Jen Builds Things – Cabinet Edition

Huh. I got bored typing up a long post about how I built a bathroom cabinet so I just decided to turn it into an equation. 

 

+ 

= 

Ta da!

Awe. Some.

Look it what they have for sale at Walmart! How cool are these? And down in the right corner is the tiny keychain version! *adds to wish list*

In smallest theater ever getting ready to watch Jurassic Park! Yay for dinosaurs!

Deer on commute

I really love living in an area where this is what I see on my commute.

Cheating people in the age of the internet

My car insurance company will only cover 5 miles of towing for free and sadly, my mechanic lives further away. So I have to pay by the mile (no more than 3.75 per mile) for anything over 5. Before I called today, I googled the distance between my house and the mechanic.

Of course, I looked at this and calculated how much it would cost to tow my car up Aurelius, costing me the least amount of money. Seems reasonable, right? Then the tow company called to let me know they were on the way and that only 5 was covered and I said taking Aurelius would only be 8 miles…then he hemmed and hawed and told me that they couldn’t take that route. Something about trucks not allowed on all of that road. I have no idea if that’s true or not but it felt like a story.

So he said he’d figure out the mileage before he came over. Wanna bet that it’s going to be the 12 mile version?

EDIT: Yup. 12 miles for $28. Lovely.

Fairy Ring

Look, it’s a fairy ring! I’ve been driving past this for days and finally had the chance to pull to the side of the road and snap some pictures. How cool (and huge) is this thing? It’s in front of a house that’s for sale on Aurelius road in Holt.

While this is a naturally occurring growth of mushrooms that can be explained scientifically, I think it’s much more fun to think about the folklore associated with fairy rings. Most stories about fairy rings paint them as bad things, places where elves or fairies can trap people for eternity. Some talk about those who enter a ring being forced to dance until they die (which probably is not as fun as it sounds).  I’ve also read tales where the rings are there as portals, doorways to another world, which may or may not have being enthralled and being trapped for all eternity involved as well…so you take your chances. Wikipedia does state that only safe way to investigate a ring is to run around it nine times. I didn’t get out of my vehicle so I’m probably safe from vengeful fairy justice…but if nobody hears from me you should probably swing by this circle and see if I’m dancing like a fool. 

Green thumb

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow? Well, I’m not Mary but my garden is doing pretty well this year. Instead of a lot of different types of veggies we’ve focused on just peppers and tomatoes (like we’re a salsa factory!). The tomatoes seem to be struggling through the weird weather that Michigan has been gifting us, really bad heat waves and then massive amounts of rain, but the peppers are flourishing!

 

 Here are a progression of shots of some little peppers in Garrett’s hot pepper garden. Did you know they grew upside down? It’s the craziest looking thing! Then they turned bright red and we picked them…while they were super tiny. If I didn’t see it with my own eyes I wouldn’t have believed it. They are jelly bean-sized! I’m not sure if they would have grown larger on the plant or not. But they are cute!

Finally, bell peppers! I’ve already harvested both yellow and green bell peppers and this one in the picture was picked the next day…but the red peppers are taking their own sweet time. Maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe by the time they are ready to harvest they will be extra super yummy! Red peppers are the whole reason we focused on peppers and tomatoes this season. We used red peppers in everything last year and they were incredibly delicious. I’m anxious for them to grow this year so I can start cooking all sorts of new recipes full of delicious red peppers.