Dessine-moi un mouton.

Where Were You?

….when 911 happened?
Driving down Valley Mills in Waco on my way to Kinko’s after French class at Baylor.

….when Kennedy was shot?
My parents were still in elementary and junior high school respectively.

….when Elvis died?
A twinkle in my daddy’s eye.

….when Princess Diana died?
Getting ready to leave for summer marching band practice at Lamar H.S.

….when OJ Simpson went on the run in his white Bronco?
My dad’s high school coach’s house in Monaca, PA.

….when Michael Jackson died?

at home in Austin, packing to leave for Boston the next day.

….when Waco Branch Davidian cult complex burned down?
Mrs. Woodson’s 5th grade class at Ellis Elementary.  We watched the news on a little TV with rabbit ears she had.

….when Challenger space shuttle blew up(1986)?
Probably Children’s World Daycare in Arlington, but not entirely sure.

….when JFK Jr.s plane went down?
My grandparent’s house in Monaca, PA.

Food Meme

Sweet or salty?

While I have soft spots for both, sweet is my most regular go-to.  When the hubs and I go to the corner store for snacks, he usually gets salty and I usually get sweet.  We make a good team like that.

Chocolate or vanilla?

Chocolate- the darker the better.  Vanilla is only for ice cream with lots of fruit topping.

Hot or mild?

I am the world’s biggest spice wimp.  Can’t even do a healthy dose of black pepper.  Mild all the way!

What won’t you eat?

I’m a pescatarian, so that rules out meat other than fish.  But additionally I do not care for rosemary- It is pointy and stabs the inside of my mouth.  And spicy stuff, but we’ve already covered that.

Most memorable meal?

For my birthday, the hubs made me fried tofu cubes with dipping sauces and a side of dumplings.  It was pretty much my favorite meal ever!

Favorite object in your kitchen?

Uhhh, my husband?  I don’t cook.

What are you scared of in the kitchen?

Me being in it.

Do you prefer to cook alone or with others?

Okay, I guess I bake from time to time, and I prefer being alone because I don’t have to share when it comes time to lick the batter off the spoon.

What country would you move to for the food?

France.  Gimme fresh bread and a hunk of cheese and I am a happy girl!

If you were to come back as a fruit or vegetable, what would you be?

A mango.  Shapely, brightly colored, and the perfect, smooth punch of flavor.  Plus, I know my hubs loooves them!

What’s for dinner?

I’ve given in and will finally be going to the Ethiopian restaurant the hubs has been talking about since we met. 

It's not Martha or Heloise...

… but HINTS from PUGLYFEET.BLOG.COM!

1. Peel a banana from the bottom and you won’t have to pick the little ‘stringy things’ off of it. That’s how the primates do it.
2. Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.
3. Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!
4. Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.
5. Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.
6. To really make rich scrambled eggs or omelets, add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.
7. For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in a double broiler and pour over the warm brownies. Let it set for a wonderful minty frosting.
8. Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.
9. Leftover Snicker bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simply chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. Yummm!
10. Reheat Pizza. Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.
11. Easy Deviled Eggs. Put cooked egg yolks in a Ziplock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add the remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.
12. Expanding Frosting. When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.
13. Reheating refrigerated bread. To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.
14. Newspaper weeds away. Start putting newspapers in your plants to work the nutrients in your soil. Wet the newspapers, put layers around the plants, overlapping as you go. Cover with mulch and for- get about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will not get through wet newspapers.
15. Broken Glass. Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can’t see easily.
16. No More Mosquitoes. Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.
17. Squirrel Away! To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn’t hurt the plant and the squirrels won’t come near it.
18. Flexible vacuum. To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.
19. Reducing Static Cling. Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and … ta da! .. static is gone.
20. Measuring Cups. Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill it with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don’t dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.
21. Foggy Windshield? Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car . When the window gets foggy, rub with the eraser! Works better than cloth!
22. Reopening envelopes. If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Viola! It unseals easily.
23. Conditioner. Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It’s cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It’s also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn’t like when you tried it in your hair.
24. Goodbye Fruit Flies. To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it 1/2’ with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!
25. Get Rid of Ants Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it ‘home,’ can’t digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don’t have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!
26. INFO ABOUT CLOTHES DRYERS. The heating unit went out on my dryer! The gentleman that fixes things around the house for us told us that he wanted to show us something and he went over to the dryer and pulled out the lint filter. It was clean. (I always clean the lint from the fil- ter after every load clothes.) He told us that he wanted to show us something; he took the filter over to the sink and ran hot water over it. The lint filter is made of a mesh material … I’m sure you know what your dryer’s lint filter looks like. Well … the hot water just sat on top of the mesh! It didn’t go through it at all! He told us that dryer sheets cause a film over that mesh that’s what burns out the heating unit. You can’t SEE the film, but it’s there. It’s what is in the dryer sheets to make your clothes soft and static free … that nice fragrance too. You know how they can feel waxy when you take them out of the box … well this stuff builds up on your clothes and on your lint screen. This is also what causes dryer units to potentially burn your house down with it! He said the best way to keep your dryer working for a very long time (and to keep your electric bill lower) is to take that filter out and wash it with hot soapy water and an old toothbrush (or other brush) at least every six months. He said that makes the life of the dryer at least twice as long!

Do these prints look familiar to you? Well, they should. Filmhound and Fowl with Pearls were the two paintings above Amélie’s bed and thanks to The English Muse, I learned that they weren’t just made for the movie. The paintings are by German artist Michael Sowa.

Here they are in Amélie:

Timekiller

1. What time did you get up this morning? 5:30 AM a.k.a. my usual weekday time
2. How do you like your steak? Made of soy.  (I’m a vegetarian!)
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? “To Kill a Mockingbird” at the Paramount’s Summer Classics.
4. What is your favorite TV show? “The Wire” (It’s where we got Omar’s name!)
5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be? A colorful cottage in the South of France, within walking distance of the ocean and a farmer’s market that sells incredible cheese and bread.
6. What did you have for breakfast? a simple, classic cake donut- no frills.
7. What is your favorite cuisine? The hubs is a master of Asian dishes.  I could (and do) eat that almost every day of the week!
8. What foods do you dislike? I’ve had a hatred of Hamburger Helper since elementary school.  Iiiick!!
9. Favorite Place to Eat? Sushi at Maru
10. Favorite dressing? Honey Mustard
11.What kind of vehicle do you drive? Honda Fit named Frida Car-o
12. What are your favorite clothes?  Bright, Comfy and Quirky
13. Where would you visit if you had the chance? France
14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? Half full
15. Where would you want to retire? If the French cottage doesn’t pan out, then the Pacific Northwest.
16. Favorite time of day? Late afternoon/ Early evening
17. Where were you born? Arlington, TX
18. What is your favorite sport to watch? Basketball- specifically the Dallas Mavericks
19. Who do you think will not tag you back? I’m supposed to tag the person who tagged me back?  Oh goodness, I need to read the instructions more closely next time.
20. Person you expect to tag you back first? Don’t know and don’t care- just have fun!
21. Who are you most curious about their responses to this? Cabin77
22. Bird watcher? I watch birds to make sure they don’t fly into my head (and irrational fear I have).
23. Are you a morning person or a night person? Can I say “afternoon?”
24. Do you have any pets? My two cats, Stella & Omar
25. Any new and exciting news you’d like to share? I’ve been doing a private yoga class with two friends (lead by another friend) and I am the worst one in the class!  (Haha!)
26. What did you want to be when you were little? Always an artist.
27. What is your best childhood memory? Listening to records at my grandparent’s house in California.
28. Are you a cat or dog person? Cats
29. Are you married? Happily so!
30. Always wear your seat belt? Always, always, always. 
31. Been in a car accident? A couple teeny fender-benders and one great big ol’ incident when I was 16.
32. Any pet peeves? For whatever reason, people twirling their hair makes my skin crawl. 
33. Favorite Pizza Toppings? Artichokes
34. Favorite Flower? Daisies (and dahlias and marigolds and tulips…)
35. Favorite ice cream? with toppings: Vanilla, by itself: Ben & Jerry’s Chubby Hubby
36. Favorite fast food restaurant? Thundercloud Subs (Yes, it counts.).  I get their nada chicken sandwich.
37. How many times did you fail your driver’s test? None- but I did total my dad’s car the day after getting my license.
38. From whom did you get your last email? Co-worker
39. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? Thriftown for clothes, Room Service for furniture and Tesoro’s for knick-knacks.
40. Do anything spontaneous lately? Stopped by the San Marcos outlets yesterday on my way home from the conference just to run into one particular store on a whim.
41. Like your job? It’s a dream come true.
42. Broccoli? Yummy!  The crunchier, the better.
43. What was your favorite vacation? West Texas w/ the hubs a.k.a. our wedding/ elopment and honeymoon.
44. Last person you went out to dinner with? Co-workers last Wednesday
45. What are you listening to right now? Beck covering Daniel Johnson on Pandora
46. What is your favorite color? Green
47. How many tattoos do you have?  Four
48. How many are you tagging for this quiz? Eh, if you wanna do it, then do it!
49. What time did you finish this quiz? a few minutes after I began
50. Coffee Drinker? Only recreationally.  Coca Cola is my caffeine of choice.

My Closet-osophy

Always!
1) complimentary colors
2) vintage cowboy boots
3) crochet detailing
4) chuck taylors
5) big jewelry- the chunkier, the better

Never!
1) things i can’t bend over in
2) heels i can’t walk in.
3) things i can’t throw in the washing machine.
4) things i can’t paint in.
5) things that cost more than $25

Summer To-Do Update

I’m heading into my second week of summer vacation (will be back to work on July 1st) and I thought I’d pause to assess the things I’ve accomplished thus far…

• (nearly) finished first real crochet project
• first dye baths, giving clothing a new lease on life
• done embroidery work on aforementioned items
• felted some beautiful, bright blue wool- now need to cut it up.
• completed the transfer of items from old house to new
• hired a guy to complete the last phase of old house move out: epic junk haul
• sold the toyota corolla…
• … to a dealership that, in turn, sold the hubs a ford ranger…
• … which then got me hubs’ car, the fabulous honda fit named frida.
• set a museum date with cabin77 and her lovely daughter
• band practice resumes after a month-long hiatus
• got a new library card
• trip to california next weekend
• trip to boston two weekends after that
• as of this afternoon, will have seen three movies at the paramount with the hubs

Yes, there are still several items remaining on my original Summer To-Do List, but the above itemization has got me feeling very good (and very productive) about how things have been going.  Hooray for Summer!