~ My Wolfie has made the big time; he’s now a famous model!; isn’t he just so cute?

Please say the preceeding sentences in a high pitched voice, makes it sound ever so much better The site was designed by the wonderful and talented Monique.

~ I worked on decorating the tree a bit more last night…got all the lights up (so blue!) and just a few of the decorations, but I didn’t like the way the pictures came out, so I’ll try to take more tonight. I was going to do that this morning, but Megan reminded me of an obligation I hadn’t fulfilled to I did those pictures intead:

~ Why do I love the crust on quiche, but not on pies? Must be the savory vs sweet thing.

~ Speaking of savory, have you tasted the new baked Doritos? YUM!

~ Pam tagged me to tell you Six Weird Things About Me. The problem with this is…I’m so weird I don’t know what weird is. Here goes nothing!

1. I’ll try eating just about anything once, which is how, at various times, I’ve put natto, sea urchin roe & chitlins in my mouth (my rating is: yuck, yuck & yuck!).

2. I don’t like food that is artificially colored green, such as mint chocolate chip ice cream.

3. I enjoy being on the periphery when my dog, Wolf, gets attention while we’re out walking (and believe me, he gets tons!), and when my friends get attention from cute boys, but I HATE/DETEST/CAN NOT STAND to be the center of attention and would much rather any attention be on someone else…maybe this is why so many of my friends are huge flirts…hmmm…

4. I procrastinate like no one’s business, then stress out because I’ve procrastinated. Dude, just DO IT!.

5. I am deathly afraid of spiders and bees, but have a snake cross my path, and I’m cool with it.

6. I can only learn about things that interest me…ask me about the stock market or how cars work and I’ll yawn and fall asleep, but ask me about the different kinds of olive oil, how many races of Elves there are, or what Snape’s mother’s name is, and I’ll rattle it off in a second.

~ Ahhhh, the last NaBloPoMo post is done! I hope you guys enjoyed me sharing stuff with you every day, rather than just pictures and memes…if not? Well, we can go back to that no problem!!!

~ Ok, that’s all that’s on my mind right now…aren’t you glad I shared?

(T13 header courtesy of GoofyGirl!)

Thirteen Things I’d Most Like To Do During My Upcoming FL Trip!

1. Go to Disney!
2. Ride the Pirates of the Carribbean ride
3. Over
4. and over
5. and over
6. while enjoying the piratey goodness that is the new animatronic Captain Jack Sparrow! [yes, I know the link is for the park in CA, but FL has the same updates!]
7. Swooning…
8. Having a HELLUVA good time with the Princess, the Tramp and the wickedly overworked Megan
9. Wearing flipflops every day [note to self...get a pedicure!]
10. Drinking Yuengling by the pool
11. Shopping!
12. Playing strip poker!!
13. Not being at work!!!

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The challenge this week is What you are Thankful for. That’s an easy one; I’m thankful I’ve grown so much closer to my cousin, Maribeth. She has a blog which she calls Dackel Princess where she writes about her life with her hubby in NH, her dogs, Greta (a “dackel” or as we know them, a daschund, about to have her first litter!) and Fritz (a white german shepherd), their fruit trees and garden in the summer, skiing in the winter and assorted other topics. Check her out sometime, I think you’ll like her

I have so many good memories of growing up with Maribeth; she lived on Cape Cod and our families would get together each summer for a couple of weeks, and usually on Thanksgiving and Christmas. She’s a year younger than me, but that never mattered. We were happiest on the beach, or riding our bikes, or playing with our Barbies…at least until we were 12 or 13 or so. That’s when we started to grow apart a bit. I started wanting to do things with my friends during the summers, but still…every Thanksgiving and Christmas (except when I lived in Japan) were spent together.

Now, I think we’re trying to set up our own tradition of spending Thanksgiving & Christmas together; this picture, in fact, is from our Thanksgiving celebration, which as you can see with filled with food (and those were just the appetizers!).

Anyway…long story short…I’m thankful for Maribeth

Here’s last Wednesday’s picture:

And this is what it was cropped from:

(You’ll have to click on the picture to make it large enough to see the spot of rot; it’s just about right in the middle)

No one got this correct, but rampantbicycle came closest: “A sickly leaf?“

Ari’s comment, “I don’t know what this new photo is of but I do see a screaming face in it. Isn’t that wierd?” cracked me up (I saw the same thing!) as did Heather’s: “I think it’s a halloween blob monster that forgot to come out on time – he’s a little late that’s all. “; it reminded me of my cousin Mel’s blob story!

As always, thanks for playing; also, many thanks to Laura for reminding me it was Wednesday!

So this week…

what is it?

Mincemeat pie

This traditionally English dessert makes me think of Professor Snape, sitting in his living quarters at Hogwarts during the Christmas holidays, savoring a small piece of mince pie. Not too sweet, full of dark goodness and a bit sharp…similar to his personality. Washed down, of course, with a freshly and precisely brewed cup of Lapsang-Souchong tea.

What is mincemeat, you might ask? Mincemeat was originally an old English custom, a sweet, spicy mixture of finely chopped meat, suet and fruit. At some point, the meat was reduced or completely removed, and nowadays, it’s usually a mix of dried chopped fruit (raisins, currents, apples, pears, citrus peel, etc.), spices and sometimes nuts, suet, and brandy or rum.

Here are a couple of recipes: this one is traditional (without meat); this one is from the Pennsylvania Dutch (with meat), in honor of Mom, who loved all things Pennsylvania Dutch. Also, I’ve included a link about the traditions of mincemeat.

Give it a try next time you see it at a holiday table…you just might be surprised at how much you like it!