Summertime....

I'd like to say that life has been crazy here in Kansas, but that would be a stretch of the imagination. The garden has since given us the best that it could possibly give and is in the final throws of the growing season. Some time back in July I was going to say something creative and interesting about the next 3 pictures but must have been distracted and never got around to it. I happened to stumble across this in the Edit Posts section so I'll give it a shot.

So this beauty of a thunderhead was amazing to watch. It never came near our home and I'm pretty sure that it didn't drop a single ounce of rain anywhere near Kansas. I wish that the camera would have caught the exact color. The reds were so purple and the grays were so blue and then the tippy top was this beautiful bright creamy white. I took this while sitting on our back porch while Alex made dinner. It slowly grew bigger for about 45 minutes but never moved. I remember that there was barely a breeze that night. Another thing I really like about summer is how long the day light lasts. I took this picture at almost 9 PM.

While I was outside starring at clouds, Alex was inside making dinner. The summer squash, green onion, sweet cayenne pepper, green bell pepper, and thyme came from our garden. Alex sees these things and sees "potential". I look at these things and see "ingredients for a recipe". That pretty much sums up our culinary differences in creativity. Which is why I have a very hard time even imagining this without some necessary guidance:

I'm not sure exactly what he did. I think he grilled the squash and some other stuff and added olive oil and sprinkled love and fairy dust and wah-lah! our tasty dinner was born. All I really remember was that it was delicious and we've had grilled squash several times since then. I like it best with balsamic vinegar. 

...21 Days Later

Here's what the garden looked like on June 15th. I was so excited that the plants were starting to grow.

Here's what it looks like today. I am absolutely AMAZED at how much everything has grown in only 21 days! The squash has totally over-taken the sweet peas and has finally breached the wood container wall. We picked one of the onions yesterday to put in our salad. It was so very yummy.

Here's the 12 tomato plants that I was afraid wouldn't make it. 8 of the 12 have finally passed the top of the tomato cages and come up a little past my waist. Just this last week they finally bloomed tons of little yellow flowers. The bees have found a new place to hang out which is great because that means we'll have Roma, Big Boy (like Beefsteak tomatoes), and Jubilee (yellow) tomatoes growing in no time flat! Oh-and we have a brown cottontail bunny that likes to hang out in the garden. He doesn't eat anything but I think he likes the cool shade and the protection from being seen by the hawks that we have around here.

I wander through the garden several times a day checking out all the little bushes. Sometimes I talk to the plants and ask them when they're going to grow something other than leaves. They must have grown tired of hearing the same question over and over again because two days ago, I noticed that the Hot Portugal pepper plant had a bunch of tiny green peppers. Now they're longer than the span of my hand. They'll turn dark red when they're ready to be picked. This particular bush has about 8 peppers growing on it right now along with the other one.

The jalapeno bush has the most peppers of all. It takes about 88 days for the pepper to ripen. The pepper at the very bottom that is starting to turn black is the very first pepper that I took a picture of back in June. As you can see, lots of little sisters have joined since then.

Here's the second yellow bell pepper that has grown on this particular bush. The first one didn't make it because the plant was too immature. It's put on lots of leaves and doubled in size so now I feel a little better that it will be healthy enough to produce some fruit. I'm not sure how tall pepper plants actually get so I'm only guessing on the healthy part. :)

I can't forget the herbs. The one on the top is sweet basil. The one on the left hand side is cilantro, and the smaller one is mint. The oregano is still struggling a bit but the thyme has really sprouted and is growing marvelously. I'll have to take a picture of it next time. The only one that really didn't grow was the rosemary the second time around. I know what I did wrong so next year I'm pretty sure we'll have some rosemary to plant in the front.

Here is the first of the summer squash! They're huge! and I have 2 or 3 more on the vine that will be ready to be picked next week. I gave the very first one that I picked to Jana and Robert our most beloved neighbors that are moving this weekend. With 3 squash plants I'm sure I'll have more than enough to hand out to all the neighbors. I'm really looking forward to having fried squash with stuffed Portobello mushrooms for dinner tonight. Yum!

Summer Movies

Monday is our "Movie Day" and has been so since the semester ended. Some movies I really want to see, other's I just tag along. If you asked Alex he'd say the same thing.

Iron Man 2 was one of those tag-along ones for me. It was just okay. I wanted a little more action, a little more Iron Man suit stuff and less Robert Downey, Jr. rambling conversation stuff. To me- it wasn't worth the price paid at the movie theater at full price. Save yourself some dough and rent it or Redbox it.

I really, really liked Robin Hood. I liked how it seemed more real, and authentic with all the mud and stone castles, and unbathed people. The story was good and the action was pretty decent.

Prince of Persia was pretty good too. I'm always amazed at how far we have come when it comes to computer-generated creatures. Each movie gets better and better. I'm still not sure why Persians would have English accents, but whatever. I liked the story and I thought the ending was pretty good. It was worth seeing it for matinee price.

I really liked the A-Team too. Bradley Cooper is soooo cute! I think whoever did the casting did a wonderful job. I wouldn't mind seeing an A-Team 2 in the future. It had good action and a pretty decent story.

So the new Karate Kid is just like the old Karate Kid except instead of having a Japanese Sensei for a teacher, he had a Kung Fu Master and instead of being in California they're in China and instead of having a Karate kid you have a Kung Fu kid but the plot is exactly the same without some of the cheesy 80s background music. I was very impressed by little Jaden Smith's muscles but not in the same way I am impressed with Taylor Lautner's. Yum... Taylor Lautner- but that is for another day. Oh, and yes- I did cry during the movie as I had predicted in a previous post.

I LOVED Toy Story 3! Whoever professes that it is not a good movie should never be consulted ever again on what is. Yeah, I cried a tad at the end like I do with all Pixar movies. Bravo to Pixar for writing a brilliant trilogy! They did an amazing job wrapping it up.

So what I noticed about all these movies is that not only were they entertaining and well written but that they lacked sexual content, which would not have been appropriate at all in the last 2 movies but the first 4 could have slipped it in there some way but they didn't. And surprise, surprise- the movies still sold and the masses have been entertained. Imagine that.

Therefore I Cry...

I'm not sure what is going on with me but for the last 3 days now I can't stop crying. It's so bizarre because I feel perfectly fine. Yesterday I was even happy and energetic all day long. I'm starting to look like one of those Hindu gods, except instead of leaking milk or something- I'm leak tears. It's over the most random stuff that soon spirals out of control. Like just the other day, I was at work and 2 very over-weight women wearing outrageous clothes squeezed themselves into a booth. When my eyes were finally able to pull themselves away from the hats they were wearing I realized that some of the other servers and a manager were in hysterics. I guess it would have been less funny if they had sat at a table. I just looked at them and said- "You're laughing at human beings. You know, people with feelings!" I was more shocked at their behavior then anything else. But the tears came anyway. Then I find out from my sister that her cousin-in-law's husband died a day before his 36 birthday, a day before Father's Day leaving her and their 4 children behind. Tears. To make it worse, I go and read her blog. Hysterical tears (this time). And then yesterday was Father-less Day for me. Even more tears. I look at pictures of Davey a year ago. More tears. I drive down to the grocery store and see fresh raccoon road kill and here they come again (really? Road kill? At this point, I'm really starting to worry). I watch Pride & Prejudice for the hundredth time but this time I cry when Jane is proposed to. I've never cried at that part before. I talk to my neighbors who are moving at the end of this month and the seeping starts again. We're suppose to go see Karate Kid today. I'm thinking about forgoing the make-up just in case.

Animal Cruelty

I sometimes engage in animal cruelty by doing random experiments on the dog. Before, I put a backpack on David to see how he'd look and how he'd handle it. The other day I decided that he needed a hat to go with the 97 degree weather that feels like 107 with the 80% humidity. He's such a good sport! He played along nicely but was not in the least bit amused by my idea.

I have (sadly?) discovered a new dog treat for David. All I have to do is fill a bowl with ice cubes and he becomes the happiest pup alive. The down side is that he thinks that every time I open the freezer its specifically for his enjoyment. He'd also rather drink his water out of the spicket out side then out of his water bowl.

It's way to hot outside to take our normal daily walks. We usually go around 7 PM but I'm working at night so David has to wait until I get home to go on a walk. In the mean time, I've been watching tons of movies. This is Davey's usual position during the day. He's either watching birds out the back door or watching people out the front window. I'm not sure why he likes to be on top of the couch cushions like this but the Great Dane I had as a child liked to do the same thing.

Life is so tough.