I Spy.....Compost Pile!

If anyone has little kids around, or if you work at a library like I do, you will know what the "I Spy" books are all about. Kids love those books because on each page, you have to find all these items in the picture. Kids can be entertained for hours with I Spy books. Well, I have a little "I Spy" myself in the above picture. This is a picture of our outdoor compost pile. Hey Aunt Krissy....how do you like those colors????? Ok, here's what you need to find:



oranges ~ grapefruits ~ cauliflower ~ broccoli ~ onions ~ tomato ~ egg shells ~ coffee grounds ~ coffee filters ~ green onions

Now in the summer months, all our vegetables waste goes into our compost tumbler. On the other side of the tumbler is a handle that allows you to turn the barrel round and round to mix everything together. This composter is great and makes beautiful dark, rich compost.

And last, but not least, my goofy cat Annabelle. That's her unique position for cleaning her legs!!!!! One of these day's I'm going to use her plume tail for dusting my house! She'll a little rascal I tell ya.

PS. Spent time this afternoon on my bike trainer working on new spinning drills for my classes. I also downloaded a bunch of music from Chris's files, so I should be able to come up with lots of playlists.

Nice Catch Chris!

Wow, way to go Chris! This is a picture of our son who likes to fish late at night. Your looking at a decent Northern (right) and Walleye (left). So what did Chris do with the fish? He cooked them up and had friends over for supper!

I ended my work day with my cycle class tonight. I actually had a husband and wife show up together, so that's a new one for me. Ted was in my class as well tonight, so we all had fun. After class, I did a cycle work-out on the "virtual" bike. Every week our fitness center has a challenge on the virtual bikes. Virtual bikes simulate a real ride using a monitor that shows you the visual bike route...it' really fun. Tonight I rode the Coastal Run, which consisted of riding along the seaside highway. I came in like 4th place, but I was the only woman that did the challenge this week. Ted did the challenge and placed 2nd. I was ready to head home tonight...it's been a long week at work.

My Morning Alarm Clock

This is my alarm clock early in the morning. I use to rely on my real alarm clock to wake me up, but now I have a little furry creature that meows for me to WAKE UP! It's not unusual to feel a paw touching my arm, or maybe a little lick on my hand. If I don't want to wake up early, then I just give kitty a big WHOP! That usually does the trick. Why do our pets always want to wake us up in the morning?

My Old Friend

My Amaryllis at work is finally blooming. There are still two more flowerheads to open, but I think they will open by the weekend. Every winter, I take our Amaryllis to work so my library patrons can watch it bloom. Now this is an old Amaryllis mind you....like 10 years or older. All we do is feed it fertilizer water year round and let it stay outside during the summer months. We also have other Amaryllis at home, but this particular one always ends up at the library where I work. It's kind of like an old friend!

Cookbooks, Cookbooks & More Cookbooks!

Aunt Krissy was talking about her cookbook collection on her blog post tonight, so I decided to show a picture of our cookbook collection. Oops, I forgot about the kitchen shelves, we have cookbooks in the kitchen too....another twenty or so. We love cookbooks. My all-time favorite is the Fannie Farmer cookbook, given to me as a gift from my mother. My mom likes cookbooks too. Krissy is right, church cookbooks have some of the best local recipes, and they are always reasonably priced.

When I got home later tonight, Ted had made a batch of pasties...6 to be exact. If you're not sure what a pasty is, it's a meat and vegetable turnover made from pie dough. Pasties originated from Cornwall, England. The coal miners use to take pasties to work because they were easy to eat. When the Cornishmen migrated to Wisconsin to work in the mines in Southern Wisconsin, their wives brought along the tradition of Cornish pasties. My heritage blood is Cornish!!!

So how does Ted make them, he uses, potatoes, onions, rutabaga, carrots, hamburger and spices. Pasties freeze really well, so most of them go into the freezer for future meals. I make sure I smother my pasties in ketchup!!!

As Julia Child use to say at the end of her cooking show....Bon Appetite!

The Blanket With Sleeves!

The "Cult of the Snuggie" threatens to take over America! That's what I read recently in the USA Today newspaper. When I read the article I couldn't help but laugh out loud because all during the Christmas break when Becca & Chris were home, we continually howled every time the Snuggie commercial came across the TV. Do you know what a Snuggie is? The Snuggie is an over sized fleece blanket with sleeves....they come in different colors too! Jay Leno referred to the Snuggie as "the lard-ass quilt."!!!! Our favorite part of the TV commercial is when they show family members at a sporting event cheering and high-fiving each other while wearing their monk-like garment. It was at that point where Becca usually ended up laughing hysterically!!! The article listed one Snuggie fan-club that has 5,999 members...holy cow. By the end of 2008, 4 million Snuggies have been sold. Hey you can't beat two Snuggies for the price of $19.95, and don't forget, you also get two free book lights.....yeeha! Still don't know what a Snuggie is, take a look for yourself.

Another Sunny Day

Who's that mystery person? Yup, that's me....just out snowshoeing with my camera this afternoon on the lake. Ted was out ice fishing as well. We had a steady 15 mph wind from the west, so the warmer temps today didn't really feel like it did yesterday.

Across the lake I could see these people going round and round on 4-wheelers pulling sleds, so I walk over to the little bay across from our dock and decided to take pictures of the family that was having so much fun.

These boys were really having fun. You can't see it in my pictures, but they also had two dogs that kept chasing after the sled. Another nice day.

Grandma Winnie Update

Ted's sister stopped by today with her mom. They were in route to the Twin Cities. Grandma Winnie seems to be good right now, but awfully quiet. By the end of our visit Grandma was shivering, so not sure why, but our house was actually set at 71 degrees. Winnie now qualifies for Hospices so she has a Home Health Nurse coming in once a week, a Social Worker and a Personal Care worker to give her baths etc. They stayed for about 75 minutes and then had to leave.