Oh, and did I mention........

M has started pre-school! She took a liking to it right away, I mean they had baby dolls and a play kitchen, what is not to like?!


On her first day she had a the tough realization that, unlike she previously believed, it was not always her turn. By the second day she had more patience, and now she's willing to wait without wailing.






























She loves her classroom, circle time and singing songs. It is great to have her come home with new words and skills. And! She gets to ride the bus to her daycare after school! It is a big 'ol yellow school bus with special harnesses on the bench seats to keep little ones strapped in. M also loves this part of the day, especially since the kids at daycare wait for her outside at the curb. Don't worry, I'll get pictures!

Egg Watch Continued: A new Era.

When last we left our faithful chickens, the score looked something like this:
Now it looks something like this:

That's Right! Not only has our faithful Dotty started laying, but she's actually starting to catch up. And! We've added a third chicken to "that thing we've got going on". She's an adoptee from the Redding Clan and she's..... really funny.

(No.... she's the one on the left..)

Her breed is white crested black polish, which is a very docile breed. This means she makes a really good pet but she's also always the lowest on the pecking order. She was getting picked on in her old flock, and she's still getting picked on here but to a lesser extent. Her feathers that had been pecked away are starting to fill in again. Her name is Mo, M and I call her "Me-Mo".
We think she's pretty cool, and she's the perfect addition to our Victory Farm.
(Victory over what, you ask?... Egglessness! We are victorious over Egglessness I say!)

The Key Words Were: OH NO!

As thanksgiving approaches, I'd like to start off with why I am thankful for my husband.
Yeah, blah, blah, he's a good dad, strikingly good looking and funny. Whatever. Let's get to the real reasons and to the story:

A couple of weeks ago, we are loading M in the car to go downtown. Everything is fine, we drive through our neighborhood and then got onto the freeway. Suddenly we hear something on the roof of the car.
Did something hit it?
Is something rolling across the roof?
I couldn't even describe what it sounded like before, poof, it stopped. Nothing.
Mr. Zimny looks at me, I can see him thinking.
"Do you have your keys? Did you leave them on the roof?"
Mama Pajama! He just knew.
Yes, I totally left my keys on the roof and while they couldn't fall off during the 19 bazillion turns we took on surface streets, they decided to fly off just as we merge on to the freeway.
Wait. It gets better.

Keep in mind, I have keys from multiple institutions on that key chain. Multiple Institutions that will require Multiple Re-keying for Multiple Buildings which I assume requires Multiple Large Fees from the person that lost their keys.
But I don't mention this in the car. It's too overwhelming. I just sit there.
But not Mr. Zimny... Mr. Zimny decides to find them.
Find them on the freeway. The freeway with 3 lanes of speeding cars.

He does a couple of loops of the section of freeway where we heard them fall. I had given up before we even started. But he is sees them, a tiny handful of keys on a mile stretch of highway. They are between the two lanes furthest from us and he pulls over.

I remember saying something about being careful and he stepped out and waited for traffic to clear. I didn't think it would. I turned to M in the backseat and said "This is where daddy gets pummeled doing something for mommy because she is an idiot."

Then, like magic, there were no cars in any of the 3 lanes and Mr. Zimny jogged across and picked them up.

Let's just say they're not the same.

Every key was bent, some where crumpled. They had been run over many times. My electronic opener was a shell of it's former self. Literally.
But they were all there. Mr. Zimny was also all there.
When we got home, he helped me straighten the salvageable ones and didn't mention it again.
Reasons #112 thru 115 why I am thankful for my husband: He knows and accepts and my faults, he is brave, determined and resourceful.
It doesn't hurt that he is strikingly good looking though.

Egg watch 2009

One day (about a week or so after the chix moved into the Chalet) The Leghorn started making a ton of noise. All of a sudden, in a "there is a cat trying to eat me" kind of tone.
I could hear her from the inside the kitchen, and walked out to make sure everything was ok.

What I found was an egg. A real egg.
I was egg-static.
It was egg-citing.
I was egg-normously relieved.
We're coming closer to egg-rarian living.
Com'on... bear with me here.
I've been waiting along time for these jokes.
The wait has been egg-scruciating.

Anyways, of course we started with the testing.
We compared our leghorn egg to a store bought egg and also to El Machinist's egg (from a Rhode Island Red).
Our Data:

Our's is a little smaller than both...
but it's her first egg in a long time....
On the inside:
You can see that ours had the darkest yellow yolk and also the highest yolk to egg white ratio. Hopefully they will keep getting bigger.
After the eggs kept coming, we started keeping a tally and this is what we are up to:
Ms. Egghorn is currently on about a 27 hour cycle, so every couple of days she skips the day. As the day time gets shorter, she will slow down more. Maybe when the weather gets warmer we'll be able to share!

Just Wrong.

Location, Location, Location

I just realized that the only difference between "pajamas" and "gym clothes" is your location. If you are in bed, they are "pajamas". If you're at the gym they are "gym clothes". The main difference is the presence of shoes. This brings new possibilities to my life.

Also, is it wrong that I am wearing my new heart monitor at the coffee shop? Mr. Zimny bought one for me, and my first thought was: "huh, I could use this to see how much coffee raises my heart rate."

I guess I could use it at the gym too.
Again, it comes down to location.

Ham In Sheep's Pajamas.

Long ago, a friend from China gave M a pair of pjs ..... she recently found them in her dresser drawer.... and promptly turned in a ham.
When I put them on her, she ran her hands down her chest and proclaimed "pitty!"....which in M speak means "pretty". I could only agree.

End of summer update.#2

Oh, and thanks to El Machinist, the chickens have moved into new digs:















We call it the "Chicken Palace"... or the "Chick Chalet"...it's a place by many names.

It took a bit of maneuvering to get them to use the house part the first night, but now they put themselves to bed by 6:30pm.

Let me put that in perspective for you. THEY SLEEP 10 TO 12 FREAKING HOURS A DAY IN A BRAND NEW HOUSE AND THEY STILL DON'T LAY FREAKING EGGS.




Stay tuned for Egg watch 2009.

End of summer update.#1

I forgot to mention a couple of things from this summer...

First, thanks to cousin Michelle, we've taken canning to whole new level:
That is right - Canning outside! Cousin Michelle gave us an awesome outdoor stove which practically begged me to use it for canning. Let's review the pros and cons.

In conclusion, canning outside is here to stay.

Public Service Announcement #19

Remember kids : "Narcolepsy isn't sleepolepsy." It's a fact.

Proportions

Let's talk proportions here. I just read that "40 is the new 25".
If that is true then I'm not even drinking age yet.
That is going to make Halloween less interesting this year.

Joys of Parenting

We're scoping out ideas for M's Halloween costume this year... this the email I get from Mr. Zimny

"Keep in mind that we are running out of chances to dress her up as something ridiculous looking. She will eventually have an opinion on what costume she wants."


He is a great dad.

I'm Confused* (#116)

Why is it that the muffin top is the best part of the muffin
....and yet on people the "muffin top" is not so fantastic.

Upon further investigation,
it appears that muffin tops (the good kind)
can cause muffin tops (the not so good kind).
Doesn't that violate some law of physics?

*This post brought to you by blueberry streusel muffins

That's Miss Egghorn to you.

For 36.5 hours we were the skeptical adoptees of a pretty but small chicken that flew into a friend's yard.....
it took the chicken 36 hours to start crowing.
It took Mr. Zimny 0.5 hours to find it a new home.
During that 36 hours, our hen, Ms. Leghorn laid an egg. The first egg!
There was much documentation:












As you can see, it was a bit smaller than a store bought egg, but that didn't stop us from cookin' it up:



Since then I have been working under the "if you cook it, they will come" theory that states that if I cook things that require eggs, the chickens will start producing eggs.
FYI: Things that use a lot of eggs are 1) fattening 2) super yummy 3) starting to accumulate in the kitchen.

A whole new world.....

We are presently living a world of false alarms, as Miss M announces every 5 minutes that she has to use the potty. However, there has been some successes, as documented here:





On the 5th we started keeping a record, only marking when there was announcement of the need for the potty, then actual follow through with use of the potty.












It looks like it will be a long road ahead, but we like where this road is leading!

Sow-er

This week Miss M has been spending a lot of time in the bathroom (more on that later). She has noticed that our dog, Beta sleeps in the shower (she pronounces it sow-er) to stay cool on hot days. She is now a little obsessed with getting in the shower with Beta. Of course Beta promptly leaves whenever Miss M enters the shower, but this does not stop her from standing in the shower demanding that Beta (or Friday) get in the shower with her.

This week, after a long conversation of:
M: "Mama, sow-er!"
Me: "Yes, I see the shower"
M: "Bait-a! Sower!"
Me: "Beta is in the bedroom, sorry"
M: "Mama, sow-er!"
.....on and on,
I left her in the bathroom hoping she would give up and come find me. But all I kept hearing was "Mama, sow-er!", followed by her pounding on the door in frustration. After a few minutes I went in to try a new method of distraction (ie: "M, I think Elmo is on!") and found this:



















Is it wrong that I waited until after I had taken pictures to let her out?

Hierarchy

With Mr. Zimny gone, I consider it no small feat to have cooked a real meal for Miss M and I....and I would like to document it.
My plate:
And Maryn's:


As you can see, everything right and good. A quick look a the details...
Welcome to the Utensil Hierarchy (click to enlarge):
It's a handy thing to print and keep in your wallet in case you ever have dinner at the Lloyd house.

Basking in the Sun

Earlier this month the three of us (+ 2 dogs) took a long weekend up on the coast. It was just what we needed. Mr. Zimny got to do some really hard bike rides and M and I got to spend some time in just hanging out - mostly on the deck.















Miss M needed to run some energy out....



When the deck got old we drove out to Armstrong woods. One morning we came across a tiny blind mouse-y thing, which was cool because we could get really close to it and it didn't run away. Since then I've learned it was a vole. So a vole is a blind mole and not a vampire mole as originally thought. You learn something new everyday!


Miss M learned that "beach" really just means sand buffet. We're going back soon!

Monsta!

I am the pudding monsta! Give me your pudding or I will eat your arm!

New Trick

Maryn's picked up a new trick....

We're hoping for a one and three at some point, but whatever.

Chicken updates.

Update: Chickens still alive, Friday still insanely interested.
If it's been a while since you've seen them, here is a little montage of their progress so far:
Gobbling aphids off some greens:

Garden Sucess!

Yay!
I've never been able to grow carrots before, and originally thought this year was another total bust. I took the carrots pretty seriously this season, amending the soil with washed sand and peat moss, everything I had read about. I also planted some radishes near the carrots, which made nice greens, but never any radishes. I figured the carrots were doing the same thing, sprouting nice healthy tall greens but not actually producing anything under the soil. So I decided just to dig them up and put the containers away. When I dug them up, lo and behold, I found carrots! My first real carrots!
Look at them so orange and tender!

Let's look at them with some perspective.


That's right. The longest was roughly 1.5 inches long. Like a barbie carrot. I guess not a total bust, but seriously?! It's like they are just teasing me.

The start of updates....

So, long time no blog, huh? Yeah. Well, as usual, I'd love to say that there is a good reason for the lack of updates, but there isn't. I've been reminded several times that I have a backlog and it's gotten to the point where there have been offers of babysitting in hopes that I would use the time wisely and UPDATE THE FREAKING BLOG. Ok... here it goes.

Think back a couple of months... back to say, easter. This was Miss M's first easter complete with an easter egg hunt so of course it was a well attended event. All the major sacramento players (grandpartents) were there, and Meeshmellow and Sir Buffington were also good enough to play along.
For the couple of weeks prior, we had been practicing egg hunting with Miss M, so she was pretty much a pro by the big day. (We didn't want her to freeze under the watchful gaze of all her spectators.)
Meeshmellow and I hid a couple dozen plastic eggs that had been dutifully filled with popcorn and other non-candy snacks. When I handed her the basket, I was pretty sure she would look and find a couple and then give up.... but oh, no.















She was very thorough! She kept going until her basket was full, and then some. After every egg was accounted for she started opening them up, finding all the yummy goodies and... wait for it... feeding them to the dogs.

Besides giving the dogs snacks she occupied herself trying to kiss Pebbles, who wised up pretty quick:

At least the finding part was a success!

Rebellion

I doubt that I am what anyone would call..... rebellious.
But lately I've found it oddly entertaining to sit in the coffee shop with my little laptop, sipping my overpriced frilly coffee, grading papers with my little red pen, acting all teacher-y ... but secretly I'm listening to gangsta rap very loudly on my headphones.
Caffine and Jay-Z is my new breakfast of champions.

That "Thing" we've got going

Recently, when I mentioned to someone that we had added chickens to the family, they said "well, that makes sense, considering the whole thing you've got going on."
It left me kind of wondering, what does she mean by thing?
Did she mean the circus we've started that combines dancing chickens with a fork yielding toddler? No?

Did she mean the research lab that examines how long you can survive on popcorn alone and if the duration is the same for chickens? No?
So I'm not exactly sure what she meant, but I bet it's cool.
And by cool I mean totally sweet.

Bird is the word

Now Everybody's heard about the word, bird, bird, bird, bird is the word.
It's official, we've made a couple of additions to our family. After multiple chick crisisies (or is that crisis's...crisisi...what is the plural for crisis? Answer: If you are having more than one crisis at a time, you are to busy to care about correct plurals. The end.)... ok, after a series of crisisies....M, Grandma Nancy, Kathy and I were able to finally procure 2 chicks.
At the store there were all kinds of breeds but most breeds only had roosters left. We still had a few choices though, and after consulting Mr. Zimny via phone, we chose a Silver Lace Wyandotte and a Danish Brown Leghorn.
When they are grown, they will hopefully look like these:

(Silver lace Wyandotte) (Danish Brown Leghorn)

But right now, they just look like this:












See the resemblance?














The dogs didn't notice them until we pointed them out and Miss M just wants to kiss them (and poke at their eyes). Mostly they just peep around do chicken stuff like peck at things. They are as yet unnamed. Suggestions have been made, and right now it stands between the Omlet and Over-easy camp and the Terry Hatcher and Deborah Winger camp, although I like BZ's Captian Cluckles..... we'll see.

Spring Break 2009

Miss M and I spent last week at the cabin with Grandpa R.L. and great-grandpa Porter. The whole week was nice and relaxing, filled with rain, popcorn, fires, and long walks.
M liked all the attention and getting hauled around town on grandpa R.L.'s shoulders. We also took a couple of morning walks in Armstrong woods. M got to hear a real cow moo for the first time and made friends with all the town cats. She also fell a couple of times and got a goose egg and a shiner... but um, er, did I mention that she got to eat her weight in popcorn and that she met some cats? 'Cause she did, and it was way cute and way more important than those bruises....really, it was.

We went to the beach where M got to try out her sandcastle skills. Let's just say she is much better at the "take a whack at the tower and then stomp on it when it falls over" skill than she is at the "build a tower" skill. We were able to see Grandpa R.L. surfing and he tried to explain some techniques to M.




















It was a great week and something that we all decided should happen more often. But