What's that about the early bird?

This morning, I woke up to the sound of the marching band - DAMN! Too late. A few days before the Johnson County parade, the junior high marching band near us gets in a little bit of practice. I was so bummed that Arun didn't get to see them walk by the house. While we will be going to the parade this Saturday, I still wish he could have seen them walk by our house on our street. The marching band was one of the first things I discovered when we moved into this house. We had just moved in and I was getting ready for work and heard the distant boom boom da boom boom of the bass drum that still, to this day, hits me hard in the chest with lovely memories of my own band days.

Come to think of it, it's been TWO years since we moved into this house. I'll never forget that freaky feeling of sitting in my living room and realizing it was ours. You see, the Previous Owner was a former manager of mine. When I worked at Ernst and Young with him, I would frequently whip by to drop off workpapers for signing. Often, we were traveling or at different client sites, but yet we both lived in Olathe so it was more convenient than meeting in the office. Later, I worked with him at the Federal Reserve Bank and that is when he flippantly said, "Hey, wanna buy a house?" While the working and personal relationship with him eventually turned sour, getting this house was worth it. However, for the first 6 months or so, I did NOT feel comfortable in this house. It had been HIS house, the house was TOO big, and for sure, the nicest house I had ever lived in. It took me awhile to reconcile myself to all of that. But now? I love it here. While it's not my dream house, it is my dream home and in the end, that's what really matters.

Last night, when we went to pick up our veggies from the CSA, the Kansas City Star was there to take pictures for a story that has been in process for a few months now. We happened to be actually working at the farm when the reporter had come to do the story part of the piece, so it will be interesting to see if they make the connection. I feel bad when they asked all the questions, because we already know we won't be doing it again next year. Is it a great idea? YES. Is it cool to support two very cool, dedicated, honest, hardworking, LOCAL farmers? YES. Were the fresh veggies better tasting than the mass-produced ones at the grocery store? YES. Omigod, YES. Very few cherry tomatoes even made it back to the house because I would eat them the whole way home. So why won't we be signing up again? In short, for our situation, it just didn't really work out that well. It was very inconvenient when we were traveling a lot. Also, there were some weeks that I wasn't going into Kansas City, then I would remember I needed to do the veggie pickup. It didn't help that we primarily cook Indian at home - there were quite a few things we received that I just had NO idea how to convert it into something Indianesque. Something else that was a downer is that since we were already getting veggies from the CSA, there was no compelling incentive to go to any other farmer's markets and I miss that. And finally, we LIKE to eat out. It's not a matter of convenience for us, we don't do fast food, but rather, we like trying new restaurants, new foods, etc. For example, Sunday evening, we drove around Kansas City for awhile just finding someplace to eat, but that was part of the fun. So, it will be hard when I tell the farmers we won't be signing up again this year - they are very cool people. The only thing that helps me feel better is that I know they have a long ass waiting list.

Anyway, the big thing happening this week is that we had some major lawn work done, so my big nemesis this week has been keeping that fucker WATERED. What a pain in the ass - I have mentioned we are not The Yardleys, but I did convince X that we needed to pony up the $$$$ to get the lawn in shape. It's an investement, right? He's out of town this week, so I have been doing all the watering. Because of the weird shape of our lawn, I have to set the damned sprinklers in EIGHT different positions, but of course, we only have TWO sprinklers. Also, it's pretty muddy doing all the watering, I keep forgetting where I have left shoes, so there are shoes everywhere around the house now - back door, front door, and a few in the garage. So, that's what I have been up to - running around, adjusting sprinklers. At first, Arun cried whenever we got wet but now, I am getting better at getting in there and moving them without too much sprayage AND now he is laughing when we do get wet. It's all good, I suppose. I have to admit that I still giggle when I get sprayed.