Midwesting

So as most of you know, Mary, Jenny and I went on a midwest road trip last week.  It was great fun.  I won't bore you with all the details.  I'll just bore you with MOST of the details!  And a few pictures.  We flew to Detroit (Detroit!!!) two Wednesdays ago.  Our plane landed a little after 1 am, and we got to our hotel a little after 2, so we didn't really see much of Detroit, but we could feel the general spirit and ambience, and that's enough to make anybody's year.  Great way to start the vacation.  Sidenote- it turns out that THE BEST way to travel is with somebody who works for a major hotel chain.  Free/cheap hotel rooms and upgrades and amenities?  Yes please!  More on that to come.  The next morning, after what felt like about 5 minutes of sleep, we went back to the airport and picked up a rental car.  It wasn't quite the cherry red Corvette I was hoping for.  Instead it was a bright yellow Hyundai Veloster.  I've actually always liked Velosters, so I was happy, but yellow was kind of a stretch.  Anyway, we drove down to Sandusky, Ohio, where Cedar Point is located.  Cedar Point is one of the best amusement parks ever.  Anybody from the midwest will argue that it's the best, but I'd put it just about even with Magic Mountain.  Maybe a little better.  The day we were there, it was certainly better.  There were no lines!  We just walked onto whatever rides we wanted!  And they were all roller coasters!  So much fun!  Until about 5 or 6 when the heavens opened and Mary and Jenny were introduced to the phenomenon of midwestern rain storms.  Within about 5 minutes, we went from a very pleasant sunny day, to rivers and lakes where the sidewalks had been.  All the rides shut down and everybody took shelter wherever they could.  We huddled under one of the weight-guessing game booths, and then realized the nearby photobooth was empty, so we took refuge there (while Jenny sat out in the rain).  Employees were handing out plastic bags to wrap purses in because anything exposed to the rain was sopping within seconds.  It was kind of fun, but kind of a bummer.  It eventually stopped and we managed to go on one more ride before it rained again.  And the second rain was the real rain.  We ran to the car and just made it before all the land became a lake.  We had to drive to Cleveland that night, and it really was like driving through a lake.  But we made it. And Cleveland rocks!

Mary and Jenny on the log ride

No Lines!

Look at all those roller coasters! (this picture is NOT of the van- I just couldn't get the coasters without the van)

The next morning, we (Jenny and I) went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum.  Mary went next door to the science museum and watched an IMAX.  The Rock and Roll Museum was a lot of fun.  My favorite part was a special exhibit on Paul Simon.  He's always been one of my favorites.

This entire exhibit is for the Pink Floyd song 'Another Brick in the Wall'.  This was the number one song on the day I was born, so I was happy to see it had its own exhibit.

 After the museums, we went to a Creole restaurant downtown.  It might have been the best food of the whole trip.  It was delicious (and cost the same as the Subway sandwich we got at Cedar Point).
We drove around Cleveland a bit and then headed out to Holland (Michigan!!!).  That was about a 5 hour drive, so maybe not the high point of the vacation.  And most of it was through Ohio. Holland is a tiny town (Michigan is full of tiny towns, each with their own themes and varieties- I love that) on Lake Michigan.  It was settled by the Dutch, and is modeled after Holland the country.  Every spring they have a big tulip festival, and they had a lot of Dutch-themed stores and restaurants.  We got there kind of late so didn't do much that night.  The next morning, we went to a highly recommended diner for brunch (got there after noon, so I guess it was lunch). Delicious.  Enough said.  Then we hit the beach.  We were a couple weeks earlier than the earliest I've ever been to Lake Michigan, and apparently those couple of weeks make a big difference.  The water was cold!  It wasn't so bad that we couldn't get in, but it took a while to really get numb before it was comfortable.  So it was kind of a 'sit on the sand and people-watch' beach day.  Still a lot of fun.  It was 80 degrees and sunny. You can't go wrong with Lake Michigan.

That night we drove to Grand Rapids, about an hour inland.  The next morning, we went to church (to a ward that my new next door neighbors just moved away from!), then went to Meijer Gardens.  It's a huge botanical and sculpture garden.  We didn't do much there, just wandered a bit, but it was gorgeous. Then we went to find a Frank Lloyd Wright house in the area that we had heard does free tours on Sundays.  When we got there, we found a crowd of people waiting for the tour, but no tour guide.  There was a phone number on the sign, so Mary called, and listened to a message saying that there are certain Sundays each year when they're closed, including that Sunday (probably for Fathers Day).  Would've been nice if they'd put that on the website.  So we walked around and looked in the windows.

That area of Grand Rapids reminded me a lot of Ogden.  It looked like it was built around the same time as our Ogden neighborhood, with a lot of historic homes.  It was pretty.  Next we headed to St. Joseph, another tiny town on Lake Michigan. We didn't know anything about this one except that Jenny was able to get us a hotel room there.  It was wonderful.  The beach was perfect.  Long beach grass, clean white sand, warm (comfortable without numbing!) clear water.  Seriously great.  And the views were spectacular.  We spent a while on the beach and then went to the downtown area.  It kind of had a Park City feel, only on the beach instead of in the mountains.  Lots of people were out walking around, playing in a big fountain, etc.  Lots of fun.

Michigan gives me super powers!

Duck faces with the duck statue

Bright and early the next morning, we drove to Chicago.  Yes, I drove in downtown Chicago, and we all survived.  We checked into the Drake Hotel, which is THE hotel in Chicago.  The whole time we were there I felt like somebody was going to find out we weren't one of them and relocate us to the Holiday Inn or something.  But they were nice.  After our day's activities, we came in and the beds had been turned down and there was a plate of super fancy chocolates and macarons (not macaroons- their fancier cookie cousin the macaron) with a note from the general manager.  Jenny said this is a very nice amenity that hotels do and she was shocked that we got it.  But back to the day's activities.  We went to the Museum of Science and Industry.  This museum could be renamed 'The museum of everything you'd want to do in your summer vacation'. We spent all afternoon there and could have spent several more hours easily.  They had agriculture, cars, trains, planes, biology, anatomy, weather, chemistry, physics, a Tesla coil that they fired up every 30 minutes, even chicks hatching from their eggs! etc.  The place was huge.  Oh, and they had a mirror maze!  It was cool.  After the museum we went to Gino's East for deep dish pizza (and a chicken sandwich for those of us who don't like blue cheese or brisket on our pizza).  It was a really fun place.  Every surface was covered in signatures of people who have eaten there.  So we signed the wall.  And there were tons of photos of celebrities who have been there.  Walking back to the hotel, we found out that all of Chicago was under a tornado watch.  The sky was green and had very ominous clouds. I wasn't too nervous until I saw some Chicago natives rushing home talking about how creepy it was.  But the storm passed with nothing out of the ordinary.
The next day was fantastic.  We left the Drake and walked 1 1/2 miles to the Palmer House Hotel, the oldest hotel in the country.  We thought the Drake was nice- the Palmer House was incredible!  The guy at the front desk immediately gave us a free upgrade to the executive suite.  We were on a floor that required a special key card for access.  We got free appetizers (turned out to be dinner) and breakfast in the executive lounge.  The room was HUGE.  We had two bathrooms, bathrobes, etc.  I don't know that I can ever go back to regular travel.  Thank heavens Jenny was there and the employees wanted to take care of one of their own!  So much fun!  After checking in, we walked just down the street to the Art Institute Museum.  It's a great art museum.  It was three or four buildings all connected and filled with paintings, sculptures, armour, ancient pottery, etc.  Tons of great stuff.  We were there until it closed.  From there we walked over to Millenium Park.  It's a great public park with incredible playgrounds, an amphitheater where people were gathering to watch an outdoor movie, a bunch of sculptures (the bean, which I'm sure you've all seen in tons of facebook pictures). It's also right on Lake Michigan, so Jenny and I walked over for one last look at the happiest place on earth.  That night we gave ourselves a tour of the hotel.  There were something like 10 ballrooms, and they were all crazy fancy.  One of them had garnets in all the chandeliers.  This hotel was built around the time of the Chicago World's Fair, and it has seen all kinds of history.

Taking our picture in the bean

The Hancock Tower- a huge skyscraper

Jenny playing at Millenium Park

The ceiling in the lobby of the Palmer House

The next morning, after a fancy breakfast in the lounge, we lounged around our executive suite and then checked out at the very last minute.  And then we flew home.  Aaahhh....good vacation.

And one last picture of a random building we found in Ohio.

What the What?!?

I went for a run this morning.  This post isn't about running, but the story takes place during my run, so I'm just going to spill the beans here and admit that I'm a runner now.  I don't know how it happened.  A couple years ago I decided to see how far I could make it around Daybreak Lake before I died.  I got about halfway before I had to stop and walk.  After that, each time I went I would go a little further until by the end of the summer I could get around the lake no problem.  I didn't like it, but I liked how I felt afterwards.  So great.  Last summer I didn't do a lot of outside running (see the post on my probiotic fun if you want to know why), but every now and then I'd go for a run around the lake.  This year, since winter never really arrived, I found myself going for runs after work kind of often.  And I kind of liked it.  They were just short runs, but after sitting at a desk for 10 hours, they were just what I needed. I think they were also a good link between last year's running season and this year's.  So when running season arrived this year, I found that once around the lake was just a quick nothing to stretch my legs.  So then I tried another time around the lake.  And that was a workout.  But then I realized that was 6 miles, plus 1 mile roundtrip to my house.  So basically a quarter marathon.  Nice.  So I've been working up and seeing how much more I could do.  Today I did 10 miles!  In 95 minutes flat!  That's 9.5 minutes per mile!  I have no idea if that's good or not, but there it is.  I generally do a very steady 9 minute mile, but I tend to slow down towards the end.  Anyway, let's all just take a minute to reflect on the fact that I ran 10 miles today.  That's awesome.  Yes, I'm congratulating myself.  I don't care.  Christy, we'll talk.
Anyway...back to the story.  I was out for my run, doing three laps around the lake.  The first lap was great.  The youth in my stake were out doing a 5k, so I was smiling and waving at everyone as I passed them.  Spirits were high, everyone was having fun.  About halfway through the second lap, I took off my jacket and tied it around my waist.  Maybe half a mile later, I was just rounding the far end of the lake, and suddenly there was a crazy flapping commotion around my head.  I didn't see the bird that had caused it, but it was enough to make me cower and cover my head with my arms.  By the third lap, I'd forgotten all about it.  As I neared that far end of the lake again, I'd gone about 8 miles and knew I was going to make my 10 mile goal.  I was feeling great and just concentrating on my pace.  And then, at that same spot, I heard the flapping again, only this time, the bird also attacked, either with its beak or its feet- I just felt something sharp on my head.  I cowered again, but didn't want to swat it with my hands, because that might really start a fight. So I just ran faster.  I could hear it following me, but after a few seconds, it turned around and went back to its tree.  I kept running (you better believe I kept running!) but turned to look.  It was a male red-winged blackbird, and he'd gone right back to his perch in the tree, acting like nothing had happened.  I have no idea what his deal is!  All I can figure is that after taking off my jacket I must have looked like somebody who had wronged him or his family, and he was seeking revenge.  Just now I did some quick research on redwinged blackbirds and found out that the males will do anything to get attention (yeah, tell me about it!), and they're extremely territorial (I don't think I look like a threat).  Anyway, I love birds.  I've always loved birds.  And redwinged blackbirds have always been right up there in the list of my favorites.  But what this bird doesn't know is that I hold grudges.  So he'd better watch his back.  I know where he roosts.  The following link is a re-enactment of my experience, but must have been based on the bird's account- pretending he's all innocent.  Right.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EElxuL3AFC4

Check Out My Garden!

Well. I'm a believer.  Last year I planted my tomatoes the first week of May, and they froze a week later.  Then they spent the rest of the summer trying to recover.  None of the plants ever got bigger than a foot, and out of my five or six plants, I got about 10 tomatoes all season.  This year, IFA started selling their tomatoes and water walls in March.  I thought it seemed super early, but I use IFA as my farmer's almanac.  If they say it's time, I believe it.  I also use my neighbor as an almanac.  His yard always looks wonderful, so whatever he's doing in his yard, I try to discreetly do a day or two later.  Right now he's fertilizing and weed wacking, so I guess I know what my week holds.  But back to the tomatoes.  So two months ago I went and got 6 tomato plants and water walls.  I was a little skeptical that the plants could survive that early, but I figured it couldn't be worse than last year, and at the very worst, I could just replant in May and be right on time.  And wow! Those tomato plants have been growing out of their water walls for a few weeks, and I finally decided today was the day for them to make their debut.  They're amazing!  They're each about 2 feet tall and flourishing, with little blossoms ready to go.  I'll be eating tomatoes in no time!  I also planted a few varieties of hot peppers a couple weeks ago, and they're looking pretty great.  AND...I ate spinach out of my garden tonight.  I've been eating arugula since February.  It's the same arugula I planted my first year.  That stuff never dies.  Basically, as long as there isn't snow covering it I can go pick some. It's the stuff in the bottom picture with white flowers.  It's pretty awesome.  I harvested about two pies worth of rhubarb yesterday, my strawberries have started blossoming, my cucumbers are sprouting, and I've got various other seeds planted that I can't really remember right now.  It's going to be a tasty fresh year! On a somber note, I've decided to forego zucchini this year.  The last few years, I've had major squash bug problems.  I spend too much time EVERY SINGLE DAY during the summer picking off eggs, hunting and killing nymphs and adults, and spreading pesticide, and it's all no good. They still win the war and kill my plants and I get at most one or two zucchinis.  My hope is that if I go squash-free for a year, the bugs will move on and clear out of my garden.  I talked to a guy at the Utah State Agriculture Extension a couple years ago, and he said squash bugs don't really overwinter, but I'm going to try this anyway.  Or maybe I'll just plant super late and hope the bugs have already moved on.  I don't know.  Anyway, if anybody has any extra zucchini this year, I'll be accepting donations.

Quarterly Report

The accompanying Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Quarterly Report reflects all relevant updates which are, in the opinion of management, necessary for a fair statement of the results of operations for the interim period. The interim information and notes thereto should be read in conjunction with my latest Annual Report on Form 10-K. The results of operations for the three months ending March 31, 2015 are not necessarily indicative of results to be expected for the entire year.

Just kidding. I won't make you read my life in terms of a SEC filing, although I can't guarantee it will be any more entertaining. You might want to go make a snack before you start reading. So...what has Carolyn been up to? Well...let's see.
In January I replaced my sump pump. I woke up at 3 in the morning on a Friday to the the gentle whir of what sounded like a dying engine. Sometimes my furnace makes a whirring noise for a few seconds before the heater comes on, so I thought that's all it was. But it kept going and going. And going. For half an hour. Finally, through my half-wakefulness, I decided this was probably something that required my attention. I followed the sound to my sump pit, took off the lid, and found my tank completely full to the brim. So I got out of my wet vac and took care of the immediate issue with just a few full vacuum dumps to the toilet. Then I tried to go back to sleep, but instead spent the next couple of hours wondering how to fix the real problem. Who do you even call to replace a sump pump? I knew my parents had a spare sump pump in case I needed it, but I had examined mine, and knew I'd spend at least an entire Saturday trying to get the old one out and new one in and then there was no guarantee I'd do it right and I'd be worried for the next few years every time I heard it come on, wondering if it was attached right or if water was leaking into my walls somewhere. By the time it was actually time to wake up, I'd come to the conclusion that a plumber is the most likely person to call in this situation, so before work, I called a few plumbers and made the first appointment I could, for the next morning. The next day, a plumber came, checked it out, agreed with me that my pump was dead, went to his parts store, came back with a new pump, and had it sitting pretty in 20 minutes. It wasn't cheap, but at least I don't have to worry about it. And I think with the winter we've had, that pump has come on about four times. But at least it's there.
Interesting bit about the timing of that dead pump. I had a job interview that morning and needed a reason to be late for work. I don't feel good about claiming doctor's appointments or dead cars or whatever when they aren't real, so I'd been praying all week that I'd have a reason to be late. By Thursday night, I still hadn't come up with a reason. I hadn't told anybody that I was going to come in late; I was just planning on showing up about an hour late and hope it worked out. (I've never been more than about 5 minutes late, so I didn't know how it was just going to 'work out'. The sump pump was perfect. It was early enough in the morning that I wasn't late for my interview (though it was pretty close), but a big enough deal that I could use it as an excuse. Certainly, waking up at 3 in the morning and being stressed the rest of the morning isn't ideal for a job interview, but I'll take it.
The job interview: Doesn't matter what it was. I met Greg Miller (the CEO of the Larry H Miller group). We chatted very briefly as I was waiting to go into the interview. I wasn't sure I wanted the job anyway. The entire finance department would have been the finance manager and me. One of the things I don't like about my current job is because we have a small finance department, it's hard to get time off. So that wouldn't have helped. I was really just in it for the perks. I think the reason I didn't get it was because the manager asked me about my preference on a certain accounting style. It turns out the way my company does it is exactly the opposite of what his company does. He told me flat out that was the wrong answer in their company. Great. It's the right answer in mine, so there.
In February, I made a whirlwind trip to Seattle to prove to anybody who cares that I know nothing about market research. I'd been in communications with a certain company for a couple months about a job that seemed interesting because, if for no other reason, it wasn't finance. I was just surprised they gave me a phone interview in the first place. And I bombed the phone interview. It was half an hour of the guy asking me questions about how I would test a market for various conditions. I did my best, and then he would give me the answer and I would agree with him. I thought I did a pretty good job on the phone of letting him know I didn't know what I was talking about. So I was shocked to get an email later that day saying they wanted to fly me out for an interview. It was a few weeks before we could schedule the interview, and by then I wasn't feeling so great about this job. I don't know what it was. When I went to Seattle last year, I loved it and wanted to move there immediately. This time, it just didn't feel right. By the time I got to the interview, I kind of didn't care how it went. It was just a nice day off work. But I still tried. Basically it was five hours of people asking me questions that I had no idea how to answer. Most of the questions ended with the interviewer saying, "that's okay, we can move on." At one point, one of the guys asked me a math question. He wanted me to tell him the formula I would use to solve it, and then solve it. I sat there sputtering for about 10 minutes, and finally he put me out of my misery with the obligatory "that's okay, we can move on." I can only describe it as a stupor of thought. The next morning, after not having thought about that question at all, I came up with the formula and the answer easily. It was a really easy question. I was just having a stupid day. Needless to say, I haven't heard back on that job. The best part about that little trip was the flight home. The plane was almost empty! By the time we started boarding, there were maybe 20 people at the gate. We all got our own rows, the flight attendants were in good moods and gave us extra snacks and free headphones, even my luggage got an overhead compartment all to itself. It was magical. I didn't think airlines still flew flights like that.
In March, since I don't seem to be getting away from my job by getting a new one, I decided to go the other route and try the midsingles ward again. I've never really liked the midsingles ward. I so much prefer going to church with my neighbors, walking there in 3 minutes rather than a 40 minute drive, not having to care if my hair isn't perfect, having demographic variety in the ward, etc. But there has never been a single guy in my ward, so I thought I'd better branch out. I woke up early (the ward meets at 9), and drove downtown (oh, did I mention that the midsingles ward for the SOUTH valley area meets at the U?! Yes, the very north-eastern corner of the valley. That's handy). I made the trek downtown, and when I got there, it turns out you have to have a parking permit to park at church. Even on Sundays. I thought about parking anyway, but I looked around and all the other cars had permits. So I looked for street parking. The three street spaces I found were taken. So I turned around and went home. I don't feel like it was a huge loss, because in my experience with that ward (I used to go every now and then when they met in Midvale), there were more than 1000 people and it was nearly impossible to meet anyone. When I got home I went online and yes, indeed, you have to have a permit, and the only way to get it is to be registered in an institute class at the U. So instead I found the facebook pages to the local midsingles wards and maybe I'll try to step up my efforts at going to activities. Hopefully it's not just the weirdos who go to activities.

Last week I started my garden.  So far it's gone from this:

To this:

 And this

It may not look like much, but it represents many hours of hard work, and even a little bit of sunburn.

East Canyon

I decided to be the fun aunt this past week and took neices/nephew numbers 2,4,6, and 7 to East Canyon for a few days.  It was just going to be 4 days of hanging out, watching tv, playing in the snow, playing games, and eating too much sugar and junk and too few fruits/veggies.  And, based on the storm we got in the valley on Christmas day, I was sure we'd have tons of snow up there to make it fun.
As we came in view of the reservoir, we were kind of surprised by how little snow there was. It looked like kind of an average year, where we wouldn't really get to use any snow equipment, and if we tried to play outside, we would just get muddy.  So instead we settled in and started binge watching Psych, the kids' favorite show and the only show I own on DVD.  Over the next couple of days, each morning we woke up to more and more snow.  By the 2nd morning, the snow was up to my knees in the unplowed section of road.  It was the best snow I think I've ever seen up there.  And, even though we hadn't brought sleds with us (my car was packed as tight as it could possibly be packed just with food and luggage), some kind soul had abandoned a couple saucer sleds in the campground area.  We let them sit there for half a day, and they went unclaimed.  There were no cars and no people around, so we adopted them for the rest of our stay.  Some of us had a great time playing in the snow.
There was lots of this:

Number 7 and I went for a walk and saw bald eagles, deer, and animal tracks.  The snow was almost as tall as him, and it was still coming down hard and fast, so we cut the walk short.

The main sledding hill was pretty crowded so number 7 and I built our own.

Unfortuntately, there was also a lot of this:

A stomach flu started making its way through the group on the second day, so we cut our trip short and came home a few days early.  But I think we still had fun.  We got lots of tv binge watching, movie watching, game playing, snack eating, and snow playing in.  And we even got caught in 3 blizzards coming home.  Coming down Provo Canyon, there was a thick blizzard, with terrible visibility, but up ahead we could make out some blue and pink skies, and then suddenly it just stopped snowing and the sun was shining and we were out of the canyon.  It was pretty cool.

A Pain in the Back

Work has been stupid busy the past few months.  In a normal year, we do budgets and board packages August-November, so we can just count on those months being bad, knowing that we can breathe and catch up in December.  But this year, they started the budget process in July, and then they acquired a new company in August.  The acquisition has been a nightmare for a variety of reasons, so our busy months were wayyyyyy busier than normal.  And then, even after the board meeting in November, we've had several extra reports related to the acquisition that have kept us in overdrive, so we haven't slowed down at all.  I've had several pay periods with 20-30 hours of overtime.  And I'm a lightweight on my team.  A few guys had one or two pay periods with 80-90 hours of overtime.  Just overtime.  On top of their regular hours.  It became a normal thing for them to work until the wee hours of the morning, every morning, then come back for regular office hours, plus every weekend, for several weeks in a row.  

We just had our first financial month end close with the new company transferred to our accounting system, so as a little thank-you, the CEO scheduled two massage therapists to come in and do 15 minute back massages for everybody in finance.  I don't have much experience with back massages, but...  

One of my college roommates was from California, and her parents had a tradition of arranging for her to get a massage every time she went home to visit.  I went home with her twice, and each time, her parents got me a massage too.  The first time was my first ever massage and  I had no idea at all what to expect.  The lady turned on some relaxation music, told me to take off as much as I was comfortable with and then lie face down on the massage table with a sheet over me, and she'd be back in a few minutes.  I did as she said, and when she came back to start the massage she said, 'Um...you're going to have to take off more than that.'  She should have been more clear to begin with.  Anyway, I don't remember much else from that massage, except that I came out covered in oil.  Like, really covered.  I just wanted to go home and shower before I got oil on everything else.

My next massage experience came from physical therapy with my back.  I spent a couple months one summer after college going to physical therapy a couple times a week, and each time I would get electro shock therapy (I don't think it was called that, but I don't remember what it was called) that sent electric waves deep into my back muscles.  It was wonderful.  Then the physical therapist would come in and do a quick back massage.  All I remember from that was that he used a ton of petroleum jelly.  He would always wipe it off at the end, but I'd still be covered in it when I got home.  But I always enjoyed physical therapy.

So I was kind of excited for a back massage at work.  It was just the kind where you sit in a chair and the therapist does a quick shoulder/back massage.  Everybody who sits near me ended up with one massage therapist and I got the other.  They were all talking about how it was one of the best massages they'd ever had.  I don't know if it had just been too long since my last massage or what, but it wasn't what I was expecting.  For the whole 15 minutes, it felt like she was digging her knuckles into my back.  I kind of just wanted to excuse myself, but I didn't want her to feel bad.  Also, I must have had some crazy knots or something, because she spent almost the whole time on one small area of my back.  That spot of my back was sore for a couple days after.  I even checked for bruises a few times afterwards.  She kneaded my muscles so hard!  Maybe that's what it took to get the knots out.  I don't know.  But I didn't see anybody else walking around in pain the rest of the day, so maybe I got a bad massage.  But it was still a fun little perk after the months we've had lately.

The Great Mouse Scare of 2014

I know what you're all thinking. 'Carolyn, why on earth are you posting again so soon?!  You just posted three months ago!  Do you really have so much going on in your life that you have another story to tell us already?!'  Yes, it's true; after just three short months, something that may or may not be as exciting as rebuilding a fence panel has occurred in my life.  I'll let you be the judge.  Some of you have already heard this story.  I told you then that it had been the most exciting thing to happen in a while.  I wasn't kidding.  Sorry you have to hear it again.

In one corner of my yard I grow sweat peas and sunflowers.  The sunflowers are super sturdy and get around 7 feet tall.  The sweet peas are kind of viny and climb up the sunflowers stems.  It's my favorite part of my yard.  The picture below doesn't do it justice.  The bright yellow sunflowers are just perfect against all the pinks, purples, reds, and whites of the sweat peas.  And they smell incredible.  They all come into perfect bloom around late September and throughout October.  On the days when I manage to get home from work before dark I like to go stand in my flowers- not in front of my flowers or next to flowers; I climb right in among the stems and vines and breathe it all in.  I come out covered in leaves and poky things, but it's okay.

This year I decided to save the pea pods to be able to plant the seeds next year.  So every few days I would go out and look for mature pods. Then I would leave them on my counter to dry out.  Everything I read online said if you store them away too early, they would get musty and moldy and would be no good by spring.  So one night I left a few pea pods on my kitchen counter and went to bed.  In the morning I came up and found a scene from my nightmares.  One of the pods was lying open and the seeds had been scattered all over my counter and across the floor.  And I don't just mean that section of the counter.  I mean across the stove, a few feet away.  The ones on the floor were several feet away.  The only thing I could think was that I had a mouse.  It had found the pods, opened one, and carried the seeds all over the kitchen.  Which meant that mouse feet had been all over my kitchen counter and floor, including the stove top.  That grosses me out.  I spent my next hour at the gym coming up with a plan of attack.  I decided I was just going to have to be late for work that day.  I would go to the hardware store, get some poison, and put it in key spots around my house before I went to work.  Yes, it could have waited until after work, but that would mean a full day of a mouse (or mice) running free in my house.  And I know mice multiply fast.  Maybe by the time I got home there'd be several generations hanging out, bullying me into cooking for them.  So it had to be taken care of that morning.

But then my more rational side came back into control.  I got to thinking- there had never been any other evidence of mice in my house.  No poop, no scratching sounds, no bags or boxes of food in storage chewed open.I even had other food on my counter- bananas, tomatoes, etc, that hadn't been touched.  I had rodent problems in my houses in Virginia, and I know the signs.  There were no signs in my house.  So when I got back from the gym, I did a little investigating.  The open pea pod had no bite or scratch marks.  In fact, it looked like it had exploded, and in a violent way.  Which explained how the seeds scattered so far.  So I calmed down.  Apparently, when pea pods dry out, they explode.

Since then, I've been storing my pea pods in a paper bag.  Most of them dry quietly, but a few others have exploded.

This is what most of my pea pods look like as they dry.

This is what the pea pods look like after they explode.  Looks violent.

And one more picture for good measure. This is the 'Tree of Life' in Draper Park.