adventures in domesticity

This weekend my husband and I were quite domestic. Here is a short synopsis of our homebody ways:

1. farmers market
2. potluck/beer tasting (in which I brag about how nice our home is looking these days)
3. skunk attack

Farmers Market

We are trying to set goals for this year in Oxford, things like riding our bikes everywhere in town instead of using our car and going to the farmers market uptown for most of our weekly groceries. Well, we've done a little work trying to order our bikes, but we don't have them yet. There's this Trek Soho with all the bells and whistles up at the bike shop that I just find ravishing, and we could afford it because it's slightly used and priced way lower than a new one, but I went and looked at it this week and it's just too big, plain and simple. So now I feel pretty indecisive as far as what I want as a bike. I'm basically looking for a commuter, but I like the feel and speed of a road bike much better. My front runners right now are probably the Raleigh Port Townsend or Trek Belleville. Any suggestions?

As for the farmers market, we started that tradition this week. On saturday morning we walked uptown (we have been walking machines lately!) and got coffee from Kofenya and sat on a bench and drank it with some of the banana bread I made the other night. It was really lovely. And then when the banana bread was all in our tummies we took our coffee and walked through the booths. We bought all our meat for the week from a gentle-eyed, bushy-bearded amish man. Sean, who usually keeps to himself in places like this, really liked talking to him and wanted to be his BFF. We bought fresh eggs from him as well, so fresh they still had feathers in the crate, and he told us that most eggs go through a cleaning process that strips them of their natural coating, a coating that helps to preserve them longer. We also got some very potent onions (I have literally wept every time I've cut one) and a bag of spring mix, which is spicy and flavorful and makes our salads taste incredible. And it was just nice being uptown and feeling part of the community, then trudging home with our wares.

Some little plums we bought at the market. The flesh is very sweet but the skin is extremely tart! "Like eating a warhead," says Sean.

Potluck/Beer Tasting

That day we came back and invited a bunch of people over, and then, after realizing there were indeed folks coming over, we cleaned like the dickens, which was actually very good because we got the house looking better than ever before:

It was nice having people over, and everyone brought a beer or two and we had a little progressive beer tasting with dinner, which were brats Sean grilled on the electric skillet Shan and Brian gave us. I think my favorite was a double IPA that Spencer brought over. I never fail to be surprised by it, but I am liking those dark IPA's more and more these days. We had some really good fellowship, and Hannah showed us this RSA Animates video/lecture about education which was really cool. Its this lecture by sir Ken Robinson that this guy animates on a white board. It was wild how much better I couldunderstand what was being said when I saw it in pictures. Later on we finished off the evening with a few late night rounds of bananagrams.

Skunk Attack

Sunday was pretty chill. We came back from church and just hung out for awhile. Then, when we thought it was going to be just another peaceful evening at home, we saw a bunch of skunks milling around the back of our property. They were everywhere. We counted 7 skunks in all, though not all at the same time, and some were in the front and some in the back, so we felt surrounded and needless to say felt a bit skittish about going out the rest of the night. Also, one of those little jerks came up on the front porch and chewed our Dahlias in the middle of the night! And ate a stalk of one of our tomato plants. I'm just saying: it pissed me off and I don't like them.

two of those little jerk faces snuffling around back there.

Finally, in other news, Sean's friend and fraternity brother Thomas sent him a little something in the mail and yes, it's true, I got lavaliered. Here we are with our handbooks, t-shirts, and the Bible:

Yes, friends, this GDI is now an honorary Theta Chi.