Enjoying the Summer Days

Waking up any time before 7:30-8am always makes me a little grumpy.  But this morning, because Chris was gone, I had to get up early and feed the dogs.  (When I say early, I mean 5am....the dogs are demanding and for some reason, can't wait until normal morning hours to eat!  aaarrrgggghh!!!!)  Since I had a cake to deliver by 8:30am, I was ready and out of the house by 7:45.  Not bad!  It's kind of nice to start your day off like that......every once in a while.  (While I don't recommend this on a daily basis, once or twice a year won't really effect your sleep pattern too much, right??)  Cake was delivered. Starbucks was consumed.  Errands ran.  Now what do I do with myself?  I've got so much of the day left.
Now's the time to do something fun.  I've got fresh tomatoes from the farmers market and some peppers just waiting to be used.  What can I make?  We've been on a Pico de Gallo phase lately, so I decided to make some up.  Man this stuff is addicting!  And, when you use fresh tomatoes, it's AMAZING!!!

It looks so fresh, I swear I can almost smell it thru the computer!!  All it takes is a little dicing and you can have some too..

Pico de Gallo

5-8 Farmers Market/Home Grown Tomatoes (if your tomatoes are smaller use 8, larger only use 5), fairly ripe (*) and chopped.
1 bunch of Cilantro, chopped
1/2 Red Onion, diced
2-3 Jalapenos (and if you like a little heat, add in a couple of diced Serrano's), diced

Chop all ingredients and mix together.  Let marinate overnight, for full flavors.  Serve with chips or on a Jalapeno Turkey Burger
* One important note:  If you buy supermarket tomatoes, make sure they are bright red and on the softer side.  If you buy tomatoes that are still fairly tough, you won't get the same flavors or juice from the tomato, which is important.

I love this on a turkey burger!  Chris made me the most magnificent Jalapeno Turkey Burger the other day and I was in heaven.  It was all I could think about for a week!!  Lean Ground Turkey with a little garlic, Montreal Steak Seasoning (it sounds funny, but it really is good in so many things) Worcestershire sauce, and slices of Jalapeno all mixed together.  Make your patties a few hours early, put in frig and then grill up on the bb-q!  This is one of my all time favorite meals, especially when you add some fresh Pico on top of your burger.  (Too bad I've already eaten homemade Sweet Potato fries or I'd have a second dinner!)

The bedding has started to arrive at the house.  While I appreciate the promptness in getting it here, did the two heaviest items have to arrive when I was gone from the house and when Chris was out of town??  I've already got a bad back and I can't haul in 100lb items off the front porch.  Thanks, Larry and Colin, for the help putting the monster boxes inside the front door.  It would so be my luck that the neighborhood vandals (probably on a bicycle) would somehow cart off my 100lb, researched, 5 layer-Visco foam mattress from the front porch and no one would happen to see it!  (Of course, 2 months after the fact, I'm sure someone would mention that they were out walking at 10pm and saw the funniest thing.....there was a guy riding down the road with a huge vacuumed packed mattress in his bicycle basket!  Sorry....my mind wanders and the point is mute anyway.)  Well, now that the most important items have arrived, getting them into the master bedroom and somehow hauling out our old King Size bed, should be an interesting chore.  If you live close to us and happen to hear some obscenities being yelled tomorrow, cover your children's ears and apologize for me.  I tend to get a little heated, when doing projects like this.  Not only do I traumatize the neighborhood kids, but I'm sure my dogs won't be thrilled either.  I always manage to yell at them at some point.  (I mean, do they really have to have their noses in EVERYTHING?)  Lol!
Again, while it's nice to have the major pieces of the new bed here, actually having some new bedding would help. Evidently, I failed to check the box next to the sheet items, for fast delivery, and we won't get this part of the order until next Tuesday.  I guess sleeping on expensive foam won't hurt us, right?  I mean, it's foam, what could happen but a little foam-rash??  While I do have other bedding, I sincerely doubt it's going to fit on all of this "plushness" that we now have.  Between the foam mattress, gel foam topper and new foundation (along with our existing bed fram), we should only be about 4 feet in the air.  Some people have even said a foam mattress is a bit like sleeping on a cloud..  Well, heck yeah!  If you were 4 or 5 feet in the air at night, you'd think you were sleeping on a cloud too!  Good grief!  And to think that I went with the 12" mattress vs. the 14" mattress and the 2.5" gel topper vs. the 4.5" gel topper.  We could have been really close to the ceiling fan.  What a ride that would be!!  And, where would you find sheets with deep enough pockets to fit that sort of thing?  So many things to worry about.  Life is tough!  :-)