Back on 1 June, I started writing an entry about how the garden was doing but got distracted and never finished it. Back then, we were at what we would soon learn was the tail-end of our long, cold spring. Now, we are a good week into summer with temperatures in the high 80°Fs to high 90°Fs.
A few blueberries and raspberries seem to be setting on the plants, but the power grower this year has been the strawberries. There were a few in the front bed when we moved here, and we've added a few that we picked up at the USDA BARC Field Day over the years. This year, they're all cropping pretty heavily.
This afternoon, Evelin and Celeste were outside picking berries (well, Evelin was picking and Celeste was watching) and Celeste was adamant that she needed a strawberry. They weren't on her food list, but Evelin couldn't resist the happy, insistent face and Celeste apparently loved them. So, we'll watch for a reaction over the next few days while she pigs out on strawberries.
The peas have been growing nicely and for longer than we originally expected. The cool weather has extended their season, but that means we can't put the tomatoes in that bed yet. The leeks and carrots are showing their tops, and the cucumbers are developing nicely. The garlic will probably be wilting soon, which will mean we can harvest them in a month or so, and the bok choi isn't growing as quickly as advertised (10–14 days to harvest), but it's definitely there.
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
The Third Tooth
During her bath, Celeste decided to gnaw on my hand a little bit. The two very sharp teeth on the bottom jaw I was expecting; the eyetooth that poked the top of my finger, however, was a surprise. We've figured she was cutting a tooth or more for the past few weeks, but it is there, clearly visible and sharp. She may or may not be pushing through the complementary tooth on the other side of her mouth, and there might be the upper incisors coming too (it's hard to really tell), but she definitely needs to spend all that time chewing her toothbrush ...
Other news from the world of Celeste: She is getting close to figuring out this movement thing. She can still breakdance a little bit, but she's finding it easier to roll from back to stomach and back again until whatever she's grabbing for is in reach. She also is pushing herself along the ground on her back to get places.
Today, she moved a good meter and a half on her back, rolling over occasionally to check her direction, to get to her book basket where she tried to pull out Buzz-Buzz, Busy Bees. I had to adjust where it was in the basket, but she eventually pulled it out.
There also is the crib marathon. She was acting sleepy, so I tried to get her to go down for a nap. While I sat in her room reading, she pushed/pulled/rolled herself around the perimeter of the crib twice — we're talking a good 20 minutes of solid movement punctuated by the occasional grin or squeal.
There also was at least one point where it looked like she'd managed to pull her knees into a crawling position. I don't know if she didn't manage to crawl because her head was up against the bars or if she couldn't get her hands into position or her belly was in the way or what ... but it's probably going to be happening sooner than we're ready.
Other news from the world of Celeste: She is getting close to figuring out this movement thing. She can still breakdance a little bit, but she's finding it easier to roll from back to stomach and back again until whatever she's grabbing for is in reach. She also is pushing herself along the ground on her back to get places.
Today, she moved a good meter and a half on her back, rolling over occasionally to check her direction, to get to her book basket where she tried to pull out Buzz-Buzz, Busy Bees. I had to adjust where it was in the basket, but she eventually pulled it out.
There also is the crib marathon. She was acting sleepy, so I tried to get her to go down for a nap. While I sat in her room reading, she pushed/pulled/rolled herself around the perimeter of the crib twice — we're talking a good 20 minutes of solid movement punctuated by the occasional grin or squeal.
There also was at least one point where it looked like she'd managed to pull her knees into a crawling position. I don't know if she didn't manage to crawl because her head was up against the bars or if she couldn't get her hands into position or her belly was in the way or what ... but it's probably going to be happening sooner than we're ready.
Monday, June 06, 2005
Asparagus
I've made many of my own disasters in the kitchen, and some of them have turned out to be decent (albeit not always recreatable), so I was a bit intrigued when I read about Edible Tulip's unintended experiment with asparagus. (Via Too Many Chefs)
I'd picked up some asparagus as the farmers market on Thursday, so with nothing else in the plans for dinner, we gave the non-recipe a go: Set oven to 400°F, oil and salt asparagus, walk away and forget. I left them in for about 20 minutes, and they didn't quite match the visual description Edible Tulip gave of her asparagus, but they were pretty tasty with a crisped skin and a melty inside. I might want to try a little less oil next time, but I think this is one where there is room for a next time.
P³ UPDATE: Evelin recently discovered Freecycle and has managed to get two no-longer-needed humidifiers and some Ikea sheets she hated out of the house. She also put out a notice that if anyone wanted free dirt we had a lot ... and we actually had a taker.
Okay, so the Freecycler who was interested in some dirt didn't show up on Sunday, but Evelin did talk to a neighbor across the street who recently had some trees taken out of his front yard and it turns out he needs some dirt to help fill things in. I took six wheelbarrow loads over there after work (and before the rain hit) and hopefully one of us will see him tomorrow or Wednesday to find out how much more he wants and where he wants it. We have so much dirt to give.
WEATHER: After a very cool spring, we finally turned on the AC on Sunday. The temperature wasn't too bad that morning, but the humidity was up to 94% (and inside the humidity reader was scoring 75%). The timing was pretty good because that afternoon it was in the upper 80°Fs range and today it hit 98°F (albeit a little less humid). I don't know if we're into summer heat from here until October or if this is just an early June heat burst, but the AC is working, which is always a nice thing to discover after it's been off all winter (kind of like finding out that the furnace is working when that first cold snap hits in November or December).
I'd picked up some asparagus as the farmers market on Thursday, so with nothing else in the plans for dinner, we gave the non-recipe a go: Set oven to 400°F, oil and salt asparagus, walk away and forget. I left them in for about 20 minutes, and they didn't quite match the visual description Edible Tulip gave of her asparagus, but they were pretty tasty with a crisped skin and a melty inside. I might want to try a little less oil next time, but I think this is one where there is room for a next time.
Other Stuff
CELESTE: She had a short morning nap and a long afternoon one and went down pretty well after her bath ... and we haven't had a peep out of her in over two hours. Could we have reached a turning point? Or will the thunderstorm wake/disturb her? Or is my blogging this certain to lead to a backsliding? I guess only time will tell.P³ UPDATE: Evelin recently discovered Freecycle and has managed to get two no-longer-needed humidifiers and some Ikea sheets she hated out of the house. She also put out a notice that if anyone wanted free dirt we had a lot ... and we actually had a taker.
Okay, so the Freecycler who was interested in some dirt didn't show up on Sunday, but Evelin did talk to a neighbor across the street who recently had some trees taken out of his front yard and it turns out he needs some dirt to help fill things in. I took six wheelbarrow loads over there after work (and before the rain hit) and hopefully one of us will see him tomorrow or Wednesday to find out how much more he wants and where he wants it. We have so much dirt to give.
WEATHER: After a very cool spring, we finally turned on the AC on Sunday. The temperature wasn't too bad that morning, but the humidity was up to 94% (and inside the humidity reader was scoring 75%). The timing was pretty good because that afternoon it was in the upper 80°Fs range and today it hit 98°F (albeit a little less humid). I don't know if we're into summer heat from here until October or if this is just an early June heat burst, but the AC is working, which is always a nice thing to discover after it's been off all winter (kind of like finding out that the furnace is working when that first cold snap hits in November or December).
Sunday, June 05, 2005
Rest of the Weekend
So, how does one cap a day centered around a trip into the vaults at the Folger Shakespeare Library? Watching the Nats beat the Florida Marlins, of course.
While Evelin, Celeste, and M--- stayed home, my father-in-law and I headed out to RFK to see what seats were available for the game. Not wanting to spend $190 for seats right behind home plate, nor wanting to be up in the upper atmosphere, we opted for some decent seats on the mezzanine level above right field. It was much easier to judge where balls were flying than when S--- and I saw the Nats–Mets game back in April. It started off pretty slow, but the game turned out to be a pretty decent one.
On Sunday, we took a quick trip down to the Mall and the National Museum of American History to view the Whatever Happened to Polio? exhibit and to run through the bookstore there before R--- and M--- needed to head to the airport.
Afterwards, I spent a little time on the P³, shifting four wheelbarrow loads of dirt to a low spot in the upper yard, spreading, tamping, and seeding. As I have been digging, I've had a recurring fantasy of discovering one or more bodies buried in the dirt; the big hope is that a CSI team would then have to come and finish all the digging for me. No such luck, however; all I've found thus far is one old beer can, a few empty cigarette packs, and various other bits of trash/debris.
Today, however, I hit two bags of sand — sealed plastic bags of general-use sand. Maybe they were put there to help stabilize things during the original construction, or maybe they were accidentally buried and the guys decided to just leave them there. Just another instance of what were they thinking ...
The one really crazy thing that went on to today is that Celeste was back in her refuse-to-sleep mode. She woke really nicely at 6:00 a.m. (almost on the dot) and was tired by 8:30 a.m., but she refused to go to sleep, we tried to get her to sleep a few other times during the morning and hoped she'd pass out on the drive down to the Mall ... no such luck. She did nod off on the way home, but as soon as we were home she was up.
Tonight, after her bath, the real drama started; she did fall asleep while nursing, but was wide awake and crying after only 45 minutes. Celeste was almost panicking every time Evelin was out of eyeshot, and, while she would snug down into her blanket, she kept popping her head up to look around, intermixing goos and laughs with tears. Finally, Evelin got her down ... now the dread is how will she be overnight.
While Evelin, Celeste, and M--- stayed home, my father-in-law and I headed out to RFK to see what seats were available for the game. Not wanting to spend $190 for seats right behind home plate, nor wanting to be up in the upper atmosphere, we opted for some decent seats on the mezzanine level above right field. It was much easier to judge where balls were flying than when S--- and I saw the Nats–Mets game back in April. It started off pretty slow, but the game turned out to be a pretty decent one.
On Sunday, we took a quick trip down to the Mall and the National Museum of American History to view the Whatever Happened to Polio? exhibit and to run through the bookstore there before R--- and M--- needed to head to the airport.
Afterwards, I spent a little time on the P³, shifting four wheelbarrow loads of dirt to a low spot in the upper yard, spreading, tamping, and seeding. As I have been digging, I've had a recurring fantasy of discovering one or more bodies buried in the dirt; the big hope is that a CSI team would then have to come and finish all the digging for me. No such luck, however; all I've found thus far is one old beer can, a few empty cigarette packs, and various other bits of trash/debris.
Today, however, I hit two bags of sand — sealed plastic bags of general-use sand. Maybe they were put there to help stabilize things during the original construction, or maybe they were accidentally buried and the guys decided to just leave them there. Just another instance of what were they thinking ...
The one really crazy thing that went on to today is that Celeste was back in her refuse-to-sleep mode. She woke really nicely at 6:00 a.m. (almost on the dot) and was tired by 8:30 a.m., but she refused to go to sleep, we tried to get her to sleep a few other times during the morning and hoped she'd pass out on the drive down to the Mall ... no such luck. She did nod off on the way home, but as soon as we were home she was up.
Tonight, after her bath, the real drama started; she did fall asleep while nursing, but was wide awake and crying after only 45 minutes. Celeste was almost panicking every time Evelin was out of eyeshot, and, while she would snug down into her blanket, she kept popping her head up to look around, intermixing goos and laughs with tears. Finally, Evelin got her down ... now the dread is how will she be overnight.
Saturday, June 04, 2005
Give the Girl Some Culture
This afternoon, Celeste became the youngest person ever admitted into the vault at the Folger Shakespeare Library ... and, while it looked for a moment like she was going to try to chew on one of the library’s copies of the First Folio, she behaved herself quite well.
A while ago, Evelin's mother won at a charity auction a tour of the library guided by the head librarian, so M--- and R--- flew in this morning and Evelin's sister, M---, drove down last night and we all, Celeste included, went for the tour.
We've seen a few exhibits at the library and one performance, but this tour gave us a look at a lot of the behind-the-scenes spaces and a lot of the art that's spread throughout the facility, including the earliest known sieve portrait of Queen Elizabeth I (painted by Plimpton in 1579).
The coolest part (apart from talking with the librarian about the collection and the library) was the rare book vault. In addition to tons of Shakespeare — including 79 First Folios, about one-third of the copies known to be in existence — we got to see William Caxton's 1477 printing of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, the first quarto of Titus Andronicus, Elizabeth I's personal red velvet-bound copy of the Bishop's Bible, a prayer book inscribed by Anne of Cleves to Henry VIII, and a 17th Century seven-language phrasebook (Flemish, English, German, Latin, French, Spanish and Italian).
Celeste did get a little restless and noisy while we were in the book vault, but otherwise she was very, very well behaved and really paid attention during some parts of the tour.
A while ago, Evelin's mother won at a charity auction a tour of the library guided by the head librarian, so M--- and R--- flew in this morning and Evelin's sister, M---, drove down last night and we all, Celeste included, went for the tour.
We've seen a few exhibits at the library and one performance, but this tour gave us a look at a lot of the behind-the-scenes spaces and a lot of the art that's spread throughout the facility, including the earliest known sieve portrait of Queen Elizabeth I (painted by Plimpton in 1579).
The coolest part (apart from talking with the librarian about the collection and the library) was the rare book vault. In addition to tons of Shakespeare — including 79 First Folios, about one-third of the copies known to be in existence — we got to see William Caxton's 1477 printing of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, the first quarto of Titus Andronicus, Elizabeth I's personal red velvet-bound copy of the Bishop's Bible, a prayer book inscribed by Anne of Cleves to Henry VIII, and a 17th Century seven-language phrasebook (Flemish, English, German, Latin, French, Spanish and Italian).
Celeste did get a little restless and noisy while we were in the book vault, but otherwise she was very, very well behaved and really paid attention during some parts of the tour.
Friday, June 03, 2005
Sleep ... Precious Sleep
So, I may have mentioned before that Celeste doesn't always sleep so well. However, her little bout with a fever combined with a leap have made the past few weeks even worse.
And, on top of that, on Wednesday Evelin shifted her bedroom around — the crib had to be moved because she was able to reach the curtains and, since we dropped the mattress, an electrical outlet was tantalizingly close — which seems to have left her sleep just that extra bit more unsettled.
So, since she's in the midst of all this change, we're also throwing some food changes at her. The basic rule of thumb we just learned is 0–9 months offer milk first then solids; after 9 months go with solids first. Yesterday afternoon, instead of her 3:00 p.m. (or so) bottle, Celeste had some cheese, Purely O's (the organic version of Cheerios), some sweet potato, and some apple ... followed about an hour later by a half bottle of milk.
Overall, that went reasonably well, but, since she didn't nap or anything, she was ready to head to bed well before the normal time. She was bathed and, by 5:40 p.m., I was feeding her an extra-tall bottle of milk, and she was asleep in my arms just a little past 6:00 p.m.
For there, she did pretty well, with some whimpering at the 90 minute mark followed by a full-blown wake up around 9:00 p.m. Evelin gave her a feeding at that point, and then the fun started: Celeste decided she'd only had a nap and was up for the next two hours. She fed again around 1:00 a.m., spent some time in our bed, and rest of the night is kind of uncertain. Evelin thinks there was a wakeup around 3:00 a.m., but neither of us are sure. She woke for the day around 5:30 a.m. Her first nap of the day came before 8:00 a.m.
Right now, she's asleep (with the occasional cry/whimper short wake) and has been for about two hours ... and, of course, as I type this a big cry is starting.... Hopefully it'll even out and the evening will go more smoothly than last.
And, on top of that, on Wednesday Evelin shifted her bedroom around — the crib had to be moved because she was able to reach the curtains and, since we dropped the mattress, an electrical outlet was tantalizingly close — which seems to have left her sleep just that extra bit more unsettled.
So, since she's in the midst of all this change, we're also throwing some food changes at her. The basic rule of thumb we just learned is 0–9 months offer milk first then solids; after 9 months go with solids first. Yesterday afternoon, instead of her 3:00 p.m. (or so) bottle, Celeste had some cheese, Purely O's (the organic version of Cheerios), some sweet potato, and some apple ... followed about an hour later by a half bottle of milk.
Overall, that went reasonably well, but, since she didn't nap or anything, she was ready to head to bed well before the normal time. She was bathed and, by 5:40 p.m., I was feeding her an extra-tall bottle of milk, and she was asleep in my arms just a little past 6:00 p.m.
For there, she did pretty well, with some whimpering at the 90 minute mark followed by a full-blown wake up around 9:00 p.m. Evelin gave her a feeding at that point, and then the fun started: Celeste decided she'd only had a nap and was up for the next two hours. She fed again around 1:00 a.m., spent some time in our bed, and rest of the night is kind of uncertain. Evelin thinks there was a wakeup around 3:00 a.m., but neither of us are sure. She woke for the day around 5:30 a.m. Her first nap of the day came before 8:00 a.m.
Right now, she's asleep (with the occasional cry/whimper short wake) and has been for about two hours ... and, of course, as I type this a big cry is starting.... Hopefully it'll even out and the evening will go more smoothly than last.
Thursday, June 02, 2005
Trainspotting With Celeste
No, we didn't try to score some heroin or anything, but Celeste and I got pretty close to a MARC commuter train as it sped through Riverdale Park this afternoon. As I'm trying to do each Thursday afternoon, Celeste and I took a trip to the farmers market in Riverdale Park, which is held in a parking lot next to the CSX train tracks. Two weeks ago we saw a big freight train pass through. It was loud and we were watching from the parking lot and I'm pretty sure Celeste couldn't quite comprehend what was going past her.
This afternoon, I think the train just scared her. We were closer this time —— on the MARC platform —— and it was a really short three-car train. We'd already bought our strawberries, asparagus, and loaf of bread (it's still early in the season and this market is smaller than our Sunday one in Takoma Park), so we were taking a walk and went on to the platform. I heard a train whistle in the distance, so Celeste and I sat down on a bench and waited. I warned her what was coming, and Celeste was really interested when the crossing gates came down to block off the road.
Suddenly, the train was there. I cupped my hands over her ears, which probably startled her more than the train, and she just pushed back in her stroller and stared as the train whizzed by on the tracks closest to us. After it had passed, the wind generated continued to whip around us for a while and she eventually looked over at me with a "What the hell was that?!" expression.
A little while later, while I was getting her into the carseat to head home, I heard another whistle, so I held her up to see the train pass on the far tracks. Being further away, she wasn't as startled, but it did go by too quickly for her to really figure out what it was.
This afternoon, I think the train just scared her. We were closer this time —— on the MARC platform —— and it was a really short three-car train. We'd already bought our strawberries, asparagus, and loaf of bread (it's still early in the season and this market is smaller than our Sunday one in Takoma Park), so we were taking a walk and went on to the platform. I heard a train whistle in the distance, so Celeste and I sat down on a bench and waited. I warned her what was coming, and Celeste was really interested when the crossing gates came down to block off the road.
Suddenly, the train was there. I cupped my hands over her ears, which probably startled her more than the train, and she just pushed back in her stroller and stared as the train whizzed by on the tracks closest to us. After it had passed, the wind generated continued to whip around us for a while and she eventually looked over at me with a "What the hell was that?!" expression.
A little while later, while I was getting her into the carseat to head home, I heard another whistle, so I held her up to see the train pass on the far tracks. Being further away, she wasn't as startled, but it did go by too quickly for her to really figure out what it was.
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
More About Feeding Celeste
She used to be so clean while eating. Maybe, if she was tired, she'd go to rub her eyes and move the slightest dribble of sweet potatoes from her chin to her cheek. Not any more. I don't know if it's an assertion of independence or just some overtired reactions or if she just really, really doesn't like green beans, but Celeste has gotten quite messy while eating.
Some days, she'll start off okay, and she is pretty good if she really likes the food (or at least I think that's what's happening), but the rest of the time it's hands flailing in front of face, spoon grabbing and flinging, and gobs of food pretty much everywhere if her hands close over the bowl of the spoon before I can move it out of the way.
Evelin thought more finger foods might work for her, so I started off this evening with some bits of brown rice cakes and dices of cheddar cheese. The cheese is a semi-new introduction, but she seemed to go for it. I made sure to buy mild orange cheddar (the cheddars we usually get are white and on the seriously sharp side) so it would be visible against the highchair tray, and she did see it and grab it. The first piece did what the rice cakes were doing — a few bites and then back out onto the bib or into her lap. The second piece of cheese, however, stayed in and got some good chewing. A little dribbled back out, but the rest disappeared.
While she was working on cheese and rice cakes, I defrosted some mango for her. Evelin's been making pseudo mango lassis for her, mixing the puréed mango with some ΦΑΓΕ yoghurt. Since she was already getting a bit of dairy with her meal, I decided to forego the yoghurt and to give her the mango straight. Big hit. She did grab the spoon once (and ended up shoving it too far into her mouth), but she ate all of it without any problems.
I next tried mixing up some potato with a few smushed peas. That did not go nearly as well. Hands were flying, potatoes were flying, peas were flying. It got ugly. They were eventually scrapped in favor of a few Cheerios (which, like the rice cakes, for the most part went into the mouth for a few chews and then popped back out) and a little more cheddar while I loaded the mesh finger feeder bags with some peach slices. Those were received much more graciously; I guess she likes orange fruit.
Earlier in the day (and let me say, she was sooooooo sweet today — playing quietly by herself for a bit, playing nicely with me, big smiles for everybody, traveling well to Whole Foods and back), we harvested a bunch of peas from the garden. (It turns out one of the pea plants is producing snow peas instead of the Sugar Bons the rest of the bed is producing.) Celeste gnawed on a few pods on and off; I think some actually went down, but most of it was just gnawing to generate a lot of drool and scattered bits of peapod.
Some days, she'll start off okay, and she is pretty good if she really likes the food (or at least I think that's what's happening), but the rest of the time it's hands flailing in front of face, spoon grabbing and flinging, and gobs of food pretty much everywhere if her hands close over the bowl of the spoon before I can move it out of the way.
Evelin thought more finger foods might work for her, so I started off this evening with some bits of brown rice cakes and dices of cheddar cheese. The cheese is a semi-new introduction, but she seemed to go for it. I made sure to buy mild orange cheddar (the cheddars we usually get are white and on the seriously sharp side) so it would be visible against the highchair tray, and she did see it and grab it. The first piece did what the rice cakes were doing — a few bites and then back out onto the bib or into her lap. The second piece of cheese, however, stayed in and got some good chewing. A little dribbled back out, but the rest disappeared.
While she was working on cheese and rice cakes, I defrosted some mango for her. Evelin's been making pseudo mango lassis for her, mixing the puréed mango with some ΦΑΓΕ yoghurt. Since she was already getting a bit of dairy with her meal, I decided to forego the yoghurt and to give her the mango straight. Big hit. She did grab the spoon once (and ended up shoving it too far into her mouth), but she ate all of it without any problems.
I next tried mixing up some potato with a few smushed peas. That did not go nearly as well. Hands were flying, potatoes were flying, peas were flying. It got ugly. They were eventually scrapped in favor of a few Cheerios (which, like the rice cakes, for the most part went into the mouth for a few chews and then popped back out) and a little more cheddar while I loaded the mesh finger feeder bags with some peach slices. Those were received much more graciously; I guess she likes orange fruit.
Earlier in the day (and let me say, she was sooooooo sweet today — playing quietly by herself for a bit, playing nicely with me, big smiles for everybody, traveling well to Whole Foods and back), we harvested a bunch of peas from the garden. (It turns out one of the pea plants is producing snow peas instead of the Sugar Bons the rest of the bed is producing.) Celeste gnawed on a few pods on and off; I think some actually went down, but most of it was just gnawing to generate a lot of drool and scattered bits of peapod.
Once, Fish Lived Here
Well, there was a bit of a frustrated freakout when I realized there is no way we'll be able to just spread all that dirt around this weekend, but part of the P³ has reached completion. On Monday, what was once the pond was seeded, watered, and covered with a protective layer of hay.
As for the rest of the project (do I officially change the name from P³ to P² or should I call it P³-P?), I removed a few more timbers, found a subterranean course of timbers, got quite frustrated, and then did a lot of talking with Evelin and we think we have an idea for the size/shape of what will eventually be built.
Now, like a bit of topiary, I think I will try to carve away the dirt that doesn't fit that eventual structure and see what happens. There is a low part of the upper garden that will be able to take some of the dirt. The rest maybe will be shifted into part of the area recently uncovered but that will be below the structure yet to be designed.
Is it obvious I'm winging this?
Sunday, May 29, 2005
A Short Hike
Despite being stuck in a lot of traffic thanks to Rolling Thunder, Evelin, Celeste, and I took our first real hike as a family. Sure it was only a mile or so around Theodore Roosevelt Island in the Potomac, but Celeste rode in the Piggyback nicely for almost all of it (as we were getting back to the footbridge — and debating whether or not to hike up the parkway and across the Roosevelt Bridge to watch the dragon boat races — she started crying, leading us to pause at the memorial for a while so she could have some time out of the Piggyback).
We ended up skipping the dragon boat races and headed home via the Beltway, and Celeste spent a good bit of the drive home crying. She might have been hungry or tired of being confined (first in the car, then in the Piggyback, and then in the car again) or who knows what, but she was happier once we got home.
After we got her to sleep for the night, Evelin and I watched The Station Agent, which was really fun and well done. It had lots of humor, pathos, good emotion, excellent acting, ...
We ended up skipping the dragon boat races and headed home via the Beltway, and Celeste spent a good bit of the drive home crying. She might have been hungry or tired of being confined (first in the car, then in the Piggyback, and then in the car again) or who knows what, but she was happier once we got home.
After we got her to sleep for the night, Evelin and I watched The Station Agent, which was really fun and well done. It had lots of humor, pathos, good emotion, excellent acting, ...
Saturday, May 28, 2005
Celeste: Minion of Chaos
I don't remember from my D&D days whether or not alignment is something fixed at birth or if a character develops it over time, but right now, Celeste is definitely either Chaotic Good or Chaotic Neutral. She will not stand for any form of order.
If you dare present her with her stack-up rings on their post, her driving mission is to disassemble them and to toss them every which way. Stack up blocks; they must be knocked down, no matter the cost. Attempt to put the singing animals in their proper slot on the Sparkling Symphony Compose 'n Play Orchestra; all must be destroyed.
This is simply the way it must be for Celeste. We are helpless before her.
(Celeste's too young to take it, but here's an online D&D Alignment Test for those who can type and read. I scored Neutral Good.)
If you dare present her with her stack-up rings on their post, her driving mission is to disassemble them and to toss them every which way. Stack up blocks; they must be knocked down, no matter the cost. Attempt to put the singing animals in their proper slot on the Sparkling Symphony Compose 'n Play Orchestra; all must be destroyed.
This is simply the way it must be for Celeste. We are helpless before her.
(Celeste's too young to take it, but here's an online D&D Alignment Test for those who can type and read. I scored Neutral Good.)
Letting the Dirt Settle
Well, I think the pond is no more. Last week's rain soaked in an helped the dirt settle some more, so I worked this morning on shoveling in more dirt, racking it smooth, tamping it down, and adding more dirt on top of that. It's starting to rain now (and more is predicted for this evening), so we'll see how it continues to settle. There is plenty more dirt available, and once it seems stable, we'll put down some grass seed to hopefully at least cover the area until we know what we're going to do with it.
I also took a few shovelfuls of dirt to fill in a depression in the front yard; I imagine I'll be spending some time loading up the wheelbarrow and wandering through the yard looking for soft spots, dips, divots, and other holes. And there will still be plenty more dirt available.
While Celeste took her morning nap, Evelin helped move bricks and we now no bricks on the patio. I also removed a few more of the timbers, which revealed one problem: While the ties are held together with 1-foot pieces of rebar, the bottom course is secured to the ground with some pipes that are nearly a yard long (or at least the one I was able to get out was that long). They're making that bottom course (and in some places bottom two courses) quick difficult to pull out.
Now the question remains: What to do with all that remaining dirt? One suggestion has been to just leave much of it there and to build a deck over it. That just seems messy to me, but it may turn out to be the best solution, particularly if the deck is at the level of the old patio or even a little lower. We could have the sides solid or latticed (instead of having a deck up on stilts), which would hide the dirt nicely.
So ... I guess our next step is to keep shifting dirt around to be able to pull out timbers and to knock down the level of the dirt, and to figure out if we want to try and build something ourselves or if we call in professionals.
I also took a few shovelfuls of dirt to fill in a depression in the front yard; I imagine I'll be spending some time loading up the wheelbarrow and wandering through the yard looking for soft spots, dips, divots, and other holes. And there will still be plenty more dirt available.
While Celeste took her morning nap, Evelin helped move bricks and we now no bricks on the patio. I also removed a few more of the timbers, which revealed one problem: While the ties are held together with 1-foot pieces of rebar, the bottom course is secured to the ground with some pipes that are nearly a yard long (or at least the one I was able to get out was that long). They're making that bottom course (and in some places bottom two courses) quick difficult to pull out.
Now the question remains: What to do with all that remaining dirt? One suggestion has been to just leave much of it there and to build a deck over it. That just seems messy to me, but it may turn out to be the best solution, particularly if the deck is at the level of the old patio or even a little lower. We could have the sides solid or latticed (instead of having a deck up on stilts), which would hide the dirt nicely.
So ... I guess our next step is to keep shifting dirt around to be able to pull out timbers and to knock down the level of the dirt, and to figure out if we want to try and build something ourselves or if we call in professionals.
Friday, May 27, 2005
Long Weekend?
With our weather staying on the cool side for most of the spring, Memorial Day has kind of snuck up on me. We don't usually do anything special for the three-day weekend, but I expect I'll be spending at least a little time with a shovel. Over the past week-and-a-half — between Celeste's illness, a lack of sleep, and the weather — I haven't done anything on the P³, so I need to catch up on things to get back on track.
Celeste is definitely back. Evelin said she had an overall good day: Lots of playing and general happiness, as well as three walks (mostly in the sling because I forgot to take the stroller out of the T.R.U.C.K. where I left it after taking Celeste to the farmers market on Thursday).
Last night she slept pretty well (either that or I was totally out of it because of the Tylenol Allergy and Sinus I took), waking up twice to feed, once for repacification, and then trying to wake up for the day a bit past 5:00 a.m. Okay, that last part wasn't so good, but the rest of the night went well. Evelin said Celeste took only three naps today (for a total of about 23⁄4 hours of sleep); that's not so good, but it isn't too far off from what her typical sleep habits.
Celeste is definitely back. Evelin said she had an overall good day: Lots of playing and general happiness, as well as three walks (mostly in the sling because I forgot to take the stroller out of the T.R.U.C.K. where I left it after taking Celeste to the farmers market on Thursday).
Last night she slept pretty well (either that or I was totally out of it because of the Tylenol Allergy and Sinus I took), waking up twice to feed, once for repacification, and then trying to wake up for the day a bit past 5:00 a.m. Okay, that last part wasn't so good, but the rest of the night went well. Evelin said Celeste took only three naps today (for a total of about 23⁄4 hours of sleep); that's not so good, but it isn't too far off from what her typical sleep habits.
Thursday, May 26, 2005
Feeling Better
I'm keeping my fingers crossed and knocking wood as I type this, but I'm pretty sure Celeste is feeling better. Her nap was a respectable 90 minutes without being too long, and she seemed to be having fun for most of the afternoon. We played with her toys, bounced in the exersaucer, took a stroll around the neighborhood, and even ran over to the farmers market in Riverdale Park.
However, as the day progressed, she did get grumpier and grumpier. I tried to get her down for a short nap around 4:00 p.m., but a former neighbor stopped by to pick up some flowers that were left with us last night (she moved a few months ago, but apparently whoever was sending the flowers hadn't gotten the change of address notice); the doorbell spoiled any hope of a nap.
Complicating judging Celeste's recovery is that we're pretty sure she's in a developmental leap at the moment, which means she's going to be fussy and have difficulty sleeping and a bit of regression on some things. Right now, the big one is her sleep — and I know our trying to deal with her sore throat set her back with that — followed closely by eating solids (which could also be a hold over from her sore throat). Where she used to eat up to four ice cubes of food at a time, now we're lucky for her to take one. She's still nursing (and, because of the fever she was getting breastmilk pretty much on demand and a little bit more), so nutritionally, she should be fine, but it'd be nice if her solids meals didn't turn into a big drama scene.
However, as the day progressed, she did get grumpier and grumpier. I tried to get her down for a short nap around 4:00 p.m., but a former neighbor stopped by to pick up some flowers that were left with us last night (she moved a few months ago, but apparently whoever was sending the flowers hadn't gotten the change of address notice); the doorbell spoiled any hope of a nap.
Complicating judging Celeste's recovery is that we're pretty sure she's in a developmental leap at the moment, which means she's going to be fussy and have difficulty sleeping and a bit of regression on some things. Right now, the big one is her sleep — and I know our trying to deal with her sore throat set her back with that — followed closely by eating solids (which could also be a hold over from her sore throat). Where she used to eat up to four ice cubes of food at a time, now we're lucky for her to take one. She's still nursing (and, because of the fever she was getting breastmilk pretty much on demand and a little bit more), so nutritionally, she should be fine, but it'd be nice if her solids meals didn't turn into a big drama scene.
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Spoke Too Soon?
I need to remember that if I write something about Celeste on here, she is going to try to contradict me as quickly as she can ... even if she's really too young for me to resent the fact that I'm invading her privacy by blogging about her.
Yesterday, I said she was doing better, well, last night she woke a little before 10:00 p.m. and refused to go back to sleep until after midnight. We tried all the usual tricks and nothing worked. In the end, she fell asleep on me for an hour or so, and immediately woke when I tried to shift her off my chest and on the mattress. At that point, Evelin picked her up, becoming the bed for the rest of the evening.
In the morning, I was sneaking out to work when Celeste woke up. We took her temperature and it seemed way too low (94.7°F, if I recall correctly) and she seemed to have a crazy rash all over her head. Not trusting the rectal thermometer we got from the hospital after the stay for jaundice or the stick-on strips, I headed out to the 24-hour CVS to buy a digital ear thermometer. (It turns out as quick as those are, they aren't really comfortable for a baby and don't make it too much easier to take her temperature.)
I also googled around about rashes and reassured both Evelin and myself that Celeste had a heat rash, most likely from sleeping all night on top of one or the other of us.
Still, we planned to call the doctor, and I called in to work to say that I wouldn't be coming in again (instead I ended up getting a fair number of articles edited from home). The other thing that factored into that decision is that Evelin had promised J--- that she'd take her to the airport that afternoon; considering how Celeste was feeling, we figured it'd be better to have me stay with Celeste while Evelin was gone rather than to have her crying all the way to Dulles and back.
As it was, Celeste was napping when Evelin had to leave, and I ended up waking her just shy of the three-hour mark. (I didn't want her to have too good of a nap for fear that it would mean she'd be up all night again — not that it seems to have worked. It's a little before 8:00 p.m. and Evelin just brought a very awake Celeste back downstairs, about 90 minutes after she went to bed for the night.) We had a little bit of playtime (including making pizza dough) until Evelin got home and I was able to return to my editing.
Last week, Evelin picked up some asparagus and we ended up just having them for dinner on Sunday night, but they got me thinking ... asparagus pizza with mushrooms and parmesan.
So, after I woke Celeste from her nap, fired up the bread machine to make the dough. (It's a shortcut, but the machine does a decent job of kneading the dough.) I knew I wanted to do something with the dough to complement the toppings and instead of trying to mix in some herbs or something, I went with the following ...
Two-Thirds Whole Wheat Crust
Next I turned to the topping — asparagus and mushrooms.
Toppings
In the mean time, the crust has been rolled out and put into a 350°F oven to start cooking. After about 10 minutes, pull it out and arrange about a pound of fresh mozzarella, sliced thinly, across the top of the crust. Return to the oven for 5 to 7 minutes, until the cheese is nicely melted. With the mozzarella melted (it may make sense to pour or blot excess liquid from the crust, depending upon how much water the cheese releases), add the asparagus–mushroom mixture and cover with shaved parmesan. Bake a further 15 minutes, until the crust is done, and the parm melts away entirely.
I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but it was quite tasty. The crust was on the thick side; I think next time I'll divide the dough and make a much thinner pizza, but otherwise it was quite tasty.
Yesterday, I said she was doing better, well, last night she woke a little before 10:00 p.m. and refused to go back to sleep until after midnight. We tried all the usual tricks and nothing worked. In the end, she fell asleep on me for an hour or so, and immediately woke when I tried to shift her off my chest and on the mattress. At that point, Evelin picked her up, becoming the bed for the rest of the evening.
In the morning, I was sneaking out to work when Celeste woke up. We took her temperature and it seemed way too low (94.7°F, if I recall correctly) and she seemed to have a crazy rash all over her head. Not trusting the rectal thermometer we got from the hospital after the stay for jaundice or the stick-on strips, I headed out to the 24-hour CVS to buy a digital ear thermometer. (It turns out as quick as those are, they aren't really comfortable for a baby and don't make it too much easier to take her temperature.)
I also googled around about rashes and reassured both Evelin and myself that Celeste had a heat rash, most likely from sleeping all night on top of one or the other of us.
Still, we planned to call the doctor, and I called in to work to say that I wouldn't be coming in again (instead I ended up getting a fair number of articles edited from home). The other thing that factored into that decision is that Evelin had promised J--- that she'd take her to the airport that afternoon; considering how Celeste was feeling, we figured it'd be better to have me stay with Celeste while Evelin was gone rather than to have her crying all the way to Dulles and back.
As it was, Celeste was napping when Evelin had to leave, and I ended up waking her just shy of the three-hour mark. (I didn't want her to have too good of a nap for fear that it would mean she'd be up all night again — not that it seems to have worked. It's a little before 8:00 p.m. and Evelin just brought a very awake Celeste back downstairs, about 90 minutes after she went to bed for the night.) We had a little bit of playtime (including making pizza dough) until Evelin got home and I was able to return to my editing.
Asparagus–Mushroom Pizza
Since I was home, I got a chance to put together a real dinner — something that is harder and harder to do, it seems. (Sometimes, when things are going well, I manage to put together something on Tuesday or Thursday evening, but usually by the time I get home on other nights and Celeste has her bath and is in bed it's either 8:30 p.m. and we're too exhausted for anything other than a sandwich or bowl of cereal or it's 7:00 p.m. and we're too exhausted for much beyond a sandwich or bowl of cereal.)Last week, Evelin picked up some asparagus and we ended up just having them for dinner on Sunday night, but they got me thinking ... asparagus pizza with mushrooms and parmesan.
So, after I woke Celeste from her nap, fired up the bread machine to make the dough. (It's a shortcut, but the machine does a decent job of kneading the dough.) I knew I wanted to do something with the dough to complement the toppings and instead of trying to mix in some herbs or something, I went with the following ...
Two-Thirds Whole Wheat Crust
- 11⁄8 cup water
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 cups whole-wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup bread flour
- 11⁄2 teaspoons sugar
- 3 tablespoons dough relaxer
- 11⁄2 teaspoons yeast
Next I turned to the topping — asparagus and mushrooms.
Toppings
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 2 toes garlic, pressed
- 1 shallot, chopped
- 1⁄3 pound crimini mushrooms, sliced
- 1 pound asparagus, steamed tender and cut into 1 centimeter lengths
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- olive oil
- white wine
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 1 pound fresh mozzarella
- shaved parmesan
In the mean time, the crust has been rolled out and put into a 350°F oven to start cooking. After about 10 minutes, pull it out and arrange about a pound of fresh mozzarella, sliced thinly, across the top of the crust. Return to the oven for 5 to 7 minutes, until the cheese is nicely melted. With the mozzarella melted (it may make sense to pour or blot excess liquid from the crust, depending upon how much water the cheese releases), add the asparagus–mushroom mixture and cover with shaved parmesan. Bake a further 15 minutes, until the crust is done, and the parm melts away entirely.
I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but it was quite tasty. The crust was on the thick side; I think next time I'll divide the dough and make a much thinner pizza, but otherwise it was quite tasty.
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Feeling Better
While not out of the woods, I think Celeste is feeling better. This morning, Evelin took her temperature and she was 99.4°F, but she climbed back up to 101.2°F around noon, so she got a fresh dose of Infant's Motrin. Once I got home, even though she'd had a good bit of sleep earlier in the morning, Celeste was ready for a nap. By 1:15 p.m., she was asleep in my arms and stayed that way for about 45 minutes. I dozed some, too, but with my arm falling asleep, I tried to move her to her crib. That woke her up, so we moved back to the chair where we both slept (her more than me) for another hour.
[ASIDE: Getting the Ektorp was a much better decision than a glider — I can't imagine both of us napping in a glider the way we can in the Ektorp.]
Afterwards, she took a bottle and we played for a while. She is getting really good a high fives, and is apparently studying !Xũ or some other Khoisan language while Evelin and I aren't around. Over the past week, she's really kicked up the click consonants. She seems to have the postalveolar click (!) and bilabial click (ʘ) down, but is having trouble with her palatal clicks (ǂ). She's also starting to babble more (non-click) consonants, so we could soon be hearing something closer to English (or Spanish, French or Japanese, if the Babbler is doing its job) ...
Just before bedtime, her temp was actually below normal (97.1°F) an hour after the Motrin would have worn off. She had been sitting around in just a onesie after her bath, so I may have chilled her a little bit. Evelin put some pyjamas on her for bed (we've been leaving her dressed on the cool side because of the fever), so I guess we'll see how warm she is when she wakes for a feeding later tonight ...
[ASIDE: Getting the Ektorp was a much better decision than a glider — I can't imagine both of us napping in a glider the way we can in the Ektorp.]
Afterwards, she took a bottle and we played for a while. She is getting really good a high fives, and is apparently studying !Xũ or some other Khoisan language while Evelin and I aren't around. Over the past week, she's really kicked up the click consonants. She seems to have the postalveolar click (!) and bilabial click (ʘ) down, but is having trouble with her palatal clicks (ǂ). She's also starting to babble more (non-click) consonants, so we could soon be hearing something closer to English (or Spanish, French or Japanese, if the Babbler is doing its job) ...
Just before bedtime, her temp was actually below normal (97.1°F) an hour after the Motrin would have worn off. She had been sitting around in just a onesie after her bath, so I may have chilled her a little bit. Evelin put some pyjamas on her for bed (we've been leaving her dressed on the cool side because of the fever), so I guess we'll see how warm she is when she wakes for a feeding later tonight ...
Monday, May 23, 2005
We're Contagious!
After a long, but not too long, wait at the pediatricians, we found out that Celeste has a sore throat (which explains the lowered interest in solids) the etiology of which is probably viral in nature. Fifths disease was ruled out based on the lack of a lacey rash, and a quick swab test ruled out strep throat.
So, this means we could be dealing with/watching Celeste's fever for a few more days. (In fact, she's still considered contagious until she's had 24 hours of constantly normal temperatures.) We can use the Infant's Motrin to help relieve pain/fever and are to offer cold foods (peach-sicle, apple-sicle, etc.) along with lots of liquids. Hopefully, her system will burn it away in a few days ...
So, this means we could be dealing with/watching Celeste's fever for a few more days. (In fact, she's still considered contagious until she's had 24 hours of constantly normal temperatures.) We can use the Infant's Motrin to help relieve pain/fever and are to offer cold foods (peach-sicle, apple-sicle, etc.) along with lots of liquids. Hopefully, her system will burn it away in a few days ...
Long Night
It probably could have been a lot longer, but last night was pretty sleepless. We woke Celeste up around 9:00 p.m. because she'd sweat through her onesie and was due for a follow-up dose of Infant's Motrin. Around 2:00 a.m., Celeste was crying some and Evelin went to check on her. Celeste had taken the stick-on thermometer off her forehead at that point, and Evelin wasn't having much luck soothing her, so she asked me to try. I though she was feeling pretty warm, so we took her temperature; it was back up to 101.5°F.
At this point, Celeste was pretty confused. Usually, we didn't get this awake for her in the middle of the night ... and this time she was getting a 2:20-something bath? She had a pretty quizzical look on her face, but was game for splashing in the tub some, but she really didn't like it when Evelin tilted her back to wet her head. Around this time, I called the office and said I wouldn't be coming in today (or if I did, it'd be in the afternoon).
Giving the timing of the medicine, we had to wait until around 3:00 a.m. to give her another dose, so we had a little post-bath playtime and, once she was dosed, it took her a little while to get to sleep.
Around 5:00 a.m., Celeste woke up crying. She felt warm, but not overly warm and her onesie and the bed beneath her (we let her stay with us) was soaked with sweat. Evelin and I took turns trying to soothe her until Evelin finally figured out — *doh!* — she was probably hungry.
After nursing, Celeste and Evelin came back to bed and we all got some sleep for a little while. When I woke up around 7:00 a.m., they were both still fast asleep and Celeste felt a lot cooler. Maybe her fever broke before that 5:00 a.m. wake to feed. Or maybe the Infant's Motrin is taking full effect (she's not due for another dose until 9:00 a.m. at the earliest).
We'll see how she's acting/feeling when she wakes and then decide about taking her in to the doctor ...
At this point, Celeste was pretty confused. Usually, we didn't get this awake for her in the middle of the night ... and this time she was getting a 2:20-something bath? She had a pretty quizzical look on her face, but was game for splashing in the tub some, but she really didn't like it when Evelin tilted her back to wet her head. Around this time, I called the office and said I wouldn't be coming in today (or if I did, it'd be in the afternoon).
Giving the timing of the medicine, we had to wait until around 3:00 a.m. to give her another dose, so we had a little post-bath playtime and, once she was dosed, it took her a little while to get to sleep.
Around 5:00 a.m., Celeste woke up crying. She felt warm, but not overly warm and her onesie and the bed beneath her (we let her stay with us) was soaked with sweat. Evelin and I took turns trying to soothe her until Evelin finally figured out — *doh!* — she was probably hungry.
After nursing, Celeste and Evelin came back to bed and we all got some sleep for a little while. When I woke up around 7:00 a.m., they were both still fast asleep and Celeste felt a lot cooler. Maybe her fever broke before that 5:00 a.m. wake to feed. Or maybe the Infant's Motrin is taking full effect (she's not due for another dose until 9:00 a.m. at the earliest).
We'll see how she's acting/feeling when she wakes and then decide about taking her in to the doctor ...
Sunday, May 22, 2005
First Fever
Last week, I stupidly made the comment that we'd been really lucky in that we'd gone nearly 9 months without Celeste having any illness (excepting, of course, her second week hospitalization for jaundice). This afternoon, we had our first fever scare.
This morning, she woke up around 4:00 a.m. and did the inconsolable crying thing. Evelin and I took turns trying to soothe/calm her and, after a stint in our bed, Evelin nursed her back to sleep a bit past 5:00 a.m. I thought she felt warm at that point, but it was chalked up to her having been in snuggly pyjamas and with her blankie while I was just in boxers.
Flash forward to the afternoon: We'd been to the farmers market where Celeste enjoyed listening to the Banjo Man with a bunch of other kids, Evelin took her on a walk while I went to return the previous night's movie (National Treasure) and to run a few other errands. When I got home, Celeste was napping; they hadn't gone very far before Celeste started to fall asleep, so Evelin turned around to get her home to her crib.
It turned out to be not too long of a nap, and Celeste was pretty grumpy. She was playing on the floor with Evelin next to her reading and me across the room with the newspaper, but she kept fussing. We'd try some of the usual favorites, but she still was fussy. I kissed her forehead and thought she felt warm, so Evelin got the forehead thermometer, which was showed a high fever, so we decided to disturb her with a more accurate thermometer — 101.4°F.
A quick check of our doctors' instructions said to worry/call if the fever was higher than 102°F, so we dosed her with some Infant's Motrin and, while Evelin fed her, I started paging through all the books. We gave her a tepid bath, which did help cool her off, and, after the Motrin'd had some time to work her fever came down to the warm stage. During the bath, I put a stick-on thermometer on her forehead so that we could get a rough idea of how she was doing without having to resort to more uncomfortable thermometer techniques.
After a short nap on top of Evelin, Celeste was definitely feeling better: playing more actively and acting less crabby. By her bedtime, the forehead thermometer was registering a mild fever, but she was still acting better. Our plan is to watch her overnight and hopefully the fever will pass: It's possible it could be teething related, but it seems a bit on the high side for that ...
This morning, she woke up around 4:00 a.m. and did the inconsolable crying thing. Evelin and I took turns trying to soothe/calm her and, after a stint in our bed, Evelin nursed her back to sleep a bit past 5:00 a.m. I thought she felt warm at that point, but it was chalked up to her having been in snuggly pyjamas and with her blankie while I was just in boxers.
Flash forward to the afternoon: We'd been to the farmers market where Celeste enjoyed listening to the Banjo Man with a bunch of other kids, Evelin took her on a walk while I went to return the previous night's movie (National Treasure) and to run a few other errands. When I got home, Celeste was napping; they hadn't gone very far before Celeste started to fall asleep, so Evelin turned around to get her home to her crib.
It turned out to be not too long of a nap, and Celeste was pretty grumpy. She was playing on the floor with Evelin next to her reading and me across the room with the newspaper, but she kept fussing. We'd try some of the usual favorites, but she still was fussy. I kissed her forehead and thought she felt warm, so Evelin got the forehead thermometer, which was showed a high fever, so we decided to disturb her with a more accurate thermometer — 101.4°F.
A quick check of our doctors' instructions said to worry/call if the fever was higher than 102°F, so we dosed her with some Infant's Motrin and, while Evelin fed her, I started paging through all the books. We gave her a tepid bath, which did help cool her off, and, after the Motrin'd had some time to work her fever came down to the warm stage. During the bath, I put a stick-on thermometer on her forehead so that we could get a rough idea of how she was doing without having to resort to more uncomfortable thermometer techniques.
After a short nap on top of Evelin, Celeste was definitely feeling better: playing more actively and acting less crabby. By her bedtime, the forehead thermometer was registering a mild fever, but she was still acting better. Our plan is to watch her overnight and hopefully the fever will pass: It's possible it could be teething related, but it seems a bit on the high side for that ...
Saturday, May 21, 2005
New Carseat for Celeste
With yesterday's rain, the P³ area seemed a bit on the muddy side to work on (it's hard enough shoveling dry dirt), so my attention was diverted to other parts of the things-to-do list.
First up, to keep pace with Celeste's growth, we pulled her SnugRide bucket out of the car and put in her Britax Roundabout. This follows earlier in the week when we dropped her crib mattress one level; she's not pulling herself up yet, but she is scooting around the crib so we decided to move the mattress rather than waiting for an overly exciting moment ...
Celeste probably isn't up to the weight limit on the SnugRide, but it was getting more and more difficult to get her in/out of it, and we'd already taken to just leaving the bucket in the T.R.U.C.K. She still needs the carseat to be rear-facing, so it'll be a few more months until it's easier to turn and see what Celeste is up to, but the new seat does put her in a bit higher position from which she can look around at the traffic/scenery.
This afternoon, we tried to take a hike (both to get out and to give Celeste a chance to try out the new carseat). She did pretty well until we were about 10 minutes away from Sugarloaf Mountain at which point she started crying. Evelin, who'd moved to the backseat after some earlier fussiness, soothed her some and, as we were getting to the parking area, Celeste nodded off to sleep. So, we turned around and drove home where I got to cut the ogräs.
One bit of fun for Celeste when we got home: Evelin brought her out to watch me cutting the front yard and a neighbor stopped by to chat. While Evelin, M--- and Celeste were talking, two dogs (with walkers) came up. Celeste was interested and so were the dogs (a greyhound and a bloodhound) and they all sniffed one another and Celeste did some gentle petting.
After the carseat and before the attempt at a hike, I spent some time fiddling around on a few things, including taking apart the dishwasher to see if I could get to the source of its leaking. (I think part of the tub and/or door is a little warped, allowing water to spray up and drip out; I made some adjustments to the alignment of the unit, which seem to help some, but it's not perfect. I've already replaced the seal, so maybe I can add some additional (not-manufacturer-intended) gasketry to the door side of things or try to google around for ideas ...)
First up, to keep pace with Celeste's growth, we pulled her SnugRide bucket out of the car and put in her Britax Roundabout. This follows earlier in the week when we dropped her crib mattress one level; she's not pulling herself up yet, but she is scooting around the crib so we decided to move the mattress rather than waiting for an overly exciting moment ...
Celeste probably isn't up to the weight limit on the SnugRide, but it was getting more and more difficult to get her in/out of it, and we'd already taken to just leaving the bucket in the T.R.U.C.K. She still needs the carseat to be rear-facing, so it'll be a few more months until it's easier to turn and see what Celeste is up to, but the new seat does put her in a bit higher position from which she can look around at the traffic/scenery.
This afternoon, we tried to take a hike (both to get out and to give Celeste a chance to try out the new carseat). She did pretty well until we were about 10 minutes away from Sugarloaf Mountain at which point she started crying. Evelin, who'd moved to the backseat after some earlier fussiness, soothed her some and, as we were getting to the parking area, Celeste nodded off to sleep. So, we turned around and drove home where I got to cut the ogräs.
One bit of fun for Celeste when we got home: Evelin brought her out to watch me cutting the front yard and a neighbor stopped by to chat. While Evelin, M--- and Celeste were talking, two dogs (with walkers) came up. Celeste was interested and so were the dogs (a greyhound and a bloodhound) and they all sniffed one another and Celeste did some gentle petting.
After the carseat and before the attempt at a hike, I spent some time fiddling around on a few things, including taking apart the dishwasher to see if I could get to the source of its leaking. (I think part of the tub and/or door is a little warped, allowing water to spray up and drip out; I made some adjustments to the alignment of the unit, which seem to help some, but it's not perfect. I've already replaced the seal, so maybe I can add some additional (not-manufacturer-intended) gasketry to the door side of things or try to google around for ideas ...)
Friday, May 20, 2005
P³ Photos
Not to get all Flickr about it or anything, but I have been meaning to post a picture or two of the Pond/Patio Project.
I can't seem to find any pics of the pre-destruction patio, but here is a (slightly blurry) pic of the pond circa summer 2001:
Note the bits of slate that rim the pond: Evelin always hated those.
The first step in the P³, sensibly enough, was to drain the pond, which was accomplished by running a hose in the backyard and starting up a siphon. The next morning, the water was mostly gone and I had to take out the plants, which was followed by cutting out the liner (all of this has been gone over before). What was left was a big, pond-shaped hole in the ground:
The next step was to start work on the patio — moving furniture, pulling up pavers, taking out the top course of timbers, etc. — to get at all the dirt that lay below. Once the dirt was exposed, the shoveling began. Here is a pic of the patio as of Saturday
In the foreground are the timbers and some other P³-related detritus that will eventually need to be hauled away.
What has me worried, as one can see from the photo, the patio is at best two-fifths deconstructed, but here is the pond
There's room for some more dirt, and today's rain will help compact things and get the dirt to settle even more, but there's a lot more dirt under the patio, or to express it mathematically:
I can't seem to find any pics of the pre-destruction patio, but here is a (slightly blurry) pic of the pond circa summer 2001:
Note the bits of slate that rim the pond: Evelin always hated those.
The first step in the P³, sensibly enough, was to drain the pond, which was accomplished by running a hose in the backyard and starting up a siphon. The next morning, the water was mostly gone and I had to take out the plants, which was followed by cutting out the liner (all of this has been gone over before). What was left was a big, pond-shaped hole in the ground:
The next step was to start work on the patio — moving furniture, pulling up pavers, taking out the top course of timbers, etc. — to get at all the dirt that lay below. Once the dirt was exposed, the shoveling began. Here is a pic of the patio as of Saturday
In the foreground are the timbers and some other P³-related detritus that will eventually need to be hauled away.
What has me worried, as one can see from the photo, the patio is at best two-fifths deconstructed, but here is the pond
There's room for some more dirt, and today's rain will help compact things and get the dirt to settle even more, but there's a lot more dirt under the patio, or to express it mathematically:
Thursday, May 19, 2005
P³ Update
Work continues around the house. Last night, I cut the wires for the electrical feed to the outside outlet that'd been installed on the patio. Because of where the line ran, I needed to take it out before I could take another course of timbers off the patio, and it just seemed safer to take the wires out at the on/off switch inside. I then pulled up the buried line.
A lot of digging still needs to be done, as well as moving pavers and figuring out where the dirt will all go. I've been using a manual tamper to compact the dirt that goes into the pond, but I haven't been too systematic about it so the pond does have some shifting soil. It's supposed to rain tonight and into the weekend, so hopefully water filtering down will help compact things some, freeing up space for more dirt.
Even if I end up putting another 15 square feet of soil into the pond (and I don't think there's that much left to fill), I'll still have a lot of soil under the patio to dispose of. There are some low spots in the yard that we can put some of it in, and more will be needed to try to figure out the new grade for the upper garden, but we are likely to be left with a bunch of dirt. It could well be that we keep some of it under the deck (assuming we build a deck to replace the patio), but that still leaves the question of stabilizing it so that we don't end up with somesort of mini mudslide in the future.
Of course, the pond/patio project (the p³ of the entry's title) can't dominate everything: I still need to cut the ogräs, clean the gutters, and tend to other tasks, like the dishwasher, which has been overflowing a bit. Last night I replaced the door seal, which improved, but didn't completely solve things. I think this weekend I'll be checking the drain and other parts to see if I can figure out what might be the cause.
Hopefully, she'll ease into this phase and her sleep will even out in a few more days — usually the first two nights of a leap are really tough for her sleepwise — and she'll be able to focus on new developments (including her breakdancing).
Today, Celeste's big excitement was a trip to the farmers market in Riverdale Park, which is held in a parking lot next a CSX rail line. Celeste, who is always interested in big trucks, buses, etc., got to see a freight train pass within 10 yards of her. I'm not sure she was able to really process what it was, but she wouldn't take her eyes off it ...
A lot of digging still needs to be done, as well as moving pavers and figuring out where the dirt will all go. I've been using a manual tamper to compact the dirt that goes into the pond, but I haven't been too systematic about it so the pond does have some shifting soil. It's supposed to rain tonight and into the weekend, so hopefully water filtering down will help compact things some, freeing up space for more dirt.
Even if I end up putting another 15 square feet of soil into the pond (and I don't think there's that much left to fill), I'll still have a lot of soil under the patio to dispose of. There are some low spots in the yard that we can put some of it in, and more will be needed to try to figure out the new grade for the upper garden, but we are likely to be left with a bunch of dirt. It could well be that we keep some of it under the deck (assuming we build a deck to replace the patio), but that still leaves the question of stabilizing it so that we don't end up with somesort of mini mudslide in the future.
Of course, the pond/patio project (the p³ of the entry's title) can't dominate everything: I still need to cut the ogräs, clean the gutters, and tend to other tasks, like the dishwasher, which has been overflowing a bit. Last night I replaced the door seal, which improved, but didn't completely solve things. I think this weekend I'll be checking the drain and other parts to see if I can figure out what might be the cause.
Celeste Update
Celeste must be entering another leap/stormy period. Her sleep has grown quite erratic. Actually, for the first half of the night, she's better staying asleep once she finally gets there, but she really fights going to bed. Plus, when she does wake in the middle of the night, it's more difficult to get her back to sleep; sometimes, she's up for an hour or three playing, crying, generally not sleeping ...Hopefully, she'll ease into this phase and her sleep will even out in a few more days — usually the first two nights of a leap are really tough for her sleepwise — and she'll be able to focus on new developments (including her breakdancing).
Today, Celeste's big excitement was a trip to the farmers market in Riverdale Park, which is held in a parking lot next a CSX rail line. Celeste, who is always interested in big trucks, buses, etc., got to see a freight train pass within 10 yards of her. I'm not sure she was able to really process what it was, but she wouldn't take her eyes off it ...
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Breakdancing Baby
She doesn't quite have her hand glide down but Celeste started breaking today. Usually when we put her down in the living room, she is on the zebra rug, but today, for no particular reason, I put Celeste down on the hardwood floor ... and she took the opportunity to test her mad breakdancing skillz.
I gave her the smiley sun rattle thing that she really likes and the Chicco lion that she sort of likes and she started playing with the rattle. She was on her back and then dropped the rattle to the side and behind her a little. What to do? Well, Celeste rolled over to her stomach (and this from a girl who is not too fond of tummy time) and then used her hands to spin herself into a position where she could pick up the rattle. She played with it on her stomach for a little while before rolling back on to her back (I made sure to get a hand between her head and the floor so that she didn't hurt herself while flipping back on to her back).
She did the same hand-pull move a number of times and even once or twice looked like she might manage an army crawl. I was quite impressed — both by her ability to think of and do this and that she was letting me see a new trick for a change. (
The rest of the day was spent with a short (under 2 mile) hike at Greenbelt Park (Celeste is still not 100% sure the Piggyback is fun) and, after Evelin got home and Celeste went to bed, making a very tasty spinach-feta-potato terrine that fell apart when I tried to plate it but tasted exquisite.
I gave her the smiley sun rattle thing that she really likes and the Chicco lion that she sort of likes and she started playing with the rattle. She was on her back and then dropped the rattle to the side and behind her a little. What to do? Well, Celeste rolled over to her stomach (and this from a girl who is not too fond of tummy time) and then used her hands to spin herself into a position where she could pick up the rattle. She played with it on her stomach for a little while before rolling back on to her back (I made sure to get a hand between her head and the floor so that she didn't hurt herself while flipping back on to her back).
She did the same hand-pull move a number of times and even once or twice looked like she might manage an army crawl. I was quite impressed — both by her ability to think of and do this and that she was letting me see a new trick for a change. (
<insane jealousy>Usually, she likes to show her mumma these sorts of things first</insane jealousy>.)The rest of the day was spent with a short (under 2 mile) hike at Greenbelt Park (Celeste is still not 100% sure the Piggyback is fun) and, after Evelin got home and Celeste went to bed, making a very tasty spinach-feta-potato terrine that fell apart when I tried to plate it but tasted exquisite.
Monday, May 16, 2005
Sleep Stories
All in all, Celeste's sleeping is getting better, but is far from perfect. My theory is that she just doesn't enjoy sleeping and would rather be doing something else — even if that something else is sitting on the floor watching groggy parents try to play with her while hoping she'll show some unambiguous signs of tiredness.
If she could form the words, I'd imagine Celeste would try Hannes' argument relayed a few weeks ago on Name that baby!: "It ain't nice to sleep ..."
In general, she's shifting her bedtime to about an hour later than it had been and she's having a rougher time going down for a nap. Evelin thinks part of it is Celeste's increased mobility: She uses the crib bars to walk herself along the mattress, making her bed a bit of a playground. The other option is it could be related to teething: she looks like she's cutting an eyetooth.
Once she finally does go down, she seems to be sleeping longer with less nocturnal crying, although she still gets two feedings per night.
This morning she was up around 4:30 a.m., crying, but she was dead tired. I went into pick her up and to try to calm her around 5:00 and she would snug down and fall asleep really quickly on my chest, but as soon as I'd try putting her down in the crib (either on her stomach or her back), she's start kicking, squirming and crying. I wondered if her stomach might be hurting her or something — we'd introduced mangoes to her that afternoon, so there could have been a reaction — but Evelin was less convinced. She ended up feeding her around 5:45 a.m., and we were all up for the day soon there after.
[UPDATE: And, of course, ever the contrarian, Celeste was asleep before I got home at 6:30 p.m. tonight ...]
If she could form the words, I'd imagine Celeste would try Hannes' argument relayed a few weeks ago on Name that baby!: "It ain't nice to sleep ..."
In general, she's shifting her bedtime to about an hour later than it had been and she's having a rougher time going down for a nap. Evelin thinks part of it is Celeste's increased mobility: She uses the crib bars to walk herself along the mattress, making her bed a bit of a playground. The other option is it could be related to teething: she looks like she's cutting an eyetooth.
Once she finally does go down, she seems to be sleeping longer with less nocturnal crying, although she still gets two feedings per night.
This morning she was up around 4:30 a.m., crying, but she was dead tired. I went into pick her up and to try to calm her around 5:00 and she would snug down and fall asleep really quickly on my chest, but as soon as I'd try putting her down in the crib (either on her stomach or her back), she's start kicking, squirming and crying. I wondered if her stomach might be hurting her or something — we'd introduced mangoes to her that afternoon, so there could have been a reaction — but Evelin was less convinced. She ended up feeding her around 5:45 a.m., and we were all up for the day soon there after.
[UPDATE: And, of course, ever the contrarian, Celeste was asleep before I got home at 6:30 p.m. tonight ...]
Sunday, May 15, 2005
Take Celeste to a Ballgame
Today Celeste went to her first ballgame, a back-to-back seven-inning Portland Sea Dogs vs. Bowie Baysox doubleheader. It was originally slated to be just one nine-inning game, but they changed the scheduled because Saturday night's game was rained out.
We were in the third row from the field, just to the right of the Sea Dog's dugout, along with the other seven Red Sox/Portland fans in attendance, which gave us a great view of home plate and the infield, as well as the chance to talk a little with some of the Sea Dogs while they were in the on-deck circle.
Celeste started off the game a bit disinterested in what was going on on the field. Evelin had her in a sling and she was looking back into the stadium, making faces at people in the stands. But during the 4th inning, I had her on my knee, facing the field, and she started watching and clapping (unfortunately when Sea Dog's catcher Alberto Concepción grounded into a double play), but by the bottom of the 6th she was tired and cranky. Evelin took her out to the car for the bottom of the 7th, which ended very quickly, and we took a long roundabout way home so that she could sleep in the car for about 90 minutes.
The game itself had some nice moments, starting with Dustin Pedroia's solo home run in the top of the 1st and his stolen base in the 4th, as well as Concepción turning a double play in the 4th. I can't imagine Pedroia is going to be playing AA ball next year ...
Top prospect Hanley Ramírez, however, was a bit disappointing; he had one good hit and some sloppy play on the field. In the 6th, Jared Sandberg had an embarrassing moment when he missed a fly ball at the warning track and ended up catching his shoelace or foot in the outfield field; he couldn't get up or pull away from the wall and ended up giving up a triple to Tripper Johnson.
We were in the third row from the field, just to the right of the Sea Dog's dugout, along with the other seven Red Sox/Portland fans in attendance, which gave us a great view of home plate and the infield, as well as the chance to talk a little with some of the Sea Dogs while they were in the on-deck circle.
Celeste started off the game a bit disinterested in what was going on on the field. Evelin had her in a sling and she was looking back into the stadium, making faces at people in the stands. But during the 4th inning, I had her on my knee, facing the field, and she started watching and clapping (unfortunately when Sea Dog's catcher Alberto Concepción grounded into a double play), but by the bottom of the 6th she was tired and cranky. Evelin took her out to the car for the bottom of the 7th, which ended very quickly, and we took a long roundabout way home so that she could sleep in the car for about 90 minutes.
The game itself had some nice moments, starting with Dustin Pedroia's solo home run in the top of the 1st and his stolen base in the 4th, as well as Concepción turning a double play in the 4th. I can't imagine Pedroia is going to be playing AA ball next year ...
Top prospect Hanley Ramírez, however, was a bit disappointing; he had one good hit and some sloppy play on the field. In the 6th, Jared Sandberg had an embarrassing moment when he missed a fly ball at the warning track and ended up catching his shoelace or foot in the outfield field; he couldn't get up or pull away from the wall and ended up giving up a triple to Tripper Johnson.
Saturday, May 14, 2005
Bugs Everywhere ...
I sometimes have a problem extrapolating from weight to volume. For example, a while ago, I bought a 4-ounce bag of Turkish bay leaves from Penzey's. It turned out to be a very large bag of very good bay leaves that Celeste will probably still be enjoying until she graduates from high school.
Thinking I'd learned my lesson, I later bought some spearmint from Penzey's. It turns out 1 ounce of dried leaves is still a fairly big bag, although we have gone through that one much more quickly and are on track to finish it by the time Celeste is in 2nd Grade.
Yesterday, I came home to find my latest such discovery of how much a pint of ladybugs (Hippodamia convergens) works out to. The answer is a hell of a lot of ladybugs.
I'd noticed some scale on one of the blueberries a while ago, and then later found some on a butterfly bush and on the beauty berry bush, so I decided to order some ladybugs. While looking around on the Biocontrol Network website, I figured a pint of ladybugs would work. I guess I didn't really have a good feel for what 4,500 ladybugs would be like, although that line about "covers 2,500 square feet" should have tipped me off.
At first, when I opened the bag, I wasn't worried; sure the bugs were swarming out at me, but they're just ladybugs — the scale, aphids, etc., are what need to worry not me. I started dropping them out of the bag around the garlic and then the peas and raspberries before moving around the yard past the apple tree and mint and over to the butterfly bushes.
Although it was a bit silly, I tried to economize how many were released over in the daylilies and on that side of the yard; I wanted to save some for the front where we have the strawberries and blueberries. After working my way around to the front yard and down the other side of the house, I realized I still had a good 1,000 or more bugs, so they were dropped off back in the garden.
This morning, I went out to find ladybugs everywhere; it's crazy how many there are and, from the look of things, they were busy working on adding to the population. If Hyattsville has a plague of ladybugs this summer, we will be ground zero.
Now, I have to worry about what about 600 praying mantises (Tenodera aridifolia sinensis) will do to the yard. The smallest number of egg cases they sold was three and each can hatch up some 200 mantids. The other bugs don't have a chance ...
Thinking I'd learned my lesson, I later bought some spearmint from Penzey's. It turns out 1 ounce of dried leaves is still a fairly big bag, although we have gone through that one much more quickly and are on track to finish it by the time Celeste is in 2nd Grade.
Yesterday, I came home to find my latest such discovery of how much a pint of ladybugs (Hippodamia convergens) works out to. The answer is a hell of a lot of ladybugs.
I'd noticed some scale on one of the blueberries a while ago, and then later found some on a butterfly bush and on the beauty berry bush, so I decided to order some ladybugs. While looking around on the Biocontrol Network website, I figured a pint of ladybugs would work. I guess I didn't really have a good feel for what 4,500 ladybugs would be like, although that line about "covers 2,500 square feet" should have tipped me off.
At first, when I opened the bag, I wasn't worried; sure the bugs were swarming out at me, but they're just ladybugs — the scale, aphids, etc., are what need to worry not me. I started dropping them out of the bag around the garlic and then the peas and raspberries before moving around the yard past the apple tree and mint and over to the butterfly bushes.
Although it was a bit silly, I tried to economize how many were released over in the daylilies and on that side of the yard; I wanted to save some for the front where we have the strawberries and blueberries. After working my way around to the front yard and down the other side of the house, I realized I still had a good 1,000 or more bugs, so they were dropped off back in the garden.
This morning, I went out to find ladybugs everywhere; it's crazy how many there are and, from the look of things, they were busy working on adding to the population. If Hyattsville has a plague of ladybugs this summer, we will be ground zero.
Now, I have to worry about what about 600 praying mantises (Tenodera aridifolia sinensis) will do to the yard. The smallest number of egg cases they sold was three and each can hatch up some 200 mantids. The other bugs don't have a chance ...
Thursday, May 12, 2005
Almost Back to Normal ...
Yesterday, on the whiteboard in my office, I drew a big arch and colored the space inside of it black. I then wiped a little bit of the black away with my pinkie finger. That was the light at the end of the tunnel. I can finally see it.
My June issue of my regular magazine is out the door; the June issue of the francophone supplement is out the door (despite, and no kidding on this, the French-language coördinator for the supplement dying the weekend before production); and the post-show marketing piece phase of the contract publishing gig is in the production phase. It's only 16 pages, so I'm not too stressed, although I'm sure it will hit some snags along the way.
All in all, it looks like I can breathe for a moment, which is a good thing because just as work is getting less 過労死, I'm launching into something I don't know how we'll finish at home.
When we first looked at this house, I threw away any negotiating position we had by looking out the bedroom window and excitedly saying "Ooh, a pond!" Over the five years we've lived here, I've mucked out the pond, ignored the pond, tried to improve the pond, and now we're filling in the pond.
To be fair, it wasn't the best of water features for the yard. It was big and the edges looked really unfinished; plus, there was no filtration setup of any sort. Basically, it was a big stagnant pond that was home to 35+ goldfish, a bunch of water lilies, a dwarf lotus, and a few other plants. Last summer, I let things go a bit and bought three water hyacinths that basically choked out everything else in pond by autumn. Raccoons, cats, possums, or something got lots of the fish, and we had an ich outbreak over winter that killed off most of the rest. In the end we were down to one gold fish and a bunch of plants.
It's important to note that Evelin has never liked the pond, but with Celeste on the scene (and rapidly approaching mobility) she has upped the impetus to get rid of it.
Parallel to all of this is the patio — a raised structure with timbers for sides (five at the highest point), brick pavers for a top, and a lot of dirt beneath. The previous owners apparently every year pulled up the pavers and releveled the dirt below; we haven't done that, and the patio has become progressively less stable. Plus those timbers (despite being creosote-soaked) are rotting badly creating some danger points that were probably actionable.
The final part to this equation is that last Thursday, Celeste took a fantastic three-hour nap, which meant we didn't have time to make a cute card for Evelin for Mother's Day ... which meant that a promise to begin tearing apart the patio and filling in the pond became my and Celeste's Mother's Day gift to Evelin. Evelin was thrilled by this.
Saturday afternoon, I set up a hose to start siphoning water out of the pond to a point in the backyard that could absorb all the water. Despite a few clogs, it drained more quickly than I expected and by morning, we were looking at a smelly hole with just a bit of water left in the deep end. After getting the siphon going again, I started cutting the lining to pull it out in stages. The tricky bit was that I wanted to dump the muck/litter that was at the bottom of the pond back into the hole, both to add some organic matter to the soil and because it was wet, heavy, and gross and disposing of the liner is enough of a problem without having to worry about the muck, too.
In the meantime, my neighbor wandered into his driveway, giving me the chance to see if he would take in any of the plants. He said he was planning to work on his pond later in the week anyway, so he was game to see what he could use. (A bit later, as I was getting to the last bit of lining, I thought I'd found the last goldfish — we hadn't seen him in weeks and had assumed a cat or raccoon had eaten him — and through he was dead. Turned out he was alive, and we rushed him over to the neighbor's pond; hopefully, he'll continue to have a good life over there.)
After the pond was emptied, I started in on the bricks and timbers. The top course of timbers was mostly at or above the brick level, so that was easy to pry away. I then (and when Celeste went down for a nap, Evelin joined in) pulled up a little bit less than half of the bricks.
The most dangerous bit of the patio was the steps down from the back door. They were three courses of bricks and timbers, but the middle timber was 90% rotted away. So I focused on dismantling that first. There was more dirt under there than I'd imagined, but the pond still has a lot of space to fill. I also started digging out on the half where the pavers had been taken up.
In all, I think I put in about six or seven hours of work on the destruction project and it just looks like a mess. Evelin is happy, however, and the pond is getting filled in and the patio is going away. (Since then, I spent some time Monday night tamping down the dirt and today, during Celeste's nap, I put in about an hour of shoveling, which brought the dirt level down to where I could take out one more timber.) This is going to take all summer, and we don't really know what's going to replace it all — a deck, another patio, some bi-level deck-patio combination, a bigger pond (probably not) ...
The other thing that's in the process of going on is that Evelin and I are changing our telecom options. Tuesday, we had cable installed; today, I finally got the cable modem working and set up the wireless router; now we just have to sign up for VoIP and we can start dumping the old phone and Internet services in favor of something faster that will cost about $45 more per month than what we used to have but about $15 less than our other high-speed options. I'm a bit sad because I've been with out outgoing ISP for more about a decade, but I do have to admit the cable is a lot faster than dialup (and Evelin and I are both doing a fair amount of work (formally and informally) from home, so we need the high-speed connection ...)
My June issue of my regular magazine is out the door; the June issue of the francophone supplement is out the door (despite, and no kidding on this, the French-language coördinator for the supplement dying the weekend before production); and the post-show marketing piece phase of the contract publishing gig is in the production phase. It's only 16 pages, so I'm not too stressed, although I'm sure it will hit some snags along the way.
All in all, it looks like I can breathe for a moment, which is a good thing because just as work is getting less 過労死, I'm launching into something I don't know how we'll finish at home.
When we first looked at this house, I threw away any negotiating position we had by looking out the bedroom window and excitedly saying "Ooh, a pond!" Over the five years we've lived here, I've mucked out the pond, ignored the pond, tried to improve the pond, and now we're filling in the pond.
To be fair, it wasn't the best of water features for the yard. It was big and the edges looked really unfinished; plus, there was no filtration setup of any sort. Basically, it was a big stagnant pond that was home to 35+ goldfish, a bunch of water lilies, a dwarf lotus, and a few other plants. Last summer, I let things go a bit and bought three water hyacinths that basically choked out everything else in pond by autumn. Raccoons, cats, possums, or something got lots of the fish, and we had an ich outbreak over winter that killed off most of the rest. In the end we were down to one gold fish and a bunch of plants.
It's important to note that Evelin has never liked the pond, but with Celeste on the scene (and rapidly approaching mobility) she has upped the impetus to get rid of it.
Parallel to all of this is the patio — a raised structure with timbers for sides (five at the highest point), brick pavers for a top, and a lot of dirt beneath. The previous owners apparently every year pulled up the pavers and releveled the dirt below; we haven't done that, and the patio has become progressively less stable. Plus those timbers (despite being creosote-soaked) are rotting badly creating some danger points that were probably actionable.
The final part to this equation is that last Thursday, Celeste took a fantastic three-hour nap, which meant we didn't have time to make a cute card for Evelin for Mother's Day ... which meant that a promise to begin tearing apart the patio and filling in the pond became my and Celeste's Mother's Day gift to Evelin. Evelin was thrilled by this.
Saturday afternoon, I set up a hose to start siphoning water out of the pond to a point in the backyard that could absorb all the water. Despite a few clogs, it drained more quickly than I expected and by morning, we were looking at a smelly hole with just a bit of water left in the deep end. After getting the siphon going again, I started cutting the lining to pull it out in stages. The tricky bit was that I wanted to dump the muck/litter that was at the bottom of the pond back into the hole, both to add some organic matter to the soil and because it was wet, heavy, and gross and disposing of the liner is enough of a problem without having to worry about the muck, too.
In the meantime, my neighbor wandered into his driveway, giving me the chance to see if he would take in any of the plants. He said he was planning to work on his pond later in the week anyway, so he was game to see what he could use. (A bit later, as I was getting to the last bit of lining, I thought I'd found the last goldfish — we hadn't seen him in weeks and had assumed a cat or raccoon had eaten him — and through he was dead. Turned out he was alive, and we rushed him over to the neighbor's pond; hopefully, he'll continue to have a good life over there.)
After the pond was emptied, I started in on the bricks and timbers. The top course of timbers was mostly at or above the brick level, so that was easy to pry away. I then (and when Celeste went down for a nap, Evelin joined in) pulled up a little bit less than half of the bricks.
The most dangerous bit of the patio was the steps down from the back door. They were three courses of bricks and timbers, but the middle timber was 90% rotted away. So I focused on dismantling that first. There was more dirt under there than I'd imagined, but the pond still has a lot of space to fill. I also started digging out on the half where the pavers had been taken up.
In all, I think I put in about six or seven hours of work on the destruction project and it just looks like a mess. Evelin is happy, however, and the pond is getting filled in and the patio is going away. (Since then, I spent some time Monday night tamping down the dirt and today, during Celeste's nap, I put in about an hour of shoveling, which brought the dirt level down to where I could take out one more timber.) This is going to take all summer, and we don't really know what's going to replace it all — a deck, another patio, some bi-level deck-patio combination, a bigger pond (probably not) ...
The other thing that's in the process of going on is that Evelin and I are changing our telecom options. Tuesday, we had cable installed; today, I finally got the cable modem working and set up the wireless router; now we just have to sign up for VoIP and we can start dumping the old phone and Internet services in favor of something faster that will cost about $45 more per month than what we used to have but about $15 less than our other high-speed options. I'm a bit sad because I've been with out outgoing ISP for more about a decade, but I do have to admit the cable is a lot faster than dialup (and Evelin and I are both doing a fair amount of work (formally and informally) from home, so we need the high-speed connection ...)
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Clap or MORE?
This afternoon, I called Evelin after Celeste and I had a short hike in Greenbelt Park to let her know that I was preparing a bottle for the girl. Evelin asked if I'd seen Celeste clap yet. I hadn't, but I soon would.
Evelin wasn't sure if the clapping, which just started today, was Celeste's attempt to sign MORE or if it was just a fun thing for her to do. For a while now, she's like to watch us clap (either just to praise her or to keep rhythm with a song or for fun or as part of a "Here we go Red Sox!" chant) and about a month or so ago, she started putting her hands over my or Evelin's clapping hands to "force" us to clap, but today she started clapping all on her own.
The question of whether this is language or expression is still out. The first claps I saw where right after I got off the phone with Evelin and signed MILK to Celeste to see if she was hungry. She started clapping. I immediately called Evelin back, and she proffered that the clap might be Celeste's MORE sign and that she'd sign it before she's had anything because she knows more food follows the MORE sign.
The next big round of clapping came when I brought the bottle into her field of vision. And there was more as she pulled away from the bottle while feeding. This was looking like language.
But, later in the afternoon, she was clapping while playing with some of her toys. The clapping didn't seem to fit the MORE context, but I can't read her mind, maybe she was trying to tell the rubber duckie to get back into the cup so she could dump him out again.
There was other random clapping including a clap-fest where she started clapping, I'd clap back and then she'd clap some more. So the jury is still out; probably there are elements of both language and clapping here.
Evelin wasn't sure if the clapping, which just started today, was Celeste's attempt to sign MORE or if it was just a fun thing for her to do. For a while now, she's like to watch us clap (either just to praise her or to keep rhythm with a song or for fun or as part of a "Here we go Red Sox!" chant) and about a month or so ago, she started putting her hands over my or Evelin's clapping hands to "force" us to clap, but today she started clapping all on her own.
The question of whether this is language or expression is still out. The first claps I saw where right after I got off the phone with Evelin and signed MILK to Celeste to see if she was hungry. She started clapping. I immediately called Evelin back, and she proffered that the clap might be Celeste's MORE sign and that she'd sign it before she's had anything because she knows more food follows the MORE sign.
The next big round of clapping came when I brought the bottle into her field of vision. And there was more as she pulled away from the bottle while feeding. This was looking like language.
But, later in the afternoon, she was clapping while playing with some of her toys. The clapping didn't seem to fit the MORE context, but I can't read her mind, maybe she was trying to tell the rubber duckie to get back into the cup so she could dump him out again.
There was other random clapping including a clap-fest where she started clapping, I'd clap back and then she'd clap some more. So the jury is still out; probably there are elements of both language and clapping here.
If I Were a ...
I think blog meme things are supposed to help you when your stuck for something to blog about, but Anita stuck me with this a week ago and I've just been too tied up in 過労死 to do anything about it. So, without further ado ...
If I could be an architect, I'd aim to design buildings with Bauhaus-level functionality but with a more naturalistic flair.
If I could be a librarian, I'd try to steer people toward more challenging fiction and a wide variety of history, science, and other books, instead of the latest summer beach books.
If I could be a gardener, I'd be able to do something about the ogräs that has replaced our lawn ...
If I could be an innkeeper, I'd want to have a comfortable place, not overly fluffy or busy, but warm and inviting with a nice great room with a fire for guests to relax around while enjoying a nice port and some cookies.
If I could be a store owner (my addition to the list), I'd be a green grocer with a neighborhood store that offered a variety of fresh local produce, artisan cheeses, a nice mix of staples and slightly exotic offerings with recipes available to help people figure out how to put it all together.
I'll let Anita be the one who analyzes what all this might say about me.... As for sticking others with the meme, I'll just leave it here for anyone who's interested in responding (just leave me a trackback or something), but I am curious what Enjanerd might have to say.
What follows is a list of different occupations. You must select at least five of them. You may add more if you like to your list before you pass it on (after you select five of the items as it was passed to you).
Of the five you selected, you are to finish each phrase with what you would do as a member of that profession. Then pass it on to three other bloggers.
Here's that list:
- If I could be a scientist...
- If I could be a farmer...
- If I could be a musician...
- If I could be a doctor...
- If I could be a painter...
- If I could be a gardener...
- If I could be a missionary...
- If I could be a chef...
- If I could be an architect...
- If I could be a linguist...
- If I could be a psychologist...
- If I could be a librarian...
- If I could be an athlete...
- If I could be a lawyer...
- If I could be an innkeeper...
- If I could be a professor...
- If I could be a writer...
- If I could be a backup dancer...
- If I could be a llama-rider...
- If I could be a bonnie pirate...
- If I could be a midget stripper...
- If I could be a proctologist...
- If I could be a TV-Chat Show host...
- If I could be an actor...
- If I could be a judge...
- If I could be a Jedi...
- If I could be a mob boss...
- If I could be an Avon Lady...
- If I could be a store owner...
If I could be an architect, I'd aim to design buildings with Bauhaus-level functionality but with a more naturalistic flair.
If I could be a librarian, I'd try to steer people toward more challenging fiction and a wide variety of history, science, and other books, instead of the latest summer beach books.
If I could be a gardener, I'd be able to do something about the ogräs that has replaced our lawn ...
If I could be an innkeeper, I'd want to have a comfortable place, not overly fluffy or busy, but warm and inviting with a nice great room with a fire for guests to relax around while enjoying a nice port and some cookies.
If I could be a store owner (my addition to the list), I'd be a green grocer with a neighborhood store that offered a variety of fresh local produce, artisan cheeses, a nice mix of staples and slightly exotic offerings with recipes available to help people figure out how to put it all together.
I'll let Anita be the one who analyzes what all this might say about me.... As for sticking others with the meme, I'll just leave it here for anyone who's interested in responding (just leave me a trackback or something), but I am curious what Enjanerd might have to say.
Saturday, April 30, 2005
Take Me Out to the Ballgame
Last night I had two firsts: My first National League ballgame and the first time I've seen a MLB pitcher hit a home run.
A friend of S---'s was coming to town for some bankruptcy lawyers convention and part of the convention package included nosebleed seats for last night's Nationals–Mets match up. Because of an early schedule the next day, the friend had two tickets but no desire to spend a night at the ballpark. So, S--- got the tickets and I got to tag along; I told S--- I'd buy the beers, but, because of Passover, he wasn't partaking ...
[ASIDE: Yes, I abandoned Evelin and Celeste for the night, but Evelin said they didn't mind; Celeste didn't want to talk to me, however, when Evelin called at bathtime just before the first pitch — I think she was a bit jealous.]
The last time I went to RFK Stadium was during the 2002 World Cup, when the U.S. faced Germany in the quarterfinals. They opened up the stadium early for the 6:00 a.m. (UTC-5:00) match, which was being shown on the stadium Jumbotron. It was a good game, even though Germany won, and a lot of fun. The crowd was energized and players from the Washington Freedom were on hand to try and gin up interest in women's professional soccer. I ran into C---, the brother of one of my coworkers, and got to enjoy the game while only being a little late for work. (It definitely was a better match that some of the earlier games that I had to wake at 2:00 a.m. for to watch in Spanish or the ones I had to try to watch via the line-by-line commentary I was getting from the talkSPORT website.
Prior to that, I'd only been there for a few HFStivals. The Nationals game was quite a different experience.
Our seats were quite high (Section 524, Row 8) and along the third base line and it was surprisingly hard to tell where some of the hit balls were flying. Regularly, when a foul was headed into the sections below us, it appeared to be traveling more along the first base line. Balls hit hard and high into center field looked certain to be headed out, but instead they were easily caught no where near the warning track. What was clear to see was how fast the pitches were flying (even though only a few pitches broke 90 mph). I've usually had seats situated somewhere in left field with a head-on view of the plate. From that perspective, the ball doesn't seem to travel nearly as quickly as it appeared to from last night's seats. What was hard to judge was the strike zone.
At first it looked like were going to be in for a bad night for the Nats, with Liván Hernández struggling some in the 1st inning, but he settled in for the next seven innings giving up a few hits here and there, but no more runs. And, in the sixth, he had a solo homerun; the first time S--- or I could remember ever seeing (in person or not) a pitcher do that.
The stadium itself remains an old structure, but it wasn't bad for a ballgame. What I found really interesting, in terms of infrastructure, was that you could see some of the lines in the grass and the track where some of the seats swung out of the way to convert the field from a baseball diamond to a soccer pitch.
The sad thing was that I have one Met and four Nats on my fantasy team, and none of those players had a very exciting night. It did cause me a few conflicted moments during the game, however ... I wanted Hernandez to pitch his way out of his 1st inning jam, but if Cliff Floyd had gotten a three-run homer instead of a one-run sacrifice fly, it would have earned me more points (and being at in the cellar in the fantasy league is getting old ...)
Although I hope we'll get to a Boston–Orioles game at some point this summer, the only game I have tickets for thus far is for a Portland Sea Dogs match up against the Bowie Bay Sox in May. It's AA ball, but the Sea Dogs are running hot right now, and are fielding seven of the Sox's top ten prospects. So we should be in for a good game ...
A friend of S---'s was coming to town for some bankruptcy lawyers convention and part of the convention package included nosebleed seats for last night's Nationals–Mets match up. Because of an early schedule the next day, the friend had two tickets but no desire to spend a night at the ballpark. So, S--- got the tickets and I got to tag along; I told S--- I'd buy the beers, but, because of Passover, he wasn't partaking ...
[ASIDE: Yes, I abandoned Evelin and Celeste for the night, but Evelin said they didn't mind; Celeste didn't want to talk to me, however, when Evelin called at bathtime just before the first pitch — I think she was a bit jealous.]
The last time I went to RFK Stadium was during the 2002 World Cup, when the U.S. faced Germany in the quarterfinals. They opened up the stadium early for the 6:00 a.m. (UTC-5:00) match, which was being shown on the stadium Jumbotron. It was a good game, even though Germany won, and a lot of fun. The crowd was energized and players from the Washington Freedom were on hand to try and gin up interest in women's professional soccer. I ran into C---, the brother of one of my coworkers, and got to enjoy the game while only being a little late for work. (It definitely was a better match that some of the earlier games that I had to wake at 2:00 a.m. for to watch in Spanish or the ones I had to try to watch via the line-by-line commentary I was getting from the talkSPORT website.
Prior to that, I'd only been there for a few HFStivals. The Nationals game was quite a different experience.
Our seats were quite high (Section 524, Row 8) and along the third base line and it was surprisingly hard to tell where some of the hit balls were flying. Regularly, when a foul was headed into the sections below us, it appeared to be traveling more along the first base line. Balls hit hard and high into center field looked certain to be headed out, but instead they were easily caught no where near the warning track. What was clear to see was how fast the pitches were flying (even though only a few pitches broke 90 mph). I've usually had seats situated somewhere in left field with a head-on view of the plate. From that perspective, the ball doesn't seem to travel nearly as quickly as it appeared to from last night's seats. What was hard to judge was the strike zone.
At first it looked like were going to be in for a bad night for the Nats, with Liván Hernández struggling some in the 1st inning, but he settled in for the next seven innings giving up a few hits here and there, but no more runs. And, in the sixth, he had a solo homerun; the first time S--- or I could remember ever seeing (in person or not) a pitcher do that.
The stadium itself remains an old structure, but it wasn't bad for a ballgame. What I found really interesting, in terms of infrastructure, was that you could see some of the lines in the grass and the track where some of the seats swung out of the way to convert the field from a baseball diamond to a soccer pitch.
The sad thing was that I have one Met and four Nats on my fantasy team, and none of those players had a very exciting night. It did cause me a few conflicted moments during the game, however ... I wanted Hernandez to pitch his way out of his 1st inning jam, but if Cliff Floyd had gotten a three-run homer instead of a one-run sacrifice fly, it would have earned me more points (and being at in the cellar in the fantasy league is getting old ...)
Although I hope we'll get to a Boston–Orioles game at some point this summer, the only game I have tickets for thus far is for a Portland Sea Dogs match up against the Bowie Bay Sox in May. It's AA ball, but the Sea Dogs are running hot right now, and are fielding seven of the Sox's top ten prospects. So we should be in for a good game ...
Thursday, April 28, 2005
An Excursion
When I got home and Evelin told me that Celeste had just awoken from a 21∕4-hour nap, I was a little worried. However, with no sleep or feeding pending for the immediate future, I decided to do something Celeste and I have yet to do: an excursion by ourselves. She we've taken walks/strolls around the neighborhood, down to the park, and along the Northwest Branch, as well as trips to the supermarket, without Evelin, but I've been loath to load up the car and head OUT somewhere because of feeding/sleeping concerns.
This time, I threw caution to the wind, the Piggyback in the back of the T.R.U.C.K., and a bottle into an insulated bag (just in case), and Celeste and I headed out. (Although the story does not turn upon this fact, it is worth noting that I did not think to load up a diaper bag ...)
We headed across the Anacostia (actually the Northeast Branch at that point) and headed south into the District, making our way to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, which is probably one of the least visited national parks in the country despite its urban location. As the name implies, the park is a big group of ponds with waterlilies, lotuses, and other aquatic plants. There also are a lot of turtles, frogs, and other animals, including this time of year Canada geese (Branta canadensis). A few years ago, the gardens also added a boardwalk out into the Kenilworth Marsh, which gives you an idea of what the banks of the Anacostia used to be like before it was dredged and manipulated, eventually leading the river to silt up to the point where ships could no longer bring goods to the port of Bladensburg.
Celeste did pretty good in the Piggyback; no fussing, except towards the end of the trip when I took back my hand that she'd been holding for a little while (it gets tiring to keep an arm lifted above your head and twisted back just so someone can squeeze and occasionally gnaw on it ...). I'm pretty sure she didn't notice the tadpoles, and I'm not sure about the turtles, but she definitely saw the geese, particularly the pair that swooped over us as part of their landing approach into one of the big ponds. She also kept a close eye on the two or three that hissed at us as we walked past. The paths through the ponds are fairly narrow, so there were times the geese either had to move or we had to agree to pass each other as widely as possible. Some were okay with jumping into the water, but a few held their ground and acted tough.
Out on the boardwalk, we saw some raptors — turkey buzzards or some other sort of vulture, I think — gliding about, as well as a few mallards, many more geese, and assorted songbirds. Celeste didn't seem to be looking in the same directions I was most of the time (although, even with the little mirror that comes with the Piggyback, it's hard to see what the person in the pack is up to), but she seemed to enjoy herself. I could feel her weight shift to look around in different directions a couple of times, particularly when we startled some mallards and they took flight from fairly close to us.
We made it back to the car and home without Celeste needing to be fed or anything; in fact, we had a little bit of hang out and play time at home before she wanted to eat, and — surprise, surprise — she fell asleep during her bottle and ended up having a good 30 minute nap.
The rest of the afternoon was the usual, play here, play there, jump in the jumper for a while; the only thing new is that we sat in the backyard for a bit. I'd just refilled the birdfeeder and I wanted to see if she would notice if any birds came to visit. The birds, however, weren't coöperative, waiting until after we'd left to see what sort of seeds were now on offer.
Avocado and bananas can just be smushed with a fork or potato masher; for peas this works reasonably well, too. Butternut squash, however, seems to need to go through the food mill or something. Evelin made some up this morning and just mashed the squash; this evening Celeste took a few bites, made a scowl, and spat back a big fibrous knot-o-mush. I think the mashing of the squash is a bit like felting; it makes the fibers knit together a bit.
The other learning experience was with the parsnips last night. Instead of boiling them, Evelin thought to bake them. The end result was some very tasty parsnip fries, however, it took a lot of moisture out of them, and since they were cut into smallish chunks, there was a lot of "sealed" surface for each chunk of parsnip. Long story short: They wouldn't mash with a potato masher, and I didn't pull out the vegetable straining attachment for the mixer. Instead I tried the food processor and adding some water. That worked a little bit, but there were still a lot of chunks, so I tried working it all through a strainer, pushing the mash through with the back of a spoon. This worked pretty well, but one bag of parsnips yielded only two or three servings of baby food.
Next time (and there will be a next time, because it seems like she likes them, at least when mixed with apples), I think we'll try steaming them and probably using the mixer attachments ...
This time, I threw caution to the wind, the Piggyback in the back of the T.R.U.C.K., and a bottle into an insulated bag (just in case), and Celeste and I headed out. (Although the story does not turn upon this fact, it is worth noting that I did not think to load up a diaper bag ...)
We headed across the Anacostia (actually the Northeast Branch at that point) and headed south into the District, making our way to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, which is probably one of the least visited national parks in the country despite its urban location. As the name implies, the park is a big group of ponds with waterlilies, lotuses, and other aquatic plants. There also are a lot of turtles, frogs, and other animals, including this time of year Canada geese (Branta canadensis). A few years ago, the gardens also added a boardwalk out into the Kenilworth Marsh, which gives you an idea of what the banks of the Anacostia used to be like before it was dredged and manipulated, eventually leading the river to silt up to the point where ships could no longer bring goods to the port of Bladensburg.
Celeste did pretty good in the Piggyback; no fussing, except towards the end of the trip when I took back my hand that she'd been holding for a little while (it gets tiring to keep an arm lifted above your head and twisted back just so someone can squeeze and occasionally gnaw on it ...). I'm pretty sure she didn't notice the tadpoles, and I'm not sure about the turtles, but she definitely saw the geese, particularly the pair that swooped over us as part of their landing approach into one of the big ponds. She also kept a close eye on the two or three that hissed at us as we walked past. The paths through the ponds are fairly narrow, so there were times the geese either had to move or we had to agree to pass each other as widely as possible. Some were okay with jumping into the water, but a few held their ground and acted tough.
Out on the boardwalk, we saw some raptors — turkey buzzards or some other sort of vulture, I think — gliding about, as well as a few mallards, many more geese, and assorted songbirds. Celeste didn't seem to be looking in the same directions I was most of the time (although, even with the little mirror that comes with the Piggyback, it's hard to see what the person in the pack is up to), but she seemed to enjoy herself. I could feel her weight shift to look around in different directions a couple of times, particularly when we startled some mallards and they took flight from fairly close to us.
We made it back to the car and home without Celeste needing to be fed or anything; in fact, we had a little bit of hang out and play time at home before she wanted to eat, and — surprise, surprise — she fell asleep during her bottle and ended up having a good 30 minute nap.
The rest of the afternoon was the usual, play here, play there, jump in the jumper for a while; the only thing new is that we sat in the backyard for a bit. I'd just refilled the birdfeeder and I wanted to see if she would notice if any birds came to visit. The birds, however, weren't coöperative, waiting until after we'd left to see what sort of seeds were now on offer.
More About Celeste's Food
So, with the exception of the yoghurt, cereals, teething biscuits, and carrots, we're making all of Celeste's food. (Carrots should be bought because the nitrate levels in fresh carrots can vary greatly depending upon local soil conditions, gardening techniques, etc.; it's safest to buy carrot baby food.) However, making all this food is not as simple as it might sometimes seem.Avocado and bananas can just be smushed with a fork or potato masher; for peas this works reasonably well, too. Butternut squash, however, seems to need to go through the food mill or something. Evelin made some up this morning and just mashed the squash; this evening Celeste took a few bites, made a scowl, and spat back a big fibrous knot-o-mush. I think the mashing of the squash is a bit like felting; it makes the fibers knit together a bit.
The other learning experience was with the parsnips last night. Instead of boiling them, Evelin thought to bake them. The end result was some very tasty parsnip fries, however, it took a lot of moisture out of them, and since they were cut into smallish chunks, there was a lot of "sealed" surface for each chunk of parsnip. Long story short: They wouldn't mash with a potato masher, and I didn't pull out the vegetable straining attachment for the mixer. Instead I tried the food processor and adding some water. That worked a little bit, but there were still a lot of chunks, so I tried working it all through a strainer, pushing the mash through with the back of a spoon. This worked pretty well, but one bag of parsnips yielded only two or three servings of baby food.
Next time (and there will be a next time, because it seems like she likes them, at least when mixed with apples), I think we'll try steaming them and probably using the mixer attachments ...
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Schedules
I'm having trouble getting myself back on to a schedule or into a rhythm or something, which is partly why I've not been blogging. After Vegas, I spent a lot of time catching up on sleep, and this week I've been getting back into the 4:00 a.m. to noon twice a week schedule.
Adding to all this is that Celeste's schedule is in flux, too. Part of it is trying to adjust to the new sleeping regimen; her bath and bedtime have shifted back to between 7:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., but her wakes have been all over the place — as early as 5:30 a.m. or 6:00 a.m. and as late as 8:15 a.m. Not that she's sleeping straight through or anything; she still needs to feed twice a night (usually between 11:30 p.m. and 1:00 a.m. and then sometime between 3:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. or so), and sometimes she takes the first morning feed as yet another night feeding and goes straight back to bed (that's what happened the morning she slept until 8:15 a.m.). And, with that varying waking time, her naps range wildly; on a good day, she has a short morning nap, an okay (45 or 75 minute) afternoon nap, and a quick nap late in the day to "top off" before getting ready for bed.
As for what she's eating, she is has a pretty good variety available to her now, but we don't have everything in the freezer at any given time. On the approved list (grouped into yoghurt, grains, fruits, and vegetables, but otherwise in no particular order) are: yoghurt (Greek and regular); rice, oatmeal, and barley cereal, as well as teething biscuits and rice cakes; apples (and apple juice), pears, asian pears, plums, peaches, and bananas; sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, peas, acorn squash, summer squash, zucchini, butternut squash, and avocado. We made up some parsnips for her tonight, so she'll probably get to try those tomorrow.
Not surprisingly, the faves have been the sweet things: plums, apples, pears, and asian pears. Green beans are tolerated when mixed with something sweeter, such as sweet potato. Zucchini was too bitter (although we didn't try mixing it with other stuff), and avocado gets a mild expression of distaste, but each time we give her some, she seem to take to it more.
As for the fingerfood, she can't quite handle the rice cakes, but she does enjoy the teething biscuits. When we've tried giving her little bits of diced acorn squash, for example, she'll pick it up, but refuses to bring it to her mouth. Stray things off the floor? Straight into the mouth: Food off her highchair tray? Not a chance.
The first yoghurt she tried was some YoBaby Plus stuff that a S--- and G--- left here. She was okay with it, but Evelin and I didn't like that the second ingredient was sugar (sure it's "organic milled cane sugar," but still ...), so I checked at Trader Joe's where ΦΑΓΕ Greek yoghurt was finally back on the shelves. The full-fat ΦΑΓΕ Total Greek Yoghurt was there, whole milk and sugar-free. At the same time, Evelin picked up some Brown Cow yoghurt that was also whole milk and sugar-free, but not as thick and luscious as the ΦΑΓΕ stuff. (Evelin compares the ΦΑΓΕ yoghurt to sour cream.) Celeste seems fine with either the Brown Cow or the ΦΑΓΕ, and will eat either plain or mixed with some cereal or fruit ... even avocado.
Adding to all this is that Celeste's schedule is in flux, too. Part of it is trying to adjust to the new sleeping regimen; her bath and bedtime have shifted back to between 7:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., but her wakes have been all over the place — as early as 5:30 a.m. or 6:00 a.m. and as late as 8:15 a.m. Not that she's sleeping straight through or anything; she still needs to feed twice a night (usually between 11:30 p.m. and 1:00 a.m. and then sometime between 3:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. or so), and sometimes she takes the first morning feed as yet another night feeding and goes straight back to bed (that's what happened the morning she slept until 8:15 a.m.). And, with that varying waking time, her naps range wildly; on a good day, she has a short morning nap, an okay (45 or 75 minute) afternoon nap, and a quick nap late in the day to "top off" before getting ready for bed.
Feeding Celeste
Her feedings (both solids and breastmilk) are similarly scattered through out the day; usually she gets a morning solids meal and a late afternoon/early evening one, but sometimes she only has one and (on rare occasions) she has three. It's mostly an on demand thing and she can be picky. The fun bit is that she makes lots of really neat growls and hyurrrrm and other yummy noises while being fed solids. When she gets on a roll, it's a riot.As for what she's eating, she is has a pretty good variety available to her now, but we don't have everything in the freezer at any given time. On the approved list (grouped into yoghurt, grains, fruits, and vegetables, but otherwise in no particular order) are: yoghurt (Greek and regular); rice, oatmeal, and barley cereal, as well as teething biscuits and rice cakes; apples (and apple juice), pears, asian pears, plums, peaches, and bananas; sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, peas, acorn squash, summer squash, zucchini, butternut squash, and avocado. We made up some parsnips for her tonight, so she'll probably get to try those tomorrow.
Not surprisingly, the faves have been the sweet things: plums, apples, pears, and asian pears. Green beans are tolerated when mixed with something sweeter, such as sweet potato. Zucchini was too bitter (although we didn't try mixing it with other stuff), and avocado gets a mild expression of distaste, but each time we give her some, she seem to take to it more.
As for the fingerfood, she can't quite handle the rice cakes, but she does enjoy the teething biscuits. When we've tried giving her little bits of diced acorn squash, for example, she'll pick it up, but refuses to bring it to her mouth. Stray things off the floor? Straight into the mouth: Food off her highchair tray? Not a chance.
The first yoghurt she tried was some YoBaby Plus stuff that a S--- and G--- left here. She was okay with it, but Evelin and I didn't like that the second ingredient was sugar (sure it's "organic milled cane sugar," but still ...), so I checked at Trader Joe's where ΦΑΓΕ Greek yoghurt was finally back on the shelves. The full-fat ΦΑΓΕ Total Greek Yoghurt was there, whole milk and sugar-free. At the same time, Evelin picked up some Brown Cow yoghurt that was also whole milk and sugar-free, but not as thick and luscious as the ΦΑΓΕ stuff. (Evelin compares the ΦΑΓΕ yoghurt to sour cream.) Celeste seems fine with either the Brown Cow or the ΦΑΓΕ, and will eat either plain or mixed with some cereal or fruit ... even avocado.
Thursday, April 21, 2005
Blog of the Living Dead
I counted it up: Since leaving home at 3:15 a.m. on Saturday until I returned at 11:00-something on Wednesday, I had a total of 18 hours sleep, three or four of which were on the planes from Vegas to Pittsburgh and from Pittsburgh to Baltimore.
Yep, it was convention daily time again.
Usually these things get easier as the show progresses, but this was the really BIG project (two issues a day; 16 pages live for one, 24 pages live for the other with ad:edit ratios of about 55:45) — and, when the live assignments were made, the writers were all told to write short because the second edition was going to only have a 16 page live hole with an ad:edit of about 73:27 ... this meant there was a lot of scrambling to fill pages at the last minute.
Adding to the problem were various issues with the rental computers (for some reason, ever since Apple moved up to G5s and OS X, the rentals we've gotten for these on-site projects have been buggier and more difficult to work with than G3/G4 and OX 9 setups of the past or even the G5s and OS X setups in the office), and let's just say I was able to call Evelin and Celeste every night when I got back to my hotel room to talk to them during breakfast.
Despite all this, I think we had the fewest complaints ever about the papers, and they looked better than ever before. A good job done well, with only a few near fatalities ...
Now I just have to deal with a few regular office issues before we can do a post mortem and try to figure out what went wrong and how we can address those issues (and the ones that spiral outwards from them).
While I was gone, she learned a few new tricks: She's able to roll from her back to her belly, and she has her two bottom incisors popping out. We can't quite see the teeth yet, but they are there (the initial eruption seems to have happened on Monday, while Evelin and Celeste were on the way to pick my mom up from the airport).
Also, she's sleeping more through the night and exclusively in her own bed. We're letting her cry it out some, and Evelin wanted to start the Friday night before I left, but there was no way I was going to let her cry when I was having to get up in the middle of the night to leave for nearly a week; I wanted her laugh, not her cries, to be the echo of memory I took with me.
So Saturday night, the great experiment started and, according to Evelin, went pretty well. Sunday night went less well, but the rest of the week has been pretty good ... or so I'm told. I expect to have to be cuffed to a chair or something tonight if Celeste realizes that the weak-link in this chain is now home.
I stayed in The Riviera this time (which makes two years in a row without having to sleep in Circus Circus), which was okay. It was the 50th anniversary of the opening of the hotel (the day of celebration was the day I checked out, so I missed that night's fireworks display), so they had some displays about the casino through they years set up on the main floor, including Liberace's mirrored piano. I think they had a Liberace impersonator playing it sometimes, but I didn't catch any performances.
The only non-work thing I did was a quick ride on the monorail. Monday was the day I didn't get to the newsroom until about 10:30 a.m. because I decided to walk down to a liquor/souvenir shop that has a really big selection of airline bottles. (I like to see if I can find any miniatures of whiskies I haven't tasted before; I figure it's better to spend less than $10 for a small bottle of something that might be really nice than to spend $40 on something that turns out to be crap plus, because of the way liquor is regulated in the States, different tipples can be found in different parts of the country.) The store is near the Sahara, at one end of the monorail, so, after picking up a few things, I paid my fare and rode the monorail to the MGM Grand and then back to the convention center.
It's a fairly short system, but the surprisingly small cars got extremely crowded with conventioneers (and tourists) very quickly, especially on the MGM-to-LVCC portion of things. For the most part, it seemed to travel fairly slowly, but, because it is elevated and runs behind the casinos for the Strip portion of things, it did give a look down to parts of the hotels that aren't meant to be seen. The most interesting thing was a look over the wall into the Desert Inn Golf Course and of its nursery operation: There were tons of really large trees in giant boxes ready to be placed wherever Steve Wynn needs them to go.
The new Wynn hotel was a nice addition to the skyline; I'm sure it will be too expensive for me to even step inside much less stay there ...
Yep, it was convention daily time again.
Usually these things get easier as the show progresses, but this was the really BIG project (two issues a day; 16 pages live for one, 24 pages live for the other with ad:edit ratios of about 55:45) — and, when the live assignments were made, the writers were all told to write short because the second edition was going to only have a 16 page live hole with an ad:edit of about 73:27 ... this meant there was a lot of scrambling to fill pages at the last minute.
Adding to the problem were various issues with the rental computers (for some reason, ever since Apple moved up to G5s and OS X, the rentals we've gotten for these on-site projects have been buggier and more difficult to work with than G3/G4 and OX 9 setups of the past or even the G5s and OS X setups in the office), and let's just say I was able to call Evelin and Celeste every night when I got back to my hotel room to talk to them during breakfast.
Despite all this, I think we had the fewest complaints ever about the papers, and they looked better than ever before. A good job done well, with only a few near fatalities ...
Now I just have to deal with a few regular office issues before we can do a post mortem and try to figure out what went wrong and how we can address those issues (and the ones that spiral outwards from them).
Home With Celeste
This morning, I woke up at 5:30 a.m. when I heard my mother and Evelin talking about whether or not Celeste (who was crying some) should get up. Not 100% awake, I quickly offered to go get her. (Last night, when I got in, I snuck into her room to take a peek at her, but she was sound asleep and Evelin and I agreed that if she woke for a midnight feed, I'd stay hidden so as not to get her worked up when she should be asleep.) By 7:00 a.m., Celeste and I were realizing we both needed more sleep: a half-hour more for her, about three-and-a-half for me.While I was gone, she learned a few new tricks: She's able to roll from her back to her belly, and she has her two bottom incisors popping out. We can't quite see the teeth yet, but they are there (the initial eruption seems to have happened on Monday, while Evelin and Celeste were on the way to pick my mom up from the airport).
Also, she's sleeping more through the night and exclusively in her own bed. We're letting her cry it out some, and Evelin wanted to start the Friday night before I left, but there was no way I was going to let her cry when I was having to get up in the middle of the night to leave for nearly a week; I wanted her laugh, not her cries, to be the echo of memory I took with me.
So Saturday night, the great experiment started and, according to Evelin, went pretty well. Sunday night went less well, but the rest of the week has been pretty good ... or so I'm told. I expect to have to be cuffed to a chair or something tonight if Celeste realizes that the weak-link in this chain is now home.
Stories of Vegas
The rough outline (hopefully rough enough to keep me from getting dooced) of the work side of things is above and considering that I was in the newsroom from about 9:00 a.m. (worst) or 10:30 a.m. (best) each day to about 2:30 (best) or 5:30 a.m. (worst) each day, that pretty much was Vegas.I stayed in The Riviera this time (which makes two years in a row without having to sleep in Circus Circus), which was okay. It was the 50th anniversary of the opening of the hotel (the day of celebration was the day I checked out, so I missed that night's fireworks display), so they had some displays about the casino through they years set up on the main floor, including Liberace's mirrored piano. I think they had a Liberace impersonator playing it sometimes, but I didn't catch any performances.
The only non-work thing I did was a quick ride on the monorail. Monday was the day I didn't get to the newsroom until about 10:30 a.m. because I decided to walk down to a liquor/souvenir shop that has a really big selection of airline bottles. (I like to see if I can find any miniatures of whiskies I haven't tasted before; I figure it's better to spend less than $10 for a small bottle of something that might be really nice than to spend $40 on something that turns out to be crap plus, because of the way liquor is regulated in the States, different tipples can be found in different parts of the country.) The store is near the Sahara, at one end of the monorail, so, after picking up a few things, I paid my fare and rode the monorail to the MGM Grand and then back to the convention center.
It's a fairly short system, but the surprisingly small cars got extremely crowded with conventioneers (and tourists) very quickly, especially on the MGM-to-LVCC portion of things. For the most part, it seemed to travel fairly slowly, but, because it is elevated and runs behind the casinos for the Strip portion of things, it did give a look down to parts of the hotels that aren't meant to be seen. The most interesting thing was a look over the wall into the Desert Inn Golf Course and of its nursery operation: There were tons of really large trees in giant boxes ready to be placed wherever Steve Wynn needs them to go.
The new Wynn hotel was a nice addition to the skyline; I'm sure it will be too expensive for me to even step inside much less stay there ...
Friday, April 08, 2005
South Park Stylee
I think I've only seen about a half episode of South Park, but this is still pretty funny ...
Basically, Das Planearium has set up a Flash tool where you can design a South Park charicature of yourself.
(Via Blethers)
Basically, Das Planearium has set up a Flash tool where you can design a South Park charicature of yourself.
(Via Blethers)
Monday, April 04, 2005
An Argument for the Elimination of Daylight Savings Time ...
... or at least staying on GMT-5:00 year round.
It might have been excitement over the Beloved BoSox–Hated Yankees or, more likely, her two-and-a-half hour nap that ended at 5:15 p.m., but Celeste did not want to sleep last night. Around 6:30 p.m., she started making some sleep cues and got ready for her bath, by the end of bathtime, it was the usual crankiness about getting dressed and settling in for the evening; then, after Evelin topped her up for the evening, back down the stairs came Celeste eyes wide open.
The game was on the radio (sadly WCBS and the Yankee's broadcast team) and Evelin lay with Celeste on the couch trying to get her to realize that it was sleepytime. No good. After the 2nd or 3rd inning, we headed upstairs to bed where I switched to an earbud radio and where Celeste just wanted to sit and play. Finally, around 9:30 p.m., we shut off all the lights in an effort to convince her to GO. TO. SLEEP.
The convincing worked on Evelin and eventually on Celeste, too. I dozed off in the bottom of the 6th to awaken for the bottom of the 8th. It was a fitful night for me for some reason (and not because of the loss: there are 161 games left and the BoSox have started the last four seasons with a loss; plus, to my ears, Randy Johnson sounded pretty hittable — I think the stats he put up last night make him sound better than he pitched), but Celeste and Evelin did pretty good. There was a wake up to feed around 1:30 a.m., but otherwise Celeste slept until about 6:45 a.m.
Accounting for the change to summer time, that last bit doesn't seem too far off from what she'd been doing, but Evelin found it much more palatable to get up a little before 7:00 a.m. than a little before 6:00 a.m. It probably helped that I stayed in bed longer than usual because I was feeling tired and didn't really feel like rushing to work ...
Tonight, she treated her post-bath bedtime as a nap, wanting to get up about an hour or so after going to sleep, but she couldn't quite pull it off. Right now, I can hear some snuffling and the occasional squawk, but hopefully she'll pull off a decent night's sleep despite that ...
It might have been excitement over the Beloved BoSox–Hated Yankees or, more likely, her two-and-a-half hour nap that ended at 5:15 p.m., but Celeste did not want to sleep last night. Around 6:30 p.m., she started making some sleep cues and got ready for her bath, by the end of bathtime, it was the usual crankiness about getting dressed and settling in for the evening; then, after Evelin topped her up for the evening, back down the stairs came Celeste eyes wide open.
The game was on the radio (sadly WCBS and the Yankee's broadcast team) and Evelin lay with Celeste on the couch trying to get her to realize that it was sleepytime. No good. After the 2nd or 3rd inning, we headed upstairs to bed where I switched to an earbud radio and where Celeste just wanted to sit and play. Finally, around 9:30 p.m., we shut off all the lights in an effort to convince her to GO. TO. SLEEP.
The convincing worked on Evelin and eventually on Celeste, too. I dozed off in the bottom of the 6th to awaken for the bottom of the 8th. It was a fitful night for me for some reason (and not because of the loss: there are 161 games left and the BoSox have started the last four seasons with a loss; plus, to my ears, Randy Johnson sounded pretty hittable — I think the stats he put up last night make him sound better than he pitched), but Celeste and Evelin did pretty good. There was a wake up to feed around 1:30 a.m., but otherwise Celeste slept until about 6:45 a.m.
Accounting for the change to summer time, that last bit doesn't seem too far off from what she'd been doing, but Evelin found it much more palatable to get up a little before 7:00 a.m. than a little before 6:00 a.m. It probably helped that I stayed in bed longer than usual because I was feeling tired and didn't really feel like rushing to work ...
Tonight, she treated her post-bath bedtime as a nap, wanting to get up about an hour or so after going to sleep, but she couldn't quite pull it off. Right now, I can hear some snuffling and the occasional squawk, but hopefully she'll pull off a decent night's sleep despite that ...
Sunday, April 03, 2005
Sometimes I Don't Know When I Have It Good ...
This afternoon, Evelin had her book club; the same book club that lead to the first Daddy–Daughter Day Disaster many months ago. This time, a little while before Evelin had to leave, Celeste was getting cranky but not wanting to take a nap despite being fairly tired. (I was tired, too, and tried to convince Celeste to be my nap buddy, but she wasn't buying it today.) So, as I listened to the 8th inning of the Nationals–Mets game, Evelin topped Celeste off, which knocked her out. I though Evelin put Celeste in her crib and then headed out, assuring me that if I did doze off I would hear her and awaken even though she was in the room next door. (I know that happens at night, but I was a little worried that I would be less likely to awake from a nap.) I had nothing to fear.
I listened through the end of the game (Nats lost) and then dozed for a little while, but Celeste was still sound asleep when I awoke. I puttered around the house, planned dinner, straightened up some things, and checked in on her periodically, but Celeste continued to nap. I tried to call Evelin to see when exactly Celeste had gone to sleep, but her phone was off. I started to get worried, but Celeste didn't care, she was too busy sleeping. In the end, she slept for two-and-a-half hours, waking just before Evelin called to say she was on her way home. Considering that she slept for over an hour this morning while I was at the farmers market, it almost made up for the waking every 45 minutes she did the night before ...
For dinner tonight, we had some green beans I bought last week to make φασολάκια, but when I was looking at what else we had around and what I wanted, that didn't seem to fit. Instead, I went with a couple of traditional Lebanese recipes: mdardra (lentils and rice) and lūbiyah bi-rubb rummān (green beans with sour pomegranate juice) as a side. It turned out pretty good; since both are served cold or room temperature, I could prepare them ahead of time (meaning that I didn't have to worry about when Celeste would need her bath) and the pomegranate dressing for the beans was pretty tasty. It was just olive oil, garlic and pomegranate molasses; we're thinking we may try it on a salad someday soon.
I listened through the end of the game (Nats lost) and then dozed for a little while, but Celeste was still sound asleep when I awoke. I puttered around the house, planned dinner, straightened up some things, and checked in on her periodically, but Celeste continued to nap. I tried to call Evelin to see when exactly Celeste had gone to sleep, but her phone was off. I started to get worried, but Celeste didn't care, she was too busy sleeping. In the end, she slept for two-and-a-half hours, waking just before Evelin called to say she was on her way home. Considering that she slept for over an hour this morning while I was at the farmers market, it almost made up for the waking every 45 minutes she did the night before ...
For dinner tonight, we had some green beans I bought last week to make φασολάκια, but when I was looking at what else we had around and what I wanted, that didn't seem to fit. Instead, I went with a couple of traditional Lebanese recipes: mdardra (lentils and rice) and lūbiyah bi-rubb rummān (green beans with sour pomegranate juice) as a side. It turned out pretty good; since both are served cold or room temperature, I could prepare them ahead of time (meaning that I didn't have to worry about when Celeste would need her bath) and the pomegranate dressing for the beans was pretty tasty. It was just olive oil, garlic and pomegranate molasses; we're thinking we may try it on a salad someday soon.
Friday, April 01, 2005
Not a Bad Day ... And Garden Talk
So things are off to the printer today. All I had weighing on me this morning (besides all the regular work this project has shunted off to an unspecified point in the future — okay, until Monday, at which point everything is fantastically late), was one headline, checking a photo, and waiting for the client to provide updated maps. This meant I could relax some.
Celeste started waking up at 5:00 a.m., much to Evelin's dismay, but I was getting close to waking up too, so I didn't mind listening to her mewing over the monitor. After about 15 minutes, however, the babbling tuned into pre-crying, which got Evelin worried. She didn't want another awake-for-the-day-at-5:30 days. I went to try to soothe Celeste, and while she scaled back the crying to a point where I could take a shower and think she'd be okay. When I got out of the shower, Celeste and Evelin were up and about.
As early as it was, I wasn't rushing off to work for the first time in nearly a month, so we had a nice time just hanging out, reading the paper, talking, and playing for about a half-hour (interspersed with getting the trash and recycling out to the curb and other Friday morning chores).
I also, for the first time in a long time, was able to escape the office during lunch. I drove over to the W&OD trail and took a short walk/hike, about 45 minutes. It wasn't too warm, but the front that's supposed to be bringing us a lot of rain this weekend had pumped up the humidity quite a bit. I saw a lot of cardinals flitting about the bushes and a pair of ducks in Four Mile Run.
Hopefully, the rains this weekend are being overstated by the meteorologists and we'll have some time to work on the garden. Evelin set up the pea trellis (this year as a sine wave instead of a square, which may leave some of the plants more shaded, but hopefully it'll be a bigger harvest) and planted spinach Wednesday, and yesterday I planted the peas and started pruning the raspberries, but there's a lot still to do.
The specifics are (all from Burpee): Baby’s Leaf Hybrid spinach, Sugar Bon peas, Dawn Giant leeks, Sweet Treat Hybrid carrots, Tomande Hybrid and Super Sweet 100 Hybrid tomatoes, Extra Curled Dwarf parsley, Summerlong basil, common chives and garlic chives and Little Dillicious cucumbers, which came free with the order and we aren't sure where they'll go. The bok choi is 小白菜 Pai Tsai (short white stalk) from 凱傑興業社.
This summer we're likely to be doing a lot of destruction in the yard. The pond is going to be taken out. we've lost all but one of the goldfish, most of the plants are doing poorly, and each year, the algae and other problems have gotten worse. I've never been as adept at keeping it up as I should be and the lack of any circulation/filtering doesn't help. Perhaps we'll be able to create a new, smaller one down the road, but right now, it's dying/dead (the frog Evelin found not withstanding).
The first step will be draining things followed by some mixture of mucking and pulling out the plastic lining. This is likely to get pretty gross. I also need to find someone who wants the lily pads or find some other way to save those. The fish can be caught and brought inside or passed along to someone else, and the frog has other ponds nearby (the closest being next door) to move to.
Once we have a big hole in the ground, we can start dismantling the patio (step to in the yard destruction). It's a raised structure with railroad-tie sides and a brick surface that was never set properly. The previous owners would try to relevel things each year, but we've been lax in that regard and the sides are starting to rot out in places.
The plan is to shift the dirt that's in there into the pond; however, the yard isn't really flat there, so we'll need to build some sort of retaining wall on the west side of things or do some sort of grading work to keep from creating an unstable situation.
Also, with the pond done, we can check the retaining wall between the upper and lower parts of the backyard. It needs some chinking and definitely some paint. Also, without the pond there, the forces on the wall will change, hopefully for the better.
After that's done ... well that's still up in the air. Perhaps we'll do somesort of deck, either raised or at ground level (or, considering the lay of the land, a bit of both). The pond area may become garden space or part pond/part garden or who knows what.
Celeste started waking up at 5:00 a.m., much to Evelin's dismay, but I was getting close to waking up too, so I didn't mind listening to her mewing over the monitor. After about 15 minutes, however, the babbling tuned into pre-crying, which got Evelin worried. She didn't want another awake-for-the-day-at-5:30 days. I went to try to soothe Celeste, and while she scaled back the crying to a point where I could take a shower and think she'd be okay. When I got out of the shower, Celeste and Evelin were up and about.
As early as it was, I wasn't rushing off to work for the first time in nearly a month, so we had a nice time just hanging out, reading the paper, talking, and playing for about a half-hour (interspersed with getting the trash and recycling out to the curb and other Friday morning chores).
I also, for the first time in a long time, was able to escape the office during lunch. I drove over to the W&OD trail and took a short walk/hike, about 45 minutes. It wasn't too warm, but the front that's supposed to be bringing us a lot of rain this weekend had pumped up the humidity quite a bit. I saw a lot of cardinals flitting about the bushes and a pair of ducks in Four Mile Run.
Hopefully, the rains this weekend are being overstated by the meteorologists and we'll have some time to work on the garden. Evelin set up the pea trellis (this year as a sine wave instead of a square, which may leave some of the plants more shaded, but hopefully it'll be a bigger harvest) and planted spinach Wednesday, and yesterday I planted the peas and started pruning the raspberries, but there's a lot still to do.
The Garden
Our plan this year (and yes, this is evolving into the "The Garden" entry) is garlic in the small bed, carrots in the next one, leeks and broccoli in the big bed (where the spinach is now), tomatoes in the next bed (where the peas are now), and herbs in the little triangular one by the raspberries. In July, when the garlic is harvested, we'll put bok choi in the small bed. I think I'll also build a small raised bed for the sideyard (where we grew okra last year), but I'm not sure what will end up there. We also have blueberries and strawberries in front of the house, and a few years before the apple tree will produce.The specifics are (all from Burpee): Baby’s Leaf Hybrid spinach, Sugar Bon peas, Dawn Giant leeks, Sweet Treat Hybrid carrots, Tomande Hybrid and Super Sweet 100 Hybrid tomatoes, Extra Curled Dwarf parsley, Summerlong basil, common chives and garlic chives and Little Dillicious cucumbers, which came free with the order and we aren't sure where they'll go. The bok choi is 小白菜 Pai Tsai (short white stalk) from 凱傑興業社.
This summer we're likely to be doing a lot of destruction in the yard. The pond is going to be taken out. we've lost all but one of the goldfish, most of the plants are doing poorly, and each year, the algae and other problems have gotten worse. I've never been as adept at keeping it up as I should be and the lack of any circulation/filtering doesn't help. Perhaps we'll be able to create a new, smaller one down the road, but right now, it's dying/dead (the frog Evelin found not withstanding).
The first step will be draining things followed by some mixture of mucking and pulling out the plastic lining. This is likely to get pretty gross. I also need to find someone who wants the lily pads or find some other way to save those. The fish can be caught and brought inside or passed along to someone else, and the frog has other ponds nearby (the closest being next door) to move to.
Once we have a big hole in the ground, we can start dismantling the patio (step to in the yard destruction). It's a raised structure with railroad-tie sides and a brick surface that was never set properly. The previous owners would try to relevel things each year, but we've been lax in that regard and the sides are starting to rot out in places.
The plan is to shift the dirt that's in there into the pond; however, the yard isn't really flat there, so we'll need to build some sort of retaining wall on the west side of things or do some sort of grading work to keep from creating an unstable situation.
Also, with the pond done, we can check the retaining wall between the upper and lower parts of the backyard. It needs some chinking and definitely some paint. Also, without the pond there, the forces on the wall will change, hopefully for the better.
After that's done ... well that's still up in the air. Perhaps we'll do somesort of deck, either raised or at ground level (or, considering the lay of the land, a bit of both). The pond area may become garden space or part pond/part garden or who knows what.
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