The Dog Days of Summer

So sorry for the lack of posting. I went back and looked, and it seems that I tend to slack off every summer. I'm not really sure why that is. I'd like to blame it all on work; summer is my "busy" season. All the kids are out of school and need extra speech therapy. I could also try and blame it on the weather being hot and miserable, but that certainly has not been the case this year. We have had the perfect summer (so far...) Honestly I don't have an excuse. We are still busy doing things except for when we're not. I've managed to complete several knitting, sewing/quilting projects, cook and clean a little here and there and grow some really pretty flowers. I've read several books, some of which may have been a waste of time.  We have seen all three of the Shakespeare in the Park shows, which were fantastic and we've made a bit more of a dent in sorting out our messy basement. I'm guessing that once September gets here I'll get my blogging mojo back. You know how much  I love Fall. Until then It will  probably continue to be hit or miss around here.Hopefully more hits than misses. Have a great weekend,
Sally
P.S, Grace has gotten her Blog approved and has begun writing a bit about Cambodia. No pictures yet, but she promises to post some soon.

July Yum

 The first full size tomato from my garden this summer. Isn't she a beauty?

 Can you guess what I' had for lunch today?

I saved this tomato from the squirrels by picking it a little early. It's been sitting on my counter, slowly turning red since Tuesday. I probably should have shared it with Alan, but honestly it was just big enough for me. I might have to continue the "pick early " plan because I found two almost ripe tomatoes on the ground this morning with tiny little squirrel size bites taken out of them. It just makes me so mad. You would think that between the dog and the cat our rodent population would be next to nil. I wish. Hope you have great plans for the weekend. Not sure what we are going to do yet. We've been kinda last minute planners lately. Everything always depends on the weather.
Sally.

And She's Off...

Grace made to Cambodia all in one piece. She left Louisville early Thursday morning and got to Phnom Penh early Sunday morning their time, late Saturday night our time. She stayed one night in LA and about 4 hours at a hotel in Bangkok. the Bangkok stop was just long enough for them all to take showers and change their clothes so that they would look presentable when arriving in Cambodia. The Peace Corps has given her a phone, but Alan found out today that it will cost us $1.99 a minute to talk to her. I think most of our communications will be through email and skype when she has internet access. When I spoke with her this morning, she had just finished dinner. They are 11 hours ahead of us. She said the food was delicious. She had also already had her first Khmer language lesson and was able to say "Hi, my name is Grace. I am from America".  She sounded even more excited if that is possible, but seriously sleep deprived. She was on her way to get some much need rest. Hopefully she will be able to update her blog regularly. She has information there about how to get in touch with her. I have no idea how much postage will be. She wants me to send her a couple of things that she forgot, including her raincoat. I told her I would so long as the postage didn't cost more than the coat.
Sally

4th Of July

Hope you all have enjoyed a lovely 4th of July weekend. We couldn't have asked for a nicer July weekend here in Louisville. I guess what we need is a hurricane on the east coast (sorry Dad and David) to suck out all of the moisture from the air here. It has been just perfect! I have to say that I'm over the fireworks though. I get it on the 4th, but not on the 3rd and the 5th and probably the 6th. I especially don't appreciate fireworks at 12:30 in the morning. One little "bang" and the dog barks for ever. She gets herself so worked up. Poor thing. The cat hides in the basement until he's sure it's all over, and then wants someone to let him out. My sleep schedule is a tad messed up. Grace is checking off the days until she leaves for Cambodia. Just 3 left to go. She's pretty much packed and keeping her fingers crossed that this time is for real. The closer we get to her leaving date the more I realize just how much I'm going to miss her. It's been nice having her around. I guess we will just have to start planning our trip to Cambodia.
Sally

Cambodia It Is

You probably know by now if you have read Grace's blog that the Peace Corps has reassigned her to Cambodia. She leaves July 10th, that's next week! Needless to say the packing requirements for Cambodia are significantly different than for China, so we have been busy shopping. She now has things like modest, calf length skirts and tops with sleeves, a jell bike seat and a head lantern which she will need in order to find the "latrine" at night. She is very excited and can't wait to go. We have started the count down, and by that I mean squeezing in all of the things she wants to do before she leaves.  That includes foods she wants to eat because she probably won't eat them again for quite a while. With the 4th of July approaching she's requested ribs. She's not a vegetarian anymore in case you were wondering. Grace also loves cobbler. The first few pictures are of a cobbler that I made last week. So fruity and yummy. The recipe that I use is somewhere under the "I love the taste of..." tab at the top of my blog. If you scroll down about half way you will find it. It's simple and makes your kitchen smell so good. Make sure you have some vanilla ice cream on hand.
Sally