Jam time

Apricots! The freeze didn't get them this year, and it looks like it's time to pick them and make super awesome jam. In the dead of winter, it's like a little jar of sunshine.
Last week, N made strawberry jam. Not from our strawberries. We haven't actually managed to harvest any yet. We've had a few fruit last until they are starting to look ripe, and then bang - birds, squirrels, rabbits, Vlad, something eats them. :(
I'm starting to get regular tomato crops from my little plants. There were 4 or 5 other ripe ones before these. But I ate them.
The current big house project: replacing the floor in the living room and downstairs hallway. We hated the awful stained carpet. The funky vintage linoleum underneath was too damaged to embrace. What will we replace it with? It looks like since we're below grade, the best thing to do is laminate and put in a floating floor. Laminate won't have any moisture problems, and it's comparatively cheap. But we're super picky about the texture not feeling too weird and plasticky - if we must have fake wood, we want convincing fake wood. Hopefully we'll find some we like soon. Everything has been moved out of the living room except the books - and all the rest of the floor has come up. The books will be a major undertaking.

Vlad has been weened off all his pills - check up in a few weeks to see if he's doing ok without them.

I'm officially in the advanced class at judo, though I sometimes get talked into helping teach the beginners. The advanced class is SO HARD. I'm covered in funky bruises and I have a lot of days with ibuprofen every 4 hours. First tournament where I fight in the senior division (get beat up by black belts) is in two weeks.