The 25th Hour ~karenjcardoza.com~

I love my organic garden and I love to do simple domestic things around the house.  Of course, I happened to pick one of the hottest days to do some canning but Mother Nature doesn’t wait!  I have a beautiful crop of cucumbers and the tomatoes are starting to ripen all at once so I put up a few jars of Bread and Butter Pickles and Garden Salsa…. Just the first of many, I’m sure!

Bread and Butter Pickles

Garden Salsa

With Christmas in the rear view mirror, I’m moving forward and just enjoying being home. One of my goals for this vacation is to get back to a consistent gym schedule and I’m happy that I’ve been able to stick to that. Today was spent running errands and YIKES… the traffic was nutty!  I had to do some practical things: bank, market, pet store, etc…. I would have prefered to not be out there with the crowds but I really had no choice.

I also went to Joanne’s to spend the gift card that I got for Christmas. When asked what I wanted, I said that I needed some new  knitting needles and sewing notions so my niece obliged.  I bought some nice yarn as well and some candles which were marked down 70% because they were part of red, white, and green section of holiday stuff. (I always have candles lit and had run out of tapers.)

I’ve been pretty productive so far this week too, having uploaded all of my holiday pictures, tailgate pictures, writing up the latest tailgate report and updating the website. I also upgraded all of my blogs (except the podcast one because podpress doesn’t work with the newer versions). Unfortunately, my Now Reading plugin is broken for my Book Nook. I really hate upgrading wordpress and hold my breath each time I do!  Hopefully I’ll be able to figure it out and not lose all of my information in my library. Right now, I can only see one page of entries and also have no links to add images to blog posts. It’s late now, so I’ll research it in depth tomorrow.

I hope to get a lot of reading done this week and some relaxing once the decorations are down and put away. I’m excited for the HUGE Patriots game on Sunday but don’t want to wish away this vacation so I’ll be content if time drags… Anyone who knows me knows: I Love Being Home!

Rendezvous state of mind.

Check out the entire album here

Rendezvous prep… last minute logistics.

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted but it’s because I’ve been so busy and was sick over the weekend. I’ve been able to get lots of reading done though which makes me happy. This past weekend, we had Carissa’s First Communion, Jake’s Confirmation and Ernie was in town for his son’s graduation so he stayed at Casa de Cardoza as usual.

My garden and flowers are coming along and I’ve only got a few more annual pots to plant and some pole beans seeds to purchase and get in the ground. I’m going to try diligently to stay on top of the weeds and do a bit each day but we can’t mulch until the neighbor’s HUGE tree drops all of it’s noses because if not, I’ll be pulling little trees out of my mulch for a good long time.

I’m very glad to report that I’ve been walking to work as much as I can. It usually depends upon the weather and whatever meetings or appointments that I may happen to have before or after school. While I haven’t lost any weight per se I know that I’m firming up and gaining muscle. Besides, I’m not only doing it for weight loss reasons, it’s mostly for health reasons. I need to go for my annual bloodwork soon and I’m determined not to have to take any medication, including cholesterol meds. It was borderline the last time I went and he knows that I don’t take anything unless I absolutely have no choice.

I’ve also been busy this week getting things ready for the primitive Rendezvous which we’ll be heading to this weekend in Sanbornton, NH. I’ve been busy sewing and packing and getting the clothes ready. I’m making a few wool shawls which may be needed at night or on cold days. Everything is completely period correct so there won’t be any parkas allowed that’s for sure. We’ll be huddling around the campfire in comfort!

We went last year for the first time with friends who are veterans of the vous. They go for the whole week and bring furniture and everything! This is our second time and while we now have our own lodge and clothing, we still don’t have much else but we’ll be setting up all together anyway so we’ll want for nothing. I’ll be posting pictures but it’s a completely unplugged weekend so no technology allowed (other than a camera, discreetly hidden.) Needless to say, there will be no Tweeting from the Vous!

Here’s a link to last year’s pictures. I can’t wait for this weekend!!

I’ve been keeping up with my updates via Utterz, which has been a godsend for me. (You can listen in to previous posts below or on the site.)

I did make a major milestone today in which I was actually able to make dinner with Kelsea’s help and had enough attention span and energy to make it through most of my email inbox without having to stop for a nap tonight.

Website updates and podcasts are still on hold as sitting the other computer is still out of the question. I’m (generally) comfortable sitting up on the couch so I have been keeping up with the latest happenings on new start up Seesmic and have enjoyed the video conversations happening there. So, apparently, has Bella!!

Incidentally, Bella has been a good girl during my recovery and her little sister, Chloe is growing fast!

technorati: mrsb patriotworld patriots utterz seesmic chloe karenjcardoza

Recovery is coming a bit slowly but I finally got the Eagles tailgate post up. Check it out here.

As I mentioned, website update and podcasts will have to wait as I need to use the other pc to get them done. Looking forward to watching the Pats/Ravens game on MNF while Al is down there with Bama and a few other Pats fans for his birthday.

Technorati:patriots nepatriots pats tailgate gillettestadium razorsedgetailgate eagles nfl

So, I got up early this morning with my girl and jumped over to FreeRice.com to play a bit… If you’re a word lover like me, check it out, spend some time, and donate some rice along the way.

If you’re not sure about it, give it a try and keep these things in mind:

• There’s no penalty for wrong answers; you just don’t earn any rice for that question.
• Consider the root of the word… that should tip you off!
• They’re not trying to trick you, so I’ve found that things that appear too obvious are NOT.
• Go with your gut!
• Have fun and exercise your brain

Btw… if you are a lover of words, be sure to check out a few of my favorite podcasts too.

The Word Nerds, Podictionary, and Grammar Girl.

Technorati freerice vocabulary words thewordnerds grammargirl podictionary podcast etymology