This and that

 I'm home today.

Figured I'd take a little PTO before starting the new job.

Lot's of things I could be doing, but I'm parked on my arse surfing the internet. 

This last weekend was so nice.

The sun and warm temperatures are definitely putting folks in a good mood.

(I'm not even gonna worry that they are forecasting snow again for Thursday)

I had an unexpected visit from the incredibly-shrinking woman Krissy.

Was so good to see her. 

We giggled, laughed and did some bitching.

Nothing like it.

Chyann slept till 2p had a snack and went back to bed till 6p. 

She said the prom was fun, but the after party lock in was better.

They all had so much fun shopping for the outfits and getting ready, but the anticipation quite didn't match the experience.

A few more photos. 

This picture to me says - yes I am the queen of the universe. 

Oh and look at my pretty corsage.

Colton gets out of school on the 16th of May.

Not sure what he is going to do this summer.

Well, I guess I'm off to clean a closet or something.

Maybe do some dishes and take a nap.

Have a good day

Prom fun and a good laugh

Had a great time at the fundraiser yesterday.

The weather was beautiful, a little breezy though.

Caden was lucky playing bingo and even won a raffle.

Chyann made plans to get ready for the prom with a bunch of her friends.

I went and took pictures before they went. 

A few of my favorite pictures. 

Isn't she just lovely.

Note the necklace and earrings Caden won and gave to me as an early Mothers Day present.

I picked Chyann and her friends up at 620 this morning. 

They had an after prom lock in at a local establishment where the kids could eat pizza, play games, drive gocarts, do a rock wall, lazer tag and other fun stuff. 

Happy Birthday to my brother Jeff!

I hope you have a fantastic Birthday!!

In honor of your birthday, go HERE and have a hell of a good laugh for the day.

I laughed until I cried.

Then laughed some more. 

Made such a ruckus folks came to see if I was ok

I think you'll enjoy it too.

Mucky ride

but a great first spring ride!

We actually hit 70* yesterday!

The snow is melting fast - YAY!

Chyann came home from school and says come on lets ride!

Can you see the water standing in the field?

Scotch, my old boy was less than enthused to be tromping through the muck in 70* weather still wearing most of his winter coat hauling my ass around. 

He was willing, but definitely huffin and puffing - hot. 

So we didn't stay out too long, but oh was it wonderful!

The wind was just howling up from the South.

Smelled good, that hot wind. 

Like the promise of summer after this long winter.

Jenny has mostly shed out and didn't mind the heat at all.

Big weekend here. 

Tonight is PROM!

Stay tuned for photos of this fantastic event.

We've got a trap shoot/bingo fundraiser for breast cancer that some friends are putting on. 

Finally ready to move on with the bathroom. 

Decided to sand down our current cabinet and paint it. 

New faucets for the sink and tub.

Talk about the slowest moving renovation ever - or so it seems.

I'm guessing the reason it is picking up now is because everyone is using the Hubby's bathroom and he wants it back to himself lol

Have a good day :)

The Cinnamon story or

How I make Cinnamon rolls.

I've been asked once or twice when I've posted if I "crack a tube of pillsbury"

for the cinnamon rolls that I make.

Figured I'd show ya how it's done.

Proof your yeast with warm water and sugar.

Why? 

Cuz Alton says so

Not that it's his recipe that I use, but saw one of his shows once and he recommends it, so Ok, works for me.

(make muffins for colton while it's proofing)

Find a willing helper to crack and smash your nuts.

I like pecans.

Start your caramel sauce to simmering.

Butter, brown sugar and corn syrup - recipe calls for light, realize you don't have any so use dark - write corn syrup on the grocery list. There was no noticeable difference using dark. 

When the yeast/water is frothy add your flour, salt, butter, powdered milk.

(take out the muffins from the oven)

Mix it up

kneed for a bit, until nice and soft.

Then let it rise.

While rising clean the kitchen up. 

I absolutely can not stand to work in a kitchen with sink filled with dirty dishes or cabinets that are cluttered.

Have the nut crusher pour the caramel sauce into pie plates and sprinkle one of them with the nuts.

When the dough has doubled in size roll it out and 

Sprinkle a generous amount of a cinnamon/sugar mixture on the rolled out dough.

FYI - antique sweatshirt circa 1988.

Roll up the dough and have the nut cracker cut in about 1.5 inch slices

  and place in prepared pie plates

 Let rise as long as you can stand it, was about 40 min when we put these in the oven.

Bake at 375* until golden brown.

Invert onto a plate and eat!

I usually don't put quite that much nuts on them, but there wasn't enough left in the bag to do another nut crunch so I told Caden to use them all. 

Delicious!

Jonesing for Java

Every night after dishes are done and before I start the dishwasher I fill my coffee pot with water and fill a new filter with fresh grounds.

This makes for an easier morning for me.

I flip the switch on as I walk by before going outside to feed the animals before work.

I've had a sinus infection this week with incredible pressure under my right eye, so morning are just a smidge harder.

I stumbled out.

Verified no horses or cows had escaped or had some kind of injury done to them during the night.

Forked the hay for the beloved horses. Verified the cows were still munching on the round bale.

Checked the tank heaters. No frozen water.

Got the barn cats fresh water and food.

Trudged back to the house through snow and stumbling over mud ruts.

Into the house where I find a pot of hot water.
Yep, forgot to put the coffee in.

Damn.

Which brings to mind a story from long ago.

Picture it 1988.

First real job in Cold Bay. At the airline of course.

I was in a hurry to leave the office that night because I was going to a bonfire on the beach with some friends.

We had this economy sized percolator coffee pot - think it held about 60 cups of coffee. I had to haul it through the hanger to the back to fill it up with water. It was one heavy bitch to carry back without sloshing water everywhere.

Back in the office I put it back on top of the combination file cabinet/safe thing. Did the filter and coffee part and boogied my buns out!

After a fun filled night of bonfire and booze.

I arrived back to work the next day five minutes early.

To find that aaah yes the whole place smelled deliciously of coffee. Just waiting for me to have that first cup.

HOWEVER

I had forgotten to put the lid back on the pot so the coffee was literally perking EVERYWHERE!

Damn what a mess.

The ceiling was stained brown, coffee dripping down the walls, into the file cabinet/safe thing.

Good thing it was a Sunday with no flights scheduled until after noon.
I had hours to clean and dry the place up.

Next day the boss was sure surprised that I'd used my time on a slow Sunday and clean the office top to bottom. She had no idea of the coffee incident until she opened the safe and cold coffee dripped out along with the cash box.




* JONESING = Craving, wanting really badly
  

11 years ago today

we landed in Minneapolis, rented a car and drove to Eau Claire.

Having never been to WI we were enchanted with the trees (or at least I was, got that tree fetish you know), marveled at how brilliant green it everything was, and CLEAN - that probably seems like a strange thing to notice, but having just came from AK where we'd had a record year for snow and you know how old snow is gray and dirty looking - Eau Claire fairly sparkled. 

We found a motel, checked in and totally zonked out for six hours. 

Woke up to a few inches of snow and scary snow thunder. 

Thankfully the snow and chilly temps didn't last long. 

Interestingly enough it is snowing today as well.

Not a lot, we might get two inches.

The news last night said so far this winter we've received 75" of snow - which is a wee bit over six feet. 

Surely this will be the last week of crappy weather, hell it's almost May! 

Last year on this day we had just cut the old Elm tree down. 

The place still looks naked to me without it.

Our plan had been to get the stump carved, but it just costs too much money to have someone come out to do it and there is no way I can justify the cost. 

So, we are going to get it stumped this spring when it dries out. 

Plant some other type of shade tree. 

Baseball starts two weeks from today. 

I can't wait!

Caden had to get a new mitt and still needs some cleats. 

He sure has grown in the last year. 

I'm off to make cinnamon rolls.

Happy Sunday to you :)

Officially.

I was offered the job!

I start in the new position on Monday May 5th!

I'm excited and nervy too.

In my current position I am a processor of work

and

in my new position I will be auditing the product of other processors work.

When my promotion was announced yesterday you would not believe the amount of email/IM's that I received from co-workers telling me congratulations.

Each and every one had a little something else to say:

Take it easy on me when you do my audits

Remember what it's like to be on the producing side of things

Don't forget that you used to be my friend

I can't believe you went to the dark side

Why didn't you tell me you were a turn-coat

I suppose you'll be one of "them" now

Are you ready to be one of the hated

and many other little comments

I'm like are you fracking kidding me?!?

Bunch of ASS HOLES.

You folks are NOT my friends but work acquaintances and you will not have a problem with me in my new position

IF

You do your job correctly.

man o man.

Pissed me off.

Because I do think I will be able to preform quite well in my new position.

I have actual working knowledge of the processes that are done on a daily basis. 

I know where the gray areas are and how they need to be handled. 

Anyhow.

Damn it's cold out today. 

Was 15* when I got up.

Only expected to get up to 40* which is well below the average temp for this time of year - which is 60*.

Earlier in the week, we had a spot of sun - all the other days were snowy/rainy and cold.

Chyann got out the incredibly dirty Jenny.

Side A

(Yes those are the reigns tied. Not good my dear) 

Side B

Much cleaner now after a good brushing.

Caden showing me how the maple and willow trees are trying to get buds. 

And that round bale we got last Saturday?

As you can see this morning they've only enough left for today.

jeez.

Lily licking her lips, saying yep bring out another. 

Have a good day. 

Stay warm. 

ALSO

Happy 28th Anniversary to my Mother and Gerry!

Love you both

xoxo

Spanish?

My lovely daughter is going to be a Sophomore next year and is now picking out/planning her courses that she needs to take.

A lot of four year institutions require that you have two years of a foreign language and therefore she is planning on taking Spanish II.

She currently speaks it quite well, but doesn't "enjoy" it. Colton also had two years of Spanish.

Apparently in the first year of the class you have to pick out a Spanish name, that you use through out the course. Colton's name was Mario (he always loved Mario and Luigi video games) and Chyann's is Julia pronounced hulia - I think.

They were having a conversation the other day in Spanish. Laughing and yacking away and I said what was that? Because it sounded like they said some thing about me. Chyann says they were just commenting that neither of their parents knew a second language.

So, this brought to mind an event from way back when:

1989

The Exxon Valdez oil spill had recently happened.
I was fresh out of high school in bush AK.
Had recently moved permanently to the big city of Anchorage and was working at the airline that was moving workers to and from Valdez to help with the clean up of the oil spill.

At the time my job there was mostly undefined. I helped wherever help was needed.

On this day I was at the front desk, checking in the passengers for our next flight to Valdez and some of these folks just happened to be Hispanic.
I'd take their name, ask their weight and weigh their baggage in order to fill out the aircraft/load manifest.

The pilot on this particular flight, we'll call him Buddy* (which may or may not be his real name), was a nice enough guy but arrogant as hell. A real know it all. He commuted to and from his home in AZ to fly two weeks on and two weeks off. He knew Spanish. He was in rare from this day. He was cranky because he had to stay on in town for another day to work instead of going back home and he was pissed - which is understandable, but made my job difficult.

Anyhow he comes over to the desk that I'm working at and is looking over my shoulder to read what all I've got filled out on the load manifest and in the most condescending voice I've ever heard says to me - that is NOT how you spell Jose, and didn't I know Spanish at all? then starts to give me a Spanish lesson in that H sounds are actually spelled with a J.

This immediately pissed me off. Foreign languages in bush AK school, yeah not so much.

I stood up, which moved him back from me a step or two.
Looked him right in the eye and lied.
I said he told me he spelled his name that way - hose.

He looked at me sideways for a moment, then walked away.

The kids howled with laughter!

And that is about all I know about Spanish.

The storm that wasn't

Last weeks big storm ended up being a non-event.

All the hype of 12"+ heavy wet snow ended up being a light rime of ice, about 3" of snow and a bit of wind.

Nothing we can't handle.

Unfortunately spring is no where in sight and here it is the middle of April.

We've got flurries this morning.

A few random horse pictures:

Casper  

Nosy Scotch thinks I may just have a treat or two.

I didn't get very far on my poop scooping.

Was entirely too wet, then froze and snowed to cover it all again. 

With this endless winter we've got a serious hay shortage in our area.

Last summers drought really limited the amount that could locally be harvested

and our hay guy is having to truck it in from several states over.

Which as you can guess is big money, that he has to pass on to his customers and what he buys is what we get.

Hence the HUGE round bale.

If we had a choice we wouldn't get round bales because we don't have a good way to get them into the barn/way to maneuver them around, ect. 

But as I said, hay shortage.

But the cows LOVE it.

They are burrowing holes in it and eating to their hearts content.

Makes me wonder how long this bale will last. 

I'm hoping about 2 weeks?

Guess we'll see. 

What else is new?

I've heard a bit on the job, but can't talk about it until I get the "official" word. 

The bathroom is moving along slowly.

One of those two steps forward and one step back, SLOW processes. 

Hard to find the time and occasionally I just want to do nothing.

 Watch a movie. Read a book. Whatever.

And I've got cabin fever.

Bad.

Anyhow. 

Hope you all are well. 

later :)

Shasta update

Ever so relieved to say that Shasta showed up out of nowhere!

No clue where she was or what she'd been up to.

Strange..

Very glad she is back no worse for the experience.

~~

I tell ya, we just can't shake winter and these cool/cold temps.

Thursday we are even supposed to have measurable snowfall! 

Hows that for YUCK!

Have a nice day :)

Talent galore, meat and more

It's been another one of those busy weeks.

 Shitty dreary weather.
 Snowing, raining, wet, gray and mucky. 

We've had it all. 

 I haven't heard anything on the job. 

 The High School put on a talent show Friday night and it was wonderful!

 Chyann played the drum set with the Jazz band.

 A video of my favorite song.

Earlier in the day the band had went to Eau Claire and participated in a Jazz festival put on by UWEC. 

She had a blast!

Our hay guy's brother butchered a cow and somehow we got in for a quarter

(don't ask me why, we've got our own beef) so after work on Saturday I got the pleasure of helping wrap the meat and clean up.

Jeezus.

Think I'm going to be off meat for a while. 

We got home late last night and the Hubby decided he had some chores to do that would not wait till morning. 

He and Colton suited up and went out to do them.

I put the dogs out and ushered Caden up to bed - he didn't want to go, wanted to wait for his dog to come in. 

I said no, Dad will bring her up when he comes in and went to bed.

Only to be woken up from a dead sleep half hour later.

They can't find Shasta.

Shit.

And she is still missing this morning. 

I walked around for about 40 minutes looking for her.

Thinking maybe she got kicked by a cow/horse, but didn't see any sign of her.

Caden, who is still sleeping and was sleeping last night when it was discovered Shasta was missing, has no idea she is not here.
Fingers crossed we find her safe and sound.

Later