Man vs. Nature

It's one of the basic conflicts in narrative literature, right up there with Man vs. Self and Man vs. Society.

This morning, when Sarah settled onto our futon to check her e-mail, she noticed an ant in the carpet. Then another one. Then another. And another. Soon, we had traced a trail--right across a pile of clean, folded laundry--to cracks in our fireplace and bookshelves. We're not sure to what they were making a trail: that damp rag? that It's-It wrapper we accidentally missed while cleaning up from dinner last night? that empty container of Gerber Graduates Finger Foods Peach Puffs that Hattie uses as a drum? There were ants here and there on all of those things, but they mostly looked like they were still deciding where they were going to concentrate their efforts. Nothing had been settled on.

We immediately began shaking out the clothes outside, when I noticed that our lawn was overrun with weeds: dandelions, black murdoch, and more I can't identify. Obviously, weeds like that don't spring up overnight--or maybe they do. While Sarah treated all of the ant entryways with clove oil and vacuumed the carpet, I hunkered down on the grass and tried to rip out as many unwanted plants as I could by the roots. Hattie chose to help me with chores by tearing off leaves from the tallest offenders.

After we'd been at our gardening endeavors for a while, a shadow fell across us. Then again. And again. I looked up to see a turkey vulture circling us. It was quite low in the sky--unlike the ants, it seemed to have made a decision about what it wanted to eat. I scooped up Hattie and went inside.

By early afternoon, as I type this, the ants have been evicted, the lawn is mostly grass again, and the turkey vulture is gone. Still, I feel that nature got the upper hand today. I hope that nothing goes wrong when we go to the Charles Paddock Zoo in Atascadero this evening.

8 Random Thoughts About My Kitchen

I have been tagged by Andrea to share about my kitchen.

1) My counters are pink and brown tile (my current favorite color combination for just about anything). They are probably the original tiles that were put in the house when it was built in the 50’s. So retro and totally feminine, I love it!

2) Like Flo, I wear an apron whenever I cook (and most of every day actually). In the summer of 2006 Ryan's mom created the “Apron of the Month Club” for me. At the beginning of each month a package would arrive in the mail containing a unique hand-made apron of her own design. I now have a different apron for every month. The apron I am currently using has jack-o-lanterns on it, a full skirt, and a pocket large enough to fill with candy for trick-or-treaters (she thinks of everything).

3) Our kitchen does not have a built in dishwasher. While I was in labor with Hattie, Ryan's parents bought and set up a stand alone dishwasher in our kitchen. It has been such a blessing!

4) I love washing dishes (even in my pre-dishwasher years), but I hate putting them away. On more than one occasion I have left clean dishes in the dishwasher until it “emptied itself” because we used all the dishes directly from the dishwasher.

5) I tend to be very ecologically minded and try not to create unnecessary waste. My one splurge is aluminum foil. I despise washing large baking sheets and big pans (especially if they are greasy); I always line them with aluminum foil so that I can just throw the mess away.

6) I have one drawer in my kitchen that has nothing in it. I am tempted occasionally to fill it, but it is kind of luxurious feeling just to know that it is there.

7) The house came with a vintage O’Keefe and Merritt oven. It is small and not very pretty, but it cooks food more efficiently than any other oven I have ever used. Unfortunately the door to the broiler fell off in my hand when I tried to use it for the first time a few weeks ago. Because replacement parts are so hard to find (and expensive) our property managers plan to replace it. I will be sad to see it go, but am also excited to have a new oven! It is probably for the best since Hattie will be crawling soon and the doors on the old oven get really hot.

8) While I recently switched to using my own home made cleaners in our house, I stumbled upon Method’s Cinnamon Bark all-purpose cleaner last week and had to try it. I have been using it to clean my kitchen counters and it makes the whole house smell like I have been baking all day, even though I have not baked a thing in over a year (unless you count Trader Joes pre-formed frozen cookie dough).

I tag Ryan, Jen , Jesse & Kelly