Blueberries

On Monday we got a significant amount of rain, around 2 inches in our yard, and some places closer to Greenville got 11 inches. The streams and rivers swelled and there was a flash flood warning. It was enough water to raise the lake by 3/4 of a foot, but as of this morning we are over 1.5 feet below full pond. We went down to the dock yesterday before dinner and here is some footage of the area, clearly we will not be canoeing yet. The chirping birds are red-winged blackbirds, they are quite loud. Hard to believe that this is normally all water. The grasses sure grow back quickly.

At the end of the movie you can see the wild blueberry bushes that I discovered last year right by the dock walkway. Andrew wouldn't eat any but I did and I lived, and so this year I am staying on top of the picking before the birds and bugs get everything. The bushes are at least 12 feet tall - it is a good thing the walkway is right there otherwise I wouldn't be able to reach. The berries are just the right size for muffins.

Last night we made a new dish, Pasta with Black-eyed Peas and Artichokes. Andrew was the chef and I was the sous-chef, so that meant he was in charge. We have been watching that "Hell's Kitchen" show so I figured Andrew would like to try being the one telling the other what to do. The dish turned out excellent - I think the smoked mozarella from Italy really made the dish, neither of us had ever had that cheese before.

Bloom

Today we went to the grand opening of the new grocery store right up the street from us, called "Bloom". Finally the huge dirt pile that we have driven by every day for over 8 years has been turned into a grocery store with some other small stores on the sides. Was it ever packed in there this morning, all the parking spots were taken and we had to park outside of the parking lot on the red clay dirt. Last night we finally got some rain, which has turned all dirt everywhere into sticky mud. Our shoes and car tires got covered in it, all because Andrew insisted on going to the opening. Yeah, things get real exciting down here. The store was nice, but it seemed like just a fancier BiLo or a "Redneck Whole Foods".

Andrew has been watching World Cup all day while I've been making cookies (oatmeal-carrot-raison-walnut), and reading my quilting books to understand how to make a quilt. What a shame that Mexico couldn't beat Argentina today, they lost in overtime 1-2.Bloom had an ok deal on import beer - you can make your own six pack of imports for $7.99. So Andrew got 3 dark beers and I got 3 light beers. I really enjoyed this Italian one "Peroni". Very crisp and refreshing, just as advertised. If I ever make it to Italy I will know what to order. Andrew drank all 3 of his during the matches. The Heineken Dark of his was my favorite.

Tonight we made a new dish using black beans, rice and corn salsa. It was excellent and Andrew once again had a second helping. It had sweetness from the corn and brown sugar mixed with the black beans, and a sour from the lime juice in the corn salsa. We have received 2 DVDs from Netflix and watched them both: Rumor Has It, and The World's Fastest Indian. Rumor was a typical chick flick. Indian was excellent - and being a true story it was interesting to watch the special features and see the real guy. He sure liked his bikes, and according to the movie, one of his records still stands to this day.

Pad Thai

Today Andrew worked from home so he could watch some World Cup. I walked over to the campus postoffice this afternoon to meet John to pick up my and Andrew's payout from the past pool session. He said the current team is roughly in the middle of the pack. There are now 14 teams in our division since they didn't want to create a whole new division just yet. Renee is not playing because she doesn't want to hang out in the smokey bars (she recently quit smoking, and so did Stu and Benny). I agree, it is nice to not be in some of those bars - the Spot is ok but some others do not have any ventilation. It has been 5 months now for Andrew and I not smoking. My counter on my webbrowser at work says I haven't smoked 3,081 cigarettes and I have saved $570.00. So far so good. Sometimes it is a little frustrating since although I don't want to go back to smoking full time, the idea of having 1 or 2 is appealing, but I know that that would spell doom. I will not go back to smoking but that doesn't mean I can't complain! I still have the occasional smoking dream, but for the most part, day in and day out, it is getting easier and easier and I am feeling good.

For dinner we made a new dish called Pad Thai. Lots of red peppers, bean sprouts, green onions, garlic, peanuts and tofu, in a sweet/sour sauce (soy sauce, cayenne pepper, lime juice, brown sugar and tomato paste). I couldn't find thai rice noodles at the BiLo after work today, so I substituted thin spaghetti. Andrew says this dish is a keeper. He added a little shrimp to his. I need to get myself a new wok. My wok is a cheap non stick one that has lost its non stick ability. I am getting spoiled with my Le Creuset pots and I want a wok of similar quality.

I received my latest set of books from Amazon today: 3 books on quilting and 1 book on the concept of eating nutrient dense foods. We also got our first DVDs from Netflix so we might watch one tonight. The weather is still hot and dry, and the yard needs watering. It sure is easier when Mother Nature pitches in.

Naptime

After a tough day at the office (yeah, right), Andrew managed to watch a few minutes of World Cup and then decided it was time for a nap. It's a rough life. The cats have been waking us up at all times during the night lately. Harley insists on serenading us at 2:00am with her cat songs (I swear she must have some Siamese in her because the sounds that come out are really weird sounding). Sidney is now waking us up at 5:30am sharp. Fortunately I seem to be adapting but Andrew is feeling sleepy. Mind you it could be the extra half hour of sleep I steal in the morning after he's gone for his workout and the cup of caffeinated coffee I buy at work, but don't tell him that.

Tonight for dinner I am making a corn chowder which I have made a few times before. Rather than show a picture of the finished product, instead I have posted a shot of the ingredients. I sure enjoy eating on the vegetarian plan, and would most definitely choose this way of eating over Atkins. When I did Atkins, I lost about 20 pounds, so it does work, but I couldn't see eating like that for the rest of my life. Finally I have my herb garden complete with rosemary, basil, thyme and oregano, which are my most frequently used herbs, so it is great to just hop outside and cut what I need. I have to watch out for bugs because I am trying to go 100% organic in the garden and that means no pesticides. But I also have quite a few baby praying mantises and baby frogs working for me now, so hopefully, eventually, my backyard ecosystem will get in balance. Already I can see a huge difference in the lawn soil. I now have several worms in every square foot, whereas when I moved here there were zero. The vegetarian lifestyle also gives me lots of material for the compost pile.

Lazy Day on the Lake

After doing the weekly grocery shopping, we just lounged around on the boat reading books and swimming. Nothing much else to report! There weren't too many other boats out in our area. We didn't do any water skiing, but we did clean the bottom as best we could with scrub brushes. We are thinking about getting a boat lift since the lake really has a lot of plant life that grows like crazy on boat bottoms.
For dinner we made Penne Pasta with Califlower and Capers. Very tasty and Andrew even had a second helping. The capers add a strange tangy twist. Andrew is now watching the Brazil vs. Australia World Cup match that he taped earlier today. All the sun today has made me sleepy.

Washing the Bike

Andrew made it home safe and sound on Thursday. Friday night we watched the DVD "Firewall" with Harrison Ford. It was ok I guess, nothing special but it was good enough entertainment. We decided to join Netflix rather than rent DVDs at Blockbuster. So we will see how that turns out. Friday was my brother's 40th birthday - welcome to the other side Corby! This morning we worked in the yard doing some edging and mowing the grass. We were done by 1:00pm and I wanted to go on the boat to read books and swim around, but Andrew cut his hand while slicing limes for the Coronas and that put him in a bad mood. So we made burritos instead and then we watched the USA vs Italy World Cup match. It was quite a match, with Italy scoring an "own goal" and 3 red cards given out. In the end it was a 1-1 tie, so USA is still alive. After that we washed the car and the motorbike. Now we are just about to start the 3rd period of game 6 of Edmonton vs. Carolina. We are both voting for Edmonton. The pink daylilies are blooming now. It is hot and not a good time for yard work. I just need to spread out some mulch and then activity on the gardening front will die down until September. I sure hope we get some good rains. We are down over 3 feet now in the lake.

Sweet Sidney

Yes, here is one more cat video for Andrew. He is coming home tomorrow night and the cats miss him alot! Especially Sidney, who meows at Andrew's empty couch. It is just after 8:30pm and I still need to get the cats inside. I am also watching that dance show "So you think you can dance". I like it much better than the singing show "American Idol". You can't fake dancing! I like that they show so many different kinds of dancing styles, but I don't like so far how they predetermined the partners. Last season the dancers picked their partners out of the hat.

The Morning Routine

Every morning at 6:00am sharp, Sidney jumps on the bed and wakes us up by meowing and licking our faces. She is our alarm clock and will not stop until one of us gets up. I guess it is the sun rising that times her arrival. Luckily we get up at 6:00am anyways so only on the weekends is this sometimes a bother. We then feed the cats an 1/8th of a can each of moist cat food, and then we let them out to go to the bathroom and wander around. Nine times out of ten, Harley (and occasionally Sidney) comes back in an hour or two later for her second breakfast. This routine is never broken. The cats love it and have trained us very well.

It's Hot Outside

The past few days the temperatures have been in the 90's - too hot to do any yard work outside but the plants all need watering since we haven't had any good slow soaking rains for a quite awhile. The cats spend all day outside and try to beat the heat. Harley likes to sleep on the bricks under the deck where it is nice and cool. Andrew left on Sunday for a conference in Denver and I promised him a cat video but I didn't say it was going to be exciting.

Fun Fabric

My order of fabric was delivered this weekend. I have been wanting to learn how to make a quilt and so I've been doing some reading on the internet. There are these fabric sizes called "fat quarters" and you can usually get a bundle of them in color-coordinating fabric styles, so I ordered some. Now I have to design the quilt and then sew it up. I love the colors - one pack is called "spring" and the other is callled "fall". There is actually enough here for 2 twin size quilts, one for me and one for Andrew, for this coming winter when we like to curl up with blankets on the couch. I wonder how they will turn out.

Poland 0-2 Ecuador

Andrew was thrilled today that World Cup has finally started. So much so that he took the day off to watch both the Germany vs. Costa Rica and the Poland vs. Ecuador matches. Unfortunately, when I came home, Poland was down by 1 goal. I went outside to water some plants, and Ecuador scored another, sealing their victory. Andrew was very disapppointed and blames the coach for not including the top 2 stars. Andrew also tivo'd the Germany match played earlier in the day and he replayed the goals for me - quite exciting since it was a 4-2 match in favor of Germany. I spotted what I believe was an offside goal by Costa Rica, but the refs let it in. On tivo we can slow things down frame by frame, and sure enough, using the penalty box line as a guide, the Costa Ricans were clearly offside.

Garden Shots

We watched a couple of Aussie DVD movies recently - Little Fish with Cate Blanchett and Irresistable with Susan Sarandon. Both movies had Sam Neill in them, and both had that independent feel about them. Little Fish showed us a little of redneck life in Australia. Irresistible had a couple of twists and turns in it. I would like to eventually visit Australia on both coasts. It would be nice to take 2 months and do the South Pacific at the same time.
After work I mowed the grass and took a few pictures. My favorite oriental lily "Le Reve" is blooming now along with the dark purple Liatris (blazing star) and light purple Agastache. The lily blooms are very fragrant and I have to stop and smell them each time I pass by. The purple coneflowers are starting to bloom beside the Varigated Grass (I can't recall the cultivar). In the overview shot below you can see the dying crab apple tree directly above the deck stairs which I will be removing and replacing with a Japanese maple. I think the crab apple has some type of fire blight. It happens every year but this year is the worst and it looks like too many branches have been lost. It never bloomed very well anyways. Perhaps it needed more sun and has been suffering all these years. You can also see that the lawn is starting to develop brown patch again. It does this every June. By September the lawn will look terrible, but then I overseed and by October it is a velvet carpet.
I assembled the remaining bookshelves and arranged the sewing/knitting supplies on them. I bought the cheap little sewing machine so I could work on covers for the sailboat. It has come in very handy and is holding up well despite smoking a little while I was sewing up the mainsail earlier in the spring. If you look closely you can see some slippers that I still must send back to Canada. It seems I can knit them but I am having trouble actually mailing them.
As a treat this evening, I cut myself some hydrangeas for the house. I love their blue color. This summer I think I will cut more flowers and bring them inside. The plants are all getting big enough now that there should be blooms for the outside and the inside. I might even cut some of those Le Reve lilies for my office next week.

The Weekend is Over

The Hoodoo Hounds played to a mostly empty bar on Friday night. Unfortunately it was stormy and the rain kept the people away. They played for the door at $5 a head, and the band made a total of $45 - just enough to cover the bar tab. They ended up shutting down early and we were home by 2:00am. Here is a song and here is another. The singer's 12 year old son is playing the bass since their normal bassist couldn't make it that night. He wasn't too bad and he is very mature for a 12 year old.

On Saturday we went shopping for bookshelves and I bought 3. I have put the first one together and have the other 2 remaining. The first one is now our "sailing bookshelf" and I placed it in the entryway. The other 2 will go into our bedroom and I will use them for knitting and sewing stuff for now. Today we went to the sailboat and gave it a really good cleaning. There was a ton of grime on it, but it sure looks great now. There wasn't any wind so we read some books while hanging out in the slip, and Andrew went swimming to cool off. There were lots of Canada geese hanging around and they sure do like to honk at each other.

The daylilies and russian sage are blooming by the mailbox now and they make everything nice and colorful. Looks like yet another thunderstorm is on its way right now. Even with all the rain of late the lake level is still not coming up. Andrew got an email from the Corps the other day and apparently they are changing their drought response, which means they will be dumping less water through the dam, and that means we just might be able to canoe this summer.

Gig night

Tonight Andrew has another band camp gig at Pitchers on the Lake. They don't start until 10:00pm and will be playing until 2:00am. I will be taking some movies if I can. The band liked the other movie I shot before. It is going to be a very late night for us since we are usually in bed by 10:30-11:00 during the week. Taking last Monday off was definitely the right idea. We had a great time on the lake, just reading books, and motoring around. Andrew took a video of me driving. You can see the new belly rider tube thing we bought on Sunday tied up on the back. Andrew had a good time riding it - I wish I could have shot a video of that, but I had to drive the boat. I look fat in the video but I am trying to work on that! I have actually done 3 morning workouts this week. We have been doing some yard work after school and most of the big chores are getting done. Andrew helped by cutting down a few tree limbs that were getting too big. Some of the asiatic lilies are blooming now as you can see in the picture. We made a new dish this week that Andrew picked out: Rice with Nuts and Dried Fruits. It wasn't too bad I guess, but it reminded me more of something you would have as a side dish at a holiday dinner rather than a main course meal. Another dish we made was Orzo Pilaf with Red Peppers and Peas, and that one is a keeper. Very creamy and I loved the roasted red peppers. I forgot to take a photo of that one though. We watched another DVD: In Her Shoes. Another chick flick that I enjoyed and Andrew groaned through. A big thunderstorm is nearly on top of our house right now. Judging from the satellite and radar images it could be huge. Luckily Andrew's gear is inside at the bar rather than on the outdoor patio. Hopefully I will have some band video to upload tomorrow.