Wedding bells

One of my bunko buddies got married today at the duck pond, so up the hill I went at 1:00 pm for their special day.

Doesn't the minister/Harley rider look like Farmer Hoggett (James Cromwell) from one of the Star Trek movies (First Contact)? In case you don't know, the answer is yes. Yes he does. After the ceremony at the park, the party was moved to the P-town Elk's Lodge on Clark for the reception. Three other gals from bunko were there too, so we all headed over together.

The bride was escorted in a 1951 Hudson that was a registered historic vehicle. Very, very beautiful. It looked exactly like Doc Hudson from CARS. Instead of a cake, Rebecca had gourmet cupcakes at the reception, but I didn't stay long enough to get one. Not that I'm supposed to be eating wheat anyways, but I probably would have cheated. My bunko gals and I were scoping out the flavor descriptions that were on little cards next to the display. Irish Car Bombs, Junior Mints, Blackberry Lemonade, Ba Da Bing, Buttered Rum, and some others that just sounded like heaven. It was a great afternoon with friends celebrating a very happy event for our dear friend Rebecca who'd lost her teenage daughter to cancer a few years ago. Many happy wishes for her new marriage.

When I got home the boy was off at a Chico Sports Boosters brewfest fundraiser at the Chico Elk's Lodge from some work friends. So I decided it was the perfect night to experiment with a new pizza recipe from my friend, Face, that uses cauliflower as the crust. First I used the food processor to grind up a whole head of cauliflower, then I nuked it for 7 minutes to cook it and let it sit until it cooled down. Next I dumped it onto a tea towel and wrung it out until dry before mixing it with an egg and some mozzarella cheese and a bunch of seasonings. Finally I took the whole mess and patted it out on a piece of parchment paper to the shape of a pizza crust while the oven, and pizza stone, heated up to 450 degrees.

Once ready, I slid the parchment paper onto the stone and cooked the "crust" for 17 minutes. Then I topped it with sauce, cheese, pepperoni, olives and basil and slid it under the broiler for a few minutes until everything was hot and melted.

The verdict? Delicious! I would have eaten the whole thing if I hadn't already eaten some appetizers at the wedding reception. Now to see how it settles with me tomorrow. Cauliflower is a "yellow" food meaning I need to limit my ingestion of it because of it's sugars or be prepared to suffer the painful consequences. So, if I feel good tomorrow and Monday then I will definitely be putting this on my regular pizza rotation. Good recipe Face!

Classes & Crashes

I had another all-day planning class today in Sacramento to learn about vested rights, vesting maps and development agreements. I know, a class everybody wishes they could take too.

And while I really did enjoy my class, I did not enjoy getting rear-ended on the freeway on my way into Sacramento. Thankfully it was in a work vehicle so I don't have to worry about dealing with my insurance, but what a way to start the morning! It was one of those stop-and-go traffic things where the gal behind me couldn't stop in time. She was super nice, and sorry, and I felt really bad for all the damage that it did her little sedan verses the few scrapes and paint marks my bumper took.

It did make me paranoid driving home though that everybody was going to drive into me. And no trip to Sacramento is complete without a stop at the gluten-free market down the street from my school and today's trip did not disappoint. Gluten free thin mint cookies, need I say more?

And finally, I got a copy of our softball team photo taken on our last game.

Who's that devilish little midget in the front left? And no, the preggers gal did not play, she was our coach! And while we only won 2 out of 10 games, we were definitely the hottest team which in the long run is really more important to me. Nobody will remember our record, but our photo will live forever.

The boy's over at the coast tonight for work so I've got the pad all to myself! And what do I do with my new found freedom? Um, watch Extra and make a shopping list. Yes, I'm as pathetic as I sound.

Kyle's my name, charmin's my game

My sister Jessica (and her family) to the north are here visiting for a few days and she was able to drop by this evening with her youngest, Kyle, to come meet Aunt Susan and Uncle Chris for the first time.

When Kyle wasn't busy charming us with his little grins every time you looked at him, he was showing off his little chompers for me,

The best part of Aunt Susan and Uncle Chris' house? The big screen TV within Kyle-reach.

Oh big TV, you are so big and beautiful and fun to touch. As are batteries and power strips. You never realize what a house of death you have until you have a little one make a bee-line for all things off limits that you didn't even know where laying around!

Stuck inside

So what do you do when the weekend is forecasted to be triple digits? You find busy work inside, of course. While I did some general cleaning and laundry, the boy worked on the more important task of making a new TV schedule for us.

With so many new shows starting that strike our fancy (Copper on BBC America and Elementary on CBS) and old shows that we try and keep up with we need a weekly schedule to make sure we don't miss taping anything. Finding time to actually watch it all is an entirely different matter.

I also made a new quick-reference food list for the fridge for me. Because I have so many food intolerances I'm constantly checking a multi-paged master list of ok/bad foods I have, but wanted an easy to see single sheet list instead.

I found one online that is even color coded for my visual enjoyment. And after I consulted my handy list I figured out why I felt like hell earlier in the week - I had dramatically increased my intake of coconut (flour, oil, dried), almonds (meal, raw, and butter), and flaxseed which are in the yellow and red lists. I had gone all gung-ho on new gluten free recipes using those ingredients and never took time to look up if I should even be eating them. It was the Canadian, who was getting tired of listening to me rolling around moaning "let me die", that asked if I was supposed to be eating all these new foods I'd been shoving down my gullet. For some reason I just assumed that because they were gluten free they'd be fine without ever bothering to look up their fermentable sugar content which is really what my intolerance is to, not gluten. Painful lesson learned.

Plan for tomorrow? Get anything remotely heat producing (baking, laundry, and thinking) done before it turns 90 degrees at 8:00 a.m.!

The big reveal

Without further ado, here's my newest piece of body art....

 Awwww....a Canadian maple leaf with a heart in it for the Canadian that I love. And the best part - when I kick him to the curb for Ryan Reynolds (which he totally knows about and condones), Ryan's also Canadian so no harm no foul! Always thinking ahead, I am. I'll be spending the next couple of weeks washing it 4-5 times a day with a mild cleaner (actually a mild Clinique face wash I have) followed by a light layer of Curel lotion. It feels weird at first because the entire image is raised, like an embossed image, but eventually it'll smooth out.

Since I was too busy defiling my body yesterday I didn't get a chance to do my full grocery shopping so I had to spend my morning at CholoMaxx stocking up on provisions. The rest of the afternoon I spent playing on the computer (checking out a new grain-free recipe website), watching NASCAR trucks and Nationwide, and enjoying a small glass of our lemonade mead.

When I was making our shopping list the Canadian specifically requested my enchiladas, so I picked up a rotisserie chicken and all the fixings this morning to make for dinner tonight. However, instead of using corn tortillas which break and aren't the boy's favorite, I chose to try a new recipe for gluten-free tortillas. They're almost a crepe-like consistency. I also changed up the way I make the filling and mixed the shredded chicken with a container of dairy-free "cream cheese" on the stove until melted and added a small can of sliced olives, a can of roasted green chilies and some diced green onions.No cheese or dairy and it tasted delicious! Then I got busy making tortilla after tortilla after tortilla.

Even though the tortillas are made with coconut flour, which give off a wonderful aroma while cooking, they don't taste of it which makes them perfect for a savory dish. I used the remainder batter to make four extra crepes for dessert later. I plan on slicing some bananas and layering it with almond butter and melted chocolate. Super win for dinner/dessert!

TGIF

Friday couldn't come soon enough for me. I'm exhausted and ready for a day off, but not before going in to work this morning for a few hours and running a couple of errands this afternoon. The sunrise this morning while driving up the hill was amazing from the smoke of the Chips Fire burning over on Highway 70 by Beldon.

The smoke on the horizon was dark purple in hue and the sun was dark, dark pink. I wish the sun always looked like that in the morning, but without the 4,500 acres on fire creating that look.

Tomorrow is my co-worker, and arch-nemesis', birthday so I brought her a bag of goodies to enjoy today which included my favorite drink coaster ever,

She loved it of course, even though she's the one I think of when I read it.

I went in to work this morning at 6:30 am so that I could leave at 10:30 am and be in Chico by 11:00 am for my appointment for....

....more ink, baby! That's my friend Poppy's husband, Chucky, who now works at the tattoo business I got my last two tattoos at. It's a vertical design along my left side, and it was by far the most painful of my four tattoos. Nothings I couldn't close my eyes and breathe through, but certainly not as relaxing as the others. It's still under wraps so you'll have to check back later for the big unveil. Kari met me there and was ready to hop in the chair as soon as I was done to get her foot tattoo, from our last trip there 9 years ago, retouched.

I'd only met Chucky in passing once, but he was a hoot to hang out with for the hour and a half we were there. Good pick Poppy, good pick! To celebrate our new ink, Kari and I went over to Grilla Bites (organic hippie food) on Cohasset for lunch.

After a quick stop at Traders for dinner food and Curel lotion for my tattoo care, I came home to relax and watch a little House Hunters International in Denmark. Chris finally remembered this morning that I had mentioned weeks ago that Kari and I were getting new tattoos, but he never saw the design so it'll be a surprise when he gets home. Hope he loves pugs playing poker!

Busy beaver

Though my week has been very busy, it's been a good busy full of things I enjoy. First my sister Wilson came and stayed with us for the weekend for her third, and final, wedding of the month. While here, she completely annihilated us in a "friendly" game of Scrabble. Guess who's who.

While she was here I also picked up a bottle of my new favorite wine, Honeyrun Honey Wine.

It's like a classier Boone's Strawberry Hill wine (the stuff we had at our wedding). It's honey wine flavored with different fruits. I got blackberry, but at a recent wine tasting I tried their cranberry, elderberry, and some other berry I've since forgot. Love them all. They're sweet wines so definitely not everybody's cup of tea. I shoved it in Wilson's face until she agreed to take a sip.

Monday night I had a double header softball game. One at 6:30 pm and the second at 9:00 pm. As is our style, we got our asses kicked both games. First was 4-17, second was 5-23. And best of all was taking a line drive to my shin while playing 3rd. There was a group sucking in of air when it hit me followed by everyone asking if I was okay. Besides a giant lump on my shin, I think I'm going to live, but boy howdy it aches every time I walk.

Tuesday night I went to dinner at T-Bar and to the movies to see Spiderman in 3D with Sarah and David.

It was a lot better than I thought it would be (the movie, not hanging out with my friends). The Canadian stayed home since Spidey wasn't really on his must-watch list. But we did makes plans to go to Batman next Tuesday night which the boy will join us for. I forgot how much fun I have with those two.

Tonight was bible study here and since I didn't have any spare nights to prep fancy food I stopped at Left Coast for a gluten free pizza which turned out to be a foolish decision since a 30 minute order time turned into 50 minutes. Nothing like yelling the "F" bomb out of frustration of being late right before bible study. And even though I was late to my own shindig, I still beat everybody else so no harm no foul.

My co-worker just got back from a week in Hawaii and brought some yummy treats to share with the office.

Macadamia nut Hershey kisses. The only thing that would have made these better would have been if they were dark chocolate instead of the inferior milk chocolate, but beggars can't be choosers. And you didn't hear me complaining while I shoved handfuls down my gullet.

Other news? We made a new friend of the four legged variety. Her name is Sambo (after the children's story Little Black Sambo) because she's black.

She found us on one our evening walks about a week ago and follow us almost a mile back home. She was gone the next morning, but came back that night and the next night. And Sunday morning the Canadian went out to get my newspaper and was surprised by Sambo who was hanging out underneath my car. We haven't seen her since, but we also didn't go out for a walk Monday or Tuesday night so I'm kind of expecting to run into her again tonight. And against my better judgement, and general dislike of cats, I bought a small bag of kibble to share with her should she show back up. Apparently I'm getting soft in my old age and I don't like it one bit!