Whittaker's for Dinner

Had the Whittaker's over for dinner last night. They actually live closer to us in Indy, than they did in Strasbourg - so we should see a lot of them.

Winston is back home

Well, we were only home for a week or so, but then we went to pick up Winston, our little beast. For those of you who weren't following, we had Patrick's cousin, Samantha, take care of Winston while we were in France - and she did an awesome job.

We weren't too sure how Winston would do with a cat in the house, but he came through with flying colors. He's adjusting well to his original house, keep your fingers crossed.

Biking to work again

The tradition continues...

For those of you who followed my biking exploits in France, it will come as no suprise that I'm biking in the US now. OK, it should come as a surprise, because biking to work in Indianapolis is really not for the faint of heart.

Turns out that I could take streets directly to work and it's about six miles. Or I could go east a couple of blocks and pick up the Monon Trail and ride down to work mostly on that.

Given the fact that I am a concrete sandwich waiting to happen on the normal streets, I do the Monon - I also get to avoid the majority of the traffic lights, so it probably gets me to work sooner.

The building I'm working has a locker room in the basement, so changing for work is no big deal. I've been doing it for awhile now, and you run into (well, not literally) quite a few people on the trail when coming into work.

Not to sound preachy - but on the few days that I have to drive into work, I realize that riding the bike in is far superior. Even on those days when I'm tired and I don't feel like riding home, the trail is so flat, you can go at almost any speed.

Fruit and Nut trees are planted

I must have ordered these plants 8 months ago, after being inspired by the fruit variety of Patrick Emanuel's garden and Pierre Linger's family orchard - I think his family must have had 20 different variety of pears alone. But apparently I missed the Fall planting deadline, and they didn't ship them to me until a few weeks ago.

So this weekend, Patrick and I made it out to Hilary's place (the original address I gave them) and started our little orchard. We really don't have the space to put in six fruit and nut trees . . . yet . . . so Hilary is babysitting them for us.

The specific varieties are:
NORTH STAR PIE CHERRY (Prunus cerasus)
COMICE EUROPEAN PEAR (Pyrus communis)
SHIPOVA (Sorbopear) (Pyrus communis x Sorbus sp.)
STANLEY PLUM (Prunus domestica)
MARRON DI VAL DI SUSA GFT (Castanea sativa)
ALL IN ONE ALMOND (Amygdalus communis)
NORTHERN PECAN SEEDLINGS (Carya illinoisensis)

If there are any Wiccans out there reading this, do whatever prayer circle/Gaia Mother Earth woman blessings) to make sure these trees make it - I'll forward GPS coordinates. We can obviously get almonds, chesnuts, pecans, plums, pears, and cherries here in Indy (in fact, all year round in the baking aisle); but they tend towards one generic variety that appeals to all 260 million US citizens at one time and are easily shipped. Not the best if you want to actually enjoy them.

I consider this the experimental lot, once we have them survive a couple of winters, then I'll get serious.

Hellebores

I should probably come up with the Latin names for these plants, but I'll leave that to Hilary in the comments.

You know the start of gardening has begun at our house when the hellebores bloom, and they are up. Since these were blooming when we arrived back from France, we just kind of missed the whole end of Winter thing.

We probably first put them in about three years ago, and they are slowly starting to grow (no wonder they're so expensive). I'm tempted to call them the pouting plant because they also droop their blooms to the ground on a good day. On a bad day they resemble Winston's tail when he gets in trouble.

Wade bought a Jetta

Yep, finally broke down and replaced my old Mazda Miata, Lucille.

It took awhile (like three months) to find Volkswagen Jetta TDI (Diesel) with package 2. Of all the bells and whistles on this car, the only one I insisted on was memory seats - so when Patrick puts the seat all the way up (he's #2), I can readjust with just a push of the button.

Of course, car companies don't let you pick individual things, so I had to go with a package. Also kind of nice that it comes with navigation, and a cool steering wheel.

Not sure if it's because people in the US don't like diesels, so we don't get a lot of them. Or they are in such high demand in the US because of our current gas prices. But it turns out that only 9 people in the continental United States were actually selling such a car.

Patrick bought a truck

Ah, the cash flow issues caused when you have to buy two cars back to back...

After much searching (and a little fighting), Patrick bought a truck. Although some would argue that "Honda" and "Truck" are two words that should never be uttered in the same sentence - they would be REALLY wrong. Turns out this model was ranked the best Truck of the Year by someone reputable - and it's no surprise really. Lots of nice features, solid truck - it drives comfortable, but you can still feel the power.

IT also has lots of toys - like navigation and a hidden trunk.

New Topic: Food

If there is one thing I miss in France more than anything else, it would have to be the food. Not the recipes (those are easily stolen from marmiton.org), but just the food - its quality, how we eat it, how we prepare it - basically, how we respect it.

No doubt the next couple months will be focused on finding as many sources as possible - be it co-ops, markets, or growing it ourselves.

For more posts like this, look for a label containing "Food"

New Topic: Garden

The available growing space in our french apartment was 5 pots. If you remember in the spring we planted two tomato plants and some herbs and that was it. Although we had a break from mowing, weeding, and general maintenance, I did miss our garden.

Now with us back after a long absence, we need to reacquaint ourselves with it. Special thanks to Hilary for keeping such good care of it.

Although we considered our growing space extremely limited BEFORE leaving for France, we realize now that there are tons of places to grow stuff - many of which will be vegetables and fruits. I figure I can grow at least 24 pots in the flower boxes alone.

See posts with "Garden" in the label for more on this topic.

New Topic: House

The house was due for a major overhaul before we left for France, and not being there for 18 months didn't help. So needless to say, our last month has been filled with home improvement projects, which will probably continue for at least a year. NB: I do have a project plan, but it kind of scares Patrick, so I just keep it to myself.

Look for any posts with "House" as a label.