Veggie Update

So, I am mainly writing this blog because I had to sign onto the blog to see what day I got all excited about my first green tomato. That day was 7/21. 7/21 was a very long time ago.  Since then I have excitedly run to my porch in anticipation of the first RED tomato, only to see endless fields of green.

Until yesterday. Yesterday I finally got my first red tomato.

I bought some fancy tomatoes from the woman who built my veggie boxes. She sells starts in the spring. I bought one that is red with black shoulders (see above) and one that is pink (see below). So far they have really just been green, but I think I'll get a few more of the black shouldered variety.  The other plant only produced a couple very sad looking tomatoes, I'm not sure they will get much better than this.

Hello pink lady, we're waiting.

So, there is a little bit of tomato excitement!  But, I have to say overall this year's crop has been a bit disappointing. All my plants have been super happy and growing like champs, but if I were relying on this garden to keep me supplied with food, I'd be starving to death. The plants are sprouting like weeds, the actual vegetables, not so much.

We can start at the very beginning. Radishes and carrots. The radishes grew quickly, but just as quickly they either rotted or were eaten by some rodent or something. The carrots, long forgotten now, actually were pretty successful. Including this one, my favorite.

In truth, I think this came from the farmer's market, but cute!

Since then I've been working on Broccoli (growing like a weed, but producing little fruit - so to speak), brussel sprouts (being eaten by something and I'm not sure where the actual veggie is), kale (some success but mostly slow growing, small leaves and not very exciting - I didn't even take a picture because the kale was so dull).

Broccoli, tasty but not much of it.

Brussel sprouts, lots of leaves by no sprouts + making some animal happy.

There are a items of potential excitement, peppers and squash. But again, the growth has been phenomenal, but I'm wondering if I'm actually going to get anything to eat.

It's starting to cool off, will this ever be edible? 

I'm pretty sure these are red peppers, but I don't even see a pink tinge!

  Finally, just because, I got these at the farmer's market the other day.  I think they are might pretty!!

  
 

Crazy Cat Lady

I do not think of myself as a crazy cat lady.  In fact, if I'm crazy anything it's crazy about dogs (Ahh, Otto!). But I did something really scary this week that may force me to reassess. It's hard to believe and harder yet to admit. But, yes, I bought a cat game application for the ipad. I know, say it isn't so! I am a sane reasonable person. How did this happen?

But, guess what, she loves it. I turn the game on and she just starts purring.......... Maybe she'll need her own Ipad?

This is one has a butterfly that moves lazily around the screen. She gets points every time she taps it. 

This version is a mouse that zips around and sometimes disappears. This is her favorite! She got over 8000 points, I'm so proud!

Otto is concerned.

  Can membership here be far behind?

In other slightly out of the ordinary news. This lady was walking around downtown seattle on Friday.

Yes, that is one white heel and one black flat!  I wonder how many cats she has!!

Cuteness!

This blog may not be extra interesting if one is not related to the cuteness I'm about to reveal. But, holy crap, should one be allow to spend time with such ultra adorable beings.......?

This weekend was cute cute cute....... First we hung out with Penny......

Penny and Otto practice being cute together. 

100% solid muscle .

Blue medal winner practices her pose - flex those muscles Penny! 

Breakfast with the Erbecks, getting the energy to be cute....... 

CUTE x 1!!

Cute x 2!!

And yes he's cute too, but too much cuteness seems to have produced a grimace.

 

Happy Anniversary to Me!!!!

Whoa.. Yes, this is two blogs in one day, but I just realized yesterday was THE FOURTH ANNIVERSARY OF MY BLOG.  Happy Anniversary to me, my blog and all my tens of wonderful followers. It's been a long, strange trip. Well, not so much. The real question, of course, is when do I become one of those bloggers who gets to quit my job and live off my blog and dazzling personality? 

In honor of the event, Daisy and Otto threw me a party. It was raucous. I took a couple pictures.

Enjoy and thanks for all the support.

This is as raucous as Otto gets when it's 95 degrees outside, no matter how exciting the event!

Daisy joins in the fun.

This was when the party really started!

And I realize this much excitement was probably enough for one day, but when it wears off, stop by and read the other blog from today, about my new sleep app!

Oh snap, it's a new app.

It's hard to be me. There is so much to worry about. And as I learn more about health - food, sleep, exercise, hormones - the list keeps growing and growing. Today we'll focus on sleep. More and more people seem to be writing about the importance of sleep and how completely messed up one will be with improper sleep. Of course, it's not just enough to be in bed for 8 hours. Or even asleep for 8 hours. It seems the quality of sleep is vital. And the quality can be influenced by oh so many things - the light you're exposed to before bed (blue light from electronic devices is EVIL), how dark your bedroom is, when you last ate etc etc etc. The list of details to get right (or wrong) are endless.

So, imagine my excitement yesterday when I bought an app that will tell me the quality of my sleep!  Here's how it works, you place your phone on your mattress and it monitors your movement. Supposedly this allows the app to know what level of sleep you're in. For those of you (ie me) worried about wireless signals whirring about your room ruining your sleep quality, the phone can be on airplane mode while it does it's thing (phew).  The actual point of the app is pretty cool. It's an alarm clock.  You set a window of time in which you need to wake up, and it wakes you up in the best part of your sleep. So, you know sometimes when you wake up in the middle of a dream and you're REALLY tired all day?  This is supposed to avoid that.

I was so excited about this app, it actually affected my sleep. I kept dreaming about checking the app. First, I dreamt that I was some type of doctor or something. There was a sick boy and I was working with him and his mother. Somehow sleep was part of or could improve this sickness. Anyhow, we went to the doctor (the boy, his mother and I), which was at the Southcenter Nordstrom. The doctor couldn't see him, so I was going to show him and his mother his sleep data. But then I couldn't get the data from the app. In the second dream, I was about to compete in some sort of sporting event with the women I used to race bikes with. We were all given water bottles that had our sleep information on them and this was supposed to predict our performance! After all this dreaming, I woke up all excited to see how I slept. Only to discover it was only 4.23, much to early to check.

So, the results?

Sadly, I'm not sure they were very accurate. As you can see in the graph above, the app showed me waking up once. Well, I know for a fact I got out of bed and went to the bathroom TWICE last night. Not to mention waking up at 4.23 and again at 5.20. Somehow, the app seems to miss a few of those events. I'll keep testing in the hope that this will make me happier and healthier! Oh, and I actually got two apps. So I can try the other one too!!!!

(BTW, you may notice with alarm I woke up at 5.52 on a Saturday!  Yes. That's what happens around here! That's why I get grouchy if I stay awake past 10!)