Next thing you know I’ll be raising chickens

I built a raised garden bed over the weekend. By which I mean I compiled a list of supplies and handed it over to Rockford and my nephew, who took it to Lowe’s, gathered materials and then stopped for slushies and beef jerky on the way home because they’d done “man work.” And then Rockford and my niece assembled the bed while I was enjoying a leisurely time at the craft store with Chloe Poppins.

I did, however, put all of those bags of Stuff into the finished bed, with some help from the niece and the nephew. It started snowing while we were filling the garden bed, which is internationally recognized as a sign that the garden will be bountiful. (I don’t know that that’s true. I may have made that up.)

So now I have a small garden bed — it’s 8×4 — and absolutely no clue what I’m doing. I want to grow lettuce and peppers and squash and tomatoes and strawberries and haricots vert (because I am fancy) and garlic and onions, but I recognize that my little bed isn’t big enough to hold all of that. Most likely we’ll do tomatoes, lettuce and squash this year. And then if it’s a wonderful and magical thing I’ll build another bed or two next year. In exactly the same fashion that I build this one.

One Monday down, eight to go

The kids’ homeschool co-op started its spring session today. I’m “teaching” a class called “Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Other Things That Go” for the 3- to 5-year-old set. Five boys and one girl signed up, and today when we started there was also a surprise 2-year-old there. I had a book to read and a few craft-ish things planned. But you know what they say: Planning to keep the attention of a hoard of preschoolers for an hour is planning to fail. Or something like that.

How I’d Envisioned the Class Going

Josephine with the storytime kids.

How the Class Actually Went

It’s gonna be a long nine weeks.

Here is what the Detroit Lions should do in the 2012 draft

I’ve been writing semi-regular posts here about my beloved Detroit Lions since late in the 2010 season. My posts have all been based in statistics and not opinion. This time around, that is going to be difficult given that draft predictions so often come down to opinion. But I’ll give it a try. Through this post, I offer Martin Mayhew free advice* regarding whom the Lions should draft this year.

Keeping with the previous format, my analysis is based upon the statistical categories which I’ve previously identified as key to winning football games. I’ve compared the 2011 regular season Detroit Lions to both the NFC and AFC champions. This chart summarizes that comparison:

As you can see, I’ve highlighted in either gold or maroon (Fire Up Chips!) those statistical categories in which the 2011 NFC and AFC Champions regular season average exceeded the performance of the 2011 Detroit Lions. There are 8 categories so highlighted out of a possible 15.

(Stop and consider that for a moment: The 2011 Detroit Lions outpaced the average plan of the 2011 NFC and AFC champions during the regular season in over 46 percent of the key statistical categories. We are getting close!)

You can’t address every need in a single draft, so I’ve divided the eight problematic statistical categories into two sub-categories: Key areas in need of improvement, highlighted in maroon; and not-so-key areas in need of improvement, highlighted in gold. I can hear you yelling: “But how did you determine which were key and which were not-so-key?” Don’t fret. I’ll tell you. The key areas in need of improvement are those areas in which the 2011 Lions failed to outplay either of the 2011 champs, and the not-so-key areas in need of improvement are those in which the 2011 Lions exceeded the performance of one of the 2011 champs. Brilliant!
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