The Unexpected

Maybe I haven't paid close attention, but before I got pregnant, I only knew about a few typical symptoms of early pregnancy.  There's morning sickness, of course -- which I knew didn't have to be limited to mornings, and didn't necessarily have to end after the first trimester.  And then I knew your boobs got bigger and very sensitive.  And I knew that during the first trimester, women tend to be very tired in the afternoons. 

Well, I got incredibly lucky with the morning sickness -- I had 3 or 4 incidents where, out of the blue, I would suddenly think I might throw up, but after a minute or two of some serious burping, I would be fine.  But my mom didn't have any morning sickness when she was pregnant with my sister, and I tend to take after her when it comes to women stuff, so I had been prepared for that.  My boobs didn't get a lot bigger, but they were definitely sore.  And I sure did want a nap in the afternoons!

But there are a bunch of other symptoms that no one warned me about.  In fact, in some cases, I wouldn't have even known they were connected to my pregnancy if it wasn't for my copy of What to Expect When You're Expecting.

Thirst
I knew that you needed to stay hydrated during your first trimester, but I had no idea how thirsty I would be all the time!  It got to the point where I made sure to walk around with a water bottle in my hand at all times, so I wouldn't be constantly looking for a water fountain.  I looked like some kind of eco-conscious fitness fanatic.

Peeing
Yeah, it seems like a logical conclusion that, if you are drinking all the time, you will be peeing all the time.  But I seemed to be peeing out twice as much as I was putting in!  I expected to have a tiny tank at the end of my pregnancy, but not at the beginning.

Gas
Yup, not only would I look like a water buffalo soon, I get to start smelling like one right away.

Stuffy Nose and Nosebleeds
Considering the time of year, I started thinking I had a cold, but a very mild one.  Then I noticed it seemed worse in bed, so I thought maybe it was allergies.  Then when I'd blow my nose in the shower in the morning, I'd often see a spot of blood, which is really strange for me -- I have never had a full-blown nosebleed in my life.  Turns out, all my mucous membranes are swelling and softening right now, as my cervix starts prepping for this kid to get here.  It's bad enough when my nose decides to get involved when I eat spicy food -- now it's got to try copying my cervix, too?

Popping Ears
Even though T has a CPAP machine now, I am still in the habit of wearing earplugs every night.  I noticed that one of my ears started making popping noises when I would yawn or swallow.  I worried that it was an ear infection, but there was no pain or pressure.  Shouldn't have worried -- apparently, my eustacian tubes are trying to copy my nose and cervix.  Not very original.

Being a Klutz
I had heard of pregnancy brain, but not pregnancy hands.  I find myself dropping things more often than usual, which should mean that my reflexes are bad, but somehow, I can often catch them as they are falling.  So I'm like some kind of klutzy Catwoman.

The Dreams
I had heard of pregnant women having strange sex dreams, but I wasn't prepared for the fact that ALL of my dreams have been weird.  I'm someone who has a lot of vivid dreams to begin with, and I tend to look to them to see what is stewing around in my subconscious.  But these days, I just assume that my subconscious is playing Mad Libs, because nothing makes sense to me.

Did you have any other unexpected symptoms when you were pregnant?

Homemade Christmas Present Idea

I have been neglecting this blog since I got pregnant, but I thought I would post something I made recently, in case anyone needed a quick, inexpensive Christmas present idea.  I made these as a housewarming present for my sister, who is a rhino keeper at the North Carolina Zoo.  You can choose whatever you'd like for your theme.

I was trying to come up with a practical housewarming gift that she could use, and I thought of kitchen towels.  But I decided to personalize them by using fabric markers.

The whole process was pretty simple.  I went online and looked for free clip art of rhinos (I went for free clip art because I wouln't be violating any copyright laws, and I thought I could find simple line drawings that would be easy to transfer to fabric).  I found 4 .jpg images of 4 different species of rhino:

white rhino

black rhino

Javan rhino

Indian rhino

The pictures had a lot of detail, but I thought I could get the outlines traced simply.  Then I picked up flour sack kitchen towels (a pack of 5 at Shopco was under $5) because they were plain with a smooth fabric.  I went to Michael's and got an iron-on transfer pencil, fabric markers, and picked up a plain apron that they also had in the fabric section.  At home, I had the rest of the items I would need: pins, an iron and ironing board, the printed rhino pictures, and some sandpaper.  I also printed out a simple sun from my Word clip art to use as my test subject on the fifth towel, which would be mine.

Supplies

The process was pretty simple, if a little time-consuming due to the amount of detail in the pictures I had chosen.  I would hold the printed picture up to the window on our back door so that I could trace the design from the front of the paper onto the back with the transfer pencil (if you have a light table, it would do the same job without making your arms tired!).  Then I would go over the tracing again at the table, to make sure I had a good, heavy pencil line.  This required a lot of sharpening of the transfer pencil, to make sure I had a good line all the way around that didn't get too thick.

 

Next, I would cut out the paper design with a tab at the top, and use the tab to pin the design on the fabric, printed side up.  Having the printed design visible on the front made it easy to see exactly where it would be lined up.  I followed the directions for the transfer pencil, using a hot, no-steam setting on the iron and running over the design for a few minutes until it transferred, being very careful not to shift the paper while I was ironing.  With the pin holding it in place, it was easy to carefully turn up one corner to see if the lines were dark enough, without shifting the paper, and then go over it some more if necessary.  I used the white rhino twice, once on a towel and once on the apron, which just required going over the lines on the back of the paper with the pencil a second time, to make sure the design would transfer to a new piece of fabric.

Ironing the transfer

When it was done, the pink transfer lines on the fabric were still often a little faint, so having the picture to refer to made tracing the correct lines a little easier.  I would then pick the color of marker I wanted, and very carefully trace over the transfer lines on the fabric.  Smoothing the fabric over a piece of sandpaper before I started helped keep it from sliding around and bunching up as I worked.  I did need to keep an eye on the tip of the marker, which would eventually start to wear down and shed, making my lines less crisp.  But I could just pull off the loosened fuzz once near the end of each picture and that seemed to work just fine.  I would then go over the main outline of the design one more time with the marker, to make those lines a little heavier than the details.

Finished rhinos with front and back of paper showing

I even found, with my test design, that it was easy to color in the design with a second color, which didn't try to bleed outside the outline.

My colored-in sun

I let them dry completely overnight, and then, even though the markers said it wasn't necessary, I ran the iron over the designs again for a few minutes to try and heat set the colors, so they wouldn't fade in the wash.  To be safe, I ironed the backside of the fabric to make sure the iron didn't smear the ink, and put a piece of paper between my ironing board and the design, but the ink didn't transfer to the paper.  I haven't washed mine yet, so I don't know how well this process worked.

Heat setting the ink



So there you go: an easy, homemade Christmas project!  Even with the amount of detail involved in the rhinos, I got all five transfers plus my sun done in a long afternoon.  I imagine if you had a simple design to work with, it could all go very quickly.  It does require a steady hand, but that is all: no natural artistic talent is required. 

Me and Princess Kate

The fact that the royal couple, William and Kate, are expecting a child is all over the news these days.  I feel a little bit of a bond with Kate Middleton, because we were thinking about kids at the same time, and now we're both pregnant.

I remember reporters asking the couple, on the day they announced their engagement in November of 2010, about whether or not they would have kids.  I remember that Kate quickly looked down and away, while Prince William fielded the first question, and my heart just broke for her.  As the interview continued, she said something about hoping they would have a large family, and I imagined that she was thinking the exact same thing that I was.

T and I had gotten married in June, and people immediately started asking us about kids.  I was 35 and while T and I had always talked about having kids, I was worried that it might not be possible for me to get pregnant.  While Kate was only 28, I imagined that she had the exact same fears as I did, especially considering the weight of an entire nation expecting her to produce a royal heir.

Then the waiting game began.  For both of us.  Once they had been married, tabloids were constantly looking to see if Kate was drinking water instead of wine, holding something in front of her tummy to hide it, any sign they could imagine of a secret pregnancy.  We couldn't start trying right away, because we had decided on a scuba diving honeymoon in February 2011, and you can't dive if you're pregnant.  Then they day after we got back, I was laid off from my job, and our plans were put on hold again.  In the shock of my layoff, we missed the COBRA window, and had to wait another year before I could be added to T's health insurance.  Even when I found a new job, it was part-time, with no benefits.  And then, very fortunately, in October of 2011, T got a new job with good healthcare benefits, we were both on his insurance right away, and we could get started.

Almost.  Since I had been using an IUD, I had to wait two months after it was out before we could have unprotected sex, just in case.  A friend had started just a few months before us, and she got pregnant with her third child quickly.  I thought, ok, in 2-3 months, we'll be all set.

But we weren't.  Every 28 days, like clockwork, there was my period again.  Once we hit the 6 month mark, we went back to the doctor.  They did a bunch of tests, mostly on me (T got to have some fun with a little cup), and while there was some concern about the shape of my uterus for a little while, we both passed every single test they did with flying colors.  I finally had a conversation with a nurse, as she gave me my last set of test results over the phone, where she said once again all of the numbers said I was very fertile.  I asked, if that was the case, then why wasn't I pregnant yet?  She said there was a possibility that we were dealing with "unexplained infertility," and that I should make an appointment to meet with the doctor and see what would come next.

Was Kate going through all this at the same time as me?  I don't know.  Listening to an announcer this morning on the news, he theorized that Will and Kate intentionally waited until the Queen's Diamond Jubilee was out of the way, and then until the home they will be moving into in April was in good shape.  But he made it sound like getting pregnant is the equivalent of turning on a light switch -- and, as you can tell, it's not always that easy.  Perhaps they were waiting, maybe they were also counting days and using ovulations kits, or perhaps she was going through some of the same tests as me, wondering if she was ever going to have the child that a whole country was waiting for.

Faced with "unexplained infertility," I started to prepare for the worst.  T and I had given ourselves a year to get pregnant, and then we were going to assume that the Universe didn't want us to have kids.  We only had 2 or 3 months left on that deadline.  So I started mentally preparing for it to be just the two of us, and the two dogs, from here on out.

And then my period didn't come.  And when I peed on a stick, two lines appeared.  I called the doctor, who said the pee stick was proof enough, and set up a 10-week prenatal appointment.  This didn't seem like enough proof, so I peed on a second stick, just to be sure.  And then came the weeks of trying to convince myself that I was really pregnant.  I didn't have any morning sickness, just felt extra hungry and tired, and couldn't tell anyone yet, because we wanted to tell my family in person when we were going to see them at Thanksgiving.  We did get to see an ultrasound at the first visit, but it was just a little blob with a flickering heartbeat.  We couldn't even hear the heartbeat, because of its position.  It still wasn't quite real.

We flew to North Carolina for Thanksgiving, and finally told my mom, dad, and sister over dinner.  Everyone started calling friends and family, and suddenly, with the news spreading like wildfire, it started feeling a little bit more real. 

Then, yesterday, I went in for a screening designed to check for spina bifida, Down's syndrome, and a condition known as Trisomy-18.  I told T he didn't need to take the time off work, because we had our regular prenatal appointment on Wednesday, and I thought it was going to be a pretty routine test.  But the ultrasound to check for the baby's nuchal translucency (the thickness of a fold of skin at the back of the neck, used to diagnose Down's syndrome) was far more than I expected.

Right away, there was a little profile on the screen, looking exactly like a baby!  All of my expectations for this came from movies -- mom and dad both look at the screen, holding hands, and then look at each other lovingly.  But in all of those scenes, the baby is just sitting there.  This little one was moving all over the place!  It was kicking and wiggling around, responding to the push of the ultrasound probe.  I could see tiny hands going up to the face, several times.  At one point, it flipped over and turned its back to us, like it was tired of being bothered by the papparazzi.  And while I was lying there, amazed that this little creature was actually inside of me, I didn't have anyone to give that long, significant look to.  It was just me and the tech, who was very friendly, but was pretty matter-of-fact about the whole thing.  She found the heartbeat right away, and for just a few seconds it filled the room.  At the end she took a few pictures and handed them to me, and then we were done.  Once she left, while I waited for the genetic counselor to come back in, I took a picture of the last frame that was showing on the screen with my phone, while trying to keep it together and not cry, and sent it to T at work.  Based on the little blob just a few weeks before, I simply hadn't been prepared for that!

And then I got home, to the news that Kate was pregnant and in the hospital with a severe form of morning sickness.  And there was that little bit of imaginary kinship again.  I'm sorry that she got my morning sickness on top of her own, and I know that she is a few weeks behind me.  But we'll be going through this pregnancy together.  And hopefully she'll have that same sense of absolute wonder the first time she sees her little one dancing around inside her.

And now it's not just real that I'm pregnant, but it's becoming more real that I am having a baby.  I know that sounds like the same thing, but there is a difference in focus -- as someone who is pregnant, the focus is on me.  As someone having a baby, the focus is on it.  And so last night we finally picked a nickname for this little one -- Peanut.

My cell phone pic -- Peanut's profile on the upper left

The Garden Returns

Since the temperatures have begun to drop into the 80s and even sometimes the 70s during the day, our garden has had a bit of a resurgence.  The zucchini has slowed down, but it is still producing a few a day.  The cucumbers have started blooming again and putting out fruit, but it is still very bitter -- I'm not sure how to stop that.  We have a ton of green tomatoes on the vine, and I am pinching blossoms to encourage the existing tomatoes to ripen, which they are doing a little at a time. 

 

In addition to the new produce being put out by the plants, it is finally time to start harvesting the melons and squash I've been keeping an eye on all summer long.  That yellow splotch on top of the honeydew melon is the sign that this fruit is ripe, and it was ripened on the vine.  We cut into it last night, and it was one of the best melons I've ever had -- sweet and succulent.  You could smell the fragrance throughout the kitchen.  I have a smaller melon that I'm letting go just a little bit longer before we harvest it.  And the Hubbards are rock-hard, which is apparently the sign that they are ripe.  I have some on the vine that are just starting right now -- I don't know how they are going to ripen in a few short weeks when these babies sat on the vine all summer, but we'll see how it goes.  We did have some very small heads on the one broccoli plant that didn't get infested with aphids, but they were really bitter too, so I finally pulled it.

 

I think that I'll be baking another mock apple crisp with the zucchini I have right now.  The last one went over really well at work.  This is the recipe I used before, which calls for 8 cups of chopped zucchini and a 9x11 inch pan.  I used some really large zucchini that I had harvested late, thinking that the extra-firm flesh would work well in an apple recipe, and it did.  I'm going to try it again in an 8x8 inch pan, halving the recipe, and with some smaller squash, but I think it should work pretty well.

 

We also got collard greens in our Bountiful Basket this week.  I know the traditional southern version involves stewing them with a ham hock, but I don't have one of those.  Instead, I'm going to try this recipe for pasta with collards and tomato sauce that I have all the ingredients for.  There's still a lot of bacon involved, so I think we'll be in good shape.  *smile*

Good Teachers

I know I'm a little late on my weekend post, but I slacked all day on Saturday (much needed) and then needed to make up for it on Sunday.

Since the Chicago teacher's strike has been in the news, and people have been talking about teaching, I thought I would add my two cents, from the point of view of a teacher at a for-profit professional college.

It seems as though people are looking for an easy way to say, "This student is learning," or "This teacher isn't doing a good job."  They hope that a standardized test can answer those questions clearly and objectively.  If a student does better on a test, then she is learning; if a teacher's students consistently score low on those tests, then he should be dismissed.  But I just don't think it can realistically work that way.

There are many ways to test students, and each student will respond differently to different testing methods.  Some overthink their way through multiple choice, others panic and can't recall information they know when faced with a short answer or essay.  Some students express themselves easily in writing, and others struggle to put their thoughts into words.  So no single, "objective" test that only uses a small set of testing methods can capture all the knowledge that a child, or adult, has understood and absorbed. 

On the other hand, I don't think a single metric can objectively decide whether a teacher is effective.  Could you take a test that would determine whether or not you were a good parent?  Sure, some behaviors like abuse clearly fall into the "bad" category.  But what single behavior guarantees that you are "good"?

I have always taught in a college environment, not in primary schools, so the evaluation methods have been pretty standard.  Look at students' grades to see if a reasonable number are passing, sit in on classes in order to evaluate a teacher's methods in class, and ask students for feedback.  While these three measures can give you an feel for the situation, if you rely on any single measurement by itself, the information you get could misrepresent the instructor's abilities. 

First, if students have not been adequately prepared in prerequisite classes, then failure rates might not be an accurate representation of the teacher's skills.  On the other hand, if the instructor lowers his or her standards, students may pass easily without learning much.

Class evaluations can be inaccurate as well, especially if you are sampling only a portion of a class period.  A teacher may have touched on all the necessary elements of a class, but the observer misses some by only seeing a small window.  Or, conversely, knowing that the observer is present may cause the teacher to change her accustomed methods in order to make a better impression during observation.

Asking students for feedback is, I think, fairly effective over a large sample.  But in any given class, the sample is too small.  Students who are better prepared coming in, who are more interested in the subject, who are more motivated, and therefore who are likely getting the best grades, are most likely to give positive feedback.  Students on the other end of these scales, who do not take personal responsibility for their actions, and therefore are likely getting low grades, are much more likely to be negative.  I know that reading my student feedback as a TA felt like I was facing someone with rapid-cycling bipolar disorder; the messages would often literally alternate, "She sucked!" "She was always really helpful." "She had no idea what she was doing," "I wouldn't have passed the class without her!"

In my particular niche of the educational world, the above three assessment tools are used on instructors, but one trumps them all: the attrition rate.  Teachers who lose a certain percentage of students in a given time period are in big trouble when it comes to holding on to their jobs.  And it doesn't matter if the student dropped only one teacher's class, or dropped out of school completely.  It doesn't matter why they say they dropped.  It doesn't matter if they dropped week 3 or week 10; all that matters is that they are gone.

Yes, I am dealing with a high attrition rate right now at my school.  I have been counselled by my supervisors, and have had to come up with a plan to address these rates.  My supervisors think that I am a good teacher, and always give me positive feedback on my classroom assessments.  I get positive feedback from the students in my classes, and the majority of my students pass.  But in the eyes of the corporate office, I am a problem instructor.

Sometimes there is absolutely nothing I can do to convince a student to stay in my class.  I have had students without health insurance who lose access to the medications that maintain their mental health.  I have had students who struggle with homelessness and drug abuse.  Students who are told they must choose between school and their jobs.  Students who can't afford childcare.  Students who need to leave school to care for an ailing spouse or relative.  Students who change programs mid-term and no longer need to take my class.  My teaching skills have absolutely no effect on those decisions.

Students tell me again and again that they want to take a second class from me, that they in fact specifically ask to be in my class again because they like my teaching style.  Even students who have failed or dropped my class will ask to take it from me again!  This has happened to me multiple times.  To me, that is a better measure of my abilities as a teacher than my attrition rate.  But I guess I shouldn't encourage it, because if the same problem, or even a new one, gets in the way of that student continuing in my class the next time around, then she counts against me twice.  I am put in a position where it is in my best interest to either talk students out of being in my class during the drop period, or trying to convince them to stay, even when they clearly have personal problems that will prevent them from learning the material and passing the class.  That feels more like a "bad teacher" than the alternative.

So here is the bottom line: no one measurement is going to tell you whether or not a teacher is doing a good job, or if a student is learning.  That's why there are so many ways to assess students' and teachers' skills.  If we use a number of them with care over time, eventually we should be able to figure it out.  But just like anything else in school, you are going to need to work hard to make sure you understand what is really going on.

Getting the Wedding on the Wall

T and I have been married a little over two and a half years, and I just finally got our wedding portrait.  It was one of those things that felt like a luxury, that we didn't really NEED, and so I just hadn't gotten around to ordering it.  I finally did order it a few weeks ago, and I managed to find 10 minutes to put it on the wall this weekend.

As a surprise for our first anniversary, my mother also had all of our wedding vows printed on the same paper that we used for our invitations.  That took up several pages, but the last page had our names and wedding date and an Apache wedding blessing that was part of our ceremony, so I framed that page to put under the portrait.

AN APACHE WEDDING BLESSING

 

Now you will feel no rain,

for each of you will be shelter for the other.

Now you will feel no cold,

for each of you will be warmth for the other.

Now you are two persons,

but there is only one life before you.

Go now to your dwelling place,

to enter into the days of your life together,

and may your days be good and long upon the earth.

 

The portrait I picked was in black and white, and the printer had a metallic paper that really adds a nice dimension to the photo.  It also fits with the blessing, since our wedding colors were silver and white.

So here's how it looks on the wall, next to our pictures of family and friends:

The photo is from our first dance. Somehow, I think the pose complements the meaning of the poem.

Maybe in another couple of years I will finally get around to getting my wedding dress cleaned and preserved!

Hunger, Peaches and Leeks

This weekend we rented the movie The Hunger Games.  I thought T would sleep through it; he didn't pay close attention, but he did watch.  I think the movie was just fine -- not awful, but not spectacular.  Since so much of the book is driven by Katniss's internal thoughts, I knew it was going to be difficult to get much of the drama across.  I'm not even sure how clear it was to viewers that she is initially playing along with the lovebird storyline for the sake of survival, then begins to actually feel something for Peeta, and finally comes home unsure of her feelings for both Peeta and Gale. They also tamed down quite a bit of the horror of the Games, making the psychological impacts of the experience much less obvious.  I mean, in Hollywood, people kill each other all the time, so why should this girl be scarred for life?  The horrific tracker-jacker hallucinations about Glimmer are gone, I never got the impression that either Kat or Peeta were truly close to death, the creepiness of the Mutts mirroring the personalities of the other contestants is left out -- I don't think they even come off as that scary -- and, finally, Cato's torture is cut mercifully short.  I understand this was probably done for the sake of getting a larger audience of kids, and I don't typically complain that my movies aren't violent enough, but those experiences are the ones that continue to haunt Katniss through the remaining books, so it seems as though you need to get those ideas across somehow.

The actual casting was pretty good, in my opinion.  Rue wasn't much of an actress, but she was so young and was given such a small part, that is forgiveable.  Haymitch should have been a lot heavier than Woody Harrelson, but he does a good job in the role.  I feel like Katniss was cast well, since she is supposed to be a girl with a short temper who doesn't emote well, but Peeta should have been more classically tall, blonde and handsome -- they got the nice guy part right, but not the gorgeous-and-he-doesn't-know-it part.  All in all, however, it was a decent movie adaptation of a decent book.  MUCH better than the Twilight series attempts.

That night, I made my first ever peach cobbler.  We got a case of peaches along with our basket last week, and since I'm not a big fan of the fuzzy little guys, T has been having a hard time keeping up with them.  I found Paula Dean's recipe which was quick and easy.  The hardest part was blanching, peeling, and slicing the buggers, and that wasn't even that hard.  You melt butter in a big baking dish, pour in a very simple batter (I looked up online how to turn all-purpose flour into self-rising, by adding the right amounts of baking soda and salt), then you put the peaches on top and bake.  I pulled it out of the oven just before bed, and we had it for breakfast.  It was a little too sweet for my tastes, and a bit gooey, but T said he liked it, and that's what really counts.

The other high point of the weekend was a batch of potato leek soup, made by yours truly this afternoon, another first for me.  We got a pair of fat and lovely leeks in our Bountiful Basket this week, along with some gorgeous white potatoes, so it was a natural choice.  I got the recipe out of our trusty Joy of Cooking, and it was also quite simple.  I only had 2 leeks, so I tried to halve the recipe, but then I sliced too many potatoes, so I guessed on the volumes for everything.  I sweated the sliced leeks in butter for about 20 min, then added the thin-sliced potatoes, 4 cups of water (enough to cover the potatoes), and the appropriate amount of Better Than Bouillon chicken stock base.  That should have simmered for about 30 min., although in my case it was longer, because it took me a while to realize the "low" setting on my electric stove didn't sustain an actual simmer.  Then I added some salt and black pepper, and threw it in the blender to puree (just like a Top Chef!,  I was thinking to myself,  If only I had an immersion blender...).  The stroke of genius was topping it with bacon crumbles -- not in the recipe, but it definitely put it over the top!  It was good enough for T to have 2 bowls, and it disappeared too quickly for pics.  I may actually have to buy some leeks if they don't show up in our basket again.

We had a party!

This weekend, to celebrate Memorial Day, we had a barbecue at our house.  We invited four couples and their kids -- a first grader, three toddlers, a one year old, and two infants.  We managed to score a patio set on clearance, and stocked up on food and drinks.  Unfortunately, we still didn't have any toys for the kids to play with, but we did have two very cute dogs, and they would have to do.

Cara was fascinated by the babies -- she sniffed them when they arrived, followed them around as they scooted along the patio, and ran over to give them kisses when they fell down and cried.  Diezel was generally happy to be petted and hugged, and he spent a lot of time chasing shadows and flashies.

For the spread, we had chips and salsa, and a warm artichoke spinach dip in a bread bowl to start.  Then I grilled chicken marinated in Italian dressing, and marinated steak.  I also grilled asparagus and corn on the cob, and made macaroni salad.  Our guests brought roasted potatoes, a great Greek salad, and three different, delicious pies.  It was really delicious!

I forgot to take pictures,
so here are some strangers playing cornhole

It was our first time having people over to the house since we moved in, and we had a really good time.  It was nice getting to know some of the people T works with now a little more, and it was also great getting to catch up with old friends that he used to work with.  The kids managed to stay entertained by running races, coloring, and playing games that were brought from home.  One of the guests brought a beanbag toss game called cornhole -- no, I'm not kidding -- to keep the guys amused too.

Now we have a lot of leftover food, and even more leftover beer.  We also have a box of Capri Sun juice boxes and some fruit rollups.  I remember them being better when I was a kid, but oh well.  It was so much fun, I think we're going to need to have another barbecue sometime soon!

Zucchini Flowers

School is depressing right now -- too many students missing too many classes, not doing their assignments if they do come, not paying attention to the directions, and in a few cases, cheating, has me depressed.  I'm starting to wonder if assigning less homework would mean I would get more turned in.

But the garden is doing pretty well.  The zucchini blossoms are beautiful, and we have honeydew melons and hubbard squash that are getting close to harvest time.  Our cucumbers are really bitter, though -- I have to read up on what might be causing that.  Too little water?

Anyway, for now, here are some pictures for you to enjoy.



Zucchini blossoms

I wish I had the guts to try frying these -- I hear they are an Italian delicacy!

A bee doing her job

Honeydew hiding

Hubbard with squash blossoms

Chocolate zucchini bread!

I think I may have mentioned on here once or twice that we kinda have zucchini coming out our ears right now.  So I knew I needed to start looking up more zucchini recipes, when all of a sudden I remembered the existence of zucchini bread, and even better, chocolate zucchini bread!  It seemed like a great way to 1) get rid of a bunch of zucchini, and 2) bring some of it to work in a form that would be highly likely to be eaten.

I surfed around a bit online, and came upon this recipe, which looked perfect: not only did it promise to use more zucchini per batch than most, I also had all the necessary ingredients in the pantry, since I used up all our oil making tempura zucchini a week ago, and this recipe calls for melted butter instead of oil.

I was very excited about the prospect of using 4 cups of zucchini, but then I realized the recipe was for 2 loaves, and we only own one loaf pan -- so I'd only be able to use 2 cups at a time.  In fact, I grated a single zucchini that had stayed on the plant a little too long, which made the full 2 cups, so I didn't use quite as many as I'd hoped, but no matter how many individual squash I end up using in a batch, it still means there are less in the fridge!

I screwed up the first batch by not reading the directions carefully -- I forgot that the sugar doesn't go with the dry ingredients, it gets creamed with the eggs, so I had to toss one batch of dry ingredients.  This recipe also gave me an excuse to use the Kitchenaid mixer I got as a wonderful wedding gift from my aunt, that mostly collects dust on the counter.

When all was said and done, we had a lovely, dark loaf of chocolate cake that was hiding a ton of shredded zucchini inside:

Now, I used some cocoa powder I had on hand, which didn't specifically say bittersweet, so it felt like it needed a little punch -- the original recipe says chocolate chips are unnecessary, but I think they could have improved this loaf.  They were right about how moist it is, though -- dense and chewy, even 2 days later.  I found that ours got a little extra zing by spreading a little Brummel & Brown margarine on it, because the salty spread really compliments the sweet chocolate bread.  This was an easy, quick recipe, and I will definitely be making it again.

Garden Update II: Attack of the Killer Zucchini

Remember that cute little garden we started with, including the itty-bitty zucchini plant at the very front of the garden?

That little plant closest to the front is the zuke

Well, that itty-bitty zucchini apparently ate its vegetable Wheaties, and has now grown big and strong.  In fact, here's what it looks like now, at the front of the planting bed:

Yup, that huge mound of leaves at the front is the same zuke!

You can see from the empty spot at the front of the garden, we lost two cabbages to aphids, and I'm trying to save the last one, even though we discovered that we planted it waaaay too early, and it probably won't taste very good when all is said and done.  The broccoli is also supposed to be a late-season plant, but we're having a little better luck with those so far:

little baby broccoli hiding in the leaves

You'll notice that the tomato plants aren't very tall -- I'm not sure why exactly, I've already fed them once, and may try another round.  We haven't needed to get cages for them yet, that's how small they are.  We also are getting very, very little in the way of tomatoes, but I read that tomatoes won't set fruit when temperatures go over 95 degrees or so, and I suspect that's the problem for us this summer.  One of our cherry tomato plants give us about one tiny tomato a week.  Another one has had a smallish green tomato on the vine for over a week, and it doesn't seem to be going anywhere.

Two tomatoes this week -- a bumper crop!

I'm not sure why the planting instructions say you only need 6 inches between the vine plants, namely the cucumbers, squash, and melons.  They are all starting to spread out into a big, tangled patch, and I can't tell what is what.  Everything is flowering, and I'm hoping we'll get some good yield there.  I'm pretty sure this is a little baby cucumber getting started:

itty bitty cuke!

Obviously, the zucchini is the happiest thing in the garden.  I have to go out daily to get the zukes before they turn into tough, green baseball bats, and I have been getting 2-3 a day.  I am really glad I followed the advice I heard a few years back -- no matter how tempted you are, NEVER plant more than one zucchini plant!  We can't keep up with it, even after I cut up about six earlier this week and made a ton of zucchini tempura.

the current stockpile -- see how tiny those tomatoes are?

I fear that I am going to either have to start pawning zucchini off on my coworkers, or else I might need to make a mock apple pie with the stuff.  I did that back when I was in grad school and my roommates had a garden that was out of control, and it was surprisingly delicious.  If I do it again, I'll definitely let you know!

Bountiful Baskets surprise

We have been participating in a vegetable buyer's cooperative called Bountiful Baskets for the last few months.  You spend $15 for a large basket of fresh fruits and veggies, which unfortunately need to be picked up early on Saturday morning.  But there's a wide variety of goodies, including some things you wouldn't ordinarily buy for yourself.  So far, it's been a good investment.  In addition to the regular basket of veggies, you can also order loaves of bread, homemade granola, occasional themed veggie baskets (like Mexican or Italian), and there is usually a large quantity of a different fruit offered each week, I assume for canners.

Bowl 1

Bowl 2

This week, they were offering a sample box of plums, a total of 12 pounds or so.  That seemed like a lot of plums, but not so many that you had to get rid of them by canning them.  So we got it.  It turns out, there were a lot of them -- enough to fill my 2 biggest bowls! -- and it has been fun trying all the different varieties.  I think they yellow ones are my favorite so far -- they are especially crisp, almost like an unripe plum in texture, but they are quite sweet.  We also had a few purple apricots in the box, but they were packed on the bottom, so they were very bruised.

In our regular basket this week, we had butter lettuce, broccoli, yellow summer squash, carrots, raspberries, strawberries, more plums, table grapes, and four ears of corn.  I decided to make grilled corn on the cob with dinner last night, but I got quite a surprise when I shucked the ears.

They were red!  I have no idea what variety this is.  As it turns out, it didn't have a whole lot of flavor.  But the color would have definitely been eye-catching in some kind of corn salad.

Birthday party surprise

Yesterday was T's birthday.  We're pretty mellow about birthdays around here, but I wanted to do something nice for him.  So it occurred to me that I should surprise him by asking some of his friends to meet us for dinner.

I contacted one of our friends on FB, M, and realized that the last time I had written a message to her was last year, when I tried to get her and her husband to come to our house for a birthday cookout!  I think I gave them about 2 days' notice.  This time I was smarter and gave them a few weeks.

T decided that he wanted to go to Rodizio Grill, a nice Brazilian steakhouse.  If you haven't experienced one of these places, the idea is that, for a set amount, you get to choose from a large, unlimited salad bar with green salad fixings, but also assorted marinated salads, fruit, oddities like hearts of palm, pickled quail eggs, and faro, and side dishes like penne alfredo, mashed potatoes, rice, and baked beans.  Then waiters wander from table to table with large skewers of different kinds of meat, and they slice a piece or two of whtever they have for you at the table.  There are options like whole sirloin, pork loin, sweet and spicy chicken, wild boar, linguica sausage, and whitefish with red peppers.  A favorite that comes around on the skewers is grilled pineapple, which is really delicious.  On the table, you have little appetizer dishes of cinnamon fried bananas, fried polenta strips, and tiny cheesy muffins.  You can order drinks, and there are a variety of yummy deserts, too, if you haven't managed to stuff yourself silly by the end of the night.

We went to dinner at one of T's coworkers' house last weekend, and he invited them out to dinner with us.  I decided to go along, acting as if they would be the only ones coming with us, when I knew there were another 4-5 people that M had helped invite.  As it turned out, I was able to use the coworker invite to my advantage.  I wouldn't have bothere making a reservation for just T and I, but I was able to pretend I'd made a 6:15pm reservation for 4, when I really had a 6 pm reservation for 9.  T actually called M's husband, and he lied about not being able to come, which sold the surprise even more.  In the end, T's coworkers ended up not being able to make it, and I apologized several times for the fact that we were going out alone, so it was an even bigger surprise for him to turn the corner and find everyone at the table.  I was going to avoid their version of the tableside birthday song -- a large group of waiters singing in Portugese with a large drum to add to the noise -- but M's husband made sure it happened.

We chatted for a long time before, during, and after dinner, which was wonderful.  The SLC Rodizio is located in the Trolley Square shopping center, so we even went for a little walk and got some treats at the toffee shop afterwards.  It certainly wasn't elaborate, but it was a nice little surprise, and I think T really enjoyed it.

Happy birthday, babe!

Game of Thrones

When T and I went camping the weekend before last, I picked up the first book the the Game of Thrones series.  We've been watching the show on HBO for the past few seasons, and I have been meaning to pick up the source of the TV show.

I love comparing books to the movies or shows that are developed from them, but unlike some people, I prefer to read the book after I see the movie.  If I've just read (or re-read) the book, I spend the entire movie comparing notes, focusing on what they got right and what they got wrong, instead of enjoying the interpretation of the story.  But if I watch the story first, then the book provides all kinds of extra details and insights that you just can't cram into a movie or TV show, and I tend to appreciate what the writers have done to turn a book into a visual story.

I actually just finally got around to watching the movie version of Eat, Pray, Love.  I thought that they had drastically rewritten the plotline for the sake of the movie, but it had been years since I read the book.  When I dusted it off and read it again, I realized that it was my memory that was faulty, not the interpretation. It was also fun seeing how they turned the author's introspective musings into dialogue, and I definitely enjoyed rediscovering a good story.

I have really enjoyed the Game of Thrones show, and was looking forward to getting a deeper insight into the story, but so far it's not really happening.  The show follows the book very closely, and there aren't many extra plots twists or character developments that I didn't already know about.  It's still a  good story, and I'm enjoying it, but it hasen't had as many new insights as I expected.  I'm hoping there are still a few surprises in store, if not in this book, then maybe in the rest of the series.  Fingers crossed!

Camping

T and I are about to celebrate our second wedding anniversary this week, so we decided to go camping for the first time in our five-plus years together.  The planning stage was interesting, since we come from two very different camping backgrounds.

I went camping for the first time when I was about 5 or 6 with my best friend, Sara, and her family.  I remember staying overnight, roasting marshmallows, and sleeping in an RV.  The next time I went camping was when I was in college.  And then I think there was another gap of about 5 years before I went again.  I finally started camping on a regular basis when I was first living in California, as I hung out with my kayaker friends most weekends during the summer.  I learned to camp at this point in my life from a hardcore backpacker, so I was taught to take as little with me as possible, pick a spot in the middle of nowhere and camp for free, look down on RVs and campsites as not "real camping," and bring food that you can cook in a single pot on a folding backpacker's stove.

Cara keeping watch for squirrels

T, on the other hand, has had a lot of experience camping from childhood onward, and almost all of it in trailers, campers and fifth wheels.  His philosophy is, he loves the great outdoors, but why not be comfortable while you're there?  And, as it turns out, I think I like that philosophy a little better.  (Maybe it's because I'm not quite as young and tough as I used to be.)  We basically split the difference -- stay at a campsite, sleep in a tent, buy a comfortable air mattress, bring a borrowed two-burner stove and try to cook decent meals.

Marshmallows!

We drove up to a campsite near the Smith and Moorehouse Reservoir on Thursday afternoon, and found a nice spot that had a large clearing heading back from out parking area.  Fortunately the fire danger was set at yellow, so we could still have a campfire, as long as it was in the official fire ring. 

The creek

We set up our tent on a flat spot in the shade, and watched the dogs run in a triangle from tree to tree for hours as tiny, cute red squirrels told them off in turn.  Diezel was also chasing butterfly shadows (yes, he prefers the shadows to the butterflies themselves), and hunting flies and bees, which he snaps out of the air and kills with his front teeth.  Cara didn't care about the butterflies, but she was very concerned about the flies and bees -- she spent most of her time underfoot, tripping us as she tried to keep her butt protected up against our legs so the bugs couldn't land on it.  We don't know why she feels this way about bugs -- we've never seen her get stung by a bee, but it seems like one of them must have gotten her in the backside at some point, based on her paranoia about protecting her butt.  T and I hung out, reading our respective books, and then got some firewood from the campsite host.  T built a fire while I cooked us a one-pot dinner, and then for dessert we roasted marshmallows. 

The reservoir

And that was how we spent two days.  Reading, relaxing, chasing chipmunks and butterflies.  We did go down to the reservoir a few times and let the dogs splash around, and we also followed a trail that ran through our site and back to a creek that wound its way through the campground.  Diezel hurt his ankle as we walked along the creek, so he was a little more mellow the second day, but that was about it.  The nights were quite chilly, and our sleeping arangements weren't the most comfortable, so we were pretty sleepy by the second day, but otherwise it was splendid.

Diezel was cracking us up most of the trip with his chipmunk and butterfly antics, but the funniest moment was when he decided that he wanted to turn a pine sapling on the edge of camp into his bed.  He tried several times to ruck the poor thing's lowest branches into a shape that he wanted them to be in so that he could lay on them.  He was so funny, and tried it so often, we were actually able to catch it on tape.

Eventually he was successful, and we were able to immortalize that on camera too.

Diezel in his pine bough bed

Cara decided on day two that the safest place to keep her butt fly-free was the tent.  She started trying to shove her way in while it was zipped up in the morning, and after a family afternoon nap in the tent, we gave in and just left the lower corner of the door unzipped for her.  She would come out for a few minutes, and then something would touch her butt, and she would jump up, spin around, and run back into the tent.  Unfortunately, we didn't manage to get that on tape, but it was sadly hilarious.

But the best part of the trip was the unexpected wildlife.  Friday morning, while I was in the camp toilet, a baby moose wandered down the middle of the road.  As I came out, I saw a mom showing her kids something in the trees, but I didn't see a thing.  T got as good look, however, and was impressed by the little guy.  Then that evening, as we were sitting around reading, T all of a sudden turned to me and said, "Um...?"  When I looked over at him, a full-size moose was standing about 6 feet away from him.  It looked at us as if to say, "So sorry, I had no idea this site was already taken..." and then took off across the road and into the trees.  The dogs really wanted to chase it once it was going, but we managed to keep them back.  T said he and the moose were looking at each other in surprise for several seconds before he got my attention.  I only wish I could have gotten a photo of that!

Now we just need to figure out when we can go camping again.  And wonder to ourselves, what took us so long to go in the first place?

Garden Update

Well, it's been a month since we started our garden, and things are going pretty well.  We used grass clippings as mulch, as suggested by our local gardening extension.  It was slow at first, but I've seen some real signs of growth recently.

We have the first baby tomatoes making an appearance on one of our cherry tomato plants!

And the cabbages and broccoli are looking surprisingly good so far.  The zucchini is starting to really take off -- it's by far the happiest plant in the garden.

red cabbage

zucchini

Some of the plants seemed to be getting a little brown around the edges -- mostly the cukes and the hubbard squash, although it happened to some of the tomatoes as well.  I was afraid they were getting too much sun, but there's not much I can do about that.  I now know we picked some cool-weather veggies that just might not do well in our hot summers, with just a little morning shade from our fence.  And now some of those leaves look like there were getting nibbled on.  But the newer leaves seem to be in good shape, so I'm not too worried yet.

holey cucumber

squash



tomato leaves -- old and new

The biggest thing that confuses me is that there seem to be some major disparities in the sizes of plants of the same variety.  There were some differences when we planted them, I guess, but it just seems much more pronounced now.

broccoli plants

cherry tomatoes

I went ahead and fed them today, so I'm hoping to see a growth spurt soon.  I also adjusted the watering on the tomatoes, because I don;t think they were getting enough.  If anyone with more gardening experience wants to pass along some tips or let me know if we seem to be doing something wrong, please let me know!  *smile*

SLC Farmer's Market

So we finally made it to the SLC Farmer's Market and Arts & Crafts Fair this weekend, with the prompting of a few friends who invited us to come along with them.  It was bigger than any market I've been to before, and they actually do market it as an arts & crafts fair as well, which it certainly is. 

It's a little early in the growing season here, so there wasn't a lot of produce for sale, but there were plant starts and flowers, honey, and locally produced goodies like artisanal breads and bottled sauces.  But the farm offerings were definitely outnumbered by the booths of handmade jewelry, art, crafts, clothes and decorations.  There was a row of food stalls that included everything from Indian to Middle Eastern to pizza to crepes to Ecuadorean to Thai food, as well as a number of spots to buy something to stay hydrated.  We had Italian sausage sandwiches for lunch, which were grilled and then dunked in an amazing pesto sauce, and snacked on fresh, hot kettle corn, but the best thing we had all day was fresh mint limeade -- it was like a mojito, but without the rum.  Yum! 

There were performers, all wearing nametags that said "Official Busker," including a little boy of 8 or 9 playing the fiddle, a group of guys who have an upright piano that they haul around in a custom bike trailer, and a boy who was playing plastic buckets in lieu of drums.  There was a guy wandering around on stilts who made balloon animals for the kids.  And with a small dog park right next door to the market, there were tons of dogs, from a huge, shaggy wolfhound to a tiny, sleeping dachschund puppy.

I've been to a number of farmer's markets over the years, and the ratio of produce to prepared food to entertainment always varies.  In Arcata, CA, the outer ring of the Plaza is dedicated to produce from all the great farms in the area, including some flowers and plants, but the inside of the square is all about performers and people hanging out on blankets.  In Moscow, ID, there's a long double-row of produce, and a row of prepared food, with no entertainment that I can remember.  In Redding, CA, there was a single row of produce stalls sitting out in the baking sun.  Maybe it will be different later in the summer, but right now, this market felt like it was 90% craft fair, 5% food, and 5% farmers.

The other nice thing about this market was the variety of people who were there.  Living in the suburbs of SLC, it often starts to feel like everyone fits the conservative, white Utahn mold.  But the market definitely draws out the artsy-craftsy, hippie-dippy, earthy-crunchy element that makes up a big part of SLC's core.  And that always makes me feel a little more at home here in Utah.