Serf report.

Well, the garden project is creeping along.  After all our hard work on Saturday and careful planting on Sunday- today we're seeing some small results.  Yay!!!

Today, I went over to the feudal Culp estate where I proceeded to put my face about 6 inches from the ground and inspect it for signs of seedlings.  I was not disappointed.  Our sugar snap peas, broccoli and some basil are poking through, and in the pots where we're starting our lettuce those are doing great.  The cucumbers and tomato plants we planted are still alive and we're just waiting for the rest of the seeds to come from eastern Canada.  I was so excited I called Christy to tell her what I found- I think it made her morning.  Perhaps we should garden less...

As I said before, I have pictures from our work day (Kell- you totally missed out, let me tell you).  We were so dirty, dusty and sweaty at the end it was disgusting, but the satisfaction that we did what we said we would in one day and probably beating our husbands' expectations was deeply satisfying.  We're awesome.

This is the plot, after we'd dug out the most nonsensical sprinkler system I think has ever existed.  Maybe I'm overestimating our skills, but I guarantee Christy and I could've done a better job than whoever did this the first time.  Anway, I called about 3 people to make sure that I had the correct sequence for capping off sprinkler lines before actually attempting it.  I'm awesome, because we still don't have any leaks.

Christy with our rototiller.  Another customer at the equipment rental place referred to this as the "lady model" and that we needed to talk the owner into renting us this one instead of the other one that would've apparently dragged us all over the yard.  He didn't need much convincing.  He even threw in the ramps he used to load it into my truck.  I asked him if he wouldn't need them while we were gone.  He said, "Not as much as you will."  That was encouraging.

The rototiller was easy to use, but still a brute.  After about 5min, we looked like we knew what we were doing- but getting it out of my truck was another story.  As with all things that have a high chance of making us look like stupid idiot girls, the entire neighborhood was outside while we unloaded the tiller.  I think I swore about 4 times as it backed me into the trash cans.  Christy's neighbor backed out of her garage and said, "Oh... my... gosh.  Should I call the ambulance now?"  Also encouraging.  

But most encouraging of all was standing back after all that work and looking at the rows we made to plant our crops.  I need to start using farmer language, and "crops" sounds farmy.  And that green bush in the upper left is hydrangea, which we will not be eating.  It's decoration.

My next report when the seedlings fill in some more...

Study Aversion Attempt, #1.

I finished my first clinical day this semester less than 24 hours ago and I am already trying to think of other things to do besides study.  And what better way to do that than to talk about my last week of summer vacation and how much fun I had???

This is more than my truck.  This is the "Fun Mobile".  Note my surfboard and bicycle loaded in the back.  That just oozes fun.  This is what I looked like driving to Santa Barbara for a quick overnight trip to hang out with Crack and kick off my last week of summer vacation properly.  Shortly after getting into town, we drove almost all the way back to Ventura to surf the "Doheny of Ventura".  I only know it as Mondo's and yes, it's not a fab wave, but there are always waves there and we thought it'd be fun.

I suppose from this picture you can't tell how ridiculously crowded it was, nor how astonishingly fun the waves were.  I still don't know how I voluntarily paddled out at the most crowded spot I've ever been to in the US (because everywhere I surfed in Australia was ridiculously crowded), but once out there it really didn't seem so bad.  And people were NICE!  If that place had been in the OC, people would've been nasty, cursing and yelling at each other, and being lame.  I know because this happens at the real Doheny every time I think paddling out there is a good idea.  Anyway, we surfed this spot until our arms were tired and I had once again succeeded in oversunning the three-inch space of skin between just above my buttcrack and the height on my trunk to which my wetsuit jacket seems to like to settle.  I might have the tannest "almost buttcrack" in south OC.  Moving on...

We got back to SB and we were going to eat overpriced food from Cantwell's Market across the street when Crack realized she'd lost her wallet.  After going through my truck, her car, the house and almost driving back to Mondo's, she decided to call the last place the bank said it had been used.  In 'n Out in some podunk town off the 101 in central California.  It was there.  After a shocking long time that involved the best customer service EVER from In 'n Out, the WORST customer service ever from FedEx and their non-native-English-speaking customer service person (do NOT get me going on this), her wallet had a return trip home scheduled for Monday.  Let's go celebrate!!

We proceeded to ride bikes downtown, visit surf shops, and make it back for some Olympics.  It's the Saturday evening after the first whole week of the Games and what does NBC decide the masses want to watch?  Women's Marathon!!!!  All 26.whatever miles of it, from start to finish of the bronze medal finisher.  While I'm sure about 0.17% of the population was ecstatic about it, I've got another word for it: excruciating.  Isn't there some weightlifting or discus throwing going on?  Cricket perhaps?  Who wants to watch a bunch of wiry freaks RUN, that's all... just RUN, for 2+ hours?  Apparently us, because we didn't change the channel and we even waited until the end to watch some crazed 38yr. old woman from eastern-Europe-somewhere blow away the competition before we went out for these:

These are Irish Car Bombs.  They may be the Irish equivalent of Sake Bombs, where drunken fools slam sake shots into glasses of beer and drink them while their buddies pound the table and chant things like "Sake Bomb!!!!", but I prefer to think them as slightly more refined.  There is no chanting, you just put the nice shot of Bailey's into a glass of Guinness and drink it down fast. No moronic yelling, no vandalizing of furniture.   Good times.

After a couple of these, watching Michael Phelps win his 8th gold medal (even though we already knew he'd won it AND the telecast was tape delayed) and some Magner's cider- we called it a night.  The next morning, I gave some more money to Cantwell's Market and picked up two of the best breakfast burritos EVER to take home for the Tall One and I.  And before you get grossed out, Crack does have a freezer so relax.  We did some more lazing around SB before I decided that 5:15pm on a Sunday was an excellent time to leave downtown Santa Barbara.  Well, it was a bad time.  It took me 50min to reach the world-famous Rincon from where I got on the freeway- a drive that should've been about 20min max.  But from then on, it was OK.  I just settled in, listened to the new Coldplay album straight through for the 93rd time, and tried not to think about school starting a week later.

Santa Barbara seems so long ago.

The end is here.

It was with a bad attitude and a deep sigh that I got on the 5 North, exited Avery Parkway and found a parking spot for my first day of school this fall.  I was so pissed.

Today should've been my second to last day of summer vacation.  Instead, I had to be in the Health Sciences building at 8am for dum-dum-duuuuuuum: Paediatric Skills Lab Day (note English spelling of the word "pediatrics", it never ceases to make me laugh).  Today, we learned things like how to weigh a diaper (wet and dry), start IV's on fake arms the size of children (I just used the arm to slap my fellow classmates on the face and wave at my instructor), and fill out questionnaires with useless information like "I am a serf, tilling a friend's side yard to grow vegetables."  Clearly, I'm motivated about my third semester.

I wasn't kidding when I said I'm a serf.  My fellow insane gardener, Christy, has a side yard about 20'x10' and she was given the green light to plant a vegetable garden and she invited me to collaborate.  So, in addition to my own fab garden, I gained land at a remote location.  And by remote, I mean the next exit south on the freeway and two stoplights inland.  I have a whole photo essay of our breaking ground.  Let's just say it involved two blondes in boardshorts and sandals renting a rototiller from a very perplexed and worried man.  And yes, we still have 10 fingers and toes.  Each of us.

That being said, my first day of lab wiped me out.  Or maybe it was the intervals I ran tonight.  Periodic sprinting while running has that effect.  I'm going to go with school though.

Random thoughts and observations.

So far, I haven't accomplished much with my brief summer break, unless you count watching an ungodly amount of the Discovery and History Channels, catching up on my Charmed on weekday mornings (silence your scorn, I guarantee you've got a dorky show you're secretly attached to as well) and continuing down my path towards my metamorphosis into Crazy Garden Lady.  Oh, and I painted the laundry room on Wednesday.  I was super motivated that day.

So, when you don't do a whole lot, there's not much to write about.  But I have picked up some random, useless knowledge and observations since our killer quake a couple of weeks ago.  And since I'm sitting on my bed on a Friday night while the Tall One geeks out on fake turf matters (don't feel bad for me, we just rode bikes down to the beach for a family BBQ- good times), I'm logging them for posterity.

• Dallas Raines (KABC-LA, Channel 7) and his Live Doppler 7000 weather map need to take themselves off the pedestal they've put themselves on.  I was watching the news yesterday, and that man is so ridiculous with his weather, I Tivo'ed it so the Tall One can laugh at it.  Dallas, step away from the Mystic Tan- you're looking orange, man.
• A new equation for you: BMW+OC driver+stop sign=there's no way in holy hell they're stopping.  I observe this a lot, and I got an up-close example yesterday at the end of my walk.  Mostly because had I been 10 seconds faster, I'd have been attached to his front bumper.
• Another equation for you: Jumprope+the age of 32=extreme calf pain.
• When you prune off 3/4 of your tomato jungle and kill 22 caterpillars in 1 afternoon, the caterpillar threat in your garden drops from red to green.  Kind of like the terror level.
• There is still a place you can go surf in Southern California where 2 girls can surf a peak all by themselves for 2 hours and not get bothered by anyone.  Trails may not be great waves, but you can't see the freeway and you don't have to surf with other people if you don't want to.  Clearly, yesterday was awesome.
• Honestly, I'm not excited about my 3rd semester.  Pediatric nursing and labor/delivery?  Hmmm, let's see- sick, crying kids that aren't my own and their postively neurotic parents, and hormonal moms-to-be and cervical dilation checks.  You're repulsed, horrified and feel bad for me now, don't you?  My job's done here!!!
• When you order vegetable seeds from Prince Edward Island (off the freaking east coast of Canada), and they tell you allow 10-15 BUSINESS days, automatically assume that it will take the full 15 days.  You can quit stalking the mailbox during days 10-14 and getting depressed when they're not there.  Perhpas that's just me...
• I'm becoming quite skilled in rat slaying.  I advise trying to coordinate your rodent euthanasia with the trash day, otherwise you're stuck trying to quadruple bag the critter to combat the fact that it will have to sit in the trash bin in your 85 degree garage for 6 days until the next trash day.
• Mentally threatening to rip out your squash plant is a rational and effective method of getting your butternut squash plant to start making viable fruit.  I was giving it until the end of the week, and then "yoink!"... and then I found an 8 inch squash.  Touche, plant.
• Reading a theological book about heaven while sitting in the sun is the quickest way to take a nap in 80 degree weather I've discovered yet.  97% success rate.
• I'm on this quest to see if I can eat all my daily servings of fruits and veggies every day.  I think it's some ridiculous number like 9 or something- I'm up to at least 5.  I'm now out of carrots and my cucumber plant can't keep up.

I think that's it for now.  I can't go giving all my secrets away.