Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Milestone: Mimi's First Wipeout



I was at a neighbor friend's house doing laundry yesterday (our washer broke,) whilst cleaning up her house to thank her. I was taking the compost out in the back yard, and Amelia found a very flimsy chair to climb on. She fell pretty badly, and beyond scraping her nose and nostrils, she has a big bump on her head, a cut inside her mouth and two skinned knees. She actually handled it pretty well. She thinks her scabs are funny when she looks in the mirror, but whenever I mention going back to my friend's house, she goes through a verbal inventory of what happened. It could have been so much worse, and I am frankly surprised she lasted this long! Surely more to come, but I still feel bad for her.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

I just put my other blog to bed for a while, as I would rather just work on one, and would like to do more posting about my garden and other sustainability projects right here anyway.

On that note, we are finally enjoying some of the fruits of our labor!  I had a lot of fun the other night pulling up our potato bed.  Digging deep and sifting through the dirt was so addictive that I stayed out till almost 10 p.m, and got completely filthy.  I could have let them go a little longer, but I was ready to use the bed for something else.


From a very small patch and with very minimal dirt mounding, this was our harvest.



I used the grape-sized potatoes in a nicoise-esque salad, along with our first cucumber, the last of our french green beans and plenty of home- grown salad mixed with fresh herbs.  Very satisfying, in many ways!

I've been a bit disappointed with some of the results from other plantings-- it seems like I should be getting quite a bit more produce!  Oh, well.  We'll learn which plants will grow and produce well for us as we go.

Monday, July 21, 2008

As if I Needed Help Embarrassing Myself...

I think I can safely say that I have more Most Embarrassing Moments than the average person. Partly because I waitressed for four years, with lots of potential for spilling wine on people or flipping trays over completely to shower my guests with salad (unfortunately already dressed.) There was also that time when I was doing marketing for our PT clinic, and had arranged lunch with a prestigious doctor in a swanky Newport Beach office. I had brought fajitas, and we were all sitting around eating and the owner of our clinic was chatting up the MD, when I somehow managed to flip my styrofoam plate into the air, flinging peppers and sauce all over the room, including all over the doctor himself! The worst part is that no one burst out laughing-- it was all very serious and quite the inconvenience. Or how about working in a hospital and casually referring to conjoined twins as "Siamese twins." Nice! I still blush and curse my 3rd world upbringing when I think of that one! Oh, there's more, so much more, but you'll have to ask me yourself.

Anyway, having a child pretty much triples the opportunities for public humiliation. Amelia had her two year old checkup with her pediatrician, Dr. Ed, last week. I really like this doctor, he is a naturopath and is very holistic in his approach. He is really into parenting techniques, and while I appreciate this and have valued his input, I feel rather self-conscious whenever I'm in his office, being observed so closely. Amelia also seems to reserve her clingiest, whiniest behavior for this very occasion, so that doesn't help. We're going through potty training right now, and Amelia is doing very well. She's really good about telling us when she needs to go, but she literally says she needs to go about 20 times a day. I suspect that it's out of boredom sometimes, but she can usually eke something out.

When we got to the office, I took her to the bathroom so that she would be ready for 30 minutes of continence when the time came. While we were with the doctor, she was asking to go potty again, but I asked her to wait a couple of times, since we were deep in conversation about her peculiarities. So she pooped her pants. We stepped out to address the matter, and I discovered that I didn't have any more diapers... Or wipes. I did my best, dumping the poop in the toilet and wiping her and her diaper with TP, thankful that it wasn't as bad as it could have been, texture-wise, and thinking that the visit would be over soon and I could search the car for another diaper. When we got back to the exam room, much to my dismay, Dr. Ed asked me to take off her clothes, INCLUDING her diaper, so she could be weighed! I casually asked if I could borrow some wipes, since it seemed that I had forgotten mine, and tried to take her diaper off as discreetly as possible, praying that he would go look at a chart or something and miss the poop streaks on her diaper. No such luck. But he didn't say anything, so I just died inside quietly. I'm sure there's plenty more of this to come, so I continue my practice of shrugging off these little mortifications.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Ebay Travels

We had been wanting to switch out our living room's old home depot-esque lighting fixtures since we moved in, but weren't quite sure what we wanted. I went to look for some Moroccan tea glasses on ebay a while back, and was completely taken by the lanterns being sold there. We snatched a couple up for a bargain, and have been loving the new ambience.




Tuesday, July 08, 2008

The Official Daily Summertime Ritual




Afternoon homemade popsicles, always eaten on the back steps. Today's were watermelon and mint-- the fate of a mushy melon. And there's always the welcome frozen-lipped kiss.

Friday, July 04, 2008

It's Kind of Like "Stone Soup," but Prettier!

Yesterday I realized I needed to make something for dinner, but our larder was literally just about empty.
What we did have: six eggs, cream, onions, a big yam, and a fledgling garden out back.
What we ate: a tasty omelet made with sauteed onions and broccoli greens, sweet potato fries, and a great salad with baby greens, fresh herbs and nasturtiums, dressed with the juice from a jar of marinated artichoke hearts.
The verdict: De-licious! I love these cooking challenges, it's always a pleasant surprise to see how well you can eat with little to nothing.