Maximizing time outside

I had ideas for indoorish plans today, but they got shelved real fast when I got outside and found one of the most beautiful (if not the most) Sunday in 2013 so far.

Wish needed some nails TLC, so Josh and I took him to get them clipped. With Josh off to work, Wish and I took a detour and stopped at Lake Nokomis for a little stroll. The day heated up quickly and we took some breaks in the shade. There were tons of families out enjoying Father's Day.

Wolf's silhouette:

And the trees along the shore were making magnificent reflections!

I dropped Wish off at home and headed over to our garden to get a jalapeno plant in the ground and give our tomato plants some sorely needed stakes. (I keep wanting to type steaks and getting the image of me  nestling the tomato plants in some red meat.) Here's half of our garden, with the tallest tomato plant that badly needed some support way in back:

(Author's note: The author's mother has just gently noted that her tomato plants may benefit from more stakes or a big old wire cage. The feedback is appreciated!)

In the other half, I pulled some weeds and gasped when I saw what I am nearly certain is the green beans that I planted from seed springing out of the ground. I will monitor the situation but am terribly excited cautiously optimistic.

Then I stopped at a garage sale, since I need to find a few items sometime this summer for our wedding. Lo and behold, from far away I saw two really cool easels, which are on my list. I checked them out and then realized that this was more of a high-end antique sale than your standard yard sale, and the easels were priced at $175 each. I haven't gone into too much detail at Miles and Laurel about wedding planning, but while these easels were very lovely, they are definitely not in the budget.

Later in the day, I polished off nearly the rest of the CSA spinach by trying my first recipe from Dinner: A Love Story, which I read via Kindle library loan last week on the plane and liked so much that I ordered a hard copy as soon as the plane landed. Tonight: pasta and cooked spinach tossed with a little bit of olive oil and topped with caramelized onions and parmesan cheese. I had never had caramelized onions in pasta before but now plan to do this as much as possible - and am excited to try more of the book's tips.

Dad is out of town this weekend, so our Father's Day family dinner will be next weekend. I thought of him often today, especially when I was watching the Twins games, since the number of Twins games I've watched or listened to with my dad may still be higher than the games I've watched on my own, more than 10 years after moving out of my parents' house.

This photo is unrelated to baseball but very much related to lemon meringue pie, another one of our favorite things:

Happy Father's Day to my wonderful dad!