Clueless and loving it

I have no idea what date it is, 'cause I'm on vacation.

I do know that I get two extra days of someone else doing the cooking though. Does that count? You are thinking, she gets two extra days and wants credit?! She's lucky I don't deck her. I feel your pain, all you worker bees. Still, I earned the two extra days by being incredibly saintly while waiting for my sweetie to finish up while my son was having a birthday WITHOUT ME.

I'm thrilled that I've actually got an internet connection for a couple of minutes. It seems like ages (possibly it has been ages, see sentence one above).

I've been on vacation so long that I almost forgot my blogger password. That's long.

Today we played tennis, boxing, bowling, and golf. (Yep, my sweetie discovered the Wii once the younger set turned off Guitar Hero). I use "we" loosely since I sadly have no interest in it at all. I'm weird that way with computer games of any sort.

Continuing with the loose use of the pronoun: Today "we" dug up and carted two seedling cottonwood trees which actually look quite happy in their new home considering that it's 95 degrees out. I would have gone and helped but the menfolk obviously considered that my babysitting abilities were more valuable and went without me.

The Sandia Crest is amazing. Albuquerque is typical high desert and the Sandias don't look much different from down here. But our hike to the tram and Kiwanis Cabin was amazing, awesome, incredible, cool, shady, lush, flowery, slippery, interesting, easy, challenging and fun.

I can hardly wait to get back to my own computer and download the photos and show you how fantastic it was. I just love wildflowers and the Sandia Crest ranks second only to the Rockies near Yellowstone on my wildflower meter.

I have more petrified wood in my near future when we start back, so the memory of those wildflowers is going to keep me going.

p.s. I am a Nevada girl and the humidity here is killing me. It's the monsoon season and we've had rain showers daily and then 90 degree heat. Yuck. Thank heavens for ceiling fans. It could be worse, Reno was so smoky when we left that it was horrible. I'm hoping it's cleared up a little bit by the time we're back.

14 hours, 1 devil dog and a mountain of A-1

Vacation time! It wasn't easy to get up at 4 am, but once up it was lovely and cool. Smoke all the way down to Vegas, yuck. 109 in Vegas, also yuck but thank heavens for a/c. Arizona gave us our usual rain showers and it cooled down from 108 to 78 in 20 minutes! We got to see flash floods from the freeway. Tomorrow--petrified wood. We are hoping to get colorful stuff although I was happy with the big pieces of tan wood we found last time.


Then we meet up with the birthday boy for fishing, horseback riding, ATVs and lots of fun up in the cool mountains near the Colorado border!

My New Favorite Thing

I cook.

I cook because my sweetie eats out a whole lot when he travels and he travels often. I cook because I like my own cooking better than just about anybody or any place else's. I cook because I have control of the ingredients (think calories) and portion size. I cook because I am cheap and restaurant food is not.

I don't necessarily like having to decide what to cook, especially when I'm fresh out of new ideas.

"What do you want for dinner?" she asked in desperation.

"I don't know," he replied.

It's the story of my life.

But I've discovered quinoa. I know, I know, it's spelled like some variant of malaria medicine. But saying "keen-wah" is getting easier and easier.

It's high in protein and fiber (better than brown rice), only takes twenty quick minutes to cook (like white rice), has a neat crunchy texture, looks like fish eyes (okay, maybe that's not a plus), and has a flavor that can be enhanced simply (like butter and salt) or embellished (peanut sauce, tempura, balsamic vinegar). I find it in the bulk section of Raley's or Fred Meyer or Winco.

Having another option for dinner is priceless.

Teamwork Plus

You could train for a million years with your dog, but without love you would achieve a performance as dry as the Nevada desert during a drought. Add some love-- that wonderful, special, secret ingredient--and you get this. Pure magic!




So now I'm off to check YouTube for other videos showing Tina Humphrey and Chandi, fabulous canine freestyle partnership!

Viva Espana!

Yippee, yippee, yippee! Can you tell I'm glad Spain beat Germany in the Euro 2008 final? I respect German talent, but Spain is just more fun to watch. If I can tell you the names of the defense and midfield, the team must be good.

Tournament thoughts: the Netherlands were the most entertaining team and Ruud is a cutie (I'd say he was totally hot but my son might not approve of his mom's thoughts in that direction). I've been conditioned to cheer for teams wearing orange ever since E's team (Zephyr Orange) won state. Turkey was the Cinderella team with come-from-behind wins time and again. I rooted for them knowing that Cencis and his staff were probably just insane with pride at their performance. France, I'm sorry, was lackluster. The goal in the thirty-fourth minute was sweet. Three against one and determination and talent won out. I love it!

I love knowing that friends around the world are watching with me--Turks and Spaniards and French relatives, Croatians and Mongolians.

My sweetie even said he was hoping to wake up at 3 a.m. to watch in far-off Mongolia. He's been sick on the other side of the world recently, so if he slept in he's forgiven. He can watch a replay when he gets home twenty-eight hours from now.

Is there anything better than a Jane Austen novel?

I don't think so.

I'm a Jane Austen fan. Aren't we all? So I couldn't resist this quiz "Which Austen Heroine Are You?

My result? I'm happy to report that

Take the Quiz here!

I love every movie version of her books, but my favorite is the complete set of BBC productions that my sweetie got me last Christmas. I think they must have every line of dialogue from her novels.

In Which I Get a Little Scentimental

My sweetie bought me this outrageously-priced rose at Moana Lane Nursery because I just fell in love with its unusual beauty and fragrance.That was several years ago and we've been lucky to get three blossoms on "Scentimental" each year. I've been blaming the lack of flowers on the shade cast by our cherry tree, but since we cut down our oak the rose has been blooming wildly. Each day brings more buds to be relished and enjoyed and marveled at. So...lose an oak tree, gain a rose! Then I found this baby rose during my Portland visit and couldn't resist bringing it home. It looks like a one-fourth scale model of the full-size tea rose.

I think the two roses, planted in the same bed, will give us many hours of enjoyment during al fresco summer meals. Or as I fill the dogs' water bowl or turn on the garden hose or sweep the patio or attack the ants or...