the giraffe life

Do buy souvenirs when you go on vacation? We usually do. We chose this because it's somewhat practical (but also fun, especially when we have guests) and reminds us of our Lego Land trip. linking up for wordless Wednesday

Sometimes I get caught in an internet rabbit hole - clicking on one thing leads to another, and another, and another. When I finally look up, I find out two hours have gone by and it's time to start dinner. Usually that means whatever I was reading or watching was worthwhile and held my interest. Over the weekend, one of those rabbit hole sessions led me to  Why We Sleep Together .  Our bed covered with the quilt my mom and I made for Mr. G A fascinating article! It talks about how people (and sometimes animals) sleep together for a variety of reasons, some logical, some not so much (a fear of witches).  Personally, I share my bed with a kitty or two every night, and occasionally my husband too. During the work week, I sleep during a fairly normal time:  9pm - 5:30am, but Mr. G works overnight, so he sleeps from 8am - 4pm. Which means we don't sleep together at least five nights a week. Sometimes on the weekends we'll have a commitment that requires Mr. G to ...

In my neighborhood, we have community open space , which is basically a fancy way of saying green spaces with no houses on them that everyone is welcome to use. While walking near one such "open space" last week, I saw something that looked like a blackberry.  I stepped closer.  It was a blackberry. Growing all by itself in the wild! (I mean, as wild as it can be inside a residential area.) I texted a photo to my dad to be sure it wasn't something poisonous, and when he confirmed  that it was indeed a blackberry, I ate the ripe one that had caught my eye. Yum! I went to visit again yesterday and realized that all the surrounding plants are blackberry bushes too. So exciting! Now all future walks must be planned to pass the blackberry patch and enjoy a little snack.  I can't resist those warm, fresh berries. :) Any edibles growing near you? Would you eat food you found?

To celebrate my dad's birthday, we took him to a live  America's Test Kitchen  event. It was a behind the scenes look at the TV and radio program by the same name. My dad has enjoyed the show for years (Mr. G and I don't watch it, so we were clueless). We learned that the test kitchen's mission is to help everyone cook great food at home, and they try to help people accomplish this by testing kitchen equipment, comparing food products, and perfecting recipes.  The TV and radio show's host, Christopher Kimball, was also our host. He was excellent! So funny and a great storyteller. He highlighted different parts of the show for us (a relief for this newbie) and they did some live demonstrations of the show's typical parts.  One such part was a recipe experiment. The match up was between burgers made with store-bought ground beef and those made with freshly ground meat that is immediately cooked. They found the freshly ground meat was superior in ease of cook...

Just when you thought I was finally done with California posts :) This is my last one! I just couldn't resist writing about some of the things that were so different from my everyday life on the East Coast. Weather. We stayed close to the coast for our entire trip so we woke up to fog every morning. It burned off by about 10 or 11am, followed by clear blue skies for the afternoon, but I didn't like it. I'm a morning person, and being greeted by overcast skies when I woke up was a bummer. But I guess that's the trade off for having pleasant temperatures year round. :) Driving/traffic.  Traffic where I live is minimal because it's a rural area (the population just broke 2,000 in 2010). But we've experienced big city traffic in our travels. California traffic was different. We weren't in any dense city traffic, more like lots of stop-and-go highway driving. The carpool lane was new to us and thankfully saved us many times. Also surprising was the f...

Dottie has been known to sleep in some unusual places  but she continues to surprise me! We found her in the tiny space next to the TV receiver last week: linking up for wordless Wednesday

Last month's issue of Ladies Home Journal featured an article about a woman who decided to cook breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks from scratch for a week as an experiment. For example, she made pasta, bread, and sauce by hand for spaghetti night. There were some days she spent 5-6 hours in the kitchen! By the end of the week, she noted that she had enjoyed the experience for the most part (especially since she shared some great moments with her kids in the kitchen) but it wasn't sustainable forever.  It got me thinking about how much processed or pre-made food I normally eat. Unless I was forced to, I doubt I could cook homemade 100% of the time. It's not that I seek out Froot Loops and frozen dinners for every meal, but I get busy and have cravings just like everyone else.  So here's my processed/pre-made food tally for Friday: Breakfast : milk and cereal Same old, same old. I eat this for breakfast every day. On extra hungry days, I'll add a banan...

Before I had a blog, I would think about taking pictures of the garden but never actually do it. Last summer I finally followed through (I think because then I could share the photos with you guys) and I am so happy about it. I'm one of those weird people who is thrilled by plants growing and pictures prove it much more impressively than my descriptions. So without any further yammering, here's the garden: And May and June, for comparison's sake: That big bare patch of ground is where the compost bin used to sit. We moved it so we could stir it top to bottom, and there was quite a lot of usable soil at the bottom. An added bonus is that now Mr. G can make one pass through the beds (and onward) with the lawn mower. Amber mentioned magic beans in her garden last month (they turn from purple to green when cooked!) and was kind enough to send me some seeds. :) I'm hoping to plant them in the empty space left behind when I uproot my potato plants.  Everythi...

Yoga doesn't really require any special gear - just comfy clothes and a mat. So I've been getting by just fine with track pants (the plastic-y, swoosh-y sounding kind) and tank tops. But as the weather warmed up, I switched to my workout capris and found my track pants had been holding me back. I can stretch further when my clothing is elastic and fitted. So I splurged on "real" yoga pants . (I also bought a plain black pair, but those don't make for a very exciting photo opportunity.) Oops - off-center photo - I put the camera on a ten second timer and hoped for the best. :) Splurged on anything lately?

The last leg of our California trip! Getting from LA to Big Sur was the longest driving portion of our trip, about 4.5 hours. Unfortunately, what google maps doesn't tell you is that you're driving by some of the most beautiful scenery and will want to stop every 5 minutes to get out and enjoy it. Our drive took 8 hours (though some of that time was spent eating lunch and filling the gas tank).  Worth every minute. :) Our favorite of the impromptu stops was Estero Bluffs State Park off Highway 1. At first we just saw trails leading to shrubbery: It got better. It's hard to tell, but those white blobs on top of the rocks were seals! This little walking/exploring break was unplanned, but so lovely. We'd been in the car for a while at that point and stretching felt so nice.  We eventually continued on to Big Sur. Along the way, we also saw gorgeous views at Nepenthe, a restaurant on the side of a mountain. It's very busy between 11am (when the fog ...

June went fast, right? Can't believe the year is already half over! I'm still feeling good about all my goals though :) This month I was able to cross off two goals - traveling twice and learning something new. We visited Ocean City for a friend's birthday, and then spent 9 days in California. (I'll post my final recap on Monday.) We still plan to fit in a day trip to NYC in a few months. Learning something new was surfing  lessons! I've already met my mortgage goal for the year, but I've decided I'm going to continue to overpay. I'm in the habit of putting extra money toward it anyway, so why stop? $2,330 total - yay!  As of the end of June, I've read 35 books this year so I'm on track for 50. This month's reads: The best was Daughter of Smoke & Bone , hands down. Bread & Wine - Memoir mixed with favorite recipes. I loved that she advocates inviting people over for dinner even when your house is a mess - been ...

After Legoland, we drove up the coast to San Clemente. The view from our hotel was the best.  The next day we took surfing lessons (a first for both of us). It was awesome! Our instructor had us practice on the beach for a while to start (Mr. G picked it up right away, but it was super tough for me) and then move out into the ocean. (Sidenote:  I LOVED wearing a wetsuit. It was so nice to be warm in the water and not have to worry about a big wave taking off part of my bikini!) Mr. G heading out for a wave: We both stood up on several waves and even rode in together on a couple. (And I was worried beforehand that I wouldn't even be able to stand up!) What surprised me the most was how physically demanding surfing is! We were exhausted after our 2 hour lesson and spent the rest of the day relaxing and recuperating. I was sore the next day too, haha.  Thankfully we were still able to walk around town to enjoy all the exotic (to us) plants in everyone's gardens...

Happy July to you! I'll get to my regularly scheduled monthly goals update post sometime this week, but I figured I'd do a few California updates first. :) First up:  Legoland! We flew out to San Diego (see our lovely view above) and drove to Carlsbad that afternoon. It's about a 35 mile (56 km) trip and gave us an introductory taste of the California style of driving and traffic jams. We enjoyed a lazy pool day on Friday and then spent all day Saturday at Legoland.  Thankfully our hotel was super close and we were able to walk to the park, which saved us $15. Our tickets were also free through a hotel promotion, but they're normally $83 + tax each.  My husband was ecstatic just walking through the gates! (I played with Legos as a kid, but don't enjoy them nearly as much as he does.)  There were so many cool sights - and most made completely of Legos!  A couple of examples . .  The fairy tale creatures on the log ride: Many...