Memories are starting to come through the fog, particularly when I started looking through my flickr stream. Last night I started realizing that everything I’ve done with Dad in the past couple months is the last thing of that kind that I will ever do with Dad. Had I known, I would have cherished them all more – but then, I suppose, they wouldn’t have been real moments with Dad.
On February 5, we were supposed to have a 100th birthday party for my Grandma Evelyn. She had different plans, passing away just two weeks shy of 100 years. So I decided that Mom, Dad and I needed to do something fun that day (partly, too, because I was leaving MN the next day). I happened to find the Hudson Hot Air Affair in Hudson, WI, just across the MN-WI border. This will forever be the last “event” that I went to with my Dad. I know I had a great time…I think he would say the same.
I find myself trying to remember the day. I know we got up waaaaay too early so we could be there for the mass ascension. I remember that it was very foggy that morning, and that I drove because Dad was feeling a bit dizzy. (This dizziness is what finally got him back to the cardiologist, and was almost certainly caused by his decreased blood flow from his bad heart. It didn’t go away, and kept him from working all of February.) I’m certain he and I were a bit snippy in the car because he either assumed I knew where I was going or because he was not giving me very good directions (can’t remember which).
Sadly the mass ascension didn’t happen, but many of the balloons still set up so that we could see them, take pictures, and talk with the balloon pilots. Honestly, I was just as happy seeing all the balloons on the field as I think I might have been with the mass ascension. Mom and I certainly made fun of Dad as he wandered off without us to take pictures. I also had the presence of mind to get Mom and Dad together in a picture with the balloons in the background. (Of course, there are very few pictures of me and Dad in pictures, because we are the family photographers…sigh.)
After walking around the balloon field, we went into the school (whose grounds were being used as the balloon field) where they had food and crafts for sale. We started with cocoa and treats to warm up. Then we perused the crafts. I think Dad bought something, but now I can’t remember what it was – might have been something to help him keep warm at work (he’s a carpenter, and often works outside in MN winters). I also picked up some jewelry for my mom and aunt (which they’ll get at Christmas, if I can find them again). I’ll admit that Dad was having some trouble getting around at this point – but we all just assumed that the heart surgery would take care of these problems…at least after his long healing process.
I suppose that if I had known that this would be the last big event that I went to with Dad that I might have cherished him more. Maybe I would have followed him as he wandered off to take pictures. Maybe I wouldn’t have snipped at him for not giving me clear directions in the car. But then…that’s what we always did, so in so many ways this was a typical outing with Mom and Dad. And maybe that’s what I should be cherishing right now. The real moments we had together.
I am not really grieving my Dad yet. Instead I’m still in a holding pattern, emotionally.
The last time we had a death in the family, I remember being in “project mode” in the days leading up to the funeral. During this time we were so busy making plans for the funeral and viewing that there was little time to completely break down (which is not to say there weren’t complete break-downs, but they were limited due to knowing that we had a lot to do). Then after the funeral is when everything really started to sink in, and we truly started to say our good-byes and come to terms with our loss.
With Dad we can’t yet start to let things sink in. Why? Because he left Mom in a huge financial mess. Without getting into details, let’s just say that there’s money owed to the IRS and there is no equity in the house. Basically Mom has nothing besides her social security income.
So, instead of starting to mourn Dad, we are still in crisis mode: where is Mom going to live? Can she bring her cats? What do we do with Dad’s personal stuff? Normally they recommend that you don’t make big decisions for a year after such a loss, but we don’t have that luxury – we can’t afford the house beyond April.
We are also mad at Dad for leaving Mom in such a state. I know that he didn’t mean to leave her like this. He had no intention of leaving us right now – he had made lots of plans for his recovery and beyond. The main reason he was in such dire straights is because the economy is in the shitter and the construction business isn’t doing very well right now (Dad was a carpenter). But its hard not to be mad, especially because he hid from Mom just how far in the crapper their finances were.
The only ray of sunshine is that we have a friend of the family who deals with closing estates. He’s helping us to navigate this confusing time, and going to make sure that Mom gets the most out of her social security as she can.
I’m afraid for when I leave crisis mode – I know this is going to hit me pretty hard. But for now I’m just exhausted, angry, and in a holding-pattern.
Please hug your loved ones a little tighter today….and every day. I will warn you in advance that this journey does not have a happy ending.
I’m writing this from my Mom’s house in Minnesota. I came here on Tuesday, March 1st to be in town for my Dad’s heart surgery. He was going to have a valve replaced and a bypass on Wedesday (March 2).
Dad was almost cocky going into the surgery – assumed he’d be in the ICU for a couple days, then in a regular room for a few days, then heading home. He had made plans for his recovery at home, purchasing a foot-operated recliner, since he wouldn’t be able to operate a regular one for a few weeks. He also had a TV installed in his room on the main level, since he wouldn’t be able to get the basement for a while. I planned originally to stay until Friday, when we thought he’d get out of the ICU. I figured at that point I would be fairly comfortable leaving Dad, knowing that he was on the mend.
On that Tuesday, Mom and Dad (along with my niece, Anya) picked me up from the airport after an informational class about recovering from heart surgery. During the afternoon, Dad was busy making sure that things were in order at the house so Mom would have a relatively easy time while he was in the hospital and during his recovery. This included a trip to the car repair shop, where the owner gave him a loaf of focaccia bread – somehow Dad always knew which day the owner would have fresh bread! That evening, we decided to go out for dinner, Dad, Mom and I. We went to Pizza Luce in St. Louis Park, and had a fun time. (Mom and I obsessed for a while about a closed-off door near our table, until the waitress opened it up for us to see that it was just another dining room.)
We had an early-morning on Wednesday, needing to get Dad to the hospital by 5:30 AM. The whole family showed up to see Dad off, including Dad’s best friends, Dick and Sharon. We took a picture in the waiting room.
They took Dad back to get him in his hospital gown, and ready to be wheeled off to the OR. Before they took him, we were able to see him one last time.
As they wheeled him off, we all sent him with well-wishes – he didn’t want us to say good-bye. My last words to him while he was conscious were, “I’ll see you soon, Dad,” along with a big hug.
From there, the family went to the hospital waiting room. Mom was issued a beeper along with a list of the events that would trigger the beeper, such as entering the OR, Dad being put on the heart and lung machine, closing OR. We were also issued a number for Dad that would appear on a computer screen telling us about those same events. The surgery was supposed to last about 6 hours.
Our first clue that things were going awry was about 6 hours after the surgery started. Dad had not entered closing, and was still listed as on the heart and lung machine. Mom got a page shortly after that and went to talk with a nurse (?) about Dad. Turns out that the repair and bypass had gone fairly well, but they were having trouble stabilizing Dad’s blood pressure to get him off of the heart and lung machine. They had also discovered that his aorta was slightly damaged, so were doing some kind of repairs to that.
Finally, around 6 or 7PM, Dad was finally out of surgery and brought up to the surgical ICU. The surgeon came to talk with us about the surgery and Dad’s current state. It turns out that Dad’s bad valve was much thicker than a normal valve – a normal one is cellophane-thin; Dad’s was a good half-inch thick. Because his heart had to work so hard to push blood through that valve, his heart beefed up (the surgeon called it a “Schwarzenegger” heart). Unfortunately, in beefing up, one of his heart chambers became much smaller than it should be. The surgeon was surprised that Dad had come into the hospital under his own steam. This, and the damage to the aorta, were all surprises during the surgery.
Because Dad had been on the heart and lung machine so long, he had taken in a lot of extra fluid (40 pounds, from what we heard). He was so bloated that they were unable to close his surgical incision. They covered it, plus he was on high doses of several blood pressure medications, a ventilator, and was being kept in a coma-state so he wouldn’t aggravate his open chest. The surgeon indicated several times that Dad was “a very sick man” – but somehow I don’t think it completely sunk in for any of us.
After another hour or so, we got to go in and see Dad. I won’t lie…it was pretty shocking. He was on the maximum amount of life support, and he did not look much like my Dad, but we still thought he would get better. Wednesday night we decided to all go home after we saw Dad. My Mom’s guest bed felt so good that night…
…until 6:20 AM, when Mom woke me, saying that the hospital had called and told us to get there as soon as we could, Dad was going back into surgery. I dressed in about 2 minutes. Mom, too. We also had a little girl who slept over, so we got her dressed and out to the car. Somehow we also called my brothers, Dave and Kevin, and my grandmother, but were in the car by about 6:30. While I drove, my mom also called Sweetie to see if she could pick up Gram in Red Wing (an hour drive away). Kevin called a few minutes later from the hospital, wondering where to go. Mom asked Kevin how he got there so fast, and Kevin replied that he had wondered why it took him so long. Time was playing funny tricks.
We didn’t get there in time to see Dad before the surgery, but we knew that ahead of time. We went straight to the surgical waiting room and proceeded to wait. We had no idea how long it would be, not even sure if they would have to put him back on the heart and lunch machine, which we thought would probably kill him. It turned out to be a short surgery, and when the surgeon came back, he was fairly happy. He explained that they had trouble regulating Dad’s blood pressure overnight. When they went back in, there was some blood pooling around his heart, so they put in a few more drains, which seemed to solve the problem. The surgeon indicated that it was the best possible reason he could think of for Dad’s overnight condition.
At this point the days start to run together. We decided that we wanted to have at least someone at the hospital at all times. That first night I slept in the hospital waiting room with my Mom and both brothers. Subsequent nights I made Mom go home and sleep while Dave and I slept in the hospital. My husband arrived from Virginia on Friday, because after Thursday’s surprise surgery I thought it would be best if he were here. Mainly I wanted him here to help out with my Mom and Grandma, and I needed him here in case anything went wrong. Sigh.
Dad also went on full-time dialysis to regulate the fluid in and out of his system. My best friend was worried at this point, because she had never seen someone come back after their kidney stopped functioning. However, the surgeon told us on Saturday that Dad was making small amounts of urine, so his kidney seemed to be coming back. They continued the dialysis to try and pull fluids from his body – trying to lose some of that 40 pounds of fluid-weight he gained. They had to do it slowly, because slight changes to his body caused changes in his blood pressure.
Dad went back into surgery again on Sunday, but only to clean his wound to make sure no bacteria were present. They also pulled out the balloon pump helping his heart, because he didn’t seem to need it anymore.
We would go in to see him periodically, telling him about the people who visited and left comments on his CaringBridgesite. I’m sure he could hear us. My cousin-in-law, Devon, makes and decorates cakes, and often gives Dad a tupperware full of cake and frosting. Every time we told him that she had cake in her fridge for him, and that she might just toss it if he didn’t get better soon, his blood pressure went up. I know he was fighting.
The nursing team was fabulous. We tried to stay out of their way, but they were more than happy to have us in the room when they could work around us. They would keep us up-to-date on his medications and condition. It seemed that Dad was making baby-steps in the right direction. By Sunday, Dad was off of two of his blood pressure medications; however, due to a national shortage, he had to be switched to two other ones Sunday, which were not as good as the initial one they had him on.
I don’t remember much of those days. My nieces where there Wed – Fri and came back Mon morning (they spent the weekend with their cousins). Two of them got to go to see Disney’s Princesses on Ice on Thursday, the other went to the MN Rollergirls on Saturday. I spent the time playing Zoo Tycoon and on a crafting project. I didn’t really have the brain power for much more. I did go to my Mom’s house for a few hours every day to nap and shower.
We also bonded with another family there with their mother. The first night, they were told she would not make it through the night. By Monday, she was off her ventilator and causing “trouble”, so they gave us some hope. Unfortunately, there was another family there who had just had to make the decision to discontinue life support. This put Mom and me in a bad state, wondering how we would handle that decision if it came to that.
Monday morning, my brothers and I went in to see Dad around 6AM – we wanted to get in before the nurse’s shift change (when we weren’t allowed in) between 7 and 8:30 AM. The night nurse, Kevin, was very optimistic – he said Dad had had a pretty good night, and he was able to pull another liter fluid. There were some issues trying to deal with the new blood pressure medications, but all seemed to be well by the time we went in there at 6AM.
When I came back to the waiting room after breakfast (around 9?), we were still unable to see Dad. This wasn’t terribly unusual – Dad’s shift change always seemed to take a bit longer than the blackout, so we weren’t overly worried. At this point, it was me, Dave, his girls, and Dad’s friend, Dick, in the waiting room.
Around 10:30, a nurse popped into the waiting room and asked if my Mom was there. She was not, and the nurse said to get Mom here as quick as she could. I called home to get Andrew to bring Mom and Gram to the hospital. I also called my best friend. Shortly after that, Dad’s surgeon came in to tell us that he wasn’t sure what was the problem, but he was going to go back and try a few more things on Dad.
What seemed like a couple minutes later a couple of doctors came into the room. It was still just me, Dave, his girls, and Dick. We didn’t know these doctors, but they had apparently been on Dad’s case since Thursday or Friday. I don’t know exactly what they were saying…I still thought they were coming with news that they had stabilized him. Then one of them started saying, “we did everything we could for him…”, and I started thinking, “wait…that’s what they say when someone dies. What are they telling me this for? They must be wrong.” Then it started to hit me. Dad was gone. He fought, but it was just too much for his body. My Daddy was gone.
Kevin arrived soon, then my sister-in-law, my best friend, my husband, Mom and Grandma. One of the hospital chaplains also showed up. I’m not religious, but I know he was a comfort to many of my family. After about a half hour or 45 minutes, we finally got to see Dad – we had asked them to remove all of the tubes and machines from him, so it took them a while to clean him up.
Finally we got to go in his room and say good-bye.
So please hug your loved ones tightly today and tell them how much they mean to you.
Here’s the deal: I hate people who don’t pick up after their dogs. I probably hate them as much, or more, than you do. However, the fact that I’m walking a dog does NOT give you the right to approach me, a woman alone (with her dog) in a parking lot. It especially does not give you the right to approach me with an angry attitude.
Oh, and if you are going to approach me? Learn to ask a meaningful question. Just approaching me and asking “Is that your dog?” while pointing behind you is stupid. No, asshole, whatever you are pointing at is NOT my dog. My dog is on a leash connected to my hand. Then saying, “I KNOW that’s your dog” also doesn’t help me discern what you’re after, especially when it’s followed by, “Is THAT your dog” pointing behind you again.
I now understand that you’re pissed that someone is letting their dog poop in your yard and not cleaning it up. I don’t know that because you ever actually asked me. Instead, you used 2-word phrases that made you sound like a grunting caveman (which is also scary for a woman walking by herself in a parking lot). Somehow between the “walking there”, “my house”, and “poop” grunts, I figured out that you wanted to know if my dog was pooping in front of your yard.
When I tell you, “no”, and show you the empty bag I carry around to clean up after my dog, and tell you that I always clean up after my dog (and express as much in full sentences), your correct response should be to APOLOGIZE and walk away. It should not be to holler after me to pick up after my dog when she poops. NO SHIT ASSHOLE – I JUST TOLD YOU THAT I DO THAT. Maybe you were just confused by someone who uses complete sentences.
I’m tempted to hunt down your house, and bring the diaper pail that we keep our dog shit in until trash day, just to prove to you that I clean up after my dog. I trust that the smell alone would be proof enough, but if not, I’d be HAPPY to pull out every bag so you can inspect them. Instead, I’m writing you this note.
But if you EVER approach me again in the parking lot? I’m calling the cops to tell them you are threatening me. Because approaching a woman alone in a parking lot (with a very friendly dog) is NEVER okay, especially when you are mad. Asshole.
I signed up for the Sisterhood Virtual 5k back in October when I had high hopes of doing the c25k program after getting my heel healed up. Well, I’ve been spotty at best about caring for my heel (please don’t yell at me – I have a plan and will come up with a stretching and icing schedule to make it better). But I knew that I could walk it no matter what.
When I went to take the dog out this morning, though, this is what I saw:
(Image the snow a bit more pristine and the air white with flurries.)
I don’t have access to a treadmill, so outside was my only options. So I started making excuses – I can’t go out in the snow! What if I slip? It’s only 28° out there – that’s cold! I should just cancel. No one would blame me for not doing it today.
But I ignored those excuses. I bundled up, grabbed my iPod and camera, laced up my walking shoes, and headed off on the course I’d mapped yesterday. Here I am heading out for my virtual 5k:
For the first mile or so, I was thinking about all the girls at Disney – about the training they did and how awesome it will be tomorrow when their training all pays off. For the second mile, I was mostly concerned about not slipping – the terrain was downhill then uphill, and I had to be careful about where I was stepping.
For the third mile I started to marvel at how far I’ve come in a year. Last year the idea of walking outside in the snow and cold would have been laughable. In fact, the idea of doing a virtual 5k at all would have been weird. Not because I couldn’t have walked that far – I’m pretty sure my husband and I do it all the time when we go downtown to visit the museums – but because it wouldn’t have occurred to me to do it. I’m also starting to figure out that exercise is not something that takes up time that I could be doing something else, but is the something else that I should be making time for. I haven’t been 100% with exercise and training this past year, but each time I fell away from it, I went back. And I went back faster each time.
I snapped a couple of pics along the way, but then realized that the pics make it look like I was walking out in the country…I wasn’t, I’m in one of DC’s suburbs, so these were just carefully chosen shots to show the snow.
And my footprints on the snowy sidewalk:
And here I am back home, after my 3.5 miles (yes, longer than a 5k, but it was the closest route I could find that I actually wanted to take):
I found this while digging through my Yahoo mail account (which I haven’t used for real mail in years). My BFF, Sweetie, was asked by a guy on Match.com how her best friend would describe her, so she went straight to the source. So, this is how I described Sweetie in 2004:
This is actually very difficult, since I could write a book on my Sweetie. Here’s the abbrieviated version:
First of all, she is funny and smart. This makes for great conversations – though-provoking at times, silly at times, and always fun.
She’s strong person who has weathered bumps in her life better than any other person I’ve known. When life hands her lemons, she might not make lemonade, but perhaps a nice pan of lemon bars (yum).
She’s the kind of person who, once she calls you a friend, will stand up for you when you need her to. She’s there for the little things – like a ride to the airport – but also for the big things – like holding your hand at a funeral.
Did I mention silly? lovable? fiery (not just with the red hair, either)? I could go on, but hopefully you’ve gotten the idea.
In summary – if you’re a good guy, you really want to get to know Sweetie better. And if you get to know her better and you turn out to be a schmuck, I’ll kick your ass (I’m the kind who stands up for my friends, too)
And is it still how I would describe Sweetie? Absolutely, but I’d have to add that she’ll travel across the country just because I miss her, she’s a wonderful Mommie, and even though we don’t talk as much as we’d like, we can always pick up as if no time as passed at all.
The National Zoo was blessed this year with two litters of lion cubs, totaling 7 cubs. They started to let them out for public viewing Dec 18 for short periods of time. I dragged Andrew to the Zoo on Christmas Eve so we could see them.
Luckily the cubs are not cute at all…they’d have a hard time being taken seriously if they were cute. You can see for yourself in the pictures I took below:
That last post was more of a reference for me so that when I do another gingerbread project, probably next year, I’ll remember what recipes I used and a few tips on what worked. Now, I want to give just a quick tour of my final gingerbread lion habitat – heavy on images, light on text.
The primary purpose of the habitat was to house the seven new lion cubs, so I made all seven of them, along with their moms.
One interacting with a visitor and one sleeping:
Two were wresting and on was playing with a ball:
One was playing with Mom and a “fire hose”, and one about to pounce on her sleeping Mom
The lions needed a place to eat and drink, so I put the food in a animal rib cage, water in a boring trough:
For the visitors, I had a “savannah lookout”:
And I made a few visitors to see the cute cubs:
Finally, I wanted to spruce up the final entry, so I added a few decorative touches:
For several years I’ve mused about making a gingerbread project around Christmas. Each year I watch specials on the Food Network about gingerbread competitions, and I wonder if I could do that. The one project in the back of my mind is a mad scientist’s lab or an astronomers observatory – how cool would those be in gingerbread?
This year, though, was my year to jump in head first to the world of gingerbread. Why this year? Because the National Zoo in DC was holding a contest, Gin-GRR-bread Habitat Contest, to make a gingerbread habitat for the lions, including the 7 new cubs. The prize? A behind-the-scenes tour to meet the cubs! So the prospect of seeing the little guys (or girls) up close was my reason for getting into gingerbread this year. (I fear that I may be addicted now, but we’ll see if that holds up next year.)
This post is to document my process for anyone else who is thinking about getting into gingerbread and wondering how hard it is. The short answer is that it’s not that hard, but it takes a lot of planning if you want to do something overly detailed. I admit that I may be a bit of an overachiever, especially for my first project.
I started by making a model of my creation out of cardstock. This is crucial, but I forgot to take pictures of my model, and it is now all crunched up in my home office. The model should be the exact size that you want your project, and tape or glue it together to see where your seams will be. This will make sure that your measurements are correct and that the structure will stand. It will also make sure that you have all the pieces that you need to make whatever structure you’ve designed. (Of course, there are patterns online, so you could skip this step if you weren’t making an original design, like I was.)
The next step was to bake my gingerbread. I found this recipe in a quick websearch – follow all of their directions about cutting the pieces, baking, and trimming baked pieces. (Trimming baked pieces is important for structural integrity, though royal icing can cover a lot of flaws if necessary.)
I painted a few details on my gingerbread pieces before baking – the paint was gel-based food coloring.
With my gingerbread pieces made, I needed to cover my wooden base with something edible (because of the rules of the contest &150; if you’re doing this for fun, no need to be quite as complete). I decided on crisped rice bars (also know as “Rice Crispie Bars”, but I didn’t use the name-brand cereal, so we’ll go with “crisped rice”). I looked around on the internet to see what recipe was recommended for crisped rice bars when using them for sculpting rather than eating. The two things I picked up were: eliminate the butter and crush up part of the crisped rice cereal. So the recipe I used was: 10-ounce bag of mini marshmallows and 6 cups crisped rice cereal (before crushing any). Once the cereal was measured, I crushed up a few handfuls of it until it measured 4.5-5 cups. Melt the marshmallows and then stir in the cereal. The crushing makes the end product a bit more dense, which is good for sculpting.
I covered my wooden base with the crispie treats. I also wanted to make a moat for my habitat, which I thought I’d do with poured sugar or icing, so while it was still relatively warm, I cut a trench into the crispie-treat-base. You can kind of see it in the picture below.
Next up, I needed windows for part of my creation (the idea was to have a little “lookout” where visitors could feel like they were part of the lion pride…the bottom floor of the lookout was within the lion enclosure and had really big windows). I found a few ideas on the web for gingerbread house windows, many of which were not see-through. I needed see-through windows, since I wanted to put a few visitors in the lookout, looking out on the lions. The best idea for see-through windows was to use hard candy. This could be done using pre-made hard candy, placing an opened piece in a window hole, then baking it in the oven until the candy melts. However, I couldn’t think of any hard candy that would have melted clear, so I made my own. (UltimateGingerbread.com has a page of window ideas, including the hard candy recipe I used.)
After making the hard candy, I poured my windows (I put them on a silicone baking mat, which made them very easy to remove when they were hardened and cooled later). Then I quickly colored the rest with some blue gel food coloring, and poured it in my moat-trench to make water.
With my base ready, I could start assembling my habitat. I used the recipe for royal icing on the same webpage where I got the gingerbread recipe. I noticed that a few of my larger gingerbread pieces were a little unstable (I was afraid they would break), so I started by strengthening them a little with graham crackers.
Then started assembling the structure, starting with the inner walls (the ones next to the moat), then the outer walls, keeping it close enough that my walkway would work. When I put out the final walls, I discovered that I had cut them a little short, so that the area under the walkway would have been visible. I didn’t feel like baking more gingerbread, so I improvised with a stack of pretzels (visible in the picture below)…in the end, it really fit in with the overall look of the habitat, so I was happy with how it looked.
Then the lookout structure went up. I spaced it away from the left wall using the gingerbread piece that will be used as a roof for the lion’s shelter.
Before finishing the structure, I wanted to make my people figures. This was because I wanted to have a couple in the bottom of the lookout, looking out on the lions. So I made up some gumpaste, using a mix from JoAnn’s. I colored it using gel food coloring. From it, I made all 7 lion cubs, 2 adult lions (the moms), and a few people.
I also needed a staircase for the lookout before attaching the top. I did this using a rod pretzel and cut-up pieces of Trident gum attached with toothpicks. I actually added a little royal icing to keep the gum on the pretzel a little better.
Then I put in the staircase, and placed the people in the bottom of the lookout (also deciding on the placement of the lions). Then I put the main floor on the lookout, along with railings for the staircase.
Next came doing something with the ground. I had a large “rock” made from crispie rice treats that I covered in grey-colored royal icing. Then started on the grass…I originally thought I’d use the grass-tip on the icing bag, but found that the royal icing I made wasn’t stiff enough to do it right. So, I started with a layer of green royal icing (because I’d already started trying to pipe the grass in, so I just iced the bottom so it would all be even). In the end I used coconut colored with green and a little yellow coloring.
After adding the lions,
Then…the tree. Ahh, the tree. It looked very cool when I was done with it. Plan A had been to use bendy straws covered with sculpting crisped rice treats, but that failed utterly. Instead, I used a few rod pretzels connected with royal icing and toothpicks. My downfall was putting the tree on before delivering it to the judging site…or in using pretzels instead of a dowel screwed into the base and tightly secured…but more about that later. I attached it to the base, using a Nilla Wafer cookie to help stabilize it (oh how naive I am). For the leaves, I used corn flakes with green-colored royal icing mixed in. (I added more after the picture below was taken.)
Next, I finished the lookout, complete with a windows, railings and a roof.
Finally I added the finishing touches – the people, railings, benches, and some decoration along the base of the design.
I’ll write another post taking a tour of the completed habitat…here I just want to close with saying that the tree, unfortunately, didn’t make it the judging of the contest. First it toppled as I was carrying it to the car, so I replaced it when I dropped off my entry. But then, it toppled again less than a week later on display at the zoo. Boo.
One thing I learned was that I really need to trust my gut instincts. I had thought about waiting until we got to the zoo to attach my tree in the first place….that would have been a grand idea. Once the tree broke the first time getting into the car, I thought I should maybe not put it back on…that might have been a good idea, too, since the second time the tree toppled, it did quite a bit of damage, which I couldn’t fix. Even before I constructed my entry, I had considered using a dowel for the tree…that probably would have been the best idea.
Still, a very fun project, and I’ll certainly enter again if they have another contest next year.
I’m a day into being 39, and it’s not so bad. I’m not actually one of those people who dreads certain ages; there’s no point in it really. In fact, I look at the “big numbers” as excuses to get all my girlfriends together – since they’re scattered across the country, I need an excuse every now and then!
I have to admit that 38 hasn’t been the best year….parts have been great and parts have not been so great. I was looking forward to 38 because 37 seemed to suck pretty hard. Now, I can hardly remember why 37 was so hard because it’s been eclipsed by the curse of 2010.
I suppose 37 sucked because I had just graduated (which was a good thing) and was on a job hunt (which was the bad thing). It was a year-long hunt that only garnered three interviews (still, not bad compared to most recent science PhDs without PostDoc experience). And it looked like I was going to have to take a job in Mississippi…without my husband for at least the first year. 37 felt like I was in a holding pattern the whole year. I was just getting out of that pattern when I turned 38 – I had been offered a job at my current work, doing the part of my job that I loved, and had just started working full-time. The rest of my life seemed like it should fall into place nicely.
That lasted until January, when my kitty (Ares) was diagnosed with cancer. Another kitty (Duncan) had been losing weight. January through March were all about sick cats and getting them to eat. The house had a pall of sadness…it was bleak. Things turned around for Duncan when we figured out how often we needed to feed him. We had to wait until July to hear about Ares, but then the news was good – remission!
(I’m happy to say that my little girl, Artemis, has been healthy – we’ve told her that she is to stay healthy, because we can’t deal with another sick cat any time soon!)
On the plus side, we got a dog in May…you know how some women yearn for kids? You know, they have an ache in their hearts when they see others with kids? Yeah, I could give a crap about having kids, but I had that ache for a dog. So you can imagine how happy I was when we got Aurora.
I also accomplished a goal that I set in February – biking 50 miles in one shot. I honestly wasn’t sure if I could; I thought this was maybe too big a goal. And yet, in September, we did it!
I got to have a fun girl’s weekend with my BFF in June…wasn’t sure we’d be able to figure that out, given our busy schedules (and her cute little guy!), but we did it. Not sure when we’ll manage again, but I think we’ve proven that it can be done.
So, I guess that parts of 38 were very stressful, but there was some awesomeness as well. I’m looking forward to 39!
I'm an astronomer, cyclist, scrapbooker, reader, movie-goer, cat-and-dog-lover, wife, gamer, and all-around-wonderful-woman...not necessarily in that order.
