The Garden Plot

So, I mentioned before, that I am trying to start us in a garden club in the neighborhood.  Well, they let us in!!  Wooo hoo!!  We are plot #94 of the North Park Village Garden Club.  

The plot is about 10 feet wide by about 20 feet long.  It is completely covered in weeds and lemon balm.  My neighbor has been a member of the NPVGC for 30 some odd years and the plot I am on used to be her son's.  

The last couple of Saturdays I have spent a couple of hours trying to get the plot in order.  Since we are at the end of the growing season, we're basically just doing getting the paths on either side of the plot in good order and clearing the weeds.  I am probably going to put some weed paper down, which will help keep the weeds from taking it back.  But, it's not terrible to spend all day pulling weeds when they smell like lemon balm.  

I have been doing some reading on the matter, and think I might go with the square foot garden method.  I am real tempted to put in some strawberry beds though.  I don't have to give the plot up every year.  If I want this plot next year, I can have it.  I would love to just have some strawberries.  But It would be 2 years before they start producing.  No one else seems to have strawberries, so maybe that is because they don't grow well in our area.  I don't know.  Maybe I should just stick to carrots and garlic?

And, I am not saying this is going to happen.  I am just saying.  That, if they don't watch themselves, I going to get all up in there and figure out how to have chickens or bees.  Just sayin.  

Pumpkin Daze

Dave found "Pumpkin Daze" on the interwebz.  It is basically want I want to do with my post academic life: a working christmas tree farm that also has attractions.

They have a pedal race car track, slides, tire towers, zip lines, petting zoo, and those giant jumping pillows.

During the fall (maybe just October), they have pumpkins and a craft beer tent.  This is basically my jam.

Nico had a blast, per usual.

The farm is maybe an hour and change from our house (out near Aurora).


Dave and I decided that it is just about as far as one would want to be from Chicago (if one were set on staying in the Chicago area).

Other than that, not much else is going on.  I am teaching this quarter- so Thursdays are kind of a mess (those are the days that I teach).  Dave is starting work for State Net.  That plus the fact that he is still writing for Hero Sports and occasionally Modern Health Care, means that we don't have much free time these days.  And I think it is kind of bullshit to spend the little time you have that is not committed to work or transit to cleaning the house.  Last week, Nico and I spent a couple of hours straightening the living room, dining room, and kitchen and it is basically a mess again. Which just proves the point: housework is bullshit.  I am really regretting subscribing to all those magazines I got with my frequent flyer points.  Every week- it seems like I get 3-4, which wouldnt be so bad, except I usually didnt have time to read last week's magazines.  Luckily, I am starting to get those "Your subscription is about to expire" notices in the mail.  Thankfully!!

 Last week we scooped up one of Nico's good little friends (that lives in our neighborhood) and played at the park for a while.  We discovered a new part of the park, which is basically just a bunch of junk that people have thrown into the words.  But it is cool because there are lots of structures the kids can play on.  So- it was a lot of fun.  Afterwards, the kid's Dad took us over to the North Park Village Garden Club- which I wasn't aware was a thing.  Apparently it is.  You can join the club and get a garden plot.  It's not huge, but its a good size.  It is a lot bigger than the sliver of backyard I have that gets decent sub exposure during the spring and summer.  Seriously, I am not joking, the sliver is about 20 feet long and about 2 feet wide.

Hopefully they will let us into the club.  I hope they do... because I have already requested seed catalogues and it would just be awkward if the garden club was like, "Plot's taken" and "You can't garden here."

Plants and the Cubs!

Last night, when I got home, I got the chance to put my herbs into plants and hang them.  Plus, I started some tomatoes.  Don't they look cute?

Also, Dave's boss is coming to town in June, and we want to take him and his daughter to a Cubs game.  So I bought tickets.  It's going to be fun!! Of course, I am a bit spoiled.  The first game I ever went to at Wrigley, we were in the 12th row of box seats.  So, I am a bit spoiled.  

Green Thumbs Unite!!

Not much going on here.  Last night I went to an event that was hosted by the DePaul Social Science Research Center.  One of the organizations that we work with was having a launch party, and my boss was supposed to speak.  So, I went.  It was ok.  I am looking forward to doing cool stuff like that.  Last month, DePaul hosted Sister Prejean and Tim Robbins (Sister Prejean was the sister the story of Dead Man Walking was based on).  Why Tim Robbins, I dont know, except that he might be a Death Penalty Advocate.  Other things that are awesome about Chicago: The Counting Crows and the Wallflowers are playing Chicago.  Together.  (Counting Crows being one of my favorite bands).  And other such cool things. I am pretty sure Springsteen plays Chicago whenever he's one tour.  And Jimmy Buffet.  So that will definitely be cool... getting at least have the opportunity to see great acts.

This week, I went to Home Depot to get the garden started.  There are three not so great things about our house:
1.  The kitchen. Its small.  And not impressive.  But all electrical outlets work.  And I havent blown a fuse yet... so that's cool.
2.  In the summer, there are rats in the alley (we have an alley that runs behind our house- where the garbage cans are).  WHAT. THE. ACTUAL.F? Seriously?  Supposedly, its because we live so close to a park (I dont know what that correlation is).  I was talking to a neighbor when she told me about it.  My thought is that there are clearly not enough predatory snakes in our neighborhood.  Cuz you know, Florida snakes don't get down like that.  I am considering what it would take to have an outdoor cat... could we get an outdoor cat to handle that?  Build her a little house or something?
3.  The yard is tiny.  And gets a lot of shade.

So, in terms of the yard situation, I think I might try to funnel most of the gardening efforts into container gardening- which is great, since we have so many containers.  So, I headed to Home Depot, where I spent the better part of an hour wandering around the garden section.  Guess what else they have in Chicago?  Seasons.  Like, where you can grow things besides cotton, peppers, and tomatoes.

Look what I found:

Based on what was on sale at Home Depot, this is very popular: large bowls of color annuals.  I guess, since so many people have decks, terraces, and balconies instead of yards.  I really wanted it- but I could not justify the $90 for it.

So I settled on some containers for herbs that can hang on the steps going out to the back porch.  And some peat pots for mai seeds.  When Nico gets up here, we are going to have to hit the ground running getting some seeds going.

Easter!!

So Easter was really fun!!  I would say probably the funnest yet.

Saturday morning, I went to train Shelby in Woodville and Dave and Nico went to the gym.  They managed a swim after and it became apparent that we are going to need to get Nico into swimming lessons this summer.  He is like a fish!!  When they got home, I helped get Nico down for a nap before heading back down to the county to shoot pictures of one of our seniors (Kristine).  Will post some later today.

Saturday night when we got back, we went out to dinner, which was really good, even if Nico did chuck my $400 dollar phone across the resturant.  Luckily, no one was hurt (neither was my phone, why?  Because I keep it in a case).  When we got home, dyed eggs. I didnt make the mistake last year of having a bunch of hard boiled eggs (because in the end, I usually end up having to eat them all by myself).  So we had 10 eggs this year and dyed them.

The Easter Bunny came and hid the eggs all around the house.  Nico is getting pretty clever, he found most of them.  Nico and I have been working in the garden a lot lately, and almost every day results in Nico's shoes and socks ending up wet and muddy.  Dave mentioned it the other day and so the Easter Bunny brought Nico a pair of work boots (with which to work in the garden). Along with a kid-sized rake and shovel.


Yes, that is my son out in the yard raking in boots, a soccer jersey, garden gloves and no pants.  That is just how we roll!!

The EB also brought me some cheater fabric (to make into a dress that I might just wear to a wedding next month) and some beads.  He brought Dave some shorts and other stuff.  We hung out at the house doing chores on Sunday till the Easter Egg hunt at Myers Park.  Apparently, it is quite the to-do because two of Dave's coworkers cautioned him about taking Nico up there.  Myers Park is about equidistant from our house and downtown and is the closest park for several neighborhoods of questionable quality on the southside.  While it wasn't too bad for the little kids (aged 1-2), I can see how easily it could become a cross between Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome and Lord of the Flies for bigger kids.

We saw several of Nico's classmates, which was great.  In the end, he got several eggs and managed to not throw a rock on anyone and didnt hurt any babies on accidentally.  I got some really adorable pictures of him during the egg hunt- which I will post later tonight.  We walked home and en route, Nico fell asleep on my shoulders.  We napped for a bit when we got home and then went to get groceries.  It was a really great weekend!!

Over in the garden...

We had a really fun weekend!

I went to school to do some work on Saturday.  Nico and Dave hung around the house and the neighborhood.  They went up to the park to check out our Nieghborhood's yard sale (because that is what hippies do in this neighborhood).  I came home in time to put Nico down for a nap.  Then spent the rest of the afternoon watching the Deadliest Catch and cleaning (sadly, the house is still a mess). 

When Nico woke up from his nap, Dave took him over to Joe F's house, where there was a bit of a get-together.  I headed to Lowes to get some gardening stuff.  I ended up having to sell my David Sedaris tickets because our back up baby sitter ended up flaking out on us (I hate it when that happens).  I used the proceeds to buy some gardening stuff... going to put a raised bed in the back yard.  I bought a couple of strawberry plants... and should probably note I have no idea what I am doing. 

Sunday Nico and I rode part of the bike trail.  We drove down to St. Marks and parked there and rode up part of the trail and rode home.  I had hoped to do five miles up and five back, but Nico only had two up and two back in him.  On a completely awesome note, he knows what a helmet is.  I have no idea how he knows this, but he does.  We grabbed some lunch at the Riverside.  He had a grilled cheese sandwich he insisted on pulling apart and eating like it was cheese toast (maybe this is the doing of the school he goes to?)

We drive home and had a nap (both of us- it was glorious).  Then Dave went to play soccer and I worked in the back yard with Nico (after our Sunday frozen yogurt).  Nico was very helpful.  Can't wait till our watermellons and sunflowers come in!!  Whoo hoo!!

Hope your weekend was great too!

LeBron

I just dont know where the time goes.  Seriously.  Really, another morning?  So quickly?  What is with the fact that it is already Wednesday? Crazy!!

I have a(nother) job interview with DOH today.  I had one a couple of weeks ago and was told that they would be contacting the interviewees this week.  The interview today is actually pretty funny... I had to take an excel test for it.  Now, mind you, I have been using Excel pretty regularly for 8 years now.  I have learned some pretty sweet tricks...I felt like I could take Excel off some sweet jumps.  On the PeopleFirst website, I was asked how I would rate my knowledge of and ability to use Excel.  I was like, "I basically wrote the book on Excel."  So I go into this Excel test with my swagger... and got pimp slapped to the floor.  I basically got pwnd by the test.

This is how I thought the test would go:


This is actually how it went:

(note:  I am NOT Lebron).

I guess, I am not as good at Excel as I thought I was.  But apparently, I aced the other part of a test (proof reading a letter).  In any case, they wanted to bring me in for an interview, despite getting pwnd by Excel. So, we will see how that goes.  I hope they dont ask me how good I am at rating my ability to perform simple tasks [FAIL].

So that is that.  Not much else new to report.  Nico and I started some seeds last week.  And by Nico and I, I mean, I started some seeds last week.  Nico just sat in his high chair and poured water from his sippy cup everywhere.  We started tomato seeds, hot peppers, sweet peppers, basil and sunflowers.  The sunflowers and basil seem to be doing well.... the tomatoes and peppers are acting like they are too good to germinate.

Nico's room in the new place has these two huge windows that look out over the back and side yards... the plan is to plant the sunflowers there, so they will grow up and he can see them.  Yes, those are little pots made with newspaper.... why yes in deed, that is very environmentally friendly!!

This was mostly done because I realized that we have a very weird problem.... the compost bin.  Yeah.  We obviously want to take it with us... but I am not sure its cool to leave behind a pile of half-decomposed food. I dont know.  So I "harvested" some of the compost to mix with potting soil for the plants.  But seriously, how can I speed up the composting process?  Any suggestions?

Nico at practice: