It seemed extra dark when we got up this morning. Once the curtains were opened we found out why - a dense heavy fog lay like a blanket. It was so pretty that I had to take a few photos off our deck and front porch.
Friday, April 5, 2013
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Go Get His Mommy!!
I watched something this last weekend that absolutely amazed
me.
Himself and I were treated to an afternoon having the babies
all to ourselves. Good times to be had!
Our lunch stop was at Chic-Fil-A both for the food and for
the indoor play area. Himself retreated
to the car to listen to talk radio rather than the shrieks of about 10 playing
kiddos. Too bad because he missed it…
After a bit the lunch rush thinned and there were 5 kids in
the play area; Little Bird (3.5 yrs old) and Little Hoss (2.5 yrs old), a boy
who was about 4, and two brothers… little Colton who was about 18 months and
Big Brother who was about 7 and charged with watching his baby brother. The 4 yr old’s mother and I were sitting
inside the play area on a bench and the mom of the brothers was just outside the glass
door at their table (she could see into the play area).
Wee Colton had climbed up the play areas stairway and at the
top he came down with a bad case of “height fright”.
At the sound of his whimpers, he was immediately surrounded
by Little Bird, the 4 yr old (in the orange shirt), and Big Bro (right behind
Colton). Little Bird and Big Bro immediately
started discussing the problem and trying to get Colton back down the stairs,
while the 4 year old lent moral support.
It was so interesting watching them (and Colton wasn’t in any real
distress) that the other mother and I sat and watched to see what they would
do.
The three tried to coax him down but he wasn’t going
ANYWHERE.
The whimpers started to get louder.
As Little Bird wrapped her arms around him (which actually
calmed him), she asked “Where’s his Mommy?!
He needs his Mommy!!”
Big Bro told her that he was his brother.
She told him “Go get his Mommy!”
Big Bro said that their Mom told him not to leave him, so he
had to stay there with him.
Little Bird just repeated – “Go get his Mommy!”
You could see that Big Bro was torn. He finally told Little Bird to stay with
Colton while he went for Mommy. Little
Bird said she would. (The kids seemed
totally oblivious to the fact there were two adults sitting five feet
away). Big Bro took a couple steps then
turned and once again told Bird to stay with his brother and again she said she
would.
Then as Big Bro went farther down the steps, he again
stopped when his face was level with the step little Colton was parked at, and
told Bird yet AGAIN not to leave his brother.
She’d had it with him!
She whipped around to face him and said, “I Said I STAY!!! Thpfffffftttt!!” as she raspberried him in
her frustration. Big Bro didn’t say
another word as he retreated down the stairs to get ol’ Mom (but boy were his
eyes big!).
Folks, I about choked trying not to laugh out loud!
Little Bird sat there with her arms around Colton until his
Mommy showed up. I quickly explained
what was going on. Ended up she had to
go in after him, as he still wouldn’t come down with his brother even with Mommy in the room.
It was absolutely fascinating watching those children come
together and work out how to solve the problem.
And it amazed me how sure of herself Little Bird was.
Wow.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Pinterest Inspired: Oven Hard-Boiled Eggs
If you’re on Pinterest, you’ve probably seen this pin…
…”hard boiling” eggs in the oven.
Himself even saw it somewhere so we decided to give it a
try.
We put the eggs in a cupcake tin and baked as instructed for
30 minutes.
Cooled them in the ice water too. The shells now had several brown spots on
them. You can kind of see one on the
bottom right of the largest egg.
And…
…YUCK!
First, they definitely did NOT peel easier.
Second, those brown spots on the shell were
also on the egg whites.
Third, they did
not seem to be evenly cooked.
And
finally, neither one of us liked the texture.
While some bloggers have said it worked for them, it was a
definite FAIL for us.
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Friday, March 29, 2013
Artful Reader’s Club Review: “My Wild Kingdom”
“My Wild Kingdom” by Marlin Perkins
This autobiography is an interesting insight to the man that
most know for his television program “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom”. He was also the director of the Lincoln Park
Zoo in Chicago from 1944 until 1962, when he became the director of the St.
Louis Zoo until his retirement in 1970 (tho he stayed on there as Director
Emeritus until his death in 1986).
Besides being an autobiography of the man himself, it is an
interesting insight into the practices of early zoo keeping. The ideas of ‘conservation’ in the 30s, 40s,
and even 50s are a far, far cry from what we now know.
Written in first-person narrative, you feel as tho you are
sitting in his office listening to him tell you about his fascinating
life. His folksy yet formal style of
storytelling is just like you heard him speak on “Wild Kingdom”.
It’s a fun nostalgic read for those of us who are “baby
boomers”.
However, I chose this book for my March review for a very
personal reason.
I knew Marlin Perkins.
Oh not in a ‘go over for dinner’ kind of way (don’t I wish!) but
nevertheless, in a sweet way that typified the man.
I was ‘that kid’ who read every book I could get my hands on
that was about animals. Seriously…I read
the entries in the World Book encyclopedia.
Growing up near St. Louis meant we made a lot of trips to the zoo.
Being Mr. Perkins was a very hands on type of zoo directors,
one would see him walking about the zoo grounds, often with distinguished guest
but also sometime by himself. One of
those times he was by himself I spotted him.
Being the 5 or 6 year old animal lover I was, of course “Wild Kingdom”
was one of my favorite shows and he was my hero. I was SO excited to see him. My parents encouraged me to go tell him “hello”
but I lost my nerve about 10 feet from him.
When he noticed this little kid gazing at him, he smiled and motioned me
to come closer. I’m not sure how our
conversation started, but at some point I told him I knew EVERY animal in the
zoo. So he asked me about the critter in
front of us.
“That’s easy! That’s
a Bactrian Camel!”
Then I proceeded to tell him everything I knew about that
camel. After spending a few minutes with
him, my folks gave me “the signal” that meant it was time to leave Mr. Perkins
alone and come back over to them. As I
skipped off (on air!), he told me he looked forward to seeing me again
sometime.
Several years later (I was about 11 this time), his wife
Carol was speaking in my little town as a fund raiser for her new wolf sanctuary. My parents were going out for the evening but
they arranged for my sitter to take me to her lecture. Mrs. Perkins spoke about a recent trip to
Australia and at one point in the slide show she asked the audience if anyone
know what animal she had on the screen.
No hands went up. I leaned over
to my sitter and whispered “It’s a dingo.”
And the sitter raised her hand and made me tell what it
was. Mrs. Perkins looked at me for a
moment and asked if I would come down and talk to her for a moment when the
program was over.
When we walked down to her later, she smiled and said “Teri?”
I nodded ‘yes’.
Her smile grew broader as she said, “So you're the one. Marlin wondered if you’d
be here tonight.”
I tell you, I could have just burst with happiness! (And my sitter about fell over with shock at
me being ‘known’ by a famous person.)
That ‘friendship’ lasted until I married and moved
away. Every time I went to the zoo, I
was looking for a very particular grey head in the crowd. The times I saw him, we would exchange greetings and small talk;
usually about something to do with the zoo but sometimes I’d tell him something
about me too.
Marlin Perkins passed away in ’86 and it was a sad time for
me.
Many years later in 2005 while on a road trip, Himself and I
passed thru his home town of Carthage, MO and visited a memorial to him.
And more years later I took Little Bird to see his statue at
the Marlin Perkins Plaza at the St. Louis Zoo.
I am so looking forward to showing her and Little Hoss the zoo, and
teaching them all about the creatures who live there.
And telling them about a sweet man named Marlin, who loved
the animals too.
For my art piece, I digitally altered photographs I took while in Kenya. I used the "neon" and "HDR" aps to get this look, then put them together using the 'collage' feature. The animals pictured are:
Top row: Impala, Giraffe, Zebra
Middle row: Cape Buffalo, Elephant, Wildebeest
Bottom row: Leopard, Rhino, Lion
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
DIY: Fix A Sticking Rotating Corner Cabinet
Do you have one of these cabinets that stick when you open
it?
We did, and I had no idea what to do about it. It was that way when we moved in. There were even groves being cut into the
bottom of the door! Since this was the
first corner cabinet I’d ever had, I thought we were stuck with the sticking. It still ‘worked’ so we lived with it.
However, in the last few months it had gotten way
worse. To the point that it was becoming
difficult to open and close to door. I’d
finally had enough.
I took the cabinet door off to get a good look at the
problem. The bottom had a gouge on both
sides from the screws that hold bracket that holds the center post. I’m not talking a little gouge either. These babies were about a 1/4 inch deep! The edges were all torn up too.
So I bundled up against the cold windy day so I could sand
it down on the front porch. (The last
thing I wanted was to have to clean up all that dust inside!) I worked on it until the bottom looked good
again. (Himself SNEAKED this picture
from the corner of the house!)
In putting the door back together, Himself discovered this:
…a height adjusting mechanism at the bottom of the
pole. After loosening the finger bolt on
the left, you spin that middle textured area.
It adjusts the pole length very much like a shower rod. Once you have it where it needs to be, you
tighten the finger bolt back up. (I’d
suggest given it an extra tug with some vice grips. Over the years it had loosened and that was
the cause of the problem.)
Now our door swings freely and easily.
Monday, March 25, 2013
Steak with Amaretto Mushroom Recipe
Here’s one of my favorite ‘perk ups’ for a plain steak and
mushrooms.
While the steak is grilling/broiling, sauté up a pan full of
your favorite mushrooms in butter. Right
now I’m on a button, baby bello, and shitake mix kick – tho for this cooking,
all I had were white buttons. (This is why I decided to make this recipe!)
Once the mushrooms are almost done, transfer them to a
plate. Then add a little flour to the
pan and make a nice roux. Then use cream
or sour cream to make a sauce a bit thicker than you want the finished product. For this you want a thin sauce. If you use the sour cream, be careful it
doesn’t get thick like gravy.
Once your sauce has thickened, start adding the amaretto. If it thins out too much, just cook it back
down while stirring constantly.
Add your mushrooms back to the sauce and let them heat back
up.
Serve over the top of your steak.
(Himself doesn’t care for this recipe as the Amaretto gives
the sauce a slightly sweet taste.)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)