All Fired Up

What a fun day I had Saturday with my niece Abby. She'll be eight in December.
We had a "girls day." I take her brother Nicholas and her cousin Clay to Atlanta Braves baseball games every summer, but Abby's not much of a baseball fan. So I was looking for something fun that we could do together.
What I found was a great store near Emory University called All Fired Up, a pottery painting store.
Each of us found a plain piece of pottery to paint.
Abby found this cute little kitty.

Abby and her kitty

And here is Abby painting her pottery.

The artist at work

Here is the finished product, before it is glazed and fired at All Fired Up.

The nearly finished product

Abby's kitty and my sun plaque

The sun plaque and me

I plan on hanging my sun plaque in my garden.
I've had loads of fun with my nephews here in Atlanta at baseball games. Here's the proof.

Me and Nicholas, riding out a 2-hour rain delay in 2010

Clay and me, 2011 game

My cancer treatment ended my chance at motherhood, so the time I spend with my niece and nephews is the closest I will ever get to the joy and sorrow of being a parent. I wish my brother lived closer because I have two younger nephews that don't really know me and it breaks my heart that I can't do the same sort of things with them that I do with my Atlanta families.
It is days like yesterday that make me smile, even now.
Pizza, pottery and a panda is how my day with Abby went.
Once I got her home, she and I ended up making a teddy bear together from a Build-A-Bear home kit. It was the first time Abby had ever sewn anything and I am so glad I could share that with her.
Although when we missed a pre-punched hole and had to take out several stitches she asked me, in all seriousness, "That was your fault, right?"
Ha! I suppose it was. ;)
We got it right in the end, and here is the new bear.

Abby, me and the new panda bear

As I was leaving last night, Abby wrapped her arms around my waist and held on tight.
"I am not going to let go of you," she said.
Abby, I'm not going to let go of you, either.

A profitable route

Goodness, I am still amazed that I can find cash along my well-run route.
On Wednesday evening, a walk with my neighbor Christine was more than I expected. I found two dimes and two pennies.
Well, I found about half of that. Christine found one of the dimes and I think one of the pennies. But she let me keep them to feed the pig.
I found a penny Tuesday in a shopping center parking lot. My pig is getting heavy!! I wonder if I will need a bigger pig!

What has been so funny about this whole "found money" experiment is how several friends are now really into it. My friend Liora found a penny in the parking lot during our lunch last Saturday. I don't think she's blogged about found money, but she does have a cool blog about frugality called Mindful Dough.
My neighbor Christine seems fully invested in my finding enough cash for my year-end espresso.
How many of you out there are starting to scan the parking lots, roadways, and sidewalks?
Good luck to you my friends. I hope you have very profitable routes.

The break up

If you are reading this blog, you could see it coming.
Leo and I have broken up. I gave it a good try. I'd like to say it was a good run. But it really wasn't. In the end, Leo could not satisfy me.
Like any relationship, I started out full of anticipation and hope. I left feeling let down.
I just could not get through "Anna Karenina." I made it more than half way through the book. But what I liked at the beginning of the book -- Leo Tolstoy being very descriptive -- completely bogged me down the further I got in the book.
So it ends.
This lead me to think tonight of some other break ups that have happened in my life.
I had a boyfriend email me at work to break up with me. This after four months of being together. When I eventually saw the "Sex & The City" episode where Carrie's boyfriend breaks up with her via Post-It Note, I could relate.
What I've come to realize is how cowardly that kind of break up is.
I deserve so much better than that.
So, Leo, to your face, I can't go on any more. I'm sorry. It's you. It's not me.

News of the weird

In the truth is stranger than fiction category, I gave myself a black eye today.
No, seriously.
My ice maker in my freezer was jammed and I started shaking it. A 1 liter bottle of water, stored on top of the fridge, then fell off and hit me in the face. Not only did it give me a nice shiner, it broke the skin! Blood!

Lisa's shiner

OK, I know this looks like a mug shot. Was I supposed to smile for my shiner photo? LOL
Considering I was fixing myself an adult beverage, I can't help but wonder if this isn't some sort of instant karma -- a bottle of water hits me in the face as I fix a rum & coke after work. :)
But I was so ready for that beverage. It was a very long week at work. I worked 12 to 13 hour days some days, so I didn't get to go out for walks after work. I had to do short 15 minute walks where I could.
And my poor little piggy bank suffered. The last time I found any "found money" was last Sunday when I ran up to Little Creek Horse Farm.
I've lived in my area of Atlanta for nine years and until about four years ago I had no idea there was a 30-acre horse farm near my house! What a beautiful area it is. I love to run down there on Sunday mornings for my long run. I run past the stalls and say hello to the beautiful horses there.
Last Sunday, most of the horses were out in the field, but Sugarfoot had not yet been let out.

Sugarfoot

And believe it or not, I found a penny on my way up the forgotten driveway to the horse farm! So I knew my piggy would be fed last Sunday.
But then came the lean times. No opportunity to run this week meant no opportunity to find coins. My piggy was getting very hungry.
Fortunately, yesterday I found two pennies in a parking garage, and today I found a dime on my way to a lunch appointment. Tonight on my evening walk I found another penny. I am always amazed that I STILL find cash on my well-frequented route.
Isn't that a little weird?

One new thing

More surprises are coming from the garden. I posted earlier about my "volunteer" squash that came up as a result of my lazy composting.
Well, squash needs a LOT of room in a garden and mine is running out toward the back yard. Since I had to mow today, I pulled up the squash runners so I would not mow them and much to my surprise I saw some juvenile butternut squash coming along.

Butternut squash

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More squash on the way

 I am glad that I have this squash coming along, because my eggplant is not producing at all. That is a disappointment.
Every year, I try one new thing in the garden. Sometimes that works out well, and sometimes, not so much. Arugula has been a success and I grow that now every spring. The spinach I tried this year was OK, but I won't grow it again.
I had tried Japanese (or Chinese) eggplant for the past couple of years, but it hasn't produced that well. This year I could not find that variety at my local nursery so I tried traditional "Black Beauty" eggplant, but so far lots of blooms and no fruit. Boo!
If I get some butternut squash this fall I will feel like I came out even.
I will have tried one new thing in the garden, even if it was by accident.

Sizzling summer

Wow, it's hot. The oppressive heat combined with a crazy work schedule this week meant no running after work. Had to switch over to walking.
A run last week brought some surprises on my route.
The nice thing about a neighborhood running route is I feel like I get to "know" some of my neighbors, even though I have never met them. Along my route, one neighbor plants a great garden. I love running by this house because I get to see where my garden is compared to another one. And I delight in how well that garden is doing.
This neighbor planted sunflowers and it made me envious. I might have to try those next year. Not sure where I will put them, but here is the end result.

Not only are these beautiful flowers that remind me so much of summer (my grandmother used to grow them in her garden every summer) but you get some yummy sunflower seeds to eat once they are spent.
Another neighbor has left a permanent gift -- sidewalk art.
The sidewalks around my neighborhood are in terrible disrepair or don't exist. It's an area where I think the county that I live in really fails. So I generally run in the street, where it is safe to do, because the sidewalks are so uneven I deem them more dangerous than the road.
So imagine my surprise my first time out on this route when I found this.

sidewalk art

sidewalk art, tree

What I wonder as I pass this art on my route is did the artist have any idea how much joy he/she was giving to a solitary runner like myself? This art is on a part of my route that I can easily skip. I have to turn to make a little loop on my route to include it, and many hot, humid days it is too easy to cut the run short and not make this loop. But then I miss the art.
If you have been following this blog (thank you) you also know this is my "summer of Leo."
I am really bogged down in Anna Karenina. I'm now about half way through, but it is now a really tough go.
First, there are A LOT of characters in the book. I am having a hard time keeping track of everyone. Tolstoy refers to them my different names -- a formal name and a more familiar name -- throughout the book, including nicknames, and I have lost track of who was whom. That is frustrating.
Second, it is a very descriptive narrative, which I think slows the pace of the book. It's not that I dislike descriptive narrative, it's just that Tolstoy's use of it seems excessive to me.
I can certainly see why high school and college students would go to the Cliff Notes version of this book. I'd like to right about now.
I almost feel like ditching the book for several of the books I have in my reading queue. I usually read at least a book a month and I'm still on Anna Karenina!! I'm not ready to throw in the towel just yet, but I've thought about it.
Maybe Leo and I should go for a walk, visit the sunflowers and sidewalk art and he can tell me how his book ends. ;)

Mystery revealed

Earlier this spring, after I had planted my summer garden of tomatoes, cucumber, eggplant and other store bought seedlings, I had a "surprise" vegetable come up. It certainly looked like squash leaves, but since I had not planted any squash, I could only guess what seeds I had thrown onto the garden over the winter in my lazy way of composting some vegetable scraps.
Well, mystery revealed. I guessed right. Butternut squash.

Butternut squash

I am hoping I will get some this fall, but my squash leaves look like they have some fungus and are starting to die. It's more pronounced on my cucumber plants. In fact, other than this one cuke, I may not get any others at all, even though the plant is loaded with little ones.

First cucumber

I know it doesn't look all that pretty, but it sure was good in my salad over the weekend. I'm starting to get a lot of cherry tomatoes, too, which made the salad that much better. ;)