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As many of my facebook loyalists know, I’ve been eating veggies lately, which is really weird for me. For several years now, I’ve been on a “at least 1 serving of fruit or veggies per day” diet (hey, you gotta start somewhere) and I have been very good at keeping or beating it…but mostly with fruit(s). I’ve come to really enjoy my apple, pear, banana, pineapple, cherries, strawberries, or orange juice every day, but I still rarely eat vegetables, mostly because I don’t like many of them. Like, rarely; think of the last time you ate vegetables. Now add at least one week. I started adding onion to my hamburgers, though (I don’t count corn or iceberg lettuce as any nutritional value). Rarely veggies…I think you get it.

So, the big news is that in the last two days I’ve had a bowl of salad. With our garden I have plenty of spinach and lettuce but nothing (yet) to put on them, so I went to the store and bought cauliflower, snap peas, a carrot, a cucumber, and dried cranberries (the ones without added sugar) to make my leaves more interesting. And that they were. I can’t say salad holds a candle to pot roast or pizza in the taste department, but calorie-wise and nutritionally they are off the charts. For me anyway.

Oh, and I must add: thanks to all my supporters (Jen, Jas, Tara, Linds, Paco Taco)!!! They have all been pushing me (gently) toward better health through a more nutritious diet and a wider variety of foods, and without them I still wouldn’t know what garbanzo beans are! Love and hugs to all of you, and a big round of applause!

Now for the more random bits: Earlier this week I also ate tomatoes in Tara’s pasta sauce instead of delicately pushing them aside. I ate my first home-grown strawberry – it was delish! I also cut my first few scallion out of the garden…it is soooo fragrant! Mmmmm!

Today This weekend has been fabulous. Yesterday Handsome and I went to Vancouver to fix ChickenSox’s Xbox 360 and followed it up with a visit to our new glass-blowing friend’s house in Portland. We saw his cute 15 week-old pit bull terrier puppy, Willow, and chatted for awhile before coming home to see Terminator, which was awesome. (Lots of explosions and action.) Today I did a bunch of cleaning and yardwork in the sunshine – it was loverly, and George joined me and happily barked and everything and nothing in the neighborhood – followed by a trip to Goodwill to deliver some unwanteds and then food at the Mongolian grill and then, of course, UFC PPV! A bunch of friends wound up over here, and it was lots of fun to chat and root and cheer with them on a variety of topics. So far, what a wonderful 4-day Memorial Day Weekend!

*sigh* I have a serious amount of broken shit at my house, and three glorious “fun-filled” days of trying to make it work. In no particular order:

• Our microwave doesn’t turn anymore. It heats, but unevenly, and makes a funny rattling noise of the motor trying to turn but not being successful. It’s not an old microwave so it should work. No one knows why it stopped turning. UPDATE 3: Handsome spent 3 hours cleaning and inspecting it today. No luck…it’s really broken. After an extensive search online, it sounds like the exact motor is impossible to find but a substitute for about $30 has worked in most cases.
• Our A/C is having the same friggin’ problem as last year, so I suspect it’s leaked all its puron somewhere, and I believe it might be all over the side of the house. This year, however, I’m calling someone new that won’t charge me almost $500 NOT to fix it. And I need to clean the air filter for the heating/cooling system.
• Our hot tub control panel isn’t working. I sent it in for repair, they sent it back, and it still didn’t work. They sent me a brand new control. IT still doesn’t work. The funny thing is, when I unplug the controls from the control box, the hot tub turns on to heat to its default hot-ness. When I plug it in, it stops but the control panel is “all on” (all the lights are on and the LED panel reads all 8s). No amount of resetting or button-pushing makes a difference. UPDATE: The main circuit panel is broken, not the topside controls. All I need to do is send that in, and return the replacement panel, and they will fix/replace it and send it back. UPDATE 3: I tried to take the circuit board out of the hot tub (with the power switch to “OFF”) and shocked the shit out of myself. I think perhaps flipping the breaker would be a good idea next try.
  
• Our garbage disposal stopped working on Eric’s birthday night and no one knows why or when. The motor turns on but the blades don’t spin, so I suspect someone put something disposal unfriendly down it and then conveniently failed to tell anyone. UPDATE 2: Fixed! I had to take it off the sink and jam a screwdriver into it, but on the bright side I now know (extensively) how the garbage disposal works!
• The right headlight on my Prius is out. It’s a high-density bulb that takes about an hour for someone to get to, but it’s under factory warranty still so Toyota will fix it for free. I just have to get it there. UPDATE: Fixed, and they adjusted the left one that has been too low since the August accident.
• One of the recessed lights in our vaulted ceiling is out. It’s hard to get to, even with a tall ladder. UPDATE 2: So I made this one sound harder and more difficult than it was. Four working lights!

Ahhh, smell the accomplishment!

So my rain post didn’t accumulate any rain, but it did allow me to work outside for the rest of the afternoon.

I got one of the rose bushes relocated (keep your fingers crossed it survives!) to not only a better location for me but also a nicer, sunnier location for it. Then I filled the hole and put the composter in its old location on the side of the house and filled started it with the compost material I had been acquiring in preparation. Hopefully by the end of the summer I have both a happy rose bush and new dirt!

I also weeded in my flower bed, which REALLY needed it. I had have an infestation of some as of yet undetermined weed that is fairly small and easy to pull yet populates faster and more efficiently than a bunny/guppy cross. I cleared about 1/2 of the bed this afternoon, and with my previous effort only have about 1/4 left. But then I also have another area to weed as well.

I didn’t make any progress on the actual lawn clearing, but I did set up an appointment for a free (yay!) onsite consultation from a professional retaining wall builder for Tuesday afternoon. I’m very excited, except to see the price tag. I have a lot of ideas and a very complex sloping lawn, and I need both expertise and advice. Hopefully he provides both. For cheap.

I can’t believe after 6 months of gloom and rain I’m now hoping for more, even as every other bone in my body is screaming for nice spring weather, but I have an empty fully-functional rain barrel, so rain already!

See the pics!

Big steps in the garden process: secured 55 gallon rain barrel and related pieces; started tearing up sod in the general garden area; and started a compost pile. I must go buy a composter very soon!

Handsome got me this awesome painting of deep orange calla lilies for Christmas – it’s one picture painted continuously over four different sized canvases. The background is brown. I hung it above the TV and it looks just amazing on the wall – the colors in the picture really compliment the wall and the furniture, and it flows well with the vaulted ceiling. It’s perfect and I smile when I look at it.

Here’s a great gravy-from-drippings recipe:

• 3/4 cup flour
• 4-6 cups broth/water

Let fat coalesce on the surface of drippings by cooling for about 5 minutes. Spoon 3/4 cup of fat into a measuring cup. Mix fat and flour with flat wisk in a medium pot on medium heat until it becomes a roux (paste). Measure rest of drippings and pour into roux. Add broth/water enough to make 6-8 cups of liquid (drippings + broth/water = 6-8 cups). Bring just to boiling, stirring until creamy. Season to taste (i.e. with pepper). Serve!

This delicious gravy will be requested every time!

After all my gardening and yardwork, I’m very excited to see what spring brings. But for now, my body aches: particularly my hands. Yanking and digging and clipping make for sore digits; I’ll have an iron grip, but just not today.

I feel really good about today! I have been resting my leg after the break scare, and it’s finally feeling good enough to be active again. It’s a good thing, too, because I need it.

After 3 long months of sparse activity, I got up around 9:30 this morning and went to the local elementary school track to run for 30 minutes. Since I have an anti-runner’s body (big bones, thick legs – especially in the thighs, awkward limbs), I’m pretty pleased to have made it that long. My goal is to be able to run for an hour and make at least 4 miles. I know this sounds ridiculous – four miles in an hour could be done crawling backwards – but I have neither speed nor endurance and have been likened to a camel when I run. I’m the one in the back looking like I’m exerting the most effort and getting nowhere. My fastest mile ever was 9:15 and I felt like the wind that day.

I also weeded my flower beds, winterized my rose bushes, and planted some Crocus and Tulip bulbs in preparation for spring 2009. Oregon hasn’t been nearly as cold as it was this time last year, so the time is still ripe for planting. I also intend to get my lily bulbs in the ground soon too. INFO WANTED: If anyone has any ideas as to a pretty shade plant that vines or grows tall and skinny, I would love to hear it. I have a very small rectangle of dirt between my sidewalk and my fence on the north side of our house that needs something other than weeds. Ooooh, perhaps something that could vine up and over utilizing trellises to make a partially covered walkway. Flowers or colored leaves would be nice but aren’t necessary. Oh, and non-poisonous to pets (and humans).

Awesome, one more thing down. Plus, I got some gaming in, too. Played some Madden ‘09 and Rock Band 2. I’m now almost exclusively playing Expert on lead guitar. I’m usually in the 4-star range on middle difficulty songs, but I’m working my way toward 5-star. We are going to have it at our company Christmas party, so I have to make sure I look good!