Carl Collins’ Neighborhood

discardia time

Karen Kingston

It's Discardia time again - we've been busy getting things out of the house and weeds and whatnot out of the garden.

There's nothing more amazing than giving a 7 year old a hoe and a patch full of Japanese Knotweed and telling him to go at it; fortunately, the city has new! rolling! compost carts so you can fill 64 gallons of debris and not wrench out your back even once.

Discardia, and collecting, its counterpoint, were the subject of a2b3 today - a link to my post on that:

http://vielmetti.typepad.com/vacuum/2008/06/discardia-20-ju.html

can we build it? yes we can

A Pattern Language : Towns, Buildings, Construction (Center for Environmental Structure Series)

Christopher Alexander

good news: the city lets you pull a permit the same day, if it's uncomplicated enough to pass the building department the same day. Go in on tuesday after lunch and emerge with the right to build.

bad news: it took 2.5 hrs of waiting, waiting, waiting in a lobby with no wifi to get there.

interesting crowd there, lots of junior builders doing their turn waiting at city hall for their bosses. I talked to one guy, he said it's all pretty straightforward if you know the routine and submit plans that are up to code, but based on the hassles I saw part of that routine is waiting and the other part is dealing with the issues when either you or the city are unclear about process.

kitchen remodel to emerge from this process.

walking in a memory garden

Caroline, dau. of J & L Carpenter, died 1842 aged 3 years

There's a little cemetery near where we went strawberry picking the other day where some of my ancestors are buried.

There's something very sobering about seeing this stone and then watching my 3 y/o wander around the place.

Strawberry picking was excellent, as was pea picking - the kids are excellent pea pickers, and I think next time we'll aim for two pecks instead of just one. It was hot, though!

QotD: I'll Stay Up Late To Watch

What's the best late-night TV talk show?

Twitter.

typer shark

this typing tutor video game is a big hit in our house right now - the kids watch it and say YOU'RE TOAST when you get eaten by the sharks that you don't type in fast enough.

typer shark on yahoo games

QotD: World Series 2007

What are your predictions for the World Series?

Unseasonably warm and dry, with elevated fire dangers and water usage restrictions.

QotD: A Little Something To Start With

What's your favorite appetizer to order at a restaurant?

The Earle in Ann Arbor has a plate of roasted garlic with bread and cheese and vegetables that's wonderful.

Sunday morning in the park

morning walk with the boys.

We went to Kroger for cat litter, then headed to Benny's for elevensies. I was hungry, and the boys will always eat.

The park of the day was Frisinger Park. There's a new playground set plus a sandbox with a digger and a merry go round. We saw some friends and hung out until it was time to go.