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LokiMobile


Taking Loki just about anywhere is an experience. He doesn't like to stay in the back. He likes to climb on your lap (this is actually Loki's mantra 24/7, but who's counting?). Luckily, my lovely little Honda CR-V has some metal rings in the back, probably for tying down cargo, so we use them to tie down Loki, strapping his leash through it and clipping it into his collar. It works pretty well …. but I flipped when Matt sent me this article about my favorite car maker, Honda, making a car specifically for dogs!! It's just an exhibition sort of thing right now, but I so hope they put them into production. For little dogs, they have a glovebox area where your pooch can ride in style as well as a pop-up crate in the back. For bigger dogs, there are harnesses. The doors open wide and the whole vehicle is easy to clean … and even has paw-prints embedded on the tire treads. How cute is that? Continue reading “LokiMobile”

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Long Weekend

I took Friday off for a “mental health” day. A memorial service was held in the afternoon for Michelle. I won't go into what it was like, since I don't want to invade her family's privacy, but it was very very sad … heart wrenching. My sis and I were both crying like crazy … there was nary a dry eye in the house. This is likely the last I'll say about it … it's just too hard to talk about.

Friday evening, we went over to my parents' house for a very nice dinner (salmon!) and a fun game of Phase 10. Continue reading “Long Weekend”

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Pasta with Spicy Sausage and Mixed Wild Mushrooms

from: Adapted from Jamie Oliver's Recipe

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
9 ounces best-quality spicy sausage, casing removed
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 pound mixed wild mushrooms, such as chanterelles, oyster, and shiitake, trimmed and torn
2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
1 to 2 small dried red chiles, crumbled
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
Pasta (fresh, if you can manage it)
3 to 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup loosely packed flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions
In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat; add sausage, onion, and garlic, breaking up sausage with a spoon. Cook until onions are golden, about 7 minutes. Add mushrooms, thyme, and chiles; cook, stirring frequently, until mushrooms release their liquid and it evaporates, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from heat; season with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil; add salt and pasta. Cook until al dente, 3 to 5 minutes. Reserve a 1/2 cup cooking liquid; drain pasta. Return to pot.

Add butter to mushroom mixture along with some of the cooking liquid (from the pasta) to loosen, if necessary. Return mushroom mixture to pot; toss to combine. Transfer to a large serving platter. Garnish with parsley and cheese; serve immediately.

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Sewing Machine!!

Well I finally broke down and bought a new sewing machine. I have lots of projects that I want to work on that just REQUIRE a decent sewing machine. I had one, but it was vair old and vair hard to work with. I got the Euro-Pro 80 stitch at Target and I finally had time to open it and try it out last night. I wasn't disappointed! It's excellent … so much nicer and easier to use than my old one. It's probably got more features than I'll ever use, but if I want to get any more sophisticated, I will have some machine to grow into.

I had looked around on the Craftster boards about good sewing machines and then I read reviews on Amazon and Target's websites. I picked the Euro Pro line based on the reviews. It can sew a lot of layers of pretty thick stuff and it comes with a 25 year warranty (which won't be up until I'm 50!!! Yikes!!).

I'm going to practice with it a bit this weekend … then I want to start on my t'shirt quilt.

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Apples 2005


During our second fall in Madison, Jess and I went apple picking for the first time. We had a lot of fun and made everything apple we could think of. We were not able to go last year since we were moving during the apple picking season, but this year we made it a point to go. I spend a few hours one day looking for an apple farm before I came across the Happy Apple Farm just outside Colorado Spring. We took Loki and FeBe and they had a blast. It was a lot of fun for us too but I have to say there were some differences between CO and WI apple picking.

1st, apples are picked sooner in CO than in WI. In WI we went in October and there was some time left in the season. This time, I think we should have gone earlier in September.

2nd, the apples in CO, or at least where we went, were a lot smaller. I would call them bite sized.

We might try to make apple dishes out of them, but we might just eat these and buy some apples form the store.

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Flea Market Finds


I know I've mentioned A Paris Street Market before. It's a fabulous little flea market with amazing stuff to find and some great handmade goods.

Above are some of the purchases we made last weekend. On the left are a pair of suitcases that I picked up for $19. Most vintage suitcases were going for at least $20 and these were effectively $9.50 a piece!! These babies need some work and I want to paint them (though Matt insists he figure out if they're worth anything before I touch them). But I liked their shapes and I think I can do good work with them.

The case on the right is … well I don't know, but I think it will make a great scrapbooking case. It's got all those cool pockets for tools and pens and stuff that you see and below the bottom set, there's a large compartment that would be good for paper, pages, stickers, etc. I'm planning to fix it up and paint it a bit too. It was $20 in case you're wondering.

We also got a pair of (fugly) end tables for $15. As I said, they're fugly, but we can definitely sand, paint and add new hardware and legs and make them something decent until we get real night-tables in our bedroom.

It was the last weekend for the market and I'm really going to miss it. But I can take great solace in the fact that I have TONS of projects to complete before it's back again. Happy crafting.

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Good News/Bad News


It's been over a month since Hurricane Katrina hit the gulf coast and until last night, we still hadn't heard from our friend Dan. We had gotten word from his Grandpa that he was OK and staying in Baton Rouge. We sort of guessed that he was probably going to work with his firm there until they could get back to NO.

So we were quite surprised when he told us he was in Arizona, looking for new work. We invited him to come stay with us. “Head north and hang a right at Utah, k? We've got free Wi-Fi.” I give it a 50/50 chance that he'll show up on our doorstep sometime this week. Continue reading “Good News/Bad News”

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Break

I'm having problems being chipper just now (see previous entry), so jesser.org is taking a little break. God willing we'll be back early next week. If you want to follow the story, visit one of these:

* cbs4denver
* thedenverchannel
* 9news

Thanks so much for all your thoughts and prayers.