Monday, November 19, 2012

My Knight with a Shining Cell Phone!

So the car I was driving a, 05 Saturn Vue, was starting to burn oil, which J said basically means the engine is on a short-term life span.  Something about the pistons and leaking and not creating suction...or something, my eyes starting glazing over the minute I heard pistons.  I'm just not the engine person, but thankfully the hubs is, so I took his word for it.  Went out shopping for a new ride, really not knowing what I was looking for--but definitely wanted another stick-shift.  They are fun to drive and I'm so used to driving them that whenever I drive an automatic, I usually end up shifting the brake and sending the sales guy into the dash (that actually happened!  LOL).  So I stopped by Midwest Kia to look at a non-Kia vehicle, and the sales guy asked if I had looked at the Kia Soul.  Ummmm nooo.  Don't really think I could pull off the hamster-mobile.  But what the heck and I sat in it.  Bam!  Its so spacious on the inside, plenty of legroom, plenty of head space, good view of the road, and a 6-speed!  Bam!  Lets see what this baby can do on the road.  What can I say it was love at first shift  :-)  They let me take it home so J could see it (I was afraid his tall, lanky frame wouldn't fit), but he liked it too! 

Here's where I could hear my knight in shining armour galloping in the distance.  They will call you, don't call them, he said.  OK...so I waited, just like a girl after a first date.  And what do you know they called me back!  Now it was time for my knight to wheel and deal the deal.  Schwoo!  Did the hubs talk to those sales people, sales managers, finance gurus, etc.  He laid the schmack down--over the phone!  I can't even imagine if we had been there in person. 

If it had been 1712 instead of 2012, it would have been a soldier fighting to protect a castle or something.  In 2012, it meant negotiating a trade-in value double the Kelly Blue Book!  Can I say I love my husband!?!?! 

It was one of those moments, when I really felt like part of a team.  I know we're married, but just that fighting the outsiders together was really amazing.  Don't mess with team L-P we will smack you down! and get a killer deal on a brand-new car!  My first brand-new vehicle!  And I LOVE it!  And I LOVE Team L-P  we rock it out  :-)

My new Kia Soul--the chickens wanted in the picture too  :-)

Friday, November 16, 2012

Life With 2 Mini-Donkeys

We got a girl mini-donkey!  Her name is Charlotte and she is so cute!  She is 5 years old, so she can be bred and humans up to 60 pounds can ride her. 


Lucky is in the background...giving me and Charlotte the evil-eye


Life with 2 mini-donkeys is different than life with 1 mini-donkey however.  Lucky's possessive personality really came out!  We put Charlotte in the pen with Lucky and it went something like this:

Lucky:  Hey there!  A friend, let's go play!

Charlotte:  Umm...I don't know you, and I miss my old friends

Lucky:  We can play tag!  *bump* you're it, ready lets go!

Charlotte:  Umm...I'm not playing with you and I think you're weird

Lucky:  But its time to play come on!

Charlotte:  I just want to be left alone *sigh*

This little situation went on for quite a while-and it was so cute!  Charlotte was not having any of Lucky's little antics and Lucky was so excited to have a friend he was all bouncing around.  Well at least bouncing around until he discovered that my attention was going to be split between the 2 of them.  After the incident where his little ass got tied to a post for 30 minutes for bad behavior, he has been quite the good little man.  Very confident too...of course that could be because I tell him he's a handsome little man and a fine looking mini-donkey (which he is). 

The first time I took both of them on their separate walks Lucky went crazy (and still does).  He did a good job when I walked him, but then when he realized that I was going to walk Charlotte too...his little face turned pea green with jealousy.  I take Charlotte out of the pen and he starts running around the pen, braying, acting like a toddler having a temper tantrum.   Then when I bring her back, he butts in and stands right next to me giving Charlotte this "this is MY momma" look.  It was pretty funny. 

He is quite the attention whore and will bray if he sees me come home and not come see him, or brays when I walk the dog, or brays when I pet the horse.  If he was a human, he'd be one of those cocky guys I don't like, but since he's my little donkey its adorable  :-)  Charlotte's personality really hasn't come out yet, she seems very reticent and quiet, but I think she just misses her friends from her old farm. 

Lucky would really go apesh*t if he found out my real little man was a 4 1/2 pound Chihuahua--LOL.  Oh well, what he doesn't know won't hurt him  :-)



Aren't they cute?!?!?!

 



Of course, once Lucky realized pictures were going on, he had to have one by himself  :-)

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Cooking Show Host? Please, I Would Get Fired!

So the other day at work, the cook and I were talking about food and cooking, and he was astonished by some of my bad cooking habits..to which I replied, yeah I probably shouldn't teach anyone to cook or have a cooking show.  Here are some of my bad habits:

-I don't preheat the oven--or at least wait for it to give the sounder.  I turn it on and when I'm ready to put something in, I just put it in.

-I don't use a timer  (I don't even know how to set the one on my fancy stove or microwave)

-I don't level off flour and sugar in the measuring cup--just give a good shake and eyeball it

-I don't really follow recipes (ok there's no don't really...I just don't)  they're really more like guidelines; and if I feel some other ingredient should be added, I just do it

-I do random substitutions if I don't have something on hand...example I use the same basic recipe for zucchini, carrot, carrot apple, apple peach, whatever bread...works like a champ!

And the biggest reason I could not have a cooking show...no one really wants to watch me cook.  Most people would run for their lives thinking I was a mad scientist instead of preparing a nutritious meal for human consumption. 

However, like I told the cook at work, in my entire cooking career I've only had 2 or 3 items that were bad.  Hmmm...maybe I am a mad scientist....





Thursday, November 8, 2012

Apple Magic Bars

So I have some apples to use...and then my mind started going about how to use them and other things that tasted good...here's what the outcome was.  Let me tell you they are a little piece of Heaven for your mouth!  Yum!

You need:

1 oatmeal chocolate chip mix
1/2 cup shortening
1 egg
dash of salt
2 apples diced
butterscotch chips
chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter

Mix the mix, shortening, egg, and dash of salt together.  Press into a 8x8 pan. 
Dice the apples and press them into the cookie mixture.
Sprinkle the butterscotch and chocolate chips over the top.
Melt the peanut butter and drizzle over the top.

Bake at 350 for 15-25 minutes.  Yummo!

Sunday, November 4, 2012

How Do You Exercise Your Cows?

So yesterday I was on a roll, I had the whole afternoon planned out.  Peeled potatoes, ran outside started the horse tank water, came back up to the house, put the potatoes on the stove to start boiling,  head back outside to gather Lucky up from the backyard and take him back to his pen and finish chores and dinner simultaneously by 6:00.  Fat Chance says Karma!  Its when all hell breaks loose and once again, Barnam and Bailey circus visited the farm.

*I must preface by saying it was my fault what started this chain reaction of events...what happened afterwards was God wanting a good laugh (or something like that).

So I get in the backyard with Lucky and he is in no mood to be taken out of the backyard.  Normally, he just saunters up to me and we head out.  I open the gate and normally leave it open because he just comes to me and we mosey out together.  Well here he starts his little run and as I'm chasing him, he runs clean out of the gate.  And if you've never seen a uppity mini-donkey run...its maddeningly funny.  They prance with their nose up in the air...like Pinocchio if he lived at a mansion and had lots of money.  Ugh!  He has never been free so he is prancing all around the corrals and making circles around and around and around again.  I'm home alone, so besides just flat outrunning him this could continue for quite some time.  I try and catch him, get sweet feed to entice him...oh no, he wasn't having any of it.  Around and around we go, just like some maniacal carousel..until he makes a breakaway for the alley leading to the pasture.  Haha---gotcha little man...where ya gonna go now?  Haha gotcha you Momma--watch me sneak through this fencing and the barbed wire fencing behind it!  Ahhh!  The cows go apeshit!  They have no idea what this little man is doing in their pasture so they start chasing him.  The cows are running and creating such a dust bowl that Scooter (the horse) gets freaked out in his pen and starts bucking and farting everywhere; the 2 bulls in their pen see a bunch of cows running and start their own little dust bowl; and the chickens that were pecking in the field fly off in a tizzy seeing all the commotion; and I realize I still have a pot of boiling potatoes on the stove.  What is my life?  LOL.  The cows keep running Lucky around and around the pasture, back and forth they go.  I try to call Lucky, but he is so freaked out, he keeps running and the cows keep running.  I give up...and I have potatoes that are probably already mashed by now. 

Its like the running of the bulls in Spain...only the bulls are cows and the runner is a mini-donkey. 


I call J and he laughs at the incredulity of what is going on and says he'll be home soon.  He gets home, and soon discovers just how whiley a little donkey can be.  But in the end we get him and I have a little "come to Jesus" moment with him and tie his ass to a post for 30 minutes.  Some little 150 pound hairy critter is not going to get the best of me!