Keep on Instagrammin'

58/365

yum

Match made some beef shanks and sent Dirty and I home with leftovers.

Delicious!

Seriously - make this recipe! (Though I believe she subs beef broth for red wine.)

59/365

paleo treat

I was craving cake and found the easiest recipe on the planet! Then I ate one piece and packed the rest up to go to the office so I didn't eat the entire thing!

Next time I will try it with peanut butter chips!

60/365

how does your garden grow?

Went out for dinner with Glinda and Fiero last week at a totally adorable restaurant that I didn't even know existed.

How cute is this garden box as you walk in?

61/365

12.2

You already saw this picture. But it is safe to say that I am dealing with some serious anxiety about the workout that will be released this evening.

I just know it is going to include double-unders or pull-ups and I'm going to die.

62/365

tall, dark columbian

Ok, he's not Columbian. But he is adorable!

Dirty, Tiger, and I spent our Friday night at Wicked.

I still love that play!

63/365

for love of the game

Tiny and I were enjoying a moment at Biggie's t-ball game. Then it was off to the playground.

"Just two more seconds, Aunt Airplane?"

64/365

nah, nah, nah, nah

Hey, hey - goodbye! My last glass of wine before starting the Paleo Breaking Barriers Challenge at the gym.

30 Days of STRICT Paleo eating - with another 30 days that can include the occasional wine/sugar/dairy. So far, so good.

Baseline workout is on Friday so we can measure our results at the end of the challenge.

65/365

boys of spring

It is hard to have a bad day at work when it starts at the baseball stadium.

We announced that we signed 20 year extensions with both the San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners for our baseball stadium! Very exciting stuff!

Picture This...

Still catching up on Instagram pictures...

52/365

boy scouts

A local boy scout troop is earning their citizenship badges and I helped them out by setting them up to present the Colors and say the Pledge of Allegiance at a Council meeting.

53/365

patience is a virtue

I had a plan to make some delicious shrimp for Ash Wednesday's dinner, but I rushed myself and only made a so-so dish. I need to remember that patience is the key when cooking.

54/365

crazy!

You all already saw this and the results. 

Woot woot!

55/365

most important meal

Friday's post WOD breakfast - so DELISH!

56/365

carrots

Another repeat

57/365

snacking

A little popcorn and red wine to get me through the Oscars Red Carpet show!

In The Garden

Despite the rabbit's best efforts, my fall/winter garden was a success!

I harvested the broccoli and cauliflower as they were ready and yesterday after nearly dying at the gym, I came home and harvested the remainder of the garden.

Which included a ton of carrots!

56/365

After two seasonal gardens I have come to the conclusion that there are only a few things worth planting and carrots are one of those things.

There is something about fresh carrots. They are sweeter and more tender.

Just truly more delicious. 

Something funny - those purple carrots - they are orange on the inside. It was kind of freaky.

Be Vewy, Vewy Quiet...

We're hunting wabbits!!

That's right folks, my neighborhood is about to have one less rabbit.

I got home yesterday to find that a rabbit had gotten into my garden and indulged on all of the leaves on my broccoli plants, and is working his way through the cauliflower.

I was NOT pleased.

Fortunately for him, I didn't have time to take action against him last night or this morning. However, while he's getting comfortable in his afternoon snacking routine, I'm planning an all out war! 

I am on the hunt for a BB gun, some fencing, and perhaps some rabbit poison.

That little guy doesn't even know that I have Fridays off and I'll be waiting for him tomorrow.

Does anyone know where I can get some badger urine?

Declaring War

Alright, I'm back. And I'm going to try really hard to post more regularly. I promise! 

As I believe we've discussed before Independence Day is my FAVORITE holiday!

I LOVE America!

However, I never thought that I would have to declare a war of my own on Independence Day weekend.

Yesterday morning I woke up in a great mood! Birds were chirping, the sun was shining...

Then I went out to my garden to give it the morning dose of moisture.

As I was watering, I noticed that some of the tomato plants were missing leaves towards the tops of some branches. Seemed strange.

Then, I saw this:

Oh yeah, that's a worm. A tomato hornworm to be exact.

I'm not going to lie to you - I freaked out! 

I called Match on the phone and she told me I had to kill the worm or it would kill my tomato plants.

Now I'm no baby, but I'm not touching a worm! 

So I ran in the house, grabbed a pair of scissors and then proceeded to cut the branch off below the worm. Then, I realized that there were more worms. Five to be exact.

I was shaking. I was having flashbacks to my childhood when the wooly-worms invaded our back porch and you couldn't take a step without crushing at least two of them.

Then the air conditioner kicked on and I nearly wet my pants.

I was in bad shape.

The good news is that I have won the battle so far and my tomato plants look to be ok. The bad news is every time I go out to the garden I have to inspect for worms.

I think I've gotten in over my head!

Miscellany Monday

one

baby peppers

Do you see that little jalapeno pepper?? I'm so excited for it to grow up and be in the food that I cook!!

The garden is growing - a little slower than I would prefer, but it is growing and I'm so excited for harvest and delicious homegrown veggies!

two

circle of life

Have I already told you all about Ed? He was my dog back in the day. I rescued him from an abusive environment when he was 9 years old. He lived with me for two years and then I got a job where I traveled a lot so a family down the road from my parents adopted him. 

And he lived happily ever after. Until a couple of weeks ago, when he died peacefully.

RIP Ed. There will never be another like you.

three

guided-missile destroyer

On May 7, the day that he would have turned 35 years old, Lt. Michael Murphy was honored by the Navy when they named DDG 112 the USS Michael Murphy.

Lt. Murphy was the lead officer of Operation Red Wing, and he embodied what it means to be a hero. Just looking at the pictures made me cry.

four

search and rescue

Dirty and I are cat-sitting right now.

Do you remember those triplets that I used to babysit? Well, they are heading here from Guam and they sent the cats ahead for us to take care of while they make their way down the road.

They are inside cats. And tonight they got out of the house.

It took Dirty, Match, SuperFan, and me to get the second one to come home.

I'm fairly certain it was one of those times that we should have had a flip cam following us around.

Miscellany Monday

one

the science of food

I was reminded this weekend that I am not a fan of baking. I didn't like science in school and I don't like it in my kitchen. I need creative freedom with a recipe! I don't like to be held captive by the rules.

(I wish I had a picture, but I was so angry when it all went wrong that I just threw it away.)

However, I did make these little delights:

They are Oreo Truffle/BonBon somethingorother...

Holy deliciousness!(And you don't have to turn the oven on!)

two

crazytown. population: 140

On Saturday we celebrated Easter with PapaBear's side of the family. You know, an intimate gathering of 140 people.

What?!?!

That's right, 140 of our relatives showed up at Pie Ranch's house to join in a potluck celebration. Bless her for hosting this craziness! 

three

obsessed

It is official. I am obsessed with my garden! Sometimes, I go outside and just watch it grow.

I'm not kidding.

On Saturday afternoon, I applied fertilizer to the garden and then had a dream that all of our vegetables started growing at a rapid pace and we couldn't keep up with them.

four

a visual

Because I know you are dying to see what it looks like:

The bare spot in the middle is where the zucchini was planted, but we got bad seeds the first time. Our second round of planting is coming up nicely now. In the front right corner you can see one of four rogue tomato plants. Kind of a bonus! 

Miscellany Monday

one

running behind


I can't believe that it is already 9:44 pm and I haven't posted this blog yet. I sat down this morning to post and then had to get ready and go to work. Then I had internet issues at the office today. Then I had a meeting after work. Then I got to Sissy's house and a friend of mine was here. So...better late than never, right?


two
a little glitter


Glinda and I were shoe shopping for Cribs' wedding last week - our mission: black strappy heels. 


Our find: 

We tried to talk Cribs into letting us get them - gold is one of her accent colors after all...


But - my birthday is coming up and I would love someone forever if they bought these for me!


three
glees


Glinda is obsessed with Glee. I had never seen it, but she needed someone to talk about it with so she gave me the first season to watch on DVD so I could get caught up.


Why have I not been watching this show? It is FABULOUS!


four
progress

If you click on this picture and enlarge it you can see what we're growing in our garden.


Some of it is hard to see, but this morning we noticed that our sweet bell peppers are starting to sprout!! (We were a little worried because the seed packet said that we should start them inside - whoops.)


However, our summer squash is struggling - I'm hoping that it will come up soon!

DIY My A-S-S

Last year Dirty and I got a tomato plant and a basil plant and did alright in harvesting them.

Then we went out of town and forgot to have someone water them and they died. 

Sad day.

This year, we are committed to doing better.

With the cost of produce rising, and taking into consideration the amount of produce that we consume, we decided that we would plant our own garden this year.

This weekend was the beginning of that project.

We decided to build our own raised vegetable bed.

I consulted Match and she said that she remembered PW having a tutorial on building one, so I looked it up and thought we could do it.

First of all, please notice that PW has a man (who I am figuring is a professional carpenter) actually building hers.

This process was far from easy.

First, we borrowed PapaBear's cordless power drill. Then we headed to Lowe's to buy our supplies. 

The Lowe's trip was pretty uneventful - though I'm pretty sure the people there were a little concerned about the supplies we were buying. This was confirmed when we were at the check-out and we put our small sledge hammer on the counter and one of the guys said, "I think there needs to be a 7-day waiting period for that weapon."

Either way, we got home, unloaded all of our materials and got to work.

Right about this time we also quit taking pictures. Oh well.

More importantly - I LOVED the power drill! I need one - I don't know what I'm going to do with it, but I bet I'll find something.

So, we drilled our pilot holes and then started putting it all together. The first screw - stripped. The second screw - stripped. WTF is going on?

We called Papa to ask if our zinc screws were wrong, because we couldn't understand why we were eating up screws.

He thought that it didn't matter, so we tried again - this time, I gave the drill a little less power.

Success!

So we get the base of the box put together, level and square it off and add the corner stakes.

Then we broke for lunch. We went to Match and Papa's to eat and then ran a few more errands before heading home to finish our project.

Finally back home, we get everything unloaded from the truck again, head to the back yard and fire up the drill. Much to our dismay, the battery is dead. Seeing as how the battery that was in it when we got it from Papa was dead, we now had to dead batteries and no charger.

So we head next door to see if our neighbor can help us out. He has a drill that you plug in to use so we get that and an extension cord and get back to work.

Only his drill has too much power and eats up a couple more screws.

After a couple of minutes of discussion we decide that we will load up Papa's drill with the two dead batteries and take it back to him to charge until the following day.

We get everything pretty much put away and loaded in the truck and make our way back to Match and Papa's for the third time that day.

We get out of the truck, walk through the garage, and realize that we left the drill and the batteries sitting on the floor in our kitchen.

I wish I was joking.

At this point, I let loose a string of profanities that would have made a sailor blush.

Then we got the battery charger and headed home.

After charging the batteries all night, we finally finished our raised vegetable bed on Sunday night around dark.

Now we just have to fill it with soil, plant some seeds, and watch it grow.

Lord, help us!