Yard Waste Pick Up Party

This pretty much sums up our Sunday:

8 stuffed bags, several overhanging branches, some weeds that were so tall that they appeared to be trees and 7 hours later, our backyard is finally starting to come together.

Last time we did this, Norm ended up with a swollen lip from an allergic reaction, followed by a fever, bronchitis and sinusitis. Then I ended up with some weird bite that I scratched too much and developed an infection followed by hives all over my arm and leg.

Hopefully that won't be repeating itself.

If I were the yard waste pick up guys tomorrow, I'd have a little party when I get to our house!

Lemonade Stand

I just bought lemonade at a lemonade stand! It's ran by two girls, one of them is raising money to buy hamster, the other one is helping her. In the distance, closer to the entrance of our street, is a little boy, he is holding up a sign and riding a skateboard, I guess he's their marketing manager.

I was their first customer! How cool!!!

CALI ATE IT

YES, THIS GOES IN ALL CAPS BECAUSE I'M STILL GROSSED OUT.

CALI ATE SOME ANIMAL IN THE BACKYARD.

NO, I DON'T KNOW WHAT IT WAS. IT LOOKED SMALL AND BROWN.

YES, I LEFT HER ALONE AND RAN IN THE HOUSE AS FAST AS POSSIBLE.

NO, SHE HAS NOT TOUCHED ME.

GROSS CALI GIRL, GROSS!

This is Ridiculous

About two weeks ago, after 6 hours of yard work (the yard in this house has been poorly kept - which is a great challenge for us, since we love spending time in the yard - but it's not so great when you have to bag all the debris up so the county can pick it up, therefore taking absolutely too long to make the yard decent) Norm got some sort of rash on his feet - his face swelled up so we went to the urgent care when he woke up with a fever of 102 the next day. 

He got on some meds then somehow, whatever he had evolved to an upper and lower respiratory infection (i.e. sinusitis and bronchitis). After another visit to the doctor and spending about a whole week at home on antibiotics, steroid and natural remedies such as ginger tea with honey and lemon, he finally got better and went back to work. 

In the meantime, I managed to get some sort of crazy bug bite on my arm. When it developed a red ring and wouldn't stop itching, I went to the doctor to make sure it wasn't something crazy. Nonchalantly, the doctor gave me topical medication (which I manage to get all over my clothes, my desk and my car because the bit is in a very inconvenient place on my arm). Two days after that, I noticed a similar bite, also on my right arm. Yesterday I realized (after about 3 bites) that I was getting bit at work - by something else - the work bites don't look like the crazy bites.

Last night, I discovered a flea in my bed. 

This is out of control. Last time I checked, we moved to the CITY. To an URBAN environment, with cars and pavement and pollution. I guess after an average of 9.57 inches of rain for the month of June, any sort of living creature will not only exist but thrive [like Kaiser Permanente]. Check this out. Not to go off on a tangent, but it has already rained more in 2013 than it did in all of 2012... we are only halfway through the year!

I had to work this morning, so on my way to work, I got a can of flea and mite killer and sprayed my office from top to bottom and left to right. When I got home, I searched for a pet-friendly way to treat fleas at home. I found this:

And got ready to spread it:

Apparently since it is so fine, it can easily get in to your lungs and make you cough when it's not "settled" - i.e. being applied. Per instructions, I sprinkled it everywhere fleas (and roaches, oh yeah, because they have decided to come visit too) might like to live. Disclaimer: if you come to my house and see a white powder in inconspicuous places, please note that it's not powder sugar or crack.

I have learned more than one can possibly want to know about fleas and their life cycles. Let's just say I am going to be vacuuming every two days to make them jump out of their cocoon so they can become adults and eat the Diatomaceous Earth and die by bleeding out. You can read more about it right here.

At this point, until the sky decides to quit crying and the earth decides to air out, I think there is little to no hope for living with this creatures. *sigh*

A Little Bit of Lima in my Kitchen

 What to do when you happen to have this sitting around, waiting to be eaten?

Ripe Avocado, Tomato & Hard Boiled Egg

Along with some delicious Kosher bread (we apparently live in a heavily Jewish-populated area, therefore there are Kosher Markets inside the Publix AND the Kroger)

You make a Sandwich Triple!!

And it goes like so (with mayo and aji  [ah-HEE] in between the layers):

Then you serve it with your favorite side dish - or whatever you have available. In this case, sweet potato oven chips. All I was missing was an Inca Kola, and that's because I didn't have any at the house, not because I can't buy it at the market on Buford Highway.....

Then you take it to the dining room table and eat it....

Stop thinking about what a weird combination for a dinner and go fix yourself one. It's not as good as a home cooked meal of rice, mashed potatoes and ketchup, but it sure is quite up there!

Please pardon the quality of the pictures... I lost my camera battery charger on the cruise, so I am left with my cell phone for picture taking... and the battery was about dead, therefore flash was not available....

Another Month, Another Dream, but Always BLOG!

 Geez. Another month (June) with no posts. This is what we've been up to.

We moved to Atlanta because Norm got a crazy awesome promotion to Executive Chef at this place:

Four days after that, we went on a cruise - no, Norm didn't take the picture, our tour guide Luke did. Norm didn't get to go because of work issues. His hotel was scheduled to open while we were on vacation, so he couldn't go. We've been back for two weeks now and hotel still not open. Enough of that.

After cruising for a week, we spent time in Seattle:

And Beautiful British Columbia - this is Vancouver:

My pups (and my husband) were so happy when I finally got back home! I missed them so dearly:

The Monday after being back I started work at this place and it consists of this:

My Desk

Amazing Cookie

Traffic

Living in Atlanta is going to cause a problem with two main sectors of our life. 1 - Food. There are a bazillion  amazing restaurants that we need to go eat at. Like my friend Kerrie said, Groupon is going to be the best route on experiencing these places. Gotta get the deals, gotta get the deals. 2 - Entertainment. There are a bazillion concerts, shows, festivals, that take place. As a surprise, Norm bought us tickets to go see Juanes!! 

And later on in October, we won (the chance to purchase) tickets to go see Jack Johnson at the Fox - that is going to be out of this world. Can't wait.

So life goes on in the rental house (pictures to follow). Cali likes to look out the window:

 And we finally bought Pellet a ThunderShirt:

He seems to like it, the only problem is that he won't lay down when he has it on. Instead he just paces and pants around the house - which is much better than that high-pitched-freakout-bark he does when he gets anxious.

So living in Atlanta is certainly going to be an adjustment - this is a truck that I ended up next to (in traffic), they were protesting against an education group that is having a convention ALL OVER downtown (like 15,000 people.... and that's one of the smallest conventions that takes over).

My opinion: if you are going to bash education,
at least make sure you spell your stuff right
[check out the spelling - and correction -
of the word "Judgement"]

And to wrap things up (for now) - this is the sort of weather we've been having for a week and it looks like it's not going to get any better. Pretty sure we are starting to grow scales with all the water we have sitting around.