Happy 9th Birthday!

Our kids turned NINE YEARS OLD yesterday!  In celebration, I broke out the ol' Three Dog Bakery cook book and whipped up a masterpiece.  I love baking for my kids.  They somehow instinctively KNOW I am baking Just. For. Them.  It's rather odd how they know.  Maybe it's the way I look at them while I'm twirling about the kitchen, grabbing the bananas, or the wheat flour, or the yummy peanut butter.  Oh, they know what's in a peanut butter jar, trust me.  Nothing but love.

This year, I substituted molasses for honey, and I had no eggs.  So I substituted an extra banana and a little more baking powder for the missing egg.  Worked like a charm--thanks for the tip, Internet.  They never noticed a difference.

See my masterpiece here:

I know this looks like a backwards G, but I wanted to maximize the use of cake.  The children agreed with my approach.  Also, I wasn't going to frost the sides because that gets really messy.  So I stuck dried banana chips to the edge with frosting.  They agreed with this use of banana chips too.

Notice their tongues as they impatiently await their birthday cake.

This is not their first rodeo:

After the cake feast, these pics remind me of coming off a sugar high (except the only sugar was molasses). 

Here is Shadow (and this was her first rodeo birthday party):

Here is Abbytail:

And here is Keystone:  

Go here to watch the feast:

Video of the cake inhalation

A special Happy Birthday to my God-dog-son Baxter, who I miss.  We send lots of hugs, kisses and love to this special guy on his special day too.

Happy Birthday to my furry 9 year olds!

Mice, Start Your Engines, And It's Here!!!

There are several things on my mental list of things to do since being back in the KC area. Last weekend was one of those events.

I should explain that we used to live on the best block. There were several houses of friends who got together socially fairly often. Honestly, it was a little more often than I could handle at times, but we just chose to participate when we could (i.e. not on Friday nights when I needed down time to recover from the week). I still don't know how they didn't go around naked from lack of clean clothes to wear (when did they ever find time to do laundry?). 

Anyway, there are so many people on that street we will stay in contact with... simply forever. There was always someone you could borrow an egg or a cup of sugar (or a fifth of Jack Daniels). When the weather was cruel and limbs were scattered around our yards like jenga sticks, we all went from yard to yard to yard and cleaned up together. It made life easier to deal with the crap mother nature throws at you. Oh yea, or like when it's an unexpected monsoon and you realize the basement sump pump can't keep up and the water is coming in the basement and you're seriously screwed, our friends came over in a pinch and helped (did I mention we just met them?). There is no other hood like it anywhere. Two of our closest friends were right next door (the two who helped during one of our many floods). So glad to be able to see them now.

One event we always used to attend was the yearly MOUSE RACES. Yes, you read that right. Mouse *races*. It is the most unique fund raiser. They sell entry tickets and you get all the beer you can drink. (Oh, did I mention that the folks we know in the old hood were pretty much the drinkers on the street.)  Think of dog races. Only with mice. And instead of a little bunny they try to catch, a hair dryer is used. I know, I know, it sounds mean, but they don't look scared. Just trust me on that so you are not all distraught and lose sleep over it. They are very happy looking mice.  See?

So they have 6 mice that run on their own track, and if your mouse wins, you split the winnings with the others who bet on the same mouse.  Here is a video of an actual Mouse Race:

The mouse winners from each race gets special participation. They get to be the "ball" in mouse-roulette. No, they don't spin the mouse around. That would be mean. They plop the mouse in the middle of a stationary wheel with pins around the edge, and if you chose the number between the pins the mouse crosses, you win big money! I was so hoping Suzie was going to win. She tried *really* hard. At least she won a door prize, and I heard her name. I was so excited they called her name!  The environment was extremely loud, so hearing the person next to you was difficult. 

A pic of Mouse Roulette:

After the races ended, they had a dance. I should have brought some Kinky to drink, but I forgot and the beer wasn't real tasty so I had not had enough to drink in order to dance. Inebriation is required for me to dance, cause frankly, it's not real pretty. Grace and coordination = not my best friends.

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So, the long winter is OVER and it's Daytona time, Baby! And MY BOY is on the pole! Of course I'm taking about NASCAR.  What did you think--pole dancing?  Perv.  I was not ready for the race season to be over last November so it was a long dark season for me. My boy, Carl, has some winning to do.  Get ready to Start Your Engines!!!

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It's here, it's here!  I got my Crappy Day Package today! I am so excited to have these beautiful packages of joy waiting for whenever I need something to improve my day. Aren't they positively wild?!?? I love the paper.

The lovely person who sent me my CDP is SuperJules.  I can't wait to read all about her!  I haven't had a bad day yet, so I'm saving them.  Cause I have a feeling, they are going to be needed.  Thanks, Doing My Best for coordinating!

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Check back later this weekend for pics of my furry kids--their 9th birthday is SATURDAY!  I will be baking a cake soon.

Happy Birthday And My Week

Happy birthday to my hubby yesterday!  We spent the day running errands he wanted to run.  Got to enjoy Smashburger for the first time.  Holy oil slick, my sweet potato fries were bathing in so much olive oil I gained another pound just looking at them.  Tasty, they were.  Good thing it's over an hour away--not making that a habit.  Got to see Mitch & Dawn and fam.  That is always nice.  See their daughter and "donkey" (that's the name of the lizard):

My business trip this past week to CA was a success.  My big activity went well, and I was able to meet and develop relationships with many coworkers.  I didn't spew forth unintelligible mumblings into a microphone when answering questions standing up in front of ~130 people, nor did I trip walking up the stairs to accept a little present on stage in thanks for all the work this project required from me.  I heard from several folks how happy they are that I am part of the company and how much they value my contributions.  I heard many supportive and appreciative comments this week.  It's really nice to hear.  *Really* doggone nice.

 
The most fun I had was a cooking/wine tasting class I elected for my free afternoon activity.  This is so awesome y'all, listen to this.  I had a choice between several wonderful options on how to spend an afternoon, and why yes, I chose drinking delightful wine and eating outrageously delicious food prepared by the resort chef.  Then after the festivities were supposed to be over, we sat on the patio cheering on the golfers as they played through one of the holes.  I believe our supportive clapping and shhhshing the "audience" helped everyone enjoy their golf outing just a little more since they surely felt the ambiance of a Pro tour.  I know we thought it was a hoot. 

Now for a recap of the food.

This cheese was on the appetizer board in the kitchen.  If you ever have the privilege to try this cheese--don't miss your opportunity.  It was an amazing *firm* goat cheese.  I didn't know this kind of cheese exists, and it was the chef's personal favorite.  I understood why after I tried it.

Next came a roasted beet salad with soft goat cheese crumbles that had rosemary, lavender and thyme herbs in the cheese--please bathe me in this when it's my time to go.  I cared not for the beets, but I get credit for trying them.

Now for the main courses, there were two.  This picture doesn't do it justice.  The dark pieces within the rice looking stuff are pieces of the best smoked bacon ever known to human kind.  The spareribs on top, I cut with my fork.  No knife was required.  I could not believe this half of the plate.  I wanted to stuff this in my pockets and bring it home to Todd, but I was pretty sure TSA would not have approved.  I LOVED LOVED LOVED it. 

On the other side of the plate, two scallops swimming in a butter, shallot, leek sauce with tomatoes.  This was very tasty.

And to finish off the feast, on a toasted bird's nest of coconut sat a shimmering gold dusted poached pear filled with mascarpone cheese with a side spoon of blue cheese, caramel and blackberry.  Sounds very odd, but it worked people, it worked!  LOVED every bite of it.

Back to reality for me now. I have more "lint filter cleanings to plan".  I do love my job and am beginning to really enjoy the people I am working with too as I form more relationships.  Which is a damn good thing since it is requiring so many hours from me every week.  Todd is nothing but support though, he's the best.  You know, all great leaders have someone or multiple someones behind them helping to make them as strong and successful as they are.  Most of the time they don't get there all on their own, they usually have backup troops who hold down the home-front allowing them to focus on their mission. God knows I've got lots of support or I'd never have made it this far.

Many days I get to my work and think, "here I am, let the stress begin".  But would I want it any other way?  Well maybe just a tad bit less stressful, but I will take that over being bored ANY day!

Now I'm off to bake my pillar-of-support / birthday-man some caramel brownies since we were too busy running around yesterday.  Oozy gooey sticky squares of pure evilness which cannot be resisted.  Happy Birthday weekend, Todd!

My A To Z List

Well, I guess I might just jump off a cliff after someone else... I got this meme from Mrs. Irritation who got this from K who got this from Jive Turkey (who is a hoot & a half) and so on and so forth.  Mouse did it too.  If you do it, leave me a link to yours!

Here's my A to Z:

A. Age: too young to feel this old.

B. Bed size: King, but I have to admit that I sort of miss the queen every once in awhile because I may as well be in my own bed as big as this is.  Without blankets of course, because he hogs them all.

C. Chore that you hate: Paying the few bills that can't be automated.  Really?  They shouldn't be allowed to do business if they can't handle auto-pay.

D. Dogs: LOVE them.  L-O-V-E all of them, except the barky one's.  I don't care what size they are, if they shut-the-hell-up, I love 'em.  If they bark, I hate their owners with an unbridled (and not so silent nor passive) passion.

E. Essential start to your day: I enjoy sweet creamy vanilla-ish coffee laden with as much milk as coffee, but it's not mandatory.  I prefer not to be spoken to until at least 9am.  If you are too happy or too chatty before that time, I will loathe you.

F. Favorite color: All shades of green: lime, neon, kelly, hunter, fern, army, mint, pastel, dark, jade.

G. Gold or silver: Either, are you kidding?  But if it's costume, then silver.

H. Height: Numbers and I don't really get along.  I don't actually remember, almost 5'8 or 9, tall enough that jeans are a pain in the leg to buy long enough.

I. Instruments that you play: No musical ability whatsoever.  In grade school, I played the violin for one year, and the flute another.  Was not good at either.  I wish they had taught me to read music instead of which hand placement represented the symbol, not that it sounded the same way twice with my screeching.

J. Job title: This is not LinkedIn, why would you care?

K. Kids: Two about-to-turn-9 year old sibling Golden Retrievers who are the most intelligent (the girl) and loveable (the boy) fur-bags on earth; and one very intelligent Yellow Lab who adopted us (I swear Shadow can smile).  These kids complete our world.  Plus we have Cousin Nyla who visits often to chill out:

L. Live: some say Misery, but its spelled Missouri.

M. Mother's name: Mom, but Todd says Ma.

N. Nicknames: T.

O. Overnight hospital stays: Tonsils out when I was 10-ish; that's all I remember.

P. Pet peeves: I see the S at the end of the word "peeve", so here goes:  1) people who park ahead of the front line in a parking space like they forgot their hood, tire, and bumper is in front of their steering wheel [spacial depth is a real challenge for some people]; 2) a washing machine fancy enough to contain a computer yet too small to wash my largest comforter; 3) Miracle Whip; 4) running toilets--my biggest pet peeve of all.

Q. Quote from a movie: We're on a mission from God.

R: Right or left handed: Right but my left is pretty good.

S: Siblings: Yep.

T. Treat you adore: Ice cream (especially with caramel), popcorn (with chocolate), vanilla latte, monkey bread, anything with frosting.  Anything with sugar really.  This looks like Heaven in a bowl to me:  Popcorn Ice Cream With Salted Butter

U. Underwear: Evil contraptions I hate.

V. Vegetable(s) you hate: Cauliflower, blech.

W. What makes you run late: Where did I put those dagnabit keys?

X. X-rays you've had: Various.

Y. Yummy food that you make: Typically he makes the meat/gravy/bread dough; I make the sides and bake the bread.  We love to make Mexican, Italian, and good old fashioned meat & potatoes.

Z. Zoo animal: I don't really like going to the zoo because it makes me very sad to see all those animals in cages, but I do love watching penguins (technically at an aquarium but whatever).

http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/news/region_tampa/florida-aquarium-penguin-makes-super-bowl-prediction

Happy Super Bowl y'all!  By the way, who's playing?  That's how much I really care.  I will yap at you after my business trip to California.  Here I come, sunshine!