tennessee weekend

this weekend we went up to tennessee to see pritcher and cheryl and to meet little erin rita. it was her baptism. plus, we got to hang out with their cool family and friends, had some really good (too much!) food, enjoyed cooler weather, and had an all-around great time.

check out more pictures at my flickr site. for more detail about what we did over the weekend, cheryl has a few good posts.

day three of vacation

sewed the "roof" to our old swing.

ok, so it doesn't look that great in this picture. but i'm really proud of it. our old neighbors "gave" us (and by "gave" i mean, dumped with us) this old swing when they moved out of town a year ago. but the awning was ripped. over the year it's just ripped more and more and slowly become less and less useful. so i decided to make a new awning in hopes that we will actually use the swing. now the next step will be to fix the cushions. if anyone knows of anyone who is getting rid of lawn chair cushions give me a holla'!

this was the last day of my vacation. :( but it's been a good one. restful and productive. i even got to sit out in my new hammock this evening and read my book. i think it's my new favorite spot!

day two of vacation

made a hammock.


(sorry that the picture's blurry!)

...

and, here are some pictures of our work from yesterday.


before-shot


knocked out back and side walls


framed back wall


framed back wall and ceiling

day one of vacation

mowed lawn.

ran errands-habitat re-store, fabric store, big lots.

picked up subs on the way home (i was craving a hoagie. this wasn't quite that, but not too bad.)

moved furniture and "stuff" out of hall walkway.

knocked out walls and started to build frame for the closet.

moved furniture and "stuff" back into walkway and cleaned up.

made* dinner.

ate.

bath.

30 rock and the office (streamed online).

slept. hard.

*for the sake of full-disclosure, i really just reheated leftovers.

gross!

sneaky little buggers

weekend roundup

it's been a busy weekend, indeed. i returned from greenville on friday evening and we've been going non-stop ever since.

if you read my husband's blog (yes, he posted!) you'll know that friday was world refugee day. so lutheran family services had a little festival on saturday. c was required to work as the face-painter. so i went up to show my support, meet some of his clients, and see what was happening. it was a good time.

here is a picture of some of c's more intricate handy-work:


he also was a good sport and let omar paint his head. this, of course, opened a can of worms that was then difficult to shut!


after the refugee day celebration i had a brief presentation to make for work. then, we went to a friend's house to celebrate the completion of her triathlon. great job! at the party we played a raucous and hilarious rendition of "catch phrase." holy smokes, it was fun. i could never do it justice to explain it here. so it'll just have to be left to your imagination.

i took a few picts in the garden today.

the tomatoes were so overgrown, they were falling over, so i had to put some taller stakes in the ground to hold them up. and we had our first okra harvest.

not enough to make a whole meal but it was a great supplement.

tonight for dinner, we had an almost total locally-grown experience. we had sauteed summer squash from a friend's garden (thanks, m!), salad with home-grown lettuce, home-grown carrots, south carolina tomatoes, and homemade bread. we also had black beans (not home-grown) with our okra and brown rice (also not home-grown). it was delicious and it's so cool to see the fruits of our labors.

here are some more picts from the garden.

g'ville

i'm in greenville this week for a conference. i don't know if i've really talked about this much, but i love conferences. i love getting out of town (especially on my job's dime), staying in a hotel where they usually have TV and unlimited hot water and sometimes have a gym and pool. plus, i love learning new things, getting new ideas, meeting new people, and just generally be refreshed.

this conference is extra special because it's in a town that i love and i have friends who live here or close enough to get here. so it's sort of like a mini-vacation. except without my husband. sorry, dude.

pie picking

i went blueberry picking yesterday with some old friends and new friends. it was so hot. we weren't fast enough to beat the heat. but despite that, we managed to pick a good amount. me and my somali friends picked 2 gallons, one for each of us to take home. then i made this tonight.



and we still have plenty of berries remaining.

*i have one picture from picking that i want to post, but i want to just make sure my new friends don't mind me putting their picts up. so that may be added at a later date.

happy father's day

to my fathers and all other fathers, happy father's day.


dad resting his eyes


step-bo entertaining himself

finders keepers creepers

apple scruffs was stolen. last night, we think. along with our bike pump. it really sucks. the irony of the situation is that they've been sitting unused for months, heck, probably even over a year. and just a few weeks ago chris and i started getting up early in the AM and taking a ride. it's been so nice. so we're really disappointed.

chris said, "well, that's what we get for leaving them on our side porch," which doesn't lock. and i wonder, is that really what we get? is it like, well, we deserved that one?

it seems so self-righteous of someone to go up onto our porch, reach through the gap in the door to unlock it, open the broken door, and take something that clearly does not belong to them. i just don't get how someone could do that.

then i get all social-worky and think, is this a sign of the recession? that's not the worst that could happen in life anyway. i think, well we live so good in many ways because of the things our country or government has stolen or exploited from other people. so maybe we can say this is a small price to pay for such a comfortable life. i mean, if we really wanted to we could just fork over the $100 or whatever and buy another one. it wouldn't kill our finances to do that.

but then i keep coming back to the fact that someone made the conscious decision to go on our porch and take something that was ours. it makes me think of when i was a kid and this woman came to our door. she told my mom that her son was having an asthma attack and she needed a cup of vinegar. apparently the vinegar was supposed to help him in some way? my mom didn't know anything about asthma so she didn't think twice about it. that is, not until mom went to get her wallet later that night and realized that it was missing from her purse, which sat conveniently next to the door. we assume that the lady just reached in and took it while mom was in the kitchen getting the vinegar.

it just makes me sad. sad that people think they have the right to take what isn't there's. sad that people feel like they have to take things because they're that desperately in need. sad for just so many other reasons that i just can't really explain.

vote vote vote vote

if you're in south carolina, don't forget to vote tomorrow.

one big bad news and a few good newses

the squash is dead. rest in peace, squashies. no thanks to squash borers. so i went out this afternoon and squashed some borers myself. jerks. so no squash this year. but hopefully they won't bore their way through anything else.

the good news is that the barlotti beans have flowers. and we have little okras coming up. and i saw 2 bees the other day. those are the first bees i've seen, so i'm happy about that.

may/june harvests

i failed to mention 2 weeks ago that we harvested the garlic. the bulbs are rather smaller than we would've liked, but not too bad. the taste is great. not too pungent but very aromatic. yum!

tonight we harvested the carrots. they're supposed to be harvest-ready in 60-75 days and it's been over 90. so we figured, out they go, even though they we're really too big. but again, not too bad.



for the past few weeks we've been eating a little bit of the italian kale as well. again, the leaves weren't too big so it's not been enough to really make one full meal. but the taste is delicious! do i sense a theme (small but yummy?)?

age-old questions answered

chris: "whoever said you can't have fun for free?"

me: "no one."

chris: "exactly."

late night double feature picture show

saturday night chris and i went to the movies to see baby momma. we've not been to the theater in ages so we decided it was about time. there are so many movies we want to see in the theater right now; i'm not really sure how we chose baby momma over the others. but one of us needed a laugh and it did the trick. c and i both commented that for having tina fey and amy poehler, it was a little subdued. and i wouldn't say it was the most complex plot ever. but we laughed and fully enjoyed it.

as we were walking out of the theater it was around 10:00 or so and, as we walked to the car, we were tossing back and forth the idea of seeing another show. before we even knew it, we had shelled out another $17 to see iron man. another great movie! a bit different from baby momma, to say the least. great acting.

good times!