Back on Duty

Nov 122012
 

I am happy to report that I am back to blogging duty!   Although I may not have recovered 100% from the back pain (there are still some small muscle spasms that let me know to take it easy), I can say that I am 99.999528 percent over the miserable head cold that plagued me for a week.

And I had some great help from Thor who had tissue duty every time the snot factory kicked into high gear.

OK, onto the “shed” progress update.

The rest of the shingles were installed on the roof *happy dance*.  Rick had just enough material to complete the project and now we can move onto more exciting things, like siding and interior walls.

And while Rick was doing his carpenter shtick, we had a young man come over and clear the yard of leaves.

This kid really worked his heart out!  For 2 days straight he hauled countless loads of dead leaves to any out-of-the-way-spot there was to dump them.  I especially liked his technique of using 2 rakes to scoop and dump.

Of course he was fed lots of good foodies to keep up his strength, and I later heard from his sister that he bragged about the roast beef sandwich he had with homemade bread (he was trying to make her jealous… gotta love siblings!).

And speaking of good foodies, I tried another new *gasp * muffin recipe the other day that I found on Pinterest.  I won’t go into all the details right now, but two of the ingredients were carrots and cream cheese.  If you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking, you may be a little surprised when I make the grand reveal later this week.

Have a Happy Monday all!

 

My Last Chance at Being Coherant

Nov 052012
 

You will notice that this is not my typical Monday post for the following 2 reasons:

a)  There are no photos, and;

b)  I’m not updating you on the progress of the shed.

Now, you may ask, why the hell not?!?  (Or your jumping up and down with joy.)

Simple, and I will explain them in the following 3 reasons:

1)  I woke up with a major cold Saturday morning and I have temporarily lost any creative writing skills that I have.  When your nose is clogged beyond belief, ears plugged and every sneeze requires half a box of kleenex (where does all that snot come from anyway), the only functioning part of your brain is the signal that lets you know you have to pee.

Therefore, any eloquent post is completely out of the question.

2)  During one of my many sneezes, I moved/pinched/pissed-off something in my right hip, so I now walk like I have a stick stuck up my backside because of the pain (scoliosis sucks).

I’m real attractive at work.

3)  This is hell audit week at work, and since I didn’t get my Monday off, I also did not get to rest up my body and/or brain, so whatever functioning brain cells that I may have had are slowly getting disintegrated from endless information quests that the audit team sends me on.

There are 3 of us in the office and apparently I’m the only one they want to ask questions to.

I feel soooo lucky.

That was sarcasm, by the way.

So if this post made any sense whatsoever, I might possibly have just used up my last chance to say anything coherent for the rest of the week.

I hope to return you to your regularly scheduled boring fun-filled posts next Monday if I don’t spontaneously combust at some time before then.

 

Fritter Delicious

Nov 012012
 

I had an ulterior motive the other day when I was cleaning the deep fryer.  Actually, I think that anyone that wants to put the time, effort and elbow grease into such a task has to either a) be out of their mind; b) bored out of their skull; or c) wants to cook something and not have it taste like it came from the greasy spoon down the street.

Unfortunately, I fell into all 3 of those categories with only a slight hint of “b”.

After all, lately Monday’s have been Suzie Frickin Homemaker day around the house, and I did have one recipe that I’d been wanting to try for weeks.

These little morsels of sweetness were found on my travels of the interwebs that led to, of all things, a website that specializes in Greek food.

Jacquline over at Seeminglygreek.com posted the recipe and photos and I immediately knew that these would be fantastic.  I have always loved Apple Fritters, and the thought of little bite-sized portions to nibble on put them high on my yummy scale.

I was a little disappointed at first with the amount of batter this recipe made;  I mean, it really was small.  But when I dropped the first blob in the fryer and it nearly doubled in size, that disappointment ran out the door.

If you try this recipe (and I’m hoping you will) start with only a small spoonful of the batter.  Mine took about 5 minutes to cook and even after that amount of time I was still worried that they wouldn’t be completely cooked.

Also, flatten the batter a little as this will give me more of a “fritter” look (like the pictures on her website).  Oh, and maybe dip the things in the icing instead of pouring it over (like I did).

No matter how you make them, I think that you love these as much as Rick did!

 

Let Sleeping Cats…

Oct 312012
 

I keep forgetting that even though Calie & Thor have an affectionate side, they will not always show that to anybody else besides Rick & I.

When Nichole came up last weekend, she wanted to spend a little time with Calie and so I told her to go ahead pick her up.  Nichole, being aware of “the claw* “, was very hesitant at first.  But I though that since the old girl has mellowed a little with age that there was nothing to worry about and gently persuaded her to go ahead, it would be OK.

Ummm…. maybe not.  Immediately upon lift-off, Calie stiffened up and started her “Get your hands off me or else” growl and that was the end of that.  Hey, I tried.

One place that is a comfort zone for Miss Sassy Pants is the top of my all-in-one printer that will print, scan, predict your future and say “screw you” in 17 languages.  It sits right in front of a window in the bedroom so that she can either taunt the birds or catch some rays during one of her many catnaps.

Now this printer doesn’t get used very often and I’ve wanted to swap it out for my laser that is just sitting in the closet collecting dust but works perfectly well and I don’t have to worry about the ink drying up, because it’s still going strong after 5 years since the last cartridge change.

But I don’t have the heart to take away her throne by the window knowing that it is one of the few places that brings her comfort lately, and is close enough for me to scratch her under the chin when I am sitting at the desk.

On the other end of the spectrum is our buddy Thor, who has several places to snooze away, one of which is an apparel suitcase in the closet that he has imbedded countless layers of fur on.

Consider that piece of luggage no longer fit for use.

 

*When she was younger, her best defense with people that wanted to “cuddle” with her was to stick out her paw, extend barbed-ended claws, and swipe at you.  Christine still has a 4 inch scar on her arm.

 

Coordinating Oil Changes

Oct 302012
 

Around our house, if I don’t feel like making supper, Rick will often turn to the deep fryer to help him cook his evening meal.

With that said, the deep fryer gets used  A LOT.  And just like my shower, it is not something that I enjoy cleaning.  So once, maaaybe twice a year I will get a wild hair up my ass and give it a good cleaning.

Can you say ewwwwwww!  (I have actually had one caked up so bad that I didn’t even attempt to clean it.  It went right into the trash.)

And every time I tackle this dirty deed I make a promise to myself that I will never, ever let it get this bad again.  Anyone want to guess how many times I’ve kept that promise?

Let’s just say this about the whole experience:  Now I know why Rick hates changing the oil on the vehicles.  The sludge I got out of the bottom of the pan was worse than what comes out of my car every 3,000 miles.

Maybe I should just coordinate cleaning the deep fryer with the oil change for my car, that way we can compare which is worse.

 

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