Clean it up!

Next week my group at work will transition to a new computer system. I have been in meetings a great deal. It has been a little discouraging and I think I will be happier once it is all over. When we moved from Germantown to Frederick we were never really integrated and have been a thing unto ourselves. Now we will be more part of the team. The paranoid part of me thinks this will make us much less indispensable and more fire-able. The rest of me, the part of me that was going to ask for a transfer this year, finds the changes stimulating.

Kiernan had a good week and has somewhat allayed my fears from last week. He had a field trip to a farm which he enjoyed very much. He had a good T-Ball session in which he inspired a pack of 6 year olds to make an hours worth of farting noises. He was quite proud of himself.

My friend Martin found for me some Ramps.

I used to get Ramps from my Grandma Rumford in West Virginia. They are a type of wild garlic/leek and very stinky. They are basically never cultivated and usually can only be found in the spring on hillsides in the Appalachians.

I cooked some and introduced them to my family. I planted some in my back property in the hops that I will have Ramps for years to come. I have set aside a bag to mail to my grandparents this week. I am so very pleased.

Kiernan spent most of his evenings preparing for a presentation in school. I love how much emphasis his curriculum places on presentation skills. It reminds me of a classical Greek education in which rhetoric and debate held such sway. I had to take speech in college and I had show and tell in elementary school but already he has had more good training for the kinds of presentations I see at work than I did in the entirety of my formal education. I honestly think that if I hadn't been in a choir as a kid my ability to be in front of a audience.

This time he will be presenting a story he knows well. This is to help him pay attention and present events or stories to others.

We finally got the truck load from Scearce's to the dump. Now that the battery has been replaced I felt comfortable using some time to take Megan to the dump. This time I decided to bite the bullet and try something new. 

Normally we go to the Montgomery County Dump on Shady Grove Road. In that place we drive onto a scale and are directed to a large building wherein we push all of our truck load onto the floor and then leave. It is always free and though stinky and loud it is exciting for Kiernan (my usual helper).

This time I let my common sense overrule my aversion to change and went to the closer location.

The Frederick location is more open more complicated more expensive more friendly and more environmentally friendly than the one in Montgomery County.

We drove into a seemingly empty location with a barcode scanning touch pad and a arm barrier in the down position to prevent our entry. There was a small sign asking me to scan my drivers license and swipe my credit card for entry. I got out of the truck cursing the county for putting it on a hill and just as I was digging out my license a man appeared out of a trailer and offered to save me some money.

We were directed to the recycling area I climbed in and out of the truck at every station to sift out hard plastics from scrap metal to large appliances. I was worried about the appliances (there was a clothes dryer in the back) but as at every essential station a helpful person showed up and in this case lifted the dryer off the truck and chucked it into the appropriate bin.By the time we had sorted out the recyclables we only had 3 items left for the real dump part of the facility.

In total it cost $1.50 and took well over an hour. Megan was more than ready to go and I was very tired. On the other hand I feel so virtuous about recycling rather than just dumping it all.

We rewarded ourselves with noodles and took a beautiful long nap before I had to go to work. 

Saturday morning it snowed. I know you cant see it very well but there are some white spots on the deck and on Pax's back there. They were great big fluffy flakes with a cold wind. Megan ran to the window and yelled "It's snowing!" David thought she was seeing flower petals but no. She was right.

Unbelievable!

Instead of doing the yard work we were planning on I cooked.

This weekend I made Turkish food. I am reading a Dorothy Dunnett book an whenever I read them I want to eat foods of the ottoman empire and soak in bit steamy Roman baths.

I quite liked the resultant Mercimek Koftesi (red lentil balls).

Once it warmed up a little I backed the now empty truck up to the garage and began to unsentimentally dump everything on our side into 3 piles. Pile 1 was for Goodwill pile 2 was keep and pile 3 was going to the dump.

It was very cold and a little emotionally wrenching but we had fantastic moral support and in the end we cleared everything out minus the workout gear.

Behold our beautifully garage. If you have seen it before I will give you a moment to collect your breath and recover from your awe.

We spent a little time bonding with the sweet kids on Sunday morning.

We had swinging.

We got a free concert.

And once it warmed up and Megan went down for her nap there was yard work.

I cleaned out the front walk bed and planted some more lavender.

David mowed up the leaves and sticks and then just decided to do the whole yard.

Once Megan woke up (unfortunately early as her mood for the rest of the day attested) we went to Adventure Park for laser tag with Uncle Chris, Aunt Pammy and cousin Kaleb.

Aunt Pammy gave the kids a treat on the Carosel.

After the laser tag the kids each got one more ride and then we went off to a picnic.

The picnic was marred by cold, potty accidents and the afore mentioned shortened nap.

We should try it again in warmer weather and maybe closer to bed and bathroom.

The plants are happy to be indoors.

I finally replaced our old and tattered flag with a new and more weather resistant version.

The tulips opened up.

This morning Kiernan went off to school in his PJ's (yay PJ day) to do his presentation.

Megan settled in for fun with Nana.

David went off to work and I stumbled around trying to recover from another very late night writing a paper about GMO's for my biology class and headed to Goodwill to drop off  pile 1.