thus and so . . .

this little gem appeared in my mail box this morning and since i just happened to have some shrimp in the freezer, game on.

to be fair, kidlet was a little bewildered by the greenness of the gremolata.  and since mother nature was a tad on the drippy side, i cooked indoors.  instead of angel hair, i steamed some fresh corn on the cob.  and i may have squeezed just one too many lemon wedges but, it is a do again for me.  and again, and again.  slurp.  please try it.

while on the topic of food, i have plummeted into breakfast bliss:  vanilla yogurt, red raspberries and granola. another 5 star slurp. 

and then there was Lee.  i understand her insanity.  it's right in queue with mine.  she had a friend celebrating a birthday and in the spirit of camaraderie,  this was the result:

let's not discuss the removal of the fake tats, the studded dog collar or the mop mane.  it was all fun.

and last but not least, i got my hair trimmed today.  by end of summer, it should be back in a short bob.  goodbye baldness . . .

it was a good day in the cave.  wishing the same for you and yours.

now, fess up, you knew . . .

that with all these new shots of Kidlet, there were going to be a bunch of layouts.  here is numero uno:

credits:  paper and transparency: katie pertiet, masks: anna aspnes,  overlay: me.

while i haven't been the best at keeping up with my new Jana Morton class, at least i am finally learning how to blend.  and i love this series of photos of Kidlet.  color me happy.

memorial day 2012 . . .

did you remember?  memorial day?  did i hear a collective yes?  thought so.  thank you.

and so we did what most of us Florida rednecks do . . .  the one of us who most dislikes getting wet being relegated to grilling in the rain . . .  we noshed on hot dogs, hamburgers, ribs, corn on the cob, baked beans, cole slaw, salad, french fries, onion dip and chips and some very patriotic cupcakes.  thanks Craig for standing in the rain.

and then we did the impossible and i am proud of all of us.  we all put our big people knickers on and cleaned out the 9TS's closet.  we bagged everything up and tomorrow it will all be picked up by AmVets. 

to be truthful, we all kept a couple of mementos that we each could not part with.  for me, it was his very old, very worn, navy blue wool sports coat.  in essence, it is he.  i will never wear it neither will i let it go.

thanks to his son, his brother, his granddaughter, his daughter-in-law and of course kidlet for pitching in.  i couldn't have done it without you.

and now just to change the subject to something happier, look at the seaweed i shot at the beach during the 'golden hour'.  OK, so i am ga-ga over some slimy greenery.  things could be worse.

beach baby . . .

my mother day's present from kidlet has not changed in the last three or four years and it is just perfect.  what you ask????  'a photo shoot', i reply.

this year i asked her to bring home her gray strapless and we waited for the weather to clear and the golden hour to appear and off we went to the beach:

i think this will keep me occupied doing layouts for a couple of months . . .

and just so you know it wasn't all hard work:

and . . . AND . . . I still have two more sessions.  makes me happy, happy, happy.

fingers crossed . . .

there has been a considerable lack of Italian cuisine around the cave in the last few months.  lest you were unaware, the 9TS was in charge of all the culinary masterpieces from that part of the world.  when i peppered him with questions, he, like his mother before him, would mutter, 'some of this and a little of that'.  not a lot of help.  now it must be understood that neither of them was being contrary, it was simply the way they cooked. 

but for the Christmas of 2010, his gift to kidlet was his recipe for gravy and all the pots, pans, dry good etc to make it.  it was like pulling teeth to get it onto paper but the sloth happily poured the 'right' amount of each spice into his palm, from whence, i grabbed it and translated it into measurable amounts.  yes, we partnered in strange ways. 

today, i decided what the heck, let's have ziti with gravy for dinner.  it still has two and a half hours to simmer but i am looking forward to some good marinara.

poor kidlet.  in the years BS (before sloth), her vision of 'sketti sauce came from a bottle with browned burger added.  little did she know when she had the real thing that meatballs were much larger than the little lumps she was used to.  she has also cultivated a love of pecorino romano. it is not safe alone in the fridge without benefit of lock and key.

fingers crossed that all goes well and we don't have to hit MickyD for dinner.

7 days in may 2012 - day 5

Today's challenge was to use a set of papers provided by Linda Roos and a very specific color palette:

look familiar?  These are the beautiful flowers Stacie sent me for Mother's Day.  Thanks again, Stacie.

the women in my life . . .

the second edition of the Aqua Virgins 'do or drown' was held this morning.  it seems neither Joanie nor i were bright enough light bulbs to remember all of Lee's instructions from our initiation and thus Lee sallied forth to right our wrongs and straighten our sails . . .

and we did it.  an hour and a half of water aerobics in ye old watering hole.  were there monkeyshines?

well, maybe a few.

 see what my friends do behind my back?!?!  Thank God for the women in your life. i do.

7 days of may - day 4 . . .

today, Liv shared a freebie brush set and told us we needed to repeat something three times.  could have been a photo, color, verbiage.  since Addison was a trapped rat for my camera, i decided to feature him doing his warm up pushups:

Credits:  Paper: Katie Pertiet, Stitches and Journaling Block: Anna Aspnes, Brushes: LivE, Alpha: Roben-Marie Smith.

day 3 of 7 days in may . . .

The only requirement was to use a Linda Roos template.  That left the field wide open.  and out popped my crab again.

All elements by Anna Aspnes.

seven days in may . . .

is a yearly tradition over at jessicasprague.com.  It started yesterday and each day another challenge is given. 

day one, we needed to use just one photo, three papers and a quote:

day 2 included the use of a diptych . . . two photos that function better as a pair than as stand alone shots:

one of my favorite days in Italy. 

I'm also in the middle of another course from Jana Morton but I'm running a bit behind on that one.

happy birthday to Nancy . . .

well belatedly.  she has been missing in action lately so we are three weeks late celebrating her day.  Look at these wonderful little goodies we scarfed down for dessert, complete with trick candle that kept relighting:

lets talk about raspberry cheese cake, carrot cake and key lime pie.  ooooooh, La's is so good.

They are also completely awesome.  A couple of weeks back, I ordered the lunch special of the day.  A chicken caprese sammie on ciabatta bread with spinach, tomato, fresh buffalo mozzarella, pesto and a splash of reduced balsamic vinegar glaze.  faint.

The fresh mozzarella was a one time thing but not to be deterred, I ordered it again with regular slices of mozzarella.  Good but nothing like the original.  Gron, the kitchen guru, told me that if I called before nine in the morning, they would try and get me my mozzarella, so this morning I took them up on their offer and ta da!!!!!!

talk about being completely and utterly spoiled.  what yumminess for my tumminess. 

p.s.  the fresh fruit was so ripe and sweet.  drool.

p.p.s.  happy birthday Nancy!!!!

again with the stuff . . .

we had some excitement just outside the cave this week.  FBI. SWAT. POLICE. SHERIFF.  Oh, how the 9TS would have been in his element. 

finally.  finally.   i braved Carrabba's armed with kidlet, my BIL and his very significant other.  it was actually quite lovely.  like coming home.  i realized just how much i missed my every friday night haunt.  and jen.  jen.  she baked me my favorite chocolate cookies.  you can literally taste the goodness of each ingredient.  slurp. drool. slobber.

kidlet left for the weekend to spend some time with friends.

i am babysitting my three favorite beasties plus one while their parents celebrate a birthday out-of-state.  par for the course, athena loves me:

Athena loves me, this I know,
because her hissing tells me so.
Little growls to her belong
they are low but she is strong.

Yes, Athena loves me!
Yes, Athena loves me!
Yes, Athena loves me!
The hissing tells me so.

Athena loves me! loves me still,
'tho I'm heading for the hill,
that I might from bites be free,
scrambling up upon the tree.

Yes, Athena loves me!
Yes, Athena loves me!
Yes, Athena loves me!
The hissing tells me so.

Athena loves me! She who cried
from her mouth so open wide;
She will bite me on my chin,
let her little teeth sink in.

Yes, Athena loves me!
Yes, Athena loves me!
Yes, Athena loves me!
The hissing tells me so.


Athena loves me! She will stay
close beside me all the way.
She hast snapped and snarled at me,
I will henceforth hide from She.

Yes, Athena loves me!
Yes, Athena loves me!
Yes, Athena loves me!
The hissing tells me so.

i sort of wish she didn't love me quite so much.


the plus one on the other hand is THE most adorable love.  a sweet, slightly cross-eyed siamese named yum yum.  


peace out, cowgirls.

electric koolaid kitten . . .

I want food.  Give me food or I will melt you with my x-ray eyes.  Pet me.  Pet me or I will melt you with my x-ray eyes.  Feed me, pet me.  Or else.  Meow.  zap!!

aqua virgins . . .

 
As you know, Joanie and I have been doing our five mile treks four mornings a week for over a year now and we have detected two eminent fallacies in our strategy.

The first being that although our walks are, without a doubt, beneficial, they do little for our upper bodies and trust me, even at our age, bat wings are not in vogue.  Under this category also falls 'sock tans'.  And no, at 63, I am neither a golfer nor a jock.  I like one solid color from the top of my legs to the bottom of my little painted piggies. Vanity, oh sweet vanity.

The other, of course, being that we are entering Florida's hot and muggy season, which will last a mere six months.  Along with sweat collecting on my eyebrows and then dripping with regularity down the inside of my glasses until I am blinded and have fallen off the sidewalk, the sweat is also apparently attractive to mosquitoes, who are fighting the turkey vultures for size and voracity.  They especially like the back of my neck and that soft spot behind my knees, both of which are vulnerable while stopping to feed the turtles.  I do not look good in polka dots. 

To remedy the situation, we invited our good buddy Lee to come over and instruct Joanie and I in the art of water aerobics, Lee being Aqua Queen of the South and all.   We figured water aerobics would eliminate the outpouring of salt droplets from our bodies, put a stop to being food for another swarm of airborne blood suckers and eradicate white foot syndrome, to say nothing of tightening up the flab kidlet so kindly refers to as Mushy-Mush. 

Donned with color coordinated 'noodles' . . . Joanie looking very spiffy with her purple 'noodle' accenting her purple floral suit . . .  and our empty plastic milk bottles, class began.  As Lee led us through a series  of struts, frog like maneuvers, splits and Radio City worthy high kicks, she covered the gamut of under water exercises to tantalize, tone and tan.  An hour later, with Lee still going strong, Joanie and I crept up the pool stairs and plopped our dragging butts onto chaise lounges.  The least I could do was offer up Bloody Marys and fresh fruit.  Reinforced with alcohol, we deemed the session a rousing success and gleefully thanked Lee, our new mentor and queen.  She, not to be out done, dubbed us Aqua Virgins.  And thus, the pool is officially open . . . let the fun begin!!!!

pretty in pink . . .

kidlet, who is spending most of the summer with me, ran back up to her place today for an outing and arrived home with a box.  not just any old box, but a box packed with full on yumminess.

as you can see, i was on that puppy like flies on a poop a cow, before kidlet reminded me to take a shot . . . a reoccurring problem i admit:

and since i was too excited to run upstairs to get my real camera, my cell was called to action.

inside?  inside?  O.M.G!!!  kidlet had remembered my moaning about not having a dedicated cupcake shoppe:

the first one in my mouth was the raspberry.chocolate.nut.something.else.really.good that i snarfed down with exceptional speed.  moan.

next will be the mint chocolate, or maybe the red velvet, or the chocolate cream, or . . . or . . . or!

maybe i will waddle my next five miles.

thank you, kidlet.  my hips and i love you to pieces and back!!!!

stuff number 9,752 . . .

Thursday, Lee and Joanie and I went to lunch at a neat little place in the marina.  The outside seating consisted of what I thought were just booths, but turned out to be covered gliders . . . I'm thinking in case you didn't get enough of a rocking sensation overlooking the intercoastal . . . or maybe if you had trouble getting your sea legs once off your boat???? 

Lunch was good and plentiful and the view, heck, I'll share:

 

 

It would be hard for anything to not taste good here. 

p.s.  when Kidlet was young, the place was called something different and as with most little kids, they get easily bored when sitting with mom, dad and grandpa, so the next time we went, the 9TS pulled a little wad out of his pocket after Kidlet was finished eating.  It contained a bit of fishing line and a hook stuck in a small cork.  A little left over chicken and Kidlet was happily fishing off the dock while we enjoyed each others company.  Yay sloth!!!!

Change of subject!  My new dishwasher was installed today.  Double YAY!!!  Now I won't have to wash everything twice.  How pitiful that I get excited about a new dishwasher.  Snort!!

And saving the very best for last, these arrived this morning!!!!

 

 Thank you, thank you, thank you, Stacie, who knows how much I love spring flowers!!!!!

the power of cabbage . . .

Kidlet loves corned beef and cabbage.  It is one of her favorite meals.  Well, to be truthful, let me edit that statement.  Kidlet loves corned beef and taters.  Cabbage, not so much.  So first thing this morning, I popped the brisket into the crock pot along with some onions, taters and carrots and left it alone to do its thing.

About five something, something, I got hungry but Kidlet's tummy had not yet registered empty/slash/starving.  :She only has two settings:  So I grabbed the cabbage, sliced it into crescents and tossed it into a frying pan along with juice from the crock pot and turned it on to braise. 

Twenty minutes later, while salivating down the right corner of my mouth, I made myself a plate of the above mentioned goodies and headed to the living room to nosh.  Since cabbage and Kidlet are not buds, I left the lid on the pan but turned off the heat.  Something I think I must have done a thousand times before.

This time however, mid meal, I hear a large sucking groan from the kitchen.  Not the type of sound that bodes good news.  With concern plastered on my face, I ran to the kitchen, to find the following:

and no, my lid does not typically look like a silver plated pug with cabbage innards. 

Ascertaining that nothing lethal had occurred, I went back to my dinner before attacking the issue at hand.

After trying a hot water bath followed by a dip in the freezer, I finally pried the lid off the pan.   The pan has survived, the lid had met its maker.

The power of cabbage now scares the willies out of me.  Is this what my insides threaten to do without Beano?  The ramifications are endless . . .

cravings . . .

Kidlet was craving the 9TS's shrimp aioli . . . or maybe it was me but it would be a huge reminder of who wasn't making it.   To skirt around the issue, I checked recipes for shrimp scampi that came with tons of kudo's and since I am a huge fan of Tyler Florence, I decided to give it a go.

Of course it was different.  Good but not the same.  I would make it again because I loved the white wine infused with garlic, shallots and lemon.  Kidlet was not so happy.  It reminded her too much of her daddy's dinner.

Tomorrow we are going with an old favorite sauteed without memories: corned beef and cabbage!

Tomorrow we are also on the hunt for a new dishwasher.  This one has seen better days and needs to move onto greener pastures . . . ones that actually washes the dishes.  Wish us luck, I almost fainted when I saw how much the prices had risen in 12 years.  EEK!!!

pippin and bear

two short months . . .

Yesterday as Joanie and I were headed for the home stretch of our morning walk, dripping in sweat and literally, quite soggy, Joanie spied a Florida Soft Shell turtle about 500 feet from his pond, apparently stuck in a sandy stretch of what we Floridians call lawn.  We looked for a while and decided he needed help back to his watery nest.  I was elected.  Now, this was no small turtle but I grabbed him with one hand on each side and lifted him up and out in front of me and headed pondward.  He was very docile and appreciative until he could see his puddle whence we parted company in one giant leap.

Joanie and I mused as to why he wandered so far from home and why he was headed toward the highway but nature being nature, our brains went on to other things.

This morning, as we walked out of the neighborhood and down the street, we could see a convention of turkey buzzards in front of the nursing home that houses the pond.  I think Joanie and I gasped at the same time.  No, it could not be our turtle, so lovingly saved the morning before but as we walked closer, it became quite obvious that it was indeed our wayward reptile.  His gyroscope must have taken a hit somewhere along the way and modern machinery took its toll.  Sigh.

But as I looked down at our lost friend, I started to cry.  I cried because we tried to help him and he still died.  I cried because the doctors tried to help the 9TS and he still died.  I cried because I'm not sure I still believe in God and that is a lot to lose in two short months.

art in the park . . .

this morning, Joanie, Kidlet and I headed out for the 40th Art in the Park . . . again, not a huge art show but fun to look around and the aroma of kettle korn makes me swoon.

But first, I couldn't resist a few shots of this guy because after all, nature is the best art.  

 is not he amazing!!!

remember the crabby guy from the last art show who wouldn't let me take any pictures of his animal leather????  Guess who didn't ask this time?

 Summer finally hit our section of the state.  89 degrees and kidlet was parched, as were we all.

but she perked up.  :o)

I took a lot more shots but other than this guy, who was missing some of his anatomy, there wasn't a lot to see:

oh, and I bought Kidlet a hippy t-shirt and then decided what the hey, and being totally inappropriate, bought one for myself too. 

annie oakley and calamity jane . . .

Thursday evening, Craig, Stephanie, Kaitlyn, Kidlet and I headed to the gun range.  Yeehaw and color my neck red, but boy, did we have fun.  And since the 9TS wanted me to be proficient, proficient I will be and that means practice.

Kidlet is really into the whole gun thing.  She did a great job with the little .32 and the .327 and moved over to Craig and his weapons of choice, all of which were considerably bigger:

But because I am still happier shooting with a camera rather than a gun,  Kaitlyn and I departed early in the Miata to start dinner and homework.  While little K crammed for her Spanish test, I fiddled with  the requisite dogs and burgers, sweet corn on the cob, fries, baked beans and chocolate cake.  Well, actually, I cheated and made Craig do the grillin'.  Talk about five stuffed happy rednecks waddling around the pool . . .