Bonsai

Not sure why I'm getting back into this now that we will be leaving the US off and on for six months, but I'm intrigued again by bonsai.

Stopped by Cit E Scapes, since they appear to be one of the few places in the city that actually has some bonsai material and picked up what I think is a Chamaecyparis obtusa (Nana gracilis) - I really need to start saving the tags that come with the plants.

Anyway, it doesn't look like much now (haven't even trimmed it yet), but hopefully it should form into an upright formal thing in a couple of years. The pot it's in now is temporary - need a round one.

Native Dogwood is fruiting

I think I had a photo of the dogwood (Cornus racemosa) flowering a couple of months ago, so now I have it in fruit form. Again, a lovely little tree that has filled out nicely over the last five years. I think the birds are thankful for the food supply. It seems to be one of the few plants that scoffed at the drought this year and told Mother Nature "Is that the best you've got ?!!".

In contrast the hybrid dogwood that grows right next to this tree is looking more pathetic and worried than if Michael Vick were in a room with my friend Rebecca and Obie.

Clematis

Amazing what a little rain can do...

Now that our Indianapolis climate resembles something less than the Sahara Desert, a couple more things are popping out of the garden. This week the clematis bloomed - still not the best display, but better than the burnt grass (thank you Obie) and entire patches of blank-ness.

The good news about this whole drought thing is that the garden is about 80% native species, so they're used to this sort of thing. Although I've definitely had plants that struggled, most have survived.

Good buy on Apple

Let's just say I do not have the best timing in buying stocks. As a penniless student, I advised my father to buy Amazon in the early 1980's (he didn't, hence the reason I am working fulltime). I also was about to buy McDonald's several years ago, after it's stock fell so low that it's book value was greater than its market value. And finally, I advised my Dad to buy Apple stock (I was still penniless) 2 months post-Steve Jobs, when it was something pathetic like $10/share. For those of you who don't follow the market, it would have been a good buy.

Well, with the complete meltdown of the stock market due to the secondary mortgage debacle - Apple took a nose dive the last couple of weeks - to actually make it look attractive. Realizing if I bought the stock for myself, it would just tank faster. I decided to just buy it for Patrick (some liquid Roth money sitting around). Turns out it was a good buy - up about 20% from 10 days ago. Oops, it's going to tank now.

Genealogy

Ran across an article in the NYTimes about genealogy, and it pointed me to a new website out there for tracking your family's ancestors.

Although other genealogy software has been out there for some time, this Internet-based application allows you to easily share and network your family tree. Instead of having to take responsbility for the entire tree, you can send parts out to family to either add or see for themselves. Also if distant relatives are also using the software, you can search for them, and then add them to your tree. Kind of based on the wikipedia principle - the more people, the better.

Just to give you an idea on how fast your family tree can grow, in just 5 days we were up to 455 family members. With a little searching online, I was able to find my paternal grandmother's line going back to a Hugh Mahurin (1655-1718), who came over from Northern Ireland or Scotland. Of course, all this needs to be documented and proven, but it's quite fascinating in just the short time I've been doing it.

Dog Wash

Ran up to the ends of the Earth - otherwise known as Clay Terrace Shopping Mall in Carmel - for a Humane Society dog wash. Unfortunately, it was downpouring, which kind of put a damper (ba-dump-bump) on the whole dog washing thing.

But I did take Obie up there to see Auntie Becky. He's not really in love with the whole rain thing, so I practically needed to pull him out of the backseat. But after he realized that he could just stay underneath the umbrella - he was fine - the little twit.

GenCon in Indy

Ahhh . . . it's that time of year again . . . GenCon, the annual gaming convention, is back. Don't get me wrong, I don't actually go - I just sit on the Circle at lunch and see how easy it is to pick out the conventioneers.

Although my karmic debt is now off the charts from all the sanctimonious judgment that I allowed for myself, I'll take the hit for seeing one more 40 year old virgin (duh, told you I ran up quite a karma bill). Not too many people dressed as Obi Wan Kenobi (that's what happens when you're out of sequels and no new game releases), but we did see a lot of people that would pass for clients of the Leaky Cauldron. I must say I was a bit disappointed, because we never did see anyone who surpassed the woman dressed up as some Paladin replete with chainmail bra from a few years back.

Perhaps more disturbing was the realization that some people in the "Socialize not via a computer game? Is that possible?" crowd find GenCon'ers to be pretty amateurish. There are conventions for more specific aspects of gaming/fantasy - like anime that consider themselves to be the real geeks. Which is a bit of a logical quandry and self-esteem issue - how do you manage to be an outcast of other geek groups?

Just when you think the US has the diversity of a Golden Delicious Apple, you find a whole other world out there. Let me stop before, I am reincarnated as a protozoa.

State Fair 2007

Well, it's been awhile (I think 4 years), but Patty and I made it to the State Fair this year. For those reading this, who do not know what a State Fair is, I really can't do it justice on a blog - it's something you really need to experience first hand. However, we did make the NYTimes for our deep fried Reese's peanut butter cups.

The cheapness in me came through, so Patrick and I rode our bikes to the Fair to save $5 in parking. They also gave us a $1 off coupon for the entrance tickets - cool.

Besides making fun of people and counting how many people have mullets, the other past time is eating food that's really bad for you. In that spirit, we had a grilled cheese sandwich washed down with a chocolate milkshake. Followed by a relatively healthy veggie gyro for me, and a quarter of duck for Patrick. While walking out, we grabbed an elephant ear - so I think we kept our caloric intake to under 4000 calories each.

We did run into Joe and Michelle Grabczak with Morgan and Mason in tow (yes, they have a lot of people in their family that starts with the letter 'M'). And even more surprising we ran into David Everett and his parents. I had not seen David since the 6th grade, when we went to Grandview Elementary School together. His parents haven't changed a bit.

I think that was about it - besides looking at very large pigs and little bunnies. We were a little short on time, since we had to get our bikes out of hock by 8PM.

Thai Massage

Had my second Thai massage yesterday - awesome experience again.

It's totally different than the common massage we're probably used to - the biggest difference is that the masseuse uses their own body weight to do the deep tissue massage - including walking on your back - nice. There's also a lot of movement and pulling, so you're not just lying there like a sack of potatoes. Turns out my hips (probably from cycling to work) are just one immovable socket that only knows up and down now - need to work on that.

Moving to Ireland

Well, it's about as official it is going to get . . . Wade and Patrick are moving to Ireland.

Turns out we need to replace a warehouse system in Kinsale, Ireland - so we should be over there for about 4-6 months. Scheduled 'go live' for the project is September/October 2008 - so working backwards from there and depending on needs, we will most likely move over in the winter of 2008.

Still several questions to answer: what job will Patrick have, are we taking the beasts with us, what is the current cheese supply of the Irish homeland, etc - but we're sure those things can be worked out eventually.

After that we have two more waves of warehouse replacement projects. Currently it looks like Mexico, Brazil, and Puerto Rico in the next wave - followed by Alcobendas (Madrid, Spain) in the next wave. Stay tuned.

Of course, as in France - all guests welcome.

Absinthe

OK, it's slightly illegal in this country, but we did get a very nice bottle of Absinthe from Jason and Amber as a little thank you for the restaurant thing.

Since the stuff is made from wormwood - a nasty little herb I grew 20 years ago - I think I'll wait until Fall to open it up. Maybe by that time I'll have a cold and need the natural remedy.

Julie Backus Leaving

Julie Backus, an old friend and colleague, who you may remember visited us in France last summer (World Cup, Tour de France, Champagne, etc.) and then Rome last winter decided to move on with her career.

She went to work for IBM's SAP consulting practice, so she'll be a road warrior again. Shouldn't be an issue, since she is a travel hound - and it will be nice to still be able to see her while she's in Indy. So I'm not going to do the sappy thing and bemoan how much she will be missed, because she'll still live just a few miles away.

iLife '08

Apple's new iLife '08 just came out this week, so I spent the better part of the weekend reorganizing my photo collection.

After the upgrade, I had about 6000 photos all within one folder, so I had to assign them into individual events (e.g. Egypt Trip), and then attach keywords to them. I still have about 5% of the work remaining to do, but even now it's pretty cool. RIght now I can select photos by keyword much more easily than the older version. For example, I can search for all photos with Patrick - kind of crazy.

The new iMovie upgrade, I haven't had the chance to play with, and I'm little concerned to do that. If they did what I think they did, I'm going to want to run out and buy an HD flash memory camcorder and start shooting footage. Yikes.

OK, one more plant is blooming

OK, a slight exaggeration on the limited number of plants blooming - we also have this lovely blue plant that I have absolutely no idea what it is. I never bothered making a tag for it, because most gardeners told me that this thing would get amold and die within the first year.

Turns out it's taking over an entire corner of the garden, so I suspect it's not the same plant. Anyway, it's a nice blue which is hard to find

Ruby Spice is blooming

One of the few plants in the garden that are actually blooming. And considering this plant usually like the swamps, I'm surprised it's still alive at all with the lack of rain we've been having.

Although we started with three bushes 6 years ago, we're down to 1. It's not really a favorite of Patrick's, although the insects like the flowers.

New toy for Patrick

I finally broke down and bought Patrick a new grill. The old one we had was (I think) a Walmart special that resembles more of a large metal cube than a grill. Turns out doing dinner parties for more than 4 people was a bit of a resource constrained affair.

For the benefit of those who do not know us, this is NOT a gas grill - gas bad. It's a nice little charcoal number with a crank that moves the bed of coals up or down. Lovely little thing - will try making pizzas on it tonight.

Good puppies

It's taken awhile, but Winston and Obie are now well-behaving (relatively speaking) puppies.

They can even sit in front o fthe door before they go outside - thank god for small favors. - and I didn't even have to bribe them with treats.

Only in Indiana

Or should I say, "Only in Carmel".

I had a strategery retreat kind of thing for the Humane Society Friday and Saturday, so I had to go up to Carmel to some country club. Usually I don't go to Carmel after dark, but this was an exception.

I can't remember the name of the country club, but it did remind me of a exburbia house farm - like bad finish and unmitered work on the fake gabled windows. Regardless, this is what I find in the men's restroom - flat screen TV's over the urinals. I figured you thought I would be lying if I didn't have a picture to prove it.

I must admit, I had an incredible urge to change the channels to "Lifetime: The Channel for Women", but it would have required touching the TV controls - and in this particular case, I knew where those TV controls have been - ewww.

Glass Class

Just finished my eight week glass blowing class at the Art League of Indianapolis. It's something that I've wanted to do for a long time, so I finally sucked it up and signed up once I got back from France.

Turns out the summer season is not the best time to be exposed to glass blowing for the first time. The heat in the studio is...well...oppressive - not surprising since you have about four big furnaces blasting out 1400 degrees of heat in an air-conditioned room. We basically went outside into the 95 degree weather to cool off.

Alas I am a long way off from being able to do this for a living - we worked with just clear glass for 8 weeks - and just getting the object symmetrical is a pain in the ass. It will be awhile until I start working with color, which totally throws off everything - but it's a fun hobby.

I have signed up for the Fall class - 16 weeks, so we'll see how my work changes over the months.

Basement: Walls are up

Although we are definitely in the running for the longest basement renovation in the history of the World, we are making some progress. We started on the floor about 3 1/2 years ago, and it was on hold for most of our stay in France. After calling in the plumber's to redo the piping, I was able to finish the walls - notice the steel framing (so much easier than using wood).

Next major step is the electrical wiring, then a little dry walling, and floor finishing. Cross your fingers.

Kristi Anderson

Patrick and I had a cultural event last weekend, when we went to see one of my co-workers, Kristi Anderson, compete in the Colgate Country Music contest AT THE MARION COUNTY FAIR (more on that later). She had already won for Central Indiana, and this was basically the State Championships. The winner would go on the the Regionals in West Virginia, and then the National Finals were in Nashville (surprise) in Opryland. So think American Idol for country music.

She was absolutely amazing, and no doubt that she will have a successful music career. Unfortunately, she didn't beat Carrie Joy, who had competed two years earlier and had gone all the way to the Nationals.

Anyway . . . the Marion County Fair will have to wait until another post.

Jason and Amber's Wedding

Jason and Amber got married last weekend, and Patrick and I had the pleasure of attending. It was the White River State Gardens, so it was outside in a beautiful garden. The butterfly exhibit was still going on, so we could see that. And the view of downtown from the dining room was really spectacular. We really had a wonderful time.

They are off to Paris and Nice for their honeymoon, so we went ahead and made some reservations at some of the more highly recommended places to eat - we'll see how their french holds up.

Cucumbers

The first cucumber is up!

My concern is that they prefer to be climbing on something before producing the fruit, and that space is kind of limited this year.

This particular cucumber is an heirloom, so I need to save the first one for seeds - but after that I'm pickling to my hearts content. Actually I do need to find some other use for cucumbers than the typical cucumber salad (salt, vinegar, onions). It's been a staple for the past four weeks since we get at least one cucumber from our Co-Op share.

Fruit Diet: Week 2

Realizing from last week that I didn't really like the plums and nectarines as much as the cantaloupe - I decided to just focus on the cantaloupe this Sunday for my all fruit diet.

There were some issues with this strategy . . .

First, I underestimated the amount of eating required to consume 3 cantaloupes - it's a lot. In fact, it works out to be 9 quarts of cantaloupe - which is more than the Surgeon General recommends.

Second, although I speeded up the process of eating by basically throwing the cantaloupe in a blender - I realized that I could drink it a whole lot faster than my gastrointestinal track to process said cantaloupe. Let's just leave that topic there.

Third, because I consumed more than 900% of my recommended Vitamin C, I can now see our house from any location in the city.

So why a picture of a peach - that's for next week - it's the only fruit I like now.

Trumpet Flower is blooming

Despite our complete neglect of this plant over the years, it still continues to come back. Deuterium (sorry, don't know the rest of it) is an annual, but it sows itself. We first got it from Kelly Lowe years ago, when she was moving out of her apartment (I remember her just yanking it out in summer and shoving it in the ground - I think they like that). Anyway . . .

Nice huge plant that takes over the yard, grows in the shade, huge flowers, very fragrant, blooms only at night - so perfect for a moon garden.

Potatoes

Although our potatoes have not produced yet from our garbage cans, at least they are still on schedule. These beautiful things came from the local farmer's market who had started them in mid-April - about 1 month before we started ours.

Sorry to be so excited about potatoes, but the alternatives are not good.

Sun-dried Tomatoes

Gardens are exploding throughout Indiana despite our complete lack of water, so my sister, Julie, had quite a few tomatoes to spare.

Realizing that all could not be eaten in time, I decided to go ahead and try drying them in the sun. Since we don't live in Tuscany, most recipes just suggested a very cool oven. So after six hours (thank god, I can program it to run while we're sleeping) - the small tomatoes (1/4 the size of a roma) came out nice and dry. Turns out a cookie sheet makes about 2 cups of dried.

As I write this I am struck by the thought, that my large tomatoes are still sitting in the oven after four days (hope they were really dry). Oh well