The Word of the day is "Outside"

Since the previous post was sponsored by the letter "d" it seems only appropriate that this post has a word of the day. Outside seems to be the most appropriate, because that's about where we are all day long here in Santa Barbara. In the course of the last two weeks, we have been very busy being "outside." Obviously, Scupper needs a daily dog park/trail/hike/beach/something to keep him exhausted, so we've been trying out the new options Santa Barbara has for us.

At first, I was bummed because they didn't have any organized dog parks, per say, save for one. However, we've been pleasantly surprised the amount of general "off leash" areas, or, as the locals have told me, "areas where technically they should be on leash, but no one checks so it's ok." There is a trail system in the woods, a section of the local beach, a nature preserve that is 300 feet up from the beach overlooking the Channel Islands,and a 230 acre off leash trail/hike/park that is supposed to be by "membership" only but no one has asked yet, so we are just going until the new year starts and we'll pony up the membership fee to support the non-profit nature park. With all of these options, we are out at least for a hour to 90 minutes each morning, longer if I let Stella out of the hiking backpack to walk the traill too... which most days, I do. It's more fun to watch her pick up sticks, touch big boulders, and dig in the dirt. It just takes longer to get from point A to point B. Sometimes Scupper even gets fed up and starts barking, as if to say, come ON!!

The rest of the day, Scupper becomes a dog possessed. See, we have gophers. Lots and lots of gophers.



So many gophers in fact that Scupper is convinced that he smells them out there (or hears them) ALL THE TIME. So he'll come inside, sit on his pillow, try to sleep and 15 minutes later he's whining at the door to go outside, hoping it will be THAT one time when he gets the gopher.

Fat chance. It's like Caddyshack, only Scupper is Bill Murray. And doesn't have the lisp.

Stella is also possessed, by the lure of the swing. The problem with a swing... is that you have a swing. Get it?

Here she is in her favorite spot. (also with a music card that my mom sent for Halloween. Thanks mom. I love listening to the "Monster Mash" 15 times in a row... no, seriously, it's cute... we just have to hide it sometimes.)

I'm also trying to find "educational" things to do with Stella each day because I feel bad she's not at an organized preschool or day care with other kids. (We have got to find a play group with other kids her age, I think). We are going to plant a winter garden (although we might have to find a way to prevent the aforementioned gophers from eating all of it) and so we bought seeds and peat pots to start lettuce, beets, snow peas, and snap peas. She had fun digging in the dirt, sprinkling the seeds in the pots, sprinkling the seeds in the bag of dirt, sprinkling the seeds on the porch... We might have buttercrunch lettuce sprouts popping up in weird places, but she did a great job at understanding the process, I think.

Today we made whole wheat pumpkin muffins that are REALLY tasty. (We roasted a pumpkin yesterday and pureed it in the blender. Not that you have to do this... we just had a baking pumpkin that needed to be used because Steve objected to pumpkin soup. The man really dislikes any type of winter squash. What a bummer).

Cooking with toddlers can actually be very fun. At 18 months, she's doing pretty good... usually I can get her to mix up the flour and shake in spices. She likes shaking in spices a lot. (I think our homemade pizza crust this week had a LOT of oregano from all her shaking). She also likes to eat the dry flour mixture. I have no idea why, but whatever. Here she's mixing up the pumpkin. She's not totally understanding the concept of STIR but does understand how to beat the spoon up and down, which makes for an interesting spray of batter all over the counter. She also wasn't totally into the concept of putting the muffin liners in the pans ... one per pan ended up being ok, but then when I started to fill them, she started putting the extra liners on TOP of the already placed muffin batter. Hmmm... We'll have to work on it. On the counter in the white bag there are also 8 persimmons from our tree out back. The tree is very near the neighbor's house, so she brought up the bag for us to enjoy, and included a few key limes and meyer lemons from the back bushes. (We share the expansive backyard with another couple who lives in a converted stablehouse).

I am just in awe of all the fruit trees here. On Tuesday, we collected 8 very large seedless Valencia oranges and made juice that was the most amazing color of orange-  and a wonderful rich flavor. Last week, I made lemonade from all the lemons on the neighbor's tree that overhangs into our yard. Everyone in the neighborhood has fruit trees - and this time of year, the citrus is just dripping off them... and I can't believe how many people just let them go - how could you not just want to harvest the bounty that is growing in your yard? I can't imagine ever being blase about it...

Santa Barbara proves to be an interesting place. I don't think we realized how "small town" it really is until this past week. There is no Target here within 45 miles. There is no Walmart. There is, however, a Costco, which was a surprise. There is no Lowe's. There are hardly any of the major department or chain stores that were a dime a dozen in San Diego.  (there isn't a fabric store... bummer...but there is a quilt shop with specialty cotton and a yard/tea store - um hello?? Yarn and tea? Could that be my nirvana?). There is a sign ordnance, so nothing has any towering signs on any of the major streets or off the freeway. In many ways, i think this is awesome. It, however, was god-awful hard to find a toaster. and a shower rack.

And then I discovered the local hardware store, and was in love. It reminded me of our local "Tom Best" hardware store in Delaware. They had everything - all under one roof and it was privately owned... and so busy with contractors, farmers, housewives (like myself)... so this made me happy. A toaster, a shower caddy and a bag of dirt and seeds later, Stella and I were all set... and I didn't seem to miss the $1 section at Target anymore. Besides, what would i do with the $1 section at Target if we spend most of our days.... OUTSIDE ?

(oh - and for those of you who need a cute Halloween costume fix, may I present, the cheeky monkey).

Sponsored by the Letter "D"

D = Dissertation

D = Done Dissertation

Therefore,

D = Doctor, or, PhD

D = Dog and Daughter have no idea what that means save for the fact that

D = more time to play with them!

I still can't believe that five years have come, rather unceremoniously, to a close, or, as my friend Summer so wonderful suggested to me in comments on the previous post, it's not over, rather I'm transforming.

So here's to transforming! Maybe I will finally finish the wedding present that was started 5 years ago for my friend, who is now having her second child in the next few weeks and celebrated her 5th wedding anniversary this Spring... Maybe I can pretend it was for the baby? ;) Maybe I will finally finish that quilt that I was making for our couch, which I also suspiciously started ... FIVE years ago. Maybe I will finally get the recipes in that cookbook that I bought for myself... wait for it... FIVE YEARS AGO. Noticing a trend?

A few years ago, my friend Michael called me up, after I was practically crying about how hard it was to finish writing the two chapters for my qualifying exam with an 9 week old puppy on my lap, and told me to read page 82 in Writing Your Dissertation in 15 Minutes a Day. Page 82? Why?

Page 82: If you have any choice, there are changes in your external life not to make while you're writing a dissertation. Don't move, unless you've just been evicted. Don't renovate. Don't get a puppy.

I don't remember if he laughed and directed me towards the book again when I told him I was pregnant.

So I guess five years, a puppy, a baby, and 215 blood/sweat/tear pages isn't bad. I'm not saying the thing was brilliant, but let's remember the word of the day.

D = done.