I have about 4 or so updates below this post. I was thinking about going political, but if I start, I won't stop. Tempted to keep writing.....nope....going to keep it all in right now. Too much to say....dangit.....couple ordered to stop Bible study in their own home in San Diego - look it up.....Sotomayor in the Supreme Court....the VAT tax.....universal health care.....secretary of energy, Chu, wants us all to paint our roofs white and lighten the color of our roads to stop global warming....carbon footprint...for the love....must stop....
I am out! Good night!
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Neighbors
Our neighborhood is the best! I have met the most wonderful people and the most wonderful women. We have women who are divorced, widowed, single, married, and most have dogs.....We have Oscar, Bojing (not spelled right), Izzy, Sadie, Raquel, Riley, Lilly, and there are many more, but this is our core group.
We have 2 faves! Kathleen with her giant poodle, Raquel and Cindy with her golden, Riley. They are the best women and have the best dogs. Our kids ain't (yeah....I said "ain't") afraid of them.....no matter how big they are!
We love plants in the spring. If you read my earlier post, you can see some of the plants we bought at my office in Mt Laurel. I told these ladies about it and we all went out there a few Saturdays ago and had lunch at Jimbo's (best cheeseburgers ever) and plant shopped. Somehow, one of the employees there was able to get 4 of those giant ferns and and I can't even count all the other plants in Cindy's car! I think she has a Camry? It was nuts!
Anyway.......we got all plants home. We all got great deals! Mom and I got this beautiful pink petunia that we put out front. Now knowing that we all had the same sense of humor, the ladies sneaked up and moved our petunia off the sidewalk and into the middle of our front yard. Somehow we and the Kids did not see this. When I did notice, I busted out laughing. Knew exactly what was up so in retaliation we bought tacky bobble-head gnomes and put them in their plants. That evening, after they found the gnomes, I see them coming up to the house looking like this and looking for trouble!
Long story short...there was some petunia stealing, some fern moving and some stealing gnomes back and holding them hostage:
Needless to say, the gnomes are back home and a truce has been called! I will get out with the camera and get good pics of these ladies and their Kids! Love them! I don't think sarcasm is a bad thing and I think all of us have it in spades! Love you guys!
We have 2 faves! Kathleen with her giant poodle, Raquel and Cindy with her golden, Riley. They are the best women and have the best dogs. Our kids ain't (yeah....I said "ain't") afraid of them.....no matter how big they are!
We love plants in the spring. If you read my earlier post, you can see some of the plants we bought at my office in Mt Laurel. I told these ladies about it and we all went out there a few Saturdays ago and had lunch at Jimbo's (best cheeseburgers ever) and plant shopped. Somehow, one of the employees there was able to get 4 of those giant ferns and and I can't even count all the other plants in Cindy's car! I think she has a Camry? It was nuts!
Anyway.......we got all plants home. We all got great deals! Mom and I got this beautiful pink petunia that we put out front. Now knowing that we all had the same sense of humor, the ladies sneaked up and moved our petunia off the sidewalk and into the middle of our front yard. Somehow we and the Kids did not see this. When I did notice, I busted out laughing. Knew exactly what was up so in retaliation we bought tacky bobble-head gnomes and put them in their plants. That evening, after they found the gnomes, I see them coming up to the house looking like this and looking for trouble!
Long story short...there was some petunia stealing, some fern moving and some stealing gnomes back and holding them hostage:
Needless to say, the gnomes are back home and a truce has been called! I will get out with the camera and get good pics of these ladies and their Kids! Love them! I don't think sarcasm is a bad thing and I think all of us have it in spades! Love you guys!
Grapes
Here is another new recipe! OMGawsh! It is so good! This could be a side dish or even a dessert. It has the sweet and a little of the salty with the pecans and that touch of brown sugar adds.....
Grape Salad
2 lbs red seedless grapes
2 lbs green seedless grapes
Wash and allow to dry completely
1 8oz cream cheese
1 8 oz sour cream
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Mix and pour over grapes, gently toss.
When ready to serve, mix
1/4 brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans (I would add more!)
Sprinkle over grapes and toss.
Jail
So the delicate flower, Daisy, has decided her fave spot is on stair 4. She can see out the living room windows and out the windows on each side of the front door. We call it "Schnauzer Jail". She will totally sleep on her stair, chew bone on stair, bark on stair.....etc. It does own me!
Ears
My precious LulaBelle has the best ear in the world! She owns me and is so cute!
Even when she is down and relaxing.....THE EAR WILL NOT REST!
Even when she is down and relaxing.....THE EAR WILL NOT REST!
Clouds
The weather has been nutty here! We have had more rain than I can believe. The plants are super happy except for the dang Lantana. That plant will just droop and get so sad every day no matter how much it rains! I do love it though and so out we go with the bucket to water it. Crazy plant!
But with this weather we have also gotten some beautiful clouds. I can almost feel what it would be like to bounce around on them and just chill. And of course that would be if I were an angel, but alas, I am here on terra firma and gravity is keeping me down. Here are some that were out a couple of nights ago. So pretty......and how lucky are we that God did not create a black and white world. He has given us so much color and fluffy and beautiful. We are very lucky!
Here is cloud 2:
AND cloud 3 with a little bit 'o' pink:
But with this weather we have also gotten some beautiful clouds. I can almost feel what it would be like to bounce around on them and just chill. And of course that would be if I were an angel, but alas, I am here on terra firma and gravity is keeping me down. Here are some that were out a couple of nights ago. So pretty......and how lucky are we that God did not create a black and white world. He has given us so much color and fluffy and beautiful. We are very lucky!
Here is cloud 2:
AND cloud 3 with a little bit 'o' pink:
Monday, May 25, 2009
Happy Memorial Day!
Thanks Dad for your service and your life! Thanks to all the other veterans who fought and our soldiers out there fighting now!
Monday, May 18, 2009
Recipe Time
Holy Cow!!! This is some of the best stuff ever! Got it off one of my favorite websites, The Pioneer Woman. Tried it this weekend. Mom was the guinea pig. It took no time to make and my gosh....it tasted soooooooo good! Could have eaten the whole pan. Very refreshing! Try it!
Baked Lemon Pasta
1 pound thin spaghetti
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) butter
2 tablespoons olive oil (I used 3 tablespoons)
2 cloves garlic, minced (I used 3 cloves….next time might use 4)
Juice of 1 lemon
Zest of 1 lemon
2 cups sour cream
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, more to taste if desired
Plenty of grated Parmesan cheese
Flat leaf parsley, chopped
Extra lemon juice
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cook spaghetti until al dente.
In a skillet, melt butter with olive oil over LOW HEAT.
When butter is melted, add minced garlic.
Squeeze lemon juice into the pan. Turn off heat.
Add sour cream and stir mixture together. Add lemon zest and salt. Taste, then add more salt if necessary.
Pour mixture over drained spaghetti and stir together, then pour spaghetti into an oven safe dish.
Bake, covered, for 15 minutes. Then remove foil and bake for an additional 7 to 10 minutes. (Don’t bake too long or the pasta will dry out.)
When you remove it from the oven, squeeze a little more lemon juice over the top.
Top generously with Parmesan cheese, then chopped parsley.
Give it a final squeeze of lemon juice at the end.
Baked Lemon Pasta
1 pound thin spaghetti
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) butter
2 tablespoons olive oil (I used 3 tablespoons)
2 cloves garlic, minced (I used 3 cloves….next time might use 4)
Juice of 1 lemon
Zest of 1 lemon
2 cups sour cream
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, more to taste if desired
Plenty of grated Parmesan cheese
Flat leaf parsley, chopped
Extra lemon juice
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cook spaghetti until al dente.
In a skillet, melt butter with olive oil over LOW HEAT.
When butter is melted, add minced garlic.
Squeeze lemon juice into the pan. Turn off heat.
Add sour cream and stir mixture together. Add lemon zest and salt. Taste, then add more salt if necessary.
Pour mixture over drained spaghetti and stir together, then pour spaghetti into an oven safe dish.
Bake, covered, for 15 minutes. Then remove foil and bake for an additional 7 to 10 minutes. (Don’t bake too long or the pasta will dry out.)
When you remove it from the oven, squeeze a little more lemon juice over the top.
Top generously with Parmesan cheese, then chopped parsley.
Give it a final squeeze of lemon juice at the end.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Crocodile Dundee
This may only humor me, but here we go.....in your best Crocodile Dundee accent say THE LINE with one word replaced....
"That's not a weed......"
"THIS is a WEED!"
"That's not a weed......"
"THIS is a WEED!"
The Plants
So this year we went flower crazy! I work out in this little village off 280 and they have the most beautiful flowers and ferns AND they are cheap! It is incredible! Here is a full view:
Now here are the geraniums.....OR are they real geraniums???? That would be a NO! We got these from QVC. They are from Bethlehem lighting. They are outdoor safe and at night they have a timer and the twinkle lights come on for 6 hours and turn off. They look so real! We got tired of geraniums drying up in the direct sun on our deck so we thought....let's try this! They look real! YEAH!
Now from here on out are the real flowers/plants! This one is the "S" flower. Mom picked this one up and could not remember the name except it started with an "S". It is beautiful!
Now the yellow flower....got nothing on the name....just pretty:
Some of these are a little beat down from the rain and storms, but still hanging in there! Here is our Verbena:
Here is the Lantana - a butterfly catcher:
And last BUT not least.......drum roll......the GIANT FERN!!! This is a Kimberly Queen fern that comes out of Australia. This puppy only cost....again....drum roll.....$18.95! YEAH! I could barely fit it in my Civic, much less get it through the house to the deck, but our buddy made it! It comes up to a little above my hip...huge:
We got some petunias too. These like others are a little beat down from the rain, but still pretty!
We also have giant ant beds in the median where I take The Kids to do their business. These will be dying shortly. I have to figure out the best way to kill them and let all the other dog owners there is poison down. I hate ants!
Now here are the geraniums.....OR are they real geraniums???? That would be a NO! We got these from QVC. They are from Bethlehem lighting. They are outdoor safe and at night they have a timer and the twinkle lights come on for 6 hours and turn off. They look so real! We got tired of geraniums drying up in the direct sun on our deck so we thought....let's try this! They look real! YEAH!
Now from here on out are the real flowers/plants! This one is the "S" flower. Mom picked this one up and could not remember the name except it started with an "S". It is beautiful!
Now the yellow flower....got nothing on the name....just pretty:
Some of these are a little beat down from the rain and storms, but still hanging in there! Here is our Verbena:
Here is the Lantana - a butterfly catcher:
And last BUT not least.......drum roll......the GIANT FERN!!! This is a Kimberly Queen fern that comes out of Australia. This puppy only cost....again....drum roll.....$18.95! YEAH! I could barely fit it in my Civic, much less get it through the house to the deck, but our buddy made it! It comes up to a little above my hip...huge:
We got some petunias too. These like others are a little beat down from the rain, but still pretty!
We also have giant ant beds in the median where I take The Kids to do their business. These will be dying shortly. I have to figure out the best way to kill them and let all the other dog owners there is poison down. I hate ants!
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Nevermind
The slow loris is illegal, it bites and the bite is toxic and it will continue to mark its territory for the rest of its life. The Kids got lucky today! They are still number one in the house!
Would the Kids mind?
Is the slow loris illegal? Do they get along with schnauzers? Where can I get one????
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
The ATL
HELLO!! I have said this before, but when you get to the pictures....double click on them so they are big and you can really see them for what they are. Ivan is so incredible, but until you double click...you have no idea!
Went to Atlanta this weekend to see my buds, Jen and Michelle! Had a blast! Took off half a day on Friday so I could get on up there and avoid the traffic....HA! Atlanta traffic sucks and I hate it. I am a capable driver, but it is the other idiots there that drive like bats out of hell. Sorry...they are nuts!
Anyway..got there safe. We did some buffalo wings for din-din and played "Rummikub". Totally addicting! It is like rummy but with tiles instead of cards. Super fun!
Then we watched "Emma" and crashed. By that point it was midnight or even later.
Got up the next morning...got dressed and headed out for the Atlanta Zoo. I am not usually a zoo fan because I feel sorry for the animals, but Atlanta does it right for the most part. There were parts where I felt sorry for the animals and I struggled. The tiger was stressed, one panda was stressed, one orangutan left because this stupid boy kept yelling at him/her and the parents didn't say a thing to the "little darling". Here is the one pic I got of my orangutan (yes! I claim him/her).
The orangutans were my favorites. There were 2 babies that I could not get a close enough shot of with my camera. I needed a higher powered lens to get them. But they would wrap up in each other and do somersaults. It was awesome! Here is their Momma:
Then we got to see the gorillas. AWESOME! Here is one of the babies:
Here is mama getting some leaves:
Then, my absolute favorite at the zoo was Ivan, the silverback gorilla. WOW!! He is so impressive and strong and scary and cool. He was born in 1962. Double click on the picture so you can see him a little closer. WOW!
In a disappointing part....happy to see my pink flamingos, but the stench coming off of them was awful. I don't want them to be stinky....but dangit they were...BUT still pretty with their little red knees:
So now on to the pandas. There was a long stretch of viewing area where one panda was up on a rock asleep. Then there was a VERY short area where the mama panda was going nuts eating bamboo while baby panda was down in the pit sleeping on a grate. Apparently that is where baby likes to sleep. I got in there and had to hold my camera over the barrier to get a shot of the baby:
The announcer lady said that mom panda was happy little baby was asleep so she could eat. Here is mama panda:
Then we went into this alcove and there was this little room where another panda was trapped. It made me so sad. He/she did not have a lot of room to do anything and he/she kept going to the door and slapping at it to get out of the enclosure. He/she wanted to get away from the prying eyes and chaos. He/she was not in the open like the others. He/she was in a room smaller than my bedroom with some tree trunks and not much else. Very sad. Here is the pic I did get of the poor panda scratching his hiney on a trunk. Bless it, he wanted out of that space so badly:
I will have more later.....I am sleepie-pie and gotta go!
Went to Atlanta this weekend to see my buds, Jen and Michelle! Had a blast! Took off half a day on Friday so I could get on up there and avoid the traffic....HA! Atlanta traffic sucks and I hate it. I am a capable driver, but it is the other idiots there that drive like bats out of hell. Sorry...they are nuts!
Anyway..got there safe. We did some buffalo wings for din-din and played "Rummikub". Totally addicting! It is like rummy but with tiles instead of cards. Super fun!
Then we watched "Emma" and crashed. By that point it was midnight or even later.
Got up the next morning...got dressed and headed out for the Atlanta Zoo. I am not usually a zoo fan because I feel sorry for the animals, but Atlanta does it right for the most part. There were parts where I felt sorry for the animals and I struggled. The tiger was stressed, one panda was stressed, one orangutan left because this stupid boy kept yelling at him/her and the parents didn't say a thing to the "little darling". Here is the one pic I got of my orangutan (yes! I claim him/her).
The orangutans were my favorites. There were 2 babies that I could not get a close enough shot of with my camera. I needed a higher powered lens to get them. But they would wrap up in each other and do somersaults. It was awesome! Here is their Momma:
Then we got to see the gorillas. AWESOME! Here is one of the babies:
Here is mama getting some leaves:
Then, my absolute favorite at the zoo was Ivan, the silverback gorilla. WOW!! He is so impressive and strong and scary and cool. He was born in 1962. Double click on the picture so you can see him a little closer. WOW!
In a disappointing part....happy to see my pink flamingos, but the stench coming off of them was awful. I don't want them to be stinky....but dangit they were...BUT still pretty with their little red knees:
So now on to the pandas. There was a long stretch of viewing area where one panda was up on a rock asleep. Then there was a VERY short area where the mama panda was going nuts eating bamboo while baby panda was down in the pit sleeping on a grate. Apparently that is where baby likes to sleep. I got in there and had to hold my camera over the barrier to get a shot of the baby:
The announcer lady said that mom panda was happy little baby was asleep so she could eat. Here is mama panda:
Then we went into this alcove and there was this little room where another panda was trapped. It made me so sad. He/she did not have a lot of room to do anything and he/she kept going to the door and slapping at it to get out of the enclosure. He/she wanted to get away from the prying eyes and chaos. He/she was not in the open like the others. He/she was in a room smaller than my bedroom with some tree trunks and not much else. Very sad. Here is the pic I did get of the poor panda scratching his hiney on a trunk. Bless it, he wanted out of that space so badly:
I will have more later.....I am sleepie-pie and gotta go!
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
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