Taste Like Chicken Weekend 6/22-23

Thanks for the start, Karen. Judging from my swollen fingers the Skinnylicious ™  tacos and pickled veggies had a lot of sodium. Of course, anything pickled has a lot of sodium. Iggy was home by 9:30 pm and was out the door this morning at 7:30 am and will be home late again. It has been in low to mid 80s and the humidity is cranking up. We have rain this morning but it should stop in time for the air show. I hope the cloud cover isn’t too low or the planes won’t fly. They have a bunch of octogenarian Air Force veterans in the group. Holy Basil, a self watering pot sounds great. Nice self control on the chips. GF and I talked ourselves out of chocolate cake but just looking at in the cases triggered cravings that I fought all the way home. Just say “No,” Chele was my mantra. Those yard sculptures sound really nice. Picture, please, when you get them out. How was the weather last night? Did you have to calm down Arya? Enjoy your Mexican food today.

Kathy, I would be melting in Florida. I get that the grass would dry out quickly in the hot sun. Poor lonely duck. People think they can do what they want because they are not human but animals have feelings. 

Becky, congrats on the loss. It might be water weight but you have been walking a lot, so it could be more.

Linda, that food sounds scrumptious. I used to love liverwurst. Have fun with the hard work. I hope it is not too bad. 

Liz, I hope you can decompress this weekend.

I am doing laundry today and making some broccoli slaw and potato salad. I will do some light exercise as the pulled musccle hurt when I was walking the outdoor mall yesterday.

Chele, sorry about the sodium. That is so prevalent in restaurants that the only way to escape it is to not eat in them. Salt is one of the primary ingredients in the pickling process, so that made things worse. "Just say no" is a good mantra, but a difficult one. Poor Iggy is running on not much sleep today, I'm sure. I hope the flights have no problem getting in and out. We did not have a good night. We had storm warnings on the weather box from 2 different systems about 5 minutes apart. That woke Arya up and she was still awake when the storms hit. She got out of bed and stood on the throw rug near the door for about 15 minutes during the worst of it and then climbed back into bed but was very upset and didn't want to cuddle for a while. It finally calmed a bit and she did cuddle with me for a while. We had some very heavy rain and some very strong winds that didn't register correctly on the anemometer. May have been sheer or a microburst. It blew around some chairs we had on the deck that usually don't move and also blew over the wind harp on the deck and that did some minor damage to the deck railing.We are currently under yet another severe storm warning and took the chairs and wind harp down. We'll put the wind harp back up after we get it restrung (all the strings are also broken). What variety of potato salad are you making?

Another recall, Linda? This is getting out of hand. You really did a lot fo shopping at the German bakery. Good finds! I remember eating liverwurst as a kid. I also remember that song, "don't eat the liverwurst". I'll bet the stuff you get is much closer to the old way of making things than what you can get in the grocery stores today.

Kathy, Garden Smart had a feature on the botanical garden in Key West today and they had a couple of Muscovy ducks in one scene. I doubt they are native there any more than in your part of FL. Has your forecast changed to bring you any rain?

Thanks for checking in, Liz, but sorry about losing the post. I hate when that happens. Hope the leg is doing ok. Any word on the 2nd injection? What's Zoe's status?

Becky, are you expecting any rain today? Any plans for you and Kenneth? Did the mouse ever show back up?

Dale ran this morning and I baked a loaf in the bread machine and got the chairs on the deck ready for Dale to put in the loggia under the screened porch. We had a heavy shower and are currently in a quiet period with 2 more heavy rounds expected this afternoon. We're catching up on last night's Giants game and Arya is catching up on the sleep she didn't get during the storm. She'll be back awake as soon as the next period of heavy rain hits. She is more afraid of wind and rain than lightning and thunder, which she hardly notices. We've gotten almost 3" of rain since Wednesday. I hope to do a little gardening before it gets hot tomrrow and the ground should be pretty easy to work.

Chele, I do feel like I'm melting whenever I go outside this time of year. I'm already looking forward to fall. I hope the sodium effects have worn off by now. Anything pickled definitely has a lot of sodium. I always drink a lot of water after a restaurant meal and that seems to help some. Hope all goes well with the air show. Good job on resisting the chocolate cake. I know that's not easy! I'm sure the poor duck was wondering what happened to the rest of his family. I hope the HOA can find something out about what happened.

Karen, I've gotten some unexpected types of veggies in the veggie entrees at a Mexican restaurant too. I also would expect pepper, onions, and maybe mushrooms. I remember one I got that had broccoli in it. I love broccoli, but not in Mexican food! How was the sodium in the Mexican food? That place that had the enchiladas with the sweet potatoes and black beans closed unfortunately. We really liked their food. The Muscovy ducks aren't native to FL at all and they tend to be more aggressive than some of the native species. It's too bad someone decided to release them here. Maybe the HOA will step in sooner if it happens again. It's overcast today, but no rain so far. I will probably go ahead and turn the sprinklers on. They're already to set to come on on my watering days, so all I have to do is turn the switch to "on". Wow on that storm! Sounds like the ones we had last week. Hope there wasn't too much damage. That's interesting that thunder doesn't bother Arya.

Liz, sorry you lost your post. I hate it when that happens! Hope you're doing okay and having a good weekend.

Becky, congrats on the loss. My WW subscription at the reduced price is up on the 29th, so I need to cancel it. I think I'm going to use MFP for a while.

Linda, nice picture of Stonehenge. I was amazed at some of the smaller stone circles in the UK and Ireland that were just on private property. That was quite a haul at the German store. Sorry those vents are making noise and hope you can get it resolved without too much hassle. I think the clouds are holding our temperature down and we're only at 90 today.

Linda, love the new avatar. Working in the garden and hanging out with the dog is also my plan. Last fall's garlic was ready to harvest so I did that and it's curing now in the room over the garage. I only got about half of what I planted, but with the rain we had this winter, it's a miracle I got as much as I did. The arugula and romaine were bolting and they were in the same bed, so it is now cleaned out and ready for fall veggies. I think I have golden beets, winter squash and a few other things to plant from seed. Do what makes your gut happy and eat healthy food. Good that Bob's taste and smell are slowing returning. The vent in our bedroom used to whistle when the heat kicked on (but not the AC). So I hope yours will stop making noise. It's odd that it only does it when one unit is running. I hope you don't have to have them come back. That just disrupts everything.

What time did Iggy get home last night, Chele? I guess he's back at it today. What are you doing today while he's gone? I will definitely post a photo of the new egrets and dolphin in their new homes. Is the swelling down in your fingers today?

Kathy, I can relate to all this talk of melting. Heat index was 92 when I was outside this morning. Broccoli at a Mexican place is more than a little odd. Sorry the place with the sweet potato and black bean enchiladas went out of business. That's a shame. It wasn't a chain, was it? I didn't realize Muscovy ducks were more aggressive than other ducks, so I guess that explains why they aren't welcome everywhere.

Probably a good thing to steer clear of Western Days, Becky. Sounds kind of crazy. I would love to send you some of our excess rain. But all we have had sure made it easier to pull weeds this morning. Poor Scooter and thunder. I had a dog growing up that was also a big baby about thunderstorms and tried to come through a screen door to get into the house one time. He was a 120 lb border collie with some collie and English sheepdog in him.

Liz, I hope the humidity will decrease for you this week. It's so irritating to get to work and feel that you need another shower. Sorry the leg isn't healing as quickly as expected. If the doc uses injection #2 on the same leg, will there be a 3rd injection to file for? Sounds like there still may be some irritation on that wound. If you trust your vet, that needs to be who does Zoe's surgery. Will the surgery be on Thursday? I hope Wally will do fine by himself while she is at the vet. How was Gary's golf today? What are Himalayan puffs? We only ended up with one heavy shower yesterday. The others that looked to be headed our way went somewhere else. Same thing happened with one today.

In addition to cleaning out 2 raised beds, I repotted the Christmas cactus and 3 succulents. In the avatar, the 2 to the left are agaves, then the cactus, and on the right is the new String of Dolphins. I'll get a better photo of it when it gets hung up. I planted the rest of the tomatoes and peppers that I grew from seed. Don't know how they'll do. I did a load of workout clothes but that was it. I was pretty worn out after the garden work. I didn't even have the energy to get out on the kayak. We had dark skies and some rain, but Dale did go out. With all the weeding I did, I'm going to feel it in my arms tomorrow.

Becky, I'm not a fan of those festivals either, especially in the summer heat.

Liz, I was at the end of my promotional price, so I cancelled my WW subscription today. I lost 3 lbs in 3 months, but I wasn't using the WW site enough to justify paying full price. I can understand the stress eating and I still resort to it sometimes even without the work stress. I'm sorry the leg isn't doing as well as the doctor hoped and hope the new bandage helps. Your commute is rough enough without the humidity and the leg problems. Sometimes I feel like I need a shower after my shower in this humidity! It's especially true when I blow dry my hair and the heat from that makes me start sweating. Hope you're getting some rest and relaxation in today. I had to look up the Himalayan puffs. Looks like a tasty treat for the pups.

I remember you saying your dad worked in the firing rooms during the Apollo programs. There is a special on CNN tonight on the Apollo 11 mission. It's at 9pm, so set your DVR if you want to watch. I saw an ad for it featuring JoAnn Morgan who was the only woman in the firing room for Apollo 11. My dad worked with her for years and she was my band director's wife. I knew she had quite the career, but didn't know anything about her early years there.

Karen, nice picture of the plants. Silly me, I guess I was expecting veggies associated with Mexican food to be in the meal instead of broccoli. The sweet potato/black bean place wasn't a chain and I don't think they were in the best location to get the attention they needed. It's tough for the small independent restaurants to make it when there's so many chains around. Don't blame you for not going out in the kayak after all the garden work. Are you getting more rain today?

Chele, we had a small chance of rain today, but I tempted fate by running the sprinklers. Sure enough, it's been pouring for the past couple of hours. Oh well, the grass will be happy. That cabbage slaw sounds good. Iggy was busy! Glad he's putting his feet up for a bit.