This morning I was running and "I Wanna Sex You Up" by Color Me Badd came on my iPod (yes, I have Color Me Badd on my iPod - shut up). I could barely run I was laughing so hard. I remember when this song came out. We lived in Chicago and I tried to keep it a secret from my Mom that I liked the song because it said sex.

Things are so boring around here lately. Russell had to work on Saturday so I got everything all cleaned up Saturday morning. If anyone has some good hardwood floor cleaning tricks, let me know, will you? The dust bunnies around here are insane!

I talked to the owner of the Great Harvest around the corner from my house and he offered to work around my school schedule when the State isn't willing to anymore. It would be pretty sweet because it's about a block away from my house plus the perks, hello free bread!

I am finally unpacking my bookcase tonight. School is starting soon (well, 4 weeks) and I've got to get that stuff out of the boxes. I've been putting it off because my bookcases are wood but they don't match my entertainment center wood and I really, really hate that but my front room still echoes. Echo, un-matching wood, echo, un-matching wood. It's a tough one. I need some pictures on the walls or something. That would entail me driving around and looking in stores, shopping. I don't want to. Man, I am really rambling, aren't I?

So, my friend Paola is coming to stay with us for a semester. I'm excited for her to come and check out Boise. I don't know what it is but it's like Boise is some big secret that I can't wait to tell everyone about. I like it. Anyway, Paola is coming up and going to BSU for a semester. I told her that I'm so glad she's coming because now I won't have to eat leftovers anymore. Do you know how hard it is to adapt recipes for just 2 people? Impossible! Speaking of recipes, I'm trying two new ones this week from Real Simple magazine. I'll let you know...

Brown flip flops. How I love thee. I think it is time, ladies and gentlemen, for me to retire and replace my brown flip flops. Exhibit one: $30 leather Ocean Minded flip flops. I think they lasted about 4 years and I love them. Exhibit two: $8 J.Crew flip flops. Yes, that is a hole worn completely through the bottom. These ones lasted about two summers. How can you live without a good pair of brown flip flops? I don't think it's possible.

I don't have anything good to say but Russell and I watched Desert Wars last week. You have to try to catch it, especially if you live in Vegas. Very interesting. Did you know that only 2% of all the water consumption in the valley comes from the houses? Did you know that Treasure Island and the Bellagio recycle the bathroom water from their hotels for their fountains? Don't worry they filter it. Yeah, it was a good show.

Me if I were on The Simpsons.

I bought some sweet new earbuds last night. I busted the ones that came with my iPod and then bought some cheap $10 ones. Let me clue you in here - waste. Total waste. If you need a new pair, you may as well just cough up the thirty bucks. I did and I don't feel bad about it. My new earbuds are so sweet, I can't even hear myself whistle. Does that mean I have the music turned up too loud? Is there such a thing as too loud? If you don't know, the answer to both of those questions is no.

Also, check out this conversation I had with Russell this week:

me: I can't wait for school to start. (pause) That makes me sort of dorky, doesn't it?

Russell: (distracted by some stupid show like America's Got Talent) Yes.

me: You are the one that married me. What does that make you?

Russell: (still distracted) A dork lover I guess.

Looking for a laugh? Here you go:

I love going to the market on Saturday mornings but the fruit and veggies are too expensive there. All summer long, every day, this guy opens a little fruit stand and we went this morning. I just wanted to get berries but when we saw all the tomatoes we had to get everything for salsa. I'm going to make it right now.

I've been so terribly unmotivated this week. It's bad but I totally have a legit reason. I have started a little journal. It's a food intake and exercise journal. I wanted to take my picture in my bathing suit (you know, like they do for the makeover in InStyle) and also weigh myself. I don't have a scale at home but they have two at my work, one in the break room and one in the women's bathroom. So, I weighed myself and wrote it down. A few weeks went by and I happened to be walking by the break room and I weighed myself again on a whim. I lost 10 pounds! How sweet is that? We were even on vacation last week and I didn't run at all. I went home and told Russell and he gave me a pat on the back and said good job and asked me what I was doing. I told him I didn't know. Then I started thinking. Did I read the scale wrong? Did I have my glasses on at the time? Wait a second, which scale did I weigh myself on initially? I can't remember. Crap I think it was the bathroom scale. It was. I haven't lost anything. I hate this week.

I cut up my first whole watermelon this morning.

My dog loves watermelon. Does anyone else think that is weird?

My throat hurts (dang you, Russell!).

We are back. The first night we met up with a friend of Russell's who is fighting fire just outside Salmon, Idaho. We found a camp spot but it was all out in the open so we opted to get back on the road pretty early. We drove through Montana and found another spot to camp. Otis kept getting back in the truck and finally settled down on top of our bag. What a wuss.

It was close to the Flathead river and it was the same story as the first place, no shade. Not a good camping spot for the middle of the day. So, it was Monday and we drove through Glacier. It was a totally cool place. This was the sign just inside the entrance to the park - they have grizzlies and black bears in these woods. We weren't allowed to take Otis on any of the trails so all we could really do is drive through but it was worth the extra $25. This was a supposed to be a view of three peaks, but I only got two of them in the picture. The water in this place was insane! It was so clear and blue. This picture here is St Mary Lake.










We got to Payne Lake early. We followed a gnarly 4 wheeler trail up to a sweet camp spot. We stayed at this one for two nights. Otis finally realized that it was okay to go ahead and lay down on the ground but he would really rather have one of us let him in the tent.

We were killing time and decided to check out this Bison Paddock close to Payne Lake. It was totally cool. They keep a small herd of buffalo in this little fenced off area and they let you drive through. This sign made us laugh (easily entertained) - it says, "Bison may attack you." They came right out into the road and they were crazy huge.

I realize that I may be in a bit of trouble here but I didn't take any pictures of the actual family reunion. I left my camera in the truck and just didn't think about it. There were a lot of people taking pictures so I'm sure it will be fine. My Dad has the funniest cousins. Every time Grandma wanted to say something she would yell out, "okay everyone listen to me." Russell was cracking up over it. There was also an argument (all in good fun) that included some licking followed by a small water fight. Entertaining.

Glad to be home.

So, we weren't going to start our vacation until Tuesday but Russell has a new job and we're itching to get out of Boise. Last minute change and we're headed out Saturday morning! Yay! But wait, all those things I had the whole weekend to take care of before our trip, now I have to do them... TOMORROW! Everything! Wish me luck. I'm excited and we're doing the sort of fly by the seat of your pants kind of thing so I would tell you where we'll be ('cause I've heard that's a good idea when you're camping and such) but we don't know.

Some more good news. My books are only $124 next semester! How sweet is that?

Also, Dylan's mixtape idea sounds like it would be pretty rocking. So, if you are interested, comment will you?!

This morning I was thinking, I haven't posted an Otis picture in a while. Sometimes after work Russell and I will sit outside. My friend Katie asked if I knit and Russell whittles wood while we sit. We don't. We laugh at our dog. I make a little squirrel noise and he runs back and forth and all over the yard. Entertaining. And cheap. Free to be exact.

Well, it's been sort of busy around our house lately. Russell may have found a new job. It's been very slow for new homes around here and he hasn't had very much work to do. The new job is with a fencing company. I think he's giving it a bit of a test run right now. I wish he didn't have to do such hard work. I think he should go to school to be a botanist, then I can call him "scientist" like on Half Baked.

I'm getting really excited about our vacation next week. It looks like we're leaving on Tuesday and heading up to Glacier National Park, we're going to camp there and hang out a little bit on Wednesday and then drive up to Payne Lake for the reunion. I still have to get our grocery list together, wash our sleeping bags, give the dang dog a bath and clean up the house before we go (because we all know there is nothing worse than coming home from vacation to a messy house).

We made this for dinner this week. The chili was good but not really our idea of chili. You know. Spicy. Meaty. We won't be replacing our recipe. The cornbread, though. Dang. It was good. I even busted out my cast iron skillet. Tasty.

Does this potato look like a butt or is it just me?

I haven't showed you any updated garden pictures in a while. In the row on the left we have zucchini. I think we're going to have a lot of it. The leaves are starting to get huge and we had some flowers sprout up.

Here is the tomato. There is more than one now but this is the big one. Can you tell how big it is? I don't think you can. Trust me, it's big.

I'm really excited about this! This is our basil that we started from seeds before we moved out of our apartment. It's growing really well outside now and it is WAY stronger than grocery store basil.

Anyway, the family reunion is next week and Russell and I have started planning our road trip. I have the whole week off and we're going to take our time getting up there and camp a couple of places along the way. We're driving through Montana and we're hoping to be able to camp in Glacier National Park. I'll post the plans once they are a little more complete. I'm excited.

Russell and I made these delicious muffins on my lunch hour today. Don't you hate it when you go to the grocery store and you still feel like you have no food? I needed a snack. Big time. The recipe was a first-timer and it turned out awesome! You can find it here if you are interested. The recipe says raspberries but I opted for blueberries this time. Next time, I'm trying blackberries.

Help me out here will you?

I work with this crazy lady. She is in charge of the Classic license plate program. Instead of having a mileage restriction on this particular plate (like every other normal state) Idaho imposed a "use restriction" and there is really no way to enforce it. They can't use the vehicle for regular transportation because basically they don't pay registration fees. Anyway, this lady is INSANE. She gives all the customers the third degree and if anyone else in our office issues a classic plate - watch out. I call her the plate Nazi. My boss heard me today and scolded me! He said I need to "be careful." So, my question to you: Do you find "plate Nazi" offensive? Really. Tell me.

I love trying to get my chores typically reserved for the weekend taken care of during the week so that I can have my weekend for relaxing. It's Russell's birthday weekend (we like to extend the celebration as long as possible) and we're not doing anything. We were thinking about going to the Cherry Festival in Emmett and then I bought Russell a few flies for fishing so we were considering doing that but in the end, we opted to stay home and sit around. We will probably end up watching PBS most of the day. Anyway, I thought I would share a recipe we tried this week. This one is courtesy Rachael Ray 365: No Repeats.

Zucchini and Bow Ties

salt
1 lb. bow tie pasta
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
6 cloves minced garlic
2 medium zucchini
pepper
1 cup grated Parmigiano
1 cup fresh basil leaves

Cook your pasta and reserve a few ladles of the pasta water. Heat deep skillet over medium. Add extra virgin olive oil and garlic; cook for 2 minutes. Add zucchini and cook about 8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and add ladles of pasta water and cooked pasta. Turn off the heat and toss with the cheese for about 2 minutes or until the liquids are absorbed. Serve with shredded basil on top.

We are trying to stick pretty close to our grocery budget and this one was inexpensive and really tasty. Next time, I think I'll add more zucchini or maybe try asparagus.

Happy Birthday, Russell!

I'm really glad you were born.

On my way back to work from lunch...