Mom's Guide to the Galaxy

The Dan Camp Journey

Four years ago, I embarked on my first drive to Dan, or Black Belt, Camp, with a carload of teenagers (none of them mine) and the vague notion that I’d be doing karate all weekend. Our first stop was a rest area on I-65 in Indiana, where one person slowed down long enough to receive copies of the New Testament for all of us. That resulted in some interesting car conversations as we proceeded to a popular (with our karate family) lunch spot. Beyond that, well, we stayed up late, got up early, and did karate pretty much all weekend. There were team-building exercises, some general silliness, and new friendships that came out of the weekend. Every year since has been a different adventure, with a new mix of driving companions and the same overall giddyness that comes from doing karate for a whole weekend with two hundred or so of your closest friends.

Strawberry milkshake in a mason jar at The Farmhouse — Strawberry milkshake in a mason jar… is that enough whipped cream?

This year was no different in that respect. After years of driving by, both to Dan Camp and other events towards or past Indianapolis, and only having stopped at the shop before, we ate lunch at The Farmhouse at Fair Oaks Farm. If you’ve driven south on I-65 recently, you’ll know that it’s hard to miss the billboards for Fair Oaks Farm; between the restaurant and the farm, there were probably a dozen before we got there. (Driving north, there are two that tell you that you missed it and you can turn around at the next exit.) This is unquestionably the first time I’ve been served a milkshake in a mason jar. They are, as it turns out, the perfect size. The meal was delightful, prefaced by some fresh cornbread and well, no, we didn’t make it to dessert. But I generally consider dessert to be optional when I have a milkshake.

After lunch, as I mockingly pointed out the scenic corn and soy (and more corn and soy, as this is the midwest), I noticed a faint rainbow out of the corner of my eye. It wasn’t until my companions (who weren’t driving) looked that we realized there was a double rainbow, with a far brighter one hiding below the faded one I had spotted.

Beyond the exciting weekend activities – have you ever played balloon “soccer” on a windy day with multiple balloons per team, and only karate moves allowed to propel the balloons? – the weather was just about perfect. Two years ago, there was a downpour along with some exciting thunder and lighting on the Saturday afternoon, which forced a break in our outdoor activities for a bit. This year, there was a bit of rain on our drive Friday, and a light sprinkling Saturday afternoon.

Foggy morning from the suspension bridge — Looking at the giant slide from the suspension bridge, through the fog and a spider web.

Sunday morning, as I began packing the car, I enjoyed the fog that had settled in overnight. I went back to the cabin for my phone, then walked onto the suspension bridge to get some photos. (The bridge is one of those things that you either love or hate about the camp; it bounces quite a bit when everybody is lined up, crossing the river.) Just me and my arachnid friends.

Spider and web with a foggy morning river in the background. — Pretty spider and web with a foggy morning in the background.

People come into our lives for a reason.

Just over 8 months ago, we welcomed Arwen into our lives. She is, without a doubt, still a force of chaos, also known as a kitten. I know, she’s over a year old now (since she was 6 months when we adopted her), and technically not a kitten, but I don’t think she realizes that.

She has taught everybody in the house a bit about patience, some better than others. Diane still has points where she barely tolerates Arwen, particularly on the bed at bedtime. But I’ll wake up in the middle of the night to find Arwen lying next to her, and sometimes June is there too.

If there’s human food involved, Arwen’s the first one there. Constantly. But she’s not up on the counter (as much) while I’m cooking, and has learned most of the time to wait until I put a plate down to lick. That said, I still won’t walk out of the dining room with a plate of food at the table, and leftovers have to be tucked away while we’re eating.

June and Arwen curled up together on the sofa — June and Arwen

She’s been great at getting June to exercise, they will tear through the house playing at random times. Honestly, that’s one of the reasons I wanted a kitten, to encourage the older cats to move more. (Hasn’t work so well with Diane.) And they curl up together at times, just like June and Diane still do.

She is a mighty insect huntress. I can always tell when there’s an insect in the house, because she’s suddenly leaping straight up at the window or the wall. I rarely notice what kind of insect it was. Unfortunately, I have far fewer spiders than I used to; I think she’s eaten all the obvious ones.

She’s even learned not to use her claws when grabbing people. She still reaches out to grab me, but now it’s cute instead of painful. Her obsession with nibbling on toes, well, that’s still a thing. Slippers are our first line of defense.

Amazing Arachnids

One of the cool things about Brookfield Zoo is their seasonal exhibits. Every year, they have a butterfly exhibit, where you can walk into a tented area with a butterfly garden. If you’re lucky, the butterflies may land on you. But this year’s special exhibit, through Labor Day, is the Amazing Arachnids. (Some years, there are animatronic dinosaurs… those are super cool too.)

This exhibit has exactly what the name implies… lots of tarantulas and a few scorpions. And, of course, a plethora of educational information about arachnids, spiders in the media (books, movies, comic books), and a couple awesome photo opportunities including a giant Lego spider.

The variety of tarantulas is pretty amazing, as can be seeing walking through the exhibit. There are large and small tarantulas, with variety in colors and habitats. Some of the tarantulas had impressive amounts of webbing in their habitats; others had none that I saw. Some were highly visible, some tucked under habitat pieces, and others were well hidden. At least one seemed surrounded by its own webbing.

Photo opportunities (me being silly and a Lego spider) at the Amazing Arachnids exhibit and a few tarantulas. — Photo opportunities at the Amazing Arachnids exhibit and a few tarantulas.

Outside the arachnids exhibit, as part of the same special exhibit ticket, is the Mission Safari Maze. Intended to be educational rather than difficult, we walked through this searching for posters on different animals. There were a few interactive exhibits, such as a spider web to climb on and a short set of monkey bars.

If you’re arachnophobic, stay away. Otherwise, I highly recommend you visit the Amazing Arachnids before summer ends.

Heartbreak Hotel and Ren Faire

In an odd combination of fandoms, we saw Heartbreak Hotel and attended the Bristol Renaissance Faire in the same weekend. And for bonus points, I noticed that Dirk and Guido’s opening act that day included a reference to Heartbreak Hotel (as “love poetry”… before they got into the obligatory sword fighting).

We took the train downtown to see Heartbreak Hotel; I’m not a fan of driving in Chicago. It’s the prequel to Million Dollar Quartet, which we had seen (twice) at the Paramount in the fall. As could be expected from the title, it delves into the history of Elvis Presley. While we both enjoyed it, we agreed that we liked Million Dollar Quartet more, both because of the style and the songs that were played.

The Lynx Show, swallowing giant scissors — Forget the giant scissors he’s swallowing… aren’t those shoes awesome?

As I mentioned in last year’s post about Bristol, we always try to catch at least one classic and one new act. Obviously, we watched Dirk & Guido again; the Swordsmen are always a delight. This year’s new act was a The Lynx Show, swordswallower and magician with a great sense of humor. We stumbled upon it because I had seen someone walking by with frybread, and then I found the frybread booth (also new, I think), which was directly across from the show stage minutes before the show. (I first tried frybread on our big road trip in 2013; I’m hooked, but don’t really like deep frying at home.)

Somehow, I went to Faire this year without eating garlic mushrooms. I may need to go back.

My next great adventure

My next great adventure starts today. (Well, last week by the time you read this.) Two days after my official termination date at my previous job, I accepted a job offer. For my first week of work, I’m flying to San Diego to meet my co-workers at the main office. This is my first visit to California as an adult; I don’t count the couple times I’ve stopped in the San Francisco airport.

One of the important items on my prep list was finding the nearest WTSDA dojang. As it happens, the instructor there was the guest master when I pre-tested for my black belt in February. My karate uniform was actually the first thing I packed. I’m also staying about 10 minutes from a beach, so I packed my bathing suit – and sunscreen! – as well. Other than that, it’s work clothes, pajamas, and toiletries. Oh, and two books – of for each flight. I plan to re-read Anno Dracula on the way out and The Lightning Thief on the return trip.

The work week went well, the extra stuff went almost as planned. I attended a great karate class, and tried an assortment of interesting restaurants while I was in California. I didn’t go swimming, but I did dip my feet in the ocean at sunset my last night there. I resisted going to Legoland after work – theme park prices make more sense as an all day outing. And, except for the transit to and from the airport, I wasn’t near downtown San Diego, so I didn’t get to see any of the excitement surrounding the San Diego Comic-Con.

What did thrill me was the gardenias near the dojang; the nearby shopping center had them planted all around the edges of the parking lot, so getting out of the car, I could smell them immediately. Oh, and I found a game store. (Of course I did.)

Exploring Portland

Powell’s City of Books, Science Fiction & Fantasy section. I looked in other rooms; I shopped in this one.

I moved from Portland when I was five, so I only have vague memories of when I lived there. I have visited enough over the years to have some favorites; when I go back to visit friends and family, I try to do a mix of exploring new places and visiting old, familiar ones. An absolute must is Powell’s City of Books, which is their main location. You can pick between whatever’s available according to your taste, be it paperback, hard cover, new or used, because Powell’s shelves then all together. When I was there in 2015, I had a shopping list of classic science fiction books; I was able to find all of them.

We met friends for dinner a couple blocks away from Powell’s, at McMenamin’s Ringlers Pub. We were so busy having fun, I forgot to take any food photos while we were there. Suffice to say I’d be happy to eat there again.

Not actually in Portland… lava tubes at Ape Caves, Mt. St. Helens, Washington state

The exploration part of this trip was a trip into Washington state to the Mt. St. Helens Lava Tube. I was discussing my upcoming trip to Portland with a (now former) co-worker, who told me about the lava tubes. It was an amazingly scenic drive – as much of the area around Portland is – and we opted for the short, easy walk down the tubes, rather than the extreme

Bridge of the Gods, north of Portland, Oregon

one going up. Our initial plan was to follow this with a trip to Multnomah Falls, but everybody else was already there – the parking was full, and the freeway exit closed. We were quite hungry, so revamped our plan to eat at a restaurant underlooking (it’s like overlooking, but we could see the underside of it) the Bridge of the Gods.

The main purpose of this visit was my grandmother’s birthday party, which was a fabulous reunion of family members and friends. After the party, with only an hour or so before it closed, I went to the Portland Saturday Market and then to the Lan Su Chinese Garden. Sadly, I was still quite full from the amazing food at the party and couldn’t try anymore food at either location.

I did stop at the teahouse in the Chinese Garden, operated by The Tao of Tea, to pick up some Rose Petal Black tea, which is an all-time favorite of mine. I also watched a drawbridge go up, which is one of those fun things to do if you’re not one of the cars stuck waiting on the bridge.

But all good things must come to an end, especially with a houseful of cats waiting at home and a week of organizing before starting my new job. We did find a delightful farm-to-table restaurant at the airport called The Country Cat where we bought a filling lunch. This turned out to be fairly important… we were getting ready for bed after arriving home and realized that because of the time difference and flight time, we never ate dinner. Oops.

Self-rescuing Princess

It has recently come to my attention that some of my friends, whom I’ve known for years, haven’t heard me sing. This is a far cry from when I was younger, when all of my friends heard me sing, whether they wanted to or not. (It helps that I was in chorus and choir, some of that singing was with other people.)

I started working on this song a few years ago, well before I knew a target date for my black belt test. At the moment, I have somehow misplaced the lyrics for the second verse (and the beginnings of the third), and haven’t written the harmony. But I have my black belt now (though I couldn’t find my bow before the recording; it has since been located), so I wanted to go ahead and share this.

This song is dedicated to all the self-rescuing princesses in my life, and the people who helped us get to that point.

How does my garden grow?

As a project manager, gardening is my second best reminder that I can’t control all of the variables in a project. (Parenting is the first.) I can do all the planning and prep that I want, but I have no control over the weather, and realize that the germination rate for seeds varies. So while I’m sad that the okra didn’t germinate – it did so well the first summer in this garden – the next step is to fill that space. I love being able to say that I picked my salad the morning I’m eating it, so I went ahead and planted some salad greens there.

It’s not like the rest of the garden is struggling. Starting in the top left, there’s my star garden out front, my low beds in the far back, my keyhole bed out back, and the garden tower by the driveway.

Starting in the top level, there's my star garden out front, my low beds in the far back, my keyhole bed out back, and the garden tower by the driveway. — Herbs and sunflowers; tomatoes and flowers; carrots, pumpkins, and peas; tomatoes, marigolds, and salad greens.

The star is mainly an herb bed, with an overwhelming amount of mint and cilantro (they’re both spreading), chives, and some basil, along with a huge number of sunflowers. At this point, the low beds will be all tomatoes and salad greens this year, along with flowers in some corners. The keyhole bed is being overwhelmed by pumpkins – I had to search for the Brussels sprouts this morning – and a couple of the flowers are already forming pie pumpkins. There are also carrots and peas in there, though the pea harvest will be done well before the pumpkins are ready. The garden tower has bite-sized tomatoes at the top, salad greens in the bottom rows, and marigolds filling in the rest.

Plot twist!

I walked into work Monday morning, only to walk back out within the hour carrying about half of my desk’s contents and some paperwork about the layoff process. (I went back later in the week for the other half of my stuff.) This wasn’t a complete surprise – we had been warned by management that layoffs might be happening in the near future due to some business changes – but there’s a huge difference between knowing a layoff might be coming to actually having it happen. I drove home, calling my best friend on the way, and unloaded my lunch bag and the box from my desk. After a quick glance at the paperwork – I knew I wasn’t ready to read the details – I did what felt like the most logical option: I went to a morning karate class. Stress relief seemed like a good idea.

After karate, I came home and polished my resume and copied the updates to LinkedIn, re-read my cover letter, and read through some of the paperwork. The actual job hunt would start Tuesday.

I’ve been at this job for about four years now, and it saw me through a number of significant changes in my personal life, not the least of which were a divorce, buying a new house, the sudden need for a new car, and earning my first degree black belt. That’s a lot in four years, particularly when you take into account that I was working full-time, and for a couple semesters, teaching an evening class on top of that. It takes a pretty incredible company with a good understanding of work/life balance to manage that. Unfortunately, even good companies have rough patches, which leads me to my current predicament. I will miss the amazing people I’ve been working with these past few years, yet I’m curious to see what new opportunities are out there.

Home improvement: windows

I knew when I bought the house that it would need new windows. The existing windows appeared to be from when the house was built, and windows have come a long way since then, both in the glass itself and the way they’re set in the house. New windows – I’m fairly sure they’re all double-paned now – would provide better insulation against the cold and allow less heat in through the glass. In fact, part of the sales demonstration was plugging in a heat lamp in front of a normal window sample and then a new window sample. (The next part was removing a cat from the sample bag so the samples could go back in.) There was also evidence of moisture settling into some of the window frames, which is never good.

All of the bedrooms had casement windows, which were a bit of a pain. In order to open the window, I had to open the screen on the inside, then unlatch and push the window open, and finish by clicking the screen shut again. The window by the kitchen sink was similar, but inexplicably, had no screen or anywhere to attach one, so that one never got opened. (I don’t want to let insects in or cats out.) The living room and large kitchen windows were floor to ceiling, with a casement window at the top of each. While planning the new windows, one of the company’s representatives noted that the kitchen sink and the guest bedroom windows were actually the same casement windows, just turned on their side. Apparently somebody had spare windows in that particular style when the house was built. Old living room windows - floor to ceiling, with casement windows opening at the top

The biggest decision when replacing windows seems to be whether to do it room-by-room or all at once. Since my reason for wanting new windows was for better temperature control (among other things, I don’t have A/C), it made sense to do them all at once and finance the change, knowing that the company I chose could almost certainly complete the change in a single day. That meant spending only one of my elusive vacation days, rather than needing to spread it out over several. As with any big purchase, I had estimates from multiple companies. The deciding factor was really that this company, Power Home Remodeling, could replace my three living room windows with one huge bay window.

New bay window in the living room My timing was just about perfect – the installation was on what had been the hottest day so far this year, the Friday before Memorial Day. Last weekend beat that day with temperatures in the mid- to high-90s all weekend, and I was delighted to have the new windows filtering out some of that heat.