I dedicate this blog to Pumpkin

Last night was the season opening 2-hr extravaganza known as Dancing with the Stars. Since there were actually people resembling real celebrities this year we decided to give it another try. Sometimes I wonder if any of the contestants have watched previous seasons because right out of the gate celebrities were dedicating their dances to people special to them. Don't they know that dedicating dances is the kiss of death?? Everytime somebody has dedicated a dance in a previous season they've been promptly shown the door by an unimpressed America. So I'd like to dedicate my blog to Pumpkin so that others can learn from my impending demise....

We had a special guest over tonight, Mr. A. He was in town to teach the 'rents' last dance class and grab another load of loot from the lake house. Since their place probably isn't stocked with fine foods and wines in the midst of their move, we invited him over for dinner. I made some homemade minestrone soup and a casear salad with some warmed sourdough bread. Tasty and easy. After dinner the boys retired to the man cave to talk about manly things like engines, guns and college girls.

I hung out inside putting away dinner dishes and changing into my walking clothes, during which I noticed that more bandages on my stomach had come off revealing my newly engineered belly button.
As you can see, there's still a couple of more bandages around the incision intersection, but other than that I'm well on my way to recovery.

While I didn't get any photos of my minestrone tonight, I did snap a shot of last night's pesto pasta with broccoli, salmon and roasted red bell pepper. So delicious, though my tummy was righteously unhappy this morning about trying to digest it.

Once the boys are done chatting and tinkering I think it's walking time. It's almost 8:30 pm and it's still 65 degrees out. Nice.

Comfort Coffee

What could possibly make coffee better?
Irish cream. And conveniently I have a whole bottle leftover from my St. Paddy's pound cake.

Last night I spent a little time in my craft room and finished putting together a layout for the Christmas cookie exchange with my b.s. girls.
Down to my co-worker's wedding and New Year's Eve to finish up my 2009 album. No pressure, Jessica!!

[Note to family:The new blog I added to my 'follows' list is Face's]

Home & Garden Show

Mom, Chris and I decided to go the Soroptimist Home, Garden & Antique Show at the fairgrounds this morning. They opened at 10:00 am and we arrived there shortly thereafter. There was a building of antiques, a food building, commercial (business) building, and the "marketplace" which was just different gift vendors. The antiques building was first up on our tour.
Mom and Chris deciding if we should get a painting of dogs peeing on a wall or two cats grooming themselves. Hey, I never said they were good antiques.

On the way to the food building were garden and nursery suppliers that caught Mom's eye.
I loved the food building (though waaay too crowded to get any photos). It was local vendors selling oils, nuts, fruits, spices and other food products. We scored two bags of flavored nuts from a Chico almond orchard.
Mom got some too, plus some Almond butter. Yum!

The commercial building was just a lot of businesses selling their services. Yawn..... Oh, except that we ran into Big Bryan and Kathy that used to live next door to us on Scottwood. Hugs and 'hi's'.

Besides the food building I also like the marketplace. There was a jewelry vendor that had super affordable metal and glass necklaces that were beautiful, but they didn't have a credit card sign up and I didn't have enough cash. Sad Susan. But I did find their website and saw that they'll be at Gold Nuggy Days next month so I can save up my pennies to buy one of everything!

In one of the outdoor exhibits we found some lawn ornaments that would be perfect in our front courtyard.
Except that I suspect they'd get stolen faster than my Halloween pumpkin!

Spice Master

While chatting with one of my sisters today, the FedEx man dropped off a surprise package for me from Pampered Chef. I'd totally forgotten that I'd ordered some spices online from my co-worker's party.
So much potential, and absolutely no ideas...

My other big surprise today was finding the recently released 30th anniversary limited edition ale from Sierra Nevada at Safeway (and on sale).
It's a big boy, so it'll be perfect for getting tanked over the weekend. The other beer is just another Lagunitas that I don't think the Canadian's had yet. Get it? WTF beer! Hehehe....

I can now consider today a success!

No pinching around here

Since I had a sit down meeting with a project applicant today I decided to skip my traditional shamrock t-shirt and wear something a little nicer. The closest dress I had to green (that I hadn't worn yet this month) was really teal, but close enough in my opinion. My co-workers proved me proud and wore their holiday finest, too.
I'm the tiny leprechaun in the middle.

As part of our festivities we planned for a potluck today, too. Curtis, or rather his wife, was on scone duty. Today it was mint chocolate chip flavor.
We also had dips and chips, corned beef and cabbage, Irish cream pound cake (my contribution), split pea soup, a sandwich setup of rolls, shredded corned beef and coleslaw, cheesecake and deviled eggs. I made sure to dabble in a little of everything.
Even our mailman got in the spirit.

Tonight was b.s. at our house so for our dessert I kept it in the holiday spirit with a lime jello poke cake topped with creme de menthe whipped topping. Mint and lime, just like a mojito.
I sent some with Chris today to share with his co-worker, and I brought some for our IT guy at work who is also a dessert fan. Both to rave reviews. Well worth the three hours I spent baking last night.

Collect them all

Even though the cookie fairy graciously left four boxes of Girl Scout cookies at our doorstep, I was suckered into another box from the girls infront of Safeway yesterday.
Soon I'll have one of every flavor.

Even though today was a Monday, there were a couple of highlights. First, I was able to buy a fresh loaf of sourdough bread for $3.00 from my co-worker, Sherry, because she had another baking class this last weekend (the one I took Mum to last year). We cut into it as soon as I got home. So delicious slightly warmed with butter.
While we snacked on buttered bread we filled out our Census 2010 form that came in the mail today. We want to make sure that they count every man, woman and damn dirty Canadian.
And we tried a new recipe out of Sunset magazine that was a big winner. Turkey smoked sausage, white beans, and spinach in a diced tomato sauce over rice.
We topped off our evening with a nice long walk around the block. Now we're each on our own side of the couch with our respective laptops open on our laps. If I need anything, I'll just email him. Lord knows we don't want to spend the evening talking to each other!

St. Paddy's delights

Heaven forbid we come anywhere near St. Patrick's day and not have corned beef and cabbage. So, to alleviate the Canadian's fears of a beef-less existence, I let him make a batch yesterday. Always searching for the perfect recipe, this time Chris crock-potted it in a mix of two bottles of beer and one bottle of water.
As is true with any application, booze made it better. It was so tasty that Chris drank a cup of straight juice. Like a hot spiced beer toddy.

We bought two roasts at the store so we can do this party all over again next weekend!