eclaire (what's in a) name?

aside from some loud (albeit nice) college neighbors, the initial mouse problem (which was completely solved by using these little devices that plug into the wall and emit high frequency noises, kind of like this), and the frequent night time sound of coyotes howling as though they’re going to eat us for dinner, mike and i love our beautiful home, which is perched right on the edge of the wild outdoors. we are constantly in awe of the idyllic canyon, rolling hills, majestic eucalyptus trees, and peeks of the ocean that await us outside our back door:

but every so often, we come across some parts of nature that we wish would stay just a little further away from us. like this BIG, UGLY SPIDER that appeared out of nowhere on thursday night. seriously, we were sitting on the sofa, enjoying a little daily show and surfing the web on our laptops when i decided to put my laptop down and grab a glass of water. when i stood up, i was inches away from this humongous creature. i normally don’t mind spiders, and i’m pretty good at the catch-in-a-glass-and-release-outside technique, but this one scared the bejeezus out of me! i don’t think it looks as big in the picture below as it did in real life, but it was hard to work on a great photo angle when i was freaked out that the thing would walk over and eat off my big toe. i was able to keep my wits about myself enough to throw a peppermint on the ground next to it for size comparison. UGH!! i am not going to be walking around barefoot for quite a while, let me tell ya!!

growing up, i can remember the excitement of picking seeds to plant with my parents and then fervently watering, weeding, and harvesting delicious fruits and veggies from our veggie patch in the front yard.

as an adult, i hadn’t taken the same kind of joy from gardening – oh, i’ve puttered around with various indoor and outdoor plants, but they aren’t quite as exciting as seeds because they’re almost fully grown when you buy them. i’ve also confined myself to potted plants (except for at fairway, where we had lots of front yard space/dirt that looked incredibly barren), figuring that the pots can move with us until we have a more permanent home. this spring, however, jen gave me a sassy salad seed mix (that’s the real title!) and i got excited about the idea of growing something from seed. i went to the garden company to get some planting troughs and was inspired to buy some basil, sugar snap peas, and various wildflowers as well. 3 weeks later, we have some great results, and i’ve become pretty enthusiastic about the little seedlings, raving over their growth to the point where even mike seems to be kind of interested in how the little guys (or girls) are doing.

i thought i’d share the progress with you to inspire you to plant your own garden (if you haven’t already and have the space and time, of course). you may notice an utter lack of sassy salad mix – this is because i am testing the peas outside to see if we have foliage-nibbling deer before sowing the precious sassy seeds.

the basil seedlings (which need to grow for 6-8 weeks indoors):

snap peas:

and lupine:

ok, so that’s it for the seeds that have sprouted so far, but after all this progress i got excited and went out and bought red poppies and california poppies and sweet pea flower seeds to plant in the little drainage problem behind our patio – might as well use the wasted water to grow some plants!

can’t you just imagine all the gorgeous flowers that are going to pop up here?!?!

so it seems as though spring has officially sprung around western drive. i hope that you’re all enjoying the weather and the change in season wherever you are and that you get out there and plant something soon!

around the pogan household, march madness refers to a month jam packed with birthdays and celebrations instead of the typical reference to basketball games.  while catching my breath after a whirlwind of fun events, i started to write a post about all of the march madness activities and realized that all of them included two essential components of the ncaa march madness: exercise and food (ok, the food isn’t televised, but do you know how much college athletes eat?!?!  it’s obscene!).  so maybe there’s more similarities between our version of march madness and the ncaa one than i originally thought:

1. we began the month celebrating jamie’s birthday at sky high sports, where we jumped to our heart’s content on a humongous trampoline, dove into foam, and played some dodgeball. we capped off the night with some thai food, a lemon cake, and vegan chocolate banana muffins.  exercise evaluation: it was more challenging to jump on trampolines for an hour than i ever imagined it could be, but also more fun, totally meriting an achy back for the next few days. food evaluation: delicious, filling, varied.

2. shortly thereafter, we proceeded to celebrate tyler’s birthday at the new norcal sports complex, where we took turns batting:

this delightful party ended with some taco bell chow at the new fancy taco bell on mission street, a blueberry pie & an apple pie, and a stimulating game of riff. exercise evaluation: this involved some serious hand eye coordination, and out of nowhere, old tips from my parents started emanating from some long-lost corner of my brain – like “keep your eye on the ball, step into it as you swing, make sure to really swing through, choke up on the bat,”  etc, etc. my arms could definitely feel the exercise the next day. food evaluation: unusual (haven’t had tb in a LONG time), ended the night groaning with fullness.

3. in the middle of all the birthdays, we paused for a respite with shoveling dirt at a dear friend’s house, then helping plant a garden in front of her new home, then helping her move into said house. exercise evaluation: exhausting manual labor that felt good but led to the realization that i could probably never chose farming for a career. food evaluation: delicious – over the course of 3 weekends, we were treated to easter jelly beans and m&ms, scrumptious dharma’s food, an amazing veggie & cheese tray from gayle’s and perfect pastry cakes from the buttery, not to mention delicious ice cold new-refrigerator-filtered-water.

4. in continuing with the deviation from the stream of birthdays, we celebrated easter with my family’s religion: delicious food! exercise evaluation: the easter baskets contained frisbees made out of nylon that can be folded and packed to take to any event.  the afternoon deteriorated into three frisbees flying all over the living room while ness and mike challenged each other to a frisbee/juggling match.  food evaluation: we put together an absolutely amazing brunch, with every family member pitching in to make something tasty.

5. getting back to the regularly scheduled birthdays, we celebrated chuck’s birthday (mike’s dad). chuck’s birthday is technically in between jamie and tyler’s, but he and barb were in arizona for the big day at spring training, so we all celebrated when they visited santa cruz. they stayed at our house while in town, so mike and i utilized a towel oragami book (thanks, dad!) to create a birthday cake made out of towels….yes, it was a little martha stewart-y, but pretty cool too. exercise evaluation: rolling towels for oragmi may not be incredibly physically challenging, but truly a test of mental endurance. food evaluation: we enjoyed delicious mexican entrees and margaritas (ok, not me – you all know about me and margaritas.  and if you don’t, ask mike – i don’t want to relive that story!) from palapas followed by creamy and sweet flan, all while watching the gorgeous sunset over the water.

6. last but definitely not least, we celebrated my dad’s 60th birthday in san francisco with a trip to the legion of honor to see the annie leibovitz photos and the dead sea scrolls, then headed to el mansour for a moroccan feast.  exercise evaluation: standing and looking at art work for hours can be quite challenging for the legs, not to mention the long walk we had from our car to the legion of honor and back. food evaluation: this event packed in two meals, with a brie and kalamata olive filled picnic prior to the museum and a delicious 5 course moroccan meal afterwards that was completey fabulous.

so, dear readers, there you have it: a trip through the pogan’s march madness.  in between all of the eating, exerising, and eating some more, it’s completely understandable why i didn’t blog for almost a whole month, right?!?

this could potentially be quite exciting for all of you out there who don’t own an ipod nano, but are interested in utilizing the nike+….there’s no cost listed yet, but it’s expected to be available on april 10:

http://www.uncrate.com/men/gear/sports/nike-sportband/