White-Doyle Clan

New Digs

2008-03-20T08:49:00.002-06:00

Although I cannot promise more frequent postings, I am hoping that I will be able to post when I want to.

http://whitedoyle.wordpress.com/

Family Photos March 13th

2008-03-13T13:33:00.001-06:00

A few shots from recent weeks.

Never mind blogger sucks.

FO--MDK Felted Boxes

2008-03-07T09:36:00.006-06:00

I finally finished the felted boxes from Mason Dixon Knitting that I started in October. I wanted to do this project because you had to pick up stitches and I needed to know how to do that for Jack's blue hoody and I didn't want to practice on it. I figured if it looked horrible it would be obscured when it got felted. I had 2 of the 3 knit for a while but was having trouble finishing the 3rd. I buckled down and finished them up yesterday and immediately started the felting process. I had never felted anything before, but it was quite easy. It did smell like wet dog !!

I used Lion brand wool from Michael's held double on US#10's.

One is the before shot and one is the after shot. The boxes became a bit more sturdy after the felting. The stitches are quite fuzzy now which is good. I will probably do the small or medium size again, the larger one is just too floppy still.

Confirmation

2008-03-07T09:27:00.003-06:00

Gordon was confirmed at the end of last month. Kevin's folks and his brother made the drive over from St.Louis and stayed the night. Coincidentaly my mother was in town for a few days, so we had quite a full house.

Our good friend Jim E. served as Gordy's sponser and Kevin was sponser to Jim's son, Kirby. There is also a snap in cluding Archbishop Nauman and one with Fr. John.

FO Socks

2008-02-20T09:13:00.004-06:00

Not too bad for a first attempt. They are way too big. I think I had a gauge accident. I did the swatch on flat and did the socks on double pointed needles. I am a loose knitter on dpns.

They might fit Kevin a bit better. I will see after they get washed. If you are larger than a men's 7.5 or a women's 9.5 these might be the socks for you! Someone out there has feet they will fit.

I am not letting this little set back hold me back. I have two other pairs in the works--ADD anyone? I really like the socks yarns out there and I can wear a pair of socks that are wild and colorful whereas I most likely wouldn't with a sweater.

These were knit using the patter from Ann Budd's Getting Started Knitting Socks using US#4 dpns. The yarn is Trekking XXL color 100, 75% superwash wool and 25% nylon. I have quite a bit of the 459 yards left over. The yarn was interesting. I don't think it would have been possible to create an exact match. I never did see a pattern repeat. I made the knitting go quicker seeing what new color combination came next. Fraternal twin socks.

Civic Duty

2008-02-06T08:46:00.001-06:00

Kevin and I stood outside in the sleeting rain to get inside the Democratic caucus site last night. They underestimated the turn out at 2 of the 3 Lawrence locations. At ours they had to go to a second location a block and a half away. Obama won our dual ocation with about 73% of the vote. There was some question as to whether or not Hillary would even be a viable candidate. Really interesting and exciting in an odd kind of way.

I have never in my voting years had to wait in line for more that 4 or 5 people. Maybe my polling places just weren't that busy, but it kind of neat and very cold to wait that long. I don't remember this much excitment ever.

I don't know if Obama can pull off the nomination, but either way it looks like the Democratic Party will do something historic this fall.

How did we do in 2007?

2008-01-18T10:19:00.001-06:00

Last year around this time I made a commitments to reducing our energy and water consumption, buying at least 10% of our food from local sources and getting out of debt.

I am happy to report that we spent the 10% on local foods. Buying the side of locally grown grassfed beef really helped. While Kevin worked for the city we were able to purchase local eggs. There are also many products such as salsa and tortillas--mainstays in our diet--that are produced in Kansas city. Milk is purchased at least 50% of the time in glass bottles from Iwig dairy. The skim milk really does taste better. The garden helped quite a bit also. I still have peppers, tomatoes, green beans, butternut squash, and broccoli to use. For 2008 we will attempt to increase this to 30-40% of the grocery bill and increase the home grown foods. I will need to figure out some more food storage.

Interms of energy usage around the house we were less successful. Overall natural gas usage actually went up by 14%. I am really not sure how. Right now I am participating in the Freeze Yer Buns Challenge put on by Crunchy Chicken. We have the house set at 65 during the day (with a brief warming period during the showertime morning hours) and 55 at night. Most days this is perfectly fine. It is damn cold today however. We have a gas light in front of the house--I bet that sucks some gas and we still need a blanket for the hot water heater. But really other that keeping the thermostat low we haven't really tried. So I guess you reap what you sow.

Water was about the same as last year. The big difference was that we used more water this summer. Taking out the two months of highest usage for both years we used 10,000 gallons less. So I think that the overall water usage is going to be hard to reduce if we are trying to incease the gardening. Jack is down to diapers only at night, so that eliminates 1-2 loads of laundry per week. That is bound to help in the long run. Now if we could just get hime to turn the water all the way off after he washes his hands we might be in business.

Electricity is our lone highlight. This went down 23%. This is almost solely due to hanging the laundry for the warmer months and keeping the AC off until the 4th of July. We have also replaced most of our incandecent bulbs with CFL's. The only place this is not working well is in our bedroom and in Jack & Erin's. There are can light that take fllod light like bulbs. They take a bit of time to come on all the way and the one in our room in on a dimmer and it hums. The kids light was being left on all the time, so that one is certainly going to stay. We are going to have to decide about the one in our room. I think the CFL's make a difference because the KWH/day number is down 5-10 KWH/day for October, November, and December. I was using the dryer both years, so the general usage would be the same. The other thing we are doing that helps is keeping the DVD player and CD player on their own power strip which we only turn on when we use them. That eliminate the continual pull. The TV channels have to be reprogrammed everytime the power goes out--I eliminate the crap I don't want to see for surfing purposes. A new refrigerator and washer and dryer are on our list of items to purchase this year. The frige came with the house and is at least 12 years old. More efficient appliances are out there at a reasonable price. The washer and dryer are not that old--5 years? The washer has been a lemon I think. We have replaced the pump twice in the last 2 years and it is making a really funny sound. I think just a bad seed. The newer fancy washers spin more water out of the clothes so that they take less time to dry(in the machine or on the line). With the amount of laundry produced in this house I gotta believe there will be some savings in the long run there.

We are screwed on gasoline because Kevin is commuting to Overland Park again. Eventually he will drive something that gets excellent gas milage, but the trusty old Saturn is not too shappy. ( An aside--that has been the most reliable car. We just put new tires on it. Kevin noticed that they were beyond bald when he had it up to replace the starter--he did it himself! But really other than the starter and some body work due to Kevin's mishaps all we have done is basic maintenance on that car. We will keep it as long as it runs. Emily wants to learn to drive a stick and we will teach Gordy also, then maybe just replace the clutch so it doesn't go out on us.)

Getting out of debt. This one was tough with Kevin's employment issues. Happily the position he is in now pays overtime and he has been working his tail off. We finished 2007 without acquiring any new debt, a small emergency fund, and with the ability to pay off the 2nd mortgage in 3-4 years assuming he continues to earn at this rate. Starting 2008 with out being in the hole is just totally unfamiliar territory. Welcome territory.

How did we do in 2007?

2008-01-18T10:19:00.000-06:00

Tinkertoy Swift

2008-01-17T17:27:00.000-06:00

I bought a bunch of Yarn at the after Christmas sale at Yarn Barn. Since it was a sale day and they were packed they were not winding the yarn into those nice little yarn cakes. Most of what I bought was in the twisted skeins which are impossible to knit with unless you enjoy untangling yarn vomit. I decided not to spend the $150 on a swift and yarn winder. Instead I bought Erin and Jack (and Gordy) some tinkertoys.

On the swift is one of the nine skeins for a sweater for me. Ball winding goes relatively quickly with this wheel Gordy set up for me. No, this is not an original thought. I saw this on the internet and thought it was a great idea. I showed Gordy the site and he set to work. What a guy.

FO Jack's sweater

2008-01-14T12:48:00.000-06:00

I finished Jack's sweater last night. It fits perfectly, which means it won't next year. Oh Well!

I added a garter ridge edge to the hood rather than making a casing for a draw string. The button area is backwards--the button hole is on the bottom and where you would sew the button is on the top, so I just won't put a button on.

Now I need to resist casting on another project. I have far too many in the works.

Tell me why

2008-01-09T13:21:00.000-06:00

I just got finished cleaning up half a dozen eggs that had been broken on the living room rug. Not a fun job. Those yolks are hard to get out. There is a good reason I am doing this right?

Orange Bowl

2008-01-04T08:48:00.000-06:00

KU won its first Orange Bowl and BCS game last night over Virginia Tech 24-21. It was a nerve wracking game. I wasn't sure if I wanted to watch. Why do we get all worked up over a football game? I am not used having sport nervousness in early January. It usually comes in late March or early April. And yes, our coach is really is that phat!

Calorimetry & New Stash

2008-01-04T08:20:00.001-06:00

I met Kevin in Overland Park for lunch on New Year's Eve. We are getting older and it is easier to celebrate events during daylight hours. I went in early and explored a couple of the big city's yarn stores and, of course, got a fix.

The Studio is near the Plaza and is huge. Full of yarn I had only heard of on the Internet. It was nice to actually touch it and feel how wonderful some of it really is. Some of it was over hyped IMHO.

This is a headband called Calorimetry. Don't know why all the patterns are named, but I like the name. Yarn is a wool mohair blend called Mountain Goat by Mountain Arts. The color is Wilderness. I bought another skein of the same stuff in a different color--Chinook. It is full of blues and greens. The head band took about half of the skein, so I will have to think of something to do with the rest. The colors are most accurate in the first photo.
Hard to take a picture of yourself. I may have to enlist Erin next time.

The Chinook is the ball in the middle. Not a good representation of any of the colors. On the left is a J Knits alpaca/wool blend, color is Providence. On the right is Malabrigo's worsted merino wool in Hollyhock. No, I have no idea what I am going to do with any of them, but I am leaning toward hats and mittens.

Baby James sweater

2008-01-01T09:54:00.000-06:00

I realised I hadn't posted the first sweated I finished for my nephew James Darst. I was pretty pleased with it. The seaming sucked, but hopefully it will hang together until he is too big for it. I didn't get to see him in it over Christmas, but I did get to meet him and he is a cute little bugger.

Now off for a quick shower and to watch Mizzou get beat in the Cotton Bowl--Go Hogs.

Jack Picture

2008-01-01T09:49:00.000-06:00

Awww! Love tha back of the vacuum in the shot. Jack is eating an apple of course.

I used to get granny smiths or gala or something I like. Jack like the Red Delicious best. Probably my least favorite. He always goes for the darkest apple.

Christmas Knitting

2008-01-01T09:37:00.000-06:00

A couple of finished items.

The blue and brown striped scarf was for my Dad's wife Joann. I really liked how it turned out. I used Rowan's Tapestry line in a blue varigated and a brown varigated. The yarn is a wool/soy blend. The pattern is 5 garter ridges with a 2 x 2 rib. I slip the last stitch on each row and that made a nice edge. I like the bit of ruffle the garter edge makes.

The Navy and gold scarf was for my BIL Pat. He is a Ram's fan so he got the hugely long scarf in Tatamy Tweed. The rib is 4 x 1 and the scarf curls in on itself horribly. Because it is a cotton acrylic blend blocking didn't help at all. I also gave Pats two growlers of Free State beer. He was going to like that at least!

Imagine a third bib--orange and pink narrowly striped. I made three bibs for baby Claire out of dishcloth cotton. I hope they hold up!

Trying to get back on the horse

2007-12-27T08:54:00.000-06:00

I keep waiting for the time to write a witty post, but screw that I am just going to post some overdue pictures.

These are from Thanksgiving. Kevin's sister, Kathleen, and her family came over to Kansas for the weekend. You can see Gordy out giving the kids a ride in the tractor wagon while Kevin and Pat move the wood around.

These are from Emily's Winter Formal. Her date is Jordon the current beau. He is very nice and they seem good together. The other couple is Kirsten and Whit, friends of Emily. Jordan goes to the "other" high school. They attended his Winter Formal the following weekend. My little girl is growing up.

We found some butterfly eggs and tiny caterpillars just before the last freeze. We picked the parsley they were on and dutifully replaced it as it faded. Two of the 6 caterpillars made cocoons and one of the hatched. It was a beautiful day right before Thanksgiving, unusually warm. It was like the butterfly knew if he had half a shot at life he had better do this today. When we noticed it had hatched we allowed it to dry a bit and then set it out on the deck. It very quickly flew away.

Baby Claire's Quilt

2007-11-18T11:44:00.000-06:00

I am so pleased with how this turned out. The last quilt I machine quilted had a bunch of puckering where the quilting lines over lapped. I finally asked about how to take care of that and was told to buy a walking foot for the machine. I did. What a difference! The walking foot kind of lifts itself up and down with each stitch so that the fabric feeds evenly. This is especially important when there are many think layers--like a quilt.

Anyway, I had this quilt pieced before Easter and was putting off finishing because of the puckering on the last one. Also, I was have trouble finding a backing I liked. I ended up piecing together left over larger pieces of the top fabric. Now I can't decide which side I like better!

As you can see I am trying to work on the photography.

The top design is called "Trip Around the World" as I hope Claire leads an adventurouse life.

Catching up on some photos

2007-11-18T11:24:00.000-06:00

Batteries are a drag. I finally got some batteries back in to the camera so I could upload a few photos.

First I have a picture of the warshrag made popular by the Mason Dixon knitting book. I really like the photo. The yarn is a mercerized cotton. I think that just means there is a bit of luster to it. It is easier to knit with than the cheapo Lily and Cream dishcloth yarn. I have renewed this knitting book several times at the library and am on the cusp of actually purchasing it. I have made or started 2-3 projects and there are several others in there I want to try. I have started a hand towel in a linen. Linen is like working with wire. It is really stiff and it seems like it will boing right off the needles. Supposedly it will soften up and being run through the washer and dryer. I sure hope so.

The blue hat is for our godson, Leo. He turned three earlier this month. The hat was fun, fast and easy. I used two strands of wool on big needles in a 2x2 rib. It looks tiny but it really stretches a lot. We all tried it on to make sure! Nice to actually finish something. I have had several requests now.

Mom sent Erin a real tea set for her birthday. She loves it--or what is left of it. Jack was a very bad boy one day! Mom also sent a finish sweater to her. What a ham she is.

WIP update

2007-11-10T11:29:00.000-06:00

This post was photographed and written for the most part two weeks ago.

I have at least three WIP's going.

The shawl is slow going. Probably because it is for me and I have things for others on needles. I did get about 20 rows done though. I switched back to my straight needles for the time being. The circulars were just too long and cumbersome. I am sure I will need them as it grows. I have added an additional 15-20 rows since. Very slow going and I don't know why, I still really love the yarn and the pattern.

Jack's sweater is moving along. I have done 4-5 inches from the armhole and need to get to 13 before anything exciting happens. This long stretch of knitting is boring me, so I have to switch to something more exciting or at least different after a bit. I still absolutely love the color. The first ball of three is about done, so I am closing in on being 1/3 done with that one. I started the second ball of yarn on this one. I need another 4 inches or so and I will be done with the body. I am hoping to give it to him as a birthday present. We shall see.

The Baby Yoda sweater is going pretty fast. I am working the last piece. I need to put the front pieces together and then pick up those stitches and knit a few rows. There are the ties to do also. I am not sure I like the color variation. I wanted it to vary more frequently and have more of the blue. I am ready to sew this one together. I was concerned about it being too small for James by the time I get it to him. I don't think there is any danger of that. It is coming out alot bigger that I thought. Maybe when it is all together it will not look so huge. I have run the swatches through the dryer after hand washing them and they look fine. I will send them through the washer and dryer with the next dark load and see how they do. I hate to give a new mother a handwash only sweater. Poor planning on my part.

I have been neglecting my sewing and need to get the fleecy pj's done for Erin and Jack so they do not freeze to death. Yes, I could go to Target and buy some but, where is the fun in that.

Boring Post

2007-11-10T11:13:00.000-06:00

https://www.uspirg.org/issues/toy-safety/cpsc-recalls

I ran across this link on another blog and thought I would post it. It is coming on holiday season.

GCC again

2007-11-02T07:17:00.000-06:00

Gordy sent me this video. Mayber the apple doesn't fall far from the tree!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDsIFspVzfI

Halloween

2007-11-01T07:42:00.000-06:00

Here is my lovely princess. Keeping with my frugal mentality, she is sporting a crown fashioned from a cereal box, aluminum foil, and hot glued on beads. The dress is actually her flower girl dress--I just could not justify buying fabric--even cheap fabric--for a princess dress. We will probably have to have it cleaned now , but oh well. This picture does not do her hair justice. Emily did a spectacular job on her do. (Much better than the one we paid for in St. Louis before John's wedding IMHO.) I would like to say I taught Emily everything she knows about doing hair, but we all know what a joke that would be! Jack did not want to dress up at all and really did not like it when Kevin wore his purple Afro wig with silvery highlights.

Well blogger will not let me upload a close up of the crown or the snap of Jack. I will try again later.

Friday--I got the crown on, but I keep getting error messages about Jack!

Works in Progress

2007-10-22T07:07:00.000-06:00

I have 3 works in progress.

The teal bit is a hooded sweater for Jack. It is a Knitting Pure and Simple pattern #232. I got it and the yarn at the Kirkwood Knittery a few weekends ago. I really love the color of this yarn--Louet Gem 100% Merino in teal. It is supposed to me machine washable and dry able, but I probably will not try it. I have gotten through the joining of the row to make it circular and the holding of stitches on some waste yarn. There are about 13 inches of body to be knit before I have to do any thinking about it. I have a mistake in how I joined the knitting however, and I don't think it will be a big deal. Where the button and buttonhole overlap I have them reversed, so the buttonhole is under where the button would be sewn. The chances of Jack wearing it buttoned are slim, so I am going to keeping going. The picture is blurry if you click on it.

This one is my alpaca shawl that I mentioned before. I still love the yarn, but I find all that needle switch bothersome. I have a bout 70 rows done out of 270, but they are really going to slow down because I add 2 stitches every 2 rows. I bought 2 650 yds skeins of this yarn and I will need about 950, so I am wondering what form the extra 300 will take. Socks? I have to admit I cannot wait to try some socks, but am afraid I will not be able to do the tiny stitches on the double pointed needles. Maybe when I finish one of these I will attempt.

My last WIP is the Baby Yoda Sweater for the new nephew, James or Jay--not sure what they are going to call him. I am trying to go fast on this one so he doesn't outgrow it before I finish it. I am almost finished with back. MNF should finish that off. You can see the variation in color in the 2 gauge swatches I had to do. It is Ty-Dy 100% cotton. The pattern says to use natural fibers because acrylics "interfere with the Force". Unfortunately, I think it is hand wash, but hopefully James is not a spitter and it won't have to be done too often. I really like the colors natural, sage green, and grayish blue. I had trouble deciding between those in a solid color, so when I saw this yarn I had to try it. I was hoping for a more frequent color change. It will be interesting to see how it comes together.

Yard Photos

2007-10-19T08:49:00.000-06:00

These are a few photos of the yard I took last week. We had a gigantic pile of mulch on the driveway most of the summer. A few weeks ago I spent several afternoons weeding and hauling that 2 pick-up load down to the garden paths. I got about 40% of the garden ready for winter/fall. There is still much to do. I moved many strawberry plants to the straw mulched area and went through a summers worth of newspaper under the mulch. I moved some of Kevin's pile of wood for the fence he is planning to edge the beds in an effort to prevent grass creep. I also planted some lettuce, spinach, beets, and radishes. I figure there is nothing to lose. I am not sure how viable they will be next spring.

The first photo is a Moonflower. I planted them on one of my bean tipis when I ran out of beans. They bloom at night and are very fragrant in the morning. The blooms are about 6-8" across. I think they are related to morning glory.

The peppers have done really well. I have been freezing them diced for gumbo and Jambalaya and sliced for fajitas. We have also acquired a taste for them raw. There are probably ten out there now that I can pick.

I think the nasturtiums and impatiens are still my favorites. Only the ones in the pot looked good this year. Too dry.

You can see the shot with the cart as a before shot and the one with out as after. I guess the picture are not big enough to really see a difference, but there is long grass in the before shot in every bed. I decided to add another entrance path to the garden as I was doing all this. It is just beyond the strawberries. I made many trips to the grass/weed dumping area. You can see the parsley and a few pepper plants(this group was planted late after I pulled out the peas-so not very prolific). The parsnips are still thriving. I will pull those as needed for chicken noodle soup. I learned alot this summer with the garden and am hopeful that next will be better.

Erin is 5

2007-10-10T12:00:00.000-06:00

It is amazing how time has flown by--it seems like just the other day she was 4! I worry every year that the kids will be satisfied at their birthday. It think she liked everything she received. You can see her wearing the finished poncho. I spent all day knitting on it in between other activities. The kids had two rounds on Nemo in the afternoon and I discovered you could catch up on Desperate Housewives online.

Emily did her customary excellent job with the cake decorating. She did a princess dress. The candle is supposed to be the head. She promised to take Erin to the cosmetology school for a manicure when we get back from St. Louis. Erin will really like the attention from her big sister. Emily did her hair for dinner and Both were quite pleased with the results.

Jack and Gordy went in on a horse head on a stick. I think it is officially called a hobby horse.

There has been quite a bit of whinny-ing and prancing since last night. When you squeeze her ears it makes noise--that is if you put in batteries. Erin seems quite content without. We got her the canopy for over her bed and a beginners needle point kit as well. Jack is unafraid to embrace his inner princess and really likes the canopy.

You can watch Erin blow out her candle below. Emily put her hand across her mouth to prevent premature extinguishment.

Driveway Artists

2007-10-09T11:11:00.000-06:00

Erin and Jack creating in the driveway last Friday. By the time they were done all the rocks holding down the paper had been painted. It was supposed to rain and wash it all away, but therea re still a few colorful drips out there.

Yes--they went directly from the driveway to the bathtub!

New Pizza Place in Eastern Oregon

2007-10-09T10:10:00.000-06:00

Steve and Kina open their pizza place this week. It looks pretty good to me--Papa Keno like--for a Lawrencian frame of reference. Check out the details on her blog. Alas, they don't deliver to Lawrence.

Lion and the Lamb

2007-10-08T09:00:00.000-06:00

I am not sure if that is Lucy or Tiger with Rosie. For that matter I am not sure who is the lamb and who is the lion! Rosie is being quite patient with the little beasts. Scat and Judy are still in a funk.

Organic water!!!

2007-10-08T07:32:00.000-06:00

I have now seen it all. Safeway is marketing hormone-free, antibiotic-free, pesticide -free organic water! OMG what a hoot. If you aren't already worried about plastic leaching into your body and mimicing hormones or plastic fouling every bit of the land and water these overstated claims have to make you think you are being cheated!

Yeah, I know treehuggerdotcom!

New Addiction

2007-10-07T08:11:00.000-06:00

As I think I said in a previous post I have a new hobby.

Beginning knitting meets at the Yarn Barn in downtown Lawrence for 6 evenings this fall. The 7 of us sit in front of the store at a large dining room table and slowly knit and purl. We started with the dishcloth. I have finished 3 good size ones. The first Finished Object (FO) is a dishcloth in just plain old garter stitch. Erin and Jack went with me to select more yarn for their washcloths. Erin picked hot pink and Jack a nice blue. Erin's is a seed stitch border with stockinette middle. I was done to practice the purl stitch. I can't find Jack's, but I was quite pleased with it. It is all knit but you started at one of the corners and worked on increasing and decreasing stitches.

I am really enjoying this. It is nice to do something with your hands while watching the television. I got alot of knitting done during the Women's World Cup (I am not sure if I have caught up on my sleep yet).

I have 3 projects in the works, a poncho for Erin, a shawl for me, and a scarf. Erin's is over halfway finished. It is a really fluffy yarn that had I known better would not have chosen. It is hard to see the stitches. She likes it. It is supposed to be done for her birthday, but I have my doubts. She thinks I am working on a dishcloth! I will have to do many inches of knitting in the next couple of days. It is pretty fast though--big needles.

I have a few Un-Finished Objects (UFO's) on needles. The shawl is off-white alpaca. I got the pattern for the shawl from Sally Melville's The Purl Stitch. Her first book was the text for the class--I got this one from the library. You start at the point and knit 4 rows on small needles and then a 5th on a larger needle and then purl on the larger needle. There are increases on the odd rows and the holes will be filled with fringe. It is so soft. It is pretty easy to work with, and love just touching the yarn. The scarf is a rib knit in a cotton tweed blend. I am just doing the gauge swatch right now. I will finish that and then put it aside for a bit.

Let me know if you need a dishcloth!

Kevin in Uniform

2007-09-28T07:38:00.000-06:00

He just looks so darn cute in the uniform!

K is doing several games this weekend with a soccer tournament. He is working like a dog this fall to get us back on our feet. It looks like we will have they summer paid off by the end fo the month! We still have several hundred dollars worth of repairs on the van, but they can wait until it gets hot again and we can plan for them so we won't have to float them on the plastic. I am so proud of what he is doing.

Gordy on the Pitch

2007-09-24T07:23:00.000-06:00

One of the parents is taking many photos of the boys playing soccer. These are from her. They seem to have camera's well suited for action shots. Our is pretty good for things holding still!

Gordy did not end up scoring on that first picture. I included the last, the guy with the ball is a goof friend of Gordy's, because it is so odd seeing the boys emerging from the corn. They go in after a ball and disappear. The corn tops rustle and then out they pop.

Cats and Dogs

2007-09-23T08:24:00.000-06:00

I come from a long line of dog lovers on my maternal side. My mother has always had a dog, and I remember Grandmother always having a dog. My husband likes dogs. My brother and SIL love their dogs. Don't get me wrong I like Rosie, she is a great dog, but really truly I am a cat person. You can leave new kittens and not have to rush home to let them out. We showed them their cat box and they took to it right away--no mishaps at all. I did take time to wet their kitten chow for the first few days, but they are eating the hard chunky stuff really well now. We can only feed them a couple tablespoons at a time because they don't eat it all and Rosie likes kitten chow. Scat and Judy, the older cats are not speaking to us. They come into eat and then go back outside.

Meet Frick and Frack. I can't tell them apart. Their real names are Lucy and Tiger. Lucy has just the tiniest bit of white under her neck. We think they are about 6 weeks old. Emily is doing a paper with a gal and the gal had many kittens to get rid of. Naturally we took two. Kevin is such a softy!

Not a very good picture. They are under the desk in the kitchen. Jack is not to bother them when they are there. I am afraid were are going to have mushed kitten insides, as he loves them a bit too much.

Mea Culpa

2007-09-19T07:20:00.000-06:00

Bless me readers for I have sinned. It has been a month and a half since my last post.

As some of you may know it was a crappy summer work wise in the White-Doyle Clan household. Kevin was laid off from the city at the end of May due to budget constraints. You could have read about it in the Journal World on the front page, below the fold. They named names and salary. It was the beginning of August when Kevin's force retirement ended. He went back to work for Taylor Design Group down in Ottawa Kansas. TDG is a small engineering company that does a lot of surveying. He worked there for about a year or so 2-3 years ago and had worked with one of the owners for many years when he was at Brungardt Honomichl and Co (I think that is spelled right, I am out of practice!). Although he really liked the people he was working with the pay was less than what he was making at the city and it was going to be a constant battle to make ends meet. At the end of August Kevin switched jobs again to take a contract position with Black & Veatch. He is working in the Special Projects division. Most of the project he will be doing are for the Federal Government. He seems to like what he is doing, but to quote Madonna's mother "If it was fun they would call it fun." This is a six-month position with no benefits, but with overtime available. Apparently this division of BV does not hire anyone without going through the six-month contract deal. The City is paying health care benefits through the end of the year and Kevin found a reasonable temporary plan for the 2 month gap.

Kevin also obtained his referee certification and is doing that on Saturday mornings. He looks really cute in the yellow uniform!

Erin and Jack are doing well. Erin started preschool 2 days a week at the Lawrence Arts Center. She is really enjoying that. They let he paint to her hearts content. Jack would really like to stay with her. We are telling him that when he gives up the diaper we will get him in to something. I don't know if he is ready yet. I have taken him to story time at the library while Erin is at school and he is struggling with that. He made it 15 minutes yesterday before he decided he had had enough of sitting on a carpet square. That was better that the previous attempt. Maybe next week we can stay 20 minutes!

Emily has started her Junior year at Lawrence High School. She has a pretty tough schedule including an AP History class that is keeping her pretty busy. She also acquire her first job at a local grocery store. For a while she was the only on getting paid for her time! Emily is a teenage girl/young woman. I don't think anything else needs to be said.

Gordon is in 9th grade. He too is taking a demanding class schedule. We have already had contact with teachers. He is also playing C team soccer for the High School. Gordy is having a trial by fire to get himself organized. It will be a tough semester. Hopefully he will come out of it with some skills he can use later in his educational career. He is unfazed and quite laid back about it all -- unfortunately.

My stress level has gone down considerably in the last few weeks. The kids are back in school and most importantly the husband is back at work. I am working on sewing projects (look at wardrobe refashioning), getting the garden back under control, taking care of the last of the produce, organizing finances, and I started a knitting class which I am enjoying quite a bit (not sure yet if it is the actual knitting or getting out of the house!).

Hopefully there will be some photos to follow. The camera is slow these days!

Check out my SIL's blog. Paizano's is really taking shape!

Riko and Rina

2007-07-31T21:29:00.000-06:00

Riko and Rina came to visit us this week as part of the Lawrence/Hirasuka Sister City exchange program. They spent 4 nights with us. Emily & Kevin took them swimming at Clinton Lake on Sunday with some of her friends. We made Kevin's famous grilled pizza one night, had hamburgers and hot dogs and s'mores another. Emily took them shopping many times. The girls were very quiet. Communication was minimal, they hardly spoke English at all. Erin and Jack really liked having them here and they seemed to like running around with them. Here are some photos.

Bush Joke

2007-07-18T07:48:00.000-06:00

President Bush held a press conference yesterday to discuss the latest report out of Iraq. He says there's plenty of reason for optimism — although I'm starting to get the feeling he doesn't know what that word means. — Jimmy Kimmel

B4 Title 9

2007-07-15T16:34:00.000-06:00

Our women's soccer team played in the Sunflower State Games this weekend in Topeka. We lost all three of our games, only one of which we did not get "mercy ruled" in. There were 29 goals scored on us in 3 games. There would have been more but the referee stopped play in the second game on Saturday afternoon. That being said we stopped the majority of the scoring attempts. There were just alot of attempts. We spoke to the officials before the start of Sunday's game and said we wanted all our minutes!

Probably 75% of our team was over 30 and for many of us those were the first three real games ever played.

The other teams were very young--high school and college age. It was very much fun. Kevin was a very patient coach and we learned alot. The Lawrence Journal World got wind of us and wrote us up.

Hopefully we can field two teams next year. Our roster was full at 18 and we had to turn women away. The thinking is if we get 30 or so that would be enough for 2.

I do have to say we were the best dressed team!

Turtle Love

2007-07-03T18:09:00.001-06:00

Erin and Jack found another turtle in the back yard. It's name is "Hoopie". Erin is fearless about these found reptiles. Jack dropped the turtle right after I took the photo. We will put him our special turtle place to spend the night. There has never been a turtle that didn't escape in the night.

June comparison

2007-07-02T08:45:00.000-06:00

Most of the relevant numbers are in for the month of June. The utilities being compared are those that are paid in June.

Water Usage is down 10%. This is in spite of it being left to trickle overnight.
Natural gas is up 72%--I don't know why. It shouldn't be very different from last year. I think we are using it for hot water only. Maybe a misreading of the meter.
Electricity is down 42%. I expect this is all the dryer. We have been trying to keep lights and such off, but with mixed results.
Gasoline purchases down from $250 to $50. Big reduction, but Kevin is not driving to work and we didn't go to the Lake this year.
Food is down from $590 to $450. I think I am still running 20% - 30% local purchases. July will be crazy because the 1/2 beef is being bought.
Our household expenses (including gardening stuff not strictly classified as food) is down $100.

So, progress is being made. I do not expect to keep the gasoline that low and I need to figure out the natural gas. I am hoping to bring the water down some more with the use of careful watering in the garden. Electric should show good progress again because we have yet to turn on the AC. We wanted to get to July first w/o it. Kevin put in a whole house fan a few weeks ago and that has made all the difference. Weather cooperation has helped too. Right now we are working on a day-to-day basis.

How does the garden grow?

2007-07-01T09:40:00.000-06:00

I think this is close to where I took one earlier, before the beans were up. They have taken over the tipis completely. I have picked two meals worth of beans so far. They are yellow and green ones that sometimes curl.
One of the straighter beans. There are a total of 4 tipis and about 2 dozen bush beans that have not started producing yet. I plan of freezing several meals worth.
I believe this is Queensland winter squash. The leaves are 15-18" across. It is taking up way more space than the packet indicated. I am afraid I will go out there one morning and the entire garden will be enveloped in the huge, prickly squash leaves.
The excitement never ends at he compost bin. A couple volunteer squash--maybe yellow summer squash--and several tomatoes are growing in and around the bins. We may not be able to use the compost this year because I don't want to disturb the volunteers.

.Kevin finished his first rainbarrel yesterday just as the rain stopped. There is a plywood panel with 2" holes under the screen on top to keep the children out. I hope it is high enough off the ground to fill the watering can.

Flowers in and around the garden.

Comments

2007-06-24T08:52:00.001-06:00

Recently there have been a couple of spam type comment on the blog, so I am now moderating comments.

Erin's New Bling

2007-06-23T17:40:00.000-06:00

Erin, Emily and I went to Claire's this afternoon to get Erin's ears pierced. Erin was such a trooper. She did so well! No tears, nothing! The earrings were not her first choice. She wanted the little pink "diamond" earrings that were apparently October's birthstone, but they were out of stock. She picked the little daisy-like ones with pink petals and clear "diamonds" just like her friend Eva's. She is modeling her new twirly skirt that she is going to wear to the Fiesta tonight at church.

Two Boys and Two Bikes

2007-06-10T09:32:00.001-06:00

A month or two ago Westar, the electric company, sent their tree trimmers out to trim and cut down trees that might fall on the power lines during a storm. They leave the wood from the trees in logs for you if you want. There were 2 or 3 trees on the other side of the creek that they cut down and left for us. One of Gordon's jobs this summer has been retrieving and stacking this firewood. Here are some photos of how he and his friend Logan moved the firewood across the creek. Kevin helped with a few of the technical details.

Simple Changes

2007-06-05T08:01:00.000-06:00

Over at Causaubon's Book, she is doing a weekly post of changes you can make that are not too difficult. She is adding one challenge or area of focus a week and they are the kind of thing that you can do by degrees. She is also one of the ones trying to reduce her and her family's (of six)impact by 90%. I know we don't so these things to the extent she does. So far she has come up with:

Stay Home. Just stay home one day a week. Don't drive anywhere. Don't spend your money anywhere. This is not too hard, and you might even make progress on a few of those lingering projects.
Turn Things Off. Sounds like Energy Saving 101. If the plugged in thing is warm it is drawing energy, unplug it when not in use. We have the Entertainment items on separate power strips so that the CD thing and the DVD thing are not on all the time. We can just flip the switch when we want to use them. Our Bunn-o-matic keeps the water hot all the time. We have switched to tea during the week and coffee only on the weekends (we will make exceptions especially for visitors). That way we don't have to heat that water all week. Do any of these things make a big difference? Probably not. Collectively they can.
Make It Yourself. Her challenge the third week was to make one thing you would normally buy. This could be bread, granola, any food item. This could also mean sewing something. This was the week I did Erin's dress and a couple of cloth shopping bags. If you needed something at the hardware store you could fashion that your self. This one can go in any direction really.
Grow Food. I have already posted about this one in great detail. If you can grow a marigold you can grow a tomato plant. Basil is even easier.
Eat Seasonally. Check out Local Harvest. You can just click and zoom your way to local food/seasonal choices. This is mainly a call to end eating strawberries in December, that sort of thing.
Disposables. She mention ten items; paper towels, paper napkins, plastic shopping bags, diapers, baby wipes, feminine hygiene products, disposable pens, toothbrushes (get the kind where you just replace the head), and TP. I am not about to advocate that everyone give up everything on that list. We are pretty good on over half of those. Two of which I hope to be rid of soon--diapers and wipes. I would add switching to hankies in stead of Kleenex also. Start out with the napkins and shopping bags. No pain there really. Buy a monster pack of washcloths at Target and you are off. These things really do not add to the laundry burden. I just try to remember that paper comes from trees.

Anyway this is just a summary of what she is doing. Also, these are meant to be permanent changes. The idea behind doing one small thing each week is to keep it from becoming overwhelming. I think the new week's challenge is up on Monday. Even thinking about making changes is progress. Good Luck! Let me know if you decide to make any changes.

Mystery in the Library

2007-06-02T10:18:00.000-06:00

Kevin and I attended the Mystery in the Library Friday night. It was part of their summer reading program. Everyone who attended was given a part to play and some facts and rumors about the disappearance of King Henry the 8th. I just want you all to know "Pinocchio is a very naughty puppet. He maybe lying tonight" and "Snow White made sure the King dined alone." It was very hokey and the mystery was not all that satisfying, but we had a good time for free! There were probably 30 or so people there. Cinderella dunnit in the end.

Kevin played the part of Aladdin's Genie of the Lamp and I was Cinderella's Fairy Godmother. Kevin won second prize for best costume--note the Sugar Daddy shirt. He wore a pair of my pajama bottoms held up at the calves with elastic, and we did a vest out of white polar tec. Her used one of Erin's play scarves on his head and a toe ring on his ear. His lamp was Erin's little wooden teapot. Emily and I had fun getting the costumes together and we were able to use stuff we had on hand for the costumes. Kevin, being the out going soul he is, was really getting into it as the evening progressed.

Wordless Wednesday in the Garden.

2007-05-30T09:19:00.000-06:00

Spinach. I am not sure how much longer we will let it grow.

Erin holding a bouquet of mixed weeds! I did not choose the outfit.

Snow peas. We had some with dinner last night, lightly steamed then tossed with sesame oil and soy sauce. Erin likes to pick and eat.

Nasturtiums--I fell in love with these during our stay in Oregon. The leaves and flowers are edible. They have a peppery taste.

Savoy Cabbage. These are just plain lovely to look at.

Erin in an orange dress

2007-05-24T08:31:00.001-06:00

When I get stressed I sew. It gives me a positive outlet for my energy and there is usually something useful in the end. I have this nasty fabric addiction, that I am unsure how to deal with in light of this consumption reduction. Maybe used and garage saled fabric is okay! Anyway, this orange batik fabric is from my stash.

Garden Update

2007-05-22T08:53:00.000-06:00

Things are moving along nicely in the garden. I took these photos a couple of days ago. This was an especially tasty strawberry. I ate it after I snapped this. We have picked about 2 cups of strawberries so far. I don't know how many the critters have eaten.

The beans are coming along. They are being attacked by beetles. I have been hand picking and squishing twice a day.

The peas are blooming. I haven't seen too many bees out there, so I hope they get pollinated.

I got all those tomatoes planted, plus I bought 2 Brandy wines and 4 more peppers, Anaheim and Hungarian hot wax. The Butternut and Queensland winter squashes are in and some of the seeds have germinated. Yesterday I planted bush beans, echinacia, marigolds, sweet peas, bachelor buttons, and Eclipse melons. Also I put in and plants two more bean tipis. I still need to plant cucumbers, but we are closing in on being finished with the summer planting!

90% Reduction

2007-05-20T16:51:00.000-06:00

A couple of blogs I frequent, Simple Living and Causabon's Book, are teaming up to challenge people to reduce their emissions by 90% of American consumption rates. This is in response to several news stories about the magnitude of change needed to prevent climate change from getting further along that it is already. I don't think the White/Doyle Clan is going to even attempt to match that, but I think creating awareness and trying to make significant cuts say on the order of 10% to 25% is quite in order. The bloggers emphasize that attempting is better than not attempting to make reductions and that it is an inexact and imperfect endeavor. Also think of these changes on a permanent basis. Make the cuts and sustain the cuts. They base their calculations on average American consumption numbers that they have gleaned from a variety of sources. I am going to look at those and our figures for 2006 as our baseline.

They have posted some rules and guidelines for making these cuts. I will just pick out some of the highlights from their categories and you can look at the website for more details. Much of this is a rehashing of their posts.

1. Gasoline. Average consumption is 500 gal/person. We spent $2850 on fuel. Taking an average of $2.50/gal (ballpark figure) puts us around 1150 gal/year. I am confident that 2007 will be much lower than that simply because Kevin's commute is 9 miles per day rather than 70. Even so I suspect we will come in at the 500-600 gal/year mark for the whole household. I am trying to drive three days a week. While Erin is just in preschool I do not think it will be a problem. As it is now, I am biking 10-20 miles per week mainly for what I consider non-essential trips--softball, futsal, soccer spectating, and some shuttling to pre-school.

2. Electricity. Average consumption 11,000 KWH per household. I am assuming average household is 4 people. So 16,500 for a family of 6. You know I am a numbers geek. If I can make a chart in Excel I will. I have been tracking our utility usage and comparing the 2006 numbers to 2007 numbers. We used around 19,500 KWH for the whole of 2006. Wow! In the two months I have been hanging 2/3 third of the laundry out I have seen 20% drop in usage compare to those months in 2006. That was a pretty easy change to make. I think our goal will be to make sure it is under 14,500 KWH/year (about 25% reduction from 2006) and see how close to 12,000 (about 40%) we can get it. A whole house fan is also on the list of things to purchase. If we could reduce the AC season to 2 months that would be a real plus.

3. Heating and Cooking energy. We use natural gas. They give numbers for other means. Average consumption is 1000 therms/household. We used just under 800 therms for the year. So we are starting out 20% below average. A 25% reduction from 2006 would get us to 600 therms for the year. We use natural gas for heating the house and heating water. Off the top of my head cutting back of the length of showers will be the best choice for the summer months. Maybe getting one of those blankets for the hot water heater would be a good idea. Of course in the winter we will keep it in the low 60's probably.

4. Garbage. Average American generates 4.5 lbs of garbage per person per day. So that would be almost 200 lbs per week for us. With out actually weighing our can. I am guessing we are under that. We recycle newspaper, magazines, plastics, glass and aluminum. That takes much of it out of the trash. Composting kitchen waste is a good portion also. Probably 2 gallons each week goes into the bin--rough estimate. The newspapers are used for weed barrier in the garden and covered with grass clippings. I know that more often than not we only have one 55 gal can for the 6 of us. I suppose we can try and reduce that more, but I will probably focus on areas where there is more fat to cut. Maybe reducing the number of items that come in and have to be recycled. Definitely reducing the amount of plastic that comes in.

5. Water. Average American uses 100 gallons per person per day. So for us that would be 4200 a week and 218,400 per year. We used about 140,300 in 2006 or 64% of the average. That surprised me. We are coming into our peak water usage season. We have entertained the idea of getting a pump to get the water out of the creek to water the garden. I am quite leery of doing that since it is mainly storm runoff that ends up there. We had a notice put on our door earlier this week to keep people an animals out of the creek until Sunday because a sewer line broke and there was raw sewage in the creek. Somehow I don't think that would enhance the health benefits or the taste of all that fine produce out there. A 20% cut will put us at about 112,000 gallons per year. I am hopeful that careful hand watering of the garden and increased vigilance will help us along to that. I had purchased one of those rain type shower heads for our bathroom. I will give that up. Rain barrels are also a consideration. I am not sure what else to do along those lines.

6. Consumer Goods. See Simple Living for the reasoning on this one. Average American spends $10,000 on consumer goods. This does not include mortgage, health care, outstanding debts etc. This does include what I would call discretionary spending: entertainment, recreation, clothing, household goods, and toiletries. Okay so we are WWAAYY over this number. If we can get this to average I will call this a moral victory. Money spent on second hand items is exempt from these totals. I guess since it doesn't take any more carbon to "produce" those items.

7. Food. They don't have an average listed for this. They propose 70% locally, and organically produced food. It doesn't need to be certified organic, and local means within 100 miles of where you are. 25% ought to be bulk purchases. Fair Trade and sustainable grown coffee falls into this category. The other 5% is conventionally grown and processed foods. I am not sure how our numbers will stack up. I know we are at least at 20% local. When the half cow, locally raised and grass fed, comes in we will be over that. We spent about $8600 on groceries last year. I include laundry soap and kitchen good in that number, also some pet food. The cow alone will be over 10% of that. Our goal will be 40% local. Again, I think that we will exceed that.

So wow, you read this far. How do you stack up against the Average American numbers? How much are you going to try to reduce? 5%? Should be able to with out breaking a sweat. 10% ? Not much harder. Maybe you select one area and concentrate on that. Do what you can and let me know about it. It will not all be easy, but some of it really is.

Exchange ideas, talk to your neighbors. All of us have to make a start. Be the change.

Nothing is certain but death and taxes

2007-05-20T12:42:00.000-06:00

Well you can add the persistence of plastics to that list. There is an article from Orion magazine entitled "Polymers are Forever". The plastics break down into smaller and smaller pieces and are ingested by, and kill many types of, sea life. There is a huge amount of trash floating in the ocean. I remember when we were at Daytona Beach a few summers ago trying to keep the small children away from the washed up feminine hygine products--gross! That stuff goes doesn't magically disappear.

This is one of the many times the first "R"--Reduce--needs to come into play. I know the individual water bottles are convenient and you can reuse them, but really how many of us do? Bring your own bottle and refill it. Can you bring your own container to get carry out? Avoid the whole "paper or plastic?" dilemma and bring your own. Look at how the products you buy are packaged. Buy the one with less packaging. Buy the one that doesn't contain plastic. Avoid disposable and one time use products. Somehow generations before us got along without them, I am sure we can too!

Garden and Yard Photos

2007-05-14T07:59:00.000-06:00

I finally got around to taking and downloading some photos of the yard and garden. We have been held back by the crazy Kansas weather. First a deep freeze that stunted everything and froze my original cabbage and broccoli. Next we had two periods of rain that soaked everything for days and made doing anything outside in the dirt impossible.

The first photo is a view from the deck looking at an area I had torn up last summer it was all mud and slivers of limestone before. I added more rocks, bricks, pea gravel and mulch. I bought the rhododendron that is in full bloom the vinca vine is scavenged from elsewhere on the lot.

The next is looking north. We have almost completely tilled the garden. It just looks like a bunch on barren beds in this shot, but we have done 6 beds so far that are roughly 4' by 12' plus the narrow bed along the far line where the fence will be for berries. There are still strawberries to be moved, but they have begun to blossom and some have green fruit on them, so we will wait until the berries are done to finish. They are presently located in the middle of the garden where I want to primarily put flowers and perennial herbs, so the is no hurry.

The broccoli and cabbages are next. There are also carrots and spinach in this bed.

Next we have a bed of peas, parsnips and beet seeds that had to be replanted. I bought seed this year on-line from a nursery I had heard good things about, but I am not pleased with the germination rates. I am getting just as good from last years leftovers.

There is a shot of one of the lettuce squares. It is about 2' x 2'. I will start harvesting it next week probably. We have started in on the first square, and a third was planted last week. When it is well germinated I will seed the last square of it. I think it will get too hot after that.

My second of two attempts at a tipi to support the beans. The first is not as pretty, but seems sturdy enough. I got a packet of mixed yellow and green beans. They popped right up. I hope the bunnies don't get them. I think that was the problem last year. There are also pepper plants, eggplant, melon seeds, bok choi seeds, and nasturtium seeds planted in this plot. We are going to trellis the melon. Kevin started putting that up Sunday afternoon. I will be curious to see how that goes. It will really save ground space. Erin has since added 4 petunias.

This concludes the garden tour. I have 28 tomato plants to plant and squash and more to get in the ground. I want to take more shots from the same places so you can see how it progresses. We need to get it all in soon!

Water Water Everywhere!!

2007-05-06T11:16:00.000-06:00

Lots and lots of rain this morning and more expected this week. Everything is soupy in the backyard and garden. What a mess. The weather channel said it was coming at a rate of 2 inches per hour. Is much, much lower now, but whatever else we get I hope comes slow.

On a sad note

2007-05-04T07:32:00.000-06:00

Meredith Rothrock died on Wednesday. I did not know her well, but she has been in my thoughts since I heard about her diagnosis. She was 42, a mother of 4, and a fellow St. John's family. Her two oldest were classmates of Emily and Gordon. Emily was Ursula's roommate last summer in Japan. She was diagnosed with lung cancer last fall.

I cannot imagine the pain of knowing you will not be able to watch your children grow up and find out "how they turn out", of knowing the grief that will follow.

Please keep this family in your thoughts and count your blessings!

Finally, I know what I am worth!

2007-05-04T06:42:00.000-06:00

My MIL, Claire, e-mail me this story from Yahoo. According to this article my 92 hour work week is worth over $138,000 per year. It lists several occupations as comprising my work week: "housekeeper, cook, day care center teacher, laundry machine operator, van driver, facilities manager, janitor, computer operator, chief executive officer and psychologist." I would also have to add heavy equipment operator (lawn tractor), landscape architect, accountant/tax preparer, seamstress, grounds keeping and food production to that list! That would probably off set the fact that I usually knock off before the 92 hours are up!

I guess that would bump us to a higher tax bracket.

What do you know about oil?

2007-05-01T08:29:00.000-06:00

Why am I posting all this peak oil stuff? I am concerned, to say the least, that we make good, informed choices about where we live and how we earn our living in world where energy is becoming less plentiful and less cheap. Decisions about how our cities further develop need to account for decreasing reliance on the automobile. We need to strengthen our local economies and produce our basic needs locally. It will be far easier to accomplish these things now while energy is cheap than 5-10 years from now when it more than likely will not.

Oil Quiz from Gailtheactuary's site. There are graphs that accompany the answer explanations that are available at the original post.

Quiz:
1. United States oil production has been increasing at about 2% per year since 1960.

a. True
b. False

2. Saudi Arabia is currently the largest producer of oil in the world.

a. True
b. False

3. Each country publishes information about its reserves. This gives us pretty good information
about future oil production.

a. True
b. False

4. The following were the largest oil producing countries in 2005: Saudi Arabia, Russia, United States, Iran, China, Mexico, Norway, and Venezuela. Of these, which showed declining production in 2006?

a. None of them. Oil production is growing almost everywhere.
b. Only Norway and Venezuela
c. Six of the eight: Saudi Arabia, United States, Iran, Mexico, Norway, and Venezuela.
d. All of them

5. Increases in Canadian oil production as a result of developing the Canadian Oil Sands can be expected to offset declines in oil production elsewhere.

a. True
b. False

6. If oil production in an oil-exporting country declines by, say, 5% per year, oil exports are expected to decline by a similar amount.

a. True
b. False

7. Geologists are in agreement that worldwide oil production can be expected to continue to rise, at least until 2030.

a. True
b. False

8. If worldwide oil production were to decline at 2% per year for several years, this could easily be accommodated with little disruption.

a. True
b. False

9. If there is a worldwide shortage of oil, the richest countries can be expected to get the majority of the oil, and within those richest countries, the wealthiest people can be expected to get the largest share.

a. True
b. False

10. If we know that a major oil shortage is on the horizon, we can make necessary changes (develop alternative fuels and plug in electric vehicles, for example) in a five year period.

a. True
b. False

11. Even after oil production in an area declines, there is still a substantial amount of oil remaining in the ground.

a. True
b. False

12. Technological solutions will overcome the likely oil shortfall.

a. True
b. False
c. We can’t know yet.
Answers:

1. United States oil production has been increasing at about 2% per year since 1960.
Answer: False
Above is a graph (Figure 1) of US oil production. The blue line shows US 48 states total production; the red line shows the US total, including Alaska.
A person can see from this graph that oil production for the United States reached a peak in 1970, then began declining. The addition of oil from Alaska allowed production to reach a second lower peak in 1985, after which it began to decline again. The current rate of decline is about 2% per year.
In most areas, oil production initially rises, then declines after about 50% of the available oil in the area has been recovered. For example, Figure 2 shows a graph of production from the North Sea (that is, near Norway and Great Britain). Production grew for several years, then reached a peak and began declining in 1999.
If the United States does additional drilling in new locations, such as Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, or Jack 2, or along the outer continental shelf near Florida, geologists expect that US oil production (Figure 1) will show a modest increase for a few years, but will not approach the level of production seen in 1970 or 1985.

2. Saudi Arabia is currently the largest producer of oil in the world.
Answer: False.
Saudi Arabia was the largest producer of oil up until 2005, but its production recently has been declining. Russia is now the largest producer of oil. In 2006, Saudi Arabia produced 9,152,000 barrels per day while Russia produced 9,246,000 barrels per day, based on March 2007 US Energy Information Agency data.
Saudi Arabia is the still the largest oil exporter. While Russia produces more, its population is greater, so it has less to export.

3. Each country publishes information about its reserves. This gives us pretty good information about future oil production.
Answer: False
There are three reasons the published reserve numbers give very poor information about expected future production:
1. Reserve numbers appear to be seriously overstated for some countries, based on geological information from other sources. This is particularly an issue for Mideastern countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Iran. Questions have also been raised with respect to Russia’s reserves. Since reserve data is unaudited, there is no direct way of checking the accuracy of the reported amounts.
2. Even if oil is theoretically available, the amount of production in any one year may be very low because of technical issues. If oil is very thick, as in the Oil Sands of Canada and in Venezuela, it may be impractical to recover more than a very small percentage in any one year, because of the large inputs of heat (usually from natural gas) and fresh water required. Oil that is in very deep water, or that is in an area near icebergs, may also be difficult to recover very quickly, because of the need for special equipment.
3. Even if the oil is in the ground, a country can choose to delay production until later. We are used to countries producing as much oil as they can sell. If it becomes clear that there will be an oil shortage in future years, countries may decided to husband their resources (keep part of their oil in the ground, in case they need it later).

4. The following were the largest oil producing countries in 2005: Saudi Arabia, Russia, United States, Iran, China, Mexico, Norway, and Venezuela. Of these, which showed declining production in 2006?
Answer: c. Six of the eight: Saudi Arabia, United States, Iran, Mexico, Norway, and Venezuela, as shown in Figure 3 below.
The fact that six of the eight largest oil producers have declining oil production in the first 10 months of 2006 is of concern because oil production in an area tends to rise for several years, and then decline year after year, once geological limits are reached. The fact that these six countries are showing declining production could mean than many (or all) of them have reached the point of geological decline, and thus can be expected to show declining production in the future. It is also possible that some of the declines in production are due to temporary situations, such as intentional reduction of production or equipment breakdowns.
On the exhibit, we note that the United States, Mexico, and Norway have all indicated that their production declines are for geological reasons, and thus can be expected to continue. The situation is less clear for Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Venezuela, all of which are members of OPEC.
The reason the comparison in Figure 3 is made for the first 10 months of 2006, rather than the whole year, is because OPEC announced a reduction in production as of November 1, and cutting off the data at October 31 eliminates this potential distortion. Thus, this exhibit shows that even before the announced cutbacks, the three large OPEC producers (Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Venezuela) were all showing declining production.

5. Increases in Canadian oil production as a result of developing the Canadian Oil Sands can be expected to offset declines in oil production elsewhere.
Answer: b. False
If we look at production from the Canadian Oil Sands, we find that it is only a tiny percentage of world production — 0.8% of world production in 1998, rising to 1.2% of world production in 2005, after billions of dollars of investment.
Oil from the Oil Sands is extremely difficult to produce. Production requires large inputs of fresh water and natural gas, both of which are in short supply. There is also a shortage of workers and housing for workers. There is discussion about eventually replacing part of the natural gas with nuclear energy, but this will not overcome all of the difficulties. Given how low production is today, and how slow it has been to scale up, it seems unlikely that production will ever be large enough to offset a significant oil production shortfall elsewhere.
Production of Oil Shale in the Western United States is expected to be even more challenging than Oil Sands production. The concentration of potential fossil fuel is much lower in Oil Shale than in Oil Sands, so even more production problems of the type encountered with Oil Sands can be expected. Given the slow progress with Oil Sands, Oil Shale seems even less likely to offset a major oil shortage.

6. If oil production in an oil-exporting country declines by, say, 5% per year, oil exports are expected to decline by a similar amount.

Answer: b. False

When a country increases its oil production, its internal usage tends to rise even faster than exports, as the population grows and some of the wealth filters down to the citizens of the country. When the oil production starts to decline, residents expect to continue their standard of living. As a result, countries tend to keep their own consumption at close to the same level, and reduce exports. This pattern was true for the United States when its production began to fall, and it seems to be happening in a number of other countries.
Given these considerations, if a country’s oil production decreases by 5%, we should expect that country’s exports will decrease by more than 5%.

7. Geologists are in agreement that worldwide oil production can be expected to continue to rise, at least until 2030.

Answer: b. False

We have already seen evidence that in a given area, oil production tends to rise for a number of years, then decline. Most geologists believe that on a worldwide basis, production will also eventually begin to decline. Opinions vary as to when the decline will begin. Typical dates are between 2007 and 2012, although some believe the decline will not begin until 2020 or later.
One reason why geologists are predicting a decline in production is the fact that oil discoveries (excluding Oil Sands, Oil Shale, and other “unconventional” sources) began declining over 40 years ago. The fields that have been found recently, including the much publicized Jack 2 field, tend to be fewer and smaller than the fields found years ago.

While geologists generally believe that oil production will begin to decline in only a few years, governmental agencies, like the US Energy Information Agency, are projecting that oil production growth will continue until at least 2030. Some of the independent oil companies are also projecting long-term growth in production.
Economists have had a surprisingly large say in this discussion. Their view is that it doesn’t matter whether oil production begins to decline or not. They believe that oil is like any other commodity, and that substitutes will be found. They also believe that scarcity will lead to higher prices which will lead to greater production and/or demand destruction, so that declining oil production will never be a significant issue.

8. If worldwide oil production were to decline at 2% per year for several years, this could easily be accommodated with little disruption.

Answer: b. False

One might think that a 2% decline in world oil production could easily be accommodated, but several issues arise:
In recent years, worldwide oil usage has been increasing by about 2% a year. Much of this increase in demand is from China and from other oil-producing countries that have previously had a low standard of living. Because we are used to a 2% annual increase in oil worldwide oil usage, the 2% a year expected decrease needs to be compared to the prior increase of +2% per year. This amounts to a change of -4%, relative to what we are accustomed to — quite a big decline.
If worldwide production oil decreases by 2% per year, the amount of oil available to importers is likely to decrease by more than 2% a year, for reasons discussed in the answers to Question 6. Because the United States’ own production is dropping at 2% a year, in recent years our imports have been increasing at 5% a year, to keep up with demand. If imports suddenly become less available, US supplies are likely to drop by much more than 2% a year.
The US economy and the world economy use very large amounts of debt. When the economy is growing by several percentage points per year, there are enough funds available that most debtors can repay their debts with interest. If, because of oil shortages, the economy ceases to grow, or if it begins shrinking by a few percentage points a year, it is not clear this system can continue. There are likely to be many defaults on loans, and long-term loans, including mortgages, may become very difficult to obtain.
Once it becomes clear there are likely to be oil shortages in the future, the behavior of countries is likely to change. We are already seeing oil producing nations, like Russia and Venezuela, unilaterally adjusting oil contracts to terms that are more favorable to themselves, because of their new, greater power. If it is clear that prices will be higher in the future, oil producers have an incentive to hoard their supplies for the future. Some countries with inadequate supplies may choose military approaches for obtaining oil, if the alternative is economic decline.

9. If there is a worldwide shortage of oil, the richest countries can be expected to get the majority of the oil, and within those richest countries, the wealthiest people can be expected to get the largest share.

Answer: b. False

For reasons discussed previously, oil exporting countries are likely to get a disproportionate share of the remaining oil, since they are likely to meet their own needs first. With oil shortages, oil producing countries find themselves with more power, and are able to rewrite contracts on terms more favorable to themselves. Thus, it seems likely that the amount of oil available to oil-importing countries will decline disproportionately to the overall decline.
Within countries, governments are likely to allocate oil to what they consider their country’s most basic needs first - most likely agriculture, the military, and perhaps emergency services. If there is a shortage to begin with, once these allocations are taken off the top, the remaining amount of oil available to consumers is likely to be considerably lower than the total demand. It is possible the remaining oil will be sold to the wealthiest individuals, but if elected officials are involved, rationing may be more likely.

10. If we know that a major oil shortage is on the horizon, we can make necessary changes (develop alternative fuels and plug in electric vehicles, for example) in a five year period.

b. False

The US Department of Energy commissioned a study titled Peaking of World Oil Production: Impacts, Mitigation, and Risk Management, by Robert Hirsch, Roger Bezdek, and Robert Wendling, published in early 2005. This study indicated that if existing technology is used, it would take at least 10 years to begin to mitigate a decline in oil production. Twenty years would produce a much better level of mitigation.
The reason mitigation is expected to take so long is that there is so much infrastructure in place that uses the current technology. If a decision is made to increase fuel efficiency standards for cars, for example, it takes many years before this decision has a significant impact. First, it takes several years for manufacturers to begin making new models, then many more years before enough autos are sold to comprise a significant share of the US total. If liquid fuel is made from coal (a technology that has been around since World War II), it takes several years for factories to be built and new coal facilities to be developed.
Because of these considerations, it is difficult to make any major change very quickly. If we are talking about developing new technologies, like plug-in electric vehicles or cellulistic ethanol, we should expect even longer lead times, since new technologies need to be developed and tested, before they can be implemented on a large scale.

11. Even after oil production in an area declines, there is still a substantial amount of oil remaining in the ground.

Answer: a. True

Even after production ceases, a substantial amount (typically 50% to 75% of the oil originally in place) remains in the ground. New production techniques have been developed over the years, but these have generally had only a minor impact on the percentage of oil in place that can be produced. If one looks at the graph of the production for the US-48 states shown in Figure 1 above, or the production for the North Sea shown in Figure 2, one can discern little impact of new techniques in the last few years. Some believe that the primary impact of new techniques has been to remove oil more quickly, rather than to significantly raise the percentage of oil that can be recovered.
Given that there is still a substantial amount of oil is the ground, there is a possibility that new techniques will be developed that will be able to remove a much larger portion of the oil in place in an economical fashion. If this can be done, an oil shortage can perhaps be avoided for quite a few more years.

12. Technological solutions will overcome the likely oil shortfall.

Answer: c. We can’t know yet.

Since there are many people working on the problem, and since there is still a lot of oil in place, there is a possibility that solutions will be found to the likely shortfall in oil production. There are many issues that make the problem particularly difficult, however:
There is a very long lead time for any new technology to be implemented.
It appears likely that there will be a shortage of natural gas in North America, in roughly the same time frame as the expected decline in worldwide oil production.
Global warming is becoming a serious enough issue that it is questionable whether we should burn the additional fossil fuels that are in the ground, if we can get them out.
We have a large world population and limited fresh water and top soil, limiting the amount of biofuels that can be produced.
The above issues all relate to the fact that we live in a finite world and are approaching its limits. Researchers will need to understand all these various issues, in addition to the problem of oil shortages, to avoid trading one problem for another.

To Learn More

Dr. Colin Campbell - Peak Oil Presentation - The End of the First Half of the Age of Oil (33 minute video for Windows/Mac or IPOD/mp3)
Peaking of World Oil Production: Impacts, Mitigation, and Risk Management (US Department of Energy report mentioned above)
“Energy Sources and Our Future” - Remarks by Rear Admiral Hyman Rickover in 1957
Labor and Skills Crisis in Oil and Gas Industry Booklet by Booz, Allen, and Hamilton
Questions for Discussion

If your family were permitted to purchase only five gallons of gasoline per week, how would this change your lifestyle?

Geologists and economists seem to have very different ideas regarding the importance of the decline of oil. Who would you agree with? Why?

Oil production in Mexico began to decline in the past year, and is expected to continue to decline in the future. In the past, revenue from oil income has been one of the country’s primary sources of tax revenue. What kinds of changes would you expect in Mexico, as production declines in the next few years?

If you were the President of the United States and knew about the likelihood of oil shortages, what policies would you recommend? If you knew that it was likely that worldwide oil production was about to decline, would you tell the American people?

Some people have suggested that there may be a link between expected future oil shortages and the war in Iraq. How likely do you consider such a connection to be?

Given the likelihood of oil shortages in the future, what might be good careers for young people making choices today?

Pope Benedict the Green Pope

2007-04-30T11:45:00.000-06:00

The Catholic Church is weighing in on the Climate Change debate. Here is a link to the article in The Guardian. The Church seems to be realizing the sinfulness of the wanton disregard for the long term sustainability of God's creation. This is certainly a great starting place --"Pope Benedict urged bishops, scientists and politicians - including UK environment secretary David Miliband - to "respect creation" while "focusing on the needs of sustainable development"." I know there are groups on evangelicals who are coming round to the green way of thinking.

This all leads me to think about what our little church, St John the Evangelist, can start doing to make a more positive statement. We recently attended a trivia night put on by the PTO. We had a great time, everyone their own brought food and drinks. At the end I was noticing the many beer bottles, cans, and the like in the trash. How simple it would be to just provide a separate container for recyclables. I am in charge of the games for the Oktoberfest. In the past I have ordered the typical cheap plastic prizes that we give out to the kids. I am not sure what alternatives there are to that. I can rely heavily on candy, or useful items like fancy pencils, locally grown apples? Maybe eliminate the consolation prizes? Ideas anyone!

I would really like to see churches begin to show some leadership on this issue as I believe it is a moral issue.

Effect of Daylight Savings Time on Global Warming

2007-04-27T09:01:00.000-06:00

I just don't know what to say about this one. You never know what a "liberal congress" will come up with!

From the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.

GAO Report on Peak Oil and Crude Awakening

2007-04-27T09:00:00.000-06:00

There is a video on Google called Crude Awakening. (As of 4/30/07 the video has been taken down) Take the time to watch. It is long, but contains information we all need to be thinking about.

It is sobering stuff. Whether you agree that is is happening right now or will occur in the near future, it is certainly an issue we and our children and grandchildren are going to have to deal with. This is at least as, if not more an issue that climate change.

I wrote what follows several weeks ago...

Thursday, March 29th, the General Accounting Office for the United States released a report on Peak Oil. In a nutshell peak oil is when the world's oil production can rise no more and begins to decline. This happens on many different scales: single oil field, lower 48 states, UK's North Sea, Saudi Arabia, world level--just some examples. This does not mean that there is suddenly no more oil coming out of the ground. It means that the oil that is left in the ground is more expensive to produce and is usually of lower quality than the free flowing light, sweet crude. It is essentially the end of cheap oil.

Here is a clip from CNBC of two oil industry experts one of whom is Matthew Simmons. Bill Clinton described him as "a distinguished petroleum investor who is no liberal Democrat tree-hugger like me, he is one of the Bush family's close friends. He's a conservative Republican. He says we have 35 years of recoverable oil left. " I believe he served on Bush 43's fundraising committee and is now on Mitt Romney's. I mention this to emphasize that this is not a partisan issue.

Matthew Simmons on CNBC March 29th, 2007.

Another big name in finance T. Boone Pickens.

When I think of Chicken Little alarmists these are two names that don't necessarily come to mind.

This is really a big deal.

Watch crude prices. They have gone up over 5 dollars a barrel in the last week or so. It maybe geopolitical, only hindsight will tell.

The US oil production peaked in the early 1070's. The United States(lower 48) has never pumped more oil--even with the increased technologies--than it did then. This is well documented, the peak oil wiki entry may even have a chart. Alaskan oil is in decline. I believe I read somewhere that over 50 oil producing countries are in irreversible production decline.

Lawrence Half Marathon and 5k

2007-04-26T13:42:00.000-06:00

On April 15th Kevin completed his second half marathon. He ran in the Lawrence Half Marathon and 5k. He did a great job. Kevin has been training since December. He finished in 1:46:30 which came out to 203 out of 877 overall and 22 out of 62 in his age group. I was quite impressed and proud of him for completing the race.

I did the 5k sort of on a whim as I had not been running since I tore my calf muscle in September. I have been playing soccer and such. I was happy with my 32:06 or 371 out of 567 and 14/40 in my age group. That was actually faster than my last 5k!

The route for both races was pretty familiar. It started and ended at Haskell stadium and went on their campus. The half marathon visited many sites in Lawrence including the KU campus and South Park. Our old neighbors let us park in their driveway, so parking was not a worry at all.

It's That Time of Year Again

2007-04-22T08:14:00.000-06:00

Turn off the TV week runs Monday April, 23rd to Sunday, April 29th.

Our family has participated in the past and will do so willingly and unwillingly this year. I suspect those early morning hours will be the hardest. Erin and Jack have a steady diet of PBS kids each morning until I wake up.

I really don't think it will be too bad. I think the only time I sat down to watch something last week was yesterday. The Cardinals were playing the Cubs and I had just returned from playing 80 minutes of soccer and riding my bike 10 miles. I think it was deserved!

It has been so nice outside this week that I have worked outside (and was too exhausted) and there have been so many evening activities we just haven't had the time.

Kevin is going to disconnect the cable tonight!

In other news..

2007-04-17T14:43:00.000-06:00

Japanese bidet recall. Wouldn't want to be caught on a flaming bidet!

Global Warming threat to National Security

2007-04-16T08:49:00.000-06:00

The New York Times had an article on a report due to be released today, Monday 4-16, equating Global Warming with a threat to national security--well no shit Sherlock.

We have got to demand our legislatures at the local and state level beginning to think about the coming consequences.

I was at a Step It Up (if you watch the video, I am in a blue coat walking my bike toward the end of the "parade")rally this weekend designed to pressure Congress to reduce GHG emission by 80% by 2050. One part of the rally had a representative of Congresswoman Nancy Boyda speak about what she is doing about the issue(not much, but something is better than nothing). Marci Francisco(state senator) spoke about legislation to allow more access to "the grid". Carey Maynard-Moody spoke about getting more movement on the Cool Cities Campaign. I know the guy who is supposed to be doing the energy audit for the City of Lawrence and was able to give him a kick in the seat for her. The most interesting speaker was Don Worster who gave a self described rant on GW as a security issue. The US has spent hundreds of billions of dollars on the war in Iraq, more hundred on Afghanistan, more hundreds on homeland security to protect a country that has not been invaded in over 150 years! We are the most secure country on the earth and we are squandering time and resources on this war. What a waste.

Free Joshua Bell Concert

2007-04-11T11:42:00.000-06:00

This is an amazing article about a street musician in the Washington Metro station. It makes you wonder why we are so rushed in our everyday lives that we can't stop and listen a moment. Kind of a sad commentary on us.

Link added

2007-04-10T09:32:00.000-06:00

I added Elizaphanian to the Blogs I like. He is an Episcopal priest in England. He has some interesting thoughts on religion and the world. He usually post a morning picture and an evening picture of the sea. The photos are fabulous. Visit for them if nothing else.

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas

2007-03-31T08:36:00.000-06:00

We had storms roll through last night and most of the day Friday. They knocked the petals off the Bradford pears. I thought it looked pretty cool. It is beautiful and sunny now, but there are storm clouds in the distance. Maybe I need to locate a new mat for the backdoor?

San Francisco and Portland, OR

2007-03-29T09:28:00.000-06:00

It looks like San Francisco got their plastic bag ban through and now the major grocery store have to provide compostable bags. I copied a few plastic bag facts from the story:

Plastic bags by the numbers

180 million
Roughly the number of plastic shopping bags distributed in San Francisco each year.

2 to 3 cents
Amount each bag costs markets, compared with anywhere from 5 to 10 cents for a biodegradable bag.

4 trillion to 5 trillion
Number of nondegradable plastic bags used worldwide annually.

430,000 gallons
Amount of oil needed to produce 100 million nondegradable plastic bags.

Source: S.F. Department of the Environment; Worldwatch Institute

I have to admit that I have alot of trouble remembering to bring mine into stores--especially non-grocery stores. I am pretty good about the grocery stores because I usually have milk bottle to return, and there is a financial incentive to grab those!

The other 1tem I am mentioning is my discovery of Portland Office of Sustainable Development. It looks like there is a wealth of information there. Some of it is quite specific to their city, but many good ideas for other communities to emulate--food waste reduction, fossil fuel reduction, peak oil task force report (caution incredibly depressing report).

Wordless Wednesday

2007-03-28T13:33:00.000-06:00

Yard photos.

Living Room Update

2007-03-28T13:06:00.000-06:00

Kevin and I finished doing what we can do for now in the living room and dining room update. We still need to replace the light fixture in the old dining room with a ceiling fan and we need to replace the nasty pull down old school blinds that are in the new dining room. Lighting is okay, but not great in there. It will have to do for now. I am pleased with the improvements. I put up some before shots also. As a special treat there is a close up of the old wallpaper.

Now if we can just get our bathroom done. I would at least like to get the monster shop vac out of the bedroom--not romantic at all. It is painted except for the floor, I will do it last. It is detail stuff that needs to happen, shower doors, towel rods and the like. Someday.

Kids Return Tomorrow

2007-03-23T23:09:00.000-06:00

My Sister-In-Law and brother have posted some great shots of Emily and Gordy doing fun stuff on spring break. Check out her site Untrained Professional with OCD under the Other Blogs I Like in the sidebar!

It will be nice to have the back. Too quiet.

Did you feel the wind?

2007-03-22T19:23:00.000-06:00

That was everyone in Jayhawk country exhaling.

Ku 61 SIU 58.

Wow--survive and advance.

ACT NOW

2007-03-21T10:33:00.000-06:00

This morning, 3/21, Gore is speaking to the US Congress about the need to act now on Global Warming. He suggests several possible action such as raising fuel efficiency standards, freezing carbon emissions, and creating and signing an updated Kyoto protcol. These are relatively minor actions in terms of the difference they will make, but are a step in the right direction.

At least the majority of the Republicans are agreeing that global warming is happening and the human's are causing it.

I am finishing this post a few days after his speech. I ended up, geek that I am, staying up and watching the replay of his Senate testimony on C-span. That was an interesting process. The unbridled contempt Sen. Inhofe showed was impressive. Thank G-- I don't live in Oklahoma. I would have been embarassed. Sen. Bond was only slightly more appealing. The Democrats mainly launched what I thought were softball questions. I think they squandered an opportunity for Gore to expand on some of his ideas.

We have to start acting now and acting in a big way.

Politicians in Drag

2007-03-17T12:20:00.000-06:00

Miscellaneous stuff. Emily and Gordon are on theri way to Oregon with the digital camera, so no pictures this week unless I can figure out how to download them from my phone. It took me awhile to figure out how to change my 5 favorites, so I am not optimistic.

Funny link if you are into making fun of politicians.

Wordless Wednesday

2007-03-14T13:20:00.000-06:00

Jack loves to throw anything into the creek. He runs over to the trees and picks up one seed pod and then runs back to the 10' drop off, stops on a dime and tosses it in. Only a matter of time until he makes a splash.

Yard Photos!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

2007-03-13T09:28:00.000-06:00

You know that Christmas song--Well the first weekend of the Tournament is for me the Most Wonderful. If I were really creative I would come up with spoof lyrics all related to the big dance. You will find me glued to the TV all weekend!

I finally got around to doing my picks. Of course I have KU winning the whole enchilada. I can't ever not pick them to win. I did a Yahoo Pick'em for fun-- Jana's Jayhawks. I am too sentimental about the Big 12 as you can see. I guess it is because I have seen how these guys play. I root against NC except when they are playing Duke. I am not sure if I will ever feel nice feelings toward Roy Williams. It was nice to send Duke out early this year! Kevin Durrant for Texas is one hell of a player--I am not picking any one to beat him except us.

I need to go get the chips, salsa and and a six-pack of really great beer.

Nature's First Green...

2007-03-10T10:01:00.000-06:00

I was out walking with Jack this morning and noticed the buds on the trees beginning to swell and the tulips and naked ladies beginning to poke through the earth. Spring is blessedly right around the corner and if I can just hang on to my little bit of remaining sanity I will have made it through another long dark winter.

This time of year always reminds me of this Robert Frost poem.

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

It reminds me to pay attention and notice what is good and fleeting in my life. I think in yoga terms it is being present in the moment. Something that is a constant struggle. I find myself thinking it will be better when Jack is potty trained. It will be better when Erin in in kindergarten. It will be better when the home equity loan is paid off. It will be better when spring comes. It will be better when... I find myself looking forward to when it will be "better" and not at what is happening right next to me.

San Francisco Plastic Bag Ban

2007-03-08T13:42:00.000-06:00

Looks like there is a movement in SF to ban the use of plastic bags in supermarkets. Wouldn't that be something. A few years ago many grocery stores in Lawrence would give 10 cents a bag off if you brought your own. Only the Community Mercantile still does. I like the idea of a plastic bag tax for all stores. However, issuing a credit for each bag is easier to swallow for most people. Most of the trash we clean out of the creek is some sort of plastic bag or bottle. We do try to reuse the ones that come into the house, but there is a limit to how many we can find other uses for. I bought Gordy a can of tennis balls last night and they wanted to put that in a plastic bag. The guy looked at me like I was an alien when I told him we didn't need one.

Buy Less Crap

2007-03-08T08:17:00.000-06:00

We have children in school. That means there are fundraisers. I hate fundraisers. You are supposed to send the kids out to sell overpriced items and then the company kicks back some percentage of the sale price. Usually it is a minute amount. Last year during the cookie dough sales we just made a donation to the LHS Soccer team in the amout we would have bought. This way we didn't have to have tubs of not very good cookie dough around. We have done trash bags, wrapping paper, books, popcorn, and of course Girl Scout Cookies. An interesting note on the microwave popcorn--it was the same packaging on the inside as the stuff I used to buy at Aldi. So basically you could buy three times as much popcorn at the store and still give the group twice what they were going to get from the sale. Crazy.

You see this on a huge scale with the Go Red promotion. I saw somewhere that over $100 million dollars has been spent on advertising this campaign and in the end about $20 million will actually go to the intended charity. Why not just donate the advertising budget? Here is a website, Buy Less Crap, with the right idea.

Just a Thursday morning rant!

Wordless Wednesday

2007-03-07T20:12:00.000-06:00

Three pictures from my day.

Localize Me

2007-03-06T11:02:00.000-06:00

There was an article in the Lawrence Journal World this morning about a guy in Lawrence who "lived on fast-food". Local Burger teamed up with him to do an anti Super Size Me type deal. For 30 days he ate all his meals at the local restaurant. He lost over 20 lbs and dropped his cholesterol over 100pts!

From what I understand LB buys its meat and tofu locally. We have eaten there a couple of times and found it pretty good. The burgers are more like home made than fast food. I think I had the bison burger--that is about as exotic as I get. I haven't tried the local garden type burger, but I have had the tofu. I think part of the reason the guy lost so much weight is that he was eating less period, not just less fast food crap. Anyway, I hope the restaurant continues to do well. We need more like that.

Just a note that I took the picture from the LB website.

Cover of Time

2007-03-03T13:57:00.000-06:00

I got my Time magazine this afternoon. Eating local is going mainstream! I can't wait to read it.

Garden Plans

2007-03-02T09:30:00.000-06:00

Here is the current plan for the garden.

This will be a long range plan. I hope we can get all the beds planted this year and many of the perennials in the ground. I wanted to do something a bit more formal and defined because the vegetable garden is a prominent feature in the backyard and it may as well be beautiful and functional. Last years effort was way out of control and weedy looking. I want something like what I see in the library books.

The first thing that needs doing is the fencing, once the posts are in I can stake out the beds where I want them. The current thinking is inexpensive metal posts and wire fencing. It should be the cheapest way to go and the wire can be disguised with climbing plants.We will have three gates. I lobbied for 4, but Kevin didn't want to. Apparently it is much more work. The gate at the SE corner will be 5', so the mower can get in there if Kevin ever gets the other attachments he wants to. The other gates are 3'. The entire fenced area is about 35'x 70'. It will be larger than that when all the brown areas are mulched.

We--me more than likely, basically I just get Kevin to do the things I can't or that would take me six times as long to do-- will move the strawberry beds to the narrow beds along the east and north border. Cool season crops will go in the north most beds so we have time to move the peonies and naked ladies that are in the SE corner. I want to plant some grape vines outside the south fence in the brown area. I wonder who would know which varieties I should plant. Dad do you have any ideas? There is a purple martin house just outside the north fence. I wasn't quite sure of its exact placement, so that edge is a bit undefined. Blueberry bushes are to go outside the north fence. I am not sure if the berries and grapes are in the budget this year. They should go in if possible so we can start enjoying them. I imagine they will take a few years to produce.

The center square will have a birdbath and mainly flowers and perennial herbs.

The city will have a mulch sale in a few short weeks and we will most likely purchase straw for the pathways. We used grass clippings last year and that worked really well, but it took so long to get the clipping that the weeds had already taken hold. This is going to be an incredible amount of work this year, but it should be less in the years to follow. Yes, I do have a plan for each bed, but if I wrote about all that then y'all would really think I was a whack job!

Erin's Last Question

2007-03-01T15:07:00.000-06:00

The other night Kevin was putting the little kids to bed. He was wanting to leave their room and Erin kept wanting to ask questions. Finally Kevin told Erin she could have one last question. Erin asked , "If I fart loud enough will I make a hole in my underwear?"

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Doyle

2007-03-01T10:41:00.000-06:00

Kevin's folks recently returned from a Mexican vacation and sent some things over for us. Erin and Jack were the only grandkids to volunteer for the photo. Erin loves her new "tiara" and Jack spent the afternoon trying to remove the baby Jesus form the nativity scene :( We will have to work on him. We are looking forward to seeing everyone at Easter.

February Stats

2007-03-01T09:53:00.000-06:00

My records are not as good for February as there were for January. I am missing a receipt or two.What I do have puts us at 25% for the local purchases. The Mercantile has their bottled milk back--Good Natured Family Farms. It looks like some kind of local food coop that mainly supplies Kansas City grocery chains with some local foods. We also purchased breakfast sausage from Emporia, cheese from Alma and tortilla chips from Lawrence, Pendleton's. The Pendleton's are St. Johns parishioners and have an asparagus farm east of town.

For all of our energy saving plans every single utility usage went up compared to 2006! That is pretty frustrating. Gas went up from 4.1 to 6.3 therms per day. Pretty big, however 2007 was much colder than 2006 for the same time period. I am still not convinced the new thermostat is all that great. It blows constantly, mostly cold air. Kevin saved the old one, so maybe putting that back on is the way to go. We are up 10 gal/day on water. There is still a drip in at least one bathroom, and we need to switch a washer or nut or something around in our shower head to low flow. Jack has also discovered the joys of flushing. Electric is up about I kWh/day. I don't know what is up there. I bought a couple of new solar dryers aka wooden drying racks, and am hanging up at least every three loads, we will see if that makes a dent in anything. The living room and dining room look like hell. When it gets warmer I will hang in the garage more. I want something out on the deck that is sturdy, but easy to remove. Number 100 on Kevin's to do list. Gordy hates the crunchy clothes. I still think that reducing our utility usage will not do as much as decreasing the distance our food travels in saving energy. And there is a limit to how far you can reduce with 3000 sf and 6 people.

The photo show one days progress on the wallpaper removal project. I will need another day to finish-- assuming I don't get more help from the peanut gallery then it may be two. The dryer near the front of the photo is broken and doesn't stand as tall as it should. Kevin thinks he can fix it, number 101. I can get about two loads hung to dry at a time if I put some things on hangers and use other impromptu locales. I figure I am adding some much need humidity to the air.

Interesting speech

2007-02-28T11:12:00.000-06:00

I ran across this Obama speech on one of the blogs I frequent. Are there any other candidates talking about his? I can't imagine they are not. I don't know that I agree about the ethanol. I think that you have to put more energy in than you get out in that process. I think it depends on whether you include the energy put into producing the corn in the first place. Here is another spot. Those in St. Louis note the highway signs near the end.

Slow Week--Ramblings

2007-02-24T10:01:00.000-06:00

We have not had much going on this week. Emily and Gordy had their physicals for sports on Monday. Gordy thought he would try tennis this spring and Em will do soccer. I won't post Em's numbers, but she is absolutely perfect. Gordy gained close to 25 lbs in almost 2 years and is now 5'1". He is firmly attached to the 15% in height which should put him at about 5'7" when all is said and done. Vaccines are becoming an issue. Kevin took Gordy since he was off for President's Day and declined the menningitis vaccine because he wasn't sure if we wanted it. Gordy will get that next time I guess. Emily's Dr. talked to her about the HPV vaccine. I am of mixed feelings about that one. My concerns are with the long term safety of the vaccine and the legislature ramming it down our throats. The studies they have are only 5 years out and I am thinking of Merck's other drug Vioxx(sp?). I was really glad to see that Merck decided to halt lobbying the state legislatures to require vaccination. I can't help but think requiring the vaccines would be a huge boost to their bottom line. The series of shot is more than $300, very expensive anyone who does not have insurance and that cost gets passed on to those who do. On the other hand, you want to do everything you can to keep your daughter safe and that seems a small price to pay compared to a long cancer battle. I am not at all concerned about it encouraging her to be promiscuous. I think that I will leave the decision to her.

Erin is going to go to the Lawrence Arts Center preschool two days a week next fall. I had a tough time deciding where to put her. I like where she is because I can walk her there, but I like the activities at LAC better. St. John's is also starting a preschool program this fall. They all cost about the same, so that is not an issue. I want her to continue the "fun" stuff as long as possible. She got her first report card this week. She does everything well (as we expected!!), but needs to work on her scissor skills. This is not surprising because I hardly ever let her play with scissors. I will have to get some magazines and cataloges form the recycle bin and let her have at them. Should we hire a scissors tutor? I can't believe they had report cards for 4yo in two day a week preschool. Conferences too! Anyway, I am not sure what else she will do next fall. It can get pretty expensive to do much, and I hate all the running around.

Jack is sick again. I took them to the gym with me on Monday and they spent time with all the other kids. Naturally he gets sick a few days later. He was running 102F in the armpit, so I can get a bit freaked about that. He was burning hot. It came down with some Tylenol, but he was still listless and lethargic. It was pretty pathetic. He is still not feeling very good, but has a bit of bounce in his step this morning. It seems to have settled in his chest and his voice is pretty raspy.

I started scraping the beautiful 1970's early 80's style wall paper in the living room. I got about 60% of it done. It was hard messy work. That stuff is really stuck. Lots of warm water and scraping. The other wallpaper I have removed from this house has been the vinyl or fabric backed and you can strip a bathroom in 20 minutes. I am glad they only did the one wall in the living room. I am not thinking happy thoughts about the front hall, stairwell, and upstairs hallway. They also had this stuff in the dining room, but only about 3ft up then a chair rail. I scrubbed all the walls in the master bath that I could. I need Kevin to remove the toilet and light fixture and then I can finish that. I will try to get that done and get the caulk removed from the shower stall today. I went to Home Depot and I think we now have everything we need to finish, but I doubt it. In fact I know we don't. We decided to paint the linoleum in there ala Barb White. I will need porch paint. I hope that is all.

Have a great day!

Jack Eating Truffles

2007-02-18T10:09:00.000-06:00

We snapped this Valentine's Day dinner. He refused to pick the truffle up. I am not sure which was more funny--Jack eating the truffle or Kevin trying to take the photo!

"How to Make your Wife Happy"

2007-02-18T10:08:00.000-06:00

I found this on the internet this week and thought it was helpful information!

How to Make Your Wife Happy
By Sara GoudarziLiveScience Staff Writerposted: 14 March 200608:17 am ET

The key ingredient to a woman's marital bliss is her husband's emotional commitment, suggests a new study based on a survey of 5,000 couples across the country.
The finding is in contrast to previous research that focused on a husband's salary and division of household work as the main drivers of a woman's perception of a happy marriage.
Even so, the new research determined that women whose husbands bring home more than 68 percent of the bacon are the most content.
"Regardless of what married women say they believe about gender, they tend to have happier marriages when their husband is a good provider — provided that he is also emotionally engaged," said W. Bradford Wilcox, a University of Virginia sociologist. "I was very surprised to find that even egalitarian-minded women are happier when their marriages are organized along more gendered lines."
Fairness is also considered an important element.
Women who perceive that housework is shared in a fair manner consider themselves happier partners. Fair in this case does not necessarily mean splitting housework evenly—most of the women in this happier category perform the majority of household chores themselves. But because they believe that their husbands are playing an important role as providers, they view the unequal work split as fair.
"Wives are surely sensitive to imbalances in routine tasks and efforts, as almost all research shows. However, we find that they are more concerned with their husband's investments in the emotional content of the marriage," said study team member Steven Nock, a professor of sociology at University of Virginia. "We interpret our results to suggest that partners need to pay more attention to how their partners feel about their relationship and about marriage generally because equality does not necessarily produce equity."
The findings are detailed in this month's issue of the journal Social Forces.

Lucy Kaplansky and Right Between the Ears

2007-02-18T09:30:00.000-06:00

Lucy Kaplansky is coming to town March 10th. She is playing in a church, not your typical music locale. She is a singer/songwriter that I happened on by way of Trail Mix on our local NPR station KANU. I guess she would be classified as folk. I checked out her CD The Red Thread out from the library and have listed to it over and over. I think I have renewed it 2 or 3 times. I am excited to go I love seeing and listening to live music. I got started listening to Trail Mix because the host, Bob McWilliams, was a professor at KU. I had him for US History my freshman year. He is a rabid Cardinals fan and you have to respect that, besides that he was an excellent teacher. We not only learned history, but how to answer long essay questions as well. This class was in 1986, and I still remember is well.

Kevin got me a plant and two tickets to Right Between the Ears, Lawrence's answer to Prairie Home Companion, for Valentine's Day. We have been wanting to see one of these shows for years and finally got around to buying tickets. They do the show at Liberty Hall which is right next to Free State, so it should be a fun evening. We are going to the February 24th show.

I am Poison Ivy

2007-02-16T09:09:00.000-06:00

Take the Super Villain Quiz.

I am Poison Ivy: I would "go to almost any length for the protection of the environment including manipulation and elimination".

Sweet Valentine's Day

2007-02-14T14:55:00.000-06:00

I made caramels and Truffles for the crew here today. I ended up doing double batches of each so Kevin can take some to work. Apparently all the good SAHM/Ws do that on a regular basis. Both recipes are from How To Cook Everything and the caramels are the best I have ever had.

Erin helped with the truffles. She added the butter and helped pour in the cream. They were really melty when I was shaping them so some look like lumps of chocolate goodness instead of nice round brown ping-pong balls. I ended up filling the bowl in the caramel background. The caramel experience took about 2 hours of hands on time, but very worth the annual effort. They literally melt in your mouth!

Snow Day!!!

2007-02-13T06:38:00.000-06:00

We got a few inches of snow overnight. As I start this post it is about 6:45am and my beloved husband has been out shoveling snow for at least an hour and a half, in his shorts, with a wind breaker! At least he is wearing a hat. I probably could have taken a better photo, but it is cold and that would mean I would have had to put shoes on!

I set my alarm early last night, not earlier than Emily though, so I could listen to the school closings from the comfort of my warm bed. I got up when I heard the call and told Emily she could stop getting ready. She was already dressed and about to head down for breakfast and wished she had the information 45 minutes earlier! I had to wake Gordy up to get him to turn off his alarm. One of these days I am just going to let them figure it out by themselves.

This is the view off the deck. Not much snow there. I guess the ice beneath is the issue.

I will add to the post if I get Erin and Jack out in it.

Posted 2.24.07

Green Tags

2007-02-12T15:08:00.000-06:00

For those of you who do not know, my mother is making a huge move from St. Louis to Baker City, OR. My brother and his wife live out there and she would like to be near them. She is leaving at spring break and picking up Emily and Gordon to drive out there with one of her girlfriends. I guess the kids will help her do some moving in and then some snowboarding with Steve. It should be a great experience for them and hopefully fun for everyone involved. Emily and Gordy will then fly back to us through Denver.

Kevin and I decided we would purchase Green Tags to offset the fossil fuels burned for this trip. According to the Tufts Climate Initiative website, "If you buy carbon offsets, you forgo reducing your own emissions (i.e. you still fly) but in exchange you pay someone to reduce their emission in your stead. "

Since I am a curious person and really like number crunching, I have been doing a bit of research on how much carbon this trip is going to "cost". I found a site through Tufts University that compares some of the many carbon offset calculators out in the ether. It determined that atmosfair was the most accurate for air travel. I used the Bonneville Environmental Foundation for the car travel since that is the company I will use to purchase the Green Tags. B.E.F. is working with the Bowersock Power Company which is right on this side of the Kansas River below the bridge. They produce hydro-electric power. They are calling one of their green tags Zephyr Energy. There are many local business who purchase power, including our favorite restaurant, Free State Brewery, and the City of Lawrence. The City is purchasing offsets equal to 3% of its energy consumption for 2006 and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Since the City made such a large commitment and B.E.F. is a non-profit that invests back into the communities that support the Foundation, they installed solar panels and donated educational information to one of the local junior high schools.

Here is what I found:

For the trip from Lawrence to Baker City I assumed 1700 miles at 20mpg. This produces 1650lbs of carbon for 4 people--412 each.
For the round trip from Baker City to Boise and the round trip to KCI I am assuming 380 miles. This produces 372lbs of carbon.
The flights from Boise to Denver and Denver to KCI will produce 1300 lbs of carbon for each passenger, so 2600 lbs total.

I will purchase offsets for 3800 lbs of carbon. I figure half the carbon for the trip out, all the carbon for the trips to return the kids, and all 2 flights back. I may have underestimated the mpg for the way out. I am expecting this to cost $45-$60.

My Seeds Arrived!

2007-02-09T09:41:00.000-06:00

I got a really fat envelope in the mail the other day stuffed with seed packets. Now I need to read over the packets and decide what goes in when and where. I have always heard that you plant peas on St. Patrick's Day--5 weeks away. I know the onion seed can go in before that. There is a wealth of information to be gleaned from the seed packets. I just need a plan! I ended up ordering the seeds from Nichols Garden Nursery based in Albany, Oregon. They were very quick to ship. I ended up ordering a bunch of flower seeds also--sunflower, moonflower, love-in-a-mist, purple coneflower, rudbeckia, and nasturtiums just to name a few. I am ready to go out and get my hands dirty. I may have to start a pot of parsley and basil just to get my fix.

I still need to obtain a couple of rhubarb plants and blueberry bushes. Only one of the rhubarbs came alive from the bareroot plants I bought last year. I decided not to do zuchinni and summer squash this year as no one really likes it. We would eat it when we did the Rolling Prairie CSA a couple summers ago. However it was always the last to go.

The USDA updated its zone maps in 2006-athese are posted on the Arbor Day website. The latest version, 1990, had Kansas about half zone 5 and half zone 6. The 2006 shows it as mainly 6 with some zone 7 creeping up from Oklahoma. It shows similar changes for Missouri, and changes in eastern Oregon, but Oregon has such a variety of climates the changes look smaller on the map. But they aren't.

Sewing Room/Guest Room

2007-02-05T15:17:00.000-06:00

I wanted my sewing room/guest room repainted for my birthday this year(August 2006). I figured it would be a pretty cheap present since we already had the paint on hand. It never happened, and I brought this to my loving husband's attention a few weekends ago. He got started on it last weekend with Erin's help. Emily and her friends Chloe and Ryan (ask Em about Ryan and her face will light up, she is smitten) finished up the walls on Saturday afternoon. It looks pretty good. Kevin did the trim white and sprayed the outlet covers with a hammered silver spray paint. There are still a few details that need to be finished, but those will not take too much time. I am pleased.

Oops I did it again.

2007-02-05T08:46:00.000-06:00

I was playing futsal Saturday night while the Jayhawks were stinking it up at Allen Fieldhouse. As I was going for the ball I landed on the side of my shoe and rolled my ankle and got a floor burn on my opposite knee. This is nowhere near as bad as the calf tear from this Fall because I can actually walk. I am going to have to get indoor soccer shoes I think. I was playing in my running shoes and the height difference is significant. My toes look like little sausages and the bruising is a bit worse today. There is a burning sensation along my Achilles and it looks weird kind of mottled. It just ticks me off when my body will not do what I want it too. Poor me!

More on food

2007-02-02T12:49:00.000-06:00

I happened on to this blog somehow, Through the Glass Darkly. The author's recent post about food really says what I am trying to say eloquently. She writes of food as a political statement. The choices that I make every day about what to put or not put in my shopping cart reflect on my knowledge of our food supply and whether or not I chose to use that information. Sometimes I choose to disregard that knowledge and just concede that I cannot do everything and do what I can today with the hope of doing more tomorrow. Anyway, I liked her post and found myself nodding in agreement frequently.

Today's Worries

2007-02-02T11:22:00.000-06:00

In this morning’s Lawrence Journal World there were two articles that really caught my eye. Well, three really. ESPN’s Game Day is coming to town, but that is a different obsession. In an AP article about the good citizens of the United States having the lowest savings rate since the Great Depression it says that the Commerce Department reported that we hit the negative 1% rate in 2006. This is lower that 2005’s -.4%. The only other time savings rates have been this low is during the Depression when this money was being used for the necessities of life. How many of our neighbors are a paycheck or two away from losing their home? We all refinanced our overpriced homes to pay down credit cards that were used to go on vacations or out to eat or on another article of clothing. None of that is going to keep us warm in the winter. The housing bubble is going to burst it is just a matter of when and how. Many of us are going to be screwed big time. I hope we can get things paid off in time. Let’s not even add in our nation’s debt/deficit which is growing incredibly fast. How are Emily, Gordon, Erin and Jack going to pay all that money back? This was on page 3.

According to an AP article on global warming we are screwed and we did it to ourselves. The climate is going to warm up 2-11 degrees Fahrenheit in the next 100 years. Ice is going to melt and sea levels are going to rise. I am still unclear about whether or not we can do anything to change it. The thing that most impressed me about the article and what I wished had been made a bigger deal of was the certainty the members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have about their findings. This is based on “years of peer-reviewed research”. My understanding of this is that anyone else in this field goes over your research and your findings with a fine tooth combs looking to poke holes in your data and your analysis of your data. Why aren’t more people outraged? This was on page 6 of the LJW

D.E.A.R.

2007-02-02T09:11:00.000-06:00

When the Emily and Gordy were younger they had D.E.A.R. at school. It stands for Drop Everything And Read. Thursday evenings at 9:00pm are now dear here. They just have to stay with us in the family room with a book (not a textbook, novel for school okay) for 30 minutes. Usually we end up doing more talking than reading, but that is just fine by me. Kevin will make a batch of popcorn and light a fire(see the gardening post as to why I do not light fires anymore). I think I got 2 pages read last night. We discussed the Illuminati (Emily is reading Angels and Demons), and what exactly a Barlow knife is (Gordy-Tom Sawyer), and how much sleep we all need (me-Sleepless in America).

We decided to do this shortly after the New Year. I was sitting in the living room reading, Kevin was puttering around, Emily was in the basement talking on the new cell phone and watching tv, and Gordy was upstairs watching tv. I thought it was sad that here we were everyone at home and no interacting. What is the point of being a family if you never see each other or talk to each other? I think that is what I miss most about our old house. We were so crowded that we were on top of each other all the time. We were at each others throats alot, but we were pretty connected.

I don't know that Emily and Gordon would admit to it, but I don't think they mind it at all.