this little life of mine

Mom and I had lunch at Colby Jack's in Atascadero today. It's a small, but nice little restraunt by the post office that we've been meaning to try for some time.  I had the pastrami sandwich, which was pretty good, and the salmon bisque soup, which was amazingly delicious. Mom had the French dip, which she said was okay, and the bisque, which she enjoyed as much as I did. I would like to try their breakfast or Sunday brunch sometime.

Six weeks into our gardening for this year, and almost all the plants look fantastic! I say "almost" because one of the peppers is still looking a little sickly, as you will see.

 The tomatoes still look really good, and have lots of blossoms on both of them:

And, here are the peppers, including the newest one, on the left, that isn't looking too good:

 And, the squash are going like gangbusters! I think we probably could've put just one plant in a box by itself!

The rest of the backyard is growing like crazy, too! The plants around the little Madrone tree are almost as tall as the tree itself! I don't know if I should cut those down or not. I remember last year they bloomed, so I don't want to mess that up, but at the same time, they're taking over the backyard!

The marigolds exploded this past week, too:

Our backyard is looking pretty darn good this year, as is our Earthbox garden! I'm looking forward to spending many lovely summer afternoons and evenings sitting on the patio enjoying my yard!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following: 

•Grab your current read

 •Open to a random page

 •Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!   

This week I'm reading Diary of a Witness by Catherine Ryan Hyde. This wasn't originally on my list for the 2011 Catherine Ryan Hyde Reading Challenge, but I happened to find it available at the library and grabbed it! I figure I can add books to a challenge, right? Right! So, here are my teasers from page 39: 

"You think I want my father to know I was thinking about not losing a big fish while his boat was sinking? That I made sure I kept hold of the ling but I'm not sure what happened to Sam?" 

While mom and I decided not to go to the Paso Robles Wine Festival yesterday (the event has just gotten WAY too big and isn't as much fun as it used to be), we were able to have a little wine tasting anyway when we discovered that Nichols Winery opened a tasting room right along Traffic Way!!!

It's a really nice little place with some tables set up outside:

And some nice artwork inside:

The owner was pouring some really delicious wine:

Mom and I ended up purchasing a couple bottles to enjoy this summer:

Now all we need at this end of town is a nice little bistro or sandwich shop and we'd be set!

This evening I prepared Orange Salmon with Asparagus from the June 2011 Clean Eating magazine. 

It was super easy to prepare and turned out perfectly! Mom and I were both pleased with the results and I look forward to making this again some time. 

Week five and our little Earthbox garden is looking really good:

The tomatoes are going strong, and there's blossoms on both plants:

Both pepper plants have little buds on them now, too!

And both squash plants are growing like crazy, but I don't see any buds or blossoms yet:

Cheers!

May 28 through June 5 I will be on vacation (Yes, I'm counting the weekends as vacation also!), and I am beYOND excited!  Technically it's a STAYcation, since my mom and I are just sticking around the SLO County area, but we're treating it like a real vacation.

Here are thirteen things we're planning to do during our week off:

1.  Not answer the phone. Or email. While I will probably update via Twitter or Facebook, we are basically not available AT ALL for the entire week.

2. Go to Cambria. We can't remember the last time we went to Cambria, and are really looking forward to strolling on the boardwalk along Moonstone Beach, watching the waves/birds/seals/surfers/whatever is out there for us to look at, and taking some (hopefully) awesome pictures.

3.  Spend the day in SLO. Yes, I know I hop on the bus and ride down to SLO every freakin' day for work, but mom and I thought it would be fun to just go for the day to shop (the colour Nook from Barnes and Nobel is becoming a SERIOUS purchase possibility), and browse, and eat, and people-watch.

4.  Eat out. Every. Single. Day. No cooking, no dishes, no nothing! Just eat out or take out or delivery.

 5.  Not go to the gym. Okay that doesn't sound very good (especially coming immediately on the heels of the"eating out all the time" one!), and I really DO enjoy working out, but I think that taking a break from it (and not because either I or my trainer is sick) will be a good thing. And it's not like I won't be doing ANY phyical activity; we're planning to do a LOT of walking during our vacation!

6.  Go to the Avila Beach Fish and Farmer's Market. I've been wanting to go to this for several years, but by Friday evening, I'm usually too beat to want to drive all the way out to Avila Beach. Since I'll be on vacation, however, mom and I can go early and relax on the beach, then check out the market in the evening.

7. Take a wine tasting tour. This is still kinda up-in-the-air, but mom and I have always talked about wanting to take a tasting tour around the Paso Robles area, and this would be a perfect opportunity to do it.

8.  Go to Pismo Beach for the day. Or Shell Beach. Or Oceano. Or Cayucus. Or pretty much any beach, so long as it's a beach!

9.  Sleep in every day!!!

10.  Spend a day downtown Atascadero. We've wanted to check out the shops, eat and drink at some new places like Haven Wine Bistro or Fig or Bru Coffeehouse, and maybe take in a matinee at the new theater.

11.  Pick up some produce at the Atascadero Farmer's Market. Or at least just go and check it out. Their day/hours are hideious (Wednesdays from 3 - 6), so I would just barely get to run past it and grab a couple things as I got off the bus and ran off to the gym, and now the bus stop has moved several blocks away, so I can't even do that.

12. Yard work. Yeah, I know that doesn't sound very vacation-y, but we really need to redo part of the front yard, and this is the perfect time to do it!

13. RELAX!!