Five Wishes for Wednesday

(in no paticular order)

A Brown Sugar Bear to keep my brown sugar moist,

Nail polish that won't flake off,

That Starbucks would suddenly decide that delivery is a good idea,

More time to read,

And of course, world peace.

I finished two books today, A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick and The Beach Street Knitting Society & Yarn Club by Gil McNeil.


A Reliable Wife really grabbed me. The imagery was excellent and the story telling really pulled you in and made you take a deep look at what desperate people are willing to do. It was a story for sure full of twists and turns. At the end I just ended up feeling really sorry for the main character. While I enjoyed the book, by the last few chapters I just wanted it to be over. Too much drama for me.




The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club is kind of a chick-lit book which I don't normally like. I don't like romance stories, too mushy and unrealistic for me. But this book really grabbed me (I guess you can say that since I started reading it yesterday around 11am and finished last night around midnight).

I think it's good to read a book that helps you understand that even when everything is going wonky in your life, if you keep working at it it will all come around again. I don't think I could have picked a better book with this kind of a moral to read right now. Things have been so wonky in my own life lately with work, my gram being sick, dealing with my sister, my poor mom's stress level, finding out that my favorite uncle had a heart attack, the death of my great aunt and having to travel a lot during all of that (and that's just since October! Eeek!) I really needed something with a positive message.

While things are still wonky right now I think I've got a better grasp on my life then I did a couple of days ago and part of that was reading this book. I literally could not put it down.

On a side note, I picked my first ripe tomato from my garden yesterday. To say the least it didn't make it into my lunch. I ate it while it was still warm from the sun. It was so flavorful! Store bought tomatoes are like plastic with no flavor but when you get so used to eating them all the time, it's amazing what a homegrown tomato tastes like.

My garden is coming along nicely this year all things considered. I didn't get anything in the ground until really late in the season this year and I didn't get everything I wanted to plant planted. But what I did get in the ground is starting to produce already.


My volunteer zinnias from last year are starting to bloom already. I don't have as many as I'd like but that can happen when you remember to collect seeds for your mother-in-law but forget to save any for yourself.

My corn is starting to corn! I'm so excited. I wasn't sure it was going to happen becuase I only have 6 plants but it's happening. We have corn-age!

My swiss chard is up. It started coming up really strong and then the next thing I know I only have about 6 plants total. Not sure what the story is there but again, planted late. I haven't seen any bug damage so I don't think that's what's wrong. Oh well, there will be enough there for me to enjoy a couple of times.

Of course the bees are loving it out there. The sun flowers have lots of pollen for them.

Each on of the stalks on the sunflowers is like this one. They have multiple blooms, which they didn't have last year. I don't know if they crossed with something else or what but they are really pretty.

My first tomato...of this season anyway! None of the other tomato plants have any tomatoes on them yet but they have lots of blooms. I see lots of tomatoes in the future. I can't wait to eat them fresh off the vine with a little salt while they're still warm from the sun.

From the piles of library books I chose A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick as my work reading book. It's been on the New York Times Best Seller list. I'm looking forward to my lunch break today.

I also finished The Maze Runner last night after I got home. I've loved Dean Koontz for years so I chose The Darkest Evening of the Year as my home reading. I got about 7 chapters in last night before I finally realized that my eyes were closed and I wasn't reading any more. I need more reading hours in the day.

I haven't been doing much sewing or knitting this week. My sewing room is torn up. I got a new cutting table from my Grandmother a couple of weeks ago and I haven't had time to get the old table out and the new table in. With my older sister coming this weekend I know that I won't finish that project this weekend. I'm hoping for some time next week because I have a 3/4 finished top and a 1/2 finished jacket that I'd like to get done and a pair of pants for work that I want to get cut out. But right now I can't even get to my machine and I a really hard time just getting to the ironing board this morning to iron my skirt for work. I also need to get my guest room put back together before my sister gets here on Friday evening. I think I have a lot of work to get done tonight!

I did it! I finished Voltaire and the last book on my list for my library challenge! I wasn't sure that I was going to be able to do it because about midway through Candide, I got bored. Candide is really optimistic all the damn time. And not to mention so moral! In the end, despite all his hardships and troubles he marries the woman that he loved even though he didn't want to anymore because she was ugly from doing so much hard labor and having a really tough life.

It was almost like the weirdest blind date story ever. But I'm done! I can pleasure read to my hearts content and not have anything hanging over me! Not that I haven't been pleasure reading too. I think I currently have 9 books check out from the library and I got an e-mail this morning from the library telling me that I have another book ready to be picked up. And I think I'm on the waiting list for at least 5 or 6 more books!

Right now I'm also reading The Maze Runner by James Dashner. It's considered a young adults book. My sister (who's 14) recommended it to me and said that my dad was reading it too so I figured I'd give it a try. I like it. The characters are interesting and the concept of being placed somewhere with no memory of who you are, where you came from or what you're doing there is intriguing for me. I'm about 3/4 of the way through the book and I can't wait to see what happens.

Now that Candide is done I need a new book for my lunch time reading at work. I don't want anything that is too heavy or mentally taxing, that's what my job does. I want something that is going to be an easy read, something that I can sit outside and enjoy or just avoid the world at my desk with. I can't wait to pick through the pile of library books at home and pick a new one!

Until next time, my pretties!

What a beautiful day here in Sacramento today. Hubbs and I had to run some errands and by the time it was lunch time we in East Sacramento and were really hungry. Hubbs works for the City of Sacramento so he knows all the awesome locally owned mom & pop shops to eat. We settled on Roxie Deli & Grocery. Let me tell you, this place is awesome. I had the Roxie Veggie Sandwich. It was 4 types of cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, marinated mushrooms, artichoke hearts, Avocado and humus on a whole wheat roll. OMG it was amazing and the guys behind the counter were extremely friendly, joking and laughing with the customers while they worked. Roxie Deli & Grocery is another reason that I miss working downtown in Sacramento.

Roxie Deli & Grocery is located at 3340 34 Street & C in East Sacramento. It's just a few blocks from McKinley Park. After we ate lunch we headed over to the park to enjoy the rose garden.

The Hydrangeas were so pretty.

The roses were so pretty.

The houses in the neighborhood around the park were so cute and quaint. I'd love to live in a neighborhood like this but there is no way that Hubbs would ever go for it. All the houses are too close together. But at least we live close enough that we can run up to these kinds of neighborhoods and enjoy the beauty of it.

Happy 4th of July!!!!

God Bless America!

Ok people! I'm reading it! Candide by Voltaire. It's the last book of my library challenge. So far...Candide is very optimistic despite being tossed out of his home and losing his true love, then hearing from his master that his true love was raped and killed, then find out she is alive and being reunited and then murdering someone and then being forced to separate from his love again. This poor guy has been through a lot. Can't wait to see how it ends.

When I saw this picture of Lucile Ball (on the left) on Casey's Musings I thought it was my grandmother. I've always thought that she looked just like her but I mostly thought it was the red lipstick and her hairstyle that made me think of Lucile Ball. But I guess she really does look just like her! While I was visiting last weekend we spent a lot of time going through old pictures and I got to see a lot of pictures of my grammie when she was in her early 20's. I really need to get my hands on and scan them. She was such a beautiful young woman with such amazing style. People now don't have the same sense of decorum that they had back then. I wish men still wore suits and hats and ladies wore gloves when they left the house. Now people leave the house in their pajamas, things have defiantly changed. It seems sad to me, like we've lost something. I wonder if we'll ever get it back.

I was able to snap a few pictures of the quail that live in my grandmothers garden when I was there last week. It's a mated pair, but I didn't get a picture of the female. The male kept calling four hours on end. It's a beautiful sound especially when you live in a neighborhood that basically has no living wild life of any kind. It's one of the many things I miss about my old neighborhood, before I moved to Sacramento.

When I still lived in the Napa Valley, even though I lived in town, I only had one neighbor. I was surrounded on three sides by vineyard and from the porch I had an amazing view of Mount St. Helena. On any given day I could see tons of rabbits in the vineyards and in the evenings Coyotes would come up to my back fence. I didn't like the coyotes coming right up to the fence but they were wild so there wasn't much I could do. I'm an outdoor girl so I loved it, it was a great place to live.


I love this picture. You can see his little top knot so clearly. I wish I had a camera with a better lens so I could have gotten some much closer pictures but these aren't bad for a little point and shoot. Maybe if I'm a really good girl Santa will bring me that Nikon D90 I've been drooling over for the last few months! Here's hoping!