Some of you may have noticed I joined Twitter today. I know absolutely nothing about it except that my husband has been telling me for some time now that I should be on it. For a few years now, Edie’s had teachers that tweet info to parents, which Pat has used to tell me I should be on Twitter. So what happened today that made me change my mind?
Category: another day in the life
Random recent happy things.
Baby Praying Mantis on Leni’s Zinna.
Call and Answer.
The other day as I was out running errands, I felt the call of the thrift. If you’ve never felt that call before, it’s hard to describe. It’s a gut feeling that if you don’t go to the thrift store right there and then, you will miss out on something that needs to come home with you. I have a love/hate thing for the SPCA Rummage Sale Store, but I found myself pulling into the parking lot Wednesday afternoon just as a parking space magically opened up. Clearly, the fates were aligned.
Tales from the first day of school.
The big yellow angel is back and with it, Edie’s best get-her-to-school-on-time buddy.
And she’s back.
11 Questions.
The thing about blogging is wondering exactly what people want to read- for instance, I almost didn’t publish that last post on cantaloupe jam because I had this second thought after writing it that no one really cared two cents about cantaloupe jam. I was very pleasantly surprised to see that indeed some of you actually like hearing about cantaloupe jam. I always get a little thrill when I hear how much someone likes this blog – this whole thing started on a lark trying to keep a lost then found creative spark that is so much a part of me that I don’t ever want to lose it again. In a little internet game of tag you’re it, Meridith over at Counting Chickens gave me a little shout-out along with a list of questions that were optional for me to answer. And if you know me, you know that I bounce from subject to subject, so why should my blog be any different? This one is for you Meridith.
The Calvert Party Encyclopedia
My friend Allison, who happens to be the same Allison that did an entire weekend camping trip wearing a trash bag as a poncho in 3 inches of rain because I assured her there was no rain in the forecast and therefore, it was not worth running home for – which I would also like to point out she was an absolute trooper about, but then, that’s Allison. She’s one of those rock solid people who takes everything in stride. She’s the kind of friend you can call on a cold, snowy Saturday in January and ask to please bring you a chocolate banana milkshake because you just had a baby and your husband has told you his days of running out to please your every whim are over, thankyouverymuch and she then walks all over downtown in the snow looking for anything that’s open that will make you a chocolate banana milkshake and while she’s at it, she brings along a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, which you’ve been craving for the last 9 months just in case the six pack you had sitting in the cooler on the back porch for such an event accidentally got left on the back porch in the excitement of leaving to have a baby, because it did.
She’s that kind of friend. Kinda the bomb.
Allison came down to visit recently and brought me a most delightful gift that as soon as I opened it, knew I had to share it here. Continue reading
Not Camping.
In talking about a little getaway with my husband, I suggested that perhaps we could go camping. As I pretty much never offer to do this, I thought he’d like the idea. It’s not that I don’t like camping, it’s just that almost every camping trip we’ve ever gone on has been rained on. Sometimes spectacularly and memorably so. Like the time we camped out in a tropical storm on the beach at the Outer Banks. Or the time we did a three day canoe trip with Smiley & the gang. Then there was the trip when I was pregnant with Edie were no rain was in the forecast – Allison didn’t even bring her rain gear and as soon as we put in, the bottom of the sky fell out and we got something like 3 inches of rain that weekend. We had friends with us that were covered in head to toe goretex who pouted the entire time – which considering I was pregnant, cold, uncomfortable and wet the entire time should have been my job. Continue reading
While the cat’s away.
We’re on day 5 of no kid here and I’ve gotten lots of questions about what we’re up to while our gal is gone. Here’s my week in review.
Oh July.
It’s been a bit of a whirlwind around here lately – deadlines & cooking classes galore with last minute radio spots and packing up missthing for 3 weeks of camp all while playing single mom in the miserably muggy weather. Last Thursday, when you could see the air and it smelled like mildew outside and I couldn’t take it anymore, I got our wonderful neighbor Brian to come help me reinstall the not-finished-french doors between the dining room and sunroom so that I could shut the house up and keep the humidity levels sane. I can take the heat and even the humidity, but I can’t take the effect humidity has on the inside of my house. Living in Alabama for almost a decade, I never had central AC – all through college I lived in wonderful old houses that had lots of big trees & ceiling fans, very similar to what I live with now – and I learned to just deal with it. I also had a car that did not have air conditioning. Ever drive along the Gulf Coast Fourth of July without AC in the middle of the day? To this day, AC in a car is a wonderful, wonderful luxury.
So I’m quite used to dealing with heat & humidity. It seems that spending too much time inside in AC this time of year results in sinus infections for all of us – I woke up just this morning with that telltale pressure on the right side of my face. Thankfully, the weather is supposed to become far more pleasant later in the week, so hopefully we can open the house back up again.
Pat spent last week running the Middle James Expedition– while Edie & I held down the home front. Despite our house being the muggiest one around, her pals were in & out all week long. A huge thanks to Teresa, who had Edie over for a sleepover while I drove over to Harrisonburg and back for a canning demonstration at Friendly City Co-op. Thanks to everyone who came out to that – I had a great time and am looking forward to going back over for a pressure canning demo in a few weeks. Saturday morning after a quick phone appearance on WINA talking about the upcoming swap, I assisted with Erica’s Cooking with A Whole Chicken Class for Market Central,while running last minute errands and doing laundry in order to get up and drop Edie at camp Sunday morning.
After which, we stopped at the nearest open brewery and toasted our child-free status for the next three weeks.
I’ll miss not finding feet pictures on my camera the next three weeks, but I have plenty of adventures lined up to keep me occupied, starting with tonight’s canning class at PVCC, a fridge full of produce I need to deal with ASAP and the mailing of a care package of the things she forgot to pack. Like toothpaste.
Chicken Wire & Paper Flowers 