ABBB Prep 2012

We're prepping for our big party of the year.  Weirdly, I love it.  Yes, it's hard work and all that, but stuff gets done.  That's rare anymore.  Lots of stuff gets started, and half done, and way too much doesn't get done at all.  But done?  That's like magic.  Suddenly I can actually see up the road before I pull out of the back driveway.  It's like being psychic.  Well, maybe not really.  But I don't have to guess if someone's coming now and pull into the wrong lane first before moving over into the proper lane, just in case.  Our wyrd window is open again.  (It's an opening among the akebia vines.)  There's a wonderful shady place for lots of people to sit.  On and on.

Of course that brings up the point that if we worked like this all the time, our place would be so full of awesome we might not be able to contain ourselves.  We won't, though.  I'm not sure many people do, or would want to.  We wouldn't have traditions like spring cleaning if we did.  Must be a human thing.

Anyway, we're almost ready.  The ongoing disaster area is slightly less disastrous, and we're at a point that it's unlikely that our guests will be eaten by cougars or get lost in the blackberries.  Party on!

All My Children

We've almost gotten all the tansy out of both pastures.  That's where most of it was.  We figure tomorrow morning we'll have it all done.  Our neighbors plan to have their lower west field cleared this weekend.  It all comes together at once, like poetry, only with sweat.

O bought his first piece of furniture with his own money.  I think it'll work well for him, a kind of portable mini-papasan chair.  He's so happy and proud, justifiably so.  He got it very inexpensively, and it was love at first sight, the way lasting purchases ought to be.  It fits in his room, with his room, like it's always been there.  I suspect it will not only follow him to college, but into his first apartment and maybe beyond, one of those things his first live-in girlfriend will tell him is way past throwing out but he'll hang onto it even though it's threadbare and has a smell.

Lately, though I've been trying to be more and more frugal, it feels like money is pouring out of my accounts.  Part of that is car stuff, and part is animal stuff.  Carey, our fluff-fluff, is very ill.  She started looking a bit raggedy a couple of weeks ago.  The vet has done blood work and we're anxiously waiting on results.  She's lost over four of her original 11 pounds she had when she was at a healthy weight and fully recovered from her bout as abandoned outdoor kitty.  You can feel her spine clearly when you pet her.  The vet gave her a camelback (fluid infusion) and that helped perk up her appetite.  She ate twice today, much more than she has in a while.  She's going to be on rich, fatty wet food and restricted to A's room so we can monitor all her stats.  The vet told us one of three common things might be responsible for her rapid weight loss--thyroid, cancer and diabetes, in order of likelihood for a kitty of her age.  I didn't like to see cancer as #2.  My mom has a kitty with thyroid problems and that would be something I could deal with.  It was wonderful how quickly Lady bounced back once she was on the right meds.  

Anyway, the other animal thing is that Dakota (who is doing well, don't fret) needs a wellness check and arthritis check in order for the vet to be able to legally extend her arthritis med prescription.  I doubt he'll order any changes, but it's a necessary formality, as in if anyone catches a vet prescribing meds to an animal s/he hasn't seen within a certain time, that's considered malpractice.  Dakota has been camping with us and seemed to enjoy it.  I expect she'll hop right into the car expecting more camping fun, and will be terribly disappointed.

We're still working on getting the garden and house ready for ABBB.  It's a huge job.  Safety is the primary focus of the garden, with appearance coming second.  That's good news for the western goldfinches, who are enjoying the thistle seeds throughout the garden.  They'll be working off of a depleted supply before too long, as those are pokey plants and I don't want anyone walking the paths to get scratched up.  But mainly we need clear stairs with flat surfaces (level molehills, fill mole holes, weed wack,) mowed pathways (so that people recognize sudden changes in grade,) and blackberry access (so that they aren't tempted to lean out to get berries--I want berries in easy reach, no guests falling into blackberry patches please!) and a completely weed-free firepit area to reduce fire danger.  In the house I need the kitchen and bathrooms to be spotless, floors to be completely clear of anything trippable, all tabletops clear so we have places to put food and drinks, beg borrow and steal chairs from wherever I can get them, arrange furniture for lots of open spaces, and steam cleaning the carpet so that folks with animal allergies are a little more comfortable.  

Piece of cake.

Sometimes all that plus prepping for an important sekrit arrival to the household plus trying to have something approximating a writing career plus fretting about whether I'll get a job offer before we spiral into financial oblivion plus volunteering for a big job for OryCon (head of programming) plus trying to keep the kids engaged in stuff that'll be good for them (SCA, fencing) feels like too much.  But I haven't started drowning yet and I don't think anything has is being seriously neglected, so I must be doing okay.

Hippo Birdies Two Ewes

Happy birthday to Selene, JV, and my great-aunt.  Yes, the August Babies have already begun counting in their birthdays.  Some of them I've forgotten the exact date, others are burned into my mind, in no apparent order or with any reason or rhyme.  Your parents knew how best to occupy themselves on those longest nights of the year.

We're still pulling tansy from our pastures, and when we're done that won't be the end of it.  Sadly, there's more scattered on the trails through the blackberries (and some are unreachable in the middle of the blackberries) and in my garden.  I talked to my neighbor across the fence--they're pulling the last of theirs out of the lower west pasture sometime this weekend.  If we can bear the thought, the next step is to ask our neighbor on the other side if he needs help with his.  He's been here for over thirty years now, and due to his age I don't think he can manage even an hour out there pulling by hand.  Maybe he can mow it--it'll come back, but weaker, reducing the overall seed load.  Either way, it's best if it goes away.

There's a fun side-benefit--tansy ragweed attracts bees and beneficial wasps.  With all the local tansy pulled, they'll gravitate to my lavender, squashes, tomato, oregano, mint, blanketflower, echinacea, farewell-to-spring, and all the other stuff that's in bloom right now that self-seeds.  Hopefully we'll have more of these lovely and useful plants popping up everywhere, and less blackberry seedlings.  There eeeevvryweeeaaar, the wee little blackberry seedlings and they make me craaaaaazy!!  As if we didn't have enough blackberries around here.

Which brings me back to ABBB--traditionally, we have blackberry milkshakes, and sometimes I get pie crusts and make homemade blackberry pies.  Well, this year we may be all done with the best of the blackberry crop.  We'll see.  If it rains between now and then, poof!  The berries get very watery and many of them mold, spoiling our fun.  That's one of the hazards of having the party later in the month.  On the good side, though--we may have early grapes.  Yum!

August Babies Birthday Bash

I'm surrounded by Leos.

Many years ago now my DH (born in August) and I had come to the conclusion that we were missing a lot of friends' birthdays and that August would be booked solid with the cake and gifts if we tried to make even half of them.  We decided to throw a collective birthday in our backyard, and to make it more sane, everyone would bring just one gift and put it in a box.  The August Babies would draw out their gifts at random.  We put a price limit on the gifts back then.  Nowadays we just say, don't go too overboard.

Anyway, we played blind-man's-bluff, cooked over an open fire, drank too much, talked until we were hoarse, and generally had a good time.  Such a good time, in fact, we had to do it again the next year.  Bigger.  That time, anyone could invite or bring anyone.  We made it a potluck.  The house got hot, we crushed a lot of lawn, and I think we had a kiddie pool full of hot water filled via a contraption hooked to the shower head and run out the bathroom window.  We laughed loud and often.  A good time was had by all.  The gifts got crazier, too.  A lamp that looked like an alien head.  Ear candles.  A huuuuge bra.  I seem to remember a Dilbert candy dispenser.  Maybe it was the following year, but an inflatable cellphone pool toy showed up, and became a perennial gift--it seems to turn up every year.  And of course we had the flying things--flying pigs, flying cows, flying bat.  But covet-some gifts showed up too.  Handmade pottery.  Art.  Brand new DVDs.  Bottles of premium liquor.  A giant zucchini.

Okay, maybe that last one wasn't coveted.

Somewhere around #2 or #3 we started the tradition of the firepit 'bardic'.  A rockin' lobster wall hanger showed up, and we passed it around like a baton.  The bearer of the lobster had to tell a joke, a story, sing a song, or be doomed to press the button and rock out with the Lobster of Shame for our entertainment.  When we had music available, belly dancing was also an option when a turn came up.

Each year we had more people, more food, more fun.  We hit a critical mass with the booze--no matter how many people showed up we always had lots of everything left over.  A keg would be a waste on us.  Perfect; more money in the budget for meat that way.

We moved onto acreage and one of the first big projects was to level a large area for a firepit and procure seating to accommodate our August Babies Birthday Bash.  Seating is still one of our biggest challenges.  Anyway, we now have an Aussie bbq (a huge bbq is on my lottery list) in addition to the firepit for cooking, and the trees we planted are starting to cast some much-needed shade.  We have a gazebo too.  But sometimes it's all for naught--we've been rained in before.  We set up a copper firepit in the house, filled it with water, and floated rose candles in it.  The cats loved it.

We often have work parties beforehand--some have been a huge production with their own feasts and free t-shirts, others have been smaller and at the same time more intense, clearing brush and making sure the paths and stairs are mowed and safe and the firepit area is clean and free of nasty pokey plants.  Some years I hand wave them and do most of the work myself.

Last year was poignant.  My DH was overseas.  He got up very early and called us from a war zone--everyone got a chance to say hey.  The connection was horrible, but we all laughed and talked and I have to admit I got choked up.  I made a movie, but sadly the data was lost.  I'm hoping to reclaim the one and only DVD so that I can make copies.  It'll be fun to watch again, especially the sushi races and the safety dance (not the one you're thinking of.)

All our ABBBs have been special for some reason or another.  Someone turns an even decade, the full moon is up, we're early enough for the meteor shower, or it rains, etc. etc. etc.  This year, after a round of frantic emails, I rescheduled my original date so that we could have one of the original August Babies back home at the time of the party.  He'll probably still have a fair amount of sand in his boots when the party begins, and he'll have such stories to tell ....

And the tradition goes on, and on, and on.

Drunk on Friendship and Enjoying the Hangover

I had a really good time yesterday at the ABBB, and I hope everyone else did too.  It's always hard for me to gauge if party stuff is going well.  My beloved friends are so good to me, they'd never let on if they were bored or annoyed or insufficiently fed if they felt left out or fillintheblank.  But judging from the laughter and smiles I'm guessing almost everyone enjoyed themselves.  And I have to say a special thanks to the mighty tall one for being the best sport ever.  

Oh man, now I want to give more special thanks--to the goddess and her accompanying god (or does he consider himself a minion) for their warmth and excellent companionship, and to the woman of the moon for her stories.  To Wit for his quirky, fun gifts.  To my oldest friend for fighting a hard battle to make it to the party at all and winning through only to suffer the luck of the draw.  To father and child for being patient in the extreme (for us) heat and crowded conditions.  To the cheater, who always helps out and makes me laugh.  To the monk who keeps things lively--it wouldn't be a party without him.  And to all of them at once, together, and the ones who couldn't be there but were in spirit, and to the voice from afar who I love more than the graceful sky, and my children who waited hand and foot and sometimes even seemed to enjoy it, and to the glory that's the sun, the teasing wind, the full moon that shone like molten gold at the horizon, and ...

To all, to those I missed because I'm a little tired and drunk from friendship, and to the world.  Happy birthday!

The Big Day Approacheth

Every year we have a party for all our friends born in August.  It's going to be much, much smaller this year, but smaller to me just means more chance to actually talk to people instead of working as a kitchen drudge (although kitchen drudgery isn't so bad--it's where the liquor cabinet is and I never lack for company/help.)

I made the required Costco run today to make sure everything is as fresh as possible.  I prefer it that way, but also, since we're going to have a real scorcher tomorrow there's less chance that the veggies will go flaccid when they come out of the fridge and the pop hopefully won't lose its fizz in the ice chests.  We have a gigantic chocolate cake, plenty of booze, plenty of bottled water, and some no-corn-syrup pop, hamburger, a lovely pork loin, a mountain of hamburger buns, brats, pork spring rolls, a huge Costco veggie tray, salsa, bean dip, about four pounds of chips, dried fruit and nut mixes, rice crackers, regular crackers, a cheese assortment (though no brie--Costco was out--denied!!) mushrooms for steak topping, frozen cream puffs, and of course the gifts.  Did I forget anything?  Tomorrow morning I'll make a beer, ice, and last-minute items (like steaks and possibly ice cream) run.  I'm sure a list will develop.  It always does.  And I'll have enough leftovers that I'll have to freeze things so they'll keep.  Nature of the August Babies Birthday Bash.

Somehow I managed to time it so that tomorrow is not a fast day, too, though I make exceptions for events.  Pretty nifty!

Time to go drink a ton of water.  I'm still feeling woogedy.  I was okay most of today but I took a nap during the hottest part of the day and woke up massively sweaty.  I've been trying to rehydrate ever since.

Take care out there and drink lots of water, no matter the weather.  And have a great weekend!

Blend

Still tired from this weekend. Tomorrow I have a day off, and then it's back to the retail trenches for a couple of days. I'm really, really looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow. Whew!

Things and stuff:

While shopping for wine for the ABBB, Rory found Jest Pink wine. I'm so saving that bottle. When I put together the jester's garden hopefully I'll find a way to have it out there without risking the destruction of the label. Ideas are welcome. The Jest line of wines is a series of blended wines. For more info on what's up with that read: http://www.winereviewonline.com/splendid_blendeds.cfm

My family has discovered that there can be such a thing as too much chocolate cake. Anyone who wants to come over and help us eat (and drink) leftovers, btw, is welcome.

Yak pot roast is yummy.

Our friends are very tidy and considerate. Despite this, it will still take several days to clean up after ABBB. My mind boggles at the thought of what cleanup would have been like had our friends been wildly messy and inconsiderate.

The scent of summer rain after a long dry spell is very distinctive. Note to self--shamelessly evoke this in my next novel, Signet (working title.) It just happens that it'll be summertime, too, when the novel starts. Yay! But that wasn't the best part during the rain today. The best part was listening to the rain hammer the store's metal roof and remembering the kewl rain storm clapping game that Jill lead at the ABBB firepit circle and then right after work stepping out into that incredible scent and being outside myself completely, a part of the air.

Wizard is fast becoming one of my favorite kitties ever. When I come home he trots up to me and curls his tail into a question mark while rubbing against my leg. When I scratch his back and tell him what a nice face he has he bends down and rubs his chin on the ground, leaning over against the scratch until he rolls onto his side. It's become an elaborate greeting between us and he becomes confused and insistant when I don't follow through all the way to the roll.

The cricket songs are multiplying. Summer is growing late. Noooooooo!

This is the end of the blend, my friend.

Plus is positive Minus is negative

I begin this by saying that she was a nice lady.

A customer came in today wanting to return batteries she hadn't used. Apparently her radio tuner had stopped working and she thought it had merely run out of juice, so she traded batteries and lo, it didn't work. The new device she purchased needed a different size of battery, so she returned the original new batteries (which didn't look opened so I assume she got more than one pack) and got a new radio and the correct batteries for that.

Sounds like a plan to me.

So imagine my surprise when she returned to return the new radio and new batteries. Hmm, I'm thinking. "So, I guess the new radio didn't work out?"

"Oh, it was fine. But I opened up my old radio one more time and realized I had put the batteries in backward. Now it works, so I don't need this one anymore."

If it was a scam, I don't get it. Someone, enlighten me!

August Babies Birthday Bash was happy times. It was a smaller crowd, which is sad because we missed a lot of good friends but wonderful because it was a really nice sized group and not overwhelming in the socializing department. We ate kangaroo (I don't think I'm radically different for having eaten a marsupial, though it was tasty) and sirloin and hot dogs and all the usual junk food. Much alcohol and pop was consumed, and people were overwhelmed by cake (argh, too much chocolate!) I spent much of the day at work, but them's the breaks sometimes. Going to work today was muuuuuuuch harder than having to work on ABBB day. I wasn't hung over in the morning since I had only about three drinks and stopped drinking early, but I was very, very tired and sore, presumably from hiking back and forth between the house and the firepit after standing on my feet all day. It's a good feeling though, the post-vacation need to sleep feeling.

Work again tomorrow, but just a half day. Good thing too. I'll be ready for a nap by the time I get home.

August Babies Work Party

Another day on the farm, except we had a heap more help today. The yearly wackiness known as August Babies Birthday Bash is almost here, a week from today in fact. This would be panic time except that we have a lot of really good friends that help us out. This year I have to leap into a cheer for Orion and Andrea who were real troopers today, Joe Who Fixes All Things That Go Whirr and Slayer of Blackberries, Rick the Wit and Mighty Mattock Wielder, Melissa of the Wicked Weed Wacker, and Mike the Mysterious Sweeper aka the Shoveler.

The firepit area is weedwacked and swept.
Blackberries are beaten back from paths and garden areas.
Large areas are mowed clean.
A new drip system is installed near the firepit.
Garbage is in the bin where it belongs.
Scrap and trash paper is burned.
Excess food and alcohol are consumed.
An arbor is moved into place and a honeysuckle planted there.
Stairs are cleared and/or cemented in.
Garden beds are weeded.

Even if nothing else happens all week, we're ready! So huzzah to the hard workers--your mysterious gift will await you at the ABBB!