Weekend Activities

Whew! This was a really busy week for us. I'll tell you more about it in a moment, but first a photo montage of the many faces of Bailey.

Yep, they're all the same.

This was one of my projects for this weekend. We have a vast expanse of lawn at our house (and one extremely tired, decrepit fence). Unfortunately, the lawn gets the prime day-light hours of sun; the patio and vegetable garden are mostly blocked by the garage and house.

I've mostly resorted to planting my vegetables in pots and moving them around to catch the best rays.
This weekend I came up with the following: The Mini Portable Garden! I'm going to patent this idea.

Steps:

Take one un-used, decrepit wheelbarrow.
Drill holes in the bottom for drainage.
Add lots of yummy compost.
Add soil.
Plant. (seeds are sewn in the middle area)

Position in optimal sun-catching area.

Here is a quick run-down of our crazy week. Chris and I definitely used up our share of hydrocarbons this week.

Chris and I flew back from Seattle late Sunday night. Bright and early Wednesday morning, we passed each other in the airport: I was headed to Denver, he was going to San Francisco.

I flew back from Denver Wednesday night while Chris stayed in San Fran until late Thursday night. On Friday, I packed my bags again and head up to San Fran for a whirlwind trip and then it was back to John Wayne (Orange County) by 6pm that night. What an adventure!Overall, it was a hectic but satisfying week. I have nothing but good things to say about the lovely people of Aurora, Colorado, especially the building and fire departments. I have less lovely things to say about the police department since a cop gave me a ticket for taking a right turn on a red light. I was clearly at fault: evidently there were signs posted at the intersection telling me that turning on red was not allowed; however, in my defense, I was completely lost (I had maps out everywhere), frazzled, late for an appointment, and could have used some welcome-to-aurora leniency. The fact that I couldn't even find the window-roll-down switch in my rental car (I had to open the door to speak to the cop) should have been an indication that I was new in town. Hint: if the switch isn't on the door, look on the center console. Anyway, I'm still waiting to find out how much I owe. This stinks.

On another note, I'm always impressed and slightly appalled by how California can turn a brown desert into a green oasis. No wonder the Colorado River is out of water.
In other news, Chris and I have been having a bit of a competition: Who can get the best gas mileage in the prius. Chris turned in this winning mpg the other day. (50.2 mpg)
It's time for peonies!!! My favorite flower in the entire world. I'm making a list of must-have-plants and peonies are right at the top, despite the fact that they're pretty fussy.
We hauled in our first crop of the season last week: baby basil. We celebrated with iberico cheese, salami, and basil crudettes.
My Uncle Bill sent down this fabulous tennis racket, otherwise known as a bug zapper. Flies can be a bit bothersome down here in the summer and this nifty little guy zaps them on contact. I'm had great success so far. In fact, I went tromping around the yard seeking out flies just to prepare for the dog days of summer. THANK YOU BILL AND JESSE!

Here is part of my haul from the farmer's market on Saturday. I guess I know what I'll be doing this week: canning. I'm still trying to find rhubarb, though.
I rewarded myself with this GIANT new water bath; I'm think I'm going to have a couple friends over for a jam canning party later in the summer to try it out.

And here are the really fun pictures from this weekend. We went to Long Beach with our friends Andrew and Cam for some kayaking. It was a blast although Chris lost all feeling in his toes after about 10 minutes.

The canals of Naples.

Cam and Andrew

By far the coolest part of the day was venturing into jellyfish cove. It must be a breeding ground for moon jellies because they were every where.

Baby moon jelly
(which was only out of the water for a very short amount of time)

I really, truly love our underwater camera.

We passed by the Long Beach Crew House on the way to moon jelly heaven. Chris and I were recalling fond memories of all the blood and sweat we'd poured into that sport until this rather rude lady yelled at us for being in her way. We didn't point out that she was traveling against the traffic pattern (on the wrong side of the canal) but we did have some very choice comments about her behavior after she was out of ear shot. Come on lady, you're giving our sport a bad name. Shape up!

Rude rower aside, it was a lovely trip and great activity. I'm going to have sore shoulders tonight!!

Our trusty craft

Afterwards, we gorged ourselves on a giant (second) breakfast at the world-famous Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles