Bad blogger

Having never been good at keeping a paper journal, I don't know what made me think I'd be better at the online version. Ah, well. We were on vacation for a week in beautiful Kennebunk, ME, then we had family visiting, then the lying-around-on-the-couch-recovering-from-family-visiting period, etc. etc. Plus I was doing a freelance project that ate into my normal blogging time. I guess part of my problem is that whilst blogging I always have the feeling that I should be emptying the dishwasher, doing laundry, other good housewifey things. Or, to be honest, sometimes I am lying around reading and being lazy instead. Reading other people's words is so much less effort than creating one's own.

BTW, I apologize in advance for not hyperlinking anything in this post. Cf. lazy above.

ASH turned 2 on August 1. Hard to believe 2 years ago at this time I was suffering the agonies of sore nipples and sleep deprivation and the deep terror that comes with the realization that you are entirely responsible for this little creature's well-being, and you'd better not fuck up. ASH today is the sweetest, friendliest, most gorgeous child you could ever hope to meet. Lately we've had a preview of terrible-two-ness (sample: Me: "Do you want some edamame?" ASH: "No!" [ASH then takes edamame and eats it.]) but it's easier to handle (at least so far, check back with me later and perhaps I'll be selling him on Craigslist) when I know it's all part of his developmental phase, and when at other times he runs full tilt at my legs and then gives them a hug, saying, "Ohhhhhhh, pat pat pat" because that's what we say when we hug him and he hugs back and pats us the way we do him. It's all too insanely cute for words. I still marvel at my incredible good fortune in being given this amazing child.

I think I'm appreciating him more this week because we are poised to leave him with my dad and stepmother for the weekend while T and I go to New York to catch a Yankees game in the last season before they tear down Yankee Stadium. Sigh. (As good Red Sox fans, we of course plan to root for Kansas City. I am trying to decide whether to be a jerk and wear my Red Sox hat to the game. Heh.) I am simultaneously excited to have a couples weekend and heartbroken at the thought of leaving him behind. This will be the first time we have done so for more than one night since he was born. It'll only be 2 nights, but it feels like a big deal. (His only other overnight was a year ago when my best friend got married and ASH stayed with my dad, with T and me saying we might come back and pick him up that night. Umm, didn't happen.) I know he will be fine but I am still going to miss him like CRAZY.

But we will enjoy baby-free-in-New-York time. We plan to eat with my brother and his wife at Les Halles (home of Anthony Bourdain, although I doubt he's ever in the kitchen anymore, what with gallivanting about for the Travel Channel and being a Top Chef guest judge and all. Fame, so time-consuming. There are always a million things I want to do in NYC and we never do any of them. And now my bro is moving up here to Boston to go to grad school, so it's goodbye, exquisite coop in the West Village. Sigh. I feel like we will never visit New York again without them there, which is of course untrue, but it's just so nice to visit them and New York at the same time. And did I mention their apartment is exquisite? View of the Chrysler and Empire State buildings? Ohhhhh...
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In other news--the garden, she ails. My once-mighty zucchini plants were attacked by the dreaded cane borer, a hideous white segmented worm that eats the stems from the inside out. Then the whole plant dies. This has happened to 6 of my 12 plants. Supposedly you can slit the stem, dig out the borer, and then cover up the stem with dirt so it can heal and the plant recovers, but I dunno. Suffice it to say we have not been having the zucchini overload I had anticipated. I get one serving of zucchini about every couple of weeks. Alas.

Not helping matters is the ridiculous amount of rain we've had lately. When we came back from vacation I actually found a small FROG in the garden. No lie. I can't imagine where he came from. I thought at first it was one of those hideous Darth-Vader-like squash bugs, and I was squaring my shoulders at the thought of the murder I was going to have to commit, when I looked closer and saw what it really was. I wonder what's happened to him now that it's a little drier. When it's too wet I also have the problem that my insecticide and fertilizer are made to be dissolved in water and sprayed on, so I have to either water a garden that desperately doesn't need it so I can kill bugs or feed the plants, or...not.

The tomatoes are doing OK so far, although a number of the leaves have brown spots and I don't know if it's OK or some kind of death knell for my only happy plants. The orange cherry tomatoes are the best producers at this point. The red cherries are poky, as well as really too big for optimum pop-in-your-mouth eating. The Brandywine tomatoes are HUGE, and the one that's nearly ripe is already cracking, which I think is bad although I'm not sure. I hope it doesn't rot or fall off the vine while we're gone. Maybe I should bring it to my dad. That's an idea. And my eggplant! She is so pretty! Swelling like a woman in the 3rd trimester. And I haven't checked lately, but I think another eggplant is on the way. I hope there isn't some kind of eggplant borer no one's told me about. Sigh. This whole garden thing is really more trouble than I was led to believe, Mr. Square Foot Gardening. Better luck next year, I hope.

Roses doing great. I can see now that the sad little new ones that weren't doing well--all they needed was more water. Oops. They are so much happier now. At least somebody is!
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And finally--TV check-in. I was happy Joshua won So You Think You Can Dance, although I TOTALLY thought it would be Twitch. I mean, come on! Josh was great but not (for me) nearly as entertaining. Still, I was happy. We are completely behind on Project Runway and have yet to form opinions much, although I loved Suede's winning dress in the green challenge, even though Suede himself seems like a total tool. (I mean, "SUEDE"? WTF kind of name is that?) In Olympics thoughts, it is TOTALLY TOTALLY unfair that women's beach volleyball players have to wear these itsy little bikinis and the men wear the most hideously unflattering, body-hiding singlet-type things. Give me some bare chests! And shorter shorts! (When I was saying this yesterday, T pointed out, "Hey, this isn't Top Gun." Well, it SHOULD be.) Don't get my wrong, the bikinis are cute, and the women look great in them, and I guess the scantiness is fairly appropriate in this context. I would just like equal-opportunity scanty. Get on that for 2012, London, OK? At least for swimming and diving there is some good ogling potential.

That's all for now. Got to go pack for the weekend. For some reason I don't have much trouble packing for the whole family to go somewhere, but packing for ASH to go one place and me another is somehow defeating me. I'm terrified I will forget to pack something major. Like diapers. Luckily, I'm pretty sure my dad knows where to buy them. ;-)