Monday Ramblings, etc.

Last night on TAR was really no surprise. I am only truly sorry that Jaime of Jaime and Cara is still in the race. If we could vote her out and keep Cara in, I would be fine with that. My hope is that when she SEES the show and realizes what the rest of the world sees in her, she will make some major changes. Talk about humble pie being needed!! Lordy, Lordy, that girl is a piece of work. And we are down to the final 3. Any favorites in this group?

Next week is the season finale of The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. Already? Yep, it is. I have got to get down to the library and look for that series of books and get to reading. If any survey people ask you if this show should be brought back for another season, please say yes!

Survivor - too bad it had to be Sierra instead of that idiot liar Coach. Maybe it is better that he has to suck up and squirm for another week? I don't know. He just irritates the beejeebers out of me and he needs to go. Can you imagine anything worse than him winning the million? How about this for scary, what if he won AND Jaime and Cara won on TAR? Now that my friends would be the worst thing ever!!!

DWTS - Who all was surprised at Chuck and Julianne being voted out? I was. I know Chuckie is not the greatest dancer, but we all love Julianne. I guess Chuck doesn't have as many voters in Alabama (or wherever he said) as he thought he did. Because he sure had better judges' scores than Melissa.

My friend Kristin was in town and we had breakfast and visited this morning and did a little shopping. How much fun was that? The best! Now, I have to start baking that cursed Amish Fiendish Bread and do some laundry. Oh joy! Could I ask for more excitement? (Did you notice all the sarcasm?)

Lots of big show season finales coming up this month. So check your local listings and don't miss them!

Weekend ramblings

Old friends are arriving tomorrow that we haven't seen in forever, so Mr. Big Ed and I are excited about the upcoming week and visiting with them. It's kind of strange doing this with no kids here. I guess we really are grown up and mature, let's face it, we are old. Old enough to be empty-nesters, that's for sure.

Last weekend was when I had to feed and stir the infamous Amish friendship bread starter and then separate out portions to pawn off on my friends and bake some of it. I decided to bake twice as much and freeze some of the baked goods rather than annoy 3 friends. This way only 1 person every 10 days gets a new starter. Good thinking right? Well, I did the first batch the way the recipe said and baked it in a Bundt rather than 2 loaf pans. I had no clue that I only own 1 loaf pan! I wonder where the others are? Hmmph, I know EXACTLY where they are. Living with some no-good, sorry, low-down, pencil-neck thief of a mover. Those @##$#$$%% DASTARDLY DOGS who work for all the moving companies we have ever used seem to think they can supplement their income with ill-gotten gains from my boxes. Don't even get me started on how much I despise those thieving bastages.

Back to the baking day, so the second batch we divided into 2. One half I put Mexican cocoa powder, cinnamon and ground chiles in and then sprinkled liberally with Ghirardelli chocolate chips. This went into the Lone Loaf Pan. The other half got diced up apples (Granny Smith of course) and chopped pecans and then went into a muffin pan. It made a dozen muffins perfectly. These things baked forever. And somehow they came out and were still nice and warm right after dinner! I sure wish I could take credit for planning that!

My sister and her bff Jenny (867-5309) were here for dinner so we all had delicious warm cakes with fresh made whipped cream and played Rummy for hours. Doesn't that sound nice? Don't you wish you were here? Especially Rachel Pie, except I know what kind of card shark she is! She would have kicked our asses all over the room and then probably eaten the rest of the cake just to show us. (Oh, I am loving this visual!!!)

So, today is just feeding and stirring of the starter and Monday will be baking day. Any suggestions of variations I should try this time? Think about it and let me know.

I think I will be making a BIG to-do list today. The Spring Fever is hitting an all-time peak and I have got to get some of the things swirling through my brain down on paper so that I can organize them some way. Every where I look I see something that needs to be gone through, organized or neatened up in some way. You would think with all the damn cats draped over things you wouldn't notice the clutter and disarray. Not so much.

I was more than a little peeved at the "All New Survivor Episode". Come on people! We know a filler re-hash of the last 15 days when we see one. Granted, since Survivor has gone Hi-Def it doesn't much matter what they are showing, it is all espectacular! Someone has got to get rid of that pompous wiener Coach. I swear if I was out there with him, those crocodiles would be having a good meal whether it was him or me. How many adjectives can you think up to describe him? I'll wait. Get a pen and paper. Still writing? Me, too!

For a really long time now, I have a few websites I check out every morning while I am drinking my really big Tony Parker mug full of tea (Go Spurs Go) and reading my email. One of which is http://wherethehellismatt.com I have watched Matt dancing all over the world since he started this back in 2005. The music that goes with the latest 2008 version is so beautiful, your heart will swell. And just when you think you can't take any more of this, go to: http://www.freehugscampaign.org/index.php?categoryid=1 I love the Free Hug Guy! So, finally after years of this, I signed up on Free Hug Guys site to represent my area with the Free Hug campaign. I will let you know what that actually means and entails when I hear from them. Now you know what I am doing every morning while drinking my tea and reading email.

Now that I am all Mr. Rogers-y and thinking what a beautiful day in the neighborhood it is, I am going to get a legal pad and start my list. Have a great weekend, I intend to.

Deja Vu all over again

I can't believe I am being sucked back into the vortex of 1980. This was when I was first tricked into taking a small container of Amish Friendship Bread starter. You see where I am going with this? Yep, it's 1980 all over again and I have a new little starter sitting on my kitchen counter where I normally have a big glass canister of kombucha brewing. The kombucha is hibernating in the fridge for a while as I got bored with having to take care of it all the time. So now I am taking care of a bread starter instead.

How did I let myself get into this again? What was I thinking? Good Lord! What's next? Am I going to crimp my hair and put some ankle warmers on? Shall I find a sweater with big ole shoulder pads? Am I going to start listening to Wham? Madonna? Hall & Oates?

I just looked through some recipe files and got out the recipes I had from way back when for the Amish Friendship breads so I can vary them because I can see my kitchen being over-run with starters and breads and cakes and pancakes and anything else you can stick that starter in. If I come calling, don't hide and pretend you aren't home. I will find a way to get you sucked into the Land of Starter, too!

For some reason I am now in the mood to watch The Breakfast Club. With a scrunchy in my hair!