Story A Day

Tim and I made a BIG mistake last year.  In our efforts to get more grass growing in our backyard we bought a bag of seed at Menards called “Quick Lawn”.  We assumed that meant it would germinate and begin growing quickly.  Ohhhhh nooooooo.  That means it will ALWAYS grow quickly.  At a rate about 3 times that of the grass in the front yard.  I mean, really, should grass grow almost 5 inches in one week!  This is my fight with the yard.  Never, EVER buy “Quick Lawn” everyone

Tim’s brother and his wife had a healthy baby girl yesterday.  Little Isabelle is their first baby, and my first niece!  Exciting stuff. We will be heading up there for a visit sometime this weekend.  Yay!!!

Today I caught a tree frog…in the hallway of our building Bizarre. We’re not quite sure how the tree frog got there. I walked over to my students with my hands clasped and said, “I have a frog in here, do you want to see it?” “Whatever,” they said, “it’s totally fake.” “No, really,” I said, “it’s real, do you want to come outside and see it hop away?” Up from their seats they hopped and followed me outside. They didn’t believe me until I set it on the ground and it hopped away. Fun stuff.

Mission: Frame in the basement
Stats: 3 days, about 25 hours, 45 2×4’s, one rented framing nailer, and four sore knees later – Mission Accomplished…take a look…

Before:

After:

A big hooray for the nerdy-looking do-it-yourself-ers!!!
Earplugs, safety goggles and all!!

Okay, so I neglected to list a variety of things that had to happen in order to begin the framing part of our basement project so today…
1.  Took quite a while to remove and replace the bottom studs on existing walls with green-treat lumber.  I think Tim will have a sore arm tomorrow
2. My main task was hanging the plastic around all of the exterior walls that goes between the cement and the studs – everyone say “adhesive fumes!!!”
3.  Then came laying the moisture barrier for the floor.
And FINALLY, tomorrow we will get to actually put the studs up!  Yipee!! 

Mission: Frame in the Basement
Tasks so far completed:
1. Cleaned up and organized piles of stuff
2. Found a way to store kayak by hanging it from garage roof
3. Sawed through nails to remove bottom stud of existing wall (needs to be replaced with green-treat (moisture-resistant) 2×4’s)
4. Rested with a dinner on the town
Tomorrow: More sawing through nails, and hopefully lots of framing!

Summer means music in the park at the Como Pavilion. This evening Tim and I were enjoying a stroll around the lake when the sounds of a bluegrass band arose. Sure enough, in the Pavilion they played, singing songs about local history and strumming their banjos and guitars with looks of pure glee. Many nights the air of Como is filled with the sounds of local instrumental bands, the occasional folk group and more. I like it. It adds a feeling of festivity to the season.

I spent the day with a group of junior high students today and we spent a good amount of time exploring the stream area of the outdoor center. We had a first today. The first snapping turtle I’ve ever seen at the stream, and, it was a baby snapping turtle! It was not much larger than a silver dollar. They were super excited to find something that I had never seen before since they considered me the “expert scientist” – haha Great group of kids and fun adventures!

I stood waiting in the parking lot for the arrival of a crew of rambunctious junior high students.  Mostly deafened by the sound of a nearby riding lawnmower, but occasionally catching the twittering of a chipping sparrow.  I saw the brown figure emerge from the forest.  Nose and ears came first, a cautious glance, then slowly the neck, body and and that recognizable tail emerged.  She looked straight at me, ears turned side to side, catching each sound, the lawnmower sound further in the distance now.  She stood in the middle of the gravel driveway and we stared at each other for at least a full minute.  She waited to see if I moved – a threat?  Or not?  I stood as still as possible just to see if it would work.  It did.  She finally glanced away, went about feeding on some plants nearby and only after another few minutes did she casually saunter into the dense forest again.  That was my stare down with a deer today.  Sure, I saw lots of deer growing up and they didn’t seem too timid.  But these are “country deer” not “suburb deer” – it is rare that we actually see them at the outdoor center since their peaceful environment is so often quiet, and we, with excited kids in tow, so often loud.  So, I enjoyed this brief moment of quiet, in a stare down with a deer.

My dad graduated from law school today. Quite the accomplishment. Though, I can imagine that graduation isn’t quite as exciting when you’re not actually done – the worst yet to come really – the bar exam. It was a bit of a long ceremony since Hamline does the ceremony for all of their graduate students at once, but the highlight (aside from seeing my Dad get his diploma ) was hearing Ann Bancroft, the keynote speaker. I’m not sure how many of you know much about her, but she is someone I admire a lot. Her foundation focuses on programs and grants for young girls to inspire them to follow their dreams – a mission that I strongly support. She had some great advice in her speech – she said that to feel truly satisfied she needs to combine passion and purpose. Those two ingredients, but neither one alone, are the key for her – to find something she is passionate about and then exercise that passion in a way that provides some outward benefit for society. She lives this philosophy by making her incredible expeditions visible to educators and young people around the world – they can learn with her. I think it’s cool. I think she’s cool. And I thought her speech was very inspiring. Good stuff And congrats again to my Dad!