22 July 2015

Finished Pads!

So I finished sewing all my pads - 12 in total, including the one I made the other day.
 Here they are pre-sewing. I cut out basic two-layer ones for light days and two-layer plus two-layer liner ones for heavier days.
And here's the finished products! (Yes, there's only 11 there, number 12 was on last week's blog). I'm so excited to break them in down the road! Mostly, I love my cute fabrics - my favorite is the constellations one.

I had a great weekend - made awesome by how many times Jack was able to call me on the sat phone. :) I definitely got my fix, and I was craving it this weekend, so it truly was a blessing. Besides that, I was able to get some important weeding-around-plants done, as well as harvesting the seeds from the arugula plants (and pulling up the plants afterward). Hopefully they're viable as I intend to plant them later in the week. I was going to do some weeding this morning, but instead worked on baking bread and did some oh-so-juicy yoga. It felt great! I'm gonna check my rising loaves in a moment and see if they're not ready to start baking. They'll have to be, since I've got to be out of the house in an hour for work.

Still waking up at 5:30 this week. I'm actually starting to wake up before my alarm already! If I could just get myself to fall asleep sooner things might balance out.

Derby was great last night. Tonight we're having an outdoor practice - one of the girls said I could borrow her extra outdoor wheels. It's one of our recruitment ideas - be more visible, get people interested... I'm anxious to see how this is gonna go...

Until next time!

16 July 2015

Wild & Crazy

On Monday morning I drove to Portland and spent the afternoon and evening hanging out with my friend Holly (who was there from Alaska for a teaching conference).
It was a brief, but fun, trip. We spent an hour or so walking around along the river, then went to Powell's Books (the infamous and illustrious used & new bookstore that takes up a whole city block), got pizza, then went to the Salt and Straw for ice cream. We ordered a flight of olive oil, roasted strawberry & white chocolate, sea salt caramel, and woodblock chocolate ice creams. I actually wasn't all that impressed - it was definitely popular, but the ice cream wasn't that great. We couldn't figure out what the taste difference was, but I think it's more ice and less cream, or something like that. But still - where else can you order a "flight" of ice creams? They definitely are globbing onto the popularity of microbreweries with that move. Although, I don't think anybody else was ordering flights while we were there.
I spent the night in Portland, then got up at 5am to hit the road and made it home by quarter to 11 - one hour before I had to be at hq to catch a ride to some training that I'd agreed to do on my day off in exchange for several hours of comp time. It was a good training, but when I got home I decided that my busy weekend meant that I needed to take a night off from derby and mow my lawn and try to tidy up my house a bit instead.
Yesterday, I randomly decided that I needed to start getting up earlier and having more productive mornings. So I woke up at 5:30 and started off my day with a reading from my new devotional book (Jesus Calling - it was on sale at Powell's and Holly recommended it), followed by the usual workday prep, and because I didn't want to seem too settled I made a feminine pad from the fabric I'd purchased (on my way to Portland the day before - I washed it that morning and dried it before I got around to the making part). The simple pattern involves sewing both parts together, cutting a slit in each to flip them right-side-out, and then iron and sew them together. Super easy. I whipped it up real quick - just in time to wear it to work.
I think it turned out pretty well. Definitely comfy - and nicer than either of my last ones (the super thick ones that Tiffany had made me or the super small ones that didn't stay put that I had made last winter). Although I think when I make the next ones I'd like to modify the pattern to make the wings narrower. Also, I think I will try to make some thinner ones that don't have the separate middle section for ultra-lite days. We'll see.

Back at home today (I'm working the evening shift) I'm still trying to get into the groove of my earlier wake-up time. I got up at 5:30 and started off with a devotional reading again, then baked another chocolate buttermilk coconut pound cake - for the craft bazaar and baked goods sale at the Methodist Church today. I'll be heading over there this morning (after a brief trip to the water department to apologize for turning in my water bill a couple days late on account of all my travels). I spent some time in the garden this morning, watering my thirsty plants (I'm glad they haven't given up on me yet) and decided that it was time to do something about my ever-expanding tomato vines. Certainly it does me no good to have them spilling over onto my precious little carrot sprouts. I got out the trimmer and started lopping off any section that didn't have tomatoes growing on it already and was overly out of place. I did this with the roma, then went down to the cherry and discovered my first three ripe tomatoes!!! I ate one of them instantly - it split when I picked it, so it was definitely peak. But I managed to think a moment to take a picture before eating the other two:
These promptly popped into my mouth as soon as I was done taking the photo. :) My garden definitely has suffered from my busyness of late. My new goal this week is to get back into the earlier (although short-lived) habit of weeding a little bit every morning. I can barely differentiate my green bean plants from the dock weeds growing up around them. It's definitely time to harvest the seeds from the arugula and cilantro (and possibly the parsley) and cut any possible losses and just dig up those plants.

Anyway - it's time to get going - lots to take care of this morning! I was initially planning on staying for the luncheon at church, but I'm thinking now that I will just go and drop things off, then come back to the house and work on tidying up more. There are dishes to put away, counters to wipe down, a kitchen floor in desperate need of a good sweeping. Not to mention that I have to get ready for work, and possibly throw in stuff for derby, too, so that I can pop in and skate the 100 laps on my "lunch" break this evening.

This coming weekend, my plan is to stay home and get the house and garden under control, to relax, to treat myself a little bit, and to make sure I really do have all my ducks in a row before the next week begins. Hopefully this last weekend was my last bit of craziness for the rest of the summer.

Until next time!

09 July 2015

Independance

in.de.pen.dance: n., a dance in the pen; overwhelming excitement due to new-found independence.

I'm doing the independance today (I know, I'm spelling it wrong on purpose...) for two reasons.

One is that my garden is doing fairly well and I just took in my first harvest (apart from those little surprise potatoes the other day, and the kale I put in my salad on Tuesday).
My hefty red cabbage!
I managed to carve this out this morning - I'm pretty sure it's ready to go as it's firm to the squeeze and heavy as a rock! Supposedly if I cut it out right, little mini-cabbages will grow from the base leaves for the rest of the summer. I'll keep you posted...

A few other shots from the garden:
Green Cabbages - I'll probably harvest those this week, too. And yes, they've got cabbage worm big time. But I don't think I mind that much...

Swiss Chard sprout - this is one of two that's come up so far. But I think I'd be fine with just two, though I would like it if a couple more sprouted, too.

Carrot sprout! This is one of 21 that I counted the other day. So cute!

One of my beautiful peas. The camera fogged up a bit when I took this because they're planted right by the output for the dryer... hopefully they don't mind that too much.

And finally, the biggest reason that I'm doing the independance today is because this morning I got up and, given that I don't have to be at work until 12:45, started doing laundry. In our home. No laundromat required. That's right: on Tuesday I bought (with Jack's money) a washing machine for our home! Yippee!
Ok, so both machines are older, but they work well. And don't mind the clutter - I had to move everything over to make room for the installation and haven't reorganized yet. So I've got a kenmore washer and a GE dryer, and I no longer have to drive to the laundromat, feed quarters into hairy machines, and wait around while weird older men stare at me... yeah, I'm pretty stoked about having our own washing machine now!

Until next time!

06 July 2015

Surprises!

On Wednesday morning, the 24th of June, I received a phone call at 6:30 from Jack. He asked me about this and that, then eventually said he had to put the phone down because he needed to park his car. "Where are you?" I asked. "Crescent City!" he said, before hanging up the phone. The next sound that met my ears was the loud fan of his engine as he reversed into the driveway.

I gave him about fifteen minutes before I told him that I had figured out he was coming about a month ago. But it was still a great, albeit inevitably short, visit. We got some important things done, but as always there was too much to do. He left feeling slightly stressed and neither of us was eager for the long drive. He made it back to the park, and will be going into the backcountry tomorrow (after being forced to stay frontcountry by several thunderstorms). Only about 10 weeks remain, now. The summer is definitely going by quickly.

After he left, I worked my butt off on Monday so that on Tuesday I could take most of the day to hike - the first time I've hiked on my weekend since I started work! The toils of being sole inhabitant of a two-bedroom home with a large-ish yard and a garden to care for... Anyway, I hiked the entirety of the Mill Creek Trail (not to be confused with the Mill Creek Horse Trail that Jack and I hiked over the winter), ending with a swim in the river, and the hiked the entirety back. On the way I caught up with Janice and Ron (coworkers) and had a pleasant time hiking a mile or so with them. Overall, I put in 9 miles, and then had derby practice that night to boot! It was a great day, to say the least.
Tree tunnel on the trail. :)
Another surprise: I was actually able to get a very small window of time off for Michael and Mimi's wedding!
Dad paid for the ticket (which I would have never been able to afford at this point in my financial life) and I flew red-eye to Michigan on Thursday, arriving on Friday morning, got measured and chose fabric for my own wedding dress, hung out with my parents and sister, went out for ice cream!!!, rode Gregory around the airport (I LOVE that bike!), and then went to the wedding on Saturday, flew home Saturday evening, and drove from the airport to arrive at our house a little after 1 o'clock in the morning. Sunday I had to work, but I survived. Today I have been kicking back and taking it easy - working on tasks for a little bit at a time, then kicking back some more.

I've been checking in on my garden, since I didn't pay it much attention while Jack was here or during the few days before I left for the wedding, or while I was (briefly) gone. There are pea pods growing large, there are cabbage heads that are firm to the touch, there are little sprouts of carrots and swiss chard taking root where I planted a couple weeks ago. I did some research on my various plants - particularly those I hadn't grown before. The potatoes mysteriously lost all their leaves a couple weeks back, and since they haven't come back, I've gathered that I ought to just dig them up since they won't be growing anymore.... I thought I'd try digging in one section of the mound and see what I came up with, and surprise!!
Pearl Potatoes!
They're tiny, some of them are the size of pinto beans. But I think this is reason enough to dig up the rest of the mound. I have a few more potatoes that have grown roots in my home and I think I will transfer the mound to the garden (within the relative safety of the fence) and plant those there. Perhaps there will be more potato success in my future. This is the first time I've ever grown potatoes, though, and I have to say that it's probably the most remarkable-seeming thing. I dug in a pile of dirt with no plants in it and found a handful of little edibles!

Until next time!