Wordless Wednesday: Smoked

Stuffity Stuff

• Ellie, the 16 year old dog we've been sitting for since Thursday night, goes home tonight. C-man is sad.
• At least she got to stay an extra night because her owner's plane was really delayed. And since C-man was gone Saturday and Sunday, he was really thrilled to be able to sleep with her last night.
• I grabbed 17 frames of honey off two beehives and am going to start extracting them tonight so I can put them back this weekend. I purchased 24 new frames (3 honey supers), and it still wasn't enough!
• That should be over 50 pounds of honey.
• I hadn't intended on taking that much honey from them, but since they need the space, I didn't have much of a choice. Now to find enough bottles!
• I was trying to be nice and rescue the couple of stragglers left on the honey frames in the totes I was taking home. One stung me in the leg. It must have been like the Alamo - she felt she was going down one way or another.
• The other day, a beekeeping show was on PBS. My phone blew up from all the people letting me know. That was awesome.
• Everyone is complaining about this heat, but I'm loving it. I remember January!

Those happy summer days

I'm off to hopefully steal some honey. Happy Sunday!

Laziness

C-man is with his cousins in Northern Wisconsin. So after a hot park run with Beasley and Ellie (the dog we're watching this weekend), and a leisurely brunch, I'm calling it a lazy Saturday. Well, there's house cleanup to do, but that's no big deal. It's too hot to cut the grass, and too hot to do much else. So laziness Saturday until it's time to meet up with friends. I like it.

Weekend ahead

Every Friday is a good Friday. Here's to a gloriously hot weekend ahead.

Wordless Wednesday: Chicken Coop

Best things on Tuesday

1. The weather is beautiful.
2. #FamousMelaniaTrumpQuotes
3. Advil

Point of the day

Because when you're at a backwater saloon, your skeeball prowess has to come out.

Thursday Thirteen

1. C-man's cast is off. Let's all hope it's a while before we ever see one of those again. (I'd prefer never)
2. He has football camp next week, so it's a good thing.
3. Beasley and I found a Pokemon in our back yard this morning. It was a dog type, of course.
4. We've been biking a lot of miles to find Pokemon at night. I really love that.
5. I have my hair in a pony tail today. I dislike the whole pony tail look, especially at work. But this humidity is unrelenting. And a lion mane only looks good on lions.
6. I really need to get up to see my bees and determine if I can pull off some honey. The thought of the drive makes me reluctant, though.
7. I'm making some travel to go to New Hampshire and Maine in August. I'm planning on seeing some people I know while there, and it's quite exciting.
8. I've never been to New Hampshire, Vermont, or Maine. So it'll be nice to knock those three off.
9. I submitted a photo of Beasley to the Humane Society again. I doubt it'll win, though. I didn't realize until too late that the deadline was yesterday, so had to do a quick submission. At least it's a funny one.
10. I got a massage last weekend, and my back has hurt ever since. I don't think it's supposed to work like that.
11. Beasley has decided eating when we give him his food isn't his thing. He chooses to eat it at a later time when we're not looking. What a quirky dog.
12. I've got two books I need to read, and haven't picked up. I'm hoping to get on that this weekend.
13. The weekend. It's coming. Hurray!

Around we go again

It was a fairly lovely weekend - a great blend of home stuff, baseball stuff, and family stuff. I may still be hungover from the sheer amount of cheese and fudge I ate. But that is merely a statement, not a complaint. And now, Monday.

TGIF

My rheumatologist called me yesterday to inform me that I'd only received lidocaine during the last hour and a half session of needley torture to diagnose whether it would work or not. Hence, the three days of bliss followed by a return to the pain.

What the wha?

So now that we've confirmed it worked, would I like to do it with steroids or go to a spine surgeon? Gee, let me think... So now I'm back to the needles, except this time I know what I'm in for. I guess on the positive side, I have confidence it'll work. So that's something.

I'm so sick of doctors. As Beerman said when I told him the story, "This is why you fired him the first time!"

____________

In other news, watching the news and seeing what is happening makes me feel physically ill. Anyone who can question the rampant racism across this country, or that there is a systemic problem with those who are currently in power, is not paying attention. And people need to stop with the hashtag all lives matter. It's offensive. White privilege is real, and we need to stop acting like it is equal to the problems imposed on others. Instead, let's fix what really does matter.

Love more, people. It's not that damn hard.

Thursday Thirteen

1. C-man got mad at me last night because I made him go to bed before Beasley.
2. I had to update my health insurance, informing them that C-man is still my kid. Let's all think about how stupid that is for a moment...
3. Now that it's the official second-half of summer, I'm really committed to embracing every moment of it.
4. I've also gotten a lot better about uploading my photos to an online storage site. With all the photos I take, I can't bear the thought of losing them all.
5. I think I have all of our appointments finally made - eye dr, cast dr, pediatrician signature for football, groomer... yikes.
6. Our change jars are overflowing, so I'm trying to use them up for my daily coffee habit. It makes me feel like I'm not really spending any money that way.
7. I've been pretty good about my goal to read a book a week. It's turned out to be more like a book a weekend, but whatever. It fits.
8. As soon as I'm done, I take the books to the Little Free Library in the local park. That way they're not in my house, and other people can enjoy them. Every time I take a new book, my bike basketful of them are usually gone.
9. My back is not improving since all those steroid shots. What improved is as good as it got, which probably means that isn't the solution. Damn.
10. Since I got my warm milk frother, I've really been enjoying my morning cappuccinos. So delicious.
11. The news of the police shootings make me so ill. When will this madness stop? The only positive thing I can say is that my 11 year old child is also appalled. That is where I find my hope.
12. I've been sleeping terribly this week. I am looking forward to the Saturday sleep-in.
13. Only one more day of work. Ahhh...

Kohlrabi Memories

As a child, my parents always had a sizable garden. Over-sized, according to my mother. But it was always there, an ever-present needing-to-be-weeded fixture in our lives. My mom would often can the vegetables, much to my chagrin. But most of the garden, I just remember just eating in its raw, still sun-warmed, delicious glory.

One of my favorites was the kohlrabi. A weird little vegetable that I've never liked cooked, but found fantastic to eat raw. Which made one of the most special things to get called out to the garden by my dad, who always had a dirty knife in his pocket, with a kohlrabi in his hands, where he was slicing off pieces that we ate up as fast as we could.

Fast forward to this year when I decided I wanted my very own kohlrabi in the garden. I planted a few of them, and ever since, they've been growing beautifully. I was so excited that the first one was finally ready to eat yesterday. So I went out to the garden, peeled off the stems, and started to slice into it. It was delicious, and those happy garden eating memories flooded back to me. Then I handed a slice to C-man, as I waited expectantly over him with a smile on my face. He looked up at me, wrinkled his nose, and said, "Gross. It tastes like broccoli."

Apparently we need to make different memories.

Short Week

• The honeybees are back in the yard now that the milkweed has bloomed. It makes me so happy.
• This long weekend was great. It really felt long. But I've been back to work for a day and I could use another one.
• Beasley is not afraid of fireworks. This confirms my theory that he is afraid of absolutely nothing.
• The director of the theater company I'd been a part of contacted me and asked if I'd try out as a mother of a 12 year old boy. And maybe the 12 year old boy could try out, too. Unfortunately, the 12 year old boy candidate will have football practice every night. It's a bummer, because I think he would have done it.
• Three more days of work. Fantastic.

Happy Independence Day!

I tried to get a patriotic photo. Instead, all I could get was Beasley wearing a bandanna around his neck, chasing a ball. So there you have it. Happy Fourth!

Delightful

I love this beautiful, long holiday weekend. We've baseballed and Found Dory and Farmers Marketed and Dog Parked and Read. And still, there's more to do. America!

Time to put it in reee-lax.

It's officially the long weekend. Beasley was willing to oblige me with kicking it off in style at the dog park. I need this long weekend. We all do, really. 'Merica.