happy wintertime

it's time for travel!
when i hit the road i like going to exotic places
like iowa and north dakota.
but really, home is where your family is
so i'm incredibly excited.
and at least my family-seeing travels
take me to alaska once or twice a year.
after half of my nuclear family moved
to anchorage a few years ago
people would often ask me
if i was planning on moving there someday too.
the question always surprised me because
as it was i already lived six hours away from my family.

so i pondered the idea
but now i know i wouldn't live there.
it's a breathtaking place but
winter in anchorage is very long
and there's something unsettling about
four hours of light in december
and four hours of dark in july.
i'm used to huge swings in daylight hours
from winter to summer
but it's something else altogether up there.

i took a ton of photos on my most recent visit
this past august and now that my computer
is working again i plan to get them posted soon.
i've become so lazy about posting photos these days.
it's butt cold outside now so there's not much else
to do anyway. : )

-nicole

a rainy day off

i haven't been online much
as of late
due to my computer being
somewhat broken.
it's taking longer than it should
to fix it
partly because i've been only
half-heartedly trying to get it done.

on the positive side,
i'm finally getting all my files
properly backed up
as i should have a long time ago.

other than that,
my garden is still enjoying
this warm fall.
i am freezing and drying lots
of different produce on a daily basis,
and i'm determined to get through at least
half of winter without buying a single tomato.
i think i might even have enough for the length of
this northern winter but we'll see.

i'm also going to have a bounty of habanero peppers
in the coming days so if you have any idea what
to do with dozens of fiery peppers, let me know!

-nicole

hey there

i'm trying to get back into the habit
of using my blog more.
i used to blog several times a week
but that was mostly back during
xanga's heyday.
sometimes i miss those days.

tonight i feel like summarizing.
a bullet-point entry of sorts
except the drawn-out kind.

speaking of bullets,
my boyfriend and i almost got caught
in gunfire whilst driving through
north minneapolis last monday.
bullets rang out 100 feet in front of us
and folks went running.
we were shaken but fine
and as far as i know no one was shot.
it's not my favorite part of town.

both scott's garden and mine are doing great.
spring came very late this year and our only
hope of having a decent harvest would be
if fall arrived late too.
i am happy to say that it is still in the 70's
nearly every day, sometimes even 80. :)
in spite of the warm fall
the shorter daylight hours are encouraging
the leaves to turn and it's so pretty.

i think i am almost sub-consciously
preparing for winter.
wintertime here lasts many, many months
and this means lots of time in the house.
i've never liked the color or decorating
in my dining room
(which is very open to the livingroom)
and i finally worked up the motivation
to paint the room and also change everything else
about it that i found drab.
the room has gone from being a dark reddish-maroon
to a bright spring green.
now i'm working on curtains, photos for the wall, candles,
all of the this and that.

okay, my boyfriend and i
are playing with legos (really!)
and i've got to get back to building a castle.

-nicole

pins and needles

two weeks ago i was diagnosed with
carpal tunnel syndrome
and i'm not very happy about it.
my left thumb has been tingly all evening
and sometimes i awake in the morning to
painful and clumsy hands.

i thought only people who spent
their days typing got this disorder
but i was ignorant.

natually i've been reading online about cts
so that i can properly understand and deal with it.
tonight i came across this website
and this gem of a photo.



though he promises that
"the hand center will care for you,
just as i care for my own family"
i would not let this guy near my hands.
he's way too tan and way too excited
about that needle.

see ya, rnc

i'll admit i was excited about the convention,
and not because i'm a republican (i'm not)
but because i thought having my city in the national
spotlight would be exciting.

many riots, peaceful protests and
(hundreds) of arrests later, i'm glad it's over.
the national news hasn't had much to say about the
conflict between st. paul police and the protestors
and press but it's been significant.

not having been over there myself
i tried to believe that the police were being reasonable
and that those who were being tear-gassed, tazed, beat,
detained and arrested were being altogether
unreasonable and dangerous.
i honestly knew better but i wanted to believe
that only those who were being a threat were
themselves being threatened.

and then wednesday afternoon my boyfriend, scott,
rode his bike through downtown minneapolis
to pick up a textbook he'd ordered
that was waiting for him at the post office.
he biked along a road he takes often
as it has a bike lane.
during the ride he saw a small barricade in the road,
nothing too significant
and there were no signs to indicate
that he couldn't continue on through-
no construction or anything that might explain it.
(we now suppose that someone of significance was in the area).
he noticed some officers on the corner but they were
just standing around and so scott road along,
thinking nothing of it.

halfway down the block the officers saw him and one of them
yelled, "hey! get out of here! you can't be here!"
scott immediately obeyed,
turned around and went back out the way he came
and was going to find another way
to get to the other side of downtown.
but for some reason the police weren't gonna have that
and about six officers started to chase him.
one of the officers yelled to the others,
"anyone can grab him!"

scott was aware of the aggressive behavior
the police in st. paul have been exhibiting all week
and was very afraid
so he pedaled with all his might
until he was safely away from the officers.

i got so upset when he told me the story later.
it's a good thing the officers didn't lay a hand on him because
i.would.have.come.unglued.

good-bye national spotlight.
wasn't really worth it.

-nicole

doing this when i should be doing that

i'm at that stage of nearing vacation where i'm anxious
and feel like there's too much to do.
packing, laundering, procrastinating.
arranging for the cat, fish and garden
to all be tended and loved.
i feel like i have to have my whole life
caught up and organized before i go.
this is silly as i'm only going to be gone for five days.

i really should wash the kitchen floor
and balance my checkbook.
bleh.

i have to work tonight
and again tomorrow afternoon
and we fly out at 8am on sunday.
yikes.

why am i wasting time blogging?
it's an outlet of sorts, i guess.
okay, time to get something done!

-nicole

and it rained all night

two days ago i booked a flight to alaska
and i'm so excited.
august third through the eighth,
five full days with my family.
i haven't seen my little niece since last october.
and i'm bringing mah boyfriend with
so that's just going to be extra fun.

alaska has had a dark, rainy summer
and no where in the nation is gas more expensive
so tourism is hurting.
this is good news for me
as my sister informed me that everything is discounted
and we're hopefully going to denali!

i won't mind a rainy vacation.
my family, my boyfriend, my raincoat and alaska.
sounds good to me.

-nicole

gimme a green thumb

i'm a month or so into my first vegetable garden.
i was a little behind in my planting
but spring came very late this year
and preparing a new garden bed is no easy task.

i spent weeks ripping up sod, turning up the soil,
sending soil samples off to the lab,
amending the nutrients and ph based on the test results,
adding manure, coffee grounds, peat alternative
and any other good organic material i could get my dirty hands on.

after hardening them off,
i finally was able to put into the ground
the plants i started indoors way back in march
(yay short northern growing season)
and put the shorter season seeds into the ground.

i'm now the proud owner of:
basil - 2 plants
rosemary - 2
chives - uh, chives probably exist on mars, they are annoyingly hardy
spicy oregano - 1
habanero - 1
jalepeno - 5 i think
heirloom red bell pepper - 6 i think
tomatillo - 4
sundried tomato - 1
black krim tomato - 1
heirloom brandywine tomato - 4
broccoli - 4
corn stalks - 15 or so
peas and beans too numerous to count

my boyfriend has way more in his garden
(eggplant, zucchini, pumpkins, cauliflower, i could go on)
plus i have a bit of a lead problem so we kept
all the leafy greens and root veggies in his garden,
just to be safe.

alas, i'm now at the stage of pests and diseases.
my black krim tomato plant has aphids and my broccoli
has cute but voracious cauliflower caterpillars.

i'm determined to be as organic as i can
with this garden of mine
so i'm off to mother earth gardens tomorrow
to purchase a bag
of lady beetles for the aphids
and garden netting for the caterpillars.
no chemicals here, no way.
this is all new to me so with every issue that arises
i'm researching and learning the best and safest way
to deal with the problem.

this is probably waaay too much garden info for most folks
but it's most of what i've been up to lately
and obviously something i'm really excited about right now.
next time i think i'll post some photos.
don't expect too much, though.
it's still a baby garden.

-nicole

photos here and there

i've got hundreds of photos i need to put up on my flickr.
i wanted to photoshop them first but since my photoshop
skills are still very weak i think i'm just going to start
dumping photos into my flickr like crazy and then replace them
with better versions later on.
i've also got a random assortment of photos
i just emailed to myself from my phone.
please note that i purchased my phone
for its reception, not its photo-taking, capabilities : )



and a real camera photo.



there's more on my little flickr.
not much, but it's a start
and it's now bedtime.

-nicole

the longest winter

yesterday i slipped on a snowbank
and slid underneath my boyfriend's car
as i was attempting entry.
i landed on my bottom
and my head smacked hard
into (thankfully) soft snow.

i just laid there, laughing and crying,
kind of confused as to how one can go from standing
to being on the ground so quickly.

getting into and out of a car
on the passenger side in winter
is challenging and requires a certain level of skill
that obviously i don't always posses.

other than that, it's winter as usual.
oh wait, the first day of spring was last week.
it's a bit hard to tell through the piles of snow
that fell that day and the following two.

i'm finding some spring here and there.
today i resumed my compost pile,
throwing into the yard and not into the trash
my orange rind and a grapefruit that went bad.

i also recently bought a maple tree that will be
ready to be picked up the first weekend of may!
i'm gathering up my garden seeds
and shopping for a new bicycle.
just in case spring arrives.
you never know.

-nicole

mace to the face

having had no experience with pepper spray,
and having recently been given some to carry for safety,
i decided to test out the sprayer to make sure that
it was ready to go should i need it.
was it pump action or a contant stream of pepper spray?
i didn't know and thought i should.
the directions clearly stated to test the sprayer outside
but it was cold out there so i sprayed a little into the kitchen sink.
just a little.
then i decided i better rinse it down the sink
and for some reason i thought hot water would be a good idea.
hot water produces steam obviously
and steam full of pepper spray is not good.

i effectively pepper sprayed my entire household
as well as a few guests who were over at the time.
not a full blast to the face, of course,
but there was plenty of coughing and stinging between us all.
sorry guys.
sometimes i just do dumb things.

-nicole

button button, who has the button?

just in case anyone who reads this
has ever entertained the idea
that i was a cool kid,
i should inform you that one of the things that
has been occupying my time this week
is organizing my button collection.

i recently acquired a shoebox full of buttons,
some of them still on their vintage packaging.
i'm tying the matching buttons together with book-binding string
and organizing them all according to color.

very girl-nerdy.
but hey, it's winter in minnesota
and an unusually cold one at that.
i'm just trying to find things to do around the home
besides eating all the day and evening long.

never have i a wanted a warm-weather vacation
more than these past days.

-nicole

i still tell you my every day

it's been the coldest of the cold here for a couple weeks
and my skin is crackling!
humidifier and baby oil to the rescue but it's not quite enough.

i'm getting a little bored being here in this house all the time
but what can you do, really, when merely one step outside
makes all that winter snot that normally runs down your face
freeze in your nose?

tonight boredom was kept far away by baking ginger cookies
and eating five of them with a big glass of one percent.

this was followed by making fireflies in the dark
using very dry, static-laden laundry.
i didn't think it was possible,
fireflies in january.

-nicole

anybody out there?

no posts in december?!
it was a busy month,
i used my computer to listen to music
and that's about it.
a christmas celebration here,
another one there
and a friend's wedding in between.

i sat at home and did a puzzle on new year's eve
and that was enough excitement for me.
i think i looked at my clock around midnight,
just to know when seven became eight.
it's nice to know those things.

-nicole