Author Archives: Melissa | Growing Green Nutrition

Moving day — Part 1

Before the chaos . . .

I removed the basement door with my bare hands (and a pair of pliers, but still) so the deep freeze would fit . . .

. . . and snapped a “before” picture.  The after picture remains to be taken, but it’s pretty depressing at this point.

The moving company estimated three to four hours for the job.  The movers arrived shortly after nine o’clock in the morning, and it was almost six o’clock when they left.

Yeah.

That left us with pretty much no time to unpack, so until this weekend, at the very soonest, we’ll be living amidst about one hundred million boxes.  Okay, kidding on the million part, but not so much on the hundred part.  So much for minimalist leanings.

Moving weekend

Pack, clean, clean, pack, move, unpack, clean.  That’s what our next few days look like.

On the other hand, we’ll have a bedroom again — no more bed in the living room!

Unfortunately, when I went to our new place yesterday to “wipe down a few things” so we can start with a clean slate, I found it much more dirt than I noticed on either of our previous visits.  I made a list of items to bring back for more intensive cleaning.

Plum out

I’ve been trying to lighten the load for our move (less than a week away!) by eating through some of the dry goods in our pantry.  While the shelves are by no means bare, they are a bit emptier, and the post-move shopping list on the fridge grows longer every day (I’m afraid this grocery trip may give new meaning to “Whole Paycheck”).

We ran out of raisins a couple of weeks ago, and we have extremely limited quantities of a couple of other dried fruits, so I’ve gotten creative with my morning oatmeal.*

The plum trees at my MIL’s have yielded a bumper crop this year, and, while cutting the flesh away from the pit is a bit of a pain, they contribute to a delicious bowl of oatmeal.

This variety of plum is very tiny, perhaps a bit larger than a big cherry.  Small and delicious!

Sir also finds the plums an acceptable (if messy) addition to meals.

*Raisins are not the only fruit I eat in my oatmeal, but they’ve become a go-to when apples aren’t in-season.  While not local, shipping dried fruit from California is better environmentally than shipping fresh fruit, because of the water weight.

Bicycles and Food Truck Friday

On Friday night, I hauled out the bike trailer for our trip to Food Truck Friday (FTF) in Tower Grove Park (since we’re not quite ready to use our new front seat).

Getting there
Mid-way through our ride to the park, Sir was so ridiculously and awkwardly slumped in the trailer that I pulled over to straighten him out.  By the time we arrived, he had resumed the awkward position.

I suspect that my modification to the baby supporter, which I thought so clever, and which is necessary to fit the harness over Sir’s head without a struggle, may be contributing to the slumping.  Argh, I am so over the trailer!

The food
We’ve been wanting to try the Korean barbeque tacos from Seoul Taco ever since they sold out before we could get them at FTF in October.  Unfortunately the line was ridiculously long, so I headed to Lulu’s Local Eatery, which was also high on my list.

Having experienced the long lines and food selling out issue at a past FTF, I went all-out at Lulu’s, ordering the sweet potato falafel, quinoa bowl, and sweet potato fries (I was bummed that they weren’t serving the soba noodle bowl that night).  Matthew and I enjoyed the food, but Sir was too distracted by his first picnic meal to eat much (we paid for this later, when he was up and crying for over an hour in the middle of the night).

Go by bike
I noticed a dad with a little one in an iBert — but it was as we were getting ready to leave and returning from the Recycling On the Go recycling and composting station, that I spotted something even more exciting — a Yuba Mundo!

After I wiped the drool off of my chin, I chatted briefly with the family and asked if we might be able to meet up sometime to take it for a test ride.  They raved about the bike and were happy to give me their phone number so we might be able to take it for a spin sometime (assuming I didn’t already lose the number).

As we left, we couldn’t help but notice the crazy number of cars cramming the lanes of the park.  To make matters worse, it appears that a car company is somehow sponsoring the event, as we biked by a big, ugly Chevrolet banner.  I think the company reps were handing out “keys” that served as coupons.  Ugh.  Can you say sell-out?

I propose that Food Truck Fridays be a car-free event.  Given the lengthy lines and food sell-out issues, FTF would really benefit from a slightly smaller crowd.  There should be enough attendees within biking and walking distance to sustain the event.

Barring that possibility, anyone who walks or bikes to the event should get a “skip to the front of the line” pass.  Until then, we’ll pack our own picnic dinners and eat in the park on lower-key nights.

Ring my bell

A week ago, I typed “iBert” into the search box on Craigslist, along with a few other front bicycle seat names, not really expecting to find anything.  Imagine my surprise when I found a recently listed iBert seat — for five dollars!

Cautiously excited (since there was no picture with the posting), I contacted the owner with a few questions.  She confirmed that it was in good shape and said she would just give it to me, so we set up a time to meet.  Wednesday night, Sir and I arrived home the proud owners of a lime green front bike seat!

The only hold up to using it?  We still need to get him a helmet.  I bought a basic toddler helmet at Target a few weeks ago, but with a starting head circumference of around 19 inches, it was still slightly too big.

There are toddler helmets that have a range that includes head circumferences down to 18 or so inches — we just need to get one.  We should have that resolved this week, but not using our new toy over the weekend was hard.

I installed the seat on Sunday afternoon and practiced getting Gabriel in and out.  I resisted the temptation to go for a spin around the block.

Initial verdict — he likes it much better than the trailer!  I showed him the bike bell, thinking it would take him awhile to catch on and figure it out for himself.  Not so much . . . .

Come back next week for the iBert test ride report.