Another nice summer day. Busy, as usual. My friend Deb and I spent a few hours at Panera's catching up. It was wonderful. I ran a bunch of errands afterwards, including buying more food, then came home and got a lot of stuff done around here. I changed Emily's sheets. Put up a Welcome Home banner. I bought a bunch of long-stemmed white daisies and added a lot of cut flowers from the garden. She'll like that. She called me from the airport in Costa Rica. She's supposed to spend the night at her dad's, but she wants to come home. I think they'll be getting in too late. She's ready to be here.


One of the things I did today was make pesto. My first time. I followed my friend Lisa's instructions, but it didn't come out like hers. She makes it in a blender. I thought to make it in my food processor, but I wanted it to be just like hers. Too bad the instructions said things like 1/3 to 1/2 cup olive oil and 2-3 cloves of garlic. Everything was approximated.

Pretty, huh?

Too bad it tasted like wood

That's what happens when you need to prod the blender along. First it ate a chunk of my new Pampered Chef bamboo spoon. Then the cheapie one. At least I didn't let it get the rubber spatula. I went over the pesto very carefully and picked out the chunks of wood, but it just doesn't taste good. It tastes like old wood. I'll need to let the basil grow again and try another recipe. Lunch was great, though. The tomato and basil were from my garden. The roll was from my Chick-fil-A sandwich. I cut up the chicken to put in my salads for work.


I looked down at the floor of my woods this afternoon and noticed it was littered with clumps of branches. (You know I love to document stuff)


Then I looked up to see squirrel nests in two neighboring trees. Possibly the biggest nests I've ever seen. The picture doesn't do it justice. Just what I need...more squirrels. Maybe they're trying to make an army to attack my tomato plants. Like that's going to happen!



I went to the pool from 4-5:30. A man was swimming laps the whole time I was there. I thought of Happyone and her very long walks. I guess you just get into a 'zone'? I thought I was doing great swimming for 15 minutes. It's all relative, right?

I'm writing this out on my deck. The sultry hot weather we had during the day has been replaced by lower temperatures, lower humidity and a wonderful breeze. I'd be so happy if I could make this time last for a few more hours...

Oh, one last thing. I just heard a loud rustle in the trees. I looked up to see one of the nests fall apart. Half of it is hanging from a lower branch. Two very shocked-looking squirrels scurried away from the upper part. All that work for naught. Kind of like me and the pesto. I sure hope they recycle those branches or I'll have denuded trees.