Grow grow grow

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So, first, some less than stellar news (for me, at least).  I woke up Thursday so sick that I was not able to drive down to Florida with Allison for the race this weekend.  So for me, the race is off, which is a bummer.  But what can you do.

Now, onto the good news.

Plants!

They say in Kentucky that you shouldn’t plant anything in the ground until after Derby (first weekend of May).  We had some crazy warm weather for most of the month of March, followed by sub-freezing nights last few weeks.  When the warm weather stuck around for so long, a coworker of mine who likes to talk horticulture with me decided to disregard the Derby rule this year and planted his tomatoes in his gardenbed.  Last week his tomatoes took a turn for the worse.

So, as much as a rail on Paul’s greenhouses, his most recent one seems to be doing the job and these little plants seem to be loving their new pots.  Check out those basils.

On the road again…

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This has become a pretty common view over the past few weeks.  Georgia last weekend for Molly’s sendoff, and this past weekend out to the west coast for something totally different.

A bachelorette party for Alix in a particularly ridiculous house in Hood River, OR.

That’s Alix.  And yes, those are her sheep.

While a weekend trip to Oregon did mean a little travel time (total: 12 hours on the way out, about 36 hours there, and a 14 hour trip home), it also meant a little bit of this:

(believe it or not, that picture took 3 tries to get us to look “normal”)

…and this:

(a nice little/pretty strenuous hike up to where the hills are alive with Mt Hood in the distance)

…and this:

(which resulted in pretty much everyone being completely fried the rest of the trip)

…and this:

(beer!)

…and a lot of other stuff that I don’t have pictures of yet–including, but not limited to, an afterparty with an up-and-coming boy band (“we’ve never had girls just come up and talk to us before!”) and karaoke at a bar with a guy named Frijoles.  I may end up posting a few pictures as they come in if there are any particularly amazing ones.

So, despite getting home at 2:30am on Monday morning and having to go to work the next day, then traveling to Louisville on Tuesday & Wednesday for a conference, which resulted in me getting sick today, the day before I head to Florida with Allison for our first race of the season (where I fully plan to rub bike tires with Lance Armstrong), it was clearly worth it.  There’s nothing like spending a weekend with old friends.  My body might be tired, but my soul is rejuvenated.

So tomorrow we drive to St. Anthony’s.  Long ride.  It’s a big race for Allison, but considering the state I’m currently in I’m hoping to make it through without hacking up a lung.  So send fast vibes her way.

Also, one additional bonus the weekend: the weather on Sunday was RIDICULOUS, making for really spectacular sights like this from the airplane window:

(Mt Hood, I think)

Can’t really complain.

Chicken update

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We live in Kentucky.  Home of Tyson and the Kentucky State Fair. Chickenlandia.  …OR SO YOU’D THINK!  Apparently it’s more complicated to get yourself some chickens here than I would have guessed.

First, we were going to get chicks.  I was excited about this because chicks are adorable.

Then we found out you can’t “sex” the chicks (determine their gender…I know, I wish they’d use a different word too) until their feathers come in.  So, if we don’t want roosters (which we don’t, they aren’t allowed in residential areas), we need to get pullets (not poulets), or young hens that have just started laying eggs.

So Paul did some research, which included perusing the Kentucky chicken classifieds and posting messages on Cluck, the Lexington Chicken “Coop”erative Facebook wall.  So far he has not been able to find anywhere that will sell you 3 sexed pullets.  He’s putting his money on Saturday’s Southern States Chicken and Small Animal Swap, where he is hoping someone will be willing to swap him 3 chickens for money instead of another chicken.  Unfortunately, I will be in Oregon and won’t be swapping any small animals.

So, despite the setbacks, we are still full steam ahead on Operation: Poultry.  I have, in fact, been driving around with a huge gas grill box in the back of the car for the past 2 weeks.  Everyone is like, “Oh no way!  You guys got a grill??”  Nope.  It’s a box for our chickens.  That Paul will pick up at the chicken swap Saturday.

Fingers crossed.

Update:  the chicken swap got rained out.

Brush with Gr8ness

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I walked by Anthony Davis in his car the other day while he was stopped at a red light.

The only reason I saw him because this (maybe) homeless (probably) drunk guy next to me on the sidewalk wearing a UK hat was screaming, “AINTHONY!  AINTHONY!!  AAAAAIIIIN-THON-YYYYY!!!!”  into the street, while his also potentially homeless, definitely toothless girlfriend standing next to him on the sidewalk kept yelling back “HE CAIN’T HEAR YOU!”

Anthony Davis really couldn’t hear him because he was bompin to some jam in his car.  So the dude  walked up to AD’s car window, which was rolled down, tapped him on the shoulder (which scared the crap out of AD) and was like, “HEY AINTHONY!  LIKE MAH HAT?”

Anthony Davis was like, what the s**t, then the light turned green and he drove away.

Very exciting.

Gone till November

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Last Thursday I hopped on a plane down to Atlanta to wish my sister safe travels on her way to Afghanistan.

My dad

Uncle Mark

and bro-in-law Joe

picked me up from the airport Thursday night and we were off to Fort Benning where we met up with my sister, who is a badass ARMY NURSE!  Unfortunately, she found out on Thursday that she would be flying out Friday morning at 8am as opposed to Saturday, which only gave us about 12 hours with her.  Bummer.  But at least they were a good 12 hours.

We woke up at 3:45 Friday morning to drive into the base, where I helped her finish packing…

…and put together her gun holster…

…and then we all carried her bags down to the loading dock…

…where she dropped off her bag and picked up her gun.  After a breakfast of powdered eggs and some good solid waiting around for orders, we wished her bon voyage…

…and watched as everyone got into formation and loaded onto the buses.

Then, we had 3 full days together in Georgia.  This meant relaxation

good food

and family time.

Molly sent us an email this morning, she made it safely to Afghanistan.  She’ll be back a few days after Thanksgiving.

Go thank a soldier today.

NASCAR Nugget

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A coworker of mine posted a note on the office kitchen wall that she has 2 tickets available for purchase for the Indianapolis 500 in May.  This, in turn, has led to a few conversations around the office about car racing.  Which is how yesterday I learned out that my other (male) coworker and Paul share the same favorite NASCAR driver:

Mr. Trickle is the most winningest short track driver in history.  He is 70 years old and still races. In 1984 he won NASCAR Rookie of the Year driving #84 Miller High Life Buick (the champagne of beers, see above), and he used to drill a hole in his helmet so he could smoke his cigarette while he drove.  And his name is Dick Trickle.

…and that’s all the knowledge I have to impart on you today.  This afternoon I fly down to Atlanta to wish my sister safe travels as she departs on her first deployment for the US Army, so I probably won’t be back online until Monday.

Have a good weekend.

First sprout

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You may remember our pre-victory greenhouse.

Well, it’s survived so far.  We had 80+ degree weather with humidity the first week it was out, which was enough to get the baby tomatoes up and sprouting.  Same with our basil.

Time to relocate!  And Paul’s mom had a nice little tip for how to do that.

Yes, that’s an apple corer.  Just dig ’em up…

…and replant.

Ta da!  Now, time to spread those roots and grow, baby, groooooooow…

Happy Easter.

Hangover

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Now that basketball season has come to a victorious close, Lexington is settling back into normality…which means no more wearing Kentucky hoodies to work (dammit).

With all the basketball hoopla (pun intended) dominating everything, what else has gone on?

Well, 2 weeks ago I got food poisoning that almost killed me.  I couldn’t move for 2 days, and the morning I finally did make it out of the house a bird took a massive s**t on my head and new shoes.  So that week sucked.

Paul took a break from stressing about boards to bottle his beer…which makes him so happy.

We are storing the bottles in the closet in our guest room for the 2 remaining weeks until it’s drinkable.  I made the mistake of opening the closet door the other day and Paul FLIPPED about exposing the bottles to light.  So if you come visit, don’t do that.

Training picked up a lot for me the week after I was sick (Hawaii is less than 2 months away…), which has been great but tiring.  I’ve also been running really slowly lately, which is rough.  Not sure why.  But, plodding on…

Oh, and I baked a cake for the Louisville game.

Strawberries on the inside, blueberries on top (because blue dominates red, of course.)  It was ugly but delicious.  I more or less ate the whole thing in a single go (might have something to do with my slower runs.)

Exciting stuff.  Back to the grind.