Oh hi! It’s the weekend and it’s AUGUST. The second weekend in August, in fact, even though that seems impossible on multiple levels. We just got back from vacation and are not fully adjusted back into Real Life. Let’s have some randomosity, shall we?
- Perhaps you recall that Carla accompanied me on a recent grocery store trip. My policy is to pretty much say “yes” if she points out a food she wants to try, although I reserve the right to limit the number of sweet things I let her put into the cart. I kept close track of the things she actually ate from that trip.
- Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese: I am pretty sure this is still unopened. But that’s because we left town for a week. She did eat most of a giant block of cheddar that was in my mother’s fridge, though.
- Demi Baguette: Carla ate half of this baguette in the car and the other half for dinner.
- Chobani Flip Cookie Dough Yogurt: She ate all but one before we left on vacation.
- Watermelon: I kept reminding her it was in the fridge and she kept saying she would eat it and then… it went bad. SIGH.
- Fully Cooked Bacon: I think she ate four slices immediately and then forgot about it.
- Black Seedless Table Grapes: She ate some of these, but not all of them. I consider this a half win. Next time, I will take my grocery store at their word that we can take a smaller portion out of the grapes bag and buy that instead of an entire huge molds-before-we-can-get-to-it amount.
- Crepes: She has been eating these pretty regularly, both before and after our trip! She put sliced strawberries in the first one, then moved on to Nutella. (I tried one, too; I found a recipe for a lemony yogurt spread to put inside and it was so awful I couldn’t finish it. The crepe was good though.)
- Golden Berries: I washed the whole carton of these little guys and ended up eating a few. They had a texture I don’t love, but the sour-sweet flavor was enjoyable enough to override it. Carla ate ZERO. This may be my fault, though; when I ate the first one, I mentioned it was sour, and then she kept asking me if they were as sour as WarHeads. She LIKES WarHeads, so I don’t really know why “sour” would have been a deterrent, but maybe she doesn’t like sour fruit?
- Raw Slivered Almonds: This container remains unopened in the cupboard.
- Wax Beans: Carla ate about half of these before we left. Next time, I am going to buy fewer than AN ENTIRE PACKAGE.
- Ham: Carla ate the entire quarter pound of ham!
- Protein+ Spaghetti Noodles: Carla has made several pots of spaghetti noodles.
- Wholly Guacamole: We still have a whole package left, and I ate at least half of the other package myself.
- Cookie: Not eaten on account of walnuts.
- Our vacation was lovely and relaxing. We had a mix of rainy days, during which we stayed inside and did things like read and watch movies, and sunny days, during which we went swimming and boating and hiking. On our last hike, Carla managed to attract a dog. This is much more surprising than it sounds, considering the nearest neighbor lives about a mile away in the middle of a very isolated and remote forest. Leave it to Carla to find a dog wherever she goes! The other highlight of our trip, for her at least, was a bird that fell down the chimney into the wood stove. The four of us had to team up to remove the bird (who was sooty but flew away, seemingly unharmed) and Carla thought it was The Best Thing Ever.
- Carla and I have been getting into hair styling videos. I have never been Good At Hair. My hair has been pretty much the same style since high school. I can form a rudimentary braid, I can pull it back into a ponytail, I can stuff it into a claw clip. That’s really the extent of my hair styling abilities. So I’m always intrigued by videos on Instagram that show Super Easy Ways to Braid! I have saved a bunch of these videos but have not tried any of them. Carla tried a braid on me the other day. She decorated it with those little plastic rectangles you use to close a bread bag. Slay.
- I am still in a sundress-buying phase. The most recent one I bought was a disappointment – it’s made for someone with less hip real estate than I possess. But it’s so cute on the model! Now I’m jonesing for a replacement dress.
- Another recent purchase was a big hit, though. My daughter is always asking, “What does that mean?” when my husband and I use idioms, so I got her this book to explain what a bunch of common phrases and sayings mean and where they came from. She LOVES IT. Oooh – it looks like there’s a whole series of these books! Maybe I need to get her another one for Christmas or Hanukkah?
- My “vegetable garden” is finally producing some vegetables. Tomatoes are starting to ripen, peas are podding, strawberries are somehow surviving the birds. I have only had ONE LONELY ZUCCHINI. Next year, I think I will plant multiple zucchini plants and only one cucumber. I don’t really LIKE cucumbers, and the two cucumber plants I planted have been prolific and weird. One of them produces round cucumbers. The little card that came with the plant has a picture of totally normal oblong cucumbers on it… so I’m not sure what I’ve done to produce globular cucumbers. I’m just letting it do its thing.
- Speaking of plants behaving oddly… Do you remember a million years ago when I was complaining about the state of my front stoop? Well, I buying a couple of little evergreens that I LOVE. I bought them from the same garden center, on the same day. I planted them in identical pots, at the same time, with identical soil and fertilizer. I have watered them identically. And yet… one of them has done rather poorly.
- I am thinking about starting a beef with our FedEx driver. Is that the correct way to say that? “Starting a beef”? Sounds more like prepping dinner than I intended, but oh well. We have a front door with a covered stoop and UPS and the mail person leave packages there. This is nice, because they are protected from the elements, plus we know that someone left a package there because we have a video doorbell that alerts us. The FedEx driver does not leave packages on the stoop. He leaves them by our garage, right out in the open. Which is why we did not know that a package my in laws had sent us – full of fun gifts and snacks from Europe – had been delivered until the next morning, when my husband went to work and found the box in a mess of candy wrappers. Some grateful raccoon mistook our package for its own, broke in, and ate every single edible thing within.
- Do you know a Cat Lady for Kamala? A friend of a friend created this coloring book and I am in the mood for a little giveaway. Let me know in the comments if you (or someone you know) are interested in having this coloring book, and I’ll choose a number at random and send a copy to the winner!
That’s all I have for you today, Internet! I hope your weekend is off to a great start!
OMG THE PACKAGE. That would make me insane. I mean, why? WHY. And raccoons, those bastards.
Welcome back! Do you want some zucchini? I have the most zucchini. Even my mother-in-law is astounded at the number and size of my zucchini. On the other hand, I had also planted cucumbers and whoa, they were terrible. They grew fine but the cucumbers themselves tasted awful. And I LIKE cucumbers. So I ended up pulling out the plants.
I don’t think I have tasted a single cucumber yet! Yes, please send me all your zucchini. I love zucchini! LOVE IT.
I love that coloring book! And I would use it often, as publically as possible.
Yeah, I would definitely have beef with the UPS dude over that.
That cucumber IS weird and probably cursed, don’t eat it. We didn’t grow anything but herbs this year, but my mom sends over cucumbers, which fortunately the kids like. I would cut a bitch for peas in the pod, so I’m jealous of that.
Glad your vacation was chill and fun!
Wait. Are you SURE that was a cucumber plant??? I mean… I don’t know what else that yellow round thing could be, but it definitely doesn’t look like a cucumber to me. But I’m not a gardener, so maybe I just don’t know about these things.
Yes, I would definitely “start a beef” with FedEx! How disappointing and annoying!
I’m glad you had such a nice vacation. And, if I won that coloring book I would send it to my sister. I don’t color, but she does.
That’s an adorable coloring book. It seems like most of the foods were a hit or at least tried. I’m a huge fan of crepes and cheddar cheese. As I recall you were doubtful that the crepes would work. As a retired French teacher, there are SO many fillings that you can put in crepes. My mouth is watering even thinking about it. The vacation sounds great!
I think they are called lemon cucumbers. They are a legit, albeit rare, variety. They are far less likely to go bitter as some cukes can do.
And yes, by all means do lodge a complaint with FedEx. We’ve had a change of delivery people in our area and I am having to do some serious training of the new personnel. They – both FedEx and UPS – started leaving parcels at the end of my driveway out in the elements where they could not even be seen from the house. I was not pleased.
Glad you had a pleasant vacation!
The pictures from the vacation look gorgeous! I’m glad you had a good time; minus rescuing the bird!
Sounds like Carla is making inroads to trying new things. It just takes time.
And her hair decorating technique is certainly “unique”.
The random dying evergreen. Does it get the same amount of sun as the other? Also, it’s entirely possible that this particular evergreen was sickly to begin with.
We usually receive a notification email when a package is received. Nine times out of ten it’s on the porch and if it’s not there they leave it hidden behind the bushes near the garage. But definitely complain.
Also, wth with the two potted trees, and your hair is really pretty.
That coloring book is fantastic!
Ugh! The package! We have such aggressive squirrels that even if they are delivered to our front porch, they will eat through the packaging while we are at work. It’s nuts. The last time it happened they gave up before they got to the candy, though.
Your vacation sounds wonderful! Those pictures!
And who would have thought to use bread bag closures as a hair accessory. Now that is a novel idea. I don’t get much of the youth’s style so won’t count this out as a potential trend!!
She ate some of the things. That’s a win.
I would definitely try the cucumbers, just to see. I think I’ve seen cucumber like that, maybe at the farmers’ market or maybe photos in a seed catalog.
The bread bag tags as hair decorations reminds me of something North would do at that age.
“Slay” made me actually snort.
I’m giggling at the shopping/buying VS actually eating portion of your post and that portion of your life.
OMG on the package debacle. What the hell?
I believe that one evergreen just didn’t have it in him to live life.
Carla did slay your hairdo and found another use for those bag ties. Nothing I could have conjured up if given the opportunity.
That is so unfortunate with the package. I am sorry.
Your friend is very talented. The coloring books looks amazing I hope whoever wins it will enjoy it. I will forgo entry as shipping is not reasonable.
Your trip sounds lovely in a low key way!!! And I feel less alone in my blog disappearance 🙂 The vacation void is real . . .
Your vacation sounds so lovely! I was laughing about the dog!
That book sounds cool! Many years ago I was into learning about idioms!
Yay for produce! We only planted one cucumber seed and it’s been the perfect amount LOL.
I *am* a Cat Lady for Kamala, and I love Mandela coloring books! It looks beautiful!
Re the yellow cucumber, I think it’s a lemon cucumber, as timberdawn said. I’ve only had one once and don’t remember much, other than being disappointed that it didn’t taste lemony, even though my rational brain knew the name was just based on the shape/color…
I miss having children play with my hair….🤣❤️
That coloring book looks so beautiful!
Your vacation sounds lovely.
Omg I want that coloring book so badly. All of my favorite things: coloring books, Kamala, and CATS. GIMME!
LOL at slay.
I love how you let Carla pick stuff at the store and then kept track of what she was eating – trial and errror, but it sounds like she did eat quite a bit of the things she picked out. I have ton inquire about the wax beans though. I love wax beans, but I think I’ve only ever bought them canned? Do they have them ‘loose” at your store? I mean obviously the ‘raw, uncanned version’ exists somewhere LOL
The package would make me so mad at the FedEX person… you should totallly start a beef with him. Why can’t he deliver the package properly?? It’s his job!
That coloring books looks really awesome!
I love this approach, Suzanne. It’s not all you! Carla has opinions – take advantage of that.
The FedEx person has clearly lost their mind. What the ever loving what? Sigh. I would be stressing out about who to contact and how and whether it would lead to passive-aggressive deliveryperson behavior. I hope, for your sake, that did not happen.
Also, yesss…vacation. It sounds fabulous. <3