The morning walk

I’ll be saying this every day- nay every post- I am so thrilled with the lower temperatures and no humidity.  Also a break from MSNBC et al has been a long time coming.

Thrifty food store is about a mile away and was the first walk of the trip.  I got the big guy some blueberries as a reason to go.  I had to ask if they accepted American dollars and I was ashamed of our leadership.  It makes you want to crawl under a rock.

I likely passed 30 people not in cars. Walking, jogging, biking, with their dogs.  Two little ones on scooters informed me that they were going to a birthday party after this.  

There are so many beautiful garden yards.  I didn’t take many pictures because I always end up deleting those.  You can’t take them with you.  I did snag a pic of this nice persons friendly gesture to the world. It’s a cool drink for any passerby dogs.

The government house is less than a block away and the gardens there are spectacular from a distance.  I think tomorrow’s (or this evenings) walk may be there.  Maybe there can be a collage of pictures.

We will likely visit there on Thursday for this-

The first night.

After some lengthy instructions from the manager we finally got into the business of vacation.  In an unusual twist partially because of the perfect  temperature and humidity (or lack thereof) I had zero interest in the grocery store run.  The adult children and eldest gd did the shopping and meal planning.  I was happy to hand over the credit card if it meant I didn’t have to go.  Instead I went into the pool with the gaggle of girls keeping watch on the littlest one.  I even went down the slide.  It was awesome.

I allowed myself a beer and some wine because sometimes greathusbandbob eats apple dumplings.  Just enough to relax properly.  

Some rested as others prepared food.

Dinner was served and many laughs were had.  The main topic evolved around the various accents everyone could do based on Hazels desire for everyone to speak with a British accent all week.  The boy has some mad accent skills. My favorite part of the picture below is the various ways each one is looking at me.  I think a picture says as much about the photographer as it does the subjects.

Dinner was followed by a musical theater cabaret act in the round from the balcony.  There were too many lights and too much action to really snag the vibe but this one does a little bit and shows grandfather conducting from the pit. Should I get an opportunity for a do-over I may try to get shots from across the balconies rather than from the floor.  Maybe I can avoid the light interference,

Our room is definitely the hottest.  People in British Columbia don’t usually need whole house air. It’s gone from oppressive to manageable since the sun went down.  Two rotating fans are keeping things ok as well.  And the truth is I am so happy not to be at the hot, humid, sweaty sandy beach. Hanging out with everyone is not overwhelming thanks to the weather.  This is a place to could go to again.

To the Ferry

Easy ride to the ferry.  We got here way early but it allowed for some laughs.  First and foremost was the chance to gift the beard.

It was absolutely a surprise and a win.

The youngest playing pageant girl-

The gaggle of middle ones-

Me and my favorite-

And the dad and his kids-

Mani-pedi

The adult kids were working today so we got to visit this one for the afternoon. She’s teaching grandfather how to use his cell phone.

Here she is in her younger years playing tour guide if you need a laugh.

The Tour Guide

We met Oona the dog.  She’s a little whiny and very thin but sweet.

The daughter and I went to the nail salon- my toes and fingers are blue. They will match my bathing suit.  Otherwise they will look ridiculous.

The evening ended at an Italian restaurant.  While greathusbandbob and his daughter ate pasta I got a sandwich with eggplant, artichoke heart, tomato, goat cheese and mozzarella on a whole wheat Italian bun.  It was a win and something I will try to duplicate at home. Note to self.  Always go for quality mozzarella.

We had a quick hello with “the boy” (remember last summer?) and his older sister.  Big sis just graduated high school and has a summer job as a camp coach at the Seattle center for circus arts.  She’s the one that was poet laureate last year. Published a book of poetry.  She is awesome.

The caravan leaves the gate at 10:00 am tomorrow. I am of mixed feelings so far. There is some unspoken dysfunctional family drama festering just below the surface.  It would appear we’ve been forced into forgive and forget mode without any real resolution. It makes me very untrusting and takes me to a place in which I am all to familiar. So with uncertainty I will sleep and hope to be able to relax a little more tomorrow.

A Seinfeld episode

It only takes an airport and a plane full of people to remember that deep down I am a misanthrope who is also overwhelmed by the teaming masses.  I will not apologize for my naps. (No one is asking me to for the record.) 

It used to be easy in Seattle.  Get off the plane, get your luggage, walk across the street to the parking garage, pick up the rental car.  Since we’ve been here last they’ve created a rental car center which means standing in line waiting for a bus to drive to the rental car center.  Dragging their luggage behind them... 

The woman at the Hertz rent-a-car place informed us that the larger vehicle we reserved wasn’t available. (Cue Seinfeld. What part of the word reservation don’t you understand?)  she offered us a more expensive car that seated fewer people and we would have to pay the difference in our "upgrade." To be fair, she was a new employee. When she called her manager to find out what to do it was established that it could be somewhat remedied, she just didn’t know how to do it.  

She asked if we wanted GPS.  I love the cars with GPS. It takes out me as the navigator/traffic negotiator.  It prevents bad feelings.  As we left the counter with our less than ideal ride she said, "don’t forget to tell the guy you want the GPS.”  Wait, what?  That’s usually installed in the car.  "No, we have a different fancier system." Hmmm.

We used credit card points to pay for the rental, taken care of several weeks ago.  As we left she said, "and look, you got an upgrade for free.”  Yes, if by upgrade you mean a smaller vehicle that we had a guaranteed price for that we almost didn’t get, yes we did.

To be truthful, at this point I was more incredulous than annoyed.  She was a really sweet girl learning on the job.

We head to parking spot #568 with greathusbandbob pointing to every Hertz spot that had a vehicle bigger than the one we were getting. The Nissan Pathfinder is a tight fit for the big guy and will definitely not hold the number of people we'll have, but we'll make do.

A pre-packed CPAP machine and a three mile hike to the car left us both hot and winded. With the air on, we drive up to the final paperwork gate and say  with all of the best intentions, she told us to remind you we got GPS. “Oh great” says the sarcastic guy in the booth.  As we wait for him to prepare what we were told would be this new advanced system that we were paying an additional $8/day for we noticed that the air conditioning is not working.  When we share this with the Hertz guy in the booth he says, and I quote, “what do you want me to do about it? I don’t know anything about the cars, do you want me to try to turn it on?” 

Well that’s a forward step so crankyman sits in the driver seat and I show him how it works and then show him that it doesn’t.  He asked questions like "what’s this button that says rear climate?  Did you try it?”  Ummm. No.  That determines the air in the back seats. (Which by the way there should be more of).  Just before he gets out of the car he says “that should be colder than that.”  (Breathe in, breathe out.). He hands me a zippered bag with a cell phone that has GPS on it, then says “I’ll call Franco, he knows the cars.  He’ll know how to turn it on.”

Apparently our good cop/bad cop routine is netting gains. For the record, I am never the good cop.

Franco slips into the driver’s seat and I show him how it is supposed to work.  After helping him turn up the fan, he put his hands in front of the vents and said, there now it works. No Franco, it does not.

Meanwhile back at the ranch the good cop is sharing his story, the story at the Hertz checkout, and likely a multitude of other stories.  When you’re playing bad cop, you’re too pissed  to hear anything.  Also at this point I realize the scam of the $8 a day fancy new GPS system and I’m even more pissed.  Crankyman has turned himself around (and I later find out that he’s certain greathusbandbob must have retired as a cop or a fireman) and will do anything to help.

He retells the car too small had to fight for the right price to Franco.  Franco turns to greathusbandbob and says “do you want a bigger car? I can do that.” GPS is returned and removed from the bill, Kia Sedona is offered up and willingly taken. We go forth on our merry way.

Knowing my inability to calmly deal with situations such as these, at one point greathusbandbob tells the guy he’s going to take me to the hotel and bring the car back to get it straightened out.  That’s true love right there.

The traditional start to vacation

Three days ago:

W: When do you need me to do the last load of laundry?
H: How about the morning before we leave?

The morning of the day before we leave:

W:I'm doing the last load of laundry this morning.  Is there anything else you want washed?
H:  I'll toss my fleece jacket down.  That's it.
W: Got it.

The afternoon of the day before we leave:

H: Did you get my green pair of pants?  I want to wear them on the flight.
W: When did you put them in the to be washed pile?
H: Just now.  They were in the basket.
W: No.  I will do a third load.

I can't believe this only happens in this household.  It's amazing that all of those H's have clothes to wear on travel day and that they're not wearing the suit they're to be buried in.

Pre-vacation tangled web

Leaving for the west coast on Thursday.  Top of the packing list- yarn and electronics.

A combination of the two below:

We'll be in Seattle for three days and then will be traveling to Victoria Island B.C. where we will be staying in what is advertised as a "mansion in the city." (we've got someone staying at our house- also we don't have any valuables other than the dog so I'm not too worried about revealing plans).

We didn't plan on staying at a mansion in the city.  There's no beach- a pier, there's a pool (hopefully heated, as the high next week is 70 degrees) There's a yarn store that's a nine minute walk from the house.  Here's a preview from the realtors site.

With a scenic ferry ride to boot- where the names of the cities feel like you're in Australia.

This may be more than a trigger

Greathusbandbob's son posted the following picture on Facebook yesterday.

I offered the following commentary.

I also whipped up a quick crocheted project to appease him. 

So looking forward to delivering it to him.

This started, in fact, as a knitting blog.

I got some new blocking pins at the festival.  I've seen them in the knitpicks catalogue but couldn't picture their usefulness until I saw them in person.  They have turned "I hate blocking" into " I don't hate blocking as much."

This is called the Chilkat Cowl by Rosemary Hill (Romi).  I've always loved her designs.  The yarn is a blend of cashmere, silk, camel and alpaca from China Road. It is a cowl long enough to pull over your head and the tassels are drawstring to close up the gaps.  I may have ordered some additional yarn in blues to make another... or two.

I also may have accidentally purchased 6 times more blocking mats than I will ever need (I can't believe my math skills failed me and I somehow thought I would need 48 sq ft.)  They may come in handy at school. 

I also moved the blocking staging area from the dark recess of a storage room to the den in the basement, realizing that I could tuck it away out of site.

Diet realizations of the week included the fact that I can not buy delicious protein bars (even when they have 30g of protien) because I will eat the entire box in two days, defeating the purpose of low calorie high protein.  Back to beans and quinoa I return.

Also, while culling some photos I found this one which I took while waiting for road construction to let me pass.  These are my favorite goats that I pass every morning on the way to school.  I love them.

In the heart of summer break.

The only thing I've heard/read that has offered some solace in light of recent events.  My friend Stitchjones posted it.

The first sentence "Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief."  I have lost a good bit of sleep in recent days thinking of those state-orphaned children.  When I do sleep, I wake in the morning with that feeling characteristic of profound grief.  Upon waking up- mind says "hey its a great day"- mind reminds you of the conditions of those kids- sadness resumes.

I have to stay away from it so as not to descent into abject sadness.  But sometimes I have to watch it to bear witness.

Greathusbandbob got a jumpstart to his heart yesterday.  They put him to sleep and shocked him with the paddles and for now he is sino-correct and no longer in afib.  Should it not remain that way he'll undergo freezing part of the muscle via a tube down his throat followed by a pacemaker.  

LSAT- I had been procrastinating.  At first I thought it was due to fear of failure.  But it may be that my brain needed to marinate the thinking process.  Logic games have been my weakness.  When first trying them a score of 0/7 was not atypical.  Today I worked through 4 problem sets and got a 7/7, 4/5, 4/5 and 4/5.  That gives me an 86% which I've got to believe is at least passable. 

Food and exercise- I'd give myself a B- for the week. There were days of no exercise or a bagel (never on the same day) but there have also been days where I followed the rules, went walking even when I was disinclined, and ate the right food even when the wrong one was an option.  That little extra push is what makes it a B- instead of a C+.  The two classes of exercise a day has proven to be mostly unrealistic.  I am intimidated by anything other than the dance classes and two a day wears me the hell out and invites inconsistency.

And finally the knitting.  I bought this yarn at the Waynesburg Sheep and fiber festival. It is cashmere but it is thinner than spiderweb lace weight.

I'm not sure what the hell I was thinking.  My leetle sausage fingers  have been incapable of casting on and knitting 2 stitches each on 4 double pointed needles for this pattern.

It's called Lyra by Herbert Niebling.  There is also an option for a larger version that becomes a square.  I've decided to use this yarn purchased at a Pittsburgh festival.  

It may be hard to see but this is one of those gradient skeins.  I have probably started 3-4 different projects with it.  I'm thinking this may be the one.  It's a no tv-no distraction- quiet time sort of knit and every row that turns out with the right number of stitches feels victorious.

Cooking shows

Are my new favorite thing.  Baking shows for now.  Just watching them manipulate ingredients makes me a better cook.  In the same way that when Liza the dog sees horses she thinks she’s a show horse.  I’ve binge watched "nailed it" and "zumbo's just desserts"- both on Netflix.

Today I made sausage vegetable lasagne.  Sausage and broccoli and carrots in the sauce, spinach in the cheese mixture.  Classico marinara sauce and oven ready lasagne noodles.  Everything was "on point" (that’s a cooking term) except the dish was filled too full and made bad burning smells and lots of smoke in the oven.  It was pretty amazing though.  It tasted just what I was hungry for. #proudofme.

Yesterday the dog was hilarious.  She devised a multi-step plan to score a walk.  Used to be she'd just bring me the shoe.  Yesterday she whined at greathusbandbob until he opened the door where I was still in bed.  She jumped on the bed and pushed me out with her nose and her digging at the blankets.  She waited for me to have coffee and breakfast. Then she brought out the tennis shoe.  Then she brought out the other one.

Food in the house

Buddha Bowl

I went to the grocery store and picked food that I liked to eat in a bowl.  

Ingredients:

quinoa

grape tomatoes

cauliflower

broccoli

carrots

celery

parsley

sunflower seeds

pine nuts

roasted chick peas

roasted pinto beans

cucumber ranch dressing

Lazy cooking

Sometimes you just don't want to cook.  And you don't have any "fast foods" in the house- cereal, leftovers, eggs, salad stuff.  So you get creative.

I present chocolate granola burritos- ingredients (give or take)

Cashew butter, unsalted cashew pieces, oatmeal, dark chocolate pieces, chia seeds and honey.

Carefully stir.  It can be a hot mess.  Put in a tortilla and wrap.

There is some fine tuning to be done- more honey- less cashew butter- maybe salted cashew pieces.  I just needed something filling to eat so I would quit thinking about ice cream.

Project the First.

The yarn room.

It’s wrong much more than it’s right.  Probably because I bring things in without taking other things out.

I’m going with the grocery/department store theory that you have to move product for people to notice it again.

Shelf one- worsted and lace.  Purple/maroon anyone?

Shelf two- the top is yarn club stitch jones skeins and baby yarn.  Next is sock yarn and suede and Noro.  Third down is madelinetosh and elsbethlavold.  Below that is a sweaters worth of borocco baby alpaca, a few projects that I’d actually like to see myself complete and balls of leftovers.

I snapped a photo of this mini shelf with some alpaca that I once had plans for only to notice the crate to the left with a pile of more suede (I thought there was more somewhere and an entire bin of Kaffe Fasset pastel worsted. Also a couple of "I wonder how big I want them" log cabin afghans in cascade and elsbethlavold.

The discard pile is t as bad as it’s been in the past.  Last year I made an unwind the project bag.  That didn’t work so I reunited them with their friends.  There are no yarn police out there to tell me I can’t have them with regular balls and skeins of yarn.  I was left with a couple of organizing bins that I’ll take to the tv knitting corner and try to make sense of it.

Juicy Lucy

Carrots ginger oranges

 

Apples oranges spinach

 

You haven’t lived until you’ve seen/heard a juicer eating a carrot.

I like to watch the wheel go round.

body to go with the hair.

I've cut my hair short three times now.

Once at the end of high school.  I didn't love it then but I look back at pictures and it looked kind of adorable.

The second time was right before I went to South Africa.  I wasn't sure what the water/shower conditions would be and didn't want to fight that.  It was a good plan and I look at pictures and I don't hate it.

The third time was yesterday.  There are no official life changing events in the works.  Except maybe instead of the event precipitating the cut, the cut has precipitated the event.

There are three more days of school left next week.  Summer lists in the past have included 3-5 things- some of which I do and some of which seemed like a good idea at the time of list making but then weren't that interesting to me.

This summer's list has two items.  One is to finish what I started last July and spend at least an hour a day at the gym. This plan also includes the juice machine- maybe twice a day with a solid dinner and a meal replacement protein drink. I am fairly certain this one will stick.

The other is to study logic problems.  Right now I get about 50% of them right.  When I first started looking at them I was getting 0%.  I just have to remember that.  I kill it on the reading comprehension problems and am getting better at the logical analysis ones.  I believe this one will stick because I've noticed that once I step into the world of logic problems, time does that going by faster thing and the next time I look up it's three hours later.

For the big reveal for anyone that didn't see it on the book of Face...

Keeping in mind that this was at the end of an entire day of rotating grades in first a field day and a water day, it looks pretty o.k.  The pink shirt was the only thing I had to change into and was most necessary after a day like that.  There were not remnants of make up to be found.

The sign of a good hair cut is that you don't automatically want to brush it out as soon as you get home.  That's the first time this has happened.  Although it may have something to do with the fact that I was still in shock and also terrified at what I had just done.

In trying not to imagine myself looking too much like an old lady teacher person I've pretended that it's a Molly Ringwold, Mary Lou Retton sort of cut- except for they are old ladies now too.

An indication of things to come.

Tried the juicer again today. Beets, green apples, and oranges.  It was delicious and consumed (2 of each which is more vegetable than I’d eat in a week). The juicer worked better with the spout closed but I forgot part of the brush packet and I think I probably fed the pieces in a little too quickly.  I’m excited for the next one.  I’m thinking one a day after going to the gym.  It was kind of filling.

As for food that can be chewed, today’s experiment was found on the app Yummly.

Fried potatoes, onion, cabbage and white beans with fresh thyme and salt and pepper.  It’s a keeper.  Only one potatoe chopped bean size which makes the white beans trick you into thinking they’re potatoes.  I’ll use less cabbage next time for a better balance but they felt a lot like noodles so it was a lot like eating potatoes and noodles the two ultimate comfort foods.

I found a vegetarian lasagne to try when this runs out.  I need to research whether you can bake cashew cream sauce because that would make a great white lasagne.

Tonight’s dinner

Is brought to you by the juicer.

It's called mighty green grape juice.  It’s chilling for the moment.  The recipe also called for parsley but once you add that it’s the only thing you can taste. I’ve been doing fine on the protein what with Larry and Lenny's cookies serving up 16g.  I have not been so great at fruits and vegetables.  I think a few more rounds with the juicer will make all things vegetables easier.  I had not used it since that first time so assembly was a little rough around the edges.

There were leftover grapes and asparagus from the second batch so I threw those in with an orange and we'll see how that goes.

More thoughts on the juicer.

You haven’t lived until you’ve heard it crunching long sticks of asparagus/zucchini/cucumber like a giant vegetable eating GOG.  (A sci fi movie reference). Also once you start putting things through the juicer you look through every inch and corner of your refrigerator to find more things to put into it.  It’s very satisfying.  

I blew it on the clean up by forgetting to run water through but it still wasn’t horrible.

A part of the ticket

About a week and a half ago a good friend of greathusbandbob's was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.  And then last night he died.

I know it makes greathusbandbob sad but when he gets sad he says "it’s all part of this ticket called life."  I like that thought. Dying and having those you love die is the price of admission.

That being said, it is such a shock to have someone there and then gone.  First he was, then he wasn’t.  There wasn’t even time for treatment or even hospice.  Which I suppose is decidedly better than the long and drawn out (for the patient) but worse for those trying to make sense of it.

And really, there is no sense.  It just is.

Every now and then it’s fun to go shopping

Dark purple and salmon for something double knitted.  3000 yards of cashmere cobweb weight for some lace I’ll do if I don’t do law school. Blocking pins with wood attached for ease of blocking. Some striped sock yarn that feels like Neapolitan ice cream if it had grape in it too.  And a porcelain mug because I love them.  Not pictured is the homemade soap to put in yarn stash to make it smell good.  Watermelon and sugar plum.  The soap salesmen were three and four and handed them to me and said "smell this, it’s your favorite." And it was.  And then they said, "wait, I wanna smell it." And there was an adorable border collie puppy. And you know the rest.  Also not pictured is the adorable crocheted sheep toy that the dog thinks is hers.  I was hiding it from her at photo time.  I can try to pretend otherwise but I do love fine fiber.

The dog can read my mind.

It was not too hot today.  I took my usual Friday after school nap secretly intending to take the dog for a walk in her happy place when I awoke.  I did not tell her this and it wouldn’t have mattered if I had because she is, in fact a dog.  After an hour of sleep she jumps into the bed and gets me up, pushing at me with her nose.  Then she is circling every move I make.  She knows.  She just knows.  I think she is a mind reader.  We went to her happy place, walked in a couple of circles and enjoyed the time.  I just don’t get how she knew.

Tomorrow is the burg's sheep and fiber fest.  I’ll meet drknitnightjustine after I finish shopping with my cousin. I can’t imagine buying more yarn.  I really have done an ok job of refraining. Or at least of using what I buy right away.  I’m making no promises.  If I spot my favorite thing... pottery coffee mugs... I’ll likely add one to my collection.

I have of late become the kindergarten aide therapist.  The k-er's can log on and off in the computer lab mostly independently.  While I wasn’t thrilled to be teaching this rather than music, I am proud that they can all do it independently.  Such was not the case last year when instruction wasn’t formalized and everyone was winging it.

This leaves a good bit of free time for both myself and the aides that accompany the kids. I like all of the aides and am not complaining but it is most definitely the time for all family feuds (theirs) to be revealed.  Sometimes people need to talk.  I let them talk, ask some questions and rarely insert any personal anecdotes as they release their thoughts.  Then they apologize and/or thank me for being the listening person.  Three aides.  Three talk therapy sessions. (Where I don’t talk) sometimes making it awkward to have to get up and help a kid fix a problem.  It is exhausting but it feels like the right thing to do.

With the one full week left of music appreciation (and no chrome books to work with) I believe we will explore Weird Al and musical parodies in general.  This morning, after researching what I might find, I remembered the Dr. Demento show that used to air on the radio on Saturday nights. Those kids got to hear the songs "Dead Puppies" and "Rolypoly Fish heads" and I confirmed their beliefs that I am the weirdest teacher they know. I know for certain that I never had a high school teacher like me.  But building relationships and being yourself teaches them to do the same, which matters.

Tonight’s dinner was brought to you by eggs and leftovers (peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, quinoa, spinach, low-fat cheese) combining to make an omelet with low-fat sour cream and salsa on the side.  The omelet pan purchased on a whim some time ago let me down once again and it has been disposed of.  It didn’t look like an omelet but it tasted like one.

Here’s a secret I’m telling no one else.  The gym is having a get healthy lose the fat summer contest.  And I entered.  I’m not telling anyone and don’t really expect to win but it will likely keep me secretly motivated.

And finally.  Haircut procrastination.  I am done with the scraggy ends of my hair but some perverse psychological issue prevents me from calling and making an appointment. (I used to be that way with ordering pizza-I’m hoping I’ll get over this as well.). Secretarysandy to the rescue.  She’s the kind of friend who gets that about me and offered to make the appointment.  Also she wants me to do it before school is out so she can see.

In no small bit of hilarity, the girl who thinks she’s going to go to law school can’t make her own hair appointments.  We all have our strengths and weaknesses.

Someone please laugh at this with me.

So we are at the  "14 day and everything you do is on my last nerve" point with the adults at school.

Small inconveniences are blown up into "CAN YOU BELIEVE......'s."

"I've had enough's" have been gestating for nine months.  They are busting out all over.

I found myself in the "fed up for stupid reasons" state of mind at lunch today.  I needed a distraction.

I went to an LSAT study site and worked on some logic flashcard problems.  As greathusbandbob always says, you can't thing of two things at once.

This leads me to what's cracking me up.  Common question type

The coach is dividing the following people into two teams, Ally, Bonnie, Cecil, David, Eleanor and Phillipe.  Answer the question based on the following rules.

Cecil can be on David's team if Bonnie is not on Ally's team.

Ally and David can never be on the same team.

Eleanor's team must have one boy and two girls on it.

I made that question up.  There are no answers. BUT... what's cracking me up is that once home I find myself thinking..Why can't Ally and David be on the same team?  What is their history?  What makes Cecil so special that he can only be with David when Bonnie is away from Ally?  Does Eleanor count as one of the two girls?  Is Phillipe a boy or a girl and has s/he come out as such yet.

Drama and tragedy to logic problems.  Holy Hilarious Batman.

Countdown

The countdown looks like this.

In the spirit of going backwards, I will do the same.

Dinner tonight.  This is some restaurant quality food right here.

Fried tofu (finally figured that out- more and hotter oil.) cucumber, red onion, mushrooms, green pepper, quinoa, Thai sweet chili/red wine vinegar dressing, roasted cashews.  It was a happy explosion at the taste buds.  Mushrooms and green peppers were my add in. No red onion next time.

Knit night this week.  A surprise visit from the amazing Tara brought giant flower making.

With knitnightdrjustine making use of the leftovers.

Hair plans- it’s time for the once a decade shorter haired version of me.  I’m thinking Helen Mirren has the look I want.

And finally in the category of former students making good, taking care of wildlife...