Spoiled Brats

I took a few moments to make sure Shay and his buddy Andrew weren't bored. I got the jacuzzi fired up.

Now, I can remember when I was their age. If I'd have come to my parents at 5pm on a Saturday to tell them that I was bored, they would've smacked me.

St Patricks Day in The Desert

All we wanted was corned beef and cabbage. We could've made our own, and we usually do, but we felt it would be fun to go out and socialize.
And it was fun! The pictures tell a story.....



This guy took advantage of the only day a year that playing bagpipes is COOL!


This is the exact moment that Jack realized we were in the same bar as he was


We moved on down the street to a nicer place, where we might find some people we recognized. We immediately found Sarah. Sarah and I decided we would get together with our gorgeious selves and take the BEST PICTURE OF TWO GIRLS EVER. EVER!!!


So it wasn't such a great picture. We tried again....

Yes,,,, that's better.

Sarah's husband Brian was there, too, and we enjoyed sitting around being silly with the both of them.



I got proof that Steve does indeed have an alcoholic beverage once in a while:

Oh my GAWD he had TWO drinks!!!!!!

And then he napped....


And since I inadvertenly took an unflattering picture of Sarah while she laughed:
I took an equally unflattering one of myself, pretending to laugh:


Alas, the bill came. Steve gratefully paid it because he was desperate to get home and get to bed. It was after 8:30.


Before we left, Sarah's parents stopped by to say hi and do a little wife swapping. Notice that Rick and Steve both have their eyes open as if they're really worried they're going to get busted....



Silly men. We love Rick and Robin, and trading out once in a while is just fine.

Dog Sitting

I've been dog sitting A LOT this week, but for a really good reason. Well, several. Some people depend on me to take care of their babies so they can leave the house for a few days without worrying. And also, I've been saving up for Steve's Father's Day present and this week was the perfect opportunity to work a bunch and get that done.

Dog sitting isn't brain surgery. I appreciate that. It is a great responsibility, because if I have several households of dogs to look after I have to keep a tight schedule to make sure everyone's fed on time, they're let out to potty on time, and the ones who get walked are taken care of.
And of course I take time to sit down and play for a bit. What's really cool is my clients all live in beautiful homes. I guess you could say people in the slums don't pay for dog sitters. So here's where I've spent a lot of time this week, taking care of Tango And Kash. Yes, I know.....

And here's a picture of me "working"

It's been a rough week.

But here's the glory-filled moment where I finally saved the money to buy Steve's present:

My hand was actually shaking when I paid that. I'd tell you what the surprise is, but this is the world wide web and I would like it to remain a surprise.

Randomness

Slumdog Millionaire is awesome.

Pioneer Woman won Blog of the Year and a couple of others at the Bloggies this week!!!!!!!!!

We had some REALLY huge plans get cancelled on us this week. We were supposed to be at a video shoot for punk band The Offspring today, but their record label cut the funding and the shoot was postponed.

Then on Friday, we were invited to a tour of Jay Leno's shop as well as a taping of The Tonight Show. Steve's boss put the cancellation on that one.

Lame.

Home Made Beef Stroganoff

I have never liked Beef Stroganoff very much, usually because I only had it in a school lunch. And the meat was like tough pieces of shoe leather, dripping in a bland sauce. Even as a 4th grader I knew I could do better.

Steve had a recipe for Stroganoff that he was desperate to make for me. He made it with a cut of meat that wasn't too fantastic, but I loved the sauce and the mushrooms.
So I made my own version.

If you can get Flank Steak in your store, get it every opportunity. It is the best cut of meat for Carne Asada, and of course Stroganoff.

I have found that if you have all the ingredients lined up like they do on the cooking shows, your life is much easier. Because once you get cooking you don't have the time to stop and dice this or chop that.

You need:
2 to 3 pounds cubed Flank Steak
1 lb fresh mushrooms, cleaned and halved
1 lb salted butter
2 packets dry onion soup mix
1 bottle of dry sherry or a good burgundy wine
1 pint sour cream
lots of course black pepper
1 bag (16 oz) broad egg noodles

Melt the butter in a large stew pot, on medium heat. Add the meat and sautee for about 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms, dry onion soup mix, pepper, and enough wine to cover the meat. This is usually the whole bottle.
Allow the mixture to cook on a low boil until the wine has been absorbed. For me, I have to set aside about an hour for this process because the wine is what really makes the flavor. I cook it as slow as possible.



Boil the noodles until they're tender. Drain and set aside.

Take the Stroganoff off the heat and add the sour cream. Mix it all up and serve over the noodles.

You will really enjoy this dish, the strong flavored sauce really will surprise you.

Learnin New Stuff

After finding a very rare brand of pork and beans at Super Wal Mart, I put it on display in the kitchen. This was a brand we ate when we lived in Arkansas, and when I saw that Showboat logo on the front of the can I suddenly had flashbacks.

Well, then, Steve noticed I wasn't shrink-wrapping the meats in our freezer. He gave me a demonstration on how to use the shrink-wrapper thingy with my rare can of pork and beans.

Scorpion Weed

Well after I posted the pretty pictures, I got a close look at that first one with all the purple. The one in my HAND. And I saw the curly-q on the blossom. That's a plant we call Scorpion Weed. People generally react to it like Poison Ivy, so I suppose I should carry some Benadryl with me today.
But, I am so proud to have shown you some actual Scorpion Weed!! I've noticed a lot of times people see a purple flower and they automatically assume it's the vile weed that causes so many the rash. Not true, because we have Lantana and other weeds that have the same beautiful purple.
I guess you could say I took one for the team today.

The Desert In Bloom

Yes, we have flowers. Everywhere. And the mountains and hills nearby look as though there's a fungus growing on them because of all the green. My allergies are okay, as long as I don't have a beer. Funny sounding, I know, but my pollen allergies are worsened by beer. This sucks on St. Patrick's Day. Oh by the way, Happy St. Patrick's Day.

I have only a sampling of the blooms around here:









This last picture is the most moving for me, because it's the blossoms on my lime tree. There's baby limes on there!!! By July, I'll be picking some gorgeous limes and using them in my Coronas.
I have a lot of dog-sitting clients right now, who pay me to take their dogs for a walk. Since nearly every yard around here has at least one citrus tree, I have been enjoying the sweet smell of citrus blossoms all week. It's so wonderful.

Stay tuned on Bloom Watch 2009, as I will be hunting for the perfect Saguaro Cactus Blossom......

Shay's Hair

Shay's hair has been his power for many years now. I've always wanted him to grow it out, but he's always told me he has no intentions of having it super long. So it's been shaggy.
Well, it's making his forehead break out, and that meant a shorter set of bangs. But once I cut the bangs, he said he wanted it ALL cut shorter. So there it is.

Baja Mexico

The State Dept and the Press (Press is capitalized now, since they control everything in the world....) have been very good at warning people away from Mexico. I guess they figure that since things are bad in the U.S. they better try to make things bad elsewhere. Baja relies solely on the export of Tequila (capitalized because it is so very important) and tourism to keep their population employed. Not the drug cartels. That's in mainland Mexico. Tourism is what Baja relies on. It is a desert peninsula spotted with resort towns and fishing towns. I know there is violence in the border towns, and that it has to do with drugs, but since I'm not a drug dealer, a distributor, or a cop in Mexico that excludes me from the terrorism. And all the other tourists.

So Baja is suffering, thanks to the recent Press statements and State Dept warnings that Americans are not safe in Mexico. I just spent four days there, and not once was my life in danger.
But Jim and Glenn's lives were severely altered when they made the mistake of asking a restaraunt manager if they could get the "HOT" salsa:


They respected the salsa, with all their hearts and souls after that experience. It was so hot, I took one tiny little sample of it and it burned all the remaining enamel off my teeth.
When the sun came up on Friday morning, I was ready for the day. I stood out on my balcony and watched as it edged up over the Sea of Cortez:

We walked down to the beach and had a great breakfast, then went to "contingency" on the Malecon (means "seawall" in English) where the racers lined up to have their vehicles inspected by the tech guys. My friend J.T. was there with his wonderfully huge dog, Chuy:


Sunny needed to find a Wi-fi connection for her laptop, so we met at the Rockodile bar, which is a multi-colored place with an indoor volleyball court and plenty of balconies for people watching.


I had lunch:

And I put my business card on the wall with all the other ones:

Sunny struggled with the internet:

We decided the internet connection was not worth all the time and effort, so we shopped in the stores along the Malecon for a bit. Here's just a sample of some of the wonderful things we managed not to buy:






We ended up buying very little, because on purpose we carried VERY little cash. Coming home with a huge bag full of Mexico junk is fun once, but you learn after that.

We socialized with some ex-patriots (Americans who live full time in Mexico) and learned that the economy is so awful there right now. They haven't seen the spring breakers that they normally do, and they're worried that the warnings from the State Dept are going to keep people away for good. I'm sure the races will always be in Baja, they can at least count on that.

As the sun set we returned to our hotel, which I told everyone was the Uncle Jesus motel. It was actually the Don Jesus, which means something besides Uncle. Oh well.
Nice place, and we had some race teams staying there as well:

We walked down to a restaurant on the beach for dinner. Oh, what a lovely dinner. And the view was phenomenal:

We had our usual margaritas on the rocks, with the extra Tequila on the side just in case the bartender was being stingey with the wondeful ingredient in our drinks.
Conversation got sillier and sillier, because we discovered after a while that there was actually a good amount of alcohol in our beverages. So the pictures were of course jovial:


And we took a moment on the way out of the restaurant to pose together:

But alas, all the giggling gave me a great case of the hiccups. I tried everything, even holding my breath:

It was the kind of hiccups that make OTHER people laugh at you. Ug.
Sunny and I discovered that we really like to set the timer on the camera and pose. This picture was only one of SEVERAL that we took that evening:


I was mindful to get to bed early that night, because the racing begins on Saturday morning at 6am. That means getting up at 4, getting ready, getting down to the start line, getting set up, then being very mindful about accuracy on the numbers. The THOUSANDS of numbers.
The Mexicans decided to make sure that the situation at the start line was well in hand. The Army, the Marines, and the local police were there to stand guard and keep the crowds in check. Amazing.
Actually, it was a bit of overkill.


But I was most impressed with the Army Officer who looked like the PERFECT Columbian Warlord:

As the first racers got lined up, the boss of the entire race organization did interviews. Don't know if this was NBC or what. I know they were there, but I don't know if this was them:


The race actually started with no problems, Glen and I got everyone off the line on time.
Our view was sometimes obstructed by the crowds who kept pushing closer and closer.

Here's the Herbst Truggy leaving the Start:

And here they are several hours later coming to the Finish:


I didn't get a photo of the winner, because it was Brian Collins and I have a hundred pictures of him.

I did get a few neat ones that evening. The race track didn't close until 9pm so we had some time to kill.
I realized that I have never photographed the Arches in San Felipe. It's basically at the edge of town and it's the image that people associate with the community. So once the sun set I got a great photo of the arches, just beyond our Red Bull finish line:

I also used for the first time the Night Landscape feature on my camera. I saw some partially illuminated palm trees nearby and I wanted to see if it was possible to get the stars in the background:

So proud of myself....