RTT - see if I try to be all eco-friendly ever again. this post is not for the squeamish

Got some random rolling around in your head? Sign on with the rest of us at RTT.

I did have a plan. It was a pretty good one. Get out one of our bikes and start riding it to work. Less than 4 miles seemed perfectly reasonable. Turns out it is fairly important to make sure that the bike fits.

I take klutiness to a whole other realm and that just because you could ride a bike as a kid of 10 does not mean that you are any good at it 40 years later. Case in point:

Ouch!
(my eye is okay. it just looks like I got punched because the lighting was bad. you know, I may use that excuse from now on)

That really is as painful as it looks. Taking off a layer of skin always stings something fierce.

So project "be eco-friendly by biking to work" is going to have to be shelved until further notice. Or at least until I can find a smaller bike. Damn these short legs of mine.


I recovered that table that I have my legs up on. I'll post the "how-to" later this week.

While I may not be able to ride a bike I do seem to be able to walk. This morning I walked to work. All 4 miles. Without falling, stubbing my toes, or running the battery out of my iTouch. Impressive, No?

I even took a few pictures along the way. Because I know you would have been there if you could but since you can't here is a bit of my walk in.

Some trees along the bayou trail. The Spanish moss is finally coming back after Hurricane Ike 2 years ago.


The house that reminds me of a ship.
I drive this same route everyday and everyday I think the same thing;
"that house looks like a cruise ship"
Okay, maybe it's just me.

And the house that I want
if it ever goes up for sale
and I could convince JR to buy it
and if I won the lottery so I could afford to fix it
is............

Isn't it wonderful?
The falling down screened porch on the right,
the portico on the left,
the broken pediment above the door,
the peeling paint,
the overgrown shrubbery,
the undoubtedly warped floors,
the dry rot and crumbling foundation,
the faulty wiring,

I AM in love.
Totally unashamedly IN LOVE!

I've never really felt that way about a house before. Especially, one that I haven't even stepped across the threshold. I'm not sure how to explain it. Except I WANT THIS HOUSE!

JR is not feeling the love yet. I'm working on him.

Note: a broken pediment is the stylistic thingy above the door not because it is actually broken. Though it probably is.

That is it for me. I'm going to sit at my desk and try not to bend my knee. Go visit all the rest of the gang.

Love,
M

I've got nothing so my cat gets first billing

Our cat has been relegated to being an indoor cat these days. He doesn't like it and what is worst is that his tummy doesn't like it. He's been sick in some way since we moved into this place. Lately he's been either pooping, not in his cat box, or puking for the last week. What is really killing me is that his preferred place to poop or puke is in my studio....on my canvas drop cloth.....right where I stand to paint....in my bare feet. Ewwwww.......


So since we can't let him outside (like his daddy he'd get lost within minutes) we thought to bring the outside to him in the form of pet grass and catnip.

Mmmmmm....I love the nip.
Give me the nip.
And, what a lovely blue plate you've put it on
but I'm a guy so let's pretend that I didn't
say that.

What are you looking at?
Look, can you give a cat a moment here?

The decimated remains.

Whoa....
everything is sorta spin'in and kinda fuzzy.
What's to eat?
Can someone order a pizza?

I'm just gonna chill out right here for awhile.
Don't go harshing my buzz by wanting to paint.

When our cat comes down from his catnip induced high we'll see if his tummy is better.

Love from the kitty drug pusher,
M

telephone booth retrospective.

A long long time ago telephones could be found in these rectangular boxes. These strange and mysterious boxes were called booths here in the United States. They sat at street corners, next to buildings and obviously out in the middle of nowhere.

This is a typical example of the species. Glass or plexiglass sides. The word telephone in white letters on a red or blue background, maybe a sign with a bell imprinted on it. I've seen these in varying states of repair and/or disrepair as the case may be. So, while leaning this one is in pretty good shape. As the popularity of cell phones increased, the site of telephone booths decreased. Finding this one brought back memories for JR and I.



When I was a kid and all the way into the 90s phone booths dotted the landscape. It was a well known policy to always carry a dime in your pocket or if you weren't wearing something with pockets like a skirt or a dress you kept the dime in your shoe. Just in case you needed to call home. Then it went up to a quarter. There is no keeping a quarter in your shoe. It would just rub a blister. Blisters suck. As anyone who's ever had a blister can attest to.

Clark Kent would go into a phone booth, shut the hinged door, spin around and emerge as Superman. It was trilling in its day.

I was a little afraid of them. What if I shut the little hinged door and then it wouldn't open again? What if I had already used my dime then found out that the door wouldn't open? How could I call for help? Calling collect wasn't an option. My mother would have killed me. Making a collection call was only for real emergencies. Getting stuck in a phone booth wouldn't not have been emergency enough. Of course, none of these things ever happened.

Now that I think about it I was sort of a neurotic mess as a young child. I have a feeling that therapy is going to cost a bit more than a dime.

Love,
M

Lake Livingston, Texas - finding this place has changed our life.

This place is a little over an hour from our home. We didn't know about it. It was just sitting up there all calm and cool like not even knowing our need for someplace just a little cooler, just a little less populated, just a little less metropolitan.


We walked along the shore. We drove through the campsites dreaming of the ones that we would chose; once we unearthed our camping gear. We had a little picnic at the waters edge. We played a little fetch.

This is Nessa and JR's favorite game. Tripper and I had a nice little view of the action. It's what we do. And, what a view it was. Blue sky and water, green grass and a beloved man and dog. Bucolic? Much!



Nessa needed to tease JR to come steal the ball from her. Then is it right back to chasing the ball. Until this happens.


Nessa's balls tend to bounce off her nose. This time it bounced into the lake. It was all JR could do to keep her from jumping in after it. Since, we don't know if she can swim we didn't think that was a good idea.

We plan to go up camping here in about 3 weeks. I'll bring you all along.

Now, it's off to meetings today. Tomorrow will be the best day of all. That's the day that we will be scanning into digital 100+ year old maps. I'm like a kid waiting for Christmas. Technology and old stuff, it just doesn't get any better than that in my world.

Love,
M

Gooooood Morning Waco!

RTT - It's lucky the place didn't burn down

You are getting very sleepy.
Your eyes are very heavy.
You hardly notice when I steal your wallet.
Click on the button.
Come on
Click on it.
Click it.
You know you want too.

Back in 1991 (I know. Don't mock) we moved into my in-laws house. They had moved into an assisted living place and someone needed to take care of their place. It was 2400 sq. ft. of interesting. And, when I say interesting I really mean 1970s avocado appliances. Orange daisy wallpaper in the main bath. Kitchen flooring that was glued down with the same substance that adhered the tiles to the space shuttle. Stars, stripes and anchors wallpaper in the guest room. Wiring that tended to light itself on fire in random places. You know, interesting.

JR and I were reminiscing about his dad's place the other day. (his dad who built the place from the ground up, I don't need no damn permits, I can drill a well or sink a gasoline tank anywhere I see fit, damn it, dad) We were looking fondly upon the weekend we went out of town when my mother called to tell us that the dining room light decided to flare out. When she went downstairs to check out the circuit breaker she found it on fire, for the third time. Good times my friends, Good times.



We are now known in the apartment complex as the people with the jungle on their patio. I figure they are just jealous of our foliage. I think we are the only ones that can go out onto their patio to retrieve seasonings for their dinner. Yes, I am smug.



The cat, who we had to bathe 2 weeks ago and who we figured was on deaths door, was feeling so good that he playing with the dog. Strange as it might seem but the 10 pound cat got the better of the 73 pound dog. So.....adorable costs $200.



I just spent $625.00 on repairs of my car. My car is now worth..........$625.00. I'm a great negotiator.


That's enough out of me. I'll be reporting from Waco tomorrow. Stay tuned for action packed Dr. Pepper news....



Love,
M

Biggest sellers. And the winner is..........

For months upon months the post that received the most hits/searches around these here parts was my recipe for Huevos Rancheros. This always surprised me. It's such a rustic dish. It didn't seem to me that it should garner that much attention (and, when I mean attention I mean a few page views a day. I'm not talk thousands. I am talking even hundreds. More like tens. Actually, more like ten). I mean really!, it's eggs and beans. Until a couple of months ago. That is when my Avocado Egg Rolls went crazy. (tens. not thousands or hundreds) Strange. What's even stranger? I rarely work that hard at making them any more. Not that I don't make them, I do, but I don't put as much effort into them.

Let me show you:



I still make the dipping sauce pretty much the same. Cilantro, honey, salt, pepper, olive oil but I have been mixing it up a bit. I've been adding spinach or parsley. Cutting back on the honey. Nothing radical. Just lazy. If I don't have the exact ingredients I walk out to my patio to see what I have the most of growing out there. (These days - not too much. It's pretty hot. Though the basil is loving it)

I've been experimenting with a jalapeno sour cream sauce instead. There is this restaurant in Houston called Chuy's that make the most outrageous creamy jalapeno sauce that I have ever tasted. I have been trying to reproduce it ever since. Granted, I haven't been trying very hard at it lately but it's rattling around in my head. When I've got it worked out I'll let you all know because it is to die for.


Yep, I still do this. That avocado meat still hasn't succumbed to my levitating powers yet so cutting it out of the skin is still called for. Only difference here is that I just slice it in the skin then pop out a couple of slices for each egg roll wrapper.

This step....I don't do at all. See above slicing method. I also either slice re-hydrated sun-dried tomatoes or seeded and sliced fresh tomatoes. I lay those along side the avocado slices. Then I thinly slice an onion and place it along side the tomato and avocado slices. I'm not this daring but you could...if you are daring and have the taste buds of steel, place a thin slice of jalapeno right on top of the avocado. But, that's only if you can handle it. Me? Nope! I'm a wuss.


I still roll it the same way. Because really there is only one way.

though, since the guts of the egg roll are all neat and tidy slices it's not near as messy a job. I like that better. Sure, you could say I was lazy because I took out the whole mashing step but I look at as being efficient. HA!


This is another step that went right out the window. You could still fry them it you want but I bake mine now. I spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray. That stuff in the yellow can, usually starts with a "P", ends in an "M", has an "A" in the middle. I beat up an egg and using my handy dandy pastry brush, I brush the sides and top with the egg. I pop the whole sheet pan full of eggrolls into a 425 degree oven for about 10 minutes or until they are golden brown. Efficiency at work again.


They still look like this. They are still crunchy creamy goodness. They are still full of good stuff. They are just easier to make and better for you. If there is anything I'm all about it is making things easier on myself. The better for me thing is just a bonus.

Yes, I did just re-blog.
I'm sorry.
I'm so ashamed.
I feel terrible.

My only excuse is that my sweet potato pie muffins didn't turn out as I hoped this weekend. While I tweak that recipe I thought I'd give an update on a recipe that I have been perfecting. Lame I know.

I'll be traveling this week to the lovely town of Waco. Where I'll be taking most of my own food and definitely all of my own beverages. Sorry, whoever makes Dr. Pepper but that stuff makes my stomach turn.

Love,
M

PS: Don't forget it's Meatless Monday. Except Jan. She's changing her culinary lifestyle to a high protein/low carb thing and it's really working for her. Yay! Jan.

It may be a sign that I am finally settling in

We moved to Texas just over a year ago. In that time I have crossed the country several times, traveled around the eastern part of the state at least monthly (sometimes more), and visited some of the local hot spots. We've started trying some of the thousands of restaurants in Houston. Found a few favorites, though by no means are we done. I've attended thousands of meetings, seminars, workshops, and working lunches.

Generally, I've sat on my ass and ate.

Oh and to add insult to injury I went totally menopausal. Poof! No metabolism!

You can imagine what that does to your body?

I've gained 18 pounds (I'm calling this the Texas 20). My finger nails all broke off then wouldn't grow. It was really hot with all that long hair so I cut it off. With all that weight gone my curls sprang up. Add humidity to those curls and they've gone from wavy to down right unruly but worse than that it didn't grow and was getting all brittle. (you would think that the humidity would make me all dewy but noooo...) I could go on but you get the idea. I'm a hot Texas mess.

Or I was.....

About month ago I decided to take a bit of control of the situation. I put the brakes on all the travel I do (it's down to once a month). I started to get more exercise. And when I say more, I mean I walk the stairs, don't use the motorized walking path thingy at the airports, and now carry my own bags to my room (the poor bell boys aren't getting any tip money but my not looking like a jiggling wreck should be tip enough. Guys? You can thank me later).

I also started tracking my food/calorie intake using MyPyramid Tracker. This website has really been helpful. It keeps me on the straight and narrow. I can track how many calories and nutrients I'm getting throughout the day. Then when evening comes I know what I need nutrient wise, how many calories I can eat before I hit my magic number (approx. 1000 in my case) and most importantly if I can afford that glass of wine. It keeps me accountable. It helps me make good food choices. (have the 120 empty calories of wine and fresh veggie sticks or that 140 calorie for 9 tortilla chips with salsa, sour cream, guacamole? You DO know which one I'd pick, right?)

Using this system has helped a lot! My finger nails are growing (to the point that I now have to keep them trimmed so I can type), my curls are bouncy not just frizzy, and I've lost 8 pounds. That is just over 2 pounds a week.

I have no expectations that this system will work for long. (as my most eloquent friend Julie would say; I am dancing in the ballroom of lowered expectations.) I do think that if I up my exercise and stay with this system I will be back down to my pre-Texas weight. It's like the last of the baby weight.

My biggest downfall is the travel and the weekends. I fall off the wagon and my old knees just don't want to get me back up. We don't even want to talk about my travel next week. I'm taking bags of carrots and apples, soy yogurt and Kashi cereal so I won't be eating hashbrowns smothered in butter, waffles, burgers, and pasta (Mmmmmm.....pasta). Pasta is the fall back food of every restaurant menu for vegetarians in a meat eating town.

So wish me luck.

Love,
M

Art Cars in Houston

My first thought: Has the Stiletto Mom seen this yet?

Love,
M

A list of 10 Random Collections with accompanying photos

I didn't have any random thoughts. Okay, I did but I'm getting old and if I don't write them down immediately I will forget them.
Then I usually forget where I put the paper down that I wrote them on.
Then I pull out my wallet to pay for a kolache and
then the small slip of paper falls out.
Then I remember what I wanted to tell you that was sooooo interesting that I had to write it down. I don't really buy kolaches. I don't think I've ever had a kolache. I'm not really sure what kolaches are but if kolaches are anything like beignets then I NEED one now!

So because I can't remember anything interesting to tell you and I don't have a kolache and I have a ton of crap that I should be documenting, for insurance purposes (Ha! Like I own anything worth insuring. Gotcha!), I'll show you 10 collections of old stuff I have hanging around my house. I dusted off the cobwebs so they are safe to touch.

Here are 10 interesting collections of stuff with accompanying photos that I kept from my Mother-in-laws house. Please ignore the crumbs on the placemats. It was the housekeepers day off. It seems to always be her day off. Gawd, she's lazy. All I can say is she's cheap. Toss her a fridge full of veggies and she's good to go. Go off and do nothing that is.


1. Two pendant watches, a tie pin made from some of the gold that JR's grandfather brought down from the Yukon in 1910, and my mother-in-laws' baby locket that her father gave her when she was one week old. Which would have been the first week of November 1912.




2. Old pin cushion shaped like a shoe. I'm not really a shoe kind of gal but this appealed to me. I have no idea why. Maybe I make some sort of connection between sharp pointy things and shoes. It is a complete waste of time trying to figure why I do keep something.



3. Two shoe button hooks. Why I kept these is anyone's guess. I personally like shoes that slip on. All that nasty tying of laces is just exhausting. Buttoning my shoes? Out-of-the-question!




4. A lock of my husband's baby curls and the bracelet his mother was given to wear at the hospital. Isn't that the sweetest thing? I have the bracelet that the nurses put on him in his baby book.



5. Gypsy witch cards. Probably one of the oddest things I ever found. No that's not true. The oddest thing would be the sex manual but this rates right up there.



6. Art deco playing cards. Pretty, no? I plan to frame a few of these. I love love love the box.



7. Salt and/or sugar cutter and tongs. I'm not really sure if these were for salt or sugar. Anyone? Doesn't matter, I think they are terrific. I think I'll hang them on the wall.


8. Silk stocking mending kit. Yeah, because I'll ever be wearing silk stockings. I barely wear socks and I never wear pantyhose. Nasty things...pantyhose.


9. Razor. I kept it because....I liked the peacock? I don't know but I won't be shaving my legs with this thing.



10. Pocket comb, pill box, and compact. The little round thing flips open to reveal a mirror and a place to put face powder. Pretty sweet. I kept these because they could be useful in a totally never going to be way. Wouldn't they be great in a shadowbox?


There you have it. Ten random collections of stuff that I kept for probably 10 random reasons that I can't remember now but I'll never get rid of any of them. (do you think a grammar class is in order? Me too.)

Go visit Keely and the gang over at The Unmom for more random posts.


Love,
M

Blue cornbread recipe

Have you ever tried blue corn meal instead of gold corn meal for baking?

I hadn't until yesterday.

What was I thinking?
What was I missing?
Why didn't I understand that my life was not quite complete?

I bought, I made, I ate, I loved.

The taste was a bit milder and the texture a little courser and firmer than regular corn meal. It stood up to honey, butter, and jam. I think it would be awesome with green chilies. And, it was a pretty blue/purple color. Which set off nicely with the yellow/orange of the meatless chorizo cheese souffle beautifully. This made for a terrific Sunday brunch. It didn't take that long so it would make for a lovely Meatless Monday dinner or any day of the week.

Since, I had never used blue corn meal before I went on a hunt for recipes. Pancakes, muffins, fritters, hush puppies, bread, whatever I could get on hands on. Unfortunately, I had to pack up a bundle of my cookbooks with the move so I didn't have those to use as reference. I fell back on my 1930s Joy of Cooking cookbook. Once again, it bailed me out.

While my trusty Joy of Cooking is a wonderful book it didn't have a recipe for blue corn; I went on the assumption that blue corn meal would be like using regular corn meal. I must have assumed right because the bread was lovely.

After the first taste I knew that I needed to share.

Blue cornbread

Preheat over to 425

Grease a 9 X 9 inch pan or a 12 inch cast iron frypan with melted butter. Place it into the oven until sizzling hot. I used my cast iron pan. I store it in the oven anyway, so, I left it in there while the oven heated up and I put together the batter. When everything was ready I melted a couple of tablespoons of butter and poured it into the pan.

Sift together:

• 1/2 cup all purpose flour. (I would think you could use something gluten-free if you roll that way)
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 to 2 tablespoons sugar (I used 2)
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups blue corn meal

In a separate bowl beat:

• 1 egg
• 2 to 3 tablespoons melted butter (I melted more than this. The balance I used to grease the pan.
  
• 3/4 cup milk (butter or sour milk would be good)
  

Pour the liquid into the dry ingredients. Combine with a few rapid strokes. Be careful not to over beat the mixture. With any quick bread (one that is made with baking powder, baking soda, or a combination of both) you don't want to beat the crap out of it. It is very easy to beat the leavening out of it. Then you end up with this dry flat thing. Just not real yummy.

Pour leftover melted butter into the hot pan. Spread the batter into the pan. Bake for about 25 minutes or until a knife stuck into the center comes out clean.

It looks like this:

And tastes like heaven.

Hope you all had a great weekend.

Love,
M

Women Suffrage - 90 years old. I should look so good

For almost a hundred years women tried to achieve the right to vote in the United States. From 1820 to 1920 fearless, tireless, and organized women took on stereotypes, humiliation and in some cases incarceration (500 were illegally arrested and 168 were jailed) on their quest to have their wants taken into account.


Unfortunately, there are people in the United States that don't know the term women suffrage. In fact, when asked (by The Man Show of all people), many people (men and women) were willing to sign a petition to end womens suffrage. Basically to repeal the 19th amendment which guarantees women the right to vote. These people unknowingly were ready to sign away our right to vote. Most had never heard of the term womens suffrage. Sad.

The first convention in support for a woman's right to vote was held in 1848 at Seneca Falls, New York. It took 72 more years before women were allowed to vote nationwide. Women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth and Carrie Chapman Catt worked tirelessly for the right to make their wants and needs known by Congress through the vote.

There were states that gave women the right to vote before 1920. Wyoming (1869), Utah (1870, repeals it in 1887, regains it in 1895) , and Idaho (1896) lead the way. Many states followed but not enough to ratify it.

Our rights seem so fragile at times. Sometimes I believe that we should all be reminded that there was a time when as women we would not have been afforded the same rights and citizenship as men.

August 26th is the 90th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment. I'd like to sincerely thank all those women of conviction for their hard work. Because of them I have a place and a voice at the polls.

Love,
M

PS: the postcards above were collected by the leading suffragette in Texas; Minnie Fisher Cunningham.

Moo Cards. this is not advertizing. this is information and adoration.

We buy these awesome cards from Moo Cards. They are little cards about 1 inch by 2 inches. What is really great about these cards and what everyone loves about them is the feel of them. They have this slick heavy feel about them. It's sort of sexy in a paper kind of way.

Added bonus? They have a funny name.

I order about 400 to 800 at a time and give them out like they were water. At $20 for 100 that is cheap advertising.

Here are some of my orders:


Most recent set:

This is the newest one. I had to doctor up the two at the bottom. They didn't fit in the little space provided. They were postcards sent to women suffrage members in the early 1900s. Somewhere, around 1905. The sixth one from the last is a snippet from a wine menu. It and it's Santa cousin (12th from the bottom) are my sleeper cards. The cards that I sneak in that makes everyone say; mmmmmm. Hey, we're a university! If we can put up pictures of naked guys we can have cards with Santa carrying a sack of wine away from a wall of wine barrels.

Second most recent set:

My favorites of this bunch are the cowboy (he is soooo Texas) and the little boy playing the violin. Though the armadillo isn't too bad either. The scary black dude? (#10 from the top) is Tom Blue, General Sam Houston's bodyguard, though I suspect he was called something else by Sam Houston. BTW, Sam Houston is the one before him. I take these images from collections from our digital library or from collections that will be on our digital library soon.

Third most recent set:

There's the little guy with the violin again. I just love him. Right next to him is the beer drinking gun wearing man. He's become our mascot. He pretty much sums up my management style. The rest of these are kind of boring. I hadn't really hit my quirky stride on ordering them at this point. I was still pretty new at my job and hadn't realized what I could get away with. Turns out; a lot!

This is the first set:

Totally uninspiring. All I can say is that I got better.

What I didn't post was a picture of the back of these cards. I have our web address, a sentence about finding images online and my name and email address. I use them for business cards more often than my regular business cards.

I've ordered about 2200 of these over the last year and have been really happy with my paper advertising efforts. Of course, the social media and the search engines actually produce more hits but these are so cool that I'll never give them up.

What's the best thing about Moo Cards is their excellent customer service and friendly emails. Here's the last one they sent me:

Hello

I'm Little MOO - the bit of software that will be managing your order with moo.com. It will shortly be sent to Big MOO, our print machine who will print it for you in the next few days. I'll let you know when it's done and on its way to you.

If you've imported your images to MOO from another site, please make sure you don't remove or change the photos you've chosen from that site until this order has been printed, or some pictures may come out blank.

(If you've uploaded them directly to MOO, then there's no need to

worry.)

I know I'm in good hands with Little Moo.

The informational selection of the week is over. Have I done history yet? No? Never fear I seem to get to it every week.

Love,
M

Blogging pays off

Back in September 2009 I wrote a post about my husband's family on his mother's side. It was all about JR's great great great grandfather and his and his brother's experiences during the Civil War. It was inspired by JR's cousin Carrie's wonderful book because I'm not that clever.

Now, I spend a lot of time yammering on and on about history never thinking that people might not be the least bit interested (all of you who visit regularly, no matter what kind of drivel I write, are the kindest people I know) but sometimes all that pays off.

It pays off in the form of coffee! For a reformed coffee snob and recovering coffee roaster this is the best of all gifts. (To Julie: I wish I could share my bounty with you. As a coffee aficionado you would appreciate it. I'll save you a bit. Let's call it incentive. )

I received an email on June 23rd from one of JR's unknown cousins. He had read my post and was excited to see photos of his great great.....grandfather and read about some of his exploits. I received this email:

Dear Michelle, I was doing some research on the internet about my Hovland family roots and came across your blog. What a hoot to see my great, great, great, great grandfather Simon's (Sigmund) picture and read about his exploits. My family in North Dakota has lost the roots back to Norway and I would love to present a copy of your book to them. Is there any possibility of having it professionally copied at my expense? I could throw in some Kona coffee from our plantation as a bonus teaser! Much Aloha, Mikal

How awesome is that?

This prompted a couple of thoughts.
1. How come we had never heard of Mikal?
2. How were we related?
3. How could I wrangle a visit to Kona, Hawaii?
4. Do you think he'd notice if we came for a visit then stayed until retirement?

Altruistic? Yeah, I think not.

So I did what any digital librarian would do; I scanned in the whole book and sent it off to him on a flash drive. If I could have turned it into a java script page turning webpage I would have because the chance of having a bargaining chip was too good to pass up. Alas, I ran out of time. I settled for the flash drive and a prayer. I was looking out for my own interests. Any sort of food or drink is inspirational for me. I'm very gastronomically inclined. That explains the extra 10 pounds I'm carrying around. That and wine.

And while, I'm waiting, some what impatiently, for coffee to show up on my doorstep the most important things are that JR and I have made another connection to his extended family, I have once again justified my hording tenancies, and that blogging is the ultimate social media!

How has blogging changed your life? Do you think that it has made the world just a little bit smaller? Maybe, a little bit more friendly?

Let me know how it works for you. Take your time....I'll just sit here and drink my coffee.

Which showed up in the mail yesterday!!!! Thank you Mikal!

Love,
M

Bathing cats is not like herding them

All the reports are coming in from BlogHer. I love seeing the pictures. Every.Single.One of you look fab-u-lous!

################################################

While some of you were at BlogHer or hanging around MOMA I was doing some exciting stuff. Once I tell you what we were up to this weekend you will all be jealous.

Ready to weep?
Ready to gnash your teeth?
Ready to throw in the towel to our greatness?
We bathed our cat.
That's right.
We bathed our cat.
In our sink. The one in the kitchen with the sprayer faucet.

JR held him in the sink while I soaked him with water, lathered him up with the soap that the vet insisted that JR buy (I don't even want to know what that cost.) and rinsed him off.

I can tell you with a great deal of authority that cats really don't like to get bathed. It resembled getting an eight year old boy to bathe. With claws.

And, Oh Joy! We get to do it again this weekend.

Just before we washed the cat JR says to me: I think I'll take a shower.
I said: I think I'll wait until after we wash the cat. That way all my wounds will be clean and it will make dabbing on Neosporin easier.
Sometimes, I can be so efficient.

############################################


The Meatless Monday gang made the big time.

Campaign Aims To Make Meatless Mondays Hip

Does this make me hip by association?
Yeah, I didn't think so.

############################################

Next time I'm shopping on Amazon I'll be buying this:

Or any one of these:



My friend Candy sent me this link. Does she know me or what?


Now, everyone go visit Keely and all the rest of the random peoples.

Love,
M

Refried Beans

I borrowed this picture from The Pioneer Woman blog because it looked the most like my refried beans when I went to Google images looking for a photo. Why didn't I take my own? Because I'm lame and because we ate the bowl of refried beans before I remembered to take a photo. Yeah, I'm awesome like that.

Ree's beans are consistently the same color. Mine? Not so much. Mine were made from an assortment of beans not just pinto beans. My blog friend Linda grows beans on her farm in Colorado and succumbs to my painful and repeated begging her for beans every fall. She puts about 5 different types in ziptop bags and mails them to me. I open the box like a kid receiving a Christmas gift. I open each ziptop bag, spill the contents into a big bowl, and let those wonderful silky beans slide through my fingers. I like the feel of them. By the time I'm done they are all a jumbled mess. Since, I'm lazy I don't separate them back again, I just toss them into a jar. The jar full of beans is very colorful. Just like my refried beans.

So in reality mine didn't look like Ree's much at all. Mine weren't all the same color. They were much more colorful.

Colorful and tasty.
That's the way I like things.
It's what I keep telling JR I am.
Colorful and tasty.
Come on, I meant that innocently.



Refried Beans

2 cups dried beans (I like pinto or black or a combination of whatever I have on hand.)
water
1/2 onion, chopped into big chunks
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons salsa, approximate
1 tablespoon cumin, approximate
1 tablespoon chili powder, approximate
2 tablespoons olive oil, approximate
salt and pepper to taste

• Put beans in a large pot. Cover with water, about 2 inches over the beans. Toss in onion and garlic.
• Bring to a boil.
• Turn down heat and simmer for 2 hours or maybe a little more. (Go bathe the cat. It's what we did. Yes, there is and will be a story about this.) About half way through the cooking I like to drain the beans, add new water and start again. I find that if I do this step the family is not quite so gassy. Trust me. This is a necessary step at our house. It keeps the peace.
  
• When the beans are nice and tender transfer to a large bowl. Reserve some of the liquid.
• Pull out your trusty potato masher and start mashing.
• Continue mashing while adding a little of the liquid and the olive oil.
  
• Add all the other ingredients if you'd like. We like ours a bit on the spicy side so everything goes into the pool.
• Keep mashing and adding and adding and mashing until you get the beans into your favored consistency. I like mine lumpy. (why shouldn't my beans match my hips?)
• Serve warm or cold.
  

Give them a try. They are yummy personified.

It's Monday so try to make it meatless. Or really any day this week would be good. I don't discriminate.


Love,
M