New Mexico Rain

New Mexico Rain
Originally uploaded by RocketGirl*

It has been storming outside for a while. I have to drive down to ABQ to get Mike tonight and am worried about the weather. I hope the windshield whippers don't freak my eyes out too much.


Here is what Bend thinks about storms (this is a little black grocery bag).

Evil Moab?

Evil Moab
Originally uploaded by RocketGirl*

Mike has been out of town and so I wanted to post some videos of the cats so that he could see what they were up to. Here is one of them. I know - I know - silly .... but he rather enjoyed seeing them!

La Traviata

Last night Karin and I went to go see La Traviata at the Santa Fe Opera. For those of you who haven't been there it is a wonderful place to see an opera. It is sort of outside - the setting is very picturesque.

Here are some photos for our glamorous evening!

Summer Opera

Ah. Santa Fe opera!!

Bizarre.

I have had vertigo for the past couple of weeks. I went into the doctor's office yesterday and we're pretty sure it is the new medication for my thyroid that the doctor put me on. Of course it is medication that takes 6 weeks to get into your system (which pretty much means I'm screwed for a while).

In other bizarre news while driving in on NPR they were saying that there is a new definition of baby boomer. Baby boomers are anyone born between 1946 and 1969. Yikes. That is an really large bracket. I wonder what that means for the new found baby boomers. This new study was saying that they made the bracket larger because they were taking people who were post war who did drugs. Strange how you can just change the definition later in time.

Lonley Kitties.

When Mike is gone the kitties get pretty lonely. 3 cats is a lot for one woman to try and snuggle. Methow and Moab try to make up for his absence by sleeping on his pillow. Bend of course just wants to be all over me all the time. Needless to say the time I get to spend doing things around the house or in the yard greatly diminishes when Mike is gone and I'm on super kitty loven!

Macro Part 4.

Macro Part 3.

Too Big To Eat.

I went out to the garden to see how the veggies are coming along - and this massive mother was there - just waiting to be harvested. I'm now trying to figure out what to do with this guy. He is so massive that it would make 4 loafs of bread, or 2 loafs of bread and freeze some, or multiple dinners ..... Hmm. What to make with him?

Tri Time.

Today Dana, Erin and I did the Los Alamos Triathalon. It was not the best that I could possibly do - but 10 minutes better than the last time we did it. This course is a bike, swim and then run. I think it is a 12 mile bike, 400 yard swim and 5k run. All in all it was good to get out and compete - but very very tiring. Courtney got up at 5am with me to take photos (which can be peaked at here) and cheer us on. It was very nice of her.



Too early to look dirty yet!


Getting off the bike and ready for the swim!

Out of the swim and getting ready for the run. YUCK - wet shorts.


Aw - the end

Home Re-Work.

I have a lot of ideas for little things around the house that I'd like to do. One is putting up some book shelves and making half of the dinning room into a library. Here is step one.


Mike left today - so I reorganized the cupboards in the kitchen. I hope to get a lot of reorganization done before Mike returns! I have decided that plates and bowls can't play together in the cupboard any more.

Summer Macro Part 2.5

When not taking macro photos I've really started to enjoy playing Little Big Planet. I've never played a game that is just so much fun! Anyone else online?

New Hair

Courtney got a new hairdoo yesterday!

Birds.

While in the back yard relaxing there were a lot of birds chirping. They make me happy it is summer - and dream of cool fall evenings!

Warm Back Yard Nights.

We took the kitties out back tonight and Moab found herself a little snake. It was pretty fun to watch her chase it across the lawn (and not do any damage or anything).

Macro Ho.

Summer Macro.

In summer time I rather enjoy taking photos of the outside plants and bugs. I'm sure I'll be posting more as I upload and go through them. Here are some from this past weekend!

Feeding Time.

I noticed that the humming bird feeder was out of food and decided to re-fill it (I try to stop feeding them once falls comes ... and I'm hoping it comes soon ... but it is still summery enough that they need food).

Millions of Peaches.

Told you!

Pesto Presto

I love making stuff out of the garden and freezing it for winter. Pesto is one of the things that I make in mass and then eat throughout the year. I got the garlic from the farmer's market and a bit of extra basil from the farmer's market as well.


My Pesto Recipe
2 cups basil
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup pine or walnuts
4 garlic cloves
salt and pepper

Put all of the ingredients into a food processor. Puree until smooth. Put into a freezer safe container and put a thin layer of olive oil over the top (this will help with freezer burn and keep it fresh).

Peaches.

Last night I went out to check my peach tree and it is LOADED. As in I'm not sure it will be physically possible to eat all the peaches (I might have to can some). My peach tree always makes me sing.

Garden Veggies - Baked Up.

When taking the photo for this - Bend wanted to model the zucchini pretty bad. I figured I'd post one photo of him trying to be a vegetable model.


The garden is starting to kick with veggies and the question of what to do with loads of zucchini always comes up. Thanks to Courtney for planting these seeds - she was helping out in my garden this spring and she is the actual person that pushed the seeds into the ground.





This is a modified recipes from another blogger. I love putting ginger into my sweet breads and have used it with zucchini and banana before. Here is a wonderful bread recipe for your Monday work day -- I hope you enjoy. I like to make these loaves of bread all summer long and freeze them for the winter.

2 cups unbleached flour
1 cup mix of wheat flour and rolled oats
1 teaspoon salt, baking powder and baking soda
1 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini (roll in a paper towel to dry off some). The single zucchini in the photo was the perfect amount.
1 lemon zested up
1 cup candied ginger - diced

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 8 1/2 x 4-inch bread pans. Mix all the ingredients and pour into pans. Bake 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center.

Jasmine Tea.

A while ago, Mike got back from China and he brought me a lot of tea. I looked into one and it was the "flowering" type. You know where they have rolled and bound the tea so that when you heat it - it opens up into a large flower? I haven't made any of it, because I didn't have a glass tea pot (I thought it was a shame to not look at it and just drink it). Yesterday I found a lovely pot at Cost Plus World Market and made my first pot of the jasmine tea. It was incredible. I had a little hot, and more iced. I will probably make some more today and try the little weight that the tea pot came with. You can hook it on the tea so that it floats at the bottom a bit more and you can see the flower better!