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Shot by Aunt Julie with a Canon Rebel XTi
Tree Peony
Stargazer Lily 
Delphinium
Big Bird Day Lily
Lupine 
Here's Patch again. She's lounging on my Amish quilt. But more about that (the quilt, not the lounging) later.
Patch is nearing her 14th birthday. That's 72 years in human terms, according to the Cats Age Conversion Chart. Practically a Senior Citizen, huh? Hence, my six words for this fine Saturday morning:
You think she's eligible for AARP?
Just wondering. Especially since a cat's life expectancy has grown in the past 20 years, according to Pet Place.com.
Cate at Show My Face hosts Six-Word Saturday each week. You should stop by to see her!
In March, those of us who love to read commemorate this joie de vivre by celebrating Dr. Seuss' Birthday and National Reading Month. I'm sure there's a month for everything and every cause under the sun, but reading is fundamental to me.
Why do I bring this up now? Because I just uncovered this cute shot in the POPrs Family Archives. Meet College Boy in his younger years, showing off one of his favorite authors. Mine, too!
I have to say I love me a good piece of meat. I've always been a steak girl. And, yes, I know it's sinfully bad for me, but I don't think I can help myself.
Three-quarters of our family, in fact, not only favors red meat, but likes it done up rare. An old expression comes to mind: "I'll have mine rare~Just wipe its but & run it by the fire."
Last year, the Veggie Family tried to be good. The Wild One read Skinny Bitch over Winter Break, and all of the sudden the Veggies were going Quasi-Vegetarian.
The mantra of SB's authors?
"If you can't take one more day of self-loathing, you're ready to hear the truth: You cannot keep shoveling the same crap into your mouth every day and expect to lose weight."
They pinpoint red meat as the culprit in many of our diet disasters. So, at the first of the year we vamoosed cow from our diet.
I had a whole new repertoire in the kitchen. Quiche Lorraine replaced Ribeye. Curry stood in for flank steak. We still did kabobs, but they featured chicken instead of sirloin.
Moker started to make cracks at the dinner table. Things like, "I just wish I could eat a meal that required a knife every so often." But even the Big Guy got with the program, eventually.
Have to say I'm pretty proud of the Veggie Family. We lasted close to four months. Then TWO, who had orchestrated the whole charade, decided that she, too had had enough.
She broke her fast one sunny late-April afternoon, with a post-school steak burrito. And then we celebrated with burgers on the grill that night.
It was a challenge while it lasted. And, no, I didn't lose weight. Not an ounce!
We live on a cul-de-sac. Some of us call it a "court." Four other families live on the court with us. We decided to do something festive for Memorial Day, so we did a 5-family bar-be-que.
My Philly looks festive, doesn't it?
No, not a wine-tasting. Just some good cheer in front of the garage.
The peonies dressed up for the occasion.
Well, not all the kiddos were home for the weekend, but we drew a pretty good crowd. And we got the whole thing in before Mother Nature threw a wet blanket, so to speak, on the proceedings. We'd been anticipating rain all day, but the skies didn't open up until we'd finished with dessert.
You all know, Dear Readers, how Veggie Mom feels about women competing in this world. But I'm not so sure that they all have to dress up to do it.
Susan Boyle showed up on Britain's Got Talent the other day, all glammed and gussied up. But I'm not sure her makeover has made her any better.
Yes, for the most part Ms. Boyle virtually nailed "Memory," that classic from the musical, "Cats." But she started off a tad shaky. She clearly was nervous, and those nerves showed in the opening bars of the ballad.
I wonder if all the buzz around Susan Boyle's initial performance, when she knocked that snarky smirk right off Simon Cowell's face, has somehow upped the ante for this Scottish lass.
We were talking about this at work the other day. Do the clothes really make the woman? Is Ms. Boyle somehow a better person because her hair's been permed, her eyebrows waxed, and she's wearing a glam frock? Does the powder and the rouge help her project? Keep her vibrato steady? Enable her to sing in the upper registers?
Above all, does all this America's Next Top Model treatment make Susan Boyle a better person?
I'm not sure it does.
One of my colleagues maintains that Ms. Boyle has to be glammed up in order for audiences to pay attention. I maintain that her lusty soprano is what helps her command the most attention.
Another friend said, "But what if she wins? Won't she be made over anyway? Won't the whole experience transform her?" My friend says the producers are "just getting a head start."
I can't help but think that if Susan Boyle were named Steve, she might be treated differently. How much of a price must one pay for success?
Canon A1000 IS PowerShot
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Watered some of the garden yesterday morning. The little pieces of "confetti" slashing through the air are actually sprinkler droplets. 
Glad that pistachios are back on the shelves now!
One of College Girl's friends snapped this. Something to do with a sorority function, but I haven't quite gotten the whole scoop. So here's what I have to say about the whole thing, in six words:
Pretty in Pink? Perhaps, I think!
Don't want to go too much farther with this rhyme, 'cause I could be accused of being jealous, or something. After all, don't think I could pull this off. Could you?
Google-Blogger seem to be settling down, so I'll be blog-hopping today, for sure. Six-word Saturday is organized every week by Cate. She runs Show My Face. Please show her some Comment Love today, OK? That is, if Blogger will let you.
Those of you who have grown used to Veggie Mom's prolific posting and commenting must have been sorely disappointed this week. She's been fighting with Google, and let's just say it hasn't been pretty.
Starting Monday night, the Search Engine That Owns Me started throwing hissy fits. First, I couldn't access Blogger, which of course, means no Eat Your Veggies! Then, I could get to Blogger, but I couldn't sign on. Then, I could get the EYV Home Page to load~well, half of it, anyway.
The long and the short of it is that I've felt a tad off-kilter all week long. At one point, I discovered that if I wanted to search for something, that was fine, but YouTube, Blogger, GMail and Picassa Web were all off-limits.
Google 's only been around for 10 years or so, but I'm feeling like Google Apps have been running things for centuries. When will the madness end?
Finally, last night, things started settling down. No more fragmented screens. No more odd dips and cyber-blips. I could open up Blogger, start a new post, and write something.
Only one problem. The program let me compose this post and post the graphic above. But posting photos seems to be out, for now. So I'm celebrating Candid Carrie's Friday Foto Fiesta with all that I've got. Words.
One of the wonderful things about the Internet is that it brings us all closer together. The cyberworld keeps us up-to-date, sometimes inspires us, and it most certainly keeps us entertained.
College Girl passed this YouTube video along to me. A little girl narrates a story about the kittens she sees in a book about kittens.
The child certainly has a different take on the little fur balls. And on life. Please enjoy, "Kittens, Inspired By Kittens."
Here's to Rachel Alexandra, the filly who won the Preakness Stakes last weekend. Her victory in the second leg of the Triple Crown shows just how tenacious and tough we women can be, huh?
Kind of in a food mood this week, considering last week's quandary.
As you may recall, I recently was at a loss over what to cook for dinner. You know, since my peeps are away, and all. May of you wonderful friends had the 4-1-1 for my 9-1-1, so now my recipe box has been replenished. Thanks!
One of the more interesting~and tasty~recipes I received was from friend Tara R., over at If Mom Says OK.
This dish is called Bulgogi. Translated, that's Korean Bar-be-Que. And although the flank steak is prepared on a grill, there's not much BBQ-ish about it at all. But it's spicy and tasty, and I'd like to share:
Bulgogi
1 pound flank steak
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup sesame oil (can substitute ½ cup sesame oil, and ½ cup canola oil)
2 cups low sodium soy sauce (regular is too salty)
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger
1-3 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes (to taste, depending on how hot you like it)
2 cups jasmine rice, cooked
Season beef with salt and pepper.
In a medium mixing bowl, combine oil, soy sauce, garlic, ginger and red pepper flakes. Place meat in a shallow pan, pour marinade over the meat. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or over night. (Tara R. puts the steak into a heavyduty plastic freezer bag and pours the marinade into the bag, remembering to turn the bag over occasionally for even marinading.) Remove beef from marinade, and bring to room temperature. Pour leftover marinade into heavy saucepan, over medium heat, bring to a boil and cook for 6-8 minutes. Set aside and keep warm.
Preheat grill. Grill the steak a few minutes on each side to desired degree of doneness. Remove from grill, let sit for a couple minutes, then cut into very thin slices. Serve over hot rice and garnish with hot marinade.
Tara R. also turned me on to sautéing some cabbage in the marinade to serve with the steak. She suggested pre-cut cole slaw mix, if we couldn't find Bok Choy, which is Korean cabbage. I took it one step farther, and sautéd broccoli slaw. Can you say delish?
Tara cautions that "Sesame oil can be an acquired taste. It can be a little overpowering," she says. "If you’re not sure if you will like the full flavor of this oil, you can ‘cut’ the sesame oil, 1:1 with canola oil. If you prefer chicken, you can substitute four boneless, skinless chicken breasts for the flank steak."
For more mouthwatering recipes, or "receipts," as my Nana used to say, please visit Rachel, From the Land of Monkeys and Princesses.
Meet Mad Dog and Merrill, who call themselves "Grillologists," and hail from New London, WI. They host a local Saturday Morning grilling show on radio, and hire out to cater gatherings ranging from backyard picnics to college sorority get-togethers.
How do I know so much about these hysterical-and quite talented-guys? Well, Aunt Julie and Uncle Lynn have been fans from Day One. And that prompted The Wild One to hire them to cook for a Larry U. sorority fest Saturday night.
"I thought I'd died and gone to Heaven," is the way TWO describes her first taste of Mad Dog and Merrill's fare. "I'm gonna have a hard time going back to the dorm cafeteria!"
The day before their Larry U. debut, the Grillologists made this appearance on Good Morning, Wisconsin. They cooked a Beer Butt Chicken. Wonder if these guys have tried POPrs yet? We'll check that out and get back to ya!
No, I don't live by the ocean, but I collect pieces of it and bring them back to my land-locked home. Here's a collection of whelks in various stages of "maturity," which grace one shelf of an old, beat-up, spray-painted, Salvation Army bookshelf that The Wild One fixed up for me on our back porch.
If I had a panoramic lens, I could shoot the whole shelf up close in one sitting. It's pretty neat. Or at least I think so!
Here's the inside of a turtle shell My Peeps found when they were wee ones. I don't know much about turtles, but doesn't that look like a backbone going up the middle?
I'm a fan of coral, but only if I don't step on it at the beach. I've got three different kinds here, and couldn't for the life of me tell you their names. I only know that the one on the far left is pretty sharp, the middle one no so much, and the one on the right is smooth as a skipping stone. 
I'm featuring another award as my Six-Word Saturday post. BTW, make sure you stop by to visit Cate at Show My Face to see other six-word wonders this weekend!
Tori Z., from Torizworld, is my new friend from Wales (as in the UK~yup, Across the Pond!) She presented me with this loverly trinket. Well, just thought I should speak like Eliza Doolittle for the occasion!
Before I get to the bloggy particulars, wanted to share my Six Words:
And, no, I don't think I'm stretching the truth a bit!
Anyway, the One Lovely Blog Award is all about making new friends. So, I hearby bequeath this pretty to the following 15 newish bloggy friends. They, in turn, must give it to 15 new bloggers, and so on, and so forth. Have fun with this, and enjoy your Saturday!
Wanted to share a couple more photos of Uncle Lynn's first foray into retail. Here's Soccer Boy trying to act all "professional," at the Festival Foods Store in Fon du Lac, WI...
...and a young customer who is SO SURPRISED that POPrs make her yogurt "sing"! Isn't this expression priceless?
Playing along today with Candid Carrie's Friday Foto Finish Fiesta. If you're in the neighborhood, come on out to Festival Foods and try some POPrs. This fun, delicious and good-for-you seasoning is in the yogurt aisle.
Another trip down Memory Lane for all you POPrs Pals today. We're celebrating Shark Boy's Big Day, and want to do it in style!
In this "vintage" 1991 photo, meet Big Bear, Uncle Lynn, The Birthday Boy and College Boy. Oh, and Mr. Gator. Aunt Julie conjured this Green Masterpiece as the young lad's birthday cake.
While the Black-Tipped Reef Shark Adventure was exciting, Shark Boy has much Bigger Fish to fry these days, including helping Mr. Pops launch the new retail line of POPrs - Coming to a supermarket near you, fingers crossed!
So, Happy B-Day, SB...May you live long and POPrs...er, prosper!
rse tastes just as delish on pudding, applesauce, etc. Uncle Lynn has put together seven demo teams, which go into the stores Friday afternoons, Saturdays and Sundays to entice shoppers with this awesome product. So if you're a Wisconsinite, journey out to Festival Foods soon and get your POPrs fix!
k?
Good news, gang, for two of our Bloggy Friends and POPrs Giveaway Winners. They're Blogging for the Gold, and need your help.
I was so tickled to get back-to-back e-mails from these gals. First from Veronica, of Supermarket Serenade fame. Those of you who visit Veronica's site know that it's an All Recipes, All the Time kinda place.
Well, Veronica's got a chance to win a $25,000 kitchen makeover from Crisco ~ that would be Twenty-Five Thousand Big Ones, folks ~ for her Carribean Chicken with Roasted Mango Sauce. Veronica made the Top Five, and needs your vote, please!
I'm not electioneering or anything (that's Hot Tub Lizzy's job, ya know!), but to vote for Veronica, please visit Crisco is Cooking, and do just that. You have to register, but it takes a couple quick seconds, and it's free. I'm told there's one vote per e-mail, but we Smarty Pants Bloggers know how to get around that, right?
And speaking of Smarty Pants Bloggers, don't you love Kathleen over at Katydidandkid? Well, this intrepid gal pal is one of 10 finalists in the Protect-a-Bed Blogher '09 Scholarship Competition!
Kathleen made it to the Top 10, and has a chance to win $300 ~ that's 300 Clams, folks! ~ to help fund her Chicago trip to BlogHer this summer. Polls close at Noon next Monday the 18th.
Please help our gal pals out. Please vote early ~ and often!
Moker and I need your help. We're tired of the same-old, same-old. Being Empty Nesters and all, we cook for two, but our repertoire is growing thin these days, and leftovers (I'm used to cooking for a gang o' peeps) are losing their appeal.
Do you have any quick, delish, wonderful dishes that you can share? To paraphrase Wimpy, I'd gladly pay you on Tuesday for a recipe, today!
Welcome to Weekly Winners, hosted by Lotus over at Sarcastic Mom. And Happy Mother's Day to one and to all!
The centerpiece of Baba's Garden was Baba's Bench. It's pretty old, and under the weather these days. Several decades of wind, rain, snow and ice can do that to a piece of outside furniture, which faced the elements 24/7 all those years! But I've figured out a way to make Baba's Bench the centerpiece of my garden, as well.
Azaleas were Mom's favorite flower. Might have had something to do with growing up on Azalea Lane. Or, it could also be because these flowering bushes are stunning. I planted three out back. Baba used to come over to admire my "green thumb," but she and I both knew that azaleas are such show-offs, they can take care of themselves.
Now, my SIL, Aunt Julie, really loves hummingbirds. So did Baba. It's far too early for hummers in my neck o' the woods, even though I live in slightly more temperate climes than most of the POPrs Family. So here is a hummer medalion I picked up at the garden store. It used to be on a long, sharp stake, so I poked it in among the flowers for many years. Unfortunately, wear-and-tear has left me with just the little birdie. Can't wait, though, 'til the real, live hummers appear on my back deck!
Finally, I learned to be a thrifty gardener from My Mom. Our local nursery has a "plant hospital," where they sell the sad little plants that aren't going to "make it" for 50 cents or less. Baba taught me that these are the "thrift sales" that keep on giving. Here's a Leopard's Bane, which cost me about 30 cents, and keeps coming back bigger and fuller every year. Mom once told me that when I was little, I called the plant "Leopard's Mane." I probably was thinking of a lion...I don't know!
I'm celebrating Mother's Day in the garden. What about you?
I have two entries in Six-Word Saturday today. First, I'd like to congratulate the winner of the POPrs Give It Away Now Giveaway:
The Winner Is...Stacy's Random Thoughts!
Stacy wins a box of POPrs ~ all eight flavors ~ that fun and nutritious seasoning, which encourages you to Eat Your Veggies! Please e-mail me, Stacy, at veggiemom@poprs.com, with your contact info, and Uncle Lynn will get your prize right out to ya!
And now, to the matter at hand, and the title of this post.
No, he didn't. But if Brett Favre had teamed up with my BIL, that would have been a million times better than the rash decision he was considering. I couldn't imagine Football Season starting so early this year, but here is my Second Series of Six Words, brought to you by Cate at Show My Face:
Meet the Dog, the Cat and the Rat. Otherwise known as Booger, Kitty and Mousey. Booger's a Rotweiller, Kitty's an American Tabby, and Mousey is, well, a Rat.
They're hanging out with their owner, Gregory Pike, in Santa Barbara. Moved to Cali recently after spending several years in Arizona. Pike is originally from Telluride, Colorado.
Booger the Rotweiller met Kitty when the cat was but a babe. Mousey grew attached to Kitty the same way. Now they walk around Santa Barbara all day long, promoting Peace, Love and Harmony.
"Peace can happen anywhere," Pike tells The Bottom Line, a publication put out by students at UC-Santa Barbara. "If they can do it, why can't people?"
He really does have a point there, don't you think?
"You know," Pike says, "they're just 'dumb' animals, but now, who're really the stupid ones?" Good question.
