WINTER STORMS ARE FOR THE BIRDS

Oh wait, aren't the birds supposed to fly south?  Well they obviously didn't fly far enough south.  One flew into the living room window.  It must be ok because I saw it fly back out.  There are some bird houses in the yard but not that many and they don't have access to water until the snow and ice start thawing.  I never dreamed I needed a bird bath heater!

This is the ICE before the snow.  About 1.5" thick.

I'm tired of sitting.  It's strange that it's ok when you don't get out when you know you can get out safely.  And then ice and snow and more ice keep you stranded in the house.  And the cats are getting cabin fever big time.  For some reason, they won't talk to me as they are too busy napping the storm away.

And the news.  Oh my goodness, just how many times can they repeat the same thing?  Apparently several hundred times and they even have 'special weather news programs' that take over normal programming and they are just repeating what they've already said a hundred times.  Can't they use the bottom part of the screen to annoy us like they do most of the time?  And the news guy that worried that Jerry Jones must be pulling out his hair??? Well, first of all, I don't care what Jerry Jones thinks period.  Second, what about all the people that don't get paid when they don't work?  And the poor utility workers that are working crazy hours in really bad weather?  And the Meals on Wheels recipients that can't get their food? And he's worried about Jerry Jones' hair?   What a gooberhead - and yes I don't watch that station any more.

BRRRRRRRRR

There's such a thick layer of ice on the driveway.  I'm afraid to try to get out just yet.  Not that I need to, I just WANT to get out.

This is why I NEED to get out - Chuy's nachos

 

WALL OF BACON

The picture says it all. 

Good thing I had a late lunch and was full.  The new WalMart in Allen on opening day was a delight.  The parking lot was pretty full but I found a place on the side to park and was prepared to turn around and leave if it was tooo crowded.  It was crowded but the wide aisles help a lot and it is large.  There were lots of check out lanes open (I only had to wait behind 1 person!).  Lots of help walking the floor (yes, I know that doesn't last long but it was a store opening after all) and some were giving out coupons and things (yippee, I got an eye glass cleaner cloth and cleaning fluid!).  I didn't get to the outdoor area though - it will need to be a little bit warmer before I attempt that.

I'm thinking a midnight run to get a basket full of real honest to goodness bacon is in order.  And then have a bacon fest....as FB friend Lauri says 'a plate piled high of bacon'.  That really sounds wonderful.  Every time she mentions the plate of bacon, I imagine it a foot taller than what she's thinking.

Wow, I've been busy with the cat's blog (myTexascats.blogspot.com) and forgot about this one.

Not much is going on.  I've visited some of the good standby's like Freds Philly Cheesesteaks (Allen), Chuy's and La Hacinda Ranch, Uncle Julio's etc.

Christmas has come and gone.  Snow has come and it better be gone!

It's still too cold to do much in the yard but there are some things that need to be completed before the next fertilizer/weed killer round.  Such as rake up the acorns - I swear there are more acorns in my front yard than there are stars in the sky.  With the new rock border, it's going to be difficult to rake up the garden bed.  I don't worry about leaves since my next door neighbor loves to rack leaves into a big pile and let it sit for the wind to deploy.  I did, however, have the mowers come mow right before Christmas so most of the Texas Red Oak leaves from my tree were gone for a day.

Oh and I need to spray the crape myrtles with the all season oil to get rid of those sticky white critters that love crape myrtles.  And the hole from where the last big clump of monkey grass was dug out (by me, of course, it just took me 2 weeks) that was in front of the gutter downspout.  By the way, all those monkey grass hunks that were dug out need to be loaded up and taken away.  Can you believe that they are still alive even though they haven't been in the ground for about 5 months or more?  LOL  hardy things.

Usually, the dead annuals are left through the winter so the birds have something to nibble on.  They are cleaned up in late March just in case they might want to drop from seeds for me.  It doesn't always look good but it is economical and is one of the few things I'll do to help out the earth.  After all, plants do produce oxygen and I've enjoyed oxygen since I was a baby.

Oh I almost forgot.  The day before the big snowstorm (lol) while it was still warm enough not to have to wear a coat outside, the outside faucet pipe broke at my Mom's house.  It was ancient.  So while waiting on a plumber, my brother suddenly raises his head and asks my sister in law to check the bedroom on the other side of the wall.  I walked in the front door and whoa - Lake Jerean was in the front entry, well, I guess technically, being as how this was in Texas, it was just a small pond.  None the less, it was over an inch deep and the water was in the bedroom, down the hall and living room.  What fun!  We couldn't turn off the water at the street so called the city and Denison sent out a fire truck and a small truck.  Just as they pulled up, the water was shut off with the help of a neighbor's tool.  So we spent the rest of the afternoon pulling up carpet and pad - it was going to be so cold that we didn't want it in the house and have Mom get sick.   So now the search for the new carpet begins (I guess I should say it's more than a search as it will be a darn hard project.

Carpet removal is fun!  NOT

Alan and the Denison Fire Truck

Deno's Fried Pies - Denison, TX 10/22/1010

Oooooh.  Apricot fried pie.   indescribable.   sooo gooood!   These are supposed to be brought down from the original store in Ok.  We got ours in the late afternoon.  and I took mine home so I didn't eat it until around 7pm.  So if a day old fried pie can be this good, I wonder how good one from the original store is?  

After taking Mom to lunch and then the dr, I wanted to get her filthy car washed.  Only the car wash was closed due to the weather.  So we went to Sonic for a quick shake.  As we left and I was trying to get in WalMart's parking lot to turn so we could get back on the highway, I spotted Deno's.  And so I turned right instead of left.  Now, in spite of Mom's version of the story, I only turned across 1 lane and with no one coming, I still had to angle.... IT WAS NOT A PURE RIGHT TURN ACROSS THE FREEWAY as has been reported to my brother.

But ohhhh was it ever worth the detour!  I'll beeeee baaaackkk....

Sweetie Pie's Ribeyes - Sun 10/17/2010

Wow.  We all got stuck in Denton traffic.  Who knew Denton could have so much traffic on 360 on a Sunday afternoon?   2 cars and 1 motorcycle (a big motorcycle, Texas size).  Three groups of friends, ex-coworkers and new friends made the trip separately.  We ended up meeting about 45 minutes late but we didn't care.  The weather was nice and 2 of the antique stores were open!  I guess I should explain that we had 3 native Texans, 1 transplant from the far northeast that behaves like a Texan, 2 Yankees (they still require brown gravy and won't touch biscuits and cream/milk gravy - weird huh?) and 1 Californian (yes she's a carnivore too).  LOL the gravy discussion reared it's funny little head during the meal too - I can't help but feel sorry for people that miss the wonderful flavor of cream gravy  period!  But not to like gravy and biscuits - HORROR!

The service was not quite as good and friendly as usual.  They even forgot the story about the potatoes.... boiled in rosin sap so don't eat the potato peel or the paper wrapper, and they certainly didn't tell us about the potato butter... these are important parts of the experience and a good thing to know anyway.

The menu changed from the last time we were here.  The veggies weren't being served family style anymore.  And since we were early for Sunday evening, we had to pay extra for the potato - not that anyone minded ... I hadn't driven so darn far that I was going without having eaten a potato!  I don't know why I like them so much but I do.  I love them.

My filet (medium) was very good.  Everyone else's must have been good as the plates were all empty - there were other filet's, ribeye's and the lone chicken fried ribeye!  Several got (and really enjoyed) the mac and cheese.  It must have been good as the noise level disappeared after all the oohs and aaahs when the food appeared.  And it didn't really pick back up until dessert!

Oh yes dessert was ordered.  I got the apricot fried pie to go and others had a sample of everything else - pecan pie (served warm and then licked off the plate - where was my camera?), red velvet cake (really red but it disappeared off the plate too and an apricot fried pie.  I was disappointed to see the fried pie so thin however, after getting home and waiting a while so my stomach had some room, I heated mine in the oven and then devoured it.  It was really good - it had whole apricot and not just little bits of apricot in the filling.  Superb!

Afterwards, all 5 of the girls rambled through the 2 antique shops that were open while the guys 'talked shop' on one of the courthouse benches (shop talk my foot!).  We had a great time.   And the drive home went by much quicker than the drive up!

So the great moral of the story?  Everyone bonds over food - even those Yankees and a Cal-i-forn-i-a chick can behave themselves (well, you know we Texans always behave).  LOL we joke about it, recognize our differences (ok well yes we do give the Yankees a hard time) and have a great time.  And it's that kind of character that always allows us to do the best job with what we have as a team!

New sport - Handguns - Intro to Shooting class - The Bullet Trap 10/14/10

Wahoo!  Took a beginners class for hand guns tonight.  There were 10 people in the class (7 women, 2 grown men + 1 boy).  We had fun.  The class was partially classroom training to cover safety, law, different types of ammunition etc.  And then the fun part - we got to shoot 16 different guns (a few revolvers mixed in). There were 5 .22RF, 5 .39 Specials, 5 9mm, and 1 .45 ACP.   The Bullet Trap is an indoor range for hand guns and rifles.  It's about 9 minutes from my house.

I didn't particularly care for the revolvers although I did shoot well with a few and they felt comfortable.  The 9mm were harder to load and much harder to slide the barrel and then there were the few that I just couldn't eject the magazine with my left hand - remember that my left arm is messed up and weak from all the motorscooter accidents - well, yes I do remember there were really only 2.... but they sure messed up that arm.

I fell in love with the Wlson Combat CQB 1911.  Of course it was the $2400.00 custom gun.  But they loaded the magazine, slid the barrel and unloaded the barrel for us.   Left dang big holes in the target.  It was heavy too but I'm not sure how much of that is because it was the last gun of the evening and my arms were getting tired.

Here's the Smith and Wesson M41 target.  Not shabby at all 4 in or on the X circle and 1 just outside the X circle.  This gun was nice.

And saving the best for last - the Beretta U22 NEOS.  All 5 in the X circle!!!!!   I have no idea where the good aim came from either.  I didn't hold my breath or take forever - just stepped up, loaded the ammo, aimed and tried to make sure the 3 sites all lined up.

Overall, I shot many in or near the X circle.  The small hand guns (the ones most of us think of as girl guns) were really hard to aim and the kickback made it seem as though you were losing control of the aim.  I didn't like any of the small guns.  I liked the heavier ones because the recoil - although fairly strong - didn't seem to feel like I was loosing control.  But there were a few that were too heavy.

In Texas, the 'castle' law passed in 2007 allows us to carry our guns hidden from site in our cars.  But the instructor stated - and my policeman nephew confirmed - it is a really good idea to tell an officer up front that there is a loaded gun with you in the vehicle and tell them where it is located.  Oh, and that would be in case you are stopped by an officer.  The same holds true if you have the CHL.