My Very Own Master Gardener

Okay, full disclosure here: My husband, Bill (the handsome guy pictured below) is the master gardener in this household. This year we got REALLY adventurous and decided to try our hand at growing a variety of fruits and vegetables, with a focus on SALAD!

So what's out there getting watered, sunned & loved, then devoured before the main course each night? Well, we've got iceberg lettuce...Romaine...red and green field lettuce...tomatoes...green & sweet peppers. And, not tyically used for salad, but we've also got strawberries, blueberries, grapes, broccoli, cucumbers, and a variety of spices including cilantro.

Our berries aren't doing too well, though I'm told the garden lizards think they're utterly divine, and the grapes and the tomatoes aren't anywhere near ready, but the lettuce is making an appearance on our table DAILY! Obviously, lettuce alone does not a salad make, so we hit up the local farmers' market today for fresh mixings like chopped red onions, hothouse tomatoes and radishes.

And while I baked my first classic pound cake from scratch--a recipe that is delish, and you can find it right here--Bill fixed some homemade salsa, also from scratch. I happened to pick up the Mission tortilla chips on a recent trip to the supermarket, since we've always liked Mission's other products, and how better to enjoy them than with some salsa you whip up in your own kitchen? Did I mention our homegrown cilantro came in very handy? Yep. The hubby told me, "How'd we get into all this fresh, homemade stuff, anyway??? Is that what happens when you grow your own garden?"

Who knows? But it sure beats the processed stuff!

For Papi

JORGE VAZQUEZ, JULY 8, 1934 - APRIL 5, 2011

How I loved this man. My dad died at the age of 76 last week. During my life, I've made so many trips down to Miami, Florida where he lived. On the flight down last Friday evening, I remember thinking it was the saddest trek I'd ever make to Florida.

Between my sister Sandra and I, we were able to put together a memorial for him that was held at La Ermita de la Caridad del Cobre, a pretty little chapel in Miami named after the patron saint of Cuba. Papi loved that chapel, which is set by the sea, with its mural that included Cuba's history, and attended it often. Since there was no casket, we instead tossed roses into the sea in his honor. Afterwards we assembled at Sandy's house for an intimate gathering of friends and family to celebrate a man who was always filled with life and laughter.

Our relationship might not have been perfect--Mami and my dad divorced when I was about 3--but my father and I loved each other. More than anyone, Papi taught me that you don't have to have a perfect relationship with someone to love them with all your heart. As an adult, I shared many a heartfelt conversation with him. That's him in the picture above, taken at my 50th birthday party last year. My sister affectionately claims he was always eating! He was a father, grandfather and great-grandfather. He was part of that great generation belonging to my mom, Madrina, Padrino, Soledad and others.

There will never again be anyone like Jorge Vazquez. And when I tossed down that rose into the sea, that large part of my heart that belonged to him also disappeared into the waves.

My Classic Namesake

Kind of a spooky thing to hear, while you're doing a story that involves a car, to hear that you have one named after you! But that's exactly what happened to me. Meet Connie--my cousin's classic Nova!

Pep is my cousin only technically. He's more of a kid brother to me, since we were raised together by his mother (my Madrina, which means grandmother) and my mother. You can't talk about our childhood without also talking about his half-brother and half-sister, Danny and Solie, who were siblings-of-the-heart to me, too.

We're all older now, and it seems like everybody's life is so busy. In this entry, I wanted not only to show off my very cool namesake (the Nova has a big "C" on its hood!), but to make a tribute to Pep, Danny and Solie, as well as Pep's wife Marlene, who has also been like a sister to me. They're the reason that, when chatting with people who've said, "I'm an only child," I've responded with, "Oh, me, too! Well, actually no--my Padrino filled my life with two brothers and a sister." So, in addition to my half-sister Sandra and my stepsister, Tammy, I guess I come from a big, crazy, and loving brood of kids!

Slowdown on BIAM

What hasn't happened to slow me down?

Well, I had to exchange Red, for one thing. Got the very same PC, but hopefully one that doesn't do that "check disk" thing every single time I start up the laptop. Every. Single. Time. Y'all.

And...I got a Kindle! Love it, love it, love it!

Also slowed down reading OPERATION PRINCE CHARMING by Phyllis Bourne and I THINK I LOVE YOU by Allison Pearson. Two great books in a row--that's very unusual. Felt like one delicious meal after another! I THINK I LOVE YOU is about a young girl in the 1970s who was in love with...that cute guy in the pic above.

So now it's back to work on my latest project. I have a lot of catching up to do.

If I can stop browsing through Amazon, that is!

Me & Red

We've been spending a lot of time together lately. Me & Red.

Red is my new computer. It's an HP Pavilion dv5, or so it says on the lower righthand section of the screen. Red is--well, red, hence the not-so-clever name.

I'm one of those women that names things. My first car, a 1977 Rally Sport Camaro, was affectionally known to my mother and me as "Rally." After I got married, I got my husband and sons in on the act, too. We owned a Chevy Celebrity named "Joshua," a Jeep Cherokee known as "O'Neill," and we leased a Ford Explorer (we loved that car!) known as "Topanga"--named after the Boy Meets World character played by the lovely actress, Danielle Fishel. Currently, we still have O'Neill, but we've also added my Dodge Neon, "Candy," and our older son's car is "Naomi 2," since he traded in "Naomi 1."

Yes, we ARE a nutty family.

And this is the first time I've got a computer with a name. Kinda makes it harder to exchange it, even though the mouse on this laptop acts weird. I'm already attached to Red, and even more so since we started--uh, I started--doing Book in a Month.

We were off to a good start, though we had a couple rocky days. During one, I didn't get any writing done at all, and during the second day, I only wrote about 300 words. But now I'm right on target, with about 1,300 words to write for the day.

So who cares if Red's mouse disappears? He's helping me write my first YA novel--a paranormal--in many years. That'd be like ditching a friend...or a beloved car!

New Book in a Month

And it's a short month, so my BIAM will be short, too. My goal is pretty doable, too: I'll be penning 1,000 - 2,000 words per day. The hardest part is waiting until the end to edit this baby! Something I didn't realize until years later is that "Once an editor, always an editor." So I'm doing my best to turn off my internal editor and have a new project, one I'm excited to talk about on here, by the time March comes rolling in like a lion!

Odd Woman Out...er, diet-wise, that is

Seems like a lot of my coworkers are on the Diet that Shall Remain Nameless. The ones that aren't are losing weight (or trying to) by other means, and they give progress reports. Then there are the ones who *want* to be on a diet, but aren't on one currently, though they express guilt that they're not dieting. This week, one of the ones on the DTSRN had a small loss, though I have to say, she remained positive (at least outwardly) and my other friend was disappointed because she "only" maintained. She did everything right, according to the "rules" set by the DTSRN, and yet she didn't gain, but she didn't lose, either.

I'm going to be honest here, because I know there are readers who lurk specifically because of IE. I don't want it to seem like this has all been smooth sailing for me. Along the way on my Intuitive Eating journey, I've almost fallen off the wagon a few times. I've seen people with their little books and materials from the DTSRN, or announcing triumphantly how they've dropped a size, and sometimes I've almost gotten swept up in all the diet-generated excitement. The keyword there is almost.

The thing is, once you've tasted freedom, it's really hard to willingly march back into the emotional jail cell otherwise known as the diet mentality. And sometimes it feels like I'm Odd Woman Out, because after over a year, I've come to embrace Intuitive Eating. For over a year, I've maintained my weight, which has fluctuated anywhere between 130 and 136.

Only recently did I realize that I LIKE this weight. It's not what the charts say is right for me, but it seems to be the natural healthy weight that my body returns to again and again. It's not the "ideal" weight that I always believed I was supposed to adhere to, but it is what I weigh naturally.

This morning I could barely wait to get my exercise clothes and sneakers on and then hit the pavement! It is an amazing thing, exercising because you WANT to, because you know how good it feels to have those endorphins bursting through you, because you've been stressed out and need exercise to de-stress. It's been unseasonably cold here in North Carolina, and last week my schedule was kinda packed, so I didn't make it to the gym as often as usual. That's okay: There's a beautiful park, complete with a track that runs all the way through it, within walking distance of my home. All the flashy little diet books and materials and even a golden number popping up on a scale can't compare with knowing that you're exercising not because you're trying to erase some of yourself, but because it's a pleasure to move a body that is healthy.

And after a year, what would you find when you open my fridge or my pantry? How about a carton of fresh sliced baby portabella mushrooms...red beans prepared Cuban-style...fat-free yogurt...a large bottle of apple juice...fresh carrots, both for cooking and snacking...gourmet coffee ground from the beans...strawberry preserves...a loaf of pumpernickel bread and one of whole grain...strawberry ice cream...lean chicken breasts...sweet peppers, to be sliced up with onion and sauteed in olive oil--a heart-healthy fat!..instant apples-and-cinnamon oatmeal...granola...organic Chai tea...and Diet Mountain Dew, because I'm used to diet soda now and find the "regular" stuff too sweet for my taste.

In short, you'd find a blend of healthy choices and "guilty" pleasures, which now don't make me feel so guilty anymore, because I find myself eating less of them than when they were "forbidden" and therefore more attractive to me. That's where I am now on this journey. I've come to a point where I now consider myself an intuitive eater. Food is now both fuel for the body and a pleasure to be savored.

And at times, I'm Odd Woman Out. But I was at one time One of the Girls, right there with my diet books and materials and giving progress reports, feeling like a failure when I "only" maintained or "only" lost .5 pounds after a week of "doing everything right."

In light of that, it's not so bad at all, being Odd Woman Out.