NY Pizza is so overrated

I just had some really crappy pizza for lunch. In general, I don't like pizza. I've been told many, many times, that this is unbelievable... but it's true! I have a texture problem with the gunky mozarella, and pouffy bland crusts.  I ate it today because it was free, and as I've discussed before, free food has a strange power over me.

However, I overcame my pizza bias and ate lots of pizza in Italy... and loved most of it! The super thin crust kind, mmmm. In Siena we sat at a touristy restaurant on the plaza, eating bacon pizza, which was basically pizza with cheese, onions, and bacon melted on it. Yes, the bacon melted.  Amazing.

Mmmm, pizza and beer. And salami and cheese and bruschetta, because why not?

We were sitting next to this!

il campo

we tried to take a self portrait

we almost succeeded...

And here are some other pictures from the same day!





I fell off the face of the earth!

A lot's been going on!  I have a house guest (other than the birds, they finally left!  Mama bird was SCARY!) to whom I'm trying to speak another language, and then I went to Italy!  It was amazing!  Except I kept accidentally speaking Spanish!  I was so focused on being able to communicate with my mother-in-law at my own house, that I forgot to learn any Italian for vacation!  But language was hardly a barrier since everyone in Europe seems to speak English these days, and I was able to eat lots and lots of pastries, pasta, and gelato EVERY DAY, and somehow lost weight.  I should do that every day!  Here's a picture of husband and me in Italy!

Mmmmm, gelato!

Tweet!

The birds are crazy around here lately.  And very industrius!  Look closely at this wreath on my front door (no, the birds did not build the wreath):

There's a nest hanging on my front door!!

And look inside!



A REAL Easter Egg!!



It's like the easter bunny came early, and was running low on chocolate... it's only the size of one single mini cadbury egg (the BEST easter candy in my opinion).  But this one isn't chocolate, it's real!!  Anyone know what kind of bird lays a tiny bright green/blue/teal egg???  Can a robin's egg be that dark?

A little behind...

Warning:  If your not interested in plants, this is a very boring post.  But not to me!

Now that I have a yard, I'm going to have a vegetable garden this year!  (In containers!  In my driveway...taking it slow, haha).  I don't know where the sun will be in my backyard (lots of leaf-less trees at the moment), but you can be sure that I will be marking out a spot for a REAL vegetable garden for next year, after I figure out where to put it!

I'm a bit of a procrastinator, mixed in with a bit of what I suspect is adult onset ADD, so I finally ordered seeds last week, and planted them last night.  Only about 2 months later than recommended.... we'll see what happens! 

Ordering seeds is stressful!  There are so, so many choices!  I'd never even seen a seed catalog, so I signed up for a bajillion different ones, such as Johnny's, Burpee, Stokes, Cook's Garden, and more!  I dog-eared and circled all over each of the catalogs, loving everything, wanting to become a full time farmer.  But then the day came when I realized that I needed to choose JUST A FEW, to try this year.  I had to cross off many options, including this beauty, because I just had to draw the line somewhere!  But it will be on my "short" (actually very long) list for NEXT year!



Romanesco Broccoli (image from wikipedia)


So what did I actually buy?  Well...

brandywine tomatoes

yellow tomatoes

grape tomatoes

smaller "apple" sweet peppers

long skinny green eggplant (on sale!)

golden beets

nasturtium

lavender

bergamot

sweet peas

echinacea

mini "icelandic" poppies

coleus

Notice I did not buy any basil, chives, oregano, etc. That's because I freaked out and couldn't handle anymore decision making.  Also, that's a loooooot of seeds.  I'll just buy some already grown this year!  I also have already planted some seeds my mom brought me a few weeks ago... spinach, green onions, mammoth sunflowers, and red sunflowers.  They're all very happy!  I can't wait to plant them outside... this morning (at 6:15) I planted some sweet pea seeds along the fence... I hope the squirrels don't find them! 

(Mom's also hooked me up with a threesome of baby blueberry bushes, 2 forsythia bushes, some hollyhocks, dahlias, elephant ear, and a few other mystery ground cover/shade plants, I'm so excited and/or overwhelmed!!)

Green Things!

My yard is turning green!  Not necessarily in all the right places, but some of it is green, and that's better than none!  It seems that very little of it is actually grass, but who cares as long as it's mostly green?  We thought we had some clumps of super duper grass celebrating "yay spring!" but upon closer inspection, it's not grass.  Here's what it looks like:

Can you tell what it is?  CHIVES!  I have a yard full of chives!  And so do the neighbors!  When we mow the lawn will it be oddly onion scented?  How did they get there???   Did Earl (the rabbit living in our backyard) do it?  Or maybe the wild parrots (also in the backyard, and yes, I said parrots, they're green!)?