View down into the bottom of my smoothie.

While finishing my breakfast smoothie the other day, I was distracted by the look of the mango-peach smoothie residue and the swirly pattern of my glass, with the light shining through it.


I played with the image in Photoshop a little bit.

For the past couple of weeks, we have been having gray and soggy days with brilliant but chilly interludes. Here are a few snapshots from the interludes.





I always love when these ornamental pear trees come into bloom.

This tree is at the elementary school. I took these pictures a week and a half ago, and by now the flowers are already gone.

Just a couple of examples of the lovely drippage that's all over the plants.

And here's a video I took in my front yard of all the lovely clouds.

Cupcakes for you

I'm not a huge fan of Kelly Ripa, but today I found out that she is supporting the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. And through Electrolux, she's having this virtual bake sale. For every virtual cupcake I send to people, Electrolux donates a dollar to OCRF. And since it's coming up on the 5th anniversary of my mother in law's passing from ovarian cancer, I thought it would be a fitting tribute to her and a fun way to "treat" my online friends.

I don't know what kind of explanation comes with the emailed virtual cupcakes, so I figured I would use this post to try to clarify my intentions, and alert my blog friends to watch your email inboxes.

The $5,000 challenge

Tagged by Leslie with a simple question: What would I do with $5,000? This is something I have actually been thinking about lately: I would pay to have someone build me a raised-bed garden to grow vegetables. Something like this. I'm not physically capable of doing it myself, and my family is too procrastinatory (is that a word?) to help me. So I would definitely take the opportunity to pay someone else to do it. Of course it probably wouldn't take the full $5,000, so the rest would go to charity. And If I had my "druthers", it would be for some local dog rescue organizations.

I'm just about ready to implement Plan B: buying a few of those big wooden half-barrels and just filling them up with soil and compost. But I still need someone to muscle them into the truck, and from there, out to the back yard. Oh, and also to move my compost box back there. And shovel some dirt for me. *sigh* That's why this is a fantasy meme, right?

Owls are done

The colors looked better in Photoshop. They look pretty crappy online. Hopefully it looks OK "from afar".

Superbowl '09

We're keeping the menu pretty simple this year:


Buffalo chicken tenders, veggie sticks, and oven fries, with creamy ranch dressing.



No-Pudge Fudge (made slightly pudgier with the addition of chopped walnuts)



Be assured, it's all gone by now.


Amusing ourselves at Boomer's expense during the game.

Bridgestone: Potato Heads

I liked this commercial. There was also a Coke commercial with bugs. I put it on Bug Safari, of course. You can see all the other commercials here.