Ten on Tuesday

1. As of today, I am all finished with school. Buh-bye Spring 2010. I am looking forward to a few weeks off before I begin my summer Chemistry course. In the meantime its time to start hitting the Industrial Hygiene take-home course book. Sounds like leisurely bedside reading, huh? I thought so too. Nothing like curling up with a good IH book. My goal is to get through the first three chapters: Intro, History, Objectives & Ethics, and Rudimentary Math and Statistics. Next week, I'll work on the next three chapters...wait for it....Chemistry & Biochemistry Review, Physiology & Anatomy, and Toxicology & Hazardous Materials. I can already tell it's gonna be a page turner. Anyone want to borrow it when I'm done?? I'll be happy to send it to you. Oh wait, I am sure the university would frown on that, considering it's costing UTK $600 for me to read this stuff and then take a test on it later. Yikes! No pressure there.

2. The Great State was ah-maze-ing. The wedding in Fredricksburg was so.much.fun. Who doesn't love a good wedding? We have hundreds of photos, literally hundreds. I am in the process of sorting, editing, deleting, etc. I will post some later.




After the wedding we headed East to El Capitol. We made time for a vacation playdate for Mr. Gavin and helped our friends plant a Cinco de Mayo/birthday salsa garden, followed by a refreshingly cool dip in Barton Springs. Gavin also had his very first popsicle, see the photo below. Again, lots more photos to come at a later date.


The second half of our ATX trip was spent with another couple. We ate a Gueros, one of my favorite ATX eateries, toured the capitol building and took Gavin to the Austin Childrens Museum.



There was one more friend in ATX that I am still bummed we did not get to spend time with. Jenn C., if you're reading this, know that I am bummed and feel guilty and will have to make it up to you big time. Mimosas and brunch on me....one of these days. I know, I feel like a terrible friend.

We spent one full day in San Antonio on Friday. My super awesome big sis and her equally awesome offspring made the trek all the way from H-town for a visit. We took the cousins to the park where they got to swing, seesaw, climb and feed some ducks. Both my sister and I have vivid memories of the "killer ducks" out West in New Mexico. There are pictures of us standing on tables trying not to get eaten by the killer ducks. The Brackenridge Park ducks in San Antonio we hardly aggressive. Some of them weren't even interested in our bread. They were way too good for our bread. At first, my niece didn't want to share the bread with Gavin. It was pointless for me to save bread for Gavin to give to the ducks, because all he did was eat it. I should have just let Bristol have it.



BBQ at my parents' house was hot and crowded, but a good time.


My BFF announced her engagement to her longtime doctor beau and we were all very excited. We began our vacation with a wedding and ended it with an engagement. Love was definitely in the air...


3. Salsa garden is in full swing. Toms are budding and blooming, onion and garlic have taken off. I had to prune my parsley and cilantro way back. Didn't want them to bolt! Our garden got plenty of rain while we were gone so it was healthy and thriving when we returned. That was nice to come home to, but now I am throwing cilantro and parsley on everything. For example, last night I had cilantro lemon pepper chicken with cilantro mashed potatoes. Today I had a spinach, turkey, onion, tom and cilantro sandwich. Tonight it will be all about the parsley. Gotta love some fresh flat-leaf Eye-talian parse.

4. I have $25 worth of grocery store gift cards coming my way. Freaking awesome. A girl has to taste test a lot of beans and other random food products to earn $25. This is a nice treat considering our refrigerator was sad and empty. I'll have to buy something special with my extra $25...maybe some organic meat to keep in the freezer? Maybe ingredients for a special summer treat? Maybe a nice ceramic pot for one of my gardens? Oh the stress of making a decision.

5. I am so excited about all the babies that are going to be born in the next few days and months. Between family, friends, and coworkers Gavin's gonna have playmates from Appalachia to TX to Colorado to Arizona! The stork is awfully busy come late spring and early summer.

6. For my "final" in Environmental Ethics I had to "construct the environmental ethic" of two characters from a fiction novel, Barbara Kingsolver's Prodigal Summer. Good book,but the ending was a little weak. I think some of the sub plots could have been fleshed out a bit more. Totally worth a gander though. Check it out!

7. I've done something CRAZEE. I registered for a marathon. Yikes! More details to come...

8. Summer sustainable living goal: master canning for goodness sakes! I tried this back in 2007. If you recall I was very excited about getting creative with my canned toms, only to be later disappointed when I pulled my jars off the shelf and discovered black goopy rings from where the contents had bubbled out, mostly likely due to Clostridium botulinum. Toxic tomatoes anyone? Going once, going twice, sold to the lucky blogger in the front row. Yeah, so I was discouraged. 2010 is my year! Me and the canning gods are going to come to terms and by golly I'm gonna can some 'maters and pickle some peppers.

9. Christmas gifts: everyone is getting a bag of Uncle Bud's deep-fried peanuts. Yep, in case you haven't heard we fry everything here in the south. Anyhow, these peanuts are special because something about the frying process makes the shell edible. That's right, edible peanut shells. No fuss, no mess. No sucking off all the salt, getting your fingers all dirty and then making a spit-shined peanut shell pyramid on the kitchen table. Just pop these suckers in whole! Love 'em. You can only find them at the best fillin' stations and discount grocery stores. I'm going all out this year. Only the finest for my friends and family.

10. Gavin is definitely WALKING. The week before we left for Tejas Gavin decided he preferred the walking to crawling. Oh Lord, if I only knew how good I had it when I could just sit him down in the middle of the floor and expect him to stay there. This boy is NON-STOP. As usual naps were hard to come by on vacation. We're still exhausted and now that finals are officially DONE and DONE I see a lazy evening in my future.




On that note.....toodles caboodles and don't forget to doodle your noodle!