Recently in life Category

My writeup on the farmers market in downtown Salt Lake was featured on Apartment Therapy earlier this week. Here's the link if you want to check it out.

I'm not the biggest fan of grass, and when I bought my house in 2005, I managed to kill the whole lawn in a few months. Yellow grass is really depressing to look at, and Brian and I knew it had to go. So we embarked on a great earth moving project that has consumed two whole summers and more calories than I can imagine. In 2006, we ripped the dead lawn up by hand and replaced the whole thing with gravel. Sod takes up a whole lot of space, but lucky for us we had a compost bin the size of a VW bus in the back corner of our yard.

The results were good, but I had no idea what on earth we would end up doing with several tons of dead grass. But that's the great thing about a compost heap. I didn't do a thing, and the whole pile magically transformed itself into really rich soil over the winter.

Thus began phase II. I picked up Square Foot Gardening earlier this summer, and Brian and I decided that veggies were the way to take our soil. So every weekend for the last few months we've been building planters boxes, moving soil, and planting things. The first round of boxes didn't get done until mid-July when average highs were hovering above 100 and there wasn't a drop of rain in sight. I couldn't imagine any plant being able to fight through that and survive, but they did. We managed to get a full crop of beans in about a month's time:

Beans may not seem like something to get excited about, but they taste delicious right off the vine and they're great for the soil. All the nitrogen they're fixing will make next year's crop even better.

We also planted the side of our driveway with tomatoes, peppers, and strawberries in mid-June. Peppers are a great plant that I had never thought to try and grow. It's a nice change from the ubiquitous tomato, and it's similar in the care and conditions that it needs. The crazy thing is how the plant manages to stay upright with big peppers sprouting out left and right:

With all these veggies, it feels like I'm hemorrhaging water, but my bills have been a third of what they were when I was trying to keep the lawn watered. According to Tree Hugger, lawns are actually the most irrigated crop in America. Funny... I don't see anyone eating it. Maybe someday we'll figure out a way to power our cars with all the lawn clippings we toss in trash, but I doubt. In the meantime, I'm a convert to the Food Not Lawns movement, and I'm not the only one. Read more about it here and here.

Great produce, a low water bill, being green... those might seem like enough reasons for taking on a project like this, but we got more. The crowning glory of this whole process has to be this:

The compost pile is now gone, and we've gained back a whole huge chunk of space in the backyard. We also were lucky enough to come into a hammock that a friend had laying around, and the two work exceptionally well together. All those weekends of moving dirt were totally worth it.

In recent years, there has been a trend toward replacing lawns with gravel, wood chips, and xeriscaping to use less water. There are numerous resources and websites out there that explain how to choose a replacement ground cover, arrange plants, setup an efficient irrigation system, etc. But there's very little out there on the actual removal of the lawn itself.

A month or so ago Brian and I decided to remove our 540 sq. ft. or so of dying grass and replace it with gravel. I quickly discovered that there are two options for removing sod: with a sod cutter or with a shovel and your hands. Renting a sod cutter requires a truck, and sadly we couldn't track one done. That left us with option number two. My guess is that most people go with option number one or they pay someone to get rid of the lawn and don't worry about this stuff.

I wish we were most people because option two was hard and tiring. It took two days at the end of which I couldn't move. My advice is to water a few hours before you start. You want the lawn wet, but if it's too wet, the sod becomes very, very heavy and difficult to move.

Dig in with a gardening shovel. Use the shovel to break up the sod into pieces that are about one foot by two feet. Get under each piece with the shovel and loosen it up from the ground. Grab a hold of each piece and lift it up. Each piece will be heavy; remember to lift with your legs and all that jazz. Then you'll need somewhere to move the. I really hope you thought about this before you started tearing up the lawn. Keep in mind that you'll end up with a lot of sod and dirt that will be very heavy. We stuck ours in our giant compost pile which began to break under the pressure.

If you can enlist some help, this is the step where you'll need it the most. Grab some beer and call your friends. Better yet… make a friend with a truck and just rent the sod cutter.

Once you've got all of the sod up and out, you'll need to decide what you want to do. If you want plant in the area, I'd recommend you follow these directions on You Grow Girl.

If you want to be lazy like us and go with gravel or wood chips, lay down some weed barrier and top the area off with the material of your choice. That's it, and it's great for dogs and kids.

I got back to the Spiral Jetty last week, and am glad to inform you that it's still there although covered in a bit of water:

More photos are here, and more information about the Spiral Jetty can be found here.

We took a trip out to Antelope Island this weekend and saw a surprising amount of wildlife, such as:

A Great Horned Owl

A Porcupine in a Tree

A Tame Deer

Human-Lizard Hybrids

There are more photos here.

My kitchen is officially famous. It was featured on an episode of Hammered TV last week. Unfortunately, it was my kitchen as of a few weeks ago in the following state:

Today it's looking much better with a new tile countertop:

It's amazing what a little tile can do to a room… not that I did it. I broke down and called my in my old landlord Stefan. If you're doing any home improvements yourself, check out Hammered TV. They have a great show with some very useful tips. Or shoot me an email if you want Stefan's number instead.

Here is my new house.

I'll post pictures of the inside when I've had some more time to clean.

I have an odd fascination with the Great Salt Lake. You may have noticed it in my post about the Spiral Jetty, but I'm officially admitting it now. How can such a large and unique body of water be so close, yet no one seems to want anything to do with it.

In an effort to find more recreational opportunities involving the lake, I tracked down Great Salt Lake Adventures which offers cruises on the lake. This weekend I finally got enough people together to meet the minimum required for a cruise and got out there. It was a perfect fall day and the lake was gorgeous.

Shockingly we weren't alone. The captain who was a wealth of information about the lake says about 450 people sail regularly on the lake. Of course, this doesn't even come close to the old days when resorts lined the lake's shore and paddle boats transported tourists from resort to resort.

I had an unexpected work-related trip to Boston last week, and it was nice to be back there after over three years away. Thanks to Paula, Elliot, and Barbara for being flexible enough to meet up with me last minute.

Sam and Lizzie are just getting old enough to understand the wonder of the Lego Mindstorms that I keep hidden away in my closet.

Utah is an odd place. The same remoteness, natural resources, and beauty that attracted the Mormon pioneers has attracted environmentalists, explorers, adventurers, and artists and all have had an impact on the landscape. Robert Smithson was one of those taken with Utah's unique characteristics and came here in the 1970's to build his Spiral Jetty on the north end of the Great Salt Lake.

Shortly after it was built, the Spiral Jetty disappeared under the lake and didn't re-emerge until 2002 when I was first thinking of moving back. I've long been intrigued by it but didn't get the motivation to actually visit it until Saturday.

It's a rough journey down 16 miles of dirt road from the west side of the parking lot of the Golden Spike National Historic Site which isn't exactly on the beaten path itself. It was well worth it though for the sheer bizarreness of the setting and the beauty of the work.

It's also one of the rare places where dogs and art can mix. Izzy was a bit disturbed by the environment, but Boo seemed quite inspired by the work. He normally despises any sort of body of water, but he waded straight through the water to the center of the spiral before walking back to shore.

My ipod is now officially cool thanks to Joelene at Misocrafty who was so nice to send me one of her lovely ipod cozies. For knitters and ipod afficionados alike, she is the one to talk to about such things.

My friend Ringo, who started her Peace Corps service in Zambia in January, just sent me her first full memory card. She didn't let me post all the pictures online (The booze, the fire, and the pubic hair will all remain in the private sphere.), but the rest are up on Flickr if anyone is interested.

It makes me jealous. Wish I could be over there today, but I'll have to wait until I can visit next spring.

I try and I try and I try to make it clear to Sam and Lizzie that there's a good chance their faces might just stay that way, but it has no effect.

I suppose that a better way to prove my point might be to give them a living example in the form of Andy.

And March goes out like a lion.

What does the boxed wine on the counter say about us?

A mystery emerged years and years ago when my grandfather died.

My grandmother went to his grave every few days and told my parents and me that she had seen a strange woman lurking near the grave. She was suspicious that this woman and my grandfather had had something going. Obviously we were all curious as to who this woman was and what her relationship would be to my grandfather.

On our next visit, the woman just happened to be there, and we realized that we had been horribly had:

Because paper whites make me happy.

Why when I'm in the same room as one of those weird expanding ball things do I automatically think, "Yeah, let's put that on somebody's head"?

My good friend Annie Ringo is preparing to start her two years of Peace Corps service at the end of the month. Since she claimed that I didn't paint her in the most favorable light in my last post about her, I offered to set up a blog for her to share her adventures in Zambia over the next few years. She hasn't posted much yet, but it will be coming. You can find it at ringo.booizzy.com.

Best of luck, Annie. You better stick it out until at least spring of 2006 when I'll be able to come visit.

My sister got me a gift certificate for a pedicure for my birthday in October. I was reluctant to use it at first because I'm missing a toenail and this always seems to get odd reactions. Why make my toe front and center if I don't have to?

Well, I opted to put aside my fear of foot rejection and go on Friday - the day the gift certificate expired. It was wonderful and made my feet feel great. And the woman doing the pedicure didn't mind at all.

So it only makes sense that yesterday I would jam my little toe into the washing machine causing it to swell up with a big bruise and hurt like hell.

This reminds me of the time that I was wearing a borrowed ring and proceeded to slam my own finger into a car door. There are good reasons why I don't do things like wear jewelry or paint my nails ... it's only asking for trouble.

I'm not quite sure how it happened, but my nephew George managed to take about 80 photos on my digital camera in the course of about two hours. I've filtered through his work and put the best in a gallery for your perusal. Once he got the knack of it, George managed to take some pretty good shots.

So that's my nephew Sam, Brian's leg ... and for good measure I made sure to get Sam's dog Ajax's butt. Yeah, it's the dog butt that really makes the picture. I'm not completely sure that this is sanctioned babysitting behavior.

My niece Kate hung out at the gym with me this Sunday. She played with my cell phone while I worked out. Here's the one picture that she deemed worthy of saving. Did I mention that Kate is way cooler than I was at her age? She's probably cooler than I am now.

My dad turned 70 a few weeks ago, and we threw him a huge surprise party. I'll post some more pics from that later. This picture was taken shortly after I had finished wrestling with massive amounts of A/V equipment to help get setup for the party. I'm with my nephew Jack. And I wish that was an alcoholic drink, but this is Utah and it's just cranberry juice.

I might be starting an award kick, but I have to declare this the best face painting job ever. The work is care of my sister Katy, and the models are her adorable kids Sam and Lizzy.

Would the Halloween candy please go away? It's already November 9th. I should not still be eating this stuff.

Jacques was one of my neighbors in Brooklyn. I snapped this picture when I was out visiting in September.

On a side note, Jacques lives in the exact same apartment that Brian and I did but in the building next door. Thanks to rent control, he also pays half as much as we did. That's New York for you.

Utah has a nasty habit of getting snow on Halloween. This year wasn't any different.

Several weeks ago the topics of babes over 60 came up on an online discussion board I frequent. Women like Audrey Hepburn, Angelica Houston, and Debbie Harry were mentioned, but I had to add that a woman I really see aging gracefully is my mom.

Believe it or not she's 68. We took this picture last summer for a modeling contest sponsored by a magazine that aims itself at the 40+ female set. Looking at the fine print though, we realized that they capped the age for this contest at 60. What the hell? And the previous year's winner was all of 42. Talk about being discriminatory. I want to organize 60+ women to go ring the publisher's neck. But since that probably won't happen, I'm nominating my mom winner in the first ever BooIzzy.com 60+ model competition. Go mom!

I couldn't fully tell you who I am without telling you about Annie. She was my best friend in high school, a friendship that was sealed as people yelled at us that we were too old when we went trick or treating at 15. Then I moved away and she became an alcoholic, pot-smoking lesbian but I still love her. Plus she's not all bad ... she's been teaching inner-city school children in Atlanta for over two years and she's off to Africa with the Peace Corps this January. Anyway ...

Here's Annie with her parents, good old Mary and Dave of Rochester, Minnesota. They both have their quirks, but how can you not love them? Look at how cuddly Dave is!

Here's Annie's kitty Fang. Fang is just crying out for a web presence, don't you think?

Here's Annie's current girl friend Keidra (sp???).*

* You might think I'm a bad friend for not knowing how to spell my best friend's girl friend's name, but I was under the impression that Annie was still dating a woman named Mary when I learned that she was actually dating Keidra (again sp???). Shouldn't Annie be letting me know about these changes? Annie, you better read this and keep me in the know going forward.

My great uncle Rolland E. Griggs died the night after his 101st birthday on September 19, 2004. I haven't seen Uncle Jerry a lot in the past few years, but I always looked up to him as a child and thought he was a really nice and sweet man.

I wanted to post a photo of him in his youth. There are wonderful pictures of Uncle Jerry and Aunt Olga in exquisite dress and pose. Uncle Jerry was never without his suit and hat. I don't have any of those photos in my possession right now so the one above from his 100th birthday will have to do. I'm just glad that I got to be there for that celebration. Sorry I couldn't have been there for you more recently, Uncle Jerry.

My sister Mary just gave us my grandmother's old dining room furniture. Fitting it in my tiny house took a lot of rearranging:

This is me with my somewhat new bike - I bought it last year on ebay, but I didn't get it tuned up until a few months ago. Yeah, it folds up, and I'm sure that I look funny riding it. But I like it.

I went hiking with my sister and her family up at Alta a few weeks ago. It was gorgeous and cool and wonderful.

Our street in white.

Izzy has a love-hate relationship with snow.

We live under there somewhere.

We've gotten more snow than I care to think about since Christmas night. I still wonder why I tried to go to work on Friday when I woke up to nearly 18 inches and it was still coming.

Anyway, snow - 1, people on Princeton Ave - 0.

This room constitutes one quarter of our current home in Salt Lake. That's a bit better than we were doing in Cambridge.

Here's my nephew Daniel walking Izzy at Salt Lake's Strut Your Mutt Walk in May 2003.

Picture of my niece Lizzie from Fall 2002.

Picture of my nephew Sam from Winter 2002.

Here I am with my dad post-graduation in Boston at the JFK Museum.

Here Brian and I are after eating a meal at Carnegie's deli in New York around summer 2002. Brian has just had several pounds of cheese between two slices of bread and we've both eaten our weight in cheesecake.

Here's Brian with the above mentioned cheese sandwich.

Here's a picture from Robyn's Super Bowl Party. I'm with Allison, Courtney, and Robyn.

I should add that I was in Boston for this party, and this was also a year that Boston won. I am not a sports fan, but I am told that this is a big deal. I should also add that poor Robyn was a fan of the losing team - the Rams.

Here's a pic of me at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. I'm with Paula. Who would have known that it was all down hill from here?

Another picture of graduation. Me with Jude and Allison in the pouring rain.

Brian and me in New York, Fall 2002.

This is another shot of Brian and me.

Here I am on day one of Boston's 2002 3 day 60 mile Breast Cancer Walk. That first day was lovely. The next day it snowed. New England weather is bizarre.

Another picture of me and my wonderful team for the 2002 Avon Breast Cancer Walk.

Here's a glimpse of my Brooklyn living room with red fireplace from Summer 2002. How I miss my little space in Park Slope.

Here's the view from our roof in Brooklyn, Fall 2002.

Here's a shot of slightly more than half of our apartment in Cambridge. We lived there - Boo, Brian, and me - in 2001/2002. FYI: It's a very long photo.

Here's Brian and me gliding under the streets of Boston on the Red line - sometime in 2001.

Here are Annie and I on the New York subway somewhere over Queens during the summer of 2001.

This is somewhere near Arcata.

Here is Brian after a binge in the berry patch near our house in Olympia sometime in Spring 1999.