Essentially Thursday

I can't really think of anything, but it is essential to thank my friends for putting up with me today and the last few weeks while I have had exsistential crisis after another.

Thank you all for putting it all in perspective for me.

Y'all know who you are.

Smooches to all of you.

puppy proof

Puppy proofing 101. May 2006.

The house is getting there, only a few more days until Ernest shows up.

Poor guy is going to be introduced to the wilds of urban living, baby gates and having to deal with concrete, small children, top pot donuts and figuring out what we're going to have for dinner.

Life at Ernest's level.

I think he'll survive.

I think we will too!

TH does a touch and go next Thursday and looks like as long as I have something to deliver by the end of May, I can stay at home and work too. It'll be nice picking her up at the airport with a wiggling basset hound to greet her at departures (not arrivals). It has been a long time.

Yeah for Ernest!

Planning ahead

Allium bulgaricum, May 2006.

Summer is coming up and other than gas being oh, say 3.44 a gallon last I checked, airline ticket prices also suck. Nothing is competitive out of Seattle these days, if I lived in Wenatchee, I would be fine, but Seattle on AA, not.

Here, you can check it out yourself.

I have at least two exciting work trips planned for the summer, one involves a decent outlet mall and date shakes, the other, my parents, so its not that bad.

Other than that, its NYC in June for VAF and Miss JK coming up for a day or two, Vancouver and Calgary and now it seems that JK and I have ingratiated ourselves on my brother's annual midnight croquet party in MKE. We figured we could combine hotel stays, frequent flyer points with Irishfest and drunken croquet by Lake Michigan and oh, a trip to Marshall Fields as well.

I am hesitant to buy any plane tickets with the current prices, but since I have committed myself to London for Remembrance Day and TH is out of chocolate and we need to go to Paris. What the hell, no one needs to go, my financial advisor will tell me. Its double mileage at AA for their 25th anniversary, so its time to buck up and buy those tickets. Just think, I'll hit 2MM before November. Oh the joy.

Oh Ernest, he can stay home with grandmere or his best K, or maybe we'll just tag team it.

nm

royapoya mismaloya

Siberian Iris, May 2006.

On this day last year, we lost our dearest cat, Miss Roya. I first met Roya as a 6 week old kitty and she lived in wierd little house by Kitchykoo and Roosevelt High School in Northeast Seattle. She was the only female in the litter and the only one who wouldn't go into the box. I really wanted her and my roommate and I put her in a little box, caught the bus up back up to the Ave, went to get cat litter, food and beer with this yowling small cat. Did I mention we were on the bus? Luckily, we ran into my brother buying beer at the store and he gave us a ride back to the hovel we lived in off of 4th ave NE and the rest is history.

Miss Roya was no ordinary cat. She looked like a cow with her spots, she was very interactive,very gregarious, but very gentle and acted like a dog. Our friend B loved to call her Buddah Kitty, because that is what she often resembled. She lived with me for a few years in various houses that 20 somethings live in. When I moved into an apartment that didn't take cats, my parents graciously took her for what they thought would only be a few weeks.

She lived on the lake with a 75' sandy litter box for the next five years. When my parents retired to California, Roya came to live with TH and myself. She fit in very well in the house. TH loved her even if she was allergic to her and after Jacques came to live with us permanently, they became best buddies.

When your cat reaches 16 years old, you think they are golden forever. Roya was healthy and spritely and we kept up with everything that she needed (geriatric screenings, kidney food, cat toys and rare steaks). Each summer I would gaze at her in the garden enjoying watching her surroundings and wondering if she would be there the next year. She passed 16 year milestone, then 17 and then her 18th birthday. Sure she slowed down, but we kept her happy, hydrated and other than the yowl fests, she seemed content.

About ten days before she died, she just slowed down and lost weight. We had to feed her new things to keep her interested and when I took her to the vet, he said it didn't look good. TH came home early from Oregon to be with us. Her vet said her time wasn't now and to watch her and she would tell us when she was ready to go. TH stayed home with her that day, she went outside and took a gander around her garden. That night, she died at home. I can't tell you how happy I was that she was able to do that one last time.

I can't go into the garden this time of year without thinking of Roya, her love of spring, having to coax her to come in and finding her teeth marks in the irises.

If you see an iris today, that is Roya, smiling at you.

nm

unseasonably warm

Ribes sanguineum, May 2006.

I think 80 degrees for the middle of May in Seattle sucks. Why? Because my kiwis are about to blossom and they don't need to fry before they set fruit. I am going to have to replant my cukes as they are fried and I don't appreciate lettuce bolting by June.

'Nuf said.

It is time to think about warm weather foods. Salads, cold dishes (revenge?), make ahead meals and finger foods that will work as meals.

I'm all for salads. TH often will grill extra protein based sources and we'll have them later. I'm also all for things that can be made ahead - cold soups come to mind.

Yesterday I made tabouleh. Today I ate grilled asparagus and cold grilled chicken and some arugula and walnut salad.

Tomorrow, who knows? But as long as its in the high 70's, its not going to be lasagne.

Stay posted as I start posting some summertime favorites.

nm

eating locally

Today I did amazing things. I sat outside again and read a book and chilled. I managed to get much of our year round ppatch weeded out and watered and planted. I also made dinner and lunch using stuff from our own garden --Lettuce, chives, cilantro, asparagus, parsely and rhubarb.

It is an amazing thing.

The rhubarb is baking right now. I have a nice tabbouleh that I'll enjoy this week and I'll save the seven asparagus spears I have left over for dinner tomorrow.


Life is good.

nm

Mother's Day

If you want my personal opinion, every day should be Mother's Day.

Hope you had a good one.

Yours with many scratches and some love,

nm

ugh

From http://www.ars-grin.gov/cor/ribes/ribsymp/leaf8.html

This is what I have to look forward to in the morning. Smooshing gooseberry sawflies before they destroy every leaf.

They say hand mushing is the best thing. I'm itching just thinking of it.

nm

sluggish saturday

Hosta, May 2006, Seattle.

While TH is gadding about the rainy Northeast, I'm at home, obsessing about work and trying to enjoy the weekend. The two are exclusive of each other no? I need to seriously take a chill pill.

Sunny Saturday meant up and early to the farmer's market, TJ's, post office and then being a slug. Yup, me. Sitting around reading Baltimore's own Lippman mysteries (2 of them in one day!), taking a nap, planting stuff and finally getting off my butt to weed and water the ppatch and visit with M&B and partake in some yummy blackberry cobbler.

TH says the weather sucks, so she's not sure what they are going to do tomorrow in Hanover. I believe her Monday will be spent driving to Orono, ME and maybe visiting at the altar of LL Bean. I wish I could be with her, but I'm probably better off here weeding out my dahlias and combatting what the hell is devouring the leaves of my gooseberries.

Tomorrow I'm not sure what I'll do, but staying away from the chocolate is in order.

nm

the big picture

Greenland, the big picture, May 2006, LHR-ORD from seat 9J.

At work, I'm a big picture girl, which seems to get me nowhere here these days.

However, I digress.

I have been obsessing about the stock market, my retirement and how one day (say, in 9 years), I'll be able to stop working for the man and doing my own thing.

So, two days of down markets have me down.

I say stop looking but maybe call the broker on Monday and ask why we're holding on to something that is tanking? Or should I just stop looking and realize I can't touch this stuff for the next 20 years and take a chill pill?

It is like the scale, daily weighing can be both good and bad.

Maybe I need to ask the doctor for some anti anxiety meds.

nm

essentially thursday

Gigantic- a big, big love. May 2006, Seattle, WA.

My week has sucked like something you don't want to suck out of your bird bath. I can't really put a finger on it, but I can't say more than if I could crawl under a rock until the next fiscal year, I would.

So, what is essential on days/weeks and months like this?

Music -- both moody and jangly
Eels, They Might be Giants, Sarah Harmer, anything that I can get from 3 hive.com

Popcorn
My new obsession (crunchy and moderately healthy for you)

Advil
My arm still hurts from the shot

Decaf tea
I'm moody enough right now, I don't need to add caffeine to the mix

Exercise
outdoors if possible, even 15 minutes of garden therapy would help

The ability to search flickr and find pictures of blood hounds, basset hounds and things that make me smile

The occasional f*ck this sheet dinner of margaritas and tacos at a local tacqueria like we had tonight at Mr. Villa.

The thought that in a mere 10 days I will be bringing Ernesto home.

nm

like a sum bitch

My arm is still killing me from my tetanus shot. TH had to help me out of my clothes (don't get excited, here), turn off my light and other mundane chores for the last two nights.

I can't say enough about the pain other than advil is my friend and I'm laying off the weights until next Tuesday.

It is lovely outside. The lilacs are amazing, the wisteria is going full force and everything is green. I released 7500 ladybugs last night in hopes they would decimate the aphid population. I guess I'll give it a day or so and then bring out the hoses.

nm

New banner

Sheryl at Paper Napkin is very creative and a great banner maker, not to mention a pretty fantastic blogger.

Check it out.

pretend you are 11" tall

I have been anally walking around the house and garden pretending that I'm about 11" tall and 10 lbs and will eat anything like looks mildly better than kibble.

I have managed to find many stray pieces of wire and some yummy old clothespins and had our rodent guru move all the bait stations out of Ernest territory.

Our house looks like we're ready for a child, we have ordered two new baby gates and most of the cords are covered with this wierd plastic tubing to stop him for chewing on cords. I am going to enjoy computing on the floor for the next few weeks, as me thinks that won't be happening anytime in the near future. I love my laptop, but I don't need noseprints on it.

We have baby latches underneath the sink and if the boy ends up opening the fridge, I hope he likes frozen food.

TH is going to finish up some stuff in the yard and honestly, the first few months of his life with us, he won't be hanging out in the garden unattended, but for the first time in my life, I'm thinking like a small basset.


nm

day in the life

Alien Landscape, London May 2006.

Sheryl suggested doing this, so I'll bore you with my Sunday. It was an unusual day, so don't think I have this much fun.

0250 Awaken by what sounds like a lawnmower and can't fall back asleep. TH is in Oregon for a meeting, so I turn on light and read The Great Influenza. Good soporofic and I'm back to sleep in 20 minutes.

0700 Up for good. My foot is killing me. I stepped on a rusty nail yesterday while trying to do some cleanup before bringing home Ernest. It broke the skin, but didn't bleed. I haven't had a tetanus shot since 1990. I wonder if I should go in.

0730 Decide that I am going to skip the gym. Sort bills and file, read paper in 15 minutes, it is that lame.

0800 Make a cup of chai and a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast.

0815 Check email and see that TH is having a defective time at her meeting. Email her about my foot.

0830 Post to Flyertalk about my foot, I did try and get information from my brother, the doctor, but he's not answering his phone.

0840 Leave home to go to the Pike Place Market to pick up weekly tulips.

0910 Arrive at TJ's for some shopping, no good samples. Remember to pick up most everything we need for the week so I don't have to go again. My goal, never attained.

0925 Return home, put away groceries. Really achy, sleepy and cranky. Read email, surf web (bad idea), read replies on Flyertalk to my foot crisis. Decide that maybe I should deal with foot.

1100 Remember that I forgot to pick up bamboo barrier for TH, call nursery up north, they have it. Drive up to nursery, pick up bamboo barrier, more ladybugs to kill off aphids, some more annual bedding plants, leave 76 bucks poorer.

1200 Stop by Starbucks to redeem my free green tea latte cert. Its a strange combo, but it works for me. Eat a cupcake I don't need to and kill time before library opens.

1230 Find out Library has been open for 30 minutes, get books.

1300 Return home, eat processed salad from TJ's, decide that maybe I will go to Emergency Room and have foot looked at. Take a small nap, I am tired.

1400 Take shower and drive to emergency room.

1630 Leave emergency room with Great Influenza finished having had three different people look at my foot (which looks fine) and a tetanus and whooping cough booster.

1645 Arrive home. Change clothes, start stock from leftover chicken.

1700 Start weeding, clipping, spreading mulch and put most of the plants we bought last week and this week in the ground. All that is left is the tomatoes. Yeah!

1745 Stop for food break. Leftover home made pad thai cold. Yum.

1900 TH returns from Oregon with work to do and a nice supply of chocolate bread from Pearl Bakery. Oh, and 40 lbs of asparagus from Wapato for D&A. Yikes.

1945 Friend stops by with homemade bread. I can't stand it.

2015 TH realizes I'm not going to eat dinner. Reheats leftover chicken and pad thai.

2100 I feel terrible, I get ready for work (gym stuff, paperwork) and sit and read part of a marcia muller mystery. TH types in notes from meeting, very exciting evening.

2200 I take motrin and go to bed.

500 miles and one strawberry shake later

Ernest, in the rough. May 2006.

Today TH and I left Seattle in all its mid-Spring glory and crossed the Cascades to visit with a young basset hound pup that would we like to raise. We've seen pictures of him since his birth and have received updates about his progress, but we never had seen his bassetness in real life.

One stop in Ellensburg for Winegar's yummy ice cream and some BBQ and off we went down to Goldendale to meet Ernest.

Ernest is one cute pup, we were enchanted by him and his sister, Phrace and met the rest of the family.

We won't get Ernest for a few more weeks, I wish we could have taken him home now, but the breeder has some great reasons to keep him a bit longer. It gives us a little more time to puppy proof our house, which already has gotten a thorough going over.

Life is going to change, I hope for the best.

nm

back and really really happy

Busy weekend in North Finchley, not the most swank part of the city, but I got a bunch of stuff done in the garden, well, at least it looks better.

I made very good friends with the folks at the local home depot store there. I was impressed, they even did a delivery on a bank holiday Monday. Granted I paid them money, but way better than carrying cocoa bean mulch and compost and fence pieces on a trolley across a road and to the house. I went in the store late on Monday night and the manager asked me how my delivery went. Geez, am I that recognizable? The short American lady with the orange baseball cap and dansko clogs? I guess.

I spent my waking hours in the garden clipping grass, killing dead old snails and wondering why in hell no one did anything in the last year?

I also watched lots of bad british television and ate lots of microwaved meals. The meals were actually really good - just needed to be steamed. Oh, and cheese, lots of cheese.

I'm home for the next six weeks. Really. No where until New York in mid June.

We leave tomorrow to see the boy. I can't wait.

nm

when the cat is away

Meat and two veg, April 2006.

Dinner chez nm when NM is off to London.

Steak, potatoes and fresh Washington asparagus.

Have a great weekend y'all. I'll get back to you on Tuesday.

nm

sometimes itis better not to read the lyrics

I'm grooving on the new Dunkin Donuts ads for which They Might Be Giants are providing musical backing. Y'all know I don't watch tv, so don't be thinking I have started. I learned about their contribution while listening to a review on some NPR program about new stuff going on at DD and went to the website. I will admit that I would rather drink DD coffee that Starbucks and I route myself through BOS and ORD just to get my fix. Really!

So, I have been listening to the jangly poppy sounds of TMBG all day long and it might be the caffeine in my tea or it might be the lyrics I looked up since they had been plaguing me for decades. Now that I have seen them, I have decided, sometimes it is just better to hum along than to try and understand quite what they were trying to say.

Click here to see their new ad for DD.

Tonight, we're off to the preview benefit for the Arboretum Foundation Spring Sale and then I'm thinking that I'm off to London, with about 16 hours of teeth nashing work to do on the plane.

Sigh.

serrated

Epimedium leaf, bicolored, April 2006.

Hmm, what can I say, Jen has this essential Tuesday thing going and I'm thinking Essential Thursday is a good thing.

So, today's topic, what is in my carryon for an international trip.

Passport
Plane ticket
wallet stripped of everything but essentials (drivers license, credit card(s), ATM card, airline status card (someplaces more important than others), list of phone numbers I may need
Cell phone with charger and numbers written down on something else
Painkiller of my choice (advil or aspirin)
Earplugs
Eyeshades (I have about five hundred pairs from different amenity kits)
Ipod (okay, not everyone needs this)
Camera (bigger than before, but still essential)
Lipbalm and small moisturizer
prescription medication in original bottle (yes, folks, this is necessary)
Pashmina or scarf for curling up with
Baseball cap that may or may not be used by TH
Extra pair of smalls
Luna bar or something to tide me over in case of a delay
Book
Pen/notepad/tear off sudukos

This all fits in a Lancel bucket bag that has seen better days, but still performs like a champ. Its obnoxiously red, but it works for me.

I'm going to London on Saturday, my aunt is in San Francisco visiting for a few months and I decided that it'll be easier to garden without her around telling me I'm going to get cold, I'm getting tired and I'm doing too much.

I probably will weed, prune and trim and that will make a dent in garden until sometime in the fall. Its not the most amazing of spaces, but I have a great love of its gentleness.

I hope to do a bit of cheese prowling as well, but that will be the extent of my excitement. I'll be back on Tuesday and all sorts of fun things happen that week!

nm