Yowzahs!

Two days ago I was excited to see that we finally had one little zucchini growing that might be big enough to eat by the end of this week. I went out to check on it tonight, and I swear, the Zucchini Fairy must have come by and sprinkled some pixie dust on it, cuz this sucker is HUGE! So begins our month of zucchini. Fittingly, as it is almost August recess (two more days, baby!), we are going out of town for two weeks starting Sunday.

(Apparently the Zucchini Fairy trampled the beans on her way through, because they were completely stripped of both leaves and beans this evening. The Zucchini Fairy, or maybe rabbits.)

In other garden-related news, while the zucchini has been scaring us and the four tomatoe plants have literally become one gi-normous, tangled mess (also scary), the cucumber has been surreptitiously taking over the yard. I suddenly find that it has crawled completely out of the garden and into the grass, in addition to creeping halfway up the fence. Yet, despite my regular searches, we've seen nary a cucumber growing. Until tonight, when an 8 inch long monster practically jumped out and attacked me. This after we ate a rather crappy store-bought cuke for dinner.

It is so inconvenient that vacation corresponds so perfectly with harvest.

Cole's DC Adventure

Our house is awfully quiet this afternoon with no boisterous singing of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" or "I Have a Different Kind of Sunshine." We had an absolutely wonderful week with Shaanti, Adam, and Cole. I always love when our families come to visit, but there is something really special about having our siblings and their own little families come stay at our house. It is fun to be grown-ups together with the same people with whom we spent so much time being kids. They say you can't pick your family, but of all the friends in the world, I would pick my sisters and brothers any day. Plus it is especially delightful to see time repeat itself a bit, as Cole learns the same songs that Shaanti and I sang as youngsters.

We had a crazy fun week. It was Adam's first trip to Washington, DC, so they spent a couple of days visiting the White House, touring the Smithonians, and climbing to the top of the Washington Monument. Then Friday I took the day off work and we packed up a picnic and went to the zoo so that Cole could see the pandas and the elephants.

All this touristing was great fun, but the highlight of the week--and the one thing Shaanti wanted to do while they were here--was Friday night at the Korean barbeque. We ended up trying a new restaurant, as we discovered when we pulled up that our old place is tragically now a Chinese restaurant. I say tragically, but in reality it turns about we've been eating at the wrong Korean restaurant for years. Il Mee is definitely the place for Korean in Northern Virginia! All of us, even Cole, ate until we were happily sick to our stomaches. Ahhh... (Btw, I love the above picture of Shaanti and I at Il Mee, because as soon as the picture clicked, we both deposited the uneaten tofu right back in our bowls with matching looks of disgust.)

Saturday morning we went downtown to Eastern Market and came away with some tasty peaches and cherries. And we spent the afternoon at the pool, where Cole and Uncle Jason practiced blowing bubbles in the water for hours on end.

Other highlights of the week include:

• Finally getting a taste of those famous blueberry pancakes (and french toast!) at Eastern Market...after a loooong wait in line;


• Eating peach cobbler every night until it was gone;


• Teaching Cole to sing the Batman song;
  
• Watching "Five Mile Creek" with Shaanti--flash back to Sunday nights in the Johnson house during high school--much to the chagrin of our husbands;


• Reading "Pedro the Brave" and other books with Cole every night.

As I've been anxiously looking forward to this week for months and months, I'm a bit sad now that it is actually over. But in just one week, I'm headed to Idaho and, as my parents will be out of town, I get to stay with Shaanti, Adam, and Cole this time. AND meet Baby Troy, whom Cole has assured me is both "so teeny" and "so cute." Plus, Shaanti and Adam should find out this week whether it will be nephew number three in December. I think it's safe to say that nephews are pretty nice to have around!

On Faucets, Soft Foods, and Holes in My Mouth

We had a pretty quiet weekend, filled with applesauce, lots of episodes of "Friends," and a few vicadin. I had to get two of my wisdom teeth out on Friday, so we laid low for the rest of the weekend. Shaanti, Adam, and Cole drove up to Pennsylvania for a family wedding on Friday morning, leaving me with nothing to do but eat ice cream and oatmeal until tomorrow, when they come back to spend the rest of the week with us.

Jason, who is a darn good nurse and jello-maker, spent the rest of the weekend (when he wasn't pushing pain pills or antibiotics or preparing cold compresses) finishing installing the faucet in the guest bathroom. Our house is over fifty years old, so any plumbing project comes with a vast array of unexpected problems. For example, it turns out the 1951 era shut-off valves on the sink don't work. At all. And they literally "don't make them like they used to," so replacing them was a three-day project.

After multiple trips to Home Depot and a specialty plumbing store, innumerable calls and phone-pics to his dad, lots of unexplained pipe sawing, and the purchase of some sort of torch (!), however, he succeeded! Not only do we have a beautiful faucet in our spare bathroom, but we have functional shut-off valves as well. Two thumbs way up!

Visitors

Yippee! Cole is bringing his parents to visit today! I told him on the phone earlier this week that we would be going to the zoo to see the monkeys--his response? Monkey sounds over the phone. Can. Not. Wait. So I've been getting ready. We now officially own a baby gate, a box of fruit snacks, and washable markers. Oh, and this:

Harvest

So, it turns out that Jason isn't the only one who is afraid of the zucchini. If the tomatoes are a wild jungle, the zucchini is a deep, dark, terrifying forest. Oh, and I seriously bought the tallest tomato cages when I recaged the plants, but the plants are still spilling out over the top, and it's only mid-July. Yikes.

On a less nightmare-inducing note, all the plants are heavy with baby fruits and vegetables. Apparently I am a future farmer after all. Check out our first real harvest! (Oh, and it is pure accident that this picture looks a lot like cover of this book. Ironically, although said book has certainly influenced my thinking and eating, I only remembered what the cover looked like as Jason was snapping the picture.)

Dancing Queen

We ended an otherwise pretty darn good weekend with the DC finale of the fabulous "Mamma Mia!" They say that by the end of the show you'll be dancing in the aisle, and I swear, if we hadn't been so high up in the balcony that one poorly planned step would have sent me tumbling hundreds of feet to the stage, I would have done so. I already had an affinity for Abba, thanks to Janie, my junior year roommate, and pretty much knew all the words to the songs, so it was difficult not to burst out and sing along...of course, we were sitting with colleagues of mine so I tried not to embarrass myself. You run a risk hanging out with professional colleagues on the weekend...

(Any other embarrassing stories about lip-syncing to Abba should remain respectfully entombed in our little Corlett apartment.)

Good, good times, my friends. It was one of the best shows I've ever seen.

In other weekend news, any Saturday morning that starts with a lazy conversation about what we should have for breakfast and ends with said breakfast being eaten with tea on the sunny deck has to be at the top of my "to-do" list. We spent a few hours on Saturday at the kick-off for a Habitat for Humanity project that our church is partnering on, then spent the rest of the day:

• visiting the pool for the first time this summer;
• installing a new faucet in our guest bathroom (Jason);
• accidentally sleeping on the chair while Jason worked in the bathroom (Missy);
  eating Lebanese; and
• watching WALL-E at the theater. Also good times, also highly recommended. And "Batman" is only a week away!

Fireworks in Mid-America

While we wait patiently for Jason to get around to finishing his blog post on his trip to the Orient, I'll post on our Independence Day adventures. We spent the Fourth in Ohio with Jason's family. I like the small-town, mid-western Fourth of July. There is something so nice about the local fireworks show and the red, white, and blue bunting hanging from centuries-old farmhouses. We had a grand time grilling with Jason's grandparents and celebrating America.

Mount Vernon, Ohio's, fireworks display was something to write home about. The county is celebrating it's bicentennial and we had great seats for the show! I know that pictures of fireworks don't ever turn out (I don't know why the camera bothers with a "fireworks" setting), but if you didn't get a great show this Fourth, here's a taste of ours. (Minus, of course, the post-game show, which starred Jason and Justin and a large pile of old bottle rockets on the driveway...)

Saturday morning Jason, Lynda, and I walked down to the Square in town to peruse the weekly farmer's market, then George joined us for a visit to the state capitol and the German Village in Columbus. It was a gorgeous day, and we really enjoyed walking around the quaint old neighborhood, but Sauerbraten und Gravy at Schmidt's Sausage Haus was definitely the highlight. Actually, let's face it, this picture was the highlight. Javoll, alles gut!

On Saturday night we joined Justin for the Apple Valley fireworks display, then we packed up and left after church on Sunday morning. It was a grueling trip home, what with holiday weekend traffic, but even so we are so glad we were able to go!

Jason goes to China

Doesn't sound quite as cool as "Nixon goes to China," but it was a first for me (and the Chinese) nonetheless. More later.

Day Off

Last week was a looooooooong and exhausting week in the Simpson office. I won't go into detail, but let's just say that this is NOT a good time for our chief of staff to begin a five week stint on jury duty. Can't the District of Columbia see that we are already doing our civic duty? Apparently not. So, seeing as Congress is in recess this week, I took the day off.

Days off used to be so fun, but ever since we bought a house (happy one year anniversary, house!), they end up filled with all the spill-over projects that we didn't get done over the weekend. Today, for example, I had to go buy new, larger tomato cages, as our garden looks like a tomato jungle. (By the way, re-caging tomato plants is so not fun.) It turns out that the combination of a lot of sunshine and a lot of rain makes tomatoes grow. A lot. Remember when the tomato plants looked like this? Well, check out the 'maters now:

For the record, I'm excited about the whole garden (well, except the arugula, which we cannot eat fast enough. Note to self: Do NOT plant arugula next year, it is NOT good for every meal.). The zucchini is lovely and overtaking the yard (it's so gargantuan, Jason is starting to get nervous), little bell peppers are hanging on the plant, and the beans are thriving. But the truth is that I'm really in it for the tomatoes. We had our first tomato harvest (of one) last night, and it was deelish. I'm pretty excited to be buried in tomatoes in August.

In other news, Jason returned Saturday from China. I will pester him until he blogs, but for now here are some pictures. And, after nagging my mom via email for five days, there are adorable new pictures of Troy up as well. This is my favorite. Dad, who had a run in with the mules and had to have surgery on his bicep last week, is getting pretty good at the one-armed baby rocking.

Baby Troy

I shamelessly stole this picture from Shaanti's blog. She posted a few others, if you care to visit. Troy is the sweetest thing, isn't he? I can't wait to see him with his eyes opened!

Enter Troy

Aunt Shaanti called this morning to let me know she was on her way to the hospital to meet her first nephew. I'd begged her to send me pictures as soon as possible, and she actually went back to get her camera after she forgot it on her way out the door. Thanks! Troy Dylan McAfee made his way into the world at about 8:15 a.m. mountain time. She sent me a phone pic of beautiful baby Troy, with his full head of dark hair and "Jenny's lips." He is absolutely gorgeous. I'll post pictures soon.

I'm sad to think of how big he will be (he's an itty bitty 6 lb 8 oz guy right now) by the time I get to meet him in August. I love my nephews!

Bodleian Reminiscence

Wheeeee! This weekend, Julie, my dear friend from the days of the Land of Eng, dropped by for a visit...for the first time in six years! Last time we saw each other she had just graduated from college and I was giving tours of the Capitol. Now she is a fancy-pants lawyer, and I am...still giving tours of the Capitol. (Okay, that's not completely true, I'm not sure you'd want a Missy Tour these days, I'm a bit rusty.) Needless to say, she brought her scrapbook from Oxford, and I laughed so hard when I realized that the first three or so pages of our scrapbooks were basically identical. And that's nothing to having the exact same pictures all the way through the book. Yeah, we spent a lot of time together there.

Jason, Jules and I slept in after a late-night pick-up and Dulles, then checked out Operation Spy at the Spy Museum. Then we met up with other "local" (aka within about a tank of gas) Oxford folks for dinner. We started at 6 at Mama Ayesha's, then regrouped at our place for strawberry shortcake and tea, and finally closed the door on the last guests at 12:45 a.m...and THEN Jules and Andrea (who stayed over) and I were up until at least after 2. Apparently that is what I do with these people--talk until late at night about very real things.

I don't need to reiterate what I said here and here and here and here about how I feel about getting together with Oxford friends. Let's just say that while I was getting the tea on, I looked over and saw the other six of them gathered around the counter, laughing about pictures in Julie's scrapbook, and it made me very happy. I don't mind being the Monica Gellar of the group if it gets me moments like that.

Jason, Laura's husband John, and Zack's girlfriend Kristina were good sports, as it turned into a major trip down memory lane. We ended the night by plugging in the VCR and watching a home movie I made back in 2000. There were some really funny moments (Vic, Ryan, Mike, and Josh as the Backstreet Boys...Zack's vacuum games...Andrea and Jesse dressed up as Keble College mascots), and some really horrid ones as well (apparently we felt the need to fill the TV void in our lives by doing skits...what?...and please tell me at what point in the semester we all just let ourselves go? We looked rough!). When we left the room after that last all-nighter together, we thought it was goodbye, but last night we had the promise of "the next time."

A Diatribe

Just for the record, I want to point out that it is inappropriate to send your Congressman any of the following:

• Emails with links to YouTube videos;
• Emails peppered with swear words in capital letters; and
• Emails peppered with MISSPELLED swear words in capital letters.

I have been suspecting for the past year or so that email is not the wunderkind we once thought it was, but after arriving at work this morning to 400 emails from mean people cussing out my boss for not drilling for oil in the U.S. (he, of course, supports said drilling), it is official: email sucks. Being able to jot off a one-sentence email and then click "send" within the space of 30 seconds of irrational anger is not good for society.

Please do me a favor. If you ever feel the need to contact your Congressman (and I am not discouraging you from doing so), sit yourself down and write a letter with good old-fashioned paper and pen, then take the time to fold it, address an envelope, and lick a stamp. In doing so, you may actually think through what you are writing, and our country may be a better place as a result.

End of diatribe. Or, to quote Dwight Shrute, "Reshun."

Strawberry Hunting

Ah, summer. It's possible that I have never loved you more. I love sunny breakfasts on the deck and coaxing to life the flowers I planted in the early morning before it got too humid to breathe. I love sunscreen and the way it protects my whole body, except that one strip of skin on my lower back that I ignorantly assumed was covered by my shirt. I love dusky weekend walks, ice cream cone in hand, and fireflies winking greetings to me.

And I love strawberries. Check out this lovely pile of red beauties. After church yesterday, we participated in the "pick your own" ritual we've tried to embrace over the past few years. I'm getting more serious about it these days, threatening to freeze bags of green beans and can tomatoes. Wild. It turns out that Strawberry picking is not really that fun. But strawberries are really tasty. We actually froze a bunch of these berries--we have six little strawberry plants in our garden, so we'll depend on them for fresh strawberries this summer.

We had a wonderful weekend of...weekend-ness. I miss it already. On Friday we ate puttanesca at a candle-lit table outside in Shirlington (it is the summer of seeing how many times I can eat puttanesca al fresco) and walked around the neighborhood, marveling at how much it has changed since we spent our weekends there with SMC. It was lovely, really. And I engaged in some hard-core weeding on Saturday--who knew that weeding could be, well, almost enjoyable when it is your own flower bed? I certainly would not have believed it 18 years ago when I was pulling pigweed out of my parents' strawberry patch. We ended Saturday night with a low-key viewing of "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" in the cool basement, waiting for a batch of brownies to bake. Why, oh why do I have to be at work today?

Summer

We have a rather long list of things we want to do this summer, including:

* lots of bike riding

* strawberry picking

* yard sale-ing

* going to the beach

Today we will be doing...none of the above. The heat index is 105 F, and when we got home from the farmers market this morning we actually dreaded getting out of the air-conditioned car. So, goodbye, weeding the flower beds and reading on the deck! Hello, any project that puts us in the cool basement.

Yesterday Jason returned from Geneva, where he attended a conference of countries involved in the Dafur peace process. We are awesome (read: not awesome) at planning work trips at the same time. Meanwhile, I ate leftover cashew chicken curry three nights in a row and watched tornado warnings on the news. We have an intern in our office from Scotland, and on Wednesday, when our emergency ennuciators went off with tornado warnings, he said, "This country is so exciting!" I wish I had a quote book, I can tell it's going to be a funny summer.

Anyway, our garden is looking lovely, even though the cucumber leaves are drooping in the heat and the birds have found the one red strawberry. One of my favorite summer smells is the way my hands smell like tomato plant after I pick tomatoes, so I braved the heat to get a picture of our five tomato plants. I intend to be smelling tomato plant on my hands a lot!

I planted five zucchini seeds with the intent of thinning them down to one nice hardy plant, which would provide plenty of zucchini for a family of two, but the three that sprouted are so beautiful that I just couldn't stand to pull two of them out. So if you like zucchini, just come to the roadside stand on 5th Rd sometime mid-July. Otherwise, expect to find a bag of zucchini tied to the handle of your front door...

Getting Ready for Troy

While Jason headed to Ohio to celebrate Grammy's birthday with the rest of the Small family, I flew even farther west to do some work and celebrate the coming arrival of Nephew Number Two. Casey and Kim were in town for a wedding over Memorial Day weekend, so on Monday we had a BBQ, played a rousing game of croquet, and all sat around watching Cole be adorable.

On Tuesday night Shaanti, Kim, and I hosted a gi-normous baby shower for Jenny, who looks like the cutest girl who ever swallowed a beach ball. Just three more weeks or so before Troy makes his debut! It was supposed to be out in Shaanti's yard, but about two hours before things got underway, the sky literally began to fall. Mom and I actually sat in the car for a few minutes, afraid to go out in the downpour. But after moving Shaanti's living room furniture around and drying off stacks of chairs and tables, the shower was great fun, and we felt sort of proud of ourselves for pulling it off.
And, um, I LOVE nephews. I know it's not possible, but Cole gets cuter every time I see him. Not only does he now say things like, "Mimi, come play" (go ahead, try to turn down that command), but he had his first mule ride on Friday and announced (with a little prompting from Papa), "I'm a buckeroo!" It will be so fun to have a soft, brand-new baby Troy AND a bouncing Cole at the same time!
It was a great week--the only thing missing was Jason. :( I got to spend a little time with friends like Alison and Laura and her family, and, even with all the work and a day-trip to Twin Falls, I enjoyed laid-back family time. Dad and I went out to the driving range to kick off my summer project of learning how to golf, and we went over to Jenny and Chad's to check out Troy's new room in all its utter cuteness. Yay.

Wedding on the Farm

Rob and Taiya's Wedding
Originally uploaded by jmsmall2005.

Last Saturday we drove out west to Saranam Farm to participate in Rob and Taiya's wedding. It was the first Quaker-style wedding we'd ever attended, and it was beautiful, simple, and very personal. How fun to celebrate with them on the top of the hill as they exchanged vows! We were very satisfied to watch Rob and Taiya, who have a lovely relationship, seal the deal, so to speak.

(But my favorite was when the bride, in her wedding dress, hopped the fence to join us at the reception!)

Movie Meme

(thanks, Amanda!)

1. One movie that made you laugh:
Garden State

2. One movie that made you cry:
My Life

3. One movie you loved when you were a child:
Muppets Take Manhattan

4. One movie you’ve seen more than once:
Disney's Robin Hood

5. One movie you loved, but were embarrassed to admit it:
Zoolander

6. One movie you hated:
Conspiracy Theory

7. One movie that scared you:
What Lies Beneath

8. One movie that bored you:
Yentl

9. One movie that made you happy:
You've Got Mail

10. One movie that made you miserable:
Adaptation

11. One movie you weren’t brave enough to see:
Hannibal

12. One movie character you’ve fallen in love with:
Gilbert Blythe in Anne of Green Gables

13. The last movie you saw:
Stranger than Fiction

14. The next movie you hope to see:
Prince Caspian

15. Your favorite movie:
Much Ado About Nothing

(Obviously, these are Missy's answers. Jason is not in love with Gilbert Blythe.)
I tag...Shaanti, Kaylyn

Rainy Odds and Ends

After weeks of crowing about the beautiful weather, we finally had our weekend of downpours--to the point where the gutters overflowed into our back door and we grabbed the clean towels from the laundry basket that was making its way upstairs to stop the flow. Lovely. It's just as well, though, as we've been sharing a cold the past few days and didn't feel much like going out anyway. I am very glad that I recently decided to purchase kleenex at Costco, so we should have enough to make it through this bug.

So not surprisingly, we didn't do much this weekend. Basically, the highlights from the past week, apart from lying on the couch watching TV or sleeping, include:

• Visiting the Jefferson's Library display at the Library of Congress. Pretty awesome, actually--my boss set up a tour for our staff and significant others with the Library's Curator. We could have listened to him for hours. In addition to a collection of books that Thomas Jefferson originally sold to Congress to start the Library, we got to see the original draft of the Declaration of Independence in Thomas Jefferson's handwriting, complete with edits by Ben Franklin and John Adams.
• Going to Dawn's last softball game at Herndon High School, where she coaches the JV team. Fun, and I gained a deeper appreciation for my parents, who spent how many hours of their lives sitting in stands, watching me play sports.
• Really, REALLY looking forward to this. Nephews (and possibly a niece?) are coming out of our ears, and we LOVE it!
• Installing a sliding drawer into the cabinet in the kitchen, completing my "Pantry Renaissance" project that has been underway since March. Let me tell you, it is COMPLETELY worth the investment in snap-lock containers at Bed Bath and Beyond to be able to find the enchilada sauce and access the mixing bowls easily. It could seriously be featured in a "Real Simple" magazine article. Now if only my desk at work made me feel so happy.

Gardening with Parents!

My parents felt pretty lucky to have pulled off four outdoor wedding receptions at their house with absolutely perfect weather. We felt the same way about the perfect weather we had for our three sets of springtime guests (though, obviously, perfect weather for visitors is significantly less important than perfect weather for weddings). To round out our Spring of Visitors, my parents arrived late last week and spent a warm, fun weekend with us.

Friday I took the day off work and the three of us drove up to the National Arboritum, where the azaelas and dogwoods were in gorgeous full bloom. We walked around a bit and snapped some pictures, then darted to Wendy's for a late lunch.

While we love simply being visited by our parents, we couldn't help but take advantage of the opportunity to pepper first Jason's parents, then mine, with questions about how to do this or that at our house. One important question I'd been anxiously waiting to ask my parents was where I should plant the little garden I'd been planning in my head. During my last visit home, we'd spent quite a while scouring plant catalogs and talking possibilities, but I needed their actual eyes on my yard before I could get started.

They one-upped me. Not only did they suggest the perfect spot for a garden, but they volunteered to help build it--well, let's face it, they basically built it themselves, with a little help from us! Saturday was gorgeous, and I spent the morning with my dad at the nursery picking out vegetables and planting them in our freshly-dug garden. By the end of the weekend, we had also trimmed the bushes, mulched the roses, and planted a lilac bush. Then we spent Sunday afternoon sacked out on the deck in the sun reading.

It was a wonderful visit. Part of me feels a bit guilty when our parents spend their vacations working up a sweat in the back yard or unpacking boxes in the basement. But I think the productive time together is important to both of us, especially since we don't get to do it very often. Plus, let's face it, Jason and I would have been totally lost planting a garden by ourselves!

What a fun spring! Now the rain can come whenever it wants...although I could handle this type of weather for a few more weeks. We have a pretty glorious summer stretching out ahead of us--no weddings to travel to, no moving, no getting married ourselves. Is it possible we could get bored?!?