Puppy Problems and Other Random Events

Lil B came to visit!!!

It was a great long weekend!  Plenty of drinks and good food….with some homework sprinkled in for good measure.  Thursday night we watched the BFB and the Hubby in Law play volleyball.  Actually B, ended up playing too.  Thank goodness they didn’t need two extra girls because my sport skills are probably not where they should be.  After volleyball came dinner and drinks.  B discovered Ace Pineapple Cider, and that might be one of her new favorites.  Over the weekend she also discovered Moscow mules…..because The Engineer and I are mule people after all.  Friday, B and I did homework while everyone else went to work or slept after their night at work.  We had a big family dinner of spicy chicken tacos at BFB’s house Friday night.

Sadly, Saturday wasn’t very warm.  We had visions of going to the pool, but the wind made that sort of miserable.  I mean we went……but it was less than stellar.  Had the wind been calmer I think we would have been fine…..but it was gusty enough that it was moving lounge chairs around the deck.

Bikinis and blankets…..dedication!

 

Saturday night we had another big family dinner at BFB’s house to celebrate Lil B’s birthday last week.  Steak with shrimp and alfredo anyone?!  The Hubby in Law makes a restaurant quality pan seared steak and it’s always a nice treat.  It’s usually our ‘super fancy’ celebratory dinner.  Generally, we celebrate at home anymore.  No one has to tipsy drive home, and between all of us we can cook pretty much anything we would want to order at a restaurant anyway.

Sunday was a lazy and casual morning brunch on my patio before B had to take off for home.  The only person who didn’t get the lazy memo was Scout.  Even though she had spent all weekend with everyone, apparently the excitement was just too much for her.  In a confused state of panic about whether to sit outside with everyone or follow BFB to the bathroom…..she ran full speed into the screen door and plowed right through it!  Ughs……needless to say I was a rather annoyed Fur Momma.  Eventually The Engineer and I did get it bent back, put back in it’s track, and it’s mostly functioning like it did before.

Scout-a-Roo rounded off her naughty weekend by eating my newest bikini bottoms.  The bikini isn’t exactly new, I bought it last year before that vacation that will not be named, but I like the way it makes my ass-ests and twins look, and it’s only been wet maybe twice….so I was way less than amped.  Thankfully, I found an identical pair of replacement bottoms on Ebay so I just have to wait for them to be delivered.  Since Victoria’s Secret is no longer making swim suits, I maybe should shop around Ebay for a couple new ones before they become impossible to find commodities.  Of course, how many bikinis does a nearly thirty year old need?  Not like I get to put in that much quality pool/beach time anymore really.  Adulting sucks the fun right outta everything!

Speaking of the Scout-a-Roo….she got to spend the first part of the week living her best puppy life with The Engineer.  I was in Minneapolis Monday through Wednesday for the annual Fuel Ethanol Workshop.  Don’t even get me started on the ridiculousness that was me going up there to sit and hand out swag in an expo booth for 3 days….but whatever I guess.  The Engineer agreed to puppy-sitting duties….probably mostly because my house as central AC and his apartment does not.  I think she likes him better than me anyway.  Come to think of it….maybe she ate my swim suit out of anger because she’s now forced to hangout with me again.

Well that’s a weird good morning picture…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The morning snackie routine doesn’t stop just cuz Momma is gone!

He always gets the best cuddles……I still just get butt cuddles……

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pretty sure this is just her “Is it dinner time yet?!” face……

 

Father’s Day Again

This is my first Father’s Day without a Grandpa or my Dad living. It’s a little strange that my family ties don’t go back to a patriarchal figure anymore. Day to day life goes on, but it’s strange when you stop to think about it.

I never really know what to say  on days like today. It’s a weird feeling, and it’s hard to express, but slowly I’ve come to terms with it.

I know the pain and loss will always be there, it comes out as a random outburst of angry tears that happens every year around this time of year. It’s the annoyance at Father’s Day commercials and sales, and listening to people complain and whine about the struggles of finding a good gift. It’s always there simmering away, but some days it’s easy easier to control that others.

At the risk of posting photos I’ve already posted before, I thought I would share pictures of my Dad just being my Dad.

Miss you always.

Pirate Bunnies : Murder, Pillage, and Plunder

The Engineer and I planted a garden!  Most years I’ve just planted a few veggie plants in patio pots.  This year, we went all out with an actual dug in garden!  I had been meaning to get this done for a couple years, but I’m lazy and didn’t have a solid plan to deal with the sod once I dug it all up.  Cue…The Engineer’s truck!  He maybe drove around with a slightly soggy, boggy situation in the truck bed for a week…..but I offered to help him get rid of it and he wasn’t feeling my initial dump off location!

The prime location!

Day 1 progress…..The Engineer is good with a shovel, and I’m a good sod puller!

We got really ambitious after getting the HOA board’s approval.  It seemed like a nice early warm spring, so we got to work right away with visions of epic gardening in our heads.  Well….idk about his head, but in my brain I was going to have a big garden with lots of happy plants that would supply me with tasty snacks and food all summer long.

The sooner you start the sooner you get to eat yea!?

There were a few days when I started to question garden placement…..things got a bit soupy.  Also….notice the mostly dead spirea that I eventually dug out.  Extreme gardening happening at Casa Miss Happenings! Slowly, the swamp dried out and we got everything tilled and planted.  It turns out that the soil in my yard is mostly clay, so I ended up adding several bags of top soil into the garden.  I didn’t buy great soil, actually….I bought the cheapest kind Menards has.  This was maybe a bad choice?!  I’m not sure, we will find out……live and learn I guess.

The years crop included  4 tomato plants, 3 varying pepper plants, two large rows of green beans, and some spaghetti squash.  I also planted a pot of kale and mixed lettuce, a pot of kohlrabis, and two pots of herbs which include two different types of basil, thyme, and oregano.    I also have two decorative pots of pansies and petunias.  I hate petunias….but they are what grows here so whatever I guess.  Everything seemed like it was coming together….and then disaster struck!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remember how I said we started early because things seemed warm and happy and springish?!  Well……I maybe got a bit over ambitious.  I ended up loosing my first batch of tomato plants because I forgot to bring them into the garage during one of our spring cold snaps.  So…..there was that!

2017 Plant Deaths — A Running List

• 3 Cherry Tomato Plants

Tomato plants are cheap, so I quickly rebounded from that initial downfall.  Everything really seemed like it was coming together…..I had gotten the dead spirea dug up and thrown into the back of The Engineer’s truck.  One night we may or may not have driven out into the country and tossed the plant and the leftover small pieces of sod into a ditch.  The large chunks of sod went to a coworker’s new house while they await landscaping….her dog needed a pee patch!  Sometimes The Engineer and I like to do “dirt kid hood rat things”….actually, that might have been our first ‘delinquent’ move together. The couple the dumps sod together stays together?!

After we conquered the sod and dead tomato issues…..came the bunnies.  Fucking herds of spicy pepper loving bunnies.  The Engineer even talked to some guys who gardens at his work and they assured him that bunnies are no problem because they don’t like the spicy peppers.  Well……the bunnies in my yard ate my peppers from spiciest to mildest.  I’m not sure what they says about them……but I’m sure if you ate one they would be well spiced and delicious!

2017 Plant Deaths — A Running List

• 3 Cherry Tomato Plants
• 1.5 (approximation based on remaining growing time) Pepper Plants

To combat the herds of capsaicin loving furry woodland creatures, we had to build emergency fences around all the pepper plants.  All 3 of the initial plants survived, but the banana pepper took the hardest beating.  He’s trying really hard to recover and grow, but I’m afraid he won’t make it before winter comes.  The Engineer decreed that a flowering and fruiting banana pepper plant was a garden requirement, so we bought a new one and transplanted in where the abused plant sat.  We moved the little abused one into the corner and gave him a protective cage.  He’s starting to leaf out slightly, but when you’ve been eaten down to a 3 inch stump in the ground….you’ve got a lot of growing to catch up on in a short growing season!

Maybe if we have a winter like this…..my abused pepper plant could recover fully.

Everything seemed to be going along well for a couple weeks…..and then disaster struck again!  The bunnies attacked and murdered my pot of kohlrabi……just murdered them and threw their tattered and torn leaves all over the back yard.  Honestly, I’m not even sure why I even bothered to plant a pot of kohlrabi…..last year they didn’t grow at all!  Well….I mean they grew leaves…..but I didn’t end up with the desired, baseball shaped orb of deliciousness.  Round two seemed to be growing well this summer, so I thinned the plants to create more growing room.  Then……as if they sensed the vulnerability in smaller numbers….the bunnies made a night attack!  Ughs…….

2017 Plant Deaths — A Running List

• 3 Cherry Tomato Plants
• 1.5 (approximation based on remaining growing time) Pepper Plants
• 5 Kohlrabi Sprouts

I watered the pot for a couple days, but none of the thinned out roots looked like they were going to take off again.  I ended up planting a few rows of kohlrabi seeds at the front of the garden, and I’ll just have to wait and see what comes of those.  Funny thing…..we actually bought a new pepper plant for the pot of soil because we thought that the bunnies had somehow gotten under the protective fence on my abused little banana pepper and finished him off.  We pouted around for a couple days thinking we had been out maneuvered by some bunnies…..only to discover that the little guy had gotten covered over by some dirt!

We also replaced several plants around my property with boxwood plants.  We dug up 3 sad little day lilies and a decorative grass out of the front yard bed and replaced them all with tiny, little baby boxwoods.  We had to drive all over town one weekend to find four matching boxwoods….but I love them.  Boxwood just has a particular smell that reminds me of vacations to Virginia, they are always green, they are low maintenance, and look like something, and mostly they are just my jam.  Don’t know what to plant…..why not a boxwood?!  I also replaced the mostly dead spirea with a slightly larger boxwood….hahah cuz of course I did!

2017 Plant Deaths — A Running List

• 3 Cherry Tomato Plants
• 1.5 (approximation based on remaining growing time) Pepper Plants
• 5 Kohlrabi Sprouts
• Various Flowers, Lettuce, and Kale Leaves

Last night we had a pretty major storm, and I was pretty nervous about the survival of all of my veggies.  I’m happy to report that everything survived the wind, hail, and rain.  Now, if I can just keep the bunnies away from the beans and my lettuce we will be all good in the hood!

Squash and two happy little bean rows…..who’s getting excited for veggies?!?!?

Quick Costco Enchiladas

A couple weeks ago, The Engineer and I bought some Good Foods jalapeño artichoke dip from Costco.  By some, I of course mean a Costco sized amount……33 oz.  It wasn’t really the best for just eating….flavor wise, but it got me thinking that it might work to make some enchiladas.  Yesterday we made a trip to Costco to gather up the rest of the necessary supplies.  It was our first actual “shopping” trip to Costco.  We had been before, but yesterday involved a cart and an actual list!  We looked like actual adults who know what they are doing in life…..it was amazeballs.

I made them today and they were good….and easy….which was ideal because I spent most of the day being a bit on the hungover side of life.  Apparently last nights concert was just a bit too much for me.  Since I’d never made them before, and we were trying to use up some dip we didn’t like I wasn’t sure they would turn out.  I didn’t take any pictures of the process, but honestly it’s easy enough you don’t need much in the way of instructions.

THE THINGS YOU’LL NEED

• 1 Rotisserie Chicken
• Jalapeño Artichoke Dip
• Half an Onion
• Shredded Cheese
• Tortillas (about 10)
• 2 4oz cans of diced green chilies
• 2 cans of red enchilada sauce
• Garlic Powder
• Cayenne Pepper
• Paprika
• Chile Powder
• Salt and Pepper

First things first, you’ll need to shred the chicken.  I removed the skin and then just ripped the meat into bite sized pieces, but there’s no need to be too specific about anything.  Place all the chicken into a large bowl so that the other ingredients can be added to it and mixed well.  After you have the chicken shredded up, add approximately half of the jalapeño artichoke dip.  I didn’t measure as I added, but it was 4 large dollops……enough to sort of moisten everything and get it to combine.  It ended up being about half of the container of dip.  Dice half of an onion and throw that in the mix as well as the two drained cans of diced chilies.  At this point, you can season to taste…..I ended up adding maybe 1.5 teaspoons of garlic, cayenne, and paprika, maybe 1.5 tablespoons of chili powder, and a good amount of salt and pepper.  The Engineer thought they were a bit hot, I thought they were good….so just season to your own taste.  He also decided that he wanted to add some shredded cheese into the mix as well….so we stirred in maybe half a cup.

This can be prepped ahead of time.  I just threw the bowl in the fridge and let everything sit and combine together for most of the day while we napped, watched Netflix, and attempted to recover.

To assemble, spray a 9×13 glass baking dish with non-stick spray.  Scoop a generous amount of the chicken and cheese mixture into the center of a tortilla.  Roll and place into the baking dish.  We fit 9 tortillas into the baking dish, but it was a bit of a squishy fit.  This left one tortilla and one tortilla worth of chicken mixture.  We rolled it up with a small splash of enchilada sauce and tossed it into the freezer.  It will make a good, quick lunch for one of us eventually.  Honestly, you could probably just roll and freeze them all into chicken queso burritos if you wanted something that could just be thrown in the microwave fast for on the go lunches.

Cover with the two cans of enchilada sauce and a generous sprinkling of shredded cheese.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 mins until everything is hot, melted together, and delicious.  Let cool a few minutes before serving to let them firm up a bit.  The Engineer had his with sour cream and a little extra cheese, I just had mine plain out of the pan.