childbearing hipster

Tallulah Tulip Nichols 4/20ish/2009-4/29/2009

I hate that I haven't even gotten it together to post about the chicks, and I'm already having to do this.

Tallulah, you were one rad little lady. You were the one Daisy named, with an insistence on the surname because after all, you were part of our family the minute you were scooped out of the cage and into the box full of wood shavings at the feed store. You were exceedingly friendly from the very beginning, the first one to bravely stand in the center of someone's hand rather than cower in chickeny...chicken-ness.

You were a good eater, and you certainly did not poop in your water any more than any of the other chicks. You were precocious at roosting. We really liked you a lot, and you were taken from us too soon. And I don't know why your picture insists on being sideways.

We held a hasty funeral, with Dug on speakerphone from the airport where he was about to leave for a business trip. We placed a temporary stone, laid flowers, sang "Amazing Grace", cried a lot. 

Daisy's holding it together, but Molly is kind of a mess after her first real brush with mortality. "I just love so many people", she told me. She made me promise to let everyone know, so I am, with all respect to our fuzzy little friend.

I knew this was probably going to happen, but it doesn't make it any easier. Poor Tallulah. Poor little Nichols girls.

Then we'll only have Mad Cow and West Nile to worry about!

Dug and I have some of our best conversations while he's commuting to work, when something pops into his head and he calls home to share it while I'm running around trying to get socks on the kids. Here is a paraphrase of today's:

"Hey, I figured out what we'll do if the flu gets really bad!"

"Wash our hands and know that we were more likely to get salmonella when that whole peanut butter thing went down?"

"Well, yeah...but no. We'll go to Balsam Lake (WI)! We'll wait it out at the cabin!"

"[boring realistic point of view]"

"You know, we live in a really high risk area and it's good to be prepared, so now we have a plan! I'll have internet installed up there and I can work from the Minneapolis office."

"That area's kind of a hub for healthcare. Lots of sick people fly into Minneapolis from all over the world for treatment."

"But we won't be in Minneapolis, we'll be in Balsam Lake!"

"Will we fly into Balsam Lake International Airport?"

"..."

(It is at this point that I realize that actually, it sounds kind of fun. An escape plan for when Captain Trips hits. And since I'm pretty confident it's never going to be a real problem, why not roll with it?)

"It is an awesome plan. WOO! Balsam Lake!"

"Bye!"

"Bye!"

I almost think it would be worth it just to get internet at the cabin.

Finally, the first tooth is out

Now we can start thinking about orthodontia (the new tooth is already peeking out, too far back)!

Of course Dug is out of town and I may or may not have cash on hand and have no means of procuring any of the goodies that others' tooth fairies seem to be bringing these days--new toothbrushes, packets of Trident, cute hair bows. Can I improvise? Will a trip down to the craft lair after they fall asleep yield treasures? We can only hope. These gift-bearing myths are really a lot of unnecessary pressure on parents if you ask me.

Happy Birthday To Me (Tomorrow)

These are the birthday cupcakes I made myself. I'm obsessed with lemon cake and coconut, so that's what we've got here: lemon cupcakes, frosted with coconut buttercream and topped with toasted shredded coconut. I tasted one when nobody was looking: they're killer. Try them for yourself:

Lemon Cake

Someday I'm going to try making a cake from scratch, maybe. Until then, this is a trick I learned from someone else and adapted to my lemony desires. If you are scratch-cake averse, fool your friends and amaze your family with this one:

First, get you one box of lemon cake mix

Bake as box indicates, but substitute the equivalent amount of butter for oil and whole milk for water. Also add the juice and zest of two lemons. There you go. Lemon cake.

Coconut Buttercream

Beat one softened stick of butter, three cups of powdered sugar, and a teaspoon or so of coconut extract, drizzling in milk or cream a tablespoon at a time until you reach your desired consistency. All done.

Stuff My Aunts Taught Me Last Weekend

1. Have yellow breakfast dishes. They're cheerful.

2. You can never have too many graters or spatulas.

3. You can never have too many Christmas trees at one time.

I am not entirely on board with number three, but hey, I never thought I'd change my centerpieces with the seasons either. Open minds are important.

In Bloom

The Weeping Cherry tree was planted last year when we put the house on the market, chosen by a woman we'd hired to help stage our house and advise us on curb appeal so we could sell it fast. Obviously the timing on that was wrong, and here we are, and here's the tree.

When we got it it was done blossoming and all that remained were leaves, long and pointed. Those dropped in the fall, and we were left with a skinny skeleton, more of a branch than a tree. I didn't have any expectations at all for this tree which I didn't choose and wouldn't have chosen, which I simply approved because the staging lady said we needed height in that area and I was too harassed to care.

So it was a nice surprise to notice tiny buds forming, and now, bright pink blossoms, faintly smelling of something I can only describe as "pretty". Alas, like the so-called plum tree next to our driveway, this tree is purely ornamental. No fruit.