I am a Sheepdog

I've been following a new blog. I think I now follow about 20 blogs. I am seriously becoming obsessed! Oh well it could be worse. I could be sitting around eating chocolate all day! Te He! I have always loved reading. I will read over a movie or TV anyday. When I was in elementary school I lived for library day. I have also been known to make a trip to the library and check more books than I can actually carry or have time to read. But as I said, it could be worse.

Anyway, mudpuppy's blog can be found here. I must warn you that it is not for the faint at heart. So if you don't want to hear about strippers, beer or read a few cuss words then don't go there. I appreciate his writing style. He has the ability to pull you in and make you see the story in your head.

In one post he describes how his platoon came up with the name Sheepdogs. He explains that most people are either Sheep, Wolves or Sheepdogs. Sheep being most people, Wolves being the bad guys preying on the Sheep and finally, Sheepdogs the protectors of the flock. Now when you read the link I think you will understand. I am always amazed at how simple things really are. No matter how complicated things may seem, life basically is simple. Good and evil. Right and wrong. Love and war.

Now I may not technically be a Sheepdog but I have come from them and borne them. I stand for them and with them. But that is a story for another day...

Read all about Sheep, Wolves & Sheepdogs here

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. LCpl Honda came home with his buddy LCpl J. We were joined by Grandma M and Grandpa DingDon along with Hippie Guy and Flower Child. Cinderella and her family couldn't make it but we will see them soon for ThanksChristmas or Christgiving or MasThanks, whatever you want to call it.

Once again I have a video compliments of Grandma M. It sums up the holiday. We are lucky to be able to live in a place where we are free to enjoy little things like turkey, family, new friends and old. Please take a moment and remember the people who make this possible. One of those people is my nephew Cpl Red who is deployed in the sand and a long way from home. We hope he had a good Thanksgiving. Hey Cpl Red, since you weren't here I have a whole bunch of rolls leftover! Take care dude. We love you and miss you!

God bless the rest of our Troops at home and abroad. Thank you! I hope you are all home soon.

Click here for the video

Friday Food

Olive Garden Chicken Carbonara

When I started Friday Food I thought it would be a nice light-hearted way to end the week and maybe find some new recipes...yeah right. I guess I will start at the beginning. In my internet surfing I ran across a few websites that provide recipes from leading restaurants. I thought Oh goody! You see Corvette’s restaurant taste runs from Chili’s to Filiberto’s with the occasional McDonalds or Taco Bell thrown in for good measure. I remember a few years ago when he came home excited because he had discovered Wendy’s Turkey Sandwiches. Well anyway I thought I can still try out all these places with out actually going there and all the while exposing Corvette to something other than Baby Back Ribs.

I found this recipe for Chicken Carbonara. It sounded really good even though it involves a lot of ingredients but didn’t seem too time consuming. Hey they make it in the restaurant right? Things started going downhill when I discovered I did not have two of the ingredients required.

1. Bacon Bits

I know I have bacon bits. I just bought them not long ago. I searched high and low. Nothing. Crap. Ok just fry up some bacon and cut it up. No big deal right? Wrong.

2. No flour

I need flour to make the white sauce thicken. Once again I go searching. I also know I have flour because I have been making bread. Dammit. I decide to go to the garage and attempt to search the box mountain. Unfortunately they are labeled everything from junk to stuff. Alright who did this? Umm. Me I think. Fine so I rifle through a few boxes and give up because:

a. it is hot in the garage

b. Buddy is in the house howling

c. I look on the bright side and think I will figure it out.

So, back in the kitchen I start looking for something to substitute for flour. Now I know I could just go to the store but I DON’T WANT TO. And that’s all I have to say about that. Finally after opening my cupboards about 10 times I take out a box of Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix. Hmm, first ingredient is FLOUR! This will work. Oh happy day. My meal is saved.

Ok now that this is under control I feel I can move on. So since I spent so much time getting things together I try to multi-task and fill the dish washer as I am cooking the sauce. The recipe says to bring to a boil and let simmer. Ok, check. Buuuuttttttt if you don’t keep an eye on it and turn it down when it comes to a boil you get…..yes I'm sure you can guess. I turned around to see my sauce boiling all over my stove and going in other burners and down, down, down inside the stove. So grab the pan, move the pan, it’s still spilling over while I am screaming and Buddy has resumed howling and Angie (nothing much bothers her).

OK, cigarette break. After that I put the sauce on another burner I attempt to clean up my poor, brand new stove. Mindful of the fact that Corvette will walk through the door at any moment and I am sure he will think I have ruined the brand new stove. Don’t even ask! Just as I slip the last burner back in place the back door opens:

Hi Honey, What’s for dinner it sure smells good.

I’m just standing there with my best poker face on.

What's that? Something new?

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Well the rest of the preparation was actually uneventful and guess what? The Chicken Carbonara was really good. I think next time I will just get a couple jars of Alfredo Sauce and call it good. Here is the recipe if you dare.

Oh, next Friday may just very well be Grilled Cheese Sandwiches. But, alas, you all know how to make that right?

Really Cool Animation - Copy and Paste

Grandma M sent me this. I speaks for itself. I can't get it to link so just copy & paste.

http://www.jacquielawson.com/viewcard.asp?code=1587727714443&source=jl999

Build A Sign

I ran acoss this website. In honor of Veteran's Day they are giving away 20,000 signs and jumbo cards. You can find it here buildasign. I am having this sent to Cpl Red in Iraq. It is 18" x 24" Hope he likes it. Nothing like getting a big A** card for Christmas!!!

Yard Sale Tales

So we decided to have a yard sale to rid ourselves of our accumulated junk. On Saturday we made about $70 dollars but did not really unload very much. So we got up early on Sunday and sat there for 5 hours and made a whole dollar! We have been so tired since the move that we did not do a good job of advertising the the yard sale. So our tenants, K&T let us leave everything in the driveway and go for it again next weekend. I will be so using Craig's List to advertise this time. So everyone please send yard sale karma our way or pray for someone to come and steal everything. Either way I don't much care at this point.

New Cars

It seems to be an epidemic. Both Cinderella and LCpl Honda have purchased new cars in the last couple of weeks. Cinderella bought a Mazda 5 Minivan and LCpl Honda bought a Honda Civic Hybrid. So everyone is now styling in their new cars. Congratulations to both of them! I look forward to checking them out over the holidays.

Friday Food - Honey Spiced Rubbed Pork Tenderloin

I really like to make good food and who doesn't like to eat. I've decided to start Friday Food. Every Friday I will try and post a recipe that I really love. I found this recipe on Kiki's blog. It looked really good so I gave it a try. I had to substitute boneless pork roast for the tenderloin because I was at Kmart and they didn't have tenderloin. ugh! Anyway it was real easy and tasted great. Corvette liked it and he isn't always up for new things. Buddy liked his piece too!

Here is the recipe

Marine Cha Cha Slide Team

Crafty sent this to me yesterday. I had to keep from laughing out loud as I was at work.
I want to do this! Happy Friday!



*I don't know why there is two, but I will work on it*

Definition of a Veteran

Crafty brought up this subject. I did not wish our two active duty military members, LCpl Honda and Cpl Red a Happy Veterans Day. I believe Cpl Red can be called a Veteran because he is a Veteran of the Iraq war. Whereas LCpl Honda has not seen combat duty or deployment. I went to Wikipedia and this is what I found:

Noun
Singular veteran Plural veterans

veteran (plural veterans)
1. A person with long experience of a particular activity.
2. A person who has served in the armed forces, especially an old soldier who has seen long service

Adjective veteran (comparative more veteran, superlative most veteran)
1. Having had long experience, practice, or service.
2. Of or relating to former members of the military armed forces, especially those who served during wartime.

So I am a little confused. Anybody want to weigh in on this? So if I was wrong let me wish LCpl Honda and Cpl Red a happy belated Veteran's Day and since I started this after the fact let me say I hope they both had a great Marine Corps Birthday which was on November 10th. 233 years and still going strong!

Veterans's Day

I choose to start my blog today because I think it is important not to forget to Honor our Veterans. From young to old, of many different wars and conflicts they all deserve our thanks and honor. I want to send special thanks and greetings to the Veteran’s in my family: Grandpa Dingdon, former Navy Corpsman and Cinderella, former Army MP.

A little about me. I’m married to Corvette and we have three grown children, Lcpl Honda, Cinderella & Hippie Guy. I will elaborate a little more on our children and their lives in another post. I also have two grandchildren. Butterfly and Lollypop Kid and I love, love, love being Grandma!!! Cinderella lives with her significant other and he is Tango and is the big version of Lollypop Kid. Hippy Guy lives with his significant other Flower Child and they live in Tucson. Lcpl Honda is unattached at the moment and is stationed at Camp Pendleton. I live in Tucson Arizona and I absolutely love it here. Ahh, yes it is a dry heat but I will take that over shoveling snow any day. My sister is Crafty and her husband is Speedracer and are in Arizona also. My nephew is Cpl Red and is currently in the sandbox on his second tour of duty. Oorah! My parents are Grandpa Dingdon and Grandma M and live in Tucson also. Oh and I can’t forget to mention my babies, Buddy my long-haired chihuahua and Angelina (Angie for short) my mutt cat. Oh yes these are their real names. No security or privacy problems here. I have many stories about the escapades of these two so stay tuned.

Corvette and I just purchased a new home that we had built. I can honestly say it was one of the most stressful things we have ever done but the house is beautiful. We are still unpacking and looking for the things we can’t find. Can somebody invent a machine that finds lost items when you move? My new neighbors want to borrow when we are through with it. Case in point. Corvette asked for twist ties.
Me, “Uh, I can’t find them”.
Him, “Oh come on, you have to have twist-ties”.
Me, “Uh, I have some I just can’t find them”
Him, “Ok, just give me the loaf of bread”.
My bread is now twist-tie less. Trust me this phenomenon is not exclusive to twist-ties. It also applies to hair crème, socks and my Buddy’s beloved baby (a gutted porcupine dog toy). Well, more to come on the moving experience.

I am going to close now. Wish me luck on this little blog of mine.

Follow the link in the title for an awesome tribute to our Veterans.