Community Gardening

We were initially going to skip the garden this year, but after a bit of prodding from our friends, who gently but sternly encouraged us to grow something, we are doing a garden plot in the community garden. Now we obtained several starter plants from the resident pro, CS, and also got a few gifts from our friends, JM and B. They had been growing starters in the greenhouse and offered some tomatoes, which I gladly accepted. B said she’s leave them in my name, and when I went to pick them up, she had left us several tomatoes and even a squash plant. It was so nice of her, I was floored.

We received some exotic types of tomatoes, some of which I can’t even pronounce. I put them in the ground and now we have about a dozen tomato plants going, and one squash. There’s still a bit of space on the end, where I might put some peppers, and I planted some cilantro seeds. Look at me, Mr. Green Thumb, after all.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Helen in Wales for the pic.

Olive Oil

Part of our healthy eating plan is cutting back on dairy, which means reducing our intake of some of the things that make life worth living, namely ice cream and butter. As much as I love the stuff, ice cream is actually not that hard to avoid because it’s not something any normal person eats on a regular basis. Being the abnormal person that I am, I consumed it on a regular basis, but haven’t had it regularly for about a year. For anyone who knows me well enough, this is pretty amazing. It helps that ice cream is something you know you’re not supposed to eat a lot of.

Not like butter, at least. It’s hard to find a substitute for butter. Margarine is in my opinion a worse alternative, and it doesn’t taste as good. Butter, unlike ice cream, is something that a person could conceivably use all the time, for breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner. We have found, however, that in many instances, olive oil works well, particularly on pasta, bread and most vegetables. In fact, if you buy good olive oil, it has a great flavor that can really enhance the food. We never ate olive oil when I was growing up, my parents didn’t like it, and it was expensive. There wasn’t as much of an awareness about health back then, either.

I feel better about eating olive oil over butter, and the kids like it. In certain instances you can’t replace butter, for instance in a baked potato, but we’re not eating potatoes anyway, so it’s not an issue.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Van Zai for the pic.

Possible Hockey Decisions

The time has come to make a decision, and in a way, the choice is not really a choice, after all. A was pretty adamant about playing on the PeeWee House team, but it appears that nobody else is playing on the House team. The registration has been anemic, and the last time we checked, we were the only ones signed up. There has been this big push to start a girl’s U12 team, which I thought from the beginning would be a great fit for A because she would bond with the girls.

R disagrees and think the opposite because A has said that she likes playing with the guys. That’s fine, but truth be told, she won’t really end up making lasting relationships with them. They’re pre-teen boys, they’re too wild to really bond with girls. Eventually they’ll be interested for other reasons, but for now, they’re too young. Playing with girls her own age, she can make some real friendships. Now two of the girls she knows said they wanted to play on the House team, cementing A’s decision, but one of them might still be a Squirt.

The point is, it’s all a moot issue if there’s no team to play on, and it’s looking more and more like that will be the case. I spoke with DF and he said by the time players reach PeeWee, they’ve decided to either play on a travel team, or forsake organized hockey altogether. Pond or pick-up hockey will do, and I can completely understand this.

This brings us back to the girls team. DB, who has been spearheading this effort, has been trying to get me to talk A into joining the U12, but I’m not going to force the issue. It’s her decision, but I do think she’s leaning more to the U12, especially in light of the fact that there may be no House PeeWee team, and the travel team is getting a little too ambitious. The guys behind the U12 want to make the schedule lighter than a typical travel team, which is a good thing in my opinion.

We’ll see where this one goes. Until then, thanks for reading, and thanks to Pyogenes Gruffer for the pic.

Mixed Messages

This healthy eating kick makes planning meals interesting, albeit a bit challenging. Just by chance I happen to be reading two different books on healthy diets. One is Drop Dead Healthy, about a guy who dedicates one year to becoming healthier, and the other book is the Anti-Inflammation Diet. The Drop Dead Healthy book is more of a humorous, light hearted look at nutrition, while the other is a hardcore polemic.

One thing you notice about the two, and this is emblematic of the nutrition field as a whole, is that they contradict each other. This fact seems to suggest, at least to me, that these so-called nutrition experts really don’t know what they’re talking about, can never seem to agree on anything, and are constantly changing their minds about what is healthy, even when they speak with such certainty. You would think they’d tone it down a little after being wrong so often.

In the end, it’s like most things in life, you have to take the information with a grain of salt and exercise a lot of common sense. Certain things just are clearly bad for your health, so you should avoid or minimize them. Otherwise, don’t fret over it. I think stressing over your food is worse than the actual food.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to maddy3m for the pic.

Attaching the Axle

We were all set to work with JM on the front axle of the go-cart, and then we got tied up at the DCF event in Montpelier and didn’t get back in time, so we essentially flaked out on him. When I called him the next day, he said he was busy all week and couldn’t help us until the weekend, so we blew our big chance at getting some assistance from the man who knows. I felt bad, and hope he wasn’t pissed off that we bailed on him, though I can’t blame him.

Whatever be the case, we were now on our own. We could have waited until a day arrived when JM would be free to help, but he’s an extremely busy man, running all the programs that he does, not to mention this go-cart project. Plus, waiting is not an option when you have two eager kids who want things done yesterday. We decided to give it a go. Just do it, right?

The installation of the axle bearing is a little tricky because it has two attachment points, and once you attach one half, it’s hard to access the other half. JM advised us to secure the bearing to the axle, then attach it to the frame. Screwing it to the axle was a breeze, just screw in 1 1/4 in screws and you’re done. The next part is where the fun begins.

Now I understand if this makes no sense to you because I’m not good at explaining things. Plus, it’s conceptually a little tricky, so much so that as JM was explaining it to us, I had one thought running through my mind: can you now explain that in English? It’s not his fault, my brain is just not wired to translate words literally into action, I’m more of a visual learner. Either way, the more we thought and worked on it, the more what he was saying made perfect sense.

Looking at the bearing, it’s clear that you can’t screw in the part because the axle itself is in the way. JM got around this by drilling a hole in the axle that lines up with the screw holes and then driving the screw through the two holes. Does this make any sense at all? Since the bearing is a perfect circle, one hole will match up with the three holes. In the end, it’s a brilliant scheme, and after looking at it and ruminating over it, we figured out what we needed to do, and subsequently did it.

The next part of was attaching it to the frame. Once again, this was a little tricky, but we were determined to get this done. JM gave us a piece of hard wood that is supposed to anchor the axle screws. Hard wood is preferable because it has to sustain a lot of torque, and screws could easily rip out of soft wood or plywood. I lined up the axle, drilled some pilot holes, and then went for it. I first attached the hard wood piece to the other side.

One more conundrum that we ran into was that my Phillips head drill bit was too short to clear the thickness of the axle. I asked JH and his magic bag of tools if he had one, but he said he didn’t. I was prepared to go and buy a long screwdriver drill bit, when it dawned on me that I could simply do it by hand. Wow, is such a thing possible? Sure enough, it worked out fine.

Now this is where we arrive at the part of the story where the kids love to torment me. I initially installed the axle but saw that it was backward. The footholds were facing the wrong way, so after quietly cursing myself out, I unscrewed the axle and turned it around. That is when I realized that there is no backward because the darn thing spins around. How ridiculous is that? Boy did I feel stupid, though this story will be a constant source of entertainment for A&N.

The story doesn’t end there. I screwed in the two front holes, and then, when I started to screw in the back holes, I saw that the hard wood plate was too small. The screw came out right through the plywood. Total bummer. We had to come up with a plan. I could contact JM and ask for a bigger piece of wood, but as I mentioned, he’s busy this week, and at some point you have to take matters into your own hands. I decided that the time had come to just be a man and deal with it.

We had to go to Lebanon so I figured I’d stop at LaValley’s for a piece of hardwood, but en route, I realized that Baker Lumber is right there in WRJ. I stopped there and the guy’s gave me a 12”X12” piece of wood from the scrap heap. He asked me what I needed it for, and when I told him it’s for a go-cart, I don’t think he quite registered what I said. Either that, or he thought I was crazy, though he did say, “Have fun.” All we do it have fun, and in the end, we got what we wanted.

We got home, cut the wood to size, and finished attaching the axle. I think we may have to cut out the front tip in order to fit the hood on, but that can wait. Give us a moment of self-indulgence to bask in the glow of our recent success.

Until the next time, thanks for reading.

Final Week of Lacrosse

We are in the final stretch for lacrosse, culminating in a big tournament. N is excited and has come to really love the game. It’s fun to watch, maybe not as fast and exciting as hockey, but many ways, just as entertaining because things happen at a more controlled pace. Hockey can seem a bit chaotic at times. The tournament will a bit of rough weekend, but without question N doesn’t want to miss a thing. He’s definitely hooked.

Looking back, it’s been an interesting run with lacrosse. Prior to this season, I hadn’t had much exposure to the game, and now we’re totally into it. I have to confess, before N started playing, I was a little cynical about the game. The atmosphere was a bit too macho for my taste, and it seemed so “east coast prep school” to me. In many ways, it still does, but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate it. It helps that the coaches and parents have been very supportive and positive about N’s playing, not without reason, in my opinion. Also, N is really enjoying it, so that’s all that matters.

The time commitment has been a little hard on all of us, but on a bright note, the game is played outside and the weather has been nice. Plus, it’s a great way for N to make friends and find his place amongst his peers. In certain ways the atmosphere and experience are not unlike what we saw in hockey, just not as hardcore. Plus, you don’t need ice, which makes practicing and playing much simpler. It’s something he and I can do anywhere and anytime.

It looks like we’ve found our spring and winter sports. The two are definitely linked in many ways, which is not a bad thing. Plus, they’re both what I would consider to be “cool” sports, which is important when you’re guy trying to find his place in the male jock universe. Someone mentioned that N would be a great fit for playing football, but for a number of reasons, I’m not keen on that. Besides, between hockey and lacrosse, who has time for anything else?

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to WC Lacrosse League for the pic.

Making the Seat and Decorating the Frame

We are trying to maintain a steady pace for the go-cart, and it helps that the kids are enthusiastic, because it keeps the project at the top of our priority list. With the frame and axles cut and painted, the next step was to make the seat and then decorate the frame. A&N drew a quick sketch about how they wanted it to look and then jumped right in. Fortunate for nice weather, we brought the frame outside and the kids penciled in their design, and then started painting. It looked really nice.

While they were painting away, I started cutting the pieces for the seat. We had some leftover 2X12 boards that were used to make the staircase. I cut something that was similar to what JM had on the prototype, and then we discussed how it would be attached. We are making some slight modifications to the prototype, which I don’t think will be a problem. Plus, the changes will allow A&N to spice up the design a little because there are more pieces to cut.

They also wanted to paint their team logo on the frame, but we ran out of time and had to go. The next big step will be to attach the axle bearing along with the axle. JM mentioned that we could come over and he’d help us out, which would be nice since it’s the most complicated part of the design. We’ll see how this goes.

Until then, thanks for reading.