My Mold Collection

Hello family and friends. Amber has encouraged me to "keep a record" more often so I volunteered to publish a blog once and a while. I decided to share with you something kind of special to me, and repulsive to Amber. My mold collection. Living in Milwaukee is surely something "unique." If you were to ask others who have gone before us in the Glen Courts apartments to describe their experiences with ten nouns, mold would be one of them. It grows so readily here and in such a colorful variety that one can scarce enjoy it at a glance before it is cleaned up, so I try to keep a picture record of the better ones. I hope you enjoy.

PS- Some of these specimens are due to forgetfulness or procrastination, which would embarrass Amber (she actually keeps things very clean around here, despite the efforts of the children). However, a good deal of them are sheer bad luck from living in a moist climate, poorly constructed apartments, and a seemingly perpetual winter creating that winners combo.

Specimen #1: I think this was leftover pumpkin pie filling after Amber made some pumpkin dessert thing. Delicious. The pumpkin dessert was good too.


Specimen #2: Or should I say specimens? What amazing color and variety in shape and size! I believe this was some left over whipping cream we made for some dessert. Maybe it went on top of the pumpkin stuff? Either way here it is for all to enjoy.


Specimen #3: So, there are the usual spots we have to clean a few times per year to get all the mold. It's usually in places like our closets down on the floor on outside walls where the moisture builds up when it's cold. And of course all the window sills. But what is this! We noticed a little darkness behind our bookcase (outside wall for a few feet) and look at what had crept in on us! We have been so blessed to have such good company lurking just a few feet away.


Specimen #4: Don't tell me you've never lost a spaghetti squash in your fridge before! Silly! This cornucopia of fungus was a delight to experience before Amber made us walk our different paths. In all fairness it really was lost deep down in there on a little ledge we never use, or do we? I should go check it right now for some new blogging material.


Specimen#5: This is one reason I don't care for the climate. It wastes money. I wore these shoes to church and put them away damp (apparently). The next week I pull them out expecting nice dry and snappy shoes and what do I get? Mold! I washed them with some different chemicals and then polished them up nice and black... but to no avail. It came back a week later. The Milwaukee Mold had won this round.


Specimen#6: Another refrigerator pleasure. This was some cream cheese I believe. You know, when you store things in these little color containers you can't really see through, it's easy to forget about them. Then you pull it out when you're curious what's in there, smell it, oh it's still good. Then one day you pull it out remembering you have some perfectly good cream cheese in there and you just happen to have a good toasted bagel ready to be loaded and wham! Mold! It just hits you like that! this stuff was still good after scraping off the top layer, which you have to admit no matter how hoity toity you are, it's pretty darn beautiful.


Specimen#7: This is one I had a strong suspicion was there, I just didn't want to look or else I'd have to clean it up. We have a little AC unit in the wall. I had my dad make a nice oak framework to fit around it so it looked pretty nice, and cover up the seams. Well, one day I did look, and presto! The little black fuzzy friend we kicked out earlier tried to sneak in through the AC! That rascal!


Specimen#8: This is the final offering I have for you (for now- I'll keep collecting but this took years!). Ten points to whoever can figure out what this container originally umm... contained. What word would you have used besides contained. Kept? Held? Stored? Whatever it was, let us all be grateful we still don't have to eat it and let us ponder just for one moment what it smelled like.


Thank you all. My next posting will be various pictures of roadkill I have come across in my travelings. Some of them I still can't find, they were pics from my mission I never converted to digital. Whatever the case may be please tell Amber this posting counts as a journal entry and my new years resolution from 2008 is now fulfilled.

Warmly,
Dennis George Ogilvie.

State "Fair"

Hello All. We think Will looks good with that bandit dark eyes look... if only he'd let us wash it off a little easier. It took him three seconds to get like this.

We went to the state fair. Overall impressions... we're glad we got that checked off our list. We were happy to let the kids see a few things: the Budweiser horses were there (huge and beautiful) Some cows and goats and pigs... big deal... and about 2 million people all trying to get in our way when we wanted to get somewhere. Plus an arm and a leg to do about anything such as a ride or a meal. Whatever, we've decided we're more of a quiet park or nature fun loving type of family without so much "fun" and so many people. Also, the cream puffs? They were good, but a little over-rated in our opinion.

So this is a cute picture of Emma with a cute cow bum in the background. A heifers heine?
And a tractor with an obviously posed picture.

Yes, we did do this to our kids... but in all fairness Emma was having a great time. She posed in all six or seven available spots and we had to chase her down to move on.
The creme puffs were a good distraction for all as we walked back to the car.


Just in case any of you in our babysitting group wonder what the heck we do with your kids while they are here... for the record we are this "awesome" most of the time.



Our weekly Saturday morning run was postponed due to some serious rain. We went out as a family and played in the water for a while then went inside to wait out the storm.
This picture on the couch is the two of them actually resting before church. They were running around and were so wild they had to take a breather. Just think of the poor dad who had to dress them through all of this in order to get them ready for church. He wanted to take a nap too.