Vacation!

Finally! We've made it to our vacation week. June felt endless as we waited for July to arrive. Then the first few days of July flew by with packing and shopping for our trip. The fridge in our hotel room kitchen looks like the one at home. Fully stocked... definitely went overboard. We could stay and eat well for a month!

We hit the beach immediately upon arrival. It was jam packed!!! Seriously... crazy crowded. The only available seating area was near a rocky area. Perfect for us. I just wanted to read for a while, and the kids wanted to dig and build a sandcastle. I thought they would have been over that stage (@ 14 and 16), but I guess you never truly get over that stage, do you?

My son eventually decided he wanted to walk the boardwalk and ride his bike. My daughter wanted to swim. So away went the book, and I was officially on lifeguard duty. I admit to having slight panic attacks when she goes out really far, so I keep a vigilant watch on her the entire time she is in the water. (I still cannot believe I let my son off on his own. He IS just moments away from being an adult though, isn't he...?)

Sushi and bubble tea for dinner. Fries on the boardwalk for snack. (Which made me sick to my stomach... just not used to eating that kind of stuff.) Fruit salad back at the room for dessert. A nice glass of wine on the balcony to end the night. Ahhhhhh....

The photo is from sundown, after the people had cleared out. I could get used to seeing this every day.

Happy 4th!

I feel compelled to write a blog post since we will be out of town for the next week. (A big "THANKS!!" to my sister and her family for house-sitting while we are away! I always fear that my furry kids will be lonely...)

So.... what can I write about....?

Well, my hubs was in a motorcycle accident on Monday. Someone made a left turn from the right lane and cut him off. Stupid people not paying attention. He is OK (relatively speaking... bruised and sore, but alive and well).

I have nothing else really post-worthy. Sad, I know.

Weather here has been rain... rain... rain... and more rain. With some high 70*/low 80* temps mixed in, for good measure. More like April/May, than June/July. I've only been in the pool once, and it was not even enjoyable. Pfft!

So anyhoo... Have a great holiday! Enjoy your weekend!!!

Hard work pays off... eventually

...although it really isn't hard work, just consistent work, I guess. We have not been having good, summery weather here. It has been raining almost every day, and it is cloudy everyday. Not really good for a garden.

But today we did our first real harvest. I picked three zucchini that were nearly the size of my forearm, a huge bunch of radishes, bunches of parsley, mint, lemon mint, and oregano, and rhubarb.

I always take stuff from the garden to two of our neighbors. I was definitely happy to be taking this to them so early! In return, we were given a bag of strawberries they picked this morning, and a piece of delicious strawberry-rhubarb pie! How nice!!

Of course it is never all work and no play around here. Quite the opposite, in fact. This is a picture of Squirt, my daughter's wind up swimming turtle that she was playing with in the pool the other day...

Oh... and I just made Katie's All the Way Arame salad. Yum! I have to say that I was a bit skeptical. I bought arame a few weeks ago, with absolutely no idea what to do with it. This popped up in Google Reader today, so I gave it a whirl! Total YUM! Thanks, Katie!!

Gimme Lean... sausage

This package caught my eye at the grocery store about a month or two ago. I picked it up, thinking I would cook it - crumbled - for pizza. Well, since I haven't recently been to the only store in the area that sells vegan cheeze, and the sausage was at its expiration date, I had to come up with another idea.

By the time I got home from work yesterday and did what I needed to do and, I am ashamed to say, momentarily got caught up in the death of Michael Jackson, it was nearly 7 p.m. and I had to get dinner on the table -- quickly. I grabbed the tube of sausage and made burgers. Wow... My utter creativity amazes even myself.

My husband walked in the door from a ride on his H-D, picked a piece off one of the patties and said, "Whoa!!" And his face got all distorted. I assumed the product had gone bad before its expiration date. He thought I was really cooking sausage! Real sausage. I had to show him the packaging to assure him it was NOT pork. This product is THAT good.

And really, sausage is all about the spice mixture that goes into it, isn't it? It's not really about the meat. People like (and eat) sausage because it tastes so darn good. They don't really crave a hunk of ground up pig snout and ass. Right?

Anyway... I can't wait to pick up another package (or two) to add to pizza. And maybe pasta sauce. Yum!

Ahhhhh.... Sweet Freedom

Out of sheer laziness and airheadedness, I have not yet ordered a copy of Ricki's new cookbook: Sweet Freedom. I have no other excuse why. It is on my list of books to order/pick up, but I just haven't gotten to it.

If you haven't either, head on over to Shellyfish's blog for a chance to win a copy (she's giving away two!).

Father's Day

Yesterday was an awesome day. My son had work in the morning, so we had planned to go for an early breakfast before work. Unfortunately that didn't work out as planned because my husband got called in to work. My daughter and I decided to go for brekkie anyway when we dropped off my son. As luck would have it, my husband was able to meet us when he was done working! YAY!

After breakfast, we took pool water to get tested and then my daughter and I went shopping for vacation. I was in desperate need of summer clothes and we were able to find excellent sales!! (My daughter calculated that we saved $400!!) We spent more time than planned shopping, and by the time we got home it was just about lunch time.

I made us huge salads with some chicken-style seitan on the George Foreman, with Asian dressing. Yum! When my husband left to pick up my son from work, I started getting clothes ready for vacation. As we were planning what to do for dinner, my husband got called out for work AGAIN! Ugh! My son went on his bike to meet friends, and my daughter and I decided to go for a walk (after trying on swimsuits, I decided I REALLY neeeeeed to walk, etc.). We walked through a neighboring development/sub-division (extremely affluent -- emphasis on the extreme) with nice, quiet, hilly streets. We had no idea how far we walked, but we were gone nearly 1.5 hours. It was great! I wanted to turn around and head home, but my daughter was like a drill sergeant!! At one point, she walked over to me and lifted my shirt a bit to expose my midriff and said, "Do you REALLY want to turn around now? Or do you want to keep walking??" LMAO!!! Needless to say, we kept walking.

When my husband and son got home, we decided to go to Moe's for dinner. (Read the nutrition chart and DON'T eat all the chips!!! Yikes!!!) The food was delicious, the atmosphere sort of fun. On the way there, I had my husband drive our walking route and found that we walked 3.8 very hilly miles! YAY! We are going to try to do it several times a week.

Back to Moe's... My beverage of choice is water 99% of the time. But last night, for some reason, I chose iced tea. Regular, brewed, unsweetened iced tea. I drank maybe 6 of the 12 oz. While the choice would have been fine at noon, it was nothing short of stupid at 8 p.m. I was WIDE AWAKE until 4 a.m. and slept fitfully until 7 a.m. I have work today and it's not going to be easy. I am drinking the rest of the (apparently) super caffeinated iced tea now, and have espresso-laden coffee brewing in the french press to take to work.

Off to dry my hair...

Recycle on Adams block party

Despite the persistant rain, this afternoon my daughter and I went to the Re:cycle on Adams block party. I was pretty disappointed that more people didn't turn out. As you can see from the photo, it was pretty wet. During the three hours we were there the rain stopped for only about a half hour or so.

I love the concept and hope that it becomes an annual event. It is in the same block as our favorite (and only) vegan restaurant, so that was very, very convenient for lunch. We split a meatball sub, smashed potatoes, and bbq drumsticks. Yum!

My sister showed up when we were eating lunch, so we shared :o) then perused the vendors. There were several jewelry vendors (one was one of my sisters) and some natural food/products, some handmade scarves & rugs (rugs woven from plastic store bags!!), retro clothes and accessories, etc.

There was also a yoga studio that was doing demonstrations. I gasped a few times when one of the girls doing Vinyasa Yoga effortlessly twisted herself into asanas that I could never imagine myself even attempting. Alas...

My daughter made out like a bandit (of course) and left with a hand-dyed scarf (made by a friend of mine), bracelet and earrings (made by my sister), and a bag made from re-purposed juice bags! Very cute.

I hope this becomes an annual event and that the (lack of) attendance this year doesn't put a damper on any future plans!!