Betrachten Sie meinen Garten.

It's that time of week again.

It's garden time!

Here you can see the brand new corn seedlings right along the edge of the drip hose. It's funny, the corn needs the soil to be warm, and it's just cooled off this week a little. So we'll see how well they do this next week with some cooler temps.

This week, I pulled the cantaloupe plant out. It used to be in the lower corner of the planter on the left. I picked the last cantaloupe, and chucked the plant. I also pulled a lot of the overgrown grass on this side of the planters as well. The upper corners is where the corn is.
Here's one of the view I usually take. In the lower corner on the right is where the yellow crookneck squash plant was. I also pulled that out this week. It was done, so I put it out of it's misery. Not sure what I'll put there next, especially since the tomato plant is dominating that side of the planter pretty much. The large plant you see at the back of the 2nd box is our second set of zucchini plants. Those are the ones that started as seeds and almost got eaten to death as seedlings. It's doing VERY well these days. We'll see how long it lasts.

Here are some of the tomatoes that changed color recently. I waited to pick them because it seemed they weren't ready. There were 4 of them, but the other two were all shrively, so this is the color they ended up being. I hope all the other tomatoes on the plant don't do this.

I picked these the other day. That's the last cantaloupe, and it's the biggest one we've gotten. I just hope it tastes good. The zucchini is from the second set of zucchini pants! It's approx. 9.5 inches long. Looking forward to getting some more from those plants.

The pumpkins are doing well. The color is deepening on both of them. There might be another one finally growing on one of the other vines. I don't want to jinx it, so I'm kind of ignoring it at the moment. It's a little bigger than the size they get before they wither away, so I'm hopeful.

Other than that, I'm looking into what I can plant next. Lettuce and spinach seem to be good fall options, I've been told, but I'm not sure I want to do either of those. Someone also mentioned carrots, but I'm not sure it's the right time for those, and sugar snap peas. Sorry, but none of those are really perking me up. I think I'll have to head down to the nursery dept. of Lowe's or Home Depot, and see what they have or recommend.

Happy gardening.

monday music 09.28.09

I've had some music on my mind this week, so I'm doing a "monday music" today.

First off, Anna met a student who says they like ska. They were quite surprised that Anna even knew what ska was, let alone have a husband who used to play in a ska band. Teachers can be pretty cool sometimes when given the chance. Anyhow, the student seems to prefer the "up-beat" or "ska-core" type of ska better than traditional. They'll learn.





Second is a song I heard last week on KROQ I hadn't heard before...

White Rabbit, "Percussion Gun"

I think the drum part sounds a lot like Adam and the Ants. That's probably why I like it.


Old stuff... new stuff... it's a constant cycle...

Friday Flashback 09.25.09

It's Friday Flashback time, and I picked a good one...

I know what you're thinking...

WHAT?!? Another tuba picture?!?

Enough with the tuba pictures!!!

Sorry, but I came across this one, and I liked it, so here it is. This must be the first homecoming game after I graduated. Band alumni can come to the game and play the "pep" tunes with the band during the game. You can see Kevin there in awe of my skills. I'm looking quite "Morrissey" there with my haircut and glasses, which was probably the look I was going for.

ardengay

Is it Wednesday already?!


As I've mentioned before, the Roma tomato plant is out of control. It's huge. There are a grip of green tomatoes on it now. Some are quite large by Roma tomato standards. Here's one of the largest ones.



The pumpkins are a pure orange these days. They're also starting to get a little more "character" as well. They're not just smooth orbs anymore. They're not really getting any bigger, but that's ok. This is the smaller of the two.

Here's the larger one. The pumpkin plant it's self is taking a beating from all this heat. I've been watering regularly, but it's not enough to keep a lot of the leaves from browning.

I put down some more corn seeds this morning. It's not a very good picture, but that's the type of corn I planted. The envelope says it should take 7-10 days to germinate. We really hope we can get another harvest of corn before the end of the year.

I picked these today. I didn't check them for a couple days, so they got a little bigger than I would have liked, but they'll still be good, especially in bread. One of them is about 11 inches, and the other is a foot long. Then there's that funky yellow squash. It was cross pollinated for sure. There might be one more yellow after this one, but if it doesn't make it, I'll be pulling that one out.

I didn't take a picture of the cantaloupe. It's still pretty much the same as last week. The grass around and in the planter is getting a bit out of control. I really need to pull it all out or cut it way back. It just gets so dang hot so fast these days, that there's no way I'm doing it this week.

monday music bonus 09.21.09

As I was driving around dropping off Jennan at preschool, and running errands, I remembered that there was another video from that Subterranean show that was really good, and had a good video too...

Silversun Pickups, "Substitution"

monday music 09.21.09

I had pretty much decided to stop doing the monday music posts last week, but I came across a song that really caught my ear last night, and I thought I'd share.

The band is named "The Big Pink", the song is titled "Dominos"...




I saw and heard it on an MTV2 show called "Subterranean". That show features new indy and alternative music. Of the songs they showed last night, this was the only one I liked. Glad I heard it.

Not sure if I'll be continuing the monday music posts after this one. Do you think I should keep doing them?

Friday Flashback 09.18.09

It's Friday Flashback time once again. I dug into the pile o' pictures and pulled out a few good ones. I couldn't decide between two of them, so as bonus, there are two flashback pictures this week! Exciting stuff, right?

Anyway...

We are looking at a painting in what was the second location of Fish Mama. Fish Mama was a small restaurant in South Pasadena, and this was right in Pasadena. The owner, Greg, made the painting(s). He was/is a very charismatic guy with tons of crazy stories from his life. Anyways, Kristi was managing/working here and invited us to come check it out. Not far after this, I ended up working there. Fun job, fun people. Also in this picture with Anna and I is Kyle and half of the girl he was dating at the time.



This picture was taken while waiting for Kim's graduation from EMHS to begin. You can see my grandmas, Letterman and Foutz, in the lower left. Also, behind Anna there, are two of my cousins, Katie and Colleen, who are closer to Kim's age. It's June, 2000.

Some good old pictures there. Lots of good Fish Mama memories come to mind from the first picture (As well as some hot buns). Good memories of my grandmas from seeing them in the second picture, and a really cute girl wearing a vintage shirt (hubba-hubba), make that a great picture.

Happy Friday!

Shrinking Garden- Kind Of

Here's the weekly update on the garden. I have to admit, it's not as exciting as it was months ago, even for me. But, I'm still watering, and watching for ripe things to pick...

I picked these this week. So far, those are the only tomatoes that have turned red. Probably one of the last yellow squashes we'll get, and a very handsome zucchini.


Since we pulled all the ears off of the second set of cork stalks, I've gone ahead and pulled them out. These are now drying out, and I'm going to see if they'll work for Halloween decorations.

This is box 1. As you can see, the zucchini on the left has far over grown the edge of the planter, but it's as green as it's ever been. It has slowed down a bit, as far as how many it's producing, but it's still producing. Right next to it, a little upper right, it the enormous tomato plant. I had to secure the tomato cage with a small rope to keep it more upright, but the cheapy cage is all bent now. In the lower right, is where the yellow squash used to flourish. There's one little bit of it trying to hold on, but I don't think it will last much longer.

Here's box 2. That empty spot is where the corn used to be. I need to find/buy some more corn seeds to put down, or something else. In the upper corner of the box is a late growing zucchini that looks like it's going to produce. It's got a few 2-inchers on it, so I'm waiting to see how they do. The other lighter green vine looking stuff is the pumpkin plant(s). still only have the two pumpkins growing. You'd think that by how big those plants are, there would be more, but that's not the case. Around both boxes is some pretty tall grass. Looks like the bunch of times I've left the water system on, it's seeped to the ground and has brought the grass there, back to life. I need to cut it all way back.

Here's the cantaloupe. Looking nice and round. It's a little on the small side, but that's fine with me as long as it tastes good. The last cantaloupe I cut up tasted kind of funny. It took me a minute, but then I realized it had a pumpkin after taste. Makes me wonder if it got cross pollinated. So we'll see about this last one.

I have no idea when to harvest the whatever beans we planted, but it looks like some unwanted "friends" do.

Here's the smaller of the two pumpkins. Almost all yellowy-orange. Still pretty small.

Here's the larger pumpkin. It's getting a nice rich orange color. I don't think it will get much bigger than it is, but I'm sure it will "age" nicely.

So that's what we've got going this week. Like I said, I need to either find the other corn seeds we had left over, or go buy some more. We'd really like to grow more. I definitely want to grow some red bell peppers when it's time to sew some. I'd like to grow some onion too, but I think those require a lot of maintenance? We'll see.

Free Portraits

Picture People have a coupon for a free portrait package:

1 8x10
2 5x7
8 wallets

Good till Oct. 4th.

Bunch O' Stuff

Here's a few pictures of stuff we've been up to...

Anna was part of a team that presented their research from the summer at a SCEC (Southern California Earthquake Center) conference on Sunday. Luckily for us, it was Stake Conference last Sunday, so neither of us had any church responsibilities to take care of. Here's Anna pointing out some info during the poster session.


At karate on Saturday, the boys did a little sparring, and had an awards ceremony in their classes. The week before, they did testing to see if they were ready to advance in rank. We didn't think Liam was going to advance because he was in a bad mood during testing, but the sensai must think he's ready for 3rd degree yellow belt. Liam was happy about it.

Duncan has been doing quite well with his karate. He's moved up to purple belt.

Yesterday, Jennan and Tegan figured out that they could put their toy monkey's arms around their waists and were playing "piggy-back ride" with them. Anna took a picture of Jennan with hers, and it turned out really well.

So yeah, it was an eventful weekend. Not pictured is my first time on a training staff for Scout Leadership training. I was more nervous than I thought I would be, but I did my best. Now I want to do it again since I've gotten the nerves out, and I think I would do much better. It was also a "ticket" item to earn my Wood Badge beads. "Tickets" are goals or activities you choose that help you as a leader. Training is the first one of five I have on my list. Next on the list is attending Cub Leader training. I chose that to help me learn the program the new boy scouts are coming from so I can better ease them into the Boy Scout program, and also so know the Cub program to help Duncan when he joins the Cub pack later this year. Those Cub trainings (I'm attending two of them) are in the next few weeks.

Duncan was sick for most of last week. He missed school Wed., Thur., and Fri. All the kids seemed fine Saturday. Sunday morning Tegan came in our room and threw up. She's still sick. And Liam started acting sick on Sunday night, but seemed fine Monday morning so I sent him to school. In the middle of the day, I got called to come get Liam from school. He had a fever and kept complaining he was cold. He's still home. Hopefully Tegan till be better today (3 day cycle), but that could mean Liam is sick till Thursday. Luckily, Tegan's the only one that's barfed *knocks on wood* so far, but who knows. I really hope Jennan doesn't get it, but I doubt it.

Well, it's definitely not been boring around here.

Friday Flashback 09.11.09

I looked through my old pile of pictures and came across this one. It has a lot of family in it, so I thought it would be a good choice...

Let's play "I Spy"...

Kristi

Ken

Becky

Joseph

Anna

Grandma Letterman

Dawn

Kim

Kathy

Jeff

Keith

Stephanie

Colleen

Katie

Grandpa Letterman

Hoku

Kea

We are all at Kellyann's HS graduation. That makes it June of 2001. Anna's pregnant with Duncan. It's a few weeks/days (?) before our family trip to Hawaii. I'm looking very "Mighty Mighty Bosstones"-ish. The Glancy girls all look so young. Actually, I guess we all look younger... but it's an eight year old picture, so ... Duuuuh.

This was taken the same year as the attack on the Two Towers, and this is the day it happened eight years ago. We lived in Altadena at the time, and it was in the morning on the west coast. I remember seeing it on the news and figuring out it was in NY. I remember thinking that Kristi sometimes worked in the Towers, and became VERY concerned with finding out if she was OK. Eventually we found out she was, and that was a relief. But it was still quite heart breaking knowing that so many people were losing loved ones that day.

To all of our friends and family, we love you, and we hope to share many days with you in the years to come.

The Gar to the Den

It's been a good week of reaping what we've sewn as far as the garden goes.

Late last week we picked all the remaining corn, which was all the red-headed corn in box #2.

Here it is all naked! It was really good. I don't think it was as sweet as the earlier corn, but still, SUPER good! This time we didn't eat it all in one sitting, we ate half of it on day, and then the rest a couple days later.

I also cut into one of the cantaloupes because I was concerned about the bruise that seemed to be getting bigger. Unfortunately, the melon wasn't as ripe as it should have been, but the kids don't seem to mind. I have one more picked melon in the kitchen that's looking like it's ready to be cut up, so hopefully it'll be really sweet like the first one.

I still have one "vine" of crook-necks still producing. The others have slowed down a lot. And the conjoined squashes dried up... bummer.

There's still some zucchini growing. Again, not as prolific as before, but some is better than none. I have a chocolate zucchini cake recipe I'd like to try, as well as an "apple" zucchini pie.

I put my hand in the shot to show the size of the newest cantaloupe that's still growing. It looks like it's doing well. It's actually growing on the bricks between the two boxes.

Here's the smaller of the two pumpkins growing. It's a tad bit bigger than last week, maybe- but it's starting to change color.

Here is the bean plant that I put in from Liam's kinder class. It's been flying under the radar the past few weeks, but this week it bloomed. So it'll be interesting to see if it produces and pods.

This week there are a few more tomatoes turning red. That's encouraging. I didn't take a new picture of our first tomato, but it's red and ready to pick.

And finally, here's the larger pumpkin. It looks like it's about the same size as last week, again, maybe a tiny bit bigger, but not noticeably bigger at first glance. As you can see, it's almost completely changed color. I do hope it does get bigger, but I can't see it getting huge if it's not too big by now. But we'll wait and see.

I can now pull out the other corn stalks and start putting in some more corn seed. I think it will probably remain warm enough to make it worth while. We've LOVED having the corn from our garden because the kids eat it much better than they do the zucchini or yellow squash.

So yeah, we're so glad that we put the garden in.

L.A. Fair

We went to the L.A. county fair yesterday and had a really fun time.

We invited our friends, the Bocanegras, to go with us. They hadn't been to a fair in almost 20 years. It was Labor Day, and there was the potential for it to be crazy crowded, but it actually wasn't that bad. It was only $1 to get in till 1pm.

We spent the bulk of our time at the fair in the farm animal section. We saw bulls, cows, calves, pigs, piglets, sheep, goats, chickens, bunnies, horses, donkeys, mules, and even reptiles.

Here are the kids in a maze of straw bails.

Anna took the kids into the petting zoo.

Duncan was having a fun time among the animals- both farm and fair-going.

Jennan is getting some animal food from our friend Melissa. Melissa's daughter Sarah and Tegan are having fun too.

Liam and Duncan getting up close with a King snake.

Liam feeding a huge goat. btw- Nice goatee Mr. Goat.

Liam checking out a bearded dragon.

The kids also spent some time indoors doing some fun stuff like playing with these large foam building blocks.

We also walked through a couple of retail buildings, but the kids were definitely NOT into that, so we headed over to the flower and garden section of the fair too. It's very hilly over there and it wore us all out. We made our way back through the fair and back to the vans, and it was about 6pm. We were there a lot longer than we thought we would be, but it was a good trip.

I think it would be fun to go back with just Anna and I, but I don't think that will work out. So, there's always next year!

Monday Music 09.07.09

Today's music is again inspired by my love of harmonies sung over heavy guitars with rhythm and tempo changes!...

And 311 happens to do all of those things quite well in their songs.

Here are two of my favorites...

"Flowing"

and

"Down"

Any time is a good time to listen to 311.

Friday Flashback 09.04.09

Tomorrow, the Los Angeles County Fair begins. Each year I was in the EMHS band, we went to the fair to compete with other marching bands, and then spend the rest of the day at the fair. It was some of the best times we had as a band.

For that reason, I've selected to put up this picture of Kevin, Keith, and I playing tubas. Most likely, this was at a Homecoming game. I'm not sure, but this might have been the only time the three of us ever played tubas together. Playing tuba was pretty fun. I think I liked playing the up-right tuba for concert band a little better as far as the type of music I got to play, but we had tons of fun being an active marching band.

Every once in a while, I'll search craigslist for a tuba for sale. I don't see them very often, but when I do, they're usually out of my price range. Some day...

Mmm, Mmm, Good!

Last Friday, I cut up the ripest cantaloupe to see if it was ready to eat yet. It was nice and soft without being mushy, and smelled really good. It did have a bright to dark reddish bruise, but I just cut that part off.

I put all the cut pieces in a storage bowl and put that in the refrigerator to eat at dinner.

That afternoon, I decided it was time to harvest the ears of corn from the shorter corn stalks, and that we would eat some for dinner. Anna rounded up the kids, and they went a-pickn'.

Here's the bounty! There were probably 3 in this bunch that weren't up to the rest, but there was still plenty. They weren't as big as the ones you buy at the grocery store, but they were a good size.

Duncan happily helping to shuck some corn between Wii games.

Here's mommy and the girls doing most of the shucking. (I really like how this picture tuned out.)

While all that shucking was taking place, I was busy frying up some GFCF chicken tenders. So that was our dinner that night- home grown corn on the cob and cantaloupe, and homemade chicken tenders!

Here's the aftermath: cantaloupe- Gone! Corn- Gone! Chicken Tenders- Gone! Three for three! Not too shabby. The corn was SOOO good.

btw- Anna says this is kind of a gross picture because of the corn cobs. I say it's not gross. what is your opinion?

Anyway, it was a delicious dinner. We made a point of telling the kids how fun it was to be eating food we grew in our own garden and backyard. They seemed to think it was a cool thing too.

We look forward to having more dinners like that in the future.