Cruisin'

Got reservations made and calendar marked. My friends and I have our deposits down for our next cruise! In a mere 356 days from now the five of us are heading to Galveston to board the Carnival Magic for a SEVEN DAY cruise to Key West then Freeport and Nassau in the Bahamas. 

We were on the Triumph last year and swore that we would never sail on it again. Had it been our first cruise - it probably would've been our last. The ship was in major need of an overhaul back then. The crew was excellent - the ship was outdated.

The Magic is their newest having first sailed in 2011. We are so ready. One BFF is already checking weather. ;)

It's Sunday!

Parents, PLEASE! Look at your kids' clothing before leaving the house! Her two sizes too small thong is cutting her hips in half. Then her too tight dress magnifies all the bumps and humps including the fat dimples! And she's really not too big...the clothes are just too tight. (For those of you who remember - looks like she has on a sanitary napkin doesn't it!!)

Cain loves chocolate chip cookies - just further proof that he is my grandson. :D

I made King Cup Cakes for our monthly birthday cake at work. Neither the judge nor I could find purple sugar crystals anywhere (without ordering which we waited too late to do) so she purchased purple cupcake papers. The recipe is on King Arthur Flour's website.

Yippee!!! After 21 hours of hand quilting, I completed the first pass on my applique quilt! The border is 10" x 94"...crosshatched and outlining the vine on both sides.

Next roll on the frame - starting on the blocks. I originally planned on calling this Rose of Sharon variation "Sherry's Rose." But since the death of Mama nearly a year ago now, this will be "Shirley's Rose."

Computers

Sam's computer has been pfffftttt. Working so slow most of the time. It would have a quick moment of sanity and work fast for a short time, then next time it would be back to its same old tricks.

Jonathan decided to downsize to a laptop so sold Sam his pc.

Jonathan and Kirk are visiting this weekend.

Sam and Jonathan are both in bed - still this morning - and I'm playing with Jonathan's laptop. Ssssh. Don't tell him but before he leaves Monday, I'm going to hide this and slip my laptop in his case!

Bwahahahahaha

Just Stuff

Not much going on around here. I've been setting my Kindle to Text to Speech and listening to it while I sit in front of the quilting frame working on a poor red-headed step-child quilt that's been in the frame ever since I started work - TWO YEARS ago! Hmmm...I don't seem to have a full view photo of it. You'll have to wait until I finish the vine and roll the quilt to the next section. 

It's a Rose of Sharon variation. Originally I was going to call it Sherry's Rose, but since Mama's death last March I've decided to name it Shirley's Rose.

I purchased the Outlander series (by Diana Gabaldon) for my Kindle. (Thanks Cody, Brook, and Isabel for the Amazon gift card for Christmas!) I'm reading/listening to it AGAIN! I've lost track of the number of times I've read it or listened to it on audio book from the library. And am anxiously awaiting the next book...Written in My Own Heart's Blood to be released Fall 2013!!! :D

I baked oatmeal-raisin cookies for Sam yesterday afternoon. He kinda got his nose out of joint about the spicy chocolate tart I made. When I offered him a slice of it, he commented Yes, I'd like some oatmeal cookies. eyeroll Men are truly just little boys in grown-up disguises.

The last time I baked the cookies, I pulled the recipe off the internet. It's Quakers Vanishing Oatmeal Cookies. I thought something was different. It called for 3/4 cup brown sugar and 1 stick and 6 tablespoons butter. Hmmm...I didn't remember that. The cookies were different. They were thicker and more cake-like. Later, I found the "original" recipe in my binder. Well HELLOOOO! Quaker changed the recipe and did not call it "Vanishing Oatmeal Cookies - less sugar - less fat." 

I made this batch by the original recipe. Just like we remembered they should be. Perfect!

Here's the updated recipe:
   http://www.quakeroats.com/cooking-and-recipes/content/recipes/recipe-detail.aspx?recipeId=474

Just remember to use 2 sticks of butter a full cup of brown sugar. (I searched the site trying to find the REAL recipe - it's not there!)

John texted to tell me that one morning Colt was singing: Pawpaw Pawpaw Pawpaw Genie Genie Genie Donnie Donnie Donnie...over and over again. Colt can't pronounce Granny yet. Donnie and his wife are friends of John's and Erin's. Sam was visiting with John later in the week. The guys, including Donnie, went to lunch together. That was the first Donnie had heard about the song. Sam said he grinned.

Well - that's about it! Just the "normals" around here. Work - which I love! Work around the house - a necessary evil. Wishing my grands were closer.

Chocolate, Family, Late Winter

 I gathered the supplies for a new dessert from the King Arthur Flour website - Spiced Chocolate Tart
My version was not gluten free - I used my trusty food processor pastry recipe.

 While it was enjoyed - it didn't have enough ginger flavor. The directions said to strain the ginger pieces out, but Jonathan and I decided that I shouldn't do that. Thank goodness! The only ginger taste the tart had was when you bit into the bits of ginger.

 Kirk visited with us too. He is a hoot! I don't do animals in the house so he spent nights on the screen porch. He rather thought he was inside. ;-) Except when night fell...he howled. Jonathan said Kirk didn't howl...he barked and whined a bit...but did not howl. I'm sure he heard the coyotes howling.

The first day while Jonathan was out and about, he clipped a chain to Kirk's collar and put him outside under the pear trees. Kirk was NOT happy. Sam went out to check on him. He had dumped his food and water bowls, flipped his crate upside down and was in the crate barking. Poor darlin'!

My camelia bush is loaded! Won't this be a delightful site when it bursts open in red blooms?!

The first flowers of spring.

Bluebonnets!!

If you look down while walking, you'll see quite a few of these pretty little blue flowers sprinkled around.

The Good and the Pfffftttt

Sam, Jonathan, and I went to see "Parental Guidance" at the movie theater tonight. I haven't laughed that much at the movies in a very long time. 

Now - Jonathan, my 29-year old son, and I are watching television. We just enjoyed two back-to-back commercials. One was for Cialis - erectile dysfunction. The other was for RepHresh - feminine cleanliness.

Not quite as bad as when he was 14 and tampon commercials came on. At least now we can laugh about them.

On to Grander Things

Isabel's second birthday cake! She enjoyed eating the frogs...except for the legs. She gave them to me, I handed them to Colt and told him if he ate them that he would turn into a frog. He ate them, turned to his mommy and said, "Me frog." LOL

Daddy feeding Isabel some cake...see the lily pad in her hand? (LOL That lily pad has legs! Must be a frog on a lily pad.)

Isabel in Granny's arms.

The first gift she opened. She saw the netting sticking out of the top of the gift bag and wanted it. Great Aunt Carol helped her pull it out. She grinned from ear to ear while Carol tied it on her. Throughout the afternoon, every so often she would stop, kick out a leg, and watch the netting flutter. Brought a smile to my face every time I saw it.

Colt and Isabel playing kitchen.

Cain got in on the action too!

The tutu above was just "icing on the cake" so to speak. My former sister-in-law told me she still had MY baby doll bed that I had given to my niece, Lacee...did I want it back. WELL YEAH! Sam repainted it for me. I made the soft-sculpture doll, "mattress," and doll quilt. As the gift opening wound down, I pulled the goodies from a trash bag, placed the mattress in the bed, laid the doll down, and covered completely with the doll quilt. The quilt is made from scraps of Isabel's baby quilt. Isabel pulled the quilt off the doll...looked at the doll...put the quilt over her head and walked off. :D

As an aside: Christmas week, Cody and Brook sold their old home and purchased this new home. John gave or loaned them the bed Sam made for the A-frame John did live in. When he and Erin purchased their new home, the bedroom had 9-foot ceilings. The bed just did not work in there so they purchased another. Brook is very excited about the bed.

 I made the quilt for Brook and Cody when they married. It all looks pretty good together, doesn't it?!

Where?

I heard some absolutely horrible news today. When I walked in the house this evening, Sam asked how my day had gone. I started crying as I told him about the incident. I pulled up the online newspaper so that he could read it.

I think for the first time in my life I asked God "Where were you? What were you doing?!"

But then I knew. He was crying while Satan reared his ugly-ass head back and laughed and applauded at those who would blame God for this horror.  

Spelling Bee

I thought I was finished with Spelling Bees after elementary school. Da Judge asked me to get a 3-person team together from the Friends of the Library and the salon she owns (and her sister manages for her) would pay the entrance fee.

The Bee was tonight. One of our team, the most stable person I've known in a long time, called at noon and said she wasn't going to show up. I made no comment - just hung up the phone. She called back and fussed at me pretty royally for hanging up on her. LOL She was actually having a bad case of nerves! I would've never ever guessed that of her. 

We could appoint a "speller" - the third team member said she'd do it. The way it works...the word was called out, we each wrote it down, compared our spellings, then the speller stood and spelled it...she did great! 

We were NOT the first ones out! YEAH!!!! We came in fourth out of eight teams. And we are all happy about it! 

Absentee

 It's not that there's nothing going on..it's just that...there's nothing going on. ;-)

From the living room, it looked as though my Rhipsalis (just found out what's it's called after posting a photo on HGTV garden forum - smart people there)...anyway, it looked as though it had a fungus. Upon closer inspection I realized that it was blooming! Either that's the first time it has ever bloomed, or I just forgot. :-D Sometimes I'm like a baby goose - wake up in a different world every day.

I just had to brag once again on my delicious cornbread from scratch AND my cast iron. I have four cornstick pans and the divided pan which I use for scones as well. 

Christmas rolled around and I didn't know what to give the four commissioners. I take phone messages for them, distribute their mail, etc. I finally hit upon the idea of giving them a coupon for a "Sweet Thing" - a cake, a pie, one batch of cookies, or one batch of candy. The lone bachelor in the group cashed his coupon in last week for a buttermilk pie.  

Because my boss is actually the judge and she's is a very good boss, I gave her four coupons. She cashed in one this week for a batch of oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips instead of raisins. 

The post with the buttermilk pie recipe also has a crust recipe. While that is a good crust, sometimes I had trouble getting it moist enough. Too much water is one of those things that toughens pie pastry. When I got my KitchenAid food processor, I did some sleuthing for a recipe. I found a delicious recipe! 

I've been doing some sewing and other sewing related stuff, but can't post until after Isabel's second birthday party on Sunday just in case her parents visit here. :)

All recipe links can be find in the right sidebar.