Caffeine Blues

So, I am on day 5 with no caffeine, and I am losing the will to live.

Many of you know about my long term, love/hate relationship with coffee. It's been a complicated affair, an emotional roller coaster if you will, and recently I finally decided to end it.

Moderation has never really been "my thing," and my most recent coffee binge left me feeling depressed and exhausted. I began a weaning off process by using caffeine pills, and decreasing my daily dosage over a two week period.

And then I had to say goodbye.

So here I am, a little more of a curmudgeon than usual, of course Jen says its just my usual cranky self.

Oh well, one day at a time.

What Bounty

Dave and I have been host these past few days to my mom Fran and sister Katy. Vinny the cat and I have been in heaven. Mom plays Vinny constantly and even let her out in the backyard one afternoon. (We quickly put an end to that, however, as Vinny has a habit of jumping the fence and disappearing for days. She can't be trusted outside). We've already seen 2 movies (Once and Waitress - both really fantastic), gone to the gym everyday, visited the US Botanical Gardens on a hellishly hot day, eaten brunch at local restaurants, including the absolutely delicious Belga Cafe on 8th Street, picked up our weekly share at the CSA Clagett Farm, and done a little work at our own vegetable plot at the Kings Court Community Garden. I even put my mom to work pulling weeds in the back yard (what a daughter, huh?).

And I'm happy to report that Dave and I have been harvesting vegetables from our little plot like maniacs. The radishes, mesclun, mustard greens and broccoli rabe (really best eaten very very young) were delicious!

Good stuff: If I were a real artist this is the kind of stuff I'd hope to produce :: Housewares company that made Vinny's incredibly fasionable, and earth-friendly, new bowl :: New band finds of the month The Bird and the Bee and The Frames.

Planticide?

There's something so satisfying about watching a seed you've planted sprout and turn into a plant. However, pulling those same plants that I've nurtured all season out of the ground to eat has taken me some time getting used to. I just couldn't get my head around it last summer and ended up picking most of my crops way too late - past the point where they tasted good, in fact. I vow to be ruthless this year.

Recognize the plants above, mom? It's the mesclun mix you bought me for Xmas last year. I've got the broccoli rabe in the next square, too. Everything's coming up this year, even the edamame seedlings I planted indoors. Better get those out into the garden this weekend, actually.

This week's discoveries: Gardening for the hip and female, You Grow Girl :: If only I could convince Dave, chickens in our backyard would be a great way to turn kitchen scraps into fertilizer :: Much better than the vermiculture set up (worms) we've got going right now :: Exactly the kind of drawing lessons I need - kid level!!!

It's Like Living in the Stone Age

If you've talked to us recently you've heard us complain that our Internet access has been spotty for the past three weeks or so. Ever since we had Dave's sister, brother in law, two nieces and mom stay we've been plagued by our phone and Internet service cutting out (that made it sound like the two things had something to do with each other - they didn't, just a sad coincidence). Dave spent weeks trying to get the Verizon guy to show up, but even when we thought all was fixed we're still having problems. We're scared to death it's the wiring inside the house, which means, let's face it, we'll probably never get this resolved. It's destined to go the way of the leaky ceiling in our bedroom (still leaking after five years and $20,000 spent on a new roof), the broken and jagged tile in the laundry room (don't venture in with bare feet - it's dark in there because the light's broken), one third of the way done curtain hanging project (jesus, can't we just pay someone to install these things for us?) and the bags of left over dirt from the landscaping project started right after I moved in.

And we don't even have kids to blame for our home repair negligence.

Don't you want to see what I bought recently? The perfect electronics back pack slash workout bag. Now I can carry twice as much gear on the plane :: Shockingly expensive sheets that are high thread count yet confusingly scratchy :: A stylish three ring binder to hold my journaling stuff for our upcoming Prague trip :: Moleskine's new city notebook the Prague edition - how effing cool is this???