Responsibly Wild Blog

Now before anyone thinks I am super lazy please know that I ran in an organized 5k race on Saturday morning, spent an hour at the DSM Farmers' Market, biked 22 miles, and hung out with a lot of people this weekend. Also, if Marieta didn't have to spend all of her free time on her Master's classes I would probably have only seen one or two of these films but since she is tied to a desk studying... I have a lot free time. So here is how useless I was this weekend. Friday 1. The Spirit - Scarlot Johannson is the worst actress of all time and her looks are HIGHLY overrated. The film was baaaaaaaad, but fun in its badness. Not so bad it was unwatchable. Saturday 2. The Last Airbender - M. Night is done for. Everything he left his mark on in this thing (the acting, the plot, the voiceover) was absolutely terrible. That being said I hope they make the sequels because I dig the mythology and I have never watched/read anything Airbender related. Ditch almost all of the a...

I promise, I wont turn this into "Hey guess what I found in my garden today" blog. I am just swept up in the frenzy of birthing tastiness from the Earth. Here's another picture post. Here's Marieta picking some peas out of sad bean poles. We put the poles up too late and the peas haven't seemed to take to them very well. Doesn't seem to be stopping them from getting big and fat. Not that big, but the biggest yet. Zucchs aren't a pick and pop type of veggie. Gotta pick out the stamen and clear out the critters that have made the blossoms their home. I have to do it because Marieta is scared of the critters. Check out the haul. 1.5 lbs of baby zucch and 7.5 ozs of blossoms. Plus a handful of peas and beans. Don't they just look tasty? Happy 4th everybody.

So today is the greatest day in our home-owning yet! I could tell you all about it... or I could show you! Check out these pics. So we woke up with plans of thinning out the over growth on our backyard hill... Well while eating breakfast Marieta noticed that we had squash blossoms outside. So we ran out there to check em out. Holy Biscuits! All of our plants are flowering and ready to spit out some baby veggies. We harvested all the blossoms and baby zuchs. So.... good.... So Friday we couldn't see these guys from the kitchen... NOW WE'RE ABOUT TO EAT 9 ZUCHS!! Have you ever had Squash Blossoms? Oh buddy... you are missing out... Everyone loves fried zuchini. Well you don't know good till you've had fried squash blossom. All dusted up and ready to dance. Looks kind of like they are getting a carmel bath. To borrow a phrase from our favorite Food Network personality Alton Brown... Golden, Brown, AND DELICIOUS!!!! One of the most exciting things about becoming a homeowner...

I gotta say... as an Iowa State fan you have got to love this. The Big 12 is dead as we know it and that couldn't be a better thing. What worked in the Big 12 for Iowa State? Tradition? Sure, but a whole lot of good that turned out to be. BCS? Well considering we've played in ZERO BCS GAMES I don't think anyone should be losing sleep over that for the moment. Money? Are you kidding me? All the money our conference made went to the big schools. How can a school with a $25 Million budget compete with a $125 Million school. So as far as I'm concerned this is a GREAT thing for ISU. Colorado may have opened the door but I think we should slam it hard after all the greed filled goliaths are gone. Everyone has been talking about how ISU has no leverage in this whole ordeal. That is true and we should be celebrating. Those schools are about to leave and join mega conferences where the decent-bordering-on-bad teams will get absolutely pummeled. They are all gonna jump for the...

That is the latest video from PB & AJ. I am pretty proud of it. I think the song has a good message while staying fun, the video is a lot of fun, and it gets me excited for the next PB & AJ song. This is our 7th song. So far we have done Old MacDonald, Twinkle Twinkle, Hickory Dickory Dock, The Alphabet Song, Eat Right, Days of The Week, and now Outside. The last three are originals. I used to say I really wanted to write a kids album sometime... well guess what I am close to half way there. Can't wait till Christmas, we should have like 20 jams by then! Peace. If you're a facebook stalker, you'll need to search for PB & AJ on Facebook to see the video (or just go to my blog).

Last Wednesday I got to attend an advance screening of Iron Man 2 . Now that everyone has scene it, it's not that big a deal. However, I have a blog and I do critique films for my job ... this time we did something special. We did a two minute review for the news and then we let the camera roll and we just went with it. Here's what came of it: Yes I do bash this film pretty hard, and no after a week to cool down I do not relent, except on Sam Rockwell. I saw this film again on Sunday and I think he does an admirable job, he's just looks like a trained monkey compared to Robert Downey Jr. If you haven't seen it make sure you hear them say at the beginning that the Stark Expo is one week long. Everything that happens in the movie happens within a week... c'mon... C'MON! Oh well, Fun, nothing great and after the first film destroyed all other superhero movies this one should have, and could have, done the same. Still, I can't wait for Iron M...

We were busy like bees this weekend. Friday after work Nick Welter and I moved about 15 wheel barrels full of dirt to our raised beds. I was so freaking beat after all that digging that we were lights out in bed by 10 o'clock. I would feel like a loser but when you are working with shovels and dirt... you can't help but feel manly. Saturday, we woke up early around 8 and danced our way over to the Downtown Des Moines Farmers' Market. I brought a camera and this is what it looked like. Packed to the gills. Was a good time, ran into my old bud Dan Givens, his fiancee, and his parents, and talked to some of our favorite farmers. Love the locally grown produce... now if only they would split it into prepared food at one end, and farmers at the other. Get the fools out of my way who only came down there to buy a breakfast burrito. Saturday night Marieta and I drove all the way to Cedar Rapids for the Iowa Broadcast News Association awards dinner. It was cool and I got a second p...