Whoo-ee: AKW's visit and a brief garden update

[rebeccmeister]

Well, Ms annikusrex is off to the airport this morning and on her way to Austin for week 2 of her spring break adventures, and I'm sad to see her go because it has been a fun (if busy) week. [aside to AKW: after what I said about my desire to have a substantive blog, I'm going to immediately violate that by writing all about the adventuresome week]

Before I forget, you can view photographs of her adventures here. I gave her my camera and instructions to take pictures, and it worked!

On Monday, she toured around the campus and had a grand time holding our lab's pet tarantula, Murphy, and watching me poke the hissing cockroaches that belong to a neighboring lab. I'd like to think that she admired the cuteness of my ants, too, but I'll let her speak for herself on that matter.

On Tuesday, I had to teach alllllll day, so I sent her off to downtown Phoenix on the light rail, and she visited the Burton Barr Public Library and Phoenix Art Museum, and noted the strange emptiness of downtown Phoenix, where vacant lots neighbor skyscrapers. I have a feeling things will stay that way for some time to come. Tuesday night, we CRAPped and had a grand old time at the Orange Table. It's always fun when I get to hang out, and so hard to choose between staying to hang out and going home so I can go rowing the next morning.

On Wednesday, we rode bikes over to the Desert Botanical Gardens to check out the blooming wildflowers and cacti, which were spectacular. Oh, and there was still that Chihuly stuff up. It was a trifle bit warm, but AKW held up admirably well, and the flowers were great. I think one of my new favorite things is the fact that there are other cacti growing inside of a couple of the huge saguaro cacti.

Wednesday evening, the Scrabble Society came over for dinner (delicious homemade red lentil curry soup and buttermilk rolls) and a travel slideshow of trifold_flame's trip to Amsterdam, accompanied by hilarious narration and scrumptious desserts. We then played Scrabble in teams of 2, and AKW and I (but mostly AKW) slaughtered the competition, thanks to a lucky first play (DUSTILY) and subsequent good tiles. Everyone else blamed the soup for their inability to keep up. Heh heh heh.

On Thursday, I had more morning commitments, so AKW went back to downtown Phoenix to check out the Heard Museum, and we eventually met up at Lux to hang out and chat for a while. In the evening, we picked up CSA veggies and some groceries, and made pad thai and went to bed early. After my usual rowing practice with K, AKW met up with us on the beach and we went out for a brief spin. Then it was home for some mesquite pancakes, and then time for AKW to head out.

Right after she left, I went outside to water the plants and discovered that Zeke the Zucchini Plant is already putting out blossoms! Man that thing is enthusiastic. So we might have zucchini sooner rather than later. The kale plants are also almost to an edible size, but meanwhile the birds keep on digging in the lettuce. Jerks.

Comments

[purpurin.livejournal.com]

Oh, I am so jealous. For two reasons: First, you had AKW visit. Second, you have vegetables blossoming. (It stopped raining finally after four consecutive days. Now the spinach and mustard greens have secondary leaves plus an occasional extra leaf here and there. The leaves are beginning to show their ruffly nature! Indoor seedlings are two inches tall, but still a little pathetic looking.
By the way, I am not sure what CSA stands for where you are, but it made me laugh out loud. Where I am from, that'd be the Confederate States of America. I envision little rebel armies of veggies, like the antithesis of VeggieTales.

[rebeccmeister.livejournal.com]

Hee hee! I should have spelled it out: it's Community Supported Agriculture. We talked about you, quite briefly, because I had to say that reading about all of your projects helped convince me that it's possible to create culture for one's self anywhere in the world (I used to feel as though such feelings were only possible in certain large hometown cities). That's not to say it's easy, but that it helped me to tell myself to buck up and make what I can of my life where I am.

Although I have a head start, it's not really a head start, because our growing season ends in June, when it gets too hot and plants die. Soon enough your wee veggies will get past the pico-green stage (two levels below micro-greens).

[purpurin.livejournal.com]

I am glad you are making do in the place that you live. The more you move, the more you realize it's possible. I feel really lucky to have lived in so many cities and to have grown up poor. It means you have to keep some ties with friends in other places, make new friends, but also know how to live without friends and keep yourself entertained.

[annikusrex.livejournal.com]

I am trying to teach W to live in the place he is too, but it is hard. R, I rented an (awesome!) road bike here for a wad of cash and W & I rode to the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center for some Desert Botanical comparisons. Desert Botanical wins! First of all, you have to ride on the shoulder of a mean highway to get to the Wildflower Center. Also at the end of the mean highway is a "veloway," which is like a 3 mi. cage for bikes. (Everybody else drove their bikes down there, which was probably smart, because what we did was slightly dangerous.) Secondly, Wildflower Center was rather chintzy and small in comparison. However, if I were trying to grow a native-plant yard I would have probably found it more interesting. Horse crippler cactus FTW.

[rebeccmeister.livejournal.com]

About the bike: Awww, sweet!

I actually don't know of any places for bike rentals here, and in retrospect I should have asked K if her bike was still in use, because I think she has a spare roadie. But hey, beggars can't be choosers, and now you can say you rode on the Jazz Voltage.

Horse crippler cactus?! That thing looks mean! I still think the cow blinder is more evil because it looks benign until you rub its fuzzy urticating hairs and they get all.over.your.arms...

[annikusrex.livejournal.com]

Oh, free bike > nice bike any day. I think I'm paying like 1/10th of the value of this thing for four days. But it is comfy!