Historical reference

I also don't remember how many years ago that Elvis died, but I do know where I first heard it and what I was doing (sort of like Kennedy being shot??) ... I was visiting your grandfather Roy who was a patient at the Scott County Hospital. He had a small TV on and had heard it on one of the two channels he could receive without cable. At that day and time, TVs were not provided in hospital rooms and you had to bring your own or do without.

So since you're going to be in Memphis for a while, here's something you can serve your visitors (or yourself); a signature drink, if you will.

THE ELVIS

1/2 cup milk
1 frozen banana, sliced
1 tablespoon smooth peanut butter
1 tablespoon honey

In a blender, combine milk, banana, peanut butter and honey and blend until mixture is smooth and frothy. Yield: 1-1/4 cups.

Elvis is dead... get over it!

Today is the anniversary of Elvis's death... what anniversary I couldn't tell you because I don't care. Last Tuesday marked the beginning of Elvis week (not sure what that consists of), ending tonight with a candlelight vigil at Graceland. There is also a documentary being made about Elvis, with the creator interviewing over 250 of Elvis's friends and offering $3 million to anyone who has irrefutible proof that Elvis is still alive (since it is a conspiracy you know). Oh well, I guess I have a few more years of this to look forward to!

In other news, we have a blooming flower in one of our water plants outside. Don't know what it is, but was surprised to see it. Our hostas are also trying to bloom, despite the leaves being brown and crinkly.

Oh... and Danny has a student named El Paso.

I don't know what to do with myself.....

Both kids are at preschool today - Elana until 12:45 and Ethan until 2:15. Weird, weird feeling to be in a quiet house by myself.

Today's Eric's birthday - #32. Having the Sampsels over for the usual dinner and gift-giving festivities. Dottie made it pretty clear this year that she expected ME to host it, so host it I will. Baked Spaghetti and all the trimmings.

Hope you're all well. Better get going and clean house, etc., while I'm temporarily childless.

Joy, did it ever stop raining, or have you floated away by now?

Opportunity lost

Okay, so I set several goals to complete by the time school starts up again. The only one I may meet is to read The DaVinci Code. Started it last night (for about the 5th time) and read about 1/3 of it before heading for bed at midnight. A couple more nights and I will feel like I have accomplished SOMETHING! Then I can brood about not finishing the other things. Just a couple of weeks until classes start, so I'll never accomplish what I wanted to do. So what's new??

IT RAINED

and it is still raining! :)

Woke up about 3:15 to thunder and lightning and a downpour. Hard rain off and on for at least another hour. At 8 am, still raining - however much lighter. Yippee!

In other news, we saw the same fish in the pineapple again! We leave this afternoon bound for the Guard base. Probably won't arrive there until after 11 pm (Eastern). I hope we are allowed to leave earlier that the normal 4-5 pm, or else we won't get back until late... and that's hard on Danny who has to get up by 5am for work.


UPDATE -- Rain stopped just now, so I took the ruler out and measured the water in a bucket outside - 2 full inches. More rain is expected off and on throughout the day.

Rain? Better luck next time... (again)

We had some storms appear in our backyard tonight... pretty severe. All the windows on that side of the house made for a great show. Started with some crazy winds, followed by a few raindrops on the fence (no more after that), and now we are having a strobe light show in our backyard. Took some pics/movies with the digi cam, but the sound was off in the movies. Pretty mad about that since the thunder was so awesome.

Yippee!!!

IT WENT HOME!!!!!!!

Ready, Set, GAG!

Okay, so we had some canned pumpkin about to expire (the big can). I made one pumpkin pie and reserved some to make Pumpkin Ice Cream, per the recipe found in the KitchenAid booklet. Now I noticed something that seemed a bit "off", but decided to go with what the recipe said. Having prepared, frozen, and sampled I can now say "YUCK!" Curious? See for yourself.

Pumpkin Ice Cream

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups light cream
6 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
****3/4 cup pumpkin pie spice****
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 cups canned solid pack pumpkin


Obviously a misprint, as first thought. Next time I think I'll try 3/4 tsp!
We also used our Penzey's Cake Spice... there went $4 easy!










EXHIBIT A - Note the 3/4 cup pumpkin pie spice as listed in the ingredients.





















EXHIBIT B - Note the lovely coloration provided by the 3/4 cup of spices!







Fortunately for you all there is not an EXHIBIT C!
*You don't want to know*

Red Rob! Red Rob! **spoken w/ index finger in sinister "Shining" voice**

Went to the first wedding involving some of my college friends this weekend. It was a lot of fun and we rented a cabin to spend this last weekend together since many of the group are heading their separate ways since graduating in May. Spend some time down by the dock to go swimming on Sunday and got a pretty bad sunburn....i'm red as hell, but hopefully it won't stay that way too long. Nothing else really going on.

Just finished watching the History Channel story on Oak Ridge (and Los Alamos). It makes history come alive to see those things that are still standing, and even the houses on Beth's street.
Here it is 10 pm and I've just caught my second wind ... just in time to go to bed! No wonder I never get anything done.

Survivors

We have two fish that survived (or caused?) the plague that was our backyard pond. They are both Mickey Mouse Platies, although only one shows the characteristic marking. We spent an awful lot of money to rescue these two $1 fish, so they better live! We bought a 10 gal. tank kit, some gravel (substrate, as it is known by the pros --- crazies!), and some decor (including a pineapple house from Spongebob). Here are some pictures.









One of the fish... see the Mickey Mouse head?












Who lives in a Pineapple under the Sea? Our fish (if they could figure out how to swim into it).

Remember this one?

Found this while going through Ethan's baby photos.

What an attitude :)

Little did we know that it'd be his sister that'd behave this way...

Look ma' I'm blogging

Yes, I have joined the blog. Hooray for me.

Posting...

How do I post to my blog?

Once you've logged into Blogger you'll see your Dashboard, showing your list of blogs. Click the green 'plus' icon to create a new post:

Next, you'll see the Create New Post page. Start by giving your post a Title (optional), then enter the post itself:

When you're done, click the Preview link to make sure it's ready to go:

Once you're satisfied with your post, click the 'Publish' button. This will publish your new post:

Picture Pages...

How do I post pictures?

You can now upload photos using Blogger Images — the image icon in the post editor's toolbar lets you upload images to your blog(s):

When you click this icon, you'll get a window that allows you to select an image or multiple images from your computer. Just click the "Browse" button to locate the ones you want. Alternatively, you can enter the URL of an image that is already online and have it inserted into your post.

If you click on the link for choosing a layout, you can customize the way your images will appear in your post:

The left, center and right options will determine how the text of your post flows around the pictures. This size option lets you scale the pictures to different sizes within this posting area. Note that the picture will still be uploaded in its full size; this option just determines how it is scaled within the content of your post.

Rotavirus Roulette

Hey everyone. Hope all's well with you all. We're still battling the pukes here in Oak Ridge - so far, Ethan's the only one who's escaped unscathed. I went ahead and took him to preschool today - hope he doesn't give the bug to the other kids (or his massively pregnant teacher, who's due Sept. 5) . So far, he's been just fine, so the doc said send him on.

Not much news otherwise. Thanks to Joy for getting this thing rolling. I need to figure out how to post pictures to this thing - you'll all enjoy those much more than my rambling...

Welcome

Welcome to Roys-R-Us. Take some time to familiarize yourself with the layout/functions of the blog... and the post something!