Life is Good and Boiled Peanuts

I'm going to post some new pictures soon. I just need to find some good ones. There's one of Hawkins and I, but I look like trailer trash mom. Needless to say I've banned it from the public. It sucks because even if Hawkins looks cute in a picture, if I look like shit you know I'm not going to show it to anyone. Scott is continuing to add to his "hideous candid pictures of Amber" collection. So, all is well with the world. I think I may have accidently changed a setting on the camera that makes all our pictures blurry. Now I don't know how to fix it.

Anyway, life is pretty good. The basil is finally in on the farm and so we'll be racking it in pretty soon. I'm going to plant my own this weekend, but it's still nice to know we'll be getting some if mine doesn't grow well. So, pesto and tomato and mozzarella and basil salad will be on our plates soon. Scott and I are really starting to explore all the things we can do with the fresh dill we've been getting. It's so damn good! Some other highlights of this week's box of goodies were snow peas, cabbage and some green that I still haven't figured out. It tastes like a form of kale, but it looks nothing like the kale I've seen. Oh well. Tonight I'm making beets in orange sauce and harvard beets to get rid of all the beets we've gotten in the last few weeks. Seriously, I've enjoyed a lifelong hatred of beets. It's really taken some growth and maturity for me to even try them. But I'm determined to eat all the food we're getting from the csa. Yesterday, we only had one head of cabbage left out of everything we got. I was impressed. I'm going to make some cabbage soup this weekend. Molly's family and I once went on a cabbage soup diet. We had to eat nothing but cabbage soup for a week. Then the second week, we were allowed to eat tomatoes and cabbage soup one day, a hamburger patty and cabbage soup the next day. The last day of the diet, you're allowed to eat a lean steak and cabbage soup. Nothing's ever tasted so good in my whole life. Molly later admitted to me that she had cheated and eaten Burger King one day. I felt betrayed. This cabbage soup I'm making is going to be beefed up with italian sausage, I think. We'll see. Okay, I'm sure everyone is tired of this rant on the farm, but seriously--- It kicks ass. I urge everyone to get involved in a CSA. It's fresh from the earth and cheap and you're helping out the local community. Yay!

Random #4- Scott looks Mexican when he doesn't shave. It's okay. We've learned to embrace it, but it's true. Unfortunately, he can shave about once a week due to his sensitive skin. This means that he looks white as all get out for about half the week and mexican the rest of the week. What can I say? We celebrate all different cultures in our home.

Random #5- Before I started regular school, I used to go to every Braves home game with my dad. He sold boiled peanuts out in front of the stadium when I was little. I'm not sure how he got into, but he loved it. In fact, days before he died, I asked him what his favorite "career" had been (for he had many) and he said, "Boiled peanuts." He made them from scratch in a big pot on the landing outside our garage. We used to go to the farmer's market every weekend and fill up on things he sold out there. And peanuts. He would buy 50 and 100 lb. bags of them. On the way home, I would sit in the back of his big Chevy work van on top of those big bags that weighed more than I did. (Wow- to be 100 lbs. again.) They were warm from being out in the sun and I can almost feel the heat when I think back to those times. Anyway, we used to sell Braves paraphenalia and peanuts. The whole family had shirts. My dad's said, "Pat, the Peanut Man," my mom's said, "Mrs. Peanut," and mine said, "Little Miss Peanut." It was our code, our tribe, our seal- the Peanut Family. I wish I had clearer memories of those days, but I was so young. I only remember things in snippets. After everyone was in the stadium, we would pack up our van and hit the game usually around the second inning. Then around the seventh inning, we'd go back out and set up the tables again for the fans leaving the game. On our way home one summer afternoon, I told my dad that I wished Dale Murphy was my dad. I think he had hit a homerun that day. I still feel guilty about it, but my dad merely replied, "Yeah Right."

Random #6- I have two cats, Dinky and Sneakers. I've had them since I was seventeen. They've seen me through a divorce (my parent's), college, deaths of Terry and my dad, my marriage, and a birth. They're getting old now and Dinky is a little fragile. I'm nervous she won't make it for much longer. She's the Siamese. We'll see. When they go, it will be the end of an era. And totally break my heart.

I'll save the last random for tomorrow to really draw this thing out. I'm going to take a math test now that I might not get an A on. I'm nervous.

Peace.