Ides of June

Justin: Oh man is it hot... If you know me than you know how I detest the Summer. Other than the obvious shallow thrill of women in lesser clothing, there really is no justification for such discomfort. Living in The South doesn't help. The past few days have been 95 degrees with 60%-70% humidity and that's just rude.
/sigh
So, other than complaining about not getting things done in the yard due to the heat, things are good in our little casa:
Looking forward to seeing Stace's family next weekend! After that we're house sitting for a friend and their dogs and the weekend after that is the Montana/Wyoming trip!
The garden is coming along - getting quite a bit of results! No real vegetables yet, but lots of blossoms, so that's good.

Be safe.

Sprouts, critter fence, and a compost area

Justin: Okay, so we have the critter fence up! It's not going to stop too many things if they really want in, but it should help a little bit. And besides, it's cute.

Also I got the compost area set up. I've never known what to do with that corner of the yard so we elected it to be the best place.

And yes, that's an owl. His name is Owldamort.

Our tomato plant is just about ready to be hung upside down.

Good News from the Homefront!

Stacey:  Hello everyone!  For someone who loves to write, I'm shockingly quiet on my own blogs.  Gotta love irony. Right now, life is very much focused on getting back into shape.  As Justin wrote, we are full swing with p90x and running and working hard in the yard.  We are exhausted and sound like 90 year olds when we stand up but we know this will all be worth it.  Already, we are feeling better mentally and are much less stressed.  I'm not sure if that's because of the stress-relieving properties of exercise or because we are so tired, but I'll take it either way.  My time at JDRF is wrapping up so we're trying to figure out what my next move is. I think I'm definitely becoming one of those people who need to "work to live" and not "live to work."  So it's a matter of finding company that doesn't want me to sign over my first-born in order to work there.
I'm horribly homesick and ready for a Missouri trip so I can catch up with friends and family.  Thankfully I get to see the folks and Lee & Family at the end of June.  A week at the beach that hopefully is still oil-free.....but as long as I get to see the world's cutest baby ever (JACKSON!), then I'll be alright. Another exciting reason for the beach vacation is that for the first time in 30 years, my mum is hepatitis C free!!!!!  She contracted it in 1980 and was diagnosed in 1984.  After several rounds on Interferon (a pretty nasty chemo-like drug), she's finally virus free!  While she has always worked her hardest to not let the disease rule her life, it's always been present in our family.  I haven't known my mum healthy since I was 7 years old and I'm looking forward to getting to know "Renewed Sue" as I'm calling her now. 
Of course, the big question is "what do you get the women who is now virus free"?  Lee Mackenzie and I were both excited to hear the news and then dumbfounded as to what to do next.  Any suggestions?

The End of May

Justin: What's the recap... Well, honestly we have had a lot going on here at the casa. We've torn down door frames preparing to arch them, bought a ceiling fan for the living room (which we have yet to put up due to having to wire a new box but should be done shortly), Stace has been very busy with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and I've been working more than the usual with Duke. We're very proud of the farming experiment we have going on... Today I started the "anti-critter fence" around it and also should be done with the compost area in the rear corner of the yard tomorrow. We both started the P90X fitness regimen and this is the end of the first week... Crazy stuff, that. Basically a 12 week bootcamp and IT. IS. NUTS. But you can't help but love it. We will probably have to replace our cool rug in the living room simply because I sweat so much. I'm not kidding. I understand the human body is 90% water anyway, however when I'm done you would think I was down to at least 50... It's just gross. I look like a drowned rat and I'm not even in a tub.
Attractive, yes? You're welcome.
And Stacey is a beautiful BEAST! Today she woke up, ran 5 miles with Sharon (who is our P90X guru as she did the whole 90 days last year) and then came home to round out her 6 day P90X workout with the Kenpo routine.
Now, for those of you who are unfamiliar with me - I'm not a morning guy. That's when the burning ball comes out and everything gets all bright and stuff. Not my time. Makes me angry. BUT! I'm trying VERY hard to change that. So I'm working on a new sleep routine ( told you - lots going on) where I'm in bed by 10 and up by 6 and working out close to that for however long the routine takes. Part of me really likes this. The part that sits at a desk from 8am to 5pm really does not. I mean granted, I don't just sit there, luckily - I'm usually running around between the datacenter and wherever else, but man.. if I get some downtime? It's automatic sleepyface. Gah. ALSO - I'm working on the "Couch to 5K" running program I think I have mentioned before on top of it all. I'm more on the couch side at this moment but I'll get there.
I KNOW, RIGHT? We are really working it! I will say that we are VERY excited about our upcoming beach trip to hang out with Stace's family and then I have my Beartooth trip in July which has me WAY jazzed. Hopefully the P90X regimen plus the running routine will help my system get ready for the 60 miles at 12,000ft. Yeah, you read that right. A week at 11-12,000 feet. Just saying. Get ready for an epic tale.
I guess you can call the P90X + C25k my "Couch to 12Kft" routine...

Now where did I put my recovery drink??

Be well.

Our Not So Little Urban Gardening Experiment!

Justin: Stacey and I have tossed around the idea of putting a veggie garden together for quite a while so a couple weekends ago, and since I was on-call with nothing else to do but wait, we decided to delve head first into it. Again thank you everyone for the Lowe's gift cards over the years! Not only have they given us lively and lovely colors in and around our home, but recent bookshelves and now a very nice raised bed vegetable garden!

So our backyard is not very flat...It's not too bad, but we wanted the beds level so we had to dig out several yards of Carolina red clay and considering it was done with A shovel and A maul and it was 90 degrees, it took us a good while and was quite the effort. No, we didn't have any power equipment to dig with. We did however have the awesome Hitachi 18v drills and the circular saw that my father and father-in-law gave me a couple years ago. Anyway, three trips to Lowes, two days and several blisters later, TA-DA! A (roughly) 4x8 and a 4x4 bed. They are 4 landscape timbers deep, (15 or 16 timbers, I believe) which comes to roughly 15 inches deep and we're using about 10 inches of soil/compost/peat moss. We laid some weedscreen at the bottom and we had already dug well beneath the grass line. Hopefully that will keep us weed-free for quite a while.

We used bamboo stakes to define out 1'x1' plots.

What did we plant? A lot! We planted corn, red peppers, green peppers, carrots, red onions, lettuce, squash, green beans, broccoli, cucumbers and spinach! We also are starting an upside-down tomato plant that will hang on the plant hanger that you barely see on the left in the above photo.

Funny enough, our neighbor who had started a small cucumber and squash garden a while back, was watching us work. He and I had discussed renting a tiller to do various things around the yard several weeks ago and well, he went that afternoon and got one from his Grandfather. I told him as he was easily grinding up the ground that he was a cheater and that I'll be flipping him off for a while. His reply was that his wife had already told him that after seeing our raised beds, he'd be building some within the year.

As this post is a bit behind, we ALREADY have sproutings! I'll post those in the next day or so. Very exciting! Next project is a compost solution and an herb garden as paying so much for rosemary and cilantro simply ticks me off.

I'll also post some links to some sites that we used to reference and some others that just have some wonderful ideas regarding urban gardening in general.

Be well!

Photos 4.2010

The Month in Review

Justin: April started off with the Hotel IK going INTERNATIONAL! Our friend Steve left us over a year ago to teach English in South Korea and has since found a life there he thoroughly enjoys. He also has met a great woman, Mi Hee, and brought her home with him on his visit! They were only in town for a few days so they stayed with us in our soon-to-be world famous "Sunflower Suite" while they caught up with friends. It was great to share time with Steve even in such a small dose. He revealed a greater plan of staying at least one more year in South Korea and then hopefully bringing Mi Hee back to the states. We were discussing the differences in US media vs. International news and well, that's just a long winded bitching from me that a few of you have already been privy to so I'll keep it in this time. Needless to say that what we are given as "news" is normally far, far removed from the rest of the world.
Anyway...
Steve brought us some great gifts: a small Buddha from Cambodia, Japanese prayer beads and a Korean prayer bracelet (wearing it now, actually)! I'll include photos later on when I get back to the house.

Lets see... the next weekend (I think) Stacey had to work her first big event with the JDRF and it turned out to be an almost all Saturday affair. Sunday I went to catch up with my family in Blowing Rock for the day. My sister and the boys were up as well so I got to hang out with Coop and Hayden. Cooper can almost say my name now! Well, it's more "Unkajussin" but we figured it out. We ran around the small shops and ate at The Canyons, one of our favorite spots for grub in the little town. Mom and Dad stayed all week and said they had he best weather that they've ever had during that week of the year. That sounds right as I remembered it snowing the last several times I went up.

The next weekend was pretty quiet, I think... some cleaning and general straightening up, but nothing that jumps out at me...

Of course last weekend was the Derby Festival in Louisville, Kentucky! WHOO! We broke away from The Queen City at like, 4pm (UGH!) and hauled booty and pug up 77 and over 64. I had forgotten how beautiful West Virginia is. We got to our hotel about 11:30 and was ready to hit the sack and rest up for the morning's haughty demands!
NOT!
So there was a baseball team staying at the hotel and it took us 20 minutes or so to get our roomkey. It took Oscar another 20 minutes to pee and another 20 mins to get stuffs into the room and settled. I think I remembered looking at the clock a little after 1 before drifting off.
You know how sometimes something in real life will work its way into your dreams when you're sleeping? In my dream there was a tornado alarm going off and nobody knew what to do so we were all kinda panicking and the horn kept getting louder and louder and louder and wait - I'm really hearing a horn... What is that?

It was the fire alarm.
At 4am on the dot.
"Are you kidding me???" So we're looking at each other with that "Do we really have to go" look before gathering up Oscar and heading down the stairs and outside. At 4am.
Did I mention that it was raining?
We piled into the Kia and the girls slept for an hour while the fire department checked out the place. After the thumbs up, we all went back inside.
At this point it's after 5AM and they have to be at the start corral no later then 7:15. Stace and I opted for a little more sleep and we climbed back into the Kia about 6:30. I had mapped a route to the start line (which was only a few minutes away) but took us a back way as I knew the main way would be backed up with traffic. It looked easy enough - like 4 turns from the hotel and we were on Rochester, the road that intersects with 3rd - where the Start line is. Sound easy enough, right?
/sigh
At 7:05 and evidently a some-how-missed-turn later, we were lost. I knew we were in the right area but had no idea how to get to where we needed to be.
I said it was raining, right?
Tensions were high in the car as we were finally able to pinpoint our location on the GPS (Thanks Ed and Sue!) and HA! We were maybe half a mile from where we needed to be. Zip-zip, turn, and I dropped the girls off with plenty of time to reach their markers. Oh, and it stopped raining right about the time we found out where we were. Nice touch, eh?
As I worked my way back to the hotel to take Oscar to the bathroom, I realized I was actually backtracking the "easy" way we might had come over and it was nothing but cars bumber to bumper for miles and miles. Go me.
The event went rather smoothly and the girls finished the 13.1 (questionable as Sharon's pedometer says it was 13.56) miles in around 2 hours and 20 minutes! Nice job! Sharon was way excited but extremely beat. She had pretty much talked herself out of ever doing another race and the thought of doubling that distance to run a full marathon was making her sick to her stomach. Four hours and a nap later, with same stomach filled with beer and good food, she was excitedly asking Stacey how soon was the next event.