Dear weather,
Please stop fooling around with winter. I'm sick of swirling bits of snow that don't really stick and dry, dead grass and trees. Also. I would like to remind you that I do not live in Seattle, and therefore the sun should come out more than once a week. Please go find spring. I'm sure you can entice her to stay.
Sincerely,
a whiny, vitamin-D deprived winter-blues sufferer
Friday, March 26, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Happy St.Patrick's day!
Trav always makes fun of me for this, but I consider myself Irish (Irish-American, I should say) above all other nationalities. In reality, I'm not really any more Irish than I am German or Danish or English. But I identify more with the Irish side of the family. Maybe it's because I've done lots of research on my Irish family history. Or because my first name is Irish. Or because my middle name is from my off-the-boat Irish great-grandmother. Or because they speak/spoke a really fantastic form of Gaelic (which I tried to teach myself in high school). Or maybe because I do Irish dance. Whenever I mention it, people ask me if I dance because I'm Irish. I don't really (there are far more non-Irish Irish dancers than Irish...but there is a ton of red-headed Irish dancers...); I do Irish dance because it's awesome. It's just convenient that I happen to be part Irish.
Whatever my personal motivation may be, there are dozens of reasons to be proud to be Irish. Here's a short list:
Whatever my personal motivation may be, there are dozens of reasons to be proud to be Irish. Here's a short list:
- to speak Irish Gaelic
- to speak Irish Engligh
- to be so feisty! How many other countries are renowned for having such fiery tempers?
- to be green! Sometimes when I see pictures of Ireland, I'm homesick for the land I've never been to
- to have great fiddle music
- to eat soda bread
- to have produced James Joyce
- to believe in leprechauns
- to have done a large chunk of the dirty work in American cities during the early 1900s
- to have a long, rich, fascinating history
- to dance with flying feet
Thursday, March 11, 2010
for the love of dirt!
I started a compost pile. And I love it. I love that I can throw food out my screen door into the pile of decomposing food (this is especially enjoyable when throwing eggs that cracked when I accidentally flung them to the ground in their shopping bag). That my leaves went to good use this year. That I feel earthy and wholesome piling up my vegetable waste while I'm preparing for dinner. That I might possibly have nice soil for my hopefully organic garden this summer. That my garbage doesn't stink any more and is only half as full these days (the recylcing has probably had something to do with this, too).
I did, however, make one fatal mistake. I put this compost pile in one of the worst places in my yard. It's close to the house, yes, but it's in almost constant shade. That pile hasn't felt any sun in months! And because of this, I fear my compost won't be ready in time for spring planting. I also suspect that I need to turn my compost pile more than once in a while. And I don't really have any soil in my compost mixture, and I'm pretty sure that's one of the key ingredients.
Now that I think about it, there are probably dozens of things I haven't done to make my compost perf. And I have no idea what they might be. But luckily, the Central Utah Gardens have a class in a few weeks all about compost. It's free, I'm going, and I'm ridiculously, nerdily excited about it. I've had a vegetable garden the past 5 years, and it has been quite successful. But I haven't delved into organic gardening or composting or producing herbs that I actually cook with more than twice a year (if you need any sage, or rather cups upon cups upon cups of sage, head down to my old house. Two winters still haven't killed that stuff off yet). I'm hoping this year I can learn all sorts of useful things and end up with produce coming out my ears.
If you happen to still live somewhere near Utah county, you can sign up for this class (or others) here.
I did, however, make one fatal mistake. I put this compost pile in one of the worst places in my yard. It's close to the house, yes, but it's in almost constant shade. That pile hasn't felt any sun in months! And because of this, I fear my compost won't be ready in time for spring planting. I also suspect that I need to turn my compost pile more than once in a while. And I don't really have any soil in my compost mixture, and I'm pretty sure that's one of the key ingredients.
Now that I think about it, there are probably dozens of things I haven't done to make my compost perf. And I have no idea what they might be. But luckily, the Central Utah Gardens have a class in a few weeks all about compost. It's free, I'm going, and I'm ridiculously, nerdily excited about it. I've had a vegetable garden the past 5 years, and it has been quite successful. But I haven't delved into organic gardening or composting or producing herbs that I actually cook with more than twice a year (if you need any sage, or rather cups upon cups upon cups of sage, head down to my old house. Two winters still haven't killed that stuff off yet). I'm hoping this year I can learn all sorts of useful things and end up with produce coming out my ears.
If you happen to still live somewhere near Utah county, you can sign up for this class (or others) here.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
a quandry
Answer me this: if you were getting married, would you let your family (and your in-laws) know the dates you were thinking about? Or would you just pick a date and tell everyone to stick it- rearrange your schedule or don't bother coming. And what if this wedding was planned TWO WEEKS in advance. What would you do then? Eh?
Would you, as a friend/relative of the couple, be able to drop everything and be at the wedding...on the other side of the country? And what if you had something you couldn't get out of? What then?
Would you, as a friend/relative of the couple, be able to drop everything and be at the wedding...on the other side of the country? And what if you had something you couldn't get out of? What then?
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