Welcome to our patio

Just sitting outside, relaxing, and enjoying this nice, sunny day!!  No most days aren't like this but step into our patio....

Well, at least part of it.  This is our new BBQ (which has already been used a million times), new outdoor seating set, and of course old me. Our old BBQ and outdoor seating were looking a little worse for the wear after a move to and from Alaska so we found some folks who were more than happy to buy them from us to fund these new goodies. 

It rained all day yesterday which is good because we are in water conservation stage 2, no excessive use of water and I can only water my grass on Fridays between 3AM and 8AM and 10PM to midnight.  Weirdness. Life is so different from this time last year.   Our grass should start getting greener soon and the temperature has definitely cooled down.  Only like 90ish today.  

It has been sunny every day since we got to Texas, except for yesterday and I really noticed how the overcast skies put a damper on my day.  I was a bit grumpy until the early evening when the rain cleared and Charlie took everyone to get ice cream.  Oh, now I think about it, my mood may have improved because of the ice cream.  Maybe I'm the opposite of lactose intolerant...like lactose necessary.  Anyway, we went to Marble Slab Creamery and I had amaretto ice cream with Heath Bar crunch.  It was so DELICIOUS.  This ice cream was seriously good.

OOOOh...in other big news I started my herb garden.  I was able to snap up some basil and rosemary to start off with.  I'm sure the basil plant will be stripped of all it's leaves as long as I can find non-salmonella tomatoes.  Caprese salad has become an almost nightly staple here. The yummy mozzarella from Costco is always in my fridge now.  And just for the record, I'm back on the Southern style sweet tea.  It's an addiction.

Speaking of Costco, I cannot believe I lived two years in Alaska without having a Costco within normal driving distance and and without having a Target in the state at all.  It is incredulous to me that I survived. (use dramatic commercial voiceover voice when reading the next sentence). I now must think of myself as a masochistic pioneer of sorts having battled and won the freedom to once again shop freely at a variety of stores without using the internet and paying massive shipping charges.  

A post for another day (ok stop the weird voice now) is to discuss that a good portion of these United States does not view Alaska, and Hawaii for that matter, as a part of the US.  Or how about that most people don't realize that you can drive to Alaska, or that AK is the abbreviation for Alaska...not Arkansas, or that calling someone in Alaska means that you should observe the time change and that if you call at 6:59 am from a catalog company to say that they can't ship outside of the United States to Arkansas??????????, you shouldn't act like it's weird when I'm super cranky and half asleep.  

SHooooo, I need some ice cream now.  Charlie, oh Charlie, how about a little spin by Marble Slab Creamery, I'm lactose necessary!