Thursday, March 22, 2012

Super Yay For Vacation!

So my definition of vacation is a loose interpretation of what you might call a vacation. 1) Not going to work. 2) Doing something I have planned. 3) May or may not include travel. I can have a vacation day in my own backyard and be very happy about it. I'm on vacation right now! And we are going somewhere!! To do something fun!!! This weekend is our yearly adventure to Dallas, TX to a pinball festival. I get to play pinball with friends All. Weekend. Long. Besides the fact that I took off of work, I get to eat, drink, and play pinball with a big group of friends. So excited this weekend is finally here! Also I feel like karma is finally getting her act together. I have a friend who had an awesome interview for her dream job. She deserves something really substantially good to happen to her. Another friend is running her first 10K, so proud of her accomplishment. Now for another of my dearest friends ever to sell her house and get her family together in the same state. Come on Karma, keep the good things flowing.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Breakfast

MMMMmmmm, behold the power of BACON

Hot, crisp, apple-wood smoked, thick-cut, substantial bacon:

Next comes a deliciously delightful and practically magical Dutch Baby Pancake:


Sinfully simple to make at home.  (I recommend cutting the salt in half; and I'm making a luscious lemon version next time.)


One perfectly fried over-easy egg later, and Voila!

The complete package--breakfast fit for a queen.  (Don't drool on your keyboard.)

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Survivors

Happy Saturday to you!  For having had a pretty crappy week, I'm in a great mood.  That is probably because my baby girl is doing really well.  Or I put extra sugar in my coffee.  You know how I am about my sweets.

I didn't tell you, Internet, but Abby had surgery yesterday and she is doing better than I ever expected!  Todd noticed a hard wart-like bump Friday before last.  Much different than any other bump she has.  So we chose a vet and got her in right away.  One week after seeing it, we had it removed.  Actually noticed a skin tag around her eye getting really big too, and we don't want her vision impaired.  Poor girl has cataracts, she doesn't need anything else impacting her vision.  I wasn't nervous about the surgery until after lunch time, and I realized I had not physically heard "all is good".  So Todd called, then I called.  Still in surgery.  WTF?  So a little after 2pm (picking her up at 4!), we heard the all-is-clear message.  Whew.  That's our baby girl I am talking about.  The spring in Todd's step.  The sass in our house!

I giggled to myself a little when I called the vet.  "Yes, this is Abby's mom, calling to check on her"--like all the other moms I hear making calls from their desk phones.  Of course, they know I'm talking about my dog.  ;-)

See?  You can barely tell.  She looks FABULOUS!  They are testing the large mass they took off her snout, we'll see what the results are.  I'm sure it's benign and all is well.  There is a little stitch at the outer corner of her eye, and about 4 or 5 stitches on her snout:


Tullybird just went through the same thing with her baby girl, so I was confident mine would be just fine too.  I hate putting furry loved ones under anesthesia.

Speaking of Tullybird:  SHE'S COMING TO SEE ME!  I'm so excited I could pee my pants.  When I left NV, I told her "you know you are going to have to come see me, cause I'm never coming back here".  To which she replied that she realized that.  So now, she's coming to see me!  Our close bond is surviving the challenge of distance.

I'm making a list of the bead shops and cooking stores we will hit.  We must visit my friends, Ray & Becky, at  Mission Fresh Fashion (and she will love the store), and take her to meet Kevin & Suzie and girls.  We have to eat Z-man sandwiches at Oklahoma Joe's.  What else is KC... I will have to ponder this agenda.  We have 5 days in May to goof off.  Oh the joy!  Pics of Booze-N-Beads will surely be posted.

Other visitors I am super excited about--SamsMom is going to be in the area Memorial Day weekend and I will go see her tons!  Can't wait to see her family & watch her talented son play baseball.  I'm going to sneak her away from the ball field to take her on her virgin voyage to LUSH.  WAHOO!  Talk about a friendship surviving decades.  DECADES!!

Speaking of a friendship surviving decades, I believe Jus is back home (or in transit, I'm not sure) from Afghanistan and wants to come up and see me!  I remember talking to her on the phone before she deployed, and I told her my goal was to be back in the mid-west before she got back.  Viola, I'm here!  Can't wait to hear all about her adventures in person.  She's a real survivor, that one.  To just up and go into the military and go off and serve like she has.  Wow. 

I am so excited to connect with so many awesome women! 

 

Spring has sprung, and I want to share my special flower with ya'll.  This is a bulb that was planted at our house back in KC before our Great-Migration-West.  I took this puppy with me*.  It actually multiplied in NV sand, amazingly--talk about "surviving".  Any plant that made it the 4.5 years we were there was a true survivor.  When we left, I dug it up and MAILED IT TO MY MOTHER.  So it's been to Oklahoma too.  I planted it last fall.  Now it has a happy home in Missouri:

So you may be saying to yourself, "Self?  That just looks like an ordinary hyacinth.  What's so special that she'd dig it up and plant it in 3 different states?".  Well, let me tell you what this specific bulb symbolizes to me.  *This was Roscoe's flower. 

Amber was not our first golden.  We had two wonderful dogs before Amber.  Todd's first son was Roscoe.  When Roscoe passed away in February of 2003, our Uncle Frank and Aunt Judy, who we are super close to and who actually knew Roscoe, sent us a condolence blooming bulb arrangement.  It was the sweetest thing ever.  I planted those bulbs, and the lone survivor of that assortment, is this very hyacinth.

I'll tell you some day about Roscoe.  And about his mom.  But not quite yet.  I still choke up every time I think of them.  Probably always will.

Anyway, one last pic of a few true survivors.  You might have thought I was a little crazy last fall when I tried to plant a garden so late in the season.  Guess what?  I may not have gotten anything to grow much last fall.  But now?  I have volunteer RADISHES! 

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Gravy Any Elf Would Love

I made fried chicken, mashed taters and gravy tonight.  I've been trying for YEARS to perfect my gravy.  It's not easy.  I've been studying.

I've watched Mrs. Irritation make it. I've watched my mother countless times make it.  Why is it SO. STINKIN'. HARD. FOR. ME???

I was determined--tonight would be THE night I had success.  I didn't add too much flour to the grease.  I let it get nice and brown.  Oh no, I ran out of milk, and didn't have any canned evaporated milk!  I thought we'd be eating dry potatoes. 

Not to fear!  I just discovered that I actually LIKE soy milk.  They were giving away samples at Costco last weekend, so I tried it.  I really liked it!  I bought a case just in case I ran out of milk and couldn't have my standard Kahlua & milk to drink.  It tasted like the real thing to me when I sampled it, just like milk.  So I used a box.  My gravy consistency turned out JUST RIGHT!  Finally, I had a great looking gravy!  I timed it perfectly for the taters to be hot, the gravy to be done, the chicken to still be warm.


I served it up.  We started to eat.  That's when I realized.  Vanilla soy milk does NOT taste like regular milk.


Sorry dear. 

(at least it LOOKED good)

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Total Waste Of Makeup

Well today has been a total waste of makeup.

Pretty much a crappy day worthy of THREE items from my CDP.  It was that bad. 

1) had to work on my annual goals--I hate this with a passion.  Can't I just work hard and they just take care of me because my awesomeness just shines through in every way?  No?  You mean I gotta document this crap? 

2) our local storage area a mile down the road was broken into.  Really upset that our post hole digger THAT WE NEED TO USE IN A MONTH TO BUILD A FENCE AROUND THE GARDEN along with the power washer and a few other items were stolen.  I just can't even go there.

I have very pretty new nail polish in fabulous colors to use now (one blue, one green).  I must go find a new place for my new hot-pad in very bright gorgeous colors.

Good riddance, Wednesday.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Suzie's Poodle

Every once in awhile when I need a pick-me-up, I look at this picture on my phone.  Tell me, how can this NOT cheer you up?

Monday, March 5, 2012

CDP partially unveiled

I've opened two CDP gifts.  Cause, I had two crappy days.  Ironically, they were literally crappy (poor Shadow wasn't feeling well).

Look at my wonderfully fun new Harry Potter book and cute new gloves!  Love it.  Thanks Jules!



Sunday, March 4, 2012

I'm Such A LUSH

I am not being endorsed in any way for this post--if you know me, you know this topic is straight from my heart.

If you don't know what LUSH is, let me introduce you.  It's the BEST, most fun store ever.  I saw a comment from Mouse the other day on Anonyvox's post, and it reminded me that I had this post in progress.  If you are lucky enough to live in a city where there is a LUSH store, even just a little corner in a Macy's, then you are very, very lucky.  It's a fresh handmade cosmetics store. Not cosmetics as in makeup, although they do have lip balm (hardly makeup, I know).  It's bath bombs, bubble bars, bath melts, massage bars, fresh face masks, soaps, moisturizers, lotions, and potions and I ABSOLUTELY ADORE this company.  My ultimate crazy wacky dream is to someday own my own LUSH store.  I'd sell jewelry too, and mix my own soaps in the back room.  MMMWWWwwhhahahahahahaha (evil scientist laugh).


Mrs. Irritation introduced me in Vegas when we were there with our hubby's.  We went to LUSH again on our first girls trip to Vegas, which was a first time LUSH visit for Becky and Erica, it was so fun!  I got Dawn hooked on it when we decided to unexpectedly go shopping 2 years ago in Dallas.  I am so lucky to live just an hour from the store in KC now, and I had to get a present for Tullybird before my final move (can't wait to take her to the actual store).  Whenever I travel and have this stuff in my bag, I wreak in a most delightful way--during a business trip to Chicago, I picked up Suzie's 40th birthday present last fall.


My favorite product: Soft Coeur Massage Bar.  This stuff allowed me to live in the high desert and not shrivel into an old wrinkled prune.  It's amazing stuff!  There is a trick to using this: After you get out of the shower, warm it up in your hands, roll it all over, and THEN towel dry yourself off.  Not only will your skin be soft and hydrated ALL day, but your towel will smell like Heaven too.  If you think the feel is too greasy or you need to get dressed quickly, just sprinkle on some Silky Underwear Dusting Powder or any of their dusting powders.

Need something else that moisturizes?  Their bath melts are AWESOME!  Try this one Floating Island or this one MMM Melting Marshmallow Moment.  Or this one Deamtime, or You've Been Mangoed, or the witchy one.  I love every single one of these for a really moisturizing bath that takes your stress away.


When I was in NV, I LOVED the closest store in Sacramento.  The employees were always so fun and everyone is always knowledgeable about all of their products.  I've only been to the store in KC twice, so I haven't gotten to know their staff.  Yet.


Now let me warn you, if you visit a store and the employees seem a little eager in a crazy kind of way, like they believe their stuff is just SO awesome, well, it's cause their stuff IS. JUST. SO. AWESOME. Really. I am this Canadian companies' biggest fan.  Oh, oh, if you are lucky enough to be there at the right time, one of the employees might mix a "bath time cocktail" for you.  It's usually some kind of complimentary scented bath bomb and bath melt, or bubble bar and bath melt.  They swirl the items together in a big bowl of water, and messier the better!!! You can stick your hands in and feel how nice a bath full of that stuff would be.

I love most of the products I have ever purchased and all of the products I have been the very lucky recipient as a gift.  Christmas time is SO MUCH FUN to sniff your gifts first, if you think it might be LUSH, or if you recognize the paper.  I've been SO EXCITED to unwrap presents from Suzie, Tullybird, Mrs. Irritation and my parents in years past when I saw the LUSH paper. See what I was like at Suzie's last December?






I am not a sales person, it's not in my DNA.  But this stuff?  I'm their biggest cheerleader.

I do have to admit there are a few items I wouldn't purchase again. 
  • Phoenix Rising bath bomb is a beautiful product with a different scent that had me enjoying it after getting used to how different it smells.  However, when I went to drain my fresh clean tub?  I had to scrub it 5 times because the bath water had left a pink stain all over my tub.  Not happy about that especially since I had JUST CLEANED IT BEFORE THIS BATH.  Use this only in a hotel. ;-)
  • If you like your hand soap to suds up a lot, I'd recommend skipping their bar soaps.  However, you are missing out on some killer great scents.  Honey I Washed The Kids soap and Rock Star are my two favorite bar soaps.  You can't beat those scents.
  • This eye cream, Enchanted Eye Cream, is inconsistent. Since their products are hand made, I experienced a difference in this.  The first bottle I ever bought, I loved it.  The second bottle?  Not so much.  It was much thinner and didn't work well.  It actually didn't work at all.  I SHOULD have taken it back to the store and gotten a replacement.  A sales person told me that since they are hand made, that batch may not have been the same, so I should have brought it back.  So that is really my fault, but I had purchased it while on an out of town trip.  I could have called them.  But I'm still not going to purchase it again.  At one point in time, I did love it though.
I used to misunderstand their Shower Jellies.  And then one birthday, the daughter of Mrs. Irritation picked out a shower jelly especially for me.  She chose a Halloween themed jelly in my favorite color, neon green!  I learned that if you smoosh it into a shower scrubby, it lathers up really well and works really great!  Viola!  I love them now.  I do not freeze them to use in the shower, like they suggest.  That's just too high maintenance for me, if a bath product needs to be kept in the freezer.  My freezer is on the other side of the house for crying out loud.

Here's my little protégé.  Mrs. Irritation sent this pic one time they were in a LUSH thinking of me.  Her daughter loves the store as much as I do:

I do love their 9-to-5 to wash off eye makeup.  It's so gentle.  I just use it in the shower on my eyelids.  Another product I love is their lip scrub, Sweet Lips, which was another mandatory item when living in the desert.

I am a certifiable LUSH fanatic! If you have never been and have a LUSH accessible to you, GO, GO NOW!!!!  Or shop online.  I have absolutely no idea what you are waiting for, an engraved invitation?  I'm working on it.  But go now!

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Flash Back In Time

We watched a movie tonight. The movie is a year old, cause honestly? We aren't real current on movies. We literally have movies produced in the past 10-15+ years that we haven't watched. Current movies produced today... We'll be watching in several years.  It's just the way life goes.

We watched the light hearted adventure comedy, Paul. The movie was OK. It had a few cute moments and a few funny moments I laughed out loud.  I can't remember what they are today, so it wasn't overly fabulous, but it wasn't a waste of 2 hours of my life.  That isn't in itself blog worthy.

You guys, what transported me back instantaneously to 1980 was the song at the end. ELO All Over The World. I was immediately transported back into like a 5th grader when I knew every single word to the Xanadu record. I lived for and loved that movie.  I loved Olivia Newton-John, the music, the clothes (leg warmers!), the roller skating; I loved EVERYTHING about that movie.  I wanted to be Olivia.  She was so romantic and beautiful to my pre-teen self.  During the winter months when I couldn't be at the local public swimming pool growing gills, I was at the skating rink. I LOVED to roller skate. I can't tell you why, but just hearing that ELO song tonight got me all choked up remembering that movie before I could consciously even recognize the memory. Somehow, it had a profound impact on me. What the impact was, I don't really know. 

What's ironic is that we just found my old LP from back then--the very record I listened to over, and over, and over.  Now I need to buy a record player.  Do you recognize this cover?
olivia newton john  :: Xanadu - Original Sound Track

On one hand, I'd like to watch the movie again. But on the other hand (maybe my dominant hand) I'd like to keep it a sweet childhood memory. It could never possibly live up to my memories, so why ruin it. The fantasy in my head skates on!

Do you remember Xanadu? Did you live at the skating rink too?