Happy Halloween!

Halloween is in full swing on Mars.

We have the lights off, and are hiding from the tiny ghosts, goblins, superheroes, and princesses plaguing our streets.

Adrienne is making a delicious chicken soup from scratch:

I cut up my one and only pumpkin from the garden...

...and roasted it with cinnamon, nutmeg, and chile powder:

Meanwhile, we have a special protection detail, sent here from Animal Control to make sure that the nasty possums that hang out in the yard don't disrupt the festivities:

Officer Pickles, of the Possum Patrol, reporting for duty!

Pumpkin Progress

Last month I wrote about the tragedy of hacking up the dying, non-producing pumpkin plant in the front yard, & being shocked to find this hidden under all the giant leaves:

Good news! After a whole month sitting on the windowsill, it has finally turned completely orange:

Just in time for Halloween!

36 + 1 Birthday Weekend

On Saturday, I turned 36 + 1 (I'm thinking that if I always start by saying "36", it's like I'm actually more or less still 36...I'm pretty sure this will work), and Adrienne threw me the best birthday weekend ever!

It started with Saturday morning birthday pastries, coffee, and presents:

Wine from Rachel, pickles and Portuguese pepper paste (made & canned by Adrienne!), a poster, and a terrarium in a...um..chemistry thing!

Then, later, Amanda, Matt, Susie, & Robin came over for whiskey tasting fun:

And pickles:

Two types of cantaloupe by Adrienne, okra by Adrienne, eggs by me, and some amazingly fantastic kimchi that Susie brought for the festivities!

And delicious cheesy, saucy noodles:

A good time was had by all, and I, for one, learned something about the whiskeys we tried.

The birthday fun continued on Sunday morning, when Adrienne made me an ultra-special breakfast:

Poached eggs on grilled polenta, with parmesan sauce, bacon, & heirloom tomatoes!

Add a little fancy champagne, and some potent hot sauce Amanda gave me, and it was the perfect breakfast for easing on into yet another year:

Thank you Robin, Susie, Matt, Amanda, and Adrienne for making my birthday weekend so wonderful! And a special thank you to Jon, who handled finding the perfect birthday blueberry pie (there are no pictures, because unfortunately, it was so delicious it disappeared in an instant...oops)!!

Puttering Around

Took a break from studying to get some small projects done this weekend.


Project #1: Add a shelf to the Disaster Cabinet

We have one cabinet in the kitchen that has proven just impossible to keep organized:

The mess -- and the hassle and racket whenever we try to get anything out -- drives us both crazy. On Saturday, I made a shelf out of a leftover 2x4, along with a pair of stops to keep the baking sheets from sliding away from the wall:

Result:

Much better!



Project #2: Clear out the dying pumpkin vine in the front yard

The pumpkin vine in the front yard has grown very large, but the plant is succumbing to the dreaded powdery mildew, and the pumpkins are rotting on the vine. Its days are numbered. We have six or eight different succulent cuttings -- generous donations from Jennifer, Jon, & Susie -- just about ready to be planted in the yard, so I decided today to pull out the vine to make room for the replanting to begin.

Much to my surprise, after I had already hacked the vines apart, I found this under the giant leaves:

DAMMIT!

Project #3: Do something with the rosemary tree

We bought a hammock this week that fits perfectly in a semi-shady/semi-sunny corner of the yard, right next to a overgrown and mostly dead rosemary tree:

To make a little more room to get in and out of the hammock, and to reduce the number of spiders that could drop on an unsuspecting napper, I removed the left side of the tree. 

Meanwhile, there is a nice craggy part at the same level of the hammock that would make a perfect place to rest a drink, with just a little modification. A few taps on a chisel later:

Afternoon snoozing perfection:

It will be hard to be back at work this week, knowing that that hammock is out there, but I will be brave and do my best. I'm only working three days this week -- taking the two days off before my birthday! --- so I'm sure I will survive somehow.

Where Does The Time Go?

Well, that was quite a hiatus! I traveled a little in June, and then work began to get stupidly busy, and the weather was crappy so I neglected the garden, and then I up and decided to apply to grad school for some reason, and then here we are, all of a sudden, on August 8.

There are a couple sets of photos that I have to share, but today I'll just start with an update on what I did last weekend: I painted my office!

In June, I found out that my company will pay for a masters degree, as long as it's related to my job in some way. In that case, I figured, since it's mostly just a question of my putting in the sweat for a few years, it would be worth it in order to set myself up with more options later. So I started looking into online Master of Business Administration programs (dragging my butt downtown to a campus in the evenings for 3 years is a non-starter), found a good one with the concentration I want, & applied in July.

I found out the first week of August that I got in, so I decided to finally paint my office last weekend, to make it as comfortable & pleasant as possible for all this studying I'm about to do (what?). Here's how it turned out:

No more pink trim! The black strip is Contact Paper that works like a blackboard -- I can put exam dates, etc. up there & not have to worry about forgetting them. I also put up one of my grandmother's paintings, & a Blessed Mother that had belonged to her. Thanks again for sending those, Mama & Papa O'Brien!

As for this blog's mascot, Mrs. Zoey Pickles, she's doing well. A neighbor moved a few weeks ago & left behind a cheapo, folding electric treadmill on the sidewalk that we dragged home, & have been training Zoey to walk on. She's making good progress. Video of that soon. In the meantime, on our vet's advice, Adrienne has been bringing her to a physical therapy place to help get her back legs a little stronger. Here is a video of Zoey on the underwater treadmill there:

Collards, Butterflies, & Hot Dogs

The garden continues to be out of control with abundance. Amanda was over last night, & agreed that the pictures on this blog just don't do it justice.

Here's another attempt to show how enormous the collards are, by putting my foot in the photo:

Does that help?

Meanwhile, as usual, Zoey helped me with garden work on Saturday. Here she is, kindly holding a butterfly on her tail:

In other news, the sauerkraut is finished! Since it was such a warm, sunny day today, we decided to have some on hot dogs, with macaroni salad:

This what Adrienne thought of the sauerkraut:

Thanks again, Susie, for teaching me how to make this delicious sauerkraut!

Flirting with Powdery Mildew

Last June, I wrote about my struggles with cabbage moths/worms & powdery mildew.

I picked cabbage worms & eggs off the collards & brussels sprouts as diligently as I could all summer, but I just wasn't able to get out there often enough to stop the little guys from destroying the plants. We didn't eat a single collard last year. Knowing that I won't have a lot of time during the week this year, either, I have turned to industry! There is a kind of bacteria that only attacks cabbage worms that you can spray on the leaves, & let me tell you, it's really working some magic -- we are barely keeping up with the harvest. And best of all, this is considered appropriate for organic gardening because it is only toxic to the cabbage worms -- it won't destroy everything other bug that happens to be around, & it's non-toxic to humans or other animals.

As for the peas, this week I saw the first signs of powdery mildew! Again, I am turning to industry. This morning, I applied an organic-certified sulphur-based fungicide, & am crossing my fingers that it will stop the spread of the spores.

While I was at the hardware store buying the fungicide, I remembered that I've been wanting to make a flirt pole -- basically a giant cat toy, but for dogs -- for Pickles, & picked up the materials while I was there: pvc pipe, rope, dog toy. It's great exercise for them, without being too exhausting for the human involved. It also is a great learning game -- by following the rules (stopping, starting, dropping the toy, etc. on command), they get better & better at self-control even when excited.

At my hardware store, they only sell pvc pipe in 10-foot lengths, so I decided to make two -- one 4-foot one for outdoors, & one 2-foot one for indoors.

First, I cut the pipe down to 4-foot & 2-foot lengths:

Then I threaded some clothesline through the pipes:

I knotted the rope at both ends of the pipes:

And then I tied on the toys:

I wasn't sure how interested in the flirt pole Pickles would actually be, so knowing that she gets very excited about new toys, so I got her this nice squeaky hamburger. For the short pole, I tied on the remains of her beloved panda that Mama & Papa O'Brien sent her:

Here's a guy from Bad Rap -- an organization that helps pit bulls & supports owners in the Bay Area, & does a lot of work to combat negative stereotypes & myths about pit bulls -- showing how a flirt pole works:


Training Video: Flirt Pole Basics from BADRAP.org on Vimeo.


Here's what Pickles had to say about the flirt pole:



What a good sit/stay! What patience!

With her knees being so delicate, we need to keep the movement in straight lines, & avoid any jumping. Now that we see that she likes it, we're going to have to practice alone to get the hang of how best to do this while protecting her knees. It's trickier than it looks!