I Wanna...

...be an interesting blogger...have great pictures of fantastic meals to post...blog about the myriad of books I've read recently...post pictures of all the amazing decorating feats I've performed using free/nearly free/or found objects while having one hand tied behind my back as I'm on vacation to some exotic place.  Um, not gonna happen.  My days are anything but exciting.  Get up at 5 a.m..  Leave the house at 7 a.m.. Commute to my big girl job.  Put in a full day working for 3 bosses and the needs of 32 people in our department.  Come home pooped and still try to put together a nutritious, healthy and inexpensive meal.  Take care of the needs of my 11 yo grandson who is with us most days after school until up to 7:30 at night.  Wash face.  Brush teeth.  In bed by 9:30 p.m.  Repeat.  Hmmmm, wonder why you don't see any interesting pictures on my blog?  That's why.  I wanna  visit from my fairy godmother.

Pantry Challenge Week 4

 

 

One of these days I'm going to find more time to blog (famous last words!).  I've  taken the Pantry Challenge and even though I've done well at cleaning out the pantry and not buying much, I've been hitting some great meat stock up prices for the freezer.  My freezers overfloweth!  Because of this, I plan to average my spending over two weeks.

 

Humorous story, we made a quick Costco run yesterday and I'm trying to just buy things we absolutely need.  The main reason I needed to go was for some beauty/health products. As I'm deciding I don't need some of the things on my list DH looked at me and said "are we having a money problem?".  I laughed and said no, I'm just trying to use what we have and not spend extra.  It's a challenge.  He doesn't get it.  He does not  budget or plan!  Need I say more?

 

Today is a holiday for me so I'm going to cook and shred some chicken in the crockpot.  DH likes to have meat to throw in a burrito if we need to make a meal quickly.  I'm going to make some chicken tortilla soup and freeze some lunch size portions for work. Dinner tonight will be bbq half of a London Broil we bought we for 47 cents (I had a $10 off coupon and say WE because I was sick so dh went to the store for me), with an oriental slaw.  Tuesday will be baked or bbq'd chicken breasts and baked potato (sweet potato for me).  To be honest, I haven't thought further than that.  I have a bazillion things to accomplish around the cottage on my day "off" so I guess I'd better get cracking.

 

Join me at Good Cheap Eats Pantry Challenge to see how everyone is doing.

 



Clean Pantry = Ahhhhhhhh

Please tell me I'm not the only one in blogland with an out.of.control pantry.  And tell me I'm not the only one that can spend 5+ hours purging, cleaning and organizing your pantry.  But most of all, tell me if you fit in the first two categories you stand back like I do and open the pantry door and sigh a big ahhhhhhhhh.  The Prodigal Son thinks I'm weird.  So be it.

 

Here's proof of the pudding of how bad my little walk in pantry was:

 

 

 

There isn't any way to take a picture of the entire pantry at once.  It's in the corner of the kitchen with the doorway at an angle.  It is 3.5 feet by 5 feet.  The ceiling is 10 ft. high.  Son #1 and I were going to add a shelf up high for storage of items that are only used a few times a year.  I bought the wrong supports.  The shelf has been sitting in my garage for two years.  It's on my "to do" list.

 

And here is the big TA DA:



   

Can I have a big AHHHHHHH? Am I the only one that just feels like her world is in order because the pantry is in order? Doesn't matter. It doesn't take much to amuse me.



New year, new beginnings.

 

 

 

 

An hour long walk along the Pacific Ocean can really clear the brain and give one a little perspective on life and the beauty of His majesty.  I can't imagine looking at that view and doubting God's existance.  It felt so good to enjoy the cold wind on my face and the mist of the surf and give my legs a good workout.

 

I realize that I really fell short on some personal relationships this past year.  I'm hoping to start fresh with this new year and make some meaningful changes in my life.  I've entered a little different phase this year as I try to gear down and look forward to retirement in 2015.  The biggest problem I have is learning how to gear down!  I'm so used to having twenty things on my plate at once that it is very difficult for me to focus on just one or two important things at a time.

 

Goal #1 - finish painting the big hutch in the breakast room and clean out and organize the pantry and cabinets.  When you have five people putting things away in the kitchen, it can all become a jumble. 

 

Goal #2 - organize the office.  This past fall we painted the entry, den, living room, main hall, kitchen/breakfast room, hall bath and small hall and put hardwood floors in all of those spaces except the kitchen/breakast room.  I painted the office which became the nursery before Munchkin #2 inhabited the room and now we need to move in the computer hutch, my desk (which I have to paint) and have grandma's old platform rocker slip covered.  While this is being done I'll be taking old paperwork to a shred event and organize said desks.  I'm an administrative assistant by trade so being organized is very important to me.

 

I could go on with more goals but if I can accomplish these two major goals (that involve a bunch of mini goals) in January and February, I'll be a happy camper.  Can you tell organization is very important to me?  I just need some calm in my life and absence of clutter.  Have you set any goals for yourself in 2013?



 

 



 

 

 

Ah yes, the infrequent blogger strikes again!  Yes, life has been crazy.  But somehow I still survive and on it goes.  I won't bore you with the details, but life has changed dramatically (again) for us this past 4 months.  I've many things to share over the next days (weeks...months???).  But like many people right now with the new year looming (2013 in another day?  really?), I reflect on goals for the new year.  The Prodigal Son, Cute Redhead, Munchkin #2 and Devil Dog moved out in August.  I don't need to buy or cook food in the quanitities I did before.  I have self imposed dietary restrictions and the Comedian watches his portions and carbs too.  The Queen Bee?  Well, she'll pretty much eat anything (and everything. except burritos. go figure.) that are put in front of her.  Sorry, I'm getting windy here.  The whole point is, I'm joining the Pantry Challenge so I can #1, clean out the pantry and freezer, #2 lower the grocery bill this month (I was able to get it down to $270 last month) and #3 be a better steward of what we have.  Since tomorrow we as a nation will probably be going over the Fiscal Cliff, I'm going to try to tighten up our fiscal belt at the Cottage and hope for the best (nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?).  I dare you to try it too!

Food for Life?

How's your "food plan" (I refuse to use the word diet) working for you?  I've been working on mine for the last 3+ months and have been doing very well.  I'm following the "slow carb" method from the book The 4 Hour Body.  I have to admit I'm a bit of a junky about reading books on diet and nutrition.  I don't want to EVEN go through the long laundry list of "food plans" I've been on the in the past 40+ years.  Yep, tried many, MANY of them.  So back to my original thought.  Since I'm home for the long weekend and the weather is a bit on the cool side, I decided to download a movie from Netflix yesterday.  My daughter told me Super Size It is an interesting movie but unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) it wasn't available for download.  Up came a list of movies Netflix suggests as being in the same genre.  Here's the one I decided to watch:



Besides being thoroughly entertained, it was chock full of very interesting information.  It reminded me of how Big Brother (read that our government) doesn't think we can decide for ourselves what is best for us and our loved ones.  Give me a break!  Who are they to come in like the Twinkie Police if we should decide to down one or two or a dozen of the fat loaded treats?  It makes me want to find a cave or deserted island to get away from the madness.  Anywho, I feel like I'm on the right track with my food plan.  How's yours working for you? 

Down the Rabbit Hole

I feel a little like Alice in Wonderland, going down, down, down the rabbit hole.  The rabbit hole of Pinterest.  I've resisted until this past week and Lord have mercy, I could stay up all night looking at the images!  I'm a very visual person.  I love being able to pin all of my decorating ideas on boards so I can gather it all in one place. 

We're currently redecorating the family room/den.  I mean starting from scratch baby.  The paint color and new hardwood flooring has been picked out.  One chair and lamp bought and the entertainment unit on order.  We'll order the sofa, chair and half, occasional chair and cocktail table in April.  I have two pieces of furniture to paint (after getting one reglued).  The big basket from Pottery Barn will be ordered today.  The last piece of the puzzle will be to find an area rug.  Click the Pinterest button above to take you to my boards.

What's on Your Reading List?



I love my Kindle Fire!  I read the Hunger Games a couple of days ago and started the second book in the trilogy, Catching Fire,  yesterday and will finish it this morning.  I go back to work tomorrow so probably won't get to read Mockingjay, which is the last book in the trilogy, until this weekend.  I need to get some things done around the house (like clean, yuck) but I'd rather be reading!

Christmas Confession

I have a confession to make.  Christmas is one of my least favorite holidays.  Mind you, it's not the meaning behind the reason we celebrate Christmas that makes me dislike it...it's all the hoopla, craziness, overkill of buy, Buy, BUY...bigger is better...more is better...make yourself crazy trying to be the "perfect" hostess, giving the "perfect" gift, yada yada yada.  I know I sound a little "Scroogish" but it's honestly how I feel.  It doesn't help when you're sick over the holidays.  I've already started to dismantle the decorations.  I like the clean feeling of the house after everything has been taken down, put away and scrubbed clean.  Fortunately we have a short winter here in the big valley (about 6 weeks).  I'll hunker down for the month of January enduring the fog (if we ever get any rain!) and cold weather.  Then as if magic about mid February the fruit trees start to blossom out.  By the end of February the Blossom Trail is resplendent in her colorful glory.  Ahhh, the promises of spring that will shortly follow. 

I hope your Christmas was everything you had wished for.  I think next year I'll spend mine on a Caribbean Island.

A Purging I will go, a purging I will go...

...hi ho the derrio, a purging I will go.  And I don't mean purging as in puking my guts out, lol.  I've had "stuffitis" these last few months and have been clearing stuff out and trying to reorganize in hopes of doing a little redecorating.  Even though I'm down and out with a nasty cold/sinus infection, I can still go through old magazines while sitting here and keep the (few) pages I want and toss the rest.  Really, with so much available to us online, why keep the mags?  Don't get me wrong, I love nothing more than to sit with a hot cup of coffee and peruse some beautiful pics in the magazines but my time is limited so I'm trying to scale down on purchasing magazines and either get the online version, or just use my blog perusing to satisfy my visual urges.  I have resisted getting bit by the Pinterest bug because I know once I do, I'll get NOTHING accomplished!

I've just ordered this set from Kohl's for our bedroom:

and am coveting this for the end of the bed (which the Comedian really likes too):



and I plan to move some accessories around and repaint the old roll top desk (which I have taken the roll top off of and plan to use my grandfather's desk chair).  Oh, so typical of me to have soooo many grandiose plans but will the time and energy follow?  Let's see how many things I can pull off before the end of this decade!!!

Agapantha Haircut

Do you know what an agapantha is?  This is an agapantha

They are really pretty planted in masses like they are around my front flower beds.  Pretty until your over zealous gardener decides to give them a haircut...down to the ground...arrrrrgggghhhh!!!   I think that was the last straw with the gardener.  Last year he gave my lavender bushes a haircut, they didn't survive.  The year before he gave some of my society garlics a haircut.  They were DOA when spring hit.  I have to TELL him when to prune my roses.  What is up with that?!!! I was having a really pathetic work week and this was the icing on the cake!  Help me Hannah!!!





Word for 2011

Last year my word for the year was BALANCE.  I'm not too sure how well I did with that word for the year.  I tried to strike balance between work, family, friends and me time.  Somehow I think the scales were more heavily tipped toward the work/family side.  My word for 2011 is:

D E L I G H T

I plan to delight in the Lord, delight in my family and delight in my job in 2011.  I have such a tendency to live in the future and not live in the moment and enjoy what is happening.  My mother always tells me not to wish my  life away.  With my 58th birthday looming in front of me I realize I need to be gratified with what I have, where I am.  Do you have a word for 2011?

It's That Time of Month Again

NO, not THAT time of the month, lol.  That hasn't happened to me in many years.  It's the last week of the month.  It's always a dreaded time for me.  You see, I get paid once a month (the downside of working in education).  Sooo, the last week of the month is when I start ahem, "creating" new meals/menus based on what's in the freezer and pantry.  Plus, to tell you the truth, I'm just pretty much out of motivation or inspiration.  That's not entirely true.  The motivation is the checkbook is pretty skinny right now.  The inspiration?  Na, that's not happening so much.  Plus our near 100 degree temps don't help one to be inspired (unless it's to eat out...which isn't happening!). 

A new "normal"

The past month has been a veritable blur.  So much time spent at the hospital...so much time spent at the bedside of a dying loved one...so much time spent making arrangements...so much time spent taking care of bills and paperwork that aren't even mine...so much time spent helping a loved one with memory loss adjust to her loss...loss of husband, loss of home, loss of self identity.  So we settle into our new "normal".  Through all of this I must say I have been very impressed and deeply touched at how well The Comedian has handled this new normal.  Today I took a vacation day to journey over to The Nana's house to clear things out so the The Bride and Groom can move in later this month.  We aren't ready to sell the house because of the poor housing market so we will rent it to them and know it is in good hands.  I have sooo many projects at the home front untouched and neglected.  My bills and paperwork are stacking up waiting for some attention.  I either want to bury my head in the sand or run screaming from all that needs to be done.  But I'll take each day as it comes.  Learning to deal with my new "normal".

When Life Gets Broken

Our hearts are broken yet we are rejoicing too.  The Papa has been called home to heaven to sit at Jesus' feet.  We are sad that he is gone from us but happy that he is no longer suffering.  It has been a long haul these past two years.  We are so thankful we were given many more months than originally anticipated.  We are very grateful to the fantastic care he received at St. Agnes Medical Center and through Hinds Hospice.  The people we dealt with have such an incredible gift.  Farewell Papa.  We'll see you on the other side!

A Bountiful Harvest

I'm sorry to disappear again after I said I was going to try to be better about blogging.  But I had a good reason.  The Papa is on his way out of this earthly world.  His leukemia has reared it's ugly head.  Between work and going to the hospital, I'm spent.

Today I tended to domestic chores and my sadly neglected garden.  Boy, you can't let that thing get out of control!  This is what I harvested this morning:

My tomatoes are going nutso.  I am growing four varieties.  The small cherry tomatoes are called sweet 100's and they are like eating candy!  The larger cherries didn't have a tag on them to tell me the variety but they are really good too.  I picked two small hot peppers (ya baby, there is salsa in my future), a green pepper and a zucchini.  We had the zucchini with ranch dip for dinner.  The larger tomatoes made an appearance in my lunch.

There is absolutely nothing better than a BLT with tomatoes fresh from the garden.  I can hardly wait till I can grow lettuce again.  It is still fairly hot here so I'll probably wait a week or two to plant the lettuce and spinach seeds.  I want to totally revamp the garden (the zucchini and tomato plants have totally taken over).  My basil is going gangbusters too so I'll probably make some pesto tomorrow.  Yummo!

Hot Weather Cooking

We are in summer mode here.  It is hot.  106 degrees hot.  We had a cool down to 101 today. What to do when the weather gets hot?  Cook your dinner on the grill with the help of the microwave.  I batched cooked lime marinade bs chicken breasts (equal parts lime juice (3 limes) and olive oil, liberally sprinkle in lime pepper and easy on the salt since lime is slightly salty).  Marinate over night for best flavor.  I cooked sweet corn on the cob in the microwave, sliced up some tomatoes from the garden and fixed these

(picture by Erin Chase at 5dollardinners.com)

Here is the link to the recipe: 
http://www.5dollardinners.com/2010/07/grilled-red-potatoes.html. They were sooo delish.  Next time I will cook them no more than 20 minutes or they will fall apart.  We have a charcoal grill so I put them over the hot part so they would get nice and crispy on the outside.   I served them with sour cream and fresh chives from the garden.  Wowsers, it's a do over for sure.

Giveaway at Ciera's Tattered Elegance

There's a fun giveaway at Ciera's Tattered Elegance. Click on her button above and leave a message for a chance to win a pink tool set (just what every woman needs!).

Buster Love

This is Buster, our newet family member. Um, new as of last August. Yep, once again I've convinced anyone reading this blog that I really suck at blogging. What I REALLY suck at is taking picture and getting them off of my camera. That's what I've spent the afternoon doing. But I digress. This adorable furry boy no longer looks like this. He is a little akin to a sausage these days. He is a Corgi mix and we've found out that Corgi's do like their chow time. The Comedian has to take him in next month for his checkup so diet is going to be amongst the discussion. Buster gets walked every day and during the nice weather it is usually twice a day. During this 106 degree heat he is getting his walk at 5:00 a.m. on work days. It is soooo hard to drag my rear end at that hour of the day but for the Buster Boy's sake, I do it.

Blessed and Cursed

The picture above was taken today (7/17/10) but the text below is from 5/26/10. Ok, I'm a lousy blogger!!!

Huh? Yep...I'm blessed and cursed. Blessed to live in the "Bread Basket of the World" where food grows abundantly. This valley grows a huge percentage of the world's food. Now here is the craziness...food can be more expensive to purchase here in our own backyard that it does in other parts of the nation. Our growing zone is 7-9 depending on what part of the valley you live in. Soooo, what is one to do? Why, grow your own food of course! Here it is the last week of May and my garden is going nuts!!! I will have an abundance of tomatoes, zucchini, crook neck squash, green beans, cucumbers and green peppers. Now here is the cursed part, it will very shortly be HOT and my spinach, lettuce and radishes will bolt and be no more (we've had a very cool, wet spring...so unusual for us). By August 1st some of the plants that are going nuts most likely will go belly up do to the extreme heat and I'll have to nurse them along. Good thing I like to get up early so I can work in the garden in the cool of the morning. I plan to revamp the garden this winter and plant raised beds and carefully study the sun/shade patterns on the north side of the house to determine what plants will go where next spring. But in meantime, here's what's growing in my garden.

My Aching Hands!!!

I love to garden. I have carpal tunnel syndrome. The two don't mix. After my hair appointment yesterday I stopped by one of the big box stores to pick up some bedding plants and veggies to finish off my veggie garden. I spent over 3 hours digging, planting and pruning. I now have 3 tomato plants, 1 bush bean, 2 zucchini (why can't I ever remember how to spell that word?), 1 yellow crook neck squash, 1 bell pepper, a couple mini rows of lettuce planted along the back fence and mini rows of radishes between the other plants. It is pretty much an experiment because this area is on the north side of the house but in the summer it gets lots of sunshine. The sun isn't in it's summer, full over the head position yet so it is a little shadier than I would like right now. We shall see how it all turns out. You should have seen me last night out around my bedding and veggie plants with a flashlight at 10:00 looking for the evil slugs/snails. We have been infested with the little boogers and I have been methodically hand picking and squishing them to rid them from my garden. I swear to you one night I picked off over 200 of them! I've found where they like to nest and diligently try to eradicate them from my yard. I try to take it easy with the "non-toxic" snail bait cause we have our fur babies that roam the yard. Fortunately the veggie garden is gated so I don't have to worry as much about the bait in there.

I really, REALLY need to go outside and doing a little more clean up planting (um, moving around of plants) around the pond but I'm afraid my poor old arms, hands and back won't be able to take it. I was up half the night last night in pain . Why I didn't go to bed with my hand brace on is beyond me (mentalpause moment). It is supposed to rain this afternoon (thus the hurry to get my new plants in the ground yesterday). The back yard will smell incredible after the rain with the orange, lemon and lime trees in full bloom. We still have a few pieces of fruit to pull off of the orange and lemon trees. It will be hard to say goodbye to my fresh citrus for another year.

LaurieAnna's Giveaway

I'm on vacation today and boy does it feel good! I'm having fun playing around on the computer and saw that LaurieAnna's Vintage Home has a great giveaway in honor of their 5th anniversary. The drawing is on the 5th so hurry over there and enter!

Whirl me up Scotty!

OK, OK, I know it should say "beam me up Scotty" but in honor of my big surprise birthday prezzie, I've changed it to "whirl" me up Scotty. You see, the comedian really pulled a big surpise on me and got me this for my birthday:

I'd been coveting one of these for a loooooong time but have been in frugalista mode and wasn't about to spend the money on one. It is hard to be mad at someone who #1 actually listened and got you something you actually wanted #2 got a fab price (and $30 Kohl's bucks to spend) and #3 he was sooooo proud of himself.

It's been a good birthday other than the fact that now I'm older than dirt (again!). The Prodigal Son and the Cute Redhead got me a new fancy coffee travel mug (I can never find a clean one around here when I want one and now everyone KNOWS I'm the sole user of my nifty new mug), the Bride took me to lunch, the Queen Bee and The Papa and The Nana gave me $$$$ (I see a shopping trip in my near future) and #1 Son is coming for dinner tonight (hey, it's ok that I made dinner cause it was his birthday Monday and my stew is one of his favorite meals). Today was a paid holiday from work and I'm taking Monday and Tuesday off as vacation days. Yaaaay me!!!

I Need This Pan!

I love great cooking utensils, pots and pans (ok, dishes, glasses and silverware too). Jerusalem over at "My Little Life" is giving away this Emeril cast iron pan. Get yourself over here and enter. But if you win, I'll be sad cause I really, really want it (ok, I'll really be happy for you but kinda jealous too).

Soup's On!

The thing I like about cold weather is soup. I could eat it EVERY night for dinner. I mean, come on, there are a bazillion different soup recipes! This is Alton Brown's lentil soup from the Food Network site. Tonight I made this lentil soup recipe (with a few alterations for personal preferences) and oh...my...goodness, was it ever good!!! Even The Comedian liked it. I could tell he was skeptical at first but after a couple of spoonfuls, he started scarfing it down. My changes were to use a combo of vegetable stock and chicken stock rather than water, add about 3/4 tsp. cumin and a little more salt. I also used the emmersion blender to get the texture and consistency I wanted. It is soooo healthy. It's a keeper for sure.

Wii Believe

I have to start off with a disclaimer. I'm not a game fan. As in video games, computer games, etc. But the Wii has made a believer out of me. Or should I say the Wii Fit Plus has. SIL/BIL got one for Christmas and they kept raving about it. Yesterday in a weak moment I agreed to pool resources (gifts cards and Christmas money) with The Comedian and The Prodigal Son to get one. I let them set it up and mess around with it last night. Mainly because I didn't want to set up my profile in front of everyone (it does an evaluation of your height/weight/age and a brief balance test to come up with your BMI and fitness age. The son's age was 44, my niece's age (and this is a cute little 31 yo who isn't overweight and appears fit) was 46 (she was NOT amused). I completed my evaluation round and my fitness age was ...49...not bad for a fat, 56 year old post menopausal woman, lol. I had a ton of fun figuring out some of the games, er, exercises. I really like the hula hoop and yee gads, 3 hours later I can feel it in my waist and hips. Hopefully I'll be motivated to get my carcass up out of bed a little earlier (like 4:45, yikes!) and get going on the weight loss and get healthier for the new year. Oh ya, I DO believe, baby!

Cookbook Giveaway

rI've been following Erin's blog "$5 Dinners" for quite sometime now. Although feeding five adults for $5 is certainly a challenge, I try to do what I can (Erin has two small children and her hubby). Anywho, she is giving away cookbooks to ten lucky people in the next two weeks. Enter here.

Remembering Buddy

The post below stayed in draft mode until today. It is the reason I took such a long hiatus from blogging. This fall was just pretty crappy and I didn't want to be a Debbie Downer. Hopefully my black cloud has found a new home and I'll getting back into blogging mode.

This week didn't go as planned. It was our much anticipated vacation week. The week we get giddy about when discussing the plans, or non-plans that is. We go with no expectations to one of favorite central coast cities with a stack of books, magazines and a devil may care attitude.

We left on Sunday and stopped at one of our favorite wineries along the way. We ate our favorite food, shopped, browsed, read on the beach and then ate some more. By Wednesday we were getting antsy to get home as we had left Buddy, our ailing cocker mix, at home in the care of our son. We had reservations to stay until Thursday and planned to stay late that day before heading home. After showering Wednesday morning I noticed that my perfume was missing. I never leave anything valuable in a hotel/motel room but had stuck my bottle of Estee Lauder Sensuous in my travel bag Tuesday morning and it stayed on the bathroom counter when we left. I guess the temptation was too great for the person cleaning our room. The odd thing is, when we returned back to the room Tuesday afternoon I just didn't feel the room was as clean as it should be. Was this person rushing through in fear we would return early and find them out? Who's to know. I was so upset by the theft the I told The Comedian I didn't want to stay there another night. I reported the theft to the office and told them we were checking out. We packed up and checked the room three times so we wouldn't leave anything behind. Wouldn't you know neither of us realized those were OUR pillows jumbled up on the bed with the rest of the bedding. They're the kind of pillows you pay a small fortune for but they really help your neck/back. The hotel called us after we returned home and said they would send them UPS.

What does this have to do with the title of my post? I'm getting there. When we got back home we found out Buddy hadn't eaten while we were gone. We got him to eat some boiled chicken and broth in his food but he didn't seem like he had much energy. Everything was such a great effort for him. For the next couple of days we babied him and prayed he would get better. His recent bout with pancreatitis seemed to wipe him out. The ER vet we saw two weeks ago when we took him for the pancreatitis (at 1 in the morning) was very concerned about his blood levels and heart murmur but when I followed up with our regular vet he was more concerned with the grossly enlarged kidney.

This morning at one in the morning Buddy started crying out and we rushed to the foot of our bed to find him in pain and barely able to move. There was fresh blood on the carpet. We rushed him to the ER vet again (what a wonderful facility we have in our city!). After examining him we had a long discussion with the attending vet about what we should do. We didn't want him to suffer. It appeared he had multiple problems and in a dog that is nearly 12 years old it didn't seem wise, or fair to him, to prolong his misery. In all of my years of being a pet owner I have never stayed with one of my animals when they were euthanized. We both decided we wanted to be there for Buddy. We loved on him and had a laugh when Buddy did his "courtesy" growl when I got too much in his space. After much agonizing we told them it was time and he left this world. Sleep didn't come for us last night. We tried, but there were just too many tears to sleep. I know there will come a time when we bring another dog into our life. It is so hard to imagine right now. Sadie (our 14 year old boxer mix) wonders where her "brother" has gone. Even Miss Mimi cat did something last night she has never done. When I was laying in bed after we saying goodbye to Buddy she came and curled up in the crook of my arm and put her head under my hand for a rub. This went on for a very long time. It is so strange how animals can sense things.

I feel like someone has cut off one of my appendages. It is like I'm walking around in a fog. Our little Buddy Bazoo isn't there when we walk through the door. Farewell good and faithful friend. I will always remember Buddy.

It's the Little Things

It's amazing how the little things in life can make you sooooo happy! Today, you would have thought I'd won the lottery. The Bride came to my downtown office and I took her to lunch on the mall. We had yummy Mexican food and had a little time to kill after we ate so we wandered over to the Goodwill store. Now, if you happen to read this blog, you might have read this post about thrift stores jacking up their prices. I was one of those ranters. But I have to take it back when it comes to our downtown Goodwill store. Cause you see, I found five of these plates in good to great condition.

I have had these dishes for over 25 years and have loved them every step of the way. They set a fabulous table and you can use any kind of decorations in any color and they look even more fabulous. Since we have lived in the "kibbutz" these past four years, five of my plates have suffered fatal catastophes. But when I spied the five in the store today for...get this...75 cents each, I wanted to sing. But I just let my heart sing instead all the way to the cash register. I'm telling ya, it's the little things!!!

Fruits of My Labor

I must begin with a disclaimer. I love to garden but it doesn't necessary mean it I am all that great at it. But that said, with the price of food going so high I thought the least I could do was try to grow some tomatoes. Last year I didn't get one, not ONE tomato. A bad location and too much nitrogen from the surrounding forest humus was to blame (I think). But I didn't give up and this year planted two cherry tomatoes (last time I grew them I had fruit until late November) and one beefsteak plant. I have been harvesting a few cherry tomatoes the last month but this week I proudly picked my first "beefsteak". They aren't so beefy but they are good! I sure hope I get lots more (unfortunately they won't set fruit in this blasted heat). What are you doing to help cut down your food bill?