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• Midnight Gardeners

  26Jun
  Categories: Blonde Things Comments: 0

  ….as Sam dubbed us.

  Last week after our delicious grilled swordfish with an orange pico degio, steamed asparagus and hobo potatoes, Sam and I decided to build a garden…..at 9 pm. Under our deck there are tons of old bricks stacked high, waiting for someone to build something beautiful. So, we double bagged some Price Chopper plastic bags and carried 6 1/2 loads of bricks through the house to the sad looking tree in front of our apartment. We made an irregular circle around the tree and planted some pretty pink flowers that Lisa from upstairs had gotten from the City of Albany for free.

  The whole project only took an hour, so at 10 pm we sat on the front stoop and admired our handy work.

  
  We decided we are going to build gardens around all the trees on our block.

  South Swan be Block of the Year?

  P.S. I made a list of “Green Ideas” that I read from an article in Glamour magazine…..”Reusing old objects, instead of throwing them in the garbage” was one.

  Old bricks = new garden

• The world is machine that is intricately balanced

  21Jun
  Categories: Blonde Things Comments: 0

  Other than my family I think my two greatest passions in life are animals and the planet. Not to sound l like a total nerd, but I have always felt a deep connection to the planet [yeah that definitely sounds nerdy]. As a little girl, I remember when my sister and I would play in the woods for hours, building tree forts out of sticks, rocks, and all other natural resources we could find. The floor was made from hay and moss and the roof was made out of fallen branches and vines….and we pretended life was simple.

  ……………………………………………………..

  Remember when you turned 10 and your Mom threw you a huge birthday party and you invited all your friends and family. Your mom probably bought cute little plastic Dixie cups, plates and napkins with the number “ten” written all over them. There were bright colored balloons on your mailbox, so all your friends could find your house. You played pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, and your mom handed out plastic goodie bags with cheap toys and sugar filled candy.

  Well, all those paper cups and napkins, plastic bags, latex balloons and cheap toys have been sitting in a landfill since you were 10 years old, and they will be sitting there when your great-great-great-great-great-great grandkids turn 10. The same can be said for all your beer pong cups from your college days and the plastic bottle you threw in the garbage on the street because there was no recycling bin nearby.

  Mother Nature gives us everything we need to survive, yet in an effort to make life easier we have taken nature’s gifts and turned them against her.

  I’m guilty too, but in an effort to drastically change my lifestyle I’ve decided to tackle one change at a time. Sam and I have been collecting reusable bags to take to the grocery store, and I hope that we can diminish the amount of plastic bag we use at the grocery store or even at the mall when we buy clothes.

  As for the collection of a hundred or more plastic Price Chopper bags that we have sitting in our hallway, they will be taken to back to Price Chopper to be recycled. Hopefully, we will can reduce our use of plastic….

• Wine buzz

  15Jun
  Categories: Blonde Things Comments: 0

  Sometimes I think time stops- it is very rare, but when it happens the feeling is wonderful.

  Full from a delicious rack of lamb dinner with grilled peach, rizzoto and steamed brocolli, Sam and I sat on the front stoop with our glasses of wine, waiting for the “tornado” to arrive. Although the tornado never showed up, we watched the rain fall and talked to a few neighboring stoopers. The air smelled of summer, and I convinced Sam to stroll down to Ben & Jerry’s on Lark for a after-dinner snack.

  Half way down the road the rain startled to sprinkle again. Buzzed from our wine and good food, we kept walking. We arrived at Ben & Jerry’s 9:45 pm, just in time before they closed. Sam bought his traditional cookie dough ice cream cone, and I got a butter pecan ice cream cone. As we started our short path home, the rain started to pour harder and harder, so we took shelter on a porch in Center Square. Bored with the safety from the porch, we walked a little more in the rain and found more shelter under a tree. We quickly enjoyed our ice cream cones, and ran home in the rain, laughing all the way. [Well, maybe not Sam, since his flip flops kept flip flopping off.]

  For those twenty minutes, I forgot about my bed time, and I forgot about my hair being drenched. I forgot that I had to get early for another day of work, and I forgot about the calories I was consuming from my butter pecan ice cream cone. At that moment life was about us, Sam and I….with Molly in tow, and time stopped. Nothing else in the world mattered, except what we were doing in that moment.

• Sam’s Grampies’ Suprise Birthday Party!

  15Jun
  Categories: Blonde Things Comments: 0

  What a party- what a family! Unlike Sam, at his surprise 30th birthday- Grampy had no clue, as he walked up the ramp to his favorite seafood restaurant that his family was quietly hiding in a back room to surprise him.

  
  Seafood- Susan and Mark

  All afternoon we dined on Lobster, vodka, shrimp, beer, gin and clams- a delicious combo. Sam’s cousin Sarah and her boyfriend brought their adorable new born twins, Noah and Lilly. Immediately, Anna, Jenni and I were informed we need to start making more babies as soon as possible. I think there was some plan for a double wedding- Sam & Melissa and Anna & Josh?

  
  Anna and babies?

  Back at the hotel we were asked to leave the lobby, but that didn’t stop the Hubbard’s from a perfectly good 12-pack, so we rented a small banquet room for a couple of hours. The next morning we learned the quiet gentleman who received a free beer was the manager– he checked us out of the hotel, perhaps that is why we were escorted out of the lobby. We ate birthday cake and all the grown-ups taught the little kids how to throw mints.

  Although the night ended early for Gramps, pizza and more booze were on the agenda for the rest of the family.

  My story ends after the pizza because I was on the crapper most of the evening with a tummy ache, but the next day we went to Grampie’s for hamburgers and hot dogs. I took pictures of his beautiful Gardens, which were once featured in a Home and Garden magazine.

  
  lunch at Sam’s’ Grampy’s

  
  bougainvillea, like in Carriacou

  
  a new birthday present

  Overall, the weekend was very eventful and I was happy to be apart of their family.