Spring Break - Day 1

Hottest spring on record and not much of the promised rain.
But can still party:

This is me hangin' with the boys on Spring Break.

Explorations and Encounters Part 1

Cheetah is extremely intrigued with all things outdoors. Anytime he can detect an open door he makes a run for freedom. Jane and I were concerned early on that our small property lot would not interest Cheetah very much, but for now he enjoys roaming our small piece of the urban jungle. One big draw is the wildlife, both organic and mechanical.

 

Cheetah loves the cats. To him they are mobile teddy bears. I must say how surprised I am at how tolerant the cats are of Cheetah. He can be quite grabby but aside from laid back ears and exasperated facial expressions, the cats put up with quite a lot from him. They don't always let him catch them but often they will approach him and let him pet them. Ripples of the Garden of Eden I suppose.

Cheetah also loves moving vehicles. Whenever I take him with me to check the mail his head will constantly swivel to focus on the nearest vehicle on our busy city street. Left to his own devices, he will hang on the front fence and happily watch to world go by. Life is huge source of entertainment for this child.

Cheetah The First Year

Dear Cheetah,
Congratulations on making it through an entire year of the crazy life we live here in the Jungle.
It's amazing to think how much you've grown in such a short amount of time. (I'm your mother, expect me to say that a lot.)
Because you won't remember when you were only 8lbs 5ozs, and 21" long:

But I do.
And to see you now, 27lbs and 32" long, starting to walk and talk, expressing your opinion:

Is a major accomplishment. You're working so hard to grow up and I'm proud and sad at the same time. I've loved this last year. I'll miss the time we spent and the places we went. I look forward to new times and places.
And then there is your head.
That has always been big. Off the charts big.
Nana says it's all your brains. I hope so because goodness knows we've asked a lot of you already; Daddy being bishop and all, shifting schedules, sudden appointments, insane neighbors, tiny house, no heat or air conditioning. But you deal with it all cheerfully and willing to submit to whatever we dish out:

And there will be more to do and adjust to as you grow up and go out into the world. Be strong and continue to be happy:

We are here to help you, teach you, serve you, challenge you, encourage you, comfort you, love you.
It is a joy and a privilege to be here on your journey little baby. (Yes, you'll keep growing, you'll get bigger than me, and it'll exasperate you to no end, but you'll always be my little baby.)
Happy 1st Birthday Cheetah!

I love you.

This is me, your mom.

Local Specialty

It didn't seem weird at first glance:

And then I looked again:

I think they thought it rhymed, but did no one proof this thing? Ever?
I wonder if there's a closet business in this somewhere...

This is me and I don't think I want one.

The 4th Revisited

It would seem that the fireworks that are sold in abundance in our neighborhood are of an inferior quality compared to those that Tarzan remembers from his youth.
The sparklers we purchased fizzed hot and then out so fast there was no writing names, shapes or even letters with them.
So no cool pictures of that to show.
Instead I give you our Independence Day dinner of...haute dogs. We made everything but the actual hot dog ourselves.
First I present a Chicago dog:

With homemade buns, relish and pickles and the tomatoes were grown right outside the window.
There was also an Indian dog:

With a mango chutney and grilled onions, also made here.
The obligatory coleslaw:

And then we let the seven-month-old play with the matches:

This is me and how we celebrate yo'!

July 4th 2015

You'd think Independence Day was a month long deal, like Ramadan, from the number of explosions and illegal fireworks we have seen in the sky around our house lately.
And sometimes during the day, when the pretty colors are hardly visible.
Mistake or stupid person?

It's really just today though.

And for the first time ever, Tarzan and I bought some sparklers and little fireworks to set off in the back yard. (Of course we choose a year with a drought going on to experiment. We're geniuses.) We'll see if I can follow Rocketgirl's instructions and example and get some cool pictures.

Happy 4th of July everybody!!

 

This is me, celebrating.

Summer Adventure #1

I have never been more thankful that Tarzan is a teacher than this year.
In fact, most years I have been bitter that Tarzan gets 12 weeks off in the summer (plus 1 at Thanksgiving, another 1 in the spring AND the 3 at Christmas)
Not because I think he's not working. He works hard during the school year, including Saturdays, I don't envy him AT ALL his getting up at 5am all year long to go to school and he still manages some substitute time during the summer, just for kicks and because he gets bored on vacation.
But usually, on his vacations, *I* still had to go to work and so I was jealous.
This time around though, we have Cheetah, I have no pressing work to go to, so we have time together.
Which is awesome.
And we decided to start taking advantage of the many, many cultural institutions here in the Jungle.
Despite Cheetah being only seven months old - and unlikely to remember it - we took him to one of the local museums to see the "art" that was recently installed.
Cheetah slept through it:

When he did wake up he was not impressed with the statues:

The historical locale:

Or his parents:

In fact, all he really cared about was watching the wheels on the stroller go around:

And the traffic:

Though he did try and pull up a tuft of his first grass:

Tarzan and I had a blast though and we look forward to many summer adventures this year and in the years to come.

This is me and it's looking good.

I was strolling through the park one day in the very merry month of May

Recently I didn't have to work last Saturday and was able to join Jane and Cheetah on an outing to the Augustus F. Hawkins Natural Park which is just down the road from us. I've been wanting to go since we moved here in 2002. "Twas April, not May, but a very nice outing it was indeed.

Cheetah wore a very jaunty striped outfit for the first time and the weather was perfect. We enjoyed meandering along the walking paths surrounded by native California vegetation. There was a sizable pond with a large number of turtles and ducks as well. We enjoyed ourselves immensely. This was the first time Cheetah has ever been to a park and the first time for me and Jane in years.

I Am Thankful For Heat

I started off this month's series with a post full of thanks for the cooling ability we enjoy in this day and age. And refrigeration is a wonderful thing.
But so is heat.
And since the atmosphere over this country has decided that though yesterday was summer still, today it is fall. I took my first warm shower in probably 8 months today and it was glorious. I had forgotten how nice and relaxing heated water can feel.
I pulled both the sheet AND the comforter over myself last night and the snuggly feeling this morning was like a brand new discovery.
(I wonder if it's pregnancy that is messing with my memory or just that it's been a long weird summer and the body forgets, like when you're sick you don't remember what well feels like and vice versa.)
I am thankful for the ability that a lot of people and places have to change the temperature of the environment with the touch of a button. I begin to see how complacent we would become if it was comfortable all the time.
And of course, heat cooks our food, so now that I feel comfortable turning on the oven to make cookies or roast something, Tarzan's dinner options just opened wide up. I can cook more than pasta (stovetop stuff) again!
Though it's said in an amusing way for the theatricality in the movie "Cast Away" I can understand the character's pride when he makes fire for the first time and all the options that he suddenly has to work with.
Heat is a beautiful thing.

This is me thankful for warmth.

I Was Thankful For Weather

I was going to write about how thankful I am for weather - and I truly am thankful for the seasons, whatever counts as seasons where you live - but I am very mad at the month of November this year.
I am not one of those who criticizes the sky when it rains - I love the rain. In fact I have always loved the rain. I am sure most of my childhood sicknesses came from splashing in puddles while it rained at too cold a temperature for me to be outside in bare feet.
I don't love snow but only because it is so heavy to move and is the cause of so many accidents, vehicular and pedestrian. I do love the silence of a snow storm and winter with the slower pace and the holidays and the vacation from school and the talk of peace on earth and kindness. It's one of the times in a year I can wear a sweater and not expire.
I love the fall, the changing colors of trees, the different seeds and pods that get scattered around, the crunch and brush of crispy things on the ground, the preparations and storing for the winter months. My birthday is in the fall.
I love the spring with the new buds and grasses, the smell of freshness, the planting of seeds, wet dirt, open windows and warmer days.
I love summer; the newly cut grass, the chlorine of pools or the salt of the beach, the heat of the sun and the seeking of shade and drinking lemonade and eating ice cream.
I love that we live on a planet that has so much variety. Going south of the equator will switch the seasons all around and seem like a whole new place. Christmas being hot and summer vacation having snow.
I also love order and logic and that's why the weather is bothering me so much right now.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot November?! It's 90°F in November! How does that make sense? It's been the weirdest summer/fall in terms of weather; cool far into August and now it's like the temperature is trying to make up for it's lapse in attention and is shoving all these hot days at me. Not amused November, not amused at all.

This is me; is it wrong to want the weather to match the calendar pictures?

Remembrance Day 2014

When I was growing up, Memorial Day was not celebrated with the same ceremony as it is where we live now. And then, when I moved here, Veteran's Day (called Remembrance Day in The Frozen North) was not celebrated with the same reverence as in my youth.
I suspect it has something to do with the countries involved in which of the World Wars and when the holidays were created and all that.
Perhaps because it's the first war related holiday I recall, or because it's the non-selfish holiday of my childhood, or because it is a tad neglected here in The Jungle, but I've always had a place in my heart for November 11th.
And maybe it's because my mother's father had served in WWII, born during the Great War, and he never talked about his service but always participated in the celebrations, memorials and he always, always wore a poppy during November.
Thanks Granddad.
I found this article today while browsing poppy images and while I'd known who had written the poem, I had forgotten parts of the story about how the poppy became such an iconic image of the day.
It was good to be reminded.

This is me, remembering.

I Am Thankful For Food

If this seems a little too "well duh," let me assure you, not every person out there is thankful for food.
My second brother, for one. He does not really care too much about the variety and taste and experience that is eating. In fact, if he didn't have to, he wouldn't eat. Ever.
Some people are allergic to foods that make eating a chore rather than an adventure.
I am sympathetic to their plight and at the same time, I am thankful that this is not a challenge of my life.
I love food.
The colors, the sounds, the look, the juices, the textures, the changes when treated different ways.
I am extremely thankful for the many options we are blessed with when it comes to food. Some of it is because we live in a temperate climate and thus have the option of growing more types of food. (When we lived in The Frozen North we were excited for the six weeks in summer when grapes and strawberries we available to be purchased. The rest of the year; they were not even an option, regardless of price.)
Some of it is because we have technology and bigger brains than mine working on how to get more food to more people.
I am thankful for the different cultures that take the same foods and make very different types of meals out of them.
(How many ways are there to serve pig? Close to infinite I think.)
I am thankful for the different spices that exist, and for the talents of others who are able to create combinations I would never think of, but love to consume.
For example: who first decided to drink coconut milk?
And then who added basil and curry to it?
There are so many foods; raw, cooked, frozen (ice cream? one of the best foods ever created), mashed, cut, steamed, stirred, baked, fried (bacon anyone?), wrapped, tossed, boiled, etc.
It's amazing.
This is not to say that I like all food - because I don't.
But I am very thankful for the opportunity to see if I do.

This is me, glad to try it once.

I Am Thankful For Refrigeration

This year, for NaBloPoMo, in addition to my semi-regular not at all regular updates, I would like to present the things that I am thankful for. These have been coming to my mind all year but I am enough of a control freak that I held it all in for continuity's sake.
You are welcome.
Today I would like to present my thankfulness for air conditioning.
Especially this past September when it was so hot (setting records all over the place - it's not usually over 100°F this late in the year) and I was seven months pregnant and not loving the extra sweating and the sticking that my clothes were doing.
Tarzan invited me to come to his school to hang out and/or work on my computer, whatever and it was glorious! I felt like bursting into the Hallelujah chorus or something equally as rich and full. The man who created the ability to get cold air into warm spaces, totally deserves all the money he got for the invention and probably a little more.
And part of the same invention is the refrigerator and that makes ice and cold water - without which I would have a hard time living. Warm or even room temperature water just does not taste good.
Plus the fridge keeps the butter from melting, the bread from getting moldy and all kinds of wonderful things.

This is me thankful for the ability to make and keep things cold.

Overheard From Next Door

"No, we can't go, because [pimp/live in boyfriend]'s baby mama's mama died and he has to go over there."

This is me and it can be so very complicated.

I Thought Green Meant Go

What is with pedestrians and not walking when the light is green - or showing the little dude walking - and then going when the light is red - or showing the red hand - or sauntering across in the middle of the street, or starting to walk when there are only 03 seconds flashing on the signal and not even making an effort to go faster when there are cars in two directions honking and clogging up the intersection and yet when the light is green, welcoming them to proceed, they hang out on the corner, so I don't know if I can turn right or if they're just taunting me?

This is me and what is with people?!

My Favorite

My dream has been realized.
I love blueberries - there are never enough, they're expensive to buy in the quantities to sustain my craving, and they never last long in our house - but given the area of the world in which we live, I never thought it possible that we could grow our own. Blueberries typically require cooler temperatures than we have here in The Jungle (ask me about chill hours...do it, ask me!!)
This is not so...anymore. Geneticists have bred blueberry plants that can survive, even thrive, in the warmth that is The Jungle. (75 degrees Farenheit in February)
Tarzan and I were thoroughly educated on this blessed topic last summer when we visited his uncle, who lives even further south than we do; he has bushes everywhere!
I came home from that trip and ordered some southern blueberry bushes straight away from GrowOrganic.com:

Of course they don't ship plants all year 'round, so I had to be patient and wait.
And wait.
And wait.
But the blueberry plants finally arrived this week and I planted them.
I made sure to get big pots:

For two reasons, portability - in case I have to move them for more/less sun or to avoid the cats or cars or whatever - and so I can have HUGE blueberry bushes and lots of berries.
Then I put a shallow layer of rocks in the bottom, for drainage:

Special soil - blueberries like acidic soil:

Dug a hole and put the sucker in:

Then a layer of mulch to retain water - they still need lots of water, even in warm areas:

And some chicken wire to keep the cats from sleeping in the pots on the nice sun warmed earth. Watered them up and now I get to wait some more.
I planted three of the Sunshine Blue variety (lowest number of chill hours required) and two of the Jewel variety (only a few chill hours more). The idea is to see what grows best here in our little neighborhood and, because chances are small any of our neighbors are doing the same thing, to guarantee cross pollination.

This is me and they can't grow fast enough.

Work Environment

Nothing says January in the [fancy, schmancy, wealthy, entitled, uppity] part of town where I work, like the smell of sheep poo.
Apparently it's good for the grass.
Of which there is a lot up in them there hills.
There is also a lot of stone and concrete in those many squared footed mansions and given the governor's recent declaration about the state of the state, I think someone should start writing tickets or issuing limits on the amount of liquid that is allowed to water sidewalks and run in huge rivers down the streets in that neighborhood.

This is me and it's another world up there.

Could Be Worse

It's still a little unsettling for me to have Thanksgiving and Christmas in the warm with the green grass but it could be a worse life than living here where it's 76 degrees on December 31st.

This is me and it's a shift I can live with.

Rodents Anyone

Does anyone know what makes holes like this:

In December, in the Jungle?
We don't have snakes, I don't think possums burrow. It's too small for a rabbit...
Rats? Mice?

This is me and it's really round and not very deep.

So There New England!

One of the things I hear the most from people who don't live in The Jungle is that they like having 4 seasons.
I will admit, the odds that it will snow here at any point in the year is minimal to none.
But.
There is proof positive that the trees do change color:

This is me and it's close enough for me.