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 ...

What's the Difference?

I upgraded to Photoshop Elements 9 when it was released in September 2010.  I can't remember which version I had before that - it really didn't matter.  I have been way too intimidated by the program to do anything other than a bit of cropping or adding text to a picture.  Sometimes, on my spunky days, I actually was brave enough to crop and add text to the same picture!

I have no clue why I had an abnormal fear of learning Photoshop Elements.  I usually have no problem jumping right in and playing around.  I think it has to do with the huge array of stuff that one can do to a simple photograph.  Layers, masks, color saturation, hue, cloud rendering- it all is enough to make my head spin.  Way too many options to play with and it gives me a headache.

WalMart and I Are Breaking Up

It is official.  It is over between WalMart and myself.  I just can't do it anymore - to be the only one in the relationship willing to work on the relationship.