Swagbucks

Ok, so this isn't a scam (i've searched). You sign up and earn "swagbucks" for searching and then you can use those for gift cerftificates or prizes. You use Google anyway, right? This is powered by Google so you get the same results.

Click on the banner to sign on, and I get bucks for you signing on then you get a friend to sign up with your name you get bucks...yada yada. you get the idea.

You never pay anything or give any financial information--this isn't a pyramid scheme! Give it a shot, I mean, who doesn't Google every day? Might as well get something in return!

Crap Crackers

I'm a decent cook. I may go so far as to say a good cook, but I don't want to get prideful here.

"Kait," I thought to myself last week as I munched on some delicious crackers, "You could totally make crackers."

Yes I could, I agreed with myself.

So as soon as I got home from work I looked up a recipe on foodnetwork.com with the best ratings. This rarely has failed me.

I attempted Cracked pepper and parmesan crackers...sounds delish right? I begin mixing the butter and flour and freshly grated parmesan but the dough was hardly dough at all--more like floury crumbs. Hmm... Well I got it to stick together, froze it and cut it in little rounds and popped it in the oven.

My first time making something I usually follow recipes to a T. Or close to a T. Maybe an S. You get my point. After I've made it according to the recipe and if it's good enough, I'll keep it around and change it up a bit.

Back to the crackers. I slice them thinly, lay them on a baking sheet and put them in for exactly how long the recipe says--22 minutes.

It was like burnt pepper shortbread.

Bad

Really.

When Matt came home and tried them he had a first.



He spit them out.



Ouch.



Then it was funny.



But still...




And that sums up my experiment of making crackers at home.



Anyone got any better recipes?

Penny Pinching Palmers and Recently Rotund Roy Boy

Hello all you lovely people!

We are back in Seattle after one last trip down to ole' Tustin to see the Curran house one more time. Thanks to all of you who showed up for the potluck birthday--it was a hoot! And special thanks to my wonderful hubby for manning the grill all weekend!

I have to say it may have been my best birthday weekend ever--friends, family, games, Knott's berry farm, small town parade and fireworks, BBQ, old home movies, and two amazing cakes done by my Aunt Wendy and Amanda! Definitely the icing on the weekend...

*insert ba-dum-dum drums here*

Matt's parents took good care of our Roy Boy, admitting they only gave him a "few" table scraps and he only jumped out of the car window in a parking lot once. Jokes aside, Roy was very attached to them by the time they left and keeps looking around for them. It's good to keep him moving around like that because he needs to walk off a few extra pounds he seems to have mysteriously put on...

Tonight the all-amazing-wanderlust Ammah rides into town. In case you haven't heard, she's been traipsing all over the country by herself and having the time of her life. From Prescott Valley she shot north to Moab, then over to Colorado where "she wanted to wade in the river but it had whitecaps so she thought that might not be the smartest thing to do." Good thinking, Ammah, especially since you don't swim and were by yourself!

From Colorado she headed north and spent her 4th of July weekend at Mount Rushmore. Somehow she seemed to think that this quaint town of 310 people located at the base of our most beloved Presidents would stay quaint for the holiday weekend celebrating our national freedom.

Not so much.

Thirty-THOUSAND people flocked there, including but not limited to a Harley-Davidson convention, international tourists and all sorts of interesting people Ammah has a knack for running into. And her hotel put her in the handicap room which did NOT go over well with her!

She was thankful to get out of the town and was headed to a Dude Ranch in Billings, Montana. She arrived to discover it was the Dude Ranch Lodge, located downtown. She flatly said to me over the phone, "There are NO horses. No cows. Nothin'." Then her voice got high and happy as she said, "But I did see a dude and that made things better!"

Now she's blazing a trail in her car named Lunar towards Seattle, gearing up to fix us chicken-fried steak, okra and who knows what else!

 You gotta love Ammah.

Our big news we decided last week was we're going to try to challenge ourselves to not spend more than $250 for the rest of the month on food, gas and entertainment. I got the idea from a site called Small Notebook, and they do it every year. 

It's called the No Spend Month, but its more like the Spend Less Three Weeks for us. Hopefully it will make us more appreciative of what we do own and resourceful with what we have. We'll be getting creative with how to keep guests entertained and fed, but we're actually really looking forward to this challenge! (ask me in three weeks...) There's a can of an interesting looking Asian sauce that has been sitting in our cupboard for 6 months that I've been afraid to test...guess the time is now!

This is our first jumpstart to Dave Ramsey's Baby Steps. And good news--I'll be getting my first Google check this month! WOo hoo!!! I'm trying my best to think of more topics to write about so if you have any ideas let me know!

And here's a link to the last hub I wrote (can't remember if i sent this or not)http://hubpages.com/hub/Redecorating-Despite-the-Economy

I'd add pictures but sadly I left my camera in Orange County so I'm waitin' for Mama to ship it back after their house finishes getting tented.

That's all my exciting news for now. Stay posted for the adventures of the Penny-Pinching Palmers and the Recently Rotund Roy Boy!

Martin Luther and Roy

So it turns out my dog is something of a theologian.

For those of you who don't know, Martin Luther arranged the books of the Bible as we know them today. He didn't however, particularly care for the books of Jude or Revelation...so he put them alllllll the way at the very end.

Roy, on the other hand, decided to do away with them completely.

At least in my translation, which could now be aptly called The New King Roy Edition.

As Martin Luther said, "Be a sinner and sin boldly."

Roy apparently agrees.

until I yelled at him...then I got this face.

No grace for you tonight, Roy.

Are you sick of posts about my dog yet???

The Perfect Painting Partner

Because I'm never get sick of taking pictures of the Roy Boy, here is a little photo essay of him as my painting helper this past weekend.

Here's what the perfect painting partner does:

He helps you set up

Tells you when you've missed a spot

Gets dirty with you

(doesn't he look guilty?)

Spots you when you're up high

Double checks your work

Lets you know when it's time for a break...

...and takes it with you.

Offers moral support

And helps you clean up (by shredding everything)

My Dog the Bulldozer

Yesterday i took Roy to the dog park. You haven't met him yet, but he's 90 lbs of ENERGY and LOVES to run!

He decides to do his "business" WAY the heck across the dog park, so I get up and start walking over to clean it up. There are about 5 benches all facing towards this big circle of dirt and woodchips in the center of the park, and I have to walk through it to get to the other side. Now, it's not like I'm inconspicuous--I'm wearing a BRIGHT chartreuse shirt.

Anyways, right as I'm in the center, with about 15 people on the benches all facing me, Roy sees me coming and gets all excited. He circles behind me and I'm not really paying attention to him, when he comes up behind me and TAKES OUT MY LEGS.

BULLDOZES me.

My feet and legs go FLYING in the air and I come down HARD on my butt making this huge cloud of dust.

Then I hear a collective "oooohhhhh" from the group of people.

Now I thought it was funny, and it Matt or someone was there we would have been in stitches but I was by myself trying not to laugh and look cool and brush off the MASSIVE amounts of dirt covering me! Roy by this time was on the other side of the park oblivious to what he had done! At home when he's playing he'll come and brush up against my legs--almost like a cat. I think he was trying to do that but at FULL SPEED. Hence the bulldozing effect.

And my now sore butt.

The end.

Plates, Bubbles and Storms

Two in one week?

I know, you lucky ducks, you.

If you read to the end of the last cup you’ll remember that ticket we got for my tabs being expired.You did read that one right?

(*crickets*) 

Oh, and I forgot to add the picture of Matt and the biggest goblet of beer ever.

Well Monday Matt was off and the licensing place in Ballard was open till 6, so we had a small 30-minute window to get our new plates. Matt got there first and, since it was a bit hard to find and parking was a chore, he stood out on the sidewalk directing my place into the tiny lot and then stood in a spot that emptied and stared down other hopeful parkers until I got there.

This place was definitely not the DMV, I’ll tell ya. We walked right in and were next in line—nice! The man who helped us was a middle aged black man who wore a newsboy hat, a gray button up fleece shirt and a GIANT gold watch. And though he was Seattle born and bred he talked like a Cajun from Louisiana. If you’ve seen Waterboy with Adam Sandler you know what I’m talking about.

“Wellnow wutwegot he’e? Y’all getting’ yur plates?”

“Yes sir,” we answered, and then went on to have a twenty minute conversation with this man about Seattle streets, his despair over the loss of the Sonics who were evidently all good friends of his who came there for all their notary and licensing needs, and the fact that they were one of the few black owned and run businesses in the city so they had to (insert him sitting up straight and spreading his hands out palm down and raising them to his shoulders) keep on top of everything so as not to “get in trouble.”

Twenty minutes later we walked out with our new plates. They’re only one number off—Matt’s car has a six mine has a seven.

“So,” Matt asked me with a grin, “Does this mean I come before you?”

“No, silly,” I replied, “Seven is the number of completion…I complete you.”

He can’t argue with that.

The next day while I was at work I got a call from Matt.

“Hi, um, there’s bubbles coming out of the dishwasher.”

“What soap did you use?”

“The stuff on the counter.”

The stuff on the counter was regular dish soap I had bought the day before and put up there to refill the dispenser. I informed him there’s a slight difference between dish soap and dish detergent. I told him to put towels down and let if finish, then run it again with regular dish detergent.

Twenty minutes later I get another call.

“Um, hi, so it’s still bubbling a lot…and, um, well I figured you’re better equipped to deal with this so I am so I’m just turning it off and I put the towels in the washing machine.”

What a cop out. That had to have been the lamest excuse for not cleaning up something ever. You’re better equipped…my foot. Good thing he’s cute or I’d throttle him.

So anyways I get home, and when I open the door I notice something…odd. First, the basket of laundry is strewn across the dining area. Hmm. Then I distinctly hear Roy jump off the bed in the bedroom. And his head pokes out of the open bedroom door.

Now, maybe you don’t know but we keep Roy in our bedroom while we’re gone. He hasn’t been too destructive, but in case he ever gets a wild hair at least the damage would be contained. So far he’s only eaten the door frame (but that was just his first week while getting used to being in there), a couple of books, numerous boxes of Kleenex, some magazines, a little bit of carpet, and one of my plastic hair clips that unfortunately came back up.

Oh, and a heating pad.

But other than that he’s been pretty good.

So when I saw he had been loose in the house for a number of hours panic struck my heart. I thought of all the books we have in piles around the house, our car paperwork I had left out from the other day, my guitar, the spare room that was a mess of quilting stuff and I dreaded taking another step.

Then I noticed in smack dab middle of the living room a jar of peanut butter. His peanut butter. He has his own jar…he gets the cheap stuff. So I see this jar, lid is gone, and the top is chewed off and the jar is empty down to the bottom inch of peanut butter.Roy was ecstatic to see me, as usual, but I was totally ignoring him as I slowly walked around the house to assess the damage. Luckily, the peanut butter, which he had gotten off the counter and managed to get the lid off, was the only thing he really chewed on. It looks like he may have had fun in the laundry basket, and my previously folded quilt was spread out on the floor in what had obviously become his nest.

But other than that things were relatively undamaged! Good dog! Relieved our house wasn’t shredded, I turned to the dishwasher. I drained the pool of bubbles that was left, added some vinegar to cut through the suds and ran it again, but this time all the way through. It still bubbled, but not nearly as bad as before. The blob did spread over a good portion of the kitchen, and Roy was pretty curious about it.

When I took Roy out, I noticed the poop bag holder was missing from the handle of the leash. Hmmm. Matt told me his story. He had been running with Roy, and running pretty hard when the whole holder-thing broke off its zip tie and flew into some bushes. As Matt retraced his steps trying to find the holder, Roy took the time to take a large, lab-sized dump. Matt couldn’t find the holder anywhere and with no other choice he decided to move on. That was until a little old lady across the street who had been watching him began yelling at him. He tried to explain as she continued yelling and (I’m sure) shaking her fist at him. Finally, he asked if she had any extra bags since she was walking a little terrier. She gave him one, but it was about the size of a sandwich bag. Not so great for labbie poops. Matt somehow managed to get it all without getting anything else dirty. We got more bags the next day. And that is the end of that story.

There’s not much more to tell, other than the other night when I brought in two weeks worth of groceries I had to take Roy with me to get the rest since I know he’d get mad and eat something if I came in and left right away. I was steering the crazy-wheel cart that the complex keeps in the garage with one hand, the trying to control my over-excited/potty anxious dog with the other. As I made my way out of the door into the garage, dragging the stubborn cart behind me as I was being drug by Roy I noticed a woman getting out of her car staring at me with her mouth open.

“Multi-tasking,” I said.

Once everything was in I got hooked into a game of tug-of-war with Roy, and when I decided I wanted the game over I made my way to the shelf where his treat bag was. Reaching in, though, I was watching my dog slowly release his death grip on the fox tail/ball toy and I managed to knock the entire bag of treats out of the bag. Then began the frantic race to pick as many up while Roy frantically raced to eat as many as he could.

I think he won

Today, I watched a storm approaching. I wanted to take a picture of it but realized my camera was in my car so I'll have to describe it for you instead.In the southwest the clouds are a dark gray, but overhead the sky is blue and the sun is shining. I was out, propping up my snow peas and pinching the dead heads off my pansies when I noticed the wind stopped. With the sun shining down it was so warm I wanted to go put a tank top on. But as I sat down to watch the storm coming I realized I'd regret that decision soon. The sky above is undulated, like the bottom of waves when viewed from underwater. Slowly, Vashon Island disappeared into the approaching blue obscurity. Next Bainbridge Island was cloaked by rain as well.

Within a matter of seconds, the temperature dropped so suddenly I had goose bumps even though the patio under my feet was still warm from the sun. The wind began to blow cold and moved the clouds over my head to completely hide the sun, and slowly I began to hear the patter of a soft spring rain. This rain feeds, whereas the winter rain felt like it wanted to ice you over. Now I'm inside wearing a sweater, but still have the windows wide open to let in that fresh rain scent. It’s raining harder now, so hard its making little bubbles on the edge of the balcony. Even West Seattle is clouded now, and I can hardly see the marina that’s only half a mile from our apartment.

I noticed the wind was beginning to blow harder, and blowing rain in through the screen. As I got up to close the sliding door, that overpowering scent of the sea hit me. The good kind, not the nasty bad-ocean scent. No, this was a fresh, salty gale blowing into my house that made me wish I was out on the water right now. I’ll have to content myself with a pot of tea, though. And maybe an episode of The Deadliest Catch.

I guess the only drawback is Matt it out on a run with Roy now…hee hee. Back to the storm. It’s still raining pretty good—I ran out to grab a fresh basil leaf and my back was drenched when I came back in! But we’ve got a cozy fire going, and can see the tail end of the storm—it’s beautiful! I almost washed the windows today…good thing I waited!

and these are flowers from my garden...I was having fun in photoshop. So that's all for today. I would LOVE to hear from any of you...seeing as these little updates take me a couple of hours at least! Let me know how you are, what's new in your life, what's old in your life, anything! If you made it this far--thanks!!!

Love,Kaitlynn