The Red Swingline

I work in a warehouse office. Food distribution. I am the clerk, or as I like to refer to my position:

The Assistant Deputy Director of Warehouse Operations and Logistics. Much nice ring to it.

As the Assistant Deputy Director of Warehouse Operations and Logistics, I staple. ALOT. Like hundreds of staples every day. As in I will probably have a messed up wrist in a few years if I continue hammering on my stapler at this rate. So last year for Christmas my boss got me this.

If you don't get the reference to this movie, we might seriously need to reconsider our friendship.

But There's Still Some Pink Inside

Growing up I was one of those kids. There was to be no pink inside my meat. The cow was to be killed twice. In the past few years I have gone from having a steak done like a hockey puck to some pink. I'm taking this in baby steps. Mr. B and I will occasionally grill out and he has been gradually cooking my steak more towards the medium than well side. He probably thinks he is being sneaky, but I am on to him.

Last night we decided to go out for dinner. We didn't feel like driving into the big city so that left a limited number of restaurants in our area. Bars so burgers and fried stuff, not feeling like consuming large quantities of grease. One Italian restaurant, we didn't have a great experience there last time so that was out. Fast food, again more fried stuff and I wanted a nice sit down dinner. Or supper clubs. 

We settled on a supper club near the acres that we haven't been to in a while. They make good pink squirrels, I heart pink squirrels. If you have never had one, your life is not complete and you really must try. The best ice cream drink evah. This place is a classic meat and potatoes restaurant with a salad bar. Salad bar meaning iceburg lettuce and about 10 different salads involving mayo.

Side note: we were the youngest people in the restaurant except a few of the severs. Everyone there was old enough to be our parents. And no we didn't go early. We got there after seven, thank you very much.

I know I am going to get steak; just not feeling frog legs, yes that is on the menu. Now what cut of beef do I want. Mr. B orders the prime rib, the Saturday night special. I have never had prime rib before. The sight of people eating a cut of beef that is still oozing red was horrifying to me. Remember hockey pucks, the cow needs to be killed twice. How can people seriously think a bleeding hunk-o-beef can be good. In a moment of braveness or stupidity, I have yet to decide, I order it too. MEDIUM. 

Just ordering that was huge. Ordering it medium really put me out of my comfort zone. No baby step there, more like a standing long jump. As the waitress was walking away I almost called her back to change my order. Oh-my-God what have I done crosses my mind. It's too late she is on her way to the kitchen. Calling her back would make a scene. What to do. Now she is in the kitchen. I am committed stuck. There is no going back now.

You could feel the tension as we waited for our food. At least in my head I could. Distract my self with the mayo bar and bread. Delicious homemade onion rye bread in case you were wondering. Chat with Mr. B about our plans for the following weekend. Here she comes, that must be ours. It's sitting in front of me. Not oozing blood but clearly very pink.
Here it was the moment of truth. First bite. Close my eyes not to see the red meat on my fork making it's way up to my mouth. The tension is almost unbearable now. Mr. B is staring at me watching me, waiting to read my face.

I was blown away. A-MA-ZING!! Melt in my mouth delicious cow, were-have-you-been-all-my-life good. I had to restrain myself from gorging on the whole thing. Cut, chew, savor, repeat. Cut, chew, savor, repeat. No picking it up with my hands and tearing into it caveman style, in a restaurant must be civilized.

Needless to say I have been converted. I no longer fear pink meat. Now off to figure out how to make those leftovers into a delicious salad or sandwich for lunch.

mushroom

We came home from work yesturday to find this.

WTF!! Seriously a shroom. Growing in my bathroom. In the corner by my bathtub. CRAP. 

I am not a horrible house keeper I promise you. I honestly don't know how this happened. 

The bleach was busted out and the area scrubbed down. While doing this I noticed the wood was kinda soft. DOUBLE CRAP. 

Mr. B inspected the floor boards. They are ok, not great but ok. So we won't be falling through the floor anytime soon.

We had planned on completly redoing the bathroom some day, but that just got bumped up the list a tad. 

Theodore and Craters

Remember how Mr. B and I decide to we had a male and a female buff geese. The one we named Charlie died from SIDS, the goose version. I don't think our goose sexing abilities were that great, or it isn't Charlie who is buried behind the shed...

The goose that we had been calling Thelma all summer is a Theodore. The large white goose, pretty sure it's a boy.

(On a side note, yes that is a duct tape patch on the kiddie pool. Duct tape fixes everything. And the birds could care less what the pond looks like as long as it holds water.)

You are probably thinking I know this fact cause I saw him get fresh with one of the girls. Nope! No geese doing the nasty on this farm. Not yet a least, I know it is coming.

He is loud, the loudest goose and he also has a high pitched honk. Believe it or not the ganders have the higher voices than the geese. He is also biggest bird, males are always bigger than the girlies. If you watch the flock closely, he is the boss. The alpha. He is always aware of what is going on, always on the lookout. He sounds the alarm for everyone else.

I know Mr. B and I weren't so shure about having ganders. So far I am ok with having Theodore stick around. He is doing a fine job taking care of the ladies and the duckies. And Bruce. I am thinking there is another male in the bunch, one of the Toulouse geese. He is beta, second in charge.

While I was busy calling Theodore Thelma all summer the ducks have been busy creating craters in the yard. They dig. They drill holes in the mud with their bills looking for yummy grubbies.

That's one nice thing about the dry weather. I would hate to imagine the holes in my yard would have. The damage is contained to the ares by the pools. You can tell were the pools have sat, there are crater rings. The water splashed out from the pool party and the ducks go to town drilling.

So next time you come and visit watch were you step. I would hate for any rolled ankles!  

First Vegetables

Despite the drought, thanks to my diligent watering, we have veggies. OK maybe not so diligent, every few days when I feel like it, or when the duck pool needs a refill. Why would I waste that poo water, my tomatoes love it! Don't worry everything will get a good washing before consumption. 

So without further ado I give you the fist zucchini. 

Check out theses tomatoes. 

 And these ones. 

The lettuce is looking scrum-diddly-umptush!

The garden won't be a complete loss. No peas or carrots. No radishes or cucumbers. But we will have zucchini and tomatoes! 

Spice Rack

This lovely hangs in my kitchen, under the cupboards.

The roosters make me smile.

 

I don't use it, I have to many different spices than custy labeled jars. And besides, it is on the opposite side than the stove. Who wants to walk across the room every time you think your jambalaya could use an extra kick of chili powder.

We will leave it hanging as a tribute to the style of the previous owner. That and if we took it down I don't know how we would patch the holes in the tile.

dresser redo

 When Mr. B first bought the flat screen TV back when we first started dating he bought a TV stand like this for it.

When we moved in together it work well in our apartment.

Then we bought the house. And for the past two years it has been getting to me. It just doesn't go well in the old house. It is too modern, and the black glass is a dust magnet. Not to mention there is no good way to hide all the cords from the TV and all the game consuls. And a mess of cords makes a great Gus-Bunnie trap. I went widow shopping for something new, but everything that was sturdy (not made of particle board and would start to sag in a year) and we liked was over our budget.

Enter Pinterest. I kept seeing the awesome media centers/TV stands that people made from an old dresser. Several months ago I began my hunt for the perfect old dresser. Not to big/not to small. Three drawers. Not very wide, it needs to fit between two window. And cheap. That was the hard part. I could find some amazing dressers but over $75. Oh hell no, this was supposed to be a el chepo project. Then I went shopping in my mothers basement. She had bought an inexpensive one from the Habitat Restore a few years ago for my sister to use at college. It can't get much cheaper that FREE-NINETY-NINE!

A shelf were the top drawer was some paint and new hardware and we have an awesome media center for under $30!

The cords are hidden, it isn't a dust magnet, and I have a place to store all the DVDs and games. Not to mention the pop of cheery color. The picture doesn't do it justice. It is a nice rusty red/orange color "rum raisin"

I splurged on the hardware. $4 a piece, but when you get the dresser for free you can. Besides they really pull it together.

Don't tell anyone, but I painted wood laminate. Yup that's right. Laminate. The key is the primer. I used an oil based primer and I scuff it up with the sander first. One coat of primer and two coats of semigloss paint.  

Parched

It is dry. It is beyond dry. We haven't gotten any rain this month and last month was less than an inch. I have given up on my flower beds. The only thing worth trying to save by watering is the vegetables. They seem to be doing alright; it's not going to be a fabulous crop but we will have some. 

This would be my yard right now. You not only have to wear shoes because we have birds but, the grass is so crunch on your feet. Gus seems to enjoy rolling in it and bringing all the dead grass into the house. 

Remember the hummingbird moth. He landed in a planter I had on the back porch. Look at the beautiful color and healthy flowers. 

And now not so much. I did try to save it by watering it, but maybe I didn't do it enough. 

Some sneaky geese and ducks finished it off. It wasn't this bad when I left for work this morning. How do I know it was them; they left some evidence on the porch, poo. I think it is time to start thinking about putting a fence around the back porch. 

There is a 60% chance of rain this weekend. I better go do a rain dance and see if I can up our odds to 100%.

Inspiration

Pinterest how I heart thee. You give me endless motivation to work out, then oodles of delicious cakes to indulge in. You make me want to spend my whole paycheck on bins and totes and a label maker to organize my junk. Tips on how to be upper thrifty and slash the grocery bill. I have a list a mile long of quilts I would love to make. Not to mention the inspiration for a home make over, and sadness that my much lived in house will never look like the beautifully staged photos. And much to Mr. B's dismay you have loads of info on furniture redos and up-cycling my old things. 


I could spend hours looking for at this sight and pinning my latest finds. I have a inspiration board for almost every room in my house. I think I need to stop pinning soon and start doing. 

Heat wave

It is hot here in Wisconsin. I'm talking high nineties and triple digits. H-O-T hot! Gus is miserable, the geese are miserable, the ducks are miserable, and Mr. B and I are miserable. It is too hot to do much of anything except park our tushies in front of the fan and chilax.  

Shady Acres is an old farm house which means no air-conditioning. None zippo zero zilch. Central Air was never installed. Mr. B and I tuffed it out the past two summers. The house normally gets a good breeze and is surrounded by large shade trees which really helps. Air conditioning is a modern convenience, not a necessity. We are young we can handle it, just take it easy and drink lots of water. Besides I want to save the money and spend it on other things. Like drywall for the mud room and new porch posts.

But this time we just couldn't hack it any more. It hasn't be going below 80 at night, it makes for miserable sleep. You have to have the fan in the window cranked on high just to keep from sleeping in a pool of sweat. Then it blows my hair around and my fuzzies tickle my face and wake me up. Miserable, I wanted to shave my head. 

Tuesday night we caved. No not caved, we were realistic. We just weren't sleeping that great. I don't think Mr. B really slept at all on Monday night. The weather forecast doesn't show this heat wave breaking any time soon and we need to be able to function the morning. Next week Mr. B will be working nights and will need to sleep during the day, that just wouldn't happen if the house was in the high eighties. We bought a window ac unit for our bed room. The rest of the house may be hot but at least we have a cool place to sleep. I am starting to think that some day we are going to have to bite the bullet and get central air. Put it on the bottom of the list, so maybe in like 20ish years we will get there..

Stars and Checkers: A Quilt

I finished this little guy last week, but wanted to wait till it was closer to the holiday to show you. He was put up for bid this weekend in a silent auction to benifit airmen and their families on the base Mr. B works at.

I had fun working on this and am very happy with the way it turned out. My seams have improved vastly over the past year, look how nicely al those corners line up! It was hard to part with this one, it would have made a beautiful seasonal wall haning, but it went to a good cause. I am sure it will be loved and appriciated in it's new home. 

I finished it late in the evening and Mr. B needed to take it in the following morning, nothing like waiting to the last minute!! I wanted to get some pictures of the finished product, but the light was just a tad on the crappy side.

Note to self, finish projects a few days in advanced so you can do a nice 'photo shoot' outside.

Cupcake Gig

I had my fist paying gig for cupcakes!! 75 of them for a graduation party. My Friday evening was spent hanging in the kitchen, slaving over my kitchen aid. Man how I love that thing!! I don't care what any one says, it was much better than getting diamonds from you sweetie for Christmas and so much more practical. 

I know Friday evening spent bonding with a mixer and doing five loads of dishes. Is that what you call them, loads? It sounds more like I was doing laundry. Maybe we should call them sink-fulls. But what I did amounted to way more than five sink-fulls. Sink-fulls just doesn't express the sheer volume of dishes as vividly as I would like. Batches? No that doesn't sound quite right either. I'm going to need to think on this for a while. 

So anywho Friday night, cupcakes and dishes not the most glamorous thing to be doing on you Friday evening. I did get a nice sugar buzz going and I swear I had a cake hangover the following morning. I made 75 cupcakes 100 cupcakes. One batch didn't turn out as pretty as I would have likes, I think I over mixed the batter when I added the strawberries.

Edible, yes.

Delicious, yes.

Pretty, oh hell no!

I couldn't sell those babies. They looked like wrinkly old lady skin with pink blotches all over. I know pictures would be nice here, but in the heat of the moment taking pictures of my nasty looking cupcakes was not a priority. I had to turn the oven back on and give it another go. Don't worry they weren't a total loss, the boys at work thought they were great. Free cupcakes, who cares what they look like!

I went for my stnd by white cake this time. Thankfully my client, Mr. B's aunt, didn't have many specifications about them just red and white. Client sounds so important and official don't it? Gives me the warm fuzzies inside. Client. 

I even went all Martha Stewart and made these cupcake toppers. I had some Wisconsin Badger fabric hanging out upstairs, some wooden skewers, and a glue gun. I blame the sugar high for a sudden burst of energy at the end. You know you need to quality check the frosting. The grad is attending UW Madison this fall. I thought they were a nice touch.

I know pictures of the cutsy toppers but none of the cupcakes. Disastrous or nice!! I had every intention of taking pictures of the good ones once they were set up at the event. But the camera got left on the counter, I blame the cake hangover.

Loads, it's loads of dishes. I consulted google and that's what it came up with. Now we can all sleep better tonight.