Finally

It has been forever and a day since I felt excited to start a knitting project, but maybe the cool nights really are the thing that triggers it in me. Also, I received a birth announcement from my dad's girlfriend's son and his wife (how to shortcut the name for that relationship?) for the birth of their daughter. This is the Lacy Julian Hat and I believe that link will only work if you are registered with Ravelry. Isn't it sweet? And more to the point with my knitting these days, doesn't it look like something that could be knit in a weekend? I'm thinking something in a very soft variegated color scheme, with a couple of my littlest handmade buttons sewn on. 

My local yarn shop is having a sale this weekend, too, so it all fits together nicely. Since I'm posting pictures, here's a recent bracelet.

Candy pinks. I'm getting a kick out of making these. I think I've said that about a hundred times, so I'll stop. 

What else. I was called in as a mediator (I say that tongue in cheek) to talk to Mr W over at his dad's house. Seems Mr W hasn't been turning in all of his assignments, and the school has a system where parents can check all of their kids' work. I noticed he was missing a couple of things, and texted his dad to make sure those got done. 

One of the things that has always irked me a bit about my ex is his impulsiveness. However, when he jumped right on the "the kid is off of TV and the computer until this is turned around", I found myself relieved that he acted so decisively. I wondered if I would have done the same thing. I may have waffled more and waited until the infraction was larger? But his dad did the right thing to get Mr W's attention. 

So we talked about getting organized, and the kid needs to bring home all of his homework, even if it is done already, so we can see it. I think we're all on the same page. Mr W walked me out to my car, and I thought it was really interesting coming from this ever-maturing 11 year old boy when he said, "I just thought that I needed to stand up to him for some of this stuff". He was implying (and I largely believe him and it will all get sorted out) that the grade viewer thing online wasn't complete and that he (Mr W) was correct on some of his points. Fair enough. I told him he still needed to pick his battles, and that things would go more smoothly with his dad if he was cooperative and helpful on the little things. 

Welcome to middle school.

Better

My ankle (or "cankle" as one dog park friend called it - calf + ankle looking) is much better. Thanks for the well wishes. I thought at the time it happened that it wasn't too serious and sure enough the swelling is down a lot. I might get a good-sized bruise out of it yet, which is always a conversation starter :-)

What else. We are making the transition to Mr W's middle school schedule reasonably well. I've been getting up 15 (just a puny 15) minutes earlier and I have felt it. Or so I think. After two weeks of it (on school days) I woke up last Friday a little before the alarm and took that as a good sign. However, I've also been in sort of a rut of waking up in the middle of the night and having trouble falling back to sleep. Nothing's wrong, I'm not anxious, I just can't fall back to sleep. It's frustrating, and hopefully will turn around soon.

Work is good. I handed in another manuscript to my boss so we can get that study published. It's a sometimes painful process, the editing and the back and forth about how things should be worded. He's nice about it, but it can be a long process. We've got two other authors this time around who will want to (and should) have input, but at least the ball is rolling. This means I can go back to the lab and do lab stuff, which is my favorite part of the job. Try this, try that, run samples, get data. I know it's not for everyone, but I do like it.

The bracelet stuff has taken a lot of my free time lately, and I'm still not sure how I feel about it. I need to promote the stuff, because just listing items on Etsy doesn't go very far. I use their within-site advertising, so if someone searches "button bracelet" my stuff will be at the top of the page, and that gets some views, but so far not many sales. So I'm beefing up my blog presence at my other blog, and trying to make those connections with people who make things out of polymer clay, mostly. They are by and large warm and friendly people and that makes it not so much like work. So much interesting stuff out there.

But it's hard to know when to stop with the checking and promoting and what works and what doesn't. I'm still not in a spot where I feel like my efforts translate into selling my stuff. So far that, and feedback about pictures that I post, are the signs of "success" in this for me. However, I do still get a kick out of making the stuff. I love it when a piece comes together and all the parts look good. I feel like I need to focus more on that, but would really like for this little hobby to at least pay for itself.

And for heaven's sake, don't take the above paragraph as a plea for you to please go over and buy something. Don't do that.

In the meantime, I have not played my banjo enough, and am making a concerted effort to practice more. I hate feeling guilty about not practicing, and really don't want that to be my motivation. I want to practice because I enjoy it.

I have had some insights about the garden this year that I will share in another post. Growing veggies didn't go quite as I had hoped this year. My tomato plant is monstrous, but with few fruits. The powdery mildew came early, and I probably, because I planted cukes near my cantaloupe, have some weird melon-cuke hybrids. The fruits between the two plants are more cylindrical than the first melons I  harvested. More on this later.

Ice, rest, elevate...and I forgot the last one

I got hit in the back of the knees at the dog park today and the front of my ankle was bent a little further than it wanted to go. A ballerina I am not! So it's sore, but I am not incapacitated, and it will hopefully be back to its old self in a couple of days. I've got some ice on it and actually have it elevated. For now.

That stuff happens so fast. I think everyone in our little group has been taken out by a dog at one point or another. More than once for some of us. Darn dogs.

It's funny how if someone goes down like that, it creates quite a kerfuffle with the dogs and many want to get right in there and see what's going on, my Sally included. The offending goofball of a dog (he absolutely earns that title in everyday life as well, well the goofball part) was utterly clueless about what he did. So funny. I can't be mad at a dog who has no clue.

My dog park peeps were totally awesome in making sure I was OK, and even made kindly pests of themselves to encourage me to at least run cold water on it from the spigot in the park. That felt pretty good, so I went home and got the ice. I appreciate their concern and will tell them again when I see them.

I made a bunch of new button-clay bracelets that I'll be posting on the Etsy site over the next few days and also on my other blog. It's very satisfying to make these. When it all comes together, I really like the effect.

The new schedule

Mr W is one week with his dad, and one week with me. He has to be dropped off around 7:20 am and school gets out at 2:25. Ack. We are still in the adjustment phase, to be sure. It's really nice to get to work around 7:40, but the last couple of days we've been flying out of the house with me saying, "C'mon, we're gonna be late!!!" Yesterday we got stopped by a train for about 5 minutes, which was enough to make him just about late, but it was OK.

It'll be fine, but I am still getting used to getting up a little earlier so I can have my coffee and goof around on the computer for a while. Tonight is the back to school night and they have a 2.5 hour program where the parent goes through each of the kid's classes in order, for 8-10 minutes. I'm looking forward to it, but it's gonna be a long day and I'll need to schedule a strategically-timed caffeine infusion for about 2 pm.

What else. Oh, this and that. I made peach jam but it's not setting up yet. I followed the directions from the pectin box and it took so much sugar I'm kind of grossed out (3.75 cups fruit and 5 cups of sugar). I've got some low sugar pectin and will use that with the rest of the peaches this weekend. I ran out of sugar, otherwise I'd have pressed on. :-)

Work is a little monotonous. I'm rounding third on a paper that I'm writing, and would really like to be back in the lab WORKING as opposed to writing, so I'm getting a bit antsy. Almost done, though, and then I can get back there.

OK, I need to get going. Hope things are good in your world. I'm doing so many social media things between this blog and the bracelet stuff that I need to set up a posting schedule. Not there yet, but soon, and then I'll be here every other day, like I would like to be.

More flower pictures

I bought a packet of burgundy sunflower seeds and one of them, after a slow start, has grown into a behemoth of a plant. Beautiful flowers, but the thing is probably 8' x 8'. The bees love it, and the flowers are a very pleasant dark red color.

Here's a view from the side of the plant. You can see the one flower that's facing the camera in the upper right 1/4 of the picture. It has more blooms now, and seems like it might tip over, but I think it'll be OK. Maybe next year I'll stake them out so they stay a little straighter. 

If you're interested in winning the bracelet of your choice from my Etsy site, here's a link to the blog post at my other blog that has the details. You can enter up until 9 pm Mountain Time Wednesday.

Physaria Designs giveaway

I'm having a giveaway over at my other blog. Take a peek at my Etsy shop, find a bracelet you like, copy and paste its URL on the Physaria Designs Facebook page, or at the PD blog.

I'll keep it open until Wednesday at 9 pm Mtn. Time, and pick a random winner from all the entries.

Good luck!

Post vacation post - 3

I know! There's been a lot rolling around in my little head lately. I think I'll have one more after this and that'll be all the self-disclosure I'll inflict on my valued readers for a while. I've got some garden pictures that I want to share. I'm going to get one now, go off on a little tangent and circle round to my revelatory musings.

Aren't those nice? Volunteer 4 o'clocks that did some kind of genetic two-step because I had one yellow and a couple of pink ones last year. Isn't that cool? I don't know at all how the expression of the color works in this plant, but these are wonderful. I will never ever go without  4 o'clocks in the garden again. They are big, prolific flowerers and do really well in the spot I've got them in. That's a big part of gardening with perennials, isn't it? Finding the spot where they will thrive. 

I started eating the first cantaloupe from the garden and it is FAB. I thought I may have waited too long, but it's really good. I will always plant cantaloupes, too. As an aside, I'm going to buy some peaches tomorrow and make ginger peach cinnamon jam. Yum. I'll take pictures.

OK, back to the stuff the title of the post is about. So another thought that has occurred to me as a result of the vacation mind shift is that I have become kind of cynical. Protected and cynical. Not a good combo. I'll doubt that things work the way someone says they do, and have been a little pessimistic lately. I realized this actually the Sunday after vacation, when I was playing a game with the gamers group from church. There is a couple that I don't really know, but I've seen them as part of the group a few times. 

The woman, M, was so genuine, and earnest, and open. I really saw it as this kind of reverse mirror of what I am not really like at the moment, but would like to move towards. I don't need to be her, and I don't think it's my personality to be as enthusiastic as she (but it fits her really well). So I'm going to work on it (again). I see it now as sort of a pattern, and that's a good thing, because then it can be worked on. Smile, nod, breathe, chat, laugh, repeat. 

Post vacation post - 2

This is another of my musings from having been on vacation recently.

I'm a pretty safe driver. I zip around town in my trusty old Honda and it gets me/us where we need to be. I try to be courteous, I let people in line when things go down to one lane, that kind of thing. I have noticed, though, that lately I'm getting more annoyed at inconsiderate driving. Nothing like road rage, and I'd never confront anyone, but my remarks inside the car are growing more frequent. It's on the level of, "What a jerk! I can't believe he cut that other person off". That kind of thing.

I am concerned about the effect this has on Mr W, where I'm seem to frequently be complaining about other people's bad driving. And it leaves me a little annoyed to, to have been annoyed, you know? It's ultimately not worth my time and energy.

So I've decided to raise my threshold. I started a couple of days ago, and it's actually pretty challenging to break this habit, so I'm working on it still. Inconsiderate drivers are the worst (don't you realize we're all trying to get somewhere?) but there's not much I can do about them. I'm not about to teach them any kind of lesson, so my best option is to LET IT GO.

Hence raising the threshold. So my goal at the moment is that things that don't impact me directly, like if someone cuts someone else off, or (this one seems to really annoy me) it's the third person in a row to run the red light and the rest of us are waiting to proceed through our green light, I'm going to try to let it go and get on with my day.

Trying to control things I don't have any control over, especially the actions of others, is not a good use of my time. Stay tuned, this one's not accomplished yet.

Post vacation post - 1

I mentioned yesterday that visiting with my wonderful family usually causes me to be introspective about my life and examining whether there are things I could change. This is going to take more than one post...

The first thing I have noticed is that I have become a unit unto myself. It used to be that it would be me and my ex at these gatherings, then my brothers and their wives (and my sister and her husband, when she was with us). And we were units, couples. While I don't feel uncomfortable being with them at all, it is clear that it's just me. It made me aware again of how there is no one to discuss options with (whether that's a good or bad thing depends on the situation, I think!) I don't know if I've lost that give and take aspect of dealing with people, it's something I'm thinking about.

It's funny, that give and take of everyday life doesn't happen with me at the moment, and being around the fam made me realize this. What happens instead is that the problem/issue rolls around in my head for a long time, while I gather data to make my decision. I really am like that, evidence-based. I of course have people I can talk to. I feel like I'm making friends at a good rate and while I do need to get out more, I feel like that's something I can control. But with decisions, it takes more time because it's just me making the call. That's not necessarily a bad thing, just different than how it used to be.

More soon

Had a great vacation with the fam. It always makes me introspective and this one was no exception. Lots of thoughts jostling around, and I intend to make some sense of them here :-)

Meantime, here's a picture of me and my little brother, taken while they were here last week. Love those guys.

Another weird dream

My family got to town yesterday - hooray!! They started at my little house for dinner and refreshments and then we drove over to the condo we rented for them and that is going to work out well, I believe. It's so new, this condo. Funny - the doors close evenly, there's texture on the walls and ceilings of the rooms, it has - get this - a DISHWASHER (whoa). Very impressive. It is configured as three small layers stacked on top of each other, so there's a den and one garage space at ground level. The kitchen/living room is the second level, and the bedrooms are on the third. You'd be pretty fit if you lived there, with all that stair climbing.

Anyway, I'm writing to share this dream I had the night before they got here. The thought had occurred to me that the last time they all came out, it was my summer of discontent, seven (!) years ago. I had just made the decision to file for divorce and my life was  totally upended. I can remember Mr W misbehaving and feeling, "I'm going to have to do this alone. I don't have any backup". Well it's all worked out, and we are doing fine. Better than fine, actually.

So in the dream, I was back in that time, and had been trying to make things work between the ex and had just realized it wasn't going to work out. Even though the events that set the divorce in motion weren't my doing, I still felt like a failure (I don't anymore :-)). But in the dream, it was that heavy feeling of dread. Then in the dream, he and I were sitting in two carts, like toy pedal cars. He went off in one direction, and I went off in another. However, I ended up going through a bunch of people who were eating at an outdoor cafe. I had to back up, go backwards (I think that is pretty darn metaphorical) to get to where I needed to go. Here's the thing, though. People were really nice about it as I backed up my goofy little pedal car. Then I woke up.

Oh, and the van is finally done. I'll at least pay for it today, I'll see if they'll put it on consignment. It will be nice to have that done.

Anticipation

Most of my family is coming into town this week. My brothers and my SILs, and two nieces are arriving in just a couple of days! Yip!!

I spent the weekend cleaning and PUTTING THINGS AWAY. Aside from the rugs, which were really dirty and got cleaned with a rented carpet cleaner (what a great idea), I spent a lot of time just  putting things away.

Oh, my car was a disaster, too. Significant dogginess in the back seat. A car wash in town has free vacuums, which I used for about 20 minutes. I even cleaned out my trunk, anticipating hauling fam around for their visit. It's nice to have the outside of the car clean as well.

I made two new styles, a new necklace and a new bracelet, and I really like them. The bracelet uses old buttons mixed with my clay tiles and I really like how those turned out. I'm going to redo all of my prices in my Etsy shop (i.e. lower them a bit, and have all the pieces sit somewhere on a continuum of pricing), and that will take some time, too. But it's all good. I like what I'm doing there.

Gotta start the day.

Above and beyond

I was in an unfamiliar parking lot yesterday, pulled into a parking space too far, scraped the underside of the front end of my car, and bumped the curb. No worries, it's an old car, and I wasn't concerned that there would be any damage. I went on my merry way.

Fast forward to me leaving work at the end of the day. Is that a scraping noise now, from the front of the car? Hmm. The road leading to my building has a low speed limit, so I'm listening to it as I'm driving out. Not good. I stop and look under the car (which my mechanic would be proud of - at least I checked!). Nothing. I drive on, stop again and look again because it's getting louder. Still nothing.

My mechanic has had Graycie the camper van for about a month now, waiting for a part to come in, so I can't just switch cars and deal with this later :-). I call him, and he proceeds to DROP EVERYTHING, including working on the car of a couple whose old VW rabbit is overheating and they want to go out of town.

We drive it, he hears the sound, which by now has diminished, but is still there. He takes off the front tire, causing a bunch of rusty stuff that he said wasn't a safety issue to fall out, puts the tire back on, and we drive it again. Apparently I jarred some stuff loose in the parking lot, and it got stuck in a place where it made the noise. Meanwhile, he's talking about the weight he's lost, his wonderful daughters and his recent bout of gout. Such a great talker - I admire people who can converse so comfortably (but not yak on and on).

All in all, it was about 45 minutes of his time. He didn't charge me. I need to do something. I think a batch of my homemade brownies is in order. It seems inadequate, but he wouldn't charge me.

We also discussed the possibility of them putting Graycie on consignment. We'll talk more about it when I pick her up next week, but I think that's the way to go. It's worth 5-10% or so of the asking price to do it that way, IMO.

Heaven help me...

I have started a new blog just for my crafty stuff. I'm going to drone on about my experiences as a mom, lab worker, and gardener here. Might also use it for sharing sciencey stuff.

But here's the address: http://physariadesigns.blogspot.com

Things are good around here. I'm getting stuff out of the garden to eat, and that's been fun. Two cantaloupes are almost ready. Every day I go out and see if they will "slip" from the vine. The outsides look done, so I might have to sacrifice one and see what it's like on the inside. The only other time I had a melon go to completion, it was too ripe by the time it slipped, and it was sweet but mushy.

My banjo teacher has been working with me so I can play stuff in different keys. It feels weird and strange and is hard for me to hear it such that I can easily play the next chord of familiar (read: children's) songs. It's a process, though, and still fun.

The one where you discover something in your house

I have this dream occasionally. Well it's not the exact same dream, but the theme is the same. I'm at my very own house, which is not the house I live in now, but you know how that goes in dreams. And I discover that there are drawers and cupboards with stuff that the former owner of the house has left behind. The joy of discovery follows, with the hope that maybe there's something of monetary value. For me, these dreams assume the former owners have passed on, btw.

In last night's dream, there was someone with me, and I was showing them all the spots where there were things left behind. There were lots of slide carousels, and little junk drawer things.

Now that I think about it, the usual dream I have with this theme is discovering clothes in drawers or closets, where I open drawers of my dresser and discover all these nice clothes that are clearly mine, but that I don't remember having.

No, this one was about discovering someone else's stuff in my house, and the stuff needed to be gone through. There was the potential of something valuable, but I couldn't get to it because I had a visitor over. Oh, well I think I see, as I'm typing. Yes, it's stream of consciousness blogging...

Mr W's dad has been out of town for the last couple of weeks, and he's been staying with me. I love having him here, and part of me wishes we could just continue this arrangement indefinitely. But I've been feeling the pull to get more things made and listed on my Etsy site so I can get some momentum and start selling more things. It's a whole other post (or two) to delve a little more into why I'm selling this stuff, but I do feel at the moment that I still need to build inventory. I think the dream reflected how I feel my time is divided lately.

In other news, we had a break in the weather yesterday, and it was in the low 70's and drizzling by late afternoon. It felt great, and I took advantage of the lower temps to turn the oven on and make some stuff.

Button pitch

I'm taking a sample of my buttons to a fabric/sewing store downtown today to see if the owner is interested in buying some. Yes, I know a few don't have holes. I'm going to use those for bracelets, and wanted to give some samples of color blends I've made.

It's been a busy week with getting Mr W to his Percussion camp every day. I've been working on my laptop while he's in the school and actually getting a good bit of stuff done, so I don't feel like I'm wasting that time. I also attended a volunteer meeting for the next Ignite Fort Collins, which is fun and I'm happy to help out with them. Banjo practice was last night, and Mr W and I went to one of the music stores in town and got him a rental Percussion kit. The thing comes in a suitcase with a handle, on wheels, which is good because it easily weighs 30 lbs. It's got a snare drum, a thing you and I would call a xylophone, sticks, a stand, a practice pad, all in one zipped up case.

It all makes me appreciate that my kid has a dad that is involved. I have taken advantage of the half-time parenting schedule by getting my grocery shopping and Target runs largely done when Mr W's with his dad. Since his dad's been out of town for the last couple of weeks, it's been a different thing. I'm grateful the kid can stay home by himself ("I'm not a little kid, Mom") for an hour or so at a stretch.

But things are good. I've been playing board games with people from church who get together weekly and have really enjoyed myself. It's largely the same people every week, so I'm getting to know people a little better and that's good. I joked last week that one of these days I'll play a game for the second time, and then they had all better watch out. They play so many different games that for the half dozen or so times I've attended, we've always played something different. I sincerely appreciate that a couple of them have taken a lot of time at the beginning to explain things.

Did you hear of this story? The one about how hard it is to make friends when you're over 30? I confess I didn't read it, because I feel like I've had some success through simple persistence. It did make me think about my efforts though, and feel appreciative for the friends I have made at the dog park, my Spin class, through playing the banjo, and by playing board games. Getting out and doing stuff.

We pause for station identification

Things are really busy right now. Nothing's wrong, but going straight from the road trip back to work the next day and then keeping busy with our usual stuff has me feeling a little overwhelmed.

Good news: Mr W auditioned for his middle school's Percussion group and was accepted. The teacher said there were about 25 kids wanting 8 or 9 slots, so I've very proud of him. The downside is that they have a 1 hour/day camp for the next three weeks that I need to get him to. I'll bring my laptop and try to get some work done, I guess.

I feel like everything's logistics lately. How am I going to work everything in. The button lady liked the first shipment of buttons and that makes me very happy. I need to finish the next round and get those off.

I keep telling myself that I am here to be doing this. That at the very very least, I am alive and kicking and feel grateful for the opportunity to be here and as busy as I am.

Kansas - Day 2

We've had spotty internet service, so I'm behind posting about our vacation.

We went to the Konza Prairie on Monday. Very interesting and very hot. We hiked the 2.5 mile loop trail and saw some neat stuff. Mr W was a trooper. Here he is on a little footbridge leading to the grasslands.

Here's some Ironweed. There wasn't as much blooming as I had hoped, but still a few cool things. The big pulses of flowers are in June and September. There also wasn't as much tall grass as I thought there would be. Big Bluestem, but it was kind of sparse.

Compass Plant. This one was about 5 feet tall.

A horned lizard. Definitely a highlight of the hike. It was about the size of a deck of cards. 

Butterfly weed. This was the only one that I saw for the hike. 

Mr W toward the end. It was wicked hot and the shade felt good. I like that this place has a strong educational component to it, as the ecosystem used to be dominant in the middle part of the country, and is largely gone. You can see from this that there are woodlands as part of it as well. The trees grow where there's enough water, and fire has been suppressed in some places, which lets the trees and shrubs start to come in.

Kansas - Day 1

Well, we got going a little later than I thought, but it worked out fine. Long day, about 530 miles on the car. Here's Mr W ready to walk out the door. He wanted to be able to hold all his stuff. He is a really good traveler, although he spends too much time on the computer. He alternated with reading, and it's vacation, right? I worry about eyestrain - hey, I'm a mom. 

One of the informative maps at a rest stop on I-70. The bathrooms had A/C, which was nice because it was almost 100 degrees outside - Phew! 

We rented a Versa, and it's really easy to drive. I normally drive my trusty 1995 Civic, and there was a bit of a difference between the two. It's funny, Mr W's dad has two old cars and the kid rarely rides in anything close to a new car.  He kept saying how nice it was - and it was. I don't get the big car thing. This little car did everything I needed it to do and it was comfortable, too. 

I don't remember the last time I was through Kansas, but there was a stretch of about 20 miles with lots of wind turbines. It was neat to observe the transition between what it looks like above, with grassy croplands and few trees, to what it's like in eastern Kansas, which must get more water in general because there's more trees here. That said, we took a little walk around a nearby park after dinner and the grass is really dry. They don't look like they're set up to water the grass in parks.  People's lawns were dry, too.

Mr W in our room. He was duly impressed by the desk and the little refrigerator. We're getting up early-ish to visit the prairie before it gets wicked hot, but I suspect it'll still be plenty hot. That's OK, we'll bring our water and be able to turn on the A/C in the car when it's done. More pictures tomorrow.

A little trip

Mr W and I are off to the heartland tomorrow, for a few-days long road trip. I know it's going to be hot, but I've always wanted to see the Konza Prairie, a research area and remnant tallgrass prairie in Kansas. So we're renting a little (hopefully) car and going tomorrow morning.

Why Konza prairie? Well, when I worked in Toledo, Ohio, my park was close to a region called the Oak Openings, a transitional ecosystem between the tallgrass prairies of the Midwest and the Eastern Forests. It's kind of a savannah habitat out there, with beach sand in the soil from previous incarnations of Lake Erie. We'd see both prairie and forest plants in the parks. The height of the grasses (8-10' tall for some) and the variety of flower species present in prairies makes them something I want to see myself. Do I sound a little defensive? No one seems to share my passions...

But Mr W suggested a road trip and was willing to go "about 8 hours out" so I'm renting a car with good gas mileage and A/C and we're hitting the road. I called the rental place to confirm they had the reservation and an economy car and he said something like, "you'll be able to pick from what we have". I hope they have something small.

Can I tell you? I've gotten so used to staying home and doing clay stuff and sticking close to home, that the thought of preparing for a trip is a little daunting. I think that is close to the best reason to go and do it, therefore. Get out of the house and see stuff.

Sal will stay with B from the dog park, so she'll have close to her regular routine. It's hard to travel with dogs.

Oh, forgot to mention the other thing we'll do. Several years ago when I first got my iPod and was introduced to the world of podcasts, I stumbled upon one from the Kansas Historical Society called "Cool Things" where they would talk about an object from the museum and give it context. I found this so very appealing that I want to see the museum itself on our trip. It's only about an hour away from the prairie, so we'll stay a couple of nights in Topeka and see the museum. Or we'll take off that last day and go somewhere else - who knows. I want to be that flexible, and we'll see what happens. I was thinking about how different it was to travel without a smartphone. We're so connected - for better or worse.

Pending proper internet connections, I'll blog about our travels and post pictures. Yea!

Use 'em or lose em

One big benefit of moving from our old lab and office space to our current building at work is that the stairwells are wide, brightly lit, and conducive to "taking the stairs" if one should want to do so. My lab is on the second floor and my cube is on the fourth floor, so I'd would take the stairs instead of the elevators at least a couple of times a day. There's a mezzanine level at each floor, two, so it was something like eight or nine flights of stairs (if a flight is 10 steps or so).

At first, I couldn't do it without stopping, but in a few weeks, I'd be a little less out of breath as I got back to my desk. It's nice when you can do something at work that is totally permissible (like getting to your desk) and have it be exercise too.

Well, last December, they started doing construction within the building to increase the amount of office space so the rest of the people in our division can go over to the new building. As much as I like my fourth floor cube, I'll be ousted moved to the second floor. I have no power in this, and I'm glad not to have to share a cube, so there is really no problem.

During the construction, they have closed the stairwell that I used to use. So I've been taking the elevator like everyone else. A couple of days ago, as I sat at my desk for another day of writing stuff, I decided to use the stairs in the other stairwell, and go from the first to the second floor. Well, I thought those stairs only went up to the second floor or so, but they go all the way up to the top, and there's no signs saying people can't use them. Hooray! I'll now do those a couple of times a day.

However, after the first day of doing stairs, I got up from my chair at work and my calves were so tight, I couldn't think what that could be from. Spin class? We didn't do anything different than usual. Then I realized it must have been walking the stairs. Wow. Use it or lose it, and those muscles got used to not being used. It's funny how losing the strength there is painless and unnoticed. And getting it back is a little ouchy.

Lucky me

I've had a streak of luck lately, the kind where I have won stuff. A few weeks ago, I saw a link to a contest sponsored by Blue Marble Biomaterials, a company that makes earth friendly chemicals (it's a pretty cool effort, IMO) where they asked for examples of people using upcycled materials in things. I sent off a picture of one of my bracelets, and got a nice reply saying that they'd open up all of the entries to voting by the public and the winner would get a $150 prize from hipcycle, a website dedicated to selling upcycled items. 

I got an email from them last week saying that they only got three entries, so they decided to split the prize and I'm going to get a $50 gift card to Hipcycle. Nice! I'm sure I can find something to like there.

Then yesterday, my friend D and I volunteered to help assemble and sew plush monsters for a company called Monster to Love, run by a family who donates one monster for each one sold. That's the kids in the picture, and we worked on the orange, red and yellow monster in the lower right corner. I don't sew well, so I pinned pieces and that was very satisfying. They're soft and squishy, a bit expensive, but I love the idea. The event took place at one of our super cool stores downtown, called Mama Said Sew, which sells yummy fabric and offers classes. 

While I was there, I looked at their offering of buttons, and saw that it was kind of sparse. Perfect for my polymer clay buttons! So I asked the shop owner if I could come by with a few samples, and she said sure, and gave me a time next week that would be good. Yea! I'm working up two new sets (4 styles each, three sizes each) to show her, plus I'll take the other ones I've worked on. She said she could either do it on consignment or buy them from me outright. Yea! again.

It gets better. I got an email last night from the guy who owns the Monster to Love company saying I had won the door prize, a $50 gift card to Mama Said Sew. Whoop! I don't sew, but have lots of friends that do, so it'll find a good home. 

Garden update 7-7-12

I'd like to let the rest of the country know that I hope that you get the same rains we had yesterday. Soaking, persistent, but not scary rains that we really needed. I was looking in the paper for the rainfall totals, but their tracking ends at 8 pm, so it wasn't accurate. We must have gotten an inch of rain, which for around here is a pretty big deal. It has cooled off, too so I'm a happy camper. On to the garden pictures!

 

Here's all the vegetables and fruits. The soaker hose irrigation is working pretty good. The apple tree is leaning a bit, and I might have to give it some support. I'll have to ask my friend from the dog park who knows about such things.

 

This is the new bed. Strawberries, parsnips (yeah, we'll see how those turn out - not sure I've ever eaten one, but am willing to give it a go), cukes in the cage (bought late, and a little behind), and a couple of Marigolds from seed in front. I had planned to put potatoes in this bed, and found the garden stores sold out, so I bought some Yukon Golds from Whole Foods and waited for them to sprout, and they never did. The irony is that I am notorious for opening my pantry closet and finding spuds with four inch long purple roots coming out of them. Not these ones. Next year I'll be better prepared.

 

I've got my first zucchini flower this morning! This bed is a little sparse, but I've got herbs in front of the zucchini, and some freeloader broccoli (all leaves, no flowers) there as well. My one yellow pear tomato is also in this bed, which you can see on the right in the first picture. I recently gave it more irrigation hose, so I think it will be happier. It was kind of limping along.

 

The Nicotiana I bought last year as starts reseeded itself (a lot!). There are 8 other plants in there, Viola and Gazania, but you wouldn't know it. Next year I'll just let the Nicotiana have the whole pot and save a couple of bucks. I like how they look. Raspberries are behind them. Lots of leaves this year, a few berries. It's pretty crowded back there. One of these days I need to get in with some long gloves and see if there are berries that I can't see from the outside. 

 

Rogue lettuce in this one, and onions. I also have a couple of planted-late green bean plants that will hopefully go up the trellis. Carrots in here as well. I planted a lot of cantaloupe because we love it and what the heck. It seems to be having a good year. 

I'm letting it spill over and go wherever it wants, in hopes that we'll get a few good ones. Might as well get some benefit from the heat, right? 

One more picture:

I'll do a post about this soon, but I find myself seeing some parallels between doing online dating (where I was occupied with seeing how many people looked at my profile) and trying to sell my jewelry online. *sigh* I still enjoy the process, as long as I don't expect too much out of it.

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Have you seen these?

I saw this on Pinterest today. Pretty snazzy, eh?

Mortified

Apparently Mr W is growing up. I was taking him to camp last week and on the way from the car to the door of camp, we saw the older sister of one of his friends. I called out to her, and waved my hands to say hi. My thinking at the time is that she's a semi-dramatic tweener and would appreciate my little show of flair.

We got into Mr W's room and he is visibly upset. I have no idea what's going on, but he is beside himself and I can't recall having seen him like this before. I pull him aside and say, "What's going on?" He says something to the effect that I embarrassed him by waving my arms and that he does NOT like the friend's sister.

Wha?

And then I get it. He's got a crush on this girl and took my actions as trying to draw attention to HIM. I had no idea. I had to pull him aside again after he walked away. He asked if I would go and tell her that what I did had nothing to do with him, and I advised that it was probably better just to let it drop.

On my way back to the car, I thought about how this is sort of the first manifestation of a crush that I've seen in him, and that I was relieved that it was on a girl. I love him of course no matter what, and accept him for who and what he is no matter what, but I think it's easier in this world to make your way if you're in the majority for something like that.

Last night, I went to a baseball game with the single parent group. Mr W was camping with his dad as part of a schedule change, but I had planned the event so I went. There's a guy there who has a daughter the same age as Mr W and we commiserate about them together. The daughter is high on drama and is awkward at the same time, which makes for interesting interactions. At one point, I was going to tell her that her team got a run, and when I said her name, she turned around and said "What?!" in that tweener way that's like fingers on a chalkboard. Oy. Sort of glad I've got a boy to deal with. :-)

Feelin' the love

Tomorrow is my birthday. I say that to set the context here, not for setting out bread crumbs for ducks at the park. I'll be 47. There are two things that I've been thinking about for the last few days. The first is my gratitude that I'm still here. My sister died much too early at 45, and there was a time when I was pretty sure I'd be next and in short order. This translates as being able to let the little things go (often-sometimes). As though I've got some kind of perspective now that allows me to drop the things that aren't worth my time. The rude clerk, uncertainty about this or that, the fact that my house isn't as clean as I'd like.

The other thing is that the shows of birthday love scare me a bit. My dad sent a nice card and a check. He also sent a couple of packets of seeds, which I think is a fabulous idea and will do that for birthday cards in the future. Mr W got me a card, too. This is the first year he's gotten me anything for my birthday without prompting. He bought me a lollipop, too, and offered to do chores for me for a day. A friend came up from Denver last weekend and bought me dinner. We went out last night after spin class to eat and celebrate my birthday. It has been so nice to get the attention. With all of it, I get that feeling that there will be a cost for it. I know that's silly.

I'm happy to be here, and enjoying the ride.

There are no original ideas

After a busy few days of social stuff, it was nice yesterday to stay out of the heat and work on crafty stuff at home. I had seen some cool polymer clay buttons on Pinterest and wanted to see if I could recreate them with what I had on hand. Many polymer clay people use canes, (here's a link to some pictures showing how one is made) and the process leaves a lot of trimmed ends behind. Some clever clayer came up with a way to use these bits and ends to make new things. These are the Pinterest buttons (and the link to their source):

Not having done really any work with canes, I tried to get some bits of coordinating color, so I made a blend, which turned out to be two blends because it got too wide for my pasta machine to roll out.

I then used my cutters and cut out a big and a small square and rearranged the pieces. This was to get a lot of color combinations in a small space.

I then cut one of the blends into little pieces.

And applied those pieces to a sheet of black clay. This was pretty time consuming, but I wanted to get a nice distribution of colors. I might make longer pieces next time.

I then rolled the whole thing once more through the pasta machine to smoosh it all together, and then cut out the buttons. 

I still need to poke the holes (except for the test one in the bottom left corner), but I'm pleased with this first go. I'll put a layer of glaze over them to shine them up a bit, too. I love how creative ideas build on other creative ideas. 

We're havin' a heat wave here for the next week or so. I've got my two window air conditioners in place, one in the living room and one in my room, and last night alternately baked and froze until I got the settings right. We actually got some rain last night. It's so rare lately and very much needed. The fire is still going. 83,000 acres burned, almost 200 homes lost. It's moving north and west now, and there are still many homes in its path. 

A little catch up

Happy weekend! It's supposed to be near 100 for the next two days. I'm volunteering at our local brewfest this weekend. It'll be fun, I need to drink lots of water. So, what's been happening here? 

Well, at work, I got work done on a project and it's ready to hand off to my boss, who was this week collecting ticks in Missouri. The magnitude of my gratefulness for not being asked to go on this trip is huge indeed. Ick ick ick. So, that's good. I worked from home yesterday afternoon on a little proposal that helps explain the connection between the sort of research we do and public health. It's not always a straight line, and it helps to try to make it clear for the people who at the top who make decisions. 

I've been working a lot on Etsy shop stuff. Well, it seems like I've been spending a lot of time lately trying to promote my stuff on Pinterest, Facebook and Tumblr. The overlap is definitely there, but it seems each has its own different audience. But setting that stuff up and keeping it current takes time. I do enjoy it, though, so it's not like I feel like I'm wasting time. Those earrings are the last of five pairs I posted recently. I used mainspring barrels from old watches, plus the little glass cabochons and my clay tiles. If you've got an opinion, what do you think of the price? Reasonable?

I'm also doing a giveaway on the FB page. Check out Wednesday's post for details. 

It's been so very dry here. I know it's not like that everywhere, for sure. I've been dutifully watering my garden and sometimes my grass. I'm trying not to let my lawn die this year. I've gotten a so-so harvest from the lettuce and spinach - it got too hot too fast after I planted them. But the rest of it is coming along. I planted a bunch of cantaloupe, and with the hot summer, I'm hoping we get a few good ones. It seems like it's around the beginning of school by the time they are ripe, but the plants have flower and I'm hopeful. The dog's been helping herself to the raspberries, which I think is quite funny, and I'll just need to try to get out there before her.

I can tell you this because it's done and there's no jinxing it now. I had gone out on a few dates with someone I met online. I know, I know, why the online stuff again. In short, because I feel like there's no one out there (so I don't spend much time on the site), but yet I'm an optimist, so it feels like leaving a business card in a jar. Anyway, we went out for lunch a couple of times and went hiking once. Each time, it was this thing about how busy he was, and whether he'd be able to make the agreed-upon time. We moved things around several times, and the last straw was when we had agreed to go out, potentially, on a Saturday night before he was leaving for a conference. We had set up the potential outing at least a week in advance, so it seemed to me he could find a couple of hours to do go out. He emailed at 6 pm, not to apologize, but to say he couldn't make it, he had too many things to do yet.

The reason I mention this is because there was a time when I would have put up with this bs. There was a time when I would have thought this pretty normal and would have been understanding. In fact at the beginning, when we had to reschedule or he couldn't make it, I thought, "well, he's got a lot going on, so I'll be flexible." And you know what? We all seem to manage to make time for the things we think are important. We do. We are all busy, too. So I emailed him and said that he seemed like he was always too busy, and that there was no hard feelings, I just didn't want to conduct things that way. 

And I never heard from him again. I guess he's too busy to reply. 

But things are good. I was telling a dear friend who came up from Denver and took me out to dinner last night (and has been married forever) that yes, I still sometimes can't believe that I have been single now for 6.5 years after the divorce. But I have come to realize, especially after hearing about how one half of a couple can make bad choices and make things difficult for both parties, that it's nice to come home to a friendly dog and just check my email and go to bed. 

Father's Day

I had intended to post yesterday, but the day got away from me. I had the house closed up all day, and did a little experiment with making pumpkin bread in the toaster oven. It turned out fine, but heated up the house and it was hot last night. Oh, I had closed up the house, um, Friday night? I think, because of the fire and all the smoke it was pushing to town. Anyway, it was so darn hot that I slept terribly. It's supposed to push 100 today, so smoke or not (it's not bad at the moment), I've got the house open and all fans in service trying to push the warm air out and bring the cool morning air in.

So, Father's Day. This used to bug me, but now I see it as a positive thing. My dad, pictured above with my nephew, is pretty particular about gift giving. He likes to get a restaurant gift card to certain chain restaurants. And he'd like a card on the big days (birthday and Father's Day). That's pretty much it. There were years when we kids were adults and before we came up with the gift card thing that everyone would be kind of disappointed with the whole gift giving process. Now, though, I know what he wants, and I deliver. Yes, it takes the creativity out of it, but he's happy.

Not that I don't get a little bit of subversive fun out of it. For several years now, I've given him jars of jelly from Harry and David for Christmas (the gift requirements seem a little more loosely defined there) and although it messes a bit with what he thinks he wants, he always uses them and I hear from him around April or May (the stuff keeps for a long time) or later that he just opened the peach jelly or whatever and it's really good and thanks. 

Like a lot of families, we had our rough patches growing up. Here's the thing, though. Since my divorce and subsequent re-, um, re-, I don't know, rebranding of myself, I've always felt like my dad's been in my corner. Several times, even though we don't talk on the phone often, he's said just the right thing and I know he's got my back. That he's proud of me, and that means a lot to me. 

He's 77, and healthy. I hope I've got those genes. He's currently in the process of moving to Florida so he and his longtime girlfriend/partner can escape Ohio winters and be close to her son. He's spent the last several months going through his stuff and what stuff of her he can. She moved to FL in January to take a job that is perfect for her, so she's there, he's in OH. Stressful, but they're almost done. It'll be nice to consider going to Florida over Christmas, I do believe. And I saw that Legoland is about an hour away, so I'm thinking of having me and Mr W go down for a visit next winter sometime. 

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New Bracelet

Sorry I've been absent. This fire thing's been a drag on everyone's reserves. Here's a new bracelet I've got up at the shop.

I call it Soft Shimmer. There's a little bird cage charm on this one. 

Our in-town fire

You may have heard about the High Park fire that's burning just west of Fort Collins. Here's a link to our local paper, and one to a TV station. At least 118 structures, lots of displaced people, lots of smoke down here in town. My house isn't in any danger, but the fire is less than a mile from where I work. The building is pretty smoky, and it's hard to concentrate. They don't seem to think the fire will crest over the hill close to the building, but it's been an unusual fire, and people are a little anxious, myself included.

It started Saturday morning, from a lightning strike. Not too much more to say about it, but it's unfolding.

In other news, I had a couple of interesting dreams last night. In one, I was with Mr W and we were standing on the side of a street. All of the sudden, this life-sized pink plastic VW Beetle comes bouncing, literally, down the street, doing several car lengths at a bounce. It's got a big black push button on the bottom of it. Mr W is unimpressed.

In the other, I've got friends over to the house and some stuff has been delivered that I'm supposed to work on as part of my craftiness. The pieces are on my porch, and it's something like a large dining room table top, and three wooden cutouts of animals. For the life of me, I can't remember what I'm supposed to to with them. Then I find a letter, also on the porch (where my mail gets delivered) and that explains it.

I got an email from Mr W's dad yesterday saying how all Mr W wants to do is play on the computer, and I was telling him that the kid needs to be gently pushed to do the other things we know he's interested in. I fear the kid will be unimpressed by anything not on a screen and we have to work on that balance.

The other dream I suspect has to do with this button stuff, although I'm sitting really good on making the first batch - they look great.

I'm delivering a meal for a family from church with the mom undergoing chemo this summer. Just so happens I ran into an acquaintance in the grocery store over the weekend, also undergoing chemo this summer, and is also signed up at the same meal-delivery-organization web site. I'll get on that schedule too and count my blessings.

Trying to beat the heat

It's supposed to be hot today, so I'm finishing my coffee and getting ready to do some yard work here at almost 7 am on a Saturday. I'm almost always up by this hour, so it's not that big of a deal. I have been BUSY, hence the lack of posts. Many of the other "just folks" blogs I follow are in the same groove right now.

I attended a volunteer meeting for the Ignite Fort Collins organizers last week and I'm going to be doing a little more social media stuff for them. I really want to learn how to get the word out for stuff without being a nuisance to people, and thought I could also use it for my jewelry stuff at some point. It's a good group of people and I really like how everyone is a big fan of living here.

I spent last night mixing clay for buttons. I'm still figuring out the best way to replicate colors. I bought a kitchen scale and it supposedly goes down to the nearest gram, but it's dicey at that low of a weight. Maybe there's a sweet spot on the surface of it that I have yet to find. I thought I had the ratios just right and made a big batch (for the equipment I have) and it's too pink, so I need to adjust. It's not hard to do, a little this, mix mix mix, a little more that, mix mix mix. There's no subtracting, though, so it has to be a gradual process. I'm happy with the results so far and want to end the weekend with the first batch to send off.

It was Mr W's first week of camp this week. He's at the top of the heap age-wise, and they laid the hammer down early on the discipline stuff. Here's how that can go wrong (with verification from the counselor). The group is playing a trivia game with two teams. Mr W gets a wrong answer. Camper A calls him an idiot, Mr W vigorously disagrees. Camper A gets into Mr W's personal space. Mr W gives Camper A a shove (the degree of which is unclear - not enough to knock him down, enough for the counselors to notice). Since Mr W made physical contact with another camper, it's an "automatic three strikes", which results in the parents being told about the incident. The other kid got two strikes (and perhaps knows how to work the system...).

Um, really? The expectations are that my kid is supposed to walk away when someone gets close to him and is verbally abusive. Since Mr W's actions were all defensive and not offensive, I told him not to worry about it. He didn't know if he'd get in trouble or not. I don't know if I would have handled it differently if I were in his shoes. The counselor later said that they're having trouble already with this kid.

Otherwise, he's having a good time there.

Lastly, here are my Delphiniums before they got blown around by the wind the other day. They are almost six feet tall. Very impressive. 

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We saw it

Did you get a chance to see the transit of Venus, either live or online? After seeing only a small glimpse of the annular solar eclipse a few weeks ago and feeling like I was depriving my child of significant scientific event viewing opportunities, I promised myself we'd try to get out to see the transit.

Our local astronomy club had telescopes set up at a park/natural area on the way south end of town, and as the time to leave drew closer, there were clouds in the sky and a little bit of rain. But then the sun peeked out and I decided we'd give it a try.

On the way, I tried to explain what I had heard about why the event was significant. It only happens twice every 100 years or so. There was one in 2004 and the next won't be until something like 2117. Previous transits (I'm still not clear on how they know this stuff) were significant because they helped scientists measure the size of the solar system. Until then, they didn't really know how big it was, and got the answer from triangulating measurements taken from various points on Earth.  I love that scientific history stuff. Apparently it was quite an undertaking. The shot below was taken in 1882.

The folks with their scopes were helpful and accommodating. We looked through several, and one person had the image projected on a piece of paper, so several people could see at once. We saw sunspots, too, and when the view was at its best, saw some solar flare activity. All in all worth the trip, although after we were there for about 10 minutes, the clouds obscured the view.