Shilo Goofball-Head

Just a quick post to make fun of my daughter. She was out with friends the other evening, fishing. It was a beautiful day and they had gone to Cullaby Lake to try their 16 year old hands at catching dinner. As they were loading up and getting ready to go home with 2 fish in the cooler caught by the boys, Shilo bent over her pole and....KERSPLASH....in went her brand new, long begged for, cell phone. In her 16 year old mind this could have been a rather big catastrophe, but Shilo was quick to realize that she had just saved the day. Standing over them was a "fish police", who failed to notice the fish because of all of the commotion over the quickly sinking cell phone. Of course, not a one of those kids had a fishing liscence. Bunch of verrrry lucky goofballs!!

Gardens

Take thy plastic spade,
It is thy pencil;
take thy seeds, thy plants,
They are thy colours.
-William Mason, The English Garden, 1782

What a beautiful weekend has just passed! We were blessed with clear blue skies and warm days. The first really nice weekend of the year. Such a pleasure...
Riff was in Eugene on Saturday taking the test for his LSI-IT liscence. He won't know how he did for almost 2 months. They sure make them wait along time.
Dustin and I took Boots to the vet Saturday morning to be neutered. He came home purring and happy as a clam, silly cat! We then decided to check out some yard sales since they were really the first of the season. I found a wooden planter for $2.00, just the right size for my new Dwarf Alberta Spruce tree. Yeah! I had planned on buying one over the weekend, so that saved me alot of dough. I also found a black iron dragonfly trellis for my climbing rose. She is very excited to climb right up the trellis, and I'm encouraging her to do it quickly and not wait until next year.
I spent the money I saved at the nursery, of course, coming home with snapdragons, dahlia's, shasta daisy, stock, tickweed, petunia's, thyme, oregano, and numerous others all to fill in my two window boxes. I am already picturing how they will fill in and attract beautiful butterflies in a few months. Exciting stuff...
Sunday we mowed and raked the back lawn, cleaned the garage and decided that was more than enough work for the day. By noon we had the dogs, a bucket of fried chicken, beach chairs and our books loaded and ready to go. Nothing beats an afternoon at the beach. Dustins "girlfriend", Miranda, came with us to enjoy the day. Someones leftover, smoldering campfire was too much temptation for them and soon they had a blazing fire going. Miranda stepped, barefoot, to close to the fire and burnt her foot on the molten sand. Poor girl, nothing hurts like a burn. I felt terrible for her. She is doing better today and is back in school, though a limp will be her nemisis for awhile.
It's beautiful again today, which means that all my little plants and seeds should be growing away.

May you be blessed with flowers and sand....

Blog problems

I've been trying to update, but somehow it won't post. Of course, because I'm testing this without re-writing my post, it will probably publish!

Surgery

Well, the ol' gallbladder is coming out finally on May 12th. I know that some of my family and friends have been wondering, and it has been put off so long that I have forgotten to tell alot of you. No stones have been detected in the scan's I've had, but the last test indicates that my gallbladder just doesn't work properly. Apparently that is pretty rare, most of them come out because of stones- which is why it has taken them so long to decide to take it out, although my symptoms have been very classic gallbladder disease symptoms. Leave it to me to be difficult! Hopefully this will help with alot of the food issues I've had over the last several years. Improvement takes time, I guess, until my body gets used to working without the gallbladder at all. Time will tell...

Bunny Wabbit...

The zoo is growing...Dustin had 10 dollars in his pocket from one of his lawn mowing jobs, so decided he needed the rabbit that Shilo's friend, Emily, was selling. She made him a good deal. He got the rabbit, cage, carrying cage, water bottle, and half a bag of pellets all for the 10 dollars. Emily has just gotten to busy for her animals and this bunny was the last she had left. She is a little white rabbit with black ears and black spots, very cute. He named her April, since he got her in April. Shilo was "babysitting" her Friday night. Had her hopping around on the bed with her while she was reading. Later, Shilo tried to plug her cell phone in and found that her cord had been chewed in half. We all got quite alot of amusement out of that. I did warn the kids to keep a careful eye on her around the electric cords. We certainly don't need a fried bunny!
A rainy, wet Saturday, so I baked a chocolate cheesecake that Shilo had been wanting and made honey-mustard glazed drummies for dinner with parmesan angel hair pasta and raw carrot and celery sticks. Something so simple hit the spot.
I had recieved a gift certificate from my boss for Lewis and Clark Nursery, so spent that on Sunday. So hard to decide what to get when you want everything!! Riff went with me and tried to be patient- all the while wondering what was happening on the Nascar race track. (We got back in time for him to catch the end of the race). I ended up coming home with a spirea, a spruce that has been coaxed into a delightful spiral shape, a couple of english daisies, some chocolate mint, and 4 cosmo's. I knew I wanted the spruce-he will look wonderful in a large pot next to the front steps. I have big plans for my shade garden in the back, but somehow came away from the nursery this weekend with only items for the front of the house. Well, the mint may possibly go somewhere in the back. Time will tell....
Planted some feverfew seeds and bachelor buttons in my large planters out front yesterday. Many seedlings are coming up from my planting frenzy a few weeks ago. Fun to see their progress from day to day.
Hoppy trails....

Some Beach, Somewhere...

There's an umbrella throwing shade over an empty chair
on some beach,
somewhere....
by Blake Shelton

Dinner last night was cold ham and cheese on rye with a side of SAND! We decided to load up and head to the beach after work yesterday. There is nothing quite as relaxing as a crackling beach fire, the sound of the surf and the seagulls. What a wonderful evening. Dustin spent some time sacrificing some of the drift wood back to the Ocean Gods. He also drew a huge smiley face and the word SMILE in bubble letters in the sand. Of course, as we were leaving Riff decided he might as well be the first to drive through it. Why let someone else ruin Dustin's hard work when he could do it himself? CRAZY people!!
May you be blessed with cold beer, warm fire and pounding surf....

Farmer's Market

We spent Saturday in Portland at Kevin's Orientation. Western Culinary Institute is a very nice school and I became quite jealous of some of the classes that he will be taking. I wonder if he would mind if old stepmom takes the classes right beside him....?
Portland's Farmers Market started this Saturday. You can imagine my excitement! I didn't purchase alot, but did come away with a bag of Nettles, which I haven't cooked since I was a kid, some fiddleheads, which I have never cooked and will be looking for a good recipe, and a WONDERFUL loaf of marbled rye bread. MMMMM.....
More later, have a great day.