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.