It was there. And now it's not.

There was a snake.

So, I decide to go trim some bushes this morning. Actually, first I decide I should go tend to the garden a little bit. You know: pull some weeds, fight the ant beds, scrutinize the newly growing plants for signs of eggs, worms, bugs, or disease, and maybe apply some organic fertilizer.

But then, before I got out there, I decide I need to start some laundry. So I do that.

THEN I decide I'll just trim the bush next to our front porch that is beginning to encroach upon the path my car takes to pull into the garage.

And while I'm out there with my pruners, I decide the front bushes needed a little trimming, too. I spot some poison ivy (I think it's poison ivy anyway) sprouting up in our front beds, so I retrieve the poison ivy spray and gave it a good soaking. By the looks of the spray bottle, it has been owned by us or one of John's family members for close to 15 years, so no bets on the potency at this point. (I am nothing if not thorough.)

Finally, it's time to go tend the garden, but before I could move to the backyard I need to load up all the bush trimmings into one of the trashcans.

Here's where the snake comes in.

My dad must have put some leftover cement from our fence gate restoration in the trashcan I decide to roll out because it is HEAVY!

As soon as I wrangle the trashcan out of its place I look down to see a snake curled up on the ground. The only reason no screaming takes place is because the snake is not moving. Not a bit. Not an inch. That, and I feel fairly certain a snake not even 1/2 inch thick and most likely less than two feet long is not realistically dangerous. Right? I guess it can still bite, but I honestly am not dwelling on that.

I stand stock still for what seems like 5 minutes contemplating whether to roll the heavy trashcan wheel back over the snake or go get a shovel to chop it up. In my mind I see a picture of people trying to kill a snake by rolling over it with their CAR to no avail (not sure if I've ever, in reality, seen that happen, but whatever) and decide a trashcan will probably NOT kill the snake.

(By the way, my Bible knowledge must be strangely ingrained in my brain more than I realize because the entire time I'm thinking of how to kill the snake, I keep thinking, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel" - Genesis 3:15. Why can't I remember all those OTHER verses I've tried to memorize?)

Then I figure I might as well just move the trashcan a little more. The snake is still not budging. So I wheel the trashcan out to the front yard, collect the bush trimmings, and bring the trashcan back to...

Snakes must play dead. I was probably more alarmed to find no snake where there had just been a snake than I was to see the curled up snake in the first place. Where did it go? So, it wasn't really dead. I should have gotten that shovel sooner. And, now the trashcan is sitting on the sidewalk in our front side yard because I refuse to go anywhere near the area where the snake HAD been but now isn't.

I have avoided that area of the yard all day. I continued with my plan of tending the garden (so far, no horrible pest or disease problems...that I can see), though the entire plan of yard work took more like 2 hours than my original, very first idea of, say, 20 minutes.

There is a snake at large in our backyard somewhere. John will definitely be taking out the trash this week.

If You're Going to San Francisco, Be Sure to Wear...a jacket.

I might have lied about the rain in San Francisco. I recalled after my last post that it did indeed rain on our trip: from the airport into the city.

But as soon as we'd parked the car, the skies cleared and the rain ceased.

Our trip to San Francisco took a couple longer than we anticipated. Fortunately we'd scheduled a tour of Alcatraz for later in the afternoon in order to give us time to get into the city and eat some tasty Italian food for lunch.

So, we ended up sharing a $12 personal size pepperoni pizza in the San Diego airport, rushing over from the airport rental car lot to the correct pier for our Alcatraz ferry, and enjoying some snack bars while waiting in line to board.


I believe my food intake for the day consisted of: an egg & cheese biscuit from McDonald's (in the airport), 1/2 of a personal size pepperoni pizza (in another airport), a Kashi bar, and a bread bowl of clam chowder (from Boudin Bakery).

Alcatraz is morbidly fascinating. I hear the evening tours are better because they let you see some places on the island that most tourists don't get to visit, but I intelligently determined that what with the time change and all the flying and waking up at 4 a.m., I would not be energetic or enthused about a tour on Alcatraz that began at 6:30 in the evening.


And it all turned out great! I enjoyed our tour without all the extras.

Day two involved some hiking around Muir Woods, which is beautiful. I believe the sequoias are the tallest trees to be seen in California, but we didn't go that far north. The redwoods we saw, however, were pretty impressive.


As were Muir Beach and Stinson Beach.


The car ride through the hills full of switchbacks and altitude changes was not impressive. In fact, all that driving up and down and around and around made me sick...but not until we were almost back to the hotel, so it was all good.

We took a ferry over to San Francisco that night, ate at Scala's Bistro(a restaurant I highly recommend - pricey, but we were celebrating 8 years of marriage that day and it was worth it), and attended the Giants game. I think at the time the Giants were in first place playing a team in last place and we figured it would be a great game.

The Giants lost. Plus, the stadium is right on the bay and it was COLD and windy. Thankfully, we'd been warned and were prepared with coats, gloves, scarves, and hats. The stadium itself is great with beautiful views of the bay.


We slept late the following day. Because apparently we're old and staying up until 12:30 a.m. just takes it out of us. We did, however, manage to make it back over to San Francisco before 11 the next morning so we rented some bikes and took our lives into our own hands by cycling all over the city.

Well, not all over. After the first relatively mid-grade roadway we attempted to bike up, we carefully scrutinized our route so as to avoid even the most moderate of road grades. It was flat in Amsterdam. Rainy, but flat. We are not so used to the hills.

We biked out to Golden Gate Park, took a break to walk around the Japanese Tea Garden, cycled through the park to Ocean Beach, and then made our way back to the piers where we had rented our bikes.



It pretty much took all day. Probably because we are not professional cyclists and there were hills. And there was the getting lost in Golden Gate Park, which didn't help. That park is 3miles long and 1 1/2 miles wide, and maps do not adequately convey all the little paths and roads that intersect the place.

In an effort to save our energy, we opted for public transportation to take us to dinner at L'Osteria del Forno. This tiny Italian place on Columbus Avenue is awesome!!! They're known for their foccacia bread, and it is to die for! We ordered a couple foccacia sandwiches along with some cauliflower gratin...MMMM! Another restaurant I highly recommend...just bring cash if you go - they don't take credit cards.

Day four was Point Reyes National Seashore where we saw evidence of the 1906 earthquake, tramped 308 steps down and back up again to visit a lighthouse, and viewed dairy cows, deer, sheep, sea lions, and elephant seals all within the span of our visit to the seashore. Fabulous!!! (If you look close, those things all over the beach are elephant seals.)


We went to Mulberry Street Pizzeria for dinner because the Food Network recommended their "For the Love of Mushroom" pizza. However, John doesn't like mushrooms and I felt like having red sauce on my pizza rather than white sauce, so neither of us ordered the famous menu item. It was still good - not the best pizza I've ever had, but I believe I've mentioned before that pizza might be one of my favorite things so I definitely enjoyed my meal.

We spent our final day walking across the Golden Gate Bridge, taking in more of Golden Gate Park, and driving around different parts of San Francisco (the hilly parts that were off limits on our bike ride). The city is fascinating and beautiful - I loved it! We ate at Le Mediterranee for dinner, out at a table on the sidewalk watching folks walk by. Their Moroccan Mint Tea, which I'm certain was about half sugar, hit the spot. We shared a dinner for two sampling of many of their menu items, and I seriously could have eaten their Baba Ghanoush all night! Go there on a nice evening and eat at one of the outdoor sidewalk tables. The atmosphere reminded me so much of Europe.

Speaking of Europe, what with all the volcanic ash last week, it was a good thing we didn't decide to take our anniversary trip to Europe! We might still be there! Which would be fun, but pretty expensive.

In summary (because I feel after such a long, detailed post a summary is necessary for some reason), I give San Francisco 5 out of 5 stars. Just be sure to bring warm clothes when you go. It might have dampened my spirits to be freezing the entire time...or to have to buy $40 sweatshirts from the tourist shops. I'll bet those tourist places make 80% of their money from selling sweatshirts, sweaters, and jackets - there's a captive audience of tourists who assume all of California has the same warm, balmy weather all year. We have more pictures of the trip posted on flickr.

Whew. After a week at home now, I think I'm finally almost caught up with laundry, groceries, etc. Back to real life.

I've Been on Vacation.

That's why there hasn't been a post in a while.

John and I took an anniversary/my birthday trip to San Francisco last week. Unbelievably the weather was the best San Francisco's seen all year: not a drop of rain the entire week, absolutely no fog, temps in the 60s, blue skies, plenty of sunshine!

I do have a lot more to say about our trip complete with some beautiful pictures, but immediately upon returning home late Saturday night we have been hosting my family in our home until just this morning. Whew. It was great to see them, but as you can imagine I have all that catching up after a vacation to do now...groceries, returning library books, putting gas in my car, cleaning, tending the garden, etc. No more fun and games. I'd better get moving.

Stay tuned for the trip details in the next couple days. After we have food in the fridge and clean floors again.

(We got so much mail held by the post office while we were gone, they delivered it all in one of those plastic post office tubs. That's a first. Just thought you might be interested. Not quite so interesting is that we almost refilled the tub again after sifting out all the junk mail.)

New Growth

The seeds I sowed in the garden not so long ago are sprouting sooner than I expected.

I don't know what I expected, really. Last year I put in little transplants rather than seeds. I'm getting braver now that I've had success (with almost no work on my part) with growing broccoli from seeds.

Ultimately, I guess I expected that the seeds might sprout eventually, but didn't have any real bets on how big they might get before dying.

They're still pretty small right now, and I have no idea if they'll be productive, so it's a good thing we're not relying on my produce in order to eat. This vegetable garden is more of a hobby than a useful production.

Okra. If we get a lot of okra I'm not sure what I'll do with it all. We don't eat too much okra. I guess we might this year!


Zucchini. The way the plants went crazy last summer, I figured it couldn't be that hard to get them to grow from seeds. So far, I was right.



Tomatoes. Home-grown tomatoes are the absolute best tasting thing you can grow in your backyard period

The pole bean seeds went in late, so no seedling popping out of the ground yet. They just got planted because I just constructed (a very poor) pole bean trellis a few days ago. I am purposely NOT including a picture of my homemade pole bean stand on this blog because it is an embarrassment. I can only hope the seeds sprout, grow prolifically (without toppling the trellis), and cover up the ugliness of my creation.

(In my defense, I was a bit limited in what I could purchase for the trellis based on the fact that we do not own a truck and I couldn't fit any rigid, solid materials longer than about 7 feet in the vehicles we had access to. When/If the plants start growing I'll keep you updated on the success of the structure.)

Spring Salad

OK. So, I just planted the garden (pictures to come) and do not yet have any components of a salad ready to harvest. BUT, in the meantime I think you should definitely consider picking up the ingredients to this salad from the store.

(Though John and I both loved the recipe, I have positive comments from several other people whom we ate Easter lunch with that this is indeed a tasty salad.)

Asparagus, fresh basil, and avocado. How can you go wrong? And while this is not my own invention, I thought I'd just post it here anyway. It's from the March issue of Southern Living.

Roasted Asparagus Salad

Add even more color by roasting squash, zucchini, carrots, or other favorite veggies with the asparagus. (I did not do this, but knock yourself out.)

Preparation Time: 20 minutes minutes
Other Time: 23 minutes minutes
Yield: Makes 8 servings

1 1/2 pounds fresh asparagus
1/2 cup olive oil, divided
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil, divided
1/2 teaspoon lemon pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 garlic clove, minced
1 cup halved cherry tomatoes (about 1/2 pt.)
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
1 head Bibb lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces
1 avocado, sliced

1. Preheat oven to 425°. Snap off and discard tough ends of asparagus; remove scales with a vegetable peeler, if desired.

2. Stir together 1 Tbsp. olive oil, 1 1/2 tsp. chopped basil, 1/2 tsp. lemon pepper, and 1/4 tsp. salt in a large bowl.

3. Add asparagus to olive oil mixture, and toss gently to coat. Place asparagus on a lightly greased baking sheet.

4. Bake asparagus at 425° for 13 to 15 minutes or to desired degree of tenderness. Cool 10 minutes. (If your asparagus is thin, 8 minutes is about all it'll take.)

5. Whisk together balsamic vinegar, garlic, and remaining 7 Tbsp. olive oil, 1 Tbsp. basil, and 1/4 tsp. salt.

6. Toss together tomatoes, bell pepper, onion, and 1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar mixture.

7. Arrange lettuce on individual serving plates. Top with tomato mixture and asparagus. Add avocado just before serving. Drizzle with remaining balsamic vinegar mixture. (Or you can just mix it all up in a big bowl if you're feeding a crowd. It still tastes good.)

Note: To make ahead, toss together tomatoes, bell pepper, and onion without dressing. Store these ready-to-use ingredients in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to five hours. The dressing and asparagus can also be made up to eight hours before serving.

Our house in the middle of our street.

I told myself I would go to bed early tonight because I have been so tired all day, but here I am typing out a post.

Not that I even have that much to write about.

We talked to a couple neighbors we haven't talked to in forever this past weekend, and I realized during the winter we're not just being unfriendly - who can stand out in the yard or the driveway and chat when it's 35 degrees and raining outside? So, finally some sunshine and warm temps have reunited us with those who live on our street.

Speaking of neighbors. A woman down the street whose husband happens to be the president of our little "neighborhood association" (I use the term loosely), emailed me tonight. I guess that's one of the perks to being married to the neighborhood association president; you get a hold of people's email addresses and phone numbers.

Anyway, she started off innocently commenting that they miss us at the "neighborhood association" meetings. (We don't go because a.) I started working on the evenings they have the meetings - it is totally a coincidence - honestly, b.) John has been living in other states for six months, and c.) even if John was in town, those meetings are so circular and fruitless it makes my husband want to slowly tear his fingernails out while listening to "Yellow Submarine" over and over again.)

Then she came to the real point of the email which was to have me solicit the business of our neighbors whose house has been on and off the market for the past year for her own home staging company. I'm torn between whether her asking about their "situation" is being neighborly or nosy. In any case, I promised her that the next time I see my neighbor outside I would ask him about prospects of selling the house and mention we have another neighbor down the street who does home staging. Doesn't hurt to ask, right?

Although, I guess some things might hurt considering you're generally stuck with your neighbors and it would be totally uncomfortable to have bad blood between you. Except in the winter months when you'd never even have to see each other.

(These particular neighbors are apparently trying to move, though, so...couldn't hurt.)

The hardest part is catching our neighbor outside. And, yes, I realize I could go ring doorbells to communicate with people, but I had a bad experience once and will never do that again. Ever. (That's a whole other post.) Is that wrong? How well do you know your neighbors? Do you just chat when you all happen to be outside at the same time, or do you make concerted efforts to converse?

Most other people you know have something in common with you: you go to the same church, you grew up together, you work in the same place, you have mutual friends, etc. We have nothing in common with some of our neighbors other than living on the same street. For instance, we don't have grandkids (we don't even have kids), we do not deck out our garage in such a way as you could eat off the floor, we do not enjoy racing cars, and (unfortunately and inexplicably after 4-6 years of language classes) we do not speak Spanish. It's a shame...that I let all that get in the way of trying to relate to my neighbors AND that I cannot speak Spanish.

And now that I've made myself feel adequately guilty for being an introvert, I shall spend the next week neurotically watching out the windows for my neighbor to go outside.

So I can solicit his business for "neighborhood association" lady down the street.

That'll make me feel better.

Silence

It's Good Friday: the day we remember when God became a man and took on a horrible punishment for us that He didn't deserve and didn't have to endure. Every evil, sinful thing ever committed or ever to be committed hung on him: lies, gossip, murder, gluttony, pornography, prostitution, addictions, torture, selfishness, hatred, prejudice, apathy, idolatry, oppression, the love of money, abuse, lust.

And his Father abandoned him to his suffering.

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

Silence.

It seems appropriate for today to be a stormy day.

Interestingly, I read this passage by Oswald Chambers this morning:

"Some prayers are followed by silence because they are wrong, others because they are bigger than we can understand. Jesus stayed where He was (after hearing that his friend Lazarus was dying; story in John chapter 11) --- a positive staying, because He loved Martha and Mary. Did they get Lazarus back? They got infinitely more; they got to know the greatest truth mortal beings ever know --- that Jesus Christ is the Resurrection and the Life. It will be a wonderful moment when we stand before God and find that the prayers we clamored for in early days and imagined were never answered, have been answered in the most amazing way, and that God's silence has been the sign of the answer. If we always want to be able to point to something and say, 'This is the way God answered my prayer,' God cannot trust us yet with His silence."

I'm not the only one who feels that sometimes God is silent. God Himself can understand how I feel and what I'm going through.

God's silence could be the sign of the answer. On Sunday, Easter, we get to celebrate the greatest answer - forgiveness and eternal life - after the silence of Good Friday. I take hope in that.

I'm not sure what the answers will be for us after God's silence, but I hope it's bigger than I can understand.