Love in the Grocery Aisle

Once upon a time there was a container of dipping spice.

The dipping spice was lonely. All he did was sit on the shelf with

his other lonely dipping spice buddies.

On the shelf below him sat Ms. EVOO. She too, was lonely and spent her days wondering why no one took her home. "Does no one understand the goodness that will come with purchasing me?"

Well, one day two ladies were shopping and their eyes caught sight of Mr. Dip & Ms. EVOO and said "YUM!" while tossing them both in the cart next to the Twinkies and microwave popcorn.

The ladies discovered that when mixed together, they created a wonderful melange of flavor.
And then the ladies dipped a fine artisan bread chunk into the bowl and were transported to heaven!

**This was so yummy! We tried to get Jeff and Jesse to try it, but were unsuccessful. But Jeff's brother Brandon stopped by and he had a taste and it made him want to go home and make spaghetti. Did he make you spaghetti Sunshine?!?!

An Elephant in the Backyard

The most difficult aspect of my job is not dealing with difficult customers -either those who don't have a clue of what they want or are just plain cranky. It's when I have customers who come in to have memorial cards made for a funeral.

You see, I am an emotional person. I wear my heart on my sleeve. I cry at the Folger's Coffee commercials (you know the ones - where the son surprises everyone at Christmas). I bawled through pretty much all of Steel Magnolia's. Extreme Home Makeover, yep, that'll get the ol' tear ducts a'flowin too! And not just at sad movies, but I've been known to cry at comedies and action/adventure movies, too.

So when I am sitting with customers at my computer at work, designing these little cards that boil someone's life down to a couple of paragraphs, it's very hard for me to remain stoic. But I do. I see certain little glimpses into the family. The smiles as they remember a fun time, the grief at a life taken unexpectantly, sometimes the relief that their loved one is no longer in pain.

I did some cards yesterday for a family. This time it was extremely hard for me to remain emotionally detached, I felt that any moment I would start crying and racked my brain trying to figure out why. Was I thinking about TaTia, my dad's aunt who is in the hospital right now after having two strokes? Yes, she was on my mind. Was it because I'm PMS'ing? Still don't know. But when they left, I lost it and just started bawling. It only lasted a minute or two and my co-worker Annie gave me a little hug and I was fine.

When I got home last night, Shauna told me that our friend (and her sister in law) Sunshine's dad was not doing well, his organs were starting to shut down. Bill has been battling with MS for a very long time. He's been confined to a wheelchair for the last few years and pretty much home-bound. I've only met Bill once and that was when he was toolin' around the neighborhood in his electric scooter, stopping to shoot the shit with anyone he saw. My sister Jessica and I happened to be some of those people a couple of years ago (Bill & his wife Trish live a block away from my sister). He rolled up into the driveway and we introduced ourselves and just chit chatted. He told us about living in Las Vegas, working as an OSHA inspector. Then he started telling what we believed to be tall-tales. I made mental notes to ask Sunshine what was true and what was false. Did he really come home from Vegas with an elephant that he traded a truck for? That turned out to be false. But I will always laugh when I think of Bill, just because of the elephant. Jessica & I still chuckle at that one..

Bill passed away about an hour ago. He's no longer in pain. My thoughts are with Sunshine and her family. And Jessica and I will take care of the elephant.

Beautiful Dirt-Filled Sunday

Sunday was a nice day, it wasn't too hot and it looked like we might even get a little rain. So we took advantage of the day and spent some time working in the yard. We started pulling the dandelions from the grass, planted the Aspen tree sapling that my dad gave us last summer and worked on getting the flower bed weeded. Shauna & I bought a bunch of flowers at Home Depot on Saturday & I'll get them planted on Monday evening when I get home from work. We also picked up another Jiffy container & some flower seed and planted those that evening.

These little purple Pansies have showed themselves for the past three years. They'll look a little better once they're not choked by the dandelions.

This is another of my projects. That big brown spot there, it's not dirt. It's a fine layer of little pokey burrs. So my plan is to dig the burrs up and work the dirt. Then I'll take the cinder blocks, stack them (we have more), fill 'em with potting soil and plant in 'em. I envision plants that will drape down the sides of the cinder blocks, creating a littel flowering wall. What does everyone think? Sound like a good idea? I'm open to suggestions...

Here's our little Aspen sapling that my dad gave us last summer. It sat out on the back patio while we tried to figure out where in the yard we wanted to put it. We didn't think it survived the winter, but little green leaves appeared. So I stood in the front yard with everyone and said "Pick a place for the tree! Hurry!" Now it has a new home and hopefully will be very happy there!

Things are popping out all over...

...well maybe not all over, but in my jiffy pots they are!

The 'greenhouse' has been living in the shed since I planted them.

Since I just planted them on Sunday I wasn't expecting anything.

I got a surprise when I lifted the lid off.

Look! Little green specks!

We have a couple of cucumbers sprouting.

And four of the basils are popping out, too!

What I really can't wait for is the zucchini. I see steamed zuch, fried zuch (yeah, I know, not healthy, but yummy), and zucchini bread.

LOTS of zucchini bread!

Useless Trivial Information

Today is the last day of school here in Elko County and the day that both Elko H.S. and Spring Creek H.S. are graduating their seniors.

As thousands of graduates are preparing to walk down the aisle and accept their diplomas to the tune of Pomp and Circumstance, I googled P&C and came up with these little known factoids:

• The composer was Sir Edward Elgar of Liverpool, England
• Although Elgar composed concertos for violin and cello, he is best known for his 5 P&C marches.
• It was first performed on October 19, 1901
• Elgar was a mostly self-taught musician
• He was knighted in 1904 and appointed Master of the King's Music in 1924
• He was the first major composer to record his works for the phonograph

*culled from the website http://www.brownielocks.com/graduation.html

Wishing all grads and their families a memorable and safe graduation season.

Rainbow Connection

We had a brief thunderstorm on Sunday evening.

It left this behind:

A double rainbow!

You can't really tell from the photo,

but you could see the whole spectrum of colors.

It was awe-inspiring.

Double Shot of Home Depot

On Saturday I stopped at Home Depot to get plants.

I couldn't find the veggies.

I didn't look hard enough.

So I bought some seeds and set of jiffy pots.

But I forgot something important.

I forgot the potting soil.

So Sunday I made another trip to town.

Not just for potting soil,

I met my dad, sis and her family for a very tasty breakfast at Toki Ona's.

After my hunger was quenched, Dad and I headed to HD.

I found the veggie plants.

Picked up some strawberries, a Thai basil and an onion chive.

Here's the onion chive.

And the Thai basil. It's really pungent.

And the strawberries.

The empty pot is not empty.

There were lettuce seeds in Shauna's Kraft magazine.

So that's lettuce.

I got the Jiffy Pots started yesterday, too.

Banana Peppers, Cheyenne Peppers, Carrots, Zucchini, Cucumbers and basil.

Cross you fingers.