there's no place like gnome.

Way back in March, I wrote a blog post about three baby quilts that had been finished and sent off.  At the end of the post, I mentioned that those were it on the baby quilt-making schedule.  I knew of no more babies.

My friend, Adam, read the blog post and texted me that same day: 

Adam and his wife, Kara, had twin boys three weeks ago now!  They’re adorable and I hope to meet them sometime soon, but in the meantime, I sent the quilts via USPS this week.  (Before, the baby quilt wait was, like, six months after baby was born, so I’m on top of it now!)  A colorful pair of quilts with elephants and safari animals.  Backed with gray flannel, they should be super comfy as colder weather arrives. 

Dave has vacation to burn before the end of October so we planned a #minivacation.  He took off Thursday and Friday, I took off Thursday (Friday is my day off.), and we made a plan to go camping.  We were going spend a couple nights in Decorah, sleeping in a tent, riding bikes, exploring.  But then I looked at the rainy weather forecast.  Camping was not going to happen.  (Lindsay gets crabby when soggy.)  And so this was Wednesday night:

L: Where do you want to go instead?
D: I don’t know.  What do you want to do?
(several phone calls and hours later)
L: What about Mankato?  It’s far enough to not be here but close enough that we won’t spend the whole time in the car.
D: Deal.

Off to Mankato we went with no plan but a place to sleep.  We’d both passed through the town but never spent much time in it.  And so, an hour and a half later, we arrived just after lunch.

D: So.  We’re here.  Now what?
L: (sees a Goodwill right off the highway) Need any clothes?
D: Actually, yes.

Our minivacation started with a stop at Goodwill.  Dave buys a lot of his clothes there – that’s probably part of how he has money to have 23 pinball games in his basement.  He found some clothes; I found some board games.  (Ever heard of Qubic?  It’s basically tic-tac-toe of the 1970s played on four stacked boards.) After Goodwill – are you ready? – we spent an hour in HyVee.  (I’m so serious.)  First, we ate salads at their awesome salad bar.  Then we explored – this HyVee had so much more stuff than our HyVee!  So that was fun.

I’ll stop with the play-by-play, even though we obviously are some of the most exciting and adventurous people ever.  (That, my dear, is sarcasm.  Our travel style seems to be pretty darn low key.)  The rest of our #minivacation included laser tag/bowling/arcade playing (our skeeball tickets got us the sweet bracelets below)/mini golf; eating supper at a local establishment and sticking around until 10pm playing trivia; bike riding the Red Jacket Trail; drinking beverages at Mankato Brewery; playing Qubic in the hotel room while watching one of the newer Star Trek movies on cable and eating take out pizza.

We arrived home again Saturday afternoon.  It was a quick, relaxing getaway, perfectly timed in the midst of a busy time.

Other things that have been going on this summer –

We grilled pizza.  It has been a life-long – okay, YEAR long – dream of mine to grill pizzas.  I wanted to last summer but we never quite got around to it.  We did this past July and it was amazing.  Here is a photo of our dough balls and toppings all ready to go.  (It cooks FAST so you have to have everything handy.)  Fresh mozzarella, ricotta, parm, bacon bits, grilled chicken, herbs from the garden, yum.  It was pretty easy and delicious.  Here’s the info and dough recipe I used if you’re interested.  We’ll be doing it again once my tomatoes are in abundance.

In the project realm of life, I finished a tshirt quilt for The Boyfriend.  It was a beast of a quilt (large and heavy) and so we sent it out to be quilted.  Upon return, I attached the binding and completed it with one of my favorite parts of quilting – hand sewing the back of the binding.  All while watching much Stranger Things and The West Wing.  (Photo on the top with my favorite binding tools – a trusty thimble and clover clips!)  Also in the project realm, I took the green dresser upon which sits my television and gave it a makeover.  I painted it to match the accent wall in the living room, stripped the drawers, and stained them to match other living room furniture.  I’m pretty thrilled with the result.

It’s Hormel’s 125th anniversary this year and so they organized many city-wide activities.  One was a “food truck frenzy” – five Hormel product food trucks were spread through the city.  Visit them, take a selfie, get a sample or a coupon, and be entered to win in a drawing.  We didn’t win but we did have fun biking to each of them. 

Drive-in movie: ✔️. We moved in with an air mattress in the back of the truck with quilts and pillows galore. It was quite a comfy way to watch a movie out of doors. 

The straw bale garden is a-growing!

The pole beans have reached the top of the trellis and started to grow back down.  Tomato plants are huge and full of green tomatoes.  One tomato plant – a Rapunzel cherry tomato – is as tall as I am.  The spaghetti squash … don’t get me started.  It started growing out of the garden and I thought it might be a good idea for it to start growing up the trellis instead of onto the grass.  So now it’s grown up.  And then down again.  And then up.  The winter squash (acorn and butternut too) is taking over.  I forgot how it tends to do that.

So far I’ve enjoyed: cucumbers, a few tomatoes, green beans, snap peas, and summer squash/zucchini.  It’s all been delicious.

In general, most of the straw bale gardening experience has been great.  It’s pretty wonderful to not have to worry about weeding or watering.  Some of the bales decomposed faster than others and so they needed to be propped up and kept from falling over.  I’m struggling with blight on a couple of my tomato plants (Thank you, rain and high humidity.) but that can happen in any kind of garden.  I’m just hoping the tomatoes on the plant will ripen before the whole thing dies.  (Any tried and true blight treatment out there?  I’ve been using an organic spray right now, but I’ve also read that once you have it, you can slow it but not get rid of it completely.  I’m learning as I go here!)

Here’s a photo but I realize it just looks like a lot of green … which is pretty much what it is.  But proof that the straw bale garden is alive and growing … and growing … and growing.

Let me catch you up.

My dearest dog Mabel is no longer with me.  About a month ago, she stopped eating and things just weren’t quite right.  After some trips to the vet and blood tests, it was determined that Mabel needed to go on doggie hospice.  There were many things that weren’t quite right, none of which could be determined/solved without extensive further treatment.  And, the truth was, my dearest dog Mabel was 10.  She received steroids to help her have a few more good days.  In those last days, she got canned dog food and all the table scraps she wanted.  Popcorn, chicken and rice, and pizza crusts.  A batch of homemade dogs bones too.  (With extra sprinkles.)  Then one Saturday evening, after many days of her owner ugly crying, it was time to take her to the vet and say goodbye.

That was just about three weeks ago now.

I’m ready for a new dog.

My house is so quiet!  And it’s just plain lonely.  I’m so ready for a new dog.  But I’m trying really hard to hold out until December when a litter of my dream dog (A golden doodle!) is due to be born.

But it’s certainly not easy waiting.  I went to go look at some puppies last night.  (I know, it was a mistake.)  But the puppy wasn’t for me.  The Boyfriend thought maybe he would like a dog and so we went to look at a litter of basset hound/pitbull puppies.  (I know.  It sounds odd.  But they were super adorable with floppy ears and short legs.)  He has since decided that he’s not quite ready for puppy ownership … but I secretly wish he were.  Then I could play with his puppy until I get mine.

Sigh.  Until December, I’ll just have to pet other peoples’ dogs.