TWO SNEAK PEEKS

I have a color-mad work-in-progress on my table right now, that's taking much longer than I expected. It's just one small page in my travel journal, so I thought I'd whip it out in a single day. However, instead of just slapping some paint on, as I usually do, it involved sorting through stacks of paper to choose just the right pieces in just the right colors...

then tearing all those papers into itty bitty scraps...

sorting them by color...

and fitting them together like a jigsaw puzzle, before gluing them down.

Here's a sneak preview.

I've never done much collage, so it's been a learning process. I started with craft store paper, having the most color choices there, but it was so thick and stiff that I hated the way the edges jutted up when they overlapped. However, I tried using a paper napkin and bits of tissue paper down in the lower left corner, and absolutely loved the way they layered and fused. Happy dance! Well, except for the fact that I will now feel compelled to collect more kinds of paper, which means finding places to store them in my wee little bedroodio. Sigh.

For your second sneak preview, how about a peek at the wonderful little hotel we stayed at in Barcelona? Definitely a keeper!

We much prefer staying at little privately-owned hotels with a bit of history and character, rather than big fancy chains that look much the same in every country. What you lack in spaciousness, you make up for in charm!

Unlike our earlier Europe-On-$10-A-Day travels, however, I do now insist upon an elevator, a private bath, and a bed that doesn't have such a huge dip in the center that we both roll towards the middle and end up crashing into each other all night long.

A Most Beautiful Elevator

You just couldn't beat the location of this one -- just a half block off of Las Ramblas, the wide pedestrian thoroughfare leading down to the harbor, and a five minute walk to Placa Catalunya, the main hub from which all tours and adventures seem to begin! The only thing we will do differently, if we ever go back, is that we will not opt for the hotel breakfast inclusion, as the streets around us were positively teeming with much better options!

 

FLIGHT SCHOOL

Every year we have at least one or two nests of barn swallows in our open air garage. Most people we know knock the mud nests down as soon as they see them, since they don't like having poop and feathers all over the place. Us? Well, we kinda love 'em. The only thing we don't love is when one of the fledglings is flunking flight school. It makes us so very nervous to see one poor baby sitting there in the same spot all the live-long day, seemingly unable to get up off the ground -- especially when that spot is right behind one of our cars, and we can't back out of the garage for fear of running over the little critter. Plus we worry about predators if they are still stuck there when night falls, which is what happened yesterday.

This morning when I went out for an early walk, he was nowhere to be seen. I thought for sure someone had decided he'd make a tasty breakfast. But then something odd about that Russian Sage caught my eye as I moved past, and I came back for a second look.

Well whadaya know? Somebody finally made it up off the ground.

Not very far up, but hey. Up is up!

TO MARKET, TO MARKET

 

MAY YOU LIVE IN INTERESTING TIMES

Well, despite 2nd degree burns on his hand, a couple of trips to the emergency clinic, and a near miss at burning our house down, my hubby declared it to have been an EPIC weekend. He's a funny boy, that hubby of mine.

Fortunately, not all of the weekend was quite so "interesting." There was a good bit of this...

and this...

Poor Areej, who is in grad school at U of H, had a big stack of papers to grade over the weekend.

and a whole bunch of this, which lasted into the wee hours of the morn, and got pret-ty interesting at times!

And, of course, there was the parade, which no one remembered to take any photos of. And food! Lots and lots of food.

Working up an appetite at Salt Lick Barbecue

Is there anything more refreshing than that made-on-the-spot lemonade at The Salt Lick?

And, perhaps, a beer or two.

Sampling the raspberry beer at Jester King Brewery.

OK, now that I think about it, I guess it was a fairly epic weekend!

OVER AT LAST

Well, they finally pulled up the protective floor coverings and announced the kitchen re-do "Done!" Can you believe I didn't think this one would take more than a week or two to complete? Silly Rabbit! 

All-in-all, I think it looks quite lovely. However, it's gonna take some time for me to settle in. You see, the real reason Hubby was so gung-ho to do this was simple -- there was new technology to be explored! And, well, you know me and new technology...and massive instruction manuals...and changing old habits...sigh.  And it's not just one instruction manual, it's three!

The most drastic change is going from a radiant stove to one that uses induction, which required all new pans.

I have no idea how it works. All I know is that, instead of the burner itself getting hot and then transferring that heat to the pan and its contents, most of the action takes place in the pan itself --  which results in less residual heat in the burner once it's shut off, and quicker response time when you change a temperature setting. You can bring a big pot of water to boiling in seconds by using the "boost" button, but beware of explosive boil-overs if you try adding oatmeal or pasta while it's on that setting! Like I said, it's gonna take some getting used to. Sure won't miss cleaning the dreaded drip pans though.

The oven is about half the size of my previous one, but other than being "convection" (which I just ignored on my last one, not being a baker) it's pretty basic. So I didn't even look at the manual before trying to brown some focaccia under the broiler the other evening.  Next thing we knew, the beeper was going wild, and the readout was flashing "dr" over and over again. I'm guessing this is the first oven I've ever had where you are not supposed to leave the door ajar when the broiler is in use.

The microwave is also convection, which means, supposedly, that it can double as a second oven when the need arises. I find that hard to fathom. I also find it odd that the turntable is metal, since we've always been told not to place anything containing metal in our microwaves. Go figure. I'm just happy that I have figured out how to reheat stuff. I will worry about the rest when the time comes.

As I mentioned before, the extra storage drawers that were supposed go where the oven used to be had to give up space to the hidden workings of that pop-up vent. Still, one makes a pretty good spot for pot lids and dog bowls...

and the other makes a dandy little tea drawer.

Now if only I had a space to store all these accessories that came with the microwave.

Guess they'll have to sit in one of the bar stools -- at least until I find time to do another purge.

BACK TO THE APNEA GIZMO SAGA

So this is what my apnea appliance looks like.

The one on the left, which pops onto your upper teeth, has a tiny hook coming down from that metal bit and, as you can see, the one for your bottom teeth has a well that the hook drops down into. Once they are both in place, and the hook has dropped into the well, you slide it back into that little notch.

You then insert this key into a wee hole on the front of the appliance. Each rotation of the key causes the lower teeth to ratchet forward just the tiniest fraction of an inch. Then you remove the key and go to sleep. You start out at a minimal setting the first night. Then, every few days you add one more rotation -- until you reach the setting that keeps your oxygen readings at a safe level throughout the night. This is discerned by sending you home periodically with a little oximeter to clip on your finger whilst you sleep.

When you wake up in the morning, you pop those out, and pop this little gizmo in, just for 15 minutes or so.

It just reminds your teeth to go back to their original position, so you don't end up with a bulldog bite.

The good news is that I was able to sleep through the night with it from the very first night -- no gagging, and no allergic reactions. And, if I, the queen of gaggers, can handle this? Anyone can do it! Also,when I say sleep through the night, I mean sleep through the night. As long as it's in my mouth, I never snort myself awake.

So, I go in for my two-week checkup, thinking I must be the doc's star pupil with the way I've aced all this. He has me put the appliances in, hook them together, wiggle my jaws around etc., then tells me to separate them and pop them out -- something I've done every morning for the last two weeks. Only I can't get them apart. The hook is hung up on something. The doc bends over to take a closer look and discovers this -- something he has never seen in all the years he has been doing this.

The little hook was lifting the metal well right out of the lower appliance.

Turns out that, though the appliance itself is not normally made from acrylic, the glue that holds these metal bits in place is, so the manufacturer had to experiment with different materials to find something else they could use. File this experiment under FAIL.

So what does the doc do? He Super Glues it back in place, swearing to me that it is completely "bio-compatible". I suppose that's true. I do seem to remember it being used to close wounds in field emergencies. But still, Super Glue? In my mouth? The only problem was that he couldn't get the glue to dry (shoulda been our first clue), so he had me sit there shooting air at it while he went off to deal with other patients. Finally, it set up. I tried it on again and tugged at it with the hook. Nothing happened, so he sent me home saying "If it looks like it's trying to come out again, stop wearing it immediately! We don't want you swallowing anything in your sleep."

The first night it worked like a charm. Friday, however, I woke up to discover what you see above. I called his office immediately, to see if they wanted me to come in or try gluing it myself. I got a message saying "We will be out of the office until the 16th." So, for now, it's back to the ol' sleep-snort-awake-repeat routine.

I have a feeling they're fixin' to rue the day I ever walked through their door.

P.S. In case you didn't know, untreated apnea puts you at a much greater risk of stroke and heart attack. Not to mention all the issues that come from sleep deprivation.

TA-DAA!

Out of desperation, since I hadn't bothered to bring my trusty point & shoot camera along on my walk that day, I finally figured out how to take a picture with my phone. 

'Cause, seriously, you just don't pass something this gorgeous by, without taking note, now do you?

CANTINA SEASONS

Mexican Bird of Paradise in Bloom

I've lived in many places and put in many gardens by now. Unfortunately, we always ended up moving just when the gardens began coming into their own. The rule of thumb with perennials is "first year they sleep, second year they creep, third year they leap."However, when you throw deer and armadillos into the mix, the learning curve is steeper, and that leap can take a tad longer.  Make that a lot longer. We installed the Cantina Garden in fall of '09, and it's just now starting to take off. In fact, we're still struggling with the bed near the front door, and it's been in even longer! There appear to be some dead zones in it, either from limestone bedrock being too close to the surface (a problem we run into in all our beds) or from something toxic the builder left behind.

Another thing that's really different here is that, for the first time ever, Hubby and I are gardening in tandem. When we bought our first house, he did most of the gardening -- especially when the babies started coming! When the kids went off to school, and his career started taking him away from home more and more, I stepped up to bat, and ended up going back to school to study horticulture! I must admit, when we bought this place and finally started gardening together, things were occasionally, well, tense. I am more about control. Design is important to me. Also, I hate wasting money. I do a lot of research before I purchase a plant, to find out whether it will be a good fit. Hubby? Not so much. Eventually though we divided our territories, so as not to step on each others toes so often. Plus, as in any good relationship, he started to rub off on me, and vice versa. For instance, check out what he just did with our old water-guzzling fountain pots, which we replaced with a simple birdbath.

If that's not great design, I don't know what is!

Another area where we differ is in the amount of bed space we are willing to deal with -- back to that "control" issue, I suppose. The downstairs Cantina Garden, the front door bed, and a few pots are all I'm willing to take on. I weed and prune and deadhead because I want things to look nice, but I have never loved doing it. There is a limit to how much I am willing to do, especially when our summer heat kicks in! Since maintenance never actually crosses my hubby's mind, however, he never tires of adding new beds!

Anywho, like I said. We've learned a few things along the way, and things are finally starting to come together.

Two Favorites - Perilla 'Magilla', and a Tall Gomphrena Called Sparkler (I think)

Only problem is, the longer we stay here...

Purple Coneflowers in Bloom

and the more glorious the garden becomes...

the harder it will be to ever walk away.

Tomorrow I'll talk a bit about things we have learned along the way -- maybe save you a bit of time, money, and heartache, if you too garden in the Texas Hill Country.