these days

just got back from a trip to the garden. my beautiful cucumber vines have come to the end of their short life... so sad. for a few weeks there, they were prolific producers. last monday, i came home with 13 good size cukes. with what i brought home tonight, i might try out pickling. i think it can be done without canning & if so, i'm down cuz i don't know how to can. why is it called canning when it's done with glass jars?

a few (2 or 3) of the tomatoes are starting to ripen. there are probably 100 or so green tomatoes... i've been waiting for them to turn red for WEEKS. been a little panicky about it. seems late in the year not to have tomatoes yet & for the love-a god, i planted like 29 tomato plants. i best get some ripe ones soon!

work's been going alright. i've attended several training sessions over the past few weeks - management for first time managers; interviewing, hiring & evaluating staff; setting & maintaining boundaries. this is the first job i've ever had where they sent me to training & payed for it. i intend to make the most if it, that's for sure. i think we may get to take a "team building" trip to yestermorrow building school in vermont sometime this fall. that would be fantastic! though i'm not down on sharing a room with any of my colleagues. when you're spending 8-9 hours a day w/ colleagues, i think it's important to have some personal time too. some people think i'm wack, but i'm pretty sure they've got poop between their ears. i offered the final position today & i expect that it will be accepted tomorrow. man, i'll be glad when it's done. it was a lot of freakin work. seriously.

hm... we went on a canoing trip w/ folks from work this past sunday. it was mostly enjoyable. one person kinda got on my nerves a bit... but that's bound to happen. now that i'm armed with this boundary training, i'm going to build a fortress around myself & i'll never be annoyed by coworkers again. that's a big fat fantasy... :)

well, i guess that's it for now. we might be making a day trip to the beach this coming weekend, which would be nice. maybe a trip to visit k the farmer over labor day weekend. we shall see.

do they make training wheels for adults?

for many moons, i whined & whined about how great it would be to have a bike. i could ride to work & to the gym & to the garden & i would get a ton more exercise. so i got this great free bike & began my adventure. & i realized that biking requires different muscles than i have (balto ain't flat) & it's kind of scary... being on the street in crazy traffic. totally unnerving.

on tuesday evening, d & i biked over to the garden - which was really great. so much faster than walking & not that much slower than driving. true, i had to walk the bike up a few hills. but that will get better w/ time. things at the garden were & are growing like crazy. lots of tomatoes but none of 'em are ripe. i yanked out all the potatoes cuz i couldn't stand the bugs & i didn't feel up to drowning all of 'em. d watered our plot w/ a random little boy who wanted to play w/ the water - it was pretty cute. we had a picnic dinner of chipolte. it was a great way to spend an evening - until the ride home where i got a bit adventurous & was practicing the whole standing up while pedaling thing while going uphill. i'm still not sure what happened but i ended up flat on my back in the street next to my bike. it was super sucky & kinda scary. seriously, thank you helmet. jeezus it would've sucked so much worse. anyway, other than cuts, bruises & missing skin, i'm fine. a bit humiliated, but fine. though i am a bit apprehensive about biking again. i mean, i plan to ... maybe even tomorrow. it would be nice to know i couldn't slam into the pavement again though.

d & i walked down to velocipede last night. it's a nonprofit community bikeshop in our hood. anyway, i can volunteer there for a few hours & they will provide me with new handlebars & assist me in putting them on. sounds pretty good to me - once i'm back to riding that is.

another saturday...

well, i made it down to the harbor, fells point & back home on the bike all in one piece. no major (or minor) incidents. the bike is a little squeaky though - the brakes are loud & the springs in the seat squeak with every bump. (and if you've driven around in baltimore, you know the streets are in terrible shape - huge lumps & bumps & potholes.) it was hard work but i feel accomplished. my colleague m & i met a recent acquaintance of hers at a pizza place along with some other folks. they're animal activists. it was different... i mean, i'm glad i went. m is much more adventurous than i & probably loves people more than i. but it was refreshing to go someplace new, using a different means of transportation & meet new people. i don't believe i'd want to spend more time with this particular group - but it was good to realize i can interact with people i don't know. conversation wasn't always easy... i was the only semi-vegetarian present - the others were vegans. so we had vegan pizza (soy cheese). it wasn't bad but i prefer real cheese. i got a short lecture from this guy about the health problems caused by consuming milk & cheese...blah blah blah. i tuned him out after a bit. it's one thing to say, "i cut dairy out of my diet because....." & another to start telling someone else how to live. though i admit i tell other people what to do at times. sorry, d. (i'm sitting here on the couch eating a handful of shredded cheese right now.) a few of the animal activists were a little wack - felt strongly about the ethical treatment of animals (& i agree that this is important), but not so much about people.... bizarre. one girl told me she wanted to create an inviting situation for someone to break into her house so she could catch them in a bear trap. dunno but i didn't find that too heart warming. anyway, we escaped before having to take part in their "demonstration". i'm not sure i get activists... at least not these activists. and girls with uber hairy armpits always freak me out a bit - especially when they're wearing tank tops. yuck.

i also dyed a pair of pants today & it turned out poorly - just as i suspected. i bought olive green dye for a pale khaki pair of pants. at first, they looked kinda green underneath a blotchy sheen of bright orange. now that they're dry, they're just plain ORANGE. wtf? i'm so glad i used pants i didn't care much about. stupid fabric dye.

d & i are planning a nice long walk to the farmers market tomorrow. we thought about biking but decided to walk instead. maybe i'll bike to the garden though. we'll see. i think the hill could humiliate me. i'll try not to be too proud.

time in a bottle

here are some random photos from the last few months. don't know why it's so difficult to find the time to write. i'm so busy with work all day & then winding down from work in the evening, i feel like i have no time to myself at all. kinda nice & kinda lame.

i keep meaning to bring the camera to the garden but i always forget. d took this photo a few months ago - right after i planted some tomatoes. it looks like a jungle now... there are about 25 tomato plants (i know, overkill), lots of greens, pumpkin & cucumber vines that are taking over... some strawberries, beets, eggplant, peppers, lots of herbs, leeks... lots of stuff going on. i'll try to remember to get a photo soon.

the view outside our front window w/ my tomato plants sunning themselves. it's pretty boring outside now that the tree's gone.

hanging out in the schluetermetz's kitchen during our memorial day visit. it was a great trip. we stopped in for a short visit on our way to st louis for our vacation. probably the last time we'll have a reason to stop in bellefountaine, ohio. :( they will be missed!

an impromptu partial-family portrait taken moments before we headed back to baltimore. my little bro, his wife & their little girl. so cute. speaking of cute, more pics of the cutie patootie...

it was a good visit but i wish we could've stayed longer. didn't feel like we got to spend enough time with folks, which is kinda funny because i was completely panicked when we planned to leave balto for a whole week. "what were we going to do in st. louis? everyone goes to work, we'll be bored! i don't want to stay for a week!" i was a bit of a wank about the whole thing. we ended up spending 4 days in the car, which was lame & probably not much cheaper than flying. but we wouldn't have been able to stop over in ohio otherwise, so it was worth it.

i had a pretty ok week at work - ok meaning not too stressful. it was kind of relaxing actually, which makes me feel unaccomplished. but the kids were in nyc and my supervisor was out so it was pretty low-key all around.

we brought back some bikes from stl. i biked to & from work a few times this week. i realized it's much scarier than i thought - riding in the street, especially in rush hour traffic. people here drive like freaks! anyway, i'm a pretty big baby about it. i'm taking it nice & easy, just trying to get used to bike riding again. not doing anything too crazy, yet. my plan is to bike to the garden & bike to the gym - but both of those rides, especially the gym, have significant hills & i'll feel like a total j-hole walking the bike cuz i can't make it up the hill. seriously, biking is hard. i'm hoping to get some new handlebars sometime soon. i'm not down with the 10-speed ones. i'm not trying to be aerodynamic at all, just comfortable & well balanced. we shall see.

it's pretty warm in here at the moment. think i'll have a g & t while i wait for d-bone to get home.