armlessbear.com

Back from Vacation

In 7 days:
Badlands
Black Hills (incl. Mt Rushmore and Crazy Horse)
Eastern Montana
Beartooth Pass (a road climbing up to 11,000 feet – a scenicly terrifying way to get into Yellowstone)
Yellowstone
Sleeping outside under the stars (no tent, long story)
More Yellowstone
Eastern bits of Idaho (incl. Victor, ID which is on the west side of the Tetons)
Jackson Hole, WY
Grand Tetons Park
Yet more Yellowstone
Return to Eastern Montana
Back through South Dakota and terrifying but brilliant storms.
Home.

I love mountains and the west. I haven’t been out west since 99 and really forgot how much I love the fresh smell of pine forests. I even enjoyed our second night of camping that actually involved sleeping in a tent.

It's Like Raaaaai-aain...........

This morning my co-worker mocked me for not biking with essentials like a tire pump and a patch kit. “What would you do,” he asked “if you got a flat tire on the bike path?” Well, duh, I’d walk or ride the bus home, get the car and take it to someone to fix it.

Today I also decided I needed a front basket on my bike instead of just the saddle bags. My first reason for needing them was farmers market. One simply cannot bring plants home in saddle bags. My second reason became evident when I retrieved my birthday meal leftovers from my saddlebag and found that my Bang-Bang Chicken had all-but exploded. Fortunately, I had put it in a ziploc bag, preventing a much bigger disaster than a ruined lunch and yogurt.

Biking Outing

We had planned on being lazy today, maybe do a bit of cleaning, some yard work and laundry.
Then around 11am I got the IM from Musevia asking if we wanted to go biking. My first inclination was to say no. My Weather.com icon in the systray was registering 81, my kitchen required additional cleaning… Then I thought nah, let’s get out of the house. B&E came down to our house and we biked over to Vilas Zoo (a very pleasant ride); saw some very hot, sleepy, lazy animals; established that yelling “ca-caw” does not entice a peacock to show his beautiful plumage; put Adam on the carousel for one ride and headed home.

Labor Day Weekend Party Stuff and Junk

Which will it be? Sunday or Monday at 4pm?
How many people (including children) are attending?

Do you want to bring anything (food/drink?)

kthnxbye.

Garden update

Earlier this summer I planted some food-bearing plants and hoped for the best.
I did a half-assed job of mixing in nutrient rich topsoil and some fertilizer. For a long time, it looked like nothing would actually grow. Finally one day I had basil and parsely and mint. Then I had a couple peppers growing early. I plucked one of the peppers and used it in salsa. It wasn’t terribly hot, but it was tasty.
Now I have little green tomatoes sprouting on the vines, and eggplants and a whole mess ‘o jalapeno peppers. The potted plants – banana, hot red, and green peppers are flowering like crazy. It’s amazing! I’m.Growing.Real.Food!

Amateur Gardening with Kirstin

Last week at the Wednesday Farmers’ Market I bought some plants:
2 different parsley, 1 cilantro, 3 basil, rosemary, mini-gourds, jalapenos, catnip and peppermint. On Thursday a co-worker gave me 3 heirloom tomato plants, 1 cherry tomato and and eggplant. On Thursday I also picked up a free bag of coffee grounds compost from the Starbucks on the Square.

Saturday morning rolled around and I cooked a hearty breakfast before I started gardening. By 11am I was outside starting to plot how I’d plant everything.
Three and a half hours later EVERYTHING had been either planted and (re-planted) in the ground, or planted in pots.

Memorial Day

First, I’d like to thank everyone who came yesterday and helped make our first outdoor party a big success. As I was lying in bed last night, feeling every aching muscle in my body I did a mental count of everyone who was there. Peak attendance: 23. awesome. We still have left-overs (hamburger, beer, chips, buns, watermelon), but nothing that an impromptu bbq gathering this week couldn’t knock down…

After spending the last week getting the house and porch ready for the party, we are ready to have a weekend to do absolutely nothing except stay home, relax, do a bit of gardening, and work on my Ladder Golf game.

Greater Washington Area

We’re here (in Northern VA).
Took us way longer than we expected to get here. (not that we should be surprised at United Airline delays).

Time for our 2 day whirlwind return-tour of DC.
woot.

Hot Weekend (door) Stripping Action

[acidfree:342]
I have a lot of respect for people who restore furniture and woodwork. What they do is hard labor (even with chemicals), the chemicals are noxious and come with warnings about cancer in lab rats, the sanders leave your hands numb, and the sheer effort involved leaves your muscles sore… But I digress…
Our front door used to be an unsightly yellow. When the house was yellow, it was fine. When the house went gray (much like some of my hair) the yellow became, well… ugly.
So I bought some toxic chemicals and I sprayed them on the door and waited.

Paint Ball Bunnies

Friday morning Adam and I wasted 10 minutes staring out the back door watching a cute widdle gray bunny (CWGB) nibbling on our grass.
Since Friday, CWGB, has appeared every morning and continues to nibble on the grass.
I have no problems with this. I like Nature™.

This morning, CWGB was back, and he brought at least 4 friends with him, including Collosso-Bunny(CB) which appeared to be about 30lbs. I sincerely hope CB is male, otherwise SHE will be dropping about 20 baby bunnies in my back yard very soon.

The presence of 4+ hungry, agile, urban rabbits presents me with a new set of problems.