I made myself a new bag last night and I am in love with it.  I bought this apple and pear fabric months ago with no idea of what I’d make with it.  I just knew that every time I walked past it at Jo-Ann’s, I’d pick it up and admire it and for some reason I loved it.  Last night it finally found its purpose.  Cute, huh?

It’s really not that big.  It’s only wide enough to fit my checkbook, and just a bit taller, but plenty big for me!  Tonight I think I might make a matching checkbook cover.  I just typed that sentence and thought, how lame does that sound?  A matching checkbook cover?  What has become of me?  OK, how about I make a funky, coordinated pouch for my checkbook.  There, that sounds much better.

I was just looking through the set of pictures I have on Flickr of our deck construction. Here’s the progress from one vantage point throughout the project:

OK, so in the last two I slacked in my consistent picture-taking position, but it’s from the same general area. The change is amazing to me. The stairs should be finished today, and this weekend the railing should be finished. We have 845 feet of cable to lace through the posts and supports… ug. It’s almost party time!

-Enjoying the amazing weather. (Wonderful perfect weather, please come back to stay!)

-Having Luke make breakfast for me everyday. It’s the best.

-Starting to install our deck railing (yay!)

-Working with my dad at his shop to make the supports for the deck hand rail.

-Finally going for a motorcycle ride just for fun. Man, I missed riding…

-Planting seeds and moving plants around in the garden.

-Painting two more of our exterior doors BRIGHT RED. Seriously, you can’t miss them.

-Walking out on the deck to find Molly with her head in my coffee mug, just finishing my entire cup of coffee. Such a dork. I wasn’t sure how the caffeine would affect her but she seemed fine. A little jumpy, but fine.

-Looking out the kitchen window and seeing a railing on the deck. Sigh… almost done!

A couple of weeks ago I bought a large tub of plain yogurt and I have no idea why.  I must have been planning to make something but I can’t remember what it was.  I can’t let a big tub of yogurt go bad, so I’ve been using it here and there - in a potato salad, a creamy tomato sauce, etc. - but tonight I looked at that sad, purposeless container in the fridge and thought: frozen yogurt.

I had to look all over for my ice cream machine, I almost forgot I had one.  I used to use it so often, I considered buying another bowl for it because the one bowl I have takes about 24 hours to refreeze and sometimes that was too much time.  It’s been a couple of years since my last batch of homemade ice cream, so I dusted off the machine and started trying to figure out how to make this yogurt into something delicious.

The last time I made frozen yogurt, I tossed vanilla yogurt into the machine and hoped for the best.  What  I got didn’t taste like dessert, it tasted like cold yogurt (go figure).  This time I had to make it better.  Since I was using plain yogurt, I knew it was going to need sweetening.   I went to the fridge… well I had a batch of “nectar” I made for the hummingbird feeder.  It’s really just simple syrup.  That would do.  I had a third of a jar of caramel ice cream topping, too.  Yum.  And half of a chocolate candy bar I shouldn’t have bought at the store.  Perfect!

Let me tell you… if you’re afraid to cook, go buy yourself an ice cream machine.  You can’t go wrong.  I let the yogurt-syrup-caramel blend in the machine for about 20 minutes, then layered it with the chopped chocolate and froze it for an hour.  It was amazing.

I can’t think of anything else to say now because the inner battle I’m having is distracting me.  Part of me wants desperately to go back to the refrigerator and eat more.  Part of me is so full it wants to throw up.  That’s some good frozen yogurt.

I’m sitting here thinking about tonight and what I’m going to do to keep busy and I’m all excited to finish sewing a bag I started last night. While I was sewing that bag last night, I was watching again the first season if Weeds from the Netflix site and, oh my goodness I love that show, and how did I not realize that the cute William from P.S. I Love You plays the dead dad Judah on Weeds, and Weeds made me think of gardening and gardening made me think of this funny little exchange from yesterday that I need to share.

I was emailing my culinarily-challenged friend Paula and we were talking about the herbs I just bought for my garden and she wrote, “Make sure to plant the green things that go into mojitos.” to which I wrote, ” I did plant the green things that go into mojitos. It’s called MINT.” Those three sentences made me laugh all yesterday afternoon and this morning when I went out to check on my “green things” I laughed again. Thanks Paula for making me smile. Now let’s make some mojitos!

I filled up my gas tank today. Seeing $3.99 per gallon made me nauseous, but then I calculated my mileage:

39.55 MPG!

The guy across from me at the pump asked what my typical mileage was.  He was filling up a PT Cruiser, poor guy.  With gas prices going up every single day, you really need to celebrate the small victories.  I think I’ll have to do a cartwheel at the Mobil station the day I break 40 MPG.

So who wants to go buy a Yaris today?  You know you do. I love my car.

Last night Andrea and I dropped in on a yoga class at our old favorite, South Windsor Yoga Studio. Back about a hundred years ago we were SWYS regulars. We both went for a few years and then things happened, we both got married, one of us had babies, and we both stopped going. Andrea had been going to SWYS on and off, but I hadn’t been there since… hmm, probably since 2000, maybe 1999. Long time. We sort of both lost track of our class at Lotus Yoga. As much as we liked it, the day wasn’t working and we wanted something different so when Andrea suggested we drop in at SWYS on Monday night, I said sure. And all I can say is that it was like going home.

Honestly, it was surreal. The studio has changed very little, and Paul and Sydney, the couple who own the studio, they’re still teaching the classes. For me the sound of Paul’s voice, the flow of the postures, the method, the whole thing, it was like having deja vu for an hour and a half. It was wonderful. My brain stopped, my body relaxed, and I enjoyed every second I was there.

We both floated out to the car and then, if we weren’t happy enough already, we stopped at Rita’s on the way home. I got a mango ice with vanilla custard and ‘Nilla Wafer Blendini and… yum. Unfortunately I was expecting to be blown away by some amazing, fabulous, never before experienced ice cream glory based on the things I’d heard people say about Rita’s, and because of that I was a little disappointed. It was good, don’t get me wrong, and I’d leave the computer right now to go get another one if you asked me to, but if you offered me a Blizzard from Dairy Queen or a Blendini from Rita’s, I’d have to take the Blizzard. We took our not-Blizzards-but-still-yummy Blendinis home to Andrea’s where we sat on the couch and watched Dancing with the Stars together. It was delightful.

Next week we plan to do the same. I’m not sure if we’ll go to Rita’s, but I guarantee there will be ice cream in there somewhere. Then we’ll watch the final DWTS of the season and one of us (or both of us) will cry because she’s rooting for Jason and I’m rooting for Christian. At least there will be ice cream.

I decided that this year I would take over and make the plans for my own birthday celebration.  That way I would get to have the fun I really wanted to have on my birthday.   And you know what fun I really want to have?  I want to race go-karts.

I blame my dad.  He used to race go-karts before my sister and I were born and I must have a shred of that go-kart gene in my DNA because just looking at a go-kart makes me want to hop in and race.  One year at Americade we raced the small, Funland go-karts with a big group of friends and it was so much fun I still smile just thinking about it.  And those were about as powerful as my string trimmer.

This year for my birthday I’m going to race like a big girl, and you’re all invited to join me.  On Track Karting in Wallingford, CT is an indoor race track for high-performance go-karts.  The kind with 5-point restraints and helmets and neck guards.  That’s what I’m talking about.

If I can gather a group of ten speed-racers to go with me, we can all race two 11-lap races for $30 per person.  The normal rate is $25 per race, so this is a considerable deal.  We’re planning to go in the early afternoon on Saturday May 31st followed by an after-race get-together at our house in the (hopefully finished by then) deck.  If anyone is interested, either email me or comment on this post and I’ll get in touch with you about the details.

Come on!  Race with me, risk whiplash and mild concussion and have one awesome afternoon on the track!

I know you want to. I mean, look at this sunset!

How about this one? I think I hate myself, look at how PRETTY!

On Saturday afternoon we had the pleasure of going aboard Stellar Venture, our friends’ new boat that they will be chartering out of Old Saybrook, CT. They were filming a video for the boat’s website and we were there to act as extras. Goofy extras.

Let me show you how Stellar Venture is perfect for all of your boating needs. Like deep sea fishing, for example.

Or family outings. (Hey, it’s Jane!)

Or romantic sunset cruises.

What a beautiful boat, and what a gorgeous afternoon! Thank you to Amanda and Greg for letting us play on board. If you’d like to see all of my pictures from the day, including more sunset views that you’d ever care to look at in one sitting, go here.

In advance of Mother’s Day, I thought I’d say hi to my mom and wish her a happy day.

I may complain (jokingly) about the things I’ve inherited from you - hypoglycemia, double-jointed fingers, an excess of freckles, etc… but really I’m so thankful for everything you’ve given me.  (Well, maybe not the spider veins, but everything else I’m grateful for.)

The analytical brain, the love for learning, the high tolerance of annoying things, the great big heart… that’s all you Mom.  And you’re right, I don’t take many pictures of you for some reason, but I still have this one on my desk.  That one’s my favorite.

Happy Mother’s Day Mom!  I’m so lucky that you’re my mom.