Loving my friends

It’s the best blessing in the world to have amazing friends at your side when the world seems to be against you.

Crazy times return…

I started back to school about 3 weeks ago and it’s been crazy busy- and awful. Even though last year was my first year of teaching, the stress I’ve had the past 3 weeks has been nothing compared to last year. Our program has several extra students this year, and it’s amazing what a difference a few students can make, especially in a classroom full of students with bad behavior. However, after a little breakdown about a week ago, and a mental-health day off this past week, I am feeling better and ready to (almost) take on the world… or at least a classroom full of expelled teenagers. It’s been especially nice to have the friendship of someone who’s taught in that classroom before- the only person who I think really, truely understands what I’m feeling. To top things off, I’m dealing with the recent death of an aunt. She lived in Canada, and since I don’t have a passport, I couldn’t make it to the funeral. We weren’t especially close, but I have this closure thing with death— funerals help me cope.

The garden is just about finished for the season. The tomatoes have almost completely died away and the beans went to seed a few weeks ago. We’re just waiting for the green peppers and jalapenos to finish producing- not that I’m complaining! I’ve had to give away both last week because we couldn’t use them fast enough. We pulled all of the onions last week and aren’t really happy with the crop, but it was ok. The compost from the past year is looking great, and I’m hoping for an awesome garden next year. I stopped at a farmer’s market with my friend Kristen last week and found the best looking apples for $0.69/pound. I bought a ton and am going to be making apple butter with them this weekend. She also picked me up a giant zucchini on her second trip there, which I shredded with my new food processor and made 2 loaves of chocolate zucchini bread from the new Cedar Cove cookbook. The extra shredded zucchini was frozen for use later in the winter. We may have to make another trip to the farmer’s market to get another couple for freezing.

I have been waiting for the Cedar Cove cookbook to come out and then be available at the library. (I love checking cookbooks out from the library. Most people only use a handful of recipes out of any given cookbook, so why buy it for a couple of recipes?) It arrived for me this week and I’ve already read almost all of the recipes. I can read a cookbook like a novel. I am thinking of purchasing this one because I really think these are simple, yummy recipes that I can use. If I do, I may do a “Julie and Julia” thing and cook every recipe in the book. What a fun idea, really. I was inspired when I saw the movie, and this seems like a perfect opportunity to try the new recipes out.

We went to a wedding for one of my oldest friends last weekend. I am so happy for the bride and groom- who went to our senior prom together! It was so nice to share in their special day and to see Trish, too! The weather was perfect and everyone looked beautiful and handsome. Now, we are getting ready to attend a wedding this evening for a friend of Don’s. We are a little worn out because we went to see KISS last night at Cobo Hall. Such an amazing time! Our seats were in the very top row, in the very back of the hall, but it didn’t matter. We were in the same place as KISS! I really loved it.

Now, it’s off to pull the bread out of the oven and start getting ready for the wedding!

Tomato Worms!

All summer long, the tomato worms have been eating out plants. They even ate a green pepper plant! We’ve been pulling them off everytime we’ve found them, but they are sneaky. And blend in really well with the leaves. I managed to spot this one before he’d eaten much of the plant. I wasn’t even looking for it, just walking by the garden!

Ewwww

The Harvest Continues

It’s been a few weeks since our first veggies started to grow, and in the last two weeks, we’ve had a bountiful harvest- especially considering the smallish size of our garden. So far, we’ve already gathered about 3 gallon-sized bags of green beans, more green bell peppers than I have counted, almost 2 gallon-sized bags of plum tomatoes, and 1.5 dozen jalapenos. Most of the tomato plants have lots of tomatoes on them, but will need a few more weeks before they are ripe enough to eat.

I learned a little about canning yesterday and we’ve already canned 4 quarts of green beans, and may have enough to do at least 2 more in the next week or so. I chopped up 10 bell peppers today and vacuum sealed them for freezing. We’ll be canning the jalapenos this evening, and possibly making homemade BBQ sauce with the tomatoes tomorrow. Once the roma tomatoes are ready, we’ll be making salsa and canning the tomatoes whole and halved for use in chili, stew and soup over the winter.

Excessive temperatures made it almost unbearable to be outside today, so I didn’t get much work done in the garden. I did manage to collect a full bowl of tomatoes, peppers, jalapenos and green beans, but no weeding. Two of the vine tomato plants have not only outgrown their cages, but they’ve actually started to bend them a tad. I wanted to see about fixing those to ensure we don’t lose anything from those monsterous plants.

DMB rocks DTE

I saw the Dave Matthews Band last night for the 7th time at DTE. I suppose that it can’t be my favorite show everytime, but I have to admit that I walked out of the concert feeling less than thrilled about the overall show. I love seeing DMB live. They rock everytime and I was lucky enough to see (for the 3rd time!) guest guitar player Tim Reynolds on stage with them. However, looking over the setlist, they played 21 songs, and I only knew 8 of them. They have a new CD out that I haven’t gotten around to buying, but it seems to me that in the past, it was rare for DMB to play 2/3 of their show off of one album, new or not. But again, I don’t own the album yet.

I was happy to hear Don’t Drink the Water, one of my favorite live songs, as well as Warehouse, which I think it kind of rare to see live. I think I could also watch them play Jimi Thing every show I am at. I also broke what seemed to be a record of seeing Tripping Billies everytime I saw him live. But, I didn’t know either of the encore songs, and neither felt strong enough to carry the band out. DMB’s encores are generally my favorite part of the entire show. I would have rather seen Tripping Billies (again) than go out with both of those songs.

DTE continues to majorly suck at their traffic control, despite the fact that you pay $3 for parking and a $3 traffic control fee per ticket. That means that we paid $24 for our car alone, and it still took us well over an hour to get out of the parking lot. I enjoy shows at DTE, but I despise parking. I might just rent a limo next time.

“Central dispatch on the air…”

That’s how fire and medical calls start on Don’s fire radio. First comes a series of beeps shrill enough to make any alarm clock jealous. Then, the person comes on the radio and says “Central dispatch on the air for (insert appropriate fire station in the county here)…” then proceeds to explain whatever the situation may be. Being that it’s usually a medical call (the firefighters have to be at least Medical First Responders), it usually gives location, priority, age, sex and problem. If it’s a call for his fire station, Don will jump up and drive out to the fire house, where he’ll sit and wait for everything to be clear. Since he’s not technically on the force yet (still have to pass the station test and Fire 1 & 2… it will be awhile), he can’t actually go out on calls yet, but he gets credit for showing up at the station, and when he does pass all of the tests, he’ll get paid for all these calls he’s going on now.

I always wondered what calls annoyed him first- the one that inevitably comes when he’s just finished his workout and shower, when I am, no doubt, cooking dinner, and his favorite show is on between 5-6 pm (happens ALL the time… but only if I’m cooking. Never is we go out to eat)… OR, the call like he had this morning at 2:50 am for a porch fire that had already been reported earlier in the day and cancelled… and central dispatch called Don’s station by accident anyways, it was in another area. I’m voting for the middle of the night call. I can never fall back asleep after that. Then I wake up all groggy and late and feel like I’ve wasted my day. Either way, Don seems to really enjoy working with the firefighters and excited about fire school in the fall.

Brad Paisley

Last night I saw Brad Paisley for the third time. Jimmy Wayne and Dierks Bentley opened for him. Brad Paisley does not let me down when he performs. I saw Jimmy Wayne in 2005 when he opened for Lonestar, and I enjoyed his CD back then. We missed some of his performance, including his biggest hit off that CD (I wonder if he played it?) – but saw him play his current radio hit. Dierks was pretty good as well.

I think it’s amazing how much (at least for me) music is intertwined with life. I’ll hear certain songs that take me back to senior year of high school… or back to certain people or events. Jimmy Wayne has a song called “Stay Gone” that takes me back several years to a certain somebody. And when Brad sang “When I Get Where I’m Going” there’s a line about walking with his grandfather, and he’ll match him step for step. My mind fell upon my own grandfather, he died 20 years ago this week.

All in all, it was a good concert. Nothing could beat the guys with the lampshapes on their heads in front of us, though. If you’re a Brad Paisley fan, you get it. We got it, and we laughed.

Vampire Stories

I have been so excited to have the time to read books this summer. I tried hard all school year to read at least a chapter or 2 of a novel before I went to bed, but sometimes that just didn’t happen. I’m kind of surprised that I’ve been stuck on a mostly young-adult, vampire fiction kick lately. It started with Twilight, but has spread some to incorporate other books my students are reading. I’ve read all 4 Twilight Saga books, and the first book in the Vampire Academy series. I just started another series with a lot of demon chasing. The first book is called “City of Bones.” I also randomly picked up an adult novel called “The Vampire of New York” which I found rather interesting, especially towards the end. I blame Bill for getting me hooked on vampires after Buffy and Angel, but I do enjoy the stories and the folklore. Don helped it along by showing me several classic horror films, especially the Hammer ones with Christopher Lee.

I find it so interesting how authors take the vampire lore, and use the parts that benefit them in their stories. For example, in Twilight, the vamps can go out in the daylight, they just sparkle like they have diamonds embedded in their skin. In the VA series, vampires are both mortal and immortal, depending on what type they are. They can also handle some sunlight ok. In the “Vampire of New York,” the vampire even says that he met Bram Stoker, and that he was the motivation for Stoker to write “Dracula.”

In keeping with the vampire theme, I just read the 1st part of the graphic novel that Joss Whedon did as the 8th season of Buffy. I was less than impressed with it, to be honest. Maybe it’s just that I’m not a comic fan, I don’t know. I guess that after I enjoyed the series so much, I was disappointed with what he was following it with. Maybe it will get better. I’ll have to track down parts 2-4 through inter-library loan.

The fruits (and veggies!) of our labor…

I was pleasantly surprised to come back from my long weekend and find the the vegetable garden not only survived another wind storm (there was a rumored tornado last week nearby during the storm), and are actually producing!

Our green peppers are growing well. All 4 plants have buds and 2 have peppers this large.

 

 

 

 

Most of the tomato plants have flowered, but only a few are showing any buds. The vine tomatoes have grown exponentially in size lately, and all have tomatoes starting to grow.

My basil was started from seed and has also really picked up lately.

The blueberry bushes are also giving lots of blueberries, even despite being attacked by the japanese beetles early last month. We picked a handful of the ones that had turned blue and used them to make blueberry pancakes for dinner tonight!

The onions are also doing awesome, we should have several dozen at the end of the season. The carrots didn’t come up at all, which is kind of disappointing. Those also started from seed. The tomatoes and peppers all came from a nearby greenhouse. I’m excited about having them grow!

All around update

By my quick estimation, it’s been 3 weeks or so since I posted about Lily finding a home with us. She’ll be living next door, though we are dog sitting right now. She’s always going to be “my” dog, but she’ll much better off next door. However, she quickly wrapped most of us around her paw, and she’s been spoiled rotten.

I am about to finish my first year as a teacher, and I couldn’t be more pleased with how things turned out. It’s been a long, hard year (complicated by the cross-country move, replanning and having the wedding) but it’s been very rewarding. I cannot imagine myself at another place in my life, and am surprised at how happy I thought I was before- compared to the happiness I feel now. For the first time in many years, my life feels truly complete and satisfied. I have a million plans for next year, most of which will probably never have a chance to see the light of day, but the fact that I have them and I am already excited about next year makes me happy.

In the last few weeks, our community struggled with the disappearance and eventual death of a small girl, and it’s been an interesting experience. Though I do not know the family personally, I do feel bad about the girl’s death. Don and I even went out with a large group of firefighters on a search through some heavily wooded areas and fields before her body was discovered. Right now, the police aren’t saying much, which I guess is ok. They need to do their investigation.

I was finally convinced to read the Twilight saga, and finished all 4 books in less than a month. Actually, the first took the longest to read, since I read the last 3 in the past 6 days. Yes, they were that addicting. Yes, I enjoyed them, though I did struggle through parts in each of them. I wasn’t exactly thrilled with how the final book went, and often found myself wishing it was just done already, but not because it was a page turner. There were parts where I was just ready to be done with it. I won’t give anything away, but I think the main problems in the first 3 books were much better in terms of a story. I bought the movie last week and rewatched it. I still enjoyed it, and even got Don to watch it with me. However, the Cullens will never replace Angel and Spike in my heart for my #1 vamps. Angel was just so much better at being a tortured, brooding vampire.

Don and I saw the new Star Trek, and were pleasantly surprised. We walked in expecting a C movie and walked out with an A… maybe a B+. It was GOOD. We have been and always shall be Star Trek fans (I’m a huge dork), and were pleased with the way that the movie played out. I have been itching to see that one again, as well, but will probably wait for the DVD. I am looking forward to seeing some of the summer movies (Harry Potter mostly), and am glad I will be able to take advantage of mid-week, mid-afternoon crowds and prices.

It’s been exciting to watch the Red Wings play in the playoffs. Last year, I was in Denver while they played the finals, and am glad to be back in Wingnut territory for the playoffs. Game 7 is always nervewracking, but oh-so-entertaining.

I am also looking forward to a slew of summer activities including a vacation with my family, at least one Tigers game, the DMB concert, some weddings and a few other things. I also have a dozen crafting projects that I need to get under way, as they have been sitting dormant for far too long.

The last month has been a whirlwind and I am ready for some relaxation! One more day!!!!!!!