Rambling Wednesday...

Instead of the occasional "wordless Wednesday" that I sometimes post, this will be a "rambling Wednesday" - I have catching up to do, and I can just feel in my bones that I'm going to ramble a bit.  Bear with me. 

So, you know I am participating in the "April Photo-A-Day Challenge", right?  I've been taking a photo (or 50!) everyday, but have been too busy to post them.  Lame excuses? You've heard them all from me...but dangit, I'm just darn-tootin busy!  I'm just thankful that there aren't any real rules to the game. Just get out, take some pictures relating to the prompts we are given, and then post.

I have a few to catch up on, so here goes...our last post was April 6th, so I have several to post.

The prompt for April 7th was "dreamy." I just so happened to be in Disneyland that day...home of Sleeping Beauty's castle. Pretty "dreamy" if you ask me. 

 

 

April 8th's prompt was "on your plate."  Well, THIS was on my "plate" while I was at Disneyland, and since there are any real rules, that's what I'm using for this particular prompt.  Besides, I didn't eat anything decent on the 8th, and you don't want to see the junk on my proverbial "plate" - stack of paperwork on my desk, etc. Yuck...Yup, this chocolate malt and banana split are MUCH more appetizing!  (By the way - I did NOT consume all of this myself.  I had lots of help, honest! )

Yesterday, April 9th's prompt was "tiny."  This one was challenging for me, as I don't have a good macro lens - and what I wound up with were a LOT of very blurry images.  I liked this one...

 but I really favor this one. Though hard to tell, these tiny buds are the beginnings of new palm fronds. I just thought they were cool, curled up and just beginning their lives.

So, as of this very moment I am caught up. I know it won't last.  Ha ha!  Today's prompt is "a place" and since I am meeting a bunch of my Golden Group friends for a meetup tonight, I'm sure I will have some pictures to share on the "place" we go.  Until then....

April 5 - Good Stuff all day

The prompt for the photo-a-day challenge today was 'something good'...so I knew today just had to be a good day. 

I was right.

Pickle and I started the day with a trip to the swap meet.  She was looking for few little things and we thought it would be fun to cruise around there for a while.  Kona thought so too.  He'd never been before, and really enjoyed himself.  

The funny thing about walking around down there (about 15 miles from where we live) was that Kona (not me) was recognized not once, but twice by people we've visited.  It was pretty cool. He is practically a little celebrity around some of these parts, and he is SUCH a ham. Along with being recognized, we were stopped about 15 times by people just wanting to pet him. Needless to say he SOAKED up the attention...that's my boy, good ol Kona "the Love Sponge."

It was a busy morning for us...the swap meet, visiting with a hospice patient, lunch out with a friend, and then home to change and get ready for the VA.  

I had a brand new team joining us at the VA today, along with a couple of others that are partially thru their supervised visits so I decided to leave Kona at home. I would be plenty busy just observing the other teams, and Kona was ready for a break.

The visit at the VA was, as normal, a big hit.  We had 6 teams and the patients, families, and staff just LOVE the dog days. I bet you'd smile if you saw this group walking down the hall too!

 These two cocker spaniels are just dolls!  They are named "Flirt" and "Little Miss Independence" aka "Indy" - and although they are not related, they almost look like twins.  They are nearly done with their supervised visits and will soon be certified with my Love on a Leash Chapter.  

 This is one of our Visit Captains and a long time friend/Love on a Leash member - Linda and her beautiful girl Happy.  You've never met a more gentle dog than Happy. She is such a beauty, loves to greet the nurses as well as the patients. 

 To top off a nice day full of good things - dogs, friends, therapy visits, etc...we went to our favorite soul food place - Bonnie Jean's Soul Food Cafe. This, my friends, is my official entry for my "something good" photo. Believe me, it was beyond good!

Sunset and Slater's - WOW!

Yesterday was the best day I'd had in quite some time.  I can't really put my finger on why it was so good, it just was. I got caught up on a few things that had been bogging me down, I got refocused on some things I'd been meaning to refocus on, and I got to do some things that I enjoy doing.  One of those things is taking pictures.

I spent about an hour at La Jolla Shores, down by Scripps Pier snapping away. Hubby, Bear and her boyfriend Barry were there.  It was chilly, but we had a really good time - well at least Bear and I did...Hubby and Barry just stood around and tried to keep warm!  Bear and I were moving around quite a bit, so the cold wasn't as noticeable to us.

I took a LOT of pictures.  I know most of these will look very similar to you. Sorry about that.  I just enjoy the difference nuances of the light changes.  A couple of minutes can make a huge difference in lighting. Seriously, trust me on this. I tried a couple of different settings on my camera too, and you'll see the changes here, but that's all that was done to these.  None of these have been photo-shopped to enhance the color or anything like that. 

Anyway, zip through these real quick if you are bored and get down to the FOOD.

I really liked this shot because I got the moon in it.

The blue of the sky was gorgeous.

Looking towards the cove.

We brought a few flashlights with us to illuminate the pier, but we didn't really have enough to do much, and we didn't really wait until it was dark enough.  It was getting too chilly! 

Barry was playing around with the flashlight he had and I captured it with a very long exposure.

  This last one was actually taken with my iPhone. I was pretty impressed. 

Oh my gosh, we had a terrific dinner after our impromptu photo shoot.  We went to a place in Liberty Station called Slater's 50/50. They are a custom burger joint.  Really good stuff.  The 50/50 part is that they offer a burger that is 50% beef and 50% bacon. (I did not order that but Hubby and Barry both did, and loved it.)

We started with their "Vampire" dip. SUPER good! Garlic, artichoke, more garlic, cheese....yummy!

We each ordered a different burger.

Barry created his own concoction...It had bacon mayonnaise, bacon ketchup, a fried egg, and all kinds of other stuff on it.  He said it was one of the best burgers he'd ever had. 

I had one of their specialty burgers - it's called the Peanu tbutter and Jealousy. It had - you guessed it - peanut butter and jelly on it.  It was really good.  Not as good as a Duane Purvis, but pretty darn good! 

We wrapped up our meal by sharing a fantastic "50/50 Famous Bacon Brownie" it is two moist chocolate brownies sandwiching candied bacon and chocolate ganache topped with more candied bacon and served a la mode. It was AWESOME!

It wasn't long before our plate looked like this! 

The restaurant also has a large, dog friendly patio, so I'm going to schedule a dinner for my Golden group there soon.  They even have a small doggie menu, how cool is that!  

December Photo-a-day challenge

December photo-a-day challenge, day 24
"tradition" - our tradition for Christmas Eve is an authentic German meal (complete with home-made saurkraut) at my Mom's house.  IT.WAS. AWESOME.

 Day 25 - "lunchtime" - the turkey is not quite ready

 Table for 9 please!

 Ready at last! (and it was delicious!)

December Photo-a-day Challenge, day 11

"Sweet"

So many sweet things today, so hard to choose...but here is my favorite from the day.  Dessert at the Marine Room in La Jolla.

IT.WAS.AWESOME. 

Some of the other sweet things I ran across today included...goodies at a bakery...

 Kona's sweet smile after a visit with one of our hospice patients,

mint M&M's (yum!)

 and last but not least, an old faithful holiday favorite (Baileys), and a new discovery.

I hope your day was as sweet as mine was!

I Haven't...

In the last 32 days I haven't had any soda...or any carbonated beverages at all. I gave up soda for lent, not because I am Catholic, but just because I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. It's been easier than I thought it would be.

In the last 21 days I haven't had any alcohol. It's not that I am a big drinker at all, however I do enjoy an occasional cocktail or two when I am out with friends. The decision not to drink hasn't been a conscious one, it just hasn't come up lately and I'm ok with that.

Now for the really interesting stuff. Since this past Monday I
1. Haven't had any caffeine
2. Haven't had any sugar (other than natural sugar in fruit)
3. Haven't had any bread, potatoes or rice (white, brown or any other color)
4. Haven't had any dairy products
5. Haven't had anything fried
6. Haven't had any red meat
7. Haven't had any fast food - including not one of my beloved Mickey D's Mocha Frappes!

I have been drinking a LOT of water, eating a lot of vegetables, fish, chicken and salad. I am really trying to learn a new way of eating. So far, so good. My weight is going in the right direction too- I'm very happy with my progress. I don't want to jinx things though, so I won't give details on that yet.

I have some personal things coming up that I really want to look good for-including my 30th class reunion in August. Oh, how I'd love to lose about 30 lbs before then! Wish me luck, so far, I'm on the right track.

Sweet Treats!

I got a wonderful, sweet surprise yesterday - an early birthday cookie bouquet from some very special friends. I was tickled pink! I'm not quite sure how I'm going to spend my birthday since the chilly weather has put a kink in my plans to go to the spa...(I don't feel like sitting in an outdoor pool and shivering...) but I'm sure I'll figure out something fun.

It would all be fine if Brad would just return my calls...

Getting back into "it".

I'm not sure exactly what "it" is, but I'm working on getting back into "it"...which means, I guess, that I haven't been in to "it" or more accurately, I have been out of "it."

Yeah, I know it's confusing. For me too. It's that funk I'd mentioned not long ago. It's still got me by the shorts. Anyway, I'm still working on shaking the funk. This past weekend helped. AJ was home and I thoroughly enjoyed ever minute we got to spend together. He arrived Tuesday evening, and left yesterday morning.

Tuesday evening we were invited to our neighbors' house for a catfish & bbq'd tri-tip dinner. There were about 20 of us there, and it was a very good time. I'd gotten AJ a cake to celebrate his belated birthday, so we all got to sing, and embarass him a bit. We hung out for a while, and it was a really fun evening.

Wednesday we just kind of took it easy. I had my long VA visit with Kona (the visit where I go to several different wards and it usually runs about 2 hours) and AJ hung out with his friends, visited with my folks, etc. Pickle started her first ever "real" job - at a local pet boutique.

It was another good day.

We went out to AJ's favorite Mexican food restaurant, and while we were there we ran into some old friends. We chatted about how big all of our kids are getting, how tough it is to have them away at college, etc. It's always good to hear that I'm not the only one feeling the way I am feeling.

Thursday I got up nice and early, and although I didn't have to do much for our Thanksgiving dinner, I started rolling on what I did need to do. I whipped out the deviled eggs, and got the greenbean casserole ready in no time. Hubby and I picked up the house a bit, and enjoyed looking thru the paper planning our midnight shopping and Black Friday buys.

We went to my folks house at about 2pm, and spent the afternoon eating, chatting, and relaxing with my parents. It was a very, very nice afternoon, and it's always great to see Pops enjoy a good plate of food, and have a smile on his face. I cherish every moment we get to spend together.

After the big meal, a nap was in order for AJ....he needed to catch up on some much needed sleep....

And of course, what's a nap without your sibling making fun of you as you snooze...

More soon - I have to run out for an appointment I'm nearly late for.

Cookie anyone?

I'm thinking of making some of these little goodies for the party. I'm not sure if I'll have time or not, but it's on the list.

This coming weekend will be the last push to get the major stuff done. I'm getting little stuff done by myself between now and Saturday morning, but sometimes it does feel like I am fighting a losing battle. Oh well, that's pretty typical for this time of year for me.

Meanwhile, the pups have been great about occupying themselves. Of course a fun game of "bitey face" is always in order with Kona and Harley....

A little rough and tumble wrestling with those two, and then it's time to be mellow again.
Jack, on the other hand, just looks at me with those gorgeous, soulful brown eyes of his, and wonders when all of this Halloween nonsense will end.Soon Sweetheart, soon.