Don't Get Arrested. Don't Throw Up.

This post is titled after my 2 primary vacation rules.  There are other smaller "suggestions" for vacations, but I do try hard to adhere to the BIG TWO.  So far, I am happy to say, I have never been arrested for anything. I have thrown up a time or two though. Anyhow, I have a big vacation coming up and I am determined to stick to my record, which is to say NO arrest record.  I don't do anything illegal so this isn't a tough rule to follow, but I will be hanging out with some shady characters this time...namely my relatives.

I won't go into any vacation details here,  just in case some whistle blowing type might stumble across my teeny blog and decide to blow a whistle on Cheech and Chong who seem unable to go anywhere without product samples. I'm just thrilled to have a week away from work. Guess my drug of choice is anything that is not the same old routine.

PS Routine is actually a wonderful thing at work.  When something is different, it's usually bad!

Another year

It's true that time moves faster the older you get.  Today is my birthday...again! 56 seems awfully close to 60, and 60 seems like getting old, but I have little to complain about. I have reasonably good health, a job that pays the bills, comfortable house, dog, cat, and best of all great kids who love me. No "special someone", but I am thankful for all I have.

My goals for my 56th year:
have more fun......I guess that's it. 

PS - We ate Swedish meatballs and pickled herring again yesterday for our Christmas feast.

cartoon fun

My apologies to my blog followers  (hahahahahahaha) for not posting for so long. To make up for it I am posting this cartoon that I drew at work. I hope this does not deter anyone from coming to the hospital and being my patient.  I really am paying attention. I multi-task.....

PS - There's more where this came from!

Come On Into My Kitchen

I bought my house in 2003 and thought that someday I would update the kitchen and after all this time I've finally done it!  Not a total overhaul, but new counter tops, stove, sink and tile.

Here are some before and after pics:

before

after

before

after

I can no longer blame my bad cooking on my kitchen appliances, so I may have to come up with some other excuse.  I have to admit, I foster my "bad cook" reputation even though it's not entirely true. I just want my friends and family to have such low expectations that any attempt to cook at all will reward me with showers of praise and encouragement.  So far that manipulative ploy hasn't actually worked.
A co-worker said to me the other day, "I thought of you last weekend.  I made a cake and it didn't turn out at all!  I finally realized I left out an ingredient."
I told her that I was highly insulted by her observation and would never have left out an ingredient.  I would have carefully mixed everything in the proper proportions, popped it in the oven, and gone outside "to play"... dashing back in 3 hours later when the smoke alarms went off.  That's my kind of cooking!

I saw Rexie outside today standing guard over one of the many mole holes in the yard.  I went out to check and found this little creature trembling under a leaf.  Later I found a larger mole that was alive, but appeared to have been mortally wounded.  I'm not actually fond of these rodents, but still felt a twinge of sadness and guilt about my bully cat. I suspect the little one was a baby of the mole that was about to meet her maker. That's nature for ya.

PS - Ben and Ce stopped by today on their way to the beer and wine festival.  I'm stuck with call this weekend so I'm staying home hoping my phone doesn't ring.

Too boring to blog?

I'm afraid my life is too boring to blog about.

My job has been pretty dull lately so I've been thinking about boredom out of boredom, and have come up with a few observations (that you may find boring). 

Boredom is an emotional state experienced during periods lacking activity or when individuals are uninterested in their surroundings.

OK, at work I have plenty of activity, but it's the same thing over and over again, so my surroundings are evidently uninteresting, (at least to me).

At home I am NEVER bored. I have a million things to do here at the ranch, but if I don't want to do the routine things, I just don't.  This is why I usually have laundry piled up, dishes to put away, old mail to sort - you get the idea.  It's also why I have a growing garden made of blue bottles and rocks, amazing scores (amazing to me) on my favorite computer games and totally spoiled pets. This is one of the "pros" of being single.... I only have to make myself happy and I'm an enabler.

Maybe my life isn't that boring (to me) since I do find the simplest things around me so fascinating.  Like my backyard wildlife.....

and there's a lot of it!

 

All this animal observation keeps me pretty busy - and it's never boring. So guess I'll keep blogging.

PS Today is my Mom's birthday.  I think she would have liked my blog.

What is this?

Another weekend, another hike on the Skyline Drive. I'm really getting into these walks in the woods, although I don't think I'll ever become one of those hardcore hikers who travel for days with a backpack carrying tent, bedroll and food for a week. I like getting back to my car and driving home after a  3-4 hour hike.  I like stopping at Pizza Hut for hot food, ice in my pepsi, and a bathroom with a flush toilet and hot water.  A 3 night camping trip is in the works for June though so that will be interesting. I don't have a smart phone so 3 days without internet access will be as torturous as 3 days without a real bathroom. I'll survive. I'm going to catch a fish and eat it too.

Yesterday's hike was actually a few miles on the AT to a quarry that was used back in the 1930's when the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) was working on the Skyline Drive. There was not a lot of evidence to suggest that people were ever there, but I did find this:

What is this? 

I'm going to have to read up on that piece of history that's kind of right in my own backyard.

PS It snowed last night.  Enough already. Winter gets in a last word every spring after the daffodils start blooming.

More hiking - more ugly cakes

I thought I would make a really special cake over the weekend but it didn't quite turn out the way I thought it would.


This is supposed to be a Boston Cream Pie. For some reason the vanilla custard filling refused to stay between the layers of cake and ran all over the place.  Looks ugly, but tastes pretty good!







The last time I tried to make a "fancy" cake, it ran over the top of the pan in the oven making an incredible, colorful mess.  Again - ugly, yet tasty. What am I doing wrong?  These hideous cakes aren't even worthy of the Cake Wrecks site.  I'm going to get an estimate on some kitchen remodeling which will include a new oven, but I have no real hope that I will be a better cook because of it. 

So the cake wasn't pretty, but Sunday's Skyline Drive hike was.  It was a very pretty and warm day so we tried an hour and a half long loop trail and best of all, Xena went along!  I was afraid she was too out of shape to make it, but she was a trooper.

Xena and me -look at her happy smile!