Catchin' Up

It's the last day of August and the weather is contributing to my feeling that summer has ended by bringing in clouds, cooler weather and showers. I should be out weeding while the ground is moist and soft but I don't want to. I'm using the weather as an excuse to stay out of the yard and catch up on projects inside--one of them being this blog.

Recent events in our lives include the following:

We made a weekend visit to see Abby in Scottsbluff the weekend before she returned to Lincoln. It happened to be Scottsbluff County Fair weekend so we checked it out and attended the bull riding Friday night with Abby and Jorge. I think one cowboy managed to stay on his bull for whatever the required seconds were. The rest bit the dust fairly quickly.



The next day we did some hiking in the Wildcat Hills and visited the Monument. It was a hot day but we found a great spot to stop and rest and have a grape-throwing contest. If it was an Olympic event Jorge would have won the gold for the furthest and straightest. Abby attempted to win the gold for distance but what she actually won was the gold for the biggest splat made by a grape when thrown a mere 1 1/2 feet in front of you. I would have won the gold for a grape thrown the furthest off-target and Dean would have won a gold just because he tried so darn hard to beat us all.




We've had lots of grandkid time which is so much nicer than 3 days once every 3 or 4 months. One day in August we kept them so Leslie and Ryan could get some things done in their house. The bulk of the day was spent playing in the pool which is a great place to be when little bodies are covered in popsicle juice.



We spent this past Friday night and Saturday in Denver visiting friends, experiencing the food and festivities at "A Taste of Colorado", drooling over the fruits and vegetables at the farmer's market and shopping at REI's Labor Day sale.

We also got to walk by the booths near the convention center that were still set up selling Obama gear and once again felt as though we were walking among our own people. Two people honked at us as we were driving in downtown Denver. I'm sure it was because of the Obama sticker on our car and had nothing to do with Dean's driving.
I wasted a large part of yesterday baking. First I made a plum streudel which tasted okay but was so dry you couldn't eat it without a large scoop of ice cream or a generous portion of cream on top and since neither Dean nor I like working out as much as it would require to burn off that much fat ... into the garbage it went. I followed that up by making a loaf of zucchini bread using the leftover plums and some rhubarb. Once again, edible but not so great. Apparently plums are too moist and I should have added more flour. There was nice sunken center to the bread. But since it's moist and sorta edible, it's still on the counter.

Today I thought I'd attempt ciabatta bread. I saw some at the farmers market in Denver and since it's hard for me to buy bread because I think I should be able to make it myself, I gave it a whirl today. It looks like the photo in the recipe (sorta) but not like the thicker bread you see at farmers markets and I didn't get those big holes in the bread. However, it is tasty so I think we'll be eating it with cheese tonight for an easy supper.




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Catchin' Up