It looks like a lot of the knitbloggers I usually read are on vacation. Hope they have a good time! I'm supposed to be gearing up for fall classes (new textbooks for two classes = lots and lots of updating lecture and activities material) but am having a hard time being motivated.

I did get Diana finished up (at least on paper) with her thesis yesterday. So now she'll have a Master's Degree and will be able to walk in December's graduation.

I also got the final copy of the paper sent off to the Proceedings of the Oklahoma Academy of Science. It should come out next year, I think.

I have a recipe of sorts for you today:
Simple smoothie

Backstory: when my brother and I were kids, he was the Fussy Eater of the World. If it looked "natural", he wouldn't eat it. (I was a little better: I would eat fruit and I ate corn and even the funky wholegrain bread our mother made). Our mom came up with this recipe to try and get a little more fruit into my brother. It's surprisingly good considering how simple it is.

It makes a very good "cocktail replacement" (i.e., something you drink when you first come home from work if you don't like/don't drink alcoholic things). It's cold and refreshing and is actually kind of filling. It makes a good light summer dessert, too.

So here's the recipe already:

1 box frozen strawberries, partially thawed (like 1/2 hour in the fridge or maybe 20 minutes on the counter)
1 standard sized (not the giant one, not the tiny one - I think it's somehwere in the 12-15 oz. range) can of Bartlett pears (the blah white ones that every grocery has).

If you can, get the kind of pears that are canned in their own juice instead of a sugar syrup. Ditto on the strawberries. You can always add sugar if it's not sweet enough for you.

Drain the pear juice into a glass or a measuring cup. Put the pears and the strawberries and about half the pear juice into a blender. Run the blender on its highest speed for about a minute or until everything is pulverized. If you need to, add more pear juice.

Serve. It makes enough for 4 people to have a smallish serving. Or you can put it in the fridge for later. Or you could freeze it and make a kind of sorbet.

No knitting last night. I'm having to drive to the Albertson's because our Winn-Dixie closed down and I don't like any of the remaining grocery stores in my town. We are getting a Super Wal-Mart but that won't open until September. So for a while, I'm stuck with weekly or so drives to the Albertson's - which is about an hour round trip, not counting time spent in the store.