Garden Update

Ok, turns out plants need water. I knew that. But who knew they needed so much god damn water? I mean, don't they know we're in a drought here? Cut me some slack!

So after putting down the mulch and setting up the sprinkler system to water longer and more frequently then I had previously been doing by hand, the garden is looking quite happy. Perhaps most exciting is the returned snappiness of the snap dragons.

Here's the before:


Here's the after:


There's hope! The geranium I got from Armstrongs is also doing quite well. I'll have to plant more of these when I get a chance. They're so resilient.


Lastly, the birds in our neighborhood are fat pigs. They go through the feeder in about 3 days now, scattering half the seeds all over the ground. No manners whatsoever. Check out this red cardinal giving me the evil eye. At least the cats are enjoying the new visitors. Although I'm not sure if we're just making the cats manic by teasing them with prey on the other side of a pane of glass.

Eggless Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

This past Sunday, Ryan's sister Kristen ran the La Jolla Half Marathon...

...at a 8:25 min/mile pace!! What the hell? She just had a baby last November AND she's running faster than I could ever run! Life is not fair.

To congratulate her, I'm baking Eggless Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies (she is semi-vegan). It took me a while to find an eggless dessert that looked worth the effort. The other recipe in the running was this Bittersweet Chocolate Pudding Pie with Creme Fraiche Topping which looks pretty yummy, but we already had all the ingredients for the cookies so it was a no brainer. I even threw some chocolate chips into the dough for good measure.


On the taste front, this cookie is delicious. Chocolate, peanut butter, what's not to love?? On the texture front, it's definitely very fudgy. I personally like my cookies more cakey and fluffy, but I still thoroughly enjoyed these. Ryan and I have already inhaled 4-5 cookies each and I've probably eaten another two cookies worth of dough. This could be forgivable if I hadn't eaten that enormous chocolate croissant earlier at lunch...

Yes I love sweets.

For dinner I made a lemony risotto on a bed of sauteed spinach. Mmmm cheese. Mmmm butter.


PS you were not imagining things when you saw Nixon shaking Elvis's hand on the coffee mug in picture 1. Some things are better left a mystery...

Masterpiece

It's finally done!! Ryan's masterpiece!! The wedding video of the century!!

Rather than hiring a professional videographer for the wedding, we had our friends and family members document the special day. Given two flip videos and a schedule for when to pass off the camera, they were given free reign over what to film. Yes that meant we ended up with a lot of "interesting" photage (ahem Brian filming people's dancing feet for a good 15 minutes) but it was so much fun to see what people came up with.

Ryan did an amazing job going through all the hours of video and piecing together this 8 minute overview of the wedding. It's awesome (the ending is priceless) and really captured all the best memories. I guess it pays to marry a film major.



Ryan will soon be working on a bloopers video to accompany this one. Can't wait! On a side note, 5 days of consecutive yoga has not been kind to my wrists. Thank god I have a day off tomorrow. Time to scrounge for some food.

Mulch Me

This weekend has been jam packed. Where to begin...

On Friday, Ryan and I were really craving pizza so we drove up to Pizza Port for our usual medium pizza (half jalapeno and green pepper, half pineapple) and buffalo wings. We were hoping to get some beers but as expected, the place was overflowing with patrons and there were no seats available. So we brought our pizza home and ate our faces off.

On Saturday, Ryan and I filled the composter bin with plenty of dried materials (plenty of brown leaves under the bushes out front) and some green material. We've started to add some kitchen scraps so hopefully it'll start doing it's magic soon. The plan is to continue adding until nearly full and then save kitchen scraps in the freezer until the first batch is done. So far the smell isn't bad at all, although I did just add a bunch of old bananas I had in the freezer so we'll see if that's the case after tomorrow's scorching 90 degree temperatures.



At 11am, I went to yoga and felt pretty good considering I hadn't gone in a week due to my strange illness. Afterwards, Mom and Dad picked us up to go to Armstrong's Garden Center in Del Mar. I had a list of things to get: pruning shears (mine were dull), big shears to trim our enormous bird of paradise tree, diamateous earth to kill the ants naturally, insect spray to combat the strange fungus looking thing that is attacking the underside of my precious calla lilies, and lastly more potting soil for my fountain project. I could have stayed there all day but alas we had lives to live (or so Ryan told me).

That night we had a dinner party at Mom and Dad's where I made the mac n cheese recipe that Dad never got to eat because he was out of town the last time. This time, I made a double batch so there would be plenty leftover. Mom made a tasty salad and Kristen and Simon brought over asparagus and beer. We had a great time filled with great conversation (ending with great ice cream).

Today, I was wide awake at 7am, counting the minutes to 8am when I could wake Ryan and go garden without seeming excessively psycho. We were both excited to see that the neighborhood birds had finally discovered the bird feeder we put out. Ryan continues to speculate if the two pictured above are bush tits. Despite some of my garden woes (sad gardenia bushes, dried citrus tree, misc wilted plants), there are many signs of new growth. For example, the mini calla lilies are really popping up and the first vinca flower of the season has emerged!



At 11am, Ryan had his soccer game while I rode my bike to yoga. Man, what a tough but awesome class. I requested we do scorpion against the wall and the teacher helped balance me while I actually got my feet to my head. I could see the top of my toes! Awesome. I'm going to have to keep practicing that one. I could even hold my forearm stand without a wall for 5 seconds. That afternoon, I continued with my garden projects. I replaced the yellow snapdragons with a cute geranium from Armstrong's (much more heat resistant). The snaps will be rehabilitating in a pot. Hopefully I can bring them back. I also planted a bunch of alyssum into this little fountain that came with the house. Since I'm deathly afraid of mosquitoes, I don't like the idea of water just sitting out. What better reuse than as a planter?


That afternoon, Mommy and Uncle arrived, coming to the rescue of my dehydrated garden with buckets and bags of mulch. We hung out for a bit before hitting the garden as a family, laying down the mulch like a team of professionals while Ryan adjusted the sprinklers and finished trimming the big tree. The mulch looks great and I'm much relieved that moisture will be retained from now on. In your face, Summer!


To repay my ridiculously energetic and hard working parents, I made Cajun Chicken Pasta, the first dish I ever cooked for Ryan. So creamy and flavorful. As a side, I sauteed some mixed chards with garlic, and for dessert I made chocolate souffles. This was my first time making souffles and I was pleasantly surprised by how incredibly easy they were. The souffles puffed beautifully and my only regret was that I didn't have vanilla ice cream to spoon into the piping hot middles.


More pictures of garden have been added to garden album.

Misc Updates

- Mostly recovered from the 24 hour flu-like illness. Must work out tomorrow.

- Originally planning to visit Mom in LA but she's going to drive down instead with Uncle Jamie (and bring me mulch whoo hoo).

- Finally watching 30 Rock on Netflix instant access. Hilarious. Ryan and I are hooked and we always watch a few episodes in bed before falling asleep.

- Very busy with work. Feeling a bit swamped.

- Composter came! Filled it with the brown matter I gathered. Will continuing foraging for brown material while gathering kitchen scraps for green material.

- Pet door installed! Thanks Handy Man Ryan and thanks to Sophie for letting us borrowing her husband's jigsaw.

- Ryan lost 6 lbs!! JERK

- Going downtown to Rama for Thai food tomorrow with fam. Yum-o.

Train Wreck

Dear God...what happened?

On Monday, I woke up feeling very achy and sore. My neck and legs were especially sore which made sense considering the intense yoga class I had on Sunday. Thinking nothing was out of the norm, I went about my day as usual.

After ladies dim sum lunch at Jasmine, I returned to my desk feeling very tired and drained. Food coma right? Nope. Within an hour, I had an intense fever, chills, and a bizarre gag reflex going on. I felt like I was going to faint. After my last meeting at 2pm I quickly rushed home only to discover poor Ryan exhibiting the same symptoms, although not as intense as me. The rest of the afternoon was spent curled up in bed shivering. Around 5pm, I woke up still feverish and moved myself downstairs. We phoned in a request to Dr. Mom to pick up some gatorade and kombucha for us and spent the rest of the night watching Dancing with the Stars and moaning and groaning. By that time I could barely move. That night, I wore many layers to bed and luckily my fever broke. Unfortunately that meant I sweated like a beast which does not equate to a comfortable night's sleep.

This morning I woke up feeling better but still ill. I would have worked from home the whole day but I had an important meeting at 11 so I went into the office. After the meeting I rushed home and took a 3 hour nap and did some work.

After all this, I suspect we got hit with some strange 24-hour flu like bug. Hopefully, we'll recover soon. On a side note, Monkey is the worst ever. When I told her my symptoms she immediately diagnosed me with several terrible illnesses including botulism and pneumonia. What the hell?

Lastly, here are the two yoga poses that really made me sore. The first one is Yoga Dandasana which is a fourth series posture. Surprisingly, I could do it without too much hubbub. The second is Eka Pada Sirsasana which is a second series posture. This one made my neck super sore. I can get the leg behind the neck but I couldn't pull my body forward enough to hold it here with no hands. Need to practice this one.

Friends Again

I was very unhappy with my garden this week. As soon as I planted the alyssum, they wilted and flopped over. Sad and matted, the little plants that were once so cute and perky looked like someone rode a bicycle over them. What the hell? Discouraged, I was resolved to ignore them until the weekend.

This morning, I woke up and did my usual loop through the garden. Holy moly, it's a miracle!! The alyssum was upright!! Well two of them were still flops but the rest were looking perky again. HOORAY. I'm guessing they just needed more water since it rained last night. I'll have to be more careful watering them, at least till they're established. The rest of the morning was spent running around gathering dead leaves and "brown" material in preparation for the arrival of our composter (I ordered it last week from amazon and it's scheduled to arrive Wed). I was originally looking to get a two compartment composter but they were around $500 bucks and I just couldn't bring myself to pay so much. So I got this horizontal rotating one compartment composter instead. Hopefully, we'll figure out a way to create our own divider so I can continue adding material while waiting for the other batch to "cook".


Around lunch, I went to my primary series yoga class and sweated my butt off. Afterward, Ryan and I went to Elijah's for delicious overstuffed tuna sandwiches (strangely the little deli was packed at 3pm) and then to TJ's for groceries (also packed). Once I got home, I hit the garden again to till the soil in the other bed and continue mixing in sulphur and soil with gypsum. I'd like to finish all the tilling this weekend since we plan to go to LA next week where my mom has lots of mulch waiting for us. I can't recall if I mentioned this already but a few weeks ago, my mom and Uncle Jamie got a hot lead on some free mulch in San Fernando. Strange right? Apparently, Uncle had agreed to do some landscaping work for a friend so they jumped at the opportunity for free mulch. They're too funny. Anyway, my mom ended up getting a LOT of mulch and there are several buckets waiting for me in her garage. Thank goodness because as the temperatures get warmer, the mulch will help keep the soil moist and we won't need to water as much.

On a slightly related note, I should mention that I almost crossed the fine line between sanity and insanity last night. For some reason, I decided I couldn't stand all the ants in garden anymore and immediately waged war on the colony(s?). Yup, I probably spent half an hour obsessively drowning the ants and subsequently wasting water. As expected, the ants swarmed out of the nest and before I knew it, the entire garden looked alive with creepy crawlies. God I hate insects. No matter how many I drowned, they just kept coming back. Grossed out, I rushed back inside for chemical backup, grabbing any insecticides I could find in the garage. Victory shall be mine!! Unfortunately, my husband immediately halted me in my tracks and lectured me on the environmental toxicity of said insecticides. He insisted I put them down and back away slowly. Quite angry that he was standing in the way of me and total annihilation of the ants, I begrudgingly complied and instead grabbed my computer to google natural ways to kill ants. I found some promising leads but by then I was pooped, so I decided to leave the ants alone (only after sprinkling vinegar along the edge of the patio to deter them from crossing and approaching the house). Though I killed many an ant, I think the ants might have won this battle as it appears they are back to business as usual today. Damn insects.