So Trav's birthday turned out really nicely. It was a little drizzly when I left work, but by the time I got home it had cleared up nicely. So when we went to leave for dinner... we got to see this:

(See it... the rainbow.) Nice birthday present, right?!

This is us after dinner when we are both in a virtual food-coma. We went to the Pearl (one of our favs) and ate too much sushi. Way. Too. Much. Sushi. But it was so good, and so worth it.

I think we look cute when we are half asleep and drunk on food.

By the time we got home, of course the rainbow was gone... but the clouds were really lovely.

As for today, well its a good precurser to a busy (but should be really fun) weekend, because it is empty and quiet. About six of my coworkers are out, and two haven't arrived yet... it is peaceful... so much so that I can practically hear my thoughts bouncing around this big empty office. It will be so easy to get done the two real things I have to do today, and then I'll be (I hate to say it because honestly, I don't want to jinx myself) all caught up! *knocks on wood* I know I have a few things coming my way next week, and all the normal day to day stuff... but I'm on top of it and that just makes life very relaxed. I'll probably take a walk around the block at lunch, and leave a little early so my walk to the trainstation can be leisurely.

Now, one last thing to leave you with. I was playing around online last night and watching So You Think You Can Dance (*blush*)... now really I was only half watching, I'd take in a little, then go back to what I was doing. But this guy... he was the last one of the night and he is AMAZING! I couldn't tear my eyes away, the things he can do with his body are just bizare. Watch for yourself:

And then one more because I found it and thought it was funny... and who doesn't love some Harrison Ford, especially when he's working for the environment?!:



Well, that's all I have at the moment... but I'm sure next week I'll have lots of pictures and hopefully some stories to share. Have a great weekend!!!

Labels: being green, birthdays, pictures, video

Wowza's... what a long week already! It's been crazy... but today is a good day. Not only because it is Thursday, so the weekend is almost here (a three-day weekend at that, yippee!), but because today my wonderful, handsome, sweetie-pie of a husband is turning 28! So, a HUGE Happy Birthday to my amor, Travis!! Hopefully his day will be a good one... full of all the things he loves.

So, last night I finally got to finish the flower bed! I got home at my normal time and immediately got to work. It was looking a bit overcast and blustery out, so I didn't want to wait until after dinner, only to have it rain. That would be my luck.
So a reminder...

(Before)

(Half way, just after transplanting...)

And the flower bed now... Mulched! and sans ugly plastic edger! :-)



And just for fun... before & after:

I'm VERY happy with how it turned out.

I also got to pot my orchid on Tuesday night. It finally started to clear up around 7:30-8ish that night... after my drizzly walk, of course. But I was able to take all my stuff out onto the porch and pot away. I LOVE orchids... I was torn between putting it in our bedroom or in the living room. I decided on the living room for this one (more sun and get to show it off!), but might end up going back for another for the bedroom. LOVE orchids!!




Beautiful!!
And I promise, I'm done boring you with a ton of garden/plant pictures... at least for a bit.

What else did I do last night? Well, I washed all the dishes that had piled up in the last few days. There has been a lot of other things going on, and the dishes got neglected. But otherwise, we were lazy people. I felt a night of lazy was well deserved, especially now that the only thing left on my list of things to do this week (now that all the mulching/planting and other cleaning is done) is to mop the kitchen floor.

So this makes be feel like a dork, but can I talk about TV for a minute? I don't normally, but after this week... I don't know if I can handle anymore season finales! What a freakin mind-trip they are playing on us!! Skip ahead if you watch CSI, Numbers, Bones, House, NCIS, or Criminal Minds and haven't seen the most recent episodes. Here be SPOILERS!:

• Warrick (CSI) presumed DEAD

• Charlie (Numbers) no longer working with the FBI?!

• Zack (Bones) a murderer! Locked Up!

• Amber (House) DEAD!

• Director Sheppard/Jenni (NCIS) DEAD!

• Someone?! (Criminal Minds) Dead?! Injured? Blown up?! I think this might have been the only one with a real cliffhanger ending.

And this, this is all too much for me. I can't take anymore of my favorite characters being killed or otherwise done away with! Ugh!


Now, if you are easily grossed out... turn away now! Trav was letting his finger breathe a bit Tuesday night, san bandage, so I snapped a picture. I'm a bit facinated by it, but I understand some people are more... grossed out! So, don't say I didn't warn you! I'd like to introduce: Franken-finger!!

It's not too bad. He's sore, but its not killing him. I'm guessing he's going to have an interesting scar when all is said and done though.

Well, enough of that... time for me to get to work. Have a great day, y'all!

Labels: being green, birthdays, medical intervention, random, vent

Trees on the Trump building... love it!
All buildings should be so cool.



By the by, can't wait for my little, stick-like lilac to look like this... I can smell it already.
Now off to my busy busy day....

Labels: pictures, random

First... I completely forgot in Saturday's post (although I didn't forget on Saturday) to send out a big Happy Birthday to my former-roomie, Megan! The lucky lady got a gorgeous day to celebrate on, so hopefully it was a great birthday.

Obviously we've had some excitement since then (look below if you missed my post from last night), but I wanted to tell you about the rest of my weekend... because it was really good. So! Sunday!

Well, it started off nice enough. I got in another long walk (see Saturdays post), which was a great way to start the day. Then I headed home, ate some breakfast, and got ready for the Baptism party. By the time we went to leave though... rain! The party was still great... lots of fun people, a gorgeous baby, great food. And it cleared up a bit towards the end. Here are a few pictures:

The handsome and ever-growing Aiden (with proud Gram).

He was pooped at the end, poor guy.

Looking at these also made an exciting, strange, surreal thought pop in my head. This past Mother's Day, it may well be the last one I spend without a child on the horizon... like in my belly. Wow.

Anyway!

On our way home we stopped by the Home Depot to pick up some mulch and a shovel... and I also ended up getting a beautiful orchid (and orchid feed), plus the pot to plant it in. While we were checking out, it started storming like crazy! Torrential rains, thunder, lightning, the works! Obviously nothing got mulched that evening!
And thanks to our little field trip to the ER last night, nothing got mulched then either (nothing got done at all!)! But tonight, hopefully!

Thanks to Trav though, the whole downstairs, except for stove top and kitchen floor is done (he was very productive before his "incident"... he vacumned/dusted for me since he had some free time... and he also made Mac & Yeasty Cheese! Yum!). The boy had off because we got our roof redone on Monday morning. It was time for a fix so we won't have anymore winter emergencies. Our guy was great though and took these pictures for us:

(Before)

(After)


Much better!

Trav seems to be feeling okay this morning too... he took some Tylenol, cleaned his finger and rebandaged it. I think he's been having some trouble typing... and unfortunately he uses his left hand for the mouse, but otherwise he's not too much worse for wear!

Well, that's about all for now. I have to get back to work... there is a ton to do today. But I will leave you with one more thing... a quick video. This is humorous and the end is damn impress. Plus, these guys can truly say that, unlike the rest of us, they do not put their pants on one leg at a time:

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have some pictures of a beautifully mulched flowerbed, and a lovely planted orchid!

Ta-ta!

Labels: baby, being green, birthdays, medical intervention, pictures, video, weekend

So 2.5 hours, 6 stitches, and 1 tetanus shot later... Trav and I are home from the ER.

Trav had the day off and was preparing some food for dinner when he cut his ring finger separating frozen burgers (which we hear is VERY common this time of year... that and cutting bagels). Luckily I arrived home about 5 minutes later, just in time to drive him to the hospital... it was a bit gross, but he was sweet and didn't bleed on my car. ;-) Now his finger is numb and we are finally eating some dinner.

A slightly more eventful evening then either of us were hoping for!!

Labels: medical intervention, random

Well, its Saturday night... not quite 9 o'clock, and I'm exhausted! But happy!

Lets start with yesterday, because it was the polar opposite of today. It was disgustingly moist... raining most of the day, windy, humidity out the wazoo... and chilly to boot. Work was actually nice. Five of my coworkers were out, so it was damn quiet! I got caught up on a bunch of work... and I got to run a few errands (I need to retitle my car, renew my registration, and change my name on both... I needed a little help figuring out the best order of attack... now I have a plan, thanks AAA!). Unfortunately after running my errands I got to spend the rest of the day feeling slightly damp. Not so pleasant (though I did get to leave early!), especially since I was finally starting to feel better from my cold, only to spend the day feeling uncomfortable anyway. Plus all this was on very little sleep, since once again I could not fall asleep... this time until about 2am.

Now today (watch out, being proud of myself to follow...). I woke up feeling refreshed! I had actually slept great! And it was sunny, warm, beautiful out! I was a happy happy girl... so I decided to make up for my week of sick/weather-induced sloth and head out for a nice long walk. I hit up the state park, even though Ro wasn't around to walk with me... and I brought my camera again. I got some even better pictures, and did 6.5 miles. I'll admit, I huffed and puffed a little at the beginning. Its amazing what a week of not walking and not being able to breathe through your nose will do to ya.

So here we go... a little tour. When you first get to the trail, you have to pick left or right, up or down.
I always pick left... up... its gradual at first, but right past was looks like the peak there... well it turns a bit, and gets steeper and it goes on for over a mile. Hence the huffing and puffing.

But it does get the hill out of the way!



These honeysuckles are everywhere... and they smell so damn nice!




Once you've gone around the far side of the trail, then you start back towards the beginning, but this time you are running along the creek... which is a really nice place to walk. You can listen to the water and sometime see some animals there. First it starts off small...
Then it veers away from the path for a little, and when it comes back its been joined by a few more little streams/creeks and looks like this:



A little different, huh? Especially now, after all that rain. It is a big creek... and full. (And honestly, at the moment, muddy... but still beautiful!)
And remember the waterfall I showed you before?

Well, this is it now:

Also a little bigger! I took a little video of it too... its so loud!

Once you get to the waterfall, you are done! The little, gravel parking lot is just past that and off you go.

On the way home I stopped for a Baptism card for Trav's cousin's son (tomorrow! pictures I'm sure!) and ended up also getting a hydration pack. Finally! It holds a 20 oz. bottle and has three little pockets where I'll be able to stick my keys, ID, and once I'm doing really long walks - some extra socks. I'm very excited to try it out.

Travis, in my absence, had been a chore machine (and he had Chinese food waiting for me... love him!)! He washed our sheets, mowed the lawn, vacuumed the upstairs, and cleaned the bathroom! What a guy. Our house definitely needed a spring cleaning, so it was great. I started on the downstairs before dinner... cleaning my way through the kitchen. After dinner, I decided to take advantage of the last of the nice day and did the gardening I've been wanting to do all week.
First I transplanted two of the flowers in the front bed over a foot or two, so they were even with the two on the other side. Then I took the one in the middle out and transplanted it to the backyard. Finally I planted my currently tiny (but hopefully soon to be flourishing) azalea in the middle of the front flower bed. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Before (flowers, beautiful, but haphazardly/unevenly planted):

After!:
And here's my little flower transplanted to the back:

Obviously I left lots of room for my little azalea to grow, but I'm really pleased with it. Tomorrow Trav and I are going to stop at the home depot and get some mulch... and hopefully a new "border" to go around the bed. After all is said and done, I've done more gardening this week then I have the rest of my life put together! And I still have mulch to put down, a border to replace... and the next time I head to my parents, a yucca plant to put in the back yard!!

So now its the end of the day and I am tired, but oh so happy. :-)

Now I'm off to play some Wii with Trav, then hit the hay. Hope you are all enjoying your weekends as much as I am!

Labels: being green, pictures, video, weather, weekend

Here: Angelina pregnant with twins! Love it! Love her! And not only that, but she is due only 4 days after my birthday! Now chances are she won't make it that far, because... well, twins... but how cool if they were born on my birthday?! ;-)

Anyway, long day yesterday... and irony of ironies, the day I get to sleep in (this morning) I couldn't sleep at all! Didn't fall asleep until after midnight last night, half slept until 1 when I had to get up to pee, then woke up again at 6:50 and again at 8, when I was up for the day. Despite all that, I am actually feeling much better, and pretty energetic! I made myself some pesto for breakfast, watched A Baby Story, and had a relaxing morning all around. I even dashed on some makeup (to hide the still a bit red nose) before hopping on the 11:20 train and heading to work. And now I'm enjoying a huge pita from the Pita Pit, courtesy of Jan. It's huge and stuffed full of turkey, cheddar, sprouts, lettuce, and avocado. Yum. Couple that with the free iced coffee I'm going to grab from Dunkin Donuts (today is free iced coffee day people), and the free chicken sandwich (with purchase of a medium soda) from McDonalds... well, that is a lot of free food today! :-)

It is turning out to be a really nice day though. The sun is shining and warm, the breeze is soft, and its damn quiet here at work. I love days like this. Tomorrow should be another quiet day... my boss will be out, as well as three other coworkers. Days like that are my favorite. I get so much done and I'm so relaxed the whole time.

Well, I hope you all enjoy the beautiful day... I'm off to get my free iced coffee!

Labels: news

Ugh, so still sick this morning... although I slept much better last night then I did the night before, and tomorrow I get to sleep in (since I am staying late at work tonight). I so look forward to sleeping in.

In anycase, I was supposed to walk last night, but didn't due to feeling crummy and tired. I did put the time to good use though! For dinner I finally made this soup that I've been wanting to try for ages (good timing too, what's better when you are sick then soup?). I can't take any credit at all for the recipe... I got it from the Pioneer Woman... unless you count excluding one ingredient as "making it your own." In which case, I totally created the best recipe for you! In either case, this soup is amazing (more non-food related items after the recipe).

The recipe, straight from the Pioneer:

Pioneer Woman's Sherried Tomato Soup

6 tablespoons melted butter
1 medium onion, diced
1 46-ounce bottle or can tomato juice
2 14 ounce cans diced tomatoes
1 to 3 tablespoons chicken base
3 to 6 tablespoons sugar
Pinch of salt
Black Pepper
1 cup cooking sherry
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
chopped fresh parsley
chopped fresh basil

Mine, I swear its better then it looks here.

1. Saute diced onions in butter until transluscent.

2. Add canned tomatoes, tomato juice, sugar, pinch of salt, and black pepper. Stir.

3. Bring to a near boil, then turn off heat. Add in sherry and cream, stir.

4. Add in parsley and basil to taste, adjust other seasoning, and serve with yummy, crusty bread on a cold, blustery, dreary, depressing, rainy, snowy day. Then close your eyes. And give thanks for soups like this.

And since my pictures weren't so fab:

From the PW herself.

What did I change? Well, no diced tomatoes... because, ick! Also I don't ever have chicken base, so I used some chicken broth instead (it was open in my fridge anyway) and no salt.

What do I think of it? Well, let's just say that everytime I'm sitting at work and I get a chill, I would open a browser window and surf over to the Pioneer Woman Cooks to read this recipe. I would feel warmer and more snuggly because of just reading about it. And the real thing is just like that except for 100x better. The sherry really adds something special.

So, definitely give this a try!

I also toasted up some rolls with garlic and thyme to serve with it. Big yum!
After dinner I relaxed for a bit, then headed outside to plant my new lilac bush.
Doesn't look like much now, but give it some time to get settled in and its going to be lovely.
And here is one of the whole yard, post planting.
Can't see it? Don't worry, I couldn't either!
But, again, give it time and it will grow and flourish and be a lovely addition to our yard.
Currently being enjoyed in our back yard? These delicate white flowers, on two bushs by the back of our house...
Hopefully I'll get some sun this weekend so I can plant this one next:
When the flowers open they will look like this:
:-) Okay, enough flowers.

I really should get back to work... and I definitely want to make myself a nice warm cup of tea. But before I leave you, two random news stories... apparently The Vatican says its Okay to Believe in Aliens! Awesome. And this story (the Ex-Candidate), this cracked me up. Hysterical. If you like Monty Python, you can't skip this. But even if you don't, still funny. Promise.

Have a great day all!

Labels: being green, food, news, pictures