Scorcher

Finally, a crazy hot day!!  Like melt into the ground, sweat just standing there, wicked hot and fantastic!  Wooooo.

As mentioned last night, today was painting day.  Probably not the best idea to tackle a huge project like that in 30 degree heat, but oh well! 

It took WAY longer than we thought.  FH tackled the back deck, while I took to the front porch.  The spindles on the front stairs were a biatch!

Started at 10am with a coffee and lots of water (and sunscreen!).

Around 11am snacked on the last of the fresh yellow plums.

and an oatmeal raisin bar.

At noon I needed an actual meal, so dished up some homemade potato salad (with a few pickles…I forgot to mention that I often put pickles in the salad but I left them out because FH isn’t a fan).

More paint, paint, painting.  It took 4.5 hours just to finish the first coat!  I took a break for a cool shower and a trip to Home Depot for more paint and a ladder.  Made the obligatory stop at Starbucks for a much needed Iced Grande Vanilla Americano topped up with skim milk (OK, and a chocolate chip cookie…).

 

Once home I worked on finishing up the second coat of white…thankfully the spindles only needed one coat!  Poor FH had to do two coats of white out back because this is the first time the deck has ever been painted.  At least he didn’t have the rounded spindles to deal with though.

Then finally it was time for the dark stain on the actual porch and stairs.  So much faster!!  Completed the first coat by about 6:45pm and called it a night.  We ended up needing more stain to complete all of the work…hopefully in a couple of hours tomorrow morning.  I’m very pleased with it so far!!

After another shower and change of clothes, I finally had a proper meal.  Starving and hot, I opted for a bigass salad.

Look at the giant romaine…this is the one I got at the farmer’s market last weekend.  Still fresh, crisp, and perfect.  :)

In the big bowl: romaine, carrots, celery, tomato, red onion, broccoli

Added Ranch dressing, more potato salad, and the last leftover turkey sausage.  Great meal for a hot and exhausting day.

Now we’re enjoying the evening with Season Two of Mad Men on DVD (been waiting months for this!!) and an icy cold ice creamy treat… :)

A Lovely Friday

This afternoon I discovered that my hair has grown out enough to finally get into a french braid again.  Not enough to stay there through any major activity, but it’s getting there!

For lunch I put together a cold snack plate: carrots, yellow peppers, tomatoes, marble cheddar, deli turkey, some new crackers, and the last of the spicy hummus on the side.

After work, which I promptly finished right at 5pm tonight I went downstairs to see if I could help FH out.  He had spent the afternoon cleaning and scrubbing the back deck, and had moved on to sanding.  He had it all under control though, and was heading out front to start sanding the porch and railings.  I wanted to help but we only have one sander. :(  Seemed like a fun job for such a beautiful evening!

So I mowed the lawn instead.  And weed wacked.  And cursed the number of freaking weeds in the yard again.  Can’t keep up!

Before I went out I had a little snacky of cherries…

After sweating up a storm in the yard, I had a glorious shower, then made dinner.  Super easy…leftovers and homemade potato salad!  Deeeelish and Summery.

Leftover grilled turkey sausage and steamed green beans…

To finish up such a hot and lovely day, we decided to go for ice cream.  Unfortunately we waited too late and when we got to Pinky’s at Dingle Park they had just closed.  Booooo.  So instead we had to settle for Dairy Queen.  It’s yummy but it’s just not the same!  (small Smarties Blizzard)

Feels Like Summer

Ha!  Not only do I actually have time for a mid-day post, but I actually remembered! 

It’s been a productive morning.  And it’s soooooooooooo nice outside and supposed to stay this way all weekend.  A perfect blue sky!  The sun is shining!  And even the moon is visible…crazy.

 

I of course had to start my morning out on the front porch.  Coffee, oatmeal raisin bar, and finally the opportunity finish book four of Sookie.

Then work.  Booooo.  hehe, but got lots done so it’s all good.

Breakfast consisted of a second oatmeal raisin bar (they’ll be lucky to last the weekend around me, and FH doesn’t eat raisins…uh-oh) and a bowl of fruit and yogurt (surprise surprise).

More strawberry Liberte Svelt with sliced half a banana and fresh blueberries.  Nice and cool for a hot morning.

Then it was time to put the potato salad together.  I cooked up about a dozen local white potatoes and boiled some eggs last night and left them to chill in the fridge. 

Boil the spuds with the skins on, then just peel away once chilled.  Easy peasy.

For dressing I used light mayo, light sour cream, dry mustard, and dill.  A trick learned from a good friend is to just mix the dressing in the bottom of the mixing bowl…it saves a dish and makes much easy distribution when stirring.

Rough chopped potatoes and 4 boiled eggs, also rough chopped…

Add 3 chopped green onions and salt & pepper…

Stir (I might have added a little extra mayo after taste-testing)…

Transfer to nice bowl or dish and top with sliced egg and sprinkles of paprika. 

Nothing tastes like Summer like homemade potato salad!!

The mug that started it all!

By now you’ve all seen my plethora of Starbucks mugs.  Well, digging into the cupboard this morning I happened upon my very first one.  :)

This mug was one of two that my ex-boyfriend and I bought when we first started our love of Starbucks.  (Prior to that we bought those big tins of Folgers because it was all we could afford…or we drank the shit coffee at our places of work…ewwwww).  I remember when we bought these mugs we felt like such grown-ups!  haha, no chipped old crappy mugs for us anymore.

Of course, when we broke up so did the mugs.  I kept my “mild” and he kept his “dark” (which is funny because I like dark!).  Not too long after this I found the same mugs on sale so I bought another dark to make a set again…and thus started the collection.  Every time they come out with new seasonal mugs I’m in there scoping them out…and probably 3/4 of the time I leave with a new one.  :)

 

So obviously I had coffee this morning.  I needed it after staying up til 2am catching up on So You Think You Can Dance and Big Brother.  Yes, I’m a dork.

(FYI: Ellie the dog had me up at 6:35am to let her out for a pee.  FH was sleeping right through his alarm and her whining. Gah.)

I paired my second coffee with a couple of Blueberry Chia Muffins I thawed out last night.  With a nice big glop of White Chocolate Wonderful PB.  Deeeeelish.

Determined not to eat lunch at my desk today I powered through a bunch of work and felt good about taking a break. The sun even shone on the deck long enough for me to eat!

Two small ww tortillas spread with spicy hummus, yellow peppers, tomatoes, and filled with spinach.  Yum.

For a little added protein, I rolled up a couple of slices of extra lean turkey with some mini pickles.  Love this combo!

  

To cool off in the sun I cracked open this bottle of Santa Cruz Organic Peppermint Ice Tea I’ve had in the fridge for ages.  Can’t believe I waited.  It’s deeeelish.  Lightly minty and not too strong.  I’ll be looking for it again next time I’m at Planet Organic.

  Unfortunately that sun seems to be behind a big ugly cloud now…booooo…and work needs to be finished up so I can hit the gym and settle in for a quiet night later.  Guess I’d better get to it!

Icy Caffeine Goodness

I forgot to set the coffee maker last night…so much to my dismay when I got up this morning there was no caffeine ready to drink.  Gah.  Conveniently though I had a container of iced coffee I’d put in the fridge the other day and since the sun came out it seemed like just the right time for it.

I mixed a whole lotta ice with some cold black coffee shaken with a bit of sugar and topped it with light vanilla soy milk.  Yum Yum.  Breakfast was late so I went with a simple piece of sunflower flax toast with pb & sliced banana.

Since it’s Wednesday and I have my usual weekly longass conference call I decided to make lunch a more easily drawn out affair.  Snack plate!  Served with another deeeelish iced coffee.

Of course, with all these veggies I think I’ve been crunching in my coworkers’ ears for the last two hours.  hehe.

For activity today I plan to head out into my yard after work while the sun is still out and I feel motivated to pull weeds.  Holy man, did the dandelions take over while I was away.  It’s a sea of yellow out there!  Hopefully it won’t take too long and I can head to the gym for a run afterwards.