If only every day could be like today...

I finally planted my lavender.  If you only knew how long it took me to hand-till this section and plant everything.  5 hours.  Ridiculous.  The soil was littered with a ton of well-rooted weeds and other unrecognizable plants.  The soil is also so rocky I started pulling out the decent sized rocks.  And decided to make them into borders.  If the plants don't die immediately I might actually spend some money and put down some mulch.  We'll see. 

I stll have all these rocks left.  I'd have more but I got tired of pulling them out of the soil. 

This is a good representation what I started with.  And what I will be getting to another day.  Grass didn't work as weed-killers in this area so I think I'll spray vinegar and just kill off everything and leave it as dirt for the rest of the summer. 

Atticus wisely basked in the shade for a good part of the day.  What a guy. 

Fired up the firepit again.  Ate the rest of my potatoes and brussel sprouts, then decided to go for a grilled banana with chocolate and peanut butter.  I won't lie....it was AMAZING.  I got the idea here. 

Even Atticus liked it.  Yes, I'm a bad dog mother.  In my defense, its vegan chocolate.  I don't know if that makes a difference for dogs or not. 

So yes, my first day of vacation was vastly productive.  Awesome.

To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.
~ Audrey Hepburn

Oh, Atticus!

The other day, I was in the living room, and Atticus trotted through with what had to be the dirtiest tennis ball I had ever seen.  I asked him where he was going, but he didn't reply, seeing as his mouth was full of tennis ball.

I had my sneaking suspicions about his destination...confirmed later that night when I went to go to sleep...

See if you can spot the tennis ball mark

Up close

Oh, Atticus!!!  :)

Don't let them tame you.
~ Isadora Duncan

My life

Zucchinis and Atticus - my life at the moment....

From the garden straight to the kitchen and into the frying pan!!!  I might be a little biased when I say this, but I'm pretty sure the fritters I made with this are the best ones ever. 

I'm on 8 hour shifts this week....I can't believe how much you can get done with 2 extra hours...
- worked for 90 minutes outside.  Cleared most of a flowerbed on the side of the house.  Raked up an insane amount of rocks from the soil.  I should be ready to plant lavender the next time I work outside (although mowing the back yard is the priority - the weeds are almost up to my knees.  Luckily all the grass is dead).  I uncovered a mystery of #1 who was making holes in the piles of grass I had in the flowerbed (I was naturally killing weeds by suffocating them), and #2 what Atticus found so fascinating in the side yard....  apparently he's been hiding his chew toys in the piles of grass.  Funny dog.

- Went to the gym for an hour. 

- Wandered around internet world looking for a new recipe.  Decided not to use anything I found and instead fell back on an old favorite

- Cooked up two batches of fritters and a batch of cookies for dayshift tomorrow - we're having a mini-potluck.

- Cleaned up the kitchen, set up the coffee pot, played with Atticus a little, took a shower, etc etc etc. 

I feel so accomplished.  Now its time for some sleep.  I haven't been getting nearly enough of that this week.

She wasn't doing a thing that I could see, except standing there, leaning on the balcony railing, holding the universe together.
~ JD Salinger

Weekend Photo Dump

Pictures from my long weekend and before...

Meet Kristen. 

It was her bachelorette party weekend. 

She wanted to go camping in Ellensberg.  I came a day late because I had to work, but luckily got to join in the funnest actvity ever - floating down the river.  We all hooked our tubes up and spent 3 hours floating the Yakima River.

I am super awesome. 

Some views from the middle of the river...

Ahh yes...and a fire I built.  One thing I feel I can do successfully. 

Got back from camping Friday.  Saturday we volunteered as zombies in a fun run - called, appropriately, "Run for your Lives!". 

We're slightly attractive zombies.  Kristen is on the very right.  We like to do fun runs together.  Her sister-in-law Corrie is in the middle.  She's pretty neat - I admire anyone who roller derbies.

The grossest wall ever.  Getting fake blood pitched at you.

Kristen and I are pretty convincing. 

The wrench in my weekend....I ran over a nasty rock on my way back from Ellensberg Friday.  Saturday afternoon after I arrived at Kristen's, my tire finally decided to go flat.  Thus entailed a long drawn out ordeal of AAA, tow companies, spare tires, etc.  What a pain.  This is a poor picture, but it shows my vehicle being loaded on a tow truck.  My tire and car are all better now, thanks for asking.

An easy version of jelly.  I loosely used this recipe.  And I mean LOOSELY.  Basically I threw a bunch of almost expired fruit into the crockpot - it included raspberries, cherries (pitted), and blueberries.  Then I threw in some sugar (I didn't even measure), and some lemon juice (I didn't measure that either).  A couple of hours on high, then a quick circuit through the food processor. 

It doesn't have the same consistency as jelly (obviously, because there's no gelatin in it), but it is DELICIOUS.  Its easy to spread, which makes my morning toast all the more exciting.  Did I mention it's delicious?

And I finally have my FIREPIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Hopefully gonna test it out this week!  Thank heavens for friends with chainsaws.

The last resident here left a hummingbird feeder hanging off the front eaves.  I noticed this morning a hummingbird going for it.  I had no idea there were hummingbirds here.  I whipped up some hummingbird food and put out the feeder again.

Ahh yes...I started having to mark my canning jars with sharpie paint markers.  Lest I mix up the hummingbird food and the simple syrup.  Same concept, different amounts of sugar.

It is HOT here.  I only managed to mow the front yard before I gave up due to the heat.  So then I washed my car.  No pictures of that.  Maybe tomorrow I will be able to get started a lot earlier and get more done outside.  I had planned to plant my lavender this weekend as well. 

I picked up an overtime shift tomorrow night - otherwise I'd still be rocking my long weekend. 

Oh well....pretty soon time to shower off the dirt and sweat of the day and watch another couple episodes of Hulu.  One more week of work before my vacation!

Re-examine all you have been told.  Dismiss what insults your soul.
~ Walt Whitman

We interrupt this burst of cooking...

...to drop your favorite Pfaltzgraff bowl full of polenta (corn grits) on the floor.

*Sigh*

Finish each day and be done with it.  You have done what you could.  Some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can.  Tomorrow is a new day.  You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
~ Emerson

My bike

Finally bought a bike yesterday! 

More importantly, I remember how to still ride a bike!!!

I look like a wobbly foal....I was trying to convince myself to put my feet on the pedals. 

 Think about it this way...the last time I rode a bike it didn't come with gears...

Success!! You can see Jayme in the background looking out for cars for me.

...and you braked by pedaling backwards.  Yes, its been that long.  And apparently yes, the adage is true - it is just like riding a bicycle.

I really wanted a helmet like this one.  Unfortunately there's no ventilation.  I got one that makes me look like a mushroom.

Now I just gotta learn the purpose of having gears. Oi.  Maybe that's why I live on a dead-end road.  Practice!

This is why I bought a bike, in case you missed it the first time.

Back to work this morning.  Double Oi.

If we wait until we're ready, we'll be waiting for the rest of our lives.
~ Lemony Snicket

Today

Spent the morning shopping.  Ended up with 16 canning jars and two pairs of shoes from Goodwill and 60 pounds of cement and tin snips from Ace Hardware.  I have projects in the works!

Its been overcast and threatening to drizzle all day.  A nice respite from the heat of yesterday.  I just hope it doesn't last too long.

It would be a nice day to take a nap before heading to the gym but I've been putzing around too long to make one worthwhile.

Oh, two things I want to do:

For the summer:  The Selflessness Project

For my birthday:  The Birthday Project.

If you can't access those links, let me know - I'm not sure if they're linked to my Facebook page at all.  Also, let me know if you want to join either.  Or have any ideas of what I can do for the birthday project!

Do what you feel in your heart to be right - for you'll be criticized anyway.
~ Eleanor Roosevelt