FORTY-SIX AND ABSOLOUTELY F*A*B*U*L*O*U*S !

YIKES! YIKES! YIKES! HEEEEERE'S THE BIRTHDAY GIRL!

"YOU LIE!"

September 11, 2009

Wilson Shouts ‘You Lie' After Wife Fakes Orgasm

Breach of Congressional Decorum, Experts Say

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) courted controversy again today as he reportedly shouted "You lie" during a sexual encounter in which his wife pretended to have an orgasm.

While details of Rep. Wilson's latest outburst are sketchy at best, congressional experts say that it is totally against the decorum of the House of Representatives to speak out during a spouse's faked orgasm.

But the South Carolina congressman got a vote of support from a fellow Republican lawmaker, Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), who told reporters, "It's so rare for a Republican politician to have sex with his own wife, we should applaud it when it happens."

In a related story, President Obama said that Rep. Wilson's outburst during his speech Wednesday night was "productive," adding, "Joe Wilson highlighted the need for mental health care."

More Quilts...Thanks to Shelbert

Thank you, Michele, for bailing me out with your fine photography. My over excited brain caused me to forget to photograph this little girl's quilt. It received a second place ribbon.



...and this stack-n-whack style that used rose fabric earned another second place...
They had the quilts displayed so that it was difficult to shoot straight on...except the girl's quilt that was folded on a table with several others instead of hung up...what's with that !?!?

A Quilt for Mama-Lady, Part Deux

WooHoo! Another winner!



This one is Reserve Grand Champion (that means the second best quilt entered).


Yippee!


I WAS SO EXCITED, I FORGOT TO TAKE PICTURES OF THE OTHER TWO I ENTERED!

SPRINGTIME IN THE ROCKIES

This is what's happening outside today:




As you can see from my first attempt at movie making...I'm not that great, so here are a couple of stills:



Here's what's happening inside the house.
On Sunday:


...and on Thursday:




I got the bulb several years ago from a friend for Christmas. This is the third time it's bloomed, so I guess I should put it in a bigger pot and give it more attention. Fortunately, it's been thriving on neglect!

SUSAN BOYLE - SCOTTISH SINGER

I couldn't figure out how to embed a YouTube video, but here's that site to see Susan Boyle on Britain's "You've got Talent":

HERE

US Naval Academy Performance

This is a pretty amazing demonstration!

Check it out... Here

Cake...High Altitude Style

Mmmm...homemade yellow cake with chocolate buttercream frosting...mmmmmm!

Spring Snowstorm

A while back, Izzy posted her story about the Snow Hill. I found it in my back yard being watched over by Cat.

We got about four inches of snow last night and today it is windy and cold (24)! I took Rowdy for a walk and the streets were icy. YIKES! It was wet snow when it started coming down and then got cold. All the streets and highways are icy.

The side yard in back.


The casita and barn.


I was worried about my apricot trees blooming. Now I don't need to worry anymore...


A little fir tree in the dog pen. I should decorate it for Christmas!

Butter Dips

Since we've been putting a lot of recipes on our blogs, Izzy asked me to provide the recipe for the butter biscuits we made at Mom's one time. Here it is:

BUTTER DIPS

1/4 c. butter
1 1/4 c. flour
2 t. sugar
2 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
2/3 c. milk

Heat oven to 450. In 9x9x2" square pan, melt the butter in the oven. Watch it closely so that it does not burn. Remove the pan from the oven.

Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl, add milk and stir just until dough forms, about 30 strokes.

Turn the dough onto a well floured surface, roll it around to coat with flour. Knead lightly about 10 times. Roll into 8-inch square. With floured knife, cut dough in half, then cut each half into nine 4-inch strips. Dip each strip into the melted butter, coating both sides. Arrange strips close together in 2 rows in the pan. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.

ENJOY!

Mmmmmm...Potato Bread

I have been remiss about blogging, so look for a couple of additional posts after this.

I sent the recipe out, and decided it has been too long since I made potato bread. The recipe is actually for rolls, but I made a loaf. I put in more yeast than the recipe calls for because I like a nice yeasty flavor. It really rose up in the oven, a little uneven, but my stomach doesn't care!





I also made rolls, but they got a little too brown. They taste good, too!

Making Vanilla, Part 3

When possOut went to the P-Club recently, I asked her to bring me more vanilla beans if they had some. They did, so I put 5 more beans into my bottle yesterday. Today, here's how it looks...




It's smelling pretty yummy, but I want a more intense vanilla flavor, so I'll let it sit for a while longer.

Spring is in the Air

We, too have been experiencing spring-type weather. As a result, my apricot trees are blooming. I hope they don't get nipped, there's still time for a freeze.

Two different trees:








...and some daffodils

There's a Reason...

...that Ms. Izzy is so happy to have a KitchenAid stand mixer:


With the bowl:


and freshly made bread:


I boo-booed on the bread. It was supposed to be whole wheat, but when I started making it, I immediately measured out mostly white flour and only about a third was whole wheat. I bet it tastes good. We'll find out when it cools.

Vanilla Update

Here we go, three weeks into the making of vanilla. It's pretty dark and is beginning to smell really yummy. When I think about it, I take the bottle out of the cabinet and shake it up. I guess I'll leave it in there to age for about 3 months. My kitchen was dark when I took the first picture, so I set the bottle in the window for the other one.





According to a friend at work who makes vanilla and shares with her Mom, 15 beans are better than 10 in a fifth. She gets her beans from...where else...Penzey's spices! I'm hoping mine will come out strong enough with only 10. The more beans, the stronger the vanilla. She also said that some people use Rum, but she doesn't like rum/vanilla flavor so she uses Vodka. She wants hers as strongly vanilla as possible. My beans said Rodelle Vanilla Beans on the package.

A Quilt for Mama-Lady

You all know that I picked Mom for Christmas this year, so here is the gift I gave. I'm going to go to her house someday and have two people hold this up so you can see the whole thing. Sometimes when I'm quilting, my ideas get away from me...

Making Vanilla

The day my eye blew up, I was in Albuquerque where I went to Costco and found they had a package of 10 vanilla beans. I purchased those and then went to our Smith's store and bought a cheap bottle of (on sale!) Vodka. I proceeded to make vanilla:

1. Pour out about a cup of the Vodka to make room in the bottle before you start stuffing the bans in:



2. Cut the vanilla beans allong the length and open them up:



3. I cut all ten beans and stuck them in the bottle:



4. Pour the extra Vodka back in the bottle to cover the beans and dump the left over. Et Voila! Vanilla! Or it will be in about 4 months. I've checked it a couple of times and it's starting to smell really goooood!

I'M NOT DRIVING THAT CAR!

As P-doobie said in her blog, we took pictures of each other through the car window. I was trying to be Jack Classic and look at the scenery without getting out.

We were leaving Bandelier when we saw this small herd of deer:


This one was noshing on the scenery:

I Don't Look Too Good...

What a day! Long story in a minute, short story: retinal tear.

Read what a retinal tear is HERE!

YIKES! YIKES! YIKES!

It started on Thursday evening when I noticed a black thing streak by. I thought it was a bug, fly or something and I kept swatting at it, as it was near my right eye. I don't know if you get any of those gray floaty things in your vision, I do, but this one was black. Weird. I read up on the internet about floaters,and the article I read said that they could get more noticeable in bright light. I didn't think much about it...until Saturday. I went to Albuquerque to meet Josh and Alison to take them their Christmas gifts. They had been at our house on Christmas, but left the following day to fly to Las Vegas, NV to spend time with Josh's mother. I didn't want them leaving all their gifts in the truck parked at the airport for a week, so I told them I'd meet them when they got back. We met at Olive Garden, I got out of the truck to hug Josh hello and then my eye went berserk. It was as if someone had dribbled black paint on my eyeball. What I was seeing was blood from the tear on my retina. The sunlight aggravated it and made it seem really bad. It didn't hurt and when we went in the restaurant it seemed to clear up. As I was leaving Albuquerque, I noticed my sight was hazy and it seemed like I was looking through a screen or netting. There were billions of gray and black tiny little dots. Only in my right eye. Once I got home, I told Jack about it and then worried that I had a detached retina. Does anyone know the symptoms of a detached retina? I looked on the Eye Associates web page to see if they had something about it. They did, I felt that I had some of the symptoms and I got scared so I called their local number to see what they would say about an emergency. I got in touch with their answering service who notified the Dr. on call, he called me back and we discussed my symptoms. He didn't think it was a detached retina as I did NOT see flashes of light or have the feeling of a curtain in front of my eyes. I asked if one could see through this curtain and he said no. I could see through whatever was happening in my eye. He said I needed to call the local office on Monday and tell them he said I needed to be seen right away.

I called this morning, got an appointment for 11:10...sat in there for 30 minutes...someone took information...I sat longer...they dilated my eye...I sat longer and finally got to see Dr. Bratton, a most wonderful, funny woman! She looked in there and, sure enough, there was a horseshoe shaped tear on my retina. She called the Santa Fe office to see if I could get in to see Dr. Wyant (Mom's usual Dr.) who is a retina specialist. They wanted me down there PRONTO! By now it is 12:40 and they wanted me down there within two hours, so I took off, dropped my moral support friend, Trishie back at work, picked up Jack and away we went. We got there around 2:20...and I waited...someone took information...I sat longer...they dilated my eye...I sat longer and finally got to see Dr. Wyant. He's really great, too. He said he needed to fix the tear with a laser. If I hadn't gone in, he thinks I would have ended up with a detached retina and then it would be surgery. So they numbed my eye, added more dilation drops and shot me with the laser. YIKES! That was very weird! It's more of an ache than pain, but hard for me to stay tuned in on the flashing red light with my left eye. Dr. Wyant said I did good! We finally got out of Santa Fe about 5:30. Now I have to be patient. I cannot do ANY exercise or READ! for a week. The lack of exercise I can deal with...but NO READING?!? That will certainly destroy me! I go back next week for them to check it and make sure the laser fixed the tear. This whole thing is an age (ICK!) related thing that can happen to people over age 55 with nearsightedness. I resemble those comments! I'm OK! I'm OK! I just feel like I'm falling apart. First I have that surgery to remove my stupid tooth, then my bunionectomy and now this! I hope this is it for a while!

Mike Shanahan FIRED ! ? !

I'm bummed. Pat Bowlen, Denver Broncos owner, fired Mike Shanahan on Tuesday (right after P-doobie gave me an autographed photo of Mike for Christmas!). What a bonehead (Bowlen)!

Read and weep:

FIRED!