EOW No. 31

It has certainly been a week y'all.  Bowie and I were startled awake on Tuesday morning at 5:45 by tornado sirens wailing.  My phone chimed in with its tornado alert, and Bowie and I were up out of bed, peering out the windows.  The winds were whipping up the big trees across the street and pushing our patio furniture across the back porch (!), and I quickly made sure my phone was charged and got out my flashlights.  Sure enough, 30 minutes later our power went out along with cell service.  The aftermath later that morning was a lot of downed trees - all of them missing the houses in our neighborhood - but still no power or cell service.  Our house was fine (our four trees are so resilient), my office had power, and the horses never lost power or wifi (LOL).  We ended up getting power back 28 hours later and I only had to throw out a few items from the fridge.  The storm also blew in some cooler air so it was actually not comfortable to sleep with the windows open. 

I suppose it has been a few years without a bad summer storm for us (read more here) but it does seem like Texas is getting absolutely slammed this spring / early summer.  The one silver lining to all of the storms and rain is that the mosquitoes have disappeared for now.  At this point, 2024 feels as though it has lasted for 15 years.  I'm dreading the anticipated "hottest summer on record" and I suppose I should be grateful for all the rain that we've gotten so far.  

Okay, enough whinging about the weather.  On to the good stuff...

Spend way too much money on riding gloves that don't hold up and develop holes after way too short of a time period?  Get you a pair of electrician gloves.  My trainer gave me a pair of these (in medium).  They have little grippy dots on the inside, are thin enough for hot temps outside, and wash / dry really well.  So far they've held up for over two months of almost daily riding.  Also they're sold in large packs - the per pair of glove cost is ~$10.  You can split a pack with your favourite horsey friends!

Is cool grey my colour for the summer?  In advance of the roaring temperatures, a few months ago I purchased a bunch of dresses for work.  I ended up picking up this one while MM Lafleur was having its sale and I am still continuously drawn to the colour.  I'm seeing it everywhere now - it looks dark purple in some lights and then a washed black in others.  Do y'all have a colour for the summer?

Last week I checked out the cookbook Snacking Bakes by Yossy Arefi from the library and had to immediately bake the first recipe - chocolate peanut butter brownie cookies.  I know, I know, we're on this healthy eating kick but honestly, I hadn't baked in forever and ended up giving over half of them away to friends.  They turned out SO GOOD.  Arefi is oftentimes featured in the NYTimes cooking section and if you can get your mitts on this cookbook, I highly recommend it.