Things to be excited about

How do I achieve my goal of seeing the world?  It's important, when considering dreams that if they are truly something I would like to achieve, I should be making short term, achievable, specific goals with deadlines.  This is how you make your dreams come true.  

Now that I have my hazelnuts back, I was able to make my oat nut bread again.  mmmm...My favorite. 

I reached out to my dad to help me build this amazing bar/kitchen cart.  He seems legitimately excited to help me with this project.  He suggested I go with painted PVC plumbing instead of metal to save some money.  And, I suppose if I decide someday that I'd like to redo the project with metal it wouldn't be hard to disassemble the plastic and remake it with metal.  Yesterday afternoon, I got lost in time for a few hours while I redesigned the cart to make it suit my needs by adding a shelf in the middle, removing the railings around the shelves and making the top shelf a butcher block that I'll be making also.  I'm also not going to be making the stemware holder, I'll simply purchase an under-the-counter mounted stemware holder and mount it to the bottom of the butcher block.  I'll post pictures when I've completed the project.  The whole thing will probably cost about $100.00 and will create 9 square feet of extra counter space for me.  There will also be a toaster oven in my future.  I can't go another summer without being able to cook in something that will not heat my entire apartment to the temperature of hell.  Also, in terms of energy consumption and being environmentally friendly, it's a better tool to be cooking with if I don't need all the space of the normal oven.  

Today I get to see Iris and Brian who are one of my favorite couples to hang out with.  Cooking brunch and then the Dragon Boat Festival will make for an eventful Sunday and a fun day.  

I hope the organization that puts on the 1940's balls will continue to do so. I'd really like to attend one, though maybe not the tiki one.  Which leads me to swing dancing, a hobby I would like to pick up.  Dancing, as a whole doesn't elude me.  I'm athletic and relatively graceful in movements but the type of dancing that we do when going to "the clubs" continues to elude me.  If I'm going to basically have a giant orgy on the dance floor then I might as well actually take part in a giant orgy on the dance floor and well, no thank you.  I like the structure and creativity that comes from traditional forms of dance and I think the energy of swing would be a huge benefit to my life.  

My favorite bits of summer are on the horizon.  My refrigerator is not packed full of the first bits of a garden harvest from home.  It makes me the "squeal with joy" type of happy to know harvest and canning season is on the horizon.  50 pounds of peaches will be here in a few weeks, chile peppers, corn, tomatoes, raspberries, green beans, okra, squash, pumpkins, oh my!  My apartment will soon be a jamming, pickling, preserving and freezing mecca.  At heart, I'm really just a big ol' country girl who loves her banjo twang, her neighborhood barbecue, her family traditions, and her garden harvests.