The Turtle Is Back and A Curly Willow Update

Turtle Doug arrived a short time ago. He has his urology appointment tomorrow in the nearby town of Rocklin. I just hope he gets good news. We figured out a better spot for his turtle in the driveway so it will be easier to get my car in and out of the garage. His wife has decided she wants a divorce. Her lawyer in Kentucky contacted him today. I guess when it rains it pours. Poor guy.

I gave platelets yesterday, which really wiped me out more than usual. I didn't get a chance to eat lunch before I went so was pretty low on energy. About half way through the 113-minute donation time I started having muscle cramps from the anti-coagulant they drip into me. I had 8 Tums which usually wipe out the cramps almost immediately. It's pretty amazing how fast they work. This time they did nothing. So they brought me string cheese to eat. I downed two of them as fast as possible and the cramping subsided. I got a kind lecture from the nurse about the importance of lunch before my next donation. I've donated 87 pints which is nearly 11 gallons.

So I vegged most of today, except for a trip to the grocery store. I'm cooking healthy foods tonight so Doug will get a good meal before his exam tomorrow. We are having chicken breasts sauteed in a mushroom/olive oil/balsamic vinegar sauce and oven roasted tomatoes with a bit of feta cheese to top them off when they come out of the oven.

I've really been into veggies lately. Sunday night I had a big bowl of oven roasted cauliflower and broccoli sprinkled with Parmesan cheese. I had the same thing for lunch today. At the store today I bought lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli, brussel sprouts and avocados (I know they are a fruit). A woman in the produce department saw all of my veggies and asked my advice on what veggie to serve with chicken Parmesan. I recommended the asparagus either oven roasted or steamed. She bought asparagus. I wish I felt the same way about fruit. It's just not my thing; except bananas and berries of any kind. Apples smeared with extra crunchy peanut butter are okay too.

I have a client meeting tomorrow; something I've not had in quite a while. I have to be on the road by 7:30 a.m. to get to Santa Rosa in time. My client, a water agency in Sonoma County, wants to build several reservoirs around the county to store tertiarily treated wastewater in the winter for use in the summer to irrigate vineyards. Sounds simple, but we have a former Dow Chemical scientist who has been quite successful recently in the courts. Tomorrow's meeting should be interesting.

And the curly willows...they are thriving. Dykewife asked why I didn't just leave them in the water until they had roots and then plant them. They had been in water for two months and had very few roots but were sprouting leaves. My friend who gave them to us recommended potting and then putting them in the soil. Our soil here is clay, which gets rock hard in the summer. We are going to start digging the holes now even though the trees aren't ready to go in the ground. If we don't get more rain it will take a jackhammer to get through the clay and then it will be hard on the trees. The clay is lovely for the potters in the area but hell for gardeners. The holes will have to be larger than needed so we can add lots of good soil, compost and other good things.

On the way to Santa Rosa tomorrow I'm listening to "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress." It's what we are reading for bookgroup next week. It's about 2.5 hours each way so I should just about finish it.