Recipe

I made my second batch of granola yesterday, and I stayed right by the oven to ensure I didn't accidentally burn it this time.

Success! It turned out so much than the batch I scorched. 

It tastes so good with yogurt and frozen raspberries! I also cored and sliced apples and dried them in the dehydrator overnight. Some dried apple pieces will get added to the mix later today. 

Ingredients:

Oats

Walnuts

Almonds

Pumpkin seeds

Raisins

Dates

(Dried apples)

Coconut oil

Honey

Salt

I used about a half cup of coconut oil and a half cup of honey, mixed with the oats, walnuts, and almonds. I baked them at 325F for about 30 minutes, stirring constantly. The rest of the ingredients were added after it cooled. 

Postcards

Today my friend Karen hosted a small postcard writing party with lunch. We wrote postcards supporting a Democratic Senate candidate in Arizona, Ruben Gallego.

Karen made food inspired by Tim Walz and the state of Minnesota. First up, a Midwestern casserole (or "Hot Dish") 

Then that typical Midwestern side: jello fruit salad. She even had a pretty mold for it!

And for dessert, her mother's recipe for chocolate sheet cake. Karen's family is from Missouri. 

It was a tasty lunch and we got a lot of postcards done and ready to be mailed!

I'm planning my own postcard writing party  early next month. I got the postcards and voter lists from  Postcards to Swing States. I picked Georgia and Michigan, and got 200 for each. I'm going to have to invite lots of friends over to help me get through that many! 

Start of September

The start of September is really welcome to me this year. It's been a long, hot summer that I'll be happy to see the back of. I've had some struggles both with mental health (set off by a change in medications that had to be sorted out) and ongoing family issues. Things seem to be improving now, though. I've been working hard on taking better care of myself and it's finally starting to pay off. A change of seasons will be nice for moving on.

And I can't wait for better weather! Today is still warm and humid but starting tomorrow we're supposed to have nice temperatures for more than a week--mid-80s for highs and 60s for lows. I'll be spending more time on the back porch as the weather cools down. The past couple of mornings (before it got too hot) Gregg and I spent two or three hours out there watching the birds at the feeders and the butterflies around the zinnias. Marco and the dogs are usually out there when we are, enjoying some fresh air and sunshine. Here's a short clip I took the other day of Marco climbing his porch play gym. Everybody loves to see Marco, I think.

It's Labor Day weekend so I'm off work tomorrow. I really appreciate the three-day weekend; the extra day feels like a luxury. 

Happy Labor Day to my fellow Americans, and happy Sunday to the rest of you!

Sunday stuff

Since I shared a picture of smiling George in my last post, I wanted to do the same for Poppy. I took this picture yesterday afternoon, and it's as close to a smile as I could get. She hates it when I point my phone camera at her and won't cooperate! Trust me, though...she had a big grin on her face both before and after I snapped this.

I don't think I've shared any pictures of the crepe myrtles this year. They were late to bloom (probably due to the drought) but after we got a solid week of good rain, they burst out in color.

Last night I decided that today I would spend the afternoon in the kitchen, baking up treats for the week. I had to go to the grocery store for a few items I was lacking. I decided to make banana bread (to use up the three overripe bananas in the fruit bowl), buttermilk blueberry muffins (blueberries were on sale and looking good), and a first attempt at healthy homemade granola. 

The banana bread and blueberry muffins were first. They look like they've turned out really well. I'll report back after we taste them. 

A close up of the baked goodness...

I made the granola last. Some of the ingredients I chose for my mix were kind of pricey: coconut oil, pecans, walnuts. Then I made the fatal mistake of sitting out on the back porch to cool off for a few minutes while it baked. 

And as you've probably guessed...

I burned the granola. Two big batches of granola, at that.

It's too scorched to be useable, even after getting rid of the worst parts around the edges.

Oh well. I guess two out of three isn't bad!

Weekend pictures

Smiling, happy George.

The zinnia patch is butterfly heaven these days.

An owl watched us start off on our evening walk with the dogs from the power line.

Sweeties

Yesterday when I had coffee at Paulette's house, I finally got to spend some time with her sweet new dog. This is Pixie:

I've had cats that were bigger and heavier than Pixie! She's teeny-tiny, and unlike so many small dogs, she never barks and isn't mean. In fact, she's very gentle and eager to be petted. I liked her a lot. But it's funny how living with my two 60+ pound ruffians make her seem like some creature other than a dog, you know?

Here's another thing that happened the morning I had to go to jury duty. I got a private Facebook message (very early) from the mother of two of the little kids that have made friends with me at work. It said, "A-- and E-- have a surprise for you today!" I responded that unfortunately I wasn't going to be there and explained why. She said, "No!! Tell them you can't have jury duty! Your babies at school need you!" That really made me smile. Then when I got back to work yesterday, the kids had brought their surprise for me: homemade chocolate chip cookies! Their mom had helped them bake them on Sunday. It was the sweetest thing ever.

I shared this photo with mom yesterday afternoon and thanked her. She said they wanted to do something for me because I'm always so kind to the children. How nice was that?

Wasted time

Jury duty this morning was a bust. I arrived a few minutes early, and thank goodness I did, because magistrate court was no longer in the same location as last time. They sent me to the older federal building across the street. After driving over there, struggling to find parking (I ended up having to use a nearby parking garage) and finally arriving, hot and sweaty, the security guy stopped me at the door and told me I was in the wrong place......AGAIN. He told me to walk back outside and the correct building would be on my left. 

So I walked out and turned to the left and there was....nothing there. Frustrated, I saw a city maintenance worker and asked him where I was supposed to be, and it turns out the last guy should have told me to take a right, then a left. Damn it! More walking...

Once I got to the right place (finally!) the security lady at the door stopped me and told me I'd have to take my purse back to my car and leave it there. Apparently, handbags of any kind are no longer allowed in the courtroom. It seems like a ridiculous rule to me, considering that you have to go through metal/weapon detectors either way. Besides that, there was nothing in the jury summons that mentioned the new rule. But the security person was adamant, so I had no choice but to traipse back to the parking garage, lock up my purse, and then walk back again. By this time, I was so sweaty I could almost wring the moisture out of my hair. I was also 10 minutes late. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper!

All that trouble, and after a half hour or so the judge came out and said that all the cases in front of him had just been settled, and that we were free to go. 

Arghh!!!

Of course I'm glad I don't have jury duty after all, but it sure felt like a huge waste of my time, and a giant hassle. At least it was still early, not quite 10:00, and I had the day off in front of me. I called my friend Paulette (she's retired) and asked if she'd like to meet up for a cup of coffee. She invited me over to her house for coffee instead, and I went and we passed a couple of pleasant hours chatting. The morning ended better than it began.

This was the second time I've been pulled for jury duty recently. The first time (back in May, I think) the clerk of court called the Friday before and told me court was canceled the next week. This time, the cases got settled before a jury needed to be picked. I sincerely hope they'll take my name out of rotation for a good long while, now! Enough is enough!

End of summer wrap up

As hard as it is to believe, summer (at least for me) is winding down. The teachers in our district returned to work last week, and tomorrow is the first day back for students. I know that by most standards this is very early, but since we're on a modified year-round schedule, everyone returns sooner than they used to. Summer feels done when school starts back, no matter what the calendar says. Or the thermometer, for that matter. *

I was thinking this morning about what the last few months have been like and the things I've neglected to make note of on the blog. Here's a snapshot of summer 2024 for me:

The Garden

If it hadn't been for the massive harvest of cucumbers and the rattlesnake beans Mary Moon sent me, it would have been a total failure. I got no tomatoes, very few peppers, and the melons I had such high hopes for only produced a handful of small, hard fruits that turned yellow and started to go bad before they ever started to ripen. I blame the sweltering heat and humidity that went on for weeks with no break. And not a drop of rain between mid-June and mid-July. Even the garden pests like hornworms and aphids didn't bother to show up--that's what shit my garden was this year. So disappointing! 

At least the zinnias never let me down! 

The Van:

Saturday before last we bought my friend Karen's Dodge van for Gregg to use when he services aquariums. His old Ford Ranger truck isn't safe to drive anywhere beyond a 3- or 4-mile radius of home these days. We bought it way back in 2007, and it was already high mileage then. All these years later, almost nothing on it works properly. ** We've been sharing my Scion for the most part. Karen got a new car recently and mentioned that she'd probably be selling the van cheap, and we jumped at the opportunity to buy it. Like the truck, it's old and has a lot of miles, but everything works and it's in decent shape. Some of Gregg's aquariums are in neighboring towns, and now he has something he can comfortably drive without having to wait until my car is available. Plus, the van holds all the gear he needs so he doesn't have to constantly pack and unpack my car. It's reassuring to know he's got access to a more reliable vehicle while I'm at work. 

Best of all, we only paid $1200 for it! 

Another advantage is that the dogs can get into and out of the van much more easily than either the truck or my Scion. It's lower to the ground and that's important now that George is getting older and has a bit of arthritis in his back knees. Then there's the fact that there's ample room to drive both dogs around at the same time! We took them for their first ever ride together in it last weekend. They loved it.

The Specs:

I finally broke down and bought some much-needed new glasses this week. I nearly choked when I saw the bill: over $450! I guess it's been a long time since I've had new glasses, and the price of pretty much everything has gone up, but damn. I keep reminding myself I paid for several pricey extras: thinner lenses that don't look like Coke bottles, bifocals that seamlessly progress (no lines), and a glare reduction feature that's supposed to be good for people who stare at screens all day. Plus, they're scratch resistant. It still seems like a lot though.

 

Taken last night in my office at my school's Open House. I'd picked up the new glasses that afternoon while on a break. After an 11-hour day, I was exhausted, and looked it. But I like the glasses!

Health:

This will be a separate blogpost that I've been thinking about for awhile, so I won't talk about it too much here. (This post is long enough already). But I will mention two things: I've gotten better control of the eczema that's plagued me for years, and in the last eight weeks I've lost 24 pounds. Those two things alone feel major.

*As Spo (the dear!) just pointed out, in the Celtic calendar tomorrow (August 1st) is Lammas, the first day of autumn. 

** I want to cry at the thought of getting rid of the truck. We've had it so long, since the year after we got married, that it seems like a member of the family. I know it's silly, but I felt guilty when I watched Gregg remove the tag and put it on the new van! Our tentative plan is to donate it our local PBS station, SCETV. They have an old car donation program that we've used before, and it's a very worthwhile charity.