Doggone

For the second time last week, I narrowly missed having a heart attack.

Or a stroke.

Or a heart-a-stroke. (*)

Or all three.  Consecutively.

On Friday afternoon, Roxy and I headed into town for some girl time and to run a couple of errands.  First stop was Miss Tammy's salon for Tammy to work her magic on my (very functional) man hands.

Where There Is Smoke ...

It was a balmy 55° and a beautifully sunny morning yesterday.  After our morning walk, Roxy and I decided to play a bit of chase with the frisbee.  We had just finished playing and decided to sit on the rocks and spend some time enjoying the warm sun, the singing song birds, our coffee and each other.

When out over yonder there arose such a clatter

I jumped to my feet to see what was the matter ...

... Roxy ran towards the woodshed and started barking at the trees

Randy came outside and said, "Did you see that cloud of smoke?"

Tennis, Anyone?

Newsflash ... This was written in December of last year

As of the 16th of this month, Randy and I will no longer be land barons or landlords.  Truthfully, we haven't been landlords since Cristy and family moved out of the Plano house last June.  We are now ever so grateful to be ending this year with a respectable amount of mortgage payments.

Ein.

Uno.

One.

Our first pool party - and we hadn't even moved in yet!

Oven Sweet Tater Fries

Lest anyone think that everything I cook turns out well and would impress even Martha Stewart, I decided to post about a cooking adventure of mine that turned out to less than stellar.

This family loves their sweet taters.  Even Roxy loves 'em.  I don't cook them that often, because I like to  somewhat limit the sugar and carbs that we ingest.  When we do have a baked potato - sweet or otherwise - one potato is shared by the entire family.

Randy and I are strong believers that there is no such thing as 'perfect eating'.  Demonstrated by the four monster cookies that I downed as I am working on this blog.

That is what I get for setting up my laptop within arm's reach of the cookie jar.  Notice the bag of carrots just beyond the cookie jar?  Didn't even think to expend the extra calories to grab them.

8th Annual Chocolate Lovers' Festival

While listening to the radio on our trip home from Springfield, Misery last week, I heard an advertisement for the Chocolate Lovers' Festival that was being held in Eureka Springs that coming Saturday.

I was actually quite proud of myself that I remembered to look it up on the inter-web when I got home.  I mentioned to Randy that I thought it would be a fun excursion, and since he didn't disagree, I made plans for us to go.

Quick Trip to Misery

Randy, Roxy and I went on two - count 'em - two adventures this week.  The shock to my system is enough to keep me in bed watching my DVR full of Dateline and Doctor Phil shows for at least two days.

Contrary to the title of this post, neither adventure was miserable by any stretch.  Edna, the voice that lives inside of our less-than-state-of-the-current-art portable GPS, is unable to pronounce Missouri correctly.  It comes out as 'Misery'.

One Simple Walk

About an hour ago, I was quietly sitting in my allotted spot on the couch working on pictures.  Randy was at the other end of the couch doing what he does, (reading about '56 Chevys) and Roxy was in her center postion perched on the back of the couch so that she can look out the window.  Her job is to guard the house from all sorts of horrible things that may befall it if our protection was left to just Randy and me.

Damages

I certainly have been getting my money's worth from our NetFlix account in the past week.

Most of the time, our (my) taste in television shows runs toward reality shows like The Amazing Race, Survivor and American Idol as well as the occasional sitcom.  It has to be a good sitcom, like Last Man Standing or Whitney.  There really aren't too many sitcoms that are enjoyed at our house.  Most of them are too predicable, too dumb or too off-color.  Or a combination of all three.