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Day 77: Bloody Mary Sunday and Lovely Summer Rain!


Bloody Mary at the Ram, Clackamas.  That garnish!


Oh this cooler weather is divine!  My daughter has several planter boxes filled with tomato plants, green pepper, banana pepper, parsley, yellow squash and rosemary on the deck that I have been watering all summer. I was worried about them.  Especially the tomatoes. But after they were pummelled by a good summer rain last night, they have perked up! And our zucchinis and pumpkins have blossoms on them! :)

My daughter is in the kitchen now making a big pot of vegetable beef soup. It smells heavenly.

We went out for our new tradition of Bloody Mary Sunday yesterday. My son joined us. It tickled me to be sitting in a bar with my two adult children.  They are still babies to me. And here we were having cocktails and hors d'oeuvres!
We went to the Ram in Clackamas.  My Bloody Mary was simply a work of art - especially the enourmous garnish! We gad fried Calamari and warm, soft pretzels with beer-cheese dip.  I know - carbs! Fried food! Aack!

But I made wonderful Vietnamese salad rolls for dinner. I had a Vietnamese family of girls take lessons for me for several years. Their mother would sometimes surprise me with homemeade salad rolls.  I was always so impressed!

Well I discovered with a little trial and error that they are not so difficult to make.  I just cut up the veggies, sauteed the shrimp with a little Cajun spice my daughter suggested, and poured boiling water over some rice noodels for a few seconds. Then I got a bowl of hot water ready and made a little assembly line.
The most difficult part was softening the rice paper (which looks like a see-through tortilla, like my son-in-law said! lol).  You dip the rice paper in the warm water, shake off excess moisture. Then I laid it on a plate and put on some noodles, lined up four shrimp, a bit of jullienned cucuber, diced green onion, diced radish, and diced avocado. Then you roll it up like a burrito. The dipping sauce was made of rice vinegar, a dash of sugar, minced jalapeno, minced cilantro, splash of lime juice and soy sauce.

Really tasty and healthy!

I stopped eating at 7:00 p.m. and drank ice water.

I watched only 3/4 of one episode of Downton Abbey before I crashed.

But I still did not manage to wake up earlier.  I will  keep working on this!

Today is weight and measurement day.


No significant change for the better, BUT no change for the worse!
Although it is kind of peculiar that my biceps and thighs have balanced out between right and left side, but my right calf is a whole inch bigger than my left!  Hmmm...Do I walk with a limp?

Stats: July 27, 2015
Weight: 196
Neck: 14."
Chest: 43"
Waist: 39"
Hips: 46"
Biceps:  14"
Thighs: 23"
Calves: 16" R, 15" L
Ankles: 9"

Now I am getting ready to do some yoga and pilates.  My classical selection this morning is "Itzhak Perlman playing Beethoven Violin Romance No. 2 , Op. 5"  Such a lovely piece. I can't believe it came in at 287 out of the top 300.  

After yoga, I will go to the trail with my daughter and out to teach some piano students.  

This week I am focusing on getting my program together for my piano concert in late August.

Happy Monday!

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