Working: Tools.

Been out in the studio today. Hoping to: 1. Finish three this weekend. [X-only 1 done]


Also need to:

2. Get an oil change [X + tire rotation, battery cleaned, tail light fixed]
3. Wash the car [X-sorta]
4. Mow the lawn [X]
5. Weed [X-sorta]
6. Clean the house [X]
7. Do laundry [X]
8. Cook: Chicken Curry, Pesto [X] [X]
9. Grocery shop [X]
10. Rearrange bedroom
11. Spend time at the pool Rescheduled for next weekend.
12. Nap [X-solid 2 hours!]

Two days is not enough time off for all these things. I'll update later what actually gets done.

[X] Updated. A few more hours left in the day for cooking and laundry... Final Update: Done and Done.

After the Rain.

I love the way the yard looks after a really good rain and man, did it pour last night. I especially love the color it makes the fence and deck, and how all the green looks really green next to them. I'd like to eventually stain them to look like this all the time. My yard is an overgrown mess right now, but I kind of like the look of it being unruly. I'm eating bread with cheese and apricot preserves for breakfast and am on my 3rd cup of coffee.





Earlier I ran my fingers up the stem of some rosemary and the scent is still on my hand. I'm going to go to the store after I paint for a little while and tonight I'm finally going to make that roast chicken with my own fresh herbs!

I Swear...

This won't be a baby fest from now on but this pic of my Mom with my niece is killing me after the past couple of weeks we've had as a family. I'm so happy to see them together! Look at her feet! I am just... ahhh.

After the survivor lap at the Relay for Life in Steamboat at a free concert!

I (might) write like...

David Foster Wallace.

I thought it was kinda funny that when I cut and pasted a sample of my writing on the I Write Like site, I matched David Foster Wallace. Infinite Jest has been sitting on my night stand stuck on page 131 since this time last year. It's not that I don't like the book. I quite like it actually. But it's a commitment to read it. I think this would be a great one to take on a leisure vacation where all you have to do all week is read. Those footnotes are kind of brutal. I tried skipping past them to keep a flow going, but found that impossible to do as well. I didn't want to miss anything. So there it sits.

I realize I don't update or keep track of what I'm really reading like I had originally planned. Maybe I should try to do that a little more diligently. I'm about to finish The Sound and the Fury. This also took me a ridiculously long time to read. I'm going to read Oscar Wao next, which everyone seems to really love, so maybe that will get me back on track.

For the record the last book I read that I really loved was Any Human Heart, by William Boyd.

Image via here.

Look-Alikes.

So I was trying to find some old baby pictures of my brother to compare them with the photos of my niece. Turns out I don't really have that many of him, but in this one I think I see a pretty strong resemblance to her. What really freaks me out though, in looking at the old photos, is how much my brother looks like my Dad did! It's outrageous.

Painting.

Cement is a tough color to match. So is wet cement. I've been flipping through my swatch books trying to find a color that compares. The CMYK version of 451 comes close. It's funny to me that such a common color you see everywhere is actually very difficult to define.

Lily.

These kinda showed up in my yard out of nowhere. I've never planted them, or seen them before, but there they are, spreading some beauty around among these pretty yellow ones that were, in fact, here when I moved in 3 years ago.

This is one of my favorite views.

Of all time. Only part of the (so far) wonderful weekend, but one of the best parts. I hope to see it again before it's over on Tuesday.

Roast Chicken.

Suddenly felt the urge to make one of these and googled Le Crueset Roast Chicken. This recipe came up in the results. Besides making some chicken, I need to get back into the habit of posting here. I'm going to try and do that the next few days.

Via The Amateur Gourmet.