Mike and Music

It’s been very quiet on our blog lately, but don’t worry– all is well!  We’ve just been busy with other things.  I had a lot of time to think today, so I thought I’d write a post about that.

The thing about living in San Diego is that it’s a gorgeous, fun city.  People come from all over the world to see our sights (and sites).  Normally, I love that.  But on the Friday before a three-day weekend, I hate it.

I left work today at 1:45.  I wanted to get out of there early because I knew there would be some traffic.  There’s always more traffic on Friday afternoons/evenings, anyway, so it seemed smart to duck out before everyone started leaving their offices and heading down to San Diego for a short road trip or a staycation.

Well, 1:45 wasn’t early enough.  My normal commute is 90 minutes (which is actually pretty good, considering I live 88 miles from my office).  Today, I was in the car for 3 hours.  Yes, you read that right.  THREE HOURS!  Accidents, congestion, slowpokes… you name it, it slowed me down.

Fortunately, I had my cell phone and was able to chat with my mom and some friends.   Hands-free, of course.  I had my iPod, so I was able to listen to good tunes.  And, as I mentioned, I had lots of time to think.  At the end of my drive, I’d settled on one lesson that I’ll carry with me for the rest of my days commuting between San Diego and Orange County: on Fridays before long weekends, stay home!

A couple of months ago, Mike and I bought a couple of Solar Tubes, which are “tubular daylighting devices.”  Think of a skylight, but instead of it being a big rectangle, it’s round and relatively small (about 12 inches in diameter).  Today, after we took my mom to Mother’s Day brunch, we came home and Mike installed one of the Solar Tubes in the “downstairs” bathroom.

Now, I didn’t do any of the work, but it seemed really easy!  In less than two hours, Mike managed to cut a hole in the ceiling of the bathroom,  cut through two layers of roof  (one of the weird quirks of our house), and install the tube and the pieces that go on each end.  One piece is a plastic dome that goes on the roof– that’s where the outside light is– then there’s a metal tube funnels the light down into the room, and the other piece is a plastic dome on the ceiling that is covered with a diffuser that delivers daylight into the room.

Does that make sense?  No?  Well, here are some pictures.

This is a shot of the bathroom ceiling once the holes were cut.

This is another view of the ceiling.  You can tell from this picture that the Solar Tube is relatively small in diameter.  Nonetheless, it lets in an incredible amount of light.  Mike and I were both amazed at how bright the room is now that the Tube is in.

Light streaming through the fully assembled, fully installed Solar Tube.

See how bright the room is now?!?  The light isn’t on– that’s all sunshine!

I’m so happy to be married to such a handy husband!

Tonight I made a spinach and strawberry salad with a delicious dressing recipe I found on allrecipes (submitted by PEGW).  I highly recommend this!

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon poppy seeds (I didn’t have any, so I omitted these)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried minced onion (I used garlic instead, as we didn’t have any dried minced onion)
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used olive oil instead– I like to think it’s a little more healthy)
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 bunches fresh spinach - chopped, washed and dried
• 1 pint strawberries, halved

Directions

1. Whisk together the sugar, sesame seeds, sesame oil, poppy seeds, dried onion, paprika, oil and vinegar. Refrigerate until chilled.
2. In a salad bowl, combine the spinach and strawberries. Drizzle with dressing, toss lightly and serve.

Mike brought me these beautiful flowers on Wednesday, and they’re so pretty, I had to post a pic.