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We got 28.5″ of snow over the weekend, and the Philly public schools have declared a snow day for tomorrow! That means I get it off too! Perfect timing. Mitsuyo and I were just talking about looking at some Moomin books and anime for use as a possible theme for Toya’s bedroom. And now we’ll have plenty of time to make it to the bookstore, or just to sit around and surf and watch old anime with Toya on youtube if we want. And I can make a dent in the “exposed brick” project that lingers in our kitchen. What a great surprise.

It’s Saturday again, which means early rise, walk the dog, a quick breakfast, and it’s time for my own version of Home Improvement. Today’s program includes the sessions Garden: First Steps, DIY Kitchen, and Lock Meets Hacksaw. I’ll write more about the first and last session in later posts. Here I want to focus on my kitchen plans.

Our kitchen started out as a rather haphazard, somewhat crowded mess featuring a non-functioning drop-in range, an ancient dishwasher, two different cabinet types, and some rather odd placements of cabinets and countertops for daily use.

Here’s a few photos of what it looked like:

Me and the realtor in the original kitchen

View of the lefthand window and countertop

Cabinets in the rear of the kitchen (at your back when you stand at the sink)

Ancient dishwasher and non-functioning range

Drop-in range and lack of a refrigerator

And so, from these humble beginnings, my dream was born.

The first steps happened last weekend and consisted of a the addition of a freestanding range and a new refrigerator. To do this, I had to remove the old range and a good portion of the countertop.

Range removal - the destruction

Range removal - close-up

Range removal - heavy weaponry

Range removal - in progress

Once the range was removed, it was easy enough for us to head to Lowes and purchase new appliances. However, the small issue of there being no shut-off for the gas line turned into a bit of a stumbling block and meant that we had to wait a couple of days more before our new range arrived. However, soon enough we were cooking away and keeping leftovers in our new fridge.

Which brings us to this weekend, and beautification. Despite the new appliances, our kitchen still wasn’t much to look at every morning. But all of that changed today. Having recovered from my cold last week, I set out to attack the kitchen with a vengeance this morning.

Dishwasher removal - big hole

After quite a bit of work with the pry bar and hammer, I’m happy to say that the results were quite satisfactory (if I do say so myself). There’s still some minor shimming to do when we redo the floors, but overall it seems like a big improvement.

Old cabinets from the rear of the kitchen replace the ancient dishwasher

Our old sideboard from the apartment replaces the ugly countertop on the lefthand side of the kitchen

Open space, wine, plants, and light (yes, and smoke detectors) replace the mess that used to be around this window

So, without spending a dime on anything except tools and necessary appliances, we have a new kitchen, more or less. Of course in the near future we’ll be stripping wallpaper and painting, and replacing the vinyl floor, but I’m quite happy with what we’ve achieved so far.

And we’re even hoping to recycle the old countertop in our back garden.

Yesterday I had a nice, chilly 25km bike ride on a bike trail that runs along the Schuylkill River and through part of Fairmount Park. You can see that ride below.

That was a great time, but it was pretty solitary. The ride itself was easy enough, but Mits has been off her bike recently due to concerns about slipping and falling and causing problems with the baby.

So today, with temperatures nearly breaking 50°F (10°C), Mitsuyo and I needed to get outside and do something together. After a good bit of searching and tossing various ideas around, we finally decided to rent a car for a few hours and head up to Wissahickon Park for a bit of hiking along the ominous-sounding Forbidden Drive. Wissahickon is part of the massive Philadelphia Fairmount Park system, although a part that is quite a bit further north than us down here in South Philly.

I won’t write too much more about the day except to say that we enjoyed a warm, melty walk along the river, met some nice people and a lot of nice dogs, and even made it back in time to do a bit of shopping with the car.

Here are some photos to summarize our short (about 2.5km) but very sweet hike:

Mitsuyo at the place where we joined Forbidden Drive after scampering around a golf course and down a MTB trail to gain access.

Walnut Lane bridge - built in 1908, and apparently the longest concrete bridge in the world at the time

Rock and tree

Mits didn't like this fungus at all, but I thought it was kind of attractive

Ice, reflected in icy water. Even at 50 degrees we weren't even tempted to go swimming.

There are lots of beans in my life these days. The first one is little Toya, who I affectionately refer to as “the bean.” Of course, he’s too big in there in mommy’s tummy to be referred to as “bean-sized” anymore, but I still use the nickname.

Last night after work, Mitsuyo and I headed to UPenn Hospital for a pregnancy class, dealing with “the bean” and his arrival in this world in about 2 months. We watched a few videos showing actual births, and as usual I teared up. I don’t know what it is about these videos – the pain, the excitement, the reality of a new life – but there is something about watching an actual birth video that always brings tears to my eyes. I don’t start bawling or anything – I’ll probably save that for around April 5, when Toya arrives. But I do tear up, and in a geeky fatherly kind of way I guess I’m proud of that.

We also talked a bit about exercises and focal points for Mitsuyo as she enters and continues through the labor process. She was also pretty emotional about the whole thing, although her excitement was also mixed with occasional questions to me such as “Can’t you do it for me?” It’s scary seeing that reality staring at you, but at the same time I remember (and remind her) that people have been giving birth and raising children since the dawn of humanity, and with a lot less to help them through it than we will have.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos of the hospital or the class, but I do have a few photos of the next beans in my life: those little sprouts that I’m using to prepare myself for a preschool class next week. I won’t say much more about them, as I’ve probably written too much about them already.

However, I will say that thus far I see 19 sprouts out of the 25 I planted. That’s a 76% germination rate, which is significantly less than I had hoped for. I expected a minimum of 80% with these seeds from Target (yeah, I’ll buy real seeds for the garden by mail order, but this was just for school), and I was really hoping to be up near 90%. There’s still time for the remaining pots to germinate, but right now I’d say that, despite my excitement about the sprouts themsevles, I wouldn’t buy Target’s seeds again regardless of the price.

So here’s some photos:

The bean sprouts today - partially blocked by their neighbor, the spider plant

Close-up on the biggest ones

Waking up this morning to snow and ice and rain was a nice surprise for me as it means that they City of Philadelphia schools – and therefore my own school as well – are closed for the day. Snow Day!

Snow and ice aside, it was also exciting to wake up this morning and see my beans peeking out through the soil. I planted them back on Jan. 19, and they just started to break through yesterday but this morning they were pushing up the soil and I can see the first set of leaves peeking through on a couple.

Overhead view of the sprouting beans

Here’s another photo from last night showing the beginnings of this bean growth. I’ll get more up here soon, maybe even today. After all, I don’t have to go to work!

Close-up of the beans breaking through

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Well, one daffodil in bloom anyway. I woke up this morning and made my way out to the kitchen/living room to discover… this:

Morning discovery - a single daffodil in bloom, and more looking to follow right on its heels.

What a beautiful sight it was. It has only been a week since I brought these back from Trader Joe’s, and I’d say I’ve already got my $2.50 out of them with this bloom and the few others than are promising to poke out in the next few days.

Close up of number one

I wonder what I’ll find tomorrow morning when I open my eyes and make my way out to the kitchen for a cup of tea.

Dramatic daffodil

Well, the Eagles lost and the Steelers won, which means the Super Bowl will at least be worth watching. (I can’t imagine even thinking about the game if it had been Arizona v. Baltimore.) But with the championships behind us and the big game only about 2 weeks away, it must mean that spring is right around the corner.

Yeah, tell that to my water pipes, which were frozen up for two days this past weekend.

Anyway, with one eye on spring and the other on getting together a cool math/science lesson for the kids at school, I bought two Burpee seed starting kits and a few packets of bean seeds today. The second of these kits will be for the kids at school to play around with, but the first one is for me – to do a dry run of the lesson and see exactly what’s involved, germination rates, how long things are likely to take before they start looking alive, and so on.

About an hour ago, Mitsuyo and I opened up the kit and set up the coir pellets (no peat in this kit: it’s 100% earth friendly and biodegradeable!) in the watering tray, wet them down, and plunked in 25 bean seeds. We planted three different varieties. Nothing special really – I’m going mainly for quick germination and affordability here. So we planted Burpee’s Kitchen King and Blue Lake 274 (bush beans) and Sean Conway Tendergreen (pole beans, I think).

Here’s a photo of the tray layout:

Bean starting tray, with 3 kinds of beans just planted.

There are 8 each of the two bush bean varieties and 9 of the pole beans. I plan to use this lesson with the kids to do some basic math skills (counting bean seeds, measuring soil depth to 1″, measuring amounts of water, tracking days and growth, etc.) as well as to provide a fun little science lesson about gardens and plants and food. Likely as not we will end up with coir, beans, and water all over the floor, but hopefully we’ll have a good time.

The old man watering gently with an old Coke bottle full of day-old water and two fingers to control droplet size. (Let's see the kids do that!)

So there it is: my first garden-related math/science activity. I’m hoping to see some green in 7-10 days here, and also hoping we’ll see over 90% germination. We’ll probably do two beans per pot for the kids just to avoid any disappointments.

Happy spring, and go Steelers!

Dear god, can’t there be a playoff game without dumb rednecks driving hemis and saying stuff like, “This is how we roll”? Guy in South Philly to the world: “There are some Americans around who don’t strive to talk like jackasses and drive like pigs. Guy in South Philly to Dodge: “Back again? Go bankrupt already and stop digging in my pocket and selling garbage. We’re better off without you.”

… back to the game.

I was saying to one of my fellow teachers the other day that it’s a shame that it takes doing art activities with preschoolers to make me realize my own artistic abilities. Don’t get me wrong. I would never claim to be an Artiste. But if necessity is the mother of invention, then a chorus of 3- and 4-year-olds clamoring for you to draw mermaids and dinosaurs for them to color in is the mother of simplifying visual images in a way that makes them more or less “drawable” for someone like me, who has never considered himself to have much skill in the field of fine arts. (I love painting, drawing, photography, etc., but I figure that I’ll always play the role of appreciative audience in these fields rather than active contributor.)

Anyway, here are a couple of my recent attempts at artwork, from preschool:

Tree - A simple watercolor done while the kids were busy with their own paintings.

The Zade that Schoons - A blocky color pattern done to get kids thinking about shape, color, and space. It was later augmented with some freehand scribbles by a 4-year-old helper.