Green Goddess Smoothie

For those of you that bought the Conscious Cleanse book, you've got to try the Green Goddess smoothie recipe. Ted and I made it this morning, and it is my new favorite.

This is actually the Pear Party smoothie (also good).
That pineapple there was cut up for the Green Goddess smoothie this morning. 

For those of you who don't have the book, here's the recipe:

Green Goddess Smoothie

Yield: 1 quart

1 medium banana
1 medium pear
1/2 cup pineapple
5 romaine lettuce leaves (I subbed a handful of baby spinach)
1 handful cilantro
Juice of 1/2 lime
1 TB. coconut oil (optional)
2 cups water

Blend it all together in a high-speed blender until it's creamy.

It's bright green but tastes mostly like banana and pear. Delicious and nutritious!

After the storm

Yesterday morning I walked the beach walk from North Beach to T-street.  The surf report from the lifeguard tower at the pier (published on the internet website) said waves were 7-12 feet, so of course, I had to check it out.

North Beach--surfers were out despite the high bacteria count in the water.

Self portrait

Stand-up paddler at the Marine Safety Building.  Waves were glassy.

Main lifeguard tower was flying the red flag.  Surfers were out anyway.

Waves were shoulder high at the most but it was high tide.

Other side of the pier--waves look bigger.

Looking south--rain coming...

T-street.  Boogie boarder getting ready to paddle out in the foreground.

Caught "inside" at T-street.  Wind is coming up...note the texture on the wave.

Turned around and the rain hit full force.  Was totally soaked by the time I got back to the truck.

R A I N !!

We're got R A I N !  In fact, it's been raining off and on since Thursday.  Right now it's thundering and lightening as well.  After two days of freeway driving in this mess, I am so glad just to stay home.

My friend, Joel, sent me this shot yesterday.

Plant Update

My poor plant. The cats are determined to eat it.

It's like they OBSESS about it. The other day Minnie just sat there staring up at the plant. You could see her thinking, "How do I get up there? I know I can find a way…"

Then yesterday I heard things falling from a height in the kitchen, like there was a cat on the counter knocking things off. I rushed in to catch the cat in action, but looking around there was no cat in sight.

Then I looked up.

I'm sorry to say that I think this plant needs to find a new home. Do you think there's anyone out there who would be willing to adopt a chewed-half-to-death Dracena?

It's summer, well, almost!

We're still having grand weather and a few waves.  Two storms are supposedly headed our way by the week's end but right now, it's summer!

My friend, Joel, is carrying the red board.

Tide is going out and you can see the reef.

Self portrait (reflected in shiny black SUV parked next to me--my truck's doors are open)

Another shot of the exposed reef.  More sand this year than I've seen in a long time due to the lack of storms.

Happiness - Pharrell Williams

Thought we could use a little "Happiness"...

How can this not make you smile?? Or even start dancing?

Shoveling, shoveling again, and then again

You think you have snow in Ohio?  Well, Oregon has you beat.  It got a whole winter's precipitation in two days!  And of course, this was the weekend scheduled for THE BIG MOVE.

Now some people (who will remain unnamed) wanted to perform THE BIG MOVE without hiring movers.  Fortunately, the pushy sister (whose identity will also not be divulged) prevailed and hired movers behind everyone's back.  And boy, were we all grateful for Eden, Victor, and Efrain, from Prestige Allied Movers.  There were actually three parties moving into Touchmark last weekend and our guys made it their goal to be the first to arrive.  According to Barb, they hustled.

But to go back to the beginning, first the driveway had to be shoveled.  It started snowing on Thursday and by Friday AM, we had 17 inches which increased to about 24 inches by mid-day Saturday.  Yep, that's accurate; Bill measured the depth on the deck.  Bill was the first one out shoveling and probably did the bulk of the work.  He was joined by Jamie--in case you have not heard, shoveling is the latest in triathlon training techniques.  And then, Barb spelled Bill for a bit and Deb took over while Jamie warmed up her fingers.  We only had two shovels and Barb had the only warm gloves.  So we took turns both with the shovels and the gloves.

Thursday evening (I think)

Saturday AM

Well, Bill and Deb were out shoveling when he spotted the Allied moving truck.  Thankfully, they asked us not to finish shoveling the driveway as they needed the snow for traction.  (We did not argue.)  Bill and Deb left at that point to head over to Touchmark.  Deb went out to breakfast with Mom and Dad while Bill finished assembling Dad's new wall unit.  Barb and Jamie stayed to supervise the movers.

I have no photos of the move but by 10:30AM the guys were on the road and by 1PM or so all the boxes, furniture, quilts, and more quilts had arrived.

Thursday--after the new furniture (couch, chair, lamp, and table) arrived

Driving home from Touchmark on Thursday (I think)--thank goodness for Bill's Pathfinder!

Beautiful but slick

Second day of shoveling.  No down jacket needed; this is WORK.

Hot flashes welcome!

We got Mom & Dad's place in order late Friday and headed home; the roads were a mess.  People were having trouble getting up/down Reed Market Road so we detoured over to Colorado Avenue.

Saturday, we shoveled out (2nd time) and hit TM by lunch time.  We had worked up an appetite, so Dad took us to lunch.

Note all the CLEAN plates.

We had cheese burgers (neatly cut in half), a grilled cheese sandwich with lots of pickles (carefully cut into quarters), and Dad had soup.

We had not planned to stay long as it was snowing heavily but while we ate, mercifully, the blizzard abated.  The view from this small dining room overlooks a traffic circle on Reed Market Road and we saw three teams of dog sleds driving down from Winter Fest on the mountain.  Too bad the dogs were in their kennels and the sleds of top of cars.  It would have been amazing to have seen the actual teams dash by!

Sunday AM.  Look closely and you'll see Bill at the end of the driveway shoveling.

Sunday AM dawned clear, sunny, and warm.  The snow plow had come through during the night (Beep, Beep, Beep) and cleared King David Avenue but now the entrance to the driveway was blocked.  So for the third day, Bill headed out for an upper body workout.  Deb joined him after he was well over halfway done.  Unlike the powder of the two previous days, this snow was HEAVY.  Thank goodness, we got out and at least two of us are back in sunny Southern California where there is NO SNOW!