okra: Whew

I've been busy today! I worked most of the day at finishing up painting the chicken house. I had already painted most of the outside, but not the inside. So, I was all squished up inside the chicken house with my paint bucket. Sparky kept sticking her head in the door as if to say, "What are you doing? Can I eat it?". As soon as it dried the chickens all went inside right away. They don't usually go inside much during the day, so they must have liked it. :)

Last night we took a trip to Lowe's to get a piece of linoleum for the floor of the chicken house so that it will be easy to clean out. My friend (and neighbor when I was growing up) suggested the linoleum. A very nice clerk looked for remnants for us; they didn't have any. But, he did find a long strip in the trash. He couldn't just give it to us (Store policy, I think.) so he put a price tag of $2 on it! YAY! So, our chicken house will have a *fancy* linoleum floor for $2. I didn't get to the linoleum part today, but maybe Friday. The glue is scaring me. I'm imagining myself glued to the floor of the 3' by 3' chicken house...

Today was also a satisfying cooking day. We had some nice pasta for lunch. I added some herbs from my garden in with the sauce as well as some Bocca veggie ground beef. Dinner consisted of falafel; I threw some onions into the skillet as well. I combined the little falafels and onion in folded pita with tomatoes from the garden, baby spinach, and hummus. And as if that wasn't enough to satisfy me, I made some treats for work tomorrow. It is my last day at my temporary job helping new students at the university here register for their classes. All of the temporary staff are leaving, and so we are having a potluck lunch. I sliced some prepared polenta and topped it with sauteed sweet red pepper, toasted garlic, and calamata olives. Then I put them in the oven to bake for about 15 minutes. So easy. I feel like a cheater; it took less than half an hour and yet they look so nice. And taste good, too! I had to try one. For quality assurance.

I put each polenta on a rectangle of wax paper for easy grabbing. I also made a little toothpick sign denoting them as vegan. I'm more plain ol' vegetarian now, but I'm still a vegan sympathizer.

I also took a CD of digital pictures to be printed at the 1 hour photo lab. They came back great! I'm making a little album for my great grandma. Her birthday is next Saturday. She will be 97! I love the Walgreen's photo lab because they are open 24 hours. YES! I took them in at about 11pm and picked them up around midnight. Then I went for a rollerblade. The bf went with me, and he laughed at me dancing on my skates.