Random Odd Things

I'm running out of ways to say "This 'n That."

We forgot to take our camera with us on Sunday.  (It seems like we brought everything else, including a folding picnic table & a folding hammock.)  Eva took pics but i've not seen them yet.  We ended up behind some trees & had we had the camera, it could have been a problem.  But we were free to move about in order to see better.  I kind of liked seeing the fireworks thru the silhouetted pines. 

I didn't properly credit the last ones.  Duane took all of these.  I've gotten pretty good with the camera, but i still don't do night shots well.  There are all from 2007, & 2008.

 Duane went down the hill yesterday.  I tried to get him to take That Jeep (y'know, to show it off to the guys at work) but he just laughed.  Eva & i took it to town.  We went to Farmer's Market, & i did banking & we went to a store in the Village to check on some class times (cooking/baking demonstrations).    Then we had lunch at Duane's favorite burger joint.  They do salads, too, & the most wonderful sweet potato fries.  Eva agreed that Duane's choice of burger was good.   

 

 

 

We checked out a couple of thrift stores on the way home, but only found a couple of small items.  Not that i need anything, but i think most of the purchases were mine.  A couple of the stores weren't open.  I forgot that since this is a resort town, many of the stores are closed Tue/Wed, or sometimes Thur as there is not much business then & they need some time off.  

 We got home safe.  That Jeep didn't strand us.  

I made pancakes & scrambled eggs for dinner last night.  Neither of those are Duane's favorites so i don't often make them.  

I tried the scrambled eggs differently as i'd seen a recipe & it sounded good:  Scrambled eggs with cream cheese.  The recipe i saw said to "melt" the cream cheese with butter in the pan before adding the eggs.  Most of the others i saw said to blend room temp cream cheese into the eggs.  I tried the first one.  The cream cheese didn't "melt" much, but it got quite soft.  It took much longer to cook than what i'm used to.  They did taste good, soft & rich & fluffy.  First bite reminded me almost more of a souffle than scrambled eggs, but i got used to it after that.  

 

 

Many of the days i have things planned.  This is a day without too many plans.  I may take her on the "back way" road - 38 - to do some picture hunting.  One of the churches in town with a big youth group has a dinner on Wednesdays, followed by a Bible Study.  I thought i'd take her to that as i don't know many folks in town with kids.  Well, i know a couple of girls her age, but they take summer school classes to lighten their load during the year.    

I'm finding it a challenge to keep up with the prep-work, cooking & kitchen clean up.  I guess i was hoping for something a bit different.  We probably will end up eating at least one meal "out" each day just because i can't do it.  The kitchen is downstairs waiting for me to come clean it from last night.  (Ok, i went & did that.  Still a little left to do, but it wasn't as bad as what was in my head.)

For the past week or so i've been in more pain.  It hasn't been that i've "cheated" on diet, for pain is a wonderful motivator for me.  I've found that taking cherry juice once, or maybe twice a day helps.  Too much of it acts like prune juice & i want to avoid that!  (Studies have found cherry juice as effective an anti-inflammatory as Motrin.)  To my surprise, it has helped.  My legs ache, ache, ache.  I don't think it is just sedentary lifestyle, for i'm not bed bound.  Yesterday at Farmer's Market i bought Emu oil.  I've heard good things about it.  Capsaicin cream works for me, too, however.  I'm not so sure about the Emu oil as a vegetarian.  (Just looked it up.  NOT vegetarian.)

 

 

The past week or so has been a struggle.  Also, while my sis was here, i was "up" much more than i normally am.  I wasn't doing the "Up 20 down 40" or whatever variation of that is appropriate.  So i was pretty exhausted when she left, besides having a huge mess in the kitchen waiting for me.  

I'm finding that Eva is not as apt to get carsick as Larkin had told me to expect.  Nor is she as allergic to cats.  She doesn't seem to be much bothered by the cats at all, except i notice she is careful not to pet them & prefers them not to bother her.  She is very much an introvert & a bit shy.  But she can talk, & if i press the right "button" she will be quite verbal.  She also has quite a sly sense of humor i enjoy.  We're still kind of getting to know each other.  

 

I'm thinking i'll show her my "master list" of food plans & activity & ask her to be honest with me & tell me what she'd like to do & what she'd rather not.  

Just an aside, as i'm being ADD while writing this & off to check all kinds of other things.  One of the blogs where i occasionally comment uses real words that have a black/white dichotomy (& are hard to read) instead of made up words/letters.  Yesterday my words were, "Reality Spleen."  ???  That kind of croggled my mind for a while.  

Ok, i'm simply getting bored with myself & my writing.  Here are the rest of Duane's beautiful pics that i've had waiting to add. 

 

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