Take your chapstick, put it on your lips

I'm back at work tonight, after three days off. It was a longish, slightly dull weekend. It's not that I didn't do anything, but I kept finding myself in front of the computer, playing Solitaire on facebook.

Friday morning I woke up early, I mean like at 5:30, and I went downstairs to let Rich sleep. This weekend the weather really cooled down, so I was freezing in the den, which is the coldest room in the house because of all the windows. I made myself some eggs and toast and drank a Diet Pepsi, and then just putzed around on the computer, reading blogs and webcomics until Rich got up, and I went back up to bed to warm up my cold feet!

At about 8:30 I got up again (with nicely warm feet), and Rachel called to rant about her night at work. She was in full rant when suddenly her phone died. I cried, "Monkey, no!" but she was gone. A few minutes later she was at the door, asking if I wanted to go out for breakfast. I had already had breakfast, but it had been a couple of hours, so sure, I could eat.

We drove to BK, where you can get a Whopper for breakfast, which is what Rachel wanted, and I just got an order of delicious greasy hash browns, and ate those while Rachel finished telling me about her night. Then she took me home, and she went back to her place to sleep.

I was sitting in front of the computer again, playing a little solitaire and drinking another DP, when RA called. She wondered if I had already eaten breakfast. "I could eat," I said, so she picked me up and we went to the Beltline for scrambled eggs and bacon. We usually have breakfast there on weekdays, but it's a different waitstaff on the weekends, so instead of the usual annoying but nice older waitress who calls us girls (ugh!), we had a young girl, who called us ladies, and also 'you guys.' Sometimes in the same sentence. I wanted to scold her for it, but I just rolled my eyes behind her back. Several times.

After three breakfasts, I didn't need to eat again until dinner.

RA had a couple of errands to do, and while we were driving around, we passed the farmers market, and you know we had to stop there! I don't know what I was thinking, because you know I'm not a gardener, but I brought home a big pot of herbs! It has a huge purple basil plant growing all over two sides, thyme dripping down the other side and some stalky-looking parsley in the middle. It smelled good, and the purple basil was so beautiful! I am always needing basil in recipes, and if I buy a packet of fresh basil to use, I only ever use half of it and the rest dies, so I hope that this plant will fulfill all of my hopes and dreams and basil needs!

There were some other, smaller plants in styrofoam cups, and the seller told me they were lavender. I rubbed a leaf and smelled it, and it smelled so good that I had to buy one of those, too. I was told to replant it when I got home, and to let it get completely dry before I water it, which is my kind of plant! I plan to use the pot that I was growing spider plant babies in, since they all died. I don't know why, because the mother plant is just fine, and I was very disappointed. I haven't repotted the lavender yet, but I will do it this week.

So now when I go into the kitchen, it is smelling faintly of basil and making me so happy. I hope I can keep all these plants alive. I kind of suck at it.

Saturday I did a little laundry, but nothing else in the line of cleaning. Rich vacuumed the Patsy-hair from the living room rug without being asked, and then he took the vacuum apart and showed me the massive gobs of cat hair that were preventing the vacuum from picking up as well as it could. Thanks for that demonstration, now could he vacuum the stairs? I would be happy to look at more cat hair blobs if it meant more vacuuming was being done.

Saturday evening Rich went to a movie by himself, because there was nothing showing locally that I want to see, but he has read The Time Traveller's Wife and liked it, so he wanted to see the movie. I liked the title of that book, and I kept picking it up in the library, but then I would read the blurb on the inside of the jacket, and remember that it sounded awful the last time I looked at it, and put it back down.

So Saturday was another dull evening at home, but at least I didn't have to see that movie. Rich thought it was really good, but I don't have much faith in his judgement where movies are concerned. He is too easy to please.

Today I went to church, and that was fine. Nobody annoyed me, and the talks were okay. Rich came home and took a nap after lunch, and I talked on the phone with Scott and then Diana while I played Solitaire on facebook.

When I started feeling sleepy, I went upstairs to read in bed, but for some reason I started texting Diana. We were thinking about Grandma because it was her birthday on Friday, and we started asking each other Grandma Trivia Questions, and Rich woke up because I was laughing so hard! At some point we had the brilliant idea of making a How Well Do You Know Grandma facebook quiz! Brilliant! I worked on it while Diana had company at her house, and then I sent her what I'd done and went to get a nap before work.

When I woke up, she was working on the questions some more and typing them into the quiz application, but I had to go to work before she was done, so I haven't seen it yet. She read it to me over the phone tonight, because I can't access facebook from work, thanks to their virus-ridden software, and Rachel has already taken the test and scored a very respectable 85%! Good job, Chocolate-drop Eyes!

In which my feet are cold.

I didn't work last night, so you know what happened. The same thing that always happens, I went to sleep early and woke up super early! I woke up and went downstairs to allow Rich to keep sleeping, because I am thoughtful like that, har har.

I ate a handful of Cheez Nips and drank a Diet Pepsi, read my web comics and the gossip sites, and then I checked facebook, where I saw a status update from my sister Sarah. She had updated from the airport at 4 a.m., so I sent her a text message that she answered on her layover in Charlotte, and yay! I had someone to talk to! At least until her plane left for Houston, but by then it was 6:30 and I could go back up to bed, because Rich gets up about that time.

I was happy to get back in bed and warm up my freezing feet! It's still August, but it's been raining and cold here all week. It's not even 60 degrees this morning. I love cooler weather, but I usually dress for it. This morning I was wearing a t-shirt and underwear, and it was chilly!

So yesterday I was looking for some new knitting project and I poked around in the yarn room for a while, but it's a big mess and I couldn't find anything. I've got two new plastic storage tubs, bought specifically for yarn storage, so now I have to go in there and sort some yarn to put in them. I need to get it done soon because I'm having a guest in the middle of September who needs to sleep in there.

What I'm knitting today:

1. Kim wants a sweater vest - I'm not sure why - so I've got two of them on the needles. I had started one a few months ago after I saw a picture of a cute girl wearing an outfit that included a sweater vest, and that one is about half done. Then for some reason Kim asked me to make one for her; she must have read about a character in one of her stories wearing one. I told her I was already working on one! It's a rusty red wool, but I usually dress Kim in darker colors, and also I ran out of yarn on the ball of red I was working from and I didn't want to dig around in the yarn room for more of it, so I cast on for a dark blue vest last night.

2. My purse knitting is sock #2 of a pair of white nurse socks for Rachel. I'm using Paton's Kroy from the big box of Kroy Karin scored for me at a sale!

3. My bedroom knitting (besides two sweater vests) is sock #1 of a pair of blue socks for Scott. I think the yarn is Trekking. This yarn feels thin and skimpy while knitting, but once it's washed it blooms and is very nice.

What I'm watching today:

I watched it last night before bed, actually, and then dreamed about it, too! It was a little indy film called Dakota Skye and the male lead was so very cute I could lick his nose! His name was Iain Nelson, and I looked him up on IMDB later to see what else he's been in, and the answer is not much. So cute, though!

What I'm reading today:

Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich. I got tired of Stephanie Plum and her amazing psychic nipples by the time I finished reading the first thirteen books one after another, but I keep going back to them to re-read when I don't have anything new because they are so very entertaining. I love Grandma Mazur, I love Lula, and I'm so glad I don't have to live with Bob the dog!

What I'm wasting time on the internet with today:

Go to www.goodreads.com and you can see what your friends are reading, rate and compare the ones you've read, and keep track of what you're reading now. You can write reviews or make snarky remarks (see above comment on Stephanie's nips), and just generally waste spend some time thinking about books and reading. If you go there, you can friend me and see just how much crap I read, as well as admire me for my intellectual devotion to Jane Austen and Anthony Trollope, who were really more like the Janet Evanovich and Nicholas Sparks of their day.

I'm going to go back upstairs and read in bed for a while. It's my day off! It's cold and wet! When I'm tired of being warm and lazy I can get up and do some laundry. Don't be jealous of my beautiful life.

Nothing much is going on here. When I got up this afternoon, RA said she needed to go to W@lmart, and of course I went along. While I was waiting for her to pick me up, Rich brought in the mail, and most of it was for our next door neighbors!

I took their mail over to their house, and knocked on the door. Their beautiful ragdoll cat was sitting in the hall, looking out at me, and the inside door was standing open, but no one answered. I knocked on the storm door again, and rang the bell, but there was no answer. I put their mail in their box, and started home, but it was a little worrisome, as they are both in their 70s, so I called and left a message that I was just making sure they were okay. They never called back, but I saw the husband out on the steps tonight and waved to him. That's right, don't call me back, gramps, but when you're laying on the floor with a broken hip from a fall and can't crawl to the phone, and your useless cat can't dial 911 because she doesn't have opposable thumbs, you'll be sorry you didn't appreciate my nosy phone calls more!

Rachel and Rondee showed up at my door later, wanting to go to the Farmer's Market. I had forgotten all about it, so I was glad they remembered. I was just pulling a turkey breast out of the crockpot, so we had a few bites of turkey and then went off to buy some stuff! I got more corn on the cob, and some blueberry bread!

I haven't taken a good walk since Kim left on Friday, but I did walk all over the store with RA today. I talked to Kim on her webcam tonight. I miss her! Also, Scott and Carolyn sent more pictures of the babies. I can't wait to see them in person.

And I'm back at work.

I see now what facebook is really good for - it's for getting birthday greetings! It's great because you have already told the system the date of your birthday, and there is a little reminder note on the side of the page a couple of days in advance, so you don't have to do any self-promotion at all! Even if you don't notice the tiny reminder on the sidebar, you see the notes other people have written, so you are shamed reminded then, and you add your birthday wishes to the crowd!

So that was fun today, especially for someone like me, who doesn't promote her own birthday at all, because I don't really think anyone will care outside of my immediate family. It was pretty thrilling to get all of those Happy Birthday notes today! A couple of people even sent virtual gifts, so yay, even better, because normally if I want a birthday present I go out and buy myself something, but this year I got balloons and cake and holy water (hilarious!) right on my facebook page!

Rich thinks I am hard to buy for, so he is happy to let me get a present for myself and thank him for it later. This year I bought a fancy new electronic scale for the bathroom. It gives a readout of your weight (eek!), your body fat percentage, and your level of hydration. Yeah, that was a bit depressing, but at least it isn't so advanced that it screams, "Ow! Get off! Get off!" if you're too fat.

Rachel and Ash came over tonight and Rachel had made a cake, which was nice of her. She made a yellow cake with chocolate frosting, which is the only kind of cake that I will eat with frosting. She left the rest of the cake at my house, so you know what I'm having for breakfast!

She's gone and she'll take her mattress with her

Rachel called our house early this morning, and I can't remember why, but apparently she didn't get an answer on my cell phone, so she called Rich's phone, which he had thoughtlessly left on the headboard, and the ringing woke me up! It was 7:30!

Once I was awake, I stumbled downstairs to scold Rich for leaving his phone on where it could disturb me, and then I listened to the message Rachel left on my voicemail, but I still can't remember what it was about.

Kim was already up, and was eager to get out the door to drive back to college today, but she couldn't leave until after her dentist appointment at 10. It was a good thing she couldn't leave until later, because after her appointment, she came home and looked through her paperwork to be sure of her check-in time, and found out that check in is tomorrow! Which gave her another day to relax at home with her mother, and to pack a few last-minute things.

I was feeling a bit frustrated today because all I really want to do is go to Scott and Carolyn's to see the new baby and to pay attention to Soren so he doesn't feel left out. I had to be content with calling Scott a couple of times, and getting a couple of calls from them. There were pictures, too.

It will be nice when Rachel has a baby that is right here on the spot for me to play with!

Uncle Richard, me, and James Earl Jones

The best part of my day was when I was sitting at my desk in the den, playing Three Towers Solitaire on facebook, and listening to my Ben station on Pandora. I forget to ever listen to Pandora, because I don't usually listen to music when I'm at home, or anywhere, really, except in the car. I am just too ADD and it's one more distraction when other things are going on, and it makes me start to feel overwhelmed.

So yeah, it was such a lovely quiet time, playing cards, and listening to music that I like, and now I am humming Ben Folds' Lullaby in my head, probably will be all night, and by 4 a.m. I will be pretty sick of it, and have to start humming O Canada to make it go away, but right now I still like it.

When I tore myself away from the solitaire game, it was because I was hungry and needed to make something to eat. I had some chicken that I baked a couple of days ago...

Wait, here's the story on the chicken, because Diana was laughing at me when I told her about it, and I'll tell you why. It's because I am the queen of bravely substituting one food item for another when I am cooking, and she thinks it's funny that when she gives me a recipe, I will sometimes make something entirely different because I didn't have all the right ingredients.

Like the time she gave me a recipe for a chicken and rice casserole, and I was out of rice, which never happens because it is one of the things we eat all the time, but apparently that day there wasn't any for some reason. So I used some bulgar, which is cracked wheat, so it's a grain, just like rice, and then I didn't have something else, so I substituted again, and finally when I reported back to her that I had made the casserole and it was okay, but not really great, and told her I used bulgar, etc, and she said, "So you made a completely different dish?" and yes, that's why it wasn't as delicious as she promised it would be. And now she makes fun of me for that.

So tonight I was talking to Diana on the phone, and told her about the very good chicken salad I made today, using some leftover baked chicken breasts, Diana said she wanted to bake some chicken breasts, too. I started telling her how easy it was to just marinate some thawed chicken breasts in molasses, with salt and pepper, only I didn't have molasses, so I had looked around for something to *substitute* and I used a jar of Hoisin sauce, and it was very good that way. Which is when Diana started laughing at me because I didn't have a jar of plain American molasses, but I had plenty of something weird like Hoisin sauce in my cupboard.

Which reminds me of when she gave me a recipe for some kind of enchilada-type dish, and I said I would make it as soon as I had a chance to go to the store, to get ingredients, but by the way, had I told her about the great hot and sour soup I made? I started describing it, and she said, "You have all the ingredients for that but you can't make a burrito?!" Yes, I know, and we're the only family in the Midwest that has 15 kinds of mustard and 4 bottles of rice vinegar in the fridge, but doesn't have any ketchup! Just ask Scott.

So here is the way to make marinated baked chicken breasts, because there is nothing easier, and they are good! You take a bag of frozen chicken breasts and thaw them in the refridgerator overnight, and do not just put the bag in the sink in the morning so they will be thawed by dinnertime, because that is a recipe for salmonella, and I would never, ever, do such a thing. Ever.

Then when your chicken is thawed, you trim off all the bits of fat and icky stuff with a pair of sewing shears that you keep in the kitchen drawer for cutting pizza and trimming fat, and when they are trimmed, you bathe them in molasses, or Hoisin sauce, or the way I did it last time, with sesame and ginger marinade from a bottle. Let the chicken marinate in the sauce for at least 30 minutes, and then bake in a 350 degree oven for another 30 minutes.

I had a couple of the baked chicken breasts leftover, so I chopped them up and mixed them with about a half cup of minced celery, a couple of pickles, chopped finely, and about 1/3 cup of mayonaise. I had some whole wheat hamburger buns from the bakery and they were great for the chicken salad sandwiches.

I still had some of the corn on the cob from last week, and I cooked the last of that in the microwave, to go with the sandwiches. I just found out how to do corn in the microwave, and it's so easy! You put two ears of corn in the microwave, still in the husks, and cook them for 2 minutes. Turn them over and cook them for another two minutes, take them out and wrap them in a towel and let them sit for 5 minutes, and then peel the husks and silk right off! I told Diana's father how to do it, and he was pretty pleased with this method, but he said at their higher elevation, you have to cook the corn for 3 minutes on each side. Who knew?

In which I eat too much, talk too much, and drive too fast - the perfect day!

So ow! My feet hurt! Kim and I went for a walk tonight and I stupidly wore my sandals because I was hot! and sweaty! and I didn't feel like putting my shoes on! I know that if I walk a long way in my Birkenstocks, my arches will get rubbed raw and blistered, and yet I wear them anyway. It's just that they are so comfortable, and sometimes I don't know that I'm going to be walking a long way, so when I get blisters, well, it's not my fault. Tonight I knew there was a possibility that I would get a *little* blistered, but I thought I'd risk it. I was too hot to make a good decision! I walked the last half-mile home carrying my sandals and trying to walk in soft, cool grass! Ow!

Kim and I both had talks to give at church today - she spoke in the Singles Branch, and I went to Kat's ward and spoke there, to a very small but nice audience. It really was fun, and a nice change to be in another ward. The only drawback to being a stranger in a small ward is that you really stick out, so instead of texting Diana or Kim during RS like I usually do, I just knitted and watched the clock. I didn't want to seem rude! That last meeting always drags for me - I'm not good at sitting still that long!

Kat's family took me to lunch at Pizza Hut after church, and I love Pizza Hut, so I was happy! I ate a lot and also talked a lot. In fact it was one of those times when I drove home with my own voice echoing in my head, wondering why people don't shut me up! Lucky for me, Kat's family are kind and tolerant, and they just let me babble on and on...

In which I went to the movies alone.

So yesterday was a long long day. I woke up too early, because I didn't work the night before, and I went out to breakfast with RA, which wasn't the worst part of the day because we had bacon and eggs and American fries, and there was extra bacon for me because RA couldn't eat all of hers. I love bacon!

Then we stopped at RA's house to pick up a Slip N Slide for Kim to take her YSA activity today, and also, RA was loaning me her vacuum, because I have just the cheapest possible cordless vacuum, which is fine if you only have to do some light vacuuming, but now that I don't have a regular cleaning lady, I needed to do some serious vacuuming!

I brought the vacuum home but I didn't start using it right away. I sat down to play some of the very addicting solitaire game I've been playing on facebook, and promised myself that I would vacuum as soon as I lost a round of solitaire. So that's what I was doing, playing a little, vacuuming a little, playing some more, and then I went downstairs to put in some laundry before I played any more, but when I got to the basement I found that one (or both) of the cats had peed on the floor down there, because why would they want to mess up their nice clean litterbox? So I wiped up cat pee, threw some clothes in the washer, and went back upstairs to tell Rich I am going to change the cats' names to Urinal and Weewee, becaues they are so obnoxious!

Then I got a message from Kim, asking me to bring the Slip N Slide over so she could lay it out for the boys she is babysitting this summer, and she could see how big it is, and they could play on it.

I needed to go out to put gas in the car anyway, and by the way, eek! My mini-van was so empty and the price of gas is so high that it cost $60 to fill the tank!

I made the drop off to Kim, and suggested she might want to call Sando to come over and help set it up, and she snarled at me in the haggiest voice imaginable that she wasn't going to call him, and that all I want is for her to get hooked up with Sando! Oh, I'm so sorry, I just thought it would be more fun with more people!

Then I came home and yelled at Rich because Kim was a filthy little ungrateful ape, and he suggested helpfully that I should maybe take something to calm myself, and then lay down? He has no idea how aggravating Kim has been lately, with the continual bitching because all these stupid, selfish, insensitive males have the rude audacity to want to date her! She accidently made plans with two of them for the same night, and was all pissed off about it, because she really didn't want to do anything with either of them. Can't she just have some time to herself??

I sat back down in the den, thinking hateful thoughts about Rich, who was sitting in the living room eating his lunch and happily watching When Sharks Attack or something stupid like that on the Discovery channel, and also about Kim and her filthy little ape-ishness, and then instead of feeling hateful all afternoon, I got up and went to the movies.

I went to see Julie & Julia and it was charming. The theater was quiet and cool, and I had a sock to knit, so it was perfect. Just me and about 30 old people enjoying a matinee. I sat at the end of the last row, and farther down the row was a white-haired old dear, eating popcorn, and, the oddest thing, in the middle of the movie she took a picture of the screen with her cell phone camera, which was slightly annoying, but I had to give her credit for knowing how to use it!

So that was a happy break in the day, and when I got home I felt much better about my life. Later I talked to Kat about the talk I'm supposed to give her in ward tomorrow and then I actually started preparing the talk, so I was able to go to sleep knowing that was taken care of. It's not completely done, but it's well on the way.

Kim went off to her activity carrying the Slip N Slide and another several feet of plastic to make it longer, because thanks to my idea of setting it up to see how it looked (you're welcome), she decided it needs to be longer, and she and Rich went out this morning and bought some heavy plastic to add to the length and also some soap bubble stuff to make it slippery-er! I hope no one gets hurt!

I need an emergency skein of yarn!

Mike the Gossip King is retiring and this is the last night I will work with him. I'm pretty sad about that, since he is the best source for finding out what is happening in the hospital, and he's also just a really funny guy. He is the same age as RA, which is a little early for retirement, but he is tired of working for his current boss (everyone hates that guy), so he's retiring.

A couple of years ago, when I was just getting to know him, he came into my office one night all excited because he had been in the office of the CEO, changing the time on his wall clock to Daylight Savings Time, and the clock slipped out of his hands and fell onto the top of a cabinet, breaking a ceramic cow and also the glass in the clock's face.

He said he had hung the clock back up, and the missing glass wasn't really obvious, but the cow was too broken to just prop it back up, and he wasn't sure if he should write the CEO a letter of apology, or if he should just say nothing about it. He thought the cow might be something of sentimental value, and when he described it to me, it sounded like a collectible. Mike said there was a tag on it, and he went to the office and brought the tag back, because there was a name on it.

It turned out to be part of a line of collectible cows called Cow Parade, and we found one like it on eBay, so Mike wrote the CEO a letter, explaining that it had been an accident and offering to replace the cow. Of course the version of the letter he was writing in his head that he told to me was so funny that I was laughing myself into an asthma attack! It all ended well, when Mike got a note back from the CEO the next day, thanking Mike for caring, but assuring him that the cow was not an important artifact.



So in honor of Mike's retirement, I found another cow on eBay - only now that damn cow is discontinued, so it cost more - and I gave it to him tonight. He thought it was pretty funny! I'm really going to miss him!

In other news, Rachel and I took the two-mile walk tonight with Rondee and we saw an old dear out walking a dog that Kim and I had met a few days ago when we were walking on that street. The dog is very beautiful and very friendly, and when we first met him, I was talking to the old dear, who explained that it is her son's dog, and she takes care of him while her son is at work (doggy day care!). While I was talking to her that night, the dog stole the water bottle out of my hand and started chewing it! I took it back and told the dog I needed it, but it was pretty funny how quickly the dog had snatched it, just like a ninja! Apparently he chews emptly plastic bottles at home because he likes the crunchy sound - when Buffy was a puppy, she did the same thing!

So that was the highlight of the walk, because we were on the hilly uphill route back to my house, and I was huffing and puffing and sweating, and just generally unhappy to be there. Rachel and Rondee were tired afterward, too, so I drove them back down to Rondee's, where Ash was visiting Joe, so Rachel could get a ride home with him.

When I got home, I dragged my tired legs upstairs to get a shower - I was already starting to stiffen up, I'm such an old lady! - and then I got into bed to take a nap before work.

I'm at work tonight without enough knitting, so I might have to rip back a few inches of this sock so I'll have something to work on. As I was falling asleep earlier, I thought to myself that I needed to grab some yarn to bring with me, but when I woke up, I had forgotten. Darn. I'll have to bring in an extra skein of sock yarn to keep in the drawer for emergency knitting.

When it's hot and humid, I like to heat up the kitchen.

We've had a beautiful summer up to now - it's been pleasantly warm, not too hot, not much rain. Suddenly we have had three humid days in a row, lots of rain, and tonight we're having a huge thunderstorm! I got out the big golf umbrella yesterday to carry to my dentist appointment, and used it again tonight to come to work. I wish Diana was here to enjoy all this weather!

Rich and I went to girls camp on Thursday and it was kind of fun. Except for the miles and miles of walking to get from one part of camp to another. Rachel had been walking from one side to the other all week, and she was getting pretty tired. She wasn't getting enough sleep, either, because there were emergencies every night! We had an exciting trip home when we found the entrance to the highway was blocked for construction and there was no clear detour. It was a bit surprising to find ourselves in Iowa, but we finally did get home.

Kim was gone this weekend, visiting a friend in Wisconsin, my favorite state for being lost and needing a bathroom, but she managed to get in and out safely. Rachel came home from camp on Saturday and Rich and I met her at her place to help unload her car and take her to lunch. She was eager to get a shower and a nap, so we didn't stay long.

While we were at camp, we were given a bag of over-ripe bananas for reasons too complicated to explain, so I brought them home and made banana bread. I made two loaves on Friday, two more on Saturday, and there will probably be two more loaves tomorrow. Kim is loving it!

I don't know why, but I've been cooking a lot this weekend, in spite of the miserable humidity. I made a Shepherds Pie on Saturday, with a layer of polenta on top instead of mashed potatoes, and today I made Ratatouille with vegetables I bought at the farmers market on Tuesday. The Ratatouille was so beautiful that I took a picture of it, sitting next to a loaf of banana bread:

The recipe is here . It's stacked Ratatouille, which means the pieces are all lined up in stacks. The picture with the recipe looks nicer - it's much stackier than mine - but I got tired of stacking oily slices of vegetables, and I let mine fall over into more of a slanty stack. I'll try to make my next batch look prettier.

There was walking, and there were noodles.

Well, I was going to finish those baby blankets last weekend, but that didn't happen. I worked on the purple one, and it's almost done. There will be a picture when it's finished!

Yesterday Rondee called to see if I wanted to go to the farmer's market with her, and after the market, we drove around drinking a soda and talking, just like I always do with RA. I recruited her for Team Jacob (we run with werewolves), and we drove a circuit that included the walk through the cemetary, to see how much further we need to walk to make the two-mile walk into a three-mile walk.

Team Jacob is the team of Kim, Rachel and I (and now Rondee) that we formed for the purpose of the 5K Jingle Bell Run/Walk in November. When it's closer to the race time, I'll post a link to our donation page. The walk is for charity - the Arthritis Foundation. We're not involved in any other Arthritis Foundation good works, we just chose this walk because we wanted to do a 5K.

This afternoon Rondee showed up around 5, with her little boy Hayden in his stroller, and we walked the two-mile walk. I think it's too hot to push ourselves to do the three-mile walk, so we're saving that until September.

I couldn't find a water bottle to carry, so I filled an empty Mountain Dew bottle with water (so ghetto), and we walked. In the hot sun. There was a breeze, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Tomorrow I'm going to girl's camp with Rich, who is going as the bishopric representative from our ward, because the bishop is out of town. Rachel went to camp for the week as the camp nurse, and she has been calling me every day when she has some free time. She says the campground is big and the girls from our ward are on the far side of the camp, so we should be able to get a good walk! I thought we were going to be spending the night at the camp, but Rich says he needs to get back so he can work in the morning, so darn! No sleeping in a musty cabin for me!

What I'm knitting today:

Just a sock with Paton's Kroy yarn on size 1 needles. I was looking for a new project, and I think the next thing I'm going to do is a Weasley sweater for Soren, with his initial on it. He knows 'S'!

What I'm reading today:

I'm re-reading Four to Score by Janet Evanovich on my Kindle at work, and when that's done, I downloaded Revenge of the Spelllmans by Lisa Lutz, so I'll start that.

At home by my bed I've got Thus Was Adonis Murdered by Sarah Caudwell. I love her writing, and this is my favorite one of her books.

What I'm cooking:

Kim and I made Thai Noodle Salad for dinner, and it was fast and easy because I had some leftover cooked chicken to use. Even if you were cooking the chicken, you could do that while the noodles cook, and the whole thing doesn't take more than 30 minutes.

Blankets!

I finally washed and (sort of) blocked the finished lacy baby blanket! Here are pictures of it drying on the dining room table. The first picture is a close-up of one of the corners:

And the second is a picture of the whole blanket (well, most of it):

This is the weekend for finishing baby blankets! I've got just a few inches of trim left to do for the purple blanket, and then I'll sew the trims on all three of the finished blankets. On second thought, I may not get all of them done this weekend. I should be able to finish at least one of them, though.