Love, Idaho Style

I really couldn’t make this shit up if I tried.

This treat was purchased at my over-priced “market” (you know, the one I have a love/hate relationship with) for the bargain price of $1.25.  What a steal.

 

I am back from the dirty south just in time for the arrival of some new snow and my mom who flew in from Florida.  Yes, the same mom I just visited.  With our work/travel schedules, this was the only week that worked out for her to take her annual ski trip.

I had a great trip to Florida and then spent a week at a trade show where I repeated “Our products are solar powered and designed for year round outdoor use” about five thousand times and any semblance of a tan faded away.  I am disgusted to report that it took me 20 hours to travel home from Atlanta on Wednesday.  I fear I may be getting too old for this shit.

Lily had a health scare while I was gone and had emergency surgery to remove her spleen.  For a while we didn’t think she would come home which was awful…but she did, and is doing better each day.  For me, it was a huge wake up call to the fact that she is getting older and may not be around as long as I want her to be.

Oh, and I got an iPhone and don’t know how I EVER lived without one.  Here are some pictures I snapped on my new device while in Florida.

This sunrise over the ocean woke me up on my last day home.  I walked out on my balcony and snapped this…

I also ate Stone Crab (pictured below) 2 of the 4 nights I was home.  And probably would have eaten it every night had my mom not already made other plans.

Wow, this is more of a download than a post.  Time for me to get back to work and for you to digest my randomness.  Happy New Year!

STL Turkey Day

Lately I have been writing excuses, not posts, and it’s time to break the cycle.

Since our lovely trip to St.Louis for Thanksgiving, I have been extra busy taking care of Lily (who had another ACL surgery) and J (who broke some ribs).

Everyone is on the mend, so it’s time to play catch up.  So, just in time for Christmas, here is my Thanksgiving download:

J and his mom never smile in pictures.  It’s so misleading!

Karen’s holiday table = impressive.

Us on the Anheuser-Busch tour.  It was pretty cheesy, but they had free beer at the end.

Drinkify.Org

Here is a great way to waste a few minutes this morning…

http://drinkify.org/

I typed in “Journey” and the drink suggestion was Hennessy on the rocks.

Coincidence?  I think not.

McRib

Happy Friday!

They do kinda look like little nasty bloody fingers – right?

Confusion

I am currently confused about two things:

1.  Why can’t the St.Louis Cardinals get their shit together?  They are falling apart and in order for my house to be a happy one, we need them to win.  Lets hope Wednesday and Thursday’s games are better than the one I suffered through last night.  Ps.  I love you, Chris Carpenter.

2.  What is the big deal about the McRib?  I like ribs, but have no desire to eat them in a reconstructed boneless mold on a sandwich.  Am I missing something here?  Please enlighten me.

First Date

Wisconsin and Nebraska are meeting up at Camp Randall on Saturday.  It’s kinda like a high-stakes first date: this is Nebraska’s inaugural game in the Big 10 conference and the two teams haven’t played each other since 1974.  They are ranked No.7 and No.8 so you know it will be some good football.

Saturday also brings the first Brat Tub of the season and a cold Spotted Cow (thankfully Nic found a leftover six-pack from last summer in her garage).  Yum.

I also need to give a shout out to the Cardinals (the only other sports team I care about) for making the playoffs.  Things are very good in our house these days.

Keith Richards

I am in the middle of reading Keith Richard’s memoir, Life…and I can’t put it down.

Keith is one of the most haggard looking human beings around these days…but damn, he used to be super hot.

I have been on a roll with good books lately and will post a list soon.  But until then…if you looking for a good memoir, check out Life and Blood Bones & Butter.

Satellite vs. Powerball Update

I wanted to check in since I am sure you are dying to know how my satellite versus Powerball situation worked out.

• Satellite:  All 26 pieces of the NASA satellite landed in the Pacific Ocean about 1,000 miles north of Honolulu thus entirely avoiding the great state of Idaho.  BORING.
• Powerball: I had the Powerball number plus an addition number in the line up thus earning me $4!  This almost offset the cost of my $5 ticket so you can bet your ass I will be playing again.

Chicken Little Vs. Powerball

My non-mathematical brain has been thinking about statistics lately for two reasons:

1. I have been commuting to and from work this week (see previous post) and have been listening to tons of talk radio.  Not surprisingly, everyone is talking about the stupid satellite and I am scared shitless ala Chicken Little.
2. I just purchased my first Powerball ticket.  A wise man once said, “You’ll never win, if you don’t play”.   So, I made the wise man take me to the most ghetto gas station in town to get a ticket…because no one wins Powerball with a ticket purchased at their local gourmet market.

I had to wonder, do I have a better chance of being squished by a rogue satellite chunk or winning Powerball?

• Satellite Fatality: 1 in several trillion
• Winning Powerball Jackpot:  1 in 195,249,054

I feel good about these numbers.

Country Living

I am dog sitting at a house south of Bellevue this week and am obsessed with the landscape and the light, especially in the evenings.

I can picture us living in the country but could not handle the 40 minute commute each way to work.  One hour and 20 minutes in the car each day…how do people do it?

I know, I know, things could be worse…like I could be hit by a 300 lb. piece of satellite as it breaks through the earth’s atmosphere and comes crashing down to earth.

Missoni

Yesterday Target launched their line of Missoni for Target clothing and housewares and EVERYONE (including myself) went straight to the website to indulge in a few minutes of online shopping before starting their work day.  And it crashed…hard.  Hard enough that the New York Times considered it news.  Impressive.

Leading up to the launch, I fell prey to the hype and desperately wanted a Missoni sweater to help me ease into fall.  And some towels and pillows and shoes and serving bowls.  And why not throw a bike into the mix while I was at it?

When it became obvious the site was down,  I freaked out.  I sat at my desk thinking, “I should just work until noon and drive to Twin Falls”.

Then I talked myself out of it…three hours round trip?…only to be talked back into it by my co-workers who were secretly hoping I would go so they could send along their shopping lists.

And if you know me, you know that this back-and-forth went on inside my head ALL MORNING.  I don’t think I will ever outgrow my occasional and situational indecisiveness.

I consider myself one of the luck ones…the site temporarily refreshed and I clicked around frantically, patting myself on the back for preshopping this shit via a blog earlier this week.
Two sweaters, zero bikes and negative housewares (pure oversight on the housewares) later, I felt like I had accomplished something.

Wisconsin

It’s hard to believe – as I sit at my desk this morning, fighting with my factory in China over email – that we will be at my family’s lake cabin tomorrow night.  Seems like a world away, but vacation could not have come at a better time!

Can’t wait to get my hands on some of these…

Tina Takes Idaho

Wow, it’s almost mid-August and to say the summer has flown by is an understatement.  Despite the lack of posts, it has been a great couple of months.

There is absolutely no better way for me to start this blog back up again than to share this video from Mike and Kelly’s wedding at Galena where guests were treated to a surprise private performance by Tina Turner.  Amazing.

Fairfield, ID

J’s family is in town and staying at his brother’s place in Fairfield.  It’s gorgeous down there and the light is amazing in the evenings.

This is J’s nephew Fisher.  I pulled him away from the game of catch he was playing with his uncles and tricked him into posing for me.  Kids are just like dogs…