Good food, good people, drink of your choice, and perhaps a session if we are so inclined. Starting ~5 or 6 p.m., until everyone goes home or we all pass out on the floor.

We haven't decided what the menu will be yet, but I'm guessing it will involve the grill.

Hope to see you there!

...anyone in LJ-land interested? Let me know...

All of last Saturday was spent out in Plainfield, tilling up the new garden plot. (Well, T. tilled, and I helped with layout and located lunch and half of the rhubarb.) Here's the current half-finished plan:

( Cut for long skinny garden... )

March 11, 2009, 12:17 p.m.

Of course, tomorrow we're supposed to have a low of 0.

...a birthday party down in MA with Camp!Friends. Here's what we did...until 5 in the morning:

If you can't come see us on March 28, you could come on the evening of the 14th instead--Longford Row at the Black Door, great food and (IMO) the best Irish band in VT, always a wonderful time and within stumbling distance of our house (as metasilk can attest!).

"President's Day" holiday today, so I'm off, for which I will pay in blood and lost sleep for the rest of the month, most likely. We've got corporate strategic planning for a day-and-a-half this week, too, meaning that I've two and a half days in which to do 5 days of work. MEH.

Planted a flat of red onions yesterday. Need to get new full-spectrum bulbs for the seed starting rack...like yesterday. I think I only have one shelf's worth of working bulbs left. Spent a fair bit of time yesterday working on planting schedules and square-footage requirements...how is it that even with a new potential 5,000 square feet of space, I still run out of room for what I want to grow? (Not to mention that, if half of the planned veggies actually get to maturity, we're going to need a much better storage system than what we've got.)

It's looking like the Urban Homestead Snow's Last Hurrah Spring Soiree will be the weekend of March 28. Mark your calendars!

If the link above is locked for you, here are the particulars: Directions (and/or excursions, depending on interest) to ski areas or snowshoe trails, good company, Boston-area and hopefully some central VT Irish music folk, at least one bottle of Ardbeg, a lot of house-made hard cider, a couple spare bedrooms and a bunch of floor space, a few extra air mattresses, and endless breakfast in the morning. Please feel free to forward to like-minded folks are not LJ-equipped.

Listen to a radio clip on my sister's work, including bonus audio of said sister somehow making a discussion involving a computer screen sound fun and interesting over the radio, here.

...in this morning's mail. Lovely!! Thank you! :)

...but hey, I was out at the garden today, getting soil under my fingernails in the middle of winter, and thought I'd share.

( Here be veggies... )

The flight back was uneventful; only a minor delay in JFK. Picked up baggage and truck (Thanks Mr. Toast!!!) and headed home via the Cider House. Yay, home!!!

Photo dump likely forthcoming tomorrow, after the camera battery charges and we get things sorted and uploaded.

*falls into bed*

Plane flight = uneventful this time.

Rio = super cute baby, seems pretty well recovered from his pneumonia.

H. and J. = slowly recovering new parents.

Mom and Dad = as well as can be expected given the rather odd housing/hanging out situation.


More later...and merry holidays to all.

Have some pictures of our foot+ of new snow, accumulated over the last 24 hours.

Somebody is out there evoking Huey, I just *know* it.

( Solstice storm 2008 pix here... )

Foiled, big time, at the airport today. Most, if not all, flights out of Burlington cancelled today out of Burlington. Next available seats were...very early Tuesday morning, so we'll be trying again then.

The drive up was extremely slow, but otherwise bearable. Made worse, however, by walking out of the terminal after getting our tickets re-booked, pulling my cell phone out of my pocket to update the parents in CA...and finding there a voicemail from OrbitzTLC, telling me that as of 11:07, the flight was cancelled. If my phone had not been on silent mode, we could've saved ourselves those 4 hours of white-knuckle adventure.

Happy solstice. :P

Well, pretty much all we have to do now is drum at the solstice service tomorrow morning and then go get on a plane. Likely in the middle of a storm. To go to California to see my parents and sister. (Yeah, if we get there before Tuesday we'll probably be doing well.)

The past few weeks? TOTAL INSANITY. I cannot even begin to tell you how freaking busy we've been. There are big gaps in my LJ-reading memory, and I'm sure some of you have posted wonderful, earth-changing things...but while I've read a few of them here and there, and maybe even commented once or twice...well, if anything really important happened, please tell me.

Now, off to check the weather forecast and PACK. Also, laundry and cleaning. STAT!!

*zoom*

Ohio Ag Dept. resorting to raiding co-ops with SWAT teams?

What's next: holding up the Amish for selling eggs off the farm?! Seriously, Ohio. Get a grip.

...poor kid, what a name!!

My sister's first baby, a boy, born at 4:50 AM December 5 in Santa Cruz. 20 inches, 8+ lbs, and almost 3 weeks late. Like his mom, he waited until the last possible second to get it done.

Mama is fine, Rio is in baby ICU with some breathing problems. The docs think he swallowed some fluid during the birth...so probably nothing lasting, but Grandma (my mom) is worrying her fool head off enough for the entire rest of the family.

Rice-powered stove ignites new hope for poor farmers

"Alexis Belonio’s obsession with rice husks began in 2003, when rising fuel prices and heavy dependence on foreign oil slammed his native Philippines with an energy crunch.

“I saw rice mills throw husks into the rivers,” says the agricultural engineer. “I started thinking about using them as fuel.”...

...“Nobody told Alexis Belonio you weren’t supposed to do this with rice husks...So he just went off and did it.”"

...more like an annotated menu, really. Thinking about it now because (1) who knows when I'll have time again in the next two weeks and (2) I really want it to be a thankful, thoughtful, Vermont sort of meal. All my brother's been through lately, he deserves it, y'know?

( Cut to protect the hungry... )

RSVP! :)

http://www.longfordrow.com/

Crash space is available at our house (within easy stumbling distance) after the gig.

I am angling for the boys to come back with us afterward for toddies and more music...who knows what sorts of mayhem might ensue?

:)