JOY? On THIS day?

It's impossible to imagine there could possibly be JOY today.  A most horrific "thing" has happened in our state of Connecticut.  20 children were senselessly killed yesterday and 8 adult heroes died by their sides.  No.  No JOY should be caught right now.  

But you know what?  I did catch JOY today.  I spent the day with one of my most favorite people on earth - my daughter Brooke.  And you know what?  I caught JOY in the hours following this horrible, horrible tragedy.  I didn't mean for it to happen.  I didn't WANT it to happen.  I actually felt guilty it happened.  But she made me smile and she made me laugh and I love her more than life itself.  Yes - she brought me JOY.  And I am thinking that life does go on and those 28 angels in heaven are looking down upon us with smiles on their beatific faces knowing a truth that we can only imagine and pray to be. 

 I know this does not make anyone who lost a loved one yesterday, feel even one bit better.  But for the rest of us left behind feeling helpless, I ask you to - say "I love you" to everyone you love, hold your babies tight, and seek out the JOY in your lives because THAT is why we are here.  To find that JOY.  To experience that JOY - even if only for a few moments, a few hours, a few years.  No - you did not lose someone you cherish, yesterday.  And yes, you are heartbroken and devastated for those who did.  The most amazing thing you can do for those who did lose their loved one yesterday?   For those who died a senseless death yesterday?  Seek that JOY.  You owe it to those sweet babies and heroes.

Yes - a horrific thing happened in our state of Connecticut yesterday.  Unfathomable.  Unthinkable.  There are barely words to describe what we are all feeling.  But know this. "God" was the first to cry yesterday morning.  The gift of free will does not always birth results acceptable to humanity.  But we can all be assured that our mission is to seek JOY amongst our struggles.  I mean, think about it...as we live out our last breaths, isn't it a JOYful life lived, that will give us complete peace?

No - you may not agree with me about this.  And I totally understand that.  But I choose to focus - not on hatred - but JOY.  Not on sorrow - but JOY.  In my mind, a life well lived was filled with JOY.  I pray desperately for those who are grieving.  I can not imagine their sorrow.  But my beautiful, innocent, oblivious Brooke taught me something today.  She IS alive.  She is JOY.  There is nothing more important than that.  For this lesson - I am grateful.  I love you Brooke.  You are my heart - my JOY.

I offer my sincerest, heartfelt condolences to all who knew someone or know someone that knew someone who died in Sandy Hook Elementary School yesterday.    

Power-saw to the People????? EEEKKKKK!

There is a direct correlation for me, between blogging and catching JOY.  I haven't blogged in over 6 weeks and as I look back, I can see that the number of captured JOY moments have gone down.  I think that is a significant conclusion.  After all - catching JOY is JOYful!  Missing JOYful moments because you are not tuned in, is regrettable.  I am not suggesting that everyone should blog so they can catch more JOY in their life!  But perhaps I, personally, should blog more so I stay more in the JOY moment in my life.  At any rate - it's something for me to think about...

Unfortunately, I am having "bloggers block" right now.  It is not the only block in my life either.  I am having "READER'S block" too and that is not a good thing.  Books have been my passion since the the day I learned to read.  I don't often go through this block so it's surprising that this is the second very long reading dry spell I have gone through in 3 years.  I have unsuccessfully started to read 3 recommended books in that last 3 months and can't get through them:

The Night Circus
The Distant Hours (written by a fav author Kate Morton)
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

What is WRONG with me?????

I need a page turner!  Anyone?????? 

I am catching JOY watching a very "weird" tv show.  First of all, I don't even WATCH tv except for Parenthood these days.  (Caught on computer each week.)  But, you will recall, I blogged last year about how my husband and I started watching Downton Abby as a way of spending some quality share time together.  (Watching kids shows and movies is not my gig but he will sit there for hours watching that crap with the kids.  I decided it was time for some adult living room time and chose Downton Abby as a place to start and we liked it a lot.)

Well - Abby ended and I was looking around for a new show to get caught up in and Dexter kept popping up as a show people seemed to really be in to so I borrowed the first season.

YIKES!!!!  Ummmm - not exactly what I was thinking - a serial killer who murders serial killers/murderers?????  After the first episode of season 1, I was like - nooooo, this definitely is NOT my "cup of tea".  It was stressing me out, grossing me out, freaking me out - but I forged on.  We are now on Season 3!!!!  LOL.  This crazy ass show has addicted us!!!  I can even eat a full meal while watching Dexter Morgan do his bloody "thang".  What does that make me?

EEEEEK!!!!

Oh well, as I always say - it IS, what it IS...and when I run out of Netflix episodes, I wait anxiously for the next dvd to arrive in the mailbox.  Worse than that?  When it does arrive, I skip all the way back up the driveway with a mixture of glee and JOY on my face!  THAT'S TWISTED!  LOL!!!!  BUT - whatever it takes to catch JOY, I always say!

Hope to "catch" you again sooner rather than later.  Happy weekend!

HELLOOOO, October!!

Eyes open.  Eyes focus.  First thing each person in our house saw this morning?

Yes - my funny, sentimental, tradition-rich husband wanted to make sure we ALL had a good month.  So he either hung this over our beds or he held it in our faces this morning.  Sooo - the first words out our mouths on October 1st?  You got it.  RABBIT RABBIT.   Why????? You ask.  Here's why silly kittens!!!

"Rabbit rabbit rabbit" is one variant of a common British superstition which states that a person should say or repeat the word "rabbit" or "rabbits", or say the phrase "white rabbits", or some combination of these elements, out loud upon waking on the first day of the month, because doing so will ensure good luck for the duration of that month. Today, it is a frequent tradition in many English-speaking countries.

I know - who knew???  Well - WE knew!!!  It's the first day of the month.  Gotta say it!!!  Every month.  That's not to say that we remember every month - but everyone gets quizzed.  I usually fail...

It's very hard to believe it is the first day of the 10th month of the 12th year of the new millenium.  But it is.  I need to GET OVER IT!

At any rate - it's time to start saying good bye to summer.  LOL - notice I said start?  Actually - I LOVE fall.  It's my favoriteist season.  Is that a word?  I'll have to try it out in a Words With Friends game!  So watch out Laura, Aileen, Ellen, JoJo, Judy, Liz, Mike, Peter, Michael, Kris Anne - did I forget anyone???

Woohoo!  I beat Laura!!!!!!


Ok - back to the subject at hand...I had to start my fond farewell to my beautiful Morning Glories.  I know I post a lot of boring pix of them but, it's my blog and I can do what I want I just love them so much.  SNIFFF.

I'm a bit frustrated because I don't know enough about photography to stop my camera from snapping these in more purple than the deep, rich cornflower blue they really are.  Sighhhh...I'm hopeless. Tried all kinds of ISO, AV, TV settings.  Whatever I was taught, I've not retained.  But you catch my drift...

Such JOY they gave me!!  But I said my goodbyes and moved on.

Aren't they beautiful?!  Big AND little JOY this morning.  I was running with my son (Huge JOY) at the HS track yesterday morning and couldn't resist the beautiful trees (little JOY).  It looks like it's really shaping up to be a great leaf peeping Fall.  

Yesterday afternoon I cooked while my kids caught JOYJOYJOY pulling all the Fall/Halloween "stuff" out of the basement and tossed them mindlessly placed them carefully and decoratively around the house.  Funny how in my mind I see a cozy Norman Rockwell scene of us decorating the house or the Christmas tree.  Then reality bites and I'm yelling.  And yelling.  And yelling.  Every single time...I gotta work on that.  Maybe when they are adults a little older?  Sigh...

But they just ignore me and keep skipping around throwing the crap everywhere catching JOY.

I DID catch JOY when it was all re-arranged done.  AND my oldest brought me to tears.  He is JUST like his father - so sentimental, so LOVING the holiday seasons, not for the gifts and candy but for that special feeling he experiences inside himself.  

I really hope he can hang on to that JOY he feels and not become jaded.  I have hope because it's in his genes and afterall - he is 13 in 14 days.  I think I lost that childlike magic much earlier than 13.  He embodies all that I seek - that JOY you experience inside yourself.  Truly in the moment.  It's almost a kind of "grace", I think.   Yes - he is his father's son...

I love these pix of my children in their very first Halloween costumes.  I bring them out every Fall. 

My owl!!!  Love him!!

Oooooh - there's my self portrait!!!  At least my husband would say that...giggle!

Here's the Halloween dish towel that my middle child can't keep his hands off and usually looks like...

THIS!!!!!  Grrrrrrrrr!!!!!  

And so it begins.  The pathway to Christmas.  It's a short one!  Before we know it - Halloween.  Turn around and you're cooking a turkey, take a breath and it's MERRY CHRISTMAS!  So stay in the moment.  Take a moment to look around and actually see the beautiful foliage.  Enjoy wearing your Fall fashions - BOOTS!!!  Bask in the warmth of a great big fire.  It's there.  The JOY is there.  You just need to pause...and see it.  For a fleeting moment, perhaps.  You'll experience it inside yourself.  Just like my oldest baby boy...you need to:

CATCHING ME SOME JOY THIS WEEK

What a week!  Catching JOY all over the place.  Despite the b*tching I do, my life is blessed and this week proves it over and over again.

Last Friday, my besties and I drove up to a cabin in the Adirondak Mountains in New York state.  Is anyone familiar with that indescribable feeling?  The one where you climb in the car and the second the door closes, you never look back?  You decompress and enter that "in the moment" state all in the same breath.  That's where I lived the whole weekend.

The blend of personalities of us besties is so amazing.  Everyone is low key.  No one is in control freak mode.  (Although at least 3 of us live in that category most of the time.)  AND we all love FOOD!!!!!!  First words out of my mouth when I found out a few months back that we had secured the weekend?  I'm ON the food!  Oh the places we went in food land!  We each took 2 meals - I had a dinner and a breakfast.  Could it be any easier????  I felt like I didn't stop eating for 3 days straight!

Seriously - we DID do other things.   We climbed 3579 feet to the top of Pillsbury Mountain (should I tell you about the BEAR hunter we ran into up there?  Eeeeek - who knew it was opening day of BEAR season!!!)  and canoed for 3 hours on Lake Pleasant.  

We lollygagged (I looked it up.  It's a real word!) in front of a blazing fire and we kicked each other's butts in cards (well - I didn't do any kicking but...) till the wee hours of the morning.  Hmmm - what else did we do?  Ummmmmm - hmmmmm, I know we...no.  Nope.  That's all we did...LAUGH OUT LOUD!!  Yup.  That's it, folks!!!

Can you catch anymore JOY than that??  Well actually you can - stay tuned!

I also came home to these.  Actually, on Sat. morning I received this text from my better half:

Then I came home to these...

JOYJOYJOY!!!

Alas - reality bites and the routine starts all over again.  But somehow - even though I hit the ground running, there's a spring in my step and I bask in the crisp, sunny fall days and cool, sleeping weather nights.  My absolute favorite time of year.  New beginnings abound as we head-on to the holidays.

My oldest son made the middle school cross country team and his first meet was Wednesday afternoon.  Yet another JOYful afternoon watching my boy run his first race - completely untrained - and finish in the top third.  It is so bitter-sweet to see my beautiful boy follow in my running steps.  When did he get old enough to run on a x-country team?  How could he possibly be a teenager in exactly 3 weeks?  Weren't we just packing him up in the car, taking him home from the hospital and looking at each other saying, "How could they send us home so soon???  We have no idea what we are doing!" 

But then - he asks me this morning if I wanted to go for a run with him.  There was no decision.  My boy wanted me at his side.  No greater JOY than that.  My beautiful boy wants me by his side...

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Oh Happy Day!

So I taught a class this morning and then came down to spend hours spend a few minutes with my computer before beginning my Saturday.  I have a specific order of what I view:  First I read and possibly respond to emails.  Then I pop into Facebook and read the new posts, do my "likes", post smartass responses, blah, blah, blah...then I head to a few blogs I like.  And then to another few that I like.  And another.  Catch my drift?  Hence - hours?

Anyway - this was my facebook JOY this morning!  BE STILL MY BEATING HEART!

Seriously?  Need I say more? MARRY ME, THOMAS!!!!!

So here's a quick overJOY!!!

As you know - I'm the carbless girl now.  I mean - I eat a few grains throughout the week but essentially - no carbs except veggies and no sugar/treats and no alcohol.  (Welllll - some alcohol...but I am usually VERY good.)

The one thing I miss is a really good sandwich.  Peanut butter and jelly, egg salad, salami and cheese with lettuce, tomato, pickles, mayo, BLT...   I've been praying for someone to come along with a carbless bread recipe.  I've done gluten-free and that's all good for a cheat, but expensive and not THAT satisfying because I want more than 2 pieces because they are small.  

Two nights ago, my prayers were answered.

JOYFUL GRAIN FREE SANDWICH BREAD (My name!)

Ingredients (makes 1 8.5×4.5 loaf) 1 cup extra smooth raw cashew butter at room temperature (I use Artisana Organic) 4 large eggs, separated (mine weighed about 9 ounces in their shells) 1/2 to 2 tablespoons honey (use 2tbl if you plan to use if for sweeter dishes like french toast)  SERIOUSLY??????  FRENCH TOAST!!!!!! 2.5 teaspoons apple cider vinegar 1/4 cup almond milk 1/4 cup coconut flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Directions

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.

Line the bottom of an 8.5×4.5 glass loaf pan with parchment paper, then spread a very thin coating of coconut oil on the sides of the pan.

Beat the cashew butter with the egg yolks, then add the honey, vinegar, and milk. I’ve done this with both electric hand beaters and a stand mixer and both seem to work equally as well. I would not try to make this by hand due to the stickiness of the butter.

Beat the egg whites in a separate bowl until peaks form. I used an electric hand mixer, but if you want a bicep workout, you can also do it by hand.

Combine the dry ingredients in another small bowl. Sorry for all of the dishes!

Make sure your oven is completely preheated before adding the egg whites and the dry ingredients to the cashew butter mixture. You don’t want your whites to fall, and the baking soda will activate once it hits the eggs and vinegar.

Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, and beat until combined. This will result in more of a wet batter than a dough. Make sure to get all of the sticky butter mixture off of the bottom of the bowl so you don’t end up with clumps.

Pour the beaten egg whites into the cashew butter mixture, beating again until just combined. You don’t have to be gentle with this, but don’t over mix.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan, then immediately put it into the oven.

Bake for 45-50 minutes, until the top is golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Don’t be tempted to open the oven door anytime before 40 minutes, as this will allow the steam to escape and you will not get a properly risen loaf.

Remove from the oven, then let cool for 15-20 minutes. Use a knife to free the sides from the loaf pan, then flip it upside down and release the loaf onto a cooling rack. Cool right-side up for an hour before serving.

I made it yesterday.  It was a bit laborious and I was swearing muttering that it better be worth it.  

IT WAS AMAZING.  I am sooooooo happy.  I have been spreading the Grain-free Bread JOY since the first bite hit my tongue.  

French toast?  Back in my life!!!!  

Now THAT'S JOY!  enJOY, my friends!

 

A MOUNTAIN OF JOY!

There are all kinds of JOY to catch in this world.  As we have discussed, they tend to be fleeting moments rather than long extended periods.  This weekend - definitely had extended ones!  Now who's better than ME?!

Friday afternoon, Pam, my very best friend of FIFTY YEARS and I - yes, I said FIFTY - jumped in the car and headed up to New Hampshire to climb Mount Washington.   

The below photo is us, half way up.  You can see Mount Washington behind us.

She had climbed Mount Washington before.  I, on the other hand, had run marathons and triathlons and even walked for 19 hours straight at a Relay For Life event - but NEVER had climbed such a high mountain.  I mean - I've done my share of hiking but this is definitely in a category all it's own. 

I got it in my brain earlier this summer that I wanted to do it when I saw Pam's daughter's pix from her trek up there earlier this summer.  I was very interested in doing this.  But alas, we never set a date and the idea kind of just dropped into a black hole.

Around the 3rd week of August, it dawned on me that if I didn't want to wait until next year, I needed to climb that sucker SOON!  Mid to late Fall is NOT the time to climb a mountain that:

At 6,288 feet, is only one third the size of Mount McKinley, North America's highest peak.  But Mount Washington sticks up like a big toe at a point where storms from the north, south and west collide.  As a result, it has some of the most ferocious weather on earth, with snow and ice even in the summer.

Ummmm - had I been aware of that little fact or for that matter known how quickly weather can turn on a dime up there (above the tree line especially!), I'm pretty sure I would not have been the innocent, excited and determined little mountain climber that started out Saturday morning ready to take on the highest peak in the northeast! 

At any rate - we briefly talked about Labor Day Sat. and everything slowly but surely fell into place.

Now - when you have been a "sister" for 50 years, you know each other pretty darn well.  The problem with knowing someone that long is that you are at least FIFTY years old and you are losing your mind and you never remember EVERYTHING you need to share with that person as you don't talk to them every day.  Trust me - I have forgotten more things to tell her in the last 20 years than I have remembered.

But Thelma and Louise together for 6 hours in a car?  Priceless!!!  

It was a non-stop blab session, brain dump that made it a totally JOY filled ride.  Seriously?  Who else do I tell about my middle child's new under arm hair?  Or that my baby girl is flat as a board and her best friend is NOT FLAT AS A BOARD anymore...oy!!!

The thing with "us" is, we move like a smoothly oiled machine.  Let's take a ride and check out the base lodge.  Let's eat dinner here.  Yes - lets go there for breakfast.  Let's get to the base by 7am.  It just flows.

So, we set out shortly after 7am on Saturday and reached the tree line in about 2 hours with 3 to go.  

This is a photo of the woods ending and the "above the tree line" hike beginning.  

It was an exhilarating climb - exactly the kind of "workout" I love.  Using my body, the heart is pounding for hours on end,  I'm breathing reallllyyyy heavy the whole climb, very few breaks except to take 5 million pictures - but the point being - I know I'm fit enough to do this AND almost "easily".   LAUGH OUT LOUD!!!

  
The weather was amazing.  We actually talked to someone who has climbed this mountain every Labor Day weekend for the last 10 years and had only had one other weather day this good.  Really????  What the hell were the other 8 years like?  Ummmmm - am I really thinking I will climb this again???

Anyway - the climb was uneventful but it was such a JOY to be doing it with my dearest friend at my side.

And then we started our descent.  EEEKKKK!  Who knew?  

Let's just say that the JOY ballon was a bit deflated 5 hours later!

OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!  I mean - the first 2-3 descending hours were fine.  Perfect.  No problem.  JOYFUL still.  

It went down hill fast - NO PUN INTENDED!!!!!

Long story short?  I STILL can barely walk because my quads (that would be the front of your thighs, for those not in the know) are soooooo sore.  I can't even TOUCH them - and it's day 3 out from Saturday!!!!  

(I have to say - alcohol helps...yea, seriously.  Thanks Sandra, Mark, Glenn and Chumpy...)

But in retrospect - I was living in the moment, in a cocoon of JOY for almost that whole day.  Would I have changed a few things?  Yes.  I would have trained my body a bit better for that descent - for ONE thing!!!!  I would have planned a 2nd night after the climb rather than drive the 6 plus hours home.  

But the JOY?  It was worth every frustrated tear during that last 2 hours down.  

Oh and did I mention the barbecue JOY we chowed down on the way home...

Yea - that big ole pig brought us some JOY!!!

Best Surprise!!!!!

I tell you, catching JOY?  It's so easy sometimes!

Remember how I lusted for a big ole bouquet of sunflowers from the sunflower maze?  And remember how I told you I am always getting awesome gifts?  Look what arrived at my door this morning!

I got a call from a client (I love you Priscilla!) and she wanted to know if I would be home around 11 because a friend was dropping off a surprise.  So EXCITED!!!

My "kind of" neighbor, Marty, drives up and gets out of the car holding this big ole bouquet of sunflowers!!!!  He is the sweetest guy!  He told me he grew sunflowers - about 300 plants - and he works for Priscilla.  You can take it from there!!  

Thank you Marty and Priscilla!  My JOY was written all over my face.  I LOVE these and more than that, I love how the whole surprise unfolded!  THIS is JOY catching ON!!!

So - a bit of brain dumping here.  Since I failed miserably at getting my kids to eat really healthy this summer, the other day I made the decision to start over and start smaller.  I decided to try and do gluten-free snacks, etc.  I truly think the rashes that 2 of my carb-hound children are getting and the dark circles I see under my rested daughter's eyes are directly related to all the wheat/gluten crap they stuff themselves with.  (That I do not necessarily buy - don't ASK!)

So I shelled out wayyyyyyy too much $$$$ for some gluten free "stuff" and then I consulted with my niece and my cousin Cindy who has Celiac and went shopping again - this time for ingredients to make snacks.  I went to Foodworks - our local version of Whole Paycheck Foods. 

$50 later... (the Gingerade Kombuca is mine - yum)...that's ONE bag!  $50...sigh.  Anyway - I made my cousin's Incredible Edibles. Yes there is sugar but as I said - I'm starting small - baby steps, people!!!

Incredible Edibles (better than Reeses PB Cups!)

Gluten Free!

·       1 ½ sticks butter, melted

·       2 cups Josefs "mock" graham cookies.  Use 2 packages. Or there’s a mock graham already crushed in a box in health food stores, Whole Foods, maybe even grocery stores.

·       16 oz. Teddy’s Peanut Butter or Smucker’s All Natural

·       1 ½ cups powdered sugar

·       12 oz. Nestle’s, or Hershey’s semi-sweet chocolate bits

·       2 T water

In a 9 x 13 baking dish, combine melted butter, graham cracker crumbs, peanut butter and sugar.  Mix together well until crumbly.  Press evenly into the pan.

In the microwave, melt chocolate with 2 T water until smooth.  Spread evenly over the peanut butter mixture in the pan. 

Place in refrigerator to harden, and then cut into small squares.  

Everyone LOVED them!  I have to say - I caught some JOY over that!!!  Anddddd I caught JOY when I tasted a little square myself. (No - I won't be indulging - as I can't indulge in sugary treats too often - seriously, I have been good for 6 months till a few weeks ago and now paying for my transgressions!)

One last thing - I'm doing a bit of entertaining tomorrow on my front porch.  I LOVE my front porch.  It's truly where I spend most of my time from Spring through Fall.  It's where I catch ALOT of JOY.  

So I needed to spruce it up a bit as I had really let it "go" over the summer.  Check it out.  Don't you wish you were having coffee tomorrow morning there and cocktails tomorrow evening there?

 Don't my Coleus look awesome!!!?  Check out a better view.  (Hmmm - I better spray down that wheelbarrow...)

Guess what?  TGIFFFFFFFF!!!!!!!!

BLUE MOON JOY!  COMING NEXT FRIDAY!

Randomness

Ummm - anyone know what  "senseless acts of beauty" means?  LOL!  Come on!  Gimmee an example!















Oh and just because the 1 year anniversary of our lovely Irene is coming up this weekend...

CAN YOU SAY HURRICANE ISAAC!!!!!!????

Go on!  CATCH JOY AS IT FLIES BY!

Summertime Winding Its Way

We are in the home stretch of the lazy days of summer.  As you know, I can't wait until the three littles go back to school!  Afterall - I have not had one moment alone in close to 2 months!!!!  This coming from the girl who has kind of laid out a perfect day.  Train clients from 6am -10am.  Free of ANYONE in the house unless I invite them - for FIVE hours every week day!  Talk about shell shock on the first day of summer vacation?  How about the 6th day?  HOW ABOUT THE SIXTH WEEKKKKKKKKK???????

At any rate - my goal was to make this a fun summer not only for the littles, but also for me.  The best way to accomplish this is to plan.  Plan activities outside the home before we kill each other...

I think I did a pretty good job.  We beached it.  We hiked.  Ate Beach Donuts.  We did local tourist attractions.  Fished.  Went out to breakfast.  Frequented Dari Serv.  Had sleepovers.  Went away on vacation.  I think I did pretty darn good...

Yesterday we hiked the Sunflower Maze.  I wouldn't say it went GREAT...as the maze is filled with harmless bees that my oldest was quite terrified leery of.  I was fine!  I actually enjoyed their fear.   

He is trying to smile for the camera as he dodges the deadly dive bombing bees - NOT.  They totally ignored us but he would hear the buzzzzz and well...you get the picture.

On the way home, I decided to stop at Dari Serv the best Italian market EVER.

I love this market.  They have so much good stuff.  The meats are phenomenal.  The baked goods, cheeses, salamis, sandwiches, prepared foods, fruits, vegies, seafood - it's all stuffed into this little tiny market reminiscent of the South end of Hartford/Franklin Ave. where I was born.  You locals need to stay away so it's not so crowded go there!  It's in Durham.

Lobster was $4.99/pound and I splurged on 6 and my hub and I easily consumed all 6.  I tried a "recipe" a client talked about in class one night that she prepared on her Maine vacation.  Here's what she texted me.  It was soooooo delicious.  I am a purist and have NEVER prepared lobster any other way than to steam it and eat it with butter and lemon.  I will do this again.  Thanks Peggi D!!!!

Lobster is par boil them till almost fully cooled .  Leave it in the shells but break it into pieces, tail claws etc. crack the claws but leave them in the shell and mix together lemon and lime juice and lots of cilantro some ancho chili powder melted butter a little pepper if you want and just pour it over the lobster in a big bowl making sure it gets into the cracks of the claws tail etc. and them put then on the grill for five minutes or so. When cracking the lobster apart do it over the bowl your going to use to save the juice so that all ends up with the lime lemon mixture.

Unfortunately, I was so busy stuffing my face I forgot to take a picture until it was just a pile of shells...

I mean - I AM the MAMA of the three little pigs...that would make me the Mama pig, right?

Anyway - I caught wisps of JOY in the maze because I adore sunflowers.  (I was dying to cut myself a big ole bouquet.)  Of course - what JOY is there NOT to catch eating lobster???  So, all in all, I think I did good on this 2nd to last summer Monday.  On to the 2nd to last Tuesday...

SUMMER JOY