I'm afraid to go to sleep.

my house has a major infestation....of little boys.

I didn't worry until I walked in on them tying each other up with duct tape....

hmm...maybe I should have left them like that.

WAITING WILL BE THE DEATH OF ME!!!!

Yes or no. At this point, I don't care. I just wanna know!!

tomorrow morning I drop off Lachesis at the vet. They are going to squeeze her in sometime in the morning, do blood work, etc.. then call me.

keep your fingers crossed.

she has started losing weight, wont eat (even the canned food I got her) but she is drinking, meowing in a distressed way, and she is reluctant to move from whatever spot she has claimed. right now her current location is the bathtub.

Some some breasts!
Hug a tree!
Feed a kid!
Feed a dog!
Give a book!
Give kids medicine!

All by making companies donate! Everyone wins! We click a button, and advertisers pay!
www.therainforestsite.com

At the top of the page there are tabs to take you to different sites: Breast cancer research, Pet rescue, etc.... Once a day you can click the button to donate...or rather, you can click the button to say "I was here" which has the advertisers donate. :)

They also have some great products for sale. Recently I bought a necklace for M which had the side benefit of saving 2000 sq/ft of the rainforest.

I have them all bookmarked in my toolbar, so as I wait for coffee to brew I can do my part to save the world before I even really wake up!

Spread the word!

Yippee!!

Today's pasta turned out MUCH better than yesterday's, even with the minor glitch. :)

I used 4 cups of Bluebird flour and 5 eggs. The end result was a little too moist, but next time I'll knead it more and work in the rest of the flour. It went through the wheels beautifully, and made the most incredibly beautiful fettuccine I've ever made (*snicker* considering this is my second time, that aint sayin much, but still!)

The "glitch" came when the pasta was out of the press and in the bowl- that's when the "a little too moist" thing came into play. By the time I had the last ribbon sliced into noodles, the stuff on the bottom of the bowl had smooshed together back into dough. *grr* Oh well, live and learn. I just ran it through again and all was well.

The taste was Wonderful! :)

I think I"ll lay off the pasta for a few days, so the family doesn't get burned out...but then, the experiments can begin!!!

Found a website with directions for making:
green (spinach)
red (carrots and tomato paste)
brown (bakers chocolate)
orange (pumpkin)
speckled (herb)
black (squid ink)
purple (beet)


*giggle*

Pasta Party at my place!!

I went out to feed this morning, since I'm home with 3 sick kids (the youngest three- Bob and I already had it, and Bunny doesn't get sick, EVER. So everyone, I love ya, but stay away! Stay far far away!! You don't want this!!!) Bland food and lots of naps seem to take care of it, but this really really sucks.

Anyway, I go out back and get MOBBED by birds. They see the coffee cans can come running. The chickens aren't so bad, except for one rooster who is thinking about taking a nibble from my leg, but he can be dealt with easily.

But the turkeys, OMG!! Those things are huge! I didn't appreciate the size of the suckers until I was surrounded by them!! Studly comes almost to my chest! I have to admire the bravery of R and B to go out there every day and feed those maniacal things. It wasn't so bad before Luci (the demon goat) broke down the fence to the turkey yard so she could slip in and eat their grain. Luckily they can't really fly, so they are still safe and sound in the back 2 acres, but that means they are currently free-ranging out back.

I'm already deciding how to dress them. *mmmmm* I'm wondering how it would effect the cooking to just skin them so I can save the feathers. Last time, most of those beautiful feathers were destroyed in the scalding process. I'm thinking maybe doing a ritz cracker crumb breading to replace the skin (like to do to pork chops). Any thoughts?

I love it when I manage to fix something. I feel sooo manly. I love it even more when I fix something and feel manly while still wearing a long, flowing skirt from work. The drain has rendered the master bathroom shower completely useless. We had tried everything we could think of, and still, nothing would work. On the verge of calling a plumber, I snaked it *one* last time, and *presto*- we now have a functional shower again! Yippee!!

I rewarded myself with sushi that Bob brought home for me.

I guess the newly renovated Smith's on Tramway has a sushi bar!! I was a little leery of what appeared to be pre-packaged sushi, but Bob said that the guy was basically making it to order. It is not the best sushi I have ever had, but it is *FAR* from the worst. Granted, I only sampled four kinds, but the salmon was pretty darn tasty, the tuna was fine, the shrimp was well..shrimp, and even Bob ate the avocado rolls. :)

Restaurants that specialize in sushi have no need to fear, but if you need a quick fix, or live with someone who thinks of raw fish as bait, then it will do pretty well.

I HAVE A KILN!!!!

It is small, and I have no place to plug it in yet, but it will be a good "starter kiln" for me. Something to experiment with while deciding if I really do want the one I have my heart set on.

Of course, the one that I really want costs between $1200-1600, so that isn't happening anytime soon, but the one I have now will be perfect for small pieces while I figure out the firing process. She cost me a whole whopping $25!!!!

She is a used "dental kiln" (smaller interior space, normally used for jewelry, glass, enameling, etc..) and is an old girl. Hasn't been used in 15 years, but I was assured she is a work horse. (The lady that sold her to me used to make dental bridges, closed her business years ago and really wants her storage space back.) They had named her Charlotte. She is used to dealing with porcelain, and I'm pretty sure she goes up to cone 9. (I'll have to get her model # when the sun is up so I can check out her full specs.)

The company that made her is still in business, so it is possible to get instructions, support, service and parts if needed. Mark checked out her wiring, and except for needing a new power cord, everything looks fine. Before turning the shed into a full fledged studio, I'm going to talk to Mark about the possibility of simply running an industrial extension cord from the dryer to the shed, and only plugging her in when I'm actually using her. If I decide that this is something I really want to invest in, then he and I can talk about permanently running power out there.

So...who wants to come play with me????

I set up two raised beds last year out front. I hauled all sorts of nice organic material out there, followed "Mel's Mix" (square foot gardening) with peat moss, vermiculite and compost, yadda yadda yadda.... Watered regularly. The only thing growing out there now are a handful of parsnips, four strawberry plants and some sugar snap peas.

My carrots are gone. The tops vanished, so we dug them up, most are pencil thin, but the kids are having fun eating them. My pumpkin shriveled within a week. Green chile is no more, and one tomato has given up the ghost. (one might make it still). My spinach did great, but the lettuce didn't even make an appearance....

SO...out back, I decided to try an experiment. Just for giggles to see what would happen. I dug up the weeds in the leach field and planted some sugar snap peas. I did not add a darn thing to the soil (which is mostly clay), and hand watered from a jug maybe once a week, if I remembered.... Ya know what?? These damn peas are twice as big as the ones out front!!

I have plants!
And paint!

After dropping off the big kids, we went to Home Depot to pick up a new hose for the swamp cooler and paint to re-do the (new) room for the boys. I'm about to start painting here in a minute, but I just finished some gardening. :)

On the way home we swung by the local nursery. Of all the things this town does not have, I was shocked to learn a couple years ago that we have a nursery! Everything anyone has said about them has been extremely positive! Their plants are used to this climate, are already hardened and do not suffer from transplant shock. Yippee!! Then we went there and saw the prices. OMG!!! I was planning on only getting a couple tomatoes and maybe a strawberry or two, but one look at the price tag and I was sending BJ back to get a wagon. $1 a plant! Yup, that's right. One whole whopping buck for a big, beautiful, healthy, green plant. Everyone was picking things out! ABC got watermelons ($1.50 for 4!!) BJ wanted tomatoes, and BJ picked out some cukes for R, and a BIG pumpkin plant for S. Even Bob joined in the fun by picking out some green chiles (again, $1.50 for 4) then, on the spur of the moment he added a plum tree ($20) and two shade trees ($6 each)to the wagon.

All the plants are now settling into their new home, and the trees are patiently awaiting us to choose their locations. :)

Now, I am off to paint!