Sunday, June 18, 2006

A Good Sort of Surprise

On Friday S. came home from work and spent some time in the garage measuring our kayaks in anticipation of buying Yakima racks for the Saab. When he came in from the back yard, he looked perplexed. He asked if I thought that the strawberry plants would produce better if they were staked up, only to realize as the words left his mouth that I had a colander full of ripe berries in the sink, just for him.

Friday, June 16, 2006

Yesterday We Turned 60


One of the first things that I found out about my husband, months before we started seeing each other, (the day that we met at the Hell's Gate Rapid on the Kettle River) was that we share the same birthday. We are not, however, the same age, and this year, as I turned 32 and he turned 28, we celebrated our combined 60th birthday at the Highland Park Chatterbox Pub. I foolishly forgot to bring my camera, and so was not able to document the convergence of the W.D.S.N.R. (Weekly Daily Show Nightcap Recap) contingent, my Wednesday Night Poker pals, fellow REI wage-slaves, various neighbors, and friends of all stripes. I mean, sure, many of them were at the wedding, but until last night hadn't had a chance to drink beer and chat while bathed in the light of a lazily revolving disco ball.

As my friend Jon summed up in an early morning email, we do, indeed, have an EXCELLENT circle of friends.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Music for Babies

During the time that I was watching Dilly, I was able to entertain her with lots of different music, since most of my CD collection is on my computer. She seems to have some definite likes and dislikes, and generally preferred folk to just about any other genre. Through highly scientific methods, I was able to ascertain the following:

Dilly likes to listen to:

Eliza Gilkyson
Mason Jennings
Greg Brown

Dilly doesn't mind hearing:

The Gipsy Kings
They Might Be Giants
Aimee Mann


Dilly doesn't much care for the musical stylings of:

The Strokes
Modest Mouse
Guided By Voices


Dilly also has an appreciation for being sung to. Her current favorites include my rendition of "'52 Vincent Black Lightening" (Richard Thompson) and her Dad's versions of the theme songs from Grizzly Adams and Land of the Lost.

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

My "Aunt" Name

On my Mom's side of the family, everyone has a nickname. Furthermore, these names change over time, adapting to the linguistic capability of the speaker's mouth. My Mom and aunts have nicknames worn smooth by the lips of a generation of adoring children, a loving erosion that can take a cheerfully rude teasing name bestowed by an older sister and change it into something not only benign but totally random. Thus "Pubescence" changes over time to "Pubie" where it is passed in relay to my older brother and me and becomes "Aunt Noobie" and then is passed to my cousin and her brother to become "Aunt Noonie," and finally "Noona." Like the bunny in the story The Velveteen Rabbit became real by being loved, so too these seem to be the real names that my Mom and her sibs were meant to have, so much so that Noona is known both personally and professionally by that name, and my Mom has the name "Birdie" on her name tag at work. In fact, "Lemony" is my childhood nickname, and as you, dear reader, must have noticed, I have embraced it as my identity on this blog.

So now it's my turn. Dilly, my 3 1/2 month old niece, can already make an amazing number of sounds and squeals, and I know that the day is not too very far off (a year?) when I will receive an aunt name of my very own. I do have some say: I draw the line at "Auntie Em," for instance (just as I suspect my brother and I never addressed my aunt as "Aunt Pubie!") It probably won't be Aunt Lemony, because my immediate family doesn't call me that, just my aunts, uncles, and cousins. Within the immediate family there are still plenty of names to choose from. (My brother was less permissive of our messing with his name, but that doesn't mean that he won't have kids calling him Uncle Shugie [short for Sugar Bear] some day!) As for my aunt name, we'll just have to see what Dilly says.

Friday, June 02, 2006

Nacent Berries

A few years ago I replanted the strawberry bed—S. loves strawberries (and I love S.) After the plants established themselves, they began producing like crazy. This year will be no exception—there are hundreds of little green berries in the patch, and now they're on the verge of ripening. In additon to the strawbs, there promises to be a bumper raspberry crop, and my rhubarb is flourishing. Alas, the blueberries that I planted this spring aren't quite up to speed yet. I think that one of the five plants blossomed, and I may get about four berries, if the birds don't get them first. No worries, though. I'm sure that next year they'll come into their own.

Baby berry, green and hairy.

Blurry raspberry blossoms.

So this is what a future blueberry looks like. Pretty cool.