Eve of destruction

Is hot. Preston deals with the heat by lying on his side and channeling his inner Kraft Singles.



The path of destruction continues. Despite the heat, I decide to replace the trim and resurface the walls in the hottest, most poorly ventilated, cramped room in the house.



Hot weather, plaster dust, and stinky sweat makes for quite a combination.



Fig tart. In honor of Eve- humanity's first Tart.

Cheap hands

Today's harvest from the garden. Quite the bounty today. Japanese cucumbers and eggplants. Tomatillos. Lemons. Purple beans, white pattypan squash. And two Asian pears.



Today's harvest from Costco. A giant hand of bananas. Only $1.30. Holy cow!



And I moved the upstairs metal cabinet into the guest room- for I am freakishly strong for my size.

Pot o cheese

Baked ziti! I still have much costco moxxarella cheese left. So so very much. It's a good thing I like cheese.

Rusty dough

Failed calzone. I experimented with a rye/wheat flour blend. But it made the dough all floppy. I will call this a rustic savory tart instead.



Rustic tomato mozzirella tart. I went mozzerella happy at the Costco recently. We will have a lot of pictures of mozzarella dishes. Pounds and pounds of mozzyrella.

Say cheese

Green bean gratin. Cheezy green bean gratin. So very cheesy.

La'zer'tar

I found a bag of lentils at the back of the pantry. So we make chorizo lentil stew. With pumpkin seed crunchies and yogurt and za'tar. This is Davy's version of beanie weanies.



These pictures are arranged this way only because I wanted to play with the lazer level.

Ode to tuna

A most curious shape,
This ditalini.
Like chopped up bits,
Of teeny weenies.
With chunks of tuna,
Spread in-betweeny.
Some cucumber crunchies,
And cannelini.

Unmellow yellow

The tennis ball room gets all new white outlets and switches. Yes, changing the outlets from almond to white is a bit obsessive. But so is razor-blading the windows so the paint edges are crisp and straight. After five years in the house, I've finally hung the new pictures on the wall.



So-so deviled eggs tonight. But now that the guest room is painted, I'm transitioning from green food to yellow food. I don't quite have the hang of yellow foods yet.

Walls of fruit

So I've repainted the obnoxious "melon" walls with obnoxious "pear." As much as I loved "melon's" ability to repel guests from the guest room, "pear" is supposed to bring out the colors of the bamboo floors more. And hopefully equally repellant to long term guests.



Preston and Hannah spent their visit last month re-enacting scenes from the Sistine Chapel.

Yellow means slow

The very first backyard tomato of the season. I couldn't wait any longer and just had to eat this one. I should have waited longer. It was "eh."



I couldn't leave the walls alone, and had to patch every last hole and rough spot. And sand and sand and sand. There is glow stick green dust everywhere.

Little green monsters

I'd like to give a shout out to my homies, Elmo, Big Bird, Dora, Barney, and Tinky Winky. Yo! Peace.



My pesto pasta is the color of the guest room.

Spark of fire

Building a desktop from leftover bamboo flooring. I'm also re-locating the home office into the downstairs closet. Lots of fun because of the glue and the saws and the cleats and the screws and the powertools.



The TiVo and the DVD player and the Nintendo are now hidden away from view. And all the home office equipment has gone vertical. I will ask my accountant about writing off 4.4 square feet of my house for the home office deduction. I shall have to twist tie the jumble of wires sometime in the next two years.



And now my electronical life is in order. No more running up and down the stairs to get my printouts. Stronger wireless signals all through the house and farm. My guests aren't tripping over phone lines on their way to the bathroom. The Nintendo and TiVo now have surround sound. The computer is hooked up to the TV if I ever need to give a powerpoint presentation in the living room. And my overnight guests will be able to watch TV on a nice sized screen in the guest room. TiVo too!

I probably should be concerned that ALL of my electronic equipment hangs from the same 3 studs in the wall. And that everything is plugged into a single electrical circuit. But I am in happy denial about all that.

Now maybe I'll enjoy working more. Or not.

Closing up

Day 2 of weekend project. The wall is finally closed up. Plaster drying. Everything covered in white dust.



Installing cedar paneling if the closet ever gets converted back into a normal closet. But for now, it will keep my electronic equipment moth free.