The Leaning Tower of Pita

Hi again. Long time, no post. Did you really expect anything different? No, I didn't think so. It's been pretty busy and work and so on, but I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel...sort of. At any rate, things should be slowing down somewhat for the summer.

I took Friday off, because 1) I have the time available, and 2) because I needed a nice long weekend. (Yes, I know Memorial Day is coming up, but that isn't a "lazy" weekend, what with family things.) So we got the apartment somewhat cleaned up, restacked everything in the second bedroom, went shopping for a few things, had a meeting with our insurance agent, and generally got to where we feel somewhat in control of the apartment for the moment. (If we didn't need to eat, it would be far easier to keep things clean!)

Saturday we ran around and went to the Farmers Market, grocery shopping, etc as is the norm for Saturday morning. I also checked on the "kids" in the Demo Garden. We planted tomatoes last week, and I was afraid that the ridiculous wind (80+ mph straight-line) from early Friday morning might have broken the stems or knocked the plants over.

Saturday night we didn't want a big dinner, but we'd been craving pita bread and hummus. So Steven went through The Bread Bible to find the pita bread recipe and looked through the Mediterranean cookbook to find an acceptable hummus recipe. (For the uninitiated, hummus is basically chickpea/garbanzo bean puree seasoned with other things.)

The pita bread was very simple. (We actually made the dough Friday night and refrigerated it. Not necessary, but handy.) Homemade pita bread is far tastier than what you can buy, and very cheap! The only moderately scary part of the process (other than the extremely sticky dough to start with) was slapping the discs of dough straight on the baking stone (you can use a cookie sheet if you lack a stone), closing the oven for 3 minutes, and opening it with the expectation that the bread is done! Surprise! It worked!Mmm...tasty looking pita bread in all shapes and sizes!

Steven did up the hummus, and then topped it off with paprika, pine nuts, and the Kangaroo Paw Lemon-Myrtle Infused Olive Oil. (Yes, it would have been cheaper to go to a local Mediterranean restaurant and get an order of hummus by the time it was all said and done. So?)We sliced up some tomatoes we got at the Farmers Market to finish off the meal. Yes, we got fresh, Kansas-grown tomatoes. We bought one from a grower who grows hydroponic tomatoes in a greenhouse, and the others from a grower that grows in a greenhouse, but uses bags of soil for growing the plants. We intended to do a taste test. The hydroponic tomatoes were larger, but the soil-grown tomatoes were much tastier. I wasn't extremely surprised by that outcome.

The leftover pita bread became the Leaning Tower of Pita.
Yes, this entire long post was written with the sole purpose of giving me a good reason to post the "Leaning Tower of Pita" picture, and thus to allow using the same as the title of this post.

WOOHOO!!!

The Thank You Notes are DONE!!!!

Well...they are all written. There are 5 for which I still need to find the appropriate addresses, and 1 which needs a couple other items to go with it. Otherwise, they are all written, addressed, stamped, and ready to go in the mailbox. FINALLY!

Snapshots

~~~1~~~

So I have made it to my sole "free weekend" in the middle of the spring craziness. (To be fair, two weeks from now, Easter Weekend, I technically am free, but...it's Easter. Not quite the same as "totally free with nothing to do." Although, I guess using that definition this is not a "free weekend" because there's lots to do! Well - except that inactivity is being forced by the weather. But more on that later.) Anyway, next weekend is our Tree Festival/Vegetable Gardening Workshop/I'm speaking in the afternoon at the Harvey County Garden Show in Newon, KS. Then Easter, then April 18th I'm teaching a lawn care class for 3 hours in the morning. The next weekend I conned Steven into going to Topeka with me, since I'm speaking a vegetable workshop there. Then we have Herb Day, which is the day before my birthday. Then...I think...other than the Farmers' Market, my weekends may be gloriously free for...well...awhile anyway.

~~~2~~~

So speaking of the weather, we are currently in a Blizzard Warning. Sounds delightful, right? Well, this is the first "blizzard" I've been in that doesn't involve snow. Grr... Actually, it has been throwing freezing rain, or something like that I had to drive across town at noon for one of the local TV news shows, and after that I decided that I would rather take a half day of annual leave rather than drive back to the office and then back home in the evening. After I made that decision, the roads seem to improve a little bit. But I really need a break, so the 4 hours off is worth it! On the other hand, I'd really appreciate it if some of these other cities in Kansas would stop hogging all the snow. Some of them have 7, 10, or 15 inches of snow. We have none! Just nasty accumulating frozen pellets of gunk. The purple splotch on the radar just keeps staying on top of us.

~~~3~~~

During our trip to St. Louis a couple weeks ago, I read Rise to Rebellion, a novel by Jeff Shaara about the Revolutionary War. I have always loved reading about that period of history, both from a "daily life" standpoint and from the political/army standpoint. Now I'm working my way through The Glorious Cause, the sequel novel. So far, I think I like the first one better, just because it covers more of the politics and perspectives of events leading up to the war. What I think is the most amazing, that you often don't think about or realize, is how long the Revolutionary War was. We all know the dates from 1775, 1776....Lexington & Concord, the Declaration of Independence, etc... and Valley Forge (1777-8). Yorktown, 1781. The final treaty was signed in September 1783. 1776-1783. That's 7 years. 7 years of fighting back and forth, forming an army from whoever would volunteer, constantly retreating and reforming, trying merely to survive to fight another day toward independence.

~~~4~~~

Since I had some free time this afternoon, I took the opportunity to get the kitchen totally clean for the first time in...weeks, I think. And then I promptly turned around and started getting it dirty by starting some bread and then making dinner. But after dinner I mostly cleaned it up again. Hopefully we'll be able to keep it in better shape. Now for the rest of the apartment...

~~~5~~~

Other things on the to-do list for this weekend (just in case you actually care about all the tedious detials of my life): clean the apartment, grocery shopping, finish taxes (KS income, and Steven's), shopping at Bed, Bath, & Beyond, and.....you know, I think there was more on this list, but I can't remember anything else. That doesn't actually seem like a terrible list. (At least it doesn't as long as you can't see the apartment!) Oh yeah. Buying and writing and mailing Thank You notes. We have a few left from the wedding, and then a whole bunch from last weekend in Wisconsin.

~~~6~~~

Maybe we will soak our shiitake mushroom block again this weekend to encourage it to put on its second flush of mushrooms! Did I ever post pictures of it the first time around? I don't think I did. Here's one from when the first mushrooms were just starting to develop.

~~~7~~~

And, if you're interested, here's a couple pictures from the display garden we did at the Wichita Garden Show.

Popping In...then Back Out...

Hi! Just checking in. Are you still reading this? Checking occasionally to see if I'm still alive? Ah, well. I really shouldn't abuse my readers like this, but life is just too busy.

I survived the Wichita Garden Show.

I survived the trip to St. Louis this weekend. (And got to see some pretty spiffy orchids at the Missouri Botanic Gardens too boot.)

I'm teaching 2 classes this week and directing the the Demo Garden crew tomorrow.

I'm also starting a new blog that is for work. If you are interested, check it out here: http://thedemogardenblog.wordpress.com/

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!

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.

So, How's Married Life?

Apparently this question is as ubiquitous after getting married as "What are your plans?" is when you near a school graduation. Our normal response is something along the line of a slight smile, a vague shrug, and "Oh, not too bad." or "It's good...pretty typical."

What we are really thinking when you ask this question goes something like this:

What does this question really mean? What do they want to know? Is there some topic I'm supposed to address? Something that is so blindingly different about being married that I want to talk about it with whoever I happen across? If I wasn't of the gushy-emotional type before the wedding, was that supposed to change after getting married? Somehow I don't think they are looking for a logical analysis of our first X weeks of married life. Maybe they want to know if we're considering murdering each other yet? What would they say if I said I was contemplating such an action? (I'm not...no worries...just an example...)

Okay, so we don't think all those things each and every time someone asks the question. But they do cross the mind at times. (And to be fair, I get a lot more of this question than Steven, probably because my work environment lends itself to that type of small talk more frequently.)

So, in case you were wondering: Married life is good. We are learning to live together, as everyone does. What else do you want to know?

Because if you want to know about our sex life, ask a direct question and who knows? We might give you a direct answer. Then again, we might not. (Sorry if I just scandalized anyone.)

Do you want to know if everything is unpacked and in its place? Ask. We'll happily tell you that if you think there is a remote chance of that, you are probably deranged and deluded.

Does Steven like your cooking? Well...he had enough chance to sample that before, and he still seems to be eating, so I'm not too concerned.

Is the snoring keeping you awake at night? Wait...one of us snores? What? It's not me!

Is he/she driving you nuts yet? Um...no more than usual?

When are you going to start having babies? Whoa there...let's not get ahead of ourselves!

Are you settling into a comfortable routine? Hmm...I think so. Still trying to figure out how to maximize the hot water in the mornings. I blame that on our finicky water heater though.

You seem to be blogging more. Are you ignoring Steven to while away the hours on the computer? Hmm...no, I don't think I'm ignoring him. I'm just not planning a wedding. Or trying to pack his stuff. Or getting ready for Christmas.

I am now out of any semi-relevant questions that you may come up with to ask that fit under the category of "How's Married Life?" Perhaps I've forgotten something, but you can save those for sometime when you have an actual conversation with one of us!

Snapshots

A number of people have asked for more details about the wedding, the honeymoon trip, etc. So this edition of Snapshots will give a little bit of that information.

~~~1~~~

The wedding went smoothly. Everything was beautiful, and more or less what we had in mind. The food at the reception was delicious, and you really missed out by not being there. Pictures will be available when they are available. We don't have them yet, but rest assured that we will share them when we have them. Um...yeah, we should be getting around to Thank You notes ASAP.

~~~2~~~

We went to Dallas, TX on our honeymoon. In general, the weather was nice, although it was cold (32) and drizzly on Monday. It was 85 and sunny by Friday. While in Dallas we went to: Dallas World Aquarium, Dealey Plaza, The Sixth Floor Museum, Dallas Museum of Art, Central Market, Dallas Arboretum, Fair Park, Dallas Heritage Village, and the Fort Worth Zoo. We also spent a couple hours in Grapevine, TX Saturday morning. We visited a glass-blowing studio and watched the artisans work for awhile. In retrospect, we would have spent less time in Dallas, more time in Fort Worth, and more time in some of the areas surrousding the Dallas-Fort Worth metro. Maybe next time.

~~~3~~~

One of our favorite stops from the early part of the week was Central Market. Basically, it is a huge grocery store with a lot of gourmet ingredients. We tried hard not to go too crazy. We ended up with some fingerling potatoes, which we just finished eating tonight, some blue potato & chioggia beet "potato" chips, some tomatoes, two different types of pears, a McIntosh apple, and Kangaroo Paw Extra Virgin Olive Oil with Lemon Myrtle Oil. Since Lemon Myrtle (Backhousia citriodora) plants are virtually impossible to come by here in the U.S., I jumped at this as our "splurge" item for the trip. We just opened it tonight, and it was awesome. We used it as part of the dressing for a purple potato salad. Mmm...

~~~4~~~

So, we are back in Wichita and trying to get settled in. We finally got the living room mostly clean and set up last night. We bought another bookshelf to house the stereo and DVDs, whcih cleared up a lot of space on the floor. Unfortunately, there is virtually no space left in the second bedroom. I think it will be better after we get some more unpacking and organization done. We also have a few boxes/tubs of stuff that is going to Goodwill or otherwise disappearing. That will clear out space too.

~~~5~~~

Both Steven and I have been in the habit of cooking two or three dishes on the weekend, and then eating the "leftovers" for meals all week. This was more efficient since Steven had evening classes and homework, and I was either busy with work or driving over to his place in the evenings. Since both of those situations are now cleared up (Steven is done with classes, and I live in the same apartment as him), we are going to try cooking throughout the week. I have to say that it is a little bit different for me...both in having dishes to be done more often and in juggling having meal prep to do during the week. Not that it's bad...just different. Cooking meals during the week allows us to reduce the foods we eat that have lots of carbs and increase the amounts of fresh fruits and vegetables. At least that's the theory...we'll see how it works out.

~~~6~~~

This week I'm starting a new class at work. It's called the New Lawn-Owner Clinic. The first class is Thursday night. Hopefully there is a good group registered, although I don't mind having a smaller class for the guinea pig group. I'm also including some "hands-on" components that Master Gardeners are helping with. We'll see how all of that goes, too.

~~~7~~~
The other exciting thing from this weekend is that we bought a washer and dryer! In honor of MLK Day and Obama's inauguration, we decided to buy the "diversity" set. Our washer is black with chrome accents and the dryer is white. Unfortunately, the salesman wouldn't give us a discount on the black dryer just because it was black. Ah well. (In all honesty, the white washer was out of stock, and the black was the same price. So it made no difference to us what color it was.) We have the very first load of laundry in right now. Yes, I know the excitement will wear off sooner rather than later.

Weird Food and Me

I was intending to title this post something along the lines of indicating that I'm really a Southern girl at heart because I seem to like lots of traditional "Southern" foods, like black-eyed peas, grits, and sweet tea. Then I realized that my only experience with grits has been "instant grits" and I also like other strange foods, like pickled herring, braunschweiger, duck liver pate, and oysters. so I guess when you come right down to it, I just have a taste for weird foods. At which point this whole post just peters out, because I can't wax eloquent about Southern food.

Besides, fresh veggies are much tastier than nasty fried Southern cooking!

Just So You Know...

Okay, I'm hoping that all of you are going to be staying busy with Christmas-y type things in the next 1-2 weeks, but in case you don't and come checking here for something to read...don't hold your breath. (Although you do know by now that every time I say I'll be too busy to post, I end up posting a bunch of stuff.) Anyhow, here's the plans for the next few weeks:

Friday, Dec. 19 - Drive from Wichita to Rochester, MN. Spend a few days with Steven's family.

Tuesday, Dec. 23 or Wednesday, Dec. 24 - Drive to my parents'. Details weather dependent.

Saturday, Dec. 27 (pm) - Drive back to Steven's parents'.

Sunday, Dec. 28 - Drive back to Wichita.

Monday, Dec. 29 - 1/2 day of work. Wedding details, etc.

Tuesday, Dec. 30 & Wednesday, Dec. 31 - Packing and moving Steven's stuff. Wedding details.

Wednesday, Dec. 31 - Some kind of New Years' Eve celebration?

Thursday, Jan. 1 - Unpacking/sorting/organizing apartment. Wedding stuff. Hang out w/people

Friday, Jan. 2 - Final wedding details. Rehearsal. Rehearsal dinner.

Saturday, Jan. 3 - WEDDING DAY!!!

Sunday, Jan. 4 - Early (a.m.) church, breakfast w/Andersians?, leave for undisclosed location!

Monday, Jan. 5-Saturday, Jan. 10 - HONEYMOON!!!

Sunday, Jan. 11 - Getting settled in...

Monday, Jan. 12 - Back to work!

Twittering?

I'm not going to join Twitter. And here's why. Umm...okay, I am going to join Twitter. And here's why. Well...I really don't want to join Twitter, but I'm really very very curious as to what it's like. Okay, fine. I'll give in and join. But I won't promise to like it. Or even use it very often.

I really don't need more technology in my life, at least not my private life. My work life could use some more technology sometimes. I think we're going to get a video camera that we can use to post short videos to our website. That will be fun! Hopefully it will also be useful and impactful in our ability to reach audiences we otherwise might not reach. Apparently the newspaper here is close to going bankrupt, which would pretty effectively cut back on a lot of the easy, cheap marketing and good press we get. Ouch.

Anyway, I really prefer blogging, even though I've been pretty lax about intelligent, thoughtful posts this fall. I blame it on the wedding. (Notice how I've lapsed into Kansas-speech regarding seasons. It probably qualifies as winter now though, since we've had a day where the high temperature doesn't get above freezing.) "Tweeting" on Twitter seems so...juvenile. Less thoughtful. I really don't need the additional temptation to distraction at work. But we'll give it a try. Chances are it will become what Facebook is...an interesting tool, but something I only check infrequently or when someone harasses me.

Snapshots

~~~1~~~

I had my first dress fitting with the seamstress on Wednesday. Happily, the dress fits beautifully, so all there is to do is the bustling and a couple minor things. My next fitting will be in 2 weeks, just before we are headed out for Christmas.

~~~2~~~

As we move through December, our fall classes wind down at work, but Garden Show planning speeds up. I have one more Market Farmer class, we have only 1 more Master Gardener Basic Training class (after this week), most of the committees are having their "Christmas Party" meetings, and so on. This is a good thing, of course, since I've got plenty of other things to do before January.

~~~3~~~

The Garden Show is 3 months from now. Since we are doing a vegetable display garden, I'm doing a lot of the planning and planting of veggies. Today I planted tomato, brussels sprouts, and globe artichoke seeds. Hopefully everything turns out okay, since I really have no idea what I'm doing.

~~~4~~~

Since it's now December, and the temperature is going to get down to a "frigid" 22 degrees, I decided to harvest some of the things I've been keeping going out in our demonstration garden. I harvested the rest of 4 varieties of lettuce, the remaining purple carrots, and the gold beets. Yum! I gave some of the produce away to staff, and the rest I made into a salad for MG Basic Training. The lettuces and carrots were gorgeous...maybe I'll get around to transferring some pictures to the blog.

~~~5~~~

Is it just me or have there been absolutely no movies worth going to see for months?!? Every few weeks I think, "Gee, we could go to a movie for something fun to do." Then I look up the movie listings and realize that there is absolutely nothing that looks enticing enough to pay too much money to see. Supposedly there are some movies coming out in December that are worth seeing, but I don't think we're going to have much time for movie-going.

~~~6~~~

I hope the Federal government doesn't bail out the automakers. I'm sorry that people will get hurt from losing jobs. But people are going to get hurt just as bad, if not worse, in the long run if the government keeps spending money it doesn't have. And that's all I've got to say about that.

Snapshots

~~~1~~~

Have you noticed that whenever I say I'm going to be very busy and probably won't be able to post, I inevitably find the time to post something. In this case, I shouldn't have been too surprised, since I usually have spare time in the evenings when I'm traveling for work.

~~~2~~~

I was reading through a commentary/Bible study on the book of Acts this weekend, and one of the footnotes discussed the word "witness." The origin of the Christian usage of the word comes from a transliteration of the Greek word "martyr." Our current use of "martyr" was also derived from the same Greek word. That really puts a new spin on the concept of "witnessing" to our faith and what we believe.

~~~3~~~

I think we got all of the wedding invitations mailed out. Hopefully they all found their way to their intended destination. (We've only had one returned so far, but it took quite awhile for it to find its way back.) Now we are on to tallying up RSVPs and figuring out some of the other last minute details. Like decorations for the reception. Music selection. Other minor details. Hopefully most of those things will get ironed out in the next couple weeks.

~~~4~~~

24 will be back on Sunday!!! It's been a long time since there's been a new episode of 24 (and this is really just a 2 hour made-for-TV movie to bridge the seasons). Thank you screenwriter's guild strike! Anyway, without getting into all of that, it will be interesting to see where the show goes in the new season, because last season wasn't very excellent. After all, there is only so much abuse that one man (Jack Bauer) can take without experiencing total mental collapse. Not that the show is supposed to be realistic, but it seems to gradually become less believable with every season, and everything that Jack is subjected to by the writers of the show.

~~~5~~~

New (2009) seed catalogs have started to arrive! I love this time of year. The only bad thing is all the drooling over plants that I don't have space to grow. Exciting new things for this year:

• 'Purple Rain' Carrot from Johnny's Selected Seeds
• 'Padron' Pepper from Johnny's and Thompson-Morgan. Padron Peppers are a cultural curiosity from Spain. The story is actually pretty interesting.
• 'Waterfall' Pansy from Thompson-Morgan. This is a small-flowered pansy that is specially bred for hanging baskets.
• There are several 'spineless' varieties of summer squash on the market this year. Good to know that gene trait finally made its way to commercial varieties. The plants lack the tiny spines common to most squash stems. These spines frequently scratch the fruit when they are harvested, reducing the shelf life. So the varieties aren't that exciting for the average gardener, but commercial growers should appreciate it.
• 'Summer Ball' is a mini pumpkin variety that is bred for growing in containers. From Johnny's; Thompson & Morgan.

*Gasp* ...and...RUN!

So I haven't been around recently, as I warned you would be the case in November. (Or at least I meant to, but I may have forgotten to mention it.) November is now half over, and this coming week promises to be crazy. My second market farmer class is Monday night, then I'm off to Topeka for the Turf Conference. I'll be immersed in the joys of turf on Tuesday and Wednesday. Then I'll be in Emporia Thursday morning for a Grape/Wine Industry listening tour. Thursday is (as always) Master Gardener training. Friday morning at 7 a.m. is our monthly hort advisory group meeting, and then MG advisory board meeting. Somewhere in there I have to fit in at least one other meeting. Ugh.

I'm planning to start a new "feature" based on a book Steven found in his Grandmother's house when they were cleaning it out last year. We'll see if I get around to posting anything from it this week.

If I don't show up before, have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Snapshots

~~~1~~~

Our goal is to have all the wedding invitations mailed by this weekend. I suppose that would require me to work on addressing envelopes, wouldn't it? Or work on printing invitations? Or other stuff like that? Yes, that would be correct. And yet again, I am sitting here typing a blog post rather than doing something semi-productive. Oops.

~~~2~~~

On the wedding, my dress is here! Yay! I got to try it on last weekend, and it fits pretty well. It will need a few nips and tucks, but that's typical. The bodice actually needs to be taken in an inch or two, because while it has a lace-up back closure, it will look better if you can actually see the lacing. It will also fit better if it can be tied up tighter. Of course, I could consider gaining weight...or NOT! After all, Thanksgiving and Christmas are both between now and the wedding, so I can't help but gain some weight...especially if I eat too many of the green cornflake wreath cookies. I could probably live on those for a whole day.

~~~3~~~

I went into Walmart yesterday to buy some tulip bulbs to teach a class this morning, and I found that I had to wade my way through Christmas decorations and Christmas dishes, and wrapping paper and ribbons and fake poinsettias (ACK!). Seriously. Isn't this a little bit much? I did see some very pretty blue ribbon that could be nice for wedding decorations. But that does not redeem the fact that Walmart is decked out for Christmas before Halloween.

~~~4~~~

Does anyone else find it annoying that Barack Obama has bought 30 minutes of airtime tonight? Good. I would be disturbed if you didn't. I think I would still find it annoying if it was John McCain buying airtime. Ugh. I will be SO HAPPY when this election is over. I will be even happier after the media gets over drooling over Obama. Double ugh.

~~~5~~~

Tomorrow I'm teaching the fruit class for our Master Gardener Basic Training. I feel like I'm trying to cram too much information into 3 hours. You want to try fitting comprehensive information on apples, pears, cherries, peaches, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and grapes into 3 hours with a break and an activity? Yeah, it doesn't work too well. The problem is that so few of our MGs are even interested in fruit, let alone have any experience with growing it. The only reason they need the information is to answer questions on Hotline, which won't apply to all of them. They probably will forget most of the information by the time they need to use it anyway.

However, I will make the attempt to teach the information in an interesting way, force them to think a little bit, and hope to encourage a few of them to try growing fruit in the future.

~~~6~~~

Next Monday begins the craziness that is the month of November. My classes for market farmers/gardeners is getting some nice publicity, and I have people registered from a number of locations, so that makes me feel good that I'm offering something that is needed. Hopefully the classes go well, the participants get some good information and ideas, and I get some good contacts. I'm also seeing an increase in people coming in to ask about planting fruit for commercial production, which I think is a wide open market in this area. We have next to no commercial fruit operations. Agritourism places could do a booming business here.

~~~7~~~

Ummm.....ok. I guess I ran out of things to say. I guess this means that I have to go to addressing envelopes. On that note, if you know that you have changed your address in the last couple months, please let me know so I don't have to hunt it down!

5 Things...

5 Things I Like about My New Apartment:

1. It's on the first floor...no more icy stairs, wet stairs, sheets of rain, fighting the wind, or climbing to the third floor loaded down with groceries for me!

2. My closet...it is big, with more than enough space for even 2 people's clothing!

3. Space! Also known as a second bedroom where all the miscellaneous stuff can be stored happily out of sight and mind.

4. A full size stove/oven. Yes, I appreciate being able to fit more than one thing in the oven at once.

5. Less wind and other weather noise. No strange whistling noises around the eaves. Oh, and so far fewer spiders. (Okay, okay, so this is really 2-in-1. Sorry. I am too lazy to change the title. And 5 sounds sexier than 6.)

5 Things I Dislike about My New Apartment:

1. No exercise of climbing lots of stairs every day.

2. I'm farther from the mailbox...I guess I could walk over and get that exercise I lost in #1, huh?

3. More noise from neighbors...both upstairs and to the side.

4. My garbage disposal. I have used it twice, and it has broken twice. This is not a good record.

5. My water heater. The maintenance man claims there is nothing wrong with it, but I end up with cold water after only 10-15 minutes in the shower. I do NOT like cold water in the mornings. Definitely NOT.

Snapshots

~~~1~~~

Well, I'm back from the Annual Extension Conference. The actual "conference" part left quite a bit to be desired...there were good bits, bad bits, and tedious bits...but it was nice to see other agents and have time to network and share ideas. I will say that I'm ready to be back in the office. Between Master Gardener Conference, being sick last month, and now Annual Conference, I feel like I've been out of the office a long time. I have a lot to do to get several classes ready to go and advertised!

~~~2~~~

My dress is here! Yay! It was scheduled to ship yesterday, so I was hoping that they were shipping it overnight or something like that. The idea of an expensive dress sitting in a shipping dock or bouncing cross country in a truck for several days was not to my liking. So in the plans for the weekend is going to try on my dress. Hopefully I will then have a better idea about what accessories I need to go with it. I really need to find shoes, too...

~~~3~~~

Also on the wedding front, I need to start addressing envelopes. And I really need to spend more than a passing thought on what we are doing for reception decorations. Yeah. Really. On the positive side, you can probably look forward to more blog posts as I am looking for a way to procrastinate on wedding details!

~~~4~~~

Is anyone else ready for the election to be over? Ugh. If only there was a way to make sure all the morons were gone after the election... Unfortunately, it seems unlikely that all the morons will disappear... Ah well. I worked my way through a sample ballot that the Wichita Eagle had available. There are 32 races/issues on my ballot. That's ridiculous. Luckily (or maybe unluckily), about half of those are judge races, and more than half of the judge races are uncontested. That is easier, if perhaps not ideal in all respects.

Anyway, they had semi-helpful bios and answers to questions, which was nice. Although...well...I did say only semi-helpful. I just don't know as much about some of the candidates and races as I would like to. I think that takes time when you live in a new location.

~~~5~~~

Hmm....I know I had other extremely interesting things to say, but they have slipped my mind. Ah well. I expect you'll all be able to wait until next time I write.

Moved

Whew! I am all moved to my (eventually "our") new apartment. With some extra help, we got everything moved in about 5 hours. Unfortunately, my calf muscles are still complaining vociferously about the number of trips up and down the stairs to my 3rd floor apartment. At least we were moving everything down rather than up.

The new apartment is nice and home-y. As of this afternoon, I have everything...yes, EVERYTHING, unpacked and put away. The few things that don't have a home have been sorted and repacked into boxes and stored in the closet of the second bedroom. We might even be able to fit most of Steven's stuff in!

As soon as I got done unpacking, I started packing again - this time to go to our Extension Annual Conference. Three and a half days of meetings, seminars, sessions, luncheons, etc. Hmm...yeah, I'm not sure how I feel about this yet. Perhaps I'll have a report later on.

Perhaps I'll also get back to posting the regular sandwiches and plants and other such updates by next week, although I don't really make any promises that my schedule is slowing down!

Snapshots

Hi! Yes, I do still exist. This seems to be a trend. I post a bunch of stuff, then disappear for awhile. This disappearance is really less about me being a delinquent blogger and more about me being sick and then busy as a result of being sick. Anyway, this post will invariably be long, because instead of posting 16 mini-posts, I'm going to just post a miscellaneous bunch of stuff at once.

~~~1~~~

The last time I posted was way back in September, and I was sick for then entire following week. Then I got put on antibiotics and spent another week recovering. I missed 5 days of work (well...technically it was only 4, because I was silly and went in for a couple hours on a couple different days even though I was feeling horrible.). When I finally went to the doctor, the diagnosis was a great combo of flu-sinus infection-bronchitis. Yuck! No wonder I felt terrible.

~~~2~~~

I have a new blog in my sidebar! And...you guessed it...hence a Blog of the Week! The new blog is called Heart of the Mission. It is written by my dear friend Nettie, who belongs to a awesome group called InnerChange. She's going to be sharing stories about her life in the crazy city of San Francisco, CA! So stop by and visit her occasionally!

~~~3~~~

I am sitting here in the middle of making Chai Latte Cupcakes. The recipe is from a book of vegan cupcake recipes that I received as a shower gift from Ruth and Nicole. No, I haven't gone vegan. But since I'm just starting to try the recipes, I want to see how they are going to work with both non-dairy and dairy ingredients. So I'm making 2 batches...one with soy milk and yogurt and the other with cow milk and yogurt. I don't think it should make a big difference, but it will be an interesting comparison.

In case you were wondering how I can blog "in the middle" of making cupcakes...well...I'm at Steven's place, and so I discovered that I'm missing some of the spices I needed (ground cloves and cardamom). I asked if he had them when we were at the grocery store, and he said yes. When I actually got to the baking part though, I discovered that what he actually had were whole cloves and coriander. Coriander and cardamom are not equivalent. So he's out buying me spices, and I'm blogging. (Actually, he just got back, so I'm going back to cupcake making. I'll be back to finish this post shortly...)

Okay, the vegan batch is cooling and the dairy batch is in the oven. These cupcakes are topped with a dusting of powdered sugar, cocoa powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg after they are completely cool. They smell pretty tasty! They aren't too hard to make. The most "complicated" part is almost-boiling the milk and steeping black tea in it for 10 minutes. Otherwise, very easy.

I'm making these cupcakes to take to potluck at the office tomorrow. No, Steven and I aren't going to eat 24 cupcakes all by ourselves.

UPDATE: After a taste test, both versions are very good. The vegan version was a touch fluffier while the dairy version had a stronger flavor of the spices and tea. I don't know if the fluffiness was due to the different ingredients or due to the fact that the batter sat with the leavening agents in it for 30 minutes while waiting for the final spices.

~~~4~~~

Tomorrow is Columbus Day, which means that our offices are closed. It is not a holiday however. It is a staff inservice day. So in the morning we are doing True Colors training, which should be interesting. Then we are having potluck. The afternoon will be devoted to office/file cleaning and departmental work. We are going to be doing some long-range (read: 3 months) planning and Garden Show planning. Then maybe I will do some file cleaning. I have 3 file drawers of stuff, and I can probbaly throw away some of it.

~~~5~~~

This past Thursday-Saturday was State Master Gardener Advanced Training Conference. (Why do conferences always have such cumbersome long names? Seriously. Maybe they have doubts about their own value and importance?) So I was in Manhattan, KS with the other Hort staff, 50 of our MGs, and a bunch of other MGs and Hort agents from around the state. I taught a class about edible flowers on Friday afternoon. Most of the classes I attended were not very earth-shattering or exciting. A couple of them were well done. But they were also on a level for the Master Gardeners, not professional horticulturists. I did discover that one of the other hort agents, who we characterize as a "turf guy" actually loves tree fruit. And I spent 15 minutes sharing about growing potatoes and what exactly are "new potatoes" with one of the other hort agents.

~~~6~~~

This week is moving week. Yes, I'm moving...again! I'm actually sick of moving. Rather, I'm sick of all the details involved in changing your address. My address isn't really changing this time, just my apartment number. I'm moving from Apt. 624 to Apt. 903 at the same address. So this may be your notice. I'm moving from my one bedroom, third floor apartment to a two bedroom, first floor apartment. The theory is that after Steven and I are married, we will be able to fit all our stuff in...or at least stack a bunch of stuff in that second bedroom, er...storage room. So we will have a guest bed, you are welcome to visit us. We just make no guarantee that you will be able to find the bed.

~~~7~~~

I'm teaching the vegetable class of our MG Basic Training this coming Thursday. Hopefully I will encourage a lot of our MGs to think outside the box regarding growing vegetables. I'm also planning to make a salad for the lunch potluck with a bunch of veggies from our demo garden. We have some very tasty Watermelon Radishes out there that I think will really set off a salad. The Cucamelons are finally producing, and we still have a few cherry tomatoes on the vines. I think I'll be able to get a good salad out of it.

Okay, I guess that's it for now. I'll try to get around to more updating later this week.

Rain, Sun, Governent, among other things

We have this strange thing going on here today. There is a big, bright blob in the sky that seems to have the overall appearance of yellow. Some report having felt warmth emanating from areas where this strange feature is present. I myself am not too sure what this strange thing is...since it hasn't made an appearance in recent memory. (I thought I might have accidentally gotten transported to Seattle...) It seems like it's been raining for a month, although I think it really only rained for 2 or 3 days. Friday we got between 8 and 10 inches of rain in about 12 hours. Needless to say, that is more water than can be handled around here and one time. There was water over many many roads when I went to work on Friday, so it was a bit of a challenge finding the "dry" route to the office. That wasn't even the hurricane remnants! Luckily, the hurricane remnants went east of us, so we didn't get even more rain.

Speaking of hurricane-related things...is it really the job of the government to release part of the strategic oil reserves in order to keep fuel prices from spiking? I understand that the high fuel prices are crunching many people, many families, many businesses. But the point of the strategic oil reserve is to provide fuel for the armed forces in a crisis. Not a domestic supply problem...a crisis in which the armed forces need the fuel. For instance, if hostile countries tie up the majority of the world's oil. Yeah, not a hurricane.

Frankly, I don't think it is the government's job to protect us from the effects of natural disasters.
Yes, there is a role to be played in protection and rescue efforts of the direct effects on human life. Protecting human life is where the government plays a role. Making sure that none of us good little children..oops, I mean citizens...are inconvenienced in any way whatsoever...or that we are deprived of spending our hard-earned money on whatever frivolous desires we want rather than on things we need - this is not the job of the government. I wish the government would stop meddling in the economy. It started way back in the Great Depression, and obviously the things that the government "fixed" then are not necessarily "fixed" anymore.

Yes, there is a role for the government in creating regulations that protect citizens by preventing companies from taking unfair advantage. But I don't think the government needs to bail out people that made poor decisions regarding debt and mortgages. I'm sorry. Don't spend money you don't have. Don't get yourself out on a limb. If you are that close to not being able to make your payments, maybe you should reconsider your lifestyle. You aren't "deserving" of any particular lifestyle, type of house, etc. Get over it. It isn't the government's job to provide it.

If you haven't seen Wall-E, you should. It's good. And it is a pretty darn good social commentary too.