Charred Croissant

While in Montreal, we enjoyed delicious, buttery croissants, warm from the oven. Sunday, we thought we'd try to recreate the experience. Soooo, we popped these two in my trusty toaster oven, using the "Toast" setting (my 1st time):

Click on the image for a larger view, if you dare.

The timer was set and everything?!? Poor, poor, TOTALLY HUGE and TOTALLY BURNT, now-like-charcoal croissants! yah, reeeal yummy. The mottled food item beneath them is a left-over berry pancake from Saturday AM.

Weight Watchers Hilarity Cards

How I found this source of hilarity, I won't explain in full detail - I will simply credit the dear Ladybug.

As I can tell, "Candyboots" hit the jackpot when she discovered her mother's long-treasured Weight Watchers recipe cards, circa 1974 - ya gotta go check these out!

Stuff Portrait, er, Monday!?!

Alright, alright...so I'm way late. I know, but I wanted to play!
So, with that...

The Neighborhood eyesore - more than a mile down the road from my place, there's an older housing development. In Vegas, "older" could mean 20 years old or younger. Anyhow, the entrance has two development signs on either side and both are in terrible shape. I've been wondering if they're just waiting for them to fall apart completely - ? Must not be too concerned about maintaining much appeal for landing new home owners. It's real odd, I think, for a decent area to neglect the entry like this.


Interesting Neighborhood sign - Everyday, I drive past this lil' "Buggy Bath" car wash depot on my way to work. Each week, a new inspirational/food for thought message is posted on the business sign. Me being into quotes, I absolutely love this! -and I love it that the owners think to do this, instead of promoting some business slogan.


Picture(s) Taken in Secret - Technically, I have a lot of "taken in secret" shots, if one considers all the "napping kitty" pics I have... although, I'm almost sure that most of those "napping kitty" pics were not truly taken in secret; I was merely being ignored!
These lil' buggers sense everything, I tell ya! The other day, Owen started going absolutely NUTSO at the base of the coat closet, near the front entry. I came over to open the closet door for him, and he immediately dove into its back corner and emerged seconds later with a big spider between his teeth! yes, how lovely - such a useful lil' guy too, isn't he? Owen, the Fierce bug killer. Otis is equally fascinated by bugs - but he's my lil' lounging lover boy, not nearly as active as his lil' bro-bro.

Crunched fer Time

Mmmkay - I sooo so so wanna post stuff about Montreal - I'm still running high off that trip! Man, it WAS SO GRRRREAT, if I haven't mentioned that already... but I have a gazillion "just-before-school-starts" things to do. BUHT! I do intend to post - best intentions to post, I have.

'Til then, have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Self-Portrait Day!

Took these last week while we were in the Metro station, downtown Montreal - which was sooo clean!?! No, really! the station was very clean! - no joking. This "mirror" was really some reflecting mirror-like surface (not glass) on the front of a photo booth...which we tried out together (me, mah honey-man and the angel boy-O).
The first pic was a fluke, but I thought it looked cool ~ the 2nd was to be the "corrected" effort, although still out of focus.

Bonjour!

I'm back! and I'm totally swamped with work and preparations for school starting next Monday! but I'm back! and I hope to post some trip details soon! and some pics! The pics will need to first be sorted through though - I took well over 1,200 pictures - correction: over 1,600 photos = INSANE.
Moreover, the trip to Montreal was fabulous, dahhling! FAAH-BOO-LUSS!

Expect a from-Montreal Self-Portrait this week!

I'm tellin' ya, it was FAAH-BOO-LUSS!
Big fat happy tears!

Stuff Portrait Friday! - a tad late is all...

Once again, thanks to and according to Kristine...

#1 - my ride:
This is my trusty lil' Echo - 43 mpg on the highway, thank you very much = kiss ass ride! The "STAYPFT" is NOT for "Stay Fit" or "Stay Phat", nor is it for "Stay Perfect" (that one soo-so-so000 totally freaks me out! - that's awful!!!). It's short for "Stay Puft," as in the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man... ya know, the big and bubble-like, poofy, white marshmallow man? more commonly recognized in today's age from the movie Ghostbusters? Yeah. That's my car. The lil' happy buddha with the moon medallion hangs from my rearview mirror - just a bonus pic cuz I like it so much. Happens to be from my ex-husband though - that's not at all why I like it nor why I keep it still. I just like it. My father's last visit to Vegas, he asked where it came from and I told him I didn't want to tell him (although - of course - I did), because I didn't want him reading into it at all. Who knows if he believed me... he thinks I'm a quirky thing. Anyhow, I like it cuz it's cool - ain't it cool lookin'?

#2 - a mile away: Man, what to show here? Hmmm...may have to deal with this one later, since I got nuthin' on this right now! Postponed until, um, later.

#3 - as titled below: I may have mentioned this, but maybe I haven't. I do not really like Las Vegas. In many, many ways, I really hate Vegas, yet I tolerate it because I'm here. And I know I've mentioned this one already, but this is the longest I've lived in any one city in my life - 6 years come Labor Day. This fact is not to be confused with love or even a liking of Vegas... but if there was any one reason (several really, in this case) why I love where I live? it would have to be the people I've met and grown to value - to love - here in Las Vegas. People I learn from, spend time with, people who make my life -here in this hot dusty hell hole- truly enjoyable.

No, apparently I could not wait to post this until I got back from Montreal...

yes, apparently I'm nuts; delieriously tired, is what I am.

Off to Fake mah French

Alrighty - First of all, I so wanted to participate in today's SPF (that's Self-Portrait Friday), but I'm seriously crunched for time. I'm finishing (supposed to be) a final paper for my last summer class, which ends at 4pm tomorrow (yes, on a class on Saturday - and dammit, I hate Saturday classes... I think I may have mentioned this on my blog, oh, about SEVERAL times, having been plagued with Saturday classes since January).

More importantly, I'm leaving for Montreal tomorrow evening (wooo-hoo!) and I'll be gone until the 21st. I have no clue as to how I may or may not have access to the internet - but I think I'll purty preoccupied, even if I'll may be sitting around completely clueless most of my time... I've been forewarned that my honey-man's family will try very hard to speak English the 1st 24 hrs after I met them, reverting to French later on for the rest of our stay. I don't much more than a few key phrases in french - I'm already sure that my primary phrase for this trip will be the following: Now, I don't know how to spell/write it in french, but it means, "I don't understand."

See ya/read ya'll later! adieu! (sp?!?) mmwah!

Self-Portrait Day! - Meet "Cousin It"

This one is for my not so lil' brother.

(he's 6 ft. 6" tall, 16 and adorable)

Some background info:

Memorial Day 2004, I went with my immediate family to Disneyland -yes, over the Memorial Day holiday weekend. yes, I thought the idea was certifiably insane... HOWEVER, we had ourselves a strategy for stress-free Disneyland success!

It was JUHHHST fine, really! We went on Friday before the swarms had arrived. Our 2nd day was Sunday, when the swarms were leaving. Plus, we stayed at the California Hotel Resort, just inside the California part of the park; perfect for post-Grizzly River Run drenchings... we'd finish the ride and saunter right over to our hotel for a swim or a quick dress change. Anyhow, our longest wait in line was for Indiana Jones with a "Fast Pass" - about 30 minutes is all. 2nd longest wait time in line was 25 minutes for California Screamin' (by the way, we road that thing over and over and over again, usually only a 10-15 minute wait).

So - - our first "long wait" for Screamin,' my brother (15 at the time) says to me, "Oh, do your Cousin It" - I used to do this when he was a lil' pee-wee toddler and he would laugh loud enough to wake the dead. So, picture it: in the middle of the line, without thinking, I went for it and then, while blinded by my hair, I heard not only my brother laughing, but many unidentified giggles and great laughter errupting from all around me. For some bizarre reason, it hadn't first occured to me that I would have an audience, as I was surrounded by oh, a few hundred people all waiting in the same line?

Cruisin' Hopper

These pics were actually taken last week, while, um, I was driving to work - when leaving my complex, I noticed this lil' dude on my windshield wiper and I thought, "whoa, he ain't gunna make it there for long." He made it to the highway and all the way through the airport tunnel...

...and all the way to my place of work! Twice he nearly lost his grip, barely hanging on with his forelegs. I even caught myself slowing down for him at one point when he caught a sidewind up the butt, causing his wings to flare over his head. I kept thinking he was gunna lose it. The last shot was taken when I had finally parked my car.

A Storm is a Comin'

Click on the pics for larger images...

Don't these look cool? I love it when it rains here. The entire Vegas valley is dark and overcast right now. The west side has already been dumped on, but central has had only some sprinkling thus far. Last night the thunder was spectacular. Otis and Owen were a riot, heads whipping back and forth, running to the windows to watch the sky.

Last Night of Lobbying

Mmmkay, so I was BORED OUTTA MY MIND... so I snatched away my neighboring classmate's notebook. Using my left hand, I covered from her view what I was about to quickly write and then I took my hand away to reveal my scribble - and she wrote right back. Nerds that we are and already on the verge of TOTALLY LOSING IT, both of us had the hardest time maintaining our composure, especially when next, I revealed my camera to document our nerdiness.
Later on, camera left out on the table, I casually pressed the power button back on and began to pivot turn the camera in her direction... she whispered, feeling instant panic, "Wait, what are you doing!?!" and she brought up her hand just as I took the first shot.
The woman beside her then lost it and began a giggle fit in the middle of our Lobbying class - very bahhd students - I mean, I am a very bad student, distracting my classmates like that. Shame on me - tisk, tisk. (cue evil snickering) The class in now over, although we must still hand in our final papers tomorrow. Next Saturday, I will finish my last summer class. Then I'll be off to MONTREAL with my honey-man and his angel boy-O. When we return, I'll have one more CLASS-LESS week before classes begin for the Fall semester, which will be my LAST semester of core classes!?! The end is officially in sight! yeah, a tad premature, but I'm rarin' to get outta this MA program AQAP -

SPF ~ OCD, Baby!

Once again, it's Self-Portrait Friday! I juhhst love SPF day ~ it's the total nerd in me. Today's theme: Your Obessive Compulsive Disorders! Initially, I didn't know what to do with this one... I used to bite my nails, but quit at age 10. I used to bite at my split ends (out of sheer boredom though, when in school), but stopped that long ago. I used to have panic attacks once in a while, but haven't had one in years, and I don't think general insecurity from time to time qualifies as an OCD tendency, but this morning I thought of some something!!!

Although #1 is supposed to be "my Bad Habit," this is more like a grand combination of my Bad Habit, plus #2 "my Obession," and #3 "my Anxiety": I obsess over the condition of my towels - this includes swim towels, bath towels, hand towels, washcloths and wash rags - any towel. I CANNOT stand to see/have a wet towel thrown on the floor or any even semi-damp towel of any kind tossed in the laundry basket before it has first been laid out and/or hung up to dry. No No No NO tossing a wet towel into the laundry basket until it has dried out completely! WHY? a wet towel breeds mildew!!! Note: I do not own a single solitary sponge in my home. Sponges serve as nothing more than bacterial breeding centers! blak! Any wash rag used by me will be rinsed out REALLY WELL and rung out TIGHTLY to get rid of as much excess water as possible so it may dry out as quickly as possible. I HATE SEEING A WASH RAG LEFT UNATTENDED IN THE SINK or LEFT WADDED UP ON THE COUNTER! MAKES.MY.SKIN.CRAWL. I reeeeallly hate it. See, once a towel gets that lovely mildew invasion going, you might as well throw it in the trash! Unless you can and do bleach your towels, you will never be rid of the mildew. NEVER! I took a microbiology class! Science supports my claims here, people! Mildew is a microscopic fungus and it saturates every microfiber! No amount of laundry detergent or fabric softener can destroy or cover up that smell - I have an excellent sniffer and lemme' tell ya! I can smell it a mile away!!! Once a towel gets mildewy, as soon as it's wet again, the mildew swiftly returns and if I get a whiff of a recently-wronged towel, I can totally identify old mildew. IT'S DISGUSTING! One time while out of town, my ex-husband left a couple bath towels heaped on the bathroom floor, utterly fouled by the time I returned. I refused to ever use them again for their intended purpose - they were expensive towels too [generous wedding gifts so rock! - still have 4 of the 6 original sets, 8 years later!!! - yes, we were given a ridiculous amount of ALL matching (a wedding miracle in itself) towels]. At first, I tried to super wash them, even ran them through 3 wash cycles (OCD! OCD!), but they were ultimately banished, doomed to wash and wax cars the rest of their towel lives, never to return to the fresh, cool linen closet.

My towel obssession doesn't stop with the mildew obsession/anxiety. See the washcloth laid beside my bathroom sink here? It is not for human skin use! it's used strictly to wipe up the counter and sink area after any messy sink use (my honey-man shares this very same side-sink clean-up washcloth habit - I love it!). Once used, I always lay it out on the front of the sink, over the edge of the counter so it may dry out properly between uses. But if you're ever a guest in my home, make no mistake, this side-sink washcloth is never to be used on human skin, even if I do rotate new washcloths every 3 days or so.

And see the hand towels hung at either side of my bathroom sink area? The one to the right is used strictly for patting my face dry after it's been washed clean. The one to the left is used strictly for drying hands. DO NOT wipe your hands on my face towel OR my body towel! ICKY! The towel will go straight to the laundry basket - ONLY after it has FIRST had the chance to dry out though, of course. Why?!? People usually DO NOT wash their hands as thoroughly as they should, and so they end up just wiping germs off on the towel when they dry their hands - and I DO NOT want yucky remnant hand germies on my body towel or the hand towel I use for my face... thanks.

Another um, funny (neurotic) little OCD thing I do involving towels... after using someone else's bathroom, I'd rather use my own pants to wipe/blot my hands dry, than use someone's typically over-used hand towel left available for me. Plus, I often bring my own washcloth when I travel and will lay it out in such a way that it can dry out during the day or overnight before I may have to pack it back up. ALSO, I once used my travel washcloth to dry myself off after showering, because the guest towel given to me was mildew-tainted, according to my nose. Have you ever tried using a washcloth to dry yourself after showering? Ya end up having to air dry, basically. Yeah, neurotic, I know.


For last measure, a non-towel related Bad Habit:
The pics below look disgusting - yes, yes, I know - but try pullin' big ole', nasty, collected clumps of this stuff from my tub drain on a weekly basis - THAT'S GROSS! no Wait! Let me explain: I have long, thick hair - lots of it. Any day of the week, whenever I wash my hair, several individual strands come out into my hand while I rinse my hair. Now I can either let them rinse off my hands to ultimately plug up my tub drain each week, or I can slap them on the shower wall and later spin them together and toss 'em in the trash once I'm all clean and toweled off. As you can see from the pics, these lil' wall collections from day to day may very in size. No, really - you don't need to tell me how gross this is, I know. Anyhow, the bad habit here involves my FORGETTING to throw the hair in the trash right after I shower, so that it hangs there or falls down from the wall, waiting until I shower again, to be discarded. Otis and Owen have both learned this happens and they will occasionally hop in the tub and the two of them wait for it to fall from the wall. I once found one of these hair clumps (I don't know what to call 'em) out in the front room, having made its way there via Owen, I'm sure. Very gross. I'm not too bad at forgetting - maybe once a week - but when I'm in LA, I forget all the time!!! And often when I remember that I forgot, I go to the bathroom and my honey-man has already tossed it without saying a word of complaint...

Self-Portrait Day!

K, I didn't technically take this one, BUT it was taken today...doesn't that work?

Hail to Norm and The Golden Rule!

The Golden Rule (1961), by Norman Rockwell

Hands down, this has gotta be my favorite illustration, no IFs, ANDs, or BUTs about it. I have loved it since I was a little girl and it brings to me an emotion that fills me physically, creating in my chest a powerful hum - it fills me with hope. It speaks to me of nothing but love for my fellowmen, no matter the level of corruption that exists among our politicians and leaders, no matter the degree of cruelty we may inflict upon each other because of our said "differences" or our selfish indifference. There are good people in this world, regardless, and our differences enrich this world we live in, as long as we respect and honor those differences. This kind of statement makes me think of my mum. She tried very hard before she left to instill in me certain ideals as to how I should treat and view others and regard those seemingly different than me: "Their insides look and feel the very same as yours. They're no different than you."

There's many a way in the world to do one thing or another, and I think The Golden Rule is the best guideline one could hold to. The link here refers to various versions of The Golden Rule from several world religions ~ I am otherwise unfamiliar with the "Teaching Values" site.

The Golden Rule was first printed for The Saturday Evening Post. The resolution on this pic isn't quite as clear, but shows what the April 1, 1961 cover looked like.

I do so love Norman Rockwell ~ his own statement regarding his work is quite telling, I believe:

"Without thinking too much about it in specific terms, I was showing the America I knew and observed to others who might not have noticed."
-— Norman Rockwell