Thanksgiving '09

Since we'd invited waay too many people to fit in our house, we decided to have our dinner at the restaurant. It was closed for the holiday and the manager, Joe, is new around here with no family or friends nearby. So he volunteered to cook our turkeys and I made the rest of the dinner as well as the desserts. Oh and the appetizers, of course!
I didn't even have time to photograph the bacon wrapped jalapeno thingies because they were served during "go time." That's the time that I run around making sure all my main dishes are sufficiently heated up and ready to go.



But there were more than 60 bacon wrapped jalapeno thingies. Really. 60. That's a lot of cholesterol.

Remember my goal? The decorative pies?
Well guess what....





Then the big exciting part of the dinner was the flaming creme brulees. I had no idea it would be such a hit:





At the end of the night, Shay, Steve, and I cleaned the entire restaurant by ourselves with Joe's help. We took just a few moments to sit and go "Aaaaah...."



And then we very happily made plans for next year. I think I'll volunteer some time in a soup kitchen and then we'll have a small little Thanksgiving dinner. Cleaning up after 20 people just isn't as fun as it used to be.

Congrats, Jimmie

Several years ago I met Jimmie Johnson, it was right after he gave up his off road racing career for stock car racing. His dad was a great friend of mine, and I (along with the brown menace) was invited to watch Jimmie race down in Phoenix. It was known as Busch racing back then. Don't know what it is now. So many title sponsor changes, can't keep track.
It was then that Jimmie secretly talked about a tentative deal to begin racing Winston Cup racing on a team that would be owned by Jeff Gordon.

He was a gracious host, and I was walking around in the pit area starry eyed because all the big guys of NASCAR were hanging out in our vicinity. I saw Richard Petty. I SAW RICHARD PETTY!!!! The King. He was in the motorhome across from us, watching a t.v. that popped out the side of his luxury bus. I saw Richard Petty.

Back then, I did not have a nice camera. In fact, I had a crap camera. So the picture of me with Jimmie Johnson is not the greatest. I scanned it. Sorry. Not the greatest.



That's me, on the right. I'm pretending to touch Jimmie's butt. He was busy talking to Johnny Benson (JOHNNY BENSON!!!) and two guys who are known in the off road business as Nelson and Nelson Racing.

Yesterday Jimmie Johnson won his fourth consecutive NASCAR championship. Congrats, Jimmie!

Used To

I used to have a little baby that looked like this:




He had hobbies like exploring little areas of interest, like this:



Now he looks like this:



And his hobbies include this:



And this:



I used to wear my hair in a snappy side-part with a smart white barret. Like so...



That was 1985. That same year, I saw the space shuttle Columbia in person. It was on its way back to Florida after landing in California. After a refueling stop in nasty old Omaha, it took off. It wasn't very close, but I remember seeing the scorch marks on the white tiles.



I moved to Arizona after 9th grade, graduated in the top 20 of my class. It must've been my glasses:



I went to nursing school. That was a bit like several years of torture. Hated it. Really hated it. Couldn't believe that the one profession I'd dreamed of joining for so long was as awful as it was. Here I am in the last semester of nursing school:



My classmate with me in the picture left after that semester as well, to move to Nebraska. Nursing jobs paid waaay better there.

I used to camp in some nearby mountains with friends every July. We'd hike all day, exploring and looking for wildlife. We would run into bears, deer, elk, and all sorts of forest dwellers. One hike we discovered this canyon. Had no idea it was there!



I'm standing on a very precarious ledge while Shay's dad takes a photo.
I sure do miss my brown hair.

Birthday Craziness

Okay, we're actually a tame bunch when it comes to birthdays. We always do something very nice but it's not a blow-out party with pony rides and clowns.
Steve's daughter had her 18th b-day yesterday and we put together a nice evening at a very posh restaurant.
It's Martini Bay, and it is a beautifully put together hip little joint that overlooks the water of the lake and the London Bridge. The decor is very modern, with low lights and metal and wavy furniture. We had Stormy's 16th B-day there and couldn't think of a nicer place to have this one. I reserved the private room that's off to the side, it has a long table and dark walls with fantastic vases and arrangments here and there.

But, oh, the cake....



My friend Heather and I designed a cake that had zebra stripes and polka dots. Heather worked her tail off to have the layers just right and she hand-cut the pieces for the decoration. And she added the little boingy balls as a bit of flair for the top layer.

And guess what was hidden INSIDE the cake....



Zebra stripes!

Yep, Heather, it's time to start doing the cakes a bit more. Time to start advertising!

Kitty Meow Meow is a Scofflaw

Pie Ideas

These ideas were posted on the Be Different Act Normal blog (I link to it down below on the right) and if my skills are worth ANYTHING in the kitchen, I will manage to do at least two of the designs next week on T-day. That's Thanksgiving, for you lay people.




A couple of years ago a pie was featured on the front of a cooking magazine and it had little cut-out cookies of maples leaves on the top of the pie. So I searched everywhere, paid waaay too much, got my maple leaf cookie cutters on the internet somewhere. And used them once. This year, they're coming out of the cookie cutter drawer.

Got Some Money This Week

Yes, after several months of barely breaking even I started making a profit again. So I promptly took that profit and spent it. Spent it ALL.

I got a new bike to ride to the kick boxing class, it's lightweight and it's foldable. So if I want to fold it up and put it in the trunk of my car, I can. Very cool. Shay decided to take it out and thrash on it. Sort of like giving it a stamp of approval:



Oh of course the front yard needed something. SOMETHING....hmmmm. How about a skull?
Yeah!!


Well, and probably the most important of my purchases was the camera I took these pictures with. I've been borrowing one since mine was stolen in June, and then Steve lost that one. Now I'm happily snapping photos again. Without using my stupid phone...