Day 187: July 6 - Giant pumpkin plant

When I took this picture I was pretty impressed at how massive the giant pumpkin plant at the Register had gotten. Since I'm so late in posting this picture, I can tell you that now, this entire area has been filled with the plant, and that our pumpkin weighs about 90 pounds.

If you want to check out our giant pumpkin project, visit pumpkinnation.com

Day 186: July 5 - Turtle trouble

My column about our little turtle adventures.

Turtle trouble

My dog Hailey tried to get herself a pet the other day.
Yeah, go ahead and laugh, but this was all her doing. For a few days, she stood in our backyard in a far-off corner barking and barking and barking. Peter and I chastised her, yelled at her, asked her nicely to stop, but it was no use.
On day four of the crazed barking, I was about to lose it. Peter finally got really close to the fence to figure out if there was a bug or something on the fence that was catching her attention.
No bug. Instead, there was a 9-inch-long turtle. Now, to Hailey’s credit, she wasn’t trying to hurt the turtle. She was apparently just trying to alert us that she had found a little friend.
Peter swooped up the turtle after I shrieked to not touch it with his bare hands. They carry salmonella, be careful, I told him.
Sure, sure, he says in his such-a-boy way. He did use a plastic bag to pick up the little guy, though, and put him in our ice chest with some water.
At this point in our little situation, I knew literally nothing about turtles, so I had to call my 14-year-old cousin, Nick, for advice. He’s had a turtle, affectionately named “Breakfast” when he found him at the age of 5, for a long time, so surely he must be an expert.
But he wanted to know all these things I didn’t know the answer to. Like what kind of turtle he was. Was he brown or green? Did he have stripes on his face? Dude, I don’t know, I told him. He’s a turtle, he seems to not hate the water, that’s all I’ve got.
Nick told me that he feeds Breakfast little turtle food pellets and that my turtle probably was a water turtle since he seemed to like the water.
OK, that’s enough info for me, I decided. We shall keep him and name him Pueblo, since we live on West Pueblo Avenue.
Wait, wait, wait, Peter says. You know a turtle needs a big tank, right?
Well obviously I didn’t.
A bunch of Internet searches later, I decided that maybe turtle ownership wasn’t for me. They need 10 gallons of aquarium space for every inch that they are long. That’s pretty big, and pretty expensive.
Defeated, I went to work and told everyone of my turtle woes. One offered to throw the turtle in a friend’s pond and everyone else told me to call animal control or the Humane Society.
A few phone calls led me to Joe the Reptile Wrangler (my name for him, not what he calls himself, I think). Joe wrestles rattlesnakes off your property if they’re giving you trouble, and shows up at Chefs’ Market to introduce kids to lizards, turtles and other such reptiles; but he also takes in the little buggers that, like my turtle, show up unannounced, and tries to get them back to their home or habitat.
Joe the Reptile Wrangler returned my call promptly and was able to swoop in and rescue little Pueblo within an hour. Within a couple days I had two emails from the classified ad I put in the Register about the found turtle (who says advertising in the paper doesn’t get results?) and he was reunited with his family.
It turns out the turtle was quite the little mover, because it came from about five blocks away. Oh, and he was a she named Shelly.
Hailey has been none-too-pleased with us since this incident, and looks fondly at the fence waiting for her little friend to return. Sorry, pup. I can only keep up with so many fast-moving pets.
Gal on the Go appears every other week, alternating with Jennifer Huffman’s Surrendering to Motherhood. Contact Michelle at mchoat@napanews.com.

Day 185: July 4 - Home Depot owns us

I truly don't enjoy Home Depot. But if you're going to buy a house, you have to at least tolerate it. Peter did better than me. He pushed two carts of goodies ($600 worth of goodies), while I just tried on Home Depot hats:)

Day 184: July 3 - I (heart) you

I thought I was being so funny. I wrote this little message to Peter on one of the walls we were going to primer then paint in our new home. I giggled for like five minutes until he finally turned around. Then, the joke was on me when we went to primer the wall and the message shone through!

Day 183: July 2 - Bright and shiny

It was SOOO nice to get a new car. Not only was the process completely non-painful, but, I mean, who doesn't want a new and shiny car when they've been looking at their old-and-busted car for months. It felt great to make the commitment, now all I have to do is not freak out about making a car payment for the first time in many, many years. Now, what shall we name her?!

Shoot, I was trying to take a picture of the fact that it only had 13 miles on it, but that didn't work out. The steering wheel is still pretty sport, so I'll take it:)

Day 182: July 1 - The many faces of the Hailey bug

Miss Hailey Mae has been mighty lazy lately. I think she's taking this moving thing pretty hard. She can't quite figure out why her parents are stressed and why the house has been in chaos for more than a month. Lots of schlepin' around.

Day 181: June 30 - House is ours! Let's eat!

We technically closed escrow on Thursday, but we knew we wouldn't get the keys till Thursday, so really what was there to do but eat and drink?
We headed to Fish Story and I'll give it two out of five stars. These salmon deviled eggs were super yummy, the clam chowder was good, but our entrees were so-so. And the service was terrible. I'll go back for Happy Hour, but that's probably all.

Day 180: June 29 - First baseball game

It wasn't long ago that I went to my very first baseball game (and took my first BART ride all in the same day). So it's fun to bring newbies to the games. I still don't know what's going on, but I, like first-timer Brooke, here, just want the good food. For her it was a fully loaded hot dog.

Someone, though, really needs to explain to me why on earth you would need or want an MC Hammer Bobblehead!

Day 179: June 28 - Ready to close

I've had this bottle of champagne for a couple years. It came in a fancy box, and I wasn't sure what occasion to pop it open for, but I was certain it should be a big one. Peter said "we'll open it the day we close on our first home." I laughed at him at the time, but then suddenly the day was almost here. I put it in the fridge on Tuesday, hoping for a smooth close on Thursday. (PS, when we finallllly drank it on Saturday when we got the keys, it was amazing.)