F’ing rain, f’ing slugs

We have had literally one and a half nice days in the last 3 weeks, the rest has been rain rain rain. My poor tomatoes and pepper plants look pathetic, they are just not getting enough sun.

Along with the rain comes…slugs. Lot of slugs. The more rain, the more slugs. I hate the SOB’s. They are just f’ing gross. And they will munch on just about any plant they can get their teeth on. Well, I don’t know that they actually have teeth, but they are voracious. Usually they only come out in the night, but with all the rainy gloominess, they have been out during the daytime too. Ugh. So, I put slug bait all around my tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, hostas, and various other plants in my yard and my garden. But they have never been very attracted to my herbs...I’ve never had them eat my rosemary, thyme, oregano, sage, mint, etc. So I don’t usually worry about them eating the herbs.

Big mistake. For the first time this year, I added 2 large dill plants to my herb garden, but I didn’t put any slug bait around them. When I went out a few days ago to look around, my dill plants were GONE. Not a stalk, not a stem, not a leaf, not a frond was left. Slugs had eaten my dill down to the roots below the soil. After saying a few choice f-words for the benefit of the slugs, I put slug bait around where the plants used to be, in the hopes that the roots are still viable and something might grow back. But I guess that’s kind of like closing the barn door after the horse is gone.

Our party on Sunday was a big success…the theme was a tribute to New Orleans. We had champagne cocktails to start (using a recipe with Peychaud’s bitters), and hub cooked gumbo and made muffalettas just like they make at Central Grocery in NO (using his own olive salad recipe on foccacia bread that he baked himself). For dessert I baked a sweet potato pecan pie with Chantilly creme. We had lots of fun, and our guests left well-fed and happy.

I was happy too…until I loaded up the dishwasher about 10 p.m., turned it on, and…got an error message. I couldn’t get it to work, and neither could hub. And I couldn’t stand the idea of all those dirty dishes (especially dishes that had “fishy” food in them) setting in my kitchen even overnight. So I stayed up until 1:30 a.m. handwashing them. The repair person didn’t get out to our house until Tuesday, so it was just as well.

Anyway, I was exhausted from a day of getting ready for the party and then cleaning up afterward. But on the positive side...Here’s a screen shot of that day's activity…I burned almost 3,200 calories that day and did almost 16,000 steps. Cleaning house is definitely good for burning calories.

Now for an NSV:
Today I attended a change-of-command ceremony at a nearby fire department, so I wore my dress uniform (which I don’t wear very often). One of the women I work with made the comment “oh my god, I can’t believe how tiny you are!” Now, “tiny” is not a word I would ever use to describe myself...lol…I am 5’9” and around 160 lbs. But I am smaller than I’ve been, and my dress uniform shows that off to best advantage, I guess. In any case, the fact that someone would describe me as "tiny" really made my day. It certainly makes me more confident and comfortable with my body.

I have to work again tomorrow (attending some training), so I won't be able to walk B. I'll have to make it up to him on Saturday. Pray for SUN!!!!