Kristin’s Playground

Well, it’s been a busy weekend. Way too early on Thursday I flew back to Wisconsin. There were a lot of small planes at the airport for the EAA’s annual air show:

I left so early so that I could see my dad play in the park with Levi Douma. I’ve been meaning to go see him for quite awhile, so I was really quite happy to make it back for that. They sounded great - good music for the park, and there was a respectable crowd there too. Yay, Dad!

That afternoon my mother and I threw together a photo studio in the living room in order to take senior photos for my neighbor. I brought down my umbrella, lightstand and reflector (all quite portable - no checked baggage!) and all of my camera gear. I threw together a quick gel holder for my flash, and when Erin came over, we spent a lot of time shooting - some indoor in our makeshift studio for the yearbook, and the rest outdoor. More on this later.

Friday, my dad took me to go get running shoes. I’m prone to hurting myself - I’ve had plenty of sprained ankles, and the last time I ran, my knee decided I shouldn’t really be doing that. So, if I’m to run, I need a good shoe that will help keep me in a good running position so I don’t strain things that shouldn’t be strained. After running around the parking lot in a number of different shoes and learning more about what a good stride should be, we settled on these:

That night we also went to the opening of a Chinese art exhibit at the Bergstrom-Mahler Museum. There were some incredible pieces there, and a local dance group performed some ancient Chinese dances. What the Chinese were accomplishing a thousand years ago is truly amazing, and that some of it is still preserved today is great.

Saturday we went to a family reunion for my mother’s family. It was nice to see a bunch of family members I’ve only met once or twice - some not at all! Of course, I got to see my grandpa and aunts and uncles, too. My grandpa has done a ton of research into our family tree on that side, so I spent some time poring through his printouts, and everyone brought out old family pictures and scrapbooks. I’m hoping to get copies of some of them. Even the frogs came out to the pond in the backyard:

Sunday, Dad and I went running around the block twice (3 miles!), and I spent some time deeply engaged in photoshop - trying to finish up the pictures for Erin before I left. Had dinner with the ‘rents and in-laws, saw their new waterfall/pond that they’d just finished putting in. Good stuff. Chai played with a pencil:

Monday was another ridiculously early flight, coupled with not much sleep due to a storm passing through. Unfortunately, the storm made its way to Chicago before my plane did. I spent about 5 hours on the plane (on the ground) waiting for clearance to take off. Oof. I eventually made it home, but it was a long day.

Today was a Tuesday. Worked. Did day 1 of the Hundred Pushups Challenge. I did about 4 1/2 pushups during my test a couple days ago, so there is a lot of progress to make. In other news, one of our tomatoes has turned red in my absence! Anyone know what I can do wih one tiny red tomato?

Oof. And now, it’s bedtime.

Last night, I decided that it was time to harvest a pepper! It’s still probably a bit early since the peppers are still small, but peppers can be eaten at almost any stage, and I don’t want to risk ruining them by waiting too long. Besides, I think harvesting early helps increase yields, so maybe this will lead to a new pepper on the plant. I’ll try to be patient with the next one, however, to see if it grows much more or starts to turn colors; I still don’t know what color these peppers are supposed to end up. Anyway, this is the story of the first pepper from my garden: straight from a plant to a tasty omelette!

To reduce damage to the plant, it’s best to cut the pepper off instead of just pulling it. So, here is my freed pepper!

Of course, you should wash your peppers well before eating them. I’m pretty sure the Food Play guy would find a face here to work with. Droopy cheeks and a long nose - it has possibilities.

I chopped it up pretty well and snuck a taste. What do you know? It tasted like a green pepper! I’m so proud!

Ah, the final product: a turkey sausage, pepper, and cheese omelette. It was delicious, and it made my night knowing that I hadn’t killed all of my plants, and actually got to make something tasty with things that grew in my garden! (To be fair, it isn’t the first thing we used from our garden this year. I used some fresh parsley in my roasted potatoes last week, but an herb is much different than a vegetable!)

P.S. Now item #43 on my 101 things list is one step closer to be being crossed off.

You know how I have a jalapeño plant in my back yard? It’s decidedly not a jalapeño. When it first started producing fruit, I thought that the peppers were a little short and fat, but they were so small, I thought they might elongate and start to look like jalapeños once they got bigger. However, since the first two have grown substantially, they definitely appear to be some sort of bell pepper. With this suspicion, I went to try and find some confirmation of the early fruits produced by these plants. My baby fruit looks like this:

However, Lisa Joyce on Flickr, has budding jalapeños that look like this:

Yeah… Pretty sure someone switched the labels on my seedling. Somewhere someone is probably surprised to find jalapeños in their bell pepper plant. Now, I wonder if they’re going to stay green or if they’ll turn a pretty color once they’ve fully ripened.