Farmers Market

Greg took me to a farmers market recently and, my goodness, the stands were just loaded with fruits and veggies. Not to mention flowers galore. I got plums, peaches, stawberries, green beans, mangos, bell peppers, cucumbers....an much more. Of everything, the peaches were the very best. I've never had good fresh peaches from the grocery store. They're always tasteless. But these were sooo good. The plums were also very good. So sweet a juicy.

So this weekend, search online for farmers markets in your area and head out and see what you find! Maybe some plums and peaches to make the crisp below :)


Plum and Peach Crisp Recipe

From 101cookbooks.com

Fruit:
1 pound ripe peaches
1 pound ripe plums
1/4 cup natural cane sugar (or brown sugar)
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoons arrowroot (or cornstarch)
a scant 1/2 teaspoon orange blossom water (optional)

Crisp:
3/4 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup white whole wheat flour (or all-purpose flour)
1/2 cup natural cane sugar (or brown sugar)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
big pinch of salt
1/3 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup yogurt

Special equipment: 8x8 square baking dish or equivalent

Preheat the oven to 400F degrees.

Cut the peaches and plums into bite-sized, 1-inch pieces. I cut relatively chubby slices and then cut them again in quarters or thirds. Place the chopped fruit in a medium-sized bowl.

In a separate small bowl whisk together the 1/4 cup sugar and the arrowroot. Sprinkle over the fruit, toss gently (but well), add the orange blossom water (optional), toss again, and transfer the fruit to an 8-inch square baking dish (or your favorite equivalent-sized, deep-sided, solid-bottomed tart pan).

To make the topping combine the oats, flour, and sugar together in a medium bowl. Stir in the butter, and then the yogurt and mix until everything comes together in a dough-like texture. Sprinkle the crumble evenly over the plum and peach mixture.

Place the baking dish in the oven, middle rack, and bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until the topping is golden.

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Have a good weekend everyone!

Skinny Omelettes

I think I must make these and eat them for lunch!

Custom

I think I'm going to order a pair of custom made jeans.

A month or so ago someone at work told me that QVC makes custom jeans. I had my doubts about this. Someone she knew said she had ordered a pair. I questioned her a bit about this because it just didn't make any sense. I mean, why would QVC, of all places, be selling custom jeans? They are all about buying enormous quantities of things....so why on earth would they make a pair of jeans for someone? I had meant to check it out online when I got back to my desk, but I never got around to it. Then yesterday, my two cubemates got to talking about jeans and that sparked my memory and I poked around on QVC's website. Low and behold, QVC really does make custom jeans! And, they are only $49.50 (tax and shipping). That is less than designer jeans! I was expecting them to be at least $100 bucks.

The whole idea sounds interesting. The only thing I am not crazy about is the fabric they use...."stretch blend of cotton and Lycra". I am not a fan or stretch jeans. Just have never liked them. But for custom made jeans, I think I can over look it.

I'll let you know how it all works out. Takes six weeks to get them.

If you are interested, go to QVC and type in item number A7318.

Did you know...

Did you know those tiny silver balls on cookies and wedding cakes called dragées are illegal in California? You can see a picture of them on this order form if you don't know what I'm talking about.

You have to wonder what cake decorators in California do if they need some of those? Maybe there is an illegal smuggling ring out of Mexico that all the cake decorators know about. They meet in the alleys behind their cake shops in the wee hours of the morning and make the buy....

Is it just me, or does the girl in this look like demon? I mean, even her canine teeth are pointy!

I'm not usually one to be scared of little girls, but if that one turned and smiled at me like that, I'd run.

Not very much going on. Things at work are still kind of up in the air. We know we are moving around July 1st, but we don't know where. Things are not very clear. I suspect we will know more in a few weeks. Until then we are in a holding pattern.

I will find out tomorrow if my photos have won or been accepted for display for the SD Fair. I had a horrible dream about that a week ago. I heard through the grapevine that they got over 10,000 photos this year. More than any other year. So I'm not excited at all. I'm fairly sure I will not make it in. Not doing so good on the contest front these days.

I do have some good news tho. The pumpkin seeds I planted a few months ago have grown and this morning when I looked it the vines, I have a sprout that will trun into a pumpkin! So that made me happy. I've always thought it would be fun to have a big pumpkin patch in my back yard and at Halloween I could have a pumpkin carving party and everyone could choose their pumpkin from my pumpkin patch. Who knows....maybe someday it will happen :)

Have a good weekend, everyone!

Sorry for my lack of posting. It's been more than busy.

Last week I had a relapse. I was feeling so much better, then doo doo again. By Friday I was doing better. Today I feel good, but if I talk too much, my voice starts to get weak.

Also last week, the director of my department called an emergency meeting. This is a really long an involved story, so I am going to try and make it short and easy to understand.

My department is disbanding.

By orders of higher powers, we have to merge in another department on campus. I thought maybe my department would just move over under the "umbrella" of this other department, but we are actually just merging into one big department with them....and my departemnt will be gone. All our jobs have to be reassigned. We have to, in a way, interview for our current jobs. Since we are merging, there are already people *there* who do some of the things we do and they don't need a bunch of employees doing all the same things.

It's a mess. And it's scary. And stressful.

But there isn't much to do but move forward with it. It's happening and there is nothing any of us can do about it. So, say a kind word for me. I want this to work out to be a good thing. I need to be positive. It has to work out.

--

Ok so far no guesses on the L. Maybe it is harder than I thought it would be.

Let's see.....a good hint.

Ok, a hint in this poem:


Red Shirt Blue Jean Girl

Red shirt blue jean girl
Ya know she told me
To be as reckless as I please
As she looked at me
I couldn't help but see
That she sold her mind
To that which is gold
And in her hands
She held a bird
From a south bound flock
As she sang quietly
About the loss of god
And gold and glory.
To me she leaned
Upon the fence.
And to me she crooned
WIth a heart's desire
Smuggled in a breath

Okay, the L has been sloved

Weekend Review

I was under quarantine most of the weekend. Didn't really feel like doing very much and I didn't need to be passing my Snot Eye around. Greg took me to a few craft stores in an attempt to make me feel better. He's sweet :) But mostly I was home. My eye infection is pretty much gone and my ear infection finally stopped hurting Sunday. I have my voice back but I'm still on the penicillin for another week. Don't ask me how I got so sick. Maybe riding the shuttle with all those germ infested kids.

Okay, something fun.

What is this letter L famous for?



It is famous. No question. And I'd bet cash that everyone who reads me knows this L. At least every American will know it. You can't be American and not know about this. I have to choose my words carefully because if I say just the wrong thing, it will give you too much of a hint.

Greg is the only one who cannot play....because he had to help me "acquire" the L.

Hint posted in the comments

Finally had to go to the emergency room last night. My ear ache was getting pretty bad and I had snot coming out of my eye. Yes, you read that correctly. I'll get to that in a minute.

It was a mad house at the emergency room! I have been to the ER a handful of times and mostly the wait has not been too bad. Last night....there was a line to check in! Ugh. So I sat and watched TV with the other 100 people in the waiting room or an hour and then got called in. Then I sat for an 1.5 hours waiting to see a doctor. He finally saw me and told me I have:

Laryngitis (I already figured that's what I had)
An ear infection
A bacterial eye infection

So I have ear drops, eye drops and penicillin.

Ok, snot coming out of my eye. I really did seem like snot. And a lot of it. Never ending. It was this yellowish greenish mucus and it was as disgusting as it sounds. That started yesterday. I had no idea what I had done to myself when that started flowing. Thankfully it wasn't really snot. I'm only mad at myself for not getting a photo of it. After I started my eye drops, the snot is pretty much gone and now it's just puffy and really red. I could have grossed Laura out with that photo over and over. Oh well.

So during the 1.5 hours waiting in my little "room" in the ER (just closed off by curtains), I could see a man walking around with a little boy in his arms. The boy was only in a diaper and had to be around 2 years old. The father was singing to him very softly and stroking his hair to comfort him. It was touching. A while later, it was time for the doctor to look at the little boy. Oh man.....the boy just started crying and crying at whatever they were doing to him. Between the sobs, I could hear "da da....daa daaaa!". I totally lost it and my eyes watered up for that little boy. I felt so bad for him. And that poor father....must have been hell for him.

I just got to thinking about what parents do for their kids. I'm sure my Mom and Dad held me like that when I was a baby when I was sick. But I just never thought about it.

That's it for now.

Buffy is all better and running like a dream. Actually, she always runs like a dream. Even when she was sick. The only way I know something is wrong with her is when I hear that little "ding" prompting me to notice something like her coolent light is on. It might seem like I've had a lot of problems with her...does it seem like that? I'm not really sure if I have or not. These days cars have all these newfangled things on them and it just makes for lots more things to break. But....you know....can't avoid technology. I think Buffy is a good car. And just about everything that has gone wrong has been covered under warranty. Including the water pump which is what this last problem was all about. She's a 2003, so....not bad so far? I'd say this is the first major repair she's had. Other stuff was sensors and crap like that.

My other car....er, truck, has been a great to own, too. I didn't name the truck. Let's name it now. How about....Luke! Yup, so Luke is a little Toyota pickup. Got him when he was a year old. He's a 1988. Next year he will be 20 years old! Wow. He's got 178 thousand miles. With the exception of one major problem, he has run very well. He's had all the usual things....needs a new battery, new tires....blah, blah, but every car needs that stuff. So for 19.5 years, he has really been a good to me. Greg drives him now. I got Luke after I started dating Greg, so he remembers what Luke was like back in his heyday. He was handsome. Still looks good.....just a little gray around the edges.

And, of course, there was my first VW. The white bug with the plaid seats. I wrote about that car and the seats in my old blog. That post talks about another post.....and you can read it here if you so desire.

Okay, enough of this riveting post about my history with cars.

I, by the way, am still sick. I'm pretty convinced it's laryngitis.

Sick In San Diego

I'm sick.

Buffy is sick.

:(

I started to get sick Thursday night around 4pm. I was loosing my voice. By Friday, it was pretty much just a squeek here and there when I would talk. Yesterday and today, sometimes nothing comes out when I try to talk. And I feel rotten in general. I've got a sort of sore throat all the time. And at night when I lay down, I can't breath very well. So....does that sound like laryngitis? I honestly don't remember ever having that before, so I'm not sure if that's what I have or if it's just a weird cold. I think going to the doctor would be worthless.

Buffy got sick Thursday, too. She had a fever. Her coolent light came on while I was driving home. After some general medical care from us, the doctor, I mean dealer, said she had to come in for a visit. We had to have her towed because it wasn't safe to drive her in. Didn't want to risk engine damage.



Still no word on her condition yet. Poor Buffy.

Well, that's about it. Think good thoughts for both me and Buffy.