Ojai with the Girls!

Left to right:  Tawna, Val, Michele, me.

Beautiful shop.

A day of wine tasting and shopping, a fun day indeed!

A beautiful fall day

Morning.

Little later in the day.

Afternoon.

I'm not raking!

Too much!

Thanksgiving is just too much.  Too much food, too much wine, too much sitting around.  Normally I'm able to assert self-control regarding portion sizes, but this year I'm going to blame the wine.  I drank a bit more than usual and felt so full, and the main courses hadn't even been served yet?!  Then, I took just a little of everything: turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, a homemade dinner roll. But this was too much, I couldn't even finish ham and dinner roll?!  (The next day I devoured said ham and roll, they were just yummy!).  With Christmas quickly approaching I fear more of too much coming my way.  I'm going to ask Santa for willpower.  Hopefully he has too much of it and I'll not bloat up like a Thanksgiving Day parade balloon.  Now where's the wine so I can toast to too much willpower?

Such Lovely Weather

The last few days we've had such lovely weather it has been wonderful to be outside.  We had friends over for dinner last night and ate al fresco.  This morning I'm typing outside, sipping my coffee, listening to the birds, keeping the dogs company, and loving every moment of it.  Weather like this makes so happy.  It's cool, but not cold, no humidity, no wind, it's just perfect.

Having a covered outdoor patio has provided us with additional living space and it's nice to be able to utilize it.  When we purchased the house we loved the patio but only enjoyed a small portion of it.  Now, with a small investment in some outdoor furniture, plants, canvas cloths, and a few accessories it's become one of my favorite places to spend time.   We have big plans to improve the patio even more, but that'll have to wait until we have more moola.  

Birds

My latest obsession is birds.  Just regular, common backyard birds.  We have three bird feeders and now our yard is overwhelmed with birds.  It's wonderful!  My weekend mornings, when the heat isn't too oppressive, are spent on the patio enjoying the birds flitting about, singing, and sparing with one another for the best position at the feeders.

Originally the feeders were very close to the patio.  This unfortunate placement was not well thought out and resulted in the patio, table, chairs, and my wellbeing to be ensconced in bird excrement.  The feeders were relocated to the outer reaches of the yard, and the patio is no longer a bird bathroom, which makes me very, very happy.

The dogs, having discovered free food falling from the heavens, now fill up on bird seed.  So much so, that the other day Sassy didn't even sniff at her dinner.  She usually gets so excited about eating the same kibble that's placed before EVERY morning and EVERY night, that when she didn't even go near the bowl I was quite concerned.   Her bowels made awful noises.  She looked uncomfortable, but alas, she has no idea of cause and effect.  Anyway, a couple hours later she ate her rightful food and then dined on seed as dessert.  There's no winning with this beast.

Sassy also really enjoys chasing the birds away each time she is let outside.  All the birds swoosh up and away, only to return within a few moments.  By then Sassy has completely lost interest in them.  Karma is indifferent, but like her big sister, really enjoys the free seed befallen at her paws.

Bird and beast happily co-exist in the backyard and it makes time spent outdoors very satisfying.

Try it!

Life got you down?  Feeling a little hum drum?  Need to shake things up a bit?  Let the Mixilator rock your world.  Of course, the drinks it found for me I'd never heard of, guess I have a lot of taste testing in my future!  Time for a party.

Yum

A couple weekends ago for a friend's 50th birthday I asked said friend's husband, what flavors does the b-day girl like? 


Him:  "Um... lemon?"  
Me:  "Oh, ok. Anything else?"
Him:  "Strawberry...?"
Me:  "Mmm hmm, lemon and strawberry.  Ok, sounds good.  Anything other flavors come to mind?"
Him:  "Um..."
Me:  "Never mind, I have some ideas."


I wanted to cover most of the bases so I made:

• Bourbon bread pudding cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting (which I'd made once before and the b-day girl really liked them)
• Lemon cupcakes with chopped fresh strawberries hidden beneath a light, vanilla butter cream frosting
• Banana nut cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting
• Coffee chocolate chip cupcakes with a cocoa butter cream frosting
• A rich, somewhat dense cheese cake flavored cake, with fresh strawberries atop it, and then the entire cake covered with a delicate ginger lime whipped cream frosting that was divine

The ginger lime whipped cream frosting was a huge hit.  I can't wait to make more!  A pregnant friend at the party, who is having a baby shower soon, asked me to make her a cake for the occasion.  

Me:  "Of course!  I'd be happy to.  What kind of cake would you like?"

Her:  "That!" - pointing to the cake. 

Me:  "You got it!" 

I can't wait to make it again, however, since most of what I made that day was created on the spot without any recipes I just hope what I bake in a couple weeks turns out! 

Foolishly I didn't take any photos... but hopefully I can find some from the party to post.  

Me Want Food NOW!

This is what happens when we:

1.  buy a new brand of dog food

2.  leave dogs unattended with new brand of dog food

I'm sure both girls were involved in this attack, but since Karma could hardly contain herself in our presence, I believe she's the culprit that got things going.  Ah, you think she's all innocent in the below photo, but don't let that fool you!

Fur, fur, and more fur!

I brushed Sassy and Karma tonight.  It looks like a dog exploded in my backyard.  I don't know how's it even possible for two dogs to generate that much fur?!  But, I'd rather my backyard was blanketed and not my floors!

Lazy Critters

Book Club... in the works

A friend and I both throughly enjoy reading so we're starting a book club.  Our meetings will hopefully occur on the 3rd Tuesday of each month, with the first being in February.  The selected book is "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" by Jaime Ford.  It's not something I'd probably have ever picked up, which I suppose is the point of a book club.  I'm a third of the way into it and finding that I really like it.  When I read the editorial review I wasn't much interested.  Glad I didn't pass it over.  

I'm 36 years old and so World War II was just something we glossed over in History class.  I know my texts covered it, but it was mainly stuff like, "on this date this happened, x-number of people were killed, blah blah blah." I always hated History because it was about memorizing a bunch of stuff, reciting it back and if I did well I'd get an A.  Boring and what a disservice to those who fought, lost their lives, and to the survivors who live on.  To take actual events and reduce them just death tolls and numbers on a calendar shouldn't be allowed.  Anyway... I digress, probably due to a mediocre education.  

The characters in the book are fictional but the events are not and that's what I find compelling.  The author glides between 1986 and 1942 in a manner that is very easy to follow and keeps it interesting.  Thus far the story is unfolding in a predictable manner, but I'm enjoying it and wanting to know what happens next. Can't wait to finish it and discuss it with my friend and anyone else who joins us.  

Don't let her sleep!

Not too long ago Jordan the cat was extremely obnoxious, more than usual.  Ginger's usually only annoying in the morning when she wants her daily Cat-Sip fix (crack-cocaine for cats), whereas Jordan basically is bothersome pretty much all of the time, except when she sleeps.  And, unfortunately Jordan perfers sleeping during the day.

Each night we feed the cats, Jordan in her kennel with her own private litter box, and Ginger in the same room as Jordan but with full privileges of said room. Since Jordan's nocturnal she bellows loudly for long periods of time, and rattles her cage.  If she had opposable thumbs I'm certain she'd drag a metal cup along her cell bars. 

Since her behavior on that particular night was particularly perturbing we decided we wouldn't let her sleep that day so that hopefully that night she'd behave herself.  The day was filled with, "Hey, Jordan, where are you?  Whatcha doing?"  "Oh no you don't, you can sleep all night..." and other such remarks.  I held her in my lap most of the day and would continually wake her up if she seemed to be nodding off.  It was a long day for all of us, but our diligence paid off!  Jordan the Annoying was quite all night long.