I had a weekend to rival those of the Oglesby family. Friday night was okay. We stayed in, had a family movie night and got through a little over half of The Sound of Music before The Boy zonked out. Saturday was the big day.
It is strange how people who never have any social commitments at all can find themselves suddenly innundated with things to do. Social stuff never spaces itself out nicely over several weeks, but instead it happens all at once, so that it cannot be enjoyed and savored at leisure. Saturday morning found us rushing off to the park for a Young Lawyers with Children "picnic" from 10-12. When Justin scheduled that, we had nothing else to do, but decided in August the earlier one gets out to play the better.
That turned out to also be good, because from 12-2 we had a potluck at George's school for everyone that goes there and their families. Waldorf schools like to get people outside into nature as much as possible and this had been scheduled as a picnic, but we'd had rain in the morning and there were still threatening clouds, so they held it indoors. A few people wanted to move it back out when the clouds started disappating, but I was quite glad for the air-conditioning myself.
After the potluck, we went home and then Justin went out to pick his grandmother up at the airport. When they got back, The Girl was napping and The Boy and I went to a birthday party for one of our neighbors.
When I'd put The Girl down for her nap she had some blotches over her eyes, when I got home from the birthday party she had raised blotches all over her face and it looked like she'd gotten a broken nose. Obviously she's allergic to something, but she wasn't having what the nurse termed a "severe reaction" -- she wasn't wheezing or itching, so we gave her Benedryl and just kept an eye on her.
Justin's grandmother took us out for Indian food that night -- Chicken Tikka Masala, Chicken Sagwala, Biryani and Mango Lassis all around (overwise known as heavenly food). The Girl continued to look like she'd been knocked around, but felt fine.
Sunday morning, she was better, though she kept the slightly bruised look around the eyes. We made it to church on time for once -- had a light lunch and then Justin's aunt and uncle came to get his grandmother and take her home to Kentucky.
They brought us ten cucumbers and almost as many patty-pan squash. We gave most of the cucumbers away at evening worship -- though we optimistically kept four for ourselves. Justin's aunt and uncle are big Atkins-ers and swore that frying the squash up like hashbrowns would result in something almost exactly like potatoes. Not quite, I am here to report. Not that the squash were bad exactly, but they were not hash-browned potatoes and the kids wouldn't have anything to do with them after an initial taste.
Now the week has begun, The Boy is off at Day Two of school and the carpenter is supposed to be here any minute to begin work on putting in our new backdoor. Tomorrow I'll be officially thirty weeks along -- which for those of you not in the know means I'm only tens from my due date. Yikes.
The Boy came three days after his due date. The Girl was induced a few days early, because her brother was oversized (9lbs. 2 oz) and had a head in the 95th percentile. We're not sure what we'll be doing this time around.
I've never really thought of it that way, but big-headed babies would be painful. I'll keep praying for your (and the baby's!) continued good health through round three of the Adam's Family Baby Factory.
I hope grandma was not too disappointed in her grandkid's faces over the fried squash. Lady Spud and I go overboard coaching our youngster to be polite if he does not like a particular dish, but they still end up with the loud comments, distorted faces and occasionally spitting food back on the plate.
Fried squash with a cormeal coating is one thing, but fried squash pretending to be hashbrowns is another. Actually, my kids are not big on squash period. We make them take a taste and then tell them their mouths probably aren't grown up enough for it yet.
In the midst of moving, I forgot to post a Friday recipe last week, but my Friday recipe sharing is back. The following recipe is my favorite chili, although by many people's standards it doesn't qualify, because it is meatless. I've made plenty of chili con carne both with hunks of steak and ground beef and although I will do almost anything for some good red meat, I happen to like this chili better anyway. The recipe came from a cookbook called Quick and Light and has received just a shade of revision over time.
Black Bean Chili
serves 4
1 cup long-grain rice (I especially like basmati)
Âľ teaspoon salt -- divided
2 teaspoons olive oil
4 green onions, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 pickled jalapeño pepper, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 zucchini, quartered lengthwise and cut into ½-inch pieces
14½-ounce can stewed tomatoes (diced tomatoes work just fine too)
2 19-ounce cans black beans, rinsed and drained
5½-ounce can spicy tomato-vegetable juice
⅓ cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 teaspoon chili powder
In a medium saucepan, bring 2ÂĽ cups of chicken broth or water to a boil. Add the rice and ÂĽ teaspoon of the salt. Reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook until the rice is tender, about 17 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, heat the oil until hot but not smoking over a medium heat. Add green onions, garlic and jalapeno and cook, stirring occasionally, until green onions are softened -- about 4 minutes. Add the bell pepper and zucchini and cook until slightly tender -- about 5 minutes.
Stir in the stewed tomatoes, beans, tomato-vegetable juice, cilantro, lime juice, chili powder, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until the chili is slightly thickened and the flavors have blended, about 7 minutes. Divide the rice among bowls, top with chili, and serve.
Hardback or Paperback -- but I don't really care
Highlight or Underline -- though usually neither Lewis or Tolkien E.B. White or A.A. Milne -- Pooh is wonderful and hilarious, but I'll still take Wilbur and Charlotte.
T.S. Eliot or e.e. cummings -- neither
Stephen King or Dean Koontz -- neither Barnes & Noble or Borders -- Our Borders doesn't have a Thomas table, which matters a lot to the little set. Waldenbooks or B. Dalton
Fantasy or Science Fiction
Horror or Suspense -- neither
Bookmark or Dogear
Large Print or Fine Print Hemingway or Faulkner Fitzgerald or Steinbeck Homer or Plato Geoffrey Chaucer or Edmund Spenser Pen or Pencil -- super-fine point or fountain, thank you.
Looseleaf or Notepad
Alphabetize: By Author or By Title
Shelve: By Genre/Subject or All Books Together
Dustjacket: Leave it On or Take it Off -- I'd leave them on, but my children destroy them. Novella or Epic
John Grisham or Scott Turrow -- neither J.K. Rowling or Lemony Snicket
John Irving or John Updike -- neither
Salman Rushdie or Don Delillo -- neither Fiction or Non-fiction
Historical Biography or Historical Romance -- I'm a sucker for Regencies.
Reading Pace: A Few Pages per Sitting or Finish at Least a Chapter -- If I don't fall asleep first. Short Story or Creative Non-fiction Essay Blah Blah Blah or Yada Yada Yada
“It was a dark and stormy night…” or “Once upon a time…”
Books: Buy or Borrow
Book Reviews or Word of Mouth
Hey! We match on most of your choices and neithers. (T.S. and e.e. both have some stuff that moves me; it's probably because I was born in the early 50s.)
Well, they are my questions, so I suppose I ought to answer the Thursday Three this week, huh?
1. Who are your three favorite children's authors?
Three is, of course, such a limited number -- why couldn't the author of the questions have asked for the top five or something? Oh right. Nevermind. Anyway, some of my favorites for little kids books (since again the author of the questions was very non-specific and didn't say whether she meant picture books or chapter books or either) are Arnold Lobel, Kevin Henkes, Robert McCloskey. I don't think a good children's author has to also illustrate, but I do think the ones who do both are often some of the best.
2. What are your three favorite children's books? I suppose I could take the easy way out and name books by the authors above, since their books are, of course some of my favorites. Some others I like a lot though -- from my own childhood -- are Miss Suzy by Miriam Young, Who's Got the Apple by Jan Loof, and Bedtime for Frances by Russell Hoban. I know I liked all the Frances books as a kid, although my love for this particular one may be more influenced by my adult self. Either way all the books about Frances are wonderful.
3. What children's books would you rather never ever see again?
I know it is near sacrilege to say, but I'm very tired of Goodnight Moon. It isn't one my kids have ever demanded enough for me to have to hide it, but I've never been a big fan. I will also be glad to never again have to read about the adventures of Prudence or Joshua and their new potty, but my reprieve in that area will be a long time away. I've resorted to hiding Richard Scarry's Cars, Trucks and Things that Go and all of Harry Allard's Miss Nelson books, but not because they or so bad or because I never want to read them ever again, but simply because they were requested just a little too often. I let them be found once in a while.
I found the Frances book about the tea set in an antique store sometime within the past year or so, and NATURALLY snapped it up. I guess they're still publishing Frances books? I'm not really familiar with the current kiddie lit offerings, but I'm sure I will be before too long.
A Bargain For Frances is another really good one. All the Frances books are wonderful.
There are lots of really, really good kids books out there, and I think it is often worth just checking out a huge number to find a few really great ones. There are plenty of crummy ones too.
Children's books are one time when I think you often can judge a book by its cover. Books with really good illustrations are often some of the best books, in my experience. Of course, defining what you mean by good illustrations is difficult. I like a wide variety -- some that would pass for high art and some that are merely doodles, but as with pornography, I may not be able to define good illustrations but I know them when I see them.
Is there a book about Frances having something to do with eating? Like that she always wanted to eat the same thing... For the life of me, I can't remember the title, but I know it was Frances!
Marc asks in the comments below, "Does his sister show any signs of missing her brother, or has the concept not sunk in (maybe until after he has been going to school for awhile)?"
The Girl was happy as a clam and saying hello to everyone going to and from the car, but the minute I tried to put her in her seat she began screaming and crying and all the while asking for her brother. Clearly, she thought we'd forgotten him and she didn't want to leave him behind. She's spent the rest of the morning asking if he's hiding. Her world is changing too. Her brother has been there all the time to copy and pick on. Suddenly he's gone sometimes and she had no idea this was coming.
It's funny how kids get an idea in their head and even a crowbar won't pry it out. They can surprise you when you expect them to react a certain way and then they go off on a different tangent.
If you really want to throw her a curveball tell her he's hiding in your belly - naah, that'd be too cruel and confusing.
I made it through yesterday morning alright, though I shed a few tears and The Girl announced at least once during breakfast that Mama was "wying." It started pouring rain as we drove away from our house, which suited my mood pretty well. The walk from the farthest parking lot up a hill past a million John Kerry bumper stickers didn't help much, but I started to feel better once we got inside.
The classroom is lovely, and The Boy had a wonderful time playing and running around with the other kids (except for one mean girl who took the bandana away that he was using). He made a playhouse, went outside in the rain and plowed the sandbox with a rake, pretended to be a prince and just bounced around having fun.
I chatted with some of the other moms and even though politically we will never agree, we do share other common ideas and I think we are making a good choice in this school. I still don't know if he'll stay there for real school, but I like what they are doing with the little ones a lot.
Today is the BIG DAY though. Today I take him to school, sign him in and leave. I think The Girl and I will go to the library or something afterward and maybe when I pick him up at lunchtime I'll take him out to eat. If I'm lucky he'll be in his mango lassi requesting mood and not his burger and fries mood. Either way, this is the day of one of the first big separations. My son is growing up. I'm happy, sad, and ambivalent all at once.
This too shall pass. You will soon be inundated with "projects" involving buttons, beads, and bits of string. The boy will come home to regale you with tales of life in the big beyond of school, and with any luck he will surreptitiously subvert the progeny of the Kerryites.
We did it. We got a Bush/Cheney yard sign. It actually hasn't made it off the front porch yet, due to a long-winded discussion (who us?) about whether it should be stuck in the tree lawn, hung on the fence or hung on the porch rail, but we have one. I've never actually put a yard sign out before. I had a Bush/Quayle sign in my dorm room that I got when I went to hear Bush the Elder speak in 1992, but I've never put out a sign before where the world at large could see it.
My neighbors with their Kerry signs don't seem to agonize over what people will think of them if they put out a sign. I wonder why I worry so much? Why does putting a political sticker on the back of my car or a political sign in my yard cause me such stress. I want to make my opinions known. I'm not wishy-washy. I've never even understood the concept of the "undecided voter."
And yet here I am, nervous about sticking out a yard sign. What will the neighbors think? "There go the property values -- we have Republicans next door, eeeeeeewwwwww!" Some how I doubt it. Though maybe, since that's sort of my reaction to the opposing side's signs.
But we have the sign. It will be stuck out there somewhere soon. Getting the sign was a hard first step and putting it up for all to see isn't easy either, but it is going up -- eventually.
Interesting. I have about 20 years on you and this is the first year ever that I put a political (or any other type) bumper sticker on my car: W-04. If all of us quiet Bush-backers speak out, will it make a difference?
I,too,have been suffering angst over my "W" bumper sticker. I am concerned about being confronted by frothing liberals in the supermarket parking lot. I am concerned about vandalism. My yard sign has not yet arrived, but I await with trepidation. I have the feeling placing it on my lawn will be about as futile as placing a pumpkin on my porch for Halloween.
I put out my Bush/Cheney yardsign on Saturday. It only took three days for the obnoxious couple next door to put up a Kerry/Edwards sign to rival mine. They don't know that the entire neighborhood despises them for painting their house bright green, purple, teal and navy blue. Their ears must have been burning at Saturday's block party!
Anyway, I am hoping their ugly color scheme turns people against their candidate.
Jordana, I know what you mean. I felt the same way about putting the bumper sticker (oval W'04 one) on the back of my vehicle, especially since Aidan is at a new school this year. "What will people think???" I got over that when I went to the parking lot and saw a few John Kerry stickers. Obviously, they weren't worried, so why should I be?
Unfortunately, we live in one of those fascist HOA controlled zones and lawn signs are verboten. I am hosting a "Party for the President" on 9/2 - the last evening of the RNC convention. I will have a lawn sign out for that evening (with balloons!) if only to highlight my house. Today I'm biting the bullet and putting up flyers on our collective mailboxes to invite neighborhood folks to the party.
PLease tell me.Where did you find a yard sign? I have a house in La and one in Ms and cannot find ANYWHERE !!
Lots of Kerry signs,though !
Please help the cause . Both of my houses are in stratigical areas with lots of visibility !
Thanks,
Madeleine Nunez
rnunez2005@yahoo.com
posted by madeleine at September 13, 2004 10:32 AM
I stumbled onto this site and couldn't believe my eyes. What are all of you afaid of? I live in a heavily Democrap area and I had my sign out in April 04. Remember the only thing Necessary for evil to flourish is for good men and women to DO Nothing! Hope this helps. Remember what is at stake... the terrorists don't want to talk, they want us exterminated!!
I live in the liberal city of Minneapolis. I've never put a bumper sticker on my car, but I got so sick of seeing Kerry stickers everywhere that I put on a W-04 sticker about a month ago. Since then my car has been vandalized twice. The first was on the night of Bush's speech at the convention. I left my car in a parking lot that was close to a bunch of Kerry sign holders that were at an intersection. The first was just a hit and run dent to my trunk. I returned home yesterday to find my windshield smashed and stratches all over my car and a dent in my roof. Of course it could just be a coincidence, but the fact that it didn't happen in the first five years I've owned my car, and both incidents have occured since I put the bumpersticker on got me thinking...
I found your site trying to find yard signs and had to stop and laugh because that is exactly what I had been thinking. We have only lived in our house 4 weeks and it's in a brand new neighborhood so we're wanting to get to know our neighbors blah, blah, blah and I thought that maybe that would alienate them. Anyway, we put it up and it has since "fallen" down each night. Hence my search for more yard signs, 50 ought to do!!
Kroger semi-sweet chocolate chips are not as tasty as Harris Teeter ones. I don't know what the difference is, but the latter is a whole lot better than the former.
You mean everyone doesn't keep a bag of chocolate chips around to eat by the handful? Never mind.
Ooooo! I'm glad someone else confesses this "addiction" (as my non-sweet-eating husband would call it). Sometimes, when the mood strikes me, I get a spoonful of peanut butter and glob choclate chips to it. Yummy!!
The best I've found are Guittard (even better than Ghiardelli) but for some reason the benighted stores around here only ever think to order them around the Christmas season.
Don't they know chocolate chips know no season?
One way I've been known to use them is to melt them onto a graham cracker for something kind of like a S'more.
As I've been thinking about The Boy heading off to school, I've been trying to look on the bright side. It occurred to me, for instance, that I can now run almost all my errands with just one child in tow (that is until around November). Unfortunately, that happy thought was quickly followed by the realization that I'll still be running all the errands with the child who makes running errands difficult.
The Girl is a regular Houdini and has been extracting herself from every strap and buckle (except fortunately her carseat) since she was six months old. We regularly have spent meals with her standing in the high chair, because at least she was eating and not climbing onto the table (which of course she also does on a regular basis during meals). She twists her way out of the five-point stroller harness and shopping carts can't hold her -- she frequently will tire of Mommy's shopping games, distractions and snacks, stand up in the moving cart and make a flying leap at me. At least, I know her tricks and know to watch her. If anyone else took her shopping, I fear she'd be taking a flying leap at the floor.
So as you can see, shopping will probably not get any easier just because I only have one kid in tow. In fact, when the baby is born, I think I may just decide not to leave the house unless all the children can stay behind or I can bring adult back-up along with me.
The Boy really starts preschool tomorrow, but today we have a couple hours where we can take him to meet his teachers again, meet his classmates (and we can meet their parents) and we can drop off forms and all the spare clothing he needs.
I've mentioned before on other iterations of Curmudgeonry that school has never been on the radar for me. I've planned to homeschool and have been thinking and preparing for that. But a certain little boy had his heart set on a real school (even now he's not sure this qualifies because they don't have a school bus) and I began to realize that with my high maintenance daughter and another baby coming along, this might be the time to consider getting one of them out of the house.
Even I'm excited about his schooling, although I can't quite imagine days without him around me. He'll be playing, doing crafts, and other simple things. He's thrilled that they'll be doing some sewing and woodworking, and I'm pretty sure he's going to love it. He's asked me a million times about all that he'll learn in school.
And so, the clothes are gathered together, we're ready to go to the school and tomorrow my big, little, teeny-tiny, baby boy will be going off to school. Separation is coming hard for one of us, but I'll be ok.
When my boys went to school, I was shocked or perhaps dismayed that I did not know everything about their day. They were having experiences without me! I knew this intellectually, but my heart wasn't ready for it. This is offset by the joy of seeing them learn and grow. Just don't blink your eyes or he'll be heading off to high school.
I won't say it's not hard, especially the idea Miss Earth Girl brings up--how dare OTHER people get to see him do all those wonderful things before you!--but we have always made time to get the full debriefing of the day's activities over supper. What they did, what they had for lunch, who got in trouble with the teacher. And we have always tried to stay in touch with the teachers just to catch any other bits of fun that we might miss.
It's not quite like being there, but sometimes with what all goes on, it's sometimes better if events have time to age a bit, and for the humor to emerge. Sorta like standing up in the high chair--at the time it's frustrating, but you will look back on that recollection fondly when you see her standing up on the hood of speeding car. ;)
For some reason, I thought there was something about chocolate chip cookies in that first paragraph. And I JUST ate my lunch. Sigh. Wonder where I can score some chchcs...
Sounds like your daughter is ready to follow in the footsteps of Evel Kneivel (hope not!). Those daredevil kids can increase gray hair growth for their parents.
I'll be praying for strength for you. It's great to see your son excited about school, yet it's so difficult to let him go.
Oh boy, you're speakin' my language! My 4 yo daughter started preschool on Monday. Every question I asked her was answered with "I don't know.". Ugh!! Except I found out she played in the sandbox during "outside time". I could've figured that out from all the sand that fell out of her shoes, but I'm sure that's another story!
We've started having "share time" right when she comes home. I fix her a little snack (like carrots or raisins or something like that) and we gab. I'm still getting "I don't know"s, but hopefully, she will remember and want to share soon!
Best wishes for a great school year.
PS-My daughter keeps asking me about why the school bus doesn't pick her up. I guess she had the same opinions about the bus as your son. Funny what 4 yos think about!
The Grouchy Old Yorkie Lady has written a superb piece on honor, character and why it matters.
Four months of service doesn’t make him qualified for anything, although the lessons learned in that four months might speak to the man he has become. But Kerry doesn’t speak in terms of lessons learned, or anything at all that reflects a shred of humility. He speaks like that kid we all knew in school who could only talk about himself, who – we suspected – made up stories so he’d sound more important, so that he would be the center of attention.
Brief point of clarification: Kerry was in the service for much longer than four months. That was just the length of his time as a swift boat captain. I think his full term of service was either two or three years, and he served time in Vietnam beyond his stint on the swift boat.
It has only been a month or so, and we hate to rush into anything, but the cardboard over the broken pane on our back door is looking a little ragged. After getting prices from almost every door and window place in town and realizing we really did not want to take out a loan for a door nor spend everything we have in savings for one, we decided against all the ones that had everything we wanted.
The carpenter we've used before came over yesterday, gave us an estimate right within the expected range and told us that should his other project end on time, he could get to us this week. We went out an bought this door today. With certainty, we are not getting a wonderful door, but after all the looking and worrying, getting a fairly inexpensive door was the first option Justin and I both felt at peace with.
We don't want to spend oodles of money on that kind of thing and we don't have oodles to spend even if we wanted to. Going into debt for a door seemed insane to us. I'm really pleased with this route and I can't wait to have a non-rotting, non-cardboard covered backdoor. And in the end, that's really the main thing I care about.
I'm surprised you've made it this long- our cats would have torn down the cardboard the first day and they'd be out terrorizing and maiming the small creatures of the neighborhood on a regular basis. Of course, you have a dog and a fenced yard, so it's not quite so much of a problem- do you have a doggie door?
If we had a dog door, The Girl would have escaped a long time ago. The cardboard is in bad shape, but generous applications of tape have held it in place. The dog is not a scratcher anyway -- he's a jumper and he usually hits the door much higher. It was just a very unlucky blow that took out this pane.
I like comic books -- if you count Disney comics, Tintin and Asterix as comic books. If you are one who considers only superhero comics to pass muster, then I'm left out in the cold. I've never gotten into any of them, and my husband isn't really all that big a fan either, although he's read a lot more than I have and likes them more than I do. Still he wanted to watch the X-Men movies, and so I put my name on the library's hold list and waited for them to eventually get to me.
As with many movies we check out that hold no interest for me, I planned to just go to sleep while these were playing. Unfortunately for my intended night of rest, they turned out to be really engaging, fun films that I could enjoy watching even though I'd never read an X-Men comic in my life. It didn't hurt, of course, that Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) is quite easy on the eyes, but goofy as movies of this genre can be, I really liked these.
As I've heard everyone say, the second movie is a little better than the first -- more plot and action, but the first isn't a bad flick. I didn't feel like I'd wasted hours of my life watching either of them. And really any movie with Captain Picard and Gandalf in it can't be that bad.
I'm looking forward to X-Men 3 and maybe I'll even get around to seeing it in a more timely fashion. Who knows -- I might even consider going to see it in the theater!
Gandalf (Ian McKellen?) is also in my favorite all-time movie: _The Scarlet Pimpernel_. He plays an evil revolutionary/ Robespierre toady. Of course, the dashing Anthony Andrews makes for some pleasant scenery, and Jane Seymour is very good in it too. Which reminds me of Battlestar Galactica. Again!
Wow, who woulda thunk that you'd be a closet X-Men fan (well, no longer in the closet anymore)? I think the appeal for them is that we all have special talents and feel like we don't fit into this world, so we can identify with the mutants. Plus the special effects are pretty cool too.
Have you seen the Spiderman movies, and if not does the X-Men experience increase your curiousity for seeing them?
Marc, I have not seen the Spiderman movies. Justin has seen the first and plans to see the second eventually. He's already informed me that if I liked these I'll probably like Spidey too. Spiderman is the one superhero comic I tried to get into, but always failed, so it would be interesting to see if I liked the movies.
I slept through The Incredible Hulk, it did nothing for me.
Both Spiderman movies are better than both X-Men movies, in my opinion, although both X-Men movies are good. I think the Spiderman movies are the best comic book adaptations to have ever been made (the second is the superior of the two). I have high hopes for the upcoming Batman, though.
The Hulk was interesting only to a comic book reader (which I was in a former life).
My son has become a worrier. He is the oldest child and feels a large amount of responsibility just about everything. He's also one to ponder all sorts of situations and I never know what kind of question will come out of him next.
Recently though, he's become obsessed with "safe jobs". No longer does he want to be a fireman, policeman or soldier when he grows up. He found out that they sometimes die and he wants no part of that. So we'll be driving along and I'll hear, "How could you die if you were a lawyer/store clerk/vet/carpenter/etc. ?"
Every time, I want to cuddle him up and remind him that his time to worry about such things is far away. While something could happen at any time, worrying about it at the tender age of four doesn't help and I try to remind him that his current job is to figure out what he loves to do and that some how from that he'll probably be able to figure out what he wants to do -- in about 18 years.
Still he worries, considers and discards new professions daily, and I do wonder if he needs to consider a job as an actuary. That way he'd get the answers to compare the mortality rates of everything else -- plus I somehow doubt the mortality rate of actuaries is all that high.
is your son picture book age? kevin henke has a sweet book about worry - i believe it is called "wemberly worried". i was a worrier as a child, and i saw myself when i read this one.
Being "retired" from a reinsurance company, for years I was surrounded by actuaries. I even called on actuaries during my stint as a salesperson. They are a different breed, but the best are smart, funny and interesting. I suppose that is true of most professionals.
Jordana, I wish my one son would think a little more about a safe career, as he has decided to join the Armed Services. I am both proud (of his reasons for this decision) and frightened (as a mother).
I work in the same department with actuaries, and the only one who was ever slightly friendly was let go. I'm glad SOMEone has positive experiences with them! Analysts are fun (after all, I am!) and we get to be sarcastic all the time. Now THERE's a goal to shoot for!
Tell your son to join the exciting world of the archivist! Fun with historical documents! Wild & crazy patrons looking for the time of their birth! (true, actually. Thankfully, I don't keep medical records here)
Pay's lousy, but half the time nobody knows I'm here, so it's pretty safe. I suppose a box could fall on you, but...
You know, I went to college to become an actuary. One math degree and 4.5 years later, B-O-R-I-N-G. So I ended up as an accountant at an insurance company. Ugh. DOUBLE BORING!!! I shoulda kept the actuary goal. Calculators are our friends!
I think LittleA commented earlier on actuaries being bored to death. I must agree. So it's not as safe as one might think....
It is almost Fall and almost time to think about planting bulbs for next year. I know I actually already have a lot, but we added a big flower bed in the backyard and I know some of my tulips, at least, will be missing, because a few disappear every year.
So, when I got a catalog in the mail the other day from Brecks with a $20 coupon on the front -- as in if you order less than $20 they charge you nothing, I was definitely pleased. My neighbor gets a lot of her bulbs from them, so I figured it was worth a try.
The hard part was choosing and I would have loved to order just about everything in the catalog, but I did narrow down my selections, though not to under $20. I finally got some pink daffodils (something I'd never seen before), some drumstick allium and some fancy looking tulips . I'm excited for them to get here sometime in September and even more excited to see how they do next Spring.
The next step is going to my next door neighbor's and dividing all the daffodils he said I could have. They'll help fill in the new backyard bed nicely.
My first visit to the new place. Very nice - I like the extra ability to display comments without having to open up the post comments box. I wouldn't worry so much about archives. They're nice to have but blogs are so focused on the current and now (like the internet) that it's rare for others to look them up. If you get in the habit of saving a web page that shows all of your posts for a month, then you'll have them for your own historical (or hysterical) purposes.
My wife got tired of seeing more weeds than she could put up with in one small garden plot in the front yard. Today she dug it all up (I think she'll just let it go to grass) and came up with over 400 bulbs. I don't know what she will do with them all, and it's a shame I can't toss some your way.
Are they any good in soup, or maybe on a skewer for the grill after you marinate them?
Four hundred bulbs! That's most impressive. My favorite weed control is a good ground cover in my flower beds (mostly vinca minor and creeping phlox). I still have some weeds, but that crowds out a lot of them.
I have uncontrollable weed problems too. My question is, if you find a groud cover robust enough to choke out weeds, how do you keep it from choking out the stuff you want? I love my morning glories and my wild sweet peas, but they don't play well with others (though they haven't choked out my weeds, either).
Both the phlox and the vinca are pretty "grow-through-able" which means they don't choke out every weed, but they do take up space and shade the ground making some weeds less inclined to start anything. Plus, if you have a bunch of green stuff already covering the flowerbed, the weeds aren't as noticeable. At least that's what I tell myself, and I like groundcover a lot better than mulch in general.
Vinca is pretty agressive at spreading though, so I only have it beds where I can contain it.
I would love to plant bulbs in my space but I have no idea how to go about it. My mom should be here in September, maybe she can help? I am sadly remiss in the plants department despite growing up the daughter of an avid and skilled gardener. Two, in fact, although my dad is into veggies and my mom flowers. Oh, well. :) Perhaps a little of it came through?
Bulbs, especially daffodils and allium (and other relatives of the onion) that critters don't like to eat, are the easiest gardening you can do. You stick them in the ground in the fall, preferably with a little bonemeal or bulb booster, though they usually do fine without, and wait for them to show up in the Spring. Then as long as you don't cut off the greenry after the flowers die, most of them will be back for a long, long time.
I sometimes wish I could garden exclusively with bulbs.
Why? Probably has something to do with the 7+ years we lived on bulb farms - growing daffodils.
FYI, when you cut them to display, be careful not to get the juice from the stem on your bare hands/arms. Some folks are allergic and it causes them to break out in a rash somewhat similar to poison oak or ivy. I tell ya, the things you learn without really trying...
Oh, and how come I have to keep entering my stuff for comments? It doesn't seem to be creating a cookie.
Must be a MT thing - I have the same problem at Susanna's place.
Oh, that was not a nice thing to do, Jordana. I was trying to control my irrational bulb planting this year but now the order is being prepared! And it's not hard to end up with 400 bulbs (especially daffodils). When I divided an overgrown patch, I was getting about 30 new bulbs for each one I planted. Maybe I should have started a bulb farm instead of a tree farm. The payback would be quicker.
My neighborhood is "in transition" supposedly, but although some houses are pretty crummy, most are nice and getting nicer. In the two years we've lived here, most houses that are renovated have gotten priced beyond what we could afford if we were out house-hunting now.
Our house was remodelled before the current trend started and isn't as fancy or as historically accurate as the houses that are being fixed up now, but we hear quite often from our neighbors that this place used to be a dump. We never knew quite what they meant until one of our neighbors dug up some photos he'd taken before some guys with a lot of guts and a vision for bringing an old house back to life bought this place about 14 years ago for around $13,000.
So here's what the place looked like when it was occupied by a 90-something year old whose family obviously didn't feel like caring for her or her house very well.
And here's what we have now.
We'd love to add more gingerbread and put something other than vinyl siding (there is nothing underneath ours though and from the before picture you can tell it wouldn't be worth having if it were there) on, but what a difference! Even though I know it is "the same" house, it sure has changed. I like to think we've done our part to make it even better and since we plan never to move we'll have a long time to make improvements.
Well, as someone who has been in your house and on your street, I can say that both are lovely. I don't recall thinking that your neighborhood was "in transition". Maybe that was another street over. Your house has very nice details inside, too, and feels larger than it looks from outside. I look forward to visiting again, sometime.
I hope you'll come back up this way soon. Our block of our street is probably the most renovated and our neighborhood is pretty far along in transition upwards, but there are some places that are still pretty far gone. Most of the really bad ones don't look as bad as the before picture of our house though.
We gave in to the siren calls of vinyl siding this year. I was reluctant to hide our 80-yr old clapboard, but we didn't have the money for hardiplank or for taking off the clapboards and insulating underneath, since we're not at all handy. Nor did we have the money to heat the house the way we have been.
And practicality stomps on aesthetics once again. :(
Your home is fabulous! Thanks so much for sharing I live off Granny White about 10 minutes from you. Whenever I drive by your neighborhood I think of you and your precious family and your wonderful blog. Can't remember how I found you, but I'm glad I did. Hope you will always have time to blog! May God bless you, Betsy
posted by Betsy DeJean at August 23, 2004 09:54 AM
Thank you, Betsy. I didn't know I had any Nashville readers. :)
Wow! That's some difference! I have always loved these little Victorian cottages -- but based on the few photos you've posted of the interior, I'd have to guess that it is bigger than it looks?
The "before" picture is sad -- and sadder still to think of the 90 year old woman living inside who had no one who loved her enough to make a nice home for her. :- ( How terrific that you've had a hand in reclaiming the house!!
The roof was raised some to put two small bedrooms and a bathroom in what was the old attic space, but it isn't a large house. We have about 1850 square feet, which is still too much for me to keep clean most of the time.
The foundation was built in 1920. Most of the rest of it is really only about 14 years old or less. I love having an "old house" without the worries of lead paint, knob and tube wiring, ancient plumbing and no a/c. Pretty much we get to have our cake and eat it too -- and we didn't have to live through the remodel.
My archives aren't here yet, but I'll move them eventually. Until then, I feel like I have a virgin blog -- although Curmudgeonry has been around for two-and-a-half years now.
Like many blogs, Curmudgeonry began on Blogspot, although my husband began using the name for a column he wrote in a college journal. Then after a little over a year on Blogspot, I was offered a chance to move to MT, which was wonderful until I came home from a Fourth of July vacation this summer to find I had no blog left. The fellow who had been hosting my blog and several others had summarily pulled the plug, giving no one a chance to save archives, templates or anything else.
I considered just stopping entirely and doing something else with my time, but I found reading other people's blogs wasn't enough. My fingers were still itching to type out my own thoughts, however insignificant. So, I moved back to Blogspot and saved all the Google cache that I could find from my MT archives.
A very kind, although she probably wouldn't like being known as such, blogger suggested Curmudgeonry for inclusion in the Mu.Nu ranks and many template errors and other snafus later, here I am. I just don't want to have to move this thing again -- okay?
I want to redesign my blog sometime, and I must say that yours is one of the ones that I most admire, stylistically (and other ways too, but I'm talking about design here). It's very simple, and feminine without being froufrou. I love the flowers, and the typeface of your blogname. It would be in my top 10 most appealing blog designs, if I were to make such a list. Mine is more than a little clunky, but still beyond my skills to improve materially. Maybe if I get this part-time research job I'm up for, I too can find my way to a lovely blog design... (that means, then I can pay for it because it surely isn't going to come about out of my HTML skills!).
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Jordana Adams, Chief Pontificator