What We've Been Doing The Last Few Weeks

      Recently, Robb and I combined our talents to refinish this little corner of our yard.

                     My project: A new patio! 

                 Robb's project: A new deck!

I envisioned the deck design, and my constructor husband made it happen. Minus the angled stringers for the middle, which was a heck of a geometry project, and I figured out. Robb did a great job of assembling my vision.  I'm so lucky to have such a handyman. 

It's such a nice design to be able to sit on all sides of the deck, and finally walk on to a finished patio. We reused the bricks from our old patio, and bought the beautiful bluestones to expand the space. (Technically almost finished, we still have to do the polymeric sand, aka "grout")

All to make room for the French door we'll be getting in just a few weeks. We need straight access to the basement for things like drywall, couches, fish tank, etc. By fall, we plan to repair the siding, paint the hour, and install new gutters. It's shaping up real nice!

Tomorrow, we're getting 5 yards of wood chips to fill in the dirt section.  Maybe we'll finally have a finished corner in our hark to put our wedding hammock up and relax every once and a while! 

Pickin' Cherries

About 3 years ago at our garage sale, a guy started eating cherries off our tree! I didn't know they were edible, and found out they were tart cherries. So ever since, we've been picking cherries. Last year my mom picked some, but they were very hard to reach. So, this year Robb brought home his bucket truck, aka cherry picker, and I went to town. It doesn't look like I even touched the cherries on the tree. There at still so many left!

I was scared at first to be in this bucket so high up. It was wobbly, but when I got  used to it, it was kind of fun. 

The best bunches of cherries were all the way up top. 

I'm giving these to my mom who will pit them and give them back as cherry pie! I may even have to make some cherry crisp. Yum! Cherries!

Reunion

This was my real birthday present... the entire reason why I wanted to go to Chicago so bad.

I got 3rd row seats to the Next Generation's 25th Reunion Performance!

I was REALLY close to all my favorite people!  It was so exciting because all the main characters were there together.

Captain Picard, Commander Riker, Lt. Commander Data, Lt. Worf, Lt. LaForge, Counselor Troi, and Dr. Crusher!  Too cool! 

It was so interesting to hear them speak for 90 minutes.  They answered lots of questions from the audience, and had conversations with each other.  I wish I would've recorded the whole show on video!  What a treat for me!

Curried Wheatberrry Salad

I didn't have any quinoa in my closet like I thought, so I whipped up this Wheatberrry salad instead! 

How to make:

Cook wheatberries like rice with a bunch, maybe 2-3T curry powder, 1T parsley, and 1T cilantro in the water. Add maybe 3T honey, 1/2 chopped pepper, handful dried unsweetened cranberries, and some coconut flakes. Sorry, I don't know the exact amounts, I'm not a measurer... Use fresh cilantro at the end if you have it instead of the dried. Just do it to taste and enjoy! I certainly am. 

Another New Friend

Meeting Data (Brent Spiner) was also SO cool. He was really nice. I got to talk with him a few minutes during my autograph session. He is a hilarious man and fantastic actor. I told him what a great actor he was and how much I loved him in Star Trek. I also told him how cool it was to see him again in Warehouse 13. He said he loved being in that show and hopes they bring him back for the last six episodes. We also got to hear him on stage with Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker) and the two of them together were out-of-this-world funny! What a real treat! 

Look Who I Met Today!

Captain Picard! (aka, Sir Patrick Stewart) 

And twice, I met Counselor Troi (Marina Sirtis) in the ladies room. I'm having a GREAT day!