Swarms

 
So, as you know, last week and this week our house was being painted. Swarms of young men were constantly surrounding our place, in front of every door and window, blocking me into my garage and into my house.

Here's something maybe you don't know: Painters are not like Vampires. A Vampire won't enter your house without being invited. I came up the stairs from the basement on Tuesday, and a young man was inside my kitchen! He was painting the inside of the doorframe, and wouldn't reply to my surprised greeting.

Anyway, they got finished and moved on to paint some other places, and immediately, a swarm of BEES moved in. They are building a nest or whatever it's called inside the crack at the top of our patio wall. Yesterday, there were tons of them buzzing and milling around, right outside our back door. You just can't believe how LOUD they are. I thought it was a lawn mower, seriously.

If you click on that picture, it will get bigger and you can see one bee. I took several photos, but it's tough to catch bees in action.

After the bees went to bed last night, Jason sprayed the wall with wasp killer, and did manage to kill one bee. But, this morning it was clear that further action must be taken. We will have to spray INTO the CRACK. And then, once they're all dead, I want to fill that gap so no other tribes of bugs think it's a good spot to bivouac.

YES, I know that we shouldn't kill bees. There is a shortage of bees in our country these days. So, I'm trying a less murderous tactic today. I've hung a lovely flower basket filled with moth balls near the bee hideout. According to uncited sources on the Internet, bees don't like moth balls and will pack up their stuff and leave. After they go to sleep tonight, I will shove moth balls into the hole to try to further discourage them.

One thing I really love about working from home is being able to sit out on my patio every day, and enjoy the sun and fresh air in my little, enclosed area, without any weirdos staring at me. No one can see me, so they can't try to make me pet their dogs. (The last place we lived, there was an old guy with a coffee cup who would just stand there and stare at me while I read in the yard. There were a couple of ladies who would bring their dogs over and try to make me meet them. I'd have to tell them not to let them in my yard, and they didn't like that! Look, I petted one neighbor dog once, and it was gross, and oily feeling.) Now, it's been over a week since I've been able to sit out there, due to swarms of painters and now bees. It's making a little sad and frustrated, to tell you the truth. I really hope those bees will move on!!!

Bee lovers, you should know that the smell of moth balls is coming through our CLOSED back door and stinking up my house!

Blondish

 
 
Here is what my first attempt at blonde hair looks like. I don't think you want to know how long I left the bleach on to get it this light. I do really like this golden, strawberry blonde color, but I had envisioned BLONDE blonde. So, there may be further, more extreme attempts to come. My hair doesn't feel bad yet, or look frazzled or have split ends. I'll chop it off WHEN it reaches that point.

 
 Here are some shots of my fruit tart. Wasn't it pretty? I don't mean to brag, but I was so happy that it turned out just like I had hoped. Beautiful and delicious. I'm making another one today, since I bought 2 pre-made pie crusts. This time I'm using regular cream cheese instead of marscapone (Italian cream cheese). Philly style is quite a bit tangier, but I think it will still be good.

The little one was for Emily, who can't eat wheat. I thought she might enjoy having her own little dessert, and I didn't want to waste any crust!
 





This is the chicken in its marinade. It was a caribbean-style recipe, and was good. It was not anything like jerk chicken that I've had before at restaurants, but still good. Not nearly as spicy!
  These are Jason's pickles. He was a little disappointed that they all got eaten at our dinner.

We had a really nice time with our company. Talking to them also reinforced my own decision not to be a lawyer. They were so stressed! They were so late from having to work all weekend on bullshit! Two have ulcers or pre-ulcers, in their 20s! That is SO not the right life for me. What a successful dinner. :)

Our house is being painted

Here's the front of our house. I can't wait until they're done painting it! The guys swarm the house and trample on everything growing in the ground, and are on ladders by all the windows and everything. They are very nice, polite young men, but it is still weird and annoying to have them around.

I want to plant some more flowers out front, but I don't want to do it until they're gone, so they don't smash them all. I just barely saved my tomatoes today! Two of the plants were totally bent in half, and the long stakes that they had been tied to were completely missing! I'm sure it was unintentional, but where are the stakes? They're like 3 ft long, and there is no sign of them.

I will be relieved when they move on to the next building. Hopefully Tuesday will be the last day for our house. They still have to do the back and then all the trim. I'm sure it will look nice when it's finished.

Batch 2 of Bears is DONE

Here are the finished bears from batch 2.
I've made a yellow head for the 3rd batch.
The pattern is from this book, if you want to make some bears. The ones that the author made are much more perfect than mine, and yours could be, too.

Guess what! We're cooking more food on the grill tomorrow, with some more friends. Here's what I'm making:

* Jerk chicken (I haven't ever made it before, so I hope it's worth the trouble. I have enjoyed eating it before, so I think it will be good. I'm using a recipe from Emeril which was printed in Everyday Food)
*Pasta salad
*Watermelon lemonade (I might as well just say that I'm heavily inspired by this month's Everyday Food, which is a BBQ issue. This recipe is from there, too, and Martha recommends adding vodka.)
*Fruit tart (not from Martha!)

So, hopefully that tart will look gorgeous and I'll take a picture of it.

Roller Coasters!

Jason and I went to Elitch Gardens(formerly Six Flags, but no longer) on his birthday. Yes, we had planned to go to Water World, but we changed plans when the weather was forecasted to be only 70 degrees. Yes, the day before that it was 90 degrees, but not all birthday wishes come true, ok?









We rode on lots of rides with scary names like "Mind Eraser" and some other ones that I've already forgotten.

We really liked the Tower of Doom, where you get elevated up ever so calmly, and then you DROP, FREEFALLING, 200 feet to the bottom. It was really cool. And not jerky at all.

It seems like last time we went, we felt really rattled and jerked on a lot of the rides. This time, we kept saying, "that wasn't jerky at all!" Having lower expectations can really make for a great day.

That carousel is over 80 years old, by the way. The kid running it told us, on the intercom, "Now you can go tell all your friends that you've been on an 80-year old carousel." So, now you know. His comment reminded me of when I was little, and visited my grandparents in northern Kansas, and if we crossed the border into Nebraska, grandma would say, "Now you can tell all your friends you've been to Nebraska!" I think the two events are equally exciting to my friends, but please leave comments and let me know the truth.

We also went on some water slides in the mini-water park at Elitch's. If it had been about 5 degrees warmer, it would have been perfect, but as it was, it was pretty chilly! We also went in the wave pool, which turned out to be less fun than I had imagined. And we floated down the lazy river in rafts.

Then we ate yummy garlic bread and pizza at Beau Jo's Pizza.

The Weekend

I don't have any pictures, because I didn't take any.

I made 2 kinds of cupcakes for Jason's birthday: white cake with whipped vanilla frosting, and devil's food cake with homemade cream cheese frosting. MMM! We froze a bunch of the cupcakes, since we had way too many (just don't frost them before freezing, and thaw them unwrapped, and supposedly they will be good as new). So, we can eat them whenever we get a desire for cake. Let's be honest, I'm the one who sometimes craves, with all my heart, a piece of cake. Lately, it's chocolate cake.

The British call cupcakes Fairy Cakes, which makes me want to put pink glitter on them.

Yesterday, we walked by Boulder Creek, which is in (drumroll, please!) Boulder! It was awesome! It was about 90 degrees outside, but in the shade near the creek, it was perfectly cool. We saw a pigeon, a little black bird that shook its fanny when it walked, and lots of people.

If you want to do a writing assignment, here is some inspiration: Take one of these overheard snippets of conversation, and expand it by writing a sentence, paragraph, or short story related to it, or including it.

1. Two women walking together.
#1: "Were they young?"
#2: "They were mid-life . . . CRISIS!"

2. A group of young people (20-ish)
Boy: "Was it like *Unsalted Butter*?"
Everyone laughs.
Girl: "Yes! It was like *Unsalted Butter*!
("unsalted butter" was said with emphasis, and was very well articulated.)


We also saw a drum circle, which is my favorite (NOT!)
Tons of people had brought their grills to the park to cook food. Now, some were those little, portable grills. But several people had somehow brought those giant big grills to the park, and wheeled them clear out into the middle of the grassy area. I was dumbfounded.



Then, we saw people practicing Capoeira, which was kind of cool. I have done that a little bit when it's incorporated into kickboxing workouts. It's fun! I asked Jason if he wanted to try it, but he did not.

We also saw people tubing down the creek, and we loved to see whether or not they'd go down the falls (sometimes they'd get out and walk on the shore instead). Some of them just casually drifted down the falls and went on their way. Some of them got dumped out, and some got trapped in the swirling water at the bottom.

Sparky, I did not see anyone pee in his own face while tubing. Maybe next time!

Today we were going to go to Water World, but since it's only 70 instead of 90, we're afraid it might be a little too cool. I think we will go to Six Flags instead, which has a little water park in it. If it's warm enough this afternoon, we can still ride some water slides and float in a wave pool.

later for you!

More little bears

 

Here is the status of this batch of little bears. You might be able to guess that I prefer making the bodies and heads to making the arms, legs, ears, and faces. Those littler parts are a bit tougher to make, and the faces completely determine the personalities of the bears, which is quite important. I don't want to give any mean, or sad, or disappointed little bears to the babies I know! So, the pressure is soul-crushing, as you can imagine! Just kidding, but I do have to pay a bit more attention when I make the faces, so I can't be concentrating on a movie or anything.

More importantly, I'm so glad that everyone I know in Kansas is safe and their homes are unharmed! Tornadoes are very scary, as I remember witnessing several from too close for comfort as a child. We lived in a trailer, and next to a corn field, so all the stereotypes were fulfilled when the tornadoes came barreling across the flat farmland and toward our neighborhood. We were supposed to go to City Hall and sit in the basement there. But, when my sister and I were home alone after school (we were latchkey kids), it was tough to decide if we should WALK to City Hall, totally exposed to rain and whatever debris might fly (or the eerie calm that comes right before the tornado -- KIDS DO NOT LIKE EERIE!), or stay in our house and see if the whole thing got picked up, Wizard of Oz-style. We were lucky, and never got picked up by any tornadoes and taken to Oz. Not even our chiuahua got picked up!

In other news, Jason is about to turn 33 years old, and we're going to Water World to swim and go down water slides, and float in a wave pool, or whatever activities they have there. And, separately, I'm going to make cupcakes! Is anything cuter than cupcakes? All of you who know Jason know that he doesn't particularly care about "cute," but he is a fairly good sport about my appreciation of it.

Weather and Google mapping

Time article about Midwest Weather

All the states I used to live in are having awful weather! Iowa, Kansas, Illinios and Wisconsin are being hit by floods and tornadoes. I had beautiful weather here in Colorado today, aside from some wind. It was in the 70s and nice and sunny. Poor Midwest!

So, thinking about Wisconsin, I used Google maps to find and look at street view pictures of the place I worked (Dept of Corrections) and both apartment buildings I lived in. They're both still standing! I was disappointed that the street view photos did not feature any cars being towed. I think I got towed 5 times when I lived on Williamson street. In the morning, you could only park on the side of the street going away from downtown, but in the evening, it switched. Finally, I got a parking spot behind the building and Kris got to be towed regularly by herself. Don't worry, I'd drive her around the side streets to find her car. They just towed them out of the way.

I may have to see how many other towns I can look at with street view. I think they started with big cities and are still expanding from there, but some towns may never get photographed.

This spring has been really focused on thinking about the past, and people I used to know, and things I used to do. I guess when I'm done with that, I'll have to move forward!

A Walk at the Lake

This morning I went for a walk at the lake, since I don't get to work until 3:00. P.M.!


Garbage day on my street.













This is where I went to walk.











A pretty view.









































Helicopters fly over our town A LOT. They are rather loud, compared to birds chirping and the sound of the wind through the trees.










This is a pretty bird I saw in the marshy, protected area. I believe it is a Red-Winged Blackbird. They can really puff up those red feathers so that they look like shoulder pads from the '80s. These birds like to sit on the top of tall grasses and sway in the breeze.







Here is a cool fort I found by leaving the official trail and following a more subtle one. The best part is, I had never even noticed this secret trail before, and I've walked around the lake several times.






And this was the coolest part of the day! A huge turtle was laying eggs right by the push up bars! She had long claws. I really wanted to pick her up and see how heavy she was, but I restrained myself.

Scramble

 

Tonight for dinner I ate this scramble: eggs, spinach, avocado, tomato, provolone cheese. Yum!

Clematis

Those flowers that I showed you were not, in fact Morning Glories, but Clematis, as you may have noticed. Saturday, during the BBQ, one guest even knew a snobby poem about how to pronounce it properly. Apparently she learned the snobby poem at a snobby nursery or snobby flower shop, and had been waiting for the snobby day when she could recited it haughtily. I would have pronounced it like an Iowan: clem-AT-is. But the snotty way is CLEM-a-tiss.

I wish I could remember all the words to the poem, but I can't. The end is something like, "Those who speak with a hiss know the name is CLEM-a-tiss." It was really funny when she recited it!

BBQ

Our BBQ was fun. People even liked my fake cheesecake.



Joe tried out being a Noogler. Please note the spinner on top of the hat.






Here is little Iris with her new bears. I heard that she had syrup in her hair, which explains the style of it.

A Walk Downtown

Here are some photos from a walk Jason and I took last weekend in Denver. First is a pigeon living and pooping under an overpass along Cherry Creek. We really liked walking along there because they make bikes stay on one side and pedestrians on the other. It was awesome to be outside and not get run over by cyclists!

The other three are shots of Bail Bond Row. This is located right across the street from the Denver Justice Center. There are also a lot of lawyers' offices in this neighborhood. My favorite part is that the whole row of identical houses are bail bonds businesses!

Today is our BBQ. Instead of investing the time, effort, and money into baking a real cheesecake, I decided to be a cheapskate and buy a Jello No Bake Cheesecake mix. Easy! Still tasty, though maybe not worthy of being called "cheesecake." I haven't had one for a long time, but I know I liked them as a kid.

I joined facebook last night and saw a lot of people from high school. I am in a reunion phase, I guess! But I am sort of scared or at least reluctant to actually send messages to some of the people. I just want to know what they're up to, not actually interact with them!

Some books

Here are some books that I like. Jason and I counted one time, and I have over 1000 books. The law ones are hidden in a closet in the basement, where they belong! Most of the rest are in the dining room, on book shelves. There are a few shelves full in my office, and a stack by the bed, and a few littered around the rest of the house. Jason's are kept separate, at his desk and in the coffee table. There is NO MINGLING of books in this house!

I'm reading Water for Elephants right now, and I really like it. It's about a young man joining a traveling circus during the Great Depression. It can continue my obsession with that HBO show, Carnivale, which ended too soon. This book is much less dark and frightening than Carnivale, but still has the same main themes.

Today I'm cleaning to prepare for having company. I keep getting distracted from one task by another. That's my usual way to clean. I also like to make a list of chores and then cross them off as they are completed, as if just doing them isn't enough -- they have to be documented, too.

So, I better stop procrastinating and cross "Blog" off the list and do the next thing. :)

Little hanging house for creatures

Here is a birdhouse on our patio. There used to be birds that lived in it, but lately I have only seen wasps going in and out. I don't like wasps!

Today is a rainy day, like yesterday. There's something great about a cool, rainy day in the middle of a bunch of 80 degree days.

I think I might make a cheesecake for Saturday's BBQ, even though one guest won't be able to eat the crust. She is allergic to wheat (and she's a vegetarian) so it makes it really tricky for me to think of things to bake (or cook). I looked online for gluten-free crust recipes, but you have to buy special flours and mixes and stuff. So, maybe she can just eat the cake and not the crust? I think there has to be a crust, right? And we can put berries on top! It sounds so good. That's the kind of thing I have to make when we have company, so that I don't eat the whole thing myself.

Little bears

Here are two little bears that I crocheted for a baby I know. I'm working on making some for all the babies I know, but it takes a while. I get pretty into it for a while and then I get distracted by some other hobby. I have hobbies again! It feels like coming home, to have so many things I want to do, rather than feeling like I don't want to do anything.

Yay for life and feeling interested!

I want to do some painting, but I don't even know where my stuff is. This weekend, I will have to track down my art stuff and start doing something with it.

Today, I need to do some work. I'm kind of pissed at them, so it makes me not want to work. They write things in IM like, "watch ur error scores. I want u to continue to do well." Well, I had one mediocre score, out of 28 scores. What the fuck? That's BAD, now? My average score is still Very Good. Why do I let such stupid shit bother me? I can't stop it from pissing me off, so I have to just find some way of getting past or around it.

This Saturday, we are having a small BBQ at our house. That should be fun. We haven't hung out with friends for a while, so I'm pretty excited. I hope I didn't forget how to talk to people! We need to figure out what we're going to have, and go get the stuff. If you have any good summer recipes, why don't you just tell me what they are?

~Tonya

Flowers this morning

Here are some morning glories outside of our house. I think this was the first day they bloomed, but I haven't been up early and looking at them, so I can't be sure. The buds looked unopened, though.

Yesterday was a lazy day of low energy and a headache. Here's something stupid: Sunday night I FORGOT to take out my contact lenses. So, I woke up Monday thinking, why do my eyes feel weird? I put on my glasses and couldn't figure out why my vision was blurry. I have never forgotten to take my contacts out before, so it didn't occur to me that I had left them in!

Yes, in college I would sometimes leave them in out of laziness, but I don't think I ever forgot them. Anyway, wearing contacts and glasses for like an hour gave me quite a headache, contributing to my unproductive day.

Today is going to be productive. I already got up at 7:30 and took pictures of morning glories! Come on, that's a great start!