while the cat's away...

Glen and Alex are at Scout Camp at Camp Fleischmann this week. Glen texts me every night to fill me on what they have been up to (there are lots of merit badges and some swimming happening). It sounds like they are having a great time.

As for me, I've mostly been playing this week (company came!) with just a little bit of work (I painted the front door--the color is called "Sweet Tea").

My sister Denise, our friend Martha that we've known since we were children in Massachusetts, and Martha's daughter Jamie came up from Vegas for a visit. Although it was super hot for their visit this week, it wasn't as hot as Vegas, so it was all good. We had a great couple of days together. Talking. Eating (way too much of that on my account). Playing games. Going to the movies (Star Trek Beyond--we loved it!). It was a very enjoyable few days. Wish they could have stayed longer. Hopefully we can do it again soon.

Our front door:

The tom turkey spent a little time hanging out by the window where the swamp cooler was allowing a cool breeze for him.

Before Glen went to scout camp, we used the "Vegetti" tool that Hannah gave Glen for Christmas to turn our zucchini into spaghetti. Here we have olive oil, butter, garlic, artichoke hearts and zucchini plus some parmesan cheese. It was so delicious that I made it again while company was here.

I love July. I've decided that I think it's my favorite month of the year.

sewing, 2 bdays, painting, bargains, and the garden

Wednesday was the quilt block of the month at the museum. This month we sewed a hen:

It was Heather's birthday on Thursday. Happy Birthday Heather! Hope you had a wonderful day!!!

And congratulations to Alicia and Dallin on the birth of baby Peter on Friday!  Very exciting.

Big goal for the week: painting the outside of the house. First hurdle: choosing colors. It took a while but we finally settled on Winter Sky Grey for the house and Connecticut Blue for the trim. Winter Sky Grey is a blue-grey. We are still deciding on the color for the doors.Very dark blue? Black? Grey? Tan? What's opposite blue-grey on the color wheel? Anyone have any suggestions?

Next hurdle: prepping the house. Glen took care of that. He spent 3 days prepping the house. Then we started painting. Last hurdle (besides painting the doors): it still needs a bit touching up, but the job is mostly done!

just getting started

not exactly Tom Sawyer, but that's what I thought of with him sitting there

mostly done

looks more blue in the sunshine and more grey when in shadows

Zooloretto--So I went to a few thrift stores the other day looking for nightstands. Didn't find any of those, but Alex was very proud of me for getting the game Zooloretto ($40 on amazon) for only $1 (all games were 50% off!). It's a Rio Grande Game (we usually like those) and it won the Spiel des Jahres award in 2007. Anything that wins that is great in Alex's eyes. We've played it twice (and Alex won both times, of course). Not very complicated, but a lot of fun. There are animal tiles and you try to fill the enclosures in your zoo for points.

https://www.amazon.com/Rio-Grande-Games-RGG-320/dp/B000S0PY2G
 
And our garden is finally producing food! We had our first tomatoes and zucchini this week. There's nothing like the taste of a home-grown tomato. Fabulous. Too bad it looks like we'll be getting more zucchini than tomatoes (at least for a little while).