Update

Well the last of the garlic is harvested and hung in the garage to cure. The zucchini tasted wonderful. Ask me again in a month and I'll probably have a different adjective to use. I picked more raspberries. Aunt Cris suggested that rather than make jam I make marion/raspberrry jelly. So I secured the raspberries in the freezer while we wait on the marionberries. We can start eating blueberries anytime now. And peas. I just love this time of the season.

A Surprise

Today a package came in the mail. It was from Heather. She found this on her girls' night out and thought of me. So she got it and sent it to me. And I hung it right by the front door to always see it and think of her.

Garden Again

The garden is doing well. The first picture is of the first harvest of garlic. We have another harvest to do today. That one we did last week and we followed the directions from Hood River Garlic which is where I got the "seed" garlic. I have been following another blog and they recently harvested their garlic and they cleaned it prior to curing. We did not do that as Hood River said to clean after curing. So we shall see.
The second picture is a ten minute harvest prior to coming in and cooking supper. I needed the green onions for my enchiladas. We'll eat the zucchini tomorrow. I have to get back out and pick more raspberries that may become jam tomorrow.
The third picture obviously is of the garden as it is now. Growing and green. Just the way we like it. Looks like we'll have peas shortly. :)

A Great Day

Today was the usual Elizabeth day. After a few errands we went over to a friend's house who owns a stable. She boards horses. So we got to pet about twelve of them. A couple really liked us. One gave Elizabeth a kiss and startled her a bit. He also tried to see what was in my pocket. Methinks perhaps he finds treats in some pockets. Elizabeth really liked the rambunctious one who let everyone know he was there. Kicked up quite a bit of dust and really banged the gate. He still let us pet him even if he wanted dinner.
Then we had dinner at a local Mexican restaurant. It was the first time we ever had spicy refried beans there. Here I always thought they came out of a can, but no....they are cooked in the back with jalapenos and onions before being refried. Learn something new everyday and we did let them know to tell that cook not so many jalapenos.
After that I needed to go to the neighbor's house for a minute. Elizabeth got to see the peacocks, geese, one goat, the dog and her puppy. They gave us a couple boxes of fresh picked cherries. Yummy. All organic....got to like that.
Then I took Elizabeth home. Adrianna did not cry. She can stand and finally has a tooth. She is now nine months old.

Bill Sense

Part of rewarding good choices and helping a bit was paying the dental deductible for Elizabeth and Tanya. Tanya needed quite a bit of work done so I also chose to pay the co-pay for her extractions. I didn't tell her about that at the time assuming she would figure it out when she got the bill. This occurred in May. Enough time has passed that I asked her if it got credited to her account. She didn't know. So this prompted a small discussion on how do you know the bill is correct then. Man, oh man. She said she just assumed that it all worked out. There were too many numbers on the bill for her to be bothered figuring it out. I'm sure that my payment was credited correctly, but she can't tell me for sure. She is going to call on Monday and verify.
So now I have a story to tell her about bills. We also go to the dentist and use insurance. Once the dentist has all his money he no longer sends us a bill as we owe nothing. I pay attention and realized we had overpaid. Our dentist being the good businessman just leaves the credit on account rather than sending it back to us. I had to call and verify that I had a credit and then asked for a check. That check had to have the approval of the dentist and the accountant. Had I just ignored all the numbers the dentist office would have had use of our money till the next time we had work done. Me, I prefer to use my money myself and pay my bills as they are due.

Dinner Guest

I love having dinner guests. It motivates me into getting the house whipped into shape. It isn't super messy, but when company is coming all the work gets done in a timely fashion. Tonight my husband's friend from Germany is here. He came to do a project at the local plant where my husband works. He said it was a long way to come for two hours work, but we agreed dinner with a friend was worth it.
Dave picked up some more pepper steaks and he grilled them. I sliced up some potatoes and they got cooked on the grill also. Then I picked lettuce and onion from the garden and made a quickie salad and picked radishes. It was a very nice meal with nice company.

Zoo

Elizabeth and I got up really early yesterday morning. We wanted to go to the zoo. The best way for us to do that is to ride the light rail. That meant catching it before 8 a.m. So we managed all that and got to the zoo before my friend Sara and her kids arrived. Sara has a zoo membership so we were able to get in with her. Very cool. Her youngest is 8 months old and seemed to enjoy being strolled around and he really liked me. He smiled and chattered at me a lot.
I love the zoo, but it always seems like I pick a bad time to go. The animals are always sleeping. Aha....wonder if that is because the animals I love are nocturnal....like tigers. We did see cougars pacing and they are not as big as I thought they were. They are kind of slinky. The ocelots are beautiful. We did see the polar bears playing so that was nice. We did a lot of walking up and down, up and down. Good exercise for us.
Then we caught the light rail back to my car. Elizabeth was asleep before we crossed the bridge. So she got about a half an hour car nap.
The weather was perfect, the company was great and the zoo was fun. All in all a really good day.