Guitar Hero, Chicken Kiev, and a Green Thumb

So the day came when I finally had to mow the lawn... well I saw mow... but I really just needed to weed whack it, it is sooooo small. I hope I did a good job, I can tell it is a bit uneven.... but I will deal with that later.....

Also I bought my first veggie plants....I need to find some full sun areas on my patio.... I figured out why they did not cover it... I get barely any sun on my patio... which is nice I suppose. but still would have been nice to have a cover so I can leave chairs out there... sigh.... So here are the cute little plants.


This is curly parsley. It was bought just for River... she loves it and it has Vitamin C, which she needs.


This is Sweet Red Bell Pepper. High in Vitamin C for River and for cooking.


This is Japanese Eggplant.... yum. This is for cooking


This is Roma Grape tomato. For River and for cooking


This is Mr. Stripey. Heirloom Tamatoe. Cooking and ummm yeah cooking.


Here are the happy plants enjoying a sun spot that would make Flick insanely Jealous.

I finally got around to getting a second guitar for my Wii's Guitar hero game. Meaning I can now do battles with friends... I did this with the GF, and Co-op mode with friends. I did this with the GF and The Rear Admiral Lower Half.

Here are some pics of the Rear Admiral Lower Half and myself (Upper Half), can you guess who is playing bass and who is playing lead?








So the other day I asked the GF what her favorite dish was... her answer surprised me. Chicken Kiev. I thought she was going to say stew heh heh heh. So I told her I'd make it for her and set off. I foudn three recipes that I kind of liked, one from Best Homes book, looked it over and discarded, one from Joy of Cooking and one from online America's Test Kitchen. I used half of the later two. My only scare was I thought the Butter I had seasoned was a bit too lemony.. it was lemon strong at the end, but not as bad as the butter itself, so it cooked out. I did have trouble butterflying the breast and then pounding it.... but it turned out ok. I think I need to bake it in a lower pan next time..... I did have butter leakage too.

For those who do not know Chicken Kiev is chicken breast that is pounded flat, rolled with a stick of seasoned butter in it... well more like a finger, breaded and either fried or baked (I baked). I was surprised when we both cut into the chicken to find that butter either exploded out (mild) or oozed out.... again just a bit to lemony... but edible. She liked it and was impressed that I could make it as it is very labor intensive.... things one does during spring break.

Finally I have noticed that Mr. Flick likes to roam from sun spot to sun spot. He tends to sleep either on my bed (why not it is a nice pillow top, he's never had one but utterly loves mine), and the Futon. Ah the life of a cat.

And as always.......


Flick is NOT amused.

Ides of March

Well today is the day I find out if they are going to bring me back to teach next year. I am not sure if no news is good news. But I suppose it is as they have until today to let teachers know if they are NOT bringing them back. I haven't gotten a call or an email or a letter... yet... mail still hasn't come in... so we will see. I have been told that I should be safe so that is good, but I need to wait and see. There is more that I want to do in Caruthers, much more, and I love the town, the kids, and the school, so I hope I'm back.

While I may be worrying about teaching next year, Flick is just happy to sleep all day.



Here he is hiding his cute little furry face from the world.



This is a close up of the same position. Flick has lots of neat and cute ways to cover his eyes when he is napping.

So today Flick found a sun spot... and like many other cats out there, sun spots are like drugs. Flick is no different. He does things that he normally doesn't do because of sun spots. Case in point.



What happens in a sun spot, stays in a sun spot. Unfortunately there is a winter storm kind of passing by so the sun spot comes and goes... poor Flick. He just found out I was blogging and coupled with the on again off again sun spots gave me this look.....



Flick is not amused.

Riverdale and a new phone.... kinda....

Well today I was the stand in head varsity Boys Tennis Coach. My dad, our Tennis Consultant, was our assistant coach/trainer. We traveled 8 miles to the campus of our rivals.... the Riversmell, I mean dale, Cowboys. When I had coached the girls, I did not have a league win. Today that changed. We decimated those smelly cowboys.... 9-0 SWEEP!! We brought 15 or our 16 players and we owned them. I had to get after my JV team not to be Hooligans, but they had fun. You see normally we do not travel with both teams. Only Varsity. But for some reason we had a bus, and well if we have a bus the whole team can go. I coach JV boys. So today I had my first ever league win in Tennis and my first Boys Varsity win as a coach. Felt great.

My good spirits did not fail me as I waited for a replacement phone for my LG Trax. Parrot Mobile which is an AT&T reseller is right around the corner from me. They have provided exceelent service while the Corporate store has not. Well when I bought my phone they said I had a 30 return period for anything. Well my phone started to act up. After I would hit snooze, sometimes (4-5 times total now) my phone would shut off...... not good. Really not good was how I would have to remove the battery and replace it to turn the phone back on. So figuring I don't want two years of that, I replaced it. I had called on tuesday but they didn't have any but did get two transfered for the exchange. The only beef I had was that they would not call me when it was in, they said they were too busy and that I should call them.... no big deal.... wish they worded it differently... but hey. Second beef was today, I had called prior to leaving Caruthers and had asked about the receipt of the phones, person said everyone was busy, took my name and number and said she would call me back.... NEVER HAPPENED.

I figured I'd just stop by as it is so close to my house. Waited like 15-20 minutes as there were only two of them and both had JUST started to help peeps... and well I got the phone. Hopefully this one doesn't do it too. Very simple exchange and the dude I had made up for the other persons lack of callback management.

Woot!

Me and the Mighty Quinn

This is my GF's dog Quinn. I call her Quinn, Quinnie, Quinnavere. etc. To her I am known as Lap Guy as she likes to sit on my lap and lick my face.... I am not too keen on the face licking.



My GF took the picture.... I am still just an average picture taker.... but I am getting a bit better.

Request for Pictures

I have had one or two request for more pictures on my blog, so here is a picture blog.

on a side note, photobucket just took a step backwards imo on their photo resizing. Sure you get more features in their photoflexer app, but something that used to take seconds takes many many many many more seconds.... sheesh.

These were taken with my new LG Trax phone 1.3 mp camera.... kinda neat.. no flash though.


Flick on a window


Flick on a window part two


River wanting veggies

Normal camera


Flick doing his vampire bat pose... pretty good huh?


And finally Flick giving me the look for taking a picture of him trying act out a scene from ET.

Fresno Drivers Suck

When I was growing up I had thought that Drivers iN Fresno were pretty darn good. Whenever we would go to SF or LA areas it was crazy. However after spending 111 years down south I can safely say OC/LA drivers have it down. Perhaps even SF drivers. They drive fast and for the most part safe. Maybe it is because I got used to it there. I don't know. I suppose I can't really talk as I got into a crash last year here in Fresno... even though I did tell friends that I would end up in one sooner or later cause Fresno drivers suck... irony, I was at fault... ha!

But I have noticed that people here just drive stupidly. More so then other places... I see it in my morning commute. It is foggy and there are people driving dark... meaning no lights on. No lights on in the rain. etc.

Today, I was driving past Costco, There are TWO cars waiting to make a right into the street from the parking lot. I pass the first one no issues, even though she inched a little, I can deal, I do that sometimes too. However the second car, when I am about 10 yards from her pulls out right infront of me without looking......She sees me as I hit my breaks, gets a surprised look, then gives me a dirty look like it was my fault.... yes lady, I appeared out of no where..... give me a break, I was going 5 miles per hour UNDER the speed limit and you didn't even bother to look right to make sure you were clear... it was your fault....

I suppose since no one is hurt there is no harm... but still..... Fresno Drivers suck.

Here is a random picture of Flick in a box