A Lawn Reborn

Loyal readers might recall that 2007 saw most of the back yard and portions of the side and front yards destroyed by grubs. The carnage wrought by those nasty little worms was enough to turn the stomach. Witness the following:

Emily and I had little choice but to rip up the dead turf, reseed, and hope for the best. It turned out to be a bigger job than we anticipated; we were only able to get to the worst portion of the back yard. Here's the area we worked on last October:

We weren't sure how it would turn out. Strong storms washed away our first attempt (the back yard is on a slight slope that the pictures don't reveal well), and it was early November by the time we were able to put down seed that had an opportunity to take root. But, on the whole, we're pleased with how it turned out. Here's the back yard as it currently looks:

I think you'd have to agree, that's a significant improvement. It's not great, but now it looks like your run-of-the-mill, poorly maintained lawn rather than a gasp-inducing wasteland that calls to mind nothing so much as military-grade defoliants. We're pretty happy with our handiwork.

But don't trouble yourself with thoughts that we might get cocky and rest on our lawn-growing laurels. There's still much work to be done, as a glance at the side lawn makes clear.

First Royals game of the season

We went to our first 2008 Kansas City Royals game on Saturday, April 12. The team was premiering their new powder blue uniforms. It was frigid and windy, and we had many, many layers on. Katie and I threatened Dave & Eric that we were going to take one of the cars and go home to watch the game from the comfort of our own warm homes if it got too cold.

We had about 20 people for the game and pre-game tailgating. There was a ton of food, games (cornhole & washers),


and of course, Eric mugging for the cameras.


Kauffman Stadium is being renovated, and this was the first game we'd seen with the new high-definition scoreboard. They haven't put the crown topper back on yet. It is currently the largest high-definition video board in the world, but when the new Dallas Cowboys stadium opens, it will lose that claim to fame. The scoreboard is so much better than the old one, but unfortunately it had little good news to show this night- the Royals lost to the Twins 2-0.


We got to our seats and huddled together under blankets in the upper deck, and at first it didn't feel too bitterly cold. We were also kept happy by a fantastic cache of snacks provided by Mrs. K. But it did start getting really cold around the 6th inning, and began snowing a few innings later. Here's Luke dressed in his layers, and Russ, Katie, and Cara trying to keep warm.





I believe I was wearing a grand total of 6 layers of clothing, plus the blankets. And at the end of the game, I was still shivering. I love baseball, but I think I'm going to let Dave represent the Olschki household by himself at any future April Royals games.

How can you not smile at this?

To be honest, I'm still not entirely sure what a Chumby is, or how one would use it. But I am in love with the Chumby puppy.

To see the whole thing, go to chumby.com. Click on the left arrow beside "General Overview"

and you will see "Surprise."




Click on the ham (yeah, I don't know why they chose that), and you can watch the adorable Chumby puppy! Enjoy!

New desk!

I finally got a new desk this weekend. I had a large corner desk for several years, but knew it wouldn't fit in this house, so I left it in Columbus. Since I moved here, my iMac has been sitting on an old desk from my dad's elementary school, while my printer has been on an extra Rubbermaid. The school desk is lovely, but it's way too small for a computer desk. After looking around at several places off and on for months, I decided on a desk from Target. Dave & I put it together today and it looks quite nice. The color also matches well with the headboard on the guest bed which shares the room. The middle drawer is a pull-out keyboard tray that works much better than holding the keyboard on my lap, as I have been doing! I think I will try to find some of those velcro ties to corral the unruly computer cords at the back.

At some point, I may get the printer stand/file cabinet to allow me to move the printer off the desk and have some writing room. Picture from Target's website:


To come later: Royals game photos and Em's upcoming trip to Branson with the 427 Irving girls!

Happy birthday Dave!

Dave's birthday was Saturday. We celebrated with a whole weekend full of food- crab leg buffet @ Harrah's with his grandma Friday night, good sandwiches on great bread at New York Deli Saturday afternoon, and a gut-busting Sunday trifecta of our monthly brunch with the extended family at another casino, a celebratory lunch after our friends' baby's baptism, and a yummy BBQ dinner with Dave's parents at Jack Stack.

Adding to the delicious glut, I baked my first from-scratch cake, using recipes from our America's Test Kitchen cookbook. Dave decided he wanted a chocolate birthday cake with peanut butter frosting. I was pleased at how it turned out- the cake was moist & delicious, and the frosting was fluffy with just the right amount of sweetness. We also drizzled some melted chocolate over the top for good measure. It was quite a good flavor mix!


This weekend Dave will be headed to the annual catfish fry at his grandma's church and watching the acting debut of a friend's son in the world of middle school theatrics. I will likely be consuming more chocolate, as I will be flying to Cincinnati to spend the weekend with 3 of my friends/college housemates. We will probably burn off most of those calories by talking so much and chasing around after energetic toddlers! I am so excited!

Goofy blog mention!

One of the blogs on my Google Reader is Television Without Pity's daily list of the good, the bad, and the ugly of each day's programming. They had a note a few weeks back inviting suggestions for programs to include. One of the reader suggestions last week was Torchwood, a Doctor Who spinoff that we're looking forward to seeing when either we break down and get Netflix, or the nefarious Comcast adds BBC America to its offerings (we can dream!). Our contribution was a little less of a "watch this quality program!" and a little more of a "we swear we are not making this up!"

While Dave and I were watching Friday's finale of "Psych" on USA, we were bombarded with ads for WWE Raw. Now neither of us are wrestling fans, and the minuscule amount I know about it comes from my cousin Chris, who absolutely loves it. But the ads caught our attention for their sheer silliness. After hyping the normal John Cena vs. whomever fight, the announcer promised us a cage match between Vince McMahon, the head of WWE and a very interesting opponent...his "illegitimate midget son Hornswoggle." That's just not even something we could make up, it's so bizarre. We thought it was ridiculous enough to get a mention in the TWOP blog, and it did!

In loving memory of our kitty

Our beloved cat Giselle had to be put to sleep on January 5. We'd noticed that she hadn't been eating as much as usual off and on since Thanksgiving, but she often went through periods of eating less (especially when left at the vet's for boarding or after major changes) then her appetite would perk back up again. I took her into see the vet for a routine checkup, and it turned out she had lost a lot of weight. Giselle, never a fan of any vet, declined to let them take her blood without anesthesia. They took other samples and thought it was just a UTI. I took her back home, doped her up with antibiotics (which she loved!!), and over the weekend she was lethargic and barely ate anything. Back to the vet the following week, where they finally got the blood test and found that she was suffering from end stage renal failure. Our only treatment option would've bought her a few months at best before she declined again, and would've required a stay of at least a week at the vet's, with daily anesthesia so they could give her IV fluids. They usually give cats tube feedings, but they knew that Giselle would never let them do that due to her extremely high anxiety in veterinary procedures. So after much discussion and tears, we decided that the kindest thing to do for Giselle would be to have her put to sleep.

We brought her home for a couple of days, and gave her lots of hugs and cuddling, and all her favorite foods. She snacked on her beloved weed, salmon, tuna, and even ate a little of her normal food.


She actually jogged down the stairs when we put out the weed, which was wonderful to see. It is some consolation that she enjoyed her last few days and is now at peace and free from discomfort. She was a wonderful cat, and we miss her very much. It's very strange to come home and not hear meows welcoming you back (and demanding attention and treats immediately!).

I adopted Giselle (aka Stampey, Gizzard, and Bucky) from Wayside Waifs in the spring of 2004, when she was about 2 years old. She was quite well-traveled, living in Kansas City twice and Ohio, and visiting Toledo and Michigan several times. She earned the nickname "Stampey" because of her habit of running up and down the stairs so frantically and somehow contriving to sound like an elephant rather than a 7-lb. cat. She loved napping, sitting in boxes, curling up with people or fluffy blankets, looking out windows, and batting at fishing toys and ping pong balls.


Stacey once spent a harrowing night in the guest room at my condo, waking up once during the night to find Gizzard staring intently at her from atop the scratching post. She woke a few hours later and found that Giselle was chewing on her hair! It was probably a normal feline attempt to try and groom Stacey, but as I can attest from one of Giselle's subsequent attempts on me, it was quite the disturbing experience!!

Here are some of our favorite photos of Giselle. She had the habit of looking adorable and staring right at you...until the camera came out, at which point she'd totally change positions and refuse to follow any pleas/threats/bribes to look at the camera.

The infamous 'HEY!! Get the hell away from my weed!" picture:

Finding a sunbeam on the condo stairs:


Plotting with Darth Tater:


With Mom & Dad:





Here she is this Christmas, investigating the the dancing robots that Tony sent us.

She looked,

sniffed,
and promptly decided she was having nothing to do with them!


We miss you, dear kitty. Thanks for all the wonderful memories.