A Little Too Close For Comfort

Our little visitor cat hadn't been around for quite a while, but she recently started making the rounds again. Homer doesn't seem to be bothered.

Tiny, on the other paw, was much more concerned.
"Hey, you're getting too close."



Way too close for comfort.



"And I am out of here!"



Tiny spent the next few minutes running around the living room making nervous little cheeping noises.  Homer ignored the whole affair.

A Welcome Sight

While I was out to dinner last night,

at the end of my birthday week celebrations,

we had a short but heavy blast of rain.

It was not enough to do more than tamp down the dust, but it was still welcome.

It was clearing on the drive home.

Ernest is off on his senior trip, camping in the back country.

Hope he didn't get too wet!

Looking Up: Skywriting

What's it going to be?

Veg?  Veg out today!

Vegas?

Vegan?  Really? We were not expecting that.

Cut in Half?

Is someone suggesting I should cut my "to read" pile in half?

This is only the tip of the iceberg. There's a much bigger stack in my closet.

Chocolate Chip Day

Today is Chocolate Chip Day.  Yes, it is!

From Wikipedia:  Chocolate chips are a required ingredient in chocolate chip cookies, which were invented in 1937 when Ruth Graves Wakefield of the Toll House Inn in the town of Whitman, Massachusetts added cut-up chunks of a semi-sweet Nestlé chocolate bar to a cookie recipe. The cookies were a huge success, and Wakefield reached an agreement in 1939 with Nestlé to add her recipe to the chocolate bar's packaging in exchange for a lifetime supply of chocolate. Initially, Nestlé included a small chopping tool with the chocolate bars. In 1941 Nestlé and one or more of its competitors started selling the chocolate in chip (or "morsel") form. The Nestlé brand Toll House cookies is named for the inn.

I don't know if I'll be baking any, though.  Handy already made a batch himself this week. Well, it was on Sunday, Mother's Day, and I was damned if I was going to do any more cooking than I already had. He did an OK job with the cookies but I think he throws everything in the mixer at once and the chips seemed to get a little broken.

You know my son Frank is famous for his oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.  But I don't know if I'm allowed to share his secret recipe.

There is always the original Toll House recipe.

Or a very happy pancake.

I'm not sure about Chocolate Chip Cinnamon Roll Cookies.

A co-worker always made the best Magic Cookie Bars.

If you crave sweet and salty, how about Chocolate Dipped Potato Chips.

Here are some more unusual ideas.

Enjoy your chocolate chips today.

Arroz con Pollo

Months ago, I saved this recipe from a bag of rice.  I finally got around to cooking it.

As is usually the case with me, I couldn't quite manage to make it exactly like the recipe.  Let's just say I approach many recipes as pirates use the code, as more what you'd call guidelines than actual rules.

For example:  chicken thighs, only half an onion because I don't like things too oniony, only half a green pepper because that's all I had, a can of diced tomatoes because ditto, and fresh corn from two ears because I thought it needed something else.

It was quite good.  We agreed it could have been spicier so I would double the chili powder next time, or add a jalapeno. 

Apple of my Why

Just an odd sight we saw at lunch on Sunday.  

Why?  Is it art?  Or did someone just forget the apple there?

Looking Up: Climbing up the Wall

Due to the drought restrictions we aren't allowed to wash a car in the driveway as the water will run down the street and be wasted.  We must take it to a car wash where the water is collected, filtered and reused.

The car wash is making lots of money off of my husband, that's for sure.

One morning he wanted to wash the truck on our way home from breakfast.

I was a little bored, but instead of climbing the walls myself I took a picture of the vine climbing the walls.   I guess this is where the reclaimed water is going.

How Fortunate

Mother's Day and Eat Anything You Want Day happily coincided this year.  

Here's what I started with:

An Aphrodite (pomegranate and orange... and vodka)

My favorite grilled octopus and calimari (I had to share with Handy and Ernest).

Gyro with fries.  Handy helped with the fries, too.

I forgot what this was called.  

Cucumber and lime.  And vodka.  

Ernest's hand is not indicating the size of the glass.  

He's just gesturing over something unrelated.

Afterwards we stopped by Frank's work (he is a barista now) 

for a cooling non-alcoholic beverage.

There's still dinner to come.