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!

Taxes....Done!!!!

I made myself a long to-do list for this weekend and I am about to celebrate the completion of the worst, most dreaded task of all - taxes!  Yes - they are done, and I'm even getting a tiny bit back so let the party begin. I've celebrated so far by walking Xena to the mailbox and eating a tuna sandwich for lunch. What a wild adventurous life I lead.  I may pull out all the stops and start another knitting project!

Here is what I finished recently:

Baby bomb hats

I already feel like I'm in a rut with these bomb hats and I'm ready for something new. I thought about a mushroom cloud hat in keeping with the WMD theme, but I'm afraid it would turn out looking like one of those chef hats....see what I mean?

Actually, it might still be a little bit cute.

Mushroom cloud

Chef hat

Day at The Museum-1

A Sunday in January is an excellent time to visit Washington, D.C.  There are few tourists and the metro is cheap, and not crowded at all. (round trip between Vienna and Smithsonian is $6.00/person)

We left my house around 9am and traveled up route 340 to Front Royal where my lead foot almost got me into trouble. It was kind of an ironic and amusing situation.  Ironic because I got stopped by a cop while traveling with a cop, amusing because I got off with a warning, and "kind of" because it was really only that.  I wouldn't think it was amusing if I got a ticket. Who can drive 25 on a 4 lane highway?  Ridiculous. I was going 40 and Sergeant Russ kindly commented that he would have been driving 45.
We found a parking spot at the Metro station that was not being used to store snow, spent only 15 minutes trying to figure out how to get tickets out of the vending machine, caught the train and off we went. Every time I go to D.C. I think I need to go there more often, if only to walk around and take in the sights. Time is always short though so we took a few perfectly placed photos and headed to the museum of Natural History.

Russ with Capitol Dome on his head

I really wanted to see an exhibit called Written in Bone: Forensic Files of the 17th Century Chesapeake.  It was very cool. We also spent hours looking at dinosaur bones and walking through the oceans exhibit. It was all fascinating and worth the 2 hour trip.  We spent 4 hours at one museum and didn't see half of it, but I left satisfied and willing to go back again soon. One of the coolest exhibits was a coral reef crocheted out of yarn and other materials, including cassette tape, video tape and plastic bags.

I felt inspired to take my crafting up a notch since I seem to be stuck on knit hats that look like bombs with a lit fuse.

bomb hat

No adventure this weekend since I'm on call and have spent my day cleaning and sorting and shredding.  I've accumulated years worth of documents and can't think of any good reason to hang on to things like an electric bill from 2006.

PS I ordered an exercise bike. I have high hopes.