Normally I remember to take pictures of food when I cook. Normally this usually involves Bob chuckling at me and at least one cat running in the opposite direction. This time, however, I was so hungry by the time I got dinner done on Friday, I just sat down and ate. And if you can’t tell from the picture above,

It was very, very good.

I did a version of a Greek chicken salad. Barley cooked in veggie broth (about 1/2 cup uncooked), cucumber (3 very small pickling ones, chopped), one beefsteak tomato, a bit of red onion, feta cheese and shredded chicken that I cooked in veggie broth and covered. To that I added a dressing of white balsamic vinegar, juice and zest of a half a lemon, three cloves of garlic, thyme, basil and pepper with olive oil. Needless to say, neither Bob nor I were willing to leave leftovers.

I also had a project this weekend. I’ve been wanting to paint the inside of the house for a while. We thought we had a color, but Bob was concerned with how dark it might make the house, so we went back to the drawing board. We settled on Swiss Coffee for the wall and Chocolate Coco for the trim. We think. So I decided to do a test.

The kitchen island is a great test space. Large enough to see, but not next to anything incase it turns out horribly. So we picked up some paint and I taped everything off and started painting.

Right next to the old color you can tell the difference. Once the whole wall was done, it is a litte harder to see.

After the first coat of the trim, I was nervous

The brown was not as dark as I thought it would be and I just wasn’t sure. After a second coat of paint and removing the tape …

I really like it. There is something about the chocolate that reminds me of grandmom’s house in Philly. Specifically the stairs in that house. I think the light wall and dark trim has an old fashioned feel to it, which I really like. So the plan is to live with it for a week and if we still love it next weekend we get the rest of the paint and I go to town painting the house.

It would also be helpful if I could get Leia to stop sniffing the paint. I almost got a picture but that cat is a true member of the family and HATES having her picture taken.

On a more serious note, we came through the tropical storm just fine. There was lots of rain, wind and a few tornadoes near work, but overall nothing to worry about. It is summer in south Florida so we kind of expect this stuff.