Orange Slush or My Restful Day

Wednesday my body won. I spent the day resting, knitting and spinning. I have also come to the following conclusions:

1. I am not superwoman (but this might be readdressed when I get a little more rest).

2. My toe will probably heal faster if I don't kick things multiple times a day.

3. I love fruit especially when someone else cuts it up.

4. Some people provide great entertainment thus people watching is good.

5. Naps are good at times.

Well even though I spent the day resting I am very tired and I think it's time to call it a night.

Although I would like to provide my recipe for the day.


Orange Slush

1 blender full of ice

Orange juice to cover

Blend until smooth. Pour in to glasses and top with a splash of orange juice. Serve with spoons.

114

Would you believe it was 114f at our house today. We are usually a few degrees hotter than the airport. So I gave the appliance the afternoon off, well not exactly it was more like the whole day off durning daylight hours.

I decided that the ice had a funny taste to it so it was time to clean out the ice maker. Note to self it is probably not the wisest thing to do on the hottest day of the year so far. Then while the appliance were busy resting, I also took a nap. Then packed up a few boxes, did a bit of cleaning. I did manage to make a dent in the empty recycle bin and reclaim most of the dining room table. Not much knitting and no spinning got done today.

Off to the post office and then to pick up Eric from camp. Then it was time to clean out the fridge and do some more picking up. It was definitely time for a light dinner of salmon salad, canned green beans and crackers. Well they can't all be 5 star dinners, the cook gets tired sometimes.

I wanted to mention the best part of the day was the heat. Even when I made a trip to the trash can at 11 pm it was still nice and warm. Well if I am to get to sleep before tomorrow it is time to say good night.

Just a Quick Update

It has been a great couple of days around here. On Friday Eric got to go swimming for the first time this summer. He was so excited that he did not let me leave camp even for a cuppa tea. Since I did not have the project I wanted to work on I spent the waiting time spinning. Spinning along with knitting is a great way to kill time. He had a great time in the water and I think (fingers crossed) that I will not have to be at all the pool events for Eric to go swimming this summer..

It looks like the 3rd time is going to be the final design on a shawl that I have ripped out twice already. I managed to find a perfect match for some hand spun yarn to make an art shawl a little bigger. I found the art yarn at Grandma's Spinning Wheel on Tanque Verde South of Grant on the east side of the street. I am knitting 2 rows of art yarn alternating with 2 rows of hand spun. I picked up a partial skein of art yarn for the boarder at Kiwi's on 6th and Tucson blvd. I did notice that they had some of my stitch markers left if you need any.

We saw the movie Cars today. It was a pretty good movie and of course the good guys won in the end. It is a good movie for kids of all ages. I am also getting a head start on laundry tonight considering that it was 113f at our house today according to John's weather station. It has cooled down to 97f at 10:30 pm so it is the perfect time to run the washer and dryer. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day so it is time to say good night.

Chilled Gazpacho Soup

I had big plans for today, but alas my body went on strike. So not much got done today. This is the recipe I made for dinner. No it was not a good idea in light of the very bad body day I am having. No this can not be made in a blender it must be chopped by hand so here goes.

Gazpacho Soup

1.5 pounds of fresh tomatoes diced
1 sweet onion peeled and diced
1 large or 2 small cucumbers peeled and diced
1 clove of garlic peeled and finely diced
1/4 cup of cilantro finely diced
1/2 green bell pepper finely diced
2 tablespoons of basil finely diced
1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
1 large or 2 small limes juiced.  For Key Limes I would use 3 or 4
Salt and pepper to taste

Garnishes
Avocado as needed ( usually 1/4 to 1/2 an avocado per person)
Fresh scallions if desired
French, Ciabatia, or rustic white bread. If the bread is slightly stale that would be OK too since the bread is used to sop up the soup and no butter is used.

Mix all ingredients in a large Glass bowl. (you do not want to use plastic or metal because the flavor of the soup will change). Place in the refrigerator for 2 hours or longer to chill and develop the full flavor.

This will make a little over 8 cups of soup. So as an appetizer I would guess it would make about 16 servings. For a main course it should serve 6 to 8.

The First Day of Summer

Well the weekend went very well and everyone enjoyed their Teri time. Yesterday and today were spent catching up. I am exactly one day behind in my weekly schedule. But Teri can pop in any time she wants. I don't mind being behind schedule for her.

I spent the day with two different sets of friends. After I dropped Eric off at camp I went to knitting/breakfast with the first group of friends and almost finished a shawl. Then it was off to lunch with another friend. Just for the heck of it I stopped by Casa de los Ninos thrift store and did some browsing. I found some storage binders to organize my patterns for 50 cents a piece much better than the $22.00 a piece price at the local office supply. This morning I got an e-mail saying that Eric needed a t-shirt to tie dye this week. I am so glad I am not a "working mom" so I have time to pick up the last minute odds and ends. Then it was off to Target to get a little shopping done. I also took the opportunity to get my walking done while at Target. After my shopping I did 2 laps around the store.

I am enjoying the new season of White Collar and have almost finished another hat. I did not find time to spin today but I am managing to gather another box for Goodwill. Well it is getting late so I am going to wind things down for the night.

A Father's Day Suprise

Yesterday the secret plan for John's Father's Day present came to fruition. Yes we did manage to pull it off. John is so hard to shop for because he is a man of just the basics. So what do you get a man who has everything he wants? So last month Teri and I hatched a plan for her to be John's fathers day present. Teri would fly in to Tucson and call her dad with car problems. Since John had the day off I had Teri call him from her layover. When we got the call we were eating lunch.  I answered the phone and it went something like this.

Me. Hi Teri. (I could hear the sounds of the airport in the back round) What, you have car trouble, let me give the phone to dad. John then put the phone on speaker mode. Not much chit chat but a very worried look on Johns face ( I could see the wheel running do we call AAA, how much is this repair going to cost us.) Well you get the picture.

Teri. Hi dad I drove into the city( San Fransisco) and somehow landed up at LAX and I am going to need a ride home from the airport in about an hour.  John was a little confused and then everything clicked when Teri said that I had her flight itinerary. By the very surprised look on John's face I knew that we had pulled off the perfect surprise.

The next little bit of time was spent getting Teri's room ready. Washing the sheets vacuuming  and getting the clutter creep out of her room. I sent John to the airport to pick up his present. He was just so excited that he was going to see his little girl. They came home with a Tucson favorite, Eegee's drinks.

After a little catching up and some nap time. I sent Teri and John out to Bookmans and dinner. They both had a great time. We then spent some time watching TV and playing around with our ipods. Yes geekdom does rule in this house.

All in all a very good day and a terffice fathers day present.

Things I LIke About Summer

The things I like about summer are in no particular order.

1. A wet shirt hung to day at 6 am is ready to wear at 9 am after it cools off from the clothes line.
2. I love the summer heat. I never have to bundle up. Except in the movie theaters and restaurants.
3. I like waking up with the sun.
4. I like all the very small knitting projects that I make. They go very fast and I get a lot of things done.
5. Iced tea. But then again I drink iced tea year round.
6. The grocery stores are empty and shopping goes faster.
7. No waits for tables when I eat out.
8. Lighter traffic. No snow birds and very few students.

Things I can do with out.

1. Eric's summer colds. Oh wait I don't like those in the winter either.
2. People complaining about the heat. If you don't like the heat don't move to where it is hot. But I will give you a gimme when it hits 115f, then it is hot. Did you know our airport closes to commercial traffic at 120f.

Well I have been up since before dawn. The moon was very pretty at around 3:30 am. Yes Eric has a cold yet again so its time to say goodnight.

Question Time

I need some answers. Perhaps you can enlighten me. I can be talking to a random person or an acquaintance with the conversation going smoothly until the topic of Eric comes up. Then some people get really uncomfortable. They sometimes look like they opened the proverbial can of worms. I am not really sure why. Eric came into to this world the way he is and has a very good life with lots of friends.

Among his friends he is has a reputation as a ladies man. Always smiling at the girls and giving kisses on the back of the hand. The boys just seem to want to hang around him and make sure he is OK. He and his sister have a good relationship. So what is it that I am missing?

So If you can give me some answers that would be wonderful.

Saturday

Today was a much better day. I did manage to do a lot of picking up before everyone woke up this morning. I did make considerable progress in the craft room. I did a lot of throwing which is always good. All totaled about four bags of trash/recycling made it out of the house today. Yeah Me!!

On the fun side I got a lot of knitting, spinning and napping done also. The pink shawl I started Thursday with pink hand spun is going to be too small for me so I will send it off to a charity fund raiser. I am falling in love with a scarf that was suppose to go to a charity fund raiser. So I think I just might switch the items that I am sending. I have until the end of the month to get the creations done. On the spinning front I found that if I treadle a little slower the yarn seems to come out better.

Every one is doing well today. I am looking forward to an even better day tomorrow. Since it is summer I will probably be up with the sun so I think I will call it a night.

Murphy's Law Rules the Day

I thought I would blog a little on the early side today. Eric did not have the best of nights last night and around 4 am his Kangaroo Joey decided to stop working. Not being totally awake it took me until about 6 am to figure out the problem and call the equipment company.  I managed to put together a temporary feeding "machine", yes that's right a syringe and a bolost tube powered by myself and his camp councilor. Yes we do have a new pump. The equipment company forgot to call me with a delivery time and left the new pump on the doorstep.

But wait the day gets better. We get to camp and I realized that I have the wrong backpack. I have the red one not the blue one. So I drive home behind the group of cars who will not go over 25 mph in a 40/45mph zone, both lanes mind you. I then drive back to camp. I changed out the back pack and decided to stop at Starbucks on the way home. I could not figure out why a once bustling Starbucks was so slow. That is until I got my drink order. I ordered a venti drink and received a grande, one size smaller. I asked why and was told that since I brought my own cup it was policy* to make the drink one size smaller than the cup.  I took my 3/4 full cup of tea a little miffed. Then it was back home to drop off the red backpack because I could not leave it in the hot car. I know it was only in the high 90's today but with the car closed up in a hot parking lot it was too hot for Eric's emergency kit.

Today must not have been my day to knit either. I spent as much time tinking** as knitting. I did take Jeans advice and call the Starbucks Corporate Offices and spoke to a nice young lady by the name of Lexi. I asked her about the "new policy*" that I was told about at the store. The Very good news is that is not the corporate policy and that they will send me a coupon for a replacement drink. I would like to give Starbucks a shout out for great customer service and the professionalism of Lexi.

This paragraph contains some politics so if you don't like politics please skip it and go to the next paragraph.

I should not have checked my e-mail either. Our wonderful, thoughtful Governor wants to cut our respit services by 50%. When Eric was born the state run institutions were closing down with state and federal  officials saying that they would continue to provide services that would enable us to keep our children at home and in the community. Over the last 2 decades there has been a gradual decline in services.  A mear 20 years later just as our children are reaching adulthood they are cutting the services to the bone and beyond. Yes I know that we are in a recession and money is tight. But it is time to stop cutting taxes. It is time for our elected officials to stop running around like life was a popularity contest and do their job. A sound bite slogan does not give me a good nights sleep. Raise our taxes if you need to but dont' throw our families under a bus.

The political statement is over.

I was to tired to fix much lunch so it was cheese and crackers and time for a  nap. A note to my self, Sheri please restock the cheese drawer. Do you think I will remember tomorrow? A 2 hour nap and it was time to pick Eric up from camp. Now if I could just stay awake long enough to get Eric to bed tonight it will great. If he sleeps though the night it will be even better.

Well it is time to find the energy to pick up and do a little cleaning before the weekend.

At least when I make chili, I usually make 4 servings so at least dinner is cooked for the night.

**Tinking - the polite way to say you have to rip out the @#*&% rows and knitting and redo them

Pictures



Camp Pillows

Eric's Quilt

Joe's pillows

Early spinning

Here are a few pictures of some recent work of mine.  The top 13 pillows were made yesterday and are going to camp today. The next 2 pillows were also made yesterday and are for Joe's dogs. They are stuffed with poly fill, yarn, spinning and sewing scraps. In case you don't know Joe is one of Eric's aides. And the next picture is of Eric's new quilt. Its hard to tell from the picture but there are 2 different quilting styles on the quilt. The first is the "correct way" in which I hurt my finger and the other half was my way which went so much smoother. As you can tell my sewing machine and I are on speaking terms again. The last picture is of some of my treadling practice on the spinning wheel. Before you get to excited I was practicing treadling and was using a bobbin.

I do apologize for the placement of the pictures I will really get better some day.

Hi Again

I know it has been a while since I last blogged. It was Eric's first day of summer break. I have been very busy with Eric and John, both guys were off together so I was a bit too busy with the boys to sit down and write. There was also the hand issue, but I am happy to say both my hands are feeling better after almost 2 weeks of very light use. This should be read as no knitting and very minimal spinning, but mostly doing nothing but ice packs and splints.

We did go to a movie this week. Eric and I saw Kung Fu Panda 2. We both liked it a lot. I am hoping that the last scene in the movie is alluding to a third movie in the series. I would recommend this as a family movie although most dads will want to go to a comic book action movie.

I do have a quick question for everyone. I have 5 skeins of yarn which is enough for 3 small projects. I was wondering if everyone was up to a contest with between 1 and 3 winners or if you think I should find a local knitter for the yarn. Your input would be nice.

Well it is getting late and we have another full day scheduled for tomorrow.