in the last

week we celebrated a 20th birthday and had a couple of really cold days.  Oh and there was also an hour or so of flight time.

Here's Houston from the east side, towards the port/ship channel area.
The plants are breathtaking… not.


Here's another plane.


Other than that, there's not much going on.  All I've been wanting to do is lie around and I'm blaming it on the cold weather. 

I did manage to make it out the other day and buy a new rolling pin.  This time I chose one without handles, since the particles coming out of the handles are the reason I'm buying a new one.  I read the directions on the new one and saw I shouldn't wash it in the dishwasher.  Hmm.  Maybe that's why the old one is flaking out on me now.  Oh well, live and learn.

my sweet tooth

came calling last night.  I ended up with these cream horns.


 Well, I have 6 horn molds and 6 cannoli molds so technically, they're not all horns.

I really like the way that works out.  I actually leave a gap on the cannoli molds, with dough wrapped at both ends.  So instead of the one huge tubed cream "horn" like I'd buy at the grocery store... if I was willing to make things simpler, I get a bunch of bite-sized cream "horns".  (Or two-bite sized if you're like me)

It's a win-win situation.  Now I need to take my pig-in-the-blankets out of the oven.  I can't decide with the theme for this post should be:

- How many ways can I create a doughy cylinder and fill it with goodness?
or
- How many times can I use and abuse hyphens in one post?

one more thing

for today.  This was the other day.  My goal was to video Maggie doing her bunny hop.  She'd do it when I was about to throw the ball, she'd take off in the direction she thought I'd throw it and do a few weird hops in there.  This was me trying to get the phone ready to get her running off to hop but she got me first.


it isn't so much

that I've been neglecting the blog, it's just that there hasn't been a whole lot going on.

-It got really cold then got back to normal.
-I made a roast.
-Eric started a new semester.
-Cosme flew us to Brenham.
-I made chili.
-I didn't get a pedicure.
-I ate too many pickles and paid the price... twice.
-I made brownies.

I think that's about it.

On the animal front, I have nothing to show or tell as far as Lucille goes but as for Strat, his head makes a nice resting place for a cell phone.

I went out the other day to move and stack firewood.  Maggie was following me as I stacked it on the patio.  I knew deep down I was wasting my time but I went on and got them all nice and neatly stacked.  In the middle of it all, we took a break to play fetch with her ball.  I could tell that she got tired of playing and wanted to keep stacking wood because on the last throw, instead of bringing the ball back to me, she went and put it on the stacked wood.  So we started hauling and stacking again.  The next morning I had more stacking to do.

I knew she'd start taking it all apart.  These are just a few of the ones she pulled out.  Oh well...

Yesterday I had to go sit outside just to enjoy the weather.  It was 70 degrees, sunny and pretty awesome.  Maggie washed my hands for me.



Then she stretched out so I could scratch her.

(She's real thoughtful like that.)  I have a feeling there will be a repeat of that today because it looks like today's weather will be equally awesome.

For now I'll face reality.  I need to do laundry and more importantly... don't judge me... seriously, don't judge... but I need to take my tree down.  Yes.  My Christmas tree is still up and decorated.  There.  I said it.  I'm not admitting to being weird or lazy but I just like it there.  (But no, I haven't been turning the lights on because what if somebody drove by and saw them all lit up in the middle of January!  Can you imagine?  So I've just been enjoying it without letting the passersby think I'm that neighbor.)  So while it's fresh on my mind, I'll go start disassembling.  (sigh)  I have to admit though, this warm, sunny weather makes it a little easier to take down.  Spring cleaning, HERE I COME!

one of the two photo-a-day

challenges I try to keep up with had an expected topic for today.  "A goal for 2014".  I shared my picture and I think it's pretty self explanatory.


I went ahead and added, since most of those people don't know anything about me, that one goal is to make more time for this stuff.  So first thing in the morning, I'm signing up for a really neat class I read about.  I'm pretty excited.  The only problem with me when this bug bites is that I'm tempted to clear out the guest room, carpet and all, and put a huge work table in the middle of the room.  I don't know how Lauren would feel about sleeping on a futon when she comes down for Christmas.  Actually, I don't know how I'd feel about getting rid of a bedroom and especially having a lot of stuff from Eric's apartment stacked up in there still.  It's settled.  I don't need the bedroom cleared out, I need a workshop out back with lights, central air/heat and preferably a half bath.  Now I need to wake up from this dream... and realize my options for a "studio" of some sort are either the dining table or garage.  For now though, I'll get ready for that class and try to find a starting point for all the ideas I have swimming around in my head.  Oh, that's another thing.  With all this excitement, my mind is going nonstop. 

Oh well, I'm going to take advantage of this nice, quiet day and go read or something.