June 27, 2009

I'll be quite honest....tonight I am in no mode to blog. Even so, out of commitment to myself to blog everyday it will be done. I wish I could commit myself to daily exercise that easily...

My aversion to blogging tonight has nothing to do with anything other than I am just tired and don't feel like "thinking", so if it doesn't read heartfelt I apologize upfront.

Today we went to Greengate Farms a farmers market not far from us. I have found the farmer's market that I have visited here thus far to be, hmmmmmm...not what I am looking for. I guess you can't really expect much crop growth in a place where it NEVER rains, the soil is like brick, and the temps sore into the triple digits daily for a good part of the growing season.

Here is Summer petting a chick...



This one's for you Angela....a pic of the farm stand...



I would have to say Greengate had a larger selection than the Manor Farmers Market. I have not yet visited the Austin Farmers Market in downtown Austin. It will be my last critique of Austin's fresh veggies and fruit. So far the Hispanic Flea Market (Austin's Country Flea Market) has them all beat hands down.

Needless to say, we didn't stay too long. The fire ants set out an attack on my feet within the first few seconds I stepped out of the car. Fire ants around here are like living arsenals.

The heat was intense and Toby is less tolerant of heat and sun than I am. The market was very small but had a decent selection of veggies...even though the tomatoes didn't look to healthy. There was also a sample display there. I had never in my whole life heard of cold corn soup but there it was, there for the asking. It really didn't look too appealing at all...and if you'll excuse me, somewhat along the lines of vomit.

Trying not to be rude and also a little curious, I took a sample and took a sip. It was really not too bad. It had the texture of creamed corn in a cold liquid form. Needless to say, I would never purchase it for my family.

Matter of fact, I insisted that Toby take a sample. I was actually doing this for my entertainment to see his face once he took a swallow. It backfired on me and I ended up having to drink the rest of his. The second cupful was harder to swallow....

After we left the Farm we went to Walmart...seems we have been in Walmart a lot more than usual lately for some reason or another. Anyway, we picked up our essentials and then had our usual indecisiveness about what to eat for lunch. It seems that is always the biggest argument we ever have.....what to eat.

Anyway, we finally decided on our usual Chinese restaurant. It ended up being a very entertaining lunch. I won't bore you with the details, but I will tell you we had a very entertaining Chinese waiter that insisted we "continue" eating. I think "continue" was the only English word he knew. He also never let our waters get 1/4 inch low before filling them up again....no matter how many times we told him that our water was o.k.

After our lunch we headed to the house. Toby had to go into work so Summer and I decided to spend the rest of our afternoon at the pool. Unfortunately our usually uncrowded pool was a little more crowded than what I like it to be. I guess everyone elses idea to beat the heat was also the local pool.

I have been up in the air for the past few weeks as to whether we were going to put our small soft side pool up in the yard. I just hated to put the pool up since we have the big pool right up the road.

But after today, I think it would be nice if we had the pool up just so we could get a quick cooling off if we need too. In addition it will save me from having to turn the sprinkler on for the kids.

Mark my word...I WILL have a large swimable pool in backyard by next summer..some how, some way.