Seriously. This is a good point, it’s always best to diversify… meet lots of people, learn how to do many things, have interests that you would only dream of having. You only have one life… so be awake for it.
HAPPY MAY DAY! If you’re one of the lucky people you will open your door this morning and there will be a pretty cone of flowers tied with ribbon around your door knob. What a neat thing to do for someone… hey, if you’re up early, run out and pick a few flowers, wrap the stems in foil or something with a wet paper towel to keep them fresh, and tie it with a ribbon on your neighbors door… boy, will they ever be surprised!
TIVO. It’s like CHER, it needs to explanation, I don’t need to say TIVO DVR, well, because TIVO is TIVO… simply the best! It is so user friendly that anyone can figure it out. It has truly revolutionized television watching for me! I can’t make it through commercials. I’m not a commercial snob, I LOVE a clever commercial, something witty and concise without being irritating (NO YELLING), but those are few and far between (think DAYQUIL commercial… “it even cures the MAN COLD”… darn. BRILLIANT.)
I was trying to think of what to make for dinner… ugh, I don’t want to be in a rut and make the same thing time and time again. We were both in the mood for some pasta, but we just weren’t sure HOW we wanted it… I happened to be on Facebook and I saw that Food and Wine magazine had posted a recipe that was quick and easy and sounded DELICIOUS! So off we went to the store, hunted and gathered the ingredients, popped home and threw it together in NO TIME! Seriously. This pasta sauce ISN’T. EVEN. COOKED! I had some reservations… hmmm, seems like you should at least cook it. I usually do try a new recipe pretty much as it’s shown, then the next time I make it I tweak it and change it up a bit. The only thing I did with this recipe is to use basil instead of parsley (LOVE tomatoes and basil together!) which the recipe did have listed as an alternative, and I used sundried tomatoes in oil instead of reconstituting… I also used mini bowties, well, just because I like them and they’re cute! This. Was. Delicious. Say no more… I will be making this time and time again!
SERVINGS: 4 FAST / VEGETARIAN
5 scallions, white and light-green parts only
6 tablespoons chopped reconstituted sun-dried tomato halves (about 12 halves); see Note
1 cup light cream or half-and-half
1 pound bow ties
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Notes
Reconstituting Sun-Dried Tomatoes In a small pan bring enough water to a boil to cover the dried tomatoes. Add the tomatoes, then remove from the heat and let steep in the hot water for about 5 minutes. Drain. You can also use drained oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes for this recipe. Since they’re already soft, you don’t have to reconstitute them.
Variation
Bow Ties with Sun-Dried Tomato and Herb Cream An equal quantity of chopped fresh basil or chives or 2 tablespoons of tarragon would be a good alternative or addition to the parsley.
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Image via Food & Wine – Melanie Acevedo
Dangit! I forgot to go to Hallmark to get cards… hmmm. Wonder if we get mail today… hmmmm. It IS a holiday. YOU did remember, right? What holiday you’re thinking… ahhh, that would be GROUNDHOG DAY. Yes, today is the day, in the middle of an ice/snow storm that good ole Punxsutawney Phil will be pulled into the limelight to determine if we’ll see six more weeks of winter… DO WE SEE HIS SHADOW? If it’s cloudy and there is no shadow that means an early spring… I’m kind of hoping he see’s his shadow. Winter in Charleston is nice, I sure don’t want to rush it! Here’s hoping you have a great groundhog day! Until next time…
I bend down and pull all the clothes out of the dryer and toss them on the bed, good grief, four loads… and no kids, crazy! I begin the folding process, hey, might as well turn on the TV I’m going to be here for a while… I turn it on just as someone was telling the audience about a website called www.airfarewatchdog.com, how you can enter your home airport as well as destinations you are interested in flying into and you’ll get an email every so often with the best possible deals. How did I not already know about this? I had JUST gotten tickets not a few days before that… hmmm. I signed up. I am a realistic person. Neither an optomist or a pessimist. I know when it’s too good to be true, but I also know there HAS to be a deal out there SOMEWHERE! Lets see what airfarewatchdog shows, does it really show any great deal? YES. IT. DOES! Some are unadvertised. Some are advertised, but all the information is included in the email. It’s a worthy few minutes to spend to save some bucks in the future. So if you haven’t heard of it before, check it out!
Don’t forget to check out my photoblog at http://almostdailypic.wordpress.com ! Until tomorrow…
Move more – Eat less… it’s what the experts say we should all be doing… Well, we’ve been really good about moving more, that’s for sure (we could probably eat a little less, but…). Charlie (our Jack Russell) is instrumental in our fitness regimen… if we don’t get him walked at the bare minimum of four miles he’s wound up tighter than a tick (ick, what does that mean?)… Here are a few pictures from our walk today. We live near the West Ashley Greenway, it’s a great path that goes many miles out… Today we ventured out 2 miles and back 2 miles with a quick reward stop at Petco for Charlie… He loves to shop… then as we headed back down the greenway we detoured at Dolittles (another pet store with cool toys and treats) and then headed home. Hope you’re able to get out this weekend. It’s so nice this week, I’m looking at my Brookstone “weather station” and it’s shows 75 for Wednesday… holy cow, can you imagine August? Eek… for now, the nights are still cool, YAY!!! So a fire in the fireplace is what we look forward to! Have a great weekend… until tomorrow…
The day started innocently enough… taking the dog for a walk we ran into a neighbor. “What are you doing for Valentine’s Day?” she asked. Hmmm, we really hadn’t thought about it. We don’t usually go out to eat or buy flowers, etc since the dinners out that we have had on Valentine’s Day have been rushed and the flowers are at an overinflated price. But… that got us thinking… Fred was on Robert Joyner’s website (www.robertjoynerartist.com) and reading his blog, he saw this painting that we’ve had our eye on, Old Timer Number 5… it was still for sale… AND at that moment there was a 20% sale! Robert is very savy when it comes to his sales. Sales are there and then they aren’t, and then they are… Earlier it was 15%…, now 20%, ohmygosh, a sign? We had just talked about cutting back, no more art this year. During the last year we’ve gotten some great pieces, but it’s time to slow down… we both agreed. BUT… IT’S. ON. SALE. So, we decided it would be our Valentine’s gift to each other (can we justify just about anything or what?), so it’s a done deal. It’ll be on it’s way here shortly and we CAN’T WAIT! If you haven’t been to Robert’s website I encourage you to visit it. It’s full of great information, stories and PAINTINGS! His blog is as interesting as it is informative. Speaking of his blog, there is a demo of him painting this very painting and it’s AMAZING! Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxZm8YxK3GI You won’t believe your eyes! If you’re looking for a painting, check them out, he paints a variety of subjects, ALL AMAZING. Horses, cows, Maine scenes, landscapes the list goes on and on… Enjoy the demo AND your weekend!
Don’t forget to check out my photoblog at http://almostdailypic.wordpress.com ! Until tomorrow…
Ok, if you were going to be stranded on a desert island and could take only one music album with you, which one would it be? That is the WordPress topic of the day. Kind of fun, so I thought I would play along… I like to listen to Alicia Keys – AS I AM. It starts out with the Intro that is slow and sultry, you have to turn up the volume to be sure it’s even on… then it segues into more of a beat, perfect for walking… I love to listen to it when I’m cooking or painting… So I think I’ll go ahead and turn it on now and get dinner rolling… How about you? What ONE album would you take with you if you were to be stranded…? I guess we should all take that one album with us since between the wild weather and the traffic we most certainly can be “stranded” in our cars! You can listen to these songs at www.aliciakeys.com !
Remember to check out my photoblog at http://almostdailypic.wordpress.com – Until tomorrow…
What’s one thing you like to do on a Sunday? One thing we like to do is take Charlie (JRT) to the James Island County Dog Park. We had heard so much about this specific dog park, then we decided to check it out… The dog park is separated for small dogs under 25 pounds, which is where we started with Charlie… He finally graduated to the “big dog” side where there is a LOT of land to run, there is water to stand in to cool (he’s not a swimmer yet, but he will go stand in the water and maybe do a few paddles, even when it’s brutally cold!). If you have a dog do you take it to the dog park? if not, give it a try some time, you meet (mostly) nice people and the dogs are awesome to watch!
Charlie and his PBGB friend, Birdie…
See the water in the distance… This is where ALL the dogs are in the summer… In the winter everyone is really hoping they DON’T, but they always do…
This was his running buddy this past week… This dog was hilarious, would jump over smaller dogs while he was running…
This is what he looks like after soaking in the nice cold water then running and rolling in sand… The sun in his hair, he’s having the time of his life!
I am someone who loves gadgets. I love computers and all the fun stuff that comes along with them… until it gets super technical… I am creative. I learn quickly. But I draw the line at super complicated code talk… I might as well be in Siberia… We have an iPad, but couldn’t watch the videos… seemed like a shame. After taking it to the Apple store and trying their network, I determined it wasn’t the iPad itself, next I thought it might be our cable service, maybe I wasn’t paying for high speed Internet, a call to Comcast said I was paying for it… hmmm, then WHY did everything take so long to load, why could I not watch a short uTube clip? Hmmm, only thing I could think of would be the router, so I called Linksys. They couldn’t determine a problem with our router. So back to Apple, tried again, and the iPad was fine… I could watch video at my parents and they have Comcast and a Valet router… SO… maybe it IS the router! Off to Staples we went, armed with a 15% coupon and we are now proud owners of a Valet Plus. They say it’s easy. Whattttt? It’s so easy we did it in NO TIME! This is brilliant for those of us who don’t need the complicated settings that many of the other routers provide. I can watch painting videos again! Woohoo! If you’re in the market for a router and are dreading setting it up… LOOK NO FURTHER! This thing is awesome! Until tomorrow…
Remember to visit my photoblog at http://almostdailypic.wordpress.com
Have you ever laughed so hard you cry? I LOVE when that happens! You can’t plan for it, something just strikes you as hilarious and you lose all control… It has happened to me many times and they say it’s GOOD FOR YOU! I just read something about this, WHY do we cry when we’re really laughing? They’ve been studying this (ugh, please study more important things!!) and they just don’t know… I can remember my mom and I stopping at this little roadside diner. Very small place. We were seated near the window… I think its after we worked at a boatshow all day in Detroit and were over tired… we got the giggles that turned into full blown I-just-can’t-stop laughter… It’s like doing hundreds of sit-ups once you’re done, ha ha… Everyone was looking at us like we weren’t right or perhaps had too much to drink, but neither was the case… It. Just. Happens. There are countless times my sister Bridget and I would either see something funny or the funny bone is just tickled for some reason and we just lose it… same with Fred. I can’t wait until the next time this happens.
Do you need a laugh? Well if you haven’t seen Modern Family (on ABC) the ‘Caught in the Act’ preview, it cracked me up, especially the very end… can’t wait to watch the show! I wish you a weekend full of laughter!!! Get out there and laugh, laugh hard, laugh with someone, laugh alone and most of all… LAUGH OFTEN!
Video link via U Tube (it’s only 1 minute 23 seconds long…):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY5YjRGpNPI&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Remember to visit my photoblog at http://almostdailypic.wordpress.com!
Something to think about… (thanks to WordPress for the topic) WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU HAD ONE HOUR TO LIVE? Hmmmm. Not something I like to think about… I would want to spend time with my husband, I would want to talk to my family (after all I only have an hour, not enough time to jump in a car and get to Summerville OR on a plane and get to Michigan!) and I would want to take a few minutes to write a letter to those who have made my world a much better place. I would want them to have something that shows them how much I truly loved them and how deeply I felt about them. Then I would just want to be close to Fred and say goodbye to Charlie… I. WOULD. PRAY. Oh, and if I was so lucky as to have a box of See’s dark chocolate caramels in the house I would go ahead and eat them, well, I would save Fred a few, but what the heck… might as well. I would still want to quick brush my teeth at least. Then I think I would set the house up for Fred, make things exactly as he likes them. Personally I’m hoping when we’re very very old, once we’re no longer healthy, that we fall asleep in each others arms and wake up in Heaven. If that happens, no one needs to be sad for me I will be thrilled! What would you do with your final hour? By the way, Eat Pray Love was a good movie if you need something to rent! Until tomorrow…
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The WordPress daily post subject today is to share something that makes you smile… OK, it seems rather sad that I pick a phone as the “something that makes me smile”, it’s not actually the phone (although, I have to say I love this phone, and it DOES make me smile, well, most of the time)… It’s what’s ‘inside’ the phone. A sweet message from Fred (my husband) that he left several months ago. I love his messages, his kind words, his enthusiasm, THAT is what makes me smile! What makes you smile? An interesting subject no doubt, I had so many possibilities, then I tried to think of something where I could have the post and the image go together and tada… Blackberry Bold it is…
Here’s to many things that make you smile today! Until tomorrow…
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