All caught up!

At the end of this post, the blog will finally be all caught up! I think the last time I posted about something within days of its occurrence (with the exception of the “time-out” I called on the 4th of July) was in January! That’s pathetic… I shouldn’t have figured that out.

A million thanks to my wonderful friend Lindsey from Newlydependent.com for her post on Enchilada Throwdown Upset 2011. I’ll be referencing her blog a couple more times in this post because, let’s face it, she has way better posts than me (and somehow all the event pics ended up on her camera).

On the Saturday following the throwdown, I joined my friends Stacy and Jeremy for a catamaran ride to Split Rock. Split Rock is a rock/island off the coast of Terceira that appears to have split in two, leaving enough water between the two halves to sail a boat through.



The morning started in the Praia harbor with the 3 of us (and about 10 others) seated comfortably in the front of the boat. I was fine for the first 30 minutes or so, but at some point I got a little motion sick and just couldn’t seem to kick it for the rest of the 4 hour boat ride. Now, don’t feel sorry for me (okay, maybe a little). Despite my queasy stomach, I still managed to get some great pictures of the island (and two of the adjacent islands) and Split Rock, and I got to enjoy an unobstructed view of the ocean from the side of the boat! Not bad for a Saturday morning.

After the catamaran ride, we joined the rest of the crew for some relaxing on the beach. Jeremy even brought his sweet new beach chair!

Sunday we all met again for a screening of the movie Water for Elephants at the base theatre, then trekked over to Lindsey and Karl’s for some S’mores. Karl wanted to make a fire in the grill, and you can’t have a fire without S’mores!

I spent Monday enjoying the 4th of July celebrations on base and spent the rest of the week preparing for the next throwdown! This time, Lindsey and I faced off with our best meatloaf recipes! Little did she know my delicious meatloaf was wrapped in even more delicious bread!! *evil cackle*

We prepared our meatloaves at home before meeting up at Stacy’s for the moment of truth. As I mentioned earlier, Lindsey’s camera ended up with all the good pictures, so check out her blog for the results!! I’m mean; I know. Without giving away the winner, I can say I certainly learned a thing or two from my worthy opponent. Who would have thought to use apricot preserves?

I spent Friday night at the base club wishing a final farewell to CE’s awesome First Sergeant. We’ll miss you Shirt! Saturday brought another trip to the beach. I did a fantastic job applying sunscreen and ended up with stripes on my back. Thankfully, they faded after about a day. Sunday was spent at the “Air Show” put on by the base. I put air show in quotes because all of the planes were on the ground! It was still fun to walk around all the planes. Not to mention the tasty food for sale. Kudos to the smoothie booth!

Monday, I spent the afternoon with Lindsey teaching her the basics of sewing. We both started out with high expectations – an apron sounded like an excellent first project. Wrong! I didn’t realize that sewing curves is a lot harder than it looks (I’ve been doing it for long enough that I don’t even notice). After the first couple attempts at rounding a corner, Lindsey opted to play with all the fun settings on my sewing machine while I assembled a visual aid for our upcoming book club. We are both huge nerds – the full extent will not be realized until we have book club tomorrow. There may be relevant videos to go along with the previously mentioned visual aid.  To see her take on her first attempt at sewing, click here.

After Lindsey headed home, I decided to finish the apron she had cut out as well as start and finish another one because I had enough fabric left over. I had a few more mishaps than normal, but I did get them both done! If you’ve ever wondered exactly how much thread is on a roll, I now know - exactly the amount needed to make two aprons and teach Lindsey to sew. When I finished the second apron, I had 58.5” of thread left on the spool and 26.75” left on the bobbin. Whew! That was close.

And, because I haven’t had nearly enough food on this post, here’s what I had for dinner last night. The first watermelon of the season, and garlic bread with chard (or really whatever greens I had from the organic market). Sounds weird, I know, but it was delicious!

Thanks for hanging with me while I got the blog back in sync with the real world. Until next time…