What's new?

It's the start of another week. Things are getting so busy, with the girls starting school next week. Yep, next week. Chloe is already registered but we have to pick up a folder at her school tomorrow, and we have an appointment to get Heidi registered tomorrow too. They are both eager to get started, they want to make friends and get lives of their own... lol

Do you LOVE that stained glass???? My BF Brenda made it for us as a wedding gift. Here it is, hanging in our dining room window. That is at the front of the house, the middle window and you can see it as you walk up the sidewalk. How happy!

She made me a mirror too, but I haven't hung it yet. We have hung very few things so far.

Let's see, what is new since last week? Oh, apparently the sharing of the laptop wasn't going so well, as Rich bought me a new iMac with a HUGE screen. I do love it, I must say! It has a lot of cool features. I don't know how to do everything on it yet, I haven't used a Mac in over twenty years... but it is all good!

My sewing furniture came in and so I have pinned my "Fun With 5" Squares" table topper that I made in Nellie Holmes' class last spring, it is ready to quilt. And I have cut out a bunch of postcard-sized pieces of Peltex. I can't find Fast2Fuse around here for love nor money. So Peltex and Wonder Under it is. It is lovely to have a space that I can leave the stuff out and go back to anytime I want. I will post a photo soon.

We went to see the movie "Mamma Mia" yesterday. My BF Brenda took me to see the play for my birthday back in 2004 in TO, and I loved it immensely. It was awesome. When the movie started, I thought I would hate it, it was sort of campy- but it was spoofy and goofy and I had fun watching it. And I kept thinking, Rich must REALLY love me to sit through this- he took me as a surprise, knowing I am an ABBA fan. He is not an ABBA fan, though he admits he really isn't familiar with their stuff. He will be... lol

I spent time at the dentist last week... not fun and not looking forward to going back, but it must be done. Yuck!

We are having company today and I have baked bread and made homemade ice cream. I don't want to do much else right now or I just know I will spill something on myself! Our first guests!

A little catch up

Hello again,

Hope everyone had as nice a weekend as I did... of course having Rich home for a three day weekend spoils me...

We went on a spectacular bike ride Sunday night, just the two of us. It was sort of spur-of-the-moment and so I didn't have a camera with me, but we are going back there for sure! I am including a photo from another site to give you an idea of the view as you ride there... it was 12.4 miles all told (about 19 km!) and it was hard but exhilarating! We saw some bighorn sheep up on the mountain on our way to the dam and some deer (even a little spotted fawn!) on the way back down. Awesome!

Here, finally, is the photo we had taken at the Renaissance Festival. Slowly but surely we are getting all of this technology to work! LOL

Very cool delivery

I have to tell you what was waiting on my front porch yesterday morning: our milk delivery!

A number of our neighbors get milk delivery and we were curious. The dairy will bring you a half gallon of milk to sample, so we had them bring us one. We all thought it was fresh and yummy, so we are giving it a try!

Our standing order is for a couple gallons of milk, a couple of pounds of butter, some half & half, and a dozen eggs. We will see how that works out.

All of these products are from local farmers and are guaranteed to be at your door less than 48 hours after the cow is milked! Many of us are now buying organic products whenever we can, and so this is very appealing. The products are not organic, but the cows are grass-fed and not given routine antibiotics, everything is natural.

We are very excited! Fresh dairy products delivered to your door each week. I feel like I have stepped back in time...

Oh- as an afterthought, I realized that I didn't post a photo of my new glasses... it has been interesting getting used to them- they are set up for long distance, computer work, and reading. Rich laughs at me because I am still adjusting a little... lol

All the kids are planning to sleep in this morning so it is off to wash floors for me!

Feel the burn!

And not in a good way, either.

Well, yesterday was a true food adventure, and not anything like I was expecting.

The girls and I did the grocery shopping to make the dinner I had planned and were back mid-morning.

I started on the corn ice cream and the cheesecake right away, and got those things done. By the way, the corn ice cream was very unusual but good. It made a LOT!

Then I thought I would finish the dinner prep before I did my vacuuming and such. So I chopped veggies for the tacos and cleaned out 24 jalapeno peppers to make the poppers. I have never bought or eaten jalapeno peppers, but I didn't think they were that hot. I was so wrong.

As I was cleaning up, I made the mistake of touching my mouth and HOLY COW! It burned so bad all of a sudden I saw stars. I remembered that drinking milk was supposed to help and it did after a bit. Thankfully I was wearing my glasses and didn't touch my eyes. My nose was burning too, and it did for a good couple of hours.

You would think that was the end of it, but you would be wrong. My hands started burning- intensely- about an hour after I finished cleaning the peppers, around 1:30 or so. I looked up help on the internet. I tried milk, I tried peanut butter, I tried soap meant for removing grease, and all of it only gave me temporary relief. I took some Advil and that did take the edge off.

But when it came time to cook the meat for the tacos, I couldn't stand the heat of the pan, it made my hands burn so badly I couldn't hold on to the wooden spoon. Zach finished cooking it for me. By dinnertime, the pain was making me so antsy I couldn't sit still.

I obviously don't know much about peppers, but I am wondering if they weren't mixed up in the grocery store with something else, because some of them were edible and very tasty, and some were so hot that not even Rich or Zach could eat them. And that is saying something!

The pain continued right into the evening. I took more Advil and it did help a bit. Believe it or not, my hands still hurt this morning, though nothing like yesterday thank goodness. They still burn when I am near heat (like the toaster, coffee maker or hot water) and when I bend my fingers. That capsaicin is powerful stuff, I would say my skin actually was burned by it.

IF and that is a big IF, I ever work with any kind of peppers again, I will make sure to use gloves. I would have done that yesterday had I known that those peppers were that hot! Well, live and learn as they always say... lol

On a good note, the cheesecake was yummy and as I mentioned, the corn ice cream was interesting. I really like the ice cream maker we have and will be making use of it again soon.

A bit of this and a bit of that

Another beautiful morning in Colorado. It has finally cooled down some, though we are supposed to get really hot again today. I love the mornings!

I have posted some new photos in a couple of my Webshots albums, the "wonderful things about" album, and the "summer of 2008" album. I figure posting online albums is better than clogging up inboxes- plus then you can look at as few or as many photos as you like.

I tried my hand at hedge-trimming yesterday and though it wasn't perfect, I think with some practice, I could be alright at it.

I went to a quilt store yesterday and it felt good to be back in one! It is smaller than Taylors and though they have a nice selection of fabric, there isn't much in the way of notions or threads. We went to Denver Fabrics on the weekend and it is HUGE! I can get anything I need there, but it doesn't have that homey quilt shop feel to it.

There is a Shop Hop here the first weekend of August and nine stores are participating. I am tempted to go- they have a bus for the Friday and Saturday for $80, which includes lunch and the driver tip. It would save me fretting about getting lost around here. (Even though I have GPS, I still seem to get turned around sometimes... lol) I don't know- two days and nine stores... you can only see one block of the quilt in each store ahead of time, they won't hang the quilt until the day of the Shop Hop. The block I saw WAS cute, a kitty cat with a ball of yarn...hmmmm. Decisions, decisions!

Today after my housework is done, I am going to the supermarket for some items I need for dinner. Rich got me a subscription to Gourmet magazine and we keep finding recipes we want to try. On the menu for tonight:
Tacos
homemade Jalapeno poppers
Cheesecake with minted Blackberries
Corn ice cream

I know. Corn ice cream. After you get past the intitial "ewwww" factor, there is something intriguing about it. Since there is an ice cream maker here, we are going to give it a whirl! Literally! lol

Here is a recent photo of Rich and I, taken last week when he took me out to Frasca for their Monday tasting menu. That place is mouth-wateringly yummy! I dream about their food!

Time to clean!