A needed surprise

Today was a rather stressful day at work. I could not wait for 5:30 pm to happen from the moment I walked in the door. As I walked out and checked my text messages, my face lit up. The Boy informed me that a package from the UK was waiting for me. I know only one person from there. My friend Cindy had moved there, among other countries in the past few years, and I miss her dearly. Hopefully I’ll get my act in gear and head there in a few years. She just needs to stick to one country. :)

Anyway, I’m pretty sure I got the best birthday card ever. One of her sons drew me his interpretation of what roller derby is. I think it’s a pretty accurate representation, don’t you?

She also sent me some dried plants from the UK. Seen here are cider flower, bluebells, blackthorn, and hawthorn. I see a shadowbox in their future. The bluebells aren’t really that bright, but I love what my camera did to them.

Also since she knows my love of all things cello she gave me two CD’s. Rasputina: Great American Gingerbread and Christine Gunn: Voice of the tree. I‘m listening to Rasputina first of course. Couldn’t help myself. Before Cindy moved for the first time we went to a Rasputina concert together. We had a wonderful time bonding and she showed me the greatness that is two cellos and a drum kit. Thank you again Cindy <3. Miss you!

Domestic for the day

The Boy and I had quite the productive day. Made laundry detergent so I could finish laundry. I put clothes away and organized my desk and purse. The house is tidy, a chicken was roasted with potatoes in the oven and was accompanied by broccoli with cheese sauce when it was done. Another was boiled so the Pup can have broth for her strict diet. It was promptly turned into chicken salad with herbs strictly from our garden.
One of the fun projects I did today was dehydrating some ginger. I sliced it all up and laid it out on the trays.

And of course we won’t run the dehydrator without it being full so the Boy and I cut up some apples, dipped them in lemon juice and water so they won’t brown, then sprinkled cinnamon on. They will be some great apple chips.

The Boy also started his sprouts up while we did all this.

The apples are still drying right now but the ginger is all set. I put it all in a jar. I have a plan to make my own Lemon Ginger Tea. Can’t wait to try that out. The crazy part is that we did more than what was listed here. A very accomplished day that will be ended with Game of Thrones. :)

Cuddle Buddy

Well the power went out and today was pretty chilly. Too chilly for Medusa to be without her heat pad. She was forced to hang out with me. We relaxed and weeded the garden a bit. I found she looks great in Zebra.

A Glorious View

I’m writing this on Wednesday night so I can post in the morning and because I‘m not tired yet. I had this awesome plan this evening to blog and research a little on the internet. So much for that. Thanks to the epic storm my apartment has been without power since 6:30 pm. I’m glad the rain cooled off the day so we won’t die without air conditioning. My phone is conveniently down to one bar of power. It will last the night at least.

Today while I was at work, we watched the sky get as black as night three hours before nightfall. During the crazy storm we lost power about 4 times. Between bouts of no power we made it a point to balance all our cash tills and the vault. Nothing is worse than settling a bank without technology. One of the tellers that was done for the day couldn’t leave because tornados were touching down in her town. Poor kid. Remind me next time to get photos.

But anyway, what I wanted to blog about was the gorgeous day I had off. Days before I told the Boy that I was hoping to go for a walk in the woods. What’s great about where I live is that there is an awesome place to hike that is about 5 minutes away from our apartment. You really can’t beat that. Last week the Boy went with others to this spot and found an amazing view that he had to show me. I know you’re think, “ Are you on crack? It was over 90F out!” Well, yes, I was. It was a tough hike up. For the Pup’s sake we were just going to head to the water, but there wasn’t really anywhere for her to swim. So we decided to be psycho and head up to the cliff. Before we did that we of course found adorable little amphibians. Check out these little leopard frogs. Don’t you just want to squeeze them?

 

We also found a millipede. Normally I wouldn't touch one but I let it crawl on my hands. It feels pretty cool.

On the whole way through we were thoroughly harassed by mosquitoes and flies. And if the Pup and I had balls all three of us would have sweat them off and left them on the trail. The top of the trail made up for the tough hike up. Seriously, Look at these photos! The Boy said that last time the hawks were circling below the cliff. That’s how high it is. They weren’t there that day. They aren’t dumb assess like us, out and about in the heat.

I loved our hike. I think the cardio from it really made up for me not skating tonight. Work got out too late for that. It also made me feel in a little bit better shape than I thought I was. Except for the really steep spurts, I really wasn’t winded. It was mainly my legs that were screaming WTF. Despite their screaming I powered through it like a big kid. I will be in way more awesome shape though. Now to stop boring you guys. Night! (Well morning, whatever.)