Project 365: Day 106

July 18, 2009
Softball BBQ Birthday

Paul and Mark have birthdays that are less than a week apart. Years ago it became their tradition to have a big, joint birthday party. Tradition was set that the day starts with a softball game and ends with a BBQ and a keg. The tradition took a little break while we were living in Boston. Now that Paul and Mark are both back in town and Paul and I have a house that is capable of hosting such an event, the softball/BBQ day has been revived.

Carrie's dog Truman

We started the day off with the softball game at a park in our neighborhood. We played under a sky that looked menacing and temperatures that were unseasonably cool. As hosts and birthday boys, Paul and Mark got to be team captains. They picked teams the old-fashioned gym class way, which means somebody had to get picked last. Gasp! I woke up with a backache which resulted in Paul spending the morning threatening to not pick me for his team. Luckily, I did get selected for his team and it wasn't just because I was the last person left. Everyone played hard and, if they are like me, are feeling quite sore today.

After the game, we headed back to our house for a potluck BBQ, to drink the keg and to properly christen the firepit. Paul and I had made a fire for the two of us a few weeks after moving in, but this was the first time we had a crowd over to fill in the 360 degree seating. We figured out that it is an 18-seater!

Mary and Ronnie brought these cute olive/cream cheese/carrot penguins and Shannon made Paul's birthday cake in his likeness!

It was so much fun to get to know Paul's group of friends better and to be able to host everyone comfortably in our house. The person we bought the house from said he enjoyed entertaining and made a lot of updates to the house with that in mind. I think he did quite a good job of it!

Paul's Birthday in 3 Parts: Part 3

Last, but certainly not least, on the birthday celebration docket: Softball BBQ. For over 10 years, Paul and Mark have been co-hosting a day of softball followed by an evening BBQ and keg party in honor of their birthdays. They are each captain of their own ragtag softball team and usually pick team members gym class style. This year, to shake things up, teams were selected through a randomizing phone app. Hooray for technology being used to prevent hurt feelings, instead of causing them!

Save for a brief rain shower, we had a great day for playing ball at a local park. A second rain shower later in the afternoon provided a spectacular, full rainbow.

We had an assortment of spectators of all ages...

and breeds.
After the game, we headed back to our house for a evening of friends, food, fire and beer.

Paul explained the food options to everyone...

and a line promptly formed.

Some people get excited about meat! Nearly everything at the BBQ had bacon in it (corn salad with bacon, 7 layer salad with bacon, bacon wrapped appetizers, even the bread had rendered bacon fat in it!)

The entree was Smoked Chuck Roast on Chile Cheddar Bread. Paul followed the bread recipe from this site and made up his own smoked meat recipe.

Despite all of the meat, I did find some fruit and veggies to eat. My mom always taught me that you have to eat your dinner before you can have dessert and I wasn't going to miss dessert! Co-worker and friend Sarah brought a fruity dessert to share. She made a Tangy Lime and Mango Sauce with Triple Sec over Angel Food cake (recipe, Sarah?). I baked Guinness Gingerbread Cupcakes with Dark Chocolate Frosting following this recipe. Yum! I ate some of each.

We finished off the night sitting around a backyard fire, hula hooping, drinking and making merry. If it wasn't so much work to host this party, we would do it more than once a year!

So, for one last time until next year, Happy Birthday Paul!

Softball/BBQ/Homebrew

Well folks, we have another Softball BBQ under our belts.  This year marks year 3 (year 1, year 2) at our house and involved a new twist: homebrew!  Paul and Mark brewed 2 batches of beer exclusively for this party.  They were a hit (punny!)!

This year I relished the company and focused on hostess duties instead of taking pictures.

However, Josue's fruit shark most definitely warranted a run inside for the camera.  His creation was fun from all angles with cherries for eyes and a watermelon fin.

At long last, the weather has made a return to normal!  We had perfect weather yesterday.  And today, we awoke to a chilly but sunny morning with cool breezes and beams of sunshine making their way through the bedroom window.  It was glorious to have a cup of tea in bed while chatting with Paul about the previous day's merriment.

Today's agenda is simple: relax and soak up the day at a slow pace.  It fits the bill.

Paul's Birthday in 3 Parts: Part 2

Sometimes the second time is the charm. Paul's birthday weekend was supposed to include a canoe trip the day after his birthday. We woke up to severe storms that day, so we opted to reschedule to this past weekend.

We were glad we waited because it turned out to be an ideal day to paddle down the Mississippi River. The start of the day was overcast and mild, turning sunny and warm by the end of our 8 mile trip. We arranged our trip through Clear Waters Outfitting Company. They were super easy to work with and have a great package for an easy day trip. They provided the canoe, paddles, jackets and shuttle. We just had to show up with our picnic and sunscreen and get in the boat.

For some of the trip we paddled, but for a lot of it we just let the river take us along. We had great conversations, listened to the frogs croak, spotted an occasional fish jumping out of the water and had a few close encounters with a bunch of Canadian geese. We later learned that this part of the Mississippi is too shallow for jet skiers and speed boaters. It was a super quiet and peaceful stretch of water. We could even hear cows mooing in a nearby pasture!

I was wearing a shirt. I swear.

We had some dragonflies hanging out with us for a bit of the trip. They were really into perching on us and totally did not respect our personal space bubbles. They were even landing on our faces! Despite the lack of respect for our personal space, I was happy to have them along because anything that eats mosquitoes is a friend of mine.

We opted to hold out on our picnic until we found a good spot to stop, which we ended up finding on an island near the end of our route. According to our map the island has a name, but the only sign there said "toilet" to which someone had added "island". So, for us it will always be Toilet Island. The downside...the toilet was this:

Fortunately for me and my full bladder, I had brought a pack of tissues. I'd say this ranked just slightly above squatting.

Our picnic lunch featured some new recipes:

Lemon Dill Deviled Eggs (inspired by this recipe, modified to use kefir cheese*)

Cucumber Salad with Tarragon Cream (inspired by this recipe, modified to use kefir cheese and toasted sesame oil)

Cherries

Olives

Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies with Candied Ginger (made following this recipe and not modified at all!)

And, to drink, Paul had some birthday beer. The day before the trip, we went to a new beer store where Paul was given free reign to choose the beer he wanted to drink while floating down the river. The very knowledgeable staff at The Four Firkins helped him choose this Halcyon wheat beer. It was spot on.

It was a lovely day on the calm waters of the mighty Mississippi.

Part 3 of Paul's birthday will be happening this weekend with the annual Softball BBQ.

*I plan to tell you more about this kefir cheese soon.

Multiple Choice Question

Trinity is...

a. having trouble keeping up with all of the produce coming out of the garden.

b. in a bit of a knitting funk.

c. in the midst of changing jobs.

d. all of the above.

Answer: D

I'll fill you in on the details of a, b and c as soon as I can, but please be patient. I am trying to keep up with the breakneck pace as of lately.

For now, I'll just mention that the last event of Paul's birthday (an all day softball, BBQ, keg party) went really well. We had great weather and a great big group of people. The game was at a local park and the BBQ and party was at our house. It was really fun (and a lot of work!) to host the event, but I think everyone (us included) had a good time. (Apparently, in my sleepy state, I have become overly dependent on parentheses to make my point.)

About Town

I am entering one of my busy phases at work, which means I use up all of my words during the day.  

In lieu of lots of words, I have a few sights from around town to share and a few words to go with them.

Post Softball BBQ Breakfast Locale

Lake Nokomis

Soaking up this hot weather with visits to the lake.  Last week included a  bike ride and a beach picnic with my mom.

Bella Lana, a beautiful yarn store in NE Minneapolis, will be closing in a few days.  We made a stop there over the weekend to check out the sale and visit the shop dogs one last time.

Kisses

Lean into it

Sunday (and today for that matter) was HOT.  We had high hopes for productivity around the house with dehydrating, beer brewing, laundry washing, etc...until the power went out.  My yarn and I headed out to enjoy an iced chai and some bonding time at Butter Bakery while the car boiled in the parking lot.

After working on the same sweater All. Summer. Long. I started a new project.  I needed some fresh yarn in my knitting world to get excited about it again.  I will still finish my Paulina but for now I have shifted focus to Madigan.

Then, I went home to find the power had come back on and gone out again.  Since neither of us felt like letting the cold out of the fridge, we decided to treat ourselves to momos.  I love momos.

Chicken Shenanigans

These girls of ours are starting to get a heck of a lot more adventurous during their free range time. We let them out each evening for a minimum of an hour or two and longer on the weekends.  Invariably, I often peak out the window and catch them up to something they shouldn't be doing.

Like ending up on the wrong side of the garden fence or sometimes ON the garden fence.  It seems to happen by accident as they usually look baffled about how they got separated from their buddies.

Sometimes they journey up onto the deck and peek in the window.  Fanny doesn't know what to make of their visits.

Camilla is the worst offender when it comes to exploring and perching in places we would rather her not be. This quality also makes her our most charming and endearing flock member.

Nellie is our stable and steady bird. She isn't too skittish or too brave. She isn't too aggressive or too shy. She just does her thing.

Petunia has become cleverly evasive.  She is nearly impossible to catch unless you team up with someone else and corner her somewhere.  I am not sure why she is so fearful of being touched.  She will come close to be fed and hangs out with the other ladies as they come and go from the run.  She just avoids all physical contact with us.  I am hoping her charm will be her blue/green eggs.  But, as of yet, no eggs!

They very much enjoyed some of the leftovers I shared with them from the softball BBQ, including this bread.  As a result of the party, they also lost their innocence. More specifically, they were fed some chicken leftovers. Paul made pulled chicken from whole chickens for the BBQ and had leftover carcasses. I hemmed and hawed before letting him feed them the carcass.  For the record, they seemed to have no moral qualms about it.

Do you know what the birds aren't doing?  Keeping the yard free of other wildlife like the plethora of bunnies that have found the weak parts of our garden fence and are wreaking major havoc on our garden this year.

Or the squirrels who have pulled down every single apple from our 2 apples trees only to eat a bite or two and drop them into the yard. Come to think of it, I wonder if the squirrels and chickens are in cahoots on that one since it is usually the chickens who eat the dropped apples!

I learned the hard way about letting the chickens free range at dusk.  They end up places they should not be.  Like on top of the run, from which they could very easily hop over the fence into the alley.

The problem is as the light shifts, this starts happening earlier and earlier each night.  I have to be paying close attention to the onset of dusk or I come out to this scene.

I think they have an easier time getting on top of the run now that we installed our raised bed at the end of the run.  On the day I put it into place and filled it with dirt it was hot and humid out.  The chickens took the opportunity to nap in the cool soil while I ran to the garden center for my bags of dirt. I didn't have the heart to kick them out so I held off on filling it up until they were done napping.

Now that they are almost fully grown, the feathers that they shed are pretty substantial.  I have started a little collection in this jar just inside the back door.  I am not sure what I will do with it but at this point it pleases me to just have them hanging out there.

Their patterns and colors are very worthy of admiration.

For now, they are backyard pets but very soon we should have eggs.  I hope my next update will include egg pictures!