Adventures in Dentures

I won't bore you or gross you out with details, but mouth issues have resulted in me getting dentures. It's a process I started on in 2005, but then the process was waylaid by vehicle issues. I went this past Friday to finish it all. 2 hours after entering the dentists chair, I was out and about with a new smile.

Ok, so I can't smile right now, but I will one day soon!

Right now, it's getting used to these things. Learning things all over again...eating, talking, swallowing...tried to whistle just now, couldn't. So for the time being, it's pudding, mashed potatoes, yogurt and jello (not that I'm complaining!). I tried to eat some bread w/butter last night, yeah, didn't work out so well. And when I took my first sip of coffee yesterday morning, I ended up wearing most of it, haha. Good luck to me...

And other updates:

Do you remember the pictures I posted of the raised bed Jeff and I built? And all the yummy vegetables I was going to plant? Didn't happen. When we replanted the veggies in the bed, we didn't realize it was still too early, so we lost them all. There's always next year...

One of the neighborhood strays apparently got under our house and had a litter of kittens. The cats kept hanging out at the heater vents (couple of times they pulled the vent out of the floor), we figured they were cold. Then the other day, Jeff heard a kitten meow, turned around and all of our cats were circled around the vent in the dining room. He looked down the vent and a little fuzzy orange face was peering up at him. Last night we were able to coax him out of the vent. he was so cute and fuzzy and purred so sweetly. Not sweet enough for us! We called Jeff's brother Beaux, told him about the kitten, he said bring him over. So Jesse took the kitten across the street to Beaux, whom the kitten did purr sweetly enough for! So the kitten has a new home! Yippee!

The breakfast we had for the balloon festival was a hit. And all my food came out great.

Other than that, it's been business as usual here at the casa.

Spaghetti for Dan

About 2 years ago, one of the guys from work, Dan, fixed a problem I was having on my computer. I told him I would make him homemade spaghetti as payment.

Have I told you I'm a procrastinator? I think I've mentioned that before...

Well, I procrastinated.

Until now.

Dan's last day is Wednesday, so I thought I'd better get on it. I was going to come home from work on Tuesday night and get it going. I got all the ingredients Saturday, I was on the ball!!

I didn't go to work today (Tuesday). I spent the morning in the dentist's chair of pain having a tooth pulled. Ok, I was only in the dreaded chair for about 10 minutes. It took longer to give me the novacaine than it did to pull the tooth. I went home and took a long nap and when I woke up I didn't feel like doing anything, let alone cook. But I had made a promise to Dan last week that I would definetly make him spaghetti and I couldn't go back on my word, especially after putting it off for two years!

Browned 1 lb. ground beef with 2 chopped yellow onion and a gazillion cloves of garlic (ok, 4). Added that to a big can of crushed tomato, 2 med cans of tomato sauce, some tomato paste. Toss in some dried parsley, some thyme, basil and brown sugar. Brown sugar? Huh? It cuts some of the acidity of the tomato. Normally I would add raisins instead of the brown sugar, but most people say "ewww" when I tell them I put raisins in my sauce. Then I browned some Italian Sausage and threw that in too, along with a splash of Shiraz wine that was sitting around. I'll simmer it through the evening and turn it back on tomorrow morning while I boil the noodles. Then off to work I'll go with it!

Good luck to Dan in his new venture!!

Stay tuned cuz next week I'll be blogging about the breakfast I'm throwing for some family members during the Ruby Mtn Balloon Festival! We'll watch the balloons launch on Sunday morning while feasting on frittata, fried taters, muffins, apple skillet cake, scrambled eggs and bacon. Those last two items courtesy of Jeff for those who might not want frittata. Coffee, hot cocoa, spiced cider....

Thankful

Shauna & I sat outside last night as the sun was going down. We had the new patio set all put together and were sitting at it enjoying the cool breeze and the quiet and we both proclaimed how lucky we were to live in Rural Nevada.

The sky was an inky blue, thanks to a late afternoon storm that passed over us. And the clouds...it looked as though a painter had bounced over the sky with a brush dipped in white paint, then muddled it with a pale gray. There were just a few stars in the sky, the rest wouldn't be showing themselves for a little while. The moon was a thin bright white crescent. The setting sun was casting it's orange-red glow along the Ruby Mountains, turning them a brilliant deep dark red.

The only noise was the laughter of kids playing down the street mixed with the whinnies (sp?) from neighbohood horses and Gunner from next door barking at a bird that dared to sit atop his kennel.

All mixed together, it makes for a peaceful existence. And one that I am thankful for everyday.

I get to drive to work every morning and see cattle grazing in fields green with sage and tall grass. And every once in a while, I am lucky enough to catch real cowboys and cowgirls on real horses driving cattle along the cattle path that runs next to the 'highway'. One of the horses we pass on the way to work had her foal this past week. Every morning for the past few months we've look closely to see if she's had her baby...What a nice surprise to see the cute gangly baby!

You see, Elko County is steeped in the rich tradition of ranching and farming. With names that go back to the beginnings of the area. Even with the gold mines that are hidden from view, way up in the hills, the ranchers have maintained their lands and the two have learned to coexist.

We might complain about the lack of variety as far as shopping here in Elko. We might complain that we have no Carl's Jr. But I don't miss the pollution clouding the sky, the hustle and bustle of city life nor do I miss tall buildings obscuring my views.

Yes, sometimes I miss the smell of the sea air wafting over the Redwood trees of my hometown in California. And living in a house that's surrounded by the mighty giants of trees. But when I get a hankerin' for the smell of redwood, I head to Home Depot and stand in front of the redwood planks and take deep breaths. And when I long for the smells of the beach, I open up the container of sand from Capitola, CA that Jessica brought me from her vacation last year.

What are you thankful for about where you live?

Good Buy

This is the picnic table that we've been using

for the past few years.

It was left here by the previous tenants

& we just kind of took it over.

It's weather-beaten from the elements,

but still served it's purpose.

Well, OK, Jesse and his cousin Shawn were

really the only people who sat at it to eat.

It did make a good gardening bench for Shauna & me;

and the outdoor cat, Little Boy, liked to lounge on it

in the early morning hours before the sun hit it's peak.

When Shauna & I were doing the grocery shopping at Smith's

a couple weekends ago, a patio set caught our eyes.

"Wouldn't this look nice on the back porch?", said Shauna

as we plopped down in the chairs

"Yep, it would", said I, "but it's $450."

"I would even sit outside & eat at this table", said Shauna,

who is fair-skinned and overheats in the sunshine.

Then we continued on with our shopping.

Thursday morning when I pulled into the parking lot at work,

I saw that Smith's had all their patio furniture outside with

big signs screaming:

50% off!!!

Then Friday at lunch, I poked around

the selection that they had out,

but couldn't find the one that we had looked at.

When I told Shauna that they didn't have it, she said

"Just pick out one that you like."

When I went on my weekly grocery trip Saturday,

I poked around some more and found ours!

Yeah Liz!!

It went home with me.

As Jeff and his brother Beaux took

Jesse and Shawn camping that morning,

it was up to Shauna & I to put the thing together.

It took us about 2 1/2 hours,

but we kicked ass!

This is the umbrella that goes with it.

But they didn't have anymore of the bases,

so we either have to find one somewhere else

or make our own.

Here's to many a fun evening bbq'ing

and enjoying the cool nights.

Until it starts to snow again....

The Mixer Saga

For the longest time I have wanted a KitchenAid stand mixer. I yearn for one. I would give my left pinky finger for one. I would sell my nieces for one, but I don't think Jessica would like that (or maybe she would).

Enter my dear friend Pioneer Woman. Ok, so I've never met her, I just read her blog(s). PDub has been holding giveway contests where the prize is a...

wait for it...

KitchenAid Artisan stand mixer!

Oh joy! I have a chance to win one!!

This week, she gave away this one:

But I didn't win. And I have a theory on that.

KitchenAid is against me due to an incident from the 70's involving a certain white KA mixer,

my sister Stephanie and myself.

We were two kids with nothing to do. For some reason we took the aforementioned mixer down to the carport where we had previously gotten white paint on one of the workbenches. I don't know which of us did it, but the mixer ended up sitting in a glob of paint and forgotten for a few hours. The paint dried to the bottom of the mixer. The parents were not happy with us, but Momma still used the mixer.

So I guess I am doomed to life without this:

But a girl can dream....

Blog Name Contest Winners!

Yah, I know, I said the winner would be announced last Monday. But hey, I told you I'm a procrastinator, didn't I?! All of the entries were great, but a couple really stood out.

Anywho, the decision has been handed down and the winner of the contest was Stephanie Bauer with her entry of "Lizard Droppings"! Stephanie wins a 12 month personalized calendar! All she needs to do is pick 13 photos and email them to me along with special dates she wants on the calendar!

There was another entry that really caught the judges eye, so Francais is being awarded with an honorale mention prize of an academic planner! Frankie-Moo, send me a couple pictures for the front of your planner! Oh, you want to know her entry? "Dust in the Desert: A Lizard's Tail".

The other entries were:

Leaping Lizards, Auntie Janet
Liz Out Loud, Auntie Diane
First Daughter, Dad
The Wonderful World of Lizzy, Leslie L.
Lizard's Creek, Jessica R.
2009: A Liz Odyssey, Sunshine M.

Thank you to those who entered, the judges said they had a hard time deciding!

Stephanie and Francais can email their photos to lizzybeth167@gmail.com!

Spring Creek 4th of July Parade

My 4th started out with the Spring Creek Parade.

The day started out a little dark & rainy,

but the blue sky emerged for the event.

We watched the parade from Sunshine & Brandon's driveway.

Here are some of the images we captured:

The parades in Elko County are always led by the local chapter of the POW*MIA Association.

This was a very powerful image and brought tears.

These horses were absolutely beautiful.

You can't have a parade in a ranching community without the Pony Club or tractors.

Although I don't know how a gorilla fits into that.



More beautiful equines and a local 4-H chapter.

Our Nevada Division of Forestry and BLM firefighters also joined in on the action.

The yellow BLM truck sprayed the crowd with it's water cannon thing on the front.

This was the float from Baily Construction.

They were raffling off the playhouse.

This bike was cute! It even had hydraulics that raised & lowered the front end!

Do they threw candy at your parades? They do at ours.

This float had a candy cannon that showered sweets at the parade goers.

Oh yeah, it started to rain as we got in the car to head home....

A Contest!

OK, I am having a block as to what to name my blog.

"Lizzybeth!" is just not doin' it for me.

So I'm going to let you folks use your brainpower

To come up with a fabulous name for it!

The judging will be done by the independent firm of JSJ Consulting.

(Jeff, Shauna & Jesse)

The prize...

a personalized 12 month calendar from OfficeMax*.

So everyone (all 6 of you viewing my blog) put on their thinking caps

and come up with a kickass name for my blog!

Just add your suggestion to the comments or email it to me at lizzybeth167@gmail.com

Contest will end next Sunday, 7/5, at 8 a.m.

and is open to anyone**!

Happy Pondering!!

*OfficeMax is not sponsoring nor endorsing this contest.

**Employees of JSJ consulting are not eligible.

Important Notice:

Just a couple of things...

1. Winner will not be chosen by JSJ Consulting as I realized if they chose Sunshine's entry it might be construed as conflict of interest or favoritism. Winner will now be chosen by the firm of A&E Consulting. (A&E is comprised of Annie & Eric, my two employees over at the copy center)

2. Only one entry per person

Potpurri of Stuff

I found this recipe for Cheese Muffins on Pioneer Women's site...

simple to make and quite tasty.

I made Paula Deen's Corn Casserole for Shauna to take to work with her on Tuesday.

My sis Jessica made it for Christmas dinner and I feel in love.

It's become a favorite of Shauna and me.

Jeff won't eat it cuz it's not brussel sprouts.

Jesse won't eat it cuz he's Jesse the Picky.

That's ok.

Just means more leftovers for the girls of the house!

On Friday, I took these...

...and made this...

...don't berate me because I used a jarred sauce, please!

I let it simmer for about 10 minutes so that

the sauce soaked into the pasta.

Add garlic bread and a green salad.

Ok, so I didn't throw together a salad...

...I forgot to get the greens at the store.

Props to my dad for this recipe!

Saturday was roof patching day at our house.

I tried to take some pics of it,

but each shot was of someone's butt.

This was a funny one...

It looks like Jesse is trying to poke Jeff in his backside with his screwdriver,

while Beaux is ready to whack Jesse with his hammer.

Bring on the rain!

Let's test this patch job out!

Rumble in the Rubies

The barriers and pylons are stacked and ready for placement in the parking corridor.

People can be seen washing their rides, polishing their chrome.

In the next few days, the roar of motorcycle engines will increase.

Vendors will be arriving with an abundance of wares.

Ranging from t-shirts to custom painted helmets,

funnel cakes to beer soaked bratwurst.

That can only mean one thing....

It's time for Rumble in the Rubies!

The Elko Motorcycle Jamboree!

My sister and her hubby (Jess & Gus) will be there as their alter ego's Spinner & Mumbles to support Snake River Brothers Motorcycle Club of which they are members. Spinner will spend some of her time bouncing in front of the Silver Dollar Saloon. She's quite good at it, despite the fact that she's only 5'4". Not afraid to tell a huge, scary lookin' biker that he can't come in unless he show's her his I.D. and stand her ground when he argues with her. I guess being a mom prepared her for that! I have to remember to take my I.D. cuz even though she knows how old I am, she will make me follow the same rules.

We will need to polish my dad's Victory, charge the battery and make a "for sale" flyer for it. Gus will ride it down & park it in front of the Dollar and with any luck, someone will gasp and say "Beautiful bike man, I gotta have it!" Ka-khing!

We will walk around the corridor, checking out the wares. Maybe the man who paints using spray paint, paper plates, tin cans and protractors will be there again. Maybe we'll get there early enough to get commemorative pins, we missed out last year. Maybe we'll go to the free concert on Saturday night...both female tribute bands that I've heard are really good. Hell's Belles (AC/DC) and Zepperella (Zeppelin). The main concert, Friday night at the fairgrounds, will be LA Guns, Great White and Molly Hatchet. That one ya gotta pay for, so no, we won't be in attendance. Maybe we'll check out the BMX exhibition. We'll definetly get ourselves a funnel cake and Jeff will indulge himself with a deep-fried Twinkie.

I'll have a photo-filled blog after it's over. Note to self - buy new rechargable batteries!

The World's Pickiest Eater

This is Jesse.

He's the son of my roomies Shauna & Jeff.

If you look in the dictionary for the

definition of "picky eater"

you will see his picture.

We bought this off the Internet a couple weeks ago after seeing the infomercial: It's the Express RediSetGo. And it came with a bunch of recipes. One of which was for personal pizzas. So yesterday I made the recipe for the pizza dough that was included.

Sure, I could have bought pre-made dough.

But I am trying to be more self-sufficient and stay away from processed, boxed foodstuff.

The recipe made 12 little balls of dough which could be stored in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. I thought that if Jesse liked the first one, he would be able to make himself pizza for lunch during the week this summer.

I showed him how to roll out the dough and then he built himself his pizza.

The pizza was done in 7 minutes, the crust was perfect and was really yummy.

More important was that Jesse the Picky loved it! That brings the count up to 2 items that I cook that he will eat. #1 being stuffed chicken breasts.

This is the pizza that I made for myself...

Pepperoni, zucchini, crushed red pepper, Colby jack cheese (we forgot to by mozzarella) and Parmesan cheese.

YUM!

Love in the Grocery Aisle

Once upon a time there was a container of dipping spice.

The dipping spice was lonely. All he did was sit on the shelf with

his other lonely dipping spice buddies.

On the shelf below him sat Ms. EVOO. She too, was lonely and spent her days wondering why no one took her home. "Does no one understand the goodness that will come with purchasing me?"

Well, one day two ladies were shopping and their eyes caught sight of Mr. Dip & Ms. EVOO and said "YUM!" while tossing them both in the cart next to the Twinkies and microwave popcorn.

The ladies discovered that when mixed together, they created a wonderful melange of flavor.
And then the ladies dipped a fine artisan bread chunk into the bowl and were transported to heaven!

**This was so yummy! We tried to get Jeff and Jesse to try it, but were unsuccessful. But Jeff's brother Brandon stopped by and he had a taste and it made him want to go home and make spaghetti. Did he make you spaghetti Sunshine?!?!

An Elephant in the Backyard

The most difficult aspect of my job is not dealing with difficult customers -either those who don't have a clue of what they want or are just plain cranky. It's when I have customers who come in to have memorial cards made for a funeral.

You see, I am an emotional person. I wear my heart on my sleeve. I cry at the Folger's Coffee commercials (you know the ones - where the son surprises everyone at Christmas). I bawled through pretty much all of Steel Magnolia's. Extreme Home Makeover, yep, that'll get the ol' tear ducts a'flowin too! And not just at sad movies, but I've been known to cry at comedies and action/adventure movies, too.

So when I am sitting with customers at my computer at work, designing these little cards that boil someone's life down to a couple of paragraphs, it's very hard for me to remain stoic. But I do. I see certain little glimpses into the family. The smiles as they remember a fun time, the grief at a life taken unexpectantly, sometimes the relief that their loved one is no longer in pain.

I did some cards yesterday for a family. This time it was extremely hard for me to remain emotionally detached, I felt that any moment I would start crying and racked my brain trying to figure out why. Was I thinking about TaTia, my dad's aunt who is in the hospital right now after having two strokes? Yes, she was on my mind. Was it because I'm PMS'ing? Still don't know. But when they left, I lost it and just started bawling. It only lasted a minute or two and my co-worker Annie gave me a little hug and I was fine.

When I got home last night, Shauna told me that our friend (and her sister in law) Sunshine's dad was not doing well, his organs were starting to shut down. Bill has been battling with MS for a very long time. He's been confined to a wheelchair for the last few years and pretty much home-bound. I've only met Bill once and that was when he was toolin' around the neighborhood in his electric scooter, stopping to shoot the shit with anyone he saw. My sister Jessica and I happened to be some of those people a couple of years ago (Bill & his wife Trish live a block away from my sister). He rolled up into the driveway and we introduced ourselves and just chit chatted. He told us about living in Las Vegas, working as an OSHA inspector. Then he started telling what we believed to be tall-tales. I made mental notes to ask Sunshine what was true and what was false. Did he really come home from Vegas with an elephant that he traded a truck for? That turned out to be false. But I will always laugh when I think of Bill, just because of the elephant. Jessica & I still chuckle at that one..

Bill passed away about an hour ago. He's no longer in pain. My thoughts are with Sunshine and her family. And Jessica and I will take care of the elephant.

Beautiful Dirt-Filled Sunday

Sunday was a nice day, it wasn't too hot and it looked like we might even get a little rain. So we took advantage of the day and spent some time working in the yard. We started pulling the dandelions from the grass, planted the Aspen tree sapling that my dad gave us last summer and worked on getting the flower bed weeded. Shauna & I bought a bunch of flowers at Home Depot on Saturday & I'll get them planted on Monday evening when I get home from work. We also picked up another Jiffy container & some flower seed and planted those that evening.

These little purple Pansies have showed themselves for the past three years. They'll look a little better once they're not choked by the dandelions.

This is another of my projects. That big brown spot there, it's not dirt. It's a fine layer of little pokey burrs. So my plan is to dig the burrs up and work the dirt. Then I'll take the cinder blocks, stack them (we have more), fill 'em with potting soil and plant in 'em. I envision plants that will drape down the sides of the cinder blocks, creating a littel flowering wall. What does everyone think? Sound like a good idea? I'm open to suggestions...

Here's our little Aspen sapling that my dad gave us last summer. It sat out on the back patio while we tried to figure out where in the yard we wanted to put it. We didn't think it survived the winter, but little green leaves appeared. So I stood in the front yard with everyone and said "Pick a place for the tree! Hurry!" Now it has a new home and hopefully will be very happy there!

Things are popping out all over...

...well maybe not all over, but in my jiffy pots they are!

The 'greenhouse' has been living in the shed since I planted them.

Since I just planted them on Sunday I wasn't expecting anything.

I got a surprise when I lifted the lid off.

Look! Little green specks!

We have a couple of cucumbers sprouting.

And four of the basils are popping out, too!

What I really can't wait for is the zucchini. I see steamed zuch, fried zuch (yeah, I know, not healthy, but yummy), and zucchini bread.

LOTS of zucchini bread!

Useless Trivial Information

Today is the last day of school here in Elko County and the day that both Elko H.S. and Spring Creek H.S. are graduating their seniors.

As thousands of graduates are preparing to walk down the aisle and accept their diplomas to the tune of Pomp and Circumstance, I googled P&C and came up with these little known factoids:

• The composer was Sir Edward Elgar of Liverpool, England
• Although Elgar composed concertos for violin and cello, he is best known for his 5 P&C marches.
• It was first performed on October 19, 1901
• Elgar was a mostly self-taught musician
• He was knighted in 1904 and appointed Master of the King's Music in 1924
• He was the first major composer to record his works for the phonograph

*culled from the website http://www.brownielocks.com/graduation.html

Wishing all grads and their families a memorable and safe graduation season.

Rainbow Connection

We had a brief thunderstorm on Sunday evening.

It left this behind:

A double rainbow!

You can't really tell from the photo,

but you could see the whole spectrum of colors.

It was awe-inspiring.

Double Shot of Home Depot

On Saturday I stopped at Home Depot to get plants.

I couldn't find the veggies.

I didn't look hard enough.

So I bought some seeds and set of jiffy pots.

But I forgot something important.

I forgot the potting soil.

So Sunday I made another trip to town.

Not just for potting soil,

I met my dad, sis and her family for a very tasty breakfast at Toki Ona's.

After my hunger was quenched, Dad and I headed to HD.

I found the veggie plants.

Picked up some strawberries, a Thai basil and an onion chive.

Here's the onion chive.

And the Thai basil. It's really pungent.

And the strawberries.

The empty pot is not empty.

There were lettuce seeds in Shauna's Kraft magazine.

So that's lettuce.

I got the Jiffy Pots started yesterday, too.

Banana Peppers, Cheyenne Peppers, Carrots, Zucchini, Cucumbers and basil.

Cross you fingers.