Thursday, October 30, 2008

RJ's first Jack-O-Lantern












Friday Skywatch

We don't have a whole lot of Fall color here in Florida. Sunsets and and blue skies over the pines is about as colorful as it gets, Fall-wise.




We do have an abundance of wild flowers that bloom during all seasons. It's kind of like having Spring all year 'round, but I sure do enjoy the cool weather when it comes :)

Happy Skywatch, have a great weekend!

Click on the post title above for more skywatch from all over the world.
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Miracles Still Happen :)

So how do you go from this...


to pie? Good question! LOL, Mrs. Merle brought us the pumpkin you see above. It's a sugar pumpkin, or Pie pumpkin. It's smaller and sweeter than the ones you usually see carved into Jack-o-lanterns. RJ helped to scoop out the guts and get it ready to cook.
We put it in the oven to roast until it was soft enough to scoop out of the rind.Cooked pumpkin:


Then we had to mash it up and get it ready to combine with the other ingredients that make pumpkin pie so good.
Once we got the filling ready, we had to get the crust ready to fill. I did shortcut, and my daughter said I was cheating by using a Pillsbury ready-to-roll crust. Hey! Martha Stewart I'm not ~ I'm more of your Erma Bombeck type. Just making the filling from scratch is accomplishment enough for me, thankyouverymuch! LOLFilled the crust, and then we put it in the oven and wait.
In the meantime, I tried some of the seeds I had roasted. They have a wonderful flavor, and they're extremely healthy and good for you, but they are like eating raw carrot. You chew and chew and chew and it never goes away! LOL

Voila! We have pie. It looks like pumpkin pie...and it smells like pumpkin pie...but will it taste like it?
Although the texture was a little different than your typical canned-pumpkin pie, it was fantastic, in my humble but most accurate opinion :)
And RJ agreed, and so did everyone else in the house, judging from the almost-empty pie dish.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Sneak Preview :)

Supergirl and Lightning McQueen's Crew Chief


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Baby Will is Driving :)

Yes, my baby boy is 15 as of Monday, and we got his learner's permit. He has been waiting for this day since he was about 4 years old. I couldn't make him wait any longer, so I took him driving the same place I took his older brother and sister when they started. We live on the edge of the city and it's not very far to go to find more secluded, country-road driving.


The weather was beautiful.


After we drove a few miles, we stopped at Buddy Boy's for some refreshment (and photo ops!)
We continued on our merry way and talked about things you need to know when driving in traffic. We came upon this road sign and I had to laugh, it reminded me of PeeWee's Big Adventure :)
We happened upon a small park by the St Johns and of course we had to stop for the beginnings of a gorgeous sunset.
All in all, he did a great job driving for the first time. To be honest, he pretty much took to it like a fish in water. Considering how long he's been dreaming of it, I wasn't really surprised :)

Happy Birthday, you'll always be "Baby Will" to me :)

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Resistance is Futile

I have been assimilated. I have fought for as long as I could, but today, I finally caved and bought...yes...CROCS!!!
What could I do??? I had a reward coupon for $10.00 for Hallmark, and it was about to expire! The kids Crocs were buy 1, get 1 half off! They were there, right in front of me...what could I do?
But finally buy me a pair to put my Joe Cool jibbitz on. :oP Because Joe Cool is...well, COOL! At least I got that goin' for me...
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Snips and Snails and Puppy-dog Tails

I love little boys :)


I wish I could hang this one from my rear-view mirror...
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Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Joyous Jumpers?

Why do mullet jump? There are a few different theories. This is from the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute:

"Why do mullet jump?
No one has been able to ask a mullet why it jumps. In waters with low dissolved oxygen, mullet may jump more frequently, which might indicate a greater need for oxygen. Some biologists feel that jumping aides mullet in removing parasites; others believe it may be part of schooling behavior in mullet. An intriguing notion is that maybe they just like to jump."






I was at County Dock for sunset last night. The mullet were going crazy. One after another, sometimes in pairs, sometimes you would see three at a time jumping. I would try to snap one and I would hear two more splashes on the other side of the dock! They are all interesting theories, but I prefer to believe they are leaping just for the joy of it. :)

Monday, October 20, 2008

Murder at 2412

It was a dark and stormy night. Oops! Wrong story. It was actually a night like any other...until...

It was an act of extreme violence. The assailant obviously knew the victim...


Poor little thing, she had so much to live for. She really didn't deserve it to end this way...

Dr. M, Medical Examiner, looks over what was obviously the fatal wound.
We didn't have to look far to find him. They're all alike ~ it only takes one taste of stuffing and they're hooked. It usually starts with something as innocent as a beanie-baby. One eyeball here, a tag ripped out there...until they open that first seam. Then it's all over. Before you know it they've moved on to Gund and then they're hanging around outside the local Build-a-bear, looking for fresh stuffing. Here's the perp, chewing on a rawhide, seemingly oblivious to the carnage just mere feet away...
They always return to the scene of the crime. Always.

It's 8:25pm...do you know where YOUR stuffies are??



;oP