Fall is here

I love the fall and the colour show that mother nature puts on for us. On  Sunday, Nevada and I went for a walk and looked for the most perfect tree of Autumn.  This is the one we voted for,  it's in a park by our house.  I remember that tree from way back before I even had kids.  We will wait a few more weeks till all the leaves are down then walk over there and make a big pile and jump in the leaves.  Last year I had Nevada and her friend bury themselves then I had to find them.  I could see parts of their clothing sticking up and could hear them giggling but pretended I couldn't find them.  I even made like I accidently stepped on them.  Thinking back on that day it still brings a smile from ear to ear. 
Which brings me to the subject of paying for good times.  Memories don't have to be made with fancy toys or trips to the mall.  I think the small and simple times spent together far outweigh the big splashy showings.   All the time I hear people saying its quality time while they are working full time and only seeing their kids while they tuck them into bed.  Well hello who is raising your kids and why did you have them?  I know plenty of parents if they cut back on their fancy toys,  huge houses and new vehicles every other year could stay home with their kids more and enjoy the too few years  with them.  I don't think they realize that their time is limited.  Your children will only be young once so you better enjoy the few years you get.
Well I babbled long enough,  the timer just went off on the dryer so I am off to do my job lol

Back from Vegas

What can I say?   The weather was perfect, sunny and not too hot.  The drinks were plentiful and I didn't lose any money.  I didn't win any money but breaking even is just fine in my book.  The first night we didn't get into our room till past midnight.  We quickly washed up a bit and hit the casino.   The drinks were coming fast and furious and I was doing my best to keep the cocktail waitress happy....  Around 4:30am I just had to crash.  (this is about 8 hours past my usual bedtime)

The next morning we were up by 7:30am and were in need of some food to soak up the alcohol residue.  We had free buffet coupons so we loaded up on greasy eggs and bacon.  Actually it was a  very good buffet.  We played a bit more slots then I tried to go shopping at the outlet mall.   I was just too tired to look.  The prices were unbelievable,  45-75% off.   You can tell the economy is hurting bad.  So we headed back to the hotel and changed for the pool.
Of course one can't sit by a pool without some refreshing beverages......

So pretty much we followed the same sort of itinerary most of the time.   We never stayed up as late as the first night though.   I am still so tired I could sleep for days.   My favourite sign is Vegas is "Stay and play you can sleep when you get home"   Except I can't sleep cause I have a zillion loads of laundry and tons of crap to catch up on.

The kids enjoyed their time with their Aunt and the house ran smoothly.   I wish I had booked us away longer. At least the weather is sunny here even though its about 20 degrees colder.

Today is the day

it is finally here...  We leave in about 4 more hours to the airport.   I am so excited I don't know what to do.  I have been chugging coffee all morning and am going to switch to Diet Coke after lunch.  That was I will be so high on caffeine I will be able to stay up late tonight.   Our flight doesn't get into Vegas till 10pm  which is about 2 hours past my normal bedtime.  I have the whole trip planned out.  Stay up all night and gamble and party, and sleep all day by the pool being careful to rotate and get evenly tanned.

Oh funny story,  I made a bum on a bike drop his beer.  I was driving through a green light in town when a cyclist tried to cut me off.  I remember this loser from when I worked at Safeway so I didn't brake.  He had to hit his brakes on his bike and lost his grip on his giant can of beer.  It fell in the middle of the intersection.  I watched him (through my rear view mirror) park his bike and dart between traffic and retrieve it.  I laughed all the way to picking Harrison up from work.  I know I am mean but it was funny.

thursday thirteen

I find myself with nothing to say at times and then poof wondrous thoughts enter my head.  The week has been a busy one of driving and planning and not packing yet. So here goes just random randomness of things.

1. Nevada has been training for cross-country.  Yesterday was her second race.  She did awesome and I was so proud of her.  She finished in the top 1/3 rd of the pack.  There must have been over 100 girls. I am so proud of her as the race is pretty long and she joined knowing she had no chance of winning but just for the fun of participating  For years she couldn't run at all without suffering from asthma.

2.email from Kaikoa's English teacher, he made two spelling errors, can you find them?

Hi Carol,

Thanks for the e-mail, Kaikoa has been doing really well and has been on top of everything so far this year. He is being responsible and respectful in class and most of all has communicated with me when having trouble on a project. He is currently at 90% and a "G" for effort. Please congradulate him to reiniforce his great work ethic

Peter Hay

3.Oldest child has a new g/f and she is so friendly and nice.  I don't know how we put up with that other you know what for 2 years...good riddance.

4.I am so stoked about Vegas.  Four more sleeps and we are out of here.  The trip cost is so incidental that I will have lots of money to shop and gamble with.  The weather there is still in the 80's so nothing could be more perfect.

5.I found a beautiful walnut tree in a park by our house.  The weather here has been sunny and dry so I've been adding a little nut picking to my walk.  Funny how I have only met elderly people in the park filling up on the free walnuts.  We have long conversations and they seem happy to have someone to chat with.

6.The quilt is going along smoothly now.  I have 12 of the 24 blocks put together and the colours look great.  I made two wrong seams and had to pick them apart.  I kind of knew while I was sewing it didn't look right.  Should have stopped and double checked.

7.Canadian election, what can I say except what a colossal waste of money.  Same government got in with the same minority government and voter turnout was the worst in history.    We need a set election date like the states every 4 years and stick with it.

8.The turkey dinner turned out delicious.  All week I've been using the leftover turkey to make dinner.  I used the last of the fix-ins last night.  Just as well if I served turkey one more time I think I would have to move.

9.I am taking the boys and some of their friends tonite to a Haunted House attraction.
http://www.reapers.ca/

10.Last Thursday we went to a corn maze.  We were lost  for-ever and came across a bridge.  At the top of the bridge you could just see over the corn and place yourself.  I didn't realize how big the field was.  As far as the eye could see was the maze of corn.  I led the group out by keeping the moon on my front left.

11.The gas prices in our area have come steadily down.  Yesterday the price was 1.12 a litre.  In the summer I payed as high as 1.44.  They still announced on the news that home heating was still going to be high as they purchased in the summer....

12.Harry still hasn't caught a salmon.  Yesterday a fellow fisherman must have felt sorry for him and gave him a pity-fish.  That's a fish that you give to someone that doesn't catch any.  Its the worst sort of insult and you get lots of teasing.  (at least I have a fish in the freezer)

13. Aww what a magical number.  I've been practicing up my craps skill on line and even lose all my pretend money.  I hope this isn't an omen of things to come...

quilting progress

top 3 rows of blocks not sewn together yet...

Dear Carol....

Dear Carol:

I _____ you. You have a nice _____. You make me ____.

You should _______. Someday I will _____. You + me = ______.

We should __________.

If I saw you now I'd _______. I would build a _______ just for you.

If I could sing you any song it  would be _________.

If I could I'd give you anything it would be ___________.

We could __________ under the stars.


Love,
_______________

(P.S. ______________.)


REPOST THIS "DEAR (YOUR NAME)" AND SEE WHAT ANSWERS YOU GET... this is lots of fun!! You can really make someone's day. Or you could just make them laugh really hard. Whatever. You can put more than one word in the lines.

Turkey Stuffing

Description:
This recipe is from Romania. I love it as much as the traditional bread stuffing. To please everyone I stuff one end of the turkey with the bread stuffing and the other end with this one.

Ingredients:
 
1/2 cup Basmati rice

1 lb sausage 

1 chopped onion

3 stalks chopped celery

sage

poultry seasoning

salt and pepper

one large carrot grated

a little over 1/2 cup of slivered almonds

one raw egg
 



Directions:
Cook the rice as per instructions. Fry up sausage and drain really really good. Add onions, celery and spices. Remove from heat and add the grated carrot, almonds, rice and raw egg, in that order.
then stuff it babe....

Turkey Brine

Description:
This will make the most incredibly moist and tender turkey even out of a really old tough bird that has lived in the freezer since you can't remember.

Ingredients:
Measure out coarse salt on a 1:16 ratio:

In other words, 1 cup of salt for every 16 cups (4 litres) of water.


Directions:
Soak turkey overnight in the salt water mixture.
Drain and rinse before stuffing and cooking.

I usually put a frozen bird in the kitchen sink with the brine and soak it overnight. As it un thaws I grab it's guts out so the inside gets marinated too.

Em is the smartest person in the world.

She turned me on to the most fantastic site on the world wide web.  What is it called you ask?

www.fatwallet.com

I can't believe I have never looked on there before.  The savings and the deals are incredible.  How could I have survived without it.  One question though,  why did Em not tell me about this place sooner?  Was she hogging all the good deals for herself?  enquiring minds want to know and all that.......

thanks Em I will repay you with Ham....

Orange-Pumpkin Graham Pie

Ingredients:
Crust:
1 1/3 cups Graham cracker crumbs 325 ml
1/3 cup ground almonds, toasted 75 ml
2 tbsp granulated sugar 25 ml
1/4 tsp grated orange rind 1 ml
1/3 cup butter melted


Filling:
2 pkg (each 106 g) vanilla instant pudding mix
1 can (385ml) evaporated milk
1 pkg (125gr) cream cheese softened
1 can (14oz/398ml) pumpkin puree
1 tbsp frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed 15 ml
1/2 tsp vanilla 2 ml
1/4 tsp each grated orange rind and ground cinnamon 1ml



Directions:
crust:

combine all ingredients and press into and up the sides of a 9 inch (23cm) pie plate. Bake in 350F (180C) for 6-8 minutes or until set. cool

filling:
In a bowl beat pudding mix with the evaporated milk about 1-2 minutes beat in cream cheese until well blended and smooth. Gradually beat in the remaining ingredients and pour into cooked crust. Freeze overnight or for 7-8 hours until firm.
Remove from freezer at least a half an hour before serving.
this pie freezes very well and I usually make it well ahead of when I want to serve it.

started cutting the material

and now I am not happy with my colour choices.  I'm not sure if its just me or did I just pick the wrong colours to go together.  For the pattern I can go with the same eight colours to make up the pinwheel or just randomly throw different ones together.  I am going to make the background part all one colour.  the solid green on the bottom right is going to be the background.

http://www.quilterscache.com/P/Pinwheel8Block.html

this is the block I am attempting to make...

Any ideas will be helpfull...




Ok I think I decided on this one.

Cranberry Jello

Ingredients:

1 cup water
1 small package lemon Jell-O
1 cup ground cranberries
1 orange peel and juice
1 cup or less of sugar (I always use less because I like it a bit more tart)
1/2 cup walnuts (or more if you like)




Directions:
Boil the water. Pour over Jell-O and add sugar. Stir until dissolved.
Add remaining ingredients and refrigerate for several hours, or overnight.

Thursday Thirteen

Well that week sure went fast.  Seems like it was just a week ago and it was Thursday. Read on folks I got a lot to say...j/k

1.I AM GOING TO VEGAS.   Yep, you read that right.  I wrangled the sister-in-law to come and be a taxi for the kids and Hairball and I are heading for sin city.  I love the heat, the people, the gambling, the buildings, the everything that Vegas has to offer.   Viva Las Vegas.

2.I volunteered at Nevada's school to help with a reading program.  Now I found out it is only for the slow readers and they don't have a program for the excellerated readers.  I don't want to help anymore.  I thought I would get to be with Nevada too.    This angers me as well.  Why is the focus always on the lower end of the curve.  Why isn't there anything for the brighter children to strive higher towards.   I could go on forever on this one...

3.They think they found Steve Fosset stuff.  Will the hiker get a reward?  I wonder how much it will be?

4.The elections...I know I said I wouldn't talk about it, so I won't.  Still angry after writing number 2.

5.Thursday is my major driving night. I hate it hate it hate it 
   2:20 pick nevy up from school,
   4:30 ish pick Kaikoa up from Volleyball,
   6:00 pick Harrison up from school,
   6:30 drive Nevada to kids club,
   7:00 drive Kaikoa to youth,
   8:00 pick up Nevada from kids club
   9:30 ish pick up kaikoa from youth.

6.  Survivor is on tonight.  Luckily we have satellite I can time it to watch the whole show in various increments with out missing parts.  I wish they would let Canadians try out.  who wouldn't want to get paid a million dollars for losing weight....

7.  Eldest son now has a new g/f.  Very nice girl, very nice family..but alas neither drive and she lives the farthest away from us in our city without actually living in a different city. more driving refer to #5

8.  Our neighbors  cat  has been coming on our deck and spraying.  Not sure how to stop the critter.  I love cats and don't want to hurt it.  Maybe I should drag the neighbor over and rub his nose in it....

9.  Still haven't starting cutting the material yet.  I did take the mat and the ruler out.  Sorry teacher Lisa but the weather has just been too nice and the cat ate my homework....

10.The hockey fanatics are back in full swing.  There are these hockey mom's at the school that are just gaga over the Canucks  that's all they talk about. They go on and on and on and on. Shut up I say who cares about the Canucks.  I am happy when they lose (evil laughter)  last part I am just thinking...

11.Canadian Thanksgiving is the second Monday in October.  This means it's just over a week away.  I love cooking the turkey dinner with all the fixing's.  I make the most kick-ass pumpkin pie you will ever taste.  Anyone interested in the recipe I can post it or send it email.

12. Back to number 1.   I want to stay at a nicer place in Vegas but don't want to have to walk a mile to get to the pool. anyone have any place they can recommend I am all ears.

13. I am done and its my turn for the shower.