In which progress happens

Progress has happened toward our period camp at 20th Year. We had an intensive three day weekend of woodworking, and got a great deal accomplished.

The table legs are done for the kitchen tables, although they seem to require some shimming to achieve stability. I'll be purchasing glued panels to top them with, once I can find some that are not warped. I still need to do the table legs for dining tables, but with a handy dandy masonite pattern, they should be a snap.

We also got substantial work done on beds for ourselves and for Savina's family. The rails are cut, including the tenons, for our bed, for Evan's bed, and for Savina's/Bill's bed. We even have part of the rails cut for Rachel's and Ben's beds. The bad news is the mortices in the posts. Chris and Bill worked on them for hours - drilling and then chiseling out the corners of the holes. It's a major undertaking, and is going to take some time to complete. Chris got the mortises done on one post out of 20; it was a major accomplishment. I plan to spend s0me quality time on the back porch with chisel and hammer next week. The good news is that we pretty much have the rail construction down to a science, so when Arwen and Guillaume drop by to make a bed, it'll be pretty straightforward. Other than the mortices of course.

I also found the rest of the candles, so we're set for light. Well, almost - I still have to epoxy candle cups into the lanterns which came with cups for tea lights. The lanterns aren't pre-1600, but they're close. Why would someone manufacture a 18th-century lantern with tea light cups anyway?

Getting excited now, but still have a lot of work to do. I really want to rebuild the 16' tent top before July. And there are still loads of clothes to make.

In which Evan paints eggs, loses them and then finds them

Yesterday was Easter Sunday. Being somewhat non-religious, we don't tend to do the Jesus story in our house. But we do the entire Spring bit, just like the Fall (Halloween) and Winter (Christmas) bits.

Getting home at 1:30 pm on Saturday left me with little time to prepare for the holiday. Although I started from Russell at 8:30 on Saturday morning, weather conditions made the remaining drive pretty rough. The sustained south winds, clocked at 30 mph at Russell, were 40 mph by the time I hit Goodland. I had driven through two dust storms. By Burlington, the approaching storm was really beginning to be felt; I stopped for a potty break and got a face full of dust. The storm was largely to the northwest, and there was plenty of rain visible. The tumbleweeds - which had zipped across the highway from the left to right all morning - began to behave somewhat erratically, although still with plenty of force.

I drove straight into the storm at Stratton. The wind and the rain and the speed of the car conspired to attempt to blow me off the highway, and so I had to slow down. As I passed Flagler, the low fuel light came on - I had been so focused on the approaching storm that had failed to mind the dashboard. I had been ignoring the MAINT REQD light since Hays anyway. I was making plans to have Chris come out to get me, stranded out of gas, when Arriba appeared out of the rainstorm. Of course, I could have picked a better place to fuel than Arriba's one gas station. Under a tiny canopy, the wind whipped the cold rain (the car said 48 degrees) and remaining dust into hair, eyes and ears. Thankful that I had thought to grab my jacket out of the trunk in Burlington, I pulled up the flaps around my ears and endured the raw weather while waiting for the tank to fill.

Somewhat later than I anticipated, I pulled into home. Chris and I got the BBQ out of the cooler and re-packed it, and then ran the car off to the airport. We had a BBQ supper, and then left the boy at home with grandma so we could find Easter.

The grocery store was a dissapointment - no egg dye, very little candy, no Easter grass - and so we went out to the Super Target. They had a good selection of candy and gifts, but no egg dye, and no Easter grass. We picked up a huge blue bunny for Evan, some candies, and small toys for his basket. We made a quick stop at Safeway for cooking eggs (the Easter eggs were cooked Saturday morning, and Target was out) and dye. No egg dye, no Easter grass - there was beginning to be a theme. We settled on food colors, and wondered what we'd do without the grass.

It was very late when we got home, but there were eggs to color. We set up cups and egg dye, and I have to admit we got very nice results. We sent Evan off to bed, and then the real work began. I had brought the loot from Target indoors while Chris bathed Evan. I began to set up the basket. We had a large one left over from last year, and so I requisitioned that for the "big" stuff. Without Easter grass, I had to make do with tissue paper left over from Chris' birthday. Other then the required big chocolate bunny and Peeps (chicks and purple bunnies), there were some small toys in the basket - a collection of Bob the Builder Easter vehicles, a ABC card game, a yo-yo. I gathered together some candy dishes to contain much of the chocolate and jelly beans. Chris distributed the candy into the dishes, and into the baskets. He even tucked Evan's new kite (extra string in the basket) under the bunny's chin. It was an impressive-looking spread.

The evening was not so good for Mom - I started feeling poorly. Dizziness and nausia. Not a good way to spend Easter eve.

Mr. and Mrs. Rabbit (some call him the Easter Floyd) rose early Sunday morning to hide the eggs. The weather was beautiful, but without the promise of wind for flying a new kite. By 7:00 we were tucked back in bed, and at 7:30 Evan trotted in, proclaiming that it was Easter. He'd already looked out his bedroom window and spotted eggs in the grass already, and was ready to go. I got him dressed while Daddy took up his position by the loot, ready to get the reaction shot. He was predictably delighted at having lost the eggs as evidenced by the empty brown bowl. He spent some time looking through the basket, hugging the bunny and playing with his toys before we all went out to find the lost eggs.

The bunny of course had to come to help. Our yard is full of egg-hiding posibilities, and with a little overly-direct help, Evan did find all of them, even the ones hidden above his head. He then wanted to hide them all again. we talked him out of that.

The rest of the day was spent (predictably) keeping him out of the candy, and cooking for Easter dinner. At least that's what Grandma, Dad, and Evan did. Mom spent the day in bed, nursing some sort of stomach infection. Pretty much unable to do more than make token appearances, I cooked by proxy - Mother would come up to the bedroom asking what else needed to be done for dinner. Except for assembling the Strawberries California (supposed to be a strawberry and creme torte, but it's seismic nature became quickly apparent), Mother cooked the entre meal. I did eat some of Easter dinner, but retired to bed after dinner. I actually got a couple hours of sleep since the tummy cramps had subsided.

Evan declared this morning that it was the "greatest Easter ever", and in spite of being sick all day, I think it was.

In which I go to Kansas for a week

My April trip was to Topeka to begin the implementation for KSNT. I did ask for this assignment, but it's not the exciting locations to which I've been in the past. I do have reasons for going, many of them nostalgic.

I choose to drive for a couple of reasons. I like to be on my own schedule, leave when I want, take a side-trip if I like. But mostly I like to drive through the land that at times seems as much a part of me as my bones. I've made the I-70 trip so many times that I know what is around each bend and over every hill. I have favorite landmarks - the edge of the high plains at Cedar Point, the first glimpse of Pike's Peak, the ravines feeding into the Republican River, which will become my beloved Kaw some 400 miles to the east, the rugged hills west of Salina, and post rock country in the Smoky Hills.

My favorite place has to be the Flint Hills, in which I was born. The broad rolling vistas always appear in my mind's eye in sunset, the ranges of hills growing blue and smoky in the distance. Whether dressed in spring green or fall's golden hues, the tallgrass prairie is so much a part of my childhood that I long to linger on some high ridge for the afternoon. The Flint Hills are too close to either the beginning or the end of the journey that I usually dash through, but not without a lingering gaze.

This week was the burning time on the prairie. The evening horizon was gray; the atmosphere hazy. The smell of burning prairie extended even into Topeka, a county away from the Flint Hills. The burning controls the growth of woody plants - rainfall is high enough to support forestation in the Flint Hills - and speeds emergence of new grass for livestock. Although described as "controlled" burns, it's hard to see that much control is being exerted - no one ever seems to be present, and the sheer size of the burns seems to defy control by a few mere mortals. The smoke certainly created visibility and helath issues, but the annual burn is nevertheless required to preserve the tallgrass prairie.

As usual - and to be expected - a day at the tv station is exhausting, and most nights I retreated to the hotel expecting mostly sleep. One night I did walk across 17th street to the K-Mart for some necessities, and spent some quality time shopping for plants. Not having much in the way of financial resources, I purchased just what was needed, expecting to be able to pick up a few things wanted rather then needed on Friday.

My co-worker, a young man transplanted to San Francisco from Alabama, professed to liking barbeque. This was all the invitation I needed to drag him off to Boss Hawg's for lunch on Wednesday; Thursday we went to a very old favorite, Tortilla Jack's. I suppose the familiar foods are one of the things I like about going to Topeka, and I did make the rounds.

Thursday evening I spent with Bret. We ate at Annie's, an old favorite for the potato wedges and chicken gravy, as well as the Alouette burger, a burger with Alouette herbed cheese and sweet pickles. Bret seems to be doing well enough, but is experiencing a lot of fatigue from the HIV drugs.

Friday was going-home day, and I took my co-worker up to KCI, but not without several detours. We stopped in Lawrence for lunch at Free State Brewery, which was pronounced "very good", and then to Jayhawk Spirit for KU souveniers. It turns out that Todd likes collegiate sports so much that he totes up contact with big colleges, and having KU so close at hand was for him an unexpected bennie. I drove us up to the campus on 12th Street - the steepest - and demonstrated to him, that yes, I did walk up hill to school both ways when a student at KU.

The trip to KCI was a not-so-cleverly disguised ruse to gain barbeque from the BBQ capital of the US. After flailing about a bit along I-70 through Kansas City, I managed to find Arthur Bryant's. The place smelled like heaven. I spent $60 on two slabs of ribs and two pounds of smoked meats. Mission accomplished, I headed west.

I was to pick up some of Chris' grandfather's tools from Chris' mom on Friday night. We went out to dinner at a little place in Oakland, La Siesta. It's a hole in a wall, a resturant in a house in a residential neighborhood. You wouldn't find it if you weren't looking for it. The chili con queso was real cheese, not the pasturized stuff that is featured in most Mexican resturants. I thouroughly enjoyed the CCQ on top of my tamales - not to mention the chips. I left Jan's at 8:30, and skipped a little further west.

I do intend to pick up plants in Kansas that I can't get here in Denver. For a couple years in a row I was able to get pansies in Victorian colors, and I always get my tomatoes from there, since I like to plant early. So I had one more stop before leaving Topeka. I wanted to check out the plants at Lowe's. Alas, I found no suitable tomatoes (all too long season) but did get two butterfly bushes. And some lilies, Sunday being Easter. Madonna lilies are a period species, and I can always drop them into the period garden.

It was 9:30 when I checked out. I had checked out of my hotel room that morning, and so had no Topeka reservations. I headed west, knowing that I probably wouldn't get very far, but feeling that a few hours closer to Denver would give me some pad time before I had to have the car back on Saturday.

Leaving Topeka on Friday night, the Flint Hills were again on fire. Some of the flames seemed to come right up to the highway, and in the dark, the glow of distant fires was ever-present on the horizon. Once, to find out how thick the smoke was, I flipped the AC over to intake outside air, but shut that off in a hurry. I wonder what it might have looked like in the daylight, remembering the Coal Seam fire a couple of years ago in Glenwood Springs.

I made it all the way to Russell before pulling off for the night. Only two and a half hours closer to Denver, but Saturday was to be a whole new driving adventure. I was glad I started on Friday night.

In which I wish Chris many happy returns

It's Chris' 36th birthday! I am very excited to make special plans for him, and since I have the day sorta off, I've got time to do what I want. Of course I'm not going to post this until late today, since I don't wish to reveal surprises.

It has been decided that we will dine tonight at Cinzetti's, the Italian buffet north across town. I have decided to get Chris a cake, and need to do some errands to make that happen. I also want to purchase for him some magic lessons, and so a trip over to the west side is in order. Of course, I don't get out of the house until later than I had planned, and so the afternoon became a race against time.

I called Child's early this morning, and discovered that I had missed the window for getting a custom cake. They did say that they could get me some fondant playing cards, and that they would arrive after 1:30 today. I needed to get out to the magic store by about 2:00 to speak with Craig, the owner. So I headed west first.

Craig recommended several DVDs that would be good for Chris, and I settled on the Royal Road to Card Magic, which has only been out for a couple of weeks. I was also looking for a little magic wand or bunny for the cake. There was a carton of little magic wands near the register, and I picked on up on Craig's recommendation. He said, "every magician needs one of those." Besides, it would fit on the cake. Chris was already set up in Craig's computer as a client, but not a magician. We rectified this oversight, in the process getting a discount on Chris' birthday gift. On the pass through Target to the parking lot, I picked up birthday wrapping and cards, and then headed south to Child's.

I go there at about 3:00, which wasn't early enough after all. They advised me that I should go over to the main store, at Monaco and Evans if I really wanted those cards. So, over to the east side. I walked in, told them what I wanted and the designer said, "sure, I'll print those out." Hmmm, this was getting interesting.

He sat down at the computer, and moved pictures of the cards over into the print area. He loaded a sheet of fondant into the printer from a foil packet, and printed the cards. Having already picked out the chocolate-filled-with-chocolate cake, the designer then cut out the "cards" and arranged them on the cake with a flourishing magic wand. I had to inquire - yes, he will scan in and print out anything! I have to say that I was totally impressed.

I loaded the cake in the car, and zoomed home. I wanted to "dress" for dinner, but first had to get the wrapping paper and goods to be wrapped up to the bedroom. Chris had the good grace not to follow me upstairs. I got his stuff wrapped and Mother wrapped her gifts, and then I got dressed. Of course I was targeted for "dressing up", when she was not. Oh well.

Dinner was good; as usual at Cinzetti's, I didn't have enough room to try more than my favorites. Chris was delighted with his cake, and I hope he will find the DVD useful. I had a lot of fun creating a special birthday for him, and I hope this birthday will be memorable for him.

In which some headway toward spring is made

Vegas weather is beautiful this time of year. The days are warm and sunny, the nights cool and crisp. It rained twice while I was there - one of the showers even had the added feature of thunder and lightening. The trees are leafing out, and there are riots of petunias planted everywhere. When I came home last Friday I was ready for Spring.

The weather was kindly obliging, even though the state of the yard and garden made it apparent that this was a change. We spent the day Saturday in the front yard. Chris and I weeded and cleaned the iris bed, and I planted three Asiatic lilies in the back where the liatris had failed. This was a bigger job than might be imagined, since we didn't do it last year. Suffice to say that the detritus had filled the remainder of the large chicken wire yard waste bin behind the fence.

I am a dedicated composter. We create too much yard waste to concieve of dumping it into a landfill. Besides, it's the very best ammendment that you can put on your garden. And boy, does this soil need ammendment. We started several years ago with a large Rubbermaid composter, with which we have had limited success. I've just never got the hang of loading green layers and brown layers, and turning the thing over. Doesn't that negate the idea of layers?? We have gotten some compost out of it, but I'd never say that we had gotten a lot for the amount of stuff that's gone in. There is a compostng scheme where you work with three bins - one to hold the raw stuff, one to start the cooking process, breaking the raw stuff down into smaller bits, and a final cooking bin to compost the small bits. This is of course what I've got in mind.

Chris and I built a 24 cu. ft. wire and wood bin last fall, and put it behind the fence in the back yard. It's where were currently dumping leaves, sod clumps from digging new beds, and the detritus from spring yard cleaning. I will be purchasing a drum-type composter this spring to do the final compost step. They say that you can get compost out of those in 5 weeks or so. I envision great things for the herb garden this spring.

The herb garden seems to be doing well following the cleaning last month. I did pick up two rosemary and two lavendar plants to replace the winter-kill. They went into the ground on Monday. I had taken the day off, and so pent several enjoyable hours perusing garden sections at Home Depot and Lowes. I went for butterfly bushes, having cleaned up the space in front of the kitchen nook windows and dug the holes. Alas, too early. Since the space selected is contiguous with the rest of the rock border around the back porch, I cleaned out the weeds there also. There has been a telephone or cable line exposed across the rock, and in the process it was convenient to bury it. It all looks much better.

Last summer we had quite a few violas volunteer in the rock border, and it seems that we are graced with them again this year. I left the ones I found in place, and even picked up some additional seed to sprinkle. They really do look charming in the border; we just have to take care not to step on them.

Sunday morning was also productive in the back yard. Before going to Jeff's birthday party, Chris hung the bat house; I cleaned out the hollyhocks and replaced them with liatris. This bed is wetter; I hope for better results. We put Evan to work on the thistles. White vinegar is very effective in killing the foliage. The theory is that with repeated foliage kill, the root system will finally run out of energy and die. We gave him a spraybottle with the vineger, and he went to work. Thankfully, none have taken hold in the front yard.

By the end of Monday I could see spring in the garden. The irises are putting up blades, the tulips and daffodils are making appareances. Many of the herbs are in a usable state (anyone need chives??), and the grass is beginning to green. I went back to work on Tuesday planning to do more today. Little did I know that the world would be white this morning.

The forcast called for mixed rain and snow - this usually means no accumulation. And to be fair, by midmorning, the blanket of snow has subsided and turned faintly green from the underlying grass. Ah, well - it's precipitation, and no one can grumble about that this year. It really is spring on Denver.

In which I'm leaving Las Vegas

I honestly don't see the attraction. People excitedly anticipate vacationing in Las Vegas, but frankly I find it tedious. Granted they don't tend to stay for two weeks on the Strip in a hotel underging renovations, but still.... I honestly don't see the attraction.

While I was there I did learn a few things.

1) The cabbies always have the right-of way. Always. They don't simply nose into traffic; they aren't just agressive drivers. They own the streets of Las Vegas. I saw cabbies speeding down long blocks (plural) of left-turn lanes. I had a cabbie try to broadside me out of the lane so he could have it. I saw cabbies make right turns out of left lanes.

2) Never, ever stay in a hotel under construction for two weeks. This was not the first time I had ended up in this sort of a mess - the Candlewood Suites in Wichita was completely redoing the interior halls. Paint, carpet, tile. Guests would come "home" to doors cocked open, halls blocked off, sticky floors. The Aladdin was better and worse. The Aladdin is converting to the Planet Hollywood. They did a good job of keeping the effluvient behind temporary walls, but everything was moved and felt shifted, temporary. The walls could not quell the noise, and of course workers with materials and tools were constantly having to access the construction zones. The worst was in the valet area where every morning I waited for my car amid the cacaphony of large construction equipment coming and going, in addition to the usual press of people, cars and large tour buses. I was not relaxed on the way to work; I escaped.

3) If you're going to be in Las Vegas for more than three days, stay in one of the business hotels off-Strip on Paradise. There are several Marriotts and two Embassy Suites that would have done nicely. Don't let the party-girl co-worker talk you into Strip hotels. The residents don't go there. That should be a lesson.

4) Plan on spending twice as much as budgeted. Las Vegas will wring it out of you. The "value" fine dining resturant in the hotel cast $100 for a dinner and drinks and tip for 3, and one of us is four years old. The "free" show actually ran over $17, because you have to pay for two drinks - the drinks were $7.98, plus tax. I'm convinced that they lied about the alcohol at that. We probably didn't get hit as much as most, because we ate at Jack-In-The-Box and McDonald's for some lunches and breakfasts. I think we lost a total of $27 gambling, but then again, I think between Chris and me, we risked about $30.

5) There is one non-smoking casion in the city - the airport. I was there in the early evening, and there were not a lot of players. Of course I didn't win anything - not even a piddly credit or two to reinvest - at the airport, and so I'm guessing they don't bill themselves as "the loosest slots".

6) The highly-rated buffet in the hotel is not the best buffet value in town. I ate twice at the Spice Market in the Aladdin, which is the #1 rated buffet in Las Vegas. At $25 per person, the food was hit or miss - the crab legs were cold and the Mediterranean section made me long for the Damascus Grill, but the roast beef was outstanding. The selection was huge, but we never felt like we ate $25 worth of food. Wine selections were low quality single-serve bottles at $6.98 each - which is about what I pay at the neighborhood liquor store for my favorite Sterling Vinyards, when you figure that there are three of those little ones in a fifth. The Paradise Buffet in the Fremont Hotel downtown cost us $25 for the three of us - Chris, Me and Evan - and had better sushi. Not so many selections, but the quality was consistantly good, and we felt like we'd gotten our money's worth.

7) The best landscape is outside of town. Sunday found the Bays clan touring. We drove the hour north east of Vegas to Valley of Fire State Park. Now here was a value at $6 per car. Not only geologic but aboriginal human history. If you love Mesa Verde, you have to go here. The same mysterious exodus happened from the Valley of Fire region in about the 14th century as in Mesa Verde. It's one of mankind's biggest mysteries. The red rock outcroppings (not contiguous with Colorado's Red Rocks), beautiful on their own, have been sculpted by wind and water into fantastic shapes.

8) The biggest travesty is outside of town. If you take the Northshore Road south out of Valley of Fire, through the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, you can see a lot more of the countryside than driving south along the interstate. There are three springs to the west of the road; one of these is a warm spring in which bathing is encouraged. As our destination was Hoover Dam, we didn't stop. The road is twisty and turny, and so the drive takes longer than you think it should, but eventually we got to the left turn towards the dam. The traffic was bad - it seems that everyone wants to go to the dam on a Sunday afternon. There is a security checkpoint (ha! - no terrorist car bomb would be enough to take out that dam). Eventually the traffic jam moves you to the vicinity of the dam. It's a circus. With propaganda. Huge parking garage, gift and snack shops fill the canyon on the Nevada side. No Colorado resident will be surprised to hear that Lake Mead is low - so low that the ruler painted on the lake side of the dam ends probably 40 feet above the water. The 60' - 80' white margins of the lake (salts??) are stark testimony to the ongoing drought conditions in the western US. The Colorado River leaves two years of it's flow inside Lade Mead. The irony is that no matter the amount of water we bottle up in western dams, there simply isn't enough precipitation to make the propaganda a reality. The travesty is that we continue to try.

9) Sinus medicine is a daily necessity. Las Vegas is the smoking capital of the world. It's not restricted anywhere but the airport and in sections of resturants. You simply can't avoid it. It takes four or five days to work Las Vegas out of your lungs.

And last but no least:

10) The best views I had of Las Vegas were on the approach to the airport and the departure two weeks later.

I frequently leave a job site with a sense of relief. But the reasons are usually different. The client was remarkably good - demanding, but not nasty. I usually develop some sort of connection to places I go - I get fond of the landscape, or I regret leaving the hotel. Las Vegas was easy to leave behind. I had Sheryl Crow in my head all Friday.

In which blogging begins again

Yes, it's been longer than three weeks. Yes, I know that a blog should be entered every day. Yes, yes, yes. Well, hopefully I can do a little better - I'll be posting several in the next few days. Watch this space for more.