I had a lovely week this past.  On Monday I gave my presentation on vegetable gardening to the Lake Summerset Garden Club.  I had many folks ask questions and I felt quite comfortable answering them.  I also took the remaining seven mums that I had left from my plant sale that was on Saturday before.  I sold all of them and so I can say my first sale, I sold out.  Yeah me!

On Tuesday a landscaper came to look at my herb garden.  I am having it turned into a real herb garden.  I am so excited.  I decided that if I couldn’t take a vacation this year, because of the new dog, that I am going to spend my vacation money on something very special for myself.  And that is my dream herb garden (photo above).

On Wednesday I picked about a gallon of cherry tomatoes.  I turned them into tomato sauce.  I whirled them in the food processor (Thank you again Jeff and Diane Scaduto.) put them into a strainer and pushed the pulp through the strainer.  I had about a dozen Italian tomatoes that were ripe and I crushed them into the sauce.  I tucked this away to make spaghetti sauce later.

Friend Garnet called me and asked if I wanted to go kayaking the next day and we decided we would do the river again.  A friend had told us if we went past the place we got out before, where I did the splits, there was a better place to get out.  Garnet showed up early and explored and didn’t find any other place to get out.  We decided we would drive to Rock Cut and go kayaking there.

We left my truck at the Forest Preserve and headed to Rock Cut.  It was a glorious day.  The sun was shining brightly and the clouds were perfect.  The weather was just right for being on the water.  We put in with no problems.  We started to the right of us as we had already explored the left and straight from us before.  I dubbed the bay, Lily Pad Bay, as there was a bunch of lily pads.

Making it to the other side we realized there was a lot of noise.  There was a guy with a chain saw and chipper cleaning up brush on the edge of the lake.  I told Garnet that he was shredding body parts like that guy in Fargo.  We watched a flock of birds for some time even with the annoying noise.  Garnet wanted a rock or something to throw at them because she wanted to watch them take off flying.

We watched another group of birds flying into the woods.  There was a bird that looked like it was sitting on a nest.  I thought it rather late for baby birds but the bird just sat there the whole time we watched.

My tailbone gets pretty sore during kayaking and I told Garnet that when I broke it I sat on my Grandma’s donut for about six months.  We decided that “I sat on Grandma’s donut” should be a country and western song.

I was sick of the noise and allowed the wind to turn me around.  Then I hightailed it around the bend and away from the noise.  A paddle board caught our eye at the other end of the lake.  We decided to go see what it was.  It turned out to be like a surfboard and the girl was standing on it and paddling with an oar.  We talked to her for a while.  It seems that she rented it there at the lake. Thirteen dollars for an hour.  Garnet and I decided we had to try it.  Our plans were to go get Mexican for lunch and come back and do this for an hour.

Well the best laid plans of mice and men do go awry. I got my kayak out of the lake and onto the cement landing.  I pulled it out and looked back to find Garnet in the lake and her kayak upside-down.  It seems that when she got ashore the kayak got stuck in an indentation in the dock and turned over.  She was soaked!

We got the kayak up and turned it over and popped the plug.  It took some time to drain and Garnet said she would be dry by the time it drained.  She wasn’t.  We wrung out her towel and I offered to wring her shorts dry too but she wouldn’t let me as it would wrinkle them.  (They were already wrinkled!)

We wrestled with the idea of her putting her towel around her waist but I felt we would embarrass ourselves at the Mexican restaurant.  Her not me!

We got the kayaks loaded into her truck and stood around watching a girl with two kayaks and a dog.  Wondering if the dog had its own kayak, we saw another girl pull up with a baby, and wondered if the dog and the baby had their own kayak.  We were laughing so hard at this idea.

We hung towels and clothing on the kayaks and continued to watch the girls to see how they would manage with the dog and baby.  The first girl carried the kayaks to the landing with the dog on the leash.  Garnet wanted to tell the other girl to carry her own kayak.  The girls took their time loading a bunch of equipment and getting suited up.  The dog and the baby had their little life vests and climbed right into the kayaks. It took them some time to rock and roll the kayaks into the water and sure enough, off they went.

During this time a car pulled up and an old friend stepped out of the car.  Her father had just called me the day before.  I had worked with him at Shirland School for many years and knew his daughter well.  I gave her a hug and she introduced me to her boyfriend.  It was good to see my old friend.

Garnet decided that she was dry enough and we headed to the Mexican restaurant.  It was a new place that we had stopped at a while back but it wasn’t open yet.  It was very nicely decorated and I got a Mexican pizza which I had been craving for some time.  I got chorizo on it and it was delicious.  I ate the whole thing and Garnet’s beans, which she didn’t want.  She had tostados which she always gets and bitches about how messy they were.  (Then get tacos instead.)

Our adventure was over and we headed back to my truck.  We had decided that we were too exhausted to go back to Rock Cut and do the paddle board thing.

That evening was my class that I had signed up for on using your I-phone.  I got this phone for Christmas from my dear friends, the Webbs.  I still was not used to it and wanted to learn more.  I was highly disappointed.  There was a bunch of ladies about my age with their I-phones and all we did was ask questions and the instructor would answer them.  I did learn about Siri and how to use it and how to clear my history.  I learned a few other things about the settings on the phone.

I want to make a movie of Emily playing with her toys to post and I didn’t learn how to do that.  I think I just have to not be afraid of the phone and try to use it.  I did get my Apple id and password changed so I can look at aps that I might want to put on the phone.  Any suggestions out there?

Yesterday I got that tomato sauce out and made spaghetti sauce.  I sautéed up some onions, peppers, garlic, celery and carrots and threw that into the pot.  I added some tomato paste and some of my tomato flour.  Added some herbs and seasonings and it came out pretty good.  I will decide tomorrow what I want to make using it.  I’m thinking some stuffed shells.

This week will end with the hubster and I having dinner with his parents at Nunzio’s in Rockford.  They have this Steak Sinatra that is out of this world.  And their house salad is to die for.  It was the inspiration for my big ass salad that I make frequently.  It has everything but the kitchen sink.  I always get the au gratin potatoes and save them to bring home for my breakfast the next day.

Life is good.  Peace be with you.