It's all about the timing

Last summer the power went out at the office. After about an hour of being without power, I decided to work from home for the rest of the day. I called home to make sure we had power before making the trip. My husband said we didn't have any power at home either. I noticed his voice sounded a bit odd as we were talking. Then he laughed and said he was relieved to know he hadn't been the cause... I asked him what he was talking about.

It seems he was replacing our ceiling fan and had a problem getting a wire disconnected. He became frustrated and gave the wire a hard jerk. At that exact moment the power went off in the entire house. He checked the breakers and found nothing wrong. He went outside and realized power was off for the entire street. His first thought was "Did I do that?" It just seemed such an unlikely coincidence that the power would go off for the entire neighborhood the exact moment he pulled the wire loose, but how could it be related? Common sense said it wasn't related. Circumstances, looked otherwise.

We both found it very funny that the timing of his pull on the wire was exactly the moment of the power outage at the main transformer.

It's all in the timing.
Later
D

Pumpkin Carving Stencils

I may have waited a bit late to post this but the History Channel is offering some cool stencils for anyone that likes to carve pumpkins. Not just scary ones but more advanced ones too. From simple to advanced. Check it out.



I love pumpkin and hate it when I see carved pumpkins being tossed into the trash. There are much better things to be done with the pumpkin, IMO anyway. Pumpkin pie, muffins, bread, butter..... Yum...





Later
D

Somewhere in the Irish Sea

Some humor for your Wednesday.

At a loss for words

It has been a tough week for our church family, we have experienced three deaths. A mother with grown children. A man in his thirties leaving behind a wife and children. And a young child two and a half years old, that survived Pompe's disease that normally claims it's victims before their first birthday.

Though we are hurting, we know God is in control and He does not make mistakes.

Yes we hurt but we will praise Him in this Storm.



Casting Crowns says it so well in their song "I will praise You in the storm"

My other Blog

I love pictures and have setup a second blog to post some of my favorites. Please feel free to visit, Pictures Just Pictures.

Thanks and Later
D

Black Bean Salsa - Yummy Stuff

I was standing in my pantry Friday night trying to figure out what to fix for dinner. I haven't done my regular grocery shopping due to the kitchen project so the pickings were kinda slim. I found a can of black beans and noticed there was a recipe on the label for Black Bean Salsa. I had most all of the ingredients and I decided to give it a try.

I didn't have fresh tomatoes so I substituted canned diced tomatoes and they worked rather well.

Here is what you need:

• 15 oz canned black beans, drained and rinsed
• 6 oz canned yellow corn, drained and rinsed (The recipe called for 12 oz, but that seemed like too much so I cut it in half and used the other 6 oz as a side dish.)
  
• 2 cans diced tomatoes, drained and rinsed (use fresh when in season)
  
• 1 small onion, Chopped fine (It called for red onions but any onion will work.)
  
• 1 tsp lime zest (This was not on the original recipe, but it seemed a shame to waste the zest.)
  
• 1/4 cup(s) fresh lime juice
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• Salt and pepper to taste

Drain and rinse black beans, corn and tomatoes.
Place all in a bowl.
Add cumin and mix
Zest the lime and add to the bowl
Juice the lime and add to the bowl
Mix and allow to set so the flavors will blend.

I used this as my main dish just because it tasted so good, but it is actually a great salsa with chips or baked pita chips. We are invited to a get together this afternoon and I'm thinking I might just make this to take with us. Tortilla chips, a little sour cream on the side and this salsa. Sounds like a party to me. I'm hungry already.

Later
D

PS: If you are on Weight Watchers 1/2 cup = 2 points. But don't forget the chips and sour cream count separate.

The Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner

I found this link to speeches by McCain and Obama at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Dinner and wanted share them. With all the problems in the news and all the political sniping I thought it would be nice to share a bit of light-hearted fun from both candidates.

McCain Part 1


McCain Part 2


Obama Part 1


Obama Part 2

Kitchen Cabinets - Part 4

We are at the home stretch. John has done a wonderful job on the cabinets.



I had to laugh as I was looking at these pictures. We seem to have moved the coffee pot around all over the kitchen and it was the constant during this entire process.


I have also been pleased and amazed at how much brighter the kitchen is now.


I should have pictures of the finished product by this weekend.

It has been a long hard road with the majority of the job falling to my husband. I am so thankful that he is good with his hands and is able to do this type of this task.

Now the job will fall to me to determine where all the things that came out of the cabinets will go back. I have committed to clean out and remove items that we don't use. So wish me luck and I really hope to see an end to the project by this weekend.

Later
D

Wildflowers

While we were at the Armuchee Bluegrass Festival over the Labor Day Weekend, we stayed at a little hotel near by. There was an open field across the parking lot and I took Trixie there for her morning walk each day. While we wondered around and Trixie looked for just the right spot to do her business, I took pictures of the lovely wildflowers that were in bloom. Some of the flowers were obviously from flower beds but the seeds had been scooped up in the fill dirt that had been dumped at the site.

I love the way the sun relfects off the blooms.

More pictures soon.

Later

D

The Rose

When we moved into our house in the fall of 1998 there was a rose bush in the back yard. The summer had been very hard on it and I assumed it would die and we've have to dig it up. My husband however, didn't give up. He pruned, pampered and fed it. Then to my astonishment it revived.

He still spends time caring for this rose and it repaid him with beautiful blooms all summer. It is just as beautiful this year as the first summer when he worked so hard. With fall fast approaching I wanted share this picture from just a few weeks ago.

Later
D

Our Little Helper

A 10 month old dog is about like having a three year old child. They understand much of what you tell them, but they can't or don't always listen to you. With that in mind we have done our best during the Kitchen Project, to keep things out of reach of our Papillon Trixie. Even doing the best we can, she still finds things that could be dangerous. I found a bolt in her bed that she stole from something. We're still trying to identify where it goes.

Yesterday, John was priming the cabinet doors and left them on the patio to dry. Bringing them in for the evening, he found Trixie paid them a visit too.

One door had the undeniable evidence that her curiosity had gotten the better of her.


Since her art work is on the inside of the door, we're debating whether to paint over it...

What do you think?

Later
D

And it's a....

Last Sunday our son and daughter-in-law invited us to their home for lunch. They cooked us a lovely meal and we had a great time visiting.

She is about six months pregnant and just now really showing. (I think I showed more than that at 3 months. At least that is how I felt.) I've enjoyed shopping for maternity clothes with her. Not having a daughter I've never shopped for girlie stuff for anyone but myself, except for the occasional Christmas or birthday gift, so our shopping trip was loads of fun.

They have decided not to learn the sex of the baby. I'm OK with that, after all it's their baby. We'll be happy either way.

Until then I'll just have to love on our "grand-dog" Zeke.
I just love his face. He always looks like he's about to ask a question.

(Oh yes Miss Trixie was extremely jealous when we got home. She gave us the pup version of the third degree, sniffing my pants leg up and down several times.)

Later
D

Kitchen Cabinets - Part 3

I am very pleased with how things are going with the kitchen project. When we removed the shelf paper green paint was revealed. There must have been a sale on this color of green because it was used in several places in the house. I can not imagine why they would have painted the bottom shelf green, but at least the new shelf paper will cover it up.

Of course Trixie had to check out all the newly emptied spaces.


While I liked the original cabinets and their natural wood color. But the new white cabinets are really making me happy.

Yes I think we made the right decision.

Kitchen Cabinets - Part 2

After removing the doors and cleaning the surfaces we began painting.

I am amazed at how quickly Hubs was able to paint the base cabinets.

The kitchen seems much brighter already.

I can't wait to see how the finished job looks. I'll post more pictures soon. I've been putting in the shelf paper and my shoulders and arms are sore and my neck is stiff. I'm so out of shape...

DIY Home Improvement - Kitchen Cabinets

Our house was built in the late 60's and the original cabinets have never been changed. I like their color and the simple lines, but they are old and scared. We had to do something about them.



Last year we installed a marble tile counter top and back splash and replaced the old avocado cook top for a new ceramic one.

I like the marble but the old cabinets seemed out of place. We've been trying to decide what to do about that.


Well we have made a decision. We're painting!

I will be taking pictures as we go along. So far we have removed the doors and used TSP on all the surfaces to prep for painting. We will paint the cabinets as well as the paneled walls. Originally there was a lot of brown paneling in the kitchen and dining room. All the other walls had already been painted by the time we moved in, leaving only the kitchen with the original paneling.

We have done other DIY projects but this is the biggest one we've tackled in a while. Wish us luck.

Uses for Vinegar

I found a wonderful web site, vinegartips.com . This site offers some wonderful tips for using vinegar. Since I've been using homemade window cleaner made with vinegar, I've been investigating other users for this wonderful product. Most of their tips are for white distilled vinegar.

Though I am limited on blogging due to my computer problems, I still wanted to make a quick post about this wonderful site. It offers tips for everything from cooking and laundry to automotive uses for vinegar. Check it out and enjoy. I'd love to hear your stories about using vinegar.

Saul McCartney - Gas Today

We are still experiencing gas shortages and long lines at gas stations in Atlanta. Things are getting better but far from what they were three weeks ago before Ike paid a visit to the Gulf.

My brother sent me a link to this video on YouTube. It made me laugh and I wanted to share it with you. It might make you smile. What else can we do?