Grilled Goodness....

Mmmmm.....I love these late spring days when it's nice and warm and the back door stays open absolutely all day long and you can't even fathom cooking something that's not on the grill and you have just as much mud stuck between your toes and under your fingernails as you did when you were 10 years old. Pure heaven.

We've had a wonderful extended weekend here in Dixie, where apparently everyone moves slower or something. I can't imagine moving any faster, but whatever. We had taken off Friday with the plans of heading to Cincy to cheer for my brother in the Flying Pig half, his second half M. He did it last year, but we were knee deep in kitchen reno and under some massive install deadlines. So, 500 years ago I had told him we'd come and be his cheerleaders and when I talked to him last Sunday I re-confirmed that. Then Thurs night, right before The Office, he told me he had several other families (aka ppl with lots of kids) also coming to stay with them to run the race. Umm.....huh?? So we talked about it and decided we'd come and visit in early June when we could spend more time with them, and this way he could spend more time with his friends that he doesn't get to see very often. It was a win-win, we have so much going on in May that we really did need some extra weekend time here to finish a few things up and also get some rest. And bless that dog Pippin because he actually let me sleep until around 8:30 for a few mornings instead of waking me up at 6 so he can come and get in the bed. Excellent. And our travel plans being canceled meant we could go over to Tom and Nicole's last night for some fresh, homemade pizza. I'm pretty sure Brent may have eaten an entire pizza on his own, so obviously it was good and fun to hang out with them again!!

Brent's pretty much got all the new baseboards and quarter-round finished up in our living room/hallway/front room and they look SO nice. I've done some of the painting/drywalling on that stuff, but have mostly been getting my gardens planted and in shape. I am such a garden whore. I.can't.stop.buying.plants. I started a lot of seedlings, that have been pretty bruised up by our massive downpours lately. So then I plant more seeds. And then I buy more plants to supplement, that will mature sooner than seedlings. And then I need some rosebushes because I really miss my gardens that I had at the old house. So in the last 3 weeks I've bought 4 new rosebushes. And since we'll be (hopefully) getting a new roof in the next few weeks I can't do any plantings right around the house that might be damaged by three old layers being tossed off, so everything is being planted pretty much all over the place. And then according to Brent, my latest garden expansion completely disregarded his drawn up landscape plan for the backyard! Ha! But he won't be mad when we have home grown sweet potatoes, for sure!! So anyway, I've got to stop before our backyard is completely dug up and planted with random things. But I did get to use some fresh parsley and basil from my herb garden tonight which was DIVINE.

Speaking of , tonight I made the most heavenly cedar plank salmon. So.stinking.good. We had bought some cedar planks last summer and just never used them, it seemed like I always forgot or didn't have the time to soak the planks. Yesterday at Costco we bought the most massive, delicious cut of salmon so today I planned ahead and soaked those puppies for 5 hours (they still caught on fire a little). This recipe was divine. I mean, anything with Jack Daniels and maple syrup is going to be good, right??? I added more seasoning to my fish - I added some fresh thyme and also some Emeril's Essence since it basically has all the flavoring you'd want on something anyway. And I also added some fresh basil to it at the end. But WOW, the smoky flavor was so good and I really hope I smelled up the neighborhood. We're always fans of fresh fish/salmon, but the cedar really gave it some good depth.

And thanks to spending 90% of the weekend outside my eyes are scratchy and I've spent most of today sneezing. Ugh. My mom has bad allergies and apparently Pippin has "inherited" it from me, too. We went to the veterinary ophthalmologist Thursday afternoon. He confirmed Pippin's spot is corneal degeneration, and all we really need to do is watch it and make sure it doesn't get worse. It prob won't change, and most likely won't affect his vision or get worse. I guess in an effort to give us our money's worth (which let me tell you, it would have taken a LOT to do) he did a big exam of Pippin's eyes, using all sorts of the same equipment a human eye doc uses. They did tear tests, glaucoma tests, shined various lights and used numerous instruments in his eyes, and did all sorts of poking and prodding on him. Basically everything but having him read T-R-E-A-T-S off an eye chart. According to the doc, Pippin has an excessive quantity of eyelashes. And a few of these eyelashes (approximately 4 in total) don't curve properly and can sort of scratch his eye when he blinks. So we need to be very aware of his moisture level in order to prevent his eyes from getting too dry and the eyelashes causing him discomfort. As a result we now have prescription eyedrops to put in his eyes every day for moisture. Additionally, Pippin appears to have seasonal allergies. The doc saw a little too much redness in his eyes and we now have a prescription ointment to apply every other day for allergies. Yeahhhhhhh. Although, Pippin was pretty thrilled when we got home to have a package from a blogging buddy full of treats waiting in the mail. We took some pics of Pippin opening his gift that I'll have to post, although it's too bad you won't be able to smell these treats over the internet, I was half tempted to keep them and eat them myself....

So I think that pretty much sums up the last few days. I ended up skipping my long run this weekend. I had 7.5 on the plan, but I'm several weeks ahead of the plan anyway and I was just more interested in watching TV in the bed with my boys than heading out to run. Last week's 6.5 went great, I ended up with an average pace of 9:01, with my final miles being around 8:40 so I think I will be a-ok for completing the 10 mile race I'm signed up for in a few weeks. I don't have any expectations or goals other than making sure I get a RC Cola and a Moonpie at the finish, so I'd much rather enjoy life and not train like I might get into the Olympics at one of these races. I've been getting lots of good hill training running outside at lunch, so I should be fine by the end of June on race day.

I hope you have all had great weekends and have a great week ahead!