Abdul and the New Roof

It's been exciting around the ReformingGeek household. That's right. A big YEE HAW and beer (or Diet Dr Pepper!) all around.

The roofers came and went and Gosh Dern It none of them looked like this guy. I know that you probably wanted me to re-post the picture of the hottie but last time I sent some of you into convulsions so I played it safe this time. Also, I sent the hottie photo to some former work buddies in response to a hot female picture they sent out and I think some of the guys nearly passed out. I guess I shocked them or made them feel incredibly inadequate. I sure hope they recovered OK.

Yeah, right.

Unfortunately, my roofers looked more like this guy. They had the same crazed look but with a Hispanic flair or maybe it was just indigestion.

Sheik Abdul Garcia poses for the camera

Instead of the "nice" silky shirt and vest and a colorful turban, it was old shirts and ratty jeans and I'm not sure I want to know what their headgear was made of. I guess if you worked on top of roofs all day in the blazing sun then you might want to keep your skin covered. I don't want to do their laundry.

Here's a picture of the backside of my house and, um, yes, you can see the new roof. Not that I took a picture of the roof or anything. It's the plants. No, really, the plants but, believe it or not, the roof is "black".


The hummingbirds love the Lantanas. Those are the hot and tired green bushes against the side of the house next to the bay window. Yes, there really are juicy colorful blooms on the bushes. There is also a flower arrangement in the bay window. Lately, I've been hearing something like a "thump" against the house. Using my amazingly accurate sleuthing skills, I noticed a poor wittle bird hitting the window trying to reach the flowers. Hum... Maybe I should move the flowers!

Unfortunately, you are getting a view of the sunny side of my house after nearly a week of blistering temps and roofers letting shingles sit on the grass more than five minutes. They also put a tarp over some bushes and flowers and I think at least two plants committed harry-karry by asphyxiation. ;-(

It doesn't take long to toast landscaping in this weather. I thought about frying an egg on the sidewalk but I wasn't sure what would show up to eat it so I passed.

Here's a picture of the front of my house:


Yes, I know you can see the roof but look at the Asian Jasmine. It's FINALLY climbing up the bricks. Yes, I also know my house kind of resembles a barn. Maybe that's why we have so many visitors from the animal kingdom. There is a reason we don't have a cat door.

In other news, a male member of the family received this fortune cookie when we went out for Chinese recently. I'm having a bit of a problem with the Engrish:

"You have had long-term success relative to business [in bed]."

By adding "in bed", my guess is that he took one of those little pills and needs to call the doctor after 6 hours and shame on him for conducting business in bed! Or, you have been doing business in bed and the cat's finally out of the bag? Oh, my, my. What do you think?

Be safe out there folks. Specifically, if you are age 50 and a celebrity, OK?

Photo credits: ReformingGeek house: wanna-be photographer ReformingGeek, Abdul: jflashphoto on flickr.com, Creative Commons license (see sidebar)

Color Me Purple, Pink, and Hearted!

You may remember that I'm trying to reinvent myself. You might ask what that means?

I have no clue. When you figure it out let me know.

I was able to come up with an idea to make some money. I'm going to try my hand at fashion design. That's right. I've plucked out my few remaining brain cells on the right side of my brain and developed some awesome original clothing designs.

Don't you just LOVE this dress?

Pathetic email photo purposely crudely altered

for your entertainment

It comes with the hat that kind of matches the shoes. You do remember I said my arms were getting tan although I seemed to have shrunk and I'm looking a bit pale....

And that color-coordinated dog? That was an after-thought. I don't know where it came from. It was something the cat found and presented to me on the back doorstep. Amazingly, it doubles as a purse!


Also, since there is an ample amount of roadkill out here, why not design clothing based on dead animal skins or other pieces and parts?

Uh, ReformingGeek?

Yes?

We already have fur coats and PETA gets all upset about them. Yeah, I know about the coats.

This is different. Keep reading. You'll like it.

My idea is a great way to recycle and it should be OK with animal rights activists as I'm just using what something else killed and left behind, right? What do you think of this?

Another pathetic email photo provides a snicker

I found those feathers in the yard. It was after the cat had been out for awhile so, um, well, I guess he was hungry.


In other news, as predicted by our weather forecasters, it's freakin' hot here. Cat doesn't know how to handle it although he seems to have the right idea here:

Iz turns back on grey lap beast and sleeps with one eye open
to make sure it doesn't attack me.

Last, but certainly not least, I received an award from a very talented and funny blogger. That sweet and snarky mama-face from Blog Ignoramus bestowed this pretty heart upon me:


Now I need to choose 4 other recipients. I don't usually do this but I will this time just to be ornery. I love all of you but here goes:

• My Best Blogging Buddy and quirkiest loon you'll ever meet Quirky, from Musings of a Quirky Loon
• Chef and prolific travel writer Jacki, from Moving at the Speed of Life
• Insane but drug-free cat-loving Hit 40, from Sane without Drugs
• Our token male for this event, the inspirational Old Silly, from The Old Silly's Free Spirit Blog

Enjoy!

Fried Brains

What? Do you think I'm writing about food again?

Um, no.

I hope everyone had a great weekend. We are headed for an over abundance of triple digits to describe our temperature this week and I'm NOT ready. I asked Mother Nature for a few more weeks of temps in the 90's and well...er..she wasn't very nice when she said "no".



I read that many of you had a lousy week last week. I think you must have passed that to me Sunday. I was out running on the Grassy Knoll, grass airstrip dodging sticks from the last storm and the body snatchers and landmines came out in full force. There are holes on the side of the airstrip probably caused by an underground spring. The grass has cleverly disguised the holes. Living inside are snakes, urchins, body snatchers or maybe zombies and they reached up and grabbed my ankle. I took a big stick and pounded them off me. PHEW! That was close. You see, folks, I'm paranoid for a reason.

Note to self: Catch and dispose of hole dwellers. Fill holes.

Then I stepped in gooey poo. Oh, ick, ick, ICK!

Note to self: Look down next time. Find animal that left poo and see above for description of hole.

Now don't call PETA, OK?

I finally finished my run and made it home. Fortunately, Hubby was very sympathetic and let me whine for a few minutes.

Running while the sun is up has resulted in nicely tanned arms and almost tan legs but what's up with my nose? It stays red most of the time. I'm starting to feel like poor Rudolph and it appears as if Rudolph has also found the poo!

What the....? Oh, crap.

Yeah. I know. It's time to break out the sunblock. I need to get rid of the sweatband line on my face, too.

I still have more brain cells than my neighbor. Late Saturday afternoon, in the heat, she's out working in the yard next door to her property. I'm playing nosy neighbor from the comfort of my A/C and my bay window. This property is directly behind us and has been sold to a family that does not live in the neighborhood. The new owners are doing NOTHING to keep the grass weeds under control but they do appear to be moving junk stuff into the hangar for storage.

Apparently, my neighbor grew tired of looking at the mess. She was soon joined by her entire family, including grand-kiddies. Oh yeah. I'm sure that was fun for them. I enjoyed watching them as I sipped some wine, though.

We've been told the new owners will be altering the hangar in some way in order to build a house around it. Uh huh. I wonder if they're interested in indoor plumbing.

Anyhowsit, last year, Hubby tried to do his part caring for this property by running his mower up and down a few times. It was still owned by folks living in the neighborhood and he was just helping out. This same neighbor comes out of her house and starts fussing at him because he's "throwing leaves towards her property". There is no pleasing this woman. So, yes, more power to you, Neighbor. Clear, clean, mow, weed-eat, burn the place down, whatever. Just don't get heatstroke. I don't want to practice first aid skills on you. I'd have to put down my wine.

On the other hand, maybe I don't want her to get too industrious over there. She might find the bodies I've buried.....

In other news, we should be getting a new roof at some point this week. I seriously doubt I'll be greeted with this as one of my roofers:

Um...

Photo credits: Rudolph: Eric Beglin on flickr.com, Creative Commons license (see sidebar), Mother Nature, some email, Um...: some website.

It's Not a Roast, but it is a CROC!

I owe everyone who visited during the Virtual Road Trip a humble apology. I forgot a very important delicacy, a very special treat for all of my guests. I don't understand how I missed this opportunity:

Thank you Star-Telegram for the photo!

Recently, a few miles outside of downtown Cowtown, this poor fella did not make it across a busy street. Yes, I know that it's an alligator not a crocodile. Silly thing. He must have thought the creek was deeper on the other side of the street. Sheesh! I guess when you're 10 feet long, you'd want to find the biggest creek. This unfortunate creature's demise is my good luck. Coming soon, updates to ReformingGeek's Roadkill cookbook, on sale now for only $1.99. Check out unique but delicious recipes for alligator strips, alligator dumplings, alligator rings, and a special Father's Day recipe for grilled alligator. Oh yeah. It doesn't get much better than this!

But wait. There's more.

I pulled out my spy scope and the GOOGLE and tracked down Guido. Guido has some special....um....talents (NO, NOT THAT!) and he helped me with some items I now have for sale on an Etsy site. Yep. Don't miss out on a pair of alligator roper boots, a couple of belts, and....

Uh, ReformingGeek?

Yes?

Shut up. You're not supposed to let people know about OUR secrets, OK?

Oh, well, OK. Sorry. I got carried away.

In other news, I noticed that a few of you were not familiar with the very tasty dessert sopapillas that we have here in Texas and that I referenced in our tour of Cowtown. If I thought they would keep, I would make you some and send them to you but since they're fried and with this heat, they would be a gooey, stinky mess by the time they got to you. You might be able to use them to throw at an unsuspecting co-worker.

Basically, it's fried bread. They are similar to Indian bread but a little lighter in texture. The basic ingredients are flour, baking powder, shortening, and evaporated milk. They are rolled out, cut into squares and then fried in hot oil. In Texas, they are served as dessert usually with butter and honey and sometimes with a strawberry or other fruit sauce on top. Sprinkling with cinnamon and sugar is also common.

Hum... It looks like a scoop of ice cream and some whipped cream is on that plate in the picture. WHEW! SUGAR HIGH! I have a recipe but I'm not that great with my Fry Daddy but I'll gladly let you try. Let me know if you would like the recipe.

In New Mexico, they are served with the meal (I originally wrote mail???) without any sprucing up with cinnamon/sugar or fruit sauces. Honey and butter are available and the purpose is to offset the spicy New Mexico chiles used in their dishes. These are actually my favorites. We make quite a few trips to Santa Fe so if you need restaurant suggestions, I've got them!

Last and probably least, for those of you that don't know what calf-fries are, I hope you have a strong stomach. Click here if you dare. Ha! Chickens! Wimps! Now did you look?

Anyone hungry yet?

Have a great weekend and Happy Father's Day to all you dads and yes, you're a dad even if you only have a pup, kitty, or alligator.

Virtual Tour Day 2: Cowtown Classics

Welcome to Day 2 of our tour of Cowtown (Fort Worth), Texas, one of the stops on the Humor Bloggers Dot Com Virtual Road Trip. If you want to see where we've been and where we're going, click here.

Let's get the show started.

GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM!

Oh wait. Wrong movie. Sorry about that.

It's time to RISE and SHINE. I've made breakfast:

Photo: some email

Oh, wait. That's not right. Wrong meal.

THIS is breakfast:

Photo: ReformingGeek. Yum!

Since you guys are special and this is a special occasion, I've made my famous breakfast burritos (bacon, egg, and cheese), with some salsa of course! This is usually a "weekends only" breakfast so you should feel honored.

Since I was kind enough to make you breakfast, here's a rake. Remember that mess out back from yesterday? Please rake it up in nice neat piles and get it done quickly. We've got a busy day ahead.

Fast forward 30 minutes.

WOW! You guys did great. Thanks so much for helping out.

Now, let's get going. We are going to visit the Fort Worth Zoo this morning. Please be careful. I know you guys are funny but the animals might not think so. Keep your hands to yourself and don't make silly faces, OK? Also, please DO NOT dispose of misbehaving children in the lion's den.

Photo: zyada on flickr.com

Photo: zyada on flickr.com

Wasn't that fun? I do apologize for that zebra. How rude. And those elephants must have thought you needed to cool off.

You're probably getting as hungry as some of those critters. I know I am.

Lunch today will be some good ole southern cooking. We're having chicken fried steak, white gravy, a couple of side dishes and some banana pudding for dessert. Hubby recommends Massey's, a little hole-in-the-wall place south of downtown, a couple of miles from the zoo. It's been around forever. Believe it or not, I've NEVER been there and I've been around forever.

Now that our arteries are clogged, let's take a walk around the Fort Worth Botanical Garden.

Photo: Miss Shari on flickr.com

I'm so glad we've got a few minutes to walk round the various gardens with all the pretty spring blooms. It's been way too long since I've been here.

Next up is a little culture, quickly browsing one of several museums in the "museum district". Let's do a whirlwind tour of the Kimbell Art Museum.

WHEW! That was tough and I like art. HEY! WAKE UP out there.

We're moving again. We don't have Princeton, but we do have Texas Christian University (TCU). We've got time for a quick tour of TCU, home of the purple horned frogs. Oh, wait. That can't be right, can it? I know that they are really into purple and they are the Horned Frogs. Go figure.

Photo: Wikipedia

Photo: ChrisMPowell, flickr.com

They are offering a wine-tasting event this afternoon. We are joining them and will probably be a little wobbly afterwards. We'll need to catch the bus to dinner. I hope you're hungry.

For a nice send-off, I'm taking you to a fun place in the heart of downtown Fort Worth. It used to be on the top floor of the tall building in this photo:

Photo: some photo airline operating back in 2000

Yes, those buildings are damaged. After the tornado in March of 2000, they rebuilt the restaurant, Reata, here (notice the nice rooftop!):

Photo: members.virtualtours.com

The inside is tastefully (that may be debatable) furnished with western decor. We wouldn't want you to forget where you are, right? Let's start with an order of calf-fries. Don't worry. I'll also order some steaks and plenty of beer to help you eat the calf-fries. You DO know what they are, don't you?


Those two days went by fast. It's time for me to drop you at the airport for your flight to Phoenix, AZ to visit MadMadMargo! Thank you for stopping in for a big Texas Howdy! **HUGS**

Have a good flight!

Flickr photos: flickr.com photos used by permission of photographer (zyada is my SIL and she takes great pictures!) or via Creative Commons licensing (see sidebar).

Virtual Tour Day 1: Cowtown on a Budget!

Welcome! You've just stumbled upon the Humor Bloggers Dot Com Virtual Tour and its stop in Cowtown (Fort Worth), Texas. We just finished stalking brookeamanda up in Illinois and if you want to see where we've been and where we're going, click here! I hope you had a nice, relaxing flight and are well rested.

I know you're probably ready to begin the tour but first, like the classy responsible tourists that we are, we must check our budget.

That's right. Times are tough down here in Cowtown. I've been saving up for a nice pair of roper boots (or maybe a nice pair of boobs will do) but I'm willing to use the money to entertain you. Let me grab Cat and we'll see what we've got:

Photo: ReformingGeek

As you can probably guess, that money won't get me nice pair of anything so I checked with the Fort Worth Stockyards and they are doing a special event today with the cattle. That's right. They could use a few extra hands (pun intended) to shovel.....er....stuff. While we're shoveling, we can enjoy the history behind the Fort Worth Stockyards (thank you Wiki):

The Fort Worth Stockyards now celebrates Fort Worth's long tradition as a part of the cattle industry and was designated as a historical district in 1976. Many bars and nightclubs (including Billy Bob's Texas) are located in the vicinity, and the area has a Western motif. There is also an opry and a rodeo. The Fort Worth Stockyards are the last standing stockyards in the United States. Some Fort Worth volunteers (Hey, that's us, except I got them to pay us) still run the cattle drives today. They do it so that people can see what it was like in the 1800s.

Photo: dchrisoh, flickr.com Creative Commons

Fast forward a few hours and we are incredibly ripe out here in this heat!

After a quick shower with a garden hose, we are headed to lunch. That's right. We will be eating at *Manny's house near the stockyards. This is on the north side of town where many of the "hole in the wall" Tex-Mex restaurants are and the population is mostly Hispanic.

Hubby's great-grandmother (not Hispanic) owned a cafe in this area in the 1930's and we have a family recipe for Spanish Spare Ribs that was one of the most popular dishes on the menu.

Let's get back to Manny. Manny is a friend of Hubby's and his mama cooks up some mean **Tex-Mex (a hybrid of Spanish and native Mexican foods): Enchiladas, Spanish Rice, Refritos (Refried Beans), Tamales, and Sopapillas for dessert.

Photo: kodamakitty, flickr.com Creative Commons

That's enough gas to tank you up pretty dern good. Never fear. If you need to use the facilities, we've got plenty of these around town:

Photo: some email

Just kidding. We've got real bathrooms...somewhere around here I'm sure. Aw, forget it. There's a bush. I'll cover you.

You probably should take one of those pink antacid pills because we are headed to Six Flags over Texas this afternoon. It's in Arlington about 20 minutes from downtown Cowtown. After a cool down on the log flume ride, we are in line for one of the main attractions: Titan. I hope you like roller coasters. This one's a blast!

Photo: mulf, flickr.com Creative Commons

But wait. There's more. After spilling the contents of our stomach from the roller coaster ride, we are going to sit down for awhile and catch a baseball game. In the picture, it's that red stadium that can be seen from that seriously evil coaster. We will be watching the Texas Rangers play Crotchety's New York Yankees. I think we're going to need lots of beer. The Yankees usually kick our ass.

Also, in the background of the picture is a work-in-progress shot of the new Cowboys stadium, the new home for the Dallas Cowboys professional football team (just in case you haven't heard of them!) If you've got a spare thousand, you might be able to get a reasonably decent seat.

Do you get the idea that sports are a big thing down here?

You would be right.

OK, the baseball game's over. We actually won! Let's get on the road. You're spending the night at my place tonight. Um, no, not with me. Sorry. There just isn't enough room in the bed and Hubby won't even let the cat sleep with us. I've got plenty of room in the backyard and you can fight over the little shed:

Photo: ReformingGeek

Sorry about the mess in the yard. It's been a stormy week. We'll talk more about that tomorrow. Nighty night. Sleep tight. Tomorrow will be a busy day!


*Not his real name of course!
**Tex-Mex - "Mexican" food with Texas influences such as a heavy chili con carne sauce (spicy beef gravy), lots of melted cheese, beef, and combination plates served with chips and salsa ("hot sauce").

Flickr photos: Creative Commons license (see sidebar)

Badges, Beer, and Beef?

First of all, recently roasted bloggers Shawn and Meg are welcome to pick up their badge of honor to display on their blog. Seasoning packets are extra, though.


Next, we had a serious round of storms roll through last night and I again need you guys to get over here and sweep the tree poop from my drive and pick-up my yard:



It's worse than it looks but at least we didn't lose any trees and we missed the tornado 2 miles to the north.

I was trying to heat dinner at the time and that was quite a challenge as the power couldn't decide between on or off. I looked out the window a few times and I swear I saw Dorothy, Toto, and a few tortoises fly across the yard.

You guys can do the clean-up while I go part with hard-earned money to get myself prettied-up at the hairstylist (a girl can TRY!) My roots are showing and afterall, I have to get ready for company next week*.

There is beer in the garage fridge. After you've finished picking up the mess, help yourself but make sure there is at least ONE left when I return home this afternoon.


Now for the beef.

My mom lives on a court and there is one house that is always changing inhabitants. It's rental property and former inhabitants have been taken away to jail but most usually just move out in the middle of the night. Recently, a new crop of weirdos moved into this house. My mom's neighbor is a blue-haired LOL and she keeps an eye on things although it's hard to miss the noise from the souped-up trucks that have been stopping by at all hours.

According to my mom's blue-haired neighbor, big white boxes that look like coffins are leaving the house and being loaded into the trucks. Blue Hair met the new folks and inquired about the "activity". She was told "we deal in meat". Um....WHAT KIND OF MEAT? That would be my question.

My guess is that the zombies are in control of the human-looking occupants. This is obviously a breeding ground for the zombies and once a zombie is ready to be released into society they are boxed up and sold to the highest bidder. Watch out folks. They are slowly infiltrating our society.

Any other ideas?

*I hope to see everyone here on Monday for a tour of Cowtown and we will venture down south for a road trip that includes........ Wait. I can't tell you that. For more information about the tour and its exciting destinations, click here.

Photo credits: Tree poop: ReformingGeek, Nosy lady: istockphoto.com

Karma - I Truly Believe but I Believe in Ice Cream, Too!

What goes around comes around? Universal balance? Sounds good to me.

Cat karma: I will never understand the cat species. Cat's own personal water bowl contains water sans green slimy stuff, bugs, and other detritus but the big white porcelain bowl is more appealing. This happens even when Cat knows he will get in trouble for jumping on said porcelain beast and leaving his dirty paw prints all over the seat. Yeah, I know. I could leave the lid down but.....let's not go there!

From the cat's perspective, he makes his own karma. I'm starting to become frightened of my cat. It's best not to anger him as my neighbor has been looking for a missing cat.....


Hum....it appears my cat found it, looked at it, and turned it to stone. OOPS!

Ha!

I'm so sorry about that. It was lame but it's hot here and my brains are fried.

Speaking of neighbors, one of them called last week and asked that I keep fat furry beast inside as she has baby wrens in her garage. Well, um, yeah, right. My cat is too old to catch anything unless he has help. Maybe I should ask that her birds not come over here and poop on me when I'm working in the yard or maybe she could make her owls be quiet when we're trying to sleep. Sheesh! Neighbors.


Driving karma: A teenage driver, obviously enjoying the first few days of freedom from school, makes a left turn in front of me, failing to yield. No collision occurred but I don't think he had a clue. I'm not sure my horn made it thru the teenage boy's think noggin. Afterall, he was coming from the swim center where the females of the species were walking around in swimming attire. I'm sure he was very focused on driving. Uh huh. Maybe he's forgotten everything he learned or didn't learn in driver's training. See this post, for a satirical outlook of my experience with drivers in training.

Back to the karma: A few minutes later, I stupidly end up in the wrong lane and have to drive assertively to get over and then I do a horrible job of parking at the gym where I work on Monday mornings. SIGH!

Here's one that's a little hard to do sometimes. When you're angry, changing your thoughts to something positive and then all of a sudden finding yourself doing something nice for someone for no reason at all.

Wait! WHO AM I KIDDING?

Actually, that really did happen. Well, at least once that I can remember, and it's better than trying to find yet another place to bury a body.

Um, sorry, again. That was my evil twin. Really, there are no bodies. I promise.

OK! It's time to sweeten things up around here. It's starting to warm up and this reminds me of when we first moved into this neighborhood. The popular gathering was an "Ice Cream Social". Bring your favorite homemade ice cream or tub of Blue Bell (more about Blue Bell when the HDBC tour comes to Cowtown). Hubby and I are thinking Coffee or Cinnamon Ice Cream or maybe even plain old Chocolate or Vanilla. I have an uncle who used to make vanilla ice cream at the family get together. Yum!

I was a little....er...disappointed at our first neighborhood function. The big thing was "Bubble Gum" ice cream. ICK! Have you ever tried it? It's made with Big Red soda pop and supposedly tastes like bubble gum. To me, it's absolutely nasty.

Now it's your turn. Tell me a good karma story and your favorite ice cream, homemade or whatever.

Photo credit: stone kitty: ReformingGeek, feel free to photoshop it to death and send it around the Internet in email

Cooking up Bloggers Shawn and Meg!

It's that time again. That's right. I'm finally back in the kitchen testing recipes and trying new pots and pans to find the best cooking method for burning roasting bloggers. It's taken me awhile to get the goods on some of you so I needed the long break. Then came the prep work in the kitchen. Some of you are very tough and needed some serious work with the tenderizer mallet. BAM! I've got some muscles to show for it.

But I prevailed. I was able to beat the following talented bloggers into submission today: Shawn from The Shark Tank and Meg from Prefers Her Fantasy Life.

Let's start with the shark guy, Shawn. The first thing you see on his blog is a shark licking its chops. Maybe this creature is thinking that I might be tasty, with a little fattening up and some seasoning, but so far I've managed to get it to back off with a promise of cat, fox, or *giant-mashed-snake for its next meal.

So what does this Shawn guy get up to? He's very funny even if he is confused about certain aspects of the animal kingdom. He blogs about a large variety of topics so you can't pin him down. I guess he likes it that way, huh?

But, you know me. I'm practicing to be a E-Stalker of the Year so of course I found Shark Guy stepping out. Here he is playing in the wrong tank:

OK. Which one of you farted?

Shark Guy has apparently always had a fascination with tanks. I caught him as a baby looking for his pacifier:

Guess who is upset about this? That's right. Perspective Cat's cousin Pathetic Cat was wanting his fair share. I'm not sure there would be much left of Mr. Fishy if the cat had its way.

Shark Guy's goose has been cooked. Now I'm ready to pan-fry the next blogger: Meg. I like Meg. She's a girl after my own soul with a colorful past in San Francisco. She's going thru some changes in her life right now and she needs our support. But that will have to come later as she is now sizzling in my frying pan and she sure does smell good.

She has lived her life under assumed names so it was again tough to find out her inner most secrets. But I'm no quitter. She claims to like dancing and has even posted pictures of herself wearing funny shoes bouncing around like a pogo stick making all kinds of racket. But, she hasn't been very honest with us. Her real talent is acrobatics. That's right. Here she is in a fantastic costume entertaining the crowds in Belfast:


You go Girl! Also, she said something about teaching school? Her students had better behave themselves. During her time in the circus, she came home with this guy as her pet:

Where's that friggin' apple, Boy?

I hope you had a good meal and enjoyed the company. Stay tuned. It's always a surprise to see who will be the next cooked goose around here. Also, the Humor Bloggers Virtual Road Trip will make a stop here mid-June. It's everything you always didn't want to know about Cowtown (and didn't ask) in two quick, exhausting days. Eat your Wheaties!

*I recently encountered the giant, smashed snake while out for a run. EEEEWWWW!

Photo credits: tiger tank: some email, fish bowl: some email, acrobat: goodonpaper on flickr.com Creative Commons (see sidebar for license info), dragon: jeffhenshaw on flicker.com Creative commons (see sidebar for license info).

Get Some Caffeine, it's a MEME!

First of all, thanks for all of your nice comments about my new blog design. I'll probably stick with this one for awhile, or at least until the next one. Ha! Check out the tabs at the top if you haven't already. I've got a tab for VE's "spoof" of my blog and there is a tab that describes the geek family members that aid me in my attempts/non-attempts to reform.

Now on to the ABC's meme, with a little flair of course. Meadowlark did this on her blog, Just Wandering Through. She did a great job and I didn't need caffeine to get through it. I hope you won't either.

A - Age: Yes, like a fine wine.

B - Bed size: We finally parted with our waterbed several years ago and went with separate beds. I'm just kidding. We have a queen size bed.

C - Chore you hate: Dusting does not bring me great pleasure, just a good sneeze.

D - Dog's name: Nooter. Didn't you know that Nooter is everyone's pup?

E - Essential start your day item: Green tea, OJ and TOAST, duh.

F - Favorite color: Purple

G - Gold or Silver or Platinum: Yes, and lots of it.

H - Height: According to my mom who is 5'9, I'm short. I'd love to be 5'6 but I find myself just short of 5'5 on most days. Got heels?

I - Instruments you play: Piano, flute, recorder, air guitar (very poorly according to Hubby)

J - Job title: Gym Grunt and Fitness Instructor but I still think of myself as a Business Systems Analyst in the corporate world. I occasionally fancy myself a writer.

K - Kid(s): No goats here. Oh, wait. You meant children? Nah. Just puke-ball the cat.

L - Living arrangements: The House that Jack (or Juan) cheaply built.

M - Mom's name: Dot

N - Nicknames: ReformingGeek, RG, Reffie, Girlfriend, anything else I consider flattering. If it's unflattering, see the letter "R" and duck.

O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: Medicine allergy (My neck swelled up and Mom freaked out, of course.)

P - Pet Peeve: Cats that puke..... Sorry about that but it said "pet" peeve. As for people, I don't like snobs and stupidity, and for things, I don't like water all over the place in the bathroom. Wipe the counter, please!

Q - Quote from a movie: I got a little carried away: "Make my day" - Dirty Harry , "I'll be Back" - Terminator, "I am your father, Luke" - Duh. "The Styrofoam, it weakens me" - Bolt", "Yippee ki-yay, mother fecker" - Die Hard, "Bring out your dead" - Monty Python

R - Right handed or left handed: Right but I'm working on my left hook.

S - Siblings: One brother.

T - Time you wake up: It depends on the party.

U- Underwear: Do you mean have I burned my bra? Of course but I will find one to wear if you're coming over. As for the other girlie garments, let's just say there are no granny panties unless it's laundry day. I'm not promising you a thong, though.

V - Vegetable you dislike: Beets and brussel sprouts (Yeah. I know that's two).

W - Ways you run late: I'm usually early but if I'm late, I probably lost track of time or didn't realize it would take that long to get from A to B. I always blame Brain Fog.

X - X-rays you've had: I wish I had x-ray vision but I don't think that's what's being asked. I've had my wrist x-rayed after crashing on downhill skis, and yes, it was broken.

Y - Yummy food you make: Homemade Mexican Stew, Cookies!

Z - Zoo favorite: It wouldn't be the snake exhibit.

You read this far? Wow! I'm impressed. I have some very aromatic flowers for your reward:


This rose bush is giving out some good vibes this year after a disappointing season last year (Hum....sounds like the Texas Rangers.)

Photo credits: Pink Rose Blow-out: ReformingGeek on a friggin' hot day in Texas!