College Spirit

Meet Bosco, my college boy's pup. He's modeling the CSU cycling team's new jersey. I'm sure he's happy for the cover up-- it looks cold. And this dog does like to get under the covers.

Thanksgiving Ideas

I'm casting about for some Thanksgiving recipe ideas.

This cake has the whole meal on one plate. From the originator: "Whether this Thanksgiving centerpiece incites horror, amazement, or confusion when it’s served, it’s certain to evoke some kind of outburst. Warning: This dish is not recommended for people who require an inch of space between food groups." Recipe here.

Thanks to blogger pal Toad, we can also have dessert in like fashion.


Directly from Toad's post: "To stay in the true spirit of the feast offer to bring Cherpumple, the turducken of desserts. Cherumple is a 3 layer cake (yellow, spice, white) with a pie baked in each layer (cherry, pumpkin, apple). Recipes are plentiful, look around, I won't help." Toad also offers other insightful comments, as usual.

This Made Me Laugh

This made me laugh. ADG, I thought of you in particular.

http://www.danoah.com/2010/11/get-out-your-money.html?ref=nf

The Halloween Post

The Burger King and his queen. This was fun, even as I realized the bright-eyed boy is now about two inches taller than me. Maybe you can tell by the mask in his left hand, he was the Burger King king. Best friend #1 was Ronald McDonald, and #2 best friend was Col. Sanders. They are too funny. My dad came for lunch on Sunday to see Troy dressed in his costume, so of course we had to go to the nearest Burger King (not nearby, by the way) to get lunch. You would have thought a gen-u-wine celebrity had landed in the restaurant. The little kids were clapping their hands together and pointing, "There's the KING!!" The manager and all the counter ladies came around front with their cameras to have their pictures taken with "the King." And to top it all off, they only charged me half for all but Troy's meal, and let Troy have whatever he wanted from the menu for free. McDonalds and KFC were not nearly so gracious later in the evening when their mascots visited.

Here are all four, I mean, three, amigos.
A good time was had by all, and there's enough candy in the house to take us through to Easter.

The Last of the Tomatoes

As opposed to The Last of the Mohicans. My tomatoes look like shit. I had to take the whole shebang down. In this photo you can see my basil peeking through, and one last pink holdout of of fruit.


So in the aftermath of taking down the four plants I had inside of a two foot radius, I had more ripening tomatoes than I could see from a foot away, and LOTS of greenies. More than I got a picture of. I guess it's time for Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. Yummm!

In other cooking news, tonight's menu is bean and chicken sausage stew. Chicken sausage (duh), cannellini beans, tomatoes, and kale. yummm.

:-)

Fresh Eyes

I mentioned in my last post that I broke my glasses. It was time for a check up anyway, so the bright-eyed boy and I headed off to the optometrist last week. Troy was along for the ride so we could hunt down some Halloween costume elements. He thought it was quite amusing to watch me jump when they blasted my eyes with the evil eye-blaster machine, and was quite good-natured about helping me pick out new frames.

Me: How about these?

Him: They really accentuate the bags under your eyes.

Me: hmmmmf.

I also let the good doctor talk me into trying monovision. Seems I'm not ready for reading glasses yet, but I do now have to take my glasses off whenever I'm reading or using the computer. He gave me a lens for my right eye to over-correct my distance vision. I don't have anything in my left eye, presumably so it can cover the close up work. We tried this a couple of years ago, but I had to admit that I didn't give the experiment the full two week trial he prescribed. I'm determined to stick it out the full two weeks this time, but I have to admit, I'm not convinced this is for me. I feel like I'm not seeing distance OR close up very well, especially on the computer, and especially-especially numbers. Made balancing the check book in Quicken yesterday very tedious. Not that I love doing that particular chore in any circumstance, but having to squint and move closer to the screen, then farther, then back again, got very tiring.

The new frames will be in this week. I'll take Troy in for his check up Thursday, pick up my new frames, and I think I'll tell the good doctor that my brain isn't adjusting to this like he said it would. Maybe it's just me, but what's the point of going to the trouble of using contact lenses if I'm going to need reading glasses when I use them?

Double Vision

I broke my glasses at the Renaissance Festival a couple of weeks ago. grrrr. I knew going in to the Fair (even if Russ didn't) that I was going to buy a dress. I wasn't sure if it was going to be a wench-y sort of dress or what, but my friend Lucy had talked me into it. We looked at the wenchier varieties, but I wasn't satisfied. A little too, I don't know, Stevie Nicks, for my taste.


I didn't even really want to try anything on in the first shop. Then, across the compound, I saw a shop with more what I was looking for. The first dress I tried on wasn't right, but then I found one I loved. You really do need somebody to help dress you. I didn't get a good picture of the laced up back, but it does bring Mamie in Gone with the Wind to mind


The wonderful lady who helped me was very informative. Anybody who saw you in this get up (back in the day, that is) knew you were somebody with some money because you have to have at least one ladies maid to help lace you in. She was very business-like in her instructions. Sheer underdress goes on first, tucked into the lacy petticoat. Silk overdress goes on top. Silk underdress sleeves get pulled out. Then I have to cross my arms and "grab the girls" (her exact instructions) and lift while she was pulling on the laces in the back. It was so tight. I'm not hugely endowed, but what I have was (almost) all out there. I kept tugging the underdress up. Bff Lucy says it takes some getting used to. Yeah. Anyway, here's the dress. I think you can click on it to get a closer view. What fun. I immediately had to get a tankard of beer.


Anyway, after getting all laced up, I had to gather up my purse, jeans, t-shirt, etc. Nice lady was going to hold onto my street clothes for me, but I couldn't find my glasses. When I finally got to the bottom of the pile of petticoats, underdresses, and skirts, there they were, crushed under my heel in the little dressing room. Oh well. Wouldn't have looked right anyway.

I had to stop back by the shop to change back into a pumpkin before the drive home. When Nice Lady unlaced me, I let out a huge sigh of relief. She laughed, and said, "In this business, we call that a bodice-gasm." Perfectly appropriate.