Inch by Inch Tuesday

It appears that Paris has removed her blog. I had my entry all scheduled to go, so here it is anyway. This week's theme was to have been: Sleep. I wish Paris all the best and send her the hugs she so needs.

Her link in the sidebar won't work since she has removed her blog.

This week's effort is a collage of sorts, using construction paper and some craft stars I found. You can click on the picture to see a larger image.

Inspiration

I made this baba ghanoush recipe today, and it was quite simple, tasty and healthy. It's a middle eastern eggplant dip I googled.

L made these cupcakes from a new blog I found, and they are very delicious including the cream cheese frosting.

Tomorrow I hope to try this recipe for Spaghetti with Carbonara, or maybe this one for linguine with shrimp scampi.

Last night I decided to cruise Lilly's bloglist and found 5 blogs for my new bloglist. From those 5 blogs I found another 5 blogs, so I'm all inspired for the next while, with new recipes and self-improvement tips!

Farmer's Market

I walked over to the town's new Farmer's Market this morning. It was a perfect summer's day with a light breeze and lots of sunshine. On the way over, I spotted a little boy who seemed to be taking his first ride on a bicycle with training wheels. His expression said it all...lips pursed, eyes focused downward and a chin filled with determination. I thought, he'll be riding aound on the streets in no time. His mom walked ahead with the family dog.

When I got to the Market, I noticed they had set up on some vacant town land which backs onto a few houses. I couldn't help thinking that the residents must not be happy with this new invasion of their privacy. This lady was lounging on what was her back porch..ooh. It wouldn't help that they had a band there playing country music all day. It is strawberry season, so lots of strawberries were on sale from local farms and they do taste so much fresher than from the large supermarkets. Wouldn't you know, I bought a basket of huge purple plums that were imported from the U.S. because the local plums are not yet ready. Well, at least they put it in a bio-degradeable plastic bag! I also bought delicious pastries brought in from a bakery (chocolate chip muffin, blueberry muffin, plain croissant, cherry turnover, almond croissant).

M was glued to the TV set for most of the day, watching the Wimbledon tennis final where Federer finally won after a marathon match against Roddick. He just left with K to play a game of tennis. L went to work early this morning and has an afternoon tennis lesson. I'm baking a chicken in the oven (smells so good) and trying that new salsa recipe I got. I didn't have any green peppers, so I put in an extra tomato and am going to locate my blender.

I just heard on the news of a deadly monorail crash in Disneyworld, Florida of all places.

Happy 4th of July

To all the Americans out there!

Here's a cute video of a 3 year old girl dancing to Michael Jackson's Thriller

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Homemade Salsa

I saw these pretty flowers in the supermarket the other day and impulsively took a photo. I like spider chrysanthemums if that's what they are.

L is invited to a pool party this afternoon, lucky her. She got a great report card and deserves to celebrate. She was at the dentist earlier today for a cleaning. I'm baking pork spareribs today. K is complaining that he's out of clean shorts... either he needs more shorts or I'm not doing laundry often enough or maybe he should start doing laundry! Either way, he's off to tennis in an outfit that doesn't perfectly match, which is important to him.

Our friend just sent a recipe for a delicious jar of homemade salsa that she makes:

Juice from 2 limes

1 large tomato

1/2 green pepper (seeded)

1 jalapeno pepper

1/2 medium sized onion

1 clove of garlic (minced)

handful of coriander

1 tablespoon of vinegar (I used white wine vinegar)

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1/2 to 1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of sugar

Chop the tomato, peppers, onion. Put everything in a blender and voila! you have salsa. You can vary the ingredients depending on taste. Refrigerate.

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It's July

Yesterday was a busy day, it was M's birthday as well as a public holiday in honour of Canada Day. We met up with 2 other families for lunch (not really birthday related) at a restaurant then went back to the hosting family's house for a little while. Their daughter is off to Paris for a month to gain a French high school credit.

Afterward, we rushed off to meet M's brother, his nephew, nephew's girlfriend, and his mom at yet another restaurant for dinner (his brother's treat). At Christmas, this nephew had introduced us to a new girlfriend. It was interesting to see that he had his previous long-time girlfriend back in tow. Well, they're only 18! I brought a birthday cake along and gave it to the waitress. After the meal, she brought the cake out, all lit up, with about 10 assorted waiters and waitresses to help sing 'Happy Birthday'. So M was happy with all the attention on his special day! Not to mention, the chocolate fudge cake was delicious.

This morning, I went for a walk. My next door neighbour was doing some weeding and commented that our lawn was looking a lot more weed-free than hers. I gave her the name of our lawn service and told her they use some kind of organic weed killer. She said she was going to give them a call. This afternoon, I did some weeding myself, then I baked some chicken legs and roasted some broccoli and potatoes for today's meal. I read that a cup of cherries is only 90 calories and packed with more nutrients than blueberries, so I had a cup of those.

Well, I'm going to check that all the house calendars have been moved over to July!

News

Fashionably 40+

Watch for these 2 guys

I got the following in a recent email:


THIS COULD HAPPEN TO YOU ...

IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOUR MOTHER YOUR SISTER

OR YOUR DAUGHTER ..

The strangest thing happened to me this weekend.

I was sitting at a local outdoor cafe having lunch by myself and two men

came and sat down at my table. I gave them the death look, but they just

casually stayed at my table and wouldn't leave me alone. I shined up my

ring on my married finger, then placed my hand on the table. I hinted to

them that I was married and that I was not interested in them.

They got the hint and left, but thankfully the whole thing was captured on

the Cafe's camera. I'm sending you this picture as a warning ... just in case

they try and pick you up too.

Honestly, some men think they are God's gift to women.

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