Quit the waitressing job. No money.

Signing up for CNA course. Gonna butt-wipe my way into a good nursing job.

Teaching the seniors art today. Aboriginal dot painting meets purple coneflower still life.

Planning our next road-trip. Contemplating whether kids really need to be there on the first day of school or so.

15 garlic scapes cut into 1 inch pieces

1/2 cup olive oil

little pepper

1 lb turkey bacon cut into squares

1/2 diced red onion

1 sprig fresh rosemary

sautee and roughly mash into 5lbs salted red potatoes

I love garlic scapes - feels like asparagus, tastes like mild garlic. Once a year special.

Training for a demanding waitressing job this week - as hard to memorize the menu and it's descriptors as anatomy. I'm excited about the job - I think it will be fun, I like the atmosphere, and I will finally make a little money to pay off some bills - but I am also taking anatomy, and psychology, taking care of the kids, and have a few art classes left to teach and commissions to paint, and two college courses to write for the fall. And clean house and exercise. Don't know if I can do it all. ... Wasting the little time I have right now...

We ran the Warrior Dash this weekend. That was a lot of fun, easier than I'd anticipated, but we were a little worn out the next day.

Was just looking through family photos. So easy to worry about the day to day to-do. Everything will be fine. I forget without photos. Its a good life.

Chris got me a new subscription to Art Forum. He caught me reading it today while I was supposed to be studying, which is funny because its an academic journal. So should I be studying art if that's my passion? Not right now. I need a job. I grew up with medical talk at the dinner table. I liked it. The human body is fascinating and I like to solve it's mysteries.

I ate my first cooked food in nine days. I couldn't remember why I wasn't supposed to anymore. The point isn't to be obsessive and extremist. The point is to adopt life-long, healthy habits. I enjoyed a dinner of

cold soba (buckwheat) noodles with

tofu,

green onions, and

sesame seeds.

(and sesame oil, soy sauce, and sugar) So good.

I jogged and lifted tonight, so maybe I could hit the leftovers just a little. I'm "training" for the Warrior Dash in a few weeks. Its a 5k with ten ridiculous obstacles like jumping over fire and climbing over wrecked cars. My goal is to finish in 45 minutes. Very reasonable. Its going to be hot and all my "training" is on an air-conditioned track.

I made little cube cookies today.

1/2 lb. walnuts

1/2 lb. dates

1 cup unsweetened dried coconut

1 cup ground whole flax

little salt

little vanilla

Process in food processor till doughy - form into teaspoon size cubes. So good. I had a dozen of them, felt bad about it, then remembered all I'd eaten today was a green smoothie and some watermelon. No wonder.

My good friend moved to West Virginia this week. She will be missed. Watch for the pictures when we visit in August!

My dad took us to Disney World last month.

This is my hands-down favorite picture. Everyone gave me a hard time for making the girls where a uniform all week but it was great. Columbia's "Liking the Hiking" dresses. They were SPF, they dried fast, they were super cool and lightweight, and I could spot them a mile away. I washed them every night. I did get blisters from squeezing them out so much, but it made me feel like we were doing some real traveling, so that was OK. I also loved going away for a week with 5 people and only 4 carry-ons.

Played Art as Team Sport this weekend. Fun. We lost.

New painting.

So, the ants were mostly gone by that afternoon. Sprayed a few entries and washed the pantry out. still some hangers on but no more attack.

Having a great summer so far. Yesterday we went for a dog walk/jog/bicycle ride in the morning and went roller skating in the afternoon AND saw Kung Fu Panda 2 in the evening. Right now we're on the way to the zoo.

Doing well in Anatomy and excited about getting into nursing.

Sold 9 paintings this weekend.

I LOVE peonies! We have four beautiful, pale pink bushes. Oh my love/hate relationship with ants.

Day 8 of raw vegan diet. I eat a salad every day and a green smoothie almost every day, but my favorite foods are frozen bananas through the juicer with cocoa powder (YUM!) and half dates, half walnuts run through the food processor with a little salt and vanilla. Delicious and keeping me on the program. I feel great and have only had a few cravings for an Italian beef or pub burger. Easier to do this when its so hot. Nice to have structure when making the menu. Food choices can be so overwhelming.

we have ants. Huge ones, medium ones, tiny ones. They are all over the kitchen and spilling into the dining room. Every time something is picked up, three ants run from under. Last night I heard "THWACK THWACK THWACK" at 2:30 in the morning. Chris and his shoe. They infiltrated our house in the last 12 hours. A glance in the kitchen upon waking revealed a few dozen ants running around across my whole field of vision.

Unfortunately, I procrastinated all my studying and birthday cupcake making till today, but now its all about cleaning scrubbing and spraying. I don't even care about pesticide concerns right now. We are under attack.

Two concerts last week. Paul Simon at the Vic, a small club. AMAZING. He's still got it. I love him and his eclectic sounds. He really connects with the audience and all his musicians, though rather stone-faced most of the time, are multi-instrumentalists and really kept things going. I love Paul Simon. I have to admit though, that after a while, even when its great, my back just hurts from standing and I get bored and wish to move on.

Saturday we got free tickets to see Lucinda Williams. I love her songs and I love her voice. We waited through a painfully mediocre blues band and then a live auction, sucking the life out of my back and legs and attention span. When Lucinda came on, her boob was kind of hanging out and all I could think was, how can I see so much and no nipple, she is pretty old... someone should tell her to pull her shirt up ... I hope she's not embarrassed when she sees pictures later. Very distracting. But the real problem was that she was just going through the motions. Her voice was fantastic, but she was like an animatronic bear at show biz. There was no personality, no connection, she gazed above our heads, moved mechanically, she looked like maybe she was having a bad day and just trying to get through it. She needed the lyrics laid out for her. And what a weird crowd. For the first time ever, we actually left early. As soon as we stepped out the door, I was energized and thrilled to be alive. We got burgers and fries at Five Guys. I love their cool soda machines. For me, fast food hamburgers was way more fun than a sold-out concert. I just don't have the attention span for them anymore. I have to keep moving and be free.