Today is one of those gut-wrenching parenting experiences, where the apron strings get stretched. The boy is sailing in his first regatta today (on the ocean!) and neither of us can be there.  I know he knows what he's doing, and I know he'll be in good hands, but still.  Oddly, it helps a little that he had a touch of heat sickness yesterday, because it reinforced the lesson that he needs to drink plenty of fluids. 

I'm so proud of him.  Even if he doesn't finish - the fact that he's going out there and doing it is awesome.  He's so excited, and I can't wait to hear all about it.  Once he's home safely, that is.

I'm easily impressed.  So sue me.

Through a fabulous connection, we got VIP treatment at the Rockefeller Center skating rink yesterday.  Walk up to the exit, look at the mob of people standing in line for hours waiting to get in, talk to the nice man guarding the exit, and saunter on in.  Put on wristbands, bypass the cashier, and walk right up to the skate rental window.  There were always several staff members on the rink, speaking to the crazy skaters and picking up the fallen.  When the littlest kid's (not K) double-runner skate broke, the staffer went above and beyond to try to help us fix it.    It was such a lovely experience.

Of course, then we went to American Girl Place and were jammed in with the masses.  It was still cool.

So the other night, I noticed water at the bottom of the dishwaher, along with a mysterious piece of plastic that looked like part of the dishwasher.  I poked around but could not figure out where it went.   J fished around the drain and came up with a huge piece of chicken and some random trash plastic - looked like the bits that seal a prepackaged deli container.  Ran the dishwasher and it still didn't drain right.  So much for giving the A-man the job of loading the dishwasher w/o supervision - I think his lack of proper scraping has clogged the drain.

What do you do when your dishwasher stops working?  No, not that*.  Cry.  Gnash teeth.  Rend garments.  Pull hair.  And write the repairman a big fat check.

So washing dishes by hand blows chunks, but at least I'm going to the beach for a few days.  And staying for free with friends - my favorite sort of accommodation.  And I have lots of tomatoes ripening.  And my neighbor gave me a suggestion on dealing with the tomato-ick problem - apparently it is calcium deficiency.  Who knew that tomatoes needed calcium?

*I apologize if you don't get it.  If you really must know, contact me privately.  It's not all that funny, you had to be there. 

Yesterday, I really really wished I had a camera with me.  I got to my car in the Target parking lot and there was a dragonfly perched beautifully on the tip of my antenna.  I hated to disturb it, but I really needed to put my Stuff into the car.  Ah, fleeting beauty.

The main impetus for yesterday's Target Trip was replacing our coffeemaker.  Apparently, it had decided that we need hair on our chests, and would brew approximately 2/3 as many cups of coffee as we requested.   If I put in enough water for eight cups, I'd get fewer than six.  At first I thought I was just being sloppy, but over a few days, I was extra-careful with my measurements and realized that the coffee maker had just gone bonkers.   The coffee was, of course, extra strong.  With hot water added to make up the difference, it was OK, but not Quite Right.  We've been wanting one of those snazzy machines that brews into a thermal carafe anyway (particularly since I make coffee at 6am, and J isn't ready for it until at least 7), so I went In Search Of.  I found one, and brought it home.  Today's coffee was fine, and the single mug's worth that I left in the carafe for about 2 hours was still adequately warm when I poured it out, so I have declared Success.

My Beefmaster tomatoes all appear to have some sort of blossom-end rot.  Boo.  They infected one fruit on the neighboring plant, so I picked all of the infected tomatoes I could find before the whole bed gets infested.  The Matt's Wild Cherry is totally taking over the entire garden.  And the two volunteer plants appear to be cherry plants, too.  I got a handful of Juliets today - they are a really pretty color of pink.  I'm looking forward to the steady stream of tomatoes - right now it's fits and starts, not helped at all by the near-constant rain of the past week.  The beautiful sunshine yesterday and today will probably be A Good Thing.  We will have tomato-free salad this week if nothing ripens- I just can't bear to purchase grocery store tomatoes once I've had a taste of the good stuff.

Either the economy is getting better, or I'm giving off some kind of vibe - in the past day, I've gotten one cold-call from a recruiter who found my profile on LinkedIn and went to the trouble of tracking down my work phone number, and one email from a former colleague wondering if I'm interested in a contract gig.  Although I'm not interested in changing my work situation at the moment, it's good to feel wanted.

In other news, I'm SO over this constant rain thing.  While I appreciate not having to water my plants, I'm pretty sure that they also require sunlight to thrive.  My cherry tomato plant is spitting out itsy-bitsy tomatoes, which is wierd - I had the same variety last year, and it made normal cherry-sized tomatoes.  There are some larger ones on the vine; I wonder if the wierd weather made the little ones ripen faster or something.

Yummy dinner tonight: sauteed chicken breasts, gratin of summer squash, zucchini, and tomatoes (squashes from the CSA, tomatoes and basil from my garden), and corn on the cob (CSA).  Easy and enjoyable.

A-man has been completely happy every day since last week's "I hate camp" meltdown.  Go figure.  Yesterday, though, he very enthusiastically stated that they had archery, and "Mr Dan is back - no balloons!".  He wasn't even all that cranky that he had forgotten his swimsuit (both kids did - they are supposed to wear them under their clothes, or in his case, instead of pants - and for some reason they both spaced yesterday).  They have remembered every day for four weeks - how did they both forget on the same day??  Hopefully this will teach them to remember.  At least it wasn't a 90+ degree day, when they swim most of the day.

Every day when he gets off of the bus, he asks for a playdate with this or that friend.  I don't know how he has the energy.  I try to let them have playdates at least a couple of days a week.

Pickle update:  today I had to check them for the first time.  There was a really gross scum on the top that almost seemed moldy, but the instructions said to skim the scum and the brine seemed clear, so I think it's OK.  I did pull out the two pickles that had snuck up to have the tips out of the brine. 

It amazes everyone who has tried it.  Srsly.  Perfect for a hot day like today - refreshing, no-cook, and healthy.

"Guacamole Salad"
serves 4 as a side dish, 2 as a light meal

1 bunch kale (any sort will do)
1 Haas avocado
1 tomato
1 lime
olive oil
salt
chile powder (optional)

Wash and stem the kale (I like to do this by grabbing the stem in one hand, wrapping my other hand around the stem, and sliding it down).
Slice the leaves into thin ribbons.  Place into a large bowl.  DO NOT COOK THE KALE.  Trust me.

Dice the tomato and set aside.

Squeeze the juice from the lime and add to the bowl.  Add about 1 Tbsp (a healthy glug) of olive oil and about 1 tsp of salt.  Add a dash of chile powder, if you'd like.  I"m told a little garlic is also a tasty addition.

Remove any rings or watches you are wearing - it's about to get messy.

Halve the avocado, remove the pit, and scoop the flesh into the bowl.   Now stick your hands in there and mush it in until everything is well mixed.   Add in the tomato and mix gently.  Serve.

There's something about the other ingredients that changes the texture of the kale from "almost inedible" to "yum".  Not sure if it's the lime juice, avocado, or the combination. 

Enjoy.

My adventures in food preservation continue with dill pickles.  Last year, the A-man and I made refrigerator dills, which were tasty but turned out sweeter than I expected.  Since the sauerkraut kit also came with pickling instructions and spices, I decided to give it a whirl.  I ordered 4lb of pickling cukes from the CSA, washed, cut into spears, and stuck in the crock with dried dill and pickling spices.  I poured in two quarts of brine, spent a lot of time and made a huge mess trying to figure out how to best weight down the pickles, and now I wait.  In 4 days, I'm supposed to start checking daily, but they won't be done for three weeks.  Meanwhile, a generous freecycler offered me a full set of canning stuff, which I will pick up tomorrow.   I'm debating what else to try canning.  Sadly, it's too late for strawberry jam, but maybe blueberry.   I'm already looking forward to canning applesauce and apple butter in the fall.  And, of course, next year's sauerkraut. 

In other news, the first Early Girls from my garden are ready.  Yum.  No more supermarket impostor-tomatoes for me.  I thought the local hydroponic ones were pretty decent, but they don't hold a candle to the ones in my garden. 

I really should go pick basil and make a batch of pesto to freeze, but it's too hot to work in the garden.  Perhaps I'll get up early tomorrow morning and do it before the heat gets oppressive.

I have two tomatoes on my Early Girl plant that are almost ripe.  Every day, I check them to see if the orange-y bits are gone.  I know that one day soon, they will be perfectly ripe, but untl then, I have to wait.  There are about 5 other reddish fruit, and lots of green ones, so before long I'll have more tomatoes than I can handle.  We pulled a carrot the other day.  It was tiny, but quite tasty.  Hopefully we'll find the sweet spot where they are big enough but not bitter this year.  Last year, they were nasty.  This is a different variety, though.

I think I'm getting a delivery of 4lb of pickling cukes today, and tomorrow I plan to make dill pickles.  Then I have about 3 weeks to find canning supplies so I don't have to eat them all in a matter of days.  I'm hoping to can other stuff, too.  We'll see how it goes.

Meanwhile, my herb garden is going nutty.  I really need to make some pesto.  I've always wanted to try the trick where you freeze it without the cheese.   This year, I really really really am going to dry all the sage at the end of the season (and the thyme, and the chives, and the parsley...).  And dig up the rosemary.  Ack, I just realized I have the refrain(?) to Scarborough Fair in my garden.  Now the song will be stuck with me all day. There are worse things...

I had an interesting talk with Mr. Man last night.  He was upset because he doesn't like camp this year.  One example of his consternation is that the archery counselor made it harder, by putting balloons on the targets and moving them further away.   He loved archery last year, but doesn't like shooting at the balloons.  We talked about how mastering the easy part of a skill makes it possible to develop the skill, blah blah blah.  I think he got it, but I'm not sure he's going to be psyched about archery.   That's OK.  We also talked about what a difference attitude can make, and if we go into something dreading it, we're almost guaranteed to have a lousy time, but if we go in determined to have fun, we probably will.  Hopefully he'll be able to enjoy the next three weeks.  In retrospect, we should have pushed him a little more to try sailing camp and found at least one other camp, so he wasn't doing the same thing all summer.  I think it's exacerbated by all of his friends from school being there - I think it's actually better when it's mostly new kids.  Oh well.  In any case, I need to practice what I preach about attitude.  I have such a tendency to be a Negative Nelly.

The animation was abso-fucking-lutely amazing.  During the bits on Earth, I had to keep reminding myself that it was animated.

No big plot surprises.  It was interesting to have much of the movie have no dialogue (the robots can't speak much).  Overall, an enjoyable way to pass the time.

Don't bother waiting around through the credits, unless you're interested in the names of the production babies, etc.  The Pixar tradition of a "treat" at the end was, IMO, given lip service.

Do go see the movie, though.