Finally bought a charger only to lose my camera!

I feel like I have nothing interesting to say if I can't upload photos. Of course, that means as soon as Apollo lost my charger, I was lost once my camera drained its batteries. I finally gave in and bought a new charger (surprisingly expensive) and then lost my camera! I found it today in a Safeway bag by the trash. That was a disaster waiting to happen! Anyway, I was finally able to take some photos and upload them today. I have a lot to show you, so please bear with me!

Today I harvested something new from my little garden. Potatoes! Aren't they just gorgeous?



I don't remember what they're called, but I bought the red ones as seed potatoes from Jerry's (a local hardware store) and the yellow ones are from potatoes that Aimee and I purchased as food and then decided to see what happened if we planted them.



We grilled them up tonight, along with some zucchini, beef steaks and pork chops. Which reminds me, did you know chicken fried steak isn't chicken?? Apparently it's not pork either, which is what I was told. I don't know why they just don't call it "fried steak." It's not REALLY cooked like fried chicken! I've never seen steak floating in oil or grease like chicken, have you?! Although, with this rational I could have called our grilled potatoes "grilled chicken potatoes" or "grilled zucchini potatoes" or even "grilled onion potatoes" since all those things are cooked the same. See? Its just not rational!

Upon further research, I would like to point out that some people actually DO cook chicken fried CHICKEN, as noted here on Wiki. And there is a reference to the use of pork! HA! I WIN! Faythe, you might want to be careful, as to not flail around and hurt yourself even more while typing your retort! (Faythe hurt herself in the car while flailing around in what appeared to have been a partial karate move while I was driving. We had been arguing intermittently all the way down the Oregon coast and into the valley about chicken fried steak, how it's cooked and the kind of meat used to make it. Apparently Faythe is ok with our getting into a car accident if it means her point is made.)



The potatoes reminded me a little of the colors in Hazel Knits Fireberry. After I wrap up a couple other projects, I'll get back to this sock pattern. I think it's pretty cool so far, I love how the stitches lay at an angle.



I let a couple zucchini's get too big but the neighbors were happy to take them. I'm sure they'll make fabulous zucchini bread! These are my first crooked neck squash, too.



This is what I'm looking forward to:



Flying saucer squash aka pattypan squash aka scallop squash aka white squash! No matter what you call it, I call them delicious! These just started growing. I can't wait to start eating them!



Apollo and Andrew spent some time exchanging stories while I looked for spiders to photograph, it didn't take long to find them.



I just pulled the last of the lettuce today, hence all the dirt and holes in the raised bed in the foreground. You would not believe all the snails and bugs that freaked out when the lettuce was pulled! It was pretty disgusting.

In the raised beds in the last photo you can see collard greens, zucchini, squash, tomato and brussel sprouts. I'm not sure if the brussel sprouts are going to work out, there's quite a few bugs on them already and no sprouts yet.

That's our pool in the background. It's awesome! It's about 30 inches deep, just right for sitting in up to your shoulders while the pool boy (Apollo) brings tea and scoops out bugs while you point at the bugs he's missed. Our pool boy has put up with a lot of abuse. Especially when Faythe was here... demands for Mai Tai's and other luxuries were made frequently but largely ignored. Probably a good thing too, or the pool boy would have been in a lot of trouble, what with the three potentially drunken belligerent women he'd have on his hands.

Speaking of pools, I never realized how much upkeep it would require but after almost a month, I'm now getting accustomed to adding chlorine, algae killer and other stabilizers almost every day. It's totally worth it too since we've had weather in the 90's and expect it to get up to 100 this week.

We have quite a few spiders out in our garden area. Consequently, Aimee can't go near it, considering she is in a lifelong battle with them. (Aimee, you might want to stop reading now.) There's quite a few gorgeous spiders out there too. I don't mind them as long as they don't touch me. I would have gotten better photos but I had this inane fear the spiders would leap onto my hands while photographing them. *shivers*



I have no idea what they're called, but aren't they beautiful? You know, as long as they stay in their web and off me. I just want to make that clear, for the spiders sake.