The sky was really quite lovely this evening.

More playing with pictures. Feel free to move along if this bores the ever living snot out of you. Or feel free to force the conversation to something that interests you. It’s Friday, so it’s all good.

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I started Kat the other morning, and as he stared up at me I realized that he might actually be a manga cat: his face looked to be about 50% eyes.

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Why I Can’t Get Anything Done:

Which do you prefer?

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So when we did the Grandmom exchange at Hancock, I picked up some fresh local apples.

Actually, I picked up a LOT of apples, because I prefer a variety of apples in my pie.

With just three of us, an entire pie is just a bit too much–either I’ll eat too much pie, or the pie will go bad before we can finish it. So last year I ordered individual pie slice dishes from the King Arthur Flour Catalog.

First things first, I had way to much filling for the dishes, so the apples didn’t cook down as much as they could have. I also guesstimated the amounts for the other ingredients, but that worked out pretty well.

I used three different kinds of apples for this pie. Matsu, Northern Spy, and Rambo. The Rambo were too soft for my liking (it all but fell apart in the peeler) but since the pies needed to be jucier, they might work well anyway.


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Fall is most definitely here.

Plants are dying back, and now the stems and flower heads of my plants will feed birds for awhile.

Brown is starting to take over the garden, although I still have a few plants with fall and winter color.

For weeks and weeks the echinacia was covered in bees and butterflies. Now it be covered in small birds.

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They’re still doing it!

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I told you Kat had been eerily affectionate recently.

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Loot for ME! Loot for ME! Loot for Me!

Yes, my prize for winning the Jim Wright is an Asshole contest has finally arrived!

And it’s actually a real prize this time!

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It’s really sunny out today. Really really sunny.

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While we were gone, apple butter from Janiece arrived.

Being a good granddaughter, I opened the box to make sure nothing had broken, and then closed the box back up for my grandmother.

Since we did the Grandmom exchange with my aunt today, Grandmom finally opened the apple butter.

The jar is now sitting by her chair–presumably so no one else will open it first. :)

His Furriness has beens strangely affectionate since we returned.

If I didn’t know better, I’d think he missed us.

Kat, hanging out.

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As you may have surmised, I spent a week traveling, because my friends Kim and Mike decided to get married in Wyoming.

Because I hate having to sit still, we decided to take the train instead of flying, and since it was an option, we decided to make Denver our end point, and after the wedding, spent a day in Denver.

(See previous post for fun in Denver)

Since we were going to be in such a scenic place, I decided to go hog wild with my camera. I took hundreds of pictures. About half those I deleted upon downloading them to my computer. Now I’m going through and picking out the photographs I really like. I’ve gone through the first several days already, and found several pictures I liked, however, I still have some to go, and have not even begun to play with the panorama program that came with my camera.

Here are a couple of pictures I particularly liked.

My set of Wyoming photos is on Flickr. More photos will be added to the set in the coming days.

So we were in the midwest for Kim & Mike’s wedding, and as usual, I managed to amuse myself.

We found an “Alaskan Fur Store” in Jackson, which may or may not explain Alaskans.

Sorry. None of you were worth $34.99 (or even $24.99 without tail) for a highly disturbing joke. However, you may be pleased to note that I included the phone number, on the off chance you wanted to order one for yourself.

If anyone orders this, let me state upfront that I do NOT want pictures of anyone I know modeling these things.

I also relaxed.

Here you can see me relaxing at Jenny Lake in the Grand Teton National Park.

No, they are not boots, but they were sneakers with laces. And it’s not like I was hiking. We were just walking around the lake.

After the wedding and national park visiting, we took a detour to visit Janiece and Anne.

The fabulous Janiece and her Smart Man allowed us to stay out their house, despite not having anyone to vouch for the fact that we were not deranged killers. I felt very lucky she trusted us so.

We went to the Coors Brewery for the tour, and Michael was pleased to discover that one of the beers he could “taste test” was Blue Moon.

This made up for the fact that he was initially disturbed to discover that Coors made Blue Moon and Killians, two of his favorite beers. (I do have pictures with Janiece at the Brewery, but they weren’t nearly silly enough for this post.)

We then met up with Anne, and wandered around the Denver Museum of Science.

INVISIBLE COCONUTS!

(Confused? See here.)

The museum had many interactive exhibits. Here I am modeling the mule deer ears.

They really didn’t make me hear any better. Or perhaps this was one just more exhibit I went to use that was not working at the time. Apparently it’s not safe to go anywhere with me.

After the museum we went out to dinner, where Janiece was surprised with brownies.

As you can see, Janiece thought they were icky, and said she was going to give them to her Smart Man to eat.

And here we were after dinner.

You’ll notice there is only ONE glass per person visible on the table. You’ll also notice that Anne is the only one who looks consistently sane in these pictures.

That’s all I’m going to say about that.

I’m so glad we were able to take some extra time on our trip to go by Denver and finally meet Janiece and Anne in person! As you can see, we did have some small amount of fun.

OK, here are a couple of photos, primarily so I can provide proof that I did, in fact, wear a dress.

But first:

The marvelous, happy, and photogenic Hannah!

The happy couple and Hannah.

Finally, the proof!

It’ll take me awhile to process the rest of the pictures, so you’re safe for now.

You can tell the summer is winding down and fall is almost here.

Here’s some sage from my herb garden. As long as I cover the garden with leaves in late fall, the plant should come back in the spring.

Sedum that came from S. Thanks again S!

Now the hydrangea is starting to turn brown. But it still has plenty of purple.

When is the nice woman going to give me more treats?
(Note: Nice woman is not me. Nice woman is my grandmother.)

I am cute, even if I am underexposed.

I’m cute. I just can’t help myself.

I will not look at you. You are not worthy.

What on earth could that be?!

Yesterday we made a brief trip to Hancock, and I decided it would be a good time to play with the landscape setting on my camera, as well as with the photostitch software that came with it.

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It’s that time of the week!

Nasturtium. They’re nice and spread quickly. And are edible, but I haven’t tried one.

Shrub Rose beside the drive way. It doesn’t have a strong smell, and the roses aren’t as beautiful as hybrid tea roses, but it’s hardly and survives benign neglect.

Yes, I really do like the orange sunflowers. Why do you ask?

As you may remember, I won Jim’s contest.

Today, my loot arrived!

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TGIF!

Kat, hanging out on the cat mat from Tania. Don’t look too closely or you see where all the cat fur in my house ends up.

Kit, thinking if she lies on the kitchen chairs, we won’t see her.

Despite the fact that I always find her there.

By popular demand (and because I had an incredibly crappy week last week) And also as a guide for Gina, who views baking this recipe with trepidation… Bittersweet Brownies!

I do believe that these are the best brownies in the entire world. Seriously.
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Laundry.
Bills.
Took Grandmom to the pharmacy and grocery store.

Oh yeah! Went to visit Kim and Mike and Hannah.

YAY HANNAH!