garden update

do you see what i seee?!

there are one million flowers on the cucumbers right now, but no baby cucumbers in sight.

the cucumbers have made their way up the fence and are now making their way down to the ground on the other side.

so far, knock on wood, no one has taken even one tiny bite out of any of my tomatoes.

the jalapenos have started growing. i think there are 4, but lots of little buds.

same cherry tomato as the top. i aaaaallmost ate him. but last year, we cut our first vegetable (a pea) into sections and split it. so we should probably do that with the tomato.

ten points to whoever knows what causes these trails. is it caterpillars? based on the number of trails vs the absence of caterpillars, i don't really know if it's them or not. i've only picked off 3 so far. maybe it's time to get out the flashlight.

middle of the night research has lead me to a diagnosis of leaf miners of some kind. 

it ain't suave

8 good things

8. $3.74/gallon diesel at chevron when eeeeverywhere else was at least $3.89
7. i decided not to get a car wash because it was cloudy/windy/might rain
6. it rained!
5. president obama was in austin today
4. i wasn't odd man out in book club tonight
3. clean sheets
2. spent quality time with andy before he moves to jolly old england
1. held plank pose without literally falling to my knees in yoga today

rode in on a song

we had a lovely mother's day at the lake. all 3 kids, shishkabob marinade, cornell bbq chicken on the grill, my mom's friend and her husband came. it was very nice. at one point, jeff and matt were on the jet ski and ripley, who hates to be left behind, swam out to 'turtle rock' which is a rock 10 feet or so from the shore that forms a little island the size of a hula hoop, and barked until they were out of sight. i brought the fancycam and didn't take a single picture.

cornell bbq chicken marinade, courtesy of about.com

2 c vinegar
1 c oil
1 egg
3 T salt
1 T poultry seasoning (or sage)
black pepper to taste
6-8 chicken breasts or a package of chicken tenders, tendon removed

about.com says to blend it in a blender.. but we don't. you need to leave it at least overnight. we've left it for a couple of days before. it is deeeelicious.

we never really do interesting presents for mothers or fathers day.. but maj had just commented on how cute the measuring cups were at anthropologie and i was down there the other day. so cute. plus they're called austin's flora. how perfect is that.

the thunder rolls

i wish i could say i've been missing from the internet because i've been on an adventure or doing something special and fun, but really i've been at dentist/doctors appointments, reading the book for book club this month (i don't love it.. which means the girls from book club will think it's the best thing they've ever read), working on a photo book of the october china trip (version 1 crashed after 2 hours of working on it, but version 2 is finished and in the mail on its way here) and studying GRE math. algebra is the only thing so far that has come back with relative ease.

headed to the lake tomorrow with my friend john who has somehow managed to avoid going to the lake over the course of our 10 year friendship. we're going to take the boat out for the first time all year.

p.s. if you live in LA, chicago, DC, NYC, seattle, boston or san fran, please check out this new supper club concept called grub with us and let me know how it goes so i can live vicariously through you until they open a chapter in austin.

mini tiaras

i got to play with the little girls at school today who i haven't seen in months and months. after we all got caught up on new clothes, accessories and hair cuts, they wanted to play beauty salon.

V: miss megan, do you want a beautiful hair style?
me: yes of course! what do you think would be pretty?
V: i think a pony tail with sparkles and mini tiaras!
P: and i'll pick out a beautiful dress with jewels and sparkles!
V: [yanking on my hair and twisting it up with pencils] does that hurt? [twists tighter] how about now?
P: i found some shoes! and a wonderful golden crown with rubies and gems
V: [on her tiptoes] you have to wear high heels and walk like this! do you see i have high heels on?
me: very beautiful
P notices my new shoes in the cubby
P: V! she has jelly shoes!
V runs over to see them
V: they're princess glass slippers!!

you thought it was weird to wear shoes that you can see your toes through, but it really just goes with the princess glass slipper territory.

for the record, the women and gender studies part of me was screaming in the back of my head the whole time, but we did some non-princess self esteem boosting activities afterward to even us out.

turn into a pumpkin

there are a couple of downsides to international travel. the first is getting sick.. especially because free, clean bathrooms are nowhere near as plentiful abroad as they are in the US. but the second is that extremely cheap shoes and clothes in asia spoil you silly and make you realize that everything in america is overpriced for no good reason. the quality isn't quite as good, but i don't mind if i need to wear a slip with a dress if i bought it for $10.

i bought those black jellies at NET in taiwan for 300NT which is about 10 dollars. they're waterproof, pretty comfy, and made of nothing but plastic.

so when i saw copycat shoes by steve madden in the shoe cabinet at yoga, i was excited when i found them at DSW. but they were $25. it's just sad paying regular shoe price for something you know is worth $10. but lucky me, maj bought herself a pair in gray and she bought me a pair in clear, so they were free! thank you, good majjy!

there are some deals to be had here too though. this dress was on sale for $40 at the limited, and thanks to a return + discount, i bought it for $15. they had lots of cute dresses on sale.

weekend

behold the first yellow crookneck squash from the garden. he was 6 inches long or so. i sauteed and added him to pasta sauce tonight, and it was delicious.

and i know i haven't been super fantastic about uploading garden pictures, but it is still chugging right along. this picture is week 1 and the rest are every 2 weeks or so.

the cat is sleeping on my bed right now and wheezing with every breath. still haven't decided if he can stay. he has a bad habit of waking up in the middle of the night wanting to go outside.

today was interesting. i took a friend to the airport at 4:30AM, came home and slept for a few hours, went back downtown for a dentist appointment, had coffee and a jalapeno and cheddar croissant (not a good idea) with john for half an hour and went straight to yoga. i arrived at 11:58 for the noon class, popped in the studio to unfurl my mat, jogged to the bathroom to change, flinging clothing everywhere. we have a 2 day cold front moving through austin right now which meant more layers than usual this morning.

then i'm in class trying to get situated and calm down as i can feel the cafe au lait i had just downed pounding in my usually decaffeinated veins. as i'm raising and lowering my arms as we get warmed up, i can't get comfortable for some reason. and then i realize that my tank top is on backwards. i fought the giggles as i just grinned like a crazy person for 5 minutes.

so what was a girl to do? i was in the middle of the middle row, directly in front of the instructor. i ended up just ignoring it and hoped no one noticed, but it was just one of those mornings.

it ended up being a very nice day. busy start to a busy couple of weeks coming up.