PrairieTide

Katie's Newest Lines

2008-05-19T21:04:00.002-05:00

"That's my mommy!"

"Where's daddy?"

"No potty!"

"Mommy has a big bum!"

Ah, such a sweet child... For a while there around her second birthday, Katie always refer to herself by name. She'd say "Do you want a snack, Katie?" It's like she was saying the phrase she wanted YOU to say to her. "Hey, Adult! Ask me if I want a snack, already! I'm starving here!"

Lately she's been trying out pronouns, though "you" and "me" and "I" are a bit of a confusion. For instance, when I go to put her in her carseat, she'll say, "I help you. I help you. I HELP YOU!" At first I thought she was offering to do something for me, but what? I'm not the one who needs to be strapped into that darn carseat! With the urgency heating up with each repetition, it was time for some mom quick thinking. Then I realized what she was asking was a little assistance getting her small bottom into that big, clumsy seat. She's mimicking what she hears, and what she hears is the adults in her life saying something like "Do you want me to help you?" which is close to "I help you", kinda.

Today, during our morning carseat strap-a-thon, I said the usual, "Climb into your seat, cutie-patootie". Once again, she looked at me like I was crazy. The seat is bigger than her by half, so I'm not sure why I made a point of asking her to climb into it by herself each day. It must be something I read in that Montessori book. Anyhoo, I do it every day, and she looks at me like I'm crazy, and then usually says, "I help you." But today, ah today. Today was special. I still got the "crazy lady" look. But she found a new word today. She said, 'You help me" thereby getting the "you" and the "me" in the right place. Brilliant child.

City Museum

2007-10-15T21:12:00.001-05:00

Here's the view of the outside of the City Museum in downtown St. Louis. I took 24 college students to the museum (what a fun part time job!). This is a great place! A group of artists designed the museum entirely out of recycled materials. At some museums, you look at art. At this museum, you play in the art.

The two airplanes you can see in the foreground are linked by a series of catwalks and slinky-like climbing tubes. I scaled the catwalks and made it to both planes, but nothing could entice me to cram myself into a slinky suspended from a chain four stories above the earth.

While climbing in one of the planes, I cracked my head on a metal beam. My head ached the rest of the day (oy!). Most of the students got some sort of bump or bruise while playing in the art. Art can be dangerious business.

Camo

2007-09-30T20:12:00.001-05:00

Take a close look at this picture. See anything unusual?

Randy just showed this picture to me on the Internet. It's worth sharing!

Groovy

2007-09-19T21:08:00.000-05:00

Like the tie-dye t-shirts? The students I work with wanted to do tie-dying at the party we held a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to practice a little before the big event, so Randy and I made these four t-shirts for Katie.

We ordered the dyes from the Dharma Trading Co. (Lost fans will be relieved to know this company has no connection with the Dharma Initiative). They are chemical-reactive dyes, which results in a lot brighter colors than the old Rit dyes we used at Girls Camp.

Using these dyes is a bit complicated. You need to soak the cloth in a soda bath before applying the dyes. Preparing the dyes takes some time, too. One of the students who made a shirt got a small burn on her arm from the soda bath (she was wearing gloves, but the liquid splashed over the top of her glove). So while the students at my college loved this project, I'm a little hesitant to do another round without some assistance from one of our chemistry professors.

Meet Me in St. Louie

2007-09-09T21:53:00.000-05:00

Fun in the Science Center Toddler Discovery Room.

Sure, we traveled 150 miles to get to St. Louis, but Katie's favorite activity was still reading books.

Labor Party

2007-09-03T21:34:00.000-05:00

Here's an exciting recap of our Labor Day Weekend.

That's a BIG Froggy!

Give me five!

Children's Museum Car "Vrrroooom"

Tractor Time with Daddy

Raise your hands if you are cute!

2007-08-19T20:26:00.000-05:00

New Katie tricks:

She can climb up on the couch, and then she will usually climb back down without landing on her head (usually).

She can climb up both sets of stairs, though by the time she reaches the top she lets out a big sigh, "whew!"

Katie can pick out the book she wants to read.

She also lets me know what snack she wants to have, and she usually always wants cheese.

On occasion, she'll utter a two word sentence. Tonight she said "bye wa" (short for "bye-bye water") when we emptied her bathtub after her bath tonight.

She can do some "potty talk." She can say "peepeepee" and "poopoopoo" and "potty."

She can "help" with all kinds of tasks, like putting clothes in the drier, washing off her high chair tray, and drying her own hands.

Have I mentioned that I think she is brilliant?

Birth World

2007-08-12T12:34:00.000-05:00

It was about this time two years ago that I found out I was pregnant. Lately, I've found myself thinking about all the books I read while I was pregnant. These days, I kind of miss "birth world." Before I was pregnant, I had no idea there was this whole community of women who were intimately involved with birth and pregnancy, every day as a career. Midwives, doulas, lactation consultants, labor and delivery nurses, obstetricians.

It's the kind of life path that never occurred to me as a college student. It is a fascinating world, and reading about it is the next best thing to experiencing it. While it is interesting to contemplate, I'm not ready to experience pregnancy again at this point!

Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife, by Peggy Vincent. This author became a midwife in the late 80s, when the return of the professional midwife was a very new trend. She'd worked for several years as an labor and delivery nurse when she got her midwifery degree, and she hoped to practice in a hospital setting. At that time, hospitals were not ready to allow midwives onto their labor floors, so Vincent began a home birthing practice. Her book is full of stories about some of the many home births she assisted. She's quite a storyteller, and the births vary from being funny to really interesting to down-right scary. There is one delivery that is particularly harrowing, so if you happen to be pregnant or really hormonal, you may want to keep an eye out for this chapter and skip ahead.

A Midwive's Story, by Penny Armstrong. Here is another author who became a professional midwife in the late 80's, while hospitals were very reluctant to allow anyone other than OBs practice in their maternity wards. Armstrong was also an experienced labor and delivery nurse when she became a midwife. She then had the chance to practice as a midwife with the Amish community in Pennsylvania. Initially, she also planned to do her deliveries at the local hospital, but administrative resistance at the hospital, and cultural resistance among her patience encouraged her to begin doing homebirths. Armstrong also has a flair for storytelling, and her perspective on Amish life is really interesting, too. Her stories about women giving birth at home, after completing monumental amounts of housework just hours before delivering, is inspiring, to say the least! Like Baby Catcher, the book also has one particularly harrowing birth story, so be warned!

Ina May's Guide to Childbirth, by Ina May Gaskin. This is a childbirth book, with lots of great tips for getting through childbirth naturally. It's not a nonfiction account of a midwifery practice, like the other two books, but the book includes a lot of stories about various deliveries Ina May has assisted, and it paints a fascinating picture of what life is like on The Farm. The Farm is a old hippy commune in Tennessee. Somewhere along the way, the women on the commune decided to give birth at home, and to assist each other with their births. A number of women who lived on the commune became practicing midwifes, and Ina May was the lead midwife of the group. She's developed a number of very effective natural childbirth methods, and her practice has a very low c-section rate. But the really fascinating picture in this book is what life is like on The Farm. Personally, Utopian societies are just not what they are cracked up to be. I have a feeling life on The Farm is very intense, and whatever kind of religious life they have created is rather strange. This might be a great place to give birth, but I wouldn't want to live there!

Embarassing!

2007-07-29T21:04:00.000-05:00

When I saw this book title at the library, I just had to check it out and read it myself: Everything You Never Wanted Your Kids to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid They'd Ask)

I know it is going to be a few more months before Katie starts asks why she can't go pee-pee standing up, and it will probably be a few more years down the road before we need to have that special talk about birthcontrol options, but I like to plan ahead...

This book was actually written with quite a bit of humor. The authors are both doctors. One is a pediatrician and one is a psychiatrist. From the book, it sounds like they also do quite a bit of speaking to parents about how to talk with kids about sex. It sounds like their presentations are usually packed to the rim with anxious parents.

What is the basic concern of all these parents? The authors sum it up thus: "How can I help my daughter have a healthy attitude about sex, and how can I keep her from having any?"

The authors then list a number of "mini lectures" they feel parents should have with their kids over the years. Their perspective is that parents should start young. Junior high is time time they feel parents should be discussing the big "S" topic, because by the time high school rolls around junior has already heard a lot on this subject from someone else. And starting the conversation after age 14 just gets more and more awkward and uncomfortable for all interested parties.

The book also promotes the idea of keeping the conversation going, beyond the initial "birds and the bees" talk. So if your kid is reading Romeo and Juliet, ask him what it was those two were doing when the birds began to sing. And if your young one is assigned The Scarlet Letter, ask her what that letter stood for, anyway?

Om

2007-07-08T12:53:00.000-05:00

My latest favorite book about parenting is Mommy Mantras: Affirmations and Insights to Keep You from Losing Your Mind. The book contains a whole bunch of mantras, little sayings really. Things to bring to mind during the...oh...10 or 12 difficult parenting situations that may come up on any given day. The authors, two child psychologists, then share stories from their own experiences about how these mantras have come in handy for them.

There are mantras for getting through a visit with your in-laws ("take what they can give"). Mantras for getting along with your spouse ("ignore the score"). Mantras for the working mom and for the stay at home mom ("give up the guilt"). Even mantras for coping with tantrums in public ("be invisible").

I ran into this book around Mother's Day. The title immediately brought to mind the mantra I recited to myself during the first few months of Katie's life. I'm not sure where I got the idea of reciting a mantra, but it helped me stay calm when I was feeling a little out of control.

My mantra was "I'm grateful for Katie." I remember saying this to myself in the wee hours when I'd hear Katie start to cry...again. I'd say it to myself while we were going through a rough patch with the whole car seat and driving thing. And I'd whisper it to Katie's sleeping form after she'd finally settled down for some sleep.

It was a useful thing for me, because becoming a mom was my choice. Randy wasn't particularly keen on the idea of giving up our comfortable couple-dom, and it was really me who lobbied for the idea of having a baby later in life. It was something I really wanted to do, even though I knew next to nothing about babies and kids. So it was a useful way for me to remind myself that this new phase in my life was something I'd chosen for myself. I needed a little reminder to keep those feelings of...oh I don't know, longing for the past I guess...at bay.

During the last few days, Katie's been on edge. She's got two molars working their way to the surface, and I can actually see a little blood on her gums, poor thing. So she's had a bit of a fussy mood these last few days, and bedtime can seem like it's a long way off. I know if I can keep her engaged in fun activities, the whole day goes a lot more smoothly. But then I can only work up the enthusiasm to go to the park so many times in one day. So I've been reviving my mantra again. It works. It keeps me thinking about what I'm supposed to be doing with my day.

So what are your parenting mantras?

Pictures from Paradise

2007-05-31T21:28:00.001-05:00

Hawaii was awesome! I can still rememer the great feeling of sand between my toes and warm water lapping at my ankles. Are we already back in the Midwest?

Major "thanks" to Wendy, Nathan, and family for being such wonderful hosts. We had a fabulous time!

Tiki Land--More Sun and Fun

2007-05-25T01:20:00.001-05:00

Hanauma Bay. Wendy took me snorkling for my first time since I visited Hanauma Bay back in 1989.

The first thing I saw when I looked under the water with my mask was some kind of water snake or eel. It was bright orange and white striped, and it was swimming right at me. Like a true snorkling pro, I screamed and skittered out of there on my haunches. It took me a while to start enjoying watching little creepy things poking out of the reef.

Once we got started, I was a nervous to breath underwater. I got a little panicked, but Wendy gave me lots of good advice and calmed me right down. I liked how she would stop and ask me how I was doing as we went along.

Once I got the hang of kicking with my fins on and breathing through my mouth, I started to relax and enjoy the experience. The reef was quite shallow (maybe low tide?), so it felt like we had to kick really carefully not to scrape against the coral. The coral was funky and bumpy, and we saw lots of fish. One fish, two fish. Red fish, blue fish.

Nathan and John, ready to go snorkling.

John did really great snorkling. He was just like a little fish himself out there in the water.

Katie trying out the waves. The surf was very gentle, but still a little scary for this girl. She said "bath" as we played in the water.

She also spent a lot of time today waiting for us while we went swimming. Someone was always with her, but it was still a lot of time to just hang out one a little towel in the shade. She just kept to her towel, singing to herself and babbling in her secret baby language. She never did venture off the towel onto the sand. So far, this girl is not crazy about touching icky stuff like grass or sand.

Note to travelers. If you visit Hanauma Bay in the near future, don't forget to stop by the snack bar on the way out. They have some chocolate macadamian nut cookies that are worth the cost of the airplane ticket to the islands alone.

Tiki Hut Tours--Photo Update

2007-05-24T11:13:00.000-05:00

Blue Hawaii

2007-05-22T01:35:00.000-05:00

Aloha! We made it to Hawaii!

The Rubsam Clam is staying with with sister Wendy and her family in their lovely home near Waikiki. Little Katie survived a 16 hour flight in good humor the whole way, and after two days, she's adjusted nicely to the time difference.

We've already waded in the surf, eaten pineapple, watched hula dancers, and gone to a barbeque. We've got sand in our shoes and sunburns. So we're practically locals now!

The cousins have kept Katie well entertained. This evening before bedtime, she was crawling like crazy, trying to keep up with John and Emily. Emily has decided she wants to teach Katie how to walk. This involved a mild fall, but Katie survived unscathed. Katie definately likes being around other kids!

Wendy and clan have been very gracious hosts. They greeted us with beautiful flower leis at the airport. They've taken us sightseeing, let us raid their cupboards for snacks and cereal. And they've even provided diapers and wet wipes for the wee one.

Next on the agenda: Pearl Harbor, walking tour of downtown Honolulu, and a hike to a waterfall!

Lift and Separate

2007-05-14T13:23:00.000-05:00

I broke down today and bought two new nursing bras. I feel like a new woman.

I've been limping along with a collection of saggy, baggy nursing bras for months. My old bras are from the "Iron Maiden" line of nursing bras. Whenever I'd spot myself in one of these quasi-burp clothes in a mirror, I'd think to myself, "It's official. I've become my grandmother."

And the pity of it is, I spent a fortune on what could be taken for fishing drag nets. I went to a specialty shop to be sized by a supposed expert. Even though the bras looked like they were woven from stainless steal, my chest drooped lower and lower as the year went on. Recently, my nipples began dragging below my belly button. I'm too young to begin singing "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" every time I get dressed in the morning.

Well something had to give. I put off this purchase for way too long. Why? Because how much longer am I going to be nursing anyway?

Ah, I used to love nursing. Until just a couple of months ago, nursing was the highlight of my day. Nowadays, we can still have our sweet nursing moments. Like when Katie is drifting off to sleep at night, and her little hand pats my breast to say "nighty-night." Otherwise, nursing a 13 month year old must be like nursing a monkey.

In fact, this weekend while we were at the zoo, I spotted a nursing monkey. The mama monkey could travel hand over hand the length of the enclosure with her fuzzy little baby latched on through the entire journey. I felt a twinge of sympathetic nipple pain at the sight of it.

As far as nursing goes, Katie has been a really healthy baby, and nursing must have something to do with it. She's had one bad throw-up illness, and a series of snotty noses. Knock on wood, we made it through the worst of the cold season this year. For a healthy baby, I'll put up with some nursing gymnastics. Especially now that it won't look like I'm wearing a life-vest under my summer t-shirts.

Go Girl

2007-05-13T20:44:00.000-05:00

Fun new things Katie can do:

Pose for a funny picture at the zoo.
Take a step or two away from the couch and into my arms.
Scribble with a crayon.
Notice the animals at the zoo and laugh when she seems them.
Point at things she wants.
Push around her toddler rocking chair like a walker.
Throw a ball a foot in distance.
Turn pages in a book.
Stack one block on top of another.

She is also picking up baby signs pretty well. I'm really glad we did baby signs with her, because otherwise I don't think I would recognize her cute babbling as actual words. Here are some signs she can do:

Milk
Bath
Down
Up
Ball
More
Daddy (but not Mommy yet)
Hat

Today, I was reading her a book with baby pictures in it, and I did the sign for baby, and she did it back for me. She did it a few times as we were reading the book. She's brilliant! Brilliant, I say!

Postscript: Despite how it looks in the picture above, I am not pregnant. I like to think I am not that chubby, either. Sheesh!

April Birthdays

2007-04-15T19:59:00.000-05:00

We have a lot of April birthdays in my extended family. So let me share a big Happy Birthday to all those who had the good fortune to be born in the beautiful, springtime month of April!

One special April birthday is my own Katie's. My sister Mary said to me once that "time moves slow and fast at the same time" when you have a baby in the house. This seems very true to me. Nothing drags more slowly than a day spent with a teething toddler. Yet the year overall has sped right by.

The day before Katie's birthday, I kept remember significant moments from the year before when Katie was born. At 1:00 PM, I remembered that was the time my water broke. At 6:00 PM, Randy and I went on a long walk, hitting all the good hills in our neighborhood, trying to get the contractions started. At 9:00 PM, we went into the hospital. At 11:00 PM, we came home from the hospital. Then at midnight, contractions started for real.

Starting Katie's second year, I feel a little more confident about this parenting gig than I did this time last year. Katie can do so many new things, it is amazing to think she is the same tiny person we brought home from the hospital. Babies don't stay small for very long!

Luck of the Irish

2007-03-17T19:28:00.000-05:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day

from

Our Little Leprechaun

Protocol

2007-03-12T14:38:00.000-05:00

So we've been trying out some new playgroups. We've met lots of nice moms and cute babes.

I also realize I'm not exactly "hip" on playgroup protocol. For instance, as Katie sat on the floor chewing on a block, I heard a couple of moms say "no biting the toys" to their kids. If the kid made a move towards testing their teethies on a toy, the mother quickly swat the toy away.

Granted, chewing on toys spreads colds. But this is basically how Katie plays with toys. She wouldn't know what else to do with the little gizmos in her hands if I said "No biting, sweetie."

So this make me ponder, if I were to enforce a "no chewing" rule, would it only apply to toys at playgroups? Or all brightly colored plastic objects?

Ah, so many rules, so little time. There is a brave, new mommy world out there, and I'm still a newcomer.

And She's Off!

2007-03-04T19:18:00.000-06:00

Katie started crawling this week. Real crawling on her hands and knees. She's been scooting on her tummy backwards for a few months, but this is the first time she's started propelling herself forward.

How was I able to tempt her off her bum and into crawling mode? By dangling the much-desired-but-forbidden remote control before her eyes. Before she knew what she was doing, Katie had crawled the length of the couch.

We've had fun this week encouraging her to crawl more. She chased after a broom one day, which really got her to scamper about. And cheerios have prompted her to crawl under the table. She is still a bit of a timid crawler, to date. We have plenty of books on bottom shelves, and if she wanted to, she could cause some real mischief. So far, she is content to just crawl a few steps towards her favorite toys. Maybe when she gets her confidence up, Katie will streak off towards the garbage pail and wreck some havoc.

Getting Ready

2007-02-28T20:50:00.000-06:00

I've got Harry Potter on the brain.

First off, after rereading Book 5 and Book 6, I decided I needed more. So I read What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7. The book is full of predictions about the upcoming HP book. The writers have combed the previous books for clues, and they stake their claim in what is coming in the last book. They include fun things like the "odds" that various characters make it out of the new book alive (Draco, it doesn't look good for you). It includes extensive chapters on whether Dumbledore is alive or not, plus the whole debate about whether Snape has gone evil is included, too. The book is a fun review of all the stuff that happened in the previous books, and I enjoyed all the analysis.

By the way, this book is published by the nerds...er, ah, volunteers...at mugglenet.com The website includes several Editorials that include amazingly detailed literary analysis. If I were back in grad school, I think I'd write a paper about a new breed of literary analysis spawned by the internet. I'd call it "obsessed fandom literary analysis." If you bring a bunch of people who read a book repeatedly together on a website, they bring a lot of interesting insights to the book.

For instance, at the end of Book 6, there is that mysterious note in the locket from RAB. The folks at mugglenet.com think RAB is Sirius Black's younger brother. One bit of evidence to support this theory is that when the book is translated into different languages, the last initial changes to the first letter in the word "black" in the new language. Now that is something that only an obsessed fan would figure out!

Not that I'm an obsessed fan, but this week I've been reading something truly, truly nerdy. I've heard about fan fiction, but I've never bothered to read any before. Fan fiction is where someone uses the characters from a favorite book or movie to write a new story. Apparently there is oodles of this stuff on the internet. With my recent spat of Harry Potter-itis, I ran across an online novel called Living with Danger. In this version of the tale, HP grows up in a loving home, instead of with the Dursleys. It is kind of like "Muppet Babies", because all of the original characters show up as kids. The writing is super cheesy and amateurish and I'm embarrassed to admit I've been reading it. But hey, July is a long way off for a Harry Potter fan.

My Cuties

2007-02-19T19:39:00.000-06:00

With Valentine's Day just behind us, I thought I'd post a picture of my two favorite people.

Awwwwww.

Here are the great things Randy and Katie enjoy doing together:

Katie knows the sound of Randy coming in the door at the end of the work day. She gets very excited, and she "dives" into Randy's arms as soon as she sees him.
Randy makes up funny, nonsense songs while changing Katie's diapers.
Randy likes to carry Katie around the house and show his pictures to her. Katie is quite taken with some of his brigher-colored paintings.
More than once, I've come in to the room to find the two playing together. Randy will have Katie sitting on the floor between his legs with all of her toys spread around them in a big circle.
Randy is very good at reading Katie books. He does all the voices just right. Such a sweet daddy.

Look! No Hands!

2007-02-13T16:24:00.000-06:00

Here is a picture of Katie standing on her own, unassisted, for about five seconds!

I can't help but be delighted with Katie learning to take "baby steps." Everyone tells us there is no reason to rush Katie towards walking. Lots of experienced parents say that things just get crazier once these little people get more mobile. I've had any number of people say to enjoy her while she enjoys sitting in my lap.

But practicing walking is just so fun! And when you've got a whole lotta playtime in front of you, practicing walking is a great way to fill the time. So, yes, I've been encouraging Katie to walk. I'm guilty of propping her up on the side of the couch and letting her practice pulling up on my lap. The giggles are worth it.

Games to Play with Baby

2007-02-05T16:57:00.000-06:00

We've got a case of cabin fever here at Prairietide. The temperatures have been below 10 degrees all weekend, and the wind is just wicked. So this happy family has been in hybernation for a few days.

Here are the games that Katie likes:

Bouncing on my knee while I sing "This is the Way the Lady Rides."
The "I found your bellybutton" game.
The game where I put my nose against Katie's and say, "Boo!" Cracks her up ever time!
Patty Cake
Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes
Peek-a-Boo. Sometimes I go into the next room and say "Peek-A-Boo" around the corner. This is kinda fun, but somtimes it's a little too scary.

What else? I've made shakers out of plastic bottles and pasta noodles. Looking in the mirror is always a winner. A nice mirror can even cheer Katie up if she is teary. There is also the favorite, "Stand Up in Mommy's Lap" game. And who could forget the "Cling to the Couch for Dear Life" game?

Then there are board books. Katie has really been enjoying her books lately. I have a boardbook with photos of babies doing signs. I've been showing Katie this book for months, but it is just now that she has started to enjoy the pictures. She'll look through this book for a long time.

Katie has enjoyed the Sandra Boynton books for a long time. I think it is the simple drawings, the bright colors, and the fun stories that are the big appeal. Lately, she's started to like the book Everywhere Babies. This is my favorite board book that we have. It always chokes me up when I read it. This this past weekend, Katie started looking at the pictures very intently. It's like she recongizes the pictures a little.

The weather report makes it sound like we're in for a cold spell. So what indoor games do you have for babies?

Congrats!

2007-01-31T13:49:00.000-06:00

Wow! 38 years of marriage!

I was going to write a longer post, but the princess has just awoken from a much-too-short nap. So let me just say, Mom and Dad, I think you are the best.

Enjoy your special day together!

Well Baby

2007-01-20T11:54:00.000-06:00

We went in for a well baby visit at the doctor's office this week. Katie is weighing 18 pounds, 11 ounces, right at 50% for her age.

I was sure the girl was over 20 pounds. Or should I say my back was convinced she was weighting over 20 pounds. In fact, we took the infant seat out of the car and installed the convertable car seat that kids over 20 pounds are supposed to use (Actually, I like the new seat much better). But oy! My back! Must practice better lifting techniques.

I tried to talk to the doc about Katie's eating issues. Yes, I know I should just relax about this topic, but Katie throws up every time we try to give her new food to eat with her fingers, no matter how small it is cut up. The only fingerfood she tolerates is cheerios (bless 'em!).

Ah, just as I was striking up the topic, the doc tried to inspect Katie's mouth. Katie didn't like this one bit and threw a wee fit. Actually, it was more of a crying tsunami. The doc beat a speedy retreat while Katie was still howling, so end of conversation.

Today, I found some stuff on the internet about "texture aversion." Kids with reflux can have texture aversion, and most grow out of it no problem. I know I could just hold off giving Katie bits of veggies or fruit for a while, but here is my real issue. I would love to have Katie eating more solids so I can cut back on pumping breastmilk at work. Pumping at work is a real PITA! Not only have I been walked in on mid-pumping session (so embarassing), but using that darn pump is much more uncomfortable (even painful) at work. I don't mind using it at home, so I could keep pumping in the morning before Katie goes to daycare. But I will celebrate mightily the day I can leave that blasted pump at home.

So, back to my research on texture aversion. I found some good ideas, like introducing a new food right at the beginning of the meal. That way, if Katie gags, there is less in her stomach to throw up. If she swallows without puking, then we can praise her. If she does puke, clean it up without any fussy. We can also try adding wheat germ to her baby food to get her used to a bit more texture in the food she already enjoys. And I might go back to making some baby food, since the homemade stuff has more texture to it than the jars. (I had a brief baby-food-making fling, but Katie tended to up-chuck the stuff, so I switched back to the jars.)

I learned all this from a brief session surfing. Much more info than I got from the doctor's office. I think being a new mom is a lot easier these days, with all the information available on the internet. Back in the dark ages (and I'm talking about the '80s), facing new problems with a baby probably felt a lot more daunting.

Let's wrap up this post with a quick picture. This is the tree across the street from our house on Wednesday morning. We woke up on Wednesday to some more snow and ice. It's been cold and windy all week, so many of the trees are still covered in ice. It is a beautiful sight, though man it is as cold as heck in that wind. More snow is expected this weekend. Luckily, I can just say home and play with my baby.

I've got a pot of beans cooking on the stove, and I'm going to use up the last of the Christmas ham left over form the holidays. Just like mom used to make! Sounds cozy, doesn't it?

Sleepy....You're Feeling Sleepy...

2007-01-14T13:58:00.000-06:00

Let me just say how beautiful I think this picture is. A sleeping baby...what a lovely sight.

I love the little way Katie brings her hands up to her head when she sleeps. Sometimes, she'll have both hands up by her ears. Othertimes, both hands will be clasped in front of her.

Katie also has a thing for chewing on her blankets. She does this at home and at daycare. She doesn't take a binky, so maybe chewing on the blanket is a kind of substitute. It does seem to help her sleep a little.

Speaking of naps, the princess just woke up from her nap in the other room. Better sign off for now.

Cranky

2007-01-07T10:50:00.000-06:00

It's not Katie who is cranky today. It's me! Let's see. What got me off on the wrong foot today.

Well, first think is I miss-read all of Katie's sleep signals, and ended up spending the entire morning trying to put her down for a nap. Grrrr. I know I should just go about my day and not obcess about getting her to nap. It just gets me riled, and the nap doesn't come along any sooner. Katie is blissfully snoozing now, so I need to do some deep breathing and just enjoy.

Then, Randy mentioned he wanted to go to his Tai Chi class. Then he handed Katie off to me so he could go surf the web. That was enough to tork me off. Yes, I'm a cranky spouse today. Randy's great with Katie, though he usually considers his play time with her a "break" for me to say go to the restroom or get dressed for the day. I need equal opportunity time to surf too!

Shhhhhhhhhh...

2006-12-31T08:56:00.000-06:00

I've developed this wierd twitch in my left eye. It happens throughout the day, and it is like a little spasm in the muscle around my eye.

I think it's developed because of lack of sleep.

We have some sleep issues at our house. Namely, no one is getting very much. So this holiday break, we've been working on teaching Katie to go to sleep when we lay her down on her bed, without having to be rocked or swayed or walked around.

Thursday night, at 3:00 AM, she did it! She'd just woken up again, and instead of heading out for the rocking chair, I just patted her tummy until she relaxed. She cried just a little. Then she made funny babbling noises, like "awawawawawa". Then she drifted off to sleep.

Eureka! I should have tried this months ago!

Two days later, and every time we've put her down to sleep, she's drifted off on her own in her bed. So far, it only takes her a few minutes. She's still waking up a few times at night, so we still have some work to do. Maybe then we can catch some Zzzzzzz's.

Jingle

2006-12-25T18:18:00.000-06:00

The Katie Elf wishes you a very
Merry Christmas.

Tummy Time

2006-12-20T14:22:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, Katie scootched backwards on her tummy about a foot. I was so proud, I called her dad at work to report the news.

Katie is 8 months, and she's still not very comfortable on her tummy. I probably should have done more tummy time when she was little. I just read an article that said lack of tummy time can lead to developmental and speach delays. Ack! Get this kid onto her tummy--pronto!

Yes, I'm obsessing about this a bit. I love my lap baby. Everyone says once their baby is moble, things just get really hectic. I know, I know, I should relax and "enjoy the journey." Stop and smell the roses. Take time to pick the daisies. Etc.

So, do you have any tricks for getting your baby to enjoy tummy time? If so, leave your ideas in my "comments" box. (So much for relaxing...)

Downtime

2006-12-09T14:28:00.000-06:00

Today I'm missing my family. My parents and my sisters Anna and Erin came to visit over Thanksgiving. Anna brought her adorable boys with her for the visit, too.

It was a great visit. My house was full up to the rafters! Mom and Dad both did most of the Thanksgiving cooking. Anna and Erin entertained the babies. Randy and I were a little shellshocked having two toddlers in our house, and we learned we need to do a lot more toddler-proofing. Ah, but I miss the commotion. All the storytelling and the jokes and the fun. We've got a great clan.

Cabin Fever

2006-12-06T20:39:00.000-06:00

Peoria just got hammered with ice and snow. We got about 9 inches of snow, but the ice made the roads tretcherous. With the wind, snow drifted up to 15 inches on our driveway. I like this picture of Randy battling the drift with the snowblower.

(We just got this hand-me-down snowblower from Randy's dad, and it is a good thing, too. Otherwise, all that snow would still be sitting on our driveway.)

Road conditions were so bad in town, I spent four days pent up in the house. Yeasterday was the first day I took Katie "back into the real world." Roads were still pretty messed up. With all the ice and piles of compacted snow, it felt like we were driving a truck on a dirt road in Afganistan.

Fashion Shot

2006-11-27T13:27:00.001-06:00

Who's this in a cute hand-knit sweater? Why, it's Katie, resident supermodel. She's modeling the latest in baby knits here at PrairieTide

This is a pullover sweater with buttons on top of the shoulders. It's knit in Plymouth Encore yarn, and I think I have enough to knit a pair of leggings (or longies as they are known in the knitting world). If I'm lucky, there may be enough yarn for a matching hat.

The sweater mostly fits. It's a little wide, but maybe that means the sweater can be worn next year. I think I could lengthen they body and the sleeves for another year's use. Maybe I'll use a contrasting color, like they used to do in the "old country" to make a sweater stretch.

Wearing the sweater out today, Katie got lots of complements. Of course, most folks thought she was a darling little boy. I just smile and say "thanks!

More text and a cute baby picture

2006-11-13T10:00:00.000-06:00

Aren't you dying to learn about my favorites?

Favorite/most helpful parenting book: sleep/naps, toddlers, babies, discipline, whatever.

I just started reading Smart Signing for Babies and Toddlers. It's a book about teaching a baby to use sign language. I'm going to give this a try with the Great Kate.

Best place to get toddler shoes that are affordable but sturdy.

Do baby shoes count? I've wanted to buy Katie some of those adorable Robeez shoes, but they cost over $30 for one little pair! My inner scrouge just cannot justify spending this much for a pair of shoes, no matter how cute the princess design is. So I found a pair of fake Robeez boots at the Big W. They are suade and have a little pink heart on them. Not quite as cute as the original, but good for a penny pincher.

Favorite shoes you wear (besides tennis shoes).

I love Clarks. They have a nerdy stylishness about them, and they are comfy, a smashing combination in my mind. I've bought several pairs of Clarks over the years. For a couple of years there, Clarks didn't make much other than clogs. Now, thank heavens, Clarks has gone back to making actual shoes again. Last fall, I bought two pairs of Clarks with cute buckles across the top. Then I got pregnant, and almost immediately the shoes became too tight to wear. I was worried that after my pregnancy, my feet would stay big and I'd never be able to wear these cute shoes. Hurrah! My feet did not stay two-sizes too big, and I'm loving these shoes today.

Favorite book you've read lately.

Goodness. I can't seem to handle fiction right now. I've been trying to finish up Mansfield Park for like six months. Sheesh. I did finish Protecting the Gift by Galvin de Becker. It's about keeping your kids safe, and it has haunted my dreams the last week or so. Scary but important.

Favorite dinner recipe.

Cooking? Last night we had one of the frozen dinners from Super Supers. It was a tasty stew, and I think I could make it on my own. It was a basic veggie stew with crushed tomato chunks, shredded chicken, and sausage slices. The secret ingredient? A cup of barbeque sauce. This gave the soup some zip. Maybe I'll whip it up on my own some time...

Favorite movie you've seen lately.

We just watched Curious George, and I thought it was delightful. Little George reminded me of Katie.

Favorite LOST character.

Never seen LOST. Though I will say that my favorite Battlestar Galactica character is Kara "Starbuck" Trace. I think it is genius that they cast a woman to play the swaggering, hot-shot pilot from the original series.

Katie wants to help finish my blog post:

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Wierdness

2006-11-05T11:38:00.000-06:00

When to blog? My baby rarely naps, and there's no guarantee I'll get her down to sleep at night, either. Thus, the neglected blog. So here is my much-delayed list of wierdness.

Unlike some of my talented sisters, I cannot suck my upper lip up into my nose. This must be a genetic defect.
I have the acne of a 14 year old. One of the things I loved about being pregnant is that it was the first time in my life that I had clear skin. Unfortunately, I fell into the trap of thinking the clear skin might just last after my pregnancy, but alas, no. I'm back in zitsville.
I've vowed to stop cussing, now that I have a wee babe to care for. But there is one place where this seems to be impossible--the car. I'm simply incapable of cutting someone off in traffice without swearing a blue streak.
I've never watched Lost or 24 or The Office or The Sopranos or Desperate Housewives. I've been too busy watching Battlestar Galactica. Anyone else watch this great show? Seriously, it is great.
I still mourn for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Now that was an amazing TV series. Why do all the good shows have to die?
I'm bummed that Randy and I have never gone to a Star Trek convention.
I look forward to the local Renissance Festival (though I've never dressed up in one of those dresses that lace up your boobs).
Like a certain sister, I too talk to myself all day long. It's like my inner dialogue leaks outside sometimes. I suspect my coworkers consider this just another sign of my geekiness.
I'm chronically forgetful. I can't say how many Saturdays I've had to go back to work because I forgot my wallet. Yesterday, we had to drive back to work to pick up my breastpump. Yes, I just wrote the word "breastpump" on my blog.
I never thought I would say this, but I look forward to nursing. It's become the best part of my day. When Katie first was born, I thought nursing was a cruel joke from God. Then after a couple of weeks, I decided I didn't hate nursing after all. Then, once Katie was about four months old, I realized I missed the all-day nursing fests of yore. However, I resolve not to nurse Katie through Kindergarden.

Moo!

2006-11-02T19:39:00.000-06:00

I mean "Boo!"

Katie wore her cute cow costume to a halloween party at our playgroup. She also spent an entire day in her costume at daycare. Seeing all the babies roll around in their little outfits was fun. There was a monkey, a superman, and a pumpkin in Katie's class. But who was the cutest? Katie, of course!

The costume was a shower gift from way back when I was pregnant. When I was given the gift, I thought it would be tooooo big for Katie. I couldn't imagine my little baby being big enough to wear this costume. Then, last week when I actually went to put it on her, it barely fit! This girl is growing!

Our Halloween was pretty laid back, otherwise. We get a few neighborhood kids at our door each year. But not nearly enough kids to go through the four bags of candy Randy bought. So I've been doing my duty and eating chocolate like crazy the last few days. I keep this up, and I'll be the one saying "moo!"

Carrie Me Back

2006-10-29T15:27:00.000-06:00

Katie's in her new baby carrier. We have two other carriers, but now that Kate is topping 17 pounds, they were getting too uncomfortable. Painful even. This new carrier is an Ergo, and it is supposed to work up to 40 pounds (though whether my back will is another question!).

I love the Ergo. We've taken five long hikes with it, and my shoulders feel great. Kate likes the carrier... most of the time. Here's to some fabulous fall hiking with a babe!

The Baby Sitter

2006-10-22T13:20:00.000-05:00

Mary recently posted pictures of her kids sitting in their Bumbo seats. This inspired me to do likewise. Mary's kids are so dang cute!

Katie hasn't really taken to her Bumbo until just recently, now that she can sit up better on her own.

Katie is not only sitting great, yesterday, she rolled over from her front to her back. Whoo-hoo!

Who's big feet are in the corner of that picture?

How's That for a Smile?

2006-10-15T16:03:00.000-05:00

Katie just discovered she can make her exercauser "bounce." So this is a major new fun thing to do.

Ah, look at that smile! We've only captured a few smiles with the camera, so this picture is destined to be one of my favorites.

And She Knits!

2006-09-24T13:51:00.000-05:00

Yes, this is the baby blanket that I started knitting for Katie when I was six-months pregnant. I finally finished it this week. In fact, the blanket is supposed to have a more intricate boarder, but my tired mommy-brain is not up for complicated knitting at this juncture.

Back when I started the blanket, I knew I would be cutting it close if I were to finish it before the baby came. In fact, the first thing I thought of when my midwife told me I needed to go on bedrest was, "now I can finish that blanket!"

But, just a few days after I went on bedrest, Katie was born. So much for that plan! The blanket languished for a few months in my knitting basket until we finally got a bedtime routine down for Katie that gave me a little time to myself in the evening. Nowadays, the only way I can stay up to watch a TV show after Katie goes to bed is to knit. Otherwise, it's snoozeville.

So now that Katie is 5.5 months old, do we even need another baby blanket? Not really. I remember when I started the blanket my sister Heather said that lots of people give new parents blankets, and they aren't that helpful anyway. She was right! We have a pile of blankets we rarely delve into.

So this finished object may just become a doll blanket for Katie down the road.

Giggles

2006-09-16T12:11:00.000-05:00

The most beautiful sound in the world is a baby's giggle. My baby is pretty smiley, but she is just starting to let us hear her giggle.

Here are some sure-fire ways to make Katie laugh:

Pretend to eat her toes.
Talk in a Cookie Monster voice.
Say "Boo-boo Bear" in a Yogi Bear voice. I have no idea why this works.
Blow raspberries at her face. Sometimes when Katie is fussing, she'll blow raspberries herself. If I mimic a raspberry back at her, she'll start laughing. Turn that frown upside down, little girl!
And the number one way to find that elusive giggle: Blow zerberts on Katie's belly.

Yeah! Great Fun!

New Wheels

2006-09-06T07:30:00.000-05:00

Here's the replacement to the Tercel--a brand new Toyota Corolla.

It has lots in common with the T--fun to drive, asy manuverability--plus it has a few more creature comforts, like adjustable seats and a CD changer. I also like the side-impact air bags and the "latch" system for car seats.

Just writing this, I have the urge to take her onto the freeway and drive off into "Illinois Big Sky Country", just to see what she can do.

Green Turtle

2006-09-02T14:30:00.000-05:00

It's the end of an era. I've sold my Toyota Tercel to my kid sister Anna. I've owned the car for eight years, and I'd have kept it longer, but getting a baby seat in and out of this two door wonder was killing my back.

The Tercel was my very first car. It's the car I purchased after my divorce while I was living in Seattle, so the car is tied up with strong feelings of independence, freedom, and new beginnings.

Driving the Tercel was always a lot of fun. The car was quick and responsive. It could turn on a dime, and it could fit into the smallest urban parking space. When I first bought it, I could fill up the tank for $9, and a full tank could last for two whole weeks of city driving.

Once, one year at Christmas time, I decided I had to make it to my parents house, even though there was an ice storm turning the highway into a ballroom dance floor. The Tercel negotiated the ice without a problem.

Randy and I drove the Tercel from Seattle to Peoria after we got married. We took two weeks to enjoy the journey, and drove through Canada, spending some time at Banff and Jasper along the way.

After Anna bought the car, she left me a voice mail message. "Just wanted to say I love this car!" she said. "It's so fun to drive." I'm glad the Green Turtle has found a good home.

Ocean Exploration

2006-08-30T14:30:00.000-05:00

We just got back from a vacation to Washington State. (Around here, there is a small town called Washington. I have to be clear that we went to the Pacific Northwest for our vacation, or folks will think we just spent a week across the river.)

Katie was such a good sport about all the traveling we did. She spent some quality time on four airplanes and four lovely airports. She let strange family members and friends hold her without protest. She slept in unfamiliar cribs and napped in all manner of improvised places.

While traveling, Kate go the hang of taking a bottle. We spent so much time in a car, it was the perfect place to practice a bottle. Now that she is back home and going to day care, she's doing much better. Nothing makes a baby happier than a little milk on the belly.

While in Washington, we visited some old haunts in Seattle, walked along the beach on the Olympic Penninsula, and strolled through the Hoh rain forest.

But the best part of the trip was seeing my sister Sarah get married. She had a beautiful wedding in a meadow in the woods by a lake. It was a perfect day--clear and breezy. People blew bubbles all through the ceremony, which I think should become a new wedding tradition. At the reception, there was a kickin' band. Kate danced a little with her dad.

Ah, my family is spread out coast-to-coast. If only we lived closer together.

Transitions

2006-08-06T07:29:00.000-05:00

For the last week, Katie has been sleeping soundly in her crib. I consider this a good milestone for us newbie parents.

Yesterday, we moved the bassinet down to the basement. I hated to give the bassinet up. It was very reassuring to have her sleeping right next to me in the bassinet. I could just reach over and pat her to help her go back to sleep, and I could listen to her breath all night long.

But she's reached the weight limit for the bassinet, and she's started trying to roll over. The sides of the bassinet are just not that high. Plus, she started waking up at 6:00 AM from the sounds of Randy and me getting ready for the day. Man, I like getting a shower in before she wakes up.

So we took a couple of weeks to make the transition to the crib. We started by putting the bassinet in the baby room. I was able to sleep in the baby room, too, on a twin bed that's in there. After a couple of nights, I started putting her down for naps in the crib. After that, she slept just fine in her crib all night.

As for now, I'm still sleeping on the twin bed in Katie's room. This is more for my comfort than Katie's, I'm sure. I am nervous I won't hear her from our bedroom, even though it is just across the hall.

Of course, it would help if I would hear her while sleeping in the same room! Last night, Katie was sleeping soundly in her crib when I went to sleep myself on the twin in her room at 10:30 PM. At 11:30 PM, I woke up to find Randy changing her diaper on the changing table. Katie was putting up quite a fuss! She'd been awake since about 10:45. Randy tried rocking her back to sleep and giving her a bottle of EBM, but no luck. She'd been crying and fussing the whole time, but I didn't hear a thing!

Daycare Update
Katie went to daycare during the morning on Tuesday and Thursday this week. On the plus side, she started warming up to Jackie, her teacher. She gave Jackie a big smile when she saw her on Thursday morning. For now, Katie is the only infant in the Baby Room, so Jackie was able to hold her and play with her all morning on both days.

On the down side, Katie only drank an ounce or two of milk while she was there all morning. Once I picked her up, she nursed like crazy the rest of the afternoon. Jackie worked and worked with Katie to drink from the bottle, but Katie is a girl who knows what she likes.

This week, in addition to packing some bottles to go with Katie, I'm going to send a few cubes of frozen EBM. Katie does like eating chips of the frozen milk off a spoon. This should give Jackie another way to get a few ounces down Katie.

I talked with our pediatrician about the situation on Friday. She reassured me that Katie is not going to starve, she'll just make up the calories at other times of the day. According to the ped, Katie will take to the bottle when she's ready. In the mean time, I'd feel a lot better if she'd drink more from the bottle. She'd have a lot more fun while she's at daycare if she would.

Bottle Blues

2006-07-30T20:10:00.000-05:00

Kate starts going to day care on Tuesday. We've been working with her so she can take a bottle.

So how does Kate feel about this process?

The face says it all...

Daddy Daughter Date

2006-07-23T09:13:00.000-05:00

Randy's birthday is coming up this week! Randy is quite a guy for taking on the challenge of fatherhood at this point of his life.

He's not afraid to change a diaper, no matter how poopy.

He knows just what song Katie wants him to sing.

There's this certain way he holds Katie that can calm her down better than anything else.

He calls Katie "my little girl."

He's tried valiantly to convince Katie drinking from a bottle is great fun.

And best of all, he's not afraid to take care of Katie on a night when I've got a dinner date with the girls, even though Katie is wide awake and determined not to go to bed yet.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Parental Control

2006-07-17T14:10:00.000-05:00

I've become quite familiar with late-night TV. Nursing in front of the TV in the wee hours is my preferred way of getting Katie back to sleep at night. I've tried nursing propped up in bed, nursing lying down, nursing in the rocking chair, and I just can't get comfortable in any of these positions. What's more, I feel like I handle Kate the safest when I get up and walk across the house to the TV. I wake up a bit, so I'm less likely to doze off and lose track of the baby.

Let me tell you, there are not a lot of late-night TV offerings. Unless you like infomercials, the pickings are slim after 4:00 AM.

I've discovered that PBS replays documentaries during the night. This can be great, unless the documentary moves at a glacial pace. There is nothing like waking up twice in one night to return to the exact same place in the exact same documentary about the dowdy, dull, underappreciated scientist.

I've nursed through a whole slew of late-night cooking shows. Letterman and Conan repeat after midnight. And music videos play most of the night on VH1 and MTV. I can now report that since Katie was born 15 weeks ago, the same 10 videos have been playing over and over again on these two channels.

On the weekends, MTV replaces the pre-dawn video roundup with their strange reality shows. I've taken a liking to these shows. There's the one where college kids pick a date based on the stuff they find in the date's bedroom. There's "Next," the tacky show where contestants are paid a dollar for every minute they "last" with a prospective date. Plus there's my guilty pleasure--"Pimp My Ride"--the show where a crappy car is turned into a gleaming cruise mobile.

One show has captured my complete fascination. It's called Parental Control. MTV describes the show this way: "Thanks to MTV's new Parental Control, Mom and Dad finally have a chance to do something about that poor excuse for a loser their son or daughter calls their 'better half.'"

In a typical episode, the parents explain why they hate their daughter's boyfriend. During this voice-over, the boyfriend peers into the camera with a leering smirk. Then the parents each select someone new to go on a date with their daughter. They usually pick upstanding college students with career goals and tidy hair. The new prospects each take the daughter on a short date, and the parents and the old boyfriend watch what happens on TV at the parents' house.

This is the fascinating part. As they watch the daughter and new date make shy small talk, the parents say things like, "See how thoughtful he is? That's the way you impress a girl." Meanwhile, the boyfriend is barely holding back his contempt for the parents. If the date gives the daughter a flower or takes her to a nice restaurant, the old boyfriend says stuff like, "what an idiot," meanwhile he looks like he'd like to pound the new guy's face into concrete.

When the girl comes back to her house, she has to choose who she wants to keep dating in the future. The boyfriend and two prospective beaus all stand in the living room, and with all the suspense that a reality show can muster, the girl reveals her choice.

The crazy thing is that she usually she selects one of the new dates. The old boyfriend leaves the house hurling expletives, pushing over camera equipment, and taking swings at whoever gets in his way. The parents look relieved, and the girl and the new guy give each other goofy grins. It seems once the girl is given a chance to compare her lousy boyfriend with a couple of other prospects, she gets wise and selects a better choice. This is one of the healthiest reality TV shows I've ever seen.

Reality TV is moving into the most personal corners of every-day life. And in some ways every day life is becoming a reality TV show. I know people who have produced elaborate videos of their own wedding or child's birth, trying to imitate popular reality shows. Businesses in our community have sponsored decorating challenges and landscaping competitions, hoping to cash in on the home improvement reality TV craze. With the dominance of reality TV in our culture, is it possible that "Parental Control" could become a dating tradition for all young people?

Here is a show that actually seems to be doing a good thing for the participants (at least it is for the parents and daughter). The parents get to intervene in a problem relationship, and the daughter gets to think objectively about how her boyfriend is treating her. This seems like a good idea for lots of teen relationship. We could make this a normal part of the teen experience. On your 17th birthday, your parents select two dates for you, and you go on the dates with an open mind and open eyes.

I'm all for it. Let's hope this tradition has taken hold by the time Katie turns 17.

There's Something About Katie

2006-07-09T12:51:00.000-05:00

Here's a picture of Katie helping to fold the laundry. This is our favorite game. I pile up some small things on Katie's belly, and she kicks up her feet in delight. She likes the pretty colors, and she coos at all the different textures. Rough, smooth, soft. Such a fascinating game.

Things Katie can do at 14 weeks:

Katie enjoys sitting on my lap and rocking in the rocking chair. We gaze out the window at the trees. Or we watch TV (despite my best intentions, the TV habit is starting early).
Katie likes going on a walk in her stroller...most days.
Kate loves to watch a ceiling fan go round. Hours of fun here!
Katie seems fascinated with the pictures in her board books. She gazes and gasps at the pictures. I wonder what she is seeing. Color? Shapes? Lines?
Katie helps me do yoga. I pop in my maternity yoga DVD (easy yoga is all I am up for these days), and "taylor sit" in front of Katie on a blanket. I tickle her tummy while stretching this way and that.

Other developmental notes:

Until just the last day or so, Katie has had dark-blue newborn eyes. Yesterday I noticed a ring of light blue around the iris in her eye. Her Grandpa Rubsam has the lightest blue eyes. I wonder if she'll have light blue eyes, too?
Tummy time is no fun for this baby. We do a little every day, but it's torture. I understand, kid. I feel the same way about jogging.
Just when I thought her hair was as thin as possible, Katie continues to lose hair. There are spots on her head that are entirely hair free. Poor kid, she's approaching utter baldness.

So Big

2006-07-09T12:41:00.000-05:00

Kate has already grown out of her smallest onesies and sleepers. I am excited about all the new things she can do, now that she is three months old. She's started to grasp at things, and she interacts with her toys a bit these days. I can't wait until she reaches more developmental milestones. What a day it will be when she can roll over on her own!

Ah, but I'm already a little nostalgic for the time when Katie was at her smallest. I know in my heart this was actually a rather stressful time. I think I operated in a mild panic through Katie's first whole month here on Planet Earth.

We've definately gotten to know each other a little better in the past three months. But there is something about my memories of Kate as a tiny baby. Those wrinkly newborn fingers and toes are special, no doubt about it. I've been trying to write this entry without using the word "precious". But it can't be helped. The first days of a baby's life are simply precious.

Snuggles

2006-07-02T09:00:00.000-05:00

The great thing about the name of Catherine is the number of nicknames it can generate. We call our Catherine lots of nicknames, including:

Katie (yes, with a K)
Kate
Kat
Kitty
Kath
(But never, ever Kathy)

We've got lots of terms of endearment for the little one, too. Here are my favorites:

Sunshine
Sweet Pea
Sugar
Snuggle Bunny

And when Kate's got the fussy thing going down, we have a few special nicknames just reserved for the colicy times.

Mrs. Crankypants
Katie McFuss
The FussMeister
Crankinator

What a Cutie!

2006-05-18T08:27:00.000-05:00

Katie at six weeks old.

Big Entrance

2006-05-17T06:42:00.000-05:00

Here she is, ladies and gentlemen, the new addition to our family.

Catherine Rosemary Rubsam joined us on Tuesday, April 4, at 8:45 AM. We call our little girl Katie, with a "K" (hey, it's just a nickname).

Weight: 7 pounds, five ounces

Length: 17 inches

Parents: delighted

Yowsers!

2006-03-12T16:11:00.000-06:00

Only five weeks until my due date. This pregnancy thing seems to have a split personality. I either feel like time is passing too quickly and that I'll never be prepared for the little one in time. Or, I feel like time is dragging and that I will be living with these aches and pains for an eternity.

A couple of weeks ago, I went through this whole phase were I began to rethink my entire birth plan. I've been seeing a midwife and planning to deliver at a local hospital with a reputable birth center. Suddenly, I felt like I had not researched my options as thoroughly as I should have. I called a couple of other care providers. I contacted another area hospital known for it's low c-section rates. I basically got myself worked up. This whole childbirth thing can be a little daunting. Anyhoo, I finally dragged Randy with me to my next appointment with my midwife, and got her to spend a little more time with me so I could get answers to the million questions I'd needed to ask. Now I'm feeling a lot more relaxed and confident about the whole undertaking.

Above is a charming photo from the baby shower my sister in law threw for me. I can't decide if my face is getting more swollen by the day, or if I'm just putting on a little baby fat!

My favorite gift from the baby shower was a small book called Always Kiss Me Good Night: Instructions on Raising the Perfect Parent by 147 Kids Who Know. The book is made up of little handwritten messages from a bunch of 8-10 year old kids. Each kid gives parents some advice, complete with curvy handwriting, creative spelling, and little doodles. Here's one message that is sweet: "Think wehn yow were a kid and not yell so much--Joe." Here's another touching one: "Don't go to work on weekends--Elizabeth." This is a great book for a newbie parent like me. I may have to continue the tradition and give a copy to a new parent at the next baby shower I attend.

Runway Roadkill

2006-02-18T10:58:00.000-06:00

I'll admit it. I've become a fan of a reality TV show. The show that's currently mesmerized me is Project Runway. It's the show where young fashion designers compete to have their line of clothing displayed at "Fashion Week" in New York.

What is it about this show that draws me? First off, I can't recall another TV show that features sewing machines. And not just any sewing machines, but a room full of clunky machines with stressed-out designers hunched over them. What's more, the show is all about pattern design, pin cushions, and dressmaker dummies. There's just something riveting about watching young people cut out a pattern. On the show, big drama happens when one of the machines breaks a needle. Last week, a sleeve popped off a model on the runway. Oh the tragedy!

The show also documents the creative process. The designers are given a crazy challenge, they go buy fabric, and have a ridiculous time limit to pull off a masterpiece. Along the way, the designers question their ideas: "My design is crap!" They tear things up and start over again. They completely change the design from the original sketches to the final product. Sometimes, the ideas the designers come up with at the beginning of the show are really interesting. Then, seeing the final product strutting down the runway is disappointing. Ideas that sound predictable in the sketching phase can be stunning in the final stages.

There is also this interesting dynamic between the men and women on the show. The men tend to be very confident and boastful: "I'm the strongest designer here" macho talk. A couple of shows ago, the designers had to make clothing out of plants (ha!). Andrea went on and on about how this challenge was perfectly suited to him because he worked for a florist at some point in his career. His moss dress lost the challenge. Last week, Nick designed a guy's suit. He bragged that "menswear is what I do." The suit he designed puckered like a prune, and he got booted off the show.

Meanwhile, the women designers tend to doubt themselves. Not all of the women designers have shown this trait, but it is an interesting pattern to watch overall. The women question their fabric choices. They ask for input. They fuss over their dress dummies, saying "I'm just not sure about this..." Sometimes, after tears and stress, their designs turn out fabulous.

The guys of course tend to assume this creative style is a sign of weakness. Last week, Santino criticized Kara for asking for input about her fabric choices. "She so pathetic." Of course, her design rocked and his bodysuit was a sad, sad piece of work.

Let me just add here that I think the judges have conspired to keep crazy Santino on the show way, way too long. His ice skating dress that was supposed to look like a "phoenix rising out of the flames" was a disaster. He should have been booted off the show way back then. I think the only reason he made it to the "final four" was because he's such an outspoken jerk that it makes for fascinating TV watching. If he'd lost like he should have with the ice skating dress, the one that shed feathers all the way down the runway, all the show would have been left would be polite young people who collaborated and worked well together. Can't have that in a reality TV show!

Just three designers remain. The tension mounts! Who will win the top prize? And what crazy TV show will steal my brain next?

Another Pregnant Photo

2006-01-22T16:04:00.000-06:00

At some point in the last week, I officially crossed the line into the third trimester of my pregnancy. So far, I'm feeling great. I've been doing yoga, eating healthy (mostly), and getting lots of rest, so I think things are going well.

There's nothing like being woken up by a very active baby at 5:00 AM in the morning to bring home the reality of this pregnancy. This morning, I believe I felt hiccups for the first time. Pre-dawn tap-dancing sessions have become a pattern over the last month or so, and I think we're destined to have an early riser in the family.

In garden news, our weather has been so mild the last couple of weeks, I had planned to get outside to do some very-late clean up in the yard this weekend. Ah, I should have taken advantage of the sunny, warm days while they lasted. We got a couple of inches of snow on Friday, and it will probably be around for a few more days. If the weather cooperates, I'm itching to get outside to do some clean up chores while I'm feeling energetic and can still bend over. I'd also like to do a little winter sowing in some of the flower beds. That way, I can greet our April baby with some spring color in the garden.

Baby Knits

2006-01-16T15:08:00.000-06:00

My first finished project for the baby. It's another Wonderful Wallaby sweater, of course. I've knitted four of these sweaters now, three just this past year. After knitting two for my sisters' little ones, I had to make one for mine.

It is way too big for a newborn. I made the smallest size, and it may fit by next winter. Hopefully my kid will be pleasantly plump. I love pudgy babies!

We haven't decided on a name for the baby yet, but once we've picked something, I'd like to duplicate stitch the name onto the pocket. All this baby stuff is just too fun!

Next baby knitting project? Baby socks! I've got lots of leftover sock yarn, so I should be able to make a couple of pairs. Once those are finished, I've got to come up with a plan for a baby blanket. Can't make up my mind on what kind of baby blanket would be best. Should I got for a simple, sturdy blanket that could easily travel to the park or get tumbled in the back of the car with the stroller, diaper bag, and other durables? Or should I go for something delicate and lacy?

I've got three months until the big date, so I definately need to get knitting.

Going, going, gone...

2006-01-08T17:09:00.000-06:00

Well drat! I just lost a post I'd written about gardening, pregnancy, and baby books. It was lovely, really.

Anyhoo, here's a link to an article I thought was fun. That's about all I can conjure up from the original post. Enjoy!

Book Report

2006-01-01T15:21:00.000-06:00

For the past few months, all I can seem to read are books like What to Expect When You're Expecting and Birthing from Within. I'll spare you reviews of these childbirth classics.

Over the holidays, I did finish reading one book not specifically about having a baby. Truth be told, I learned about the book from one of those childbirth web pages. But this is a book that is about more than "what to expect..." The book is A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812. It's a fascinating look at life in the US colonies after the Revolutionary War, plus it gives all kinds of insights into social medicine and traditional midwife practices.

Martha Ballard delivered over 800 babies in her Maine community. She began keeping a journal of her practice after she'd delivered more than 100 babies. Her journal entries are short and to the point. She recounts the names and dates of a delivery, with a few swift notes about the outcome, plus what she was paid for her services. Along the way, she also keeps records of the weather, progress in her garden, and happenings around the house.

It takes a historian to sift through all the cryptic notes left in Martha's diary to piece together a more complete picture of midwife practices on the Maine frontier. Laura Thatcher Ulrich distills the journal entries to paint a larger picture of this person and her times. She begins each chapter with a month of journal entries from Martha's diary, then Ulrich builds on the themes from the month's journal to shed light on the aspects of midwifery practice and social conditions. By looking at the diary in overview, Ulrich is able to calculate how Martha's maternal mortality and stillbirth rates compared to her contemporaries. Notably, Martha's success rate was excellent, much higher than many hospitals during her day.

The book also sheds light on social changes during this period. Martha is practicing during a time when doctors begin taking over the childbirthing function, and Martha has complicated relationships with a couple of the local physicians. The book also points out the large number of "shot-gun weddings" and out-of-wedlock births that took place during this time. And like all working women, Martha struggles to work outside the home and balance the needs of her family. In her later years, Martha confides more to her journal about her frustrations about not getting any help around the house. As she notes, a woman's work is never done...

This is a fascinating read. I've read The Age of Homespun by the same historian, and I must say I enjoyed this book much more. The writing is lively--not too academic--and Martha's interesting life story carries the book along.

Shawl Show-Off

2005-12-28T13:15:00.000-06:00

Yes, we have been knitting here at PrairieTide, though a little more slowly than usual. I read somewhere that pregnancy can increase wrist pain, and that seems to be my experience.

Anyhoo, this is a Charlotte's Web Shawl, knit with Koigu yarn. I picked the yarn out over the internet, with mixed results. I love the greens along the bottom edge of the shawl, and the dark blues along the top of the shawl are pleasing, but I am less crazy about the sea-foam green color in the middle of the shawl. See how the stripes are much more noticeable in the middle? If this sea-foam color were more variegated, the stripes would not show up so much. Instead, the colors would "blend" more. Ah, live and learn.

Otherwise, I'm glad this is finished. This is my first "real" lace project, and overall I managed to avoid lace-knitting disaster. Lace stitches can unravel in mind-boggling ways. I did not add the fringe to the bottom of the shawl because I am desperate to move onto other projects, and frankly I've seen enough of this shawl for a while...

The shawl is a gift for my sister Sarah. A while back, I promised to knit her a shawl for her upcoming wedding. Now that the shawl is finished, I don't think it is really "wedding material." To me, it looks more like a Sunday-concert-in-the-park shawl. It's a sun-dress shawl, or a jeans-and-t-shirt shawl. It has a bit of a "hippy chic" flavor to it, which I think Sarah will like. So Sarah, feel free to wear it at the wedding reception, or not!

In the meantime, I have a bunch of baby knitting I want to get going. I know this sounds superstitious, but for a long time I felt I shouldn't "jinx" things by starting to knit baby stuff too soon. Now that I've reached the six-month mark, the due date deadline is looming in my mind. It's time to get cracking!

I don't think I'll be knitting "heirloom" type projects for the kid. I'm thinking practical, wearable stuff. I've started a small Wallaby sweater in denim-colored yarn, and we'll see what else I can fit into the schedule during the next couple of months.

Grand Canyon Redux

2005-12-28T12:39:00.000-06:00

For the past four weeks or so, I've been meaning to post an entry about the architecture at the Grand Canyon. Well, carpe diem! Today's the day.

Right outside our lodge was a small, stone building called The Lookout. The stone in the building perfectly matched the wall of the canyon. It seemed a natural extension of the canyon wall, and it looked hundreds of years old. Come to find out, the building is about 1935, and it was originally designed to look like a ruin. The slanted roof and the windows were added later. What's more, the building was designed by Mary Colter, an enterprising architect practicing in a time when not a lot of women were in this field.

Mary designed several buildings for the Santa Fe Co, the company that originally brought tourists to the canyon. The buildings were designed to intrigue tourists, and most are a kind of gift shop. Because Mary had a great sense of style, the buildings don't look like your typical tourist trap.

This building is The Watchtower. It was designed to look like a Navaho kiva for astrological observations. It is several stories high, and visitors can climb to the lookout windows in the top. The view of the canyon from the top is spectacular, and the stone walls of the building look like they've been repaired repeatedly over the centuries. There are little niches in the base for storing firewood. It's a beautiful building.

Hopi House was the first house Mary designed for the Grand Canyon. It was built in 1905, and it is 100 years old this year. When it was built, several Hopi families lived and made crafts in the upper stories. The bottom floor was a store for fine native crafts, and it still is today.

The building has very low doorways, and most people have to duck when walking inside (but not me!). Some of the rooms have a clay stove in the corner, and there are little niches built into the walls to display merchandise.

Mary designed several other buildings in the Grand Canyon, including the Bright Angle Lodge were we stayed (with it's historic mattresses and plumbing!). She designed a building that looks like a hermit's shack, and she built Phantom Lodge, a destination for many hikers at the bottom of the canyon.

Mary lived most of her adult life with her ailing sister, and she never married. She was a perfectionist, pestering the artisans that worked on her buildings to get things "just right." The details in her buildings are what make them so interesting. In the hermit's shack, there is this odd stone over the center of the fireplace. It looks kind of ghostly, like a face frozen in stone. She is said to have picked this stone out herself from the quarry.

Catch Up

2005-12-28T12:07:00.000-06:00

It's not too late to show you my Thanksgiving photos, is it? Over Thanksgiving, Randy and I spent two days at the Grand Canyon. What can I say, it was truly grand! We stayed at the bargain historic hotel right on the South Rim of the canyon. Each morning we were there, we got up early and walked along the rim trail, taking in the view.

While we were there, we hiked quite a ways along the trail. I think about five miles or so. We stuck to the trail along the top of the canyon. No venturing down the steep trails that wind into the depths of the canyon for the pregnant lady! At one look out point, we could see one of the trails wind down the side of the canyon, making a couple dozen switchbacks along the way. It is a loooong hike down there! We watched a group of teens in matching military fatigues hike down in formation. Quite an impressive sight.

Here, Randy and I are standing on the rim of the canyon. This is as close to the edge as I got the entire time we were there. Randy ventured out a little closer a few times, which always gave me heart palpitations! It is quite a drop off over that edge!

Ah, in that picture, I could still wear Randy's pants. Those were the days... Yesterday, we did a short hike at Forest Park. I wore my maternity pants, which are supposed to be kept "nice" for work. Of course, they got a little muddy along the trail...

And here we have a lovely sunset picture Randy took after a long day of hiking. Sunset was at about 5:00 PM.

After taking this picture, we had a quick dinner, and then returned to our little hotel room. I was in pajamas by 6:30 PM, and curled up with a book by 7:00 PM. Half an hour later, I was fast asleep.

Of course, I woke up at about 2:00 PM, wide awake! On this trip, I really started feeling the baby kick.

After exploring the Grand Canyon for two days, we headed up to my parents' house for a few days of family fun. Ah, Mom and Dad's house during the holidays. I love to spend the holidays with my folks. They really make these days special. Mom cooked a fabulous meal, and Erin was a good sport about hanging out with her big sister!

Erin is my kid sister, and she is 17. We figured out while I was visiting that she is exactly half my age (do the math).

After dinner, we played a killer game of Clue, followed by a cut-throat game of Scattegories. Did Dad win both games? Maybe so...

Belly Check

2005-11-13T10:16:00.000-06:00

Baby is at 18 weeks today. This week, we're having an ultrasound, and I'm hopeful we'll be able to tell if we're having a boy or girl. This is a fun point in my pregnancy. I feel great, and everywhere I go people tell me they're delighted I'm having a baby. Lots of hugs, lots of advice. One person already surprised me by patting my belly.

Note the scattered leaves all over the backyard. No gardening progress has been made since my last post. Today, I did discover a few of my pea plants are still thriving. I picked two small pea pods, and they tasted just like spring. A nice treat here in November.

See that stylin' scarf I'm sporting in the photo? That's my latest hand-knit project. Knitting has slowed down lately. I'm feeling more wrist pain these days. My midwife says that increased wrist pain in common during pregnancy. So my knitting is reduced to a snails pace. I dig the scarf, I must say. I made it by casting on the length of the scarf (about 150 stitches) onto my longest circular knitting needles. I knit the entire scarf in garter stitch, switching between black yarn and a variegated yarn at random. This is an easy way to make vertical stripes on a scarf--too easy.

Of course, I've got a whole pile of baby patterns I want to start knitting, but we'll see how much I'm able to get done during the next five months.

Puttering 'Round

2005-10-30T17:17:00.000-06:00

I almost forgot how great it feels to work outside in the garden. This weekend, I gave the garden a good cleanup. Look at those carrots! The purple ones are Cosmic Carrots. They are bright purple inside, but taste like regular 'ol carrots. This is definitely the best batch of carrots for the year. Tonight I'm going to serve 'em up with a little butter. Mmmm.

We also got the last of the green peppers and some tiny onion bulbs. This marks the end of the season for my first veggie garden, and I think the whole experiment worked out well, morning sickness and all.

More clean-up tasks await. There must be a vole wrecking havoc along the back boarder. Little holes have popped up all through the bed, and the plants don't look too happy. I'm not sure how I will catch the critter.

And the drought still lingers. We've gotten some rain this fall, but not as much as I'd like to see. I need to continue watering so my shrubs and perennials will make it through the winter.

There's leaves to be raked, more weeding to be done, and beds to be tidied up. Plus the compost pile needs a good turning. I'll probably need some help with this particular chore. Oh Randy!

My New Excuse

2005-10-23T12:11:00.000-05:00

What's my big excuse for not blogging lately? I'm pregnant. Does that count as a good excuse? I'm about 15 weeks along, and now that the nausea's pretty well behind me, the exhaustion has really set in. Yawn.

We've been trying to get pregnant for a while here at PrairieTide, but it was still a surprise when it happened! In fact, at my first doctor's appointment, I thought I was about six week along. After getting an early ultrasound, I discovered I was a whole month further along than what I'd calculated. This means I was pregnant for about two months without even realizing it.

So back in August when I was sick and miserable, what was I thinking was going on? Well, it was a busy time, what with the new semester starting. I was helping a lot with New Student Orientaion at the college, plus I was gearing up for my debute teaching English 110. I thought the nausea and allover ickiness was due to stress and stage fright. In fact, I even stopped by the nurse's office at my school to get my blood pressure tested. Before it occured to me I was pregnant, I figured my miserable state was due to something more predictable, like a heart attach or stroke. Of course!

With the misery in full swing, I became a very reluctant gardener. All summer long I looked forward to fresh summer tomatoes. In late July and early August, I ate a ton of tomatoes. Then just when my plants hit their productive peak, the morning sickness really set in. I couldn't bear the very idea of tomatoes. Even the smell of the tomatoe plants made me gag. Since this date, the tomatoe plants have been woefully neglected.

The rest of our square foot garden has been chugging along, even with less-than-perfect care. We've had a great batch of pole beans. They came in really late this year, because I had a false start with the beans and had to replant back in July. I'd heard that pole beans were better than bush beans, but the bush beans were pretty terrific, so it was hard for me to imagine something better. Wow, was I surprised when the pole beans turned out to be absolutely dreamy. Pole beans have a wonderful melt-in-the-mouth, almost buttery texture. We're still getting a few each week here in October.

Right now, the garden needs some serious weeding. I need to turn over the mulch pile and put the strawberry bed to sleep for the year. Instead, all I feel like doing is staring out the window at the changing fall leaves. Sigh. I think it's nap time again.

More Wallaby

2005-10-02T10:17:00.000-05:00

One more Wallaby sweater to add to the family gallery. This one was made by my sister Mary, and it's a snappy little number, knit in vibrant purple WoodEase.

The Wallaby is being modeled by Lindsey, who is showing off the special hood feature like a pro runway model. Lindsey is almost one year old, and she looks just adorable in her big girl sweater.

Mary included one row of purl stitches around the yoke, adding a distinctive touch to this Wallaby. This is Mary's first hand knit sweater, and I bet it is not her last. Go Mary!

Chicago Botanical Gardens

2005-09-19T19:30:00.000-05:00

In gardening news, we spent a day recently at the Chicago Botanical Gardens. It's one of those places we've been meaning to visit for some time, and I'm glad we took a day to head to the big city to check it out.

Everywhere we went in the garden, brides and grooms were posing for pictures. It must be the last of the summer wedding rush.

My favorite part of the Chicago Botanical Gardens was the vegetable and fruit garden. Here is an archway constructed from apple trees, pruned to grow straight up in a column and then to arch over the walkway. Each tree was laden with red and yellow fruit.

The grape arbor drew me on and on. It was delightfully cool under the arbor, and there was a smell of summer wine in the air. Towards the end of the arbor, the grape vines were replaced with kiwi vines. I've heard hardy kiwis can grow vigorously, even with our cold winters. The trick is getting fruit to form. These vines were lush and green, but I didn't see any fuzzy little fruits.

The veggie beds were laid out as artfully as a flower garden. The plants were full of color and texture. The beds were broad, with spacious rows and surprising combinations. It was dramatic, exotic, and homey, all at once. I could have spent all day exploring the plantings. There was an Italian garden bed, with eggplant and tomatoes. An Asian garden bed with bok choy and cabbage. Herbs and veggies were interplanted in charming combinations throughout the garden. Maybe I can imitate the beauty of this garden on a smaller scale in my own botanical garden.

Wallaby Woo!

2005-09-11T15:57:00.000-05:00

My summer vacation knitting projects are finally done. And I thought I could finish both projects during the two weeks I was in Oregon. Silly me!

Both sweaters are from the Wonderful Wallaby pattern. Love the pattern! I made both sweaters the same Size 4, but one turned out a little larger than the other. I think this is because of the kind of yarn I used. The blue sweater is knit from Encore "colorspun" yarn. It knits up with subtle stripes. The yarn is 25% wool and 75% acrylic, and it is not a bad yarn to work with at all.

The multi-color sweater is knit with a whole bunch of leftovers. I like the varigated pocket and collar. Of course, I ran out of the purple yarn I used on the body of the sweater, so I had to buy a little more purple to finish it off.

My knitting sister Wendy finished her Wallaby a couple of weeks ago. You can see a picture of her kids modeling it on her blog. Her sweater if fabulous!

I'm Ready for My Close-Up

2005-08-27T18:00:00.000-05:00

Fall semester started this week at my college. This semester, I'm teaching my first English 110 class, which has made the past few weeks an especially busy time. Our first session was Wednesday night, and I think the students survived unscathed.

I'm teaching a distance learning class. This means there are students in the classroom with me, in addition to an elaborate television and video-camera configuration. Microphones dangle from the ceiling around the room. There are a total of six TV's and three video cameras mounted to the walls. I can control the entire set up from a small console at the front of the room. What's more, our discussion is broadcast "live" to three other locations, where a small number of additional students participate over the TV.

Needless to say, all this technology makes teaching the class extra... exciting. Truth be told, if anyone had mentioned the phrase "distance learning" when I signed up to teach this class, I may have passed on the opportunity. Thank goodness I've had some training on how to use all the equipment. I attended a workshop a couple of weeks ago where an experienced professor demonstrated how operate the camera controls. He was so enthusiastic about distance learning, he made it seem doable. My first night in front of the camera, I tried to remember his relaxed delivery. I didn't carried off the night with as polished as the pros, but then again there weren't any major gaffes, either.

Later in the week, I called the students from the distant sites. I really had no idea how the class worked for them. I can see the distant sites on a split screen TV, but I can barely make out facial features on the screen. What body language I could see practically shouted "this is boring!" Anyhoo, after talking to the students, they all said it's a very different kind of classroom than they were used to, but that they were willing to stick it out. For more of the students I spoke to, the convenience of taking a class close to home outweighs the awkward TV get up. I think the biggest challenge for this class will be to figure out how to keep the students at the distant sites involved in the night's discussion.

Well, now that my television debut is over, the pressure is off. Now, I can relax about being on "live TV" and start to focus on my lesson plan for next week. Which reminds me, I should read through that chapter one more time. And showing a video clip from The Lord of the Rings could be fun. And where is my collection of writing exercises?

Mobile Me

2005-08-07T10:35:00.000-05:00

With the summer winding down, I made a long list of things to get done before the fall semester starts up. ...give the house a top-to-bottom cleaning, stock up on quick-to-fix meals, catch up on household finances, reorganize the home office... At the top of the list was to buy a MP3 player.

Well, I can check that item off the list. Originally, I planned to buy an iPod Shuffle. Then I heard about a deal through Audible.com where I could sign up for a monthly subscription and receive an MP3 player for free. I figured since I planned to sign up for Audible.com anyway, I might as well give the free player a try.

The player is not a name brand. It's a Nomad MuVo, which I think we can all agree is a really stupid name. But it is a cute little thing. It fits in the palm of my hand, and easily slips into a pocket. My first download was Anna Karenina. Always meant to get around to reading that one. So far, I'd discovered the MP3 player makes ironing less annoying. And it has already inspired more exercise walks in one weekend than I usually eke out of an entire week. I foresee the MP3 player accompanying me on expeditions in weeding, on the road when I need to travel for work, and to the mall when I finally must do some shopping.

(What, I don't like shopping? Yes, it is true. I consider shopping an odious chore, roughly equivalent to scrubbing out the build up of grime in the drain at the bottom of the sink.)

So what's next with the MP3 player? For now, I foresee sticking to some turn-of-the-last-century books for a while. I'd like to catch up a little in this area. I've never read a lot of Dickens, and I like the idea of listening to some H.G. Wells and Robert Lewis Stevenson, just for fun. We'll see where the Nomad takes me.

2005-07-29T21:45:00.000-05:00

I just found my dream house.

Back on the Home Front

2005-07-26T18:42:00.000-05:00

Thanks to my father-in-law, Victor, my garden survived my two-week absence. He had to do a lot of watering while we were gone, thanks to the drought-like conditions. I'm hoping to return the favor when he goes on vacation this August.

Jane from Horticultural mentioned that her garden looked "wild" when she returned from vacation. I noticed the same crazy, overgrown weeds in my garden, too. Before I left, I gave all the garden beds a really thorough weeding. Man, that didn't stop a lot of weeds from exploding into giant-sized beasts while we were away. I guess that little bit of weeding I do most days when I'm puttering around the garden does keep the worst of it down.

Some of the flowers went a little wild while we were gone, too. These petunias are over three feet tall. They are some "leftover" petunias that I threw into a bed in the back yard after I'd filled up the beds in the front. These leftovers have totally taken over with exuberant purple and pink blooms.

The veggie garden is chugging along. When we came back, all the lettuce plants had turned into these ragged, towering monsters. They'd obviously gone to seed. I've pulled them out, and this week I plan to start some new lettuce seedlings under lights inside.

While we are now out of salad greens, we have plenty of other veggies to enjoy. The Sun Gold cherry tomatoes just started this week. The little yellow fruit grown in grape-like clusters. And they do taste like bundles of sunshine. The other tomatoes are getting close to having ripe fruit, so I'm hoping to have lots of tomatoes from here into Autumn.

The Little Leaf cucumbers have also started. This is a dwarf vine that produces small cucumbers, the perfect size for my square-foot garden. I worried that the cucumbers might only work for pickling, not for eating fresh. When I picked the first few cucumbers, I was really worried, because the little guys are covered with spines. But once they're peeled, they are very tasty and juicy. We're also have a few bush beans, beets, and carrots left. I can't seem to get my carrots to germinate as well as I'd like. I could eat carrots every day, but my garden hasn't kept up in the carrot department.

Oh, and did I mention broccoli? I started broccoli plants inside back in early March, and two plants made it outside. They quickly became huge, beautiful specimens. We harvested one head before vacation and the second head after vacation. Delicious! I've left the plants in place, and I'm hoping side sprouts will form so we can have second helpings of broccoli.

Don't Forget the Knitting

2005-07-24T10:43:00.000-05:00

There's one more vacation item I've forgotten to cover--the knitting! While on vacation, I went to not one but TWO family reunions. That is a total of seven days of camping. I haven't camped that much since my college days. So somebody tell me, when did the ground get so hard? Anyhoo, we held a family Knit-Along that spanned both reunions.

Most of my sisters and my mom joined the knitting fun. We're a large family, so there was a lot of knitting going on. We all knit a kid-sized version of the "Wonderful Wallaby" sweater. Wow, my family can knit! By the end of the reunion, we'd all made a lot of progress on our sweaters.

Knitting makes for a great family activity. We could sit, talk, and watch everyones' kids run around like wild animals, all while knitting up a storm. The Wonderful Wallaby pattern is perfect for this kind of activity because the pattern includes a lot of detailed instruction. For a knitting pattern, it's not too heavy on the abreviations, and it gives options for tackling different parts of the sweater. The sweater also includes all the knitting basics--decreases, increases, ribbing, garter stitch, knitting in the round. This makes it a good "first time" sweater for new knitters. By the time everyone finishes their sweater, they will be ready to tackle any knitting project.

I must say, the Knit-Along did a lot to stroke my knitting ego. I felt like quite the knitting expert, giving out my knitterly wisdom, as needed. Ahh, such expertise!

Unfortunately, my wallaby is not yet finished, darn it. I knit my sweater with a bunch of yarn leftovers. Purple body, pink arm, rose arm, multicolor collar. I thought I had enough to finish the thing off, but now my leftover pile is depleted! I'll be stopping by the yarn store this week to get the last bit of yarn for the sweater's hood.

Hey Prairietide Sisters--send me a picture of your finished Wallaby, and I'll post it to the blog!

NW Gardens

2005-07-23T11:01:00.000-05:00

As of today, it's been one week since we got home from the vacation, but my mind is still back in the Pacific Northwest. It's been five years since I called Seattle home, and I'd forgotten how beautiful the area is. While I lived in Seattle, I never did any gardening. For one thing, I was a renter, and for another thing I was swamped with grad school and a crazy job--all the old excuses. It wasn't until I moved to Illinois that I had a patch of earth to call my own. So, I've learned a lot more about plants and what it takes to grow them since the last time I visited Oregon and Washington.

Everywhere we went while on vacation we saw beautiful gardens. Little towns, rural homesteads, and city plots--everything seemed to be blooming and lush. For one thing, while the Pacific Northwest is behind in the amount of snowfall they've received in the last few years, they've gotten plenty of spring rain this year. So this wasn't a drought year. I think there's something more, though, that accounts for the success of plants in this area. We saw so many beautiful gardens, that there must be something about the climate and weather and rain that just makes things GROW.

While we were visiting Rosyln, WA, I made a point to snap some pictures of a few of the local gardens that really stood out. Rosyln's claim to fame is that it's Main Street was featured in the TV show Northern Exposure. It's an old coal mining town that basically fell into disrepair sometime in the 1960's when the last coal mining operation closed. Rosyln is a classic example of "preservation due to neglect." Because the town had been in decline since it's hey day in the early 1900s, no one had any money to fix anything up. So the old turn-of-the-last-century Main Street is still pretty well intact.

Nowadays, Rosyln is a tourist attraction. Thanks to the TV show, and thanks to it's convienient location right of an interstate, it's a vacation spot. There are a couple of new pricy developments going in outside of the city limits. But Main Street retains it's charm.

Just off the main steet were two gardens I loved. Color and kitch. Yes, those are plastic flowers entwined over the archway. And yes, that is a "Saw Mill and Water Wheel" feature.

I had to get a picture of this garden. In fact, I made Randy drive around the block twice so I could snap a shot. The house is pretty run down. I think this might actually qualify as a "tar-paper shack." But it has got a garden, a blooming garden right out front. If you throw a few seeds on the ground in the Northwest, green things and flowers follow.

Pacific Northwest Wildflowers

2005-07-18T19:32:00.000-05:00

This year must be a standout year for wildflowers in the Pacific Northwest. I lived in Seattle for five years in the 90's, and I did a fair bit of hiking back then, but I never saw such a show of wildflowers as we did during our two-week vacation to Washington and Oregon this summer.

These are Avalanche Lilies (Erythronium montanum) from Mt. Rainier National Park. Avalance Lilies were mostly finished when we reached the park, but there were a few to be found here and there. We found this field of lilies while hiking up to Pinacle Peak, and at the beginning of the trail we were on a north-facing slope in a shady woods, which these spring flowers probably like.

One the slopes of Rainier, the subalpine meadow at Paradise always has an amazing wildflower display in the spring. The meadow is probably the largest, and lushest, mountain meadow I've ever seen. The flower display is like an impressionist's painting. The colors are dazzling, and the variety of flowers would rival any florist's window display. The park provides a wildflower guide to visitors, and I wandered around trying to find matches. I believe this one is Pink Mountain Heather (Phyllodoce empetriformis). It looks like a low-growing, evergreen plant with bell-shaped flowers at the tips of the stems.

In Paradise, Magenta Paintbrush (Castilleja parviflora) and Broadleaf Lupine (Lupinus latifolius) looked ravenous. The lupine were absolutely everwhere. Some were more bluish, others a deep purple. We even saw some with a varitated blue and white bloom.

The white puffs are actually seedheads for the Pasqueflower (Anemone occidentalis). The seedheads form after the white flowers are finished. The puffs look like something out of a Dr. Seuss story.

This wildflower display is from the devistated area around Mt. St. Helens. When we visited St. Helens, it was a cloudy grey day, and we couldn't make out the volcanic dome from the viewing area. But wildflowers were growing all around, even around blown-down and charred timber where the ground is so rocky I'm amazed anything can grow at all. According to a friend, the subalpine wildflowers are used to growing in rocky ground without a lot of soil. They are among the first plants to return to a disturbed area. The roots and stems of the plant trap more soil, which makes the area hospitable to other plantlife. In this picture, we have Lupine, plus Scarlet Paintbrush (Castilleja miniata. It's more orange-red than the Magenta Paintbrush), plus a few Smooth Mountain Dandelions (Nothocalais alpestris) , which are actually charming in a meadow.

This picture was taken in the Wallawa-Whitmore Wilderness Area in a sea of Lupine. We're near the eastern border of Oregon, an area that is much drier and desert-like than the rest of Oregon. Further up this trail, we hiked to a summit outlook where a fire tower is kept by the Forest Service. The fire tower was staffed by a retired forester named Maurice (We don't have a picture of him or the fire lookout tower. Drat!) He pointed out more wildflowers growing at the top near the lookout, including Alpine Aster (Alpine alpigenus), and what looked for all the world like the prairie Brown-eyed Susans. Maurice said, "I have my own rock garden and flower garden up here."

Another summit picture, this one looking over Hells Canyon and the Snake River in Oregon. The diversity of wildflowers here blew my mind. It's very dry here, but the flowers must love it because they were everywhere. My wildflower guide from Rainier couldn't help me identify these flowers, given the change in the growing conditions, and my limited wildflower knowledge didn't help me out either. I recognized Asters, Lupine, and Paintbrush, of course. But there were many new and colorful flowers unique to this place.

Walking along a train and finding wildflowers ia magical. On one hike in the Grove of the Patriarchs at Rainier National Park, we came upon clusters of tiny white flowers that looked for all the world like little shooting stars. On another hike in Snoqualamie Pass in Washington, I think we saw wild foxgloves and tiger lilies. Somehow, we timed our vacation during a blockbuster wildflower year. I'm hoping for a repeat performance in the not-too-distant future.

2005-07-17T13:49:00.000-05:00

Home Again

Yesterday we flew home from the Pacific Northwest. At the airport before we left, I purchased a copy of the latest Harry Potter book first thing after we made it through the security clearance. Thanks to long flights, a longer layover in Chicago, and a few other delays along the way, I was able to finish the whole book in one day. It's a fun read, though I need to think through the conclusion a little more. My first impressions are that the current concern about security and terrorism have influenced the book in an interesting way. I also see a lot of Star Wars in the mix. I may have to give the book a second go-through.

The vacation was amazing! More photos and reports on Oregon wildflowers, gardens, and knitting to follow. For now, I need to get back to one huge pile of very smelly laundry.

Destination: Seattle

2005-07-03T15:36:00.000-05:00

Right now, I am blogging from the new Seattle Public Library. Back in the 90's, I worked here for almost five years. It was my first "real job" after college. Back then, the library operated from a dated library from the 1950s that was a little run down and way to small. The big focus of the whole institution during my time at the library was getting a new library built.

And here I am, sitting in the new SPL building. It's amazing. Designed by Rem Koolhaas, it is all angles and metal. When we arrived at the 4th Avenue entrance at 1:00 PM, we had to wait a few minutes before the building opened for the day. A large crowd was assembled, and I had a chance to get a look at the angles of the building up close. From the outside, the building looks like a stack of playschool blocks. The lines and angle head off in unexpected directions. But from the street level, it looked surprisingly familiar. It has a sort of ironic "midcentury modern" look about it. In fact, the metal and glass vertical lines around the entrance looked very much how I remember the old 4th Avenue entrance to look. From the ground view, the entrance gave me a sort of "deja vu all over again" feeling.

The surfaces of the building are fascinating. There are metal floors, wood floors, bamboo floors. The lines are very basic. Plastic and metal shelving. Open beams in the ceiling, grid-like railings and screens. We walked up the "spiral," the library's book collection is stored in a central part of the building that spirals up several floors. At the top, a dramatic reading room is poised under a slanted glass ceiling. The chairs and sofas have a 1950's flair--only they are made from foam. From a distance, it looks like the furniture is made of concrete, but when you sit on one, it is actually comfy.

The building is punctuated by a bright yellow and lime escalator. The workings of the elevators are encased in glass, so you can watch the moving boxes gracefully come and go. At the very top public floor, you can stand on a narrow balcony and look down at least five floors to the "mixing room" below. When I peaked over the edge, I gripped the railing to guard against a wave of vertigo.

Right now, I'm blogging in a huge computer lab. There have got to be over 100 computers in here. And the place is packed--on a Sunday. The computers and trim and black. The computer tables are sleek and black. The room is dimly lit, and overhead the black foam insulation and ceiling rafters are open to view. It's like walking into a set from the Matrix.

Seattle has all sorts of good memories for me. Living here, I got myself together and got through a divorce. I found a good job at a library. I finished graduate school. I married a nice guy. Coming back to visit the library is like peaking in the windows of the old family home. It's beautiful and I am glad I was a part it, and now it belongs to some other family.

We're off to Pike's Place Market and a late lunch. Tourism awaits!

Vacation Meditation

2005-07-02T21:34:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow at a time when most sane folks will be sleeping in, I'll be catching a plane headed for Oregon. Two glorious vacation weeks are stretched out in front of me like the Yellow Brick Road.

Today was my last ditch effort to get the garden ready. I watered absolutely all day. Luckily, the weather has cooled off the last couple of days. It actually felt good to be outside today, and it was overcast, so it wasn't a bad day for the water to be running at high noon.

The veggie garden got the kid-glove treatment. The finest of weeding, a extra layer of mulch, a little pruning where needed, plus a thorough watering with the soaker hose. The final touch was a good bit of encouragement for all the veggies to stay alive while I'm gone. We'll have a substitute gardener (Randy's dad) stopping by from time to time, but the pep talk made me feel better.

One final task in the garden was to harvest any veggies that looked even close to ripe. For lunch, I made an entire meal from home-grown vegetables. Steamed bush beans, broccoli, and beets, plus a green salad on the side. The taste was amazing. Who new beets were so delicious?

For the next two weeks, I'll blog when I can from the road. Bon Voyage!

2005-07-02T09:54:00.000-05:00

The Common Blog

Just the other day I read about how early US immigrants often kept journals during their oversees voyages. This reminded me the western pioneers, who also faithfully scribbled throughout their westward trek in personal diaries. The individuals who made these treks knew they were doing something historic, not to mention something that would drastically change their lives. Today these journals give a lot of insight into the lives of common folks during historic times.

Then just yesterday I ran into this article, "Blogging in the Early Republic: Why Blogging Belongs in the History of Reading". It's from Common-Place, a really good online journal about American history. The web site promises writing about history that is actually readable, a notable goal.

The article places blogging into the long history of American public discourse. Some have compared bloggers to the famous and notorious pamphleteers of the Revolution and Civil War like Thomas Paine. This author, however, fits blogging into the long history of journal-keeping in this country. In the early republic, newspapers proliferated and the problem became how to keep up with it all.

Surrounded by ephemeral print, many began to make references in their journals to what they had been reading—the rough equivalent of what bloggers do by linking to a Web page. During the Revolution, for instance, Christopher Marshall, a Philadelphian radical and friend of Thomas Paine, peppered his journal with references to the papers, often with brief comments on the news.

Other readers kept detailed scrapbooks, filled with newspaper articles with scribbled notes in the margins. In this regard, journal writing became a way of keeping up with all the reading that increased exponentially in the new republic. Blogs fit in to a similar situation today. With so much available on the internet to read, it's impossible to keep up with it all.

Indeed, blogging demonstrates the persistence of a key truth in the history of reading, an insight as obvious to Tocqueville as it should be to most bloggers today. The insight is that readers, in a culture of abundant reading material, regularly seek out other readers, either by becoming writers themselves or by sharing their records of reading with others. .... Perhaps, instead, blogging is the literate person’s new outlet for an old need. In Wright’s words, it is the need "to see more of what is going on around me." And in print cultures where there is more to see, it takes reading, writing, and association in order to see more.

This article was posted yesterday, and I'm just now getting around to blogging about it. Perhaps other bloggers have already argued about the article, disagreed with it, found errors hidden in the subtext, and generally rehashed this article all over the blogosphere. And now I get to join in the fray. I like considering my small contribution to the blog world as something similar to those early immigrants who scribbled away in their simple diaries as they stepped into a new life. The New World begins today.

Hittin' the Trail

2005-06-29T21:19:00.000-05:00

Here at PrairieTide, our mind is on the open road. Summer vacation, the two most musical words in the English language, begins in just a couple of days. Ah, the blessed time each year without appointments or To Do lists. Just breath in and enjoy the deadline-, meeting-, and voicemail-free air!

In the PrairieTide garden, the rain gauge remains sadly empty. So this means I'm doing a lot of watering to get ready for the big trip. The drought in Central Illinois was just upgraded by the National Weather Service from "moderate" to "severe," and I'm concerned the plants I've put in this year stay alive while I'm gone.

Last week, I walked out to find one of my new hydrangeas shriveled down to nothing. Just the day below the leaves were green and perky. I watered and watered the little thing, but it has not sprung back. One of the blueberry shrubs is looking down, and my container plants get watered every night, but they still seem on the brink of extinction. And all this before I head out on vacation!

Randy's gardener dad has promised to do some watering for us while we're gone. I've experimented with some water timers, with varying degrees of success. My biggest problem is that the water spickett always leaks, no matter how securely the hose is attached. Usually, I just prop up a watering can under the spickett and fill up the can while I'm watering one of the new beds. But if we are to rely on the water timer, we'll need to leave the spickett dribbling the entire time we're gone. I don't think this is going to work.

So in the mean time, my goal is to give every bed a deep, thorough watering before we hit the road. I found this article from Garden's Alive! about preparing a garden for summer vacations.

And guess what? The article is by Mike McGrath, the former editor of Organic Gardening with the goofy sense of humor. So maybe he became an internet entrepreneur after leaving the publishing world...

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Aha! A minor change to my settings, and the blog formating problem goes away! Thanks for hanging in there with me.

My Blog's Gone Batty

2005-06-25T22:05:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure why my blog posts are shifting down below my sidebar. I've done some looking around my blog template, and I'm just not sure what is causing the problem. So if you have any ideas what could be causing things to look wonky on my blog, please leave me a comment. In the mean time, I'll look around blogger.com to see if I can find out what is causing the problem. Thanks for understanding.

Listen Up!

2005-06-25T21:40:00.000-05:00

The #1 item on my garden wish list is an iPod. I think an iPod would make a great garden gadget. If I had an iPod, I'd listen audio books, professional lectures, archived NPR ...and music...all without having to fumble with CDs while wearing muddy gloves. (Hint, hint Randy: our wedding anniversary is only weeks away!)

While I remain iPod free, I spent time today paying attention to everyday sounds while I was working in the garden. Our house sits at the top of a small hill. At the bottom of the hill, there is a YMCA. During the winter, I can watch joggers circling around an inside track at the Y. This time of year, the YMCA buildings are pretty well obscured form view thanks to the trees that grow up the hillside. But there is a destinctive summer sound that eminates from the Y that I've grown to really enjoy while I'm working out in the yard.

It's the sound of the "free swim" that's held most every day during the summer.

While I'm puttering around the yard, I can hear kids splashing around. During the free swim times, there's a general pleasant racket in the air. There's the destinctive ka-SPLASH of the cannonball dive. Cries of "Marco" and the echoed "Pollo" float up to my plot. The squealing with delight, the playful shouting and caterwalling. Over the pool's innercom, I can hear the Voice of the lifeguard. I can never make out a word the lifeguard says. "Wa waaa, wa waaa, wa WAAAA." The sound is just like something from a Peanut's cartoon.

From time to time, swim meets are held at the pool. The races held during swim meets have a distinctly different sound from the "free swim" sessions. Some races really charge the fans up. Kids will scream themselves horse, yelling for their teammates to finish the race first. During swim meets, the Voice totally changes. Instead of soundling like a repremand, the Voice sounds professional and announcer-like. It's still indeciferable, but I seem to hear the Voice reading long lists of names. Who's up for the next race, who won the heat, the top three finishers from each school. Every now and then, I'll hear the occasional CRACK of the starter gun. More than once, the starter gun has scared me silly while I'm bent over some shrub.

On the hottest days, the sounds of kids having fun at a pool is surprisingly refreshing. Maybe it's the happy vibe of the noise. Or maybe it's the sound of splashing water. It's almost of good as actually being there myself, kicking back with a tall, cool drink poolside.

Victor's Garden

2005-06-24T08:58:00.000-05:00

While we're on the topic of dads, I need to pay tribute to Victor, my father-in-law. He has a small garden behind his West Peoria home. In his small space, Victor grows an amazing crop of tomatos and bush beans every year, and his flower garden always impresses. Victor likes flowers that reseed themselves, so every year his flowers looks spontaneous, improvisational even.

A generous gardener, Victor has given me lots of plants and cuttings (some of which I've managed to keep alive). He's given me carefully-labeled, little plastic bags full of seeds he collects each year. Best of all, this year he gave me a cutting from a purple Rose of Sharon bush that grows through his side fence. It's a uniquely pretty Rose of Sharon, and now a little piece of it is growing in my garden.

My Dad, Master Gardener

2005-06-19T18:04:00.000-05:00

There are lots of great things I can say about my dad. He raised seven daughters. He's had a great career in the agribusiness world. He's the guy you go to if you need help moving to a new apartment or fixing something around the house. He's one good cook. In fact, with my dad, Sunday's are just not complete without whipping up a batch of fudge. basically, he's an all-around terrific guy.

Dad's always had an interest in growing things. We had a 10-acre almond orchard while I was growing in up California. Later, he and a friend ran an apple and pear orchard in Oregon. A couple of years ago, my folks moved to Utah to a town named Mapleton, just south of Salt Lake City and not far from Brigham Young University. They bought 2.75 acres right at the foot of the Wasatch Mountains.

Their latest homestead was bare earth when they arrived. Last year, Dad got the idea to start a small U Pick berry farm. He's dubbed the place the McBriar Patch, and he and Mom have planted thousands of new plants. Last year for Christmas, they gave family members a small bottle of strawberry jam made from their new plants. I can honestly say, without any exaggeration or overstatement, it was some of the best stuff on earth. For Father's Day, Dad let me interview him over the phone for PrairieTide. As someone who has been involved with farming his whole life, I thought he'd have some good advice for new gardeners like me.

So how many plants have you put in the ground in the last two years?
I'd say we have about one and a half acres planted in berries. That's about 3,000 everbearing strawberry plants. Some of the strawberries are in raised boxes. This year, we put them into rows in the ground instead of boxes. So that's a total of 9 boxes and 7 1/2 rows, each 150 feet long.

We have 14 rows of raspberries. The rows are 6 feet apart, and they're 150 feet long. We have both summer bearing and fall bearing varieties. This year, we added 300 thornless blackberry plants in three different varieties: Arapaho, Chester, Triple Crown. That's seven rows of blackberries, each 150 feet long.

Yesterday was our first day of operating the U Pick strawberry business. We put on one sign in front of the house, and one sign at the end of the street. Your mother worried all morning that no one would show up. But by the end of the day, we'd earned $140. Not bad for the first day.

You and Mom have done an amazing amount of work putting in all these plants. Tell me about your goals for the place.
Totally financially independence. [In the background, I can hear my mom laughing]. We're going to do a few farmer markets. The U Pick business suits us fine. Plus we have some friends with a fruit stand in Santa Quinn. They'll let us bring some berries in to sell at the stand.

Next year, I want to plant two more types of raspberries. I also want to add a patch of daisies for U Pick flowers. Maybe pumpkins next year. I also have this idea of planting acorns and selling nursing stock oak trees. Buy your own BYU oak tree. Doesn't that sound great? [Editor's note: Hmmmm.]

Do you think the U Pick business will work in your area?
There are a lot of new houses being built on the farm land around here. Because this is Utah, there are lots of families in our area. Yesterday, we were surprised to see so many families show up to pick berries. The parents wanted to show their kids where berries come from.

So tell me about the Master Gardener class you completed last year.
I am a master gardener. [In the background, I can hear my mom say "Except..."]. Except I haven't done any of my summer volunteer hours like I'm supposed to. But I'll get to it! I did a pruning demonstration during the spring. When the farm bureau did their annual "Ag Day", I helped out. This is where they bring in about 40 buses full of kids from the schools to learn about farming. It was held at a local farm with a super fancy riding stable. FFA students were the guides and helped at the booths. The chicken people where there. Folks from the milk industry. The pork people and the beef people were there. I talked about raising apples. See, kids have to realize that food comes from other places than 7-11 and Wal-Mart.

What was the Master Gardener class like?
It covered the basic things you would take in Botany 101. We talked about plant propagation, plant diseases, weed identification, you know. I had to write a paper, so I did one on mushrooms.

I've been thinking about buying one of those mushroom growing kits and seeding it in the woods behind our house.
Get a lot of organic matter and keep it really wet. And make sure you pick the ones you planted, not the ones that come up naturally. While I was working on my paper, I found out three popes were poisoned with mushrooms back in the middle ages. Doing the research for the paper, I toured a local mushroom factory. They don't usually give tours, but they showed me around since it was for a class. They grow their mushrooms on sawdust and straw that's been composted--no manure. The mushrooms grow in the compost for about six months. After a couple of flushes of mushrooms, the soil is sterilized and sold to a compost company.

Since you already knew a lot about agriculture, would you say the class was worthwhile?
It was very worthwhile. I've been involved in ag for years, but I haven't done much in the garden. Then we bought this huge piece of land without anything on it. Since I took the class, we've filled up about half the space with the berries, and we have another acre to go. Your mother is going to take the class next year. Then she'll become the mistress of the garden.

What advice can you give me for new gardeners?
Make enough money so you can hire help. Ha! Just kidding! Gardening is a lot of fun. I killed the lawn last year, and now all we have is a weed patch out front. So I'm going to get out there and plant something new for a lawn. The big thing is to just get out and do it. Try things. Just do the things that you like. It may not be the latest style, but if you like it, it's good.

Something in the Wind

2005-06-17T08:35:00.000-05:00

Talking 'Bout the Weather

The weather around here is making me edgy. All spring, we've had wind. Lots and lots of wind. It's been the kind of wind that usually portends a thunderstorm. The clouds darken, the air feels electric, and rain seems inevitable. And then the storm has passed without dropping a bit of water. While other parts of North America are getting too much rain, we haven't seen nearly enough. Our spring has been windy and dry, a tough combination for new plants.

While I was browsing the shelves of the local library, one book practically blew off the shelves into my hands. The Weather-Resilient Garden: A Defensive Approach to Planning and Landscaping by Charles W. G. Smith got to the heart of what's been worrying me this spring. The book turned out to be very detailed and informative. When I brought the book home with me from the library, I planned to just breeze through it over breakfast some morning. I expected the inevitable list of plants, plus some basic "Must Do" bullet points.

Instead, the book turned out to be an interesting read. I stormed through the book from cover to cover. The section "Really Bad Weather" included information about dealing with cold, ice, fire, hail, drought, heat, humidity, flood, lightening, and salt in the garden. Each section included examples of gardens that coped well with these weather hazards, as well as examples of gardens that faced the weather front totally unprepared. To date, I'd say my garden falls in the later catagory--totally unprepared.

In the chapter on wind, Smith explains that at some point, wind levels reach a strength that no amount of planning and preparation can overcome. But even moderate levels of wind can cause stress and damage in the garden. He outlines what makes a good wind break, plus he mentions some ideas I hadn't considered, like wind berms, pruning trees and shrubs properly so they are able to withstand a storm, and making use of existing structures to protect plants from wind.

After reading the book, I'm rethinking my plan for the backyard to include some sort of windbreak. This is challenging because I have a slope in the backyard that faces into the wind. Maybe a raspberry hedge could serve as a windbreak for the veggie garden. This year's veggies have taken quite a beating with all this wind.

Reading about the weather reminded me there was a rain gauge stored in a closet somewhere around the house. After a bit of scavenging, I found the rain gauge and figured out how to assemble all the little plastic pieces. Turns out, the device includes a thermometer and a couple of spinning arrows, one that shows how hard the wind is blowing, and one to point out which direction. It looks impressively high tech for a small square-foot garden. Sadly...the rain gauge is quite empty...

Armchair Gardening

2005-06-12T10:10:00.000-05:00

Garden Mags to the Max!

Peoria's best used bookstore is actually a museum. The Lakeview Museum features an ongoing used booksale in their book court. Earlier this week, I needed a little "pick me up." The weather is giving me the one-two punch--heat and humidity. When it feels like a sauna outside, I'm much more incline to while away the day inside enjoying the airconditioning than to spend quality time with my weeds. So I stopped by the museum to browse the bookshelves, looking for a little gardening inspiration.

And lo, an entire stack of used gardening magazines! At 25 cents each, I bought the entire pile for less than the cost of one regularly-priced glossy.

And I learned something interesting. The venerable Organic Gardening used to be funny. It seems that back in the early 90's, a new editor with a sense of humor came on board. The pre-1990's editions are dry and serious, but after Mike McGrath joined the team, the magazine took on a folksy good humor. McGrath started every edition with a hyper-active account of what's going on in his garden. The letters to the editor were answered in the magazine with wacky puns. And the magazine's articles shared some common sense insight along with the thorough research the magazine is known for.

These days, Mike McGrath hosts a gardening radio show "You Bet Your Garden" that is carried on some local NPR channels. I listen to it from time to time over the internet. It's got McGrath's zaniness, with good gardening served on the side.

Today's Organic Gardening has returned to its roots, which means it's as serious as Sunday. The magazine is also much slimmer these days, with fewer articles and ads. This makes me very curious. What brought about the change? Did McGrath leave the magazine to begin a career as a radio star? Did the return to serious reportage drive down the readership, or did the mag return to it's previous carnation in the hopes of bringing back it's base? Hmmm... Very curious... Whatever the reason for the change, I'd like to find more of the circa-1990 editions.

Cowboy Gardening

2005-06-11T18:06:00.000-05:00

Look! Peas!

Thunder rumbled in the distance all morning while I was puttering around the yard. The sky was sunny, and the air dry, so it seemed like nothing to worry about. But once I started rebuilding my compost pile, the sky darkened, and drops began to fall.

Meanwhile, the grass in our yard was really looking scraggly. Since we haven't gotten much rain of late, we've let it grow for about two weeks. If we'd cut it any sooner, we'd have just cut off the last of the "green" in the grass.

Randy promised he'd help me mow it today, but with the rain threatening, I didn't think we'd get it done before the cloudburst. Then here comes Randy running around the side of the house with the lawn mower. He was determined to get the grass trimmed before the rains came.

Luckily, we have two matching lawn mowers. This way, we can tackle the lawn in half the time. I went and fired up the second mower, and we did our "synchronized mowing" routine, getting the last patch of lawn shorn off just as the drops began to fall at a steady rate. They entire time we were mowing, I could hear the thunder rumbling over the roar of the mower, and I decided to ignore the lightening flashes in the distance.

By the time we were finished, I was out of breath, clammy from the humidity, soaked from rain, and glad to call it a day. With the rain pattering on the roof, I curled up with a book. Enough cowboy gardening for one day.

2005-06-06T20:05:00.000-05:00

Star Wars, Yet Again...

So while I was digging out some sod in the garden, I got to thinking about the new Star Wars movie. When you've got several square feet of sod to tear out, you mind has time to dwell on these things.

There's been a lot of talk in media about the possible political analogies in the new film. It occurred to me as I was ripping out grass that this is just one way to view the film. The film can also be viewed as an analogy for domestic abuse.

Or at least it could have been, if the filmmaker had been a little more courageous. Case in point--Padme's death. First, she swoons after her disastrous encounter with Anakin. She swoons, how is that for realistic? Then, during her delivery, the medical droid says something about there being "nothing medically wrong with her" but that they "can't do anything for her." A few scenes later, Padme dies of a "broken heart." This sounds rather romantic--Victorian even. It's the stuff of romance novels and quasi-historical pot-boilers.

But it just ain't likely. Padme is not the only woman to realize her partner is a monster during a pregnancy. A healthy young person with no history of medical problems will make it through childbirth, whether she's married to Darth Vadar or no. In my mind, this is the big cop-out of the movie.

What is clear is that Anakin showed his violent side during "Attack of the Clones" when he slaughters the Sand People after his mother dies. Padme is aware of this, but stays by his side, apparently to try to help him. This sets up the kind of relationship that is prone for domestic violence. The guy who lashes out when provoked, and the woman who lets it slide because she thinks she can make a fix-up project of the guy.

During the latest film, when Padme and Anakin have their final encounter, Anakin uses his Jedi mind tricks to choke Padme when he believes she's been unfaithful to him. He CHOKES his pregnant wife. Then he flings her aside so he can clash light sabers with Obi Wan over an erupting volcano. This is as clear a picture of the jealous, violent husband as any I've seen in a sci-fi blockbuster.

After the death-match with Obi Wan, Anakin is reconstructed by the Emperor. Now half-machine, Anakin asks the Emperor about his wife. The Emperor says something along the lines of "You killed her. Your anger was too great." At this, Anakin staggers about on his cybernetic legs and lets out a tribal yell. (A good English major would say this is reminiscent of Stanley Kowalski's cathartic"Stella!" from The Street Car Named Desire.)

So there you have it. The Emperor says Anakin killed his wife, but the medical droid says Padme died of a broken heart. In my mind, the medical droid lacked the guts to name the real cause of death--having a violent, abusive, Darth Vadar for a husband. Naming this as the cause of death would have made the movie all the more realistic and powerful.

Yes, I said it. It would have made the sci-fi flick more realistic and powerful. I'm that kind of nerd. Enough sci-fi talk. I better get back to the garden...

Forest Walk

2005-06-05T11:50:00.000-05:00

The woodland garden.

The community college where I work has a small arboretum tucked away on the far side of campus. The arboretum is maintained by students in the horticultural program. Over the years, students have added an herb garden, enclosed gazebos, and a waterfall. It's a gem, but because of it's remote location, I've only been by to visit a few times. The other day on the way home from work, I decided to stop for a closer look.

What immediately impressed me was the arboretum's casual style. Most of the garden beds are not lined in any way. A grass path meanders through the trees and around understory shrubs without really "going anywhere". Something about the layout of the arboretum makes it easy to walk in circles. Perhaps this is a deliberate effect--a reflection of a monastery meditative garden or a zen garden. Or perhaps they winding paths are a result of the way the arboretum has evolved over the years, with groups of students adding a yellow garden here and a hosta garden without a larger overall scheme.

One thing I really like about the arboretum is the causal woodland garden beds. The plants are mostly about texture and foliage, with a dappling of color scattered about. No one has been overly attentive to weeding in this garden. There were plenty of weeds in every bed, but they didn't detract from the aesthetics of the place. If anything, seeing a few weeds kinda took the pressure off. It's like, if they don't mind having a few weeds here, what's the big deal of a few sneak into my garden?

Lots of color.

Plant collections seem to be a theme in the arboretum. There's a large hosta collection, with lots of types and textures. Virburnum seemed to be another theme. I also liked this collection of weigela.

One question I have is how they were able to keep grass from growing in the garden beds. Most of the garden beds were not edged in any way. And the garden beds weren't raised either. Yet the grass stayed in the path and out of the beds. Really, it's a mystery.

2005-06-03T08:12:00.000-05:00

Can you believe Randy and his dad built this picnic table in just two evenings? It's six-feet long and made from 2x4s. When Randy finished it up, he told me, "You can blog about this, if you want." Absolutely.

Garden Tour in a Book

2005-06-01T18:28:00.000-05:00

To learn more about gardening, I'm hungry for good gardening books. I bring home stacks of books from the library, and whenever I visit a bookstore, I browse past the garden section to see what's new. I craze garden books with good writing, detailed directions, and passion. Garden writing, though, can pretty bland. I'm amazed how many books out there offer the same tired advice.

Here'a a brilliant idea: Literature is full of gardens--why not gather those fictional gardens into one collection, and then gleen garden advice and wit from the pen of more talented writers? The Literary Garden: Recreating Literature's Most Beautiful Gardens in Your Own Backyard is just such a book. Basically, it's a gardening book for us English majors. The book culls some of the best garden descriptions from literature, and then uses these descriptions to give advice about basic garden topics. In my mind, the writer who came up with this idea hit on a smart idea. Literature is chock full of fantasy gardens, and it makes sense to draw from the best.

The Literary Garden includes excerpts from Louisa May Alcott, Willa Cather, Charles Dickens, George Elliot, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Katherine Mansfield, and others from an age of classic gardens. Some of the gardens in these books are wild and tempting, others are ordered and secluded behind enclosed walls. If anything, this collection might inspire me to dust off The Mill on the Floss or The House of Mirth for another reading.

After each excerpt, the author of The Literary Garden builds on the selection by offering garden ideas for the reader to try. Admittedly, the garden advice lacks something around the edges. Following the description of the extensive kitchen garden in My Antonia, there is a section about growing pumpkins. The advise on pumpkins is basic and to the point, but it somehow left me unsatisfied. Didn't the discovery of Antonia's garden inspire more than planting a few pumpkin seeds? It inspires me to find seeds for something called ground cherries, to follow garden bugs about their business, to take a nap in a patch of sunshine...something more than just pumpkins.

Squibbles aside, this book is a keeper, if for nothing else than to have a collection of garden excepts from some classic books. Together, the excepts point to what draws me to the gardening world. They all portray gardens as a magical, transformative, otherworldly place. Creating this kind of place in a suburban backyard is another task all together, but at least in this volumn I can point to the source of my desire.

Last time I stopped by Barnes and Noble, there was a stack of Literary Gardens in the Discount Book section. Who knows, maybe you could find yourself tempted to recreate the collection of deadly nightshade from Rappaccini's Daughter's garden.

2005-05-30T09:58:00.000-05:00

You Say It's Your Birthday...

If you're crazy, there's two things you can do to make yourself feel better: one is to get yourself cured. The other is to make everyone you have to deal with crazy.
Alan Dean Foster

PrairieTide reached its first birthday today. With today's anniversary, we're celebrating a year of wandering topics, meandering entries, typos and misspellings, frustrations with HTML, lost entries, and erratic posts!

PrairieTide started out as a project for a graduate English project, and I must admit I did my best blogging when it was a class assignment. After I wrapped up my graduate degree, I shifted my blog focus to my favorite hobby: knitting. As the internet's slowest knitter, I needed a little something more to keep the blog moving. So since then, my blog has broadened to include my efforts building a garden in our midwestern plot.

Below is my very first blog post.

Sunday, May 30, 2004

Fishbowl
The rain is really coming down. Looking out the windows, the world outside is dank and wet. The windows are tear-streaked. The sounding of pelting raindrops echos on the roof. And I think, "so this is what it's like to be a fish."

In the immortal words of Dory from Finding Nemo, just keep swimming. With any luck, the fun and mayhem will continue in the same scatterbrained way. Here's to another year of PrairieTide!

King of the Jungle

2005-05-29T14:09:00.000-05:00

Give me a Roar!

With Memorial Day Weekend in full swing, Randy and I spent Saturday exploring the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. The Lion King stood guard near one of the main exits, and we listened to his impressive tones all day. He put on quite a show. The zoo if free to all visitors, and it is open to the surrounding Lincoln Park at several points. This makes the zoo popular with city joggers, along with the usual throngs of tourists and family sight-seers.

Into the Border

During our stroll through the zoo, I kept an eye out for interesting landscaping in the zoo's extensive gardens. The gardens were enchanting, and from what I could tell, they were made up of typical garden plants, laid out in a lush and inviting way. Here's a border I particularly liked, a pleasing mix of hostas and purple irises.

A Victorian Retreat

Throughout our day in Chicago, rain clouds threatened ominously. Luckily, it only sprinkled a little here and there. During one brief cloud burst, we took refuge in the Lincoln Park Conservatory, a huge glasshouse built in the 1890s. Amazingly, it's located right next to the zoo, and it's also free to the public.

Foliage for Interest

Inside the Conservatory--a vast tropical oasis. I overheard a tour guide explain that before the Great Chicago Fire, the city sprawled about haphazardly like all booming frontier towns. After the fire, city founders put a lot of thought and energy into setting aside space for cultural institutions, like museums, zoos, and the Conservatory. It's a remarkable legacy.

Orchids, Anyone?

The Orchid Room captivated me the most. I've never been a big fan of orchids. The plants look like dead twigs when they are not in bloom. But this room in the Conservatory was filled with a heady perfume, so sweet and beguiling, it was just overwhelming. Some of the blooms were gorgeous smiles, other strange monkey faces. One unremarkable little bloom boasted a label that read "Coconut Orchid." One wiff confirmed that it smelled just like it's name sake. Randy took a sniff and then said in his wry way, "Makes me want to drink a Pina Colada."

The Holiday Weekend Starts Early at PrairieTide

2005-05-27T19:25:00.000-05:00

Plant Sale Success!

Each year right before Memorial Day, my friend Nita has a plant sale. Most of the plants are perennial divides from her garden and the garden of her aunt and sisters. The plants all sell for $3 a pot, and there's a new selection every year. The last couple of years, I stopped by the sale after work, but the plant offering was a bit slim. So this year, I planned ahead.

I took off from work for Thursday and Friday. My coworkers thought I was a tad crazy for taking vacation days to work around the house, but I've been looking foward to this sale for ages. I got to the sale just as they were opening for business on Thursday morning, and I proceeded to fill up the back of Randy's station wagon, which I borrowed just for the event. The plants I purchased were mostly basics--a few hostas, some bee balm, a bunch of irises. I spent all day yesterday tucking these plants into the ground. It was the first day of a fabulous vacation weekend.

And the fun continues! Today, I tackled another project. In the backyard on the south side of the house, there's this garden bed that has been driving me batty. When we moved into our house two years ago, there were only a few flower beds around the entire yard. Most of the beds we've completely demolished and reworked. This bed, though, has stayed pretty much the same. It had a few flea-bitten perennials that I've moved around to better spots. Last year, I lined the bed with some annuals, and we grew a really productive tomato plant here. The tomato tasted so delicious, it inspired this year's veggie plot.

Last fall, I began preparing the bed for blueberries. I added a bunch of sulfur to the soil, plus I worked in an entire big block of peat moss, both of which are supposed to lower the acidity of the soil. During the winter, I coverd the bare earth with pine boughs, which I hoped would protect the bare soil and maybe the needles would help with the soil acidity, too. This spring, the bed got another couple of inches of compost. A few weeks back, I planted two bareroot blueberries and a bunch of leftover strawberries.

So with all that work, the bed should be looking great. Instead, it has just been an iritation. Why? Because the cement pavers that boarder the bed were placed in such a crappy, haphazard way. The pavers were totally chaotic. Some high, some low. There was no sense to it. Worse, the lawn happily spread right through the pavers like a tenatious virus. Grass really can be a weed. Here's how the bed looked before I began my cleanup project today.

Why does the grass insist on invading my flower beds? There are plenty of bare spots in the lawn the grass could easily spread through. But for some reason, the grass seems to prefer the nice compost soil.

Here's Another the Blueberry Bed "Before" Picture.

What a mess. No amount of mowing or hand-trimming has kept the grass out of the bed. You'd never know I've spent lots of time weeding this bed. I've been meaning to redo the border of this bed for ages, and today I finally got the gumption to tackle it.

The Blueberry Bed "After" Picture.

Not bad for a days work. After a bit of prodding around the border with my shovel, I finally decided the easiest thing would be to completely dig out all of the cement pavers. Once the pavers were out of the way, I was able to pound down a better "path" for the pavers to take around the bed. Honestly, I'm not sure who made this bed originally, but I think the pavers were just thrown on the ground like toy blocks. While I was digging out the pavers, I also dug a shallow trench in front of the bed. Once I wrestled the pavers back into place, I placed a layer of mulch in the shallow trench. My idea is that the trench will keep the grass runners from spreading into the blueberry bed. The trench should make it easier to mow, too. I can just drop one side of the mower into the trench and cut along the front of the bed.

The cement pavers are not my favorite, but in the spirit of making do with what you've got, they work fine. I think the pavers have been around for some time because they are covered with a gold-colored lichen. It gives the cement a bit of a patina.

Closeup of the New Boarder.

It's not exactly something for the pages of Fine Gardening, but it's definately an improvement. From here you can also see that the strawberries are doing nicely. The petunias are tiny, but they are still green. The blueberry shrubs look alive, though they have not put out a lot of leaves yet. I'm keeping an eye on them.

I thought this was interesting. These "slices" of grass were growing between the cement pavers. None of them are more than a quarter-inch thick, but they are packed full of roots. Some tough stuff.

Just as I was finishing up my project today, Randy got home from work. He laughed when he saw me and insisted on a picture.

Here's why. After spending the day in the garden, I was covered with compost! Time to hit the showers!

2005-05-24T21:26:00.000-05:00

All those gardening experts give themselves catchy nicknames. Ketzel Levine, the NPR reporter turned gardener who occasionally returns to her old career to report on the plant scene, she calls herself "The Doyenne of Dirt." I like this nickname. It sounds classy and trashy all at the same time.

While at the library the other day, I picked up one of her books, and it is the kind of gardening book I crave--great writing with lot of interesting advice. Plant This! recommends 100 plants, what Ketzel claims are the "best bets for year-round gorgeous gardens."

Frankly, these plants seem way to advanced for me. I'm a beginner. I need to hobble by with Stella d'Oro daylillies for a while. But this is still a lively read, even if I won't be planting Schizostylis any time soon. My favorite part of the book is Ketzel's explanation of Latin plant names. Here 'tis:

A smear campaign against botanic Latin--denigrating it as highbrow--has blanketed much of the United States. Don't fall for it! It's about as highbrow as pig Latin, and a whole lot more fun. Here's how you play: Put your last name first and give it a botanic-speak ending, like "ia" or "us." Then replace your first name with a Latin world that describes something that sets you apart. For example, since I'm easily identified by my curly hair, my botanic name might be Levineus spiralis. Hollywood mermaid Ester Williams could be classified as Williamsia aquaticus, and the blue-eyed Paul Newman, Newmanus azureus. Get it? Now, you try.

With each plant recommendation, Ketzel lists the botanical name, plus what it sounds like. I found this to be great fun...and enlightening. I'm forever bumbling the names of plants, and here's a common-sense reference to help me out. She says Buddleia sounds like "Dudley yuh." Verbascum is pronounced like"Don't ask 'em." I'd always wondered about those two.

2005-05-22T18:47:00.000-05:00

Randy modeling the Star Wars poster in our TV room. See the pictures just behind Randy? Those are just a few of Randy's sci fi paintings.

2005-05-22T18:20:00.000-05:00

Where's My Light Saber?

When I was about six years old, I had this little pink diary that locked with a clasp. I wrote my very first entry into the diary after we saw "Star Wars" movie at the drive in theater. Trying my very best to be just like Marsha Brady, I wrote, "We saw Star Wars last night. It was groovy." That's right, like every kid growing up in the 70's, I wanted to move to a galaxy long, long ago and far, far away. Groovy.

Saturday, Randy and I got out of work a little early so we could get to the Multiplex to watch the latest Star Wars flick before the crowds. Once we got into the theater, we moved our seats twice to make sure we were in the best spot in the place. We snuck in two types of M&Ms, the Jedi mix (milk chocolate in earth-tone colors) and the Darth mix (dark chocolate in moody black and burgandy). I got figdety when the film did not start at the top of the hour.

Then the lights dimmed. The same music. The same theme. The same "Star Wars" logo.

Sci fi is one of Randy and my favorite interests. It's something we enjoy together. We've watched all the Star Trek movies and series religiously (though I must admit I'm relieved "Enterprise" has kicked the bucket). We've followed "Babylon 5" and new "Interstar Galactica" series. Randy does most of the sci fi reading in this family, and his bookshelf is stuff with fat pulp paperbacks. What's more, just in the last three weeks, we've gone to the movie theater to see the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Gallaxy", a theatrical viewing of the last two episodes of "Star Trek: Enterprise", and now "Star Wars". So, you can call us nerds. We're OK with that.

That final scene in the new "Star Wars" movie, with the familiar music and the desert sunset with two suns... I admit it...I teared up a bit. Frankly, I was just so relieved that this final installment in the "Star Wars" cycle was good, I got a little emotional. Whew.

On our way home from the movie, I was so caught up in the whole Star Wars thing that I insisted that we cross over to the dark side and stop by WalMart on the way home. (..."wretched pit of scum and villany"...) We purchased the DVDs for the first three movies (or the last three movies, whatever). We've spent the rest of the weekend watching the old movies again. Some folks say that the new movies and the old movies don't really go together. Actually, watching them together all at once, I see a lot more connections between the old favorites and the new movie. And now that we know all about Darth Vadar's twisted past, his familiar profile is all the more evil and menacing.

May the Force...

Salad Days

2005-05-18T20:40:00.000-05:00

Salad greens from the veggie garden, with the first radish of the year.

Sweater Update

Mary asked about whether the "Blue Shimmer" sweater is knit with the yarn that works up in a colorful pattern. That type of yarn is called "self striping" yarn, and it is fun to use. It works best on small projects like socks or mittens. I've also seen kid sweaters made with the stuff. Some of the yarns that create very wide stripes can also be knit into adult-sized sweaters. In fact, my local yarn store has some Noro yarn that I'm itching to buy for my next project.

The "Blue Shimmer" sweater is a little more of a challenge. The pattern is created "from scratch" by using at least two contrasting yarn colors at the same time.

When I bought the yarn kit for this sweater almost two years ago, I wanted to learn how to do two-color knitting, or "Fair Isle"-style knitting. With this kind of knitting, you hold two balls of contrasting-colored yarn at once, with one color in each hand. (Some talented knitters hold both colors of yarn in one hand, but this is way beyond my skill level.) With two-color knitting, both hands are getting a workout.

It's taken me two years to really feal comfortable doing this kind of knitting. In fact, this is why back before Christmas I knit the bulky sweater for Anna and the funky stockings for Mom and Dad. I wanted to practice my two-handed knitting technique on some easy projects with thick yarn before I tackled the "Blue Shimmer" kit.

There are some incredible knitters on the internet who turn out projects like this all the time. "Blue Shimmer" is my first attempt at a really challenging knitting project. And actually, it's pretty tame because the pattern only goes around the collar. With the collar finished, I'm beginning to work on the solid body of the sweater. The next challenge will be in about a month or so when I wrap up knitting the body. Then, I'm actually going to cut the front part of the sweater open so I can create a cardigan. THAT'S when the fun will really begin.

Some Knitting, Some Gardening

2005-05-15T16:47:00.000-05:00

While you weren't looking, I finished the collar for the "Blue Shimmer" sweater. The rest of the sweater will be knit in a light blue shade. Overall, I'm pleased with my progress on this sweater. It's taken about a month of knitting to get what you see here, and it's been a relaxing month of knitting. I thought this two (and sometimes three) color stuff would be stressful, but I found the color combinations to be entrancing. Most nights when I sat down to knit, I was only able to finish a round or two. But little by little, there you are. The rest of the sweater should be a breeze.