Sep 20, 2010

Ticked Off

My previous post was a bit of a downer. So this one should lighten things up. Actually, it should down right crack you up.

Around here, we listen to a lot of different music. But I'd have to say that Jackson Browne makes it into the rotation the most. We love him.

So when we discovered a contest he was throwing, we were so in! The only rules were that it had to be an original photo that you had the rights to, and it had to involve polyester. So after hunting around for some vintage attire (which was not easy, since my man is apparently a giant and people were small in the 70's), a parking ticket, a fun photo shoot, and some photo editing, here are our submissions:

This is my submission. I took the photo of the beau and doctored it up.


Here is the bf's submission of a photo he took of me and spiffed up himself.

We thought we had a real shot at winning free tickets to his concert in NYC. We even cleared our calendar for that night. And made sure to submit our photos at the last minute since the submissions were chronologically listed. But we were so disappointed to find out that we did not win. We were not even mentioned.

Well, we had fun creating these submissions and the end results definitely had us in stitches, did you see them? How can you take that stuff seriously?

But we are still bitter nevertheless. So we are boycotting Jackson Browne's music, it's dead to us. As far as we are concerned, JB stands for Justin Bieber in this house. Justin Bieber Down Loads. I guess we now have Bieber fever...

Sep 17, 2010

On its Last Legs

Warning: this blog post does not have a happy ending.

Yesterday, when I let the dogs out first thing in the morning, I saw them not pottying, or chasing woodland creatures up the incline, but instead they were standing underneath the blue spruce tree, tail wagging playfully, watching something with intense curiosity.

It was this little guy:


He was being stared down by 2 border collies and was trying to move away but clearly had a badly injured leg. So the bf and I went on auto pilot and strapped on a pair of gloves, and picked up the rabbit. He was docile. He did not put up any sort of a fight. He looked like he had just given up and was surrendering and accepting his demise. But because we're not cave men, instead of eating him, we put him in a dog crate and made some phone calls and brought him to a local wild life center:




It's awesome that these places exist and all the good work they do. They save so many creatures: squirrels, opossums, rabbits, herons, deer and even coyotes.

I called up the next day to get an update, and it was not good. He was euthanized because his leg had been injured for so long, at least a couple weeks. His bone was exposed and there were maggots all over his leg. He must have been hit or run over. So the only thing they could do was put him down. I'm glad that he's no longer in pain, but I'm sad the little cotton tail I named RabPi, didn't have a happy ending like Hendrix the squirrel...

Sep 15, 2010

My Cup of Tea


Go big or go home!

Sep 10, 2010

RIP Bumble Bee

While on vacation over July 4th, I found this fascinating little critter:


Thankfully, I've never been this up close to one of these guys. They are big! And pretty (I gently flipped him over):


He must have just stung someone?

Sep 9, 2010

Cold Shower

Remember when I removed the shower doors?


I removed them because they weren't doing their job. Or more accurately, they weren't installed properly in order to do their job. See what happens?


You can literally see where the water trailed down the wall and continue on their destructive journey down to the molding:


Luckily, there was no water damage to the studs or the sub floor. Nor any termites.


But now I'm left with the gunky adhesive caulky residue left from the shower doors. I thought about keeping the tub for a future guest bath remodel but I don't feel like laboring over this if it won't even come out. Does anyone know?

Sep 8, 2010

Know My Onions

This weekend we had lunch at The Counter. We ordered burgers and onion "strings". The burgers were good but the onion strings had me disappointed. This is more along the lines of what I had envisioned:


Now those are some onion rings. And I like me some serious onions!

And while I'm reminiscing about unhealthy food, what else do you think I ordered at the same place as the REAL onion rings:



Milky Way Bundt cake all the way!


Fried foods AND chocolate. All in one sitting! Mmmmmm.

Sep 7, 2010

Master Bath D-Day 4

If you remember from previous photos, we have 2 large wall mounted mirrors in the master bathroom. They are not mounted with little plastic brackets, they are held onto the wall directly with adhesive. Well not anymore! Here is what you'll need:
  • work gloves
  • contact paper
  • thick wire
  • patience

First we covered the mirror with the thickest contact paper we could find. Tape just wouldn't cut it here. It reinforces the mirror and also keeps shards at bay if it breaks.

Then holding the wire taut, slowly run between the mirror and the wall. In our case this method didn't work that well as it just got gunked up with adhesive but still try it anyway.

In the end we just slowly pried and pulled the mirror off the wall directly:


It worked with one mirror but not entirely with the other:


I'm thinking of salvaging the broken mirror by cutting it down to window size and inserting into a window frame. Or building a frame out of molding and attaching to the mirror. Suggestions?

Sep 3, 2010

Crack Up

How can cooking not be fun when you're working with ingredients like this:




Cute little garlic butt.

Sep 2, 2010

A Fig Deal

Last week we were invited to a fig party by my friends April and Hiro. They have 2 mature fig trees and it's fig season! Here's some food porn from the party:

Gazpacho


Bruschetta and crostini

Port and fig reduction with Brie


Fondue cheese being whisked


Bread with yummy melty fondue cheese


Simmering sauce for Moroccan braised chicken


Moroccan braised chicken with turmeric rice and grilled vegetables


Bacon-wrapped fig with jalapeño oil (ready to be popped in the oven)


Bacon-wrapped fig with jalapeño oil (most have been scarfed down)


Bacon wrapped fig with jalapeño oil (the close up)


Freshly fried pork tenderloin egg rolls stuffed with fig jam


Pork tenderloin egg rolls stuffed with fig jam, drizzled with a balsamic reduction sauce (again, most have been wolfed down before I got a photo, see a pattern here?)


Fig tart (dried fig, pecan, and lemon zest stuffed puff pastry, a spin-off from Baklava)


Red velvet cupcakes (store bought, but yummy so who cares!)


And fresh picked home grown figs for guests to take home

I have never seen such creative use of figs. Well done Hiro and April! I don't know much about figs but they are nothing like Fig Newtons that I ate as a kid. This is my kind of party. If you've got ideas for what to do with the figs I took home, please send them along!

Sep 1, 2010

Harlequin

My dogs aren't my only muse:



You remember Harley right? He was posing so dramatically for this photo shoot...