Weekly Photos by Jillian

 A very long week is what has been happening. I switched from night shift to morning shift and it has been an adjustment to say the least. I'm still doing the meal prep using things from the fridge and pantry.  This week the star ingredient is the potato. 3 pounds of potatoes turned into.... Creamy, buttery potato soup Twice baked potatoes Greek lemon and rosemary roasted potatoes. We've had more of that crazy weather around here. Hail, rain, snow, mix, thick rain, hail again and so on. Hail in tall moss on one of the many paving stones on the property. Last year I planted these small succulents in the paver steps I installed. They seem to be doing well. The dafodils will be blooming in the next two weeks or so. And I'm not sure what this flowering shrub is, but it's got these beautiful, tiny upside down flowers. Another one of the succulents sprouting out of the block wall. At work, we celebrated Employee Day with loads and loads of these mini cheesecakes.... Hundreds ...

 February is coming to a close! This past week has been a quick one.  Plenty of the "Same old, same old" routine stuff. I did get out a couple of days for a walk about town though. This is the gate to Chinatown. And these are the dragons who guard the area. Pretty cool. Every year I do a few personal games to save some extra cash, conserve resources and use the items I have already purchased. The mane of the game this month has been... "What can I make with the food in the freezer/fridge/pantry?"  We baked sourdough bread from bread packets I found in the pantry. I can only eat so much bread before it gets stale. Cutting it into cubes allowed me to launch from there. Bread gnocchi with browned butter, garlic and parmesan cheese Bread pudding with vanilla orange sauce Italian herbed croutons. Canned and packaged items are easily converted into soups. I don't have any photos of the taco soup I made from all of these goodies, but the previous photo with the crunchy...

 Wow! Washington does have a relatively mild climate.  It's something I love about this area. But this week the weather has been a bit bipolar. At the beginning of the week we had some sunshine and crisp, cool temps.  It made for a great walk at the park.  But then.... Mid week we got a beautiful blanket of snow. And then.... Another sunshiny day to kick around in the International District of Seattle. Mother Nature is quite fickle. On the work front... We celebrated by giving out hearts, candies and micro mini cupcakes - bite size and gourmet flavors. Again... always something going on around my condo in the big city. We watched all the (after) action from the condo and contemplated (speculated) how this person ended up in this predicament. And finally.... Homemade pizza! A regular crust cheese and a thin crust Greek chicken... A busy Paramedic shift... Snuggle time with the pups. Remi and Levi are ready for a walk in the cold, drizzly rain.

 Another week of training in my new position.   Being a supervisor is difficult.  I had no idea how much our supervisors have to know and the amount of work they do behind the scenes. AND....how much they care!!! This week we are celebrating the Year of the Dragon. Happy Lunar New Year. This is just one of the many small gifts we handed out at work.   This celebration got me thinking about just how much of an influence the Asian cultures have on our society and mine in particular.   Here are just a few things from me.... The decor I have... This is some of the beautiful artwork I have hanging in my home.  The food I like to prepare.... My version of Thai curry chicken and rice noodle soup. Yum! The environment around me... A snazzy, metallic painted car I found in my condo parking garage.... I live in the International District. Early in the week I received a sweet little gift from my #3 child. Way back in November, I had posed for a picture for him, but wa...