Little Green Pouch Giveaway

Just wanted to share this great giveaway from a blog I came across. Visit http://bjmangelson.blogspot.com/2012/12/little-green-pouch.html and follow the instructions at the bottom to submit entries. I just ordered some of these myself and can’t wait to get them in the mail. I’ve actually been reusing the disposable ones by cutting a slit in the bottom to refill and folding the bottom edge to hold in the stuff but now that the little one has discovered the fun in squeezing the pouch, the contents usually end up everywhere but her mouth.

 

Gardening Without Gloves

I’ve been spending a lot of time outside over the last couple of weeks trying to get everything ready for our vegetable garden: building and filling the raised bed (with a lot of help from hubby, of course), starting summer seeds, weeding and watering, etc. But I’m a little saddened to report that we don’t quite have vegetables ready to be planted.

I tried starting seeds for 3 different types of cucumbers, 2 types of legumes, a squash, kohlrabi, sunflowers and amaranth but they just didn’t do anything. They were planted in a seed tray with a lid and in the more expensive coconut coir pots instead of regular old peat pots. I left the whole tray outside, thinking I would get a jump on having to harden off the veggies by just letting them grow outdoors. I may have overwatered the whole tray a bit, thinking too much water would have evaporated in our hot Arizona clime. I dug up a few of the seeds just to take a peek and they really hadn’t done anything. Well, one of the bean seeds was a little mushy (this is what clued me off about the overwatering). So a few days ago I decided to just drop one more of each type of seed into the pots and keep the tray inside to sprout and, lo and behold, I’ve finally got some life in my seed tray. You have to learn a few lessons in the beginning, I suppose. Now that things seem to be back on track I hope we haven’t lost too much in the way of a future harvest because of my ignorance.

Besides the veggies that were started indoors, I’ve also sown some carrot seeds in the containers that once contained pea plants. I’m hoping my nitrogen factories have made the potting soil rich enough to produce some lovely carrots (white and purple heirloom varieties). I had started a couple of varieties of globe carrots in smaller pots a couple of months back and didn’t have much success with germination. We might get enough for Reagan to have a snack in about a month.

On another note, one of the two tomato plants that I purchased has just started flowering. I just planted it in a cactus bed that was already set up in our yard and it seems to be able to get enough water there. The other tomato was planted in the same corner as my leafy greens and it just doesn’t seem to like the clay. I am very surprised that with the onslaught of aphid, worm and bird attacks that nothing has touched the tomatoes. Who would have thought mustard greens were tastier?

 

A Supposedly Fun Thing I Will Do Again

As most of my readers know, I have just returned from a 3-week vacation in the Philippines. The trip happened to be less of a vacation and more of a journey. I feel like a large portion of the trip was spent in transit, but had countless wonderful experiences during each method of travel.

In the spirit of David Foster Wallace, I give you a summation of my trip.

I have used a banana leaf as an umbrella. I have consumed coconut wine at 8 in the morning. I have been for a ride on a tricycle (a sort of dirt bike with an attached sidecar). I have risen to the call of a rooster (which speaks Tagalog in the Philippines). I have come within snorting distance of a caribou. I have paid the equivalent of 3.5 cents to use a public toilet, which did not include toilet paper. I have showered in my clothes in the rain simply because it was the most convenient option. I have been utterly disgusted by the endless dirt under my fingernails, but eaten with my hands anyway. I have had juice and pulp from both young green and mature orange coconuts and decided that I prefer the green. I have learned the word for ‘good’ in at least 5 new languages. I have chased chickens out of my bed and witnessed a bonafide cock fight. I have worn the same underwear without washing 3 days in a row. I have run 5 miles in the land of a thousand smiles. I have woven pouches for steaming rice from the leaves of a coconut tree. I have seen larger cockroaches than exist in Florida. I have spent 59 out of 74 hours in some sort of vehicle, including a plane, a ferry, a taxi, and a jeep. I have seen a double rainbow after a hard mountain rain. I have seen cd-roms used as washers. I have concealed a collection of plastic bags and water bottles with the fear that someone else would come by and appropriate them for their own use. I have watched my rather unsightly ankle sock tan evolve into a sexy flip-flop tan. I have accidentally asked my mother whether she would like ‘a penis’ (when trying to be particularly clever and referring to my Tagolog-English dictionary) instead of ‘fish bones’, to which a large fit of laughter was followed by anyone within earshot. I have seen more uses for bamboo than I ever thought possible. I have climbed to the craters of two volcanoes, one of which is still active. I have jogged 172 steps up a hillside to a statue of the Virgin Mary where one is expected to leave a donation and make a confession, left a donation, did not make a confession, and returned feeling a little breathless and dizzy (which I will equate with feeling spiritual).

Photos are soon to follow.

 

A dashing young dog.

TJ and Sheena have a new member in their family. Just like a big sister, Lola’s quite jealous.

 

The Christmas Day Polar Bear Club.

My dad decided when he was home for Thanksgiving that we would start a bunch of traditions this year because we don’t really have any holiday traditions. Actually, I guess it’s more a tradition to just spend the holidays at someone else’s house because we’re never usually all home at the same time. For Thanksgiving, we’re all supposed to run a 5k or participate in the ‘Turkey Trot’. Well, this year only my father and I ever made it around to completing the 3-mile run, but nothing ever goes right the first year, right?

When we all awoke around 9am Christmas Day, I think we were all still a little drunk from the night before. My dad decided he wanted to go to the beach even though the sand was wet from the early-morning rain. Sheena, TJ and my dad and I took the top off of the Jimmy and piled in for a quick ride down to the coast. Crossing the Navarre Beach bridge was a bit eerie because there was so much fog on the water.

The weather was actually a bit warm when we eventually walked down the dunes, but I started toeing the water and realized pretty quickly that I didn’t want to get in.

While the rest of us were standing around being wimps, my brother was stripping down to his underwear and ran and dove into the water. My dad was soon to follow.

It was especially cold when they got out.

Not sure why Sheena was shaking her head, but I thought this shot was neat.

So, maybe next year I’ll muster up the guts to jump in the ocean on Christmas Day since I passed on it this time. We eventually went to dinner at a Chinese buffet in Ft. Walton and came home to watch movies and relax a bit.

Some post-Christmas dinner funny faces.

I could not have asked for a better Christmas.

 

My face is shiny and my lips are wet.

Most of the people who read this blog know me pretty well and would understand the magnitude of the event of my father being home for Christmas. He had been working in Tennessee and drove through fog and ice on Christmas Eve to be with us for a little more than a week, but didn’t arrive at the house until 11:45pm. You could say he was racing Santa, who ended up bringing us all some interesting gifts. It was great to be able to share this holiday with my family and some good friends. When you’re away for so many years, you realize it’s what you miss the most. Family. And mine is absolutely the best.

After I had a nice morning run, TJ, Sheena and I went to Publix and picked up a few basic things for making dinner. We also made a little pit stop at the liquor store where nobody could really figure out what they wanted to drink and we left collectively about $50 poorer. When we got back to the house, we dragged out a tent and started gathering wood for a fire. As is his style, my brother couldn’t resist having brought something like these shorts without sharing them with everyone.

TJ and Sheena started drinking a bit early with some shots, which amounted to sharpie tattooes, peeing in the yard, and rolling around in the tent (which didn’t get set up).

For the period of time that I was making dinner, not many photos were taken, but very basically the order of events are: Brad and Jose showed up, my mom came home from work, we made a fire and ate dinner outside, we roasted marshmallows and drank a little too much and eventually plugged in Rock Band. Photographic evidence as follows.

Okay, just a little backstory for this next shot: I don’t smoke. I think it’s pretty gross and usually when other people are doing it around me, I start feeling sick. However, I’m known to ask for cigarettes when I’ve had a little too much to drink. When we were all together for Thanksgiving and I got a bit hammered, I was begging everyone for a cigarette and no one would give one to me. My brother had told me for Christmas I was allowed to have just one. So at some point in the night, they handed me a cigarette which I maybe puffed on a total of 3 times and almost singed my eyebrows off trying to light in the fire. I was going to ask for another one later, but thought I’d just be cool and slip one out of the pack when no one was looking. But a better opportunity presented itself! A lone cigarette came flying out of nowhere and landed on the ground in front of me. I pounced on it and lit it immediately. My brother equated my actions with those of a hobo. So, I’m now a hoboer of cigarettes. The flying cigarette was apparently an accident and was not meant to ever touch my lips. But it did.

My dad eventually showed up and we went back outside to drink and be next to the fire.

TJ is showing off his squatting technique?

Santa made a stop.

Apparently, I threw a piece of chocolate directly into my dad’s mouth from over 5 feet away. I wish I remembered this because I don’t normally have this much skill.

We eventually went back to playing more Rock Band into the wee hours of the morning.

Everyone else passed out around 4am and I watched Anchor Man by myself until 5:45am. I’m now done with heavy drinking for a while.

 

Banana humor.

Whoever on the Chiquita marketing team thought this sticker would be a good idea is my hero.

 

For the Love of an Au Lait

I can’t believe I’m drinking a Starbucks coffee while writing this.

Scratch that.

I can’t believe I’m sitting in a Starbucks, drinking a Starbucks coffee while writing this. I’ve been studying for a couple of hours and decided it was time for a short break.

First, I’d like to point out that I really miss the Green Bean. Local coffee shops have such a different atmosphere and the people that work in them seem less stale. But it’s getting harder for me to focus on studying while I’m at home, so I figured sitting in Starbucks would force me to at least put in a few hours. I realize now I should have left the laptop at home and brought something more stimulating, like this morning’s crossword puzzle.

Second, there’s probably only a handful of people who already know this, but I’m studying for the AFOQT (Air Force Officer Qualifying Test). That’s right. The Air Force. As long as I pass the ASVAB and the physical and mental examination, I will at least be enlisted after my trip to the Philippines in March. I’ve been thinking about this all very seriously the last few months and I can’t find anything adverse to my joining. It’s a chance to travel, make some new friends, further my education, and, oh yeah, it’s a job. And available jobs are pretty much nonexistent these days.

Along with all this studying, I’ve been running on alternate mornings and doing some general strength training. I’ve got to be in some kind of shape before Basic Training, right? I used some of the Nautilus machines at the base gym a couple of days ago and I realize my arms are pretty weak. They felt like they were going to fall off yesterday. I’m also taking some lengthy walks here and there, the longest so far being 10 miles in a day. After that failed (err….attempted) hike through Rhode Island, it’s as though walking doesn’t even phase me any more. Oh yeah, for those of you who know Jesse, he’s still planning to walk from LA to Boston, starting in January. You can read about his preparation for the trip at http://jesseandbrucewalkamerica.com and maybe donate a little money to his cause.

So I’m a little broke, and sometimes restless from not working, but I’m enriching my mind with new words (like ailerons) and feeling healthier every day. Hope everyone has a splendid Thanksgiving. Cheers.

 

Back in Florida, Baby.

It’s Halloween and I’m spending the night at the house alone. My choice of movie for the night: Labyrinth (but only because I couldn’t find the 1956 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers). I know….Henson and his puppets are not exactly very scary, but David Bowie sometimes is.

I’ve been back from North Carolina for about a week now and the weather is starting to cool off down here. We had a couple of days here with a lot of wind and it was tough getting myself to venture out for my morning run. The one good thing about it being cold out is that drinking tea at night seems so much nicer.

Job hunting has still not been very fruitful. Some places have told me they’ve been put on a hiring freeze because the economy is going south. I’m also noticing a greater number of ‘going out of business’ signs along the highway. I wonder what the results of the election will do to my chances of getting hired this season.

I don’t feel like there’s much else for me to say right now, so I’ll just share some of the photographs I took in North Carolina. I didn’t use my cameras as much as I thought I would, but there are a couple here that I’m happy with. So here mostly in the order they were taken.

This is Greyson, my nephew.

Two of my nieces and second cousins.

Me with my sister!!

My amazing family.

Some dogs, of course.

A wild turkey and a moth.

A kitty and more dogs.

We went to Carowinds one day and I rode the Skycoaster with my cousin Jesse.

This is my sister and all of her children.

Oh, and her dog.

Hello, Sarah Palin! I was given a bouffant hairdo.

We took a little hike around my sister’s neighborhood.

More kid portraits.

This was a little adventure around my aunt’s property and then around the lake where we ended up camping.

I got really sick the night we went to the LEAF festival. I mustered up a smile for this photo and it was the only one I took.

I gave myself what my friend referred to as ‘grocery store feet’ when I wore leather flip flops in the rain.

My dad gave us rides around our property on the ATV and then we took a short hike to a swimming area. The cabin is my aunt’s.

We found this sign in front of a church in Swannanoa.

And here’s my brother, hung-over the morning after he drank a whole bottle of wine in less than an hour.

When I returned to Florida I was given the chore of scrubbing the organic apples we picked at my aunt and uncle’s house. And then I made what I called ‘really good soup’ full of kale, tomatoes, leeks, broccoli and green beans.

Yum.

Lazy dog.

Well, that’s all for now. I will update everyone on my job hunting status when I actually get some action.

 

From One Plane to Another

I’m sitting in the airport waiting a painful 4 hours to board my flight to Charlotte, North Carolina. A good time to write some updates, right?

I’ve been in Florida for 3 weeks now and the weather has been splendid. It’s mostly been in the upper 90s, but it doesn’t feel as hot as New Bedford. The hurricanes passing through the Gulf have given us an awful lot of wind, very dramatic clouds, and gigantic waves, but no rain, really. I punished myself for about 20 minutes trying to catch some waves on a boogie board, but the surf was a bit rough, so I read a book on the beach instead and gave my stomach a nice sunburn.

I wake up almost every morning at 6am to a cold doggie nose in my ear. Sheila, the Jack Russell Terrier, loves to snuggle and often stands on my chest to greet me and smell my morning breath. She will sometimes just sit and stare intently at you until you sit upright and give her a pat on the head or give her a nod to let her know she can give you a hug. If you sit upright and stare back at her instead, she turns her ahead away as if she’s shy. Stanley, the Boston Terrier, is just like a grumpy old man. He usually follows my mother everywhere in the house, but when she’s not home I take her place. I have opened my door from napping midafternoon to find him sitting at the door, like he’s guarding it for me.

I rented 2 videos from Network Video and when I realized they were $4 apiece and I only got them for one night, I convinced myself that I should finally get a Netflix account. It’s been rewarding so far. During my trial week, I watched ‘Barton Fink’, ‘Rendition’, and ‘There Will Be Blood’. The latter of the group really solidified my appreciation for Daniel Day-Lewis. I’m really looking forward to his newest film ‘Nine’ which is still in post-production.

I haven’t been knitting as much as I had thought I would. I have a big stash of yarn that’s sitting in the corner waiting for me to separate it and figure out what projects I’ll make with what. I did finish the shawl I started when I flew down from Mass, but I have yet to block it. It’s not exactly shawl weather in Florida, anyway. I happened to walk past a cute little yarn shop in Ft. Walton Beach, but it was closed so I didn’t get a chance to browse it.

I’ve learned how to identify an alternator in a car. The last weekend has been a trying time for both my father and brother as they spent almost 25 hours working on my brother’s Saab. He was told the alternator would need to be replaced, and they had the idea that they could easily remove it and replace it themselves. It’s a small car and requires you to remove several parts just to look at what you’re trying to get to. Many hours and parts and bolts later, my brother discovered that the alternator simply wasn’t completely plugged in. Now the car is in pieces and he doesn’t have the patience to put it back together. I guess he’ll have to go back to riding his bike to work for the next month.

I have realized there’s not much of a job market within biking distance of my parent’s house and a so-far unreliable truck isn’t making it easy. My dad tried to fix his truck before leaving, but it still has a leaking gas line, so if I got a job, it would have to be just nights after my mother has returned with her truck. The few places I’ve poked around at all tell me there are no positions available, anyway. It might be better when I return and the holiday spending season is nearing.

There has been a death in my family and I’m flying to North Carolina to live with one of my aunts. I figured I could be of some use around the house because she has a 9-year-old to care for and a beauty shop to run. It was her grandson who passed away. My parents were going to vacation in North Carolina for a sort of family reunion in a month, so I will just rendezvous with them when they arrive. It’s crazy that I’ve barely finished unpacking from moving down to Florida and I had to repack last night for this month-long trip. As usual, my carry on full of camera equipment weighs more than my checked bag full of clothing. This is only the second time I’ve had to fly in a month, but I can appreciate my dad’s patience for airports.

For those of you in New Bedford, I know you’d like to hear that I miss the city very much. And I do. I miss the ease of being able to walk 1 mile from my apartment for work, groceries, a cup of coffee or a taco. I miss running along the public beaches just before sunrise. I miss the historic buildings and the sidewalks (these are pretty much nonexistent in this area of Florida). I miss the smell of the fish plants rolling up the hill from the harbor. I miss the hourly clanging of police and ambulance sirens. Oh wait, I don’t really miss that. I especially miss all of the people. For any of you that read this, please, please keep in touch. You can email me a photosbyjandrews@gmail.com.

I’ll close this with just 2 hours left until my flight. I think I’ll watch a movie online with my new Netflix account. Cheers and be well.