If I can field a team, I will be competing in this. I've been training for the athletic portion for the past week, and the eating portion for almost 31 years. If you want to try out for my team, leave a note in the comments. Otherwise I'll be recruiting. Qualifications include being able to run/bike/swim for extended periods at a moderate pace, the ability to consume large amounts of food quickly, and the ability to raise a respectable amount of sponsorships.

Yes, I take the fundraising aspect seriously. I think Seeds (the nonprofit benefactor) is a good idea, and although I don't really think raising chickens inside the city limits is necessarily a good idea, I'm all for inner-city, community gardening. In fact, I've talked to a few folks about starting a community garden in our backyard. If you are not interested in the Doughman, but would like to be part of our garden co-op, you can leave a note in the comments as well.

Despite the fact that I did not have the time to put into it that I probably should have, we had a good garden season this year. In fact the garden is still producing. Today, we wanted BLTs, so I went out and picked a bowl full of grape tomatoes (our regular tomatoes only had green ones on them). I also got 5 or six small bell peppers. For November, that's pretty good!

Our cucmbers and mellons have stopped producing, so that means half our garden is currently idle. I think it is time to till up that half, and replant it with a fall garden. Here's what I have thought of so far:

• broccoli
• collards
• cabbage
• carrots
• spinach
• sweet potatoes
• snow peas

Are there any great gardeners out there that can suggest other good fall crops? Of course we don't like all veggies, so don't take it personally if we don't take your suggestion of beets, etc.

As I have said before, our garden is looking good, and let me tell you, it is a cucumber factory! We didn't even mean to plant cucumbers (way too many last year), but after a mix up of sprouts, we ended up with 6 or so vines. Yesterday, we had planned to pickle some cucmbers we got out of the garden earlier, but they had been in the fridge too long and they were ruined. So I told brooklynne I would head out to the garden and see if there were any that were ready to be harvested. Well, I picked so many cucumbers that we canned 6 large jars of pickles and made a quart of Tzatziki, and we still had 14 or 15 left over!!! Anyone want any cucumbers?!! 

Unlike last year when we only got about 3 tomatoes, a few zuccinis, and nothing else but cucumbers, this year's crop is looking very promising. We have about 20 medium-sized tomatoes on the vine, which should be ready in the next week or so. Brooklynne harvested about 10 large cucumbers yesterday (that had grown from too small to pickle to too large, while we were gone). She also picked one bell pepper and we have 4 more that will be ready soon. Our carrots look good, although they are still far from eating size. The basil and cilantro are still growing like weeds and we have harvested lettuce from our two plants twice already each, and they seem to be going strong. But the most surprising and exciting discovery in the garden on our return was 7 or 8 cantaloupes and 4 watermelons that have appeared out of the blue.

We did not plant broccoli, squash, or peas this year. Maybe we should have tried broccoli and peas again, but they were such a dud that we didn't feel very motivated. Our zuccini attracted grubs, which I have heard are impossible to get rid of, so we tried the watermelon instead, hoping that the grubs would not be interested. So far, so good. We also planted corn last year, but we couldn't keep kona from eating it, so that went by the wayside too.

I think the main difference in the garden, though, has been the level of rain we have gotten this year. Last year, we watered ALOT--I mean we watered until I was sure we were the cause of the extreme water shortage. We also used the miracle grow spray-on fertilizer. This year, I've only used fertilizer once because there haven't been days when it was dry enough that I felt I really needed to water much. I think we are still under water restrictions, but I would guess that we have to be close to normal capacity in our reserves, right?

I just can't wait until one saturday morning I can wake up early and walk out in the garden, pluck a cantaloupe right from the vine and sit on the porch and eat it on the spot. How nice will that be?

In case any of you did not notice, the XO laptop finally reached Haiti. I would love to get those guys another one. We'll see what we can do toward the end of the summer.

I've been following Euro 2008 online and it has been an exciting tourney already. The Netherlands were truely impressive vs. Italy (3-0), and Spain was just as good against Russia. I was glad to see Spain play well because it makes me feel better about the poor showing by the US aginst them last week (0-2). We had some good chances, but Spain dismantled us in the secnod half of that game. At least they are proving that you can be a decent team and still look bad against them--not that Russia is all that good either, but Spain is ranked #2 in the Euro power rankings after the first games of the group stage.

Meanwhile the US begins World Cup qualifying on Sunday vs. Barbados. in the past two meetings, we have beaten them by a combined score of 11-0, so I'm hoping for a relaxing game. The game is on ESPN2 immediatly before the UNC's opening game in the college world series. What a great father's day to veg out watching sports!

I got about 4/5 of the garden weeded this week after it was overrun while we were gone to the beach. The cucumbers are blooming (as well as the tomatoes and watermellon as reported earlier), Brooklynne has already harvested quite a bit of basil, we've got tiny carrots, and the cilantro and lettuce are looking good. The only thing that is showing no real signs of producing are the peppers, but I think we just need to be patient.

Tonight, Brooklynne and I will travel with the Wallaces to the Mt. Rogers National Recreation Area to camp and hike. I don't think it will be long until we know that place like the back of our hands, which is awesome. You can see some pictures from MRNRA here and here. I'll put up our own pictures as soon as we get back, provided we have better luck than last time.

That brings me to the fact that we won't be online tomorrow, so check back Sunday for more beach photos.

They instituted a block on blogger at work, so now I'm unable to view almost all of the websites in my blogroll. My job really goes in fits and spurts so it's a bummer to not be able to read up on you guys between taskers.

In other news, Matt Andrews called me yesterday. Apparently Alana still checks the TWJ periodically and she emailed me to get my info. I almost deleted her message, a standard practice for messages from unknown sources, but something made me hesitate and open hers instead. She is pregnant with a little boy and due in 3 weeks. Matt is still doing sales in the San Diego area and racing on the side. I've got a date to do another "catching up with..." segment with Matt on Sunday night. Stay tuned....

Anyone know how to get in touch with Chad Cook?

We took Kona to the new Duke Park dog park earlier this week. She loved it, but we can tell she's out of shape. I guess we'll have to pay the $12 to get her legal so we can go regularly.

Our garden has once again fallen by the wayside. Our tomatoes were starting to look really good and now they have a disease of some kind that makes them rot from the bottom before they turn ripe. I need to spend some time caring for the garden (and yard) to get it back on track.

Here is some footage from a coupld days, as Miles gets his garden going. Updating this video though, he has the plants now in the ground. We have pictures that we will put up of our fresh new garden, but I have no idea where the camera is... when I find the camera, I'll put up some pics. I think it might be outside...

p.s. Carlie gave Halleigh the hat that she has on... it is one of Halleigh's favorites! Thanks Carlie!

Brooklynne and I have been working hard to take care of our tiny garden and our labor is finally paying off. We found our first strawberry today, our flowers and sweetpeas are blooming, and the squash plant is showing signs of some early veggies. We have already been enjoying our spinach, basil, and cilantro. Our peppers and tomatoes are still far from producing anything worth eating. Still, not bad for a 5 x 10 deck in the shade! If anyone wants to help us eat our garden's produce, our door is always open.