181/365: Illustrating Time

I took this assignment quite literally.  I would have loved to do something more creative, but sometimes creativity alludes me.  My watch was a gift from Klucker.  It's a pretty special gift to me because he often times struggles with gift giving, and with this one he got it exactly right.  It's funny, as much as I love this watch, I'm not sure whether it was a birthday or Christmas gift.  And I'm not sure how many years I've had it.  I'm guessing it was a pre-bike racing gift, because since then most of the gifts he gives me revolve around the bike.  I find it ironic that as I try to pictorially represent time, I'm having a hard time recollecting the passing of it.

172/365: ORANGE!

I was excited about today's photo assignment:  make a photograph dominated by the color orange.  I love orange!  It's that Illini fever that infected me so many years ago.  Then, I tried to find something to shoot.  I figured no one really wanted to see a shot of my array of Illini spirit wear.  I tried taking a shot of the Bella's spring placemat, but it showed the food stains that I haven't been able to clean off of it.  And then I watched Klucker cook dinner.  Lately step one of cooking dinner has been, "Get Cheez It box out of pantry."  Step two:  Eat Cheez Its while getting onto the kids about putting their stuff away.  Step three:  Keep pushing Cheez It box to the back of the counter so Boo and Bella will actually still be hungry when dinner is done.  Viola!  There was my photo idea, an illustration of the little orange crunchy pillows that we have to buy in bulk at Costco.  It's not easy to keep line them up symmetrically though; they want to twist, turn and spin on the counter.

160/365: Sausage Fest

Cutting up the beef and pork before grinding time.

Bella decides she wants to help Klucker mix the sausage.

Stuffing the casings.

Even Big Klucker worked this year.  This is a rarely seen sight.

Yes Uncle Jeffrey needs to be report to DFS.

Get your mind out of the gutter . . . I'm talking about making summer sausage!  It's a Klucker family tradition that every spring we make summer sausage.  The goal is to do it in late February or early March.  It needs to be early enough that the meat doesn't spoil while it's smoking.  I learned the Delbert Klucker rule early on in my relationship with my Klucker, if you're not there to help, you don't get any of the end product.  That could mean salsa, sauerkraut, sausage, or mulligan.  I usually take the easiest job of the day which is cutting up the meat to be ground.  It's not a friendly environment for vegetarians.  After cutting, it gets ground and then mixed with seasoning.  The mixing is the worst part because your hands freeze.  This year Bella decided to try that job out.  She didn't last very long.  After that the mixutre is stuffed into casings before being tied and hung in the smokehouse.  It's a labor intensive process, but nothing beats Grandpa Klucker's recipe . . . and trust me that his spirit lives on in the process every year.  At least four or five times during the day someone will reference Papa Del, usually in relation to how much Papa Klucker is becoming like him.

68/365: If You Fall We're Taking You to SLU

I came home just in time for dinner tonight.  First, Bella stole my Santa hat.  You would have thought I'd brought home a new pair of Jimmy Choo's the way she zeroed in on it.  Don't you think it goes well with the lovely pink and orange outfit she has on?  And no, thankfully she did not wear that to school.  Bella believes life is her own show, complete with several daily costume changes. 

She next decided she needed something out of the "kid cabinet."  Instead of using her words and telling me what she wanted she wanted to show me.  She dragged the stool over to cabinet and climbed on up.  She rooted through the cabinet until she found what she wanted.  Is it any wonder that things get misplaced around this house?

When the kids climb up on stuff or take crazy risks we always threatened, "If you get hurt, you're going to SLU."  They don't quite get what that means yet, but they realize the context and that they don't want to go there.  This catch phrase comes from the first year Klucker and I were married.  He wasn't feeling well and came running down the stairs proclaiming he needed to go to the hospital because he had vomited blood.  I replied by asking what he meant and saying let me get your insurance card.  That was met with "you don't love me.  You don't care that I could die."  And he stormed out of the house.  I went upstairs, found his insurance card, and met him at SLU.  An urban hospital is a strata of society which I hope never to have to encounter again.  My purse was searched as I went through the metal detector.  I found Klucker waiting, as well as multiple extended families.  Klucker went to triage and I was allowed to go with him there.  It was then I found out that his "vomiting blood" was actually a small tinge caused by vomiting and breaking a small blood vessel.  It's a good thing he wasn't dying but was in a hospital because I was ready to kill him at that point and it only got better. 

When he finally got to see a doctor, I wasn't allowed to go back because we didn't have the same last name so we couldn't be married!   Mind you the indigenous families with play cousins and the like went back en masse.  In the end, the ER doc took very good care of Klucker, giving him a very thorough exam, including checking his prostate.  Gotta love karma!

64/365: Gingerbread 101

I'll probably catch grief for telling this story, but here it goes.

A couple of weeks ago, Boo brought home a sheet requesting parent volunteers to help build gingerbread houses. (Again, Christmas and public schools, but I'm not going there this year.) I would normally be all over this, but the two days they needed help I was booked at work so I mentioned it to Klucker. He checked his schedule and emailed Mrs. S via the school website to volunteer to help. He got no response and several days later sent an email directly from his email account. After receiving no response, he wrote a note and put it in Boo's folder. He finally got an email response, but alas, Mrs. S had all her volunteer spots filled. Klucker called me at work to tell me he didn't get to help. I was shocked at the disappointment in his voice. It was very sweet and heartbreaking all at the same time.

Klucker being Klucker did not let that stop though. Since I was going to be out of town, he decided he and the wee ones would build their own gingerbread house, to heck with the school one. And buying a gingerbread house kit from Target or Costco just wouldn't do for Klucker. No, they were baking their own house from scratch. So throughout the day on Saturday, I was able to keep up with the progress through his Facebook posts and pictures. Here they are if you missed him or aren't friends:

• In an attempt to keep the kids happy while mom is in Dallas this weekend we will begin construction of a gingerbread house today, dough mixing has begun!
• Phase 1 complete ginger slabs in the oven with no loss time accidents!
• Architectural approval has just come back, first issue is a revise and resubmit with use of candy canes! Due to high demand in China no candy canes were figured into the original design due to supply issues!! Am checking the local past Christmas supply scrap yards for an left overs . . . .
• Just finished the first jobsite precon meeting. Had to bribe the architects with apple juice to go along with the idea of making ginger canes, since all the local supply of candy canes are out.
• All the panels in the lay down area prior to assembly.
• First set of panels has just arrived from the precast yard . . . and the leftovers are yummy!
• Ginger canes just arrived from precast.
• Waiting for the roof.
• Roofers just finished.
• Who would have thought, icing porn . . . the harder and faster you beat it the stiffer it gets.
• Build complete
• Does candy that fell on the the floor prior to install count as pre consumer recycled content for my LEED application?

I'm secretly glad I wasn't home to witness the chaos and ensuing mess. Clean up was complete by the time I saw the finished project above. I also think it's probably a good thing the volunteer spots were full. With status updates like that, I can only imagine what phrases Boo's classmates would have carried home.

61/365: Just Don't Get Me Involved

I have a lot of grandiose ideas, hair-brained schemes and the like--at least that's what they are according to Klucker. And my 365 Project falls is an example of one of those to him, although I will say he's usually quite supportive of them. (Probably because his are even more outlandish than mine. Ask me about our no cost to our budget Soulard Pond sometime!) Most of the time, he just gives me an "oh, Johnson," shakes his head, and rolls his eyes and walks away. So as I've spent the last 60 days snapping photos, I've tried to capture one of him. This is a typical look I get as the flash lights up the room. I call it his "I'm not going to interfere with your plans, just don't include me look."

I will give him great credit though. As I've begun snapping more pictures, he's been giving me feedback and tips on my shots. He's been patient in explaining different camera settings and actually went shopping to find a book on digital photography for me. He may not want to be a photo subject, but he's being really supportive of my work.