Sweets for the Sweets

Today has been a very quiet day around here. Jim came home yesterday from CES in Las Vegas completely pooped, and managed to bring home an unwanted visitor with him, in the form of a sore throat and general icky feeling. So, we've laid low today, not doing much more than (finally!) taking down the Christmas tree. Also on my own to-do list, though, was making our weekly supply of chocolate chip cookies. It's one of the things that I really love to do, actually. I make them from scratch, they take around half an hour (not bad for such a tasty treat!), and they make the house smell simply wonderful. And I know that Erin and Jim totally love them, so the effort is totally worth while. People ask me all the time how I can bake so much and deal with having all the yummy treats in the house all the time. It's simple, really. I don't eat them! No, seriously! I might have one (and only one) cookie at the end of the day (if I have enough Weight Watchers points left over for that and a small glass of milk - because after all, what's a cookie without milk?), but for the most part, I just leave them alone. Looking at this picture, though, I'm starting to think that I'm nuts for doing that.  LOL!

Getting Lost

I am, and always have been, an avid reader. I love nothing better (well, almost nothing better) than getting lost in a great book for hours on end, and hate when I reach the end of it. Erin hasn't always followed in my footsteps in this area, but lately, she's been honing in on books that really seem to catch and keep her interest. Her latest faves are the books in the "Mother-Daughter Book Club" series, by Heather Vogel Frederick. Erin read the first book just before her winter break, and devoured in in less than a week. (I read it after her, and actually really enjoyed it as well. What do you know!) For Christmas, we bought her the other three books in the series. The second one also took her around a week. She finished it this morning, and immediately grabbed the third one, even going so far as to take it out with us when we ran our errands, and reading it in a restaurant while we had lunch. Her goal for today is to continue reading until Jim gets home from Las Vegas (which should be in around 2 1/2 hours from now, if he doesn't hit any traffic). I have to say, as much as I love getting lost in a good book, I love seeing Erin do it, too!

Lil' Cuties

I have a new obsession... Cuties mandarins. I've never been a big orange-eater. I've never liked the act of peeling them, never liked having my hands smell like orange afterward... basically didn't like the effort that goes into eating them. I'm weird that way. But in the last few weeks, I've rediscovered these little gems, and am trying to reprogram myself to reach for one of them when I'm hungry, instead of any of the other not-so-good-for-me stuff that also lives in my kitchen. Adding to my new determination to health-up my snacking is the fact that I've once again climbed, shamefully, up onto the Weight Watchers wagon and am determined not only to lose the last 15 pounds that have refused to leave me, but also make some permanent changes to how and what I eat. We'll just call the Cuties baby steps. Cute, little, orange, juicy, baby steps.

 

Truer Words Were Never Spoken

Jim and I have moved around a lot during the 20 (!) years that we've lived together. Literally, we've been north, south, east, and west. Probably the hardest part of moving like that is feeling like you're leaving your friends behind when you move away from them. I'm truly thankful, though, that I have managed to maintain friendships with people throughout the years, regardless of the miles and years that have separated us. I literally have friends that I've known since grade school days (Facebook has helped here a bit, but others I've kept in touch with since back in the days that we actually (gasp!) wrote letters on this thing called paper. I have friends who I've worked with at one office or another. And I have friends without whom my life would be totally incomplete. With a lot of these fantastic people, we might go months, or even years, without speaking, but once we hear each other's voices, it's like we've never been apart. That's what true friendship is. Today's picture is a great example of that. This wind chime was given to me by a great friend of mine, Carrine, when we left New Jersey in 2008. Carrine and I worked together, but she was more than my boss. She was a fantastic friend. We had laughed and cried together too many times than we could possibly count, and we both knew we'd miss each other terribly. These days, we don't talk as much as either of us would like to. But she called me yesterday morning, and it was so great to just hear her voice. Each time I look outside and see these chimes, I think of her, and of all of my other wonderful friends. My life would be simply empty without them.

 

Roses... in January?

Although we've been kind of hammered this winter so far with rain, I have to say, once the rain goes away, we're usually faced with some gorgeous weather. Today was a good example of that. Sure, some people are saying it's chilly outside (and let's face it, while working the drop-off car line at school this morning, I was wearing gloves, too), but really, it's quite nice out. Nice enough that our rose bush in the back yard actually has a lot of buds and blooms on it! Yes, in January! What a treat! Seeing as the sun was shining this afternoon, I took the camera out and got a couple of nice pictures. I'll just keep these handy for the next time I'm building an ark because of the rain and need a reminder of the good that the rain does.

Sleeping Dogs Lie

Miss Molly is still recovering from the TPLO surgery that she had in early December. Well, kind of. Except for the funky haircut on her left rear leg and the remains of the Frankenstein-like scar around her knee, you'd probably never really know there was anything wrong with her. But still, she's not supposed to run, jump, or get riled up for another 3 months, have any long walks (going out is just for "business" these days), and is supposed to rest a lot during the day. That last part is a joke. Molly's a typical Lab, which means that the majority of her day is spent snoozing on her blanket, recuperating or not. Today was no exception. She spent most of the day curled up behind my chair, occasionally letting out incredible snores. The girl knows how to rest, that's for sure. This was the first chance I've had to really use the cool articulating screen on my new camera, though, and it was fun! I put the camera into Live View, set it on the floor, and tilted the screen out and up so I could see it. Made taking the picture from this perspective much easier, as I didn't have to lie on the floor myself to see what it would be of. Had I done that, I might have fallen asleep just like Molly!

Macro Monday

Today was a chilly (by Orange County standards, anyway), rainy sort of day. And it was the first day back to work and school for our household. Made for a day that was hard to find any kind of mojo at all, and I lacked motivation all day. Blech. But the one good thing you can say about rainy days is that it makes for some fantastic macro photo opportunities! I like that - it's better than faking it with a spray bottle. LOL! Anyway, I grabbed my camera, put on one of my macro filters (because a macro lens doesn't live in this house - yet), and stepped out my front door to see what was waiting for me. Lo and behold! Raindrops on leaves. Certainly not a surprise, but perfect for my needs!