New Kitchen Tools

The high quality stainless steel food mill and the Bron mandoline I ordered online arrived today. My collection of kitchen tools is expanding. The mandoline is supposed to be tricky to learn to use but once you have it done its the only one to have. Don't ask how much it costs. The food mill sellers were nice enough to include some seed packets for flowers and vegetables, I wasn't expecting that. I finished the Alice Waters book and have now started "Insatiable" by Gael Greene (borrowed from the library). So my foodie education continues, from a literary standpoint at least. This coming winter when the days are shorter I hope to do a lot more cooking, especially French. I finished spreading mulch to close the gap by the driveway after work today and have purchased some new trees and shrubs to plant in the back tomorrow. Andrew comes home tomorrow night! I'm enjoying reading his blog. Hopefully the weather cooperates and we can go boating on Sunday. This week's episode of "So you think you can dance" was awesome. Loved loved loved the samba number so much that I had to order the song on iTunes. I ended up getting a whole album "Caviar Club: Finest lounge and club styles", which contains the single "Hip hip chin chin" by "Club des Belugas". It's playing right now on the stereo as I write this - it makes me want to dance. I guess those salsa and brazilian workouts are starting to get under my skin. Keep those hips moving!

It's Not the Beaver

Oh that Harley, she just owns the tower and looks down upon us floor dwellers with such disdain. I managed to get a shot of Sidney playing and then she spotted me filming her and immediately stopped. It is very tough to photograph the cats let alone catch their antics in a movie. This afternoon we went down to the dock to pick blueberries. Someone or something is eating the blueberries because each time I go down there are only about 10 berries ripe enough to eat. I was hoping to get enough for one batch of muffins but looks like we'll be SOL this year. So while sitting on the unused canoe sipping a beer, watching the cats eat grass and remembering the good old days when we weren't in a drought and we could canoe everyday and even motor the powerboat to our dock, I noticed something quite large (for a critter) wiggling the grass plants as it made its way from the shore out towards the beaver pond. I thought I'd finally get a sighting of the elusive beaver but it turned out to be a young raccoon forging for supper. After awhile it came quite close to the dock so I kept very quiet and still and was able to get some footage. I have to respect those nature photographers, they must be the most patient people on earth. Then we walked around the yard - I finished spreading out the rest of the mulch bags and came up short. When Andrew gets back we'll have to get some more. I am also looking forward to finishing up the rest of the brick path this fall and then I won't get muddy feet walking to the compost bin. Andrew just emailed me to let me know he has finally started his own blog: itrekker.blogspot.com. Finally!

Red Tomatoes

I can't believe how quickly the tomatoes are turning red. So this evening while waiting for the tivo to build up a good size buffer for So You Think You Can Dance (so I can 30 second skip through all the commercials), I thought I'd pick 2 of them to ripen a bit more in the house. I haven't watered, fertilized or bug sprayed the tomato plants at all - they have just been growing wild in the compost bin, so I am quite impressed with their looks. However I am not a raw tomato fan so I am wondering what they will taste like. I also got another shot of the amazingly fragrant oriental lilies this evening, they look gorgeous against the dark green of the forest. I think their fragrance gets stronger in the evening. Andrew is at drum practice tonight and he is all excited because he meticulously scored his drum music to sheet music in preparation for the big recording session. I am looking forward to hearing the songs on CD. The cats are both inside now since it is getting darker and it is raining a little bit anyways. Lately we have been getting a lot of afternoon thunderstorms which means not much yard work taking place after work. Yesterday we had a huge storm over my office building in Anderson which took out all the power to the machine room at 4:18pm precisely. What a bummer but thankfully my cluster is not yet in production so I didn't have to worry. This weekend Andrew takes off for Europe for a week, so I hope to work on the Warsaw writeup (Andrew's mom is anxiously waiting for it). That also means I'll need to take more pictures of the cats to keep Andrew happy. I am currently reading "Alice Waters and Chez Panisse" by Thomas McNamee, which I took out of the school library. It's a book about a woman who started this restaurant in the early 70s with the philosophy of using fresh, regional ingredients in cooking rather that frozen and foreign foods, and the philosophy that the dining experience should be more than just about the food - the ambience and smallest details are also equally as important. So far it is an ok read but I think only true foodies will go crazy about it all. I am starting to develop an interest in french cooking so maybe in time I too will become an Alice Waters fanatic.

Golfing

I found an old photo from May 2002 just after I planted a crepe myrtle by the garage. Five years later, that same crepe myrtle is absolutely huge. This really shows me that I have to respect the mature size of plants even though they look so tiny when I first plant them. I have a tendency to crowd everything together when planting which only leads to plant failure and overcrowding a few years later. We also have some free tomatoes growing in my compost box around back. They must have started from a few seeds thrown in one day from the compost pail. So I have tried to stake them a little and we will see if they turn red before the bugs get them. Yesterday we wanted to go boating but it turned out to be very cloudy. I suggested we go to the 10 hole par 3 for something different. It has been about 2 years since I picked up a club and even longer for Andrew, so we were pleased that we were able to still make contact. I got a couple of pars but mostly it was 5 and 6s.

Slow but Steady

Yeah! I've successfully dropped 10 pounds and enough time has gone by that it seems they are staying off. It only took me 6 months! But I'll take slow and steady weightloss over the alternative any day. To change things up a bit, I ordered some new workout dvds. I've been doing the same 2 dvds over and over and it was difficult to stay motivated to wake up early every morning. So I decided to try some dance dvds after watching 'So you think you can dance' on TV. I love that show! I purchased 4 salsa dvds and 1 hip hop. I am starting with the basic salsa right now, which is teaching moves in the traditional mambo style 2 beat. It is pretty fun and I do look forward to working out now. A few of the moves are difficult but with practice I will get them. And all this practice will come in handy when we go to Rio later on this year! I picked some beautiful oriental lilies from my garden last night to bring inside. They had fallen over since I didn't have them staked. The perfume is very pretty but almost a little too overpowering. I had to move the vase from the living room into the kitchen by the sink. The perfume will help cover up the smell of the compost bucket.

Happy 4th of July!

We have today off from work and I've taken tomorrow as my personal day so it's a nice mid-week break. Today we are going out on the power boat to waterski, suntan, and lounge around. Last night we watched the fireworks display from the water along with a hundred other boats. Each year the city puts on a pretty good show for everyone (the fireworks movie is a little blurry, sorry).