spring cleaning or is that fall?

I cleaned up my blog a little and added some things to my side bar. Nothing big but it is part of my cleaning movement. I am trying to clean up and organize my live. I cleaned and sorted and filed at work before I left for vacation and cleaned up my email in boxes upon my return. I tried to clean up our dumping ground known as the kitchen island (that lasted about 2 days). I also tried to clean up my dining room and will have to make more head way on the basement this weekend. If anyone has ideas or suggestions to keep thinks like the kitchen island (or desk etc) free of clutter like bills and coupons and just junk I would love to hear them.

We have had a lot of rain this week and our grass which was dead when we got back 2 weeks ago is bright green and looking like its mid may instead of late august. Garden seems to have survived, but I bet the tomatoes haven't liked the 60 degree days. My big tomatoes were getting tinges of red before the deluge this week.

This weekend is like the extra paycheck of weekends. You know when you get paid every other week there are two months of the year that you get an extra paycheck. I feel like because this is the last week of August this weekend should be Labor Day weekend, but it isn't and it, therefore, feels like a gift of one more weekend of summer. Unfortunately, no one told mother nature about this treat, and so the weather is supposed to be wet and dreary as it has been this whole week.

Last night, there was nothing on TV and it was pouring and nasty outside, so Bill and I broke into the second season of Veronica Mars. It's always nice to watch a TV show you liked again with out commercials. It does annoy me, though, that good shows end up getting cancelled too early.

Enjoy your weekend!

firefox and 21st century tech

I was able to get firefox on my computer today at work. So for people like Bill who have made fun of me for years I have now entered the 21st century. though i don't feel as accomplished as I thought I would.

in honor of bill

who was attacked last night

check out savage chickens -it's great!

bad fish

we tried a new type of fish yesterday, turbot. this was a large waste of money and we will never purchase again. instead of being light and flaky it was fishy and mushy. yuck!

harvesting weekend in three acts

Just like "This American Life" I will present my weekend in three acts:
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Act 1
Also know as attack of the large creepy spider:

This past Saturday, I got up at a reasonable hour got dressed slathered on some sunscreen and some bug spray and set out to work in my garden. due to the neglect of being gone on vacation and the massive amount of rain we received last week I had a jungle on my hands.

I started at one end cleaning up some of the larger weeds in my flower/mulched areas working my way back towards the garden. One of the things I noticed was that there were a ton of crickets all over the yard. This weather must be perfect for them or something because my yard is literally crawling with them. As I get to my garden area I notice how well my herbs are doing and then I start pulling the big weeks.

I get about 2 feet down the fenced part of the garden when I feel spider web on my arm. Like a lot of spider web. Like I need to brush my arms and check this out only to see a big crazy freaky spider right next to me on the brown bag I had been tossing the weeds in. I scream my bug scream and freak out. by freak out I mean I simultaneously run while slapping/brushing off my entire body. I also start shedding extraneous clothing: one glove laded half way to the deck in the yard the other on the deck stairs the hat on the deck it self (it received a few good kicks). Then I proceed inside with Winnie, who is wondering what in the world is going on. I then take off my clothing in the down stairs bath and stomp on it a few times. After checking my body in the mirror for any bugs, I replace the clothing and decided that I can wait until Bill wakes up to finish weeding.
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Act 2
Actually harvesting in the garden:

After Bill awoke, we went back outside and he took care of the spider. I know spiders are good for my garden and what not, and this morning I told Bill not to disturb the very large web on the side of our garage, but I couldn’t work in the garden ever again knowing that thing was out there waiting to get me again.

I take the view that if I get about 60% of the weeds each time I go out and if I weed regularly the diminishing weed population will be a very acceptable amount to maintain. I would like to get more but the way my tomatoes and cucumber plants grew there are weeds I just can’t reach without harming my plants.

Anyway, I wrap up my weeding and go get some of the farmers market containers that we have. I grab a pair of kitchen shears and snip a bunch of tomato clusters. I then get two semi-overripe cucumbers snap off two peppers and cut a bunch of the remaining broccoli. I then go crazy on my 4 foot tall basil plants and cut foot long pieces off of them.
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Act 3
Cooking and Sunday activities:

Sunday mid-morning we head over to the farmers market after dropping Winnie off at pet smart for a bath and nail trim. With the bounty from our garden and some leftovers from last week, we don’t need much this weekend so it was a quick trip. I should note that this weekend was the first time in a month that we went to the grocery store. (we had gotten some milk at fair oaks farm on our way home last week). Once home we made some left over chicken into a chicken salad and got to boiling the carcass to make stock. I also get started on my pesto. With as much basil as I had culled I made 4 one cup batches of pesto. I don’t’ know what I’ll do with that much, but there you have it.

Last night, after wrapping up cooking and playing with our clean nice smelling dog we went out to dinner. I know, with all the food and stuff around I doesn’t quite make sense, but I had been bugging Bill about trying fondue for like a year now, and he had made reservations. We had a great time and I have decided I need to learn how to make the cheese sauce they had at the restaurant.

Ok I hope you all have a great week.

chicken and biscuits

Last night, Bill found an easy recipe to bake a split chicken and I tried for the second time in my life to my biscuits. I should probably note, I have made grands plenty of times, and as a kid made the Bisquick drop ones a number of time too. What I am talking about is taking the flour and shortening and milk and rolling out and cutting round little pieces of dough. This time I had my pastry cutter thing that I invested in to make pie crust last year. that helped a lot. I still don't have a round cookie/biscuit cutter so I used a wine glass, which, with its stem, makes an excellent biscuit cutter.

We have had a lot of rain here since Sunday and yesterday my walk home from the train was a very wet ordeal. Bill had to dry out his wallet which he had in his front pocket and that was with a rain coat and umbrella. The rain in Chicago does not fall mainly on the plains. Of course, it's because we have paved over the plains, and that is why the streets become rivers as the water had nowhere to go.

back and what not

so we had a great trip. you can read about it more on our travel blog (see the link in the post below.)

It was really nice to come home on a Saturday (something we have tried to do with longer vacations) and it was super nice that Bill and I had had the time to clean our house before we left... which made Sunday truly a day of rest.

Yesterday, it was back to the grind in wet nasty weather. It the morning, Bill noticed that our gutters in the front were over flowing. A definitive sign that the gutters need cleaning. So, we head to work knowing it will be on the top of the to do list in the evening.

Last night, after changing Bill says he is going to go deal with the gutters before we head out to the gym. I wanted to run to the library, but told him I would wait if he needed me. He said he didn't and off I went. As I was coming home, it was starting to drizzle and Bill was on the second side of the house. Good, I thought, he'll be done before the rain really starts up and we'll be at the gym durring the storm . Sadly, we never made it to the gym last night. When Bill came in he informed me that he had slipped and fallen off the ladder on the first side of the house after coming upon a bee hive while cleaning the gutters. poor bill. he seems fine other than scrapes bruises and swelling. I might be the one, however, getting up on the ladder the next time.

Today the CFA exam results for level II and III came out and I am proud (and very happy) to report that Brian passed level III. Brian turned 24 last week and has now passed all three levels of the exam making his sister who will turn 28 next month and who passed level one this year feel a little inadequate. such is life... sibling rivalries are slow to die.

That's about all the news that is fit to print. I will try to be better about posting down that we are back.

don't forget we are on vacation

which means we are posting on our vacation blog.
www.sandbsadventures.blogspot.com

4 wonderful years

...and looking forward to many more. I Love You!

busy as a bumble bee

we leave on Saturday for our trip so we have been booking hotels and planing routes looking up bbq joints and making lists. Now for those of you who know me you know what a control freak I am about things like vacations. I like to have a plan and I like to have a schedule and I like to have lists. So because the plan is finally forming and lists are being made I am finally feeling a bit more at ease about the trip and am now very excited.

On top of that we had a busy weekend which included a nice long bike ride on sunday. unfortunately, since that ride. i have had itchy bumps on my shoulders and across my chest. and no, i haven't changed detergent/soap/lotion. the sad thing is it's wednesday and they haven't gone away.

yesterday we ate some broccoli from the garden... i am always so impressed by how much each plant can provide for a person. we have 8 plants and about once a week harvest a small serving for each of us either to be steamed or put into stir fry.

ready for a road trip?

Follow allong on our other blog:

Sarah and Bill's Adventures

We leave this weekend.

all my plants are falling down....

...falling down falling down

I don't know what i should do about my bush beans, but i think some bamboo steaks are in order.  dad says that next year i should try topping my tomato plants before the get to be 6 feet high. today i found a pepper plant on its side....  i give up!

not really but it is annoying to find all your hard work fall over.

any suggestions or ideas?

my cucumber plants are dying by the way.  i think it needs to be warmer for them to thrive.  When should i pick a cucumber?  i have one that is almost pear shaped and about 6" long  I am thinking it might need to be picked but i don't know.

that is it for the garden update