1998

Whoa, Natalie Imgruglia's "Torn" just came on my Pandora station. This weird wave of high school nostalgia just washed over me. Isn't it cool how music can do that to you?

3 pieces of random

1. I have this really weird desire to see Becoming Jane as soon as it comes out. It's just because of that girly preview with the Dido song. It got me.
   
2. I've never been a bath person, but the tub at our new place is slowly converting me. I rewarded myself for cleaning last night with an awesome bath: some candles, lamp brought in for reading, Three Bags Full (a sheep murder-mystery seems to mesh very well with bathtime), lavender bath salts, Dido in the background (there she is again)...
3. I often stir my coffee at work with the end of a ballpoint pen. That's ok right?

730 Days

Any guesses what that means?

Here's a hint: I do.

I love you E!

* Pretend this was posted yesterday

Bounty

I feel like life has lately become a blur of staying late at work and playing with dirt, seeds, and weeds.
Some highlights of the last couple weeks:

Fried Green Tomatoes

I accidentally snipped the wrong branch off one of my tomato plants, leaving me with 2 very large, green tomatoes. Not one to throw food away, I figured I should try my hand at fried green tomatoes. I never would have really considered it if it weren't for some recent inspiration. I read online that you can either use breadcrumbs or cornmeal. I chose the latter and used it as a topper on an english muffin with fresh mozzarella. It was awesome. Now I sort of get what all the fuss was about - I'm converted.

Zucchini update: the whole thing went to zucchini bread. 4 loaves to be exact.

Knitting - no knitting update because I am sneaky and like secrets. But here is some crafty eye candy just because.

A friend of ours had a going away party before she left for law school in Chicago. I etched these glasses to help her remember where we all live, so there's no excuse for not coming back to visit. Well, I might accept the excuse that law school is sucking her soul and she needs to use all free time for catching up on weeks of lost sleep.
While we're on the subject, I'd like to declare a moratorium on friends signing up for law school. It's a little passé. And its making me feel like I'm missing out on some awesome sale or something.

More food-from-the-garden update:

(Wow, this post is really poorly organized.)
So, on Friday I was excited to get to the garden cuz a little birdie told me that she had noticed one of my tomatoes getting red. Yay! First tomatoes of the season. And even better - my first homegrown tomatoes ever!

Unfortunately, my plot had some unwelcome guests before I could get to the garden. The first red tomatoes - all 4 of them - had to be thrown on the compost pile because they were all half-eaten. I assumed it was the work of rats but several neighbors told me that the birds start attacking the tomatoes as soon as they turn red. My favorite neighbor-gardener, Juan, recommended I pick all the orange tomatoes and let them ripen at home. This is very anticlimactic after putting so much work into the plants. I want to just pick the fully ripened fruit off the stem and be able to eat it on the spot! But it may be the only solution to beating the birds because I just can't get to the garden every day to pick them as soon as they turn red. By the end of the evening I got over my disappointment and even managed to scrounge up a mostly-red tomato which we sliced up for burgers that night. Delish!

And in case you like this kind of detail: the varieties that are ready for picking are the Old Time Tasty and the Better Boy. I'm still waiting on the Big Boy, Golden Boy, and Beefmaster. What's up with all these male-centric names?

The End.

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.

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
  

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