Sunday this & that

As I get older, I find myself becoming less and less tolerant of heat. Today was 90 degrees (32C) and miserably humid. And it's only mid-May. I have a feeling this summer is going to be awful, and I was hoping for a little more time before the worst of it started. Sigh. This morning I went out around 9am to water the garden and half an hour later I could have wrung sweat out of my clothes. I came in and showered and stayed inside after that. I just can't stand it!

Which is unfortunate, because today was Carsen's 8th birthday party, and it was taking place at a local park. I bought her some books and a craft kit as a gift from me and Gregg and dropped it off at Marla's house prior to the party. Marla was disappointed that today had turned out to be so hot and humid. This time of year is always iffy as far as outdoor comfort level goes, but kids don't mind and I'm sure they had fun.

I ran down to Barnes and Noble to get Carsen's birthday gifts. Yes, I'm a last-minute auntie this year! The pet treat cutters/molds/recipes kit is a nod to the fact that Carsen has two new puppies this year, Boston Terriers the family dog gave birth to back at Christmastime. She loves her three dogs and will enjoy making homemade biscuits for them. I hope she likes the books, too. 

After dropping off the birthday gift, I came home and took a nap in the a/c. I felt guilty about this, because Gregg's been working on painting the outside trim on the house all day long. I would love to help him, but again, can't take the heat. I'm cooking him a nice supper to make up for it!

Speaking of a nice supper, the oven part of our gas range isn't heating. I'm sure it's a faulty igniter or something, but neither of us is handy with that kind of thing so I guess I'm going to have to find a repair person next week. I really can't be without an oven for too long! Because I knew it would be an issue this week, yesterday we fired up the grill and cooked a bunch of marinated chicken breasts and sirloin tips, which I'll make into dinners and lunches for the next several days. I also cooked corn on the cob and sweet onions wrapped in foil on the grill. I picked up the corn along with fresh tomatoes and a small watermelon from the farm stand, and tonight I'm making a pasta salad to go with grilled chicken. Tomorrow night will be teriyaki beef and stir-fried veggies with rice. Leftovers from both nights will make good work lunches, too, along with fresh salads. I can't wait until we're harvesting tomatoes and peppers and cucumbers and squash from our own garden, but the farm stand will do in the meantime.

A good Sunday night to everyone! Thanks for stopping by.

Sunday Stroll

We had a nice walk around the neighborhood with George this morning. It was relatively cool outside and the skies were bright blue. It was a gorgeous autumn morning. I took a few pictures to share. 

This little tree frog watched us leaving through the back gate. Isn't he a cutie?

Interesting shadows of the boys.

I meant to zoom in on this a little--the neighbor that lives here has a large grapevine beside his house, and it's always neat and well tended. If you zoom in some you can probably see it.

Lots of tall pine trees...

And finally, back around and at our driveway. I love our little house. 

Hope everyone had a good weekend!
 

Rainy, dreary Sunday

The terrible thunderstorms forecast for last night never materialized, but the rain and unseasonably warm temperatures sure did. It's been gloomy, wet, and warm all day, a thoroughly yuck Sunday afternoon. I'm craving some real winter weather, not this weird pseudo-Spring that just feels off, not to mention all the budding that's started that's destined to be killed off by the next cold snap. I'm particularly worried about my neighbor's magnificent Tulip Magnolia tree. It already has swollen buds and it's much too early.

Sigh.

Maybe it's the weather, or post-holiday letdown, or the lack of light, but today has just been...dreary. Dull. Low energy, low mood, ennui. The only bright spots were sitting outside with Marco on the back porch (the one thing this unseasonably warm weather is good for!) and watching the bird feeders. The days are beginning to lengthen a little and our feeder activity is way, way up. I counted ten species of birds this morning, and Marco preened and chattered and watched.

Speaking of Marco, and speaking of speaking, I caught this clip of him saying "Hey sweet boy!" a little while ago. Don't be alarmed at his appearance; he had had a shower and was still wet.

It can never be but so dull with a parrot around. He was watching me chop onions and peppers for tonight's supper and started talking to get my attention. When I stirred the sauce after taking this video, he said, "MmmmMMM!!! Is it good?!?!!" Marco is the most encouraging chef's apprentice ever. :)

I'm off to finish our dinner now and to wait for Gregg to get home. Hopefully with a glass of wine, a nice meal, and some Netflix before bed I can redeem a little bit of this dreary day.

Good night, friends.

Just another Sunday

The view from my front door this morning.

Weekends sure fly by now that I don't work on them. I can't complain, though. There's never a dull moment at my job, so the weekdays go by pretty quickly, too. I'm looking forward to the five days off we get at Thanksgiving (Wednesday through Sunday) which still feels far away but in actuality it's only about five weeks. Gregg's taking those days off with me, and we're planning to take the dogs and go camping.

It's finally a little cooler outside. Up until this weekend, besides two or three days when hurricanes were churning out at sea, it's been unseasonably hot and humid for October. The pumpkin you see on my front step has started to rot in the back and will have to be thrown out and replaced. It's just been too hot for pumpkins to sit in the sun!

Today has been a lazy day. I did a load of laundry, took a nap, and read the first quarter of a book for next week's book club meeting (the bigger of my two books clubs). This month our selection is Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight. So far it's....okay. It's one of those Gone Girl type thriller/mystery novels that quite honestly isn't my favorite genre. I'm hoping that In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware will be better; that's the October pick for my smaller club. I'm glad my love of books is no longer contaminated by working at a job I hate in a bookstore!

Speaking of work, for those of you who asked, I did not take on a second GAL child. It was a 16 year old boy with severe mental health problems who has been committed to a psychiatric ward for treatment. His 17 year old brother would have been part of the package but he's in prison for rape (!) and will be serving time beyond when he ages out next year. I was frankly kind of appalled that the GAL program director would even suggest such a case for me. When I said no she quickly said she understood and that they would try to find an experienced male guardian for the younger boy. I wonder why they didn't just do that to begin with! So for the time being, Kay remains my only GAL assignment.

It's about time for Gregg to get home from work, so I'd better wrap up this blog post. We have leftovers for supper tonight, but I'm going to attempt to make little baked apple hand pies for dessert. I have some apples I cooked down into chunky applesauce the other day that need using up. Gregg loves fried apple pies, but they're too messy and time consuming to make very often. We'll see how the baked version turns out instead! Wish me luck.

Have a good evening, everyone.