Wednesday, July 28, 2010

July 28, 2010

Presents from Gramee! These little ducks have just been waiting for the right time to get played with. Mom sent them down in hope that the squeakers would last longer than traditional doggie toys. Ginger checked them both out, but she was more interested in going outside. However, Zoe was all over them! She managed to transport both to the sofa so she could work on them before I even noticed it!
Unfortunately as soon a hole gets into these toys, all the squeaker magic is gone....
July 27, 2010

Lunch on the lake! We had a customer come to visit today and we took the opportunity to show him a bit of Austin by having lunch out on Lake Travis at The Oasis. Beautiful day for it!
July 26, 2010

When I opened the garage door to work out on Monday night this little guy was clinging to the door upside down. He was so cute I had to take a picture.....which spooked him and caused him to fall to the ground with a decided splat. Aiiiii I killed a baby gecko!! But no worries, he ran away. Whew!
Actual baby gecko size....

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

July 25, 2010

Tonight Mad Men has its season premiere on AMC. I love that show, will the new agency work? Will Betty stay with Henry? What stunts will Don pull this season? I think the occasion calls for a celebration and what better way to celebrate than with a cupcake? I pulled this recipe for an Old Fashioned Cocktail cupcake from Cherryspoon and had to give it a try.
It's an interesting recipe, relying on a lot of baking power for these to rise. Even with that, there is just so much liquid, these definitely don't puff up like a normal cupcake and almost every one had a large air bubble baked into the bottom. The cake itself is similar to the texture of a whoopie pie cake, meaning you definitely can't bake ahead as the moisture in the air gets absorbed creating a sticky cake.

On the plus side, the flavor is dead on! I might try again with slightly less liquid as they are so pretty to look at...

Sunday, July 25, 2010

July 24, 2010

Prosecco Pops!
I read about Prosecco Pops in InStyle magazine and just had to try them out. I was lucky enough to even get the recommended popsicle mold from Mom!

I have no idea who came up with this recipe (perhaps InStyle interns who don't drank all of the Prosecco before calculating measurements), but the measurements are waaaay off. Even with putting in three or four slices of peaches in each mold, I still had so many leftovers that I was able to almost completely fill a loaf pan. So cut the quantities by at least a half.

Then, don't do what I did and fill the molds up all the way. I realized this critical mistake when I went to transfer to my freezer. There was counter stickiness. At least I put the molds on a tray in my freezer so I didn't have to deal with a sticky mess in there when they froze and overfilled the molds.

Full report on taste and ideas on what to do with a loaf pan of popsicle peaches coming soon....
July 23, 2010

Saw this little (or not so little) friend when I was mowing the lawn on Friday night. He was up high on my garage, just chillin' the whole time I worked.
July 22, 2010

I had been planning to hit the Salt Lick with the Thetas, but the weather turned a bit and with Summer vacations most of my regulars couldn't make it so we had to cancel. But that left me without dinner plans so I hit up the Galaxy Cafe on the way home for a chicken chipotle wrap.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

July 21, 2010

I love my car. Unfortunately co-worker Jane has a lemon of a Camry. So here I am dropping her off at Toyota Service and thinking, I'm so glad I'm not here for my car! On the upside, her car is only a lease! So at least she can turn it in for a new one in a few months!!
July 20, 2010

When you live next to the concrete washout area, concrete is a way of life. One of the highlights is certainly concrete breakup. You see, after so many washouts, there is major build up and it all needs to be removed. The first time they removed, it took three dumpsters and an entire weekend of a bobcat jackhammering at it. That was exciting.

This time, it was only half a dumpster and they did it during the week day. Woo hoo! We're good for another six months.

Monday, July 19, 2010

July 19, 2010

I love my Fitbit. Yes, it did take a long time to get to me, but it's been so worth it. I'm currently in a Fitbit step war with my co-workers. Today was 12,568 steps. Not too shabby, but nowhere near my all time personal best of 24,638!

Sunday, July 18, 2010

July 18, 2010

I need a cherry pitter. Cripes this is long work. It doesn't help when you eat half the cherries either! But they are just so delicious.
I accidentally rolled the crust for the galette a bit thin on the bottom, hence the cherry juice blow out. But it was delicious. I think it would have just been good with fresh cherries on froyo they are so yummy right now.....I guess that's next weekend!
July 17, 2010

Aww Ginger gets the cone :( We went on a brief walk tonight to pick up the mail and on the way back she was limping a bit and wouldn't stop fussing with her foot. I finally had to give her the cone to make it stop. That and a Tramadol helped relax for the night :) The best part she was all better in the morning!

Friday, July 16, 2010

July 16, 2010

I never thought I would see this day.

The KB sign has been updated with 'Last Chance to Buy'

Now only if it were true......perhaps tomorrow's pictures will be a few neighborhood shots so you can see how close/not close they are.
July 15, 2010

Last night Ginger found a baby gecko in my bedroom. She stated it for the longest time until she realized she was big enough to get it.

She made several unsuccessful lunges at it before it skedaddled into the pillows on the floor. Where upon Ginger looked back to where it was previously.....obviously she once she didn't see it, she had no idea where it went.

It's a good thing she is so cuddly, because she sure ain't bright.

July 14, 2010

When you take the time to clean out your closet, it just makes room for new clothes. I picked up this cute Boden dress on sale and was so glad it came in the mail this week. First, it was in the box after a long hard work out when the only reason I was walking down there was to give the girls a short outing for the day. Second, it's 10,000 degrees in Austin this week and a dress is the perfect solution to hot weather. Third, it fit and it was way cuter than I thought it would be. I think that adds up to perfection!!!!

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

July 13, 2010

Gas fail. You forget how fast the gas comes out of a full container. So I had a bit of an uh-oh. Thankfully it's hotter than seven acres of burnin' stumps out so it evaporated quickly. At least the mower looks nice an clean in the picture...that shine is the not-yet-dried gas.....

July 12, 2010

I thought the sky was particularly beautiful today as I was driving home. Some big puffy white clouds as well as some light streaky clouds in the background, a nice mix.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

July 11, 2010

Baseball on a Sunday night! Practically a double header for Jim & Heather as they took the kids to the game the night before, but you gotta make the kids club tickets worth it!
I love this picture of Caroline with Heather. Just chillin'. The kids are too young to really get the game and who wants to when the home team is down 14 to 1! Ouch. But the snacks and sound effects are a crowd pleaser.
Evidence of Caroline's brief pedicure
I smelled this funnel cake and thought, I feel sick. Jim smelled it and thought: Yummy.
Caroline understood that she was supposed to clap at certain points, but if it required clapping in rhythm she didn't quite get it....
July 10, 2010

My neighbor has planted fruit trees all along the fence between our two yards. The peaches are actually starting to look pretty good.....I will try to hold myself back from night time peach picking!
July 9, 2010

Relaxing on the sofa on a Friday night with the Ginanator. She was verrrrry relaxed!

Thursday, July 8, 2010

July 8, 2010

Back to the grindstone. I came in today with my Cisco Live! hat which was a purple Elvis hair with sparkle sunglasses attached. The co-workers couldn't resist.

July 7, 2010

Well I had some leftover basil from cooking on Monday that I couldn't just throw away. They sell you a pitifully small amount for $2.97 or for $3.97 they give you 5 cups of basil. Anyway it just seemed like a better deal to purchase the bigger one. But then I was left with all this basil.

So I decided to make pesto, but since there was no crusty french bread or fresh mozzarella in the house I didn't want to eat it right away. So I found a recipe where you add everything but the cheese and then defrost and add the cheese. I'll let you know how this little adventure turns out. I'm looking forward to some yummy pesto.

While I was cooking up a storm, we had some lovely sunset light outside that I grabbed for a picture of the day.
And I also gave Zoe and Ginger their new Gramee toys. They are still somewhat dumbfounded when they manage to get the duck to say Afflack!
July 6, 2010

A few summertime rays of sunshine hitting the spiderwebs that I always seem to have on my back porch even though I have the bug man. Most of them are unmanned so I'm cool with it.

Monday, July 5, 2010

July 5, 2010
Nothing says Summer like fresh berries! Throw in a little lemon angel food cake and I'm set. Now if only I could have convinced The CP Howard to eat more of the cake and not leave me with so many leftovers!
July 4, 2010

Happy 4th of July! We kicked off the holiday by taking the kiddos to their first movie theater movie: Toy Story 3. Loved the show! Thought it was just as good as the first two.
Caroline in the show enjoying her kiddie meal of popcorn, a drink and a piece of candy - all for $5. It's what I get when I go to the movies :)
Family pictures with the flag - how can you not do it!? Jack, of course, was in the best of moods.
Waiting for the show to begin, Caroline killed time by working the dot game on Auntie Martta's phone.
A great show! We enjoyed the Cedar Park fireworks.
July 3, 2010

I really don't need to wear a watch. If I'm home, starting at about 4:30, Zoe begins her pantry stalking. By 5:00, she's set up camp eyeing me down from the living room, trying to stare me into feeding her. By 5:15, Ginger joins in the stare down. Don't worry, I fed them.
Our very own yard visitor today! Little lizard decided to hang out on the fence in the backyard.
July 2, 2010

Blog backlog. When I was in Scotland I picked up the wonderful jacket on my last day. It's really fitted more like a suit coat than jacket and it's wonderfully warm. Full of fun colors, I'm definitely going to have to look for ness the next time I'm out there!

Friday, July 2, 2010

July 1, 2010

Booth breakdown! These people are serious about kicking you out of their space. I've never seen a convention center break down so quickly as I have in Las Vegas! We did have to wait a bit to get our crate, as per usual, but we were out of there with plenty of time to spare.
I got home oh so late (or early, depending on how you look at it....) and Zoe and Ginger were all over my bags. Ginger reached in there right away and snatched out the Elvis hair wig that was the Cisco live 'hat' this year. Usually she goes for the food so I was pretty surprised that she reached to the bottom of the bag for this one!
June 30, 2010

Monkeys galore in our booth. We're working on giving out 1,000 of these little suckers. Another full day of talking with the Kathleen Turner voice. I'm so ready to be over this cold!
Cisco customer appreciate event. Every year they give out a new hat. This year, since we're in Las Vegas, it's Elvis hair. They had multi-colors and I went with purple since I was wearing a green shirt, but I think the black looks the best.
June 29, 2010

One full day on the show floor, but we're determined to make the most of our time in Vegas so we're out on the town. We're staying in the City Center at the Vdara (connected to the Bellagio) and across the walkway past this canoe sculpture is the Aira.
We headed to the Aria for a light dinner and a Cirque show. Eric and James picked up some half price ticket seats earlier in the day - it's Viva Elvis.
Show curtains. We were in the second balcony, but it was still a decent seat. I liked the show, but it wasn't very Cirque-like, more Broadway musical.
And a Vegas bonus! I get to see Tiffany who happens to be on Vakay in Vegas! The color balance is off - I really don't look that gray in real life, but it was like 2 am so you gotta cut us some slack!
June, 28, 2010

View from the top! Well, almost the top - I got the 50th floor on the Vdara in the city center in Las Vegas. The hotel was great and such a steal on hotwire!
Nighttime view looking down south strip to Aria, Monte Carlo, Excalibur, Luxor, and Mandalay Bay