AfricanKelli

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Dear Fin,

Guess who returned Friday? The Malawian/Aussie golfer roomie — Matt. He’s back to make another go of the professional golfing world in Arizona and now I have someone to cook for on a regular basis. {His family took care of me on the tea estate in Malawi last summer. They are some of the nicest people I’ve met. It is a pleasure to return the favor by hosting their son.}

Imagine my delight when I made our March CRAFT-Along pizza crust project last night and he said, “This is some of the best pizza ever.” Giddyup!

I did modify the recipe a bit by making the dough whole wheat. I’d never made pizza dough before, so we also had to take a quick trip through Target to get a pizza tray. With some rosemary from a friend’s garden, chicken and heaps of veggies — we ate like kings. This recipe is just too easy and I’m certain I’ll be making it again this week. I’m thinking artichokes, mushrooms, black olives and spicy red peppers.

Great choice Fin! (Although I still need to learn how to throw a pizza crust. Any suggestions?)

~Donk

{I am going to uncharacteristically swear like a sailor in this post; consider it thoroughly influenced by dear Finny, the gardener who got me interested in all this mother of sweet holy moses nonsense in the first place. If you don’t like the f-bomb, take cover.}

Welcome to the last 18 hours of my life. It started out well: new seeds from the Tucson trip, nice glass of Friday-night pink girly wine, and a lovely bag of succulent and cacti clippings a friend passed along. I am just adventurous enough in the garden that a sack of new plants makes my heart leap with happiness.

The sack did include some gems, but after going through my gardening stuff — I realized I needed potting soil. So, the wine waited and off I went to the nursery, where I also picked up a new hose and more worms for the composter. I came home, loaded up the new “soaker” hose and set it out on the back patio to get the earth drenched while I slept. (Couldn’t drink the wine because by the time I’d gotten home, a dozen bugs had decided to take a swim in my pink Friday treat. ) There were four large oleanders on the back section of my patio that I wanted to remove and knew I wouldn’t be able to touch them without getting the earth muddy beforehand. I turned on the hose, went out for a movie, got up and went for a hike this morning and came back to find the new hose in pieces.

Soaker hoses? Fragile pieces of shit. Save your $15. Really mad I decided to buy gardening supplies in lieu of the basket at this point. The worms on the other hand? Happy little suckers and currently chomping away, making lovely compost. The soil I put to use and now have a pretty potting table full of gorgeous succulents. So, at this point I’m still in a pretty good mood.

Enter the oleanders, or as I will now refer to them — the plants of doom, sent by the devil, to torture me.

Quite some time of heavy shoveling later, I’d removed two of these fuckers and my arms look like I’m a heroin addict. I’ve got red, bumpy scratches all over my upper body and the wee bit of my lower legs that were exposed. Of course because the plants of doom are poisonous, these are puffy, ugly scratches morphing into welts. And really? There are only two things that could have made me grouchier.

1. Finding a snake in my garden.

Check.

{HOLY MOTHER OF GOD. It is a baby and let me tell you, I killed it and then taunted the mother to come forward and show her evil face. Actually, I got the heebie geebies and screamed like I was losing my mind. And the snake may have been a little small, but a SNAKE nonetheless. Snakes are one of my greatest fears in life. Not happy at this point. And don’t dare think this is a worm and I don’t know better; it had a little head and black flickering tongue.}

2. Having two rather strong neighbors walk by and each say, “Wow. That looks like hard work. Good luck with that.” as I am bending over, pulling and prodding with all of my might. Lend a hand? Nah. Make a stupid comment and walk by? Yes. Say it with me: Douche bags! Really not happy at this point.

Rather exhausted and trying to figure out how to cover my wounds. I should probably wash my mouth out with soap at the same time. Oh, and in 6 months, if all goes well — I’ll have some pumpkins, sunflowers and maybe a tomatillo or two.  In the meantime, really hoping there isn’t a mama snake.

~K

Me*, Sugar Ray and my college-friend Nicole, backstage at That Damn Show in 1998.

My friend Eric recently emailed this photo and I honestly don’t remember meeting Mark McGrath. We were at a big concert in Phoenix under the guise of covering the music for the student newspaper. I remember Gwen Stefani — she was amazing. And that Cake rushed off the stage and were booed. Chances are I was one of the only sober ones in the entire stadium and this brush with fame doesn’t ring a bell. Actually, it just makes me miss Nicole. I have no idea where she is these days.

Backstage in real life, I’ve got a bunch of little things to catch up with this weekend. I’m using a new budgeting tool to stay focused with money and really need to teach myself how to do food budgeting. If there is one area where I simply spend way, way too much — it’s in groceries. When I cook, I like to have the nicest ingredients. I don’t mind going into a fancy grocery store for a certain kind of cheese or fresh herb. This is foolish behavior. I know better and it is time to get back to Crockpot cooking, eating leftovers and learning to cut (and use) coupons.

Otherwise, tomorrow morning I am looking forward to a long walk and breakfast with Clarita. I love this woman. We don’t get to spend enough time together now that we aren’t working in the same office and I really miss her company. I hope to lure her to have breakfast at the Old Town Farmer’s Market so I can splurge on one of those pretty baskets. I’ve intentionally cut my spending in other places this week so I could go visit Abdullah without the guilt trip. And hey, if I am carrying coupons, I might as well go to the market with a stylish basket, right? Ah, the rationale of a frugalista in training…

I’ve also got seeds to plant, a baby gift to finish, sewing projects overflowing on the kitchen table, a refugee prayer service to attend and a turkey to bowl. My bowling team wouldn’t know what to do with themselves if I bowled with any sort of ability. Wouldn’t that be a nice surprise?

Happy weekend friends,

~K

* This photo just about crushes any idea I had of being in shape in college. Yikes.

I’ve had amazing women guide my life, and my grandmother is at the top of the list. She’s a heroine for a dozen reasons, but this week namely for taking such good care of these characters:

My great-uncle John and grandfather, respectively.  We came home from a fabulous errand to Native Seeds to find them “rooting” for the Wildcats. Probably not a bad idea they fell asleep — the Devils ate the Wildcats for lunch.

My grandparents have always been some of my biggest supporters. They arranged my study-abroad in high school. They’ve attended my graduations and my grandmother is one heck of a pen-pal. You wouldn’t believe how many letters she sent me in Cameroon. They want the best for me and while we don’t always agree on what that looks like, I know fundamentally they want my happiness.

Plus, how sweet is my grannie? I just want to pinch her cheeks in this photo! Love that woman more than I can express.

~K

Work is going so well, but I’m finding I don’t have enough time to get everything done I’d like to accomplish. On the home front, the garden is being watered, the laundry folded, the dishes washed. With ultimate frisbee tonight and a fair amount of gym time peppering my week, I’m tired. I’m off tomorrow to Tucson to help my grandma with my ailing grandfather and great uncle.I hope to spend a fair chunk of my time curled up on the couch with knitting and a journal. There are so many questions about their childhood I’d like to have answered. I figure tomorrow is a great time to visit and give Gram a chance to take some time for herself.

So, a bit of desert beauty to keep spirits high in the meantime. I hope your week is going well!

~K