Meet Mr. Ziggy!

I should have known that when YD came back from her adventures that my family would not just grow by one...or two...but three.
After she came home and settled in, we worked on getting her dog, Dozer back. Dozer is a gorgeous liver colored Australian Shepherd and when she had left last year, she had to give him up. The poor guy went through a couple of families who did not treat him right. We petitioned to get him back and we got him. (With some new found bad habits, that we are now training to fix.)
She went to see her girlfriend one night a few days back and called me to tell methat she was one her way home and said I am bringing home some mini love! I knew, that we were in trouble! Last week or the week before she was talking about wanting a Rottwieler and I put my foot down. NO! We have two big dogs now and a small one, so a Rotty would be so out of the question. We got Mr Ziggy instead. Now this one I can live with.
Her boyfriend's mother bestowed Zigs (as I call him) upon her. He is a pure bred Chihuahua with about as much personality as one can stand. He already thinks he is as big as my German Shepherd and has charmed us as much as our Aussy. Except that we all think that when it is nap time for Zigs, one of us has to sit down with a blankey and cuddle him. So he gets his beauty rest, ya know?
My big ol' orange cat Purrcy is three times bigger than Zigs! But I can't get a picture of the two of them together, cause well..the big ol's orange cat worries Ziggy just a little.

Baking and Soup Day

I just pulled a batch of Bran Muffins out of the oven. I let them cool and I just took a bite of one. They are good, but I wanted my mom's Great Muffins and didn't get it. Her recipe is lost. DAMN! These might be better a little warm with butter smathered all over. Hmmm...I'll try that with my next taste test in three...two...one...naw! Just kidding, I'll wait til morning. That is why I made them. I have been trying to not stop and get coffee and donuts every morning before work. I want to save some money and calories.
The recipe is as follows:

1-1/2 cups wheat bran
1 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease muffin cups or line with paper liners.
Mix together wheat bran and buttermilk; let stand for 10 minutes.
Beat together oil, egg, sugar and vanilla and add to buttermilk/bran mixture. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir flour mixture into buttermilk mixture until just blended. Fold in raisins and spoon batter into prepared muffin tins.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool and enjoy! Makes 12 smallish muffins.
I got this recipe from Allrecipes.com. It was submitted by Janet Kalman.

As for the soup part, I am preparing to make split pea soup today. The peas are soaking. I will put them in my crock pot tonight and let them cook on low all night. I'll turn it off in the morning and let it cool. Refrigerate them while I'm at work, were the flavors will blend nicely and then when I want dinner tomorrow night I can just heat it all up. I can't wait.

As for that recipe, I just throw a pound of split peas in my crock pot after they have soaked overnight, add about four carrots cleaned and sliced, one medium onion, chopped and two fist sized smoked ham hocks. When it's all said and done I add salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste. Oh heck, I've got to stop! My mouth is watering!

I am also making regular bread and banana bread today! (It must be cold or something outside. This is the best way I know to keep my house warm!)

What Gives?

A few things to note here about what gives.

I went to a party yesterday. It was for my two great nephews. One of them turned two (today) and the other was christened. My neice had a party for both at the same time. Good idea I say! I took the day off of work. It was a great opportunity to see my family, I don't see them that often. And I live and or work within five miles of them all. Sucks, but we all have odd and different hours, so this doesn't happen much.
I sat and thought about my relationships with my sisters. The oldest is nine years older than me, the other is seven years older. The relationships have finally evolved to a level playing ground. Last year not so much, I was still the baby. Now, it is like we are all the same age. (Maybe they are wishing they were my age.) That statement cracks me up.
Then what gives with the hour here? I was wide awake and not wanting to sleep another minute this morning. Four AM!!! I don't have to be at work until nine AM!!! Five hours. Five hours that I need to entertain myself. And this after having a couple of glasses of wine, last night...at the party...
I have a full day ahead of me at work. My huge order finally came in. It was late getting there. It came in on Friday afternoon, around one. I leave at 3:30, so I wasn't going to break into it and have it scattered across the warehouse to get picked through and lost. Today I get to play receiving and stocking. That is fine, I would rather do that all day than to wait for customers to need me. It will probably be quiet at work, the weather is not so good today...wet and windy.
I got a message on my phone yesterday from my wonderful girlfriend. The one who had cancer, who is generous to a fault...TO A FAULT.... I was going to give up my cell phone last year, because I really couldn't afford it. I wanted my daughter's to get their own if they wanted them, and I wanted to loosen the ties to technology somewhat. My girlfriend said I had to have a phone regardless, and set me up on her family plan. She didn't want money for it, she just wanted me to have a phone. So, I said okay. Then, I got this message from her. I just wanted you to know the phones are back on. (I never noticed they were off) So, I'm thinking okay...whatever. It wasn't that part of the message that bothered me. She said in this meeky kind of little voice, (maybe like I wouldn't really hear it) "I don't understand, I have control over this thing, only I can never get through." Now how would you take that? I took it negatively. What I heard in my brain, was that I have no control over you, even though I have suppied you with this device. I don't want to say anything to her about it, because I KNOW it will be taken wrong. I know if I don't say anythng it will fester inside of me. No one controls me, but ME. So now what?!?

Rainy days and Mondays...

I know that's a song or something...does it continue on to say, always get me down? I think that's it, but I'm not so sure. At any rate...I have both all in one day! YAY! Rain! Hopefully, we will keep our storm door open and have this not be the end all to our rain for the season. We need green! And I'm not down, if that was the song says, rainy days and Mondays are cool in my book. I don't have to go anywhere if I don't want, I did get my groceries this morning before the rain and wind kicked in, so I'm all good.
The laundry is done, except for putting it away, I just put a lasagna in the oven, oven's not on yet, I will turn it on around 6-ish and then make a salad and garlic bread to go with the lasagna. I may be the only one here for dinner. OD is at work, MD is out helping her friend find an apartment, heaven only knows when she will be home. YD is still out of town, due back the 20th...I hope!
I got all the dishes done from making dinner, so I thought I'd sit with a cup of tea and relax, guilt free. YAY!
I had a nice surprise on Halloween day at work. I ws called downstairs because there was a gentlman there to see me. Of course, I am always wary when they say gentleman instead of customer. This means there is something personal or outside business going on. I don't like surprises, especially at work. I tried getting some information from the person who called me, but apparently the gentleman was still next to her and she didn't want to be rude and describe him or ask too many questions of him. I went ahead on down and was walking down the center aisle of the store. I saw this older man standing there facing my direction. I wondered if that was the gentleman. As I got closer to him I realised that this was the man I had lived with when I was 19 - 24 years old and was fishing! I have not seen him in 25 years! The last time I saw him OD was just under 2 years old. Talk about blast from the past.
I gave him my phone numbers and address and told him to come by after we talked a bit. He came by Halloween night and we sat and visited for several hours. It was nice to see him. He really hasn't changed all that much, except the hair is a different color! (white beard!) I expected he would come by today, but he hasn't, maybe tonight or tomorrow. He's always been the type to just go where the wind sends him, so if he shows okay, if not oh well.
I'm going to go pick up my knitting and get busy on finishing a dishcloth. I've been working on this darned thing forever it seems! That's me...slow as she goes!

Oh yea...need to show you cuteness....