Pi Party - the aftermath

Well, i tried to take pictures. i really did try! i took a few at the beginning of the party, but then got sidetracked and distracted and forgot about the camera. oopsie. i guess a few pictures are better than none?

Pi Party!
























we ended up with the following pies: frito pie, tybee island pie (sausage, egg, cheese, etc.), key lime pie, raspberry pecan crumble pie, blueberry pie, veggie quiche, chicken pot pie, sweet potato pie, jello shot pie, oreo pie, and i can't think what else. it was a lot of pie.

i'm wearing a green thumb for st. patrick's day

i forgot to plan for st. patrick's day. i wore a really pretty green and white springy-looking shirt to jennifer's baby shower on saturday. a smarter gal would have saved it for today. oh well. i suppose most people don't care much about that. and besides, i can't be sure if i've got any irish in me (:insert dirty joke here)... but, of late, i do have a green thumb!

so i got a huge, full window set on saturday - through freecycle.dc, from a lady named arlene. the full window (top window, bottom window, and frame) was as tall as i am! and heavy heavy, to boot. i drove over there to pick it up, and it took both arlene and me several minutes to wrestle it into the back of my car. as it turns out, arlene is a fellow freecycle-addict. we compared stories of trying to fit huge heavy items into our small cars. i told her how i had to tie a bicycle to the lid of my trunk using shoelaces taken from my shoes, and how 3/4 of the bike hung out of the back as i drove all the way from upper wisconsin ave. she topped me with a story about how she used tubesocks to tie her passenger door shut, to hold in the oversized futon in her backseat. good times. i like to close freecycle transactions with a brisk handshake, and a heartfelt "long live freecycle!"

so i wrestled the window home (note: it had been sitting in her back yard for god-knows how long, and was covered in mud/dead bugs/leaves/cobwebs), through the house, and onto the back deck. "hmm. there has to be a way to dismantle this thing....," i thought. there was! i found about 18 kajillion little screws holding the frame together. once those were gone, the whole thing came apart. i threw the frame pieces into the wasteland under the deck, and i was left with 2 windows and one screen - each about 30"x30". perfect!

at this point, i thought briefly about stopping right there - maybe finish up on sunday... our pi party ran really late on friday night, and i had gotten up bright and early to make it to the baby shower... but i kept on going, knowing that if i stopped i would likely never finish the project. so i slapped on some sunscreen and some cruddy jeans and went to work. i had to duck-walk in a crouch, under the deck, to fish out the bricks leftover from the patio project. duck-walk in, grab a maximum load of 5 bricks, duck-walk out, stand up without smashing skull on overhanging deck, walk to deck stairs, walk up stairs... make tiny insignificant stack of 5 bricks. repeat. over and over again. not to mention the fact that the stack of bricks, in the creepy under-deck, were covered in unidentifiable schmutz - dead spiders, rotten paper from who-knows-where, hobo germs, a tuft of what i can only guess was rat hair, feral cat pee, and a layer of freshly hatched baby slugs. i had the heebie-jeebies like you wouldn't believe. at one point, i picked up a brick and a chunk of muddy rubble rolled down my bare arm. i promptly dropped all the bricks from my arms, and high speed duck-walked outta there making panicked gibberish sounds along the lines of "ghurr, ghurr, ghurr!" but i persevered, and moved a goodly number of the bricks up to the deck proper.

i measured (!) out the size of the window, and plotted out a space on the deck where i wanted to construct the cold frame. i chose a spot in a sort-of out of the way corner, closest to the strongest support beams. i then laid out the bricks to match the size of the window, and started stacking. due to the shape of the cold frame, and also my laziness, i didn't want to have to cut any bricks. thusly, i couldn't stagger the bricks. those of you who have played with legos or blocks, you know that this could be a problem. but i think that the walls are shallow enough that it shouldn't be an issue. so anyway. i stacked the walls up 4 bricks high, then lined the entire thing with weedproof cloth (also leftover from the brick patio experience), followed by a layer of gravel and smallish rocks from the "yard." now for the dirt. hmmm... dirt. i recalled that i had left a dirtpile by the deck stairs (product of often mentioned patio project), so i shoveled that into a series of buckets and empty flower pots and transported the lot up to the deck, and dumped it in. hmmm. this is going to take a lot of dirt. i was too tired to think of driving to home depot for potting soil, so i proceeded to empty all unoccupied planters and pots into the new cold frame bed. i made it! then trimmed the weed cloth to overhang the bricks a bit, and stacked up 2 more rows of bricks. just made it! i used up EXACTLY every brick that i had. how's that for perfect? the dirt ended up being about 14" deep, with about 8" of headroom to the top. capped off with one of the windows, it makes a handsome mini-greenhouse thingie for the deck. once the plants get hardy enough, i will just leave the window off and i'll have a nice raised vegetable bed right there on the deck. yay! i figure the screen will be handy for transitional times, when the plants will be vulnerable to the crazy-ass alley squirrels. anytime they see me messing around in the yard, they wait until nightfall to dig the crap out of everything looking for bulbs, edible seeds, hamburgers, DVDs, whatever it is they are after. a nice screen should keep them out for a night or two until they lose interest.

to test things out, i moved 24 little onion sproutlings out there. i hope i don't kill them. i have some really healthy tomato seedlings coming along, too! but they aren't going outside for a while. i did, however, move the sugar peas outside on saturday. they were threatening to climb all over the inside of my house, devouring us and the furniture a la the ruins. i think they'll be fine out there. it's been sunny and 50/60 during the day lately, and high 30s at night. just fine for peas and lettuce.






































For more gardening adventures, go to my flickr page:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/melaniejeanbrown/sets/72157604129426864/

happy PI DAY!

i've done lots of tedious, boring, probably pointless work today thus far. i've declared it is now time to take a break. i made a list of things that i need to do before par-tay-time tonight - mostly involving a little last-minute straightening up in the house, and stopping off at stores to pick up stuff. i need to get PRIZES for the party tonight. i generally feel a smidgen simple/retarded when i give prizes for stuff at parties, but it always turns out to be a huge hit. people like to win stuff, in general. we have an old TV that we need to get rid of - i only-halfway-jokingly told scott that i am going to make the tv the door prize. if anything, just to say: "and the winner is so-and-so! you've won a 30" screen color TV!!!" - much in the way of a game show announcer. but maybe some people don't want a TV. hmm. i guess there's a problem. julie and i are going to franklin's pub after work to pick out prizes. in addition to being a sit-down pub/restaurant, they have a general store which sells odd microbrews and weird imported beer, but also crazy hot sauces... and they have a whole room devoted to repro toys, weird games, retro candies, gag gifts, and just strange stuff. and cheap. perfect for random party prizes. i think i will make people vote and i'll give prizes for tastiest pie, most creative, and then a randomly drawn door prize. or maybe i'll just keep all the prizes for myself. we'll see just how dorky i am feeling when the time comes.

so that's that.

in other news, i am currently trolling freecycle to find some discarded windows. i'd like to make my cold-frame box on sunday, if i can. pretty soon it will be warm enough that i won't need one. i am also obsessively entering a contest to win a free composter. the contest is on the gardening blog - which i won't reveal the name of, because i selfishly don't want the competition taking away from my chances to win. !! i am not very nice that way. but i can enter once a day until march 31. then i'll tell you if i win. the composter is one of those barrel-kind that you crank to turn the goop inside. and it's rat-proof so any templetons in the neighborhood won't be able to gorge on the garbage:

"A fair is a veritable smorgasbord-orgasbord-orgasbord,
after the crowds have ceased.
Each night when the lights go out
it can be found on the ground all around...
Oh, what a ratly feast!"

i have always liked templeton. he's a rat who tells it like it is. a straight-shooter, if you will.

other plans for the weekend include: a baby shower on saturday, and a long training walk on sunday. in between times i want to fiddle around in the yard.

little babies, growing up!

Maddie (a.k.a. Cutest Baby Ever)



















Nilsson (a.k.a. Stinkerpants)

pass the peas, please

so this is the time of year when i become obsessed with my garden. i've found that i can help ease the obsession by planting seeds that sprout almost faster than immediately. like peas. i planted the seeds on march 1st - and the seedlings already have real leaves and are climbing about 6 inches above the soil. 11 days, man! that's fast enough to keep me occupied. the rest are chugging along nicely. Other superfast sprouters are hollyhocks. i think i will put the peas outside this weekend - it's only been getting down to lows in the upper 40s around here, and a random frost or two shouldn't hurt anything. peas are toughies. these are mammoth melting sugar - i've also planted lincoln garden peas, but those haven't sprouted yet. i thought it would be good to stagger things a bit.

i've also been obsessing over knitting projects, but in a much more half-assed, scattered manner. i just finished part 1 of secret-baby-project (shhh!) - i'll cast on the second half tonight. i have stalled out on the grocery tote bag (1/2 done), the straps to keep the lid on the gerbil cage (1/3 done), and i ran out of yarn on my "sophisticated rustic sweater" (dammit!! i forgot AGAIN to bring the yarn info with me, so i can buy more. grrr...). i am also printing all sorts of interesting future projects. luckily everyone i know is growing babies, so i will be occupied for a while. baby things are fun - small = quick to knit, soft yarn, cute things that adults would be shamed for wearing (hats with ears, cardigans with frogs embroidered on them, stupid looking cardigans, etc.). my next challenge might involve more complicated shaping... knitting in the round, perchance? i have some leftover sock yarn laying around - maybe i'll try a sock?

and our PI PARTY is this friday!! yahooie! in honor of the date being Pi (or, the shortened approximated version of Pi) - 3.14 - i am hosting a pi party. the food, of course, will be pie. !! potluck style, so who knows what we're going to end up with. i am making frito pie, i think. i have leftover chili in the freezer, so that'll be easy... i'll post pictures of the aftermath.

sowing seeds: porn and gardening?

well, i was all fired up last night when i got home from work. i planted another tray of 72 seedlings, using the seeds i got yesterday. the trays that i use contain 72 little pods of soil/peat that i plump up by pouring warm water all through the tray. then, i gently squeeze each one at the base and use a pencil to poke a small hole in the center of each little pod. then, i drop 2 seeds into each little hole and pinch/tamp the pod back together. pour on a little more warm water (fortified with a smidgen of fertilizer), put on the greenhouse lid and secure with rubber bands to keep devil-kitty out. done! i usually do 6 pods of each kind of seed. in the past, usually one pod doesn't sprout... then i kill off one or two during the transplant process. so out of six, i get 3 or 4 healthy plants. not too shabby for a lazy/not-very-dedicated gardener. if i have too many healthy plants, i will give them to courtney or scott's dad.

so as i plugged away in the sunroom, sowing seeds and creating life... scott was in the living room watching norwegian pornstars sow their own kinds of seeds. !! seriously! well, there was a reason. i suppose i should tell you that. scott is volunteering as a "screener" for the SilverDocs documentary film festival held at the American Film Institute Silver Theatre. SilverDocs is one of the largest documentary film festivals in the worlds, and it gets thousands of submissions - which it weeds down to a hundred or so. as a screener, scott gets assigned stacks of DVDs each week. he watches them, makes notes, then writes a summary, assessment and recommendation for each one. some are okay, some are really compelling, and some are just horrible.

last night, he watched several - all from norwegian filmmakers. the first was just great - i was trying to build a new house for the gerbils, but i kept drifting over to the couch to see what was happening. it relayed the account of this norwegian skiier/climber/adventurer who, along with his best friend, decided to climb mt. everest - then SKI down the other side. !!! his friend never made it. it was beautifully shot, exciting, and touching. very good. then he put on the next one, about this off-the-cuff norwegian porn star who recruits high school seniors to act in his porn films. sort of like girls-gone-wild meets american idol meets some else really pornographic and depressing. most of the film follows the story of the pornstar/director's girlfriend, as she progresses from one of his high school recruits to pornstar to jealous girlfriend watching on the sidelines. it was quite good, but i can't see it playing at the festival. it had a few really graphic moments - not exciting, but just to show the sort of businesslike, no nonsense aspect of making a porno (bright lights, setting up the more splattery scenes, orchestrating scenes). illuminating, kind of depressing. but i can't see it playing the big screen at the AFI. :)

so that's that.

seeds, glorious seeds!

okay, so i just got the BEST package in the mail! my seeds! i ordered them back on the 5th, and have been complaining and griping about how slow this company was to ship... but my patience (or lack of) has been rewarded - the seeds came today! here is an exhaustive list:

Lincoln (garden peas)
Peppermint
Black Hungarian (peppers)
Hungarian Hot Wax (sounds like a kinky, possibly illegal hygienic treatment, but it's a pepper)
Golden Treasure (again, sounds kinky but it's simply a pepper...)
Mini Red Bell (pepper)
Purple Plum (pepper)
Five Color Silverbeet (Chard)
Zuccino Rampicante (zuccinni)
St. Pierre (tomato)
Egg (tomato)
Bloody Butcher (tomato)

I ordered from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, based on a recommendation from a gardening blog that I read. I think I love this company. Cheaper than Behnke Nursery, by far, plus Baker Creek delivers. I had ordered, in addition to the list above, sugar peas and parsley - but apparently they ran out of stock before they filled my order. Instead of refunding my debit account, they sent back 4 dollar bills stapled to a little envelope containg a quarter! my change! $4.25! how sweet. plus a little note of apology AND two free packets of seeds!!! sunflowers and something called Lemon Cucumber. yahoo! definitely worth the wait.

Already in the starting trays I have:

hollyhocks (sprouting already)
marigolds
scallion
mammoth melting sugar (peas)
dill
poppies

I've already planted some spring mix and other various lettuces outside. Somehow, lettuce turned into a perennial without notifying me. I have several renegade patches that sprouted back up in late november. who knew? well, maybe you knew that lettuce could do that. but i didn't.

if you've seen my backyard, you might be questioning my sanity or my grasp on reality. where the fudge am i going to fit all these plants?? well, i have one billion (approx.) containers and several large planters that i will use. plus some creativity in the yard area. i have plans. oh yes. plans. in addition, i am factoring in the plant death-rate that i have established through the years. i do very well during the beginning. then in late may, when i leave for a week, about 1/2 of the populations perishes either in a freakish heat wave or drowns in a freakish deluge of precipitation. so there's that.

oh! and i managed, for the first year, to NOT kill my Giant Moonstone Goldenlorious Trumpet Vine (not really it's name - but it is something dramatic like that. i just can't remember offhand.) i buy a small one each year at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival - not cheaply, at $7 per little sprout. each year i am similarly inspired by the giant potted version that the vendor displays - it reaches easily 6 feet tall, covered in lovely golden-yellow trumpet flowers. each year it grows nicely through the summer... i bring it in when the cold fall begins... then i forget about it until sometime around christmas, when it is long-since dead. not this year! i've kept it alive (barely) through thick and thin - even through our poor baby kitty using it as a litter box for a week. i hope i didn't speak too soon and kill the durn thing before spring really arrives.

i also hope that the aforementioned kitty doesn't get curious and dig up all my seedling whilst i am away at work. well, i've always wanted a pair of kitten mittens. no time like the present!