Friday bullets, June 1, 2018

June? How'd that happen? I don't know, either.

  • Let's start with the least fun item. The van is back in the shop. I drove it straight there from a doctor's appointment yesterday. When I was stopped at a light, the dashboard suddenly decided it needed to audition for The Exorcist. All the dash lights started going off and on, while at the same time all the dials on the gauges would move up and down. One minute it showed I had a full tank of gas, then next minute it was empty. All of them. It was odd. When I was driving, everything behaved itself. So now it's in the shop, and I'm carless.
  • Guess who turns 1 year old today?

That's right! Olive turns 1. Here she is from yesterday practicing wearing her party hat.
  • Y. has turned out to be the chicken whisperer. She sits on a lawn chair, and chickens come up to her so she can hold them. But not the ducks. No one, it seems, is a duck whisperer around here.
  • I bought a new cookbook a while back, and it has turned out to be really good. It's The Complete Mediterranean Cookbook by America's Test Kitchen. We've tried more than a few things, and have liked everything so far. Our most favorite is the lemon spaghetti. 
  • Sometimes you just have to make something frivolous. Can you tell what it is (or going to be)?

The colors kind of give it away, huh? It's a clown fish. Because who doesn't need a small knitted clown fish in their life? It's from the book, Mini Knitted Ocean by Sachiyo Ishii. Actually, everything in it is so cute, I want to make all of it.
  • It seems it is fledgling season. All week people have been spotting young birds hoping around on the ground, who obviously left the nest, but have not quite figured out the flying-thing. One day we saw three different Blue Jay fledglings, and J. and some children saw one of them fall. We left them alone, and are hoping that they survived.
  • My plants in the garden are still alive. Well, not the celery, but I have more seedlings, so will try again. I even have seeds sprouting. It all feels a little miraculous.
  • The P. Family came out and celebrated Memorial Day with us. It was great to seem them. I wish they didn't live so far away!
  • I'm reading a book about sea otters right now. I love sea otters. They are so cuuute! I'll let you know how the book pans out.
  • Recently, the chickens, when they are out in the yard, have been coming up to the sliding back door in the kitchen. They will stand there, and look in the door, as if to say, "Hey! We used to live in there. Why don't you let us in?" We are not letting the chickens back into the house. In case, there was any confusion about that.
  • The other day, a friend had posted that she makes stir-fried watermelon rind for her children. I had never heard of this, so asked Y. if she had ever had it. She had, and she liked it. We had watermelon for dinner last night, and carefully saved all the rinds to cut up and stir-fry for lunch today. Since it is also Children's Day in China, we'll just say it's part of the festivities.
  • I keep seeing things that say you should burn coffee grounds because it helps keep mosquitos away. Has anyone ever done this? Or does your yard just smell like Starbucks, and become even more inviting to the pests?
  • Finally, I apologize for bombarding you with this, but the deadline is looming rapidly. Visit, donate, and share P.'s Go Fund Me page. Please? (And a huge thanks to those of you who have!!) 

Happy weekend!

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