Friday

I couldn't sleep last night for anything. I didn't have caffeine late. I got some exercise, which usually helps me to sleep. I just couldn't fall asleep. I got up and made Dave's lunch (a quesadilla, bolita beans, yogurt with strawberries and blueberries, a bag of baby carrots, snap peas, and grape tomatoes), took my medication, watched some videos on youtube. I finally got to sleep around 2:00 a.m.--and woke up two hours later. Ugh.

Dave had to be at work early, so after he left, I went back to bed. I finally got to sleep again a little after 7:00 and I slept until 11:30. I woke up feeling groggy and out of it, a feeling that I couldn't shake all day. I suspect it's the return of my allergies causing me to feel this way. The recent rain had to have roused a lot of the pollen-producing plants.

I got up and did some laundry, took a shower, watched a few videos on youtube. Watching so many episodes of Begin Japanology led youtube to recommend a show called Lunch ON! about what people all over Japan eat for lunch. It has the corniest, most annoying, hyper-genki narrator ever--it almost put me off the show--but it's weird sense of humor is infectious. One of my favorite episodes so far is called something like "Uncomfortable Lunch With A Boss," and shows a young, low-level salesman having lunch with his boss. The whole time they're eating, the genki narrator is saying things like, "Oh, no! Why are you not talking? You look so nervous! Someone please say something!" It cracks me up.

Dave got home a bit before 4:00 and we went out to the plant nursery. Well, first we went and got some big icy drinks because it was a warm afternoon, then we went to the plant nursery. We bought some more potting soil and some plants for the garden (watermelon and cucumber, fennel, and...I forget what else) as well as a few flowering things. Dave seemed particularly drawn to verbena this year for some reason. We've gotten a late start to our garden this year, but it's still nice to have a few things in the ground.

As we were planting I started to get hungry, so I came in and made dinner. I used my new little Cuisinart food processor for the first time. I made garbanzo bean salad and used the processor to chop up garlic and red onion and to grind up the garbanzo beans. (It works really well, though I think there's a learning curve to avoid turning everything into a paste.) To the mix of garlic, onions, and garbanzos, I added a bit of plain Greek yogurt (instead of mayo), some soy sauce, vegetarian Worcestershire sauce, black pepper, and pickle relish. I served the bean salad on toast with some sliced tomatoes and steamed broccoli on the side. It was a good, quick dinner.

We went back to planting after dinner and worked a little while longer. I needed to run to the co-op for a few things after that and when we came home, it was time to veg out and do nothing.