Early Risers

Can you imagine that I could look this cheerful at 5:30 in the morning!? Only after being awoken by my youngest (featured) calling out: "Mommy! ...Mommy!" It was so exciting! His first really intelligible word and the crazy thing is, he sounds just like his sister. So I run upstairs to her room and she is fast asleep, then I hear it again and I am wondering the whole time how in the heck it is possible for her to throw her voice!? Then it occurs to me that there is someone else nearby and sure enough, once I walk into W's room, there he is looking mighty pleased with himself and giggling. So of course we had to go and play in the playroom to celebrate. He speaks! Yippee!

Look-Alike Contest

Here's my entry for the Kramer Look-Alike contest. What do you think - do we have a winner ?

How to pass the time at a trade show

Ta Daaaaaaaah! Announcing: Tony The Cowboy!

And this is what we find ourselves doing in the final hours of a trade show ... the silliness is our only defense against the intense cabin fever we feel after 4 days in the concrete jungle we call the W. Springfield, MA Equine Affaire.

Where am I? That's right, the Equine Affaire in W. Springfield, MA

I am currently in W. Springfield, MA at the Equine Affaire. Flew in yesterday and was able to make it there by 4:30PM (having had to delay the trip for a day because of one sick child, only to get here and learn the next one is ill). In the span of 3 hours I was asked if my product was kitty litter (ARG! This is OBVIOUSLY NOT the Feline Affaire), was graced with repeat visits by a very talkative Quiet-Talker who also Mumbled (he was like the old man in Hot Fuzz, I swear it was that bad) and had many, many, many unsupervised children who had many, many questions. Also arrived in time to find out that my sexy new business cards have the WRONG email address! That said, and despite the obvious irritants, I am kind of enjoying the sort of guerilla sales environment - in a perverse sort of way. I'll follow up with pictures soon! If I survive! On the bright side, there is every sort of carnival food that one could dream of there and then some more (fried dough anyone? Chuck Wagon? Apple Fritters?) so at least I won't lose weight ...

An end and a beginning

This was the porch one week ago - happy houseguests eating lunch in the warm sunshine. Please note the tomatoes from the garden.

Here is the same scene today. Winter has crept into the valleys and up our hill. We had a hard frost last night - gone are the peppers, the Swiss chard, the herbs and the last flowers which were hanging on until this morning. The water in the horse tub was frozen and the garden hose spit out little rods of ice when I turned on the water.

Luckily I planted a winter vegetable garden yesterday before the freeze. We learned about this method at the Unity Fair this fall. Elliot Coleman made a hoop greenhouse right in the garden with lectrical conduit bent into a half circle and stuck into the ground. The resulting hoop tunnel is covered with a special cloth to keep warmth inside the tunnel. When the temperature really drops , a plastic covering is added and the whole thing supposedly stays warm enough to grow greens in Maine. I planted peas, both shelling and snow peas, lettuce, spinach and onions. I am so curious whether this will work.

cold.

It is getting chillier outside and thank goodness I have a wonderful assistant at work who loves to cook and makes us warm lunches at the office every day! She is Chinese and makes delicious things like this Noodle Bowl. Martina has been making us lunches since she started and she tells us how much it means to her to be able to not only do her job (administrative assistant) but to indulge in her desire to cook for people as well. She has a catering business on the side and brings us the leftovers! When she interviewed for the job she told us she really didn't want to work very many hours because she enjoyed her catering. Now, after several months, she tells us that she loves her job so much because she can combine her interests, despite the fact that they are so different. It makes me wonder if other people would be happier and more productive if they were allowed to pursue their interests in a creative way.