Brought to you by... SUMMER!

Ah! i just finished a wonderful summer salad and am now just sitting at the picnic table cruising the internets. i've been reading some food blogs lately, well, mainly just thekitchn.com, and was inspired to make that lovely salad i just ate, and then to write about it.

It was a delightful assortment of What-i-found-in-my-refrigerator! Namely, zuccini given to me by my mother, which was given to her by a friend (and desperately needed finishing otherwise it was destined for the compost), tomatoes (actually, there were on the table, not in the fridge) from my parents garden, some cucumber from them as well, and some mushrooms, from the store. What really made this salad was the 'dressing'. i used some store-bought garlic humus and mixed it with some italian dressing... mmmm....
The only thing i forgot was the cheese, sigh... some grated romano would have been nice, but i was all settled in for my personal picnic.

And all that lovely salad was brought to me and my stomach by....SUMMER!

And that got me thinking of summer and the other wonderful things it has brought me.
Right now, it's bringing me lots of noise. Which is annoying, but part of being outside, in a city. Sounds of air-conditioners, dogs, and noisy vehicles in the alley (which is making the dogs bark) are reaching my ears. Ah, well. Yesterday i got to observe young robins and bluejays learning to fly and find food in my backyard. i thought i was going to end up in the middle of a squirrel fight, and was enjoying all the nature around me, until some cats started really fighting. time to go in.

Summer has brought me a new neighbor! Brian bought the house just down the street! it's been fun trying to help him get set up. i just spent the morning trying to find what is supposed to be the garden, but is currently a weed, tree, and cement block patch. So nice to actually do yard work! (but only when i feel like it. it's much more fun than when i have to.)

Summer brought me 3 whole tomatoes of my very own! and one more ripening! also a couple of peppers so far, with some more set on. And some trips to Farmer's Market... good times!

Summer has also brought me time to hang out with family and friends. So Good. It helped that a bunch of people got married at the beginning of summer so there were a lot of people around to see and hang out with. I also got the chance to go to Chicago with some wonderful friends, and visit other wonderful friends there! Such a fun time, great company, great food, a trip to Ikea, and fireworks! And i love that city. At least as a place to visit some more.


And now, as i've sat out here a while i'm running out of clear thoughts...all i can think of Summer bringing me is Heat, and reminding me of the chigger bites it brought earlier this week....

so, that's my update for now, maybe i'll add a picture of my delectable salad later...i will spare you a picture of my compost, which needs maintenance.

i have a tomato set on!

i've been meaning to blog for a while. honest. i was gonna talk about the loveliness of spring, write up a humorous little anecdote about the possums in the garage, mention that brian is gonna be my neighbor soon! lament my dead laptop and poor hard drive... talk about how i planted vegetables, started composting, i'm redoing a table, trying to do some spring cleaning, catching up on reading and generally enjoying the spring. so i haven't written about it. sorry. i'm not dead, just doin' other stuff.

Random Observation:
if you like black and white movies with lots of talking and yelling watch His Girl Friday. this is not really a random observation. the movie is playing as i write this and it's pretty good as background, but prolly boring to just watch. even if it is carey grant.

Vague Thoughts about Cheerful Traffic Lights.

umm, that's what i thought right after having some vague thoughts about traffic lights, and then i thought, 'hmm, that's six words. i haven't posted in a while. maybe i should post that.' except that's kinda weird (not that it's stopped me before...). But i had a funny dream the other night that would be a much better post. so, i'll just use that as the title that won't make any sense with the rest that follows.

So, remember being in school? it might be a stretch for some people, but i remember certain feelings quite clearly, especially when my dreams dredge them up again. Ok. now, remember Test day? Just a normal day where you have to go take a test in a class (this probably works better on the college level, but it's similar to highschool feelings). You walk in to the class the same time you do every day, but all those people that normally show up late, or don't show up at all, have come early, because there is a test. So it completely throws off your groove because now you have to sit on the other side of the classroom than you normally do, surrounded by people you don't really know. And to top it off they're going over notes that you didn't really study, and it only sounds vaguely familiar. So you try and listen in and make sure you remember what they say, because you realize you're not quite as prepared as you thought you were.

Ok. Now that i've dredged up all those memories of Test day (if you are anything like me, that is), picture a big expanse of outdoors-ness. There's a bit of a forest up to the right, and back to the left and you are in the the middle of an opening with really really tall grasses. Yet way off in the distance you can see a glass wall? huh? in my dream i was in a conservatory-type room. a really big one. this was the classroom and it was Test day.

And i must have gotten there late because i couldn't be by the T-rex's where i usually was. i had to go over by those other dinosaurs that i didn't know very well. and they loomed over me. and looked at me like they knew i was out of place too. and they started talking (communicating?) about stuff i hadn't studied. stuff about themselves. because this was a type of intercultural type class. where we learned about other types of people (creatures?) and how to see things from their perspective. only i guess it was really an interspecies type class. and it turned out to be a good thing that i had to be by those other dinos because i learned a lot more about them than i had from the text book.

ummm.....yup. that was my dream. nothing weird about hanging out with dinosaurs, even the meat eaters. just that panicky Test day feeling. i'm taking it as a sign that i should not go back to school. and that my job makes me wish that i had taken intercultural communications class? wait, does that mean i feel like i'm surrounded by a different species? or that you can learn a lot outside of the typical classroom? or maybe it just means i've read too many dinosaur comics. And i don't even know if i passed the test! probably because i woke up before i even got the test.....
The mind is a curious thing.

Random Observation:
I just noticed (again) that Live backwards is Evil.