Posts under ‘Steve’

As Steve walked by me the other night, I said, “Do you know what we’re going to have to do soon?” “What?” “We’re going to have to go to Paul’s Discount and get a bunch of dirt,” I said. There was resounding silence as Steve fled into another room. “Aren’t you excited?” I yelled after [...]

Yesterday morning, as I was getting out of bed, Steve said, “You were pretty funny last night.” I always have a sinking feeling when anyone says that. College roommates, friends sharing a hotel room, partners…it’s that instant knowledge that whatever you did was so hilarious as to be completely embarrassing, while remaining totally out of [...]

The past two weeks have been hectic, to say the least. On February 1, I gave notice at my job, and when I shut down my computer tomorrow at the end of the day, I’ll walk out the door of my current employment for the last time—at least, the last time as an ID-carrying member [...]

[Curtain rises on STEVE and GENIE eating breakfast on a Sunday morning.] Steve: What are you going to post on your blog today? Genie: [Speaking through a mouthful of scrambled eggs] It’s Green Thumb Sunday, so it’s a photo day. [Steve continues to eat his eggs for a few moments.] Steve: Did you just say…Grim [...]

Last night, Steve had already eaten dinner by the time I got home from my yoga class, so I nuked my food and settled down at the kitchen table with my copy of Teaming With Microbes: A Gardener’s Guide to the Soil Food Web, which is this month’s Garden Bloggers’ Book Club selection. (Note: I’m [...]

[Curtain rises on the produce department of the New Pioneer Co-op in Coralville, Iowa. STEVE picks up a hothouse tomato.] STEVE: I want some salad. Let’s get stuff for salad. GENIE: We definitely need to eat more salad. [STEVE goes to put the tomato in the shopping cart.] GENIE: [Wails.] Noooooo! Put that back! STEVE: [...]

When I was a little kid, I remember eating bowl after bowl of cereal. I loved eating Cheerios with milk and sugar, and then, when the cereal was done, scraping the bottom of the bowl for milk-saturated sugar crystals. It was almost like breakfast and dessert, all in one bowl. During high school, my boyfriend [...]

by Steve McNutt [Editor's Note: This is Part Two of Steve's post about African watering techniques, which he promises to address today. Really. If you missed Part One, please read it here.] Anyway. In addition to palm wine, oil palms generate palm oil (shocking, I know) and a variety of other stuff derived from the [...]

by Steve McNutt [Reader's Note: Please understand the following. This two-part blog post has (a) been written by someone other than The Inadvertent Gardener and (b) compiled under significant duress with serious threats of recrimination, specifically the withholding of birthday gifts -- yes, I'm serious. The writer of this post volunteered to write a guest [...]

Last year, as the cold weather moved into Iowa City, we noticed a collection of small, polka-dotted beetles congregating on our kitchen ceiling. They looked like orange ladybugs, so we considered them harmless guests and let them be. But then they started to multiply. And multiply. And multiply some more. They collected in the kitchen [...]