Hot days

The summer weather is finally upon us. Not nearly so hot as some other parts of the country--only in the mid to high 80s--but definitely a lot warmer than the last couple months have been. Very glad to have A/C, even if it is just an in-window one. The house feels pretty good, especially compared to outside.

Ralph recently bought a pressure cooker, and today we are making our second meal in it (the first being a beef stew that was very tasty). Tonight it's spare ribs in homemade BBQ sauce. It smells wonderful! I think this pressure cooker is going to have a huge and beneficial impact on how we eat during the week, since a proper meal can be cooked up in the same amount of time it would take us to order a pizza or go through a drive-thru. We're both pretty excited about it.



The Alter Ego Swap is just about finished. I was the first person to receive their package, and I was quite pleased with what I received: some origami cranes & an origami bookmark made by my swapner; teas grown local to her area; sock patterns and some scrumptious green/black yarn to go with them; a notebook with a beautiful stained-glass motif cover; and a very nice note in a flight-themed notecard.

My downstream swapner received her package on Friday, and I think she really liked it. She's a Harry Potter fan, so I made a 'super-colossal deluxe chocolate frog' for her, which can be seen in the first photo of today's post. To give you an idea of the size, the pillow on which it is sitting is a little over a foot square. I also put in some chocolate/caramel treats; sock yarn in a blue/grey/white multi; cheese popcorn; stitch markers; buttons; and needle holders. It was fun putting everything together & I'm already looking forward to doing another swap.



Also in today's post are a couple photos from the hike Ralph & I took in the San Gabriel Mountains. The tree is an ironwood, or so we were told by another hiker. All I know for sure is it was very pretty with its red wood and grey-sheen leaves. I wish I'd gotten a better photo. Maybe next time :-)




Yesterday was a very expensive day for us. We took Sadie to the vet as her skin issues were really flaring up again. They've got a new doctor in the practice, and she prescribed new medication in addition to the prednisone, as well as a rather pricey hypo-allergenic dog food. Of course, she hates the new food. Afterwards we went to the Halloween Club & spent a couple hundred dollars on props & costume pieces for the haunted house, including a magnificent animatronic "Demonica" figure for which we have plans muwaaa haa haaaa! You'll have to wait until Halloween to find out what! Oh, almost forgot, we also spent quite a bit at PetSmart getting Frontline & a few other items. Ah, well, it's only money, right?