And so the story goes...

2011-11-19T22:36:00.001-06:00

Blog, I miss you. Maybe we can reconnect soon?

2010-08-26T23:33:00.002-05:00

Should I start this up again?

Even after a long time of not posting, I still walk around writing posts in my ahead. The biggest problem is getting sucked into spending too much time on the internet, but that isn't exactly a good excuse because it happens already. Really, if I do start to post here again I should think of it as a way to keep me away from other inane internet loopholes (like facebook) and document my life in Madison. I'd like to be a little more deliberate about things I post, and start to use tags, like making "Things I Love" a regular feature. And posting photos, and talking about recipes, events, etc.

Blogger feels so old and out of date, but I can't leave it after 8 years of goodness to me, so I will stay.

2009-04-15T22:15:00.002-05:00

hello out there.

i think of blog posts in my head every day, but never seem to log on. oh well.

things have been going well here in madison. spring is on its way in. i biked to work for the second time today, and highs were in the 60s. i'm so ready for long bike rides, concerts on the square, bbqing on the deck, reading in the hammock with chickens underfoot...more sun and warmth in general!

one of our chickens, penny, is sick. i don't think she'll be around much longer. for now i have her isolated in her own spot in the mudroom. we're really not sure what's wrong, but my guess is that she's eggbound, or else has some kind of internal disorder.

Here is a photo of Penny that I took the night before last:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/_kristy_/3440695346/

And here is one of her looking healthy for comparison:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/_kristy_/2487819207/

sad, huh? she's doing a little bit better today, but i'm not sure she's going to recover from whatever it is she has. :( the things i do for these hens makes me laugh. like checking her vent and putting ky jelly around it (it's supposed to help ease the egg out if it's stuck) and giving her a warm bath. pretty silly from a "these aren't pets" standpoint. i even used a hair dryer to fluff her back up again before going back out to the coop. she seemed to like it.

i would take her to the vet if it was affordable. but even though i love my chickens i can't justify taking a chicken i got for $2.50 to the vet which costs $81 (and probably $150+ after tests). plus the fact that it's more than likely she will die soon anyways. i will put her under if needed -- although i'm not sure of the best process to do so -- but for now she's in a safe spot and living fine.....just a bit uncomfortably.

i'm still tempted to get more chicks, but realizing how much i might be away from home in the next three months makes me think that waiting until next spring would be best. the original plan was to axe them off in the fall, when they're 2.5 years old. then we'll have chicken soup all winter and get chicks in the spring.

2009-03-22T13:21:00.002-05:00

i've joined the twitter bandwagon.

http://twitter.com/_mosier_

it's a bit like mini-blogging, so maybe i will then get into the habit of updating this real blog more. i hope so.

2009-03-09T20:52:00.001-05:00

overheard on the bus tonight:

hey
hey
so you're growing out your facial hair?
yeah. i've given up girls for lent.

2009-02-11T22:11:00.000-06:00

Welcome to the world Mathilde Lucie!

2009-02-10T22:16:00.002-06:00

I just came back from the Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival showing here in Madison. It was great! "Homegrown Revolution" was a bit hokey and horrible scripted, but "Red Gold" made up for it by being spectacular. Pretty neat, and inspiring.

Goldfish
2 girls. 1 Mission. A lot of fish. (USA, 2007, 12min)

The Water Front
What if you lived by the largest body of fresh water in the world but could no longer afford to use it? Residents of Highland Park, Michigan, have received water bills as high as $10,000; they have had their water turned off, and are struggling to keep water from becoming privatized. (USA, 2008, 22min)

Homegrown Revolution
In the midst of a densely urban setting in downtown Pasadena, radical change is taking root. For over twenty years, the Dervaes family have transformed their home into an urban homestead. They harvest nearly 3 tons of organic food from their 1/5 acre garden while incorporating many back-to-basics practices, as well as solar energy and biodiesel. (USA, 2007, 12min)

Red Gold
The headwaters of the Kvichak and Nushagak Rivers in Alaska are home to the two largest sockeye salmon runs on the planet. And at that same spot, mining companies have proposed to extract what may prove to be the richest deposit of gold and copper in the world. Native fishermen who oppose the dam are up against mine officials who say they will build a ‘clean’ mine that will leave the salmon’s habitat untouched. (USA, 2008, 55min)

Check out the tour calendar and try to see it near you. I think they might be switching out films at different locations?

2009-02-05T20:04:00.010-06:00

I had never made bread before, until I tried the NYTimes No-Knead Bread Recipe from Jim Lahey, which went along with this article in 2006. It fast became a favorite, and with good reason. It's deliciously amazing, and so so simple. We've probably made it about 30 times since then, and would have devoured it more except we're not good at restocking our flour. Last fall the NYTimes revisited the recipe (1, 2) and changed it slightly for quicker timing. I haven't tried those since I've found the original recipe--with a few tweaks--works wonderfully for us.

The best part about this bread is the crust. It's actually crispy! The brilliant part of the recipe is the use of a lid for your cooking vessel and a very wet dough. Your covered pot becomes an oven inside and oven, and the wet dough makes a moist environment for the bread to bake in....resulting in a marvelously crispy round loaf of bread (better than the supermarket!).

Photo by my friend Ruthie.

This bread has been such a hit, not only in our own house, but with friends, that many people ask me about it. It's one of those things that I love to share because it's changed my life and I'm pretty passionate about this bread...it's so easy...and so good! I keep meaning to take photos of the process, so at some point I may update this post a bit more.

Below I'm listing my adapted recipe, which is much easier to do IMHO and still results in great bread. You can find the original using the links above.

Tips we've discovered:

*Instead of using those little packets of yeast, just buy one little jar of yeast and keep it in the fridge, it lasts for months and is faster and easier to use. The jar to look for is bread machine yeast (instant yeast).
*The dough rises faster at 70 degrees but in winter we keep our house at 55 and it works fine too so the temperature doesn't matter much. If you do have a cold house, one way to speed up the process is to put the bowl of dough in your unheated oven with the oven light on. The oven light will warm up the space.
*Sometimes I use a tiny bit more than 1 5/8 water if it seems to dry when you mix the ingredients, especially if I'm using a wooden bowl because it sucks up some liquid. I've never used less than the recipe amount, but I've definitely used more...up to 1/4 cup more.
*We rarely follow the exact times for the rises...generally we just mix the ingredients before bed, turn the dough the next morning and then bake it in the evening after work or late at night. We did make bread a couple of times when we had left it sitting for over 24 hours...it worked OK but not great so try to do it within 20 hours like the original recipe says. Find a schedule that works best for you.
*We don't use any special pot to bake it in like they suggest...just an inexpensive stainless steel soup pot (a cooktop one: either our 8 quart Cuisinart Classic Stock Pot, which is almost too big, or our 3 quart Cuisinart sauce pan. I've also tried a cheap $10 roasting pan which worked fine, but not as good...probably due to the wavy bottom), the most important thing is just to use some kind of pot that you have a cover for. Size also isn't so important: when Ruthie makes this bread she uses a very small sauce pot and it comes out fine. You just need to make sure that whatever you use is OK to 450 degrees. It shouldn't have plastic handles or a non-ovenproof lid. There are also other alternatives (that I haven't tried) if you don't have lids, or only have casserole dishes.
*We don't use a towel to cover it because it always sticks to the towel for us, so instead we just use a cutting board to cover it and then lay the dough upon in the last step. This creates much less mess--there's no laundry to do, and the flour only gets on your cutting board (not your counter).
*There's no need to even touch the bread with your fingers, just use a spatula for all steps! (Except possibly the very last ball-forming step).
*It's fine to skip the cornmeal/wheat bran. We have tried this part a couple times, but it wasn't as good, in our opinion.
*It's important to have your pot pre-heated, otherwise it may not bake right.
*If you're using the pot for multiple loaves of bread, you'll want to clean it out between uses, which can be tricky to do when hot!
*Adding in herbs or other ingredients works well too. Garlic is also good.
*We almost always make two loaves now, because one is not nearly enough!
*This bread makes wonderful croutons/stuffing when dried.

____________________________________________
OUR ADAPTED NO-KNEAD BREAD RECIPE:

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting (if you want)
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 5/8 cups water

Time: Rising times vary, but you can start this in about 5 minutes.

1. [In the evening, after dinner]
In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir with a (we use silicone) spatula until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. If it's not sticky and a bit gooey add some more water. Cover bowl with plastic wrap or a cutting board. Place the spatula on top to rest. Let dough rest [overnight] (at least 8 hours), preferably more, in the warmest place in your house. If your house is cold, place it in the unheated oven with the light on.

2. [In the morning, before work....or right when you get home in the evening]
Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Using the spatula fold it over on itself once or twice, or just mix a little bit. Cover loosely with the same plastic wrap or cutting board and let rest for a few hours.

3. [when you get home from work, or in the evening]
Make sure that your pot fits in your oven. It will probably be necessary to rearrange your oven racks, or take one completely out. Remember to do this before pre-heating! At the same time, if you've left your dough in your oven, make sure to take it out. A very important step. Also, put oven mitts or towels in close proximity in preparation for baking.

4.
At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 2- to 8-quart covered vessel (stainless steel, cast iron, enamel, Pyrex, ceramic or anything else oven-safe to 450 degrees) in oven as it heats.

5.
Option a) [My husband]
Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to your work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Coat your cutting board with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on board and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Let it sit for about 20 minutes, or longer, as you wait for the oven to heat.
Option b) [My lazy way]
Do nothing, or just use the spatula to fold it into a blob-ball, still in the bowl.

6.
When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Transfer your blob into it either by hand, or using gravity by plopping it out of the bowl with a spatula. It may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Slightly shake the pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes (set a timer!), then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes (or more), until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

2009-01-03T02:47:00.003-06:00

just heard from paul: "i forgot about the new year kiss. i should have been making out with ethan."

so, umm, yeah. i totally fell asleep at 10pm on new years eve. i hope that's not a sign to come. but i blame it on the bad movie--tropic thunder--i just couldn't keep my eyes open. every other night of this two week vacation i've been staying up way past midnight....just not on the night that counts i guess. at least nicole followed suite and also went to bed. the guys were left watching the ball drop on tv together, the sound of rain and furious wind in the background at the pacific coast.

2008-12-09T22:01:00.001-06:00

snowstorms. snowplows. frozen eggs. shoveling. ugg boots. hot chocolate. canceled meetings. school days. ice.

winter is here.

2008-11-30T19:36:00.000-06:00

the snowplow just went by our house. first time of the season. shucks.

2008-11-21T19:56:00.003-06:00

there's this song on the radio that i love, and sometimes i sing along. i swear it was saying "scurvy love", but last night (after how many months?!) i found out i was wrong. lol. disburbia. oops!

maybe it's because of listening to captain bogg & salty's fun scurvy song.

2008-11-04T09:22:00.001-06:00

voting took only 7 minutes this morning (maybe even less) from start to finish. i hope things are just as smooth when i'm working the polls downtown this afternoon/evening!

2008-10-30T22:57:00.005-05:00

i'm 27! today. and i spent my birthday at a work conference, the ESRI Wisconsin User Group (EWUG). but it was good, and on wednesday i and two of my coworkers gave a 45 minute presentation in front of 100+ people. i was a bit nervous, but it went really well, and at least ten people came up to me over the next two days to let me know that i did an excellent job, so that felt wonderful. it has been quite a few years since i've given a lengthy presentation in front of more than a dozen or so people. it was nice to learn that i still have strong presentation skills. i also learned a few other things including:

a) i have some awesome coworkers (some evidence: they brought a ganache chocolate cake all the way from madison and surprised me and e. [her bday is saturday] at midnight, it even had the coolest swirly candles i've ever seen!). i feel so fortunate to have such lovely friends at work.

b) i will never be able to keep up with most other gis-ers/wisconsonites when it comes to going out. after getting up at 5am to come to the conference e. & i were ready for bed at 1:30am after a relaxing hot tub/sauna session, while the rest of the party stayed up much much much later going to multiple venues.

c) i learned how (and most importantly, how not to) drink from a boot! the ewug beer boot was passed around. who would have thought that there are rules on how to drink from a boot? i was a bit confused at first. were they kidding me or what? but after some observation i figured it mostly out. how to flick the boot for good luck/respect before and after drinking, how to properly position the boot (toe out/up), and how to drink S-L-O-W. that last part i didn't do so well and ended up being splashed by the famous boot bubble (although not the one that occurs at the very end). hilarious, embarrassing, and fun.

d) maybe, maybe, i want to investigate nursing a bit further. it still completely interests me. maybe becoming a certified nurse midwife, or just getting a master of nursing. in the hot tub i met a nurse practitioner who specialized in emergency care. he had just flown in from japan from another conference and was giving a few presentations the next day. one of them, the sociology of trauma, sounded so fascinating to me. i almost skipped the morning gis session to attend his instead (but my selfish body wanted the extra 30 min of sleep instead, plus in the end it was good that i stuck to the ewug sessions, because they were pretty helpful).

e) maybe, just maybe, i'd like to continue in my gis vein for the long haul. should i get a masters in geography? a gis certificate? hmmm. i think i'm just being open to lots of new ideas recently. and itching to learn and discuss again.

f) i'm good at winning raffles. at conferences, i'm 3 for 4 now (conference #1: ipod nano, #2: ESRI tea mug, ESRI Geography hat, & ESRI beer glass, #3: ESRI book which i will never use, but hopefully can sell on ebay. ;)

g) i'm finally picking up the gis lingo. after five years now i can say that in this conference i knew 95% of the terms and abbreviations for once. that's a big feat, considering my first technical conference i had no idea what they were talking about most of the time! we tried extra hard in our presentation to leave abbreviations out and explain things clearly, hopefully that helped the other newcomers.

2008-10-27T01:36:00.006-05:00

i just got back from the pabst theater in milwaukee where paul & i along with two friends, saw Of Montreal. at first, i wasn't sure what to think. i kept going back and forth between "this is fun" "this is entertaining" to "this is weird" "this is creepy" and at one point "this is terrible", but in the end i thought it was a good show. highly entertaining.

the lead singer must have made at least 10 costume changes (white frilly blouse, stripped to tshirt, stripped to no shirt, stripped to just golden undies, painted red, black leather cheetah jacket (no pants), then a fanny pack (no pants/no shirt), then a blue sequen top (no pants), then a quilt/robe thing, then something i can't remember*, then back to just undies again with golden goop, then a horse costume, then for the grand finale, up from a casket covered in whipped cream). ok, that was 14 changes, and i'm sure there were more that i forgot. plus all the backup dancers, about 5 of them, also kept changing into weird costumes.

*oh yeah. i blocked it out already. this was the worst part of the show, and made paul physically sick (and i was also nauseous)....he hung himself with a huge noose. it was only for about 60 seconds, but still. HATED IT, hated it, HATED IT! it was terrible horrible and should not have been in the show. that and the weird fake-naked costumes on the backup dancers in one song.

they had great visuals going on. sometimes animation behind the stage on screens, sometimes on the mini-stage within the stage, and a lot of the time they broadcast their movements live onto the screens from mini-cameras they had mounted on microphone stands. brillant.

they mostly played music from their latest album (which i hadn't heard before so it was all new to me), but there were some hits from the first. i probably wouldn't go out and buy their new album, but it was definitely great to see them live. they rocked at 95% of their songs (there were a couple where it seemed like the sound was a bit off and i would have preferred to hear the lyrics better). also, they ended with nirvana, which was awesome.

ps. they happen to be playing at the riviera in chicago tonight and then have many upcoming concerts. so if you happen to be in the area and have time, go see them (just close your eyes for the middle part)!

2008-10-26T13:18:00.002-05:00

It might snow today. I am not ready for winter. So instead I curl up in blankets and watch Maui Fever on mtv.com, which I just found out that one of my childhood friends stars in. I would love to be laying on a beach in my (non-)bikini right now.

I am sore from raking leaves. Raking is a full body workout and now I also have blisters. Also, I totally missed a party I was supposed to go to last night because I fell asleep at 7:30pm. Lame.

So the only news around here is that I signed up to be an Election Official and had my poll worker training yesterday. Now all I have to do is show up at my assigned poll station on Nov 4th and work like crazy helping people vote from 2pm-10pm. It's going to be a long day, but I think it will be a good experience. One perk is working for the state is that I can "volunteer" at the polls and still get paid.

2008-10-06T19:57:00.002-05:00

and now the madness begins: trying to find a flight home for christmas without paying and exorbenant amount

2008-09-30T21:58:00.003-05:00

autumn is officially here. crisp air, leaves turning colors. i had to close the windows for the first time today, and wear gloves while biking. game night has been revived and planned for this saturday. pumpkin-carving is in the works for two weeks from now. the booze cruise knitters have been reunited and it feels so good to socialize with the gals and knit. i like having plans to look forward to. like ms. lemon's wedding in two weeks! i'm heading back to portland -- hurray! i will also be spending some time with my parents at their log cabin in central oregon. and seeing cohen, nicole and other great friends. but no kate, because she is in india. this might be the first time i'm happy not to see her!

i biked the barns on saturday. it was a benefit for the madison area CSA. we biked to four local farms and had lovely local organic homegrown homemade snacks along the way. it was an early birthday present to myself. a beautiful day for a bike ride on my road bike. 70 something miles including to and from the start/end point from our house. i like it a lot, but there were a few glitches. oh well. strangely, i wasn't sore at all afterwards...just very tired. of course, instead of sleeping i stayed up until 4am at katie's wedding reception. so fun. out in the country with a big white tent all lit up with candles and globes, a big bonfire and the best (and i mean it!) bluegrass music my ears have ever heard. so sweet. so good. loved em. and at the end of the night, after the last sips of alcohol, and the fire died down, colleen & i slept out in an open field under the stars and clouds. what a nice night.

2008-09-30T19:58:00.002-05:00

Ok! It's the end of the month, and I've made me 30 before 30 list. Here it is in no particular order:

1-learn to polka and attend the pulaski polka days
2-tour the house on the rock
3-visit the world dairy expo, http://www.world-dairy-expo.com/
4-eat at smokey's & l'etoile
5-see a play at the american player's theatre
6-tour frank lloyd wright's taliesin, http://www.wrightinwisconsin.org/
7-spend time in the apostle islands
8-float down the wisconsin river and visit the bluffs
9-cheer on either the brewers or packers in person
10-bike to milwaukee
11-bike to the illinois border
12-tour the capitol building
13-learn how to wear makeup
14-donate to three worthy causes
15-become a mom
16-have an active lifestyle, regularly
17-obtain a nice digital slr
18-write thoughtful letters to friends
19-backpack in the cascades
20-return to glacier, tetons, denali
21-visit the olympics, yosemite
22-get past the basic knit & purl stage in knitting
23-go on a long solo bike ride at least twice
24-find a church family/community to participate in locally
25-send thank you letters to teachers of the past
26-figure out how to invest wisely and start the process
27-wear high heels at least three times
28-have art on my walls, with one or more originals from me
29-volunteer with children & the elderly
30-garden, either in my backyard or else in a community garden plot

2008-09-10T22:25:00.003-05:00

my friend carrie recently posted a 30 things to do before 30 list. it's made me think of what i would put on a list if i had one. maybe i should start. i can think of a ton i would like to put on it, but what would actually be feasible for me? 3 years isn't so long form now and i can't do everything. of course, there should be some items that are a "reach" and lofty goals too. remember those writing warmups from grade school? maybe that will help to get me started. in nor particular order, as they come to my head: (i will try to create the real 30 list by the end of the month)

-actually remember paul's birthday and give him a creative gift
-obtain furniture that i am proud of
-bike in the snow, regularly
-cut my hair short and/or get bangs
-learn how to wear makeup
-learn how to invest
-donate/volunteer
-become a mom
-have an active lifestyle, regularly
-obtain a nice digital slr
-write long and thoughtful letters to friends
-travel to india
-travel to china to visit karin
-backpack in the cascades
-summit south sister
-return to glacier, tetons, denali
-visit the olympics, yosemite
-take up beadwork again
-get past the basic knit & perl(purl?) stage in knitting
-go on a long solo bike ride at least twice
-join the peacecorp
-become a foster mom
-change professions
-go back to school (in what exactly?)
-find a church family/community to participate in locally
-send thank you letters to teachers of the past
-create something and sell it on etsy
-garden.
-create a plan for redoing the kitchen, if not an entire remodel
-figure out how to invest wisely and start the process
-wear high heels at least once
-have art on my walls, with one or more originals from me
-volunteer with children

umm. the more i write this the more i realize i think i've done this in a past post. i should find it. just a big long wish list.

what is your 30 before 30? 25 before 25? 50 before 50?

2008-09-08T22:03:00.001-05:00

currently, i may be the only person in wisconsin not watching the packers game tonight.
packers vs vikings.
i'm sure to hear about it tomorrow at work!

2008-09-08T21:08:00.004-05:00

yes, i'm back. and hopefully on a more regular basis. the heavy summer recap will be coming. lots was accomplished and i wore myself out. now i'm back to my homebody self for a while, which means i need to clean this home up (house and body both)! the beginning of the schoolyear always excited me, and even though i'm not in school anymore i still feel that current of newness and tension and fashion and crispness in the air. i feel this will be a good one.

i joined the gym for a year membership. it was cheap because it's the school gym, but still a big commitment of money for me. i also had a milkshake for dinner tonight. not good. not at all. besides needing to work on my diet, i want to start some kind of training regime for my wimpy muscles. biking helps, but since i bike everyday it doesn't really feel like i gain much (although biking to waunakee yesterday was lovely and a great workout! 20 miles through cornfields and lake mendota. plus i think i got someone pulled over for buzzing me on busy highway m....i love you middleton cop). paul and i are on week 2 of the onehundredpushups program, which means i'm up to 9. still a long way off. i need to run though. i just need someone to run with! a running buddy. i am so self conscious when i run, it's nice to have someone to talk to to take my mind off of the running and to be encouraged. or find a beautiful spot to jog, like mt. tabor reservoir. i need to find a sweet spot in madison.

2008-09-07T21:40:00.001-05:00

murray beat nadal(!), and i am currently watching jankovic do the splits. i generally dislike televised sports, but tennis is fun.

2008-06-10T23:54:00.003-05:00

i'm all teary eyes this evening. partially because i'm so allergic to that cottonwood fuzz around in the air this week, but mostly because friday night lights is so darn good. that show is great. a few days ago i was at the library and randomly came across disc1 v.1. the first episode was just ok, but by the time i got to the 3rd i was hooked. and now 8 episodes in i want more more more. but i have to put them on hold at the library. the characters are so endearing. and man, if i were in high school i would totally date matt saracen! what a sweetheart.

2008-06-07T19:53:00.003-05:00

boo to tornadoes, thunderstorms, and hail. they are fun when you don't have plans and watch them roll on by (hopefully at a distance), but not when you would like to travel 260 miles for a bridal shower. sucky. i'm still so surprised every time i hear the siren goes off, who knew there were tornadoes in wisconsin? definitely not me.

all day i've been anxiously checking the radar. massive storms approach, then fly on by just missing. then it looks like a big break, perfect for my drive south right? but no, out of nowhere more deep red spots appear. it looks like the next 36 hours will be more of the same.

it's interesting especially because when i google severe tornadoes wisconsin up pops a lot of records, all talking about F2 & F3 tornadoes ripping through the state on this exact day last year.

2008-05-15T23:54:00.002-05:00

colleen, if you're reading this i hope that you are feeling a little bit better. good luck with pt and i hope you get out of the hospital soon!

2008-05-08T19:03:00.004-05:00

hello internets.

i do indeed have a road bike, got it last weekend, which was good timing because this morning my hybrid got sick. my back brake is sticky and not working. boo. at the last minute i had to hop on my new raleigh intrigue 2.0 and race to work (i had missed the bus by 30 seconds). originally i was going to keep my new baby for only long rides because 1) i dont' have a good lock (yet) 2) it has clipless pedals and i me being the wuss i am i will probably need a LONG time to get the hang of it 3) with all the potholes & traintracks on my route i don't want to pop a tire and 4) i don't have a rack to hang my pannier.

so my new bike i love love love. which is good because i paid an arm & a leg for it imho. i went back and forth and back and forth about this bike. i never planned to spent this much on a bike, but at the same time i didn't want to settle for just any old bike....i really wanted one that i adored and felt comfortable on. plus i know that i'll use it for years and years (after the last five on my $60 craigslist hybrid which i still plan on using. i went back to the bike shop twice to test ride. i put it on hold. i shopped around elsewhere. but this bike just spoke to me (like seeing our house for the first time)...it was perfect. and i don't regret buying it. i kept my promise to myself. i splurged (which many of you know is hard for me to do!), although technically i still got a great deal (and, if you happen to be curious and google this bike, know that i happily spent MUCH less than even the online sale prices). it was in the "used" bike section but it was brand new, only a clearance model because it was a 2007, which is great because i get the lifetime warrenty. all i need now is a very cute bike skirt with my rei 20% off. i just wish it was easy to take on planes and travel with. my sister wants to do her second century ride for her birthday it would be awesome to join her. i also wish i had more biking friends nearby (anthony!). it's an adorable bike, plus has great components (shimano 105/tiagra shifters, easton ec20 carbon fork, etc.), i am going to have this one for years to come. best of all. it FITS me. a women's frame.

so this week has been one of sun and thunderstorms. both of which i love at the right time and place. it's been sweet to be able to bike to work without gloves and layers over layers! also, one monday they were filming at the capitol for the movie public enemies, which has mostly been set in wisconsin, and stars johnny depp and christian bale. so once i see the movie (like all of wisconsin will), i can say hey i was there watching that courthouse scene and then move on with my life. but really, it was kinda neat to see the streets shut down and all the cast in their 20's getup and the crew and lights camera action. oh, and the antique cars.

on to chicken news. not much to report. the hens are doing well. except one of them (i think sterling but it's hard to track down) is laying paper-thin eggs. which means that most of the time they're broken in the coop. not sure what's up because the other two have hard shells and there is a supply of oyster shell (calcium) readily available. one annoying thing that has been happening is that the chickens are much louder than before. so much so that i can hear them from bed with our window open in the morning. i hope that keep quiet...i think with all the green around them and bugs crawling they just want to be let out.

the last two weekends have been busy. with school wrapping up for the spring, paul is overloaded with work. and we also spent part of both weekends (each saturday) in chicago. lots of driving, but it was good to spend time with family and reflect on the life of paul's uncle scott, and then celebrate paul's cousin's 21st birthday as well as give him a big farewell as he starts his first 6 years in the air force.

2008-04-30T00:07:00.002-05:00

i am geting a road bike. i told myself last summer/fall that i would treat myself to one once i made it through my second wisconsin winter. and now the weather has warmed (some, it snowed HUGE flakes yesterday and is very chilly) and i'm ready to ride. itching to ride. plus i need to be able to keep up with paul and my lovely hybrid is just not cutting it.

the only problem is finding a bike. coming from portland i never gave much though to buying a bike. they're everywhere. lots of bike shops, garage sales, pawn shops, craigslist, etc. but here in madison, even though it was just ranked way high up on the list of bikable cities with a gold star rating by the league of american bicyclists (although portland got top honors), there aren't too many options. this is a small town (though many ppl from wisconsin would not agree).

since i am a shortie it has been hard to find a small road bike. 48cm or 50cm frame, with a max 76cm standover height (i figured this all out yesterday). i could buy one on clearance at rei, but i would prefer to buy a used bike. especially because buying one new would take at least three weeks to reach me.

2008-04-25T17:48:00.002-05:00

fun with weather

as if our 100+ record breaking snowfall for this winter isn't enough there's more potentially coming this weekend. and right now i see yellow and red on the radar with five (!) noaa national weather service statements:

flood watch: heavy rains & flooding, vigorous cold front coming, thunderstorms
special weather statement: large hail to 2 inches in diameter, damaging winds to 70mph
hazardous weather outlook: more of the same, flooding, rain, thunderstorms, etc.
& our favorite,
tornado watch: tornado watch is in effect until 8pm

good thing we had a tornado drill at work yesterday ;0) and now i know to take shelter in the middle of the building (at our house i suppose the basement is our best bet). no tornado sirens have gone off yet, so i'm staying in our bedroom resting with a tummyache.

lots of lightening and thunder over the past 24 hours. most people (including myself) couldn't sleep last night with all the racket going on. and today when i checked for eggs i found the coop filled with lots of feathers everywhere. not sure what happened?....maybe the chickens were so scared they lost some feathers? or pulled them out?

2008-04-11T22:24:00.001-05:00

this made me cry

and

this made me laugh

2008-04-06T21:23:00.003-05:00

Whew! There's been a lot happening in the past month. Until I get my butt in gear and start blogging again regularly, here are the highlights:

1.) I went to a great local Wisconsin fish-fry. It was at the North Bristol Gun Club. It was a smelt fry, which I'd never experienced before. The smelt was caught in Lake Michigan and gutted on Thursday and then prepared and eaten on Saturday so it was local and fresh. Smelt, potato pancakes, cole slaw, applesauce and Leine's beer....a great meal.

2.) Unique Wisconsin experience #2 was curling at the Madison Curling Club Thursday evening. I had never curled before, so it was a very new thing for me. I spent the first 30 minutes falling down and bruising my knees as I practiced launching the stones. Eventually once we started our game I got the hang of it a little better...it was really fun. We ended up hanging out until 1:30am, and on a work night too. Photos soon.

3.) Wednesday night was the Clap Your Hands Say Yeah concert. It was excellent, although a little different vibe because it was a tiny crowd. The University decided to throw a concert for everyone who registered and volunteered at least 10 hours of their time at a local charity. Great intentions, a great reward, but I don't think it was publicized so much. There were 35 of us on the guest list, around 15 staff in blue tshirts, and other than that probably only a dozen or two people....in short, the smallest crowd CYHSY has played for in probably years. And in a large auditorium.

4.) Friday night was the Vampire Weekend show at the High Noon Saloon here in Madison. Yacht was the opening act, and he was super high energy. His powerpoint presentation was entertaining, and it was neat to see clips from Portland (made me miss home!). VW was also good.

5.) The snow is *almost* gone. Only a couple more days of 60 degree weather and I suspect it will be gone until next fall. yes.

6.) The chickens are using their outside run again now that the ice has disappeared, and haven't been attacked by the neighbor's dogs. Today I tilled the soil a bit and the chickens had a blast digging and eating all the bugs. And they've been laying 3 eggs a day pretty consistently. I think they're gonna love the spring and summer.

7.) My bike came out of the basement yesterday and I went on my first ride. It was excellent, and no hats, gloves or outer layers needed, even at midnight. I'm hoping to ride almost everywhere until next autumn!

8.) The Wisconsin Film Fest was this weekend and Paul & I were able to see two films. To The Limit, a very excellent German film about the Huber brother's speed rock climbing, focusing on the Nose at Yosemite...I highly recommend it! And then this evening we saw a film called Chop Shop, which was great.

9.) Duck Soup Cinema was last night at the Overture Center. We went for drinks at Fresco above the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, then went into the marvelous newly restored Overture Center theater, to watch the silent film "Kiki", with live organ music. I'd never seen a silent film before so it was another new experience for me. The accompanying music was really a treat and I was surprised at how slightly risque the 20's black and white movie was. Afterwords we went to the Tornado room for more drinks and friend cheese curds (my favorite Wisconsin appetizer).

10.) Paul & I went on a big weeklong trip. First two days in Connecticut with Paul's parents and then 6 days in NYC. It was excellent for me, and I think Paul enjoyed it, although he was a little more stressed because he had school-stuff to do most of the week. We ended up getting City Passes, which entitled us to tickets to: MoMA, the Met, the Cloisters, the Empire State Building, the Guggenheim, the Natural History Museum, and Circle Line Cruise. I ended up doing all of them, and Paul joined me on everything except the cruise. Plus I was in the Letterman audience one evening, and we also visited the Museum of the American Indian, Wall Street, Central Park, 5th Avenue, St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Staten Island ferry, Chinatown, Little Italy, Times Square, Bryant Park, Greenwich Village and other great locals. Our hotel, The Hudson, was pretty hip (so hip in fact that it doesn't even have a sign out in front of it, you're just supposed to "know" that it's there), and although the room was tiny, I thought it was an excellent place to stay. I loved how walkable Manhattan was, I must have walked at least 4 miles each day, and next time we come back I'm excited to explore the other buroughs. One of the neatest things was meeting up with college friends who I haven't seen in years. :o) I look forward to the next time I can visit new york.

2008-03-16T14:55:00.001-05:00

i made it! i ran (jogged) the entire 5k. hurray. 34:05, just under an 11 minute mile. that's a start.

2008-03-12T22:57:00.002-05:00

i have a bruise as big as a football. it's fascinating how colorful it is (the darkest bruise i've ever seen), but scary to think that it's all from internal bleeding...yikes. it's been painful to walk or sit, but getting better.

i'm heading to nyc a week from tomorrow. or more precisely, first to southeastern connecticut to spend two days with paul's parents and then sunday-thursday in the city. i've only been to nyc for one weekend before, back in college, on a whim. it was one of the best weekends of my life...so much fun. i'm excited to go back, and to explore different places with paul. paul is heading there for an academic conference, so much of the time i will be a solo adventurer. any suggestions on where i must go?

2008-03-10T22:44:00.003-05:00

i feel down a flight of stairs this evening. i am ok, but very bruised. snow is my culprit and savior. ice on the top step sent my tumbling down 10 more, but i landed in partially compacted snow at the bottom which damped my fall. i thought i had broken something at first, but ended up just in shock and pain.

luckily i believe that tomorrow will be the last day of ice. it's finally going to get above freezing and this foot+ of snow will melt! the snowiest iciest winter ever will finally come to an end.

2008-03-09T23:12:00.002-05:00

this morning i finished the last harry potter book. done with the series. and i had to finish the last fourth of the book fast because it was due yesteday and on paul's library account, where i had already racked up $6.30 in fines. i am so money-conscious grocery shopping, and clothes shopping, but for some reason i end up donating loads to the library. the portland library wasn't so much of a problem because i got an email 3 days before items were due as a reminder, but the madison one does not have this smart feature.

so what should i read next? i have no book in line and i feel naked without something to read. i should probably grab something from our bookshelves only 20 feet away from where i sit, since we have probably at least 200 books, but i'm just not sure what.

2008-03-09T20:45:00.002-05:00

i'm watching oprah's big give as i type this. this show is so bad...it makes me cry every 5 minutes! i can't help it.

2008-02-25T20:58:00.002-06:00

Our newish neighbors who were renting-to-own the house next door skipped out of town suddenly and left the owner with a messy house and yard, and a half-finished shed in the back. Plus they bounced the last two month's rent, billed him for "improvements" they made, and didn't give notice even though their lease runs through april. gosh!

I'm still a bit in shock. I mean, these where people who I considered nice and considerate. they had two cute little daughters, came over in the fall to give me flowers, played guitar on our front porch in the summer, lent us their powertools and advice when building our chicken coop, and were pleasant to be around. they said they were staying for the long-haul, with plans to dig out a basement, repave the driveway, down some trees (they even had an arborist come out). they redid the kitchen, and who knows what else on the inside.

and suddenly....gone. they must have moved out last weekend when we were out of town. i just figured they were on vacation.

2008-02-23T21:06:00.002-06:00

today was hands down the most beautiful day of winter. perfectly sunny with a high of 29 and 20" of snow on the ground. han, paul and i drove to mirror lake state park and spent over 4 hours cross country skiing 11 miles (we only stopped for about 30 minutes overall....it was a nice hilly area). i felt so amazing, so alive and invigorated to be outside. it was such a workout and i got that "glow" of sweat which i haven't experienced in quite a while...the kind where it just feels so good.

2008-02-20T23:59:00.004-06:00

tonight i bundled up (and I mean more than I ever have!) and went outside to stare at the moon. i convinced paul to walk with me across the street and up to the restored prairie meadow in the park, which was surrounded by trees that blocked the city lights. lucky there was no wind, but on this clear night we're having a low of -14. even with many layers i was cold after only 20 minutes. also luckily, the moon was positioned perfectly so that we could also view the lunar eclipse from our comfy wingback chairs in front of the fire.

2008-02-15T21:51:00.003-06:00

i really like this video. it's so neat to overlay the speech with simple video and song. very powerful. obama played it at his madison rally on wednesday.
and then of course the sequel (which he did not play)

wednesday evening in the kohl center was the obama rally. i went with some coworkers. we arrived around 6:40 to a huge crowd slowly making their way in (doors opened at 6:15). by the time we got inside (which took a while because the security was high...i had to take off two layers of clothing and get patted down just to enter) the stadium of 17,000 had filled up. we were lucky to find standing space in a wheelchair accessible landing, behind the stage. i heard that there was some overflow room somewhere but i suspect that many were turned away. all of the aisles were filled with people sitting on the steps. there was this women cop who spent over an hour going aisle to aisle kicking people out. when she came to the aisle to the left of us she got into a very loud shouting match with one guy....i guess he really wanted to stay. since obama was late (i think he came at 8:40, when he was scheduled for 8pm) i had a lot of time to people-watch: that obama aide down there in 3" heels furiously on her blackberry, the many kids anxiously awaiting the senator, the college students grabbing for obama-support signs (sidenote: did you know that they ban people from bringing sings to rallies, but then give out "fake" handmade signs for people to hold only for those in sight of the cameras? i found this a little false).

and then when obama did arrive, even more people-watching ensued: the girl smacking gum in pink who had a closeup on the monitor the whole time obama spoke....making it very hard to concentrate, the 9/11 truth supporters who smuggled in their own signs, proudly displayed them and then got dragged out by security, college students posing in the front row for photos, etc.

i had never been to such a big press event. tons and tons of cameras and crews all over with huge satelites. that was the most interesting part of the rally...seeing the bright lights and flashes and limber photographers grappling to get the best shot.

in other news, i was so sad to hear about the niu shooting yesterday, and was frightened. three of paul's cousins go to school there, and his cousin's fiance. i was relieved to hear that they are ok, although i'm sure shaken up with the whole ordeal. we'll be seeing them tomorrow when we head to wheaton, il for the weekend.

2008-02-11T22:31:00.000-06:00

i'm wasting my evening on facebook and myspace. but reuniting...and it feels so good (cue sappy music). i love finding random friends from years past. and seeing their cute babies.

anyways, it's COLD here in madison. nothing new. more snow. more ice. currently 4 degrees, which felt even colder after doing water aerobics and walking a half mile to the bus to wait. we were only a mile or so from our house, but in weather like this (and darkness) it's so much better to be on a warm bus for those four stops.

i joined the uw gyms. $75 for jan-may is so cheap--although not joining a gym, like i've done for the rest of my life is even cheaper. i paid an extra $20 for the group x classes, which means i can drop in to any of the group fitness classes whenever i want. today i tried deep water aerobics (60 min) and it was a good workout. soon, i will try spinology (spinning) for the first time.

also, i played raquetball for the first time ever yesterday. finally putting those blue rubber balls to use that i got for christmas. :o) it was crazy! i had the general swing of things coming from a tennis background, but other things made my mind spin. like the idea that there are four walls to bounce off of. i could tackle the front one (the most important), and the sides were ok, but wrapping my mind about the wall behind me? that didn't happen. the ball would bounce off the back and I would flail my raquet around in vane...i just couldn't connect. and then the concept of a tinier raquet was also lost on me, over and over and over I kept swinging and hitting the top rim. Or, i'd be in place, swing nicely and whiff it. paul got a good laugh. ;o)

what a fun new sport to learn. and it's definitely a full body workout. i am sore today, especially my right arm. of course, i got all sweaty, tired, and gross just by our warm-up and four matches, but paul (playing with his left hand) beat me every time with not a drop of sweat. i am completely out of shape.

new (attainable, small, first-step) health goals:
*go to the gym at least twice a week (as opposed to never, which is a big step)
*lose 5lbs (long term goal is 15)
*run a 5k in march
*keep a record of my workouts (not only to encourage myself, but to get points from our health insurance and win stuff, also make sure paul goes so that we can be reimbursed $200 at the end of the year).
*think about eating healthier, and act upon this at least 50% of the time
*cut down on dairy even more
*act upon my urges to get outside and go walk around the neighborhood even if i can't rile up the husband or cousin to come with me (ie, once it's not a sheet of ice and gets about 15 degrees, walk to the library and trader joes)

chicken update: we're at 7 eggs from sterling now, she's almost to her first dozen!

2008-02-06T18:57:00.001-06:00

This Wisconsin State Journal article makes it seem like job hunting while at work (on company time) is perfectly OK. To me this seems sketchy...it seems like it should be ok while on your lunch break or another break, but not during your regular workhours. What are people's thoughts on this?

2008-02-06T18:21:00.000-06:00

over a foot of snow already! and now my back aches from shoveling....

Early This Evening
Snow. Blowing snow. Snow may be heavy at times. New snow accumulation of 1 to 2 inches. Total snow accumulation 12 to 18 inches...with isolated 20 inch amounts. North winds 15 to 20 mph with gusts to around 35 mph. Chance of snow near 100 percent.

the upside is that it's only 25 degrees, so it feels almost WARM for once!

another tidbit: At 61.8 inches of snow so far this winter, the Madison area is closing in on the seasonal record of 76.1 inches, set in 1978-79.

2008-02-02T23:58:00.000-06:00

Sterling (our silver laced wyandotte) laid her first egg today! this morning, for the first time ever, i found two eggs in the nest box. one tiny tiny one and one larger, looking so cute together. photos will be in my flickr stream shortly.

2008-01-28T20:31:00.000-06:00

On Saturday Paul and I attended the Eleventh Annual Evening of American Indian Storytelling and Drumming. It was fantastic! Last year we also attended this event, and I was excited to return to it again.

The Madtown Singers opening with drumming and singing, and also closed the event with a great departure song. There were three storytellers, one from the Ho-Chunk Nation (the native nation indigenous to Madison), one from the Moose Clan (Ojibwa?), and one from New Mexico, I believe from the Navajo Nation. Unfortunately Paul recycled the program, otherwise I would write down their names....they were all wonderful storytellers. The first speaker told one of the Ho-Chunk creation stories, the second a "risque" story she learned from her grandmother and mother about a boy who goes on a journey and destroys different evil types of women, and the third (my favorite) told a beautifully woven, humorous story about coyote learning to fly and the impact of traditions on present life. The storytellers, as well as the Madtown Singers, had me in awe the entire night. I felt honored to listen to their stories. And impressed by their gift of telling native stories in multiple languages in a meaningful way.

I've heard some great storytellers in my life. I was fortunate to spend time with different tribal elders growing up. I first listened to native storytelling as a young girl at a pacific northwest storytelling field trip to washington somewhere. There was smoke, dancing, stories told in a wooden longhouse. I remember going their twice, once in a small group and once in a very large one (with my class?) and being startled by the smoke the came out of the wall at key parts of the story...it was great effect.

What really awed me was hearing Ed Edmo tell stories around a campfire along the Columbia the summer after 5th grade. I participated in Salmon Camp, which was a ten day summer camp for native (or in my case, part-native) kids that traveled from the Warm Springs Reservation in central oregon all the way to the coast to the Siletz Reservation as we studied native culture and learned about the lifecycle of salmon. Ed's daughter Se-ah-dum was one of the councelors. I also heard two elders from the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs come and tell our group of 5 stories about Shears Falls as we stood at its base at sunset near the native fishing spots, along with Celilo Falls, the great landmark on the Columbia River which was sadly drowned by the Dalles Dam. We had a traditional salmon bake at Kah-Nee-Ta with native dancing and also storytelling which was one of the highlights of the trip (especially the couples circle dances!).

The next summer I took a trip with a native group up to Seattle where we visited an Suquamish elder (if i remember right?) at her home. I remember her being very old, and her house being very bright on a sunny day. She reiterated more than once on the importance of learning and passing along stories. She told us a few of her favorites and then told us a very short one about a mouse and a house and something about cleaning (?) in the hopes that we would remember it and pass it along. From 5th grad on I've had a pretty bad short-term memory. I do remember trying to repeat this story in my head to myself, but I have sadly forgotten it. But I do remember the elder's face, and her wisdom, and her respect for us as young native kids.

Spending five summers in Alaska working and learning with native alaska youth, as well as one march conference as a delegate with the American Indian Science & Engineering Society also put me into fantastic opportunities to hear alaska native storytelling and dancing in central and southern alaska. What a gift.

Those key storytelling experiences, along with a rich tradition of thursday-night storytelling at outdoor school, have made me realize just how valuable the gift of storytelling is, along with the importance of passing along stories. I am so bad at storytelling, not only because I forget key plot points and details, but also because I am too serious in general and have a limited on-the-spot imagination. I do have a curiosity to listen, but not much of a desire to speak, especially in front of larger audiences. This makes me sad, but I just don't have the gift of storytelling no matter how much I'd like to have it. Maybe it will be something I gain as I grow older? In the meantime, I am very happy to sit back, listen and absorb the fantastic stories that I am able to hear.

2008-01-28T20:22:00.000-06:00

"You must yield where necessary to avoid striking pedestrian who are crossing the road. You must yield to pedestrians when you are entering or exiting a driveway, alley or parking lot."

Wouldn't it seem polite to have guidance suggesting that cars stop when people are in the crosswalk? Wisconsin residents are polite in most aspects of their life, but not when it comes to driving.

The quote above is all I can find about pedestrians in the Wisconsin Motorist's Handbook given out by the DMV. So basically it's legal to drive fast and not slow down for pedestrians in crosswalks (unless you're going to hit them). I guess this explains why I've had people swerve around me as I cross the sidewalk downtown near my work. They're only going 25 mph, there's a large clearly marked crosswalk with lots of people around but they decide to hit the accelerator and change lanes instead of politely stopping.

I've seen someone almost killed trying to cross the street at University avenue. Instead of a car slowing down, they laid on their horn and came within inches of the person. I've also seen an old lady run for her life across the street as cars approached. I wish there was something I could do about this.

2008-01-21T20:58:00.001-06:00

5ish? inches of snow on the ground and still more coming down at a moderate pace. A really pretty snowy day. I just tried to go to a party, drove about a mile and a half, and then turned around and came back home. I'm still not used to winter snow/ice driving, when the car slides all over the rode and into another lane just trying to stop at 10 mph I get a bit nervous. I wish we had snow tires, but people in the midwest have never heard of snow tired or chains, and would probably laugh if we had them. I could have made it to the party, but the whole time I'd be there I would just be thinking about the miserable drive home slipping and sliding again...so I ditched. So much for a social life.

2008-01-13T22:06:00.000-06:00

today i slept in. i wanted to go to church but two cars blocked me in and i didn't feel right waking people up to move their car, so i snuggled and stayed in the warm bed. i need to add frequenting church to my new years resolutions.

i convinced paul to go on a snowy walk with me. it was about 4 miles. it was a productive walk because we went to trader joes and used one of our christmas gift cards to buy some stuff (ruthie: we found the pre-cooked beets). it felt good to walk through the new snow and be active, plus we got to talk as we walked through some pretty neighborhoods. there was only one snafu. because we brought backpacks, we both transferred our wallets into them but forgot to grab keys. so we were locked out once we returned back home. we ended up waiting an hour until jason came back. luckily it was just around freezing, and slightly sunny with little wind. if it had been colder i would have been miserable....and probably just would have walked to the mall. instead, we played with the chickens, shoveled the sidewalk, shoveled the coop, etc. and then we were cold, so we hung out in the unlocked car in the garage until we could get inside. i think i need to put making an extra key on my todo list.

this evening was spent listing the random crap we have around the house on craigslist. i posted five things and so far one has sold, our old broken vacuum. won't be making a lot of money, but it's nice to have some pocket change and get some of the clutter out of our home.

we also watched two more episodes of the sopranos. it's so sad that we're to the last season. i really don't want the show to end. it's so amazing. excellent storylines, great acting, great cinematography, great everything. even though i am nothing like the character i feel like i can relate to so many of them. it's easy to get wrapped up into their lives as if they were real people. i am very anti-violence, but at the same time as the show progresses i've found myself secretly hoping that they would whack some key annoying characters....such bad thoughts! but i've also felt so drawn to other characters that i have no business liking. i cry for people who kill others. the sadness and despair, the happiness and love that i see on this show....it seems so real. i admire carmella, and tony, paulie, and sil. i'm a bit scared as to how the next few episodes are going to play out.

2008-01-02T20:04:00.000-06:00

It's 2008. But to me it should be 2009. I've been one year off for a couple dozen months now, I kept writing 2008 on my checks this entire year. I think that the decade years are the only one I keep straight. 2000 is so solid. And it's must easier to remember the year when you're in high school, or graduating. And 2010, I'll probably get my internal calendar back on track then. Or add to our family, or have some other milestone. who knows.

at least this year I have a better grasp of my age. 26. i can remember that, finally.

after a fun weekend in Chicago, a short but sweet one, we rang in the new year by lazing about in madison. in fact, we didn't ring in the new year. no banging pots or pans like i did as a kid. no hurrays or shouting, no kissing, no dancing. intially we wanted to have a game night with friends, but after realizing that only one friend was in town, and that she wasn't available our grand new years plans disappeared. so we had a relaxing but lazy new years as we did christmas. we played a couple of games, and we watched the sopranos. we turned up the heat to celebrate. and i drank a bottle of champagne by myself (paul was not up for it). mmm breakfast memosas. or however you spell that.

today was my first day back to work after a week and a half. it was much slower and easier than i expected. no emergencies or struggles to deal with, just back to the flow of things with milwaukee county. a good start to the new year at work.

tonight is -3 and last night i believe was even colder, something like -11. the chickens did OK--they puffed up their feathers and hung out in the coop. they have one more day of negative degrees and then will enjoy the heat wave coming along. we've had snow on the ground here (over a foot) since the middle of november, but two days of temps over 40 predicted, so maybe it will melt. that would be nice, but at the same time i have actually enjoyed the snow.

i feel like i'm finding my place more and more here in the midwest, at least emotionally. no winter blues have hit yet, like they did in full force last year. but i expect they will still come. january/february are the hardest months. but i have chickens to tend to, and places nearby to xcountry ski, and a loving husband, a good job, an amazing house, and friends who i appreciate far far away even though i seem to never talk to them anymore. there is much to look to. plus paul is learning to be more cuddly, which is essentially what i need in the winter. warmth and love. strength through the cold.

the more i think about it the more i want us to build our own dream house in the future. paul likes this idea too. i am already storing up tons of ideas. skylights and big windows. solar panels and radiant floor heat. insulation and energy efficient contraptions. a nice bath, an open layout kitchen. a sauna in the woods? clean lines, comfortable furniture, built in bookshelves, a fireplace. matching nature/matching the city. dreams. far far off, but they fill me with happiness.

it might be time to take down the tree, and move the pumpkin. epiphany is close.

jason comes home tonight.

2008-01-02T19:52:00.001-06:00

New Years Resolutions
(as they pop into my head)

-write thank you notes in a timely manner
-actually write some letters, and actually mail them
-entice sterling and st. helen to start laying us some eggs
-clean the bathroom and kitchen more often
-~~respond to a myspace email from maria from two years ago~~
-not eat all of the holiday-themed chocolate i just got for 75% off
-buy myself some fantastic boots
-find the perfect handbag, and have the gut$ to buy it
-sell/give away the excess in my life
-lose weight/actually exercise regularly-ish
-become an intermediate knitter
-decorate our house and make it cozier
-call friends more frequently, or at least email
-become more organized
-blog more
-have more patience
-volunteer somewhere
-do more, be active
-interrupt paul less
-have a better appearance, actually wear my cute clothes and jewelry
-cook homemade food more often
-talk softer
-attempt to garden, obtain more houseplants
-find a new passion
-surprise paul with at least one gift, preferably on his birthday
-go to the dentist

2007-12-28T21:44:00.001-06:00

if you were a nice leather wallet lost for a week, where would you be hiding?

2007-12-27T23:54:00.000-06:00

merry post-christmas

paul and i had a relaxing christmas at home in madison together. sitting by the fire. knitting, talking to relatives on the phone, preparing and eating great food, and opening a few presents. it was melty outside (and sunny! beautiful actually), so we didn't get to go skiing as we would have liked.

today had two highlights. 1) buying a vacuum (finally, after two weeks of searching and testing and talking and reading consumer reports), i'm happy i can start cleaning again and 2) reuniting with HEB at lakeside fibers. i learned what a yarn-over is and how to do it, and i started a new knitting project. i also go to catch up and talk in a fun environment with great people, which was very enjoyable.

goals for tomorrow are to:
-head to the century house (again). i am now in love with this store.
-enjoy the 3-5 inches of new snow falling, while paul and i hopefully go cross-country skiing for the second time this season--the first was last sunday in 15 degree weather and 30-40 mph gusts with snow falling, not optimal, but still fun.
-find my wallet. it has gone missing. it has my whole life inside it including important receipts. it's been missing for a few days now. ouch.
-clean the house, using the new vacuum.
-pack for chicago!

2007-12-16T23:31:00.001-06:00

all relatives christmas presents bought and wrapped within one day. whew.
i hope the line at the post office isn't too long tomorrow.

i've had such a busy two weeks. i am tired.

2007-12-07T23:12:00.000-06:00

Opossum Update & More Chicken News

Thanks to Sapna's comment I just realized that I never told the end to the opossum saga. Animal control called back the next morning and said that they do not pick up opossums, but the guy was super nice and gave me a lot of helpful hings and suggestions. Namely, that opossums, unlike raccoons, only stray about 1/2 mile or so, so I wouldn't need to take him/her far to get rid of it. Also, it is legal to drop of a possum onto public land, or on private property with the owner's consent. He suggested the Arboretum, which was also my first choice since it's close by and also a large space. The night of the opossum intrusion I posted a help email to the Mad City chicken chat email line. I got one phone call and a handful of emails back with advice. Most people (not surprisingly) told me to relocate the possum instead of killing it, although one person expressed concern about relocating the possum when it could just go and bother other city chickens.

Paul and I decided to relocate the opossum to the Arboretum the next morning, and I took the caller's advice and used a bucket to transport the little bugger. First we wanted to experiment with how the opossum got into the coop. I was almost positive that it could wriggle through the 2" welded wire, but Paul was not so sure. We enticed it to leave the cage by opening the door and putting it up against the wire with the bucket on the other side. Eventually it did wriggle through, confirming my suspicions. Unfortunately this means that our coop is not completely predator-proof, but only little opossums can fit through. Hopefully they will only want to eat the feed and do not attempt to hurt the chickens.

We drove to the Arboretum. We parked at the vistor's center, which is about 1/2 mile from the nearest houses, and felt good about releasing him/her near there. Paul and I walked down a trail, admiring the flock of wild turkeys along the way, and then released the opossum. Done.

Unfortunately a few days later, going out in the dark and snow to check on the chickens as I returned home from work I spotted another baby opossum sitting by the coop. This time I flashed light it it's eyes until it ran off and hoped it would never come back. That was a week ago and I haven't seen it since....let's hope it stays that way.

2007-12-07T22:48:00.000-06:00

winter is upon us.
snow snow snow and ice
and it's here to stay since the weather forecast calls for way below freezing.
the chickens are alive. surviving with their own body heat in their plywood coop with no door. they're troopers so far.

i really want to find a church to go to and be involved in
maybe join a hand bell choir?
i used to go to blackhawk evangelical free church here in madison
but it recently moved to a new HUGE farer away location
and i want to find a local close church if possible

i've been looking online some and am interested in elca lutheran churches
the good shepherd lutheran church looks neat
maybe i should check it out
but it is not walkable, something i desire
a 15 minute drive
it might be bikeable though in the summer

i also want to go caroling at christmastime, but i am not a singer.
i need to find some song-leaders and possibly instrument players to lead the songs
and then get a big group of people to drowned out my voice
but i really want to do this
i have a feeling it will be hard to plan and actually find others who would like to participate

also, i need to start xcountry skiing again!
this smashing amount of snow (although there is ice underneath it all) is nice and fluffy for skiing
if i wasn't trying to make up hours at work i would be skiing at the arboretum every morning
but instead i am standing as the busstop at 7:30am

i am unsatisfied at work
and believe that everyone deserves vacation and time off when they need it
no matter the workload, no matter the schedule

i am taking a three day weekend, although technically i have already made up my hours from working overtime this week. i need a break.

julie is here from portland! and we are moseying around madison and then heading down to chicago to see the sights. staying with ruthie. admiring her new furniture. it's gonna be a good weekend.

2007-12-01T13:45:00.000-06:00

currently 22 degrees and snowing a ton. realfeel of 7. paul went out to check on the chickens this morning and when i went out two hours later i couldn't even see his footsteps.

the boys are playing video games while i try to weatherize our house a bit more. 1926 windows do not hold the heat in well, so this year i'm attempting to put brown putty strip stuff around the seals...hope it helps keep us warmer as well as lower the heat bill!

portland is also having a storm of their own. light snow, 35 degrees with realfeel of 21. winds currently at 14 mph but my mom said their forecasted 90 mph at the beach and 60 mph in portland....for the next 30 hours. my dad drove down to the beach to pick up my grama so she wouldn't be potentially stranded without power like she was last year for a while.

by the way, the town my grama has lived in for 35+ years made the nytimes yesterday. it was kinda crazy to see that. a short article, and the photos didn't really show much, but it was cool to see nonetheless. check it out, this is my favorite beach in the world. my grama lives at the base of neah-kah-nie mountain, and it's such a special place to me.

2007-11-28T00:07:00.000-06:00

ps. It's officially freezing cold out. 18 degrees, with wind chill at 9. ouch. very shivery.
pps. more photos on flickr. check em out.

2007-11-27T23:04:00.001-06:00

Another Day, Another Pest

This week has been madness for the chickens. First on Sunday the attack by the three rat terriers, then on Monday another attack by the same dogs! I was semi-empathetic to the whole episode the first time, as I know that the dog's owner didn't mean for them to escape. But Monday. it. happened. again. same thing, same dogs, only this time we were lucky enough to have kept the chickens locked in the interior coop for safety. So they barked and yelped and growled and tried to get at the chickens, but welded wire held them back. I was at work, but Paul was home....good thing too because I probably would have been pretty upset with that lady. She needs to invest in some leashes and keep her dogs on her own property!

The chickens seem a little off still since they were attacked and injured, but Penny laid an egg today and they all seemed alert.

Tonight I had a big opossum problem. I came home from work at 7pm and went to check on the chickens. They were sleeping/roosting fine, but I spotted a gross tail near the chicken feed...it was a possum. Yuck. It was a tiny one, just like before. I grabbed two tennis rackets this time and spent 20 minutes trying to get the rascal out of the coop. Finally I was able to push it out. Ten minutes later I went back outside to inspect the coop, trying to figure out where the possum got in. I think that at this point 2" welded wire is not enough. The little bugger can squeeze right through. I'm not sure what I need to do to fix it. Anyways, the last thing I did was the place the chicken feeder back in the right spot. I lifted it up and got a shock. The possum was now inside the coop again snuggled up inside the feeder! Darn thing. 10 inches from my hand. Luckily it didn't bite me. It seemed scared, so I dropped it and ran over to the shed. I found our small wire crate and brought it out in the middle of the yard. I tipped over the feeder and whacked it until the possum scurried out. Trapped. :o) Now I have a big dilemma though. What should I do with it? I'd prefer to kill it but don't have a humane way to do so. For tonight it's going to stay in the cage. Tomorrow I'm hoping Animal Control can help me dispose of it, otherwise we'll be taking it far far away and releasing it.

2007-11-25T21:38:00.001-06:00

Our chickens were almost killed today. They were attacked, and have now chunks of flesh and feathers ripped out of them. They seem to be doing ok though, and for now they're sleeping in their coop peacefully. I hope they make it through the night. The big concern at this point is probably going to be infections. :o(

We let the chickens out to browse the yard this afternoon, as we do much of the daylight hours when we are home. They were out for about two hours when we heard a horrible commotion outside. Paul ran outside first and came across one of our chickens on the ground, apparently dead, in the yard, with three yippy rat terrior dogs bounding about. There were feathers everywhere. The neighbor-lady from two doors down was frantically yelling and trying to collect her dogs, who apparently had tunneled under two fences to get into our yard. Our buff brahma, St. Helen was ok as she had flown over the fence into a different neighbor's yard and was apparently unscathed. Paul placed her in the coop as well as Sterling, who wasn't dead after all, but was probably in shock and hurting. But Penny, our Rhode Island Red and only laying hen at the moment was missing. We found a chunk of her, with lots of feathers all attached together laying in the yard. Not a good sign at all. And she was nowhere to be found. I spent 40 minutes or so walking the neighborhood with no luck. I really felt that she was dead and that the dogs had dragged her body somewhere to hide it. The only good to come out of the situation was meeting one of the neighbor kids, Madeleine, who walked around with me and was really sweet.

It was starting to get dark and I was getting worried. The last place I thought to look was in our neighbor's yard near their hottub. No luck again. But our neighbor had noticed that the dogs were all focused on one corner of the yard earlier, so I looked near there and I saw Penny...alive! I was so relieved. She had jumped into the corner of our yard (over a fence) into this little pocket where the four backyards come together. She had a chunk taken out of her but other than that seemed ok. Thank God! I was so happy. Paul held her for a while and then Madeleine took a turn. I inspected her and her wound seems bad, but not horrible. I hope she recovers ok. I read online that the best thing to do might be to put saline solution on the wound and then triple antibiotic, so I might do that.

Now we have to keep the chickens locked in the coop from here on out, which makes me sad. They can't even go out in their outside run/pen because those stupid dogs could easily dig under that too. No more free range chickens for us.

2007-11-18T17:08:00.000-06:00

For my birthday I got 2 years of Flickr pro. I've finally uploaded most of my recent photos (although some will need to be re-uploaded as high resolution since I did them wrong). I've added a flickr badge on the right which shows my newest three photos. Head to my flickr site to see lots more of the chickens, family and friends. I hope to start taking lots more.

2007-11-18T01:30:00.001-06:00

We just had an invader at 1am! A possum in the coop. Paul and I were laying in bed reading when I heard loud squawking outside our window. I thought it might be the chickens (even though they are around on the other side of the house about 100 feet away), although it did sound potentially like a crow or something else, so Paul went outside to check. He came back in after a few minutes explaining that there was a possum in our coop and he wasn't sure what to do. I bundled up and went outside. The first thing I noticed were the three girls all huddled in the corner outside the coop near the door (but still inside the coop enclosure). Their water had been completely overturned and they seemed scared. Paul was standing outside the nest box door and told me to take a look. I peeked in the nest box and a small to medium size possum was curled up inside. Luckily (as far as we could tell in the dark) s/he hadn't hurt the hens; maybe it was just looking for some warmth? Maybe it was just too small to do any damage yet. In any case, we were a little unsure as to how we should get this fellow out. I suggested grabbing it by the tail and flinging it away, but neither of us were brave enough to attempt it. Instead, we opened the back cleaning-access door, first trying to pick the possum up with a set of racquetball raquets, but that didn't work. Then we just completely opened the coop and kinda shoved it out. It seemed lazy and wasn't really scared, it just walked off and hid in the yard about 10 feet away. We inspected the coop and found a potential opening with a board where the screws had come loose.....the next 20 minutes were spent attempting to fix the coop using powertools and probably waking up our neighbors; I think we were successful on both accounts. I hope nothing else tries to bother the girls! I comforted them, refilled their water, and placed them back in the coop (they were too scared to go in on their own). Now they're quietly roosting again and hopefully asleep like they should be. I wonder if this will affect egg production tomorrow?

2007-11-14T21:50:00.000-06:00

This past week has been a good one. Friday night Paul and I went over to Cynthia's for a game night with some of her friends and got to see her new fabulous house. Unfortunately her partner Paul was in Korea because his father recently passed away, but I hope we can see him next time. Game night was really fun. Cynthia had invited many of her past and present coworkers (all cooks) so we had some great appetizers, and wine, and played taboo as a group. I did come to the crazy realization though, that I am finally an "adult". It was the kid in the next room watching her kid movie while the parents/adults did their own secret thing in the next room that got to me. I remember when that was me! But no more. I'm the one hanging out with the 30 and 40 year olds and no longer playing hide and seek in the back room.

Saturday Paul's parents flew in from Connecticut and drove directly up to Madison from Ohare with Paul's grandparents. His gparents saw our house for the first time, and everyone admired the chickens and the coop.

Saturday evening we drove down to Chicago and arrived in Hyde Park just in time for a feast prepared by Ruthie: quiche, wine, salad, and chocolate chip cookies! mmmmm. Then scrabble before bed. It was Paul's first time back in Chicago since graduation. A bit surreal, even though we didn't spent much time at all in HP. Sunday morning we had brunch at Lula Cafe in Logan Square. After lots of samosas we headed to Wheaton and played card games with paul's aunts, uncles, parents and cousins until late in the evening. I've been in such a gaming mood recently...it's fun.

Monday morning we verified that our monster egg was indeed a double-yolker when we cracked it open to fry it (and: we got another monster egg over the weekend!). It's fun to have fresh brown eggs to share now. It'll be much better once the other two gals start laying.

This evening was one of the best dinners I've had in a long while. Oriol came over and we used our fine china/wedding place settings for the first time. It was lovely. Paul went all out making dinner, with acorn-squash-stuff-with wild rice, spices, carrots and cranberries, along with a roast chicken (quorn for him). And for desssert....baklavah. Oh my goodness, on Monday evening Paul's parents bought baklavah* as a surprise for us and it is probably the best I've ever tasted. We had some still, so we split two huge pieces.

Since Paul and I are generally cake-adverse, we exchanged bites of baklavah at our Portland wedding reception. One thing I forgot to mention, because I had forgot myself, was that Monday was our two year anniversary! I took off Monday because Paul's parents were in town, not realizing that it was the 12th. So it was a double celebration and a good day off.

2 years of marriage. Has it really been that long? It certainly doesn't feel like it. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband. Life would be so different without him.

Halfway through writing this post I made a super impulse buy. I ordered this absolutely neat calendar. I was going to recommend it to others, but at this point it's already almost out of stock. Only one left, better act fast.

2007-11-08T21:28:00.000-06:00

I'm heading to Chicago for the weekend again. And this time it's another long weekend because I just found out that I have "personal vacation days" that I need to use up by the end of the year. I love finally having benefits at work!

Paul's parents are flying in from Connecticut, and they'll be coming up to Madison on Saturday along with his grandparents. Then we'll head back to Chicago Sat late afternoon/evening and spending the night at Ruthie's fantastic HP apartment. Sunday will be all day with Ruthie. Then Monday out to Wheaton for more time with Paul's parents. Yay for days off!

2007-11-08T21:27:00.000-06:00

Happy Birthday Kate!

2007-11-06T20:32:00.000-06:00

I have proof that Penny loves peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Back a couple of days ago, before it became winter outside, I was sitting in the hammock with a plate and a PBJ sandwich. The three gals came over to say hi and ask for some treats. Eventually St. Helen and Sterling bobbled away, over to their favorite spot, the side of the composter where lots of bugs can be found. But Penny stayed right by my side. She looked like she was going to tackle me, first weaving to the right and then the left, then coming up through my legs, then circling around. Suddenly, she jumped. Into the air. And in midair took a bit of my sandwich as I was holding it up to put into my mouth. I was in shock and she landed back down, took a gulp, and then clucked at me. Sneaky.

Yesterday it snowed. It's suddenly windy and cold outside and the forecast calls for below-freezing temps tonight. Which means it's time for me to get moving and insulate, or at least wind-proof the coop. I haven't done it yet. I got home tonight and saw the girls with their feather puffed up all snuggling on their roost. I hope they don't freeze. I did plug in an extension cord and ran it out to their coop, hooking up a heated pet bowl so that their water won't freeze. I may or may not add a heat lamp as winter gets more harsh. So far we're still getting an egg a day. Yesterday was a monster! I think it might be a double-yolker.

I'm finally getting over my cold/flu. It sucks to be sick. I also gave into the bus yesterday. When it's freezing out and I'm sick and tired, I just couldn't bike to work. I broke out the monthly bus pass, so I probably won't be biking regularly until spring. I'm a wuss in cold weather. And in the dark (now that it gets dark at 5pm!).

2007-10-31T21:51:00.000-05:00

I am sitting in front of a wonderful fire right now in the living room. Paul just left to head to the office on campus to work on his research proposal and a paper....he is having a very busy week.

This weekend was wonderful. Ethan, Nicole and their extremely fun 10 month old baby Cohen came to visit. Gosh, I miss him so much. Cohen is the happiest friendliest baby I've ever seen. He is truly so fun to hang out with. And great to cuddle. :o) I wish we lived closer so that I could babysit.

We spent a lot of time just hanging out at the house, having a fire, playing lots of Settlers of Catan and Rummicube, along with Phase 10. We were in full game mode and at some points it got a little heated, but it was fun. One day we took a long walk to Picnic Point and back (around 7 miles?)....it was 3.5 hours of nonstop walking. We were all pretty tired but it was a gorgeous day and the lake and the trees were so pretty to see. Plus, we walked past the Frank Lloyd Wright Unitarian Meeting House that's a few blocks from our house so Ethan could view it.

This morning I went outside before work and found another egg in the nest box. This time I picked it up and it was super warm; I think Penny had just laid it a few moments before. The egg was a little bigger than the others, bit by bit they are starting to get larger. Ethan, Paul and I ate our first fresh eggs together. We fried some up for breakfast on Monday and they tasted good. I kept hearing people say that homegrown fresh eggs are unbelievable and 100 times better than store bought, but at this point I can't tell much of a difference. I did break open a store bought egg and saw that the yolks were slightly different colors, and of course my pullet eggs are slightly smaller, but other than that they seemed and tasted about the same. Maybe the fresh eggs will taste differently once I go to Farm & Fleet to buy some Layer Feed which has higher protein. I should do that soon.

Yesterday morning we drove to Chicago, reaching downtown around 11:30. We parked underground at Millenium Park and then took an Architecture Cruise along the Chicago River. We did a little shopping at Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack (two stores that Wisconsin is sorely lacking), where I bought myself the most adorable watch on earth. It took me a while before I decided to purchase it because it was a little pricey, but I'm in love with it. LOVE it. so much. The best birthday present to myself ever. Here's a bad photo I found online. It's L.A.M.B and white and shiny mother-of-pearl and silver.

We visited the bean, aka Cloud Gate at Millenium Park. Years ago when I heard that a giant metal jellybean was going to be erected in the new park I was very skeptical, but now it's become one of my favorite destinations. Not only is it fun to walk around to see the reflected skyline as well as distorted mirror images of yourself, it's also such a great people-watching spot. While we were there yesterday we saw a young couple in love kissing and taking a photo of their reflection, some international symphony group with about 100 students all dressed up, babies, old folks, everyone was admiring the bean and having a good time. This was the least-crowded I've seen it, and even so it definitely grabbed everyone's attention. Frank Gehry's pavilion was also neat to see again.

At the airport I almost cried saying goodbye to Cohen. I didn't want them to leave, and I know that next time I see him he'll be so big! He's already on the cusp of walking and talking. I miss that little guy (and of course his parents too!) so much.

2007-10-25T18:59:00.001-05:00

Egg #3 arrived today....they are on a roll!

Nicole, Ethan and baby Cohen arrive tomorrow. They're staying until Tuesday night and I am taking Mon/Tues off of work. This is gonna be a sweet four day weekend.

2007-10-23T21:45:00.000-05:00

We have an egg! Yesterday after a particularly tiring day at work I came home, parked my bike in the garage and walked into the backyard to say hi to the chickens as I normally do. It was about 20 minute before dark. Since I wasn't sure what time I would be arriving home, I had left them in their coop/small run for the day...that way if I came home after dark they would be in a predator-proof space. The clucked happily when they saw me. I opened our egg door on the coop and noticed right away that the bedding in the nest box had been moved all around. This had never happened before. I had added the nest box a few weeks ago just in case the girls might start laying early, but I wasn't really sure if they would use it or not. Supposedly you can place fake eggs (plastic, or just golf balls) in the nest box to teach the gals where to lay.....but I didn't have a fake egg.

Well, I looked closer and there it was: a beautiful light brown egg, right in the nest box! I did a double take, because even though I knew it could happen any day I wasn't really expecting it. I'm pretty sure it was laid by Penny, our Rhode Island Red, because she has the reddist combs (which I've read is a sign that they are about the lay), is the largest, and seems the most mature. I am so proud of her! Not only do I have a wonderful first egg, but she laid it in the perfect spot.

Now I just need to figure out how to eat it. I've been informed that soft-boiled eggs are really good...I've never had one. I think I'll wait a few days and see if we get another egg or two, that way Paul and I can share this new experience together. Neither of us has ever had a fresh egg! And this is even more special because it was produced by our very own birds in our backyard. I love those chickens (but yes people, I am still planning on eating them someday).

I've been treating them by letting them out to roam even more (I guess you could say that they're semi-freerange), and feeding them their new favorite treat: stale cheerios.

2007-10-19T23:14:00.001-05:00

I'm playing soccer tomorrow. It's Sociology vs. Statistics grad students at a park near our house. I am going to suck.

Still no egg-citement, but the chickens did have a morning visit from Atinkut, and boy was he happy to see them!

As of this morning, we are official Wisconsin residents. After a year we finally got our new licenses and registered our car. No more lovely mountains and trees, just "America's Dairyland" on our white license plate...how boring.

2007-10-18T21:42:00.000-05:00

I started a new position on Monday, but my responsibilities haven't really changed much at work. I do have guaranteed funding for 3.5 years and I feel blessed to finally have benefits including sick days and vacation. I'm finally out of the "Limited Term Employee" rut.

I have been begging the chickens to lay me an egg, but no miniature eggs have popped out of them yet. This may be over the top, but I am planning on sending out an "Egg Announcement" once it happens. I need to start thinking about winterizing the coop soon to keep it free from drafts and also getting some kind of heating element so their water won't turn into ice in below-freezing weather. I also need to bribe them more with treats and promises of free-ranging in the yard. Or maybe threats would work best? They are of tasty deluxe chicken meat age at this point. Or something like that.

Be proud of me. I have been biking consistently to and from work since last May. Even this week with 70% threats of rain I have thwarted the storms and made it to work dry. My only problem has been stupid stupid pedestrians who walk in the middle of the bike lane when the sidewalk is only a few feet away. I actually hit someone (well, technically only their backpack) the other morning. I do not feel bad about this. I chimed my bell multiple times, I said excuse me, and still this girl does not move. I feel like I should have one of those air horns to wake up all these mindless UW undergrads. Or maybe I should just bike the long way to work.

2007-10-13T18:16:00.000-05:00

This is the calm weekend. No plans. But we're also sick, which is no fun. Mostly we've been addicted to watching The Sopranos, now my favorite television show. The good thing is that since we're almost a decade behind the times we have many seasons to watch. The show is amazing. Great acting, great story, great filming, and fascinating character development.

Friday night we had Paul's classmate over, who is also our neighbor, and her 8th grade daughter. We carved pumpkins, drank cider, and had a wonderful dinner. Then we played Rummikub, our new favorite game. I think I'm going to plan a Game Night for sometime soon....I am in a board game mood.

The past three weekends have been really fun. First, Aly & I went to Chicago and spent time in Hyde Park with Ruthie. It was sunny and wonderful. We spent some time in Millenium Park, went shopping on State Street, and hung out in Ruthie's awesome new apartment.

Then, the next weekend Ruthie came up to Madison for the weekend with K&E. We went apple picking at the Eplegaarden (my new favorite place) and on a bike ride around the Capitol City Trail.

Last weekend Paul & I hosted an autumn dinner party and pumpkin-carving for 10 people or so. We went to the Hilldale Farmer's Market and picked up some produce, and then went back to the Eplegaarden to buy 15 lbs of apples and some cider. We also went to the Eplegaarden pumpkin patch to pick our own pumpkins. That was quite an experience. First, it was about 90 degrees out and we were super sweaty. And 2nd, most of the pumpkins in the field were rotting...gross! A combination of rain in August and then high temps in Sept/October made for bad pumpkin growing. We only ended up buying three hand-picked and then went to the store to buy the rest.

Dinner was so yummy. The menu was:
*Roasted Autumn Vegetables with fresh thyme (turnips, parsnips, sweet potatoes, red potatoes, carrots, and beets)
*Chicken with apples (a combination of a few recipes we found online)
*Fresh bread, from our favorite and easiest recipe, with apple butter from the Eplegaarden
*Beet Salad with Plums and Goat Cheese -- via Ruthie
*Apple Crisp (Mom's recipe)
The dinner party went well, and somehow we ended up with 9 pumpkins because all but 1 didn't want to take their pumpkins with them due to living in apartments or east side pranksters. So now we have a very festive house! And, unfortunately, the squirrels have already gnawed their way into some of the pumpkins. The best pumpkin was a chicken pumpkin (yes, I was the judge, but others also agreed that it was impressive). I'll have to post photos at some point, it's great.

The highlight of last weekend was seeing Clap Your Hands Say Yeah perform Saturday night. I might be slightly biased since I know one of the band members, but their show was amazing! Elvis Perkins in Dearland opened, and they are fantastic. Then CYHSY came out and had a wonderful energetic set. I have to be honest and admit that when I first hear CYHSY a year or two ago I wasn't impressed....but as I listened more and more I grew to love their music. At the concert they would play a song and I'd think to myself "this is my favorite song", and then they'd play another and, oh wait, THAT would be my favorite song....I just think so many of their songs are incredible. Many of the live concerts I've been to in my life have not impressed me, but three stand out as fun amazing exciting live shows: 1.) Sufjan Stevens at Shuba's during my college days 2.) CYHSY last weekend and 3.) The National, a few months ago. All three of these bands had such great stage presence (even if shyness was part of that for Sufjan at the time), and had amazing quality-sounding songs. They sounded even better live than their taped music.

Last Thursday marked my most domestic evening ever. First I went to knit at Barriques, but no one else showed up so I left. Then I came home and cleaned the kitchen, which inspired me to bake. I had a huge ziplock bag of pumpkin seeds from the Sunday Pumpkin Fest, and spent about 2 hours roasting those in the oven using various techniques, I skinned and sliced 10 lbs of apple, half of which went into the crock pot with some spices to create chunky apple sauce, and half of which went into a homemade apple pie! I made the crust of the apple pie and left the rest to do the next evening so it would be nice and warm for dessert. Mmmmmm.

I love autumn.

2007-09-27T21:35:00.000-05:00

they're dating! wow. so sweet.

this week has been crazy. so fast, so tiring, but also productive.
where do i want to go?
what do i want to do?

2007-09-18T23:35:00.001-05:00

i wish i was in portland right now

2007-09-17T17:26:00.000-05:00

I love autumn, but this cool days and nights that suddenly arrived have made me a bit sad. It means that winter is on the way, and I really don't want this winter to be like I remember last years (depressed, lonely, sad, & very cold). But I want to blame that on being a newbie in a unfamiliar state, with a limited network of friends and family nearby. I am, however, very excited for: hot chocolate, apple cider, pumpkins, crunchy colorful leaves, and [occasional] soft white snow.

The house is slowly being cleaned, and I think it's time to host another party. Maybe a harvest party with pumpkin carving?

This weekend I'm heading to Hyde Park. I haven't been back since I graduated over three years ago. I'm happy to go and walk around my old neighborhood, hang out with Ruthie & A, and spend some time around the city. I'm also secretly hoping to spend some time at Nordstrom Rack.....it's embarrassing to admit, but I love that place and Wisconsin is lacking. I am a sucker for shopping. I'm also excited to visit HPB again and see K&E on Sunday.

Today I went kayaking on Lake Mendota for a little bit. It was neat...only my second time kayaking, and my first time with a whitewater kayak. Now I'm back at home very early in the day because I'm banned from work. Today is move day for our office; tomorrow we'll be on a brand new floor with brand new everything. Unfortunately, I'll still be in cubicleland.

2007-09-14T21:07:00.001-05:00

i just finished the first harry potter book.
i didn't like it much.
is that blasphemous?

2007-09-09T20:56:00.001-05:00

i'm updating my blog template, as you can see. i've added the new blogger comment system, and probably won't add back in my old comments. i'm trying to simplify. at some point i'll be re-adding some links, but for now this is it. i wish i could archive my posts by years, but monthly is the best option for now, as annoying as it looks. sorry. hopefully one improvement will be adding photos.

2007-09-09T20:20:00.000-05:00

the chickens are huge now. i wonder how much bigger they will get? they're 14 weeks old now. and pullets/hens can start laying at around 15 weeks, but may take as long as 22. i hope to get fresh eggs soon! i'm all ready for them to be in the egg laying stage. i've bought their oyster shell (for calcium), i bought a bag of grit which i started scattering instead of pecking at sand, i have the beginning stages of a nest box ready for when they start to lay. bring on the eggs!

so this weekend i spent time in illinois visiting college friends both named K. sweet to visit with them both. and i went to my first drag racing event. an all day event on saturday in byron, IL. it was much more enjoyable than i expected (considering i'm not a car person). it was fast paced because there were races every 60 seconds or so, and there were a bunch of cars, trucks and motorcycles, along with vehicles that i do not have a vocabulary to describe. they were fun to watch fly down the track. I got to meet most of K's family, and I got a great tan too. :o)

this morning i attended the rez, which was cool. i really need to find a community of faith and worship to belong to in madison.

last weekend we washed and then re-stained our back deck. this was a huge feat, because we have a monstrous deck! it too two days with three people working on it and now it's finally done and hopefully will repel water for at least another year. and best of all we used an old gallon of deck stain in the garage so we didn't have to buy that expensive stuff.

in other boring house news (hey, we're homeowners, that's still crazy to realize) we got a new stove/oven tonight. this totally rocks. when we bought our house it came with new appliances, all except the stove. the stove we currently have doesn't work properly and is not reliable. luckily our next door neighbors are remodeling their entire kitchen and sold their basically brand new stove to us for a very very good price (it's only 1 year old). maybe this upgrade with entice me into actually making healthy meals from scratch more often.

2007-09-06T22:33:00.001-05:00

heading to illinois for the weekend. i hate driving, but i am doing it! good thing i have an ipass to make things easier. and two cool friends both named kirsten to spend time with. and, a possible ikea trip....it might be a bad idea for me to go in that store alone though.

last weekend was lots of fun with our family celebration party. so many people made the trip to our house, and celebrating together was special. not to self: next time do not buy a cake with red icing where the amount of dye probably outweighed the amount of other ingredients.

2007-08-30T22:38:00.000-05:00

I spent the last week in the boundary waters. It was excellent. Super excellent. Not only the place, but the people and the activities. Testing limits, testing strength, bonding with good friends. I need to do things like this more often, but it's hard to find time.

Sawbill Outfitters was great to see. I'm proud of that place and of Ruthie's family, even though I'm barely connected to it. It felt very special to be a part of the boundary waters for a week, to paddle, and hoist canoes up, find portages, lug our heavy bags around, eat tons of food, and do some daring (well for me it was!) activities. Paddling our canoes around dozens of lakes was so neat!

2007-08-14T22:25:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday Paul. I love you.

2007-07-31T21:54:00.000-05:00

hi again. it's me not updating all of the news that i should be.

i'm heading to connecticut on thursday for a week of fun. traveling to boston to visit sudeep, backpacking in new hampshire with a friendly cool couple, and then driving to nyc to drop off paul's dad for his flight to brazil. lots of stuff to do, plus hanging out with the inlaws (i don't really ever call them that....we get along so well and the word inlaws seems to draw up negative connotations for some people). hanging out with paul's parents should be good. and hopefully i'll be able to help around the house, and see some of paul's good friends who i enjoy.

the chickens are doing super well. they are getting fat and looking tasty (i'm only half kidding). really i still think i could eat them, although they are growing on me. yes, i do talk to them. and i love to hang out with them. they follow me around and run over whenever they think i might have a treat to give them. tonight all three jumped up on the hammock with me and sterling even nestled in my lap.....she's a funny one. so skiddish she doesn't like to be touched, but still seems to want my company. i really do LOVE these chickens. they're so much fun.

we signed up to be a part of the madison city coop tour. it's august 25th. so the entire wisconsin public can potentially come tour the coop and meet the girls. i hope it goes well. i'm really proud of our coop and i hope others like it too. it's not the "prettiest" but it functions really well and i'm proud of us for using free/found objects as much as possible.

on to food news. i had sushi for the first time ever. i have a friend who is a sushi chef at a neighborhood restaurant that is closing this week (the management is turning it into a tex-mex to make more $, even though this restaurant is really cool and has a great interior and good food). he created some special sushi entrees for jason and i right in front of us. the first had eel, and the second was raw fish (mahi, i think?). they were both very interesting. i liked the eel the best.

on friday evening i went to a birthday party and one of the guys there was deep frying everything in sight. plantains (yum!), and i tried deep friend pickles for the first time....i'm not a fan of pickles in general and this was more like a super-strong hot battered pickle, so it was really not so good.

ohhhh, and the birthday party the weekend before last at our house? it went really well. lots of people (30ish?), lots of cheese, lots of wine, lots of chatting. and no complaints from the neighbors even though we were pretty loud on the back deck until late. our back deck rocks! aly set everything up beautifully...and the space seemed to work well for movement and interaction.

fun fact: i have been biking to work almost every day since early spring. it's 3.48 miles each way, which means that i bike 34.8 miles each week to work, and generally more (at least 15 miles every weekend) when i have errands or meetings. fun stuff. i purchased a 10-ride bus card in march and today i used it up....that's pretty awesome that i've only used the bus 10 times since then.

other fun fact: i'm heading to the minnesota boundary waters with ruthie to go canoeing for a week in august. yesssssss. this is gonna be awesome, especially with aly joining us.

time for bed. gotta rest up for soccer tomorrow.

2007-07-15T15:13:00.000-05:00

Wow. It's been quite a while since I've updated...I bet I don't even have any readers anymore! A lot has happened since summer solstice, here are the highlights:

-Paul took me sailing. It was my first time ever on a sailboat and I was excited. We tried to go again today but there's a big event going on and all the boats were taken...boo. I hope that we get to go sailing a lot throughout the rest of the summer on Lake Mendota.

-Speaking of Lake Mendota, we just biked our way around it this afternoon. About 23 miles total. I was a little nervous about biking on a road where people are speeding close by at 55+mph but it worked out in the end. I'd like to do it again and stop to take photos along the way.

-Last Thur-Monday I visited relatives in Omaha, Nebraska and that weekend we went to Shaller, Iowa. It's a small town just south of Storm Lake (about 60 mile east of Sioux City). Every year they hold a festival called Popcorn Days and my grama goes back every year....this year turned out be her 70th Hight School Reunion! It's the town where she grew up and it used to be the "Popcorn Capitol of the World".....as you might imagine it's a very tiny town surrounded by cornfields (now the fields are rotated out with soybeans and there is a very neat windfarm all around...the windmills are amazing and so HUGE! Popcorn Days consists of free popcorn, a parade featuring lots of tractors from various years, midwest farm queens and princesses (yes, there's even the pork queen!), a car show, a carnival, and a beer garden. Since most of my midwestern relatives are now over the age of 70 we spent most of the day lounging about on lawn chairs in the park and watching the parade. During this trip I did get to meet some distant cousins, which was neat.

-I've (re)learned to knit! I was invited to join a social knitting group which meets every other Thursday. The first Thursday I learned how to cast-on and I learned the knit stich, last thursday I learned how to purl. My first project is a green scarf and it's currently about 10 inches long...I taught Paul and he is helping out with it too.
I have to admit. I get really carried away when it comes to crafts. Yesterday I bought three different needles and last week in Iowa I bough 70 SKEINS OF YARN. Yes I am crazy, but they were only 50 cents each and went to a good cause. I found them in a Storm Lake charity thrift store and just couldn't help myself....so I stuffed them all in a box and checked it home.

-The chickens! They're growing so so fast. And they have moved outside to their amazing coop. Although we worked on the coop together, Paul definitely spent the most time and energy on the project...he had some great ideas on how to put it together and it turned out excellent. The chicks now have a lovely coop, an inside covered run, and a large outside run during the daytime.
All of the chicks officially have names now at 7 weeks old: Our Rhode Island Red is named Penny, our Silver Laced Wyandotte is named Sterling and our Buff Brahma is named St. Helen. They have fun personalities and love having visitors.

Highlights of the near-future:

-We're hosting a birthday party this Saturday evening at our house. A wine and cheese party with a live band playing a birthday tribute song. Should be fun. Gotta start cleaning!!

-Heading to Connecticut for seven days the first week of August. Hopefully we'll spend a day in Boston and camp in New Hampshire too.

-A week in Northern Minnesota canoeing in the boundary waters with Ruthie!

2007-06-21T22:05:00.001-05:00

Happy Summer Solstice.

2007-06-19T21:01:00.000-05:00

Tonight we went to tour another coop in Madison. It was neat. I hope our chicks will be moved into their own new coop by this weekend. Luckily, we've framed the thing (well, mostly Paul did while I went to Chicago), and used all lumber that we found in our house. Plus last night we scored a whole bunch of extra 2x4s and posts which someone put out on the curb. Now we just need to put in the roosts and nest box, put on the sides, and figure out the doors and hinges. Oh yah, and actually make a fence. Gosh, there's still a bit of work to do.

2007-06-19T20:59:00.000-05:00

It's summer
1.) fireflies!
2.) Paul joined the sailing club and now has access to all sailboats for the year. He can take passengers for free, so I'm hoping that we can do some fun sails on lake mendota this summer.
3.) It's hot. But we have yet to turn on the a/c. We're gonna try without it all summer.

2007-06-17T12:00:00.000-05:00

Paul & I have joined a soccer team. He's been on it for a while as goalie (which is obvious once you see him-- he is scraped and bruised all over!) and Wednesday was the first game for me. I sucked. And I am SO OUT OF SHAPE it is sad. I was sore all over for two days after. Even, inexplicably my arms (and no, I didn't do a throw-in). I wasn't terrible, but I definitely didn't play like I should have. The sad part is that I knew where I was supposed to be and what to do but my body would just not cooperate to get me there. Some of it might have had to do with the super hot weather, but the other 90% was definitely due to my out of shape body.

BUT, on the other hand, I am in decent biking shape. Yesterday Paul & I woke up and biked out to Blue Mounds State Park. We took the Military Ridge Trail, which is a bike/walking trail that follows and old train track (so it's graded pretty well and there's not huge hills). About 70% of our ride was on a dirt path, which made it a bit more slow going than usual but we still made decent time. When we got to the park entrance we suddenly found ourselves at the finish line of a 100/200km bike race, which was hilarious, because there were people on the sidelines rooting us on (assuming we were part of the race, even though we were the only ones not in skin-tight bike jerseys), and Paul even had his picture taken by the photographer at the finish line!

By mid-afternoon we had biked back home, pedaling fast because we thought the predicted t-storms were going to hit us (they never came). Our route ended up being 57 miles round trip and at the end we both felt wonderful. I felt like I could have gone for many miles more, even on my slow hybrid. And the best thing is that I'm not even sore today! I'm hoping that we can do some longer weekend trips (maybe even overnight?) this summer.

Last night we started planning the details our of chicken coop, and this morning we settled on a basic design. Hopefully in an hour or so we'll head to home depot and pick up the needed items to start building. Luckily, there is a lot of extra lumber laying around our house from the previous owners, so we shouldn't have to buy too much. The biggest expense will probably be for the fencing.

Today Ruthie is coming to visit as she drive from Minneapolis to Chicago. And the best thing is that I'm catching a ride with her into the city. I was going to take the bus, but this is a much better solution all around. I love when things work out so perfectly. And I'm excited to spend a little more time with Ruthie.

I'll be spending the night at Sylvie's place (who's almost done with med school - hurray!) and hanging out with Karin all of Monday. I haven't seen either of them since college graduation, our last day as roommmates in college, so this should be fun. Karin is back from South Asia just for a few days, so I'm lucky to take a day off to get to see her.

Summer is off to a great start, with lots of unexpected visitors (Ruthie and Craig) and bbqs with neighbors, chicken coop building, bike rides and fun plans. Also, hopefully, a boundary waters trip in July!

2007-06-11T07:59:00.000-05:00

Petunia didn't make it through the night. :o(

2007-06-08T21:09:00.001-05:00

Poor Petunia (that's the Light Brahma, the only one with a name so far) is crying right now. I'm not sure how to help her. I cleaned her up and held her while she slept for a while, but there's not more that I can do. I'm worried she's not eating and drinking enough....maybe she has internal issues to go along with her hurt leg? I know she definitely breathes differently (faster and harder) than the other chicks. She finally is having her tail feathers grow in, but she hasn't made any attempt to jump or fly yet, while the other three are getting quite good at both.

A., a 21 month old, who is one of our neighbors came with his mom to visit the chicks last night. He loved it, and it was cute to see him petting the birds.

2007-06-08T20:38:00.000-05:00

Paul is stuck in DC. He was supposed to fly out this afternoon, but after sitting on the tarmac for 6 hours they turned the plane back and rebooked them for 4pm TOMORROW arriving in Madison at 8:00pm. boo. His cell is dying and the charger isn't working (same for ipod)....I hope he doesn't have the sleep at the airport. This sucks because he's missing his sailing lessons which he's been anticipating for quite a while, and also hanging out with family who are coming to visit tomorrow. Luckily the concert we are going to (The National) is at 9:30, so hopefully he'll make it to that. I'm glad I'm not flying today!

2007-06-07T17:35:00.001-05:00

I biked home early today because of a tornado threat (and possible storms and large hail). It's nice that I can work from home whenever I'd like. What is not nice is stupid allergies. I am even taking an allergy pill and they are still getting to me...no fun.

The chicks are one week old. It still amazes me how fast they grow. I come home from work each day to see amazing progress. Feet feathers, tail feathers, huge wingspans. Even my little Light Brahma is growing well...I think she's only a day to a day and a half behind the others. She's still limping; she might limp for the rest of her life.

Anna came over last night to meet the babies. The Silver Laced Wyandotte took a liking to her and *flew*!! up to her hand, perched on her finger, and took a nap. What a cutie. That one is the fast grower and is the most active. We had all four babies out with us on the living room floor. At first I was scared that they would start zipping around the house and that we'd never be able to catch them, but they stayed near us and just played. It was really fun.

Since the little ones are starting to fly/jump/leap and be more active I needed to find a cover for their brooder. I went to Ace and bought some wire mesh, but realized that it wouldn't be so ideal as a cover. So I got creative. I figured that since it's hot out we probably won't be using our oven for a while, so now our two oven racks are over the top of the birds. They're perfect for the job. :o)

I now have some photos up on my flickr account. Send me an email if you want to see them.

2007-06-02T18:15:00.000-05:00

Today has been a great day so far. This morning I went to the Hilldale Farmer's Market and bought some spinach and salad greens while Paul cleaned out and organized the garage. Then I spent a ton of money at the grocery store since our kitchen is very bare. Lots of good things to eat now.

We just got back from an afternoon bike ride. The weather report made it seem like it was going to rain and storm all day but it ended up clearing up and it's sunny and perfect now. So we set off on the Capitol City Trail and did a 22 mile loop in under two hours. A nice leisurely pace, but we didn't stop along the way...it felt so much shorter than that! There's a neat state park about 25 miles out of Madison so after this easy bike ride today we're thinking it would be a good day bike ride to go there in a the morning, hang out, and then come back. 50 miles shouldn't be bad for one day.

Now I'm on the front porch with our laptop cooling off and having a Berry Weis Beer. yum. I love how the park across the street is completely green now and the foliage is all in. I've missed the greenness.

The chicks are still happy and content. They are growing up SO FAST it's unbelievable. Seriously. In just 2 days they are super different. I wish I could do slow motion photography with one photo an hour to let you guys see how fast their wings are growing in.

Last night I bought tickets to head to Iowa July 5-9th. I'll be in Shaller, Iowa, the popcorn capitol of the world (at least it used to be) and also one of the smallest towns ever. The closest "big" town is Storm Lake. Shaller will be hosting it's annual Popcorn Days celebration, and that's also the time for class reunions. My grama grew up in Shaller and is now attending her 70th high school reunion. We'll be watching the parade (the parade basically consists of every tractor every built driving by in order by year) and eating lots of free popcorn. It should be fun and boring at the same time. I went about 10 years ago but haven't had a chance to attend since then. This year I'm surprising my grama since she has no idea I'm planning on coming. So I'll probably meet her and mom my in the Omaha airport. I'll also get to see some of my great aunts and uncles who I don't really keep in contact with very often.

ok time to flikr it up with lots of chick photos!

2007-05-31T22:30:00.000-05:00

The chicks have arrived! They somehow got stuck in the mail so they came a day late, but all were fine in the order. The only problem is that one of my four has a bad left leg. I hope that it will heal. She's limping on it, but is still very resiliant.

The little fuzzballs are amusing. It's hard not to smile and laugh at them. They eat and then fall asleep mid-bite with their head in the food. They flop down and roll over occasionally. They fall asleep standing up, with their head slowly falling, and then wake themselves up again, yawn, and nod off falling asleep again all in a span of 3 seconds. They run and try to flap their fuzzy wings. They fight over prize piece of wood chips.

My Rhode Island Red is being a rascal though. All four chicks were being all lovey-dovey and friendly towards each other all day long (I monitored them for 6 hours) and then I take a 40 minute break to head to Home Depot this evening and when I come back the RIR is suddenly a bully. She runs at the other chicks whenever they are eating or drinking or playing with something. No matter what the others are doing, if they are awake, she wants to get in on the action. So she's constantly running around to the other three being mean. I put her in time out and gave her a couple of taking toos but I don't think she listens. ;o) Hopefully she'll grow out of it. I know that there will always be a pecking order, but I just hope she doesn't turn out too mean (or maybe she is actually a he??).

I did a chick photo shoot but the camera battery died and now I can't find the battery charger or the memory card reader. I know that they must be around here somewhere though....

OH! And Portland was great. 10 days of vacation. I'll have to blog about that later...goodnight all.

2007-05-13T20:15:00.000-05:00

Ok. My babies are officially ordered. I'll be getting them the morning of the 30th and I bought:http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

-1 Light Brahma
-1 Buff Brahma
-1 Silver Laced Wyandotte
-1 Rhode Island Red

They're coming from Ideal Poultry in Texas, and I'm going to desperately plead with them to send a Golden Laced Wyandotte instead of the Light Brahma (supposedly the Goldens were sold out)....we'll see. I really want a Golden because they originated in Wisconsin and they have wondering coloring to them.

I went to see another coop in Madison yesterday. It was made mostly with found/free objects....that's what I want to do with my coop as much as possible.

In other news this week and last week have been the first official "green" weeks in Madison, as in, the tress finally have leaves! I am glad. I've been waiting for this for forever. It was kind of depressing to be in wonderfully green Portland the second week of March and come back to Madison still all grey and dreary. But now Madison has hit spring/summer weather. I'm loving it. And I love riding my bike to and from work each day, even though the bike path and roads suck. With the warmer weather there are so many more people out and about, and we finally met our next door neighbors. They have two cute girls and seem super nice.

There's a TON of yardwork to do, as the yard is pretty overgrown an hasn't been tended to in a couple of years. So I'm taking photos of many of the plants so my mom can identify the weeds from the good ones for me when I go visit. One thing that I do love is that there are tons of bleeding hearts, which is very cool.

Although I've had much more energy now that the weather is nicer and the world is greener I'm still in a bit of slow motion. I'm hoping this will change. I need to write up a list of summer plans, summer wants/needs/desires. There is so much in life to do. And so much of Madison and Wisconsin to explore.

2007-05-06T23:20:00.000-05:00

Ok friends. I am so excited right now. I just found out that I'll be adopting four babies on May 29th!...I'm splitting a mail order with someone so I don't have to try to find home for the extras (they come as day old chicks in groups of 25 or more). I am so excited to raise hens and have fresh eggs, plus to be able to raise them from the fuzzball stage to full adult will be neat. Now I need to get my brooder all set up before our Portland vacation, and start building the backyard henhouse and run (they won't be heading to the henhouse fulltime until they're 8 weeks old so I have some time to figure out the plans). Fun!

2007-04-24T22:35:00.000-05:00

yesterday we purchased a 20" flat panel monitor. yay for my eyes, and hurray for another craigslist find. this thing is huge!

two dinner parties. one outdoor open air back deck freestyle dinner for 15+, one indoor semi-set table due to rain for 7. three days apart, meaning lots of preparations and cleaning.

one city chickens 101 class, and also an article and audio slideshow. do i really want to do this? it's a semi-big investment for a henhouse. i think yes.

rays of sun do not always lift the mood

2007-04-17T22:41:00.000-05:00

My heart goes out to Virginia Tech, and to all the friends and family members in mourning.

2007-04-15T16:44:00.000-05:00

For the past two days I have been fixating on raising hens in our backyard. The City of Madison lets residents have up to 4 hens (no roosters) as long as they are at least 25 feet from neighbor's living quarters. Paul & Jason seem to think that it's a silly idea, but I'm really for it. I have absolutely no prior experience raising hens, but from what I've read online it doesn't seem too hard. I would have to be devoted to feeding/watering, checking for eggs, and checking the hens each day, but I think I can handle that. Also, I'd need to build a henhouse and a fence. I think it would be a neat project.

I even have a vegan friend who said that he would consume our eggs and help with caring for the hens while we were on vacation. They would be super happy hens because we have a large space in the backyard for them to move around in, and there would be lots of bugs for them to eat in addition to the feed I'll give them. AND, we'll have some lovely chicken meat in the end.

Pros:
-eggs
-meat
-we have the space
-we can compost their waste and we already have two compost bins
-if i get tired of taking care of them i can just eat them (ie. just have hens in the warmer months of the year), also i will learn how to kill, defeather, and prepare the birds for eating
-i could potentially convert the roofed sandbox structure that exists in our backyard into the henhouse
-they might be entertaining?
-i could potentially barter fresh eggs for other goods

Cons:
-building a henhouse and the co$t
-they are generally quiet but cluck a bit as they lay their eggs (possibly bothering neighbors?)
-i must be dedicated to feeding/watering/cleaning etc and find people to do this for me when I am away from home
-you cannot butcher hens within the city of madison. i would have to 1)sneakily butcher them inside city limits 2)find somewhere outside of city limits to butcher 3)pay someone to butcher my hens (this seems to be common)
-winter hen-keeping might be annoying
-extra costs are associated with the winter with a heater water bowl and light
-we live across from a 30 acre wooded park and racoons might get the hens

Yes! I just saw on the Mad City Chickens website that there is a City Chickens 101 Class next Saturday. And Paul said he would join me. I think I'll get a pretty clear idea about what is involved then.

Does anyone have any ideas? Any experience with raising hens? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

2007-04-15T15:04:00.001-05:00

It's starting to look and feel like spring.

Finally.

2007-04-08T12:31:00.000-05:00

Happy Easter everyone!

Last night Paul & I went to a friend's house and they cooked up a huge feast of an easter dinner. There were 11 of us total at the dinner party and we didn't even finish half of the ham...it was huge. Here was the delicious menu:

-Willow Creek Farm Purebred Berkshire Pork (Free-range, organic feed) Ham with a wonderful honey/brown sugar/molasses glaze. Optional toppings are applesauce and a spicy hot mustard sauce.
-Mashed yams with orange flavoring
-Lemon-steamed broccoli with butter and white wine
-Cherry tomatoes baked with local Bleu Mont blue cheese & fresh sage
-Fresh beets, onions, and apples baked with lemon juice and cinnamon
-A winter salad with currents and many vegetables I had never heard of (sooo good!)
-Bread
-Lots of red wine

Dinner was absolutely fantastic. And for dessert L. had prepared a perfect angel cake with handmade sorbet and raspberry topping. Yum! I want to learn how to make homemade angelfood cake.

Today Paul & I had talked about going hiking, but that plan was dropped because our tires are really bad and our car has been acting funny (I think the tires are out of alignment too because the car shakes as the tires revolve). We need to take it in to get new tires before we drive out of the city again. So instead we're just hanging out at home and Jason, Paul & I made a lovely breakfast of blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs, and potatoes. I have been fed so well in the last 24 hours. AND I baked banana bread yesterday afternoon so I can snack on that today.

2007-03-25T20:33:00.000-05:00

this warm weather today revved me up. i got into spring cleaning mode! which is good, because that is exactly what i need to do before jonathan comes on tuesday. plus i am hoping to find paul's wedding ring, which went missing in february. we think it was dropped outside in the snow, and it's probably long gone, but i still have a tiny bit of hope that it's just hiding behind a piece of furniture in the house.

i went so far as to actually alphabetize some of my major receipts from the past year. that might have been a little overboard, but after going through having stuff stolen last summer, i though it would be good to document some of our big purchase possessions in case anything were to happen. plus i have been known to return items after buying them, so it'll be nice to have things organized.

it is so warm here in madison. and there was a nice breeze today. i took out all the insulation i put two months ago around the cracks in the windows and opened them all up. it felt so good to sit inside and have a breeze through the house. plus, i think the house was warmer than it has been since october! (we generally kept our heat at 58/62 throughout the winter for night/day).

i am crossing my fingers that plane ticket prices will come down in the next couple of weeks for msn-pdx. it's hard to know when to buy tickets or not, and farecast is not supporting madison yet....boo.

i half-embarassed myself by wearing a tshirt, my ISU shorts (embroidered on the butt), and red crocs today, but oh well. since it's warm i should start actually making an effort to look cute again. that hasn't happened in months. ;o) I have so many great skirts (at least 20) that should not be neglected. now if only my work wasn't so darn cold....offices always seem to be temperatured to men in suits.

my hair is finally long enough for a full-fledged swinging ponytail, and is definitely way past my shoulders now. it really is amazing how hair grows in 6 months. i'm happy to have long hair again, because i've missed braiding, but i have to admit....i do kinda miss having short hair.