It’s word association time!!!!!

Today’s word: carriage

I do not think it means what you think it means.

female big brust picture
I’m not sure how Steven Brust would feel about that.

james madison admitted states to union
All by himself?

I just realized that my web host is only saving the top twenty search terms. Why on earth would I want just the top twenty? The weird ones appear only once.

Everyone needs a little silliness in their lives.

I love cinnamon rolls. Of course, I love them with walnuts and cream cheese icing, which are Right Out for Grandmom, so we I made plain ones.

Which are still really good.

Cinnamon Rolls
Dough:
3 1/2 cups white wheat flour
2 tsp yeast
3 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp dry milk
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 large egg plus water to make one cup liquid
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp softened butter
Filling:
1/4 cup softened butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon (3 tsp if you tbsp doesn’t fit in the jar)
Icing:
2 tbsp half and half
1 cup confectioners sugar

I wasn’t thrilled with the way the dough was made. If I make it again I believe I’d proof the yeast as part of the process. As it was the directions had you simply mix everything together to form a smooth soft dough. Next time I’d proof the yeast in part of the water, then add in the remainder of the ingredients together.

Place the dough in a large greased bowl, over, and then allow to rise for at least an hour. Mine rose for closer to two hours, since I had other things going on.

Make the filling. I didn’t follow the directions at all here. Instead, I beat the butter, sugar, and cinnamon with the paddle attachment of my mixer, until I had a soft uniform spread.

Once the dough has risen, roll it out into a rectangle.

Spread the filling over the rolled out dough, leaving a strip of dough on the far end uncovered.

Roll the dough to make a log.

Move the dough to a cutting board (I destroyed a rolling mat once when I forgot to do this) and then slice the dough with a serrated knife.

Place the rolls in a greased pan. I used a stoneware pan here and made the full batch, however, I usually grease two 8″ round cake pans, and place one in the freezer for later.

Since I wanted to rolls for breakfast, I then covered the rolls in plastic wrap and then foil, and placed them in the refrigerator overnight.

Place the rolls in a warm oven that is off to allow them to rise for about an hour, or longer, as needed.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

Cool for about ten minutes, than cover with icing.

Eat!

Recipe is modified from The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion

A post of Eric’s lead me to MSNBC’s “Most Offensive Costumes of 2009” and although one or two of them may have qualified as offensive, I thought most of them were actually hilarious.

I mean, a Bernie Madoff costume? That’s not offensive, that’s hilarious!

This on the other hand, is both offensive and hilarious. (NOTE: If you aren’t a WVU fan, you probably won’t get the joke. Also, totally safe for work.)
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We’ve apparently had the right amount of rain and perfect temperatures here for fall color in my yard.

Burning bush and sugar maple.

Sugar maple–my favorite tree in our yard.

We got Kit by accident.

We’d gone to the Stonewall Jackson craft fail Labor Day weekend with my parents, and on the way home, my dad wanted to stop at a pet supply store in Clarksburg to check out their fish supplies.

Michael and I wandered around the store, and found in the back corner a set of cages, one cage had a ferret, but the cage about it had kittens.

“Someone abandoned them outside,” the salesperson said. “I think they’re only about four weeks old.”

“We don’t need another cat,” I said, “but thanks.”

“But look at this one!” said Michael. “Look at its face! Look how cute!”

“But we don’t need another cat. We already have a cat.”

“That really is an adorable cat,” said my mother.

In the end, I admitted defeat and we brought had ourselves a new kitten.

Did I mention the kittens were above a ferret cage? They were. She stunk for the first couple weeks we had her. Kat hated her, and hissed and got a big fat bushy tail and generally wanted nothing to do with her. Until he suddenly decided that maybe she was okay.

Of course, as soon as we took her to the vet, Kat hated her again when we got back, until he–again–decided she was okay. This has happened any time she’s gone to the vet alone. She comes back, and Kat wants nothing to do with her for a couple days. Then suddenly he’s over it.

Because she was so young when we got her, she has issues. She likes to lick, but mostly she has this thing about paper. Any kind of paper. She’ll stand on the paper and then dig and dig and dig and dig–never using her claws, just rubbing her paws back and forth.

And she’s also obsessed with water glasses, believing they need to be tipped over.

But she’s sweet natured and affectionate, which combined with her cuteness has saved her when she’s dumped a large glass of water on the floor or furniture or my head and three in the morning.

When we got our Fiestaware dishes, I no longer have any need of our old dishes, which have been sitting waiting for me to do something with them.

They’re Mikasa and I’ve got plates, bowls, mugs etc, all in excellent condition.

If you know anyone in need of a set of dishes, send them my way.

Yes, I know I could probably sell them on e-bay, but I’d rather give them to someone who needs them.

Today’s word is:

toddler

I’m a big fan of pumpkin, and pumpkin pie is probably Michael favorite food, although it may be tied with peanut butter, so every year, I get pie pumpkins and cook them down for pies and various pumpkin goodies throughout the year

I picked up pumpkins several weeks ago, but didn’t get to cook them down until today, which meant that one of them had gone bad in the interim. Luckily, it’s still early, so I can pick up more pumpkins next week if need be.

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Late and delicious breakfast, relaxed stroll, massage, and then a hot shower.

All Mondays should be like this. Hope yours is good, even if it’s not this fabulous.

Despite the assurances of the Disney Express man at the airport, I am not “dazzled” by our hotel.

However, I’m didn’t come to be dazzled, I came to relax and eat. And the salmon I had for dinner was fabulous. So there you go.

Let’s hope tomorrow’s meals are just as good–and that I can get a spa appointment…

Also? It’s surprisingly cool in Florida. Which is fine with me, since I hate the heat.

Also, either our hotel was built by midgets, or they were trying to do it on the cheap, because I can touch the ceilings without stretching.

But tomorrow? Tomorrow starts the relaxing.

Once Michael and I moved to an apartment that allowed pets, I wanted to get a cat. So in 1998, on my birthday, we went outside the city and picked out Kat.

Now let’s let’s go back a couple decades…

On my 4th birthday, I had been playing outside when I appeared at the door holding a gray cat, and saying, “Look! I got cat for my birthday!”

Despite my parent’s best efforts, no on in the neighborhood would claim him, so Smokey came to live with us. They got him fixed and all his shots and he joined the family, consisting of me, my parents, and Ari the dachshund.

One of the first things Smokey did was claw the kitchen chairs. So was taken to the vet to get declawed. (I think my parents were also concerned that he might scratch me.)

Unfortunately, one night–in the middle of the night of course, when everyone was sound asleep–there was a commotion in the basement. A very loud commotion. A crashing and crunching and rattling and rolling commotion.

My parents rushed downstairs to discover that Smokey had used his back claws to shred a 50 lb bag of dog kibble, which then cascaded down the wooden basement stairs.

Smokey quickly went to live somewhere else.

Thus, I wasn’t sure if it was auspicious or not when we got Kat on my birthday. Yet despite his really bad attitude (which to be honest, is not all entirely his fault), I’ve enjoyed having him around, and hope he stays healthy so we can keep him around for awhile longer.