I realized in the last few days that I haven't posted on here in a while. I hadn't realized it had been a month, though! My apologies. Things have been crazy.....

I had my June weekend at school, and it was a really good weekend, as they all are.... Then on June 5th I flew to Texas to spend some time with my family. Spent a few days at my dad's, and then went to my mom's for 10 days. The reason behind the trip was not a fun one - my grandfather has been declining rapidly the last couple of months. He has Alzheimer's and went from living alone and driving one week, to not recognizing his apartment building the next. He then had a pacemaker put in and has been in and out of the hospital since then. I saw him daily while I was there, and I felt that he declined even while I was there. He doesn't know who anyone is, and doesn't know WHEN he is.

I did get to spend time with my mom and her cats and dogs, which was fun. She had two 9 week old kittens that I got to play with - THAT was fun.

I got back just over a week ago, and have been getting back to my usual routine. I did pretty well with the BTD during my trip, but I'm tightening up on things now to lose some of what I've gained since we got married! I'm enjoying eating a lot of fruit right now - mangos, cherries, blueberries, pears, etc. YUM!

Yep! It's been a year since we got married! We celebrated all weekend - went to see "Hairspray" on Saturday, and then went out to dinner at Yamashiro, a Cal-Asian Fusion place that has fantastic views of Los Angeles - from downtown to the ocean (on a clear day!). It was a fun evening, but the food wasn't worth the price.

Sunday we were supposed to go to Solvang for the day to play and take pictures and have fun. Didn't happen, though. Sunday we woke up and were just wiped out and needed a day to relax. So we went to lunch with some friends and went to the movies.

Yesterday we threw a BBQ for some friends and family - very relaxed gathering, and we threw some chicken and salmon on the grill with some asparagus, served some appetizers and had people bring food, too, so we didn't have to do too much or get stressed about things. It was a fun, lovely afternoon.

We finally got our wedding album a couple of weeks ago, too - just in time for our anniversary! It's beautiful - we're very happy with it!

Gordon loves to watch the Food Network, and I'm learning to appreciate it. We often watch Alton Brown's "Good Eats" - it's funny, educational, and he makes interesting food. A recent episode was about avocados, and rather than make the usual avocado suspects, he made avocado compound butter (good for grilled chicken, among other things). He also made avocado ice cream and avocado buttercream frosting.

I know that avocado is not good for me, but I absolutely HAD to make the avocado ice cream. It just sounded so weird and so good that I had to try it. So for Mother's Day today my sister-in-law put together a brunch for her mom/my MIL and last night I made dairy-free avocado ice cream. I let everyone taste it at the brunch, and my sister-in-law loved it, but no one else was very into it. I found it to be VERY creamy and very rich - I could only eat a few bites of it before I was DONE.

I think Alton Brown summed it up best on his show - he said something to the effect of "It tastes like avocado, but it's GOOOOOOOD."

I also made wheat-free cinnamon buns, and they were a big hit. And other than the avocado, everything I ate at the brunch was neutral or beneficial for Os.

I got a Canon Digital Rebel XT camera for my birthday from Gordon and I've been playing with it for the last few days.

Wednesday I walked up to the Post Office and also wanted to go to the new aquarium store that just opened. We went to a wedding a couple of weeks ago and came home with a beta fish we've named Max. (Get it? Beta? Max? Betamax? Oh, nebbermind.) He's a beauty, and I haven't had a fish in over 20 years and I don't think Gordon has ever had one, so the onus is on me to take care of him (no big surprise). So I stopped in the aquarium shop to ask about taking care of a beta beyond keeping him in fresh water and feeding him regularly.

Turns out they are only a salt water fish aquarium shop, which is fine, but one of the gentleman in there gave me lots of information about how to care for Max. Very cool. Meanwhile, I'm wandering around looking at these gorgeous aquariums and fish and eels and crabs and sharks and stuff. Then I remembered that I had my new camera with me, so I asked if they minded if I took some photos. Not at all, go right ahead! I even offered to email them the photos if they wanted, but they didn't care, so I started snapping away.

About 10 minutes later, this other guy comes out and starts telling me that the images from the cameras in the store are relayed to the offices of the big bosses from the head office, and that they'd seen me taking pictures. He then proceeds to tell me that according to the videos, I've already taken over 25 photos, and that the bosses say that I can either continue to take photos and pay then $100 per photo, or I can give them my film and leave.

I remained calm. In fact, I was slightly amused by this since I had asked for and received permission. Said that it isn't possible to give them my film since it is a digital camera, and also said that I would be more than happy to delete every photo I'd taken and simply leave the store, but that I would not be paying $100 to take a photo. The man said that deleting them wouldn't be enough - they are still in the memory! I said that may be so, but I am not good enough with my camera yet or with computers to know how to find the files once I've deleted them, so once I delete them, they are gone or might as well be.

He's also standing just a shade closer to me than I prefer strangers to stand. So when I said that I would be more than happy to leave the store, the guy said he was just pulling my leg, and to feel free to continue to take as many pictures as I wanted. Not funny.

I did take a few more shots, but by then my adrenaline was pumping enough that I had some pretty severe camera shake, and every shot was blurry. So I left.

I got home and told Gordon about this, and he thought it was a hilarious trick to pull on someone. That may be so, but I didn't think it was too funny at the time!

This past weekend was my birthday - 38.

I spent the entire weekend in class, and had the extraordinary experience of having nearly 300 people sing happy birthday to me. Quite the experience! The class has acknowledged other birthdays, but has not sung to anyone else! Wow!

This class weekend was remarkable. Just a lovely, lovely learning experience.

Sunday evening 14 of us went out to dinner at PF Chang's for my birthday celebration. I had the wok-seared lamb over spinach (yum!) and we had a great time! It was wonderful to celebrate it with family and friends.

I am so blessed - good health, fabulous husband, great friends and family.