Well, then...

Yeah, it's been ages since my last blog post. I know. I'm surprised you still read this. Unfortunately, it is highly unlikely that there will be any blog posting until after March 9th. (Who knows? We all know that when I say I'm going to be too busy to post, I invariably find time to post something of interest.)

Reasons for not posting recently and not posting in the near future(in no particular order):

1. Reading other blogs is more interesting that writing a blog post.

2. Watching TV while playing stupid computer games is more mindless than writing a blog post.

3. Writing thank you notes is more productive that writing a blog post.

4. Reading books is more interesting than writing a blog post. Recently I have been reading:
- Heirloom: Notes from an Accidental Tomato Farmer by Tim Stark
- Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled--and More Miserable Than Ever Before by Jean M. Twenge
- Rumspringa: To Be or Not to Be Amish by Tom Shachtman
- Other books that I actually haven't gotten around to reading yet.

5. Day to day life and busy schedules and such.

6. The Wichita Garden Show is coming up. We start construction and loading up tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon. I will be living at the Garden Show from now until some time on Monday, March 9th. After which point I will be sleeping. I'm sure I will have interesting stories to share, but it remains to be seen when/if I'll ever have the time/motivation to write and post them.

7. I voluntarily hooked myself on a video game called Kingdom Hearts. I am terrible at it, because I didn't grow up playing video games (which isn't a bad thing, really). But I'm to the point where I usually remember what most of the buttons and dealies on the controllers do. This game requires much less thinking than writing a blog post.

8. I can't think of any more lame excuses for my lack of posting. Really, I can't.

March will probably be as lacking in blog posts as February has been. One weekend at the Garden Show. One weekend in St. Louis for a friend's wedding. One weekend in Wisconsin for our belated wedding reception. One weekend at home doing nothing (hopefully!). Then comes Tree Festival/Vegetable Gardening Workshop weekend. Then another weekend free. Then a Saturday New Lawn-Owner Clinic. Then a Saturday in Topeka speaking for a Veg. Gardening workshop. Then Herb Day weekend. Then....I don't know! I hope my weekends remain blissfully free for most of the summer!

Web Safari

I've got two weeks worth of links collected, so happy reading! (It's a little heavy on politics/economy/stimulus package stuff, but what'd you expect?)

The College Board is cutting some AP programs...

Is it more important to have "Christian Art" or Christian artists creating "great art," in general?

Nancy Pelosi and her social engineering experiment?

Perhaps we really are "amusing ourselves to death."

Sometimes I have to wonder if this isn't true.

Same old, same old from the government.

A look at the Superbowl commercials. Were there any you liked? We thought most of them were sub-par.

Leaving Facebook? Some people are. Sometimes I'm tempted to, but I don't use it that frequently anyway.

Can You Tell the Difference Between a Church and a Utilitarian Structure? (The answers are posted now, so it's not quite as much fun to figure out.)

Charles Krauthammer has an interesting piece about everyone coming back down to earth after Obama's inauguration.

Peggy Noonan writes about how she sees Americans "bracing" for what's yet to come.

Apparently, the governor of Kansas is a candidate for the Health & Human Services cabinet position.

Jen at ConversionDiary.com has an insightful post about how her life before becoming a Christian was like living on death row.

Some thoughts from Scot McKnight about iGens, or Generation Me (18-35 year olds). Since I'm in that age group, of course I find it interesting! There's an interesting point near the end...is the most important thing in life really "being happy?"

You Grow Girl has a post about her bean seeds. I have to say that I love playing with new bean seeds as well!

Snapshots

~~~1~~~

I've had a couple of busy weeks at work, which is nice, and not wholly unexpected. Between meetings and teaching classes, I've had 2-3 nights taken up each week, as well as a couple of exhausting days. This last week I taught a class on Tuesday evening about "Growing a 'Fruitful' Landscape," discussing ways to incorporate fruiting plants in the home landscape. There were 99 people at that class, which was excellent attendance for a very specific topic of interest.

The next morning was my first gardening class in the Hispanic community. I had to go into work a little early, because I'd been too busy and hadn't had time to finish translating the presentation into Spanish. (I was teaching in English, but had handouts available in Spanish in order to facilitate both languages.) So I spent 2 hours translating, then rushed off to that class. Sadly, I only had 2 people in attendance, neither of whom needed the Spanish handouts.

This is pretty consistent with the ups and downs of Extension work. Some things go over well, others don't, and it's hard to predict which will be which. With all fairness to the program in the Hispanic community - it's a very new program, and I'm still making contacts and getting established. It can take years to develop something like that.

~~~2~~~

Steven's family gave us a Mushroom Patch for Christmas, and we are watching it grow mushrooms as we speak! It's a Shiitake patch, and it seems to be behaving itself admirably. Hopefully I'll get around to taking a picture or two and posting them, eventually. It has only been sitting out in the living room under it's humidity tent for 1 week, but already there are many baby mushrooms poking out!

~~~3~~~

Last night we ate Indian food for dinner, and it was tasty! Steven cooked up some Tandoori Chicken from the Joy of Cooking and I made some stir-fried cabbage. Sounds disgusting, right? Wrong! It was really tasty, and simple to make. We had half a head of purple cabbage left from making a bean soup last weekend, so I decided to try this recipe. To paraphrase the recipe, I heated 1/4 c. oil to the smoking point, threw in 1/2 tsp. mustard seeds, then 1/2 tsp. turmeric, 2 crushed cloves of garlic, 1/2 tsp. salt, and 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper. After a quick stir, in goes the cabbage, sliced thin. Stir to coat, then pop the lid on and let it steam for 5 minutes. Mmm...tasty!

~~~4~~~

We are finally getting mostly settled in the apartment. I got a lot of cleaning done yesterday, and I think the second bedroom is organized to a livable state. There is even some floor space! Unfortunately, we are still short on bookshelves. Even more unfortunately, I'm not sure where we'd put another bookshelf, even if we had one! Sadly, clutter seems to accumulate on the counters and floors no matter how hard I try to keep them clean.

~~~5~~~

We are quickly winding towards the Wichita Garden Show. I have to say, that I really wish that it was March 8th rather than February 8th today! I just want the whole thing to be done with! The show itself isn't so bad. It's the preparations that are a killer! Since I'm in charge of our display garden this year, I have to manage the construction and the herds of volunteers working on it. It is rather a daunting task, all things considered.