bringing the sexy back

it's been a good, lazy day. actually, it wasn't that lazy. i started off with an hour and a half of yoga, which was nice. made me miss the days when i did yoga 3x a week. i plan on taking it up again that regularly as soon as the shoulder's better. (i have an MRI this coming week, so we'll see how that goes.) there were a few lazy hours spent laying around the apartment after lunch, listening to This American Life... spent the rest of the afternoon & evening at the garden cleaning the place up until i was chased out by a thunderstorm.

it was a gorgeous day - blue sky, fluffy white clouds. there was a crazy thunderstorm sans rain early on. the wind picked up, storm clouds blew in along w/ a lot of thunder. it came & went pretty quickly. tore out the cucumber & pumpkin vines. the cukes were dead & the pumpkins were looking bad & taking over. now my trellis is bare... is there a plant that vines in the fall? the few ripe-ish tomatoes i had were rotten... i think that particular plant is diseased cuz the tomatoes are also a bit deformed.

i amassed a tremendous compost pile with what i tore out & some bags of weeds from the old lady who "takes care of" our front yard. i chatted with her for a bit this afternoon - she's kinda cute. never gave her a second thought before because she never acknowledges my presence. she works real hard on our front yard but it doesn't look so hot. she said she really enjoys it & that's probably all that matters.

made some refrigerator pickles the other day & they turned out alright. a tad too vinegary but otherwise, not too bad. i was able to use some fresh dill seed from my garden too! (yes, i'm a nerd. i was totally excited when i checked out my dill clippings & saw seeds.)

had a pretty good week at work. think i mentioned this before, but i completed recruiting & we got grant funding. i was acknowledged for doing a great job w/ recruitment and for writing a good grant - it's being used for a case study on national service by a large corporation... hm... and yet, i can't tell if my supervisor thinks i'm doing a good job (in general) or just being an idiot. it's probably a mix. one of these days soon i'll have my review/evaluation & i'll have a better idea. i know it seems silly but he's so hard to read. seriously.

me & the d-bone got new contact lenses & we can see outtuvem! feeling younger already... :)

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.

so long, june

i'm so thankful for all of d's hard work painting on the aluminum roof coat. it's doing an amazing job. stupid j-holes who didn't insulate! our place is SO much more comfortable. it's really impressive. wish we'd thought of it 2 years ago.

went to dinner last night with a couple we haven't spent time w/ in a long time. it was nice. they told this bizarro story: she was leaving their second floor apartment & on the way down the stairs, she saw a guy bending over & thought that was odd. she went back upstairs, got her husband & sent him down. when he went to check it out, he saw a leg stick up in the air next to the bent over guy's back & realized there was a couple having sex in the foyer of their building! that's so insanely rediculous, i can't believe it. i laughed pretty hard about that one.

i recently realized i hadn't been laughing enough because i'm always so obsessed & anxious about work crap - so i thought i could get my fix with AFV. for those of you who are unfamiliar or haven't read my blog before, i truly enjoy America's Funniest Videos. damn, it's funny - usually. unfortunately we ended up with 1 episode where kathy griffin & a bunch of other lame "stars" were voting on the best video & 1 episode from back in the day of bob saget. the first was bad. but the bob saget stuff was absolutely abysmal. i can't believe that was on tv. i just want to make it clear that bob saget & kathy griffin blow.

d & i are heading to stl in just a few days... exciting. nerve-wracking. i made an appointment to get my hairs cut w/ my good 'ol standby. i figure i'm so close to the really really short haircut, i might as well suck it up & do it before it grows out. i'm just starting to like this haircut - it only took 4-6 weeks for me to stop feeling like a jackass. wonder what'll happen this time around??

nothing else exciting going on really. what could be more exciting than bad haircuts, shitty episodes of AFV & people having sex in someone else's foyer? at the gym last saturday, this old couple were all excited because chris noth had been at the gym. that would be mr. big, from sex & the city for all you lames who don't know famous people. (just kidding - famous people are the epitome of lameness.)

on the gardening front, harlequin bugs are making a disaster of my kale. i've tried squishing them, which is gross & messy, & diatomatious earth to no avail. the potatoes are being eaten by bloated-looking rouge-colored bugs. i tried squishing them but it was too nasty - the guts squished everywhere. hm... i met our plot neighbor's sister & she's able to water while we're out of town & that's great cuz it was a big stress. things seem to be doing pretty well & i don't want them to fry while we're out of town.

guess that's about it for now. gotta eat some dinner & take my plants over to m's for the week. hm. thank god some people are nice.

honestly, i don't feel like writing. that's probably not a secret as it's been almost a month. feeling kinda bummed out lately. i feel old - my body doesn't work the way i want it to & all the hard work i did to improve my flexibility & strength has gone to hell since the shoulder injury. turns out i may have a tear after all as it's really not improving much. i'm missing having close friends here & haven't made much effort to improve that situation... & i had to go to work for a meeting yesterday morning, which really annoys me. i really need the weekend for myself. no work.

on the upside, it's a gorgeous day here. d & i walked down to the farmers market this morning before he went to work. i'll probably head over to the garden shorty to do a little work in the dirt.

work's been going pretty well. i've recruited 6 people - 2 to go. it's been an interesting experience. i have a million & one ideas about training the new folks. now i just need to settle down & turn some of the 'crazy' ideas into reality. huh... not sure how to do that part, but i assume i'll figure it out somehow.

i had a meeting this week w/ a guy from morgan state's architecture dept. i really need to check it out cuz schooling's the next step, i think.

also, need to find me a bike. maybe for d's birthday, i can get a bike. just kidding. for his b'day last year, we got a nice backpack - that i carry to work with me every day & he's pretty much never used... happy b'day to d!