I can’t believe it’s been nearly a month since I felt like writing a real blog post. Not quite sure why… but my guess would simply be “decompression” from all the stress from the month of March particularly. It seems like I barely blinked and May is here. Well, it certainly hasn’t felt like May here! Day after day of rain and more rain, all the precipitation we didn’t get last winter. And cold! It was down to 37 degrees here last night. Taking a leap of faith, believing that spring and summer will truly appear, I planted quite a few pots of flowers for our back deck, a hanging basket, and this year, some veggies! Three tomatoes (two of which appear to be frost bitten); zucchini and crookneck squash; green & yellow bell peppers; and a bunch of herbs in my former “strawberry” pot – you know, the one with all the little peek-a-boo openings? I have to say that the basil I planted in the strawberry pot has already perished, possibly from too much water – or the cold night temperatures. In a few weeks, I’ll replant the basil, it’s such a great herb to have fresh anytime you want it!
Dear Hubby is still recovering from the muscle tear in his psoas muscle and the hematoma that occurred after the tear. Each day he gets a little better and for that we are both SO thankful, but it’s a looooong process for the body to reabsorb the blood that pooled in that muscle. He’s walking daily on the treadmill and using the cane less and less. His new hip seems to be fine – another thing to be very thankful for. After suffering for weeks with this hematoma thing, the poor guy suddenly got a horrible tooth ache last week. A trip to the dentist confirmed the worst, he needed a root canal. Like I’ve said before, “when it rains, it pours”. The dentist consulted carefully with the orthopedic surgeon to do what they could to prevent the infected tooth germs from traveling through his body directly to the new joint. Yes, he’s on ten days of antibiotics.
While recovering from the hip and the hematoma and the root canal, we’ve taken some time to plan out our big summer trip in the motorhome. We’re going to Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Yellowstone National Park. Because summer is the busy season in Yellowstone, we’ve reserved our camping spots all along the way. What’s still up in the air is whether or not we’ll have our “RV cat” with us…. Can Jinx tolerate two weeks on the road? Can WE tolerate Jinx’s kitty yowling? Since we are not sure of the answers to those vital questions, we hope to do a two night trip with Jinx in tow – to see how it goes. We may be tearing our hair out by the end of it, but only time will tell. I’ve told hubby that Jinx needs a friend to hang with in the motorhome, but so far I’ve had no luck convincing him to add to our family. Even subtle hints like email links to adorable kitties on petfinder.com have not worked – yet.
Mother’s Day weekend is upon us, and this mother is actually quite excited. On Saturday we are hosting the neighborhood game night. Sunday afternoon we are going with the neighbors to a Mother’s Day brunch – a yearly tradition for us. 
Then…. Sunday evening, I’m going with our neighbor Susan to Seattle for a B-I-G concert! Susan and I are going to see a couple of 70′s icons – James Taylor and Carole King! I’ve been to many concerts over the years and have seen many of my favorites, except JT. The time has come! These two are stellar songwriters AND singers. The concert in Key Arena is slated to be “in the round”. I’ve only been to one other concert configured like that – John Denver in 1978. Nothing has ever topped that one.
Here’s wishing a very happy Mother’s Day to all – to everyone who is a mom, who has a mom, and even to those hoping to be a mom. 
Just for fun, my very favorite James Taylor song :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X60qHVqarZE
I do love to try a new recipe from time to time, and this one I found I had many versions of. Italian Bread Salad, or “Panzanella”. We thought it looked yummy for a warm summer’s day, so I gave it a try. Seen in the picture are large bread cubes from what the recipe called “country” bread, but it was actually a round loaf of Italian rosemary bread that I picked up at Trader Joe’s. English cucumber, red onion, provolone cheese, plum tomatoes, cannellini beans, and fresh basil. I made a simple vinaigrette as the recipe suggested, using red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt & pepper. 
The motorhome does NOT have a “regular” oven, so I needed to see what baking in a convection oven might be like. Well, here is the result! My version of a Plum Tart. It was nice and brown and properly baked – and was so tasty. I only wish we’d had some vanilla ice cream to go with it. I got my idea for this dessert 
The little island you see in the above picture seemed to attract a very large amount of seagulls–
Guess there really is something to that old saying… “birds of a feather, flock together….”
– just hangin’ out in our fold-up camp chairs…
Dear hubby enjoying the campfire and the sunset. 
It’s our “new to us” Winnebago Journey motor home. This thing looks huge, and it sort of is! We hoped to find one that was 32 to 34 feet long, but ended up with this beauty which is 36. What an adventure we had… or should I say journey … to get it home from Olympia WA. We navigated rush hour traffic through Tacoma and Seattle… trucked on through Everett, and then up the narrow, winding roads to home – where it barely fits in our driveway. We’re not allowed to keep it at home for more than three days (homeowners association rules), so it will be moved to it’s home away from home on Saturday. We are planning our first outing in July – can’t wait!
What I really got for my birthday was this gorgeous bouquet of flowers from my precious husband – the best husband on earth (well, I think so!!). Then we went out to dinner at Anthony’s, a popular seafood restaurant here in the Northwest. I splurged and got the fresh Alaskan King salmon, and ohhh la la, it was delish!
