A Sign of the Thymes

Dinner tonight. Dan is using his laptop to make baby artichokes braised in olive oil with thyme and garlic, mine is fired up to make a ceaser salad. Baxter is looking for some tasty tidbit that may have fallen! Is that an empty wine glass in the fore ground?

Here is the after pic, yum! Can you say garlic breath? Maybe ice cream will help!

Getting Organized

Dan got a call today that someone wanted to see the house between 2 and 3pm. I gotta say, so far the worst thing about moving is always having to have the floors swept, dishes and things put away, basically, keeping the house in tip top shape. We went to Costco because I want a new super duper blender that will make my gazpacho as smooth as velvet! Luckily, they didn't have one. They cost $700.00 dolla! But...I also have a grain mill so I can make my own whole wheat flour (I've had a 5 gallon bucket filled with wheat berries for at least 10 years now) when ever I want to make my rosemary whole wheat focaccia, all I have to do is grind up some fresh flour, insuring all the vitamins and minerals and healthy fats are intact. The blender does that, so you see, I'd be downsizing! While we were there Dan got another call that someone wanted to come by between 4 and 5! So, after getting the nifty backpack that you see here for carrying my new MacBook around, we headed for the Apple store. We wanted a protective cover but those are expensive, think we'll be getting gelaskins for 20 dollars less. I'll be getting this one. Instead, we ended up getting Sony bluetooth headsets. See, I was listening to a fantastic book this morning while walking the dogs and then I took a bath and kept listening, I was concerned about the headphone cables, so when Dan just brought it up, it seemed like I needed them!

The book is intended to help me quit smoking. I think it will work once we get the darn things out of the house! Let me back up a bit. Thursday, I got the post for my dental implant. I will not write the gory details for future recollection. That day is basically forgotten and I'd like to keep it that way. The surgery went well and they provided great drugs that kept me in a haze, laid out on my couch all day. The dentist said that if I kept smoking, the implant wouldn't stick. So, why would I want to spend all that money and go through all that pain for nothing? I wouldn't! Needless to say, not smoking on Thursday was a breeze! Friday, I felt a lot better. I only took 1 vicadin, in the morning. But, I was still pretty out of it, maybe the lack of nicotine had something to do with it. So, here is where the hurdle comes in that I was unable to jump. Dan wasn't planning on quitting until Saturday. People were coming by between 1 and 3 to look at the house so, I went grocery shopping (usually a Saturday thing). Not a good idea, cold turkey, on day 2! By the time Dan got home from work, I puffed one down, gleefully! Today, it only got worse. Dan was fine as long as he was upstairs happily doing computer things (he has 3 up there now) as was I listening to my book, but once we had to leave, extreme irritation set in. Dan "forgot" to destroy and throw away the smokes, which upon reflection, probably saved us 5 bucks, so there we were cruising to Costco smokin. We bought some patches. Normally, (we're experts at quitting) we hole up in the house for 3 days, we stay in separate corners and detox alone, no additional stressors. I don't think we are going to be able to do it that way with the house being for sale and everything else. So, tonight we'll finish the pack (can't be wasteful) and it's the patch tomorrow!

Oh yea, couldn't get John's badge to work. Oh well, he created it, he should be the only one using it!

Test 2

Test 2

Testing

Is there antbody out there?

Freeman Hookin Me Up

My buddy John is sharing a badge that he made with me! Yippie!!!

Dinner

Chard, caramelized onion and Gruyere Panad from the Zuni Cafe Cookbook.



-- Posted from my iPhone

How Was Your Summer?

I wanted to get an end of summer shot of the flowers on our deck. I can't help but think, in Kauai, these are babies! Here, they're plentiful!

This weekend went by really fast. Too much going on. We left the house Saturday morning at 8am. Stopped at Starbucks for coffee and Einsteins for breakfast. Dan figures we haven't grilled a piece of cow since last summer so we stopped at Whole Foods to get some beef tenderloins. I saw some chanterelle mushrooms so I grabbed them figuring they'd go great with the cow. We headed over to DiVino for some wine, but it was only 10am and they weren't open yet. On the way to the hair dressers, I downloaded 2 songs. One from Against Me! that I mentioned last week, and Ignition, from TobyMac. Can I tell you again how much I love my iPhone! Tess and I had a hard time deciding what to do with my hair. It's so thick and curly and I was trying to get it cut for Hawaii. We decided to thin it out and I would worry about my Hawaii hair when I am there. Dan and I have been talking about getting laptops for when we move so we headed over to the Apple store. We both got a 15" MacBook Pro! This is my first post from it. I can't believe we are a Mac house now, but I have to say I'm lovin it! I have to take back everything bad I have said about them, they are too cool! I'm just having a hard time remembering command c for copy instead of control. We quickly stopped by Vitamin Cottage for some groceries and met Deb back at the house for lunch, plus, she had to give us the house keys back and I wanted to give her the presents we brought back for her. Finally, at about 4, I got to relax.

Sunday morning I made some roasted potatoes, zucchini, and onions covered in a Gruyere cheese sauce. While Dan got us another Starbucks and some things we forgot at the store. While he was upstairs setting up our new Macs I made a snack cake and was straightening up. Our realtor was bringing over one of her clients (who is looking for a house) to check out our place. We left some cake for them to enjoy and went to the dog park. We have never been there but Deb goes there all the time and it's right by our house! Dan was having networking issues and we thought it may be because our router was about 6 years old, so we stopped at Best Buy to get one. I stayed out in the car with the dogs, and played on my IPhone. He came bouncing out all happy because he won a sweet Airport router worth $180.00! After driving around for 30 minutes trying to find the dog park we figured they'd be done looking at the house so we headed home. It looked like they hadn't been there so Dan called and learned they were on their way. So, out the back door and onto the Cherry Creek Bike path. While we were walking the dogs, Karen (our realtor) called and said her client was not interested because the house is too far out. We relaxed for a few hours before Dan grilled up the cow and I made sauteed onions and corn on the cob, both from the CSA for dinner.

Monday morning I wake up late and rush to my dentist appointment. Her question "How was your summer?" instantly slows me down. I have to stop and think. I say, "I went to Hawaii twice". It reminded me of how much has happened in such a short time. But the reprieve didn't last long. I had a facial appointment at 10:30 and I needed to pick up my prescriptions for Thursdays mouth surgery (I'm finally getting the implant process started). I dropped it off on Saturday and of course they're not filled! I hurried over to the vet to get some supplies and made it to Goldie's just in time. She has had a horrible time since I saw her last. She had to put her 17 year old dog, Max, down and her husband was in the hospital because he had a heart attack on Saturday. I came home and Dan had lunch started (tomato sauce from the CSA tomatoes and a few from our garden) and had all the laundry basically done! Yeah, time to blog since the season premieres of Dr. Phil and Oprah are not being shown because of a tennis game! Dinner, a Chard, caramelized onion and Gruyere "bread pudding" is bubbling away in the oven, smelling delicious, and Dan is happy because our ITunes library is in his computer.