Tomatoes and Chives

Monday, 28 May 2012

The highlight of my day was finishing up this small area near our workshop. Over the past couple of months, I’ve been slowly arranging the bricks around this recatngular spot by the door. Originally, it was part of a larger cordoned-off area of retaining walls, but I broke it free by rearranging the bricks. The larger area will eventually go back to regular lawn (so my kids have more area to play), but this spot – approximately six feet wide by four feet deep, is now a garden. Jennifer loosened up the soil and, with intermittent assistance from Owen, extracted all the weeds.

Here’s what it looked like by 1:00 today…


It’s the area just to the left of the door.

Then, we took off for the local nursery. We brought the wagon, so that we had a way to bring our new vegetation home.


Isla scores a free ride.

We purchased eight tomato plants, and one pot of chives. I’m looking forward to eating the results.

I also took the time today to finally remove the flag pole holder from the side of our house. I realize it might seem a bit blasphemous to remove a flag pole holder on Memorial Day, but I thought about all the brave men and women we’ve blown to smithereens while I did it, if that makes up for anything.

Here are a few other images from our long weekend:

Owen received two volcano-in-a-boxes for his birthday. One volcano kit, which he began working on yesterday, focused primarily on creating a realistic-looking volcano. The other one concerned itself mostly with the different types of eruptions found on earth. Here he is, back on Saturday, working on that latter model:


The “lab bench” is on his right, while the “volcano” is on his left. Looks like he’s enjoying himself.

Isla loves tattoos. Jennifer recently emblazoned Isla with one bad-ass tat’ and took this picture of our little rebel:

I will be publishing my book with Freethought House. It’s not a big company, by any means, but they offered me a fair deal and, being local, should be able to promote the book well. Don’t hold your breath waiting for a finished copy (unless you can hold your breath for, like, two years). Nevertheless, the proverbial ball is now rolling. Here’s me signing the contract yesterday:

To my right is Isla’s juice. To my left is some volcano residue. Those kids never clean up after themselves.

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7 Responses to Tomatoes and Chives

  1. Mike says:

    Next step is to get Isla a Harley…

    Congratulations on the book deal. Which one is getting published?

  2. James says:

    Thanks! My book is tentatively titled *Deliverance at Hand*. It’s kind of a memoir, though I think I’m too young to have a memoir published.

    Isla’s aunt has a Harley, so maybe she can get a hand-me-down one day.

  3. Mindy says:

    Congrats on the book deal! Very cool. 🙂

  4. James says:

    Thank you, Mindy!
    (“Very cool” is high praise coming from a Minneapolis hipster.)

  5. Mike says:

    Please keep your fans in the loop on the book!

  6. JenLarson says:

    Yay! Congratulations on your book! And, I love the contrast of Isla’s cute, girly outfit and the wicked tat 🙂

  7. James says:

    Mike – Yes, I believe I am now contractually obligated to keep my fans in the loop.

    Jen – Thanks so much. Yeah, I hope Isla manages to strike a balance between looking pretty and being a bad ass.

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