In the swing of summer

Britt found Millie a pool.  She mostly likes to get in and get out again, but when she's really hot, she'll lie down in it.

In the meantime, Sam and I have been doing a lot of work on the garden and building up our list of fun plants around the house.

Garden:
Hops (four varieties)
Tomatoes (four varieties)
Cucumbers (two varieties)
Romanesque (fancy broccoli)
Eggplant (two varieties)
Soybeans (edamame)
Okra
Turnips
Tomatillos (two varieties)
Lettuce (various)
Dragontongue beans
Snow peas
Snap peas
Eden's Gem Melons
Volunteer squash (probably Delicata)
Hot peppers (five varieties)
Basil
Cilantro

Other edibles:
Rhubarb
Red raspberries
Black currents
Blueberries (new this year!)
Rosemary
Sage
Pineapple sage
Tarragon
Thyme
Oregano
Lemongrass
Mint (so much mint!)
Chives
Alpine strawberries

And all sorts of random flowers.  It's been a productive spring.

Cuddle buddies

Millie is not generally the cuddling type, but in the winter she begs to sit on the couch between us.  Sometimes Sam tries to convince her to get a little closer.  She tolerates it.

Made with love

My grandma has always been a sewer.  She made me and my dolls clothes when I was little, and she helped me with my 4H sewing project when I was in middle school.  About the time I was in high school, she started making quilts as well.

Since then, she has made a quilt for every grandchild and great-grandchild who was born to our family, and in the meantime has made quilts for those who were already born, for weddings, and just because.  She made me this quilt in 1998.  It's in frequent rotation on our bed.

The itch

July was ridiculously busy, and the subsequent months have not been significantly less so. In fact, this coming weekend is the first of two weekends in a row that I will be at home, an occurrence that has not happened since last June, I think.

I am looking forward to puttering around the house, and yet, I am already itching for another travel opportunity. The southwest in January, you say? That sounds nice...

Curling in the fog

Ultimate season has pretty much wrapped up, and curling season has started again.  It is odd going into the ice arena when it's 70 degrees outside, but that will soon change.  In the meantime, it's foggy down the sheet as the compressors work to the keep things cool inside.

Early Christmas

Sam has rightfully noted that I have been drinking more coffee lately. He has also done some research in the past year on the inventor of the Aerobie, who has coincidentally also created the Aeropress, an innovative coffee maker.

He kept saying that he was going to get me one for Christmas. Well, it's not Christmas, but this came in the mail today. There will be fun times with coffee in the morning thanks to Sam!

Double hung

The best part of getting new windows in the house is that it was 70 degrees in November and I could open up all my windows.  Up until this year, these storm windows would have been in place and I could not have enjoyed the warm fall air in my office.  It is lovely.

Millie, Crab Eyes, and NaBloPoMo

Millie would like to welcome you to November, which is NaBloPoMo.  That means I'll once again be attempting to post something here every day.

We start with Millie's second costume ever.  She wore this for about five minutes and cared not about it.  Her main interest was the ball and getting me to throw it.  The crab hat did not survive the ball-chasing for very long, and joined the "Super Mom" sweatshirt of three years ago in the discard bin of Millie dog costumes.

In the 'Ton

The La Crosse Curling Club took two teams to the Appleton Women's Bonspiel this weekend. For two of our curlers, it was their first time curling on dedicated ice in a curling club, compared with our usual arena ice that is shared with a hockey team.

Everyone played well and had a fantastic time, especially because we dressed up a bit - penguins and snow women. The Appleton club members were great hosts who made delicious food and provided plenty of beverages to keep the party going late.

In terms of placement, my team finished as runner up in the 3rd event, which means we got sixth place of eight. The other team finished last. But we all improved, and the more experienced teams in attendance were great to learn from.

I'm quite looking forward to going back next year.

Pet stories

I want to tell you a story about my fish, but I couldn't get a good photo, so we'll start with a story about my mom's cat.

My mom's cat loves to play fetch. She has a little mouse toy that she'll bring to you and the mouse must then be thrown, preferably across the kitchen floor, which is slippery. We'll play this game for about ten throws, at which time she'll bat the mouse under the stove, likely intentionally, so that she can watch you get down on your hands and knees to fish it out.

Speaking of fish, I was changing the water in my fish bowl yesterday when I accidentally poured one of my fish down the kitchen drain with the water. Luckily, the fish was caught in the garbage disposal. Unluckily, it was the tiny of the two fish, and picking it out was pretty near impossible. We tried fingers, spoons, chopsticks, and a tea strainer with no luck.

About five minutes after the beginning of the incident, the fish was no longer flopping around, and I thought it was a goner. But the lack of flopping finally allowed me to scoop it onto a spoon. I was skeptical, but Sam told me to put it back in the fish bowl. A few seconds of listless floating, and then with a flip of fins, it was back to zipping about. And so, there are still two fish in my house.

The kid in me

My great grandfather worked for Dr. Denton's, the company that basically invented and popularized footy pajamas. My grandpa was a genius with mechanical things, and was in charge of keeping all the complicated machines running in the factory in Centerville, MI.

My Christmas presents from Grandpa Keiser were therefore always warm pajamas with feet, and I've been nostalgic for them lately.  Lucky for me, someone now makes footy pajamas for adults, and that's what Sam got me for Christmas.

Holiday cheer extended

"The Christmas cards were hung in the kitchen with care, with hopes that holiday treats soon would be there."

I think it's fun that not all the cards show up before Christmas. We hung up yesterday's batch and will leave all of them up for a few more days at least.

Holidays

We don't get a Christmas tree for our house, but every year I try to decorate something. Usually it's a table or a Norfolk pine. This year, there is no central spot.

I have some ornaments on the ficus, the leaves of which mostly hide everything. The presents and the Nativity scene I've had since I was probably seven are on a side table in the dining room. The Christmas cards are hanging in the kitchen from a string of lights.

All in all, we've managed a bit of festivity here and there around the house. Happy holidays!

Back in the swing of things

It has been awhile since we really brewed. I've had some sake going for a little bit, but the last time we brewed beer was in March. Now that we're home for the weekends for awhile, we've finally picked it back up.

As of this afternoon, we have fermenting:

Strawberry sake
Peach sake
Blackberry sake
Hard apple cider
Pale ale
Wheat ale
Blueberry soda
Wheat beer on wine yeast
Blueberry wheat beer on wine yeast

Not bad, eh?

Cidering

Britt and I went up to Ecker's Apple Farm yesterday to get some fresh pressed cider, and ended up helping with the pressing ourselves!

In the process, we got to hang out with the sisters who run the orchard and learn about some of the nitty gritty details of farming apples. I had a great time, and came back with three gallons of cider to ferment and one to drink.

I think hot apple cider is in order tonight.

Frozen river

I've been stuck in the house for the past couple of days with a nasty cold and cough, and I needed to get out today. So armed with lots of tissues and cough drops, I headed over to Great River Bluff State Park in Minnesota for a short hike with Millie.

It was too overcast and hazy to see Wisconsin clearly across the almost four-mile expanse of river channels, but the ice pattern on the near one was quite pretty.

I overestimated my ability to breathe while hiking, so we didn't stay long, but I hope to make it back again for some skiing once we get some decent snow.

Accomplished

I saw this idea somewhere on the internet at least a year ago, and have since then wanted to make a mirror window in my small office to attempt to scatter the little bit of light I get.

I painted the window frame last spring, but somehow never managed to get all the hanging pieces together until now. I had a few issues, the biggest being that my mirror is old and thicker than newer mirrors, meaning the regular mirror hanging kits don't work and I had to find a good way to hang the heavier mirror on my plaster wall.

Anyway, after a few holes in the plaster and scrapes on the wall, the mirror window is finally hung. The mirror itself is pretty well supported, but I'm a little less confident about the window frame. I'm just hoping not to wake up to a crashing sound some night.

Goodnight

It's been a long trip, both the month of blogging and the travel to and from Indiana. Both were rewarding experiences that I look forward to repeating, but not immediately. Let's take a nap first.

Two many dogs

Maybe having two dogs wouldn't be so bad after all. It just means twice as much cuddling! And since Sam won't let me have a cat, another dog might have to suffice. I'll think about it.

Zeva

My mom got a kitten. She is 6 months old, her name is Zeva, and she doesn't quite know what to think of Millie.

She doesn't run away, but instead stalks Millie from underneath a coffee table, a chair, or a conveniently seated Sam, only sneaking forward when Millie's tail becomes too enticing.

Millie sniffed in Zeva's direction once or twice, and that pretty much satisfied her curiosity.