Independence Day
10:26 a.m. - 2008-07-04


Woke up very early this morning and decided to get busy. Last night I loaded up the Rival BBQ Pit with ribs that had a spice rub on them and cooked them on low all night. We just opened it up to look at them and they look great. We are having lunch around 1:00 so they should be more than done. Side dishes will include corn-on-the-cob and watermelon. The next day will be Melissa's birthday and she has requested pizza. I approve of pizza. This morning I also baked an applesauce cake and grated up all the parmesan cheese (grano padano really) that I got at Costco and packaged it up for the freezer. Also watered the garden and tied up a tomato plant. And all this before 9:00 in the morning.

Now that I have done my chores so early, I am going to work on another Mexican Peasant blouse. This time I am trying applique with blanket stitch, and so far it looks very good. Abby is busy making M's birthday cake which will be in the shape of a sheep, using a Wilton ladybug pan. I don't know how she is going to turn a ladybug into a sheep, but I am interested to see. Melissa is fond of confetti cake with the colored sprinkles, and this year Abby got a mix with red,white and blue sprinkles. Though we often cook from scratch, we are definitely not too stuck up for a cake mix.

In addition to ruining my apple crop and trying very hard to eat all my apricots, those darned squirrels are digging holes all over the place. There are holes in the lawn and the flower and vegetable beds. Why aren't they putting nuts in the ground instead of just digging holes? Squirrels are annoying. The other day I put the rubber snake on the fork of the tree to scare them only to look out to see one of them perched on the snake eating an apricot.

Now I am off to do some serious holiday lounging around.