Friday, May 23, 2008

Tornadoes and Vacations, Birds and Gardens

Just a quick update before we go to Tennessee for a week! Lots has happened.

Thanks, Why S? for thinking of us! Luckily the tornadoes in Colorado yesterday skirted my city (as they always do); being nestled against the foothills does have its perks. My husband was teaching on the last day of school when a tornado hit the town he teaches in, however; it missed the school by 2 blocks, but destroyed the homes of many students. We wish we were not leaving town tomorrow, as we would head over with our truck, work gloves, and tree saws to help out.

We are personally lucky that our Corolla only sustained a severely cracked front windshield and a large collection of dents from the hail; cars a few spaces over were relieved of their bumpers, windshields, and more. We planned on driving it into the ground anyway, so the dents aren't too much of a problem; it will just be the UGLY, DENTED tan Corolla now.

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On birds... I realized while reading Chile Chews that I missed a perfect opportunity to try roasted robin on Monday. Ah, well... I AM a vegetarian. I thought I saw the other baby robin up on the fence today; I am hopeful that it at least will make it to adulthood.

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My parents came to visit this week, and brought quite a few seedlings to plant. We found spots in the front gardens for all of them, and mulched them with leaves in the hopes that they might survive a week without care. No pics, but I will take pictures of what survived our absence when we return.

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I FINALLY picked my book for Green Bean's book challenge this month. I will be reading Affluenza: The All Consuming Epidemic by John De Graaf et al, and Con$umed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Ifantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole by Benjamin R. Barber. Reviews to come after my hours traveling.

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Finally, we are going to Knoxville, Tennessee, for a week! This is the first vacation in quite a while for us. We are going with my husband's parents, and it should be a blast! We are already planning to visit such attractions as the Biltmore Estate, and no trip with my father-in-law would be complete without ogling finely cut stone accents and architecture, so I should have LOTS of pictures when we return.

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Look for the removal of the siding when we return... it will be a BIG surprise that you don't want to miss! We know there is brick... but what else? Stay tuned...

10 comments:

Robj98168 said...

Have a great time- glad you "missed" the tornado or rather it missed you! ENjoy Biltmore

Jen said...

I thought about you this morning when I heard the news, glad you are ok. (My Toyota has hail dents right now from 2 years ago.sigh)

Biltmore is beautiful, you will enjoy it. Take the behind the scenes tour. It is worth the extra money. Ashville itself is a neat town. Knoxville is a typical SEC college town. But on a river.

Be careful and have fun.

Green Bean said...

Have a great time on your vacation. Prime reading time!

As to the robin, I'm glad you didn't eat it. :( Hope the other one remains okay.

Chile said...

We lived in Colorado Springs for a year a long time ago and considered relocating there permanently. In that year, we observed that the plains seemed to get hit by tornados and hail quite often, but not the areas nestled up against the mountains. Obvious to you, probably, but new to us desert rats.

Hail dents are probably less ugly than huge dents along the side from some idiot without insurance plowing into ya.

Have a great vacation and enjoy your books!

Why S? said...

Glad to hear you're ok. Enjoy your vacation. I look forward to your reporting.

Wendy Bredhold said...

Hi, Jennifer.

I happened upon your blog while researching MY tiny old white-aluminum-sided house (I've learned that it's actually got a "style" - Minimal Traditional).

I see that we also share an interest in things "Green" - my hubby and I try to use salvaged and energy efficient stuff in our eternal remodeling project.

I'll be back to follow your progress - and maybe pick up some tips!

Jennifer said...

Can't wait for the reveal!

Anonymous said...

Wendy will do well to stick around. Ethan and I were just remarking that you've one of the most interesting blogs to read.

Anyhow, glad to hear that you're ok. And don't worry about the corolla - it probably looks more 'paid for' now (that's what we've come to call cars that don't look people are still making car payments on).

Glad to hear you and the hubby are ok. Aweful nice of you to think of helping others in the community. We're fortunate in this area of MD to rarely deal with the fallout of natural disasters (although we have our share of other kinds of problems that can use volunteer help, for sure).

Anyhow, I can't imagine that Robin tastes all that good -- but what do I know.

Looking forward to the siding reveal - I imagine you'll have to change the picture on the blog.

Jayne said...

Oh, have fun on your trip! My mom went to Biltmore a couple years ago and loved it. I am soooo looking forward to the siding reveal. As a show of solidarity, I pried up a couple of cedar shingles from my front porch so we could see the original clapboard underneath. I'm not brave enough for the whole project yet.

Larry said...

Glad to hear the tornados passed you by!

Have fune while away.