Cerebral Contusions with Some Pickles and Spice

With all the construction going on here we've got this gigantic dumpster sitting in our driveway that's slowly being filled with debris. I've been after Andrew to have them haul it away because I hate how ugly it looks and then it's been a problem for the kids.

Lillian's thrown two balls in there. The first one wasn't hers so I felt obligated to make some kind of an effort to go get it (otherwise she'd be out of luck). There's a huge iron door on the end that locks with a rotating iron T-bar and I pried the whole thing open and threw my weight against it so that David could go retrieve the ball. It was so heavy I had to really anchor myself to keep it from clanging shut and once he was safely out all I could do was to dodge out of the way to let the door clang shut.

Fair enough except that I forgot about that T-bar and as the door shut behind me the bar swung around and caught me full across the head as it crashed shut. It was a good thing the flat part of the bar hit me straight along the side because it only knocked me senseless rather than crushing my skull or anything (always a good thing) but I was pretty dazed for a minute or two as I wondered what had happened. I would have made a good candidate for America's Funniest Home Videos if someone had had a camera.

I picked myself up and tried to walk it off but now I've got this amazing bruise all along the left side of my head today that hurts so bad I can feel it when I smile or chew--yet another reason I'm glad I have hair, to cover up mistakes like that. The last thing I need is visual evidence of my grace and poise.

At any rate now that I've revealed the genius behind the curtain here I'm going to leave you this weekend with five great recipes I've found lately and five new blogs I've recently added to my already overflowing reader:

Three Sides of Crazy has a recipe for watermelon jelly that I simply must try--I'm getting into my jam and jelly season here (I've made 12 jars of strawberry rhubarb this week) and this sounds like a way to bottle some summery goodness.

OhCripes.com (a new-to-me site) has a recipe for refrigerator pickles that sounds intriguing. I've never made pickles of any kind before and this could be a good place to start.

Emily Rose has a recipe for 5 Minute Chocolate Cake. You'd think this would be the time it takes to eat such a delicious morsel but no, she's talking about preparation time. Wowzers! I'll be sure to try this one.

Fat Free Vegan Kitchen has Ridiculously Easy Pineapple Sorbet which has prompted me to dig out the ice cream maker once again. I've got sorbet on the menu for the week.

One of my favorite food blogs, The Bread Blog, has a recipe for Strawberry with White Chocolate Truffle Icing that makes you wonder if there could be anything tastier invented. It's like food utopia.

And here are five blogs I've just added to my feed list:

Little Window Shoppe is a blog with a sweet layout and design plus sweet products and fun finds for people like me who hate to physically shop but love to have other people do all the work by bringing me the cutest things on the internet from the comforts of my own keyboard.

Overstuffed is an elegant blog with the pictures and posts to prove it--Lara is a mom of three living in Utah who takes terrific photos to go with her interesting posts.

TJ Hirst.com--I've been watching this one for several months now so it's not the most recent addition but it's another well-written blog by an aspiring writer/mother of three living in Minnesota (she's also fun to talk to).

The Wonder Years written by Sonja, mother of four beautiful blondies, who manages to fill each of her posts with interest and wonder. Perfect title for her blog.

Mommy's Martini--written primarily by Mommytime but also occasionally joined by two other professional moms. Intelligent and interesting, plus I really like her art deco template which is different and classy. I've been popping in on this blog for a while now but it's taken me a while to add new feeds lately. Blame it on the summer--if you had 24 hours of daylight would YOU spend all your time reading at the computer??

So . . . if you're hankering for new material to read besides cereal boxes and junk mail check out some of these great recipes and blogs. Good stuff!

Sponsored by Dimples and Dandelions--for the Serena and Lily Bedding Collection for Children

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