My yogurt died

Well that's not entirely accurate. I tried to make homemade greek yogurt using this recipe and modifying it with a few others I read online.  I bought nonfat milk (half gallon), and microwaved it for 15 minutes (stopping every 5 to stir). I checked with an instant read meat thermometer until the temperature was about 185, and then let it cool to 120. I then stirred in a tablespoon of nonfat greek yogurt in, and let it sit outside for a few hours (covered of course). The temperature it's supposed to incubate in is about 100-110, and the temperature dropped below that, so I moved it to my crock pot. Like an idiot, I put it on low, not realizing that obviously that temperature is high enough to cook chicken (so probably around 200 degrees) and then when I took the temperature after an hour, I reduced it to warm and uncovered it. This morning it was still milk with a few chunks of yogurt. I guess the higher temperature in the crockpot killed the bacteria that needs to spread to make yogurt. Okay, take two going on now - I will report back!

Last night Nick and Jess came over. It was SO nice to see them. They are a wonderful couple. Jess is pregnant and due in the end of August, but unless you look directly at her belly, you can't tell, skinny little thing! She moved here from Germany in November. The other day we went to see the x-men prequel movie with them ( loved the movie!) and last night had them over for a bbq. I marinated chicken and turkey breasts and Charlie grilled, and we had salad, gazpacho (which was a bit too salsa like), and rice "meat balls", which Nick thought were actually meat! Success! I am very excited about the friendship with this couple. My parents joined us for dinner, and then after the four of us played scattegories. We allowed Jess to use German and English to come up with words. Very, very fun.

Yesterday we started cleaning out a lot of the storage in the garage. Phew, what work! We moved my temperpedic mattress up to Adva's bedroom which we are currently sleeping in because the AC in my room is very weak, and it's really hard to get a good night's sleep in this heat. We both slept so well, I love that mattress!

Today, besides fixing yogurt (and by the way Jess told me about a greek curd like cheese called quark which will be my next experiment!!!), I am going to go to the gym, read Water for Elephants, continue to clean out the garage, and clean out my office, because I am moving to a different one on Monday. I had a pretty discouraging week at work last week and just felt very unmotivated, but have snapped out of it. We wanted to go look at more houses tonight when Charlie is home from work but Mike, our realtor (who is amazing!), is busy and so we can hopefully go tomorrow evening.

Next week going to Boston which I am so excited about!

I will update on the yogurt situation soon!