TGIF! It’s once again time to write the Friday Five post. So we’ll start with mine

1. So far, I only have five herb plants, but they are doing great. This morning I was watering them while Wizard was cleaning the BBQ. I wasn’t bothering Wizard, I was happily chattering to my plants. I was complimenting Cilantro because he is growing better than I expected. Now Rosemary and Thyme are independent and don’t care. But Basil got a little upset because Basil wants to be the best like he always has been in the past. So I was reassuring him that he’s still an Herbal Rock Star in my eyes and I’m going to use him for some bruschetta soon. Wizard suggested I consider therapy. Rude.
2. We finally got out to see my mother-in-law this week. She liked her belated birthday gift (that I’ve had for weeks, and I’m still mad we had to give it to her late!). It was nice that when we got there, my 91 year old mother-in-law was working in her garden. Pretty cool, huh?
3. In my mother-in-law’s back yard, the back planter has huge trees and guess what (or who?) lives in those trees? Squirrels! Maggie saw her first squirrel and she was captivated! She once again jumped a wall that is counter high, showing off her athleticism. The squirrel ran up the tree of course. I went over there to make sure Maggie didn’t attempt anything insane — and that’s when I got yelled at. By a squirrel! It was hilarious. He was high up and scolding me something fierce. I told him to come down and say it to my face, but he declined Maggie was utterly fascinated. She did finally leave her squirrel post to get treats from Wizard’s mom. We let his mom spoil her with the treats I bring because Maggie helps her with some normal aging issues in a way makes Wizard and I appreciate Maggie so much.
4. We made the tri tip and loved it! Here’s the base recipe https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/236992/santa-maria-grilled-tri-tip-beef/   And my adjustments to the dry rub: I reduced the cayenne to a strong sprinkle and added 2 tablespoons brown sugar. To the mop sauce: I used red wine (I had cabernet on hand) in place of red wine vinegar and reduced the garlic because of my stomach issues. Wizard and I enjoy trying these things so we were willing to put in the extra work. Part of why I’m doing it is to get as much pre-processed food out of my diet as I reasonably can.
5. This weekend the plan is to go to CPA Boy’s to have a little post tax season/late birthday celebration for the immediate family. But Turbo had a fever this week so we’ll see how he’s doing. If we go, I’m going to use those cupcakes in the freezer and make all the normal people chocolate cupcakes with Baileys-chocolate frosting. Turbo will get a special one with plain chocolate frosting and sprinkles (I don’t care of it’s only a small amount of Bailey’s in the frosting, I see no reason for a five-year-old to eat that. And Turbo will be happy because he’s will look better to him with sprinkles). Then yesterday I made some gluten and diary free ones for the two of us in the family who like to be difficult Okay neither of us is really difficult, both of us easily eat around whatever is being served. I just wanted to make something for that son too because he just made it through another tax season. It’s fun. And I can eat them too

So that’s my five, now I’d really love to hear yours! I hope everyone has a great weekend!

I don’t play this game on purpose, this is just how my brain works sometimes.

So today while grocery shopping, bought a tri tip roast. Which made me think of dry rubs for seasoning. That made me think of herbs. And because my brain loves a good game of hop scotch this is where I landed:

I mean there’s beef and herbs in this shot right

Do you ever play Brain Hopscotch? Happy Wednesday!

P.S. If you have a good dry rub or tri tip recipe, please share!

I really hate seeing Wizard disappointed. We went to the airshow on Saturday, but after sitting in the car in line to get in the gate for  2 1/2 hours, we finally gave up.  We’ve been to airshows before, and I’ve never seen no effort at reasonable traffic control as happened here. Cars were lined up on the street for miles and they knew this would happen. We got there early as instructed, followed the rules and got nowhere. I really don’t understand it. We’d paid for VIP seats too. But what upset me more was this was important to Wizard. He’s an adult and handled it fine, but I still hate it.

As far as the rest of the weekend, the most exciting part was I took Maggie to PetSmart to see if they had a good bed for her for the living room. I didn’t find one, but Maggie had a blast and I bought her a couple treats. She loves going anywhere. Once in the store, when she though I was distracted, she did her best to get people to pet her. At one point making a serious -looking guy crack up at her antics. Once she saw she’d succeeded in getting his attention, she decided to bark and wiggle to get him to come to her. I rolled my eyes so hard, and spent the next few minutes walking her through the aisles and practicing commands to get her calm and refocused.

And this guy? He kept laughing as he walked by. He wanted to stop and pet her, but he realized I was refocusing her and resisted. I admire that. I usually let people who ask pet her, but in this case, I needed her to calm down. She can’t bark her demands. (Also her trainer should have headed that off, but failed to stop it before before her excitement built to that level. Bad trainer! Also, her trainer is me, and Maggie is not well-trained, LOL.)

But I wanted to laugh. She used to be so scared and now she thinks everyone in the world is her friend. There’s worse things that a friendly, confident dog.

So how was your weekend?

TGIF! You know what that means! Time to share five random things about our week. Let’s do this!

1. The week is ending better than it started. You know those cupcakes in the fridge? They have to be dizzy by now! I’ve had them in and out of the freezer quite a few times (but never long enough to defrost) in an attempt to go to Wizard’s mom’s. But it just didn’t happen this week. He called her on her birthday, we have a gift and cupcakes, but life is just a little twisty. Every plan we make gets changed multiple times. We thought we’d go today but…
2. Wizard got called in for Jury Duty. Here in CA, you’re on standby for a week, and you’re call each night to find out if you go in the next day. Each day has been a mystery, and then last night, he was told to come in. So far, he’s called me twice and texted twice, and he’s not impressed. He got a judge who has decided to treat possible jurors like prisoners or kindergarteners. I’d gloat but…guess what came in the mail for me yesterday?? My jury duty summons. This is a plot to annoy us. Yes, yes, I get the whole civic duty thing. Whatever.
3. So yesterday we had to stay home for an appointment. So we’ve lived in this house more than six months now, and the day we picked up the keys, we were told that the garage side door had been keyed incorrectly. This is an easy fix — all they had to do was replace the doorknob and key it to our housekeys. We were promised this constantly, but for reasons that confound logic — no one could ever manage to find a doorknob and do it. Even though houses are being built in this same track all day every day. And they all have doorknobs keyed to the owners keys! It’s like magic! Finally we got annoyed and submitted a claim higher up. What we thought would happen is the higher up would tell the foreman to grab a doorknob, and spend four minutes replacing and rekeying it. Nope, they put in a call to Door Specialists. I can’t make this stuff up, the sent out an employee of Hakes Sash & Door to resolve this complex problem. The expert confirmed the obvious problem — we needed a new doorknob. But of course he didn’t have one because this is not a call they get. Like ever. So they had to order a doorknob. It took 8 weeks to arrive. Why? No freaking idea! Then they scheduled an appointment with the same door expert to install it.  And finally the new doorknob was installed. And that is why we stayed home yesterday. Is this not a dumb boring story?? I’d like to point out that we wanted to go to my mother-in-laws, but we were trapped at home waiting for a doorknob. That’s like a worse excuse than my dog ate my homework. It’s been a truly weird week, trust me.
4. I put Willa my previously freeze-dried sourdough starter to work! I used a new recipe for sourdough yesterday and Willa did her job so well! I fermented it overnight and baked it today. The bread looks good. I don’t know how it tastes yet as I’m writing this yesterday before we ate any. I’m looking forward to it! I eat very little gluten but a slice of sourdough if it’s long-fermented is usually okay. (If you’re are interested, the long fermentation helps breakdown some of the troublesome fructans and gluten). Here’s a picture of one of the two loaves (the second one goes in the freezer to keep the cupcakes company):
5. Tomorrow we are going to the airshow. At least that’s the plan, although with this week anything could happen We haven’t been in a very long time, and decided to pay for actual seats (on folding chairs, LOL). Naturally, the heat chose this week to show up, but we should be fine for a couple hours or so. We both are looking forward to it if nothing else decides to go wonky this week.

And that’s my five, now I’d love to hear yours! I’m sure yours will be vastly more interesting and not involved a long winded story about a doorknob.  I hope everyone has a great weekend!

So remember last week, I mentioned hearing coyotes outside our back fence? And I wondered if a coyote could jump the block wall? Now I know the answer!

A couple mornings ago, a neighbor went to take his newish puppy out back when it was still dark around 5 am and a coyote was IN his back yard. The neighbor yelled to scare him away, and the coyote hopped up on the block wall and walked down it toward our house (he lives about four houses from us).

The neighbor’s dog was fine, and the neighbor was going door-to-door to make sure all of us knew that coyotes could get in the backyard. We super appreciate that.  I had always heard coyotes could jump a block wall, I just hadn’t heard a first-hand account of it. Now I have! Otherwise, Wizard and I have already lived in this area for a really long time. so we knew about the coyotes (and bobcats and rattlers) but others may not.

And despite that, we do love it here! Now if a rattler gets in our backyard, I may feel differently <<shudder>>

But isn’t it awesome how sometimes we ask and the universe answers? Now I won’t feel quite so silly at night out in the backyard doing my Granny Baseball Ninja act in my pajamas (We all know when that it comes to Maggie, I’ll sacrifice life, limb and pride for her!)

Happy Wednesday!

The weekend was good! Saturday, we had four chairs for our patio delivered (I love free delivery!). Once they arrived, Wizard said, “I know you’ve been thinking it already, but when you were gone yesterday, I took Maggie to Home Depot and we looked at portable propane firepits that could work with this set.”

I laughed, because yes I had been thinking it and looking myself But we aren’t committed to that yet as we must wait for the final verdict from the Budget Office at the end of the month. But the way he said he already knew I’d been thinking about it was too funny. The only one who knew I was looking at those firepits was Maggie. And should couldn’t have told him….wait…I took Maggie with me when I was looking at them at Home Depot! Maybe she showed him when he took her there???

Back to Saturday; later that day, Special K and Turbo came over. We had fun! Turbo checked out the “new” backyard with all the changes. He was slightly unsure until I showed him the section of hill that is all dirt just for him in. He was thrilled! He immediately started digging and playing with his trucks. Special K and I were chatting while watching him until Grandpa came out and shooed us away, which made us both laugh. But he deserves his one-on-one time with Turbo since I got him all to myself last time I saw him.

I also made chicken enchiladas that I was happy with. That’s a win for me. Now I just hope I can remember how I made them since I didn’t really follow the recipe.

On Sunday, I also made some cupcakes to pop in the freezer to use if we can for my Mother-In-Law’s birthday this week. Unfortunately, Wizard has jury duty so we aren’t sure how the week is going to go. This way once he has a free day, all I have to do is take the cupcake out of the freezer, whip up a batch of Bailey’s chocolate frosting and pipe it on then I’m ready to go. While the cupcakes were in the oven, I finally remembered to check my  bottle of Bailey’s liquor (after I’d gone to the store, of course). I only use it for baking and can’t remember how old is is. Well now I know — old enough for the sugars had crystalized and turn it was a lumpy mess. Sigh. I tossed it out and see another trip to the store in my near future

That was my weekend, how was yours?

TGIF! Once again, I’m shocked how fast Friday arrived! The days are just whizzing by. But it is Friday, so it’s time to share five random things about our week. Here’s mine:

1) Outside where we just planted flowers, we have something called Dog Vomit Slime because it looks like dog vomit (or scrambled eggs…but lets not go there). It’s so weird, but apparently harmless. When we first saw it appear one morning this week, we thought Maggie had been very sick and were concerned. Then we learned what it was…LOLOL! The best part is that Maggie is fine.

2) It’s been another busy week, mostly because I keep trying to do too many things in too few hours I used to think it was because I spent so many hours writing or trying to write, but now I’m getting a clearer picture of my…uh…let’s call it optimism on how much I can actually do in a day. I blame my brain that refuses to let me sit down or do fun things if I have not checked off the tasks I put on my mental check list. I mean I should be able to hit a delete button somewhere right? But my brain is not a believer in the delete button.

3) I bought a bunch of shirts. I’m desperate for clothes for various reasons, and made myself start somewhere. It’s just a few t-shirts and tank tops, but I’m proud of myself for finding that much. Although I was shocked at how much it cost. I mean I shopped at The Gap at an outlet center and all the shirts were on sale. Maybe I just hate spending money on clothes that don’t turn me into a young supermodel   Next I have to clean the crap out of my closet. I have some basically unwearable things in there I’ve hung onto “just in case” but I’m never clear on what that “just in case” might actually be. Like a locust invasion where no one will notice shredding seams because I’ll be covered in buzzing grasshoppers???

4) I just began hydrating my new sourdough starter that I bought freeze dried. I’ll know by next week how that’s doing. It’s for a white bread sourdough, meaning it’s basically all-purpose flour and water. Rye-N, who is now misname because I’ve converted him from a rye flour starter to a wheat flour starter, is doing amazing! I feed him roughly once a week and he rises like the superstar every time. I hope my new starter, Willa, does the same. (Willa came to me with that name, so I’m keeping it).

5) The plan this weekend is for Special K and Turbo to come over on Saturday. CPA Boy will come too if he can, but he’s still in tax season so he’ll play it by ear. We’re looking forward to that! I may even try out a new chicken enchilada recipe while they’re here — we’ll see. It all depends if I can get some prep done, and if I can’t, no one will care. The point is to just have fun with Special K, Turbo and maybe CPA Boy.

So that was my five, now I’d love to hear yours! I hope everyone has a great weekend!