Little Shop...

Sing with me now...

LITTLE SHOP...

These are made by one of Ernest's teachers.  

Professor Sprout, perhaps?

One of her sons came up with the name and made the sign.  I like that!

We need some music here!

Combo

What goes with meatloaf?  Peas and potatoes, of course.

What's your favorite food combo?

Lights

A recent photo of mine.  Lights over a bocce ball court.

What's lighting up your world these days?

You Have Got to Be Kidding

You have got to be kidding me. 

That's what Homer said when 

someone put the flat mouse on his head.

He shook it off and halfheartedly played with it.

Oh, this is too much work.

I've got to lie down and take a break.

Hey, that's MY mouse.  

Time Warp Tuesday: 8th Grade

I've been fretting about getting Ernest's senior pictures taken, which reminded me I'd never framed his 8th grade picture.  It was sitting on a shelf in its original packaging.  And worse, Frank's (6 years older) was in a trunk.

I'd bought cheap frames at Michael's a few weeks ago.  How cheap?  One of them fell apart as I unpackaged it.  Not wanting to make the 40 mile drive to return it, I fixed it with glue and the staple gun.

So here are my beautiful 8th grade boys. 

Now if only I could find some empty wall space for them.

New Chucks

Me:  Ernest ordered some new Chucks.  He got a color.

Frank:  What color?

Me:  Grey.

Frank:  Grey's not a color!

He got a pair in burgundy, too.

The Ever Changing Beard

Frank's been sporting what I worried would turn into a ZZTop look for a while.

It was time for a change.   To Simon Legree?  Snidely Whiplash?

It's for a gig with a costume night.  The theme is cowboys and indians.   We didn't have a Clint Eastwood poncho so he made do.

Oh, I just figured out who he reminds me of:  Buffalo Bill Cody!

Vista Point

On the way mountain pass drive to Ernest's follow-up appointment for wisdom teeth extraction*, we passed a vista point.  Why haven't we ever stopped there, he asked?  I don't know, let's stop on our way back.  Well, I do know.  Mostly he's in a hurry to get from one place to another.  I do remember stopping there to breastfeed hungry babies but they wouldn't remember that, would they???

So we saw...

a rock carving

the spectacular vista ("that's a real trail down there!" says Ernest excitedly)

a leaning tree, with Ernest trying to duck out of camera range

older fire damage

and it was a little hot!

*He had the most uneventful extraction ever.  

All the stories his friends told him about 

how crazy they were coming out of the anesthetic?  

Not him.  

This is What Chucks Look Like Around Here

And this is his "good" pair. Time for some back to school online shopping. 

August 11, National Raspberry Tart Day

Last week Frank had a hankering to make wee raspberry tarts.  He described to me the type of crust he wanted as "somewhere in between pie and a cookie." A short time later BBCA showed a cooking competition making "sweet paste."  Perfect.

Take your raspberries

And smash them with some sugar.

Make your sweet pastry dough.  (Flour, butter, sugar, egg.)  I don't remember which recipe he used.

A pint glass is perfect for cutting out the circles.

 Press the circles into muffin pans.  I think he got 22.

 Bake till golden brown.

Fill and enjoy.

Saturday Photohunt: Blue

 Planespotting at Windsor Castle, May 2013.

Join the Saturday PhotoHunt for more BLUE this weekend.

One Bad Apple

Handy had an unpleasant surprise in his lunch the other day.  He says it was like a fruit gusher only disgusting.

I keep telling him it's not a good time for red apples, is there some other apple he would like?  Finally I get an answer...anything but green (I guess Granny Smiths are too tart).  I found some local organic galas that were small but good.  I'll surprise him with something else this week.  Our own tree is in sad shape and only has 3 unripe apples this year.

He says an apple after his lunch is like a natural toothbrush.



This provides me with the opportunity to give you a good bad apple.

Oh, little Donny.

Body Language in Cats, Annotated by Homer

Some basic cat behaviors were covered in this video.  Homer has a few comments in italics.

• Greeting you with tail up.  You should stop whatever you are doing and acknowledge my presence.  
• Rubbing objects with head.  Everything is mine, including your plate, your library book and iPad, so I will mark them in case you have forgotten.
• Slow blink.  I am mellow and relaxed right now.  Don't dangle that toy mouse in front of me.  Give it to the other one.
• Ears back.  I have never actually had to put my ears back in this house.  The other one did it a lot when we first got here, but she's a little strange.  I am tempted when they try to brush my hindquarters but I swat instead.  
• Belly exposed.  Exposing my soft white underbelly does not mean you should brush it. Just gaze at its beauty.  
• Lip licking.  I'm just cleaning up after a meal.  I don't have stress unless the meal is late.
• Purring.  Whatever you're doing, it's acceptable.  

Homer has a few other behaviors he would like understood.

• Looking up at you when you are at the table.  Move a chair so I can get up there too.
• Opening the pantry cupboard.  My kibble dish is bare, dammit.
• The gruff meow.  It's dinner time.
• The sad meow.  You've forgotten my breakfast  I should have had it hours ago.
• The meow that sounds like a stomach growling.  I'm too weak with hunger to meow properly.  

Homer says thank you.  Slow blink and purr.

Viva la Fiesta

It's Fiesta time!  Ole! Here, in a clip from the 1935 short La Fiesta de Santa Barbara, are the Garland Sisters singing "La Cucaracha".

La cucaracha, la cucaracha,

ya no puede caminar

porque no tiene, porque le falta

marihuana que fumar.

The cockroach, the cockroach,

can't walk anymore

because it's lacking, because it doesn't have

marijuana to smoke.

Wait a minute...my mother was a Spanish major in college so she knew a number of Spanish language songs. I remember her singing this to me when I was a little girl. She definitely did not sing the marijuana line!

Her favorite song was Cielito Lindo. Here's a version with her favorite Luciano Pavarotti.

Ai ai ai ai.

Opa!

I got myself out of the house to go to the Greek Festival last weekend.  I carried the camera around and only took one picture.  Cat art, of course.

I love the food.  We had gyros, of course, and brought home some baked delights.

In keeping with the Greek theme, Handy marinated some lamb from Costco, and barbecued it.  I would share his marinade recipe but I don't really know what he put in it.  Olive oil, red wine, spices?  He said, and I quote, "Some green stuff from the cupboard."   That would probably be oregano. It was the most delicious meal.

There was enough left to make pitas, and there is still enough left for Frank to make a Shepherd's Pie.  He is the pie man..  We are due for another peach pie soon, or at least some cobbler.

The Mouse Hunt

DISCLAIMER -- NO ACTUAL LIVE MICE INVOLVED

Homer can't be bothered with cat toys.  You must be joking, he says, if a toy is dangled in front of his face.  Give me the real thing to eat.  He will, on occasion, go out and catch himself a lizard tail.

Fifi, on the other hand, likes a nice toy mouse (or is it a flying squirrel?) to tease.

And of course Frank likes to tease Fifi with it.

He was looking for it yesterday. We searched all the usual places. Under the TV. On the stairs. Behind the chair.  Finally we resorted to fishing deep under the couch with the yardstick. No flat mouse, although we found a goldmine: a bowl, a peanut M&M, a pistachio, a penny, Bertie the Bus, and an older mouse!  Some of those items had been missing for a year or two a while.

But where was Fifi's flat mouse?

Hiding!

So Fifi and Frank were able to have their playdate with the flat mouse after all.

Let's Eat Grandma

Our charming great-nephew Mr. T celebrated his 9th birthday yesterday.

His grandma gave him this shirt:

Everyone in the family is a fan of proper punctuation, so this was a big hit.

Beep beep

I have written before about strange noises that I hear in the night. I hear them in the daytime, too, but then they are usually easier to ignore. 

Not yesterday. I kept hearing a beep. Not the dishwasher. Not the microwave. Not a smoke alarm chirping for a new battery. But close.

I followed the sound outside, which led me to the garage door opener. The display says Battery Dead. So I move the car, get out a ladder, unscrew the cover, and try to remove the darn battery. I can only get one lead off, and can't even pull it out of the compartment. But at least disconnecting the lead stopped the beeping. 

My husband comes home and pops out the battery with no problem. Of course. 

Dark Cafe Days

I'm gonna blow this damn candle out

I don't want nobody comin' over to my table

I got nothing to talk to anybody about

All good dreamers pass this way some day

Hidin' behind bottles in dark cafes

Dark cafes

Only a dark cocoon before I get my gorgeous wings

And fly away

Only a phase, these dark cafe days

Karen asked me was there something wrong with her feed or was I not posting. It's not your feed, it's just me.  It feels like I used up my mojo on the college road trip, and then visiting my dad, and since then I have felt like nothing.  I'm Snow White trapped with the dwarves Fussy, Lazy and Sassy.  I'm the stepsister's foot that doesn't fit the glass slipper.  I'm Droopy.

I suppose these dark cafe days will pass.  They always do.

I am on a lonely road and I am traveling

Traveling, traveling, traveling

Looking for something, what can it be

Oh I hate you some, I hate you some, I love you some

Oh I love you when I forget about me

I want to be strong I want to laugh along

I want to belong to the living

Alive, alive, I want to get up and jive

I want to wreck my stockings in some juke box dive

Home Again

4950 air miles.
1398 driving miles.
1 rental car.
7 colleges.
6 hotel rooms.
3 Broadway shows.
Many new friends.

Since I was driving (17 year olds are not authorized to drive a rental car, much to their annoyance), I don't have a lot of pictures.  Also I didn't want to irritate Ernest more than necessary. I do have a few cell phone snaps which I will post this week.

It was a great trip.

I received mild cat snubbing from Homer but I'm sure to win back his affection with a dollop of cream cheese.

Now to tackle that foot high pile of junk mail that someone left for me.