Friday, June 29, 2007

Zucchini update

He weighed in at 4 lbs. 1.5 oz.
He's tall for his age: 15"!
I don't really have a basis for comparison on this measurement, but he's 12.5" around the thickest part.

We didn't cut him open yet though. Giving him a little more time to enjoy this world in one piece.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

My Zucchini Monster is Bigger than Yours

Behold what my sneaky garden plot was up to while I was busy packing up the old apartment and moving to the new one.



What an impressive beast. In the picture below, it's hiding most of my right thigh. But truthfully, the zucchini is actually closer to the size of my calf in thickness.

A little bird told me that there was a giant zucchini sitting in my plot and that the neighbor gardeners were buzzing about it. I saw it for myself last night when I went to water and after taking the necessary photos, I snipped it from its mama. My hunch was that because of its size and firmness, it wouldn't taste very good. Also I figured it was probably eating its siblings to death - meaning, the plant was ignoring the other budding (now shriveled) fruits by putting all of its energy into this one star child. Imagine if human families actually did that? haha.
So I cut it loose in the hopes that the rest of the plant would recover enough to give me some edible squash a little later.

Today at work I found this helpful article that only confirms my suspicions:

"Because summer squash develop very rapidly after pollination, they are often picked when they are too large and overmature. They should be harvested when small and tender for best quality. Slightly larger fruit may be salvaged by hollowing out and using them for stuffing. These larger fruits may also be grated for baking in breads and other items. Do not allow summer squash to become large, hard and seedy because they sap strength from the plant that could better be used to produce more young fruit. Pick oversized squash with developed seeds and hard skin and throw them away. Go over the plants every 1 or 2 days. Squash grow rapidly; especially in hot weather and are usually ready to pick within 4 to 8 days after flowering."

Tonight's plan:
  • Weigh and measure the monster
  • Cut it open.
  • Decide if it will be reincarnated into zucchini bread.
  • Gloat some more to PrincessSara

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Not a master update

Most of you are pretty caught up on the blog-worthy things in my life right now. Let's say I try a new format where I DON'T try to cram everything into a master monthly post w/ bullet points and photos... I don't need that kind of pressure.

By far the biggest thing on our plate right now is moving to a new apartment. After a draining 3-week apt-hunting process, we found our new home in my old neighborhood. It's a few streets down from where I lived from 2004-2005, before Erich moved to DC. The new place is kind of a trade-off.
This is what we're gaining:

  • guaranteed private parking (we're currently in Kalorama. Some of you realize what that means in terms of parking)
  • a ginormous deck!
  • gas fireplace
  • huge new kitchen
  • jacuzzi tub
  • an extra room (they call it a bedroom, I call it a den*...)
  • sorry, I guess I couldn't quit the bullet points cold-turkey.
And the trade-off part:
The neighborhood. Right now we live in a beautiful oasis of a neighborhood, walking distance to a bunch of friends. The new neighborhood is a lot rougher (but probably more colorful and interesting) and will make it tough to have spontaneous meet-ups with friends.

While it's been bittersweet packing up our belongings in our first home, we're really excited about the new place - neighborhood and all. And I've grown an unhealthy attachment to the deck. Since the new bedroom is on the small side (put that under the trade-off category), I've decided I'm willing to camp out on the deck. Although, I don't think the alarm system covers the exterior so Erich may not like this idea.

I'm feeling very lazy so I won't be putting any pics into this post - you've seen them all already since most of you probably realize that I update flickr way more than blogger. Oh, but I will draw your attention to a fantastic example of how deep my dorkiness goes.

Thanks to Google Sketchup we've managed to waste an obscene amount of hours constructing this 3-D model of the new apartment, complete with our furniture arranged the way we think we want it. Why did we learn this free program from scratch, measure most of the dimensions in the new apt. as well as almost all of the furniture we own? Well, I imagine that, "because we wanted to make sure everything fit" wouldn't be a sufficient answer. I think a closer approximation of the truth would have to include the word "addiction". I should also add that there was even an excel spreadsheet to store all those measurements.
Yes, we both became hopelessly addicted to this program. Thank god I can't come up with many more uses for it other than playing around with furniture arrangements and apartment layouts.
I expect similar levels of dependency to develop once I get my invite to Ravelry.

We're picking up the moving truck on Monday, probably on the way home from the airport after we fly back from a weekend in Rhode Island. I miss the ocean!


* We also call this this room the brewery, study, craft room, and guest room