Boxwood Birds

I stopped by Home Depot on my way home from work today to find some boxwoods. There weren't any 18 inch ones, so I grabbed a few of the small ones since they were a good price. Making the shrubs into birds wasn't quite as easy as the article suggested. It said "part the boxwood in the middle..." There was definitely nothing saying "...sometimes your plant will break in half. " I'm sure I would have remembered it. Anyway, I made two birds - hopefully they will look better as they grow and I'm able to shape them a bit more. I do have a third boxwood, but I'm going to try growing it for a while before I work on it.

P.S. - Please feel free to suggest names.

Happy Easter

Lilac - Syringa vulgaris

I've been wondering what this plant was (not too hard, I probably could have ID'd it by the leaves if I'd tried) and today when I went out to check on the garden it was quite clear.

One of our apple trees has started blooming and the crocuses we planted late (because of the move) are coming up as well.

We also found two lonely asparagus stalks growing in the big planter behind the garage. Something else - garlic maybe - is also growing there.

Better Ducks and Pasta

Yesterday afternoon Sami and I were going through the mail. I was ripping up my magazines pulling out pictures of kitchens and bathrooms and cool hardware and stuff when I found an extremely cute project in Better Homes and Gardens. Duck topiaries. Normally I'm not a big fan of such artificially shaped plants, but these seemed quick and easy and fun (and I think Sami's love of ducks is rubbing off on me).

Then, as I continued through the magazine I found a recipe for homemade Spinach Pasta. Neither Sami or I had ever made pasta before, but we did have a big bunch of spinach in the fridge, so it seemed like a good idea. To go with the pasta, the magazine suggested Chervil-Chicken Saute (made with baby portabella mushrooms and balsamic vinegar). We used parsley instead of chervil... I think we planted some chervil seeds a few weeks ago, but I don't actually know if we like it or not.

Anyway, the pasta turned out ok. Not very spinach-y and a little chewy. I think our flour is too glutinous, maybe I'll use whole wheat next time instead of white. Also, I think if we cut the pasta bits smaller they might cook more evenly. The chicken was very good. Sami actually licked his plate...and mine too. We'll definitely make it again, hopefully with chervil next time.

I also cut out a recipe for a Beer Rye bread made using a Belgian-style ale. The picture looks great and the recipe doesn't seem too difficult. I don't know if we can adapt it to work in the bread machine, but we'll probably try that later this week.

See a watt, Kill A Watt

I never should've watched that movie... One of the scariest movies I've seen - it ranks right up there between "The Birds" and "Hannibal". I'm talking about the Inconvenient Truth, and it freaked me out. So, with the new house, we've been planning all sorts of energy saving renovations (new windows, heat pump for heating/cooling, insulation). We even had our Energy Trust of Oregon Energy Review. The guy told me that getting new windows would be idiotic, but our wall insulation sucks, and the electric furnace needs to be dumped (oops, I mean "recycled"). Also, water heater temperature should be turned down, incandescent lights should be replaced with compact fluorescent lights etc.

As part of our energy saving mania, I got a new toy, Kill A Watt. It's nothing else but a power meter you plug in series with your whichever electrical gadgets, and it tells you how much power they consume. Tons of fun. One surprising discovery: our coffee maker burns about 900W when it's brewing! I guess it makes sense; I just never thought about it. Gotta have my coffee fix, though - do I have to start going to Starbucks now?

The energy review guy also said that, in regular houses, there are three items that consume most of the energy: heating/cooling, water heating, and the fridge. So, Kill A Watt had some work to do: I had it plugged in with the fridge for almost a week, to figure out how much that #3 energy hog is actually hogging. The result: 57.4W (6-day average)...?! A single incandescent bulb, left on somewhere in the storage shed would burn more than that!

I'm pretty sure our computers have claimed the bronze metal in this race... or have they? Does our house fall into the "regular" category at all? More data is needed... so, Sara's computer is now plugged in with the Kill A Watt. We'll see how it goes.

I Must Be a Ninja

Excellent advertising.

If I didn't already have these, I think I'd have to buy some.