Grab a butterbeer and enjoy!

At the risk of sounding like a geek, this week’s column is about my current reading material, the newest Harry Potter book. I’ve actually found time to do quite of bit of leisure reading this summer. I started with The Da Vinci Code, then moved on to Nicholas Sparks book, The Wedding, the sequel to The Notebook. I then dove into a crime/mystery novel I bought for a quarter at the Colby Cheese Days book sale. I rushed to finish it in time for Saturday.

No, I didn’t dress as one of the characters and stand in line for 12 hours. I didn’t push my way into the store at midnight and pay a rather large chunk of money for the new literary treasure. Instead, I stayed home, watched all the diehards on the news and patiently waited for the mail to arrive. I pre-ordered mine online several weeks ago, at half price and guaranteed to arrive Saturday or it was free. Although I opened the red and white box as soon as the guys brought it inside, I held off from opening the book until I had the proper time to give to it. That didn’t happen until the evening when Jacob went to bed.

My high school creative writing teacher introduced me to Harry Potter when I was a senior. She was reading one in class and told us how wonderful she thought they were. My whole family read the first three in paperback, but the rest were hardcover. We couldn’t wait for the cheaper version to come out. I believe I took the fifth book to California with me when I did a college internship. The sixth I read while pregnant with Jacob two years ago. When I came across a news article about the record number of pre-orders for the seventh book I had to join in.

Over the seven books, J.K. Rowling’s style has changed. They’ve become darker and more adult. Although I prefer the youthful fun of the first few books, I understand the need to change. The characters are growing up and facing adult issues. The style needs to grow up along with them. I’ve still got a ways to go in this book, but I should have it finished by the end of the week. Then I can mourn the end of Harry’s story with the rest of his fans.
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(The boys watching the demo derby at the Lincoln County Fair last weekend.)

As scary as this is to think about, Jacob turns two next week. It’s his golden birthday, which is really just symbolic. Still, I can remember mine feeling a little more special. Although he won’t remember it, we’re hoping to make it special for him. Nate and I have talked about taking him to a wildlife park to see all the animals. If that falls through because of rain, we’ve have to come up with a back-up plan. Either way, one thing is for sure. He’s growing up too fast.

A two-fer

June 11th....
You know the phrase “Brotherly love”? I’ve decided this isn’t a given. It’s definitely something that comes with age. The past few years I’ve done some reading on birth order. It really is fascinating, especially coming from a family as large as mine. Being the second child but oldest girl, I have traits of both the oldest and middle child. But since I am number two of five, I lean more toward the oldest child stereotype.

My oldest brother is a classic oldest child: more mature than his years, intelligent and relates better to older people than people his own age. My sister, Kirsten, who is smack in the middle of us, is a typical middle child. She is more reserved, is very willing to compromise and tends to get lost in a crowd. She’s a good listener but not much of a talker. Kaitlyn, being number four, has traits of the baby and the middle child. She is also a little reserved at times, but can also be the life of the party when she wants to. She’s used to being stepped on by us older kids, but doesn’t take it quite so easy. Kristopher is an obvious baby of the family. He is always talking. It’s hard to have a conversation with him because the words flow from one subject to the next before you can get a word in. He also is a whiner at times and has learned he needs to make a fuss to be heard amongst his siblings. And fuss he does.

Nate and his brother are eight and half years apart, making for an interesting study in birth order. Nate was used to being the only child until Ryan stepped in halfway through his childhood. Nate definitely is more of a type A personality. He is always planning, worrying about the future and tends to be the boss around the place. He despises laziness and sitting still, unless, of course, he’s the one taking the nap. Ryan is the baby 100 percent. He, like Kristopher, can whine with the best of them. He is used to taking orders and sometimes has a hard time getting anything done without someone there to prod him along.

Because of their opposite personalities, Nate and his brother don’t always get along the greatest. It seems the more time they spend together the worse it gets. It reminds me some of my sisters, who I couldn’t get away from fast enough when I left for college. All that seems to change as you get older and aren’t seeing them every single day. Kaitlyn and Kirsten are coming up for a little visit this weekend, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to see them. I hope Nate and Ryan will someday have a similar relationship. I have a feeling once Ryan leaves for college this fall the dust will settle. But until now, I’m going to be very careful whenever I open any barn doors. You never know when a bucket might come flying at your head.

. . . And June 18th
One of the occupational hazards of working with Todd is he helps organize the beer tents at Colby Cheese Days. That means I’m doomed to work there at least once for the weekend. Last year out of desperation Todd asked me to work a shift Saturday night. It actually wasn’t too bad and I had fun with it. So this year I told Todd he could sign me up for the Saturday night shift again.

A few days before the start of Cheese Days, Todd realized he’d made a mistake in the scheduling. With the antique tractor pull scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. this year, there were only workers scheduled in the south stand until 6 p.m. He asked if I would come in a little early and help out. So after spending time at the Chariots of Cheese in the morning and pedal tractor pull and carnival in the afternoon, I headed back to Colby for a few shots of the antique pullers and free labor at the beer stand. I ended up working with Kelly, so we had a fun night chattering away between customers and restocking the tubs of beer, soda, water and ice. Although I had fun at the south stand as well, it is quite a bit different than the big north stand. At the north stand, you just need to be able to count tickets and run a tap. At the south stand there’s money involved and there’s the constant restocking of inventory. My special job became crawling in the tiny refrigerated trailer to dig out cases of beer and soda. Unfortunately, someone had placed our most popular seller in the back under another kind. It took some maneuvering, but I was able to dig out the 12-packs without getting locked in there.

Business was steady, but we still found time to indulge in some 50/50 tickets. Despite our best efforts to sway the sellers and even a plot to bribe the announcer, we didn’t win. As it got later, we faced a new challenge: no lights. Though someone had rigged up a flood light for us, it got harder to tell the difference between Busch Light and Bud Light while we tried to fish them from the icy water. Going into the trailer was even more fun, since I blocked any light that may be seeping in as soon as I climbed inside.

When the tractor pull wrapped up, Kelly and I packed away the merchandise for the evening, locked it all up and towed the lone cooler that would not fit in the trailer to the big stand. Since the north stand was going full bore, I stuck around and helped serve a few more hours. Nate, my sister, Kirsten, and several of Nate’s friends had made the trip south to check out Cheese Days, so I visited with them between pouring pitchers for thirsty Cheese Days-goers. At 1 a.m. business slowed, so I talked Nate into heading home. After all, the parade was now only a few hours away.

The wonders of modern technology

We can't cure cancer, end world hunger or find a way to efficiently run a car without oil, but dammit, we can get TP without touching the roll...


Company Rolls Out Electronic Toilet Tissue Dispenser That Spits Out 5 Sheets Per Wave

ROSWELL, Ga. (AP) -- Richard Thorne grins as he waves his hand under a toilet paper dispenser in a women's restroom. The machine spits five sheets of tissue into his grasp.
A year in the works, the electronic tissue dispenser is being rolled out to the masses by Kimberly-Clark Professional as it seeks to capture more of the $1 billion away-from-home toilet paper market. The company believes most people will be satisfied with five sheets -- and use 20 percent less toilet paper.

"Most people will take the amount given," says Thorne. Waxing philosophical, he adds, "People generally in life will take what you give them."

Kimberly-Clark turned to focus groups and years of internal research to determine just how much is right.

Americans typically use twice as much toilet paper as Europeans -- as much as an arm's length each pull, Thorne says. The company decided the best length is about 20 inches -- or precisely five standard toilet paper squares, though the machine can also be adjusted to churn out 16 inches or 24 inches, depending on the demand.

Roswell-based Kimberly-Clark Professional, a unit of Dallas-based Kimberly-Clark Corp., hopes dispensers like the one at the office will one day fit in with the automatic toilets, faucets and paper towel machines that have become a norm in many other office and institutional bathrooms.

"The one part of the room where there's not an automatic option is toilet tissue," says Thorne, director of the company's washroom business.

Call it a final frontier -- of cheapness -- if you wish.

When one of the two motion sensors is activated, the device's battery-powered motor automatically dispenses a predetermined amount of toilet paper.

The machine isn't completely automated. Each also comes with a suite of "security" features in case the machine malfunctions.

There's an emergency feed button, and a manual feed roller lets the users pull the roll around if the motor breaks down or the four D-size batteries run out. There's also an option for a "rescue roll" on one side of the machine just in case the old-fashioned way is preferred.

"This is probably the most personal experience you can have. We didn't want to get any frustrations," Thorne says. "None of us like to touch things they think someone before them has touched."

The devices cost about $30 apiece for the plastic variety, and $55 if cased in stainless steel.

Sean Nichols, one of the lead marketers for the device, says he's banking on the "coolness, the newness of the unit."

He's sending some to late-night comedians and hoping for TV exposure. He also says he hopes the devices will appeal to clean-freaks, such as Tony Shalhoub's obsessive compulsive germophobe character on the USA Network's "Monk."

But Thorne admits the company won't truly achieve a "touchless" bathroom until it develops a toilet that does the dirty work for you.

"And that," he says, "is going to be interesting."

He slides his hand under the toilet paper one more time for emphasis, and another string of toilet paper shoots out.

"The final frontier," he says with a smile.

Why I was crabby earlier this week

Lately I’ve started to feel old. You’d think after leaving college, getting a “real” job and having a baby would have have done it before, but it wasn’t until these last few weeks I’ve really felt it. Where I’ve felt it is in my back. Over the past few years my body has started aging on me. I used to be able to work on the farm all day, go out all night, and get up the next day and do it all over again. But lately it seems any kind of physical exertion outside of my normal routine causes trouble. The next day my whole body aches and all I want to do is sleep.

The past few weeks I’ve had a bit of a sore back. I blamed it on sleeping on a mediocre mattress for the past six weeks and spending more time bending over in the garden. I took it easy last week after the graduation party, and I seemed to be feeling much better. But this weekend I really abused it and I’m paying for it now.

On Saturday I helped unload a few loads of hay. When it comes to mowing hay, there are two jobs: the wagon or the mow. Both have their bad points. In the mow, it gets hot and there’s usually not much air moving. Plus, you have to swing the bales up to the stack.In the wagon, there’s fresh air, but you can get a sunburn and if you are working solo like I was, you have to handle every bale. I figured it was about 10 steps per bale. I’m not sure exactly how much they each weighed or how many were on a wagon, but I figured I got a workout.

Sunday morning I woke up a little stiff but nothing unusual. With the first crop finally all done, Nate and I decided to tackle moving the rest of our stuff from storage in Medford to the farm. First we had to empty our furniture out of the trailer into the house. There are a few rooms nearly complete (one just needs paint) where we can store our furniture. Once we had the trailer cleared we headed to town. There we loaded all the boxes from the storage barn at Nate’s aunt and uncle’s house to the trailer. I took the job of stacking it in the trailer so it wouldn’t shift while Nate and his uncle pulled boxes from the shed. Afterwards we made a stop for ice cream, then headed home. A quick aside on the house, if everything goes as planned, we will close on it Aug. 1.

On Monday morning when I headed downstairs at Nate’s mom and dad’s, my foot slipped on the second to last stair and I landed hard against the stairs and tile below. I’m not sure what did it, the fall, the lifting, the mattress or a little of all three, but my lower back has been a mess since then. I apologize to anyone I was short with this week. Back pain, as well as feeling old, makes me crabby.

Update: Feeling better, but I can't wait to get my cushy mattress back instead of the firm one we're using now.

Also, you can find the most recent photos of Jacob here.