Wine Down

Laura and I went to the YWCA Wine Down fundraiser tonight. We enjoyed wine tastings from several NC wineries, a nice dinner at Blue Water Grille, and then "corrected" coffee at the Blue Water bar with friends. It was a great girls night out--especially for a Thursday!

Mobile Squeals!

Today was a Mobile Meals delivery day.  Despite the heat and humidity, it was going pretty well until we got to the next to the last house on my route.  Keep in mind, this old woman "claims" she doesn't see well, and her old little dog (Sassy) tends to run out the door.  Therefore, she barely cracks the door and I pass the food to her through the small opening.
Sassy was doing her usual "on your mark, get ready" tap dancing (aka excited toenails against hardwood floors) so as the woman opened the door a little bit, I held my foot up to block the inevitable Sassy dart.
But Sassy didn't dart.
And to be INCREDIBLY tiny and slow, that little old woman had impressive speed as she snapped her cane and cracked me across the top of my foot!  I squealed and then she screamed.  The look on her face was priceless!  She saw my foot and thought it was the dog darting out and whacked it!
Luckily, the top of my sandal took the blunt of the blow-- but geez,  quick draw McGraw there had some serious cane speed!

Rosemary Baby!

Will's neighbor has quite an impressive lot of rosemary growing beside her house.  I *LOVE* cooking with rosemary, so this weekend, Will got me a chunk of it.
Will donned his hideous, red Ronald McDonald gardening shoes and he and Spencer created a flower bed area and then planted it for me.
I have already found four, new rosemary recipes...AND...decided to make the rest of that flower bed into an herb garden.  Next up---chives!

Time for a change?

Tonight, I played with some virtual makeover software to get some ideas about hairstyles and makeup.  Ironically, it only told me what looked terrible on me and not what looked better.  For example--I can never go blond and I can never wear my hair straight! And I can't rock the Cher wig without looking like a tranny...

Sunday Driver

Dee, Mom and I spent Sunday road-tripping to Chapel Hill and Raleigh to shop at some of our favorite stores. We had a great time and although we spent more than we intended, we came home with the car full of packages, make up and skin care items that smell divine, new clothes, shoes, toys for the kids, and the cooler full of perishables safely making their way to our kitchens. We spent over 2 hours just in A Southern Season (affectionately called ASS).  They had a killer sale and now my kitchen is stocked up with gourmet goodies, cakes, breads, treats, wines, dips, cheeses and sauces!  Now would be a great time to drop by for a visit...

So ugly she's cute?

Will's little chi-weenie, Lacie, is so different from Bowser.
Bowser is ALWAYS ready to play and love...Lacie is temperamental and likes her nap time.
Never and I mean NEVER bother her when she has retired to her crate for a nap!
Bowser routinely offers you his big, meaty paw...Lacie is more of a face licker. Consider this your only warning because her tongue has considerable reach.
Bowser will lay anywhere....Lacie likes to build forts out of the pillows on the sofa or burrow down in covers.
This past weekend, Lacie needed some "alone time" away from Bowser...and possibly Spencer...and I found her burrowed in my fresh sheets!!!

Is my gastric distress deficiency showing?

"Ewwww!!  This is so gross!!!  Taste it!!"  ---Spencer
"Ugh. I am going to puke.  You want the rest? " --- Jimmy
"This popcorn is making me sick!  You want some?"--- Dee
"I have some nasty K-cup flavors to give you." ---Lesley

This seems to happen way too often to be a coincidence!!
:sigh:

No Fireworks, but a Nice Weekend

I hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend!  We did the normal family stuff like make red, white and blue sprinkled cupcakes, played board games, went for ice cream at Mama Laura's, and had steaks on the grill:

July 4th weekend is always low-key for me.  I don't like crowds or fireworks, so it is a holiday of relaxation. But don't worry, Spencer still gets to swim in blistering heat, fight crowds and traffic and then swat mosquitoes in muggy, humid weather while ooohing and awwwwing over colorful, loud lights....only he goes with other family members, not his mommy ;-)

Will and I stayed home, in the AC, sipping Prosecco, munching on hummus and chips and watching funny movies.  Celebrating our nation's Independence felt wonderful...and a comfortable 70 degrees.

Since my weekend was dedicated to relaxing, I don't have much to blog about this week.  Here are a couple of my favorite cartoons until I think about something else to write about....

Hello July, let me welcome you with a dose of crazy...

Check out this little punk:

For the greater part of the afternoon, this little bird sat on the window sill at my home office and chirped and sang so loudly that I had to mute my conference line.  At first I thought it was cute...but look at him.  He has a mafia look and attitude..and his tweets were loud and obnoxious.  He strutted back and forth along the window, scowling,  like I owed him money or something.....

It was difficult to choose a picture from the evening Will proposed because the ones that seemed to tell the "story" the best weren't exactly the most photogenic; however, I narrowed it down to two and I am trying them out in a frame in the living room to see which one gives me a warm fuzzy when I look at it.  So far, they both do.  That's good news.

I'm enjoying the color changing properties of the Alexandrite in my engagement ring.  It goes from the beautiful greenish blue (like the Caribbean waters) to deep purple, red, raspberry, confederate blue, emerald green, bright blue...I jokingly say it is like having a mood ring.

I wanted to show Will pictures of all the color changes, especially in incandescent light, so I took some photos in variable light sources. I used candlelight in a dark room and no flash and captured the purple; however, the stone appeared to show something else as well...

Check out the purple on the top left and the blue on the bottom right--can you see it?

Look at the bottom right again enhanced:

Do you see the upper torso of a man?  hands on his hips...I swear it looks like Will.  Freaky?  yeah...but I like it ☺