First, let me say we are safe from the River Fire although Colfax, which is the next town above us was evacuated. We were ready with our bags but thankfully it didn’t happen. There are RV’s down at the park and our neighbor has his daughters giant ‘Uncle Eddie’s RV in their yard. I think the fire is mostly under control but the sky this morning is a weird yellow color.

The monthly bills are all done and about half are paid already. Most of our bills come out in the first week of the month so then I can figure what’s left even though I already have it all written down. It’s when we add in Home Depot and those things that then budget needs adjusting.

Tomorrow is my sweet boy’s 27 th birthday. He is a great young man and so talented. I’m planning on making pulled pork( his request) corn on the cob and then for the birthday cake, an ice cream cake. I saw this great recipe for mint chocolate chip ice cream cake in NYT recipes. We actually do not eat a lot of ice cream or cake stuff even on birthdays so I will make just a loaf pan of this. It looks fun and easy and pretty yummy.

I bought some things from Costco.com this week too. A pair of pants for B and some T shirts and Frontline for the kitties. That’s what added to the cost. The pants and t shirts were only $22 and $20 respectively. As I’ve said before, we don’t really have a clothing budget since we generally don’t buy clothes but B needed some new pants and his t-shirts s are starting to look pretty ratty.

I’ve cooked some good meals this week including pesto pasta with our garden basil. Last night I made homemade french fries and they came out pretty excellent. Earlier this week I made chicken enchiladas from leftover chicken so that was tasty too. Tonight I may make a pizza or ?? I have the dough ready so I guess I’ll see how hot it is later.

Oh, BTW, Beth( reader) I still don’t have your email for the Zuni Cookbook. Can you email it to me. Thanks:)

This morning I’m going to drop off a load to Goodwill and then hit Safeway for the mint ice cream and fudge sauce and a few other things on my list. Groceries are sure getting expensive. With the water problems for farmers here in California and then the PNW burning up and then the crops fried, food prices are going to go up this fall.

My swimming is going well and I’m building up some stamina. It’s definitely an effort to go do but totally worth it. I’m trying not to overdo it and just add a minute or two each time. last week I had a day where I felt awful and realized the day before I had swum and not eaten anything before and I think my body went in to exercise fatigue.( yes, it’s a real thing). So I need to be more careful. This week I ate a banana before I swam I think that helped my glucose levels. I’ve been going twice a week and that seems to be a good amount. When I can I will try and add a third time sometime this fall.