on youtube. This one is similar to that our fellas did (although I must say it's much better in person). It was hilarious and beautiful!

Congratulations Andrew & Katy!

2009-03-22T17:10:00.004-04:00

Yay! They're getting married!!

They've been together for some time and I'm very happy for them both! It's so nice when someone so nice finds someone else so nice! Yay for nice! I'm a big fan of nice! This is Great! Congrats you guys! woo hoo!

Starting the Garden

2009-03-19T21:43:00.006-04:00

We've had some delightfully warm weather (Tuesday got up to 65 degrees!) so we're shifting into garden-mode. Yay Garden-Mode! Over the weekend Dennis started the tomato, pepper, and herb seeds as well as marking out the plot in the backyard. During the nice weather I took the opportunity to turn the grass under to start the process of preparing the ground.

The garden is 10x30. The work spanned two days (only about 7 hours total). And yes, I'm still sore. But I'm getting better so we'll see when I get this raked out (weather's getting chilly again).

On the first day I had some company which was nice. This little guy hung out for almost an hour. We were after the same thing-- making the most of the sunny day.

He was probably about 20 inches long... he's the first garter snake I've seen here so now that's one more for the critter count. (the day before was the first time I saw our groundhog out and about since winter started-- ah Spring! it's coming!)

cute!

A Special Dress for Mataya's Special Day

2009-03-15T18:13:00.011-04:00

Yesterday my niece, Mataya was baptized. Yay Tay! I wish I could have been there but that was not a viable option logistically/economically-- but I did get to make a dress of her. I had about a week to make it to be sure it got to California on time. It's tricky to make clothes for someone too far away to do a fitting. Here are a few pictures from her baptism and of the dress. (the dress I made is in the lower pictures, the first few photos are right before the baptism while she's wear the fancy-dancy baptism polyester jumper!) You can click on the picture to see a larger image-- hope you like them!

I'm glad to see her smiling-- I heard the water was cold! Mine was cold too way back when... I understand the temptation to fill the font the night before (very efficient) but I wish they wouldn't. But it's still worth it.

This is Mataya with her dad, my brother-in-law, Jeff who performed the baptism. I'm sure the experience was special for both of them.

Afterward Heather took her to the park for her own little photoshoot which I'm sure Mataya thoroughly enjoyed. Heather took these nice pictures and I did a little photoshopy stuffity stuff.

This sash took about a day, it has five layers to it and the iridescent sequins were sewn on with a little bead by hand. Mataya is a real glitter girl and both Heather and I wanted that to be reflected in the dress but in a contained way. The "bow" is a pin that holds the sash closed. It's hard to see in the picture but in the center of the bow is a pink flower with a sequin in the middle.

I think it's just one of those basic rules that the little girl's dress should have the twirl factor!

A Lesson Learned

2009-03-13T16:09:00.003-04:00

I was scared at first but I think subbing for middle school agrees with me-- as much as it could. Of course having only done three days (all in the same district) doesn't give me much to base my opinion upon. But of those three days none of them have been bad and mostly manageable. I haven't tried high school yet and my elementary subbing experience is even more limited than my middle school. I like that I get a new group of kids every hour which also helps me learn throughout the day and if a student is being problematic (although these have been really good kids!) I'm confident that for one hour I can maintain order.

Today had an unexpected element: the MSU basketball game. When I was in middle school (or college for that matter) you could very easily live your life completely oblivious to the college basketball team but here I had students politely begging me if they could watch the game. "They have it on in the library" they would say and they would say what other teachers had the game on... at least they had it on mute. One student really lead the way on this, the type that could charm the socks off a snake. The computer lab was next door and he had gotten permission from the computer lab teacher to have a viewing over there. I was on the spot. I call the lab teacher and he confirms that their regular teacher wouldn't have a problem with it so long as the kid were being respectful to me and suggested that I have them quietly on task (reading) for a given amount of time to let them earn watching the game for the last fifteen minutes of class. The game was an event, one that even the folks in the office were talking about (and watching on mute) so I decided to go with the flow on this one-- it helped that the kids were nice about it the whole time, even when it was really looking like I was going to say no.

I knew I had little Michiganders and that keeping them away from the game would be like taking away air-- it's that big a deal!

Blog Housekeeping and Thinking Out Loud (sorry)

2009-03-12T13:39:00.006-04:00

So I've tidied up the place a little over here so metaphorically speaking it feels less like a dorm room and more like a home. I hope to continue improvements as I think of them and learn more.

Feedback is welcome! please, I'm learning here.

Speaking of learning I found that the blog's name does not have to be the same as the blog's web address. I know this is really basic but I somehow was operating under that false assumption. Now that I know this I am heavily considering a new name for this blog and am currently brainstorming.

Here's the deal: I was planning on opening up an etsy shop and starting a blog (it does seem that every etsyshop owner has a blog doesn't it?) to make it all more fun and to keep far away friends and family updated. I open an etsy account (no shop as of yet) with the name puppetpie, which I thought was cute but not too cute-sie (and I do love pie-- and making pie-- and eating pie) and combined the feeling of the items I would sell-- puppets of course but also some homey decorative things-- but probably not enough homey decorative things to warrent having two shops (but maybe that's the way to go). So I liked 'puppetpie' I still like 'puppetpie' but when I went to set up the blog account 'puppetpie' was taken (by a nice Arizona puppeteer who sells cute felt finger puppets on etsy) so at the time I hastily picked something similar to what I wanted so I could start the blog. But now I'm needing something more original... I hate feeling like a hack.

hmmm....

kdot puppets? ... google tells me kdot more commonly stands for Kansas Department of Transporation. hmm...

I'm wanting to avoid the formulaic "your name" 's + "what you make" although there is a reason why so many people do this. And with the billions of times I've had to verbally spell out 'puppalooza' to people I know that would be a bad choice even though I like the sound of it. And with this puppetpie episode I'm shying away from any puppet"tastey food item" ... it just wouldn't be very satisfying anymore.

Back to the drawing board... and maybe getting some real housekeeping done.

Oh, and if you have a blog and would like it added to my sidebar, please let me know :)

oops!

2009-03-11T15:25:00.010-04:00

You see I recently joined a cooking group and this month's theme was 'guilty pleasures' and after much deliberation (with myself) I decided to make the Gray family favorite Meringue Crust Chocolate Pie for which I needed to whip cream.

The KitchenAide is a cream whippin' beast! After letting it work it's magic for a short while I started to divide the product (as needed for the recipe) when I decided that there was not the volume that there should be so, "I'll whip it some more" I thought and set the whisk to whirlin'. I stop it again and it's lumpy and look like a sad ugly cousin to cottage cheese. "Well I can't use it in the pie now" I said to myself, a tiny bit worried because that was my only cream and the cooking group was the next day and the morning was already booked "guess it can't hurt to keep going now." So I cranked it up again and when I finally stopped the whuring whisk a poured off the thin milky liquid it donned on me:

I had accidentally made butter
I had wondered about that possibility

Now if you've never accidentally made butter I can tell you... it feels odd and a little bewildering with some undertones of exciting.

When I went downstairs to where Dennis was working and relayed the story. I could tell he had a similar feeling. He gave me a hug and with my head under his chin he said something to the effect of 'well, if you're going to 'oops' in the kitchen, making butter isn't that bad."

Here are the other parts of the pie that will have to wait for more whipping cream.

But I was not too worried about cooking group because that day I was trying a recipe I had found online for the Great Harvest Bread Company's Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread. I fell in love with this bread while we lived in Logan (when you walk into the shop they give you a fat slice of bread to sample with plenty of butter). Any one reading who knows-- yeah, you know! So I had a back up to bring that turned out really well and just so happened to compliment my accidental sweet butter!

Here's the recipe if you want to give it a try. It's very moist and dense. This recipe makes two loaves so it great for sharing.

GREAT HARVEST PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHIP BREAD

2 1/2 cups white flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

3 cups sugar

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon salt

16 oz cooked or canned pumpkin puree (not pie filling) (15 oz can will work too)

1 cup oil

4 eggs, beaten lightly

2/3 cup water

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease two (9x5 inch) loaf pans or three (8x4 inch) loaf pans. Mix flours, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt together in a large bowl; set aside. Mix pumpkin, oil, eggs, and 2/3 cup water together and stir into dry ingredients. Stir in chocolate chips. Place batter in prepared pans. Bake 60 or 70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Lately with my quick breads (mostly banana bread) I've been liberally dusting the tops with a cinnamon/sugar mix and have been happy with the result. :)

[and I would like to thank my cousin Melissa for showing me how to accomplish an effective use of depth of field-- I honestly didn't know my camera could do that!]

First Day as a Substitute Teacher and I Finished the Peter and the Wolf Puppets

2009-02-25T17:32:00.003-05:00

I never thought I would be one-- and you know? it wasn't horrible.

Granted it was a half day for me and I got to meet the teacher before-hand (which was nice!).

I realize I don't know any tricks to quell the chatterboxes... especially if there are several of them-- simple transitions take much longer than expected. They were all good kids... just chatty which makes it hard to focus the group.

The house is getting closer to order-- that's been nice and a long time coming-- not quite there yet. The Hubs and I have different (neither is wrong although he may disagree) methods for cleaning/organizing which makes things... ... ...interesting. I don't feel like I've been 'settled' anywhere since my apartment in grad school. I got to live there for two whole years... that was almost four years ago. Even though I know we won't be here all that long I look forward to feeling moved in-- and to enjoy it as long as possible.

Today is my Nephew's 15th birthday... which seems very very strange to me. 15! Holy Crap!

A few days ago was our 6 Montherversary so we went out to eat which was really nice and had a nice evening together-- yay!

And a few weeks ago I finished the Peter and the Wolf puppets that had completely occupied my life for about a month. And I really mean it took the vast vast vast majority of my time (see how any vasts!?). So below are some pictures! (a photoshoot on our couch covered with a sheet because I'm fancy like that and I had to get these guys in the mail likety-split!) They should be self explanatory as to who is who but if you have any questions feel free to ask! So I'll leave you to look at these while I go rustle up something for dinner.

More Canning Coziness

2008-12-04T16:18:00.004-05:00

I've been wanting to mention this book, it isn't new but I've enjoyed it-- it makes me want to garden. At least it makes me want to garden in theory. For many years I've been spending the bulk of my summers in California while living the rest of the year in another state. This makes gardening... difficult... it seems you need to be in the same place long enough to plant a garden and harvest the garden. silly gardens!

The book is great and they have a website: http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/ which is also good.

I originally bought this as an audiobook for the long drive between where I was in California and where I was going in Utah. I've listened to it three or four times now (most recently during my canning mentioned in the last post) and I've purchased the book which is odd, I know, but I felt the need to have it more as a "reference." I adore the audio book though-- read by the authors, I get drawn in.
-----

I just came from a friend's house where we made a batch of Cran Apple Butter. It was fun to share the Cran Apple Butter goodness and the fun of canning-- it's really not as hard as some folks would have you believe but I can understand wanting someone there who's done it before. It can be intimidating. Maybe next year I'll try tomatoes, tomato sauce and salsa. I think that will be interesting especially since those are things we use and so is a bit more practical than jams, jellies, and apple butters-- which are all I've done so far. Well, we use the jams just not in large quantities.

Also I heard that the local university grows tomatoes and apples and such that they end up selling on the cheap... it's just a question of timing. I'll keep my eye open next summer. I'm also on the list to volunteer to pick the university crops. I learned about the program too late to participate this season so I'll write about it more when I've actually done it but as I understand it they have volunteers come and pick and the food goes to the local food bank which I think is awesome (and I hear the pickers get to take some home a bit of the bounty as well). I'm looking forward to participating (so she says now).

In other news the beau just turned another year older, yay! We're planning to do more of the birthday stuff this weekend but it was fun to see how many times I could work in "Happy Birthday" into the conversation. Love you Honey!

2008-12-01T17:54:00.002-05:00

So evidently my grand idea of writing posts at home and them bringing them to the library has not been as effective as I would have hoped, but at least I'm here now. whoop-dee-doo!

Right now life is a really odd combination of busy and dull. I'm working on some puppets which are progressing very slooowly (see, three 'o's... that means it slower than usual). But there are other projects that lure me away... Like this the day before Thanksgiving

I made a batch of Cran Apple Butter and I'm wanting to make another. The day after I made a batch of Orange Chili Marmalade ... I guess it turned out how it was supposed to... I'm just not a fan.

well, the library computer is about to log me out!

Hope everyone is doing well.

Trying Something a Little Different

2008-10-08T14:23:00.004-04:00

With no internet at the house my blog posting has… well... stopped. This will not do. So my new plan of attack is that I write my post on the computer at home and process any images I may use and plop it all on a thumb drive then make my way over to either the local or not-quite-as-local library (the one that opens before 1pm and has double the computers and more than double the books) and cut and paste.

If I didn’t have to drive then the internet would basically be free. So that’s good and kind of exciting however it presents it’s own special sort of hassles to be sure. …I have mixed thoughts about limitations on time on-line. I find I waste less time when I think I only have 30 minutes but if it’s slow and the pop up window asks me if I want another 15 minutes I can’t say no. Then if it asks me again… well, since time on-line is limited it makes it harder to walk away whereas when it’s at home and I know I can come and go it makes it easier to leave it alone because I know if I think of something I need to look up later I can. Lists help but they’re not fool proof and inevitably I find myself later in the day I think of something I forgot to do on-line. There are times when for business I’ll really need to have the internet more accessible so I see the library as a temporary situation. ::fingers crossed::

Now for things I actually wanted to post.

First the toads!!

These three turned up while my beau was mowing the lawn a couple of Saturdays ago. Not wanting to hit them with the mower he brought them inside (one at a time as he found them) and put them in a pace picante sauce jar.

These guys are small and soo cute! The biggest one was about the size of a gumball. So that little was pretty bitty! Of course when the mower was put away we released the trio wishing them well and for them to get fat on the hundreds of crickets in the yard.

I’m not sure what makes so many amphibians fall into the cute category—but there they are.

Next...

STEW! (maybe it’s not best to write about toads and stew in the same post… could make the tags look funny but here we go)

The weather has been cooling off (it’s raining now) and with that comes stew! It’s one of the reasons I can let go of summer and embrace autumn and winter… it’s cozy!

This was the first stew of the season (we’re currently finishing off our second-- a lentil and sage sausage number that illustrates that I need more practice but has become quite tasty). What I was excited about was the pound of Adirondack Blue potatoes I scored at the farmer’s market that week. As I understand it, any food with naturally blue or red flesh is a good source of anti-oxidants… which makes me wonder why not eat more blue potatoes since they’re just as delicious, healthier, and much more fun?

See? Pretty!

This was taken before cooking. The potatoes didn’t stay this purple, the surface turned white but they were still purple on the inside. I like. If we ever garden as much as we discuss wanting to I would love a row of blue potatoes. I’m enamored.

In Michigan, and, Happy Birthday Jayna!

2008-09-13T13:07:00.003-04:00

We've been in Michigan for a week and the unpacking continues without much of an end in sight.

I like our little house despite the questionable craftsmanship. I think the painting we did in July has really helped make the place feel more like ours. And again I'm thinking how good it was that we did it then since now every wall has stuff stacked in front of it.

We had good time driving across -- especially in Logan. We got to see friends (many of which also helped us load our storage unit of stuff into the truck) which was so much fun (yep, it really was since the rain kindly/mostly subsided) and we got to stay with our bishop and his wife in their very lovely home... which we're told it actually was a bed & breakfast at one time. So it was even more fitting when our first morning there Lonnie made us waffles for breakfast... thus encouraging my waffle kick... (the morning after our wedding we had waffles at Tallahan's Cafe in Arnold) which has ended since we do not own a waffle iron-- pancakes will have to do.

It was easier to say goodbye to Logan this time since it really didn't feel like ours anymore. I will still miss it though.

The batteries for my camera were dead for the entire drive (boo!) but I also didn't feel like messing with it. A lot to see but not all that much to photograph (except the monument at the highest point of the Lincoln Highway and the Strategic Air Command museum-- which was pretty neat) everything else fit in these categories: Dennis Driving, Highway, Gas Station, Restaurant, Hotel/Motel... oh and we got to see the Mississippi.

So not only is today Jayna's Birthday-- which is great and wonderful since she is great and wonderful-- but our friend, Bill, along with five of his friends are crashing at our house tonight. They're taking a road trip to the Grand Canyon and we get to be their first stop! It sounds like their trip is going to be very fun-- wish I could go! (especially in exchange for unpacking) ;) I'm looking forward to the visit. Bill's been a good friend and not just because he played such a large part in the wedding implementation (for which I will always be grateful)-- he was a good friend long before all that.

Yay!

Yay!! We're Hitched!!

2008-08-28T00:25:00.005-04:00

one of my favorite photos so far
(nice work Andrea!)

Bishop Teerlink performed the ceremony which was great!
(this photo doesn't show the wonderful aisle runner Francine painted though)

favors: little jars of home-made peach jam
(thanks Mom and Dad for the peaches--
Thanks Lois for the jam... there just wasn't time this Summer!)

this shows a bit more than half of our wedding cake buffet
(the best idea ever!! Karen rocked the catering! btw)

I sang a song... generally ill-advised but I think it turned out well. :)
(Thanks Jason for teaching me my two cords and Chris for some styling tips)

our first dance (to "I Wanna Grow Old With You" from the musical of The Wedding Singer)
(it's a movie that we've enjoyed together on many occasions)

at the end of each table runner there was a different phase stitched in
(thanks Lois and Jayna!)

the petal toss makes fun pictures!

and I can't think of anyone I'd rather be hitched to!

It's been a crazy crazy month and we're not out of the woods yet but I wanted to give the briefest to run downs about the nuptials! yay nuptials!! We don't get our photos from the photographer for about two weeks (I'm really looking forward to it!). These photos where taken by my good friend Andrea (I'll need to see if there's a link she'd want me to connect to)... and I'm very pleased with what she was able to capture. Here is just the tiniest of samplings. She took so many pictures it's like you could make a flip-book of the action. Thanks Andrea!

So many people helped make it all happen... pretty awesome! I really can't thank them enough. So many details I could talk about but I think that will wait until I have even more photos and more time as well.

Woo Hoo!

2008-07-24T02:20:00.003-04:00

A month from today we're getting married! So much to do sometimes I wonder if it will ever get done. Part of me wants time to slow down so I can get more things done but the other part can't wait to make my beau my husband-- and take him home!

I have a lot of the wedding stuff done... there's just so much more. I want to enjoy the details and not be burdened by them-- I love details-- but I also know that I'll need to let some of them go.

Also in the personal good news: I'm letting go of some very long-held animosity.

It feels good and freeing. I've made several attempts on my own over the years but I'm feeling confident this will stick. And you know what I did? I took my mother's advice-- even after I told her there would be no way I could do it-- but I did-- I feel good-- she was right! Thanks Mom!

Off to Iddie-hoe

2008-07-10T05:15:00.001-04:00

Looking forward to it! (just not the drive!)

WooHoo!

Bridal Shower

2008-07-08T17:56:00.002-04:00

I came back to California Friday night-- I thought someone would notice if I missed my own bridal shower which was the next day. I really didn't know for sure what to expect although I have attended a handful of bridal showers, four to be exact, in the past. My beau's mom and aunt organized it and I really had a good time! It wasn't the type of shower with all the weird and awkward games. This shower was just about tasty food and visiting with a bunch of really neat gals. Oh and presents-- which feels really odd at first but the type of odd you get over in not too long. Something that was pretty great was that there was no need for a poker-face since everything was either very useful or very beautiful or both!

It feels so good to be surrounded by such wonderful women in my life.

(and I promise you that I put some make-up on... it just really doesn't look like it in the picture-- but in the picture it does look like I'm a unicorn! :) a happy one)

We had a loose "picture frame" theme that is if people didn't know what to bring they could just pick up a little picture frame that I could then use at the reception to display photos of me and my beau. I thought that would 1) save me a bunch of cash and 2) be fun for people to see the frame they brought used at the reception. Now a have a whole lot of very very pretty frames that come together in a very fun eclectic mix (that all looks good together) that you just couldn't get if you sent one person shopping. Amazing! An idea that I wish I had sooner was for the guests to bring pictures from their own weddings if they wanted-- I think that would be so much fun to see everyone's pictures and give everyone a chance to talk and reminisce about their own wedding. I'm kicking myself about it now because I can't think of another opportunity to get everyone together in a context where that would make sense.... ... ... unless we have an anniversary party at some point ... maybe. hmm

Me? Impulsive?

2008-06-30T12:52:00.001-04:00

It was Tuesday, last Tuesday, almost a week ago. I had just finished puppeteering in a video shoot (for a really cute show about keeping rivers clean-- I'll let you know when I find out the name-- for the California Department of Fish and Game) and I was really really missing my beau. Not just the sad but glad I have someone to miss, no, this was the sad with no redeeming qualities what-so-ever and this wasn't the first day I was feeling this way.

So that evening I'm partaking in the nightly conversation with my beau and he gives me the good news that he had booked his flight to California and it arrives a couple days sooner than I had expected-- this pleases me very much. He goes on to tell that he found a good deal as well-- also good-- and that he was using a popular website to find it but a different website than I usually do so I hopped online and went airfare shopping and landed a $362 round-trip ticket (after all the taxes) and after much deliberation we decided that I should go see my honey! Yippee!

(as a side note: On the SouthWest Airlines website you can find flights after the summer from Sacramento to Detroit for $85 one way-- yeah, I know, awesome-- I luv SouthWest and not just because that's how I found the fella who's gonna be my husband... although that certainly helps!)

So that was Tuesday. My plane left for Michigan on Friday and here I will be until July 4th (the only noticeable holiday the he and I have been consistently able to spend together. The travel was alright (I had a flight attendant that I swear smelled of maple syrup and I got a little woosie from reading during the landing-- then unfortunately was woosie periodically for the rest of the day) and it was so nice to get to see my beau! I just couldn't stand it.

We made several stops on the way to the house which was fun but it was also nice to finally get to see the place. It will serve us very well I think but I think one of the best things about it is that it backs up to a wooded area with a trail that wraps around a pond (not one of those manicured kind... the kind with fallen logs, algae, and bull frogs) and leads to a park. We walked the trail yesterday and it was great. we had to be careful, the baby toads were out and crossing the trail. They were itty bitty bitty about the size of a sunflower seed and, if they were to hold still, two could perch side by side on my thumbnail. I couldn't believe the cuteness! Even the beau hadn't seen ones quite that small... and he's seen a lot of frogs, I dare say he's seen more than the average person. Walking is something we like to do together so I think we'll make good use of this trail... and there has been talk of getting cross-country skis so we can use it in the winter too-- we'll have to see about that though.

When we got to the park, without any known froggie casualties, we sat on a bench together for a small while and as I sat there holding his hand I realized that with him beside me growing old is not a scary thing at all.

Over There

2008-06-21T22:46:00.001-04:00

At this very moment my beau is far far far away-- much too far for my tastes. He's been away for about three weeks now and it will be about two months before I get to see him. Time is going slow and fast at the same time and part of me wants the time to go slowly so I can get everything ready for the wedding and the other part of me wants the time to have past already so I can hold my darling and he can hold me in return.

There is so much to love about my beau. He's been in what will be our Michigan home for the past week during which time he's cleaned the carpets and the kitchen and tonight he installed under-the-cabinet lighting fixtures. He doesn't care that it's a rental. Every place we've lived he put in lights under the cabinets to better illuminate the counter work space. It's practical, yes, and I love him for it. He makes it easy.

It's apparently very difficult to live in a practically empty house. Since we have a storage unit full of stuff in Logan he is resisting the urge to get those useful things that we already have and only need one of-- like a silverware drawer divider. Tough I know, I never thought about how annoying it would be to live without one and while he packed a small "kitchen survival kit" that wasn't in it. It would be hard living in a house whose furniture consisted of one small table, one chair, and an air mattress-- makes it kind of hard to just "hang out" and this will be for the rest of the summer. Although today he picked up a small free dresser so now he can get his clothes out of the suitcase. I think I would have a tough time of things if it were me over there alone starting a new job and living in an empty house. I hope for his comfort that he finds a suitable futon.

Little Dancers

2008-06-20T23:15:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was my birthday and it was a pretty fun day.

It started with work (yay work!) ... well, two hours of work (yay only a little work!) then I got to have lunch with my mom and with my beau's mom and aunt-- a great time was had by all. It's great to be around such fun and nice ladies!

I got to pick up the tablecloths for the wedding-- yay! and send out another batch of invitations-- another yay!

The day rounded off with my niece's dance recital-- a whole bunch of yays! She did a good job and it was all so cute. so so so cute.

Today's Forehead Slap!

2008-06-13T14:50:00.002-04:00

It's not surprising that I made the invitations to our upcoming wedding. What is surprising (and a bit horrifying) is that during all the time I spent designing them, printing them (which was a process I might talk about sometime), cutting them and putting them all together-- checking and re-checking-- I never noticed that I flipped two digits in the RSVP telephone number (for reference the 1 and the 6 need to be switched). While that is a small mistake it is a significant one for folks who don't already know me and don't use email.

And of course I realize that posting about it on my little blog that nobody reads will do a world of good-- I know.

doh!

But the very nice man who has the number that was printed said that he wouldn't mind passing along the correct number to any of the future calls. (I don't really know how many people tried to call already and just hung up when it was clear that it was the wrong number)

Very nice man!

double doh!