The Lyon's attack table

I'm house/dog sitting for my friends, Will & Laura, who left early Sunday morning to drive to NC to see her family. Eeyore and Rosie are both very sweet dogs and for the most part are pretty laid back. Anywho, this past Sunday evening, I was cooking some rice on the stove for my office's potluck the next afternoon and set the oven timer to let me know when it was ready. Their oven timer sounds like a smoke detector going off, so I hurried to turn it off. In my haste, I caught the side of my left leg on their side table, and boy oh boy......it got me good. Sure, to the naked eye, one might say, "you should have been more careful where you were going," but those who really understand this type of thing will agree with me that lack of attention will cause furniture to attack!

This is the table - yes, I know, it looks sweet and charming and innocent....with it's candy dish filled with yummy red and green M&M's....

But just look at it's sharp corner! That's the corner that attacked me!!!!

It left a huge reminder to NEVER ignore/neglect it again. see.... oh yes, it bled. =(

Even though my leg looks sickly and pasty gray, I wanted to show you just how big the bruise was next to something else, since I didn't have a ruler.

The bruise is on my left leg, but it was easier for me to take a picture of it using the mirror in the bathroom.

Here are a couple of pictures of Rosie and Eeyore playing.

This is Eeyore.

And this is Rosie.

Both of them thought it would be funny if they woke me up every morning at 4:30 to tell me they needed to go potty...Yeeeaaahhh....good times. =)

Bread Pudding

Today, November 20, 2008 is my fabulous co-worker, Kay's, birthday. Melissa, Lorna, Deb and I planned a surprise dessert party for Kay - so I made bread pudding.

Little did I know....Bread Pudding is Kay's favorite. =)

I like using cinnamon swirl bread without raisins.

This is my grandmother's recipe, which she taught me to make when I was 12 years old. My mom told me that the recipe was written in my handwriting. hahahaha

Anywho, so you're supposed to start out with 5 or 6 slices of bread, and then cut them into 4's.

Butter each side and lay them in the bottom of an 8x8 pan in any pattern.

Mix eggs, milk, vanilla, nutmeg and sugar together, and pour slowly over the bread on the bottom - making sure that each piece has an opportunity to soak up the liquid.

Bake uncovered at 375 for 35 minutes. You should be able to stick a knife in the custard and have it come out clean.

For this particular attempt, I accidentally added one extra egg, and not enough vanilla, but everyone kindly lied and said it was great. =)

My next attempt will be to soak the bread in Kahlua before I cover the bread with the custard sauce.

A mí no me gustan mirar los perros de Melissa.

Against my better judgement, I agreed to watch a friend's two dogs while she and her husband went on vacation. The reason I say "against" is because I do not get along well with Dachshunds. I used to dog sit for my karate instructors, who owned two male dachshunds. They drove me so crazy, that I retired from my dog sitting ways due to wanting to shove them in the oven.

Mind you, I do not believe in being cruel to any animal, but these two dogs made my dig sitting days so difficult, that my desire for bodily harm increased each day I was there. The last day I had to be there, I left a note for Mark and Dawn letting them know that I was retiring, and left my key to their house under the mat. I vowed NEVER to dog sit again, especially that particular breed.

Needless to say, when Melissa mentioned that she was freaking out about not having anyone responsible to watch her dogs, while she and Jeff were on vacation, little red flags started waving. I had met her dogs earlier, and while cute, they were still dachshunds - the breed that I will aways know as the "spawn of satan."

I have come to the realization that I have a problem with saying no, and not feeling bad about it afterwards. I knew that I didn't have to offer, and I know she was uncomfortable to ask, since I had made it very clear of my dislike for the breed at a previous office potluck. But still, I heard myself say, "if you need someone to watch them, I will do it for you." WHAT??? Where the heck did that come from? She was a surprised as I was.

Perhaps it was that I lived so close to her, or maybe it was because I could use the extra money, but I was really worried that the old ill feelings I had for this breed would come back again, and the desire to shove her dogs into the oven would come back again.

Here are some pictures of her little darlings: Sabrett is the black one. The other is Elliot.

This is Sabrett and I watching TV on Tuesday night.

This was also the beginning of the end for me. Wednesday morning, I noticed the shredded paper and the chew marks on the door frame. I really didn't think anything of it at first....

Melissa has better pictures than this on her blog that really show just how deep Elliot chewed through the wood. My father called her a furry termite.

Please note: NO animals were harmed, maimed, stuffed into the oven, during the week of torture...I mean the week that I dog sat for Melissa. Did those ill feelings come back, you ask?

Let's just say that Melissa had a good laugh from all my stories of traumatization, and I have officially removed the dachshund breed from the list of dogs that I will dog sit for. =)

Friends

A couple of Sundays ago, I had Ben, Lily & Lordzee over for lunch at my place. Typical afternoon of eating, playing guitar, and everyone cramming onto the couch.

Look how messy they are! It's like a hurricane has come through just my living room.

Lily always plays the guitar.

Ben...look at that face....awww.

Lily.
Lordzee.

Good times.

World Domination

Yes, yes...I realize that I am a bad blogger for making you wait so long for my next blog, but I've been lazy. It's no excuse, but I am hoping you'll forgive me.

A couple of weeks ago, I invited my friends, Lily and Lordzee over for some food, fun and world domination. I made chicken, roasted potatoes and mixed veggies. After dinner, Lily began to play my guitar, as I cleared the table, so they could teach me how to play Risk.

Lordzee is on the left, and Lily is on the right.

Look at those Innocent faces.....mmm hmm....

Supposedly, the object of Risk is to attack an opponent, roll the dice, and hope that your number is higher than the person you're attacking. If they only have one block on their country, then you take that country. However, multiple blocks mean multiple attacks to weaken the hold.

I have the yellow blocks. Lily was Blue, and Lordzee was green.

This game is not for the faint of heart, and we worked up a sweat, as well as, an appetite.

It is obvious that Lordzee has played this before....

Lily held onto Australia and the surrounding area. Lily boxed her in, and like me, she had a hard time recovering lost ground.

For a while, I owned part of Africa, but that didn't last very long. See those long pieces? They represent 5 blocks.

Notice the Pizza Hut box. They ordered a pizza, cinna-stixs and bread sticks. Also notice how much I still own.

Lily.

Lordzee.

I'm slowly being kicked out of Africa.

My ownership is slowly dwindling.

We played from 7pm to 12am - The only country I still owned was Greenland.