A clean, green house

We switched our dish detergent today and it's almost enough to make doing the dishes enjoyable. It's Mrs. Myers Lemon Verbana dish detergent. A really lovely scent that lingers all day, plus it's all natural.

I've also switched to some phosphate free laundry detergent and changed to an organic toilet bowl cleaner. As we run out of other cleaners, I'll switch those too.

The next step to a better home is setting up a compost heap. I had one growing up, but I think it was mostly just garden waste, not household waste. And I'm also looking into a small doggie poop septic system for the yard. It won't work in the winter though, so I'm not sure it's a good idea for this area.

This won't help much if I keep buying pre-packaged, prepared food all the time, with all the waste that goes with it. I've just completely forgotten how to cook in all the years that I had dinner by myself while Dan was working. But I was good today. Stopped off at the nearby organic farm for some tomatoes, cukes and corn. Now that the summer crops are coming in, I'll try to make that a semi-weekly trip and get some fresh veggies on the table a few times a day. I could probably eat corn on the cob every day of the summer without getting tired of it.

Pictures, pictures, pictures

My blog has been very dull lately with no pictures. So I'll go all out tonight with some photos.

First, there was a town festival two weeks ago when my Dad came to visit. Nathan spent some time in the bounce castles, then we listened to music, looked at the craft fair, and checked out some antique cars. Gorgeous day, with lots of people out having fun. I missed the big event, but Dad, Nathan and Kyle went to it. The fire department's three trucks go down to the river to see which engine co. can get their hoses set up and firing first. It then degenerates into a big water fight between the firefighters, with the crowd caught in the crossfire.



Second, now that we're all unpacked, I thought I'd show off our living room.

And this is what the living room looks like when I turn my back on Claire for two minutes.


Are we rednecks yet? Took delivery on this today, but it still took Dan an hour to mow. And that's not even including a patch of land that we're trying to reclaim from the cattails and burdock.


And finally, another puzzle on our property. I originally thought this area was a garden, because it was weedy rather than grassy. But my shovel clanged when I tried to dig there, so I amended my thoughts to it being a concrete slab from a barn. Turns out I was wrong again, it was a massive stone. I haven't even finished uncovering it yet, and it's at least 15 sq feet already. Once we get the deck done, this will be a secondary patio. Dan also wants to put a hammock here because it's shady. But we're going to have to figure out how to work around/with this stone first.

Bad Poetry

Gotta post something, so I'll post this

Famous Poems Rewritten as Limericks


Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening

There once was a horse-riding chap
Who took a trip in a cold snap
He stopped in the snow
But he soon had to go:
He was miles away from a nap.


The Raven

There once was a girl named Lenore
And a bird and a bust and a door
And a guy with depression
And a whole lot of questions
And the bird always says "Nevermore."


Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

There was an old father of Dylan
Who was seriously, mortally illin'
"I want," Dylan said
"You to bitch till you're dead.
"I'll be cheesed if you kick it while chillin'."

Done

Yay!

Return to sender, address unknown

It's a good thing I ordered a second copy, because the first order is being sent to my old address by mistake. I'm wondering what will happen if I try to liberate it from UPS today. I imagine they've already been told not to release the book no matter how much people beg. But maybe I can at least convince them to send it to my new house instead. They're not open for pick-up on Saturday, so it will be in limbo until Monday if I can't work this out.

I'll also drop a note off at the old house asking them to call me if it gets delivered there, although I think the UPS guy saw enough packages from me, that he knows I don't live there anymore.

la la la I can't hear you

I think I may have to shut down my computer for a few days. I'm a Harry Potter fan, have been since picking up Prisoner of Azkaban for a plane ride eight years ago. And I really don't want to be spoiled on the ending of this book. But unfortunately, I love reading news accounts about the hype and the fact that spoilers are out there already. However, it means that I'm skating close to the edge of seeing things I don't want to see. Even websites that I wouldn't suspect would care, are making references to the pages that made it online. Must tread carefully.

After arguing over who would get the book first, I ended up ordering a second copy from Amazon so Dan and I could each read it. The last two times I didn't order a copy, and then decided that I couldn't wait. I ended up buying a Costco membership four years ago because they were the only local place that had copies available. And two years ago, I decided on the spur of the moment to go to the Borders at Midnight to get a copy. I think I was the 300th person in line. I then read for several hours, even knowing that I had to get up with one-month old Claire for regular feedings. This year, I'll leave it to Fed-ex.

Your cheating heart

The most amusing thing I've seen in awhile.

I pulled into McDonald's tonight, and parked next to a car that looked like it belonged to my friend's husband. My vegetarian, organic loving, reduce-reuse-recycle friend. She knows he likes the occasional burger, but I now suspect that she wouldn't want to know that he gets his fix at Micky D's too. How else to explain the fact that as we were going in the front door, he slipped out the other side, walked around the back of the restaurant through the drive-thru lane, and drove off. Heh.

I was all set to tease him about being there, but I guess I'll keep my mouth shut in the name of wedded bliss.

God, I hate phone trees

Applying for unemployment is a thoroughly unpleasant experience, I don't recommend it. My first claim was denied because I'd only worked one quarter of the past five quarters, so I didn't qualify. I had to re-apply when July 1st rolled around to prove I'd now worked in two quarters. Then I spent a good 45 minutes, spread over four days trying to call to "get credit for my 'waiting week'", only to discover I'd been calling a week too soon.

Tomorrow I fax some paperwork to verify that I did work 2 quarters after all, then I guess I have to fight my way through the phone tree again next week. Which puts me a month behind when I should have been collecting benefits. And in the end, I'll be surprised if I get more than $2000 when all is said and done. Better than nothing I suppose.

And although I'm not in the least bit interested in going back to work when the sun is shining and the beach is calling, I did send out a resume to a job tonight. I remember how all the job postings seemed to dry up last fall when I decided to start looking, I don't want to make the same mistake.

Not quite done unpacking yet

I thought I was going to unpack the last box tonight, one labeled pictures that had been sitting in the living room for the last month. Our wedding photo, the kids naked baby pics, and some decorative objects. But it turns out it was a box of older decor items that we never unpacked from the last 2 moves, only about half of which I wanted to hang. Although I was very pleased to find this piece that my Mom had made, as well as a colorful hook plaque that we can hang Zeppo's leash and treat bag from.

Now I have to lug the real last box back down from our storage area so I can get those photos out and put them on the mantel before Dad's visit tomorrow. I'm also reorganizing the artwork. Dan's plan was just to hang stuff where there were already nails, and it's led to a very unbalanced look to things. When that's done, we'll be ready for our House Beautiful photo spread.

Fetch

I finally, finally, finally made a purchase on Etsy. I found this site months ago, and just love everything on it. But it's unfortunately a case where there are so many beautiful things that I always have trouble narrowing it down to the one thing I want most. But this was a no-brainer for Zeppo.



Stay tuned for pictures of Dan tossing balls for Zeppo to catch with his high school stick. Oh yes, we're going to be a lacrosse family. If you had any doubt, here is a pic of Nathan being indoctrinated at six months.

Lie to your Children

Big mommy mistake yesterday. We were at the beach in the afternoon and it looked like a thunderstorm was coming. I decided to give Nathan fair warning that the lifeguard would probably make us get out of the water, because I didn't want him getting upset and blame me for having to leave. We were going a few rounds in the "Why?"
"Because a,b,c"
"Why?"
"Because x,y,z"

When we go to "Why can't we be in the water when it's lightening out?" And I responded with "Because you can get electrocuted and die." Ooops.

He seemed to brush off what I said at first, until the lifeguard blew the whistle and he started to FREAK OUT. When Claire went down to the water to wash her hands he went into complete panic mode that she was going to die. Argh. It took a good half hour to calm him down, and I purposefully went for a drive away from the weather to make sure he was calm before we had to face any thunder or rain.

The last two days have been full of constant fear about thunder and lightening, and fear that the power will go out again. He didn't freak out as much this afternoon when a storm came through, but only because I completely coddled and soothed him through it.

In many ways it's a repeat of the great poisonous mushroom scare of 2006. In the original Babar story, the king of the elephants eats a poisoned mushroom and dies. Nathan got really worked up about that one day, and the next time we went hiking he was terrified that Claire was going to die because she was walking towards some mushrooms. The sentiment is sweet, but in practice, it's headache inducing.

Notes from New England

I'm finding it hard to get used to the idea that when people start oohing and aaahing around me, it's because of the dog and not the kids. With a face like this, who can blame them.


His training is going pretty well. Too much poop in the kitchen, but we're working on it. Come, Sit and Down are working very well though.

I don't have much to write about. I'm busy, but at the same time, I don't know where each day goes. So just to say Hi, I'll give you some interesting links.

This is an interesting article on the cult of Dunkin Donuts. Insightful Commentary here.

The Red Sox have now been in first place for almost the entire season. The Yankees continue to bomb.

My local Paper. Reading Sound off is always good for a laugh.

Some history and photos of my new town.

Oh, and this was the view out my window as I was writing this post.