I think things may be slowing down again. Hooray! Work is much slower, except for yesterday when we stayed until 6:45. But that's just Friday at the print shop.

DH's work is very slow for the whole summer. So that means he's bored. Which, in turn, means he's looking for things to worry about, like our finances. The boy needs a hobby! He's going to set up the fish tank soon- after some loans are paid off. But for now his hobby is worrying about stuff. Oh! And he's doing the hcg diet and it is really working! Twenty days ago he weighed 237 and this morning he was 216. He has 20 more days of the hormone therapy part and then he does 6 weeks of maintenance to ease back into a more normal diet without his hypothalamus going bonkers. This hcg thing is really awesome. If I needed to lose more than the 20 or so pounds I need to lose, I would do it too. But one of the side effects is that I am also losing weight. Since I eat what he eats for dinner instead of fast food or biscuits and gravy like before I have lost about 6 pounds in the 20 days, which is a healthy rate for someone not on the hcg diet. I'v been a little worried about getting enough good fats though. THis phase does not allow any fats or starches whatsoever and I don't want to tempt the poor guy so I don't eat that stuff either. Today I added some olive oil to my grilled chicken and spinach salad though. I do take fish oil every day. Perhaps I should do an evaluation of my average daily diet and see...

The garden has entered the summer phase, which means the tomatoes are not setting any more fruit, the beans are climbing like mad, and I am doing daily battle with the squash vine borers. Oh, they make me so angry! I hate them and wish they all would die. I tried a blocking technique this spring but is isn't working. So now I go out there with a bamboo skewer and impale the little buggers. It is disturbingly satisfying. But I want to eat squash! The flowers are doing well. The Gazanias are blooming really well, the morning glories and the moonflower are taking over the front bed, the orange mint is turning into a ground cover (anybody want some orange mint?) the cosmos and the tithonias are just staring the blooming and the daisies have hit their peak. The daisies are so floppy that I had to tie them up. They look funny.

Here's my front Rose of Sharon. I like it a lot. It has pure white flowers.

And my weedy front bed

The potted plants are doing awesome. The hoyas are vining and blooming and being happy. The Ficus is super happy and so is the Monstera. It is trading season at the Hoya Forum on Garden Web so I just got 4 amazing cuttings and I had to set up a new rooting aquarium to hold everything. I'm expecting a couple more cuttings in the next week or so and I'm setting up a few more trades. I'm not even trying to trade this much, but other people need things I have and then they want to give me something and who am I to refuse?! Ha! Oh, and the Viresia splendens pups are growing too.

The Monstera is the big thing in the front, the amaryllises are behind it. On the birdbath are 2 varieties of sanseveria (Mother-in-law's Tounge), an ivy, and my Ficus

The new rooting aquarium

Baby amaryllises that I hybridized myself!

Viresea pups


I made some chocolate shortbread earlier. DH hates the stuff. He calls it drywall! But I like it just fine and so I can have shortbread in the house without tempting him. It is still pretty warm and it just melts in my mouth. Mmmmmm! I used the extra dark cocoa in it too. Oh, it is heaven! I have to control myself or I'll eat the whole pan (I made a half batch) and that won't be good for losing weight. It may be worth it though...

I wish I had a pool in the backyard. I would go out there and just soak. It is unusually hot this June and the heat and humidity is very oppressive. Makes me glad I'm not working outdoors anymore.

The second half of the Canada pictures:

This is a momma duck and her babies. So cute!



Here's a nice looking couple


THis is the view into Lake Stanzichimi(sp?) from River Irene


Here is the waterfall at the top of River Irene. Irene is my favorite river, partly because it is really beautiful and partly because my grandmother's name was Irene. Reenie would have loved this river.

Here are some pictures from Canada. The first one is us going up a river in the boat.



This is twin falls. I have good pictures of twin falls already since we go see them every year. Perhaps I should make a post with prior years' pictures on it...


Here is DH and his dad in the boat.


And again, this time with a pike. Love the blood.


Here are some random scenery shots.

Okay, I'm here.

Just like always, the start of the major growing season happened while I was away and I came home to a jungle of a yard and all the weeds in the gardens were taller than the intentional plants. I have been slowly working my way through the weeds and I have all of the front presentable now. This evening I'll do the veggie garden. I need to dig the garlic too.

The cat was really happy to see us. She was clingy for a few days but she's back to normal again.

This years' trip to Canada was suprisingly pleasent. You know how family can get sometimes... It rained the first day or so and then again on Friday but the rest of the time it was beautiful. 50's at night and 70's during the day.

I have tried 4 times to upload photos and I can't. It is frustrating. So you'll get text now and picures later. In fact, you'll get vacation text when the pictures happen. It really wasn't that eventful until the last part which I don't have pictures for, so I'll tell you about that part now.

There are these bugs called No-See-Ums. They are really tiny, as the name would suggest, and they take a bite out of your skin and they manange to make it hurt despite being tiny. For me they're just annoying. For DH and FIL, they make little red bite marks all over that itch. For MIL, they blister up and get huge and gross and infected. So on Friday, the day before we're supposed to leave camp, we decide to leave a day early since it's raining and we can go to town and get MIL some medical care and have a nice meal and a hot shower and a warm soft bed without any No-See-Ums. So we do. That's the most exciting thing that happened. I suppose if it were my first time to go the moose on the side of the road would be eventful and the pair of bald eagles fishing in the lake would be eventful, but honestly, I love how uneventful it is up there. It is so peaceful and restful.

DH has started the HCG diet. HCG is a hormone that pregnant women produce that causes the body to use fat stores in the body to feed the fetus even if the mother isn't eating enough. When you give it to not pregnant people it causes the body to just burn a ton of fat. And it also reduces the appetite quite a bit. So what you're supposed to do is put the drops under your tongue 3 times a day and only eat 500 calories from a very small list of foods. It sounds really dangerous and I am monitoring DH very closely but so far he's done well. The foods they have you eat are the healthiest possible and you get lots of vitamins and minerals. In fact, I am trying to mimic his food types, if not the tiny amounts. This goes on for 40 days and then he stops taking the drops and increases to 1500 or more calories per day and adds in healthy fats for 6 weeks to give the body time to make a new set point.

The first couple of days on the 500 calorie part is a detox and DH had a lot of toxins built up in his body from pizza and cheeseburgers and diet coke and what not. So he was feeling pretty bad. He managed to make it through without taking anything for the pain and I was proud. Some souces claim that taking meds just prolongs the process. Now his biggest hurdle is being hungry an hour or so after he eats. But he's breaking up the meals into smaller snacks and that is helping. It'll take a little bit for his stomach to shrink up. I think most people stop being hungry after a week or two. He's almost a week into it so we should be over the worst part. He's lost almost 10 pounds and an inch from his waist. He's supposed to lose about a pound a day on this diet. It is really fast weight loss and I'm not really comfortable with it. But I figure he can either die from being overweight or die from trying to lose it. And he knows a ton of people who have done and are doing it and none of them have had any problems. So as long as he doesn't have any nasty toxins stored in his fat cells he should be ok.

A nice side effect is that we can't eat out all summer, we can't have unhealthy things in the house because that would just be mean, and we aren't cooking huge unhealthy meals. I am already eating way less and way healthier. We have lots of fresh fruit and veggies in the house all the time now. I expect to lose weight along with him. If I can keep from gorging myself at work it'll be even better. They like me to make cookies for them and other people bring chocolate and stuff and we have a vending machine with NUTTY BARS for goodness sake!

My 10 year high school reunion is in September. I would like to lose weight for that so maybe I can fit into some of my cute clothes and I won't have to buy cute fat clothes. I don't want to be one of those that ages badly. I want people to not recognize me but not like that!

Ok, I can upload one picture at a time. Here are some cupcakes.


Here's the view of the camp from out in the lake on a paddleboat.


Here's the neighbor. He runs a commercial vacation thingy. We wish we were more secluded but in an emergency it is nice to have a neighbor.


Here's camp from the end of the dock. And Cyrus the Wonder Dog. He is one of the best little dogs I have ever met. He is calm and not very neurotic.


And this is the main cabin. It was built in the 1920's by a native and his donkey.


This is taking way too long. I'll do more later.

Interim Post

I am back from vacation in Canada. I have pictures to share and lots of things to say but I don't have time to put any of it here yet. Please be patient.