Festive for Friday...N-sta N-boy

On this Final Festive for Friday of August (oh if only August began with an "F") I bring you more pictures from the N-boy. How are we feeling about "N-sta N-boy" for his Instagram pictures? 

He calls this one "Hangover Cat."

This is one of my favorites.

I'm also linking up with LifeRearranged for InstaFriday! 

Jealous.

The Momcat and Daddo flew out to visit BabyBrother today. He moved from Chicago to San Francisco in January for a new job. The new job part was pretty awesome but I miss having him just a train ride away in Chicago. I'm not sure what all they're doing during the visit (other than meeting BabyBrother's girlfriend(!!) who has already joined family Google+ Hangouts), but I'm sure it will be super fun. Pretty jealous I'm stuck at work and missing family adventure time.

BabyBrother and I at Christmas. Let's not ask why we were showing off our muscles. Or lack there of for some of us. 

Daddo, BabyBrother and the Momcat hiking in Colorado a few years ago. Without me. 

Have a good time, family, and take lots of pictures! 

Dirndl 5k

So I signed up for a fall 5k today. The Lederhosenlauf 5k, which is part of the Germanfest being held in Indianapolis in Mid October. The fourth annual Germanfest, to be specific.

There are two problems with this situation:

1. My running has been severely slacking lately. Ever since Orientation hit I've had trouble getting motivated to get my ass out the door and run. Or even down to the basement to run on Floyd with my beloved Battlestar Galactica. 
2. This is a themed and costumed race. If we show up in Bavarian costume we get five free food and drink tickets, in addition to getting into Germanfest for free. Guess who's raiding the Halloween costume stores for a cheap yet festive dirndl? 

I could totally run in this.

source

Luckily I'm running with two friends, so we can all look ridiculous together. And yes, as far as I'm concerned finding an appropriate outfit does trump concerns about lack of training. Priorities, people, priorities. 

Weekend Recap.

The N-boy and I had a pretty busy, although low key, weekend. We spent some time with friends, some out and about, and some at home.

Saturday.

Art Beat 2012.

Trip to Sonic.

 Prototyping a new crafting idea.

Going to see Magic Mike. Again. 

Sunday.

Processing eggplants from the garden into Eggplant Parmesan. 

Basting hexagons. 

Working on more prototypes. 

Unpictured: a very sweaty six mile walk with the N-boy on Sunday morning, and all the time he logged playing Minecraft with his brothers on his new XBOX 360 that was a birthday and Christmas present from the boys. 

How was your weekend?

Art Beat

Yesterday we braved the 90 degree heat and walked to downtown South Bend for Art Beat 2012. Art Beat is an event held each summer that features culinary, performing and visual artists all from the Michiana area. The Momcat and I actually thought about trying to exhibit our fabric bowls from Prairie Sewn Companion there, but decided that we weren't quite ready for that yet, especially for a show that took place so soon after Orientation.

Looking towards downtown. 

Last year the N-boy and I were quite successful at Art Beat coming home with about six new pieces of art for the house, including urban decay photographs by Stephen Martin for the living room and urban graffiti by CAD for the addition. This year...not so much. We did get one more urban decay piece for the living room, but that was it. It seemed like there was A LOT of jewelry this year. It felt like they expanded the number of artists overall, and maybe they expanded too much too fast.

We ended our adventure down at the culinary artist tent where we each enjoyed a frozen slushy (coffee for me, watermelon for him) from the Purple Porch Co-op. We also got information from them about how the co-op works, as we're looking into getting some of our food there.

 Slushy from locally grown watermelons. 

Overall Art Beat 2012 was a little disappointing, although perhaps some of that can be chalked up to our great success from last year and the oppressive heat. I'm still happy we went though, since it was one of the items on my Summer 2012 Bucket List and I always enjoy the energy that surrounds events that highlight local artists. 

Festive for Friday-Pictures from the N-boy.

To end the week on a festive note I bring you pictures from the N-boy. He's taken to Instagram and has been wandering around town (on both bike and foot) taking pictures. Here a few of them from this week.

He said I can use his pictures regularly on my little blog, but only if I can think of a catchy title for the post where I feature them. Any ideas? 

The Magic Chicken.

We picked up a whole, raw chicken at the Farmer's Market last weekend from our favorite poulterer: Hiatt's Poultry (can I just say how much I love that "poulterer" is a real and legitimate word). This is pretty much the only place we buy poultry now, and is where we always get the turkey for Thanksgiving. It's local, it's fresh and it's antibiotic free. This chicken was magical.

Mr. Chicken had no chance when up against the N-boy. 

Meal One: Roasted Chicken with a rub of Penzey's Spices.

Meal Two: Chicken Salad with Pecans and Craisins.

Meal Three: Chicken Vegetable Soup-chicken stock from boiling the carcass. 

We ended up eating the soup for several meals and putting three individual sized containers into the freezer. This is definitely the best we've ever done with making use of the whole chicken, and I'm really happy with how well everything turned out. 

Adventures in Canning: Pints of Pickled Peppers.

As mentioned in the previous post, our garden has provided a bountiful supply of banana peppers. So far we'd just been grilling them (which was quite tasty), but the N-boy suggested that we try pickling and canning them (of course, pickled banana peppers is one of his favorite foods-go figure). Although I did canning last year, I was HIGHLY supervised by a friend who was teaching a few of us how to can. Needless to say, I was a little anxious about attempting this adventure on our own and creating a product that won't give anyone food poisoning. I did lots of reading ahead of time in a couple of books and online to make sure I still remembered the basics. 

We prepared the peppers by slicing them into rings and deseeding them. 

The N-boy hard at work.

All ready for the brine solution! The darker jar is a batch of jalapenos from the Farmer's Market.

Into the canning bath they go.

Tada! Five jars total! And they all sealed! 

Although we haven't tried them yet, they all look great. We heard the ping of sealing happiness when they came out of the boiling water and they all tested fine the next day. Can't wait to give them a try!

Garden Bounty.

Our garden is finally coming into its own. We've been picking banana peppers for about a month now, but it's like these last two weeks have really sent it into overdrive. The N-boy and I spent a couple of hours on Saturday rescuing it from the weeds.

A very superfluous cauliflower plant. And a tomato plant with a mind of its own.

The weeds have no chance when the N-boy is in action. Especially in his cute hat. 

It's hard to see in this picture, but there are at least six eggplans on this one plant! And more on their way. 

Banana peppers by the pound.

We have two more raised beds that we didn't use this year that we started prepping for next year.

 Highly exciting moment-using some of our compost for the first time! 

Next up: canning our great supply of banana peppers!

End of the Retreat and Orientation fun.

It's really hard to believe that the August 2012 leadership retreat and new student orientation really are over. It seems like we've been planning them for forever and now they're just done. Here are a few random pictures of the festive fun. 

How cute is this. It was on one of the my Duckling's shirt. 

Challenge course at the retreat.

Two of my little ducklings!

Another part of the challenge course. 

 I woke up the last morning to discover one of the Ducklings had organized all of our individual mailbox bags and drawn a map. Including a "you are here" marker. A Duckling after my own heart.

First day of Orientation. Ready to go! Maybe. 

Prepping the Health Services area.

We even let them eat! Lunch break!

 Last event of orientation. Dancing the jig with the Leprechaun.