Saturday

Saturday was a fairly eventful day.

On Friday night the pesky cat had got up on the roof of the house, and he was still there on Saturday. He was looking a bit freaked out and scared to come down, meowing and pacing up and down a lot.
Viv and I decided to go out into the front garden, in hopes of coaxing him back down the treee he used to get up there in the first place. I'm standing on the drive when Viv decides to go to the bottom of the tree to try and talk him down.
She walks into the grassy area in flip flops and suddenly ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE!
Poor Viv - she stepped on a bee and got stung right on the sole of her foot. She freaked out!

Bless her, I remember how much it hurts when you get stung, though thankfully I haven't experienced it for a long time. I also remember how frightening it is when you're a kid. So she's screaming and crying and I'm feeling slightly panicky. So I scooped her up and carried her back to the house. Vinny came to the rescue and pulled the sting out of her foot. She was so brave. We ran her foot under cold water for a few minutes, then I liberally applied lots of After Bite. I was so glad I thought to take that with me. It works so well. Pretty soon she had regained her composure and we managed to get a little smile out of her. Brave kid.


Another, much more relaxed and fun part of Saturday was watching hummingbirds drink nectar from the feeder right outside the window. It was absolutely awe-inspiring. They are so beautiful and tiny. I felt really privileged to be able to stand not 3 feet away from them and watch them hover and stick those long tongues into the feeder to get nectar. Fantastic.
Here's a link to my hummingbird (and other California wildlife) video I made. So cool.

The main event on Saturday was something I have waited YEARS to experience. We went to watch Vinny play ice hockey with the San Diego Bruins team. It was as much fun as I guessed it'd be and WAY MORE.

Go Vinny, Go Vinny!!!!

I made video too.

They got thrashed by the other team, but who cares? It was great fun and it was nice and cool in there by the ice. Everyone else thought it was f-f-f-freezing. We thought it was just nice....

It's a very fast moving sport and I'll admit I had no idea what was going on for most of the game, but it was very enjoyable. In fact, it's inspired Mark and I to maybe start going to check out some of the games of our local ice hockey team, the MK Lightnings.

At least the Bruins had a few supporters there. Me, Mark, Jodi, Viv, Vern and Cassidy were rooting for them. The other team only had one supporter. She was sitting a few feet away from us and kept quiet until we started making a little noise. Then she got quite vocal in her support. Good for her I say.

Cassidy came back with us to the house after the game and I made portobello mushroom risotto for everyone for dinner. They seemed to really enjoy it. It's a very simple, but very tasty recipe.

For 6-ish people

Brown rice (about 1/2 cup per person)
2 packs of Portobello mushrooms quite finely chopped (it's worth using the real McCoy as they taste great)
1/2 an onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic
1 vegetable stock cube
Mustard seeds (just a few sprinkled in)
Assorted herbs - whatever takes your fancy really. Just go easy so you don't over-power the taste of the mushrooms. I think I used rosemary, coriander, thyme - stuff like that.

Fry the onion, garlic and mushrooms for a few minutes.
Crumble in the stock cube and add the rice and herbs and stir it all together.
Add enough water to cover the rice.
Bring to the boil and simmer until the rice is cooked, adding more water as needed.

Simple!