News, Fire Dancing, and Slacklining

I apologize for the long neglect. We've been doing lots of exciting things which I would love to blog about, and perhaps I will be able to catch up on some of the highlights soon. But I shall reserve this post for more current news and big things that have happened.

In case you haven't heard from other venues, we are expecting Baby Szalapski #2 to arrive in early August. The kiddos will be just a couple weeks shy of being exactly two years apart. I am now 12 weeks along, putting me on the brink of the second trimester, which means I have a bit of energy back, a little less nausea, and horrible heartburn. I've had to cut all red meats from my diet...I expect poultry and cheese will have to go within the next couple months. It did last time, anyway. This round I did not crave watermelon, but strawberries and cherries have both taken a turn.

We began the year with a wonderful few weeks with my sister, Zhenya. One of the many things that I love about Zhen is how she inspires me to be a little crazier, a little more fun, and to be more creative and less...well, boring. She had recently decided that she wanted to become a fire dancer when she finished school, so we spent our days devising homemade equipment.

This is a fire poi. It consists of a flaming ball on a cable, which is then spun and twirled about. Not the best picture, but we were mostly taking videos. We probably should have practicing the twirling bit before lighting them on fire, but we were a bit eager to make it more exciting. This video is an excellent example of how awesome it can be, once you get good. Unfortunately, we're not that good yet. We also had to redesign our poi, as the cable was too thin and broke.

Next we tried a fire staff-- more or less, a quarterstaff with both ends on fire. Ideally, someday we would like to have a full dance quarterstaff duel routine that we can do.

It worked quite well. We're considering trying a shorter version, although that might make it difficult to actually have a duel with them. Still testing that. For now, I'm mostly trying to get better at wielding the quarterstaff while it's not on fire. I admit, I go to the backyard to practice it...I'm a little paranoid about looking like the Star Wars kid before I'm good.

Zhenya and Robert both also learned how to breathe fire with some success. I did not feel particularly led to try it myself, because while the substances they used were relatively safe, they were also rather disgusting to have in your mouth. 

I decided to content myself with being the photographer. I rather liked the little fire seahorse in this shot:

In the circus mindset, we also purchased and began practicing walking on a slackline--kind of like a tight rope, but is a wider strap that is meant to be more slack. At this point, I am fairly consistently able to walk its length forwards, and occasionally able to do so backwards. I'm also working on being able to twirl a poi (not on fire, yet) while on it, and maybe even play a song:

For his part, Tiernan thinks it's great fun, although we haven't let him at the fire yet. He also keeps on wanting to try the slackline, or better yet, have us carry him across. Still working on that one.

New Hobby :: Project Herb Garden

I'll go ahead and admit that I'm one of those people who go through hobbies like teenage girls these days go through hair colors.  There is a reason that I haven't been on the computer much lately...the pleasant weather sent me hearkening back to my childhood and days spent gardening with my mom. Putting my first failed attempt at growing things behind me--as evidenced by the bare planter in this picture--I planned out a small herb garden. I found that cedar fence boards were far cheaper than other options, so I bought them and set about designing and building a raised bed.

Robert is quite supportive of edible gardening, and I love working with fresh herbs, although cost usually prevents me from buying them in the produce aisle.

I liked how it called upon my other hobby of woodworking to accomplish.

Tiernan is a little suspicious of my power tools. I try to teach him their names, but so far they're all 'bbbrrrmm' to him.

And this is all that was leftover of my wood. Pretty efficient, eh?

The finished box. Since the boards are only 5/8th thick, I added support bars to keep them from bowing under the weight of the dirt.

Countryside Nursery was having a fall sale, so I bought several herbs there. 

I was especially excited to find this Bay Laurel. I use bay leaves all the time in my soups. I remember seeing huge bay hedges in Russia, but since they are sensitive to the cold, I'd never seen one stateside.

I also planted some seeds that Becca gave me for my birthday. I'm using a clear Tupperware tub as a miniature greenhouse. I planted cilantro, oregano, dill, and a flower mix.

Tiernan has loved the extra time playing outside. We've reversed roles on who wants to stay out the longest, though...where I used to be dragging him back in against his will, now I'm coaxing him to stay out a little longer.

I thought I'd be able to do it all in one weekend, but I ran into trouble with getting soil to fill the bed. It was way too expensive to buy bagged dirt from Lowe's, so I ended up waiting until this past Saturday to go to the Natural Gardener, a nursery out on Old Bee Caves Road. There, Robert was able to help me bag our own bulk soil, enabling us to fill the bed for half the cost.

I turned over the grass and covered it with black plastic to ensure it would not be growing up through my herbs. Then I filled the bed with the dirt and compost we got at the nursery.

Then it was just a matter of transplanting the herbs and adding a mulch border. The herb bed contains three varieties of oregano, sage, chives, three kinds of thyme, lavender, and peppermint.

I reclaimed my planter for the cilantro, basil, and bay. These are more tender than the others, so when it gets cold I'll be able to bring them inside.

The seeds have begun germinating! As of this morning, everything except the cilantro was up.

It was important to me that the garden be very visible and convenient to get to--I feel like my planter at the apartment failed because I could never see it to remember to water it. It just so happened that the sunniest spot in our yard was right outside the kitchen door, and in full view out the window of my seat at the dinner table, so I'm happy.

He loves the dirt. Don't worry; I replaced his play place with another planter I wasn't using. 

Yet to be planted is the Cuban oregano, parsley, and rosemary. The former two will be going in a window box I'm building to go on the kitchen window sill, and the rosemary will be going out front. 

Chronicle of the Cotita Connection :: Part III

The second week, we went down to Gruene (pronounced like the color green) and visited a couple of Mom and Dad's old haunts from back in the mid 70s. Way back then they both worked at one of the canoe rentals on the Guadalupe River.

For those of you who have not met them, let me introduce Glenn and Jill, quite possibly the best parents in the world.

Here they are at the old Gruene Dance Hall, sitting at the very tables they did on many a night so many years ago.

We ate lunch at the Gristmill, which one of their friends had just begun building when they were there. The setting was beautiful, the food was excellent, and the company delightful.

I wish that I had more pictures of the rest of us, but the camera tends to point towards the cutest thing around, which usually happens to be Tiernan. Oh well.

It took Tiernan a while to warm up to his 'Poppers', but by the second week they were pretty good buds.

They liked blowing raspberries at each other

And Poppers introduced him to the time-honored Cotita tradition of looking for fuzzies in between your toes. I remember doing it with him, too.

Chronicle of the Cotita Connection :: Part II

On Friday, October 1st, we caravaned down to Mustang Island State Park, on the shore side of Corpus Christi. 

It was absolutely gorgeous. We spent most of the time playing in the sand, going on walks, and just enjoying our surroundings.

We also got to try kayaking on the ocean. It's a river kayak, so it's not made for it, but it was fun anyway.

And, of course, we ate lots of food.

I believe I was standing in the water to take this picture of our camp. The original plan was to stay on the beach until Tuesday. Until, of course, we met the "mosquitoes". I thought we had a mosquito problem in our yard. That was before I met the Mustang Island Giant Bloodsuckers.

For whatever reason, they liked Robert the best. He literally had hundreds of bites--he could have called in sick with the measles, yet again. (He got chewed up pretty badly at Enchanted Rock, as you may recall.) My current theory is that mosquitoes, which find their prey via sensing body heat, are attracted to the hottest people. Therefore, they go for Robert.

The mosquitoes were different from the ones I've experienced in Austin. As Robert aptly described it, their feeding was like being set upon by a hoard of miniature pterodactyls thirsty for blood. These mosquitoes were so large you could usually feel them landing on you, and being pricked felt like a needle. They could fly in the wind and were not repelled by normal methods.

So, the plan changed. Tiernan and I left Sunday afternoon with Robert, so that hard-working hubby could get back to NI on Monday. The rest of the family stayed one more night and packed out Monday.