Moving On Up

I have made a huge decision in my blogging career and now have my very own website.

It is ....

http://www.dorothysmountainhome.com/

How exciting is that?  Don't answer that question here - leave a comment at my new place.

Soon, or as soon as my in-house computer expert can assist me, my archives from BlogSpot will be moved over to their new home.

See ya there~

Have the BEST day ever!
~ Dorothy

Speaking Of ...

When Roxy and I went outside this morning about 5am, it was just starting to rain.  We did our business, snuggled back into bed and listened to the rain and a bit of thunder.  Even though it was 60° when we got up for good about 7am, it was a cold 60° - cloudy and with a breeze.  However, neither one of us were detered from enjoying our morning coffee on the deck with the hummingbirds and the Cardinal Family.

You know the Itsy Bitsy Spider song - where the sun comes out and dries up all the rain?  That is what we have now.  The sun is peaking through the clouds, the birds are singing and the breeze is gone.

I now will have the Itsy Bitsy Spider song stuck in my head all morning, maybe the rest of the day.

Gardening 101

Just off our back deck and up against the garage, we had an eyesore of a garden spot that I didn't know what to do with.  My first plan was to just take the planting area out all together, rake it smooth and fill in with rock.  

Somewhere along the line two thoughts made a connection in my brain:

1) I want a herb garden.

B) I want to do something with this eyesore of a garden spot.

Obsessed

I have had two things come in to my life this week that didn't take me too long to get obsessed with.  So much so that I have made a chicken dish for dinner two nights in a row.  Unheard of for me, as I evenly distribute the chicken, beef, pork and Cowboys (*) throughout my two week menu plan.

With all the hoopla over the recent release of the movie, The Hunger Games, I decided to check the book out of the Amazon Prime lending library.  I have had it for - dare I say - a couple of weeks,  and I finally broke down and decided to start reading it Monday.  With no due dates to contend with, I guess I was hoarding it just in case I blew through reading the other 500+ books that I had on my Kindle.  Lord knows, I always gotta have one book in reserve for emergency situations.

Good Things

Randy surprising me with a new cordless vacuum and ...

Speak Softly ...

... And carry a big stick.

Accredited to a West African proverb, this phrase was used by President Roosevelt in 1901 less than two weeks after the assassination of President McKinley, the event which made him President.

I don't know about the chances of me ever speaking softly, but I have learned in the last week or so the benefit of taking a walking stick with me when Roxy and I ... wait for it ... go for a walk.

Roxy the Dog

Roxy loves to be wrapped up in a blanket.  Any blanket will do, but of course she has her own.  She has had this ratty old blanket since she was a puppy.  It is so threadbare that she can see through it.  Because of that reason, it is Roxy's favorite blanket to play 'Blanket Monster'.  

My New Baby

I had just finished making myself presentable Thursday morning when Randy called me over to the living room.  "Look at this," he said.

On his laptop screen was a picture of Bonnie, the dog of the week in our local paper, the Baxter Bulletin.

"NO!" I cried.  "Do not click on the picture!"

The picture has a direct link to our local Humane Society where all of Bonnie's particulars were listed.  To make matters worse, Randy then started to look at all the other dogs and found a cute little puppy named 'Skippy'.

Ugh ...  That started the conversation about whether to get a companion for Roxy.

Salty Sesame and Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies

Randy's fifth love is ice cream, specifically Dutch Chocolate made by Blue Bell.  Me, well, just to be sociable, I went through an ice cream phase, too.  However, cookies are my fifth love.  Randy and I trying to be adult about our fifth loves and working, quite successfully, to enjoy them only on the weekends.

I was perusing joythebaker.com last week in a quest to find a new cookie recipe for my sweet treat for the weekend.  I had narrowed my choices down to two recipes.  One was Brown Sugar Cookies, the other contender was Salty Sesame and Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I wavered on the decision like Whirled Peace was solely in my hands.

It's A Jungle Out There

Roxy and I went for a walk just a bit ago.  We were almost all the way up to the vineyard when I looked down and spied a June bug skedaddling across the road.  He was huge and he was moving.  I am sure that if I would have looked closer, he would have been kicking up some dust.  

I was lucky enough to have my close-up lens on my camera but I was all thumbs and fumbling around trying to get to the button to up the shutter speed to get a picture.  Mr June Bug made it to the side of road and hid in the leaves before I had a chance to snap a picture.

I figured the best way to get a picture of him was to wait him out.  I should have counted on my photography assistant making a mad dash right smack across the photo composition area.

Wordsmith

I love to read.  Absolutely love, love to read.  As a kid, I couldn't wait to get the newest Nancy Drew book.  I would finish them fast and then I would snag the book that Debbie was reading whenever she put it down.

It dawned on me a few months ago that sometimes there are words in books that I just don't know the meaning of.  I assume the meaning from the context of the sentence and the book itself, but I never have taken the time to actually look the words up.

Until ..

Sleeping With The Enemy

I love spring.  Nothing does my heart better than leaving the dreariness of winter behind me and watching the colors of spring emerge.  Just looking out over to the lake and seeing a hint of green on the trees or watching for random wildflowers that bloom here and there makes me very happy.

In the yin and yang of things, there is always a downfall to good things.

The downfall of spring is pollen.  

Firsts

... Turtle this year

Happy (belated) International Waffle Day

In honor of last Sunday being International Waffle Day, this week's cooking blog will be about ...

Lemon Bars

Kidding !

Well, not about the part that Sunday was International Waffle Day.  That is a fact.

Gymnosporangium Juniperi-Virginianae

Always on the lookout for something interesting and new to take pictures of, I discovered this substance on a few cedar trees last year.  I have been waiting for it's appearance this spring, and I wasn't disappointed after the rains we have had the past week.

Randy and I call it cedar jelly.  And no, we don't spread it on our toast.  The layman's name for this is Cedar Apple Rust Fungus.  Basically it is a rust colored blob of goo found on some unfortunate cedar trees on our property.  Randy and I both noticed the blobs early last spring after a day or two of storms.

Link and I

I am relatively sure that I was the first one on my block to get a copy of the Wii game 'The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword' when it was released around Thanksgiving of last year.  I immediately started to play it and by the end of December, I had put in over 70 hours of game play.  I figured that I was just over half way through with Link's quest to rescue Zelda.

The game has this wonderful feature that tells a player how much time they have wasted playing a video game.

My in-house eternal optimist is of the opinion that one is not wasting time if one is having a good time.

I am having a good time with the game.  Therefore, no time wasted.

Mornings

Roxy and I are on the deck enjoying the morning.  I am drinking my coffee and she is watching for critters to either protect us from or to chase.

Maybe both.

Good Things

I peruse padgadget.com every morning for any news on the iPad.  Almost every day, they have a post that details apps that have been put on sale.  I am mostly interested in the games and seldom look at the apps in productivity category.  I happened to give it a glance the other day and noticed an app called simply 'Menu Planner'.  This app is right up my list making and organization neurotic-ness ally.  It has taken me a bit to get the database set up, but I am lovin' the project of adding all my recipes, ingredients and making shopping lists.

West African Chicken Stew

I came across this recipe in the most recent issue of Taste of Home Cooking Healthy magazine.

Thanks, Dad, for the subscription!

Cut up the chicken breast.

No Woman's Land

Since late last year, Randy has been spending a lot of time in the garage.  Roxy and I wander in there every once in a while to check on him and to bring him provisions.

Armed with my camera, I decided to sneak into the garage and try to find out what as been keeping Randy so entertained.

Lots ...