Project Miner

Katy’s friend Michelle got married this weekend in the N. Georgia mountains. The wedding was a low-key outdoor wedding, with the reception under a big tent and everybody camping afterwards. Not the kind of event that Ona would be happy with (she’s… ehhh… addicted to air conditioning), so I got to stay home and have Daddy weekend. Saturday afternoon we went to the hardware store and had a blast looking around. So much fun that I ended up buying a swing and all the fixins to attach it to the tree growing through our porch. Katy and I decided last week that we needed to get Ona outside more than for just walks around the hood… we wanted to actually go out and play with her, and I saw the swing and thought “hey, that’d get us outside”. I asked Ona what she thought and she said “eeakekejahd”, which I took to mean “hells yeah, buy that swing” (am I justifying this purchase enough?).

So, even though Katy and Jodi came home from the wedding last night (it started storming and that put an end to the city slickers night in the woods), Ona and I got up early this morning for daddy/daughter weekend and hung the swing. We’ve actually turn this into a reclamation project for our outdoor area – we bought a big umbrella for the table and a fan to help with the heat and bugs. Hopefully we’ll be outside using it more often.

Here’s what Ona thinks of it so far (click for the larger version)…

Tonight while Katy and I were cleaning up the kitchen and getting ready to start Ona’s bed time, she did something I’ve been waiting quite impatiently for.  She got her groove on.  She was playing with a magnet barn toy that is on the fridge (it’s actually hilarious… you match two animal shapes and it says "Congrats, you made a pig!" or "You made a… pig-cow" if you mix up the animals).  Anyway, it was playing "Oh, Suzanna" (or whatever that song is) and Ona laughed and started doing "the hydraulic"… basically bouncing up and down.  Ona has moves, people!  I thought it was just random bouncing, but she kept doing it every time the music would play.  It lasted about 10 minutes and totally made our night. 

Of course, donkey dad has an uncharged camcorder AND camera, so there are no movies to show of Ona getting her groove on.  I’m sure there will be plenty more of that to come, though.

I recently bought a juicer.  I’ve actually been wanting one for a really long time, but my cheap ways kept me from pulling the trigger.  I still had Best Buy gift cards from the holidays (thanks Tom B and John) that I’d been sitting on and realized they sell small appliances, including juicers, and I can use the cards online.  Wooty-woot.  So, I finally pulled the trigger and bought the Breville Juice Fountain Compact and the juicing has begun.

The first experiment was fruit juices.  I love fruit juices, so I was highly confident this would be successful, and indeed it was.  It even won Katy over (she was very skeptical about juicing).  I’ve made grapefruit+orange+apple and orange+pear+apple+lime and they were both super awesome.

The second experiment was to try a veggie juice.  I started with stuff I really like… carrots + celery + 1 apple.  Surprisingly, the celery totally overpowered the drink and I didn’t like it very much.  I love celery, but apparently not in liquid form.  So, experiment #2 gets the failure tag.  Next time I will try no celery and a higher apple to carrot ratio, I think it’s going to be a while until I’m consistently making tasty veggie juices.

As for the whole process… I was worried it was going to be a pain in the arse, but it’s actually quite easy.  Wash and cut the stuff, throw it in, press down, then drink goodness (or celery foulness).  Cleaning it is much easier than I expected, so I do think I’ll use it a lot (hopefully for more than fruit juices, but that’s ok if it ends up just a fruit juicer).

The issue I really want advice on is where in my area to find fresh fruit/veggies (fruit is the #1 priority, though) that is good quality and affordable.  Anybody have good ideas?

I just went and picked up some medications for Katy (poor Katy had her toenail removed yesterday and is in massive pain and discomfort) and even though I was walking into a pretty gigantic “mega mart” style grocery store, the pharmacist said, “Hey Eric, how’s Ona? I saw Katy’s prescription come through, here it is”. Not only does he know us, but I was able to say, “thanks, Greg, you rock!” without looking at a name tag. Something about that is very cool to me. Maybe it’s just nice to be remembered by somebody? Maybe it’s comforting to be known by people in a position to help you out? Whatever the reason, it was pretty cool, and makes me feel a bit better about where we live.