The singing trees

It took a while, and a lot of testing...but we finally found the right combination on the trees.....

eastern milk snake...apparently

We went on our annual "fall walk" about a month ago. Every fall, we hike through a park - for the last couple years we have been walking through Donald Park in Mt Vernon. It has some beautiful trails and a combination of woods and prairie. This year we came across a couple snakes - one was a typical and harmless garter snake. The other, while tiny, was coiling up and trying to strike. It was also shaking the end of it's tail, although it was too small to have rattles, if it was a rattlesnake. It almost looks like a tiger rattlesnake, except they are native to Arizona and Wisconsin is probably a little cold. The park has riding trails, and I didn't want the snake to get stepped on by a horse, so we moved it off the trail. (With a very long stick, even baby rattlers are poisonous!) Click on the picture to see it a little bit larger. It really is a pretty little snake.

Come to find out, it is an eastern milk snake.....

A spooky Halloween

Daylight savings was a little late this year - so it was still light outside when Trick or Treating started. It was dark by the end of the alloted time period - the town of Mt Horeb set the Trick or Treat time from 5-7 PM.

We had about 350 "fun size" candy bars - and when it was all over, only about 15 to 20 pieces left! Then we left the "cauldron" of candy outside, and when I went out to get it about a half hour later - well, that candy was gone too! Someone tricked us!

The whole Halloween scene on the deck was very scary - a lot of the littler kids didn't want to walk up on the deck to get their candy. Ethan and Luke did their usual excellent jobs as grim reapers. This year, we added that big scary guy hanging over the candy cauldron. The weather was warm, and it was a lot of fun. So many people came! It's fun to hear the comments. One mom said her kids "have been waiting 364 days for this!"

We have already started planning for next year!

Holden Beach - October 2008

A wonderful week was just spent at Holden Beach in North Carolina. A week of sun, sand, surf, good company, good food, and (of course) a lot of drinking. The beaches there are never crowded, because you "own" the beach front for the house that you occupy. But, the week that we were there - there was hardly anyone around. There were no neighbors for quite a few houses up or down the beach. It was pretty quiet - my brother Rob and his wife Heather did come for the first weekend with the kids - and it was great to see them. The rest of the group was Mom, Kate and Tim, Mo, Ann and Roy, Matt and Leigh Ann and Gary and I. We had some great breakfasts, lunches of fresh caught shrimp, grilled steaks, bbq pork sandwiches - just too many yummy things to name. The house was beautiful, every bedroom had it's own bath, huge kitchen/dining area and the Atlantic Ocean (with water that was still pretty warm!) right out the back door. The water was warm, although not as warm as it is in August. It still took a little getting used to, but the surf was really high in the afternoons, so there was some great boogie boarding - you didn't even have to kick when the wave came up. Collected lots of shells and some really interesting drift wood. We went through quite a bit of beer, vodka, wine, scotch and gin. Bloody Marys in the morning, beers at the beach, tonics in the afternoon, wine with dinner, and scotch at 8:00!! (It's 8:00 - time for scotch!!) Glenlivet, of course. A fantastic way to end the day at the beach.

What to serve at a wedding reception

These are seasonal beers, so if you are going to have a summer wedding, these would be a couple excellent beers to serve at the reception.

Just a tip for all the wedding planners out there.

exercising soreness

This week I have done some slalom skiing, played soccer (as the goalie), did a little running, step boarding, hula hooped, walked a tight rope, ski jumped, and to top it all off, I did some yoga. My leg muscles are really sore....
Of course I am talking about the Wii Fit. The good news is - I am in the "normal" range for the BMI. The bad news is.....another pound or two and I might not be. But, so far it is really fun and everyone seems to enjoy it. The hard part is finding the time. Just getting home from work, I have to make dinner. After dinner on a full stomach? Not so good. I guess I could get up early and try to do some exercises. I already get up at about 5:15 though....
It will be interesting to see if this really does anything. Even if it doesn't shed pounds, it's still a good way to get the heart pumping and tone. It's just plain fun.

Nintendo ROCKS!

What a crazy week. We heard back from the insurance company about our totalled car. They are giving us diddley squat. Jerks. Nothing for the recent $1200 repair work that was done. Jerks. Then Kevin's Macbook Pro died. Well, the video card went out - so all he sees is a black screen. His warranty expired about 5 or 6 weeks ago. Of course. Fortunately, I purchased the laptop with my American Express card - did you know they offer an extended warranty just by using the card? So, Whew! Kevin's laptop is still covered. American Express rocks too!!

So, why does Nintendo rock? I emailed them about my disappointment in not being able to purchase a Wii Fit. The only ones you can find are from re-sellers at a grossly inflated price. Well, someone called me back. A really nice guy named Zach. He listened to my sad story then offered to sell me one at the MSRP. Which, of course, I snapped up immediatley. Kevin said Nintendo is supposed to have some of the best customer service on the planet. I would have to agree - they rock!

Our poor car...or is it our poor pocketbook?

Last weekend, someone hit Gary's parked car in front of our house. It's totaled. Gary had been driving the car for only four days after putting $1200 worth of repairs into it. We're just sick about it, and hope to get some of that back - but we have to argue with an insurance company, and you know how that is. They are going to look at the car today and give us an amount. Gary is driving the caddie we got from his sister Karen's husband, John. He sold it to us about a year ago for $2 grand, the blue book was something like $5 grand on it. We figured it would be an OK car for the boys to drive, I guess it's a good thing we had it around! The poor woman that hit the car is a cancer patient. She was just feeling good enough to go out after spending the last few weeks getting chemo. She didn't get hurt, but her car was totaled as well. She was reaching for a water bottle and didn't see our car. She hit it pretty hard, it moved an entire car length and got pushed up on the curb. That totally twisted the frame - you can't open the driver's door and the doors on the other side aren't flush any more. We had decided to invest in the repairs because it has been such a great car, it had never been in the shop prior to this. Gary figured if we got the repair work done (new catalytic converter, disc brakes and fixed a leak in the power steering fluid) that the car would last another three or four years.

It's funny, when they gave us the estimate for the repairs, my first
thought was - "if we put that much money into the car, something will happen to it." Crazy.

and done!

The diet didn't last past day 5. Too hard on a long holiday weekend. We had tickets to the American Players Theater on Friday night, so we had a bottle of wine before the show. (Which was great! We saw "Ah, Wilderness!" by Eugene O'Neill ) Anyway....Saturday we went to Galena and ate at one of the local restaurants - which was very good. On Sunday, we cooked out, a "beer can" chicken. Always awesome. As you can see, the diet would have been impossible over the weekend. On Labor Day we intended to eat at Avanti's - an Italian restaurant in Verona. But, it was closed, so we decided to eat at the Bistro in Mount Horeb. Also closed for dinner, although it had been open during the day. Leftover chicken was dinner on Monday.

I did weigh myself yesterday. I unfortunately did not weigh myself the day before I started the diet, but I had done so about a week before. From that time until now, I have lost 7 pounds. Whether it was all on the diet or not, I don't know. My weight fluctuates anyway, so it's hard to tell. Gary and I have simply decided to eat healthier (although we don't really eat too much junk as it is!), have fewer drinks during the week and to continue exercising. I will continue walking during work. We're also trying very hard to find a Wii Fit - which is nearly impossible.

Luke got "Rock Band" for the Xbox. I can't do anything beyond the easy level, but it's still great to play. The boys are really good at it. Most of the time, Luke sings, Kevin is playing guitar and Ethan is the drummer. It's fun to watch them play.

Diet day 5

Diet is dying.....
My brain is in need of carbs, I think. Today is supposed to be "beef and tomato" day. I had Wheaties for breakfast. I do have some of yesterday's soup for lunch along with some cottage cheese. I did NOT eat a donut this morning. (The office has either donuts or bagels every Friday.) I don't eat the bagels anyway, because I don't really care for them. But, I do like donuts. So, I am sad. :(

Tonight, Gary and I are going to American Players Theater. We will probably have the traditional picnic before hand - which will include wine, I imagine. Tomorrow we are going to Galena, and I am sure we will be eating out. So, again, no diet tomorrow.

I did find that, as of last night, I lost another two pounds. So that's cool. But, I have also decided that I am not going to continue with this week long diet for the last few days. But, having gone through this for the past 4 days has brought me to a few decisions. The first is that I am going to really try to keep up on drinking all this water throughout the day. I always had water at my desk anyway, but didn't drink nearly this much. Second, cut back on sugar. I didn't realize how much sugar I had been eating - from the half tsp in the coffee to snacks to desserts. I will miss that for a while, but the cravings are already diminishing. Third - I will try to take it easy on all those other pitfalls: chips, drinks, snacking, etc. Replace chips with pretzels, drink water instead of fruit drinks. No soda. Limit alcohol to one drink during the week. (Two on the weekend!)
Margaritas should be limited to the weekend. That's just too much during the week. I have also been walking everyday at work. As long as nobody at work complains because I come back sweaty....I will continue with that. This is actually easy, I would much rather walk than work!

I wonder how well I will be able to keep up on these resolutions?

Day 4 - mid day

I was really hungry at about 10:00. Banana smoothies really can't carry you through until lunch. I ate lunch at about 11:30. I was kind of dreading it, but it wasn't too bad. (Amazing what hunger can do to your tastebuds.) I had the soup, a banana and a container of milk. I am actually pretty full. I am not drinking the water as fast as I did the last couple days, I'm only through about 32 oz right now. I don't have the lime and lemon wedges in the water that I have had the last couple days, and it makes a difference. Not quite as platable.

Dinner will be the same as lunch. I am not looking forward to that.

Day four.....very strange.

Today is strange - bananas (up to eight!) and three glasses of milk. And this soup....they call it "wonder soup." I have a problem with the soup - the recipe starts with 6 onions and goes downhill from there. (A head of cabbage? C'mon!) Anyway, my soup version has no onions...it does have shallots, however. Then I used all the leftover veggies of the last couple days - so it has broccoli, asparagus, beans, corn, tomato, and green pepper. The base is lipton onion soup mix, and I also added a can of V8 to make the broth a bit tastier. It's OK, not great though.

I made a banana smoothie for breakfast - two bananas, 1% milk and ice. It's OK....

Lunch will be this soup, more bananas and a glass of milk. Probably OK....

This is going to be my day to crack, I think. Last night, I made dinner for the guys - corn on the cob, broccoli, asparagus, grapes, pineapple and watermelon. And cheesey sausages - with rolls. I really thought that the sausages were going to do me in, I was surprised that I wasn't even tempted as the sausages were cooking. Sure sounds good right now, though!!

Day three....this may be construed as torture!

Gary cracked. I don't blame him. Last night, he made tuna casserole for dinner. (I asked them to make food I don't like so I wouldn't be tempted!!) Gary, Luke and Ethan ate that. (Kevin wasn't home.) I had corn on the cob, cooked broccoli, and fresh veggies (carrots, celery, etc.) I also cracked.....had some tuna before it went in the casserole. But, my big cheat was to have some of the frozen margarita that we have in the freezer. It didn't even taste very good. Guilt ruined the flavor. :(

Today is fruit/veggie day. This morning I had watermelon and a peach for breakfast. Gary had Wheaties. I think he is giving up. He has an office lunch tomorrow and a softball picnic Thursday night, so I don't blame him. I don't know if I can last either. The cravings for other things is getting stronger and more hard to resist. (Thus the margarita last night!)

I haven't weighed myself so I don't even know if this is doing anything - although, how can it not!? I went for a couple walks yesterday and my total calorie intake for the day had to have been much less than what I burned. I'll tell you though, if at the end of the week I find I haven't lost too many pounds, I will be very disappointed. And mad that I went through this for nothing!!

We are thinking this diet may be for people that need to lose a lot of weight. For those of us that only need to lose 5 to 10 pounds, it might be futile. We will see......

Oh - and I would love a cup of coffee the way I like it - with milk and a little sugar. Black coffee is for the birds!!

Day 2 afternoon

Did I really think veggie day would be easier? Veggies have no calories, there is nothing here to keep a person going! I think Gary is going to crack. He is going into carb deprivation!

I took a walk after lunch, now I am feeling a bit woozy and light headed. Hmmm....may be rethinking this if it is going to make us ill.

Day 2 begins....

Vegetable day. Breakfast was a baked potato. All veggies, all day long - as much as you can eat. No salad dressing or butter, of course. Heaven forbid anything really tastes good! haha

Yesterday's fruit day was OK. Dinner time was the hardest part, I walk in the door after work and want a salty snack and a drink. The thought of eating another bowl of fruit just didn't sound good. (Salty chips! Margarita! That's what I wanted!!) Gary wanted cereal, I thought a glass of wine wouldn't be too bad. I said if he ate a bowl of cereal, I was drinking a glass of wine - so I think we kept each other from cheating.

So now I am at work, drinking my water and a cup of tea - with a huge container of veggies and salad fixin's in the fridge. I don't feel hungry because the baked potato breakfast was filling. This may end up being the hardest day. Maybe tomorrow, when it is all fruits and veggies combined. I'm thinking we'll be really tired of fruits and veggies by then. Although, that day, you get the mix of sweet and salty, (if you put salt on the veggies), so it might not be too bad. We'll see!

Starting a new diet

I have never been on a diet in my entire life. I never really had the need, so that's pretty lucky. This has changed as I get older, though - the calorie intake apparently exceeds what I burn. So, starting today I am trying the "GM diet." Designed by GM company to help their employees lose weight. The first day is all fruit, second is all veggies, third is a combination. (I will go into the rest as I get to it.) Two things will make this difficult, I think. The first is that you are supposed to drink eight 10 oz. glasses of water a day. That in itself isn't too hard...but do you know how many times I will be in the ladies room at work!!? Second - no alcohol. If I cheat at all on this, it will be that part. The diet is only for seven days - if you choose to do more than one week, then you can drink wine or beer after that first week.

So, today is fruit day. All the fruit you can eat, except bananas. (They are later in the week.) So far I had a bowl of fruit salad this morning for breakfast, snacked on grapes all morning, and just finished another fruit salad for lunch. (I'm stuffed!) The salad has watermelon, cantaloupe, kiwi, grapes and cherries. I have a pear and a nectarine if I get hungry this afternoon. I am on my fifth glass of water since coming to work, plus I have had two cups of tea. (At home this morning, I had three 5 oz glasses of water and a cup of coffee.) Needless to say, the ladies room is a popular stop for me today.

Tomorrow seems like it will easier, with the vegetables, but I guess I will find out. Gary is also doing this, I can't see him lasting the week without eating a bowl of Wheaties.

Google the GM diet if you are interested. It's really weird!

We're back and just in time

We were only in Florida for a few days - spent a couple days at the Disney parks, carrying our rain ponchos the whole time. We never did need them. (The sun was out most of the day on Friday.) I think that is a different story now - I feel bad for all those people that planned their vacations around this week down there only to be soaked everyday by tropical storm Fay. When we were there last Friday, we met a family from Utah. They were on their second day of a 7 day trip. Which means today is their last day - and they have been dealing with the rain for a while now. The first time any of their five kids had been there. I hope they had fun anyway.

Also, we found out that the Winnie the Pooh ride in the Magic Kingdom is awesome!

I think Luke is happy to be home. No humidity. No really really big mice.

Going back to Florida

Could there be a worse time to go to Florida? Temps in the 90s, heat index at about 100 degrees every day. Yikes. OK, I suppose it could be worse if there were actually a hurricane bearing down on Florida right now. Luckily - even though it's prime season, I don't think we will have to worry about it for the few days we are there. Leaving on Wednesday, coming back Saturday. Just enough time to help Luke move his stuff back and also spend a couple days at the parks. Really hot, somewhat humid days. I feel bad for the people that have to wear the character costumes!

New neighbors, still scary. If the kids aren't screaming, the dogs are barking. I have worked at home a couple times in the last week - this is what I am observing while I work at the dining room table that overlooks the back and into their house. They have a little girl that is about a year old. She is in a playpen in front of the TV all day. And, man oh man, she is a screamer. The Mom doesn't seem to care that the kids scream. It would drive me crazy. (I'm not spying, really! It's just in my direct line of vision when I am working from home!) They are building a fence for the dogs, which never seem to go outside. Gotta wonder what the house smells like. I hope it isn't a chain link fence, but it probably will be. *sigh* The dogs names are Molly and Seamus. (I bet they don't spell it the Irish way - probably Shamus) I didn't tell them that I have a niece named Molly and a nephew named Seamus. Not that I could have - like I said, I couldn't get a word in when I talked to them.

We have to move.

So, I was kinda bored.....

Gary, Kevin and Ethan all went to San Diego. I did not have enough vacation time to do that and go to the beach in October. They have been gone for almost a week, so over the weekend I found that I had a lot of time on my hands. I did a lot of baking - blueberry muffins, snickerdoodles, molasses cookies, chocolate chip cookies and brownies. I took all the baked goods to work, and sent out an email - and within 15 minutes everything was gone....

I also took a plate over to the new neighbors. They are scary people, I think we have to move.

Luke is almost done!

We are going down to Florida on August 13th to pick up Luke. He is almost done at Disney. The college work program may have forever ruined Disney for him. I wonder if he will ever go back there, even for a park visit? Maybe in five or ten years.....

Today I am making cookies to send him one last time. We were chatting and both looking at the King Arthur Flour's baking blog online and got really hungry. I am making snickerdoodles, molasses and chocolate chip cookies today. Luke couldn't take it any more and quickly baked up a batch of brownies.

Kevin and Ethan picked some wild blackberries for me, so I made a cobbler - that was delicious. Those have to be my favorite kind of berries! I loved picking these as a kid in upstate NY, and I am glad they grow in Wisconsin. I love this cobbler recipe - the biscuit like dough has no sugar in it, but once you roll up the berries (like a cinnamon roll) and put them in the pan (that has a stick of melted butter in it!) you pour a cup of simple sugar syrup around the cobbler. Once baked, all the liquid is absorbed, and the cobbler is sweet and so flavorful. It's a good way to show off these berries.

Marcellus

We sure had a good time in Marcellus. It was great seeing the family, although we did miss seeing some that came home after we had already left. We went to Otisco Lake and rented a pontoon one day - it was was awesome. This is a view of the lake, the "long way." It is at the end of the finger lake chain, and although it is one of the smaller lakes, it is clean and beautiful. I sure wish I lived closer, I miss that part of the country. But, mostly I just miss my Mom and the rest of the family.

Vacation time!

We're going to visit the old home town; Marcellus, NY. It's at the eastern end of the Finger Lakes, in a really beautiful area. All of my brothers and sisters will also be there at some point in the next week, although some will be arriving after we are already heading home to Wisconsin. I wish we could stay longer, but:
A. Mom's house is only so big - and even with 5 bedrooms, there are way too many people for house at this point.
B. The old vacation time just doesn't measure up. Time desired does NOT equal actual time acquired. Dang it.

Our next door neighbors are moving to South Carolina, leaving the same day we leave for vacation. It took 13 years and them leaving before we finally invited them over for dinner. They are really interesting, smart and just all around nice people. It's a shame that you sometimes don't see what is -quite literally- in your own back yard. Good Luck, Bob and Ruth! Enjoy living in the warm weather. (Wish I was going!)

Moving in to the house is a couple with two young (pre-school) children, two dogs and one cat. We shudder just thinking about it. Course, that is probably exactly how Bob and Ruth felt when we moved in!! What goes around comes around, I guess. I hope we find out more about these folks before one of us moves!

More strawberry goodness

I made a strawberry roll - A sponge cake filled with fresh strawberries and home made whipped cream. It was really good - but in hindsight, I should have cut the berries smaller and added sugar to bring out the juices. Not that I am complaining, this was still pretty good. The berries looked good, but they are small this year. Cold spring and rainy early summer.

Sour cherries are getting ripe. Our neighbors have a tree, but they are moving this week. Let's hope the people moving in will let us pick some as well. We'll just have to pick at least enough for a pie before Bob and Ruth pack up and leave on Thursday!

Also getting ripe are the wild black raspberries, or "black caps" as they are called in Wisconsin. Those are my favorites. I asked Kevin and Ethan to pick some today, I hope there is enough to make a cobbler!

Margarita-ville

It all started with fresh strawberries from the farmer's market. Add some good tequila, good orange liqueur, lime juice and this is what you get - perfect for a warm summer afternoon.

The drinks are actually two margarita recipes swirled together in one glass. One is the strawberry margarita made with the fresh berries, the other is a frozen lime margarita. Recipes for both are listed below. These were SO GOOD!!

Frozen lime margaritas - Recipe courtesy of my sister in law Leigh Ann!

1 - 6 oz can frozen limeade

6 oz silver tequila (We like Milagro)

2 oz orange liqueur (we like Grand Gala - the Italian version of Grand Marnier)

Put all together in a blender, fill with ice and blend until smooth. Store in freezer.

Strawberry Margaritas -

4 cups fresh strawberries, cleaned and hulled

3 TBS frozen limeade

1/4 C sugar

6 oz silver tequila

2 oz orange liqueur

Spread two cups of the strawberries on a cookie sheet and put in the freezer. (So they freeze individually.) Put the other two cups in a saucepan with the 1/4 C sugar. Mash the berries with the sugar and cook over medium heat until slighty reduced, about ten minutes. Remove from heat, and still in the limeade. Cool completely, in the refrigerator.

When the mixure is cooled and the other berries are frozen, put all in the blender. Add the tequila and the orange liqueur and fill the blender with ice till it reaches the 5 C mark. Blend until smooth. You can also store this in the freezer, but it will freezer a bit more solidly than the other recipe.

To make the drinks, above:

Mix coarse sugar and coarse kosher salt crystals together on a paper plate - 2:1 ratio - I used 2 T sugar and 1 T salt, and it was plenty to get us through both recipes...about 6 drinks, I think. Use a fresh cut piece of lime around the outside edge of the glass and dip in the salt/sugar mixture. Pour (or spoon) equal amounts of the margarita recipes, swirling together with a spoon. Enjoy!

My amazing new quilt

My sisters made me a quilt for my birthday. It is awesome. The quilt has a beach theme, it's all batik fabrics; with shells, fish, sea turtles and so much more. The name of the quilt is "C D Goldfish?" I think the picture says more than I can.

My sisters are awesome, too!!

Just when you think it can't get any worse...

....it always gets worse. So don't ever think that it's can't get any worse.

RAINBOW Jello!!

I wanted to create a blog that was about cooking and baking. So far my blog mostly seems about whining and complaining! (At least I don't complain too much about work.)

Kevin graduated on Sunday and we had a little party for him. (He did NOT want a big party!) One of the items made for dinner was "rainbow jello." It isn't that hard but it is pretty, so I am posting a picture here. A picture that Kevin took, with his graduation present camera! Other desserts at the party included triple chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal cookies, a pumpkin pie, and a banana cake. And, nope, I didn't happen to get any pictures of those. Geez.....

Pathetic

I have written and deleted three blog entries. They are all so .... depressing. Complaining about one thing or another. (OK, mostly my job and the fact that I have to work.) It's been a long week - not entirely without good points, though. I received a compliment from one of the engineers - when I mentioned that I might try to do something else at, like going to the level 2 engineer position, the engineer said "No! You can't do that! You are the only SAM that understands what we are talking about - you are the easiest SAM to work with!" So, there it is. I still want to find another position, though. This one requires too much talking on the phone. Talking to...people....scary. It gives me the SHIVERS!

Kevin graduates this weekend. He will be going to parties, but not having one himself. May be just as well, the front deck is currently missing as Gary and his dad replace it. Right now the front of the house is a mud pit, but it will be nice when it is done.

It's been a long week, I am so glad it's Friday. Now, if it were only 4:00......

Another order from KAF

That would be King Arthur Flour....see post below. If I had time to bake, everything would be from scratch. Unfortunately, that is not the case. I still want to bake, though, and I want whatever is baked to taste good. So, I placed another order from KAF. This time, I paid the extra $3 and got fast shipping. So, the shipping was still $15, but the mixes were on sale, so in the end, paying for faster shipping was a wash.

I made the cinnamon buns. From a mix! The dough was beautiful and so easy to work with. And, they were awesome. So awesome, they were better than my homemade cinnamon rolls. How sad. But, since they were easier, I am not going to put up much of a fuss. I would take a picture, but I didn't think of it at the time and they were gone way too fast. I will have to remember when I make the next item. I think that will be the caramel monkey bread.

What a nice Mother's Day

Geez, I am spoiled. Matt and Jamie came by yesterday and gave me some really nice olive oil and jelly bellies. (Plus a gift certificate to one of the coolest stores in Galena!) Then I got some perfume, an awesome new cell phone and a bunch of accessories for the phone. Plus breakfast and roses. Wow!
The perfume wasn't quite what I was looking for, so Gary and I went to the store to return it and get something else. I ended up with a perfume called "Roxy." We also got some clothes, chocolate, lotion and a margarita mixer from Williams Sonoma. Which tasted good in the store, but I really didn't like at home. All in all, an expensive day. Tonight, I get a steak dinner with baked sweet potatoes, crusty bread and asparagus - compliments of Gary and the boys.
And, Luke sent me a Mother's Day email.
What a nice day!

Trip to Florida

What a nice trip. Especially getting to see Luke. I think he is enjoying himself despite his complaints about work. I wish we could have stayed longer, but we sure didn't need to spend more time at the Disney Parks - the four days we were there were great, but I don't think we needed more than that. I did ride on the "Rockin' Roller Coaster" which surprised me - that I had the courage to ride it at all was amazing. But that I actually enjoyed it so much I went twice - well, that is unheard of. We spent a day at Cocoa Beach, and although the water was a bit chilly, it was still great. I really love the beach....
Our hotel (Old Key West resort) was really nice, one of the better hotels that we have stayed at. It had fully equipped kitchen, so we saved some money on food expenses. We also went down at the right time of year, the parks were not that crowded, so we didn't have to spend time waiting in lines. We also got fast passes for the more popular rides, that saved a lot of time as well. I wish we could get there once more before Luke is done - maybe when we go to pick him up!

It's shake day

Last summer, John (one of my co-workers) and I went to lunch at Panera. Right across from Panera there is a Cold Stone. It was hot, so after lunch we decided to take a shake back to work. It was a Thursday - it turns out that shakes are half price on Thursdays at Cold Stone. Awesome! We decided to go the next week, but also got shakes for all the co-workers in the NOC. (Which we expensed.) That was the start of shake Thursday. Every week since then, we have ordered shakes at work on Thursdays, which the company has picked up every week. About three months ago, I looked up the calorie content of the Cold Stone shakes, and I no longer order them - 1700 calories! In one shake!! If I am going to get that many calories in one drink, it better have tequila in it. Anyway, the shake sign up list still goes out every Thursday, and today it went out high tech. Via email. We are a technology company, after all.

They need to come up with the margarita shake. It would make my Thursday afternoons a lot more interesting.

Leaving for Florida

Last week in Wisconsin we were enjoying weather in the mid 70s. It snowed today and it's supposed to be in the 20s tonight. Fortunately, we leave for Florida tomorrow. We are going to see Luke, who is working at Disney World. And, of course, enjoying the parks and at least one day at the beach. We opted for Cocoa Beach rather than Daytona - less crowded plus we will take a look at the space shuttle launch area.
I am looking forward to seeing Luke, warm weather, and time off from work!!

Riding the coasters....

Last Sunday was my company's free day at Great America in Gurney, IL. The park is closed to the public and we rent it for the day. There is no charge for entrance or the rides, and a lunch is provided. It's not a great lunch (fried chicken, hot dogs, salads, chips, drinks.) but it is somewhat edible. The longest wait for a ride was about 20 minutes. (The company is pretty large.) I didn't ride on any of the huge roller coasters, but my husband and the kids sure like them. (My oldest son's girlfriend, Jamie, went too, she kept me company while they all went on the rides.) They had a pretty good time, they rode almost every coaster in the park. We did a lot of walking and then Jamie and I did a lot of waiting, but it was still fun. We did go on one fairly tame coaster, bumper cars and the carousel. That was enough for me. I don't get the thrill from those rides, I only feel the fear. It's not comfortable. Why would anyone willingly sit in a rickety cart screaming at 75 mph down a vertical drop of something like 150 feet? YIKES!
I like the carousel - it had dragons. And cats!

That flour company...

I miss my dog.....

A couple posts below, I was complaining about a certain company, their shipping charges and being partially reimbursed for those charges. Today, I received an email from a person in that company. The subject line of the email was "your blog posting".... I thought that a little strange.

Most of the email was thanking me for the order I placed, apologies for the reply to my email concerning shipping, and then went on to explain their shipping policy. Which, apparently, they think is "higher than both our customers and we would like them to be."

They are obviously using a search function to scan the blog sites for their name. And it would seem that they would like me to take the name off the posting. I'm considering it, I mean, they did reimburse me for half the cost.

However, I placed two orders that day, one for me and one for my son. Neither box was large, and the cost of shipping both was $24. That's extreme. Otherwise I was pretty happy with the order, they have good quality stuff and the item pricing is decent. I just don't want to pay that much in shipping.

I'll think about it.

ITIL Certified

I passed the exam to become ITIL® certified. ITIL® is an acroynym for the "Information Technology Infrastructure Library." It is the best accepted approach to IT service management and IT Governance. Yeah, I know......zzzzzzzzzzzzz
But, it was an expectation of my job, and the company paid the fee to take the exam. I would have felt pretty bad if I failed. It's a relief to be done. Now I will promptly forget everything that I have studied for the last few weeks!
Here is the interesting part......I took the exam at one of those testing centers. A room full of small cubicles with a monitor and a keyboard in each. Lots of other people in the room taking who knows what kind of exam. The range of people taking tests was amazing. I think there was a woman from a prison there. (If she wasn't from prison, she has really BAD TASTE in clothing!) Someone next to me was typing like crazy the whole time I was taking my 40 question multiple choice test. Had to wonder what was up with that. Maybe it was the "type as fast as you can while annoying the heck out of the person next to you" test.
I am just happy to be done. Oh, and happy I passed. I got an 82!

So long Kenai

Kenai is 14 years old. She is making her final trip to the vet on Saturday, where she will go to sleep for the last time. Kenai has tumors, arthritis and she is deaf. She has a lot of trouble getting around and the quality of her life is diminished. We think we are doing the right thing, but it's still hard to do. Poor old doggie, she is a sweetie.

How long does it take to add an entry?

It's been almost a year since I said I was going to add new entries to the blog. I knew I would get around to it sooner or later. Anyway, I am thinking of using this for food related stories, recipes, etc. Here's the first one:

I ordered a bunch of stuff from King Arthur Flour a couple weeks ago. The order took 10 days to arrive and it cost me $14 for shipping. So, I complained. This was the reply I got:

"Our shipping rates have recently changed. In an effort to be as FAIR as possible to ALL our customers, no matter which part of the country we are shipping to, our shipping is now based on the dollar amount of your order. We do not inflate shipping rates to make a profit nor do we add bogus handling fees. We simply try to break even."

huh...I thought the reply sounded a little, shall we say, snotty. So, I wrote back and told them so. Guess what? They reimbursed half of the shipping cost! Pays to complain.