June...

6.1.11  (the before)

June started out with a surprise bang.  The day itself was pretty mellow.  I just cleaned up the house and did some required reading for my Spain trip.  In the evening on the way to run some errands this is what greeted me from the parking lot behind my apartments.  It was initially unpleasant, but did put a bit of a spark into my mundane day.  Daniel and I took it as a welcome challenge.  Just about a year ago we had to change this same tire on a late cold march night.  The circumstances were far more amicable on this day.

 

(the after!)

We managed to get the spare on even though we were missing a part for our jack.  Challenge accomplished!

6.2.11

This was a day for errands.  We went to get the tire switched out and repaired and went to the bank to make sure that my bills will get paid automatically and my account won't freeze when I use my card in Spain.  I got a hair cut.  Then lastly we strolled around the hardware store.  I saw these lovely flowers against this bold fence on the way over there and had to pull over on the way back.  The colors were just too nice to pass up.

6.3.11

This is a piece by my dear old friend Linley Green.  She is a painter and sculptor currently out of Albuquerque, New Mexico.  This photo was taken at her current show that will be up this month, the opening was on the third.  She and I have been friends since the sixth grade, THE SIXTH GRADE.  Anyway, she recently graduated with her bachelor of fine arts degree and I am so proud of her.  I can't wait to see where she'll go and all the amazing and beautiful work she will come up with along the way. 

6.4.11

I started out my day with a delicious cup of Fair Trade Nicaragua coffee from Michael Thomas Coffee.  It's probably one of my very favorite coffees.  We use a french press to make our coffee so sometimes you get a small amount of coffee grounds in the bottom of your cup.  This got me to thinking about how supposedly you can read your tea leaves and I was wondering if the same rules apply for leftover coffee grounds.  In any case, there wasn't too much grounds in the coffee this day because either we made the coffee really well, or just got lucky.  

For late lunch/ early dinner we tried some new bratwursts.  Lately we've been loving Applegate Farms Organic Meats.  We first tried their turkey lunch meat, then their bacon, and now these brats.  We opted for spinach feta, and they did not disappoint.  All the products we've had by this company have been delicious, so good that you can taste the quality.  We first started buying them because we saw that they get an "A" in the Better World Shopping Guide.  They're a little bit more expensive than your run of the mill meats, but the money is totally worth it.  As someone who eats meat every once in a while, I look at it as a nice treat.  With our yummy brats we also had grilled corn and a steamed artichoke.  It was a healthy and palatable meal, proof that the two can indeed go hand in hand!