Unbelievable!

Yesterday was an epic day. I took past life's mother to the airport and put her on a non-stop flight to "Balt-ti-more". She moved from there to Gig Harbor about 2 1/2 years ago (following the death of her husband) and has been mad she came since the day she got here. (Actually I think she's been mad since birth) I wish that I could say that she is just a sweet, slightly demented little old lady but I can't. She's the complete other end of the spectrum (except that she is little). So I took the day off, got up while everyone in my house was still sleeping, put on my best happy face and off we went. She has very limited mobility and so going through security with the wheelchair, etc was a bit more time consuming. Of course she had to be padded down and searched because her cane set off the metal detector. As I'm waiting for her the TSA boy (I swear he couldn't have been more than 14) asked if he could send her purse through x-ray a 2nd time. "Do you have scissors in this purse he asks?" When I asked her and her response was "yes" I'm thinking that she had her little cuticle scissors (the ones she's always cutting on her fingers with) in there. So the "boy" starts very carefully feeling around in her purse. (Thank goodness the guy had gloves on because the woman has more garbage in her purse than my recycling bin does. It is full of papers and coupons and a half a dozen pencil stubs that are 20 years old. She writes everything down on the backs of old envelopes, bills, etc. ) Anyway after a brief search he pulls out these!

Holy Sh*t! I stood there for a minute with my mouth hanging open and then I started laughing. "Ma, what are these doing in your purse? You can't take these things on the airplane!" Which made her even madder than having to remove her shoes. Her mouth then produced a long string of profanities and yelling about the GD airlines and how the hell was she supposed to open her suitcase when she got to Balt-ti-more?! I'm thinking, what the hell... are you cutting your clothes out of your suitcase?! The poor TSA guy was trying very hard to be nice and told her that she could take her scissors but she'd have to put them in her bag and then check the bag. Otherwise she'd have to leave the scissors here. This information produced another string of cursing (actually yelling and cursing are fairly normal occurrences in the course of any conversation with her) and so I quickly decided that the scissors were staying - there was no way I was going all the way back out to the ticket counter to check her bag! On our way to the gate she was cursing and muttering and then yelled out "GD country, they ought to drop a bomb on the whole damn place!" That's it, I thought. Next thing we'll have homeland security crawling all over us! So in my quiet but-you-are-trying-my-patience-mother-to-a-2-year-old voice I told her she had to either shut up or I was going to leave her right in the middle of the terminal and she'd have to figure out how to get to the plane by herself! I prayed all the way home that the passengers in the seats next to her would be deaf, blind and mute - at least for the duration of the flight. Either that or her flight would give complimentary valium with her peanuts!

On to other unbelievable things... the "sedum surprise" continues. However, now I think its doing its "Elvis has left the building (pot)" impersonation. It's like the plant is saying, "Man, it is just too crowded in here with ya'll. All this pushing and fightin' for root space, I'm outta here!"

And finally, apparently there is a new species of "frog" that has decided to make my yard its new habitat....

Yea, I know totally gross but Neighbor and I had quite a laugh about it... actually it was more like ROTGLOAO... what can I say except that this is just one more piece of evidence showing the genetic differences between males and females and certainly the genetic mutations of teenage boys!

Sunny Sunday

Ah Sundays! This summer I decided that I would spend summer Sundays doing only those things that I really wanted to do - no yard work (unless I wanted) no laundry (ok, with 3 teenage boys that's not a reality but I pretend). This Sunday was a gorgeous one and I started it out by making this:

It is a Loganberry Lemon Tart. Yesterday Neighbor brought me three little baskets of very yummy loganberries from the local fruit stand. After eating nearly a whole basket all by myself I decide that I needed to make something with the rest! While I did publish the link for the recipe I found that the cooking times were far too short (I baked mine 3 times longer than stated and it still needed to have cooked longer). Also it was a bit too sweet for my taste and the amount of lemon somewhat overpowered the Loganberries but all in all everyone seemed to enjoy it.

My animals are enjoying the summer weather as well, especially the cats who lounge around the front steps like they were living in a palace.

I also spent time together putting together a "how does my garden grow" mini scrapbook for a friend who moved to Florida last summer, who gifted me with many of her plants... one of which is the namesake for this blog. Add to my day several hours of sitting in the sun and reading, chatting with Friend Amy in Portland and sharing dinner al fresco courtesy of Neighbor it was a very nice Sunday.

Sedum Suprise, Sailing and Sunshine

Last week my pot of sedum apparently got a wild hair (or something) and burst forth with this!

And it like happened overnight! I wasn’t really sure how else to classify this new “growth” on my sedum plant… except to say that it is definitely a first for this pot of plants (which I have had for several years) and well…..SURPRISE was the only word that I could think of! (Actually I can think of few other words to describe this newest development but my mom reads this, as do my kids and I didn’t want to give them any new vocab words!).


Besides the “SURPRISE” I was lucky enough to go sailing last week. Co-worker Lori was nice enough to share her boat and expertise with a few of us (as sailing is definitely not one of my expertises). We were blessed with a beautiful sunny day and a nice wind, combined with good conversation and delish snacks (wild smoked salmon, yummy cheese, organic rainier cherries) it was a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon.



The only downer was I somehow managed to drop/flip my digital camera into my drink (what are the odds) when I pull on one of the ropes as we were doing something “sailing”… needless to say submersion Mango Seltzer is not good for one’s camera. Lucky for me the card with the photos survived so at least I can share those!
The whole weekend was HOT and SUNNY (two of my favorite words) so Neighbor and I were very happy. Puppies sitting ends today – yeah, as Bo says that he is ready to have Libby to himself…
he says he’s not much into the commune living!

Puppies, Flowers and Sewing... Oh my!

I am puppy sitting, and it is almost like having 4 year old quadruplets! Neighbor went to Kansas for the 4th of July so Libby (aka head bread thief) is on our doggie "to do list" and then... well, let's just say that a past life decided to go on vacation 5 days early so we added 2 more to the playgroup! Thank goodness the weather has been such that they could all be outside and that the one major difference between puppies and preschoolers is you can put puppies in "jail" and no one thinks you're being mean (or if they do they can't tell you!) and they don't mind sleeping in the garage in their crates!

Puppies in Prison

Several weeks ago I got this idea to be charitably creative or creatively charitable, I'm not sure which of the two it is. The idea can from a conversation with my friend John (who is currently serving in Iraq) and his comment that it was 112 degrees there now! Imagine, 112 degrees + body armour + camo + riding around in a Stryker.... I'm thinking it feels a little like my no knead bread in my pasta pot in a 425 degree oven. Anyway, I'd remembered seeing a pattern for "neck coolers" on the Ships Project website. Neck coolers are basically a fabric tube that you make pockets in and fill with water absorbing crystals. The "tubes"are then soaked in water and you tie them around your neck or head to keep you cool (or cooler if that is possible in 112 degree heat). The pattern recommends purchasing these crystal things from a company called Watersorb.

So I went on line and for less than $20 ordered a 2 lb bag - thinking this should be enough to make 10 or so... HA! Had I been a little smarter and read the pattern before ordering I would have figured out that it only takes 1 tsp of crystals to make 1 neck cooler. Any guesses as to how many you can make from a 2 lb bag? I'm not sure but I think maybe enough for half the soliders in Iraq!

In this picture there is a 1/4 of a tsp of dry crystals on the left and the same amount after adding about 1/2 cup or more of water and waiting 20 minutes. They are better than the "grow your own dinosaur/man/dog" things we used to get out of the gumball machines! (Miss G - I'm thinking a big pot of this stuff would make for good "brains" in your haunted house at school).

So I sewed 12 or so and sent them to Solider John and then I sewed another 12 or so and sent them on to the Ships Project (who is looking for donations). Then I looked at my 2 lb bag (which didn't look like I'd made any sort of a dent in it) and donated about 1 1/2 pounds to a local church group who is making them for charity...leaving me with a ziploc bag full of enough crystals I'm sure I could make at least 50 more!

Flowers, flowers, I do love flowers! And the hot weather at the beginning of the week made everything sort of burst into bloom and the cool weather of the past few days has kept their blossoms big and beautiful!

Vacation Ahhh

I've been on vacation all week and it has been very wonderful (or as someone we know says WON-der-Full!) Its been a week of much ado about nothing, with the much ado part being about absorbing as many rays of sunshine as I can. The weather hasn't cooperated that well towards the end of the week (go figure) and so I've been more confined to the house- of which the yard is somewhat relieved since I usually justify spending time in the sun by working in the yard and yard work this week has involved power tools! Let's just say that the plants in the yard would run if they could when Neighbor and I fire up the power tools. Last year we went a little crazy with the hedger and weed eater... no hedger for me this year but I'm definitely into the weed eater... I've found that it gives you a rather nice rush of testosterone, curious as that is definitely not something that is lacking around my house!


I also tried my hand at making "No Knead Bread" which I found on Angry Chicken blog... thanks! I made my first loaf and baked it in a pasta pot (since I didn't have a Dutch Oven) and if I do say so, it came out beautifully! Of course it was met with an appropriate amount of eye rolling by the male species that inhabit my living space but just like many other miracles, there were only a few crumbs left by bedtime. It was so easy I decided to try it again the next night, this time mixing in fresh rosemary and garlic. Into the pasta pot and out popped wonderful loaf of rustic bread that tasted as good as it smelled. Neighbor and I stood at the kitchen counter and ate a slice still warm, with butter melting through the holes. Then we went outside to check on the plants and the garden. I returned to find the bread MISSING! I called up to the males, "Do you have my bread?" To which the reply was, "Ah, No" and then I see the Dog curled up in the corner attempting to make his large self invisible. I called Neighbor on the phone to say, "We've been Breadnapped, and I think the dogs probably don't need to eat dinner tonight!" Neighbor's dog Libby is a professional kitchen counter thief, with the ability to steal things (chicken breasts, sandwiches) in the blink of an eye. Bo (aka Dog), whom I've no doubt shared in the consumption of the bread, is not nearly that clever or daring (typical male) and only attempts counter thievery when no one is home and generally leaves the tell-tale wrapper in a very conspicuous place.