Woman in the Middle

March is supposed to come in like a lion and leave like a lamb. Instead, we seem to be having a March that came in like a lamb and left like a lion (and thanks to Karen for pointing that out!).

Two days ago we had a weird storm blow through in the evening. It was one of these where if you looked one way you could see blue sky, and the other way nothing but dark angry clouds. It came from the south/south east and thanks to Facebook we knew what was coming. Folks already in the midst of the storm were posting things like “heavy rain” and “we have hail!” Sure enough, in came the rain, falling in big drops, then came the hail!

While I did turn off my sprinkles, as I do every chance I get, it was, unfortunately, a short rain and we didn’t get all that much water from it. El Nino has been a total bust for us their year. A professor from a local university was quoted in the paper about how unprecedented it was for an El Nino of that magnitude to produce so little rain.

In addition to rain and hail, we had cool weather as well. It was cool yesterday, too, but will be warming up starting today. I have a feeling we may have just had the last of “winter” weather (as much as we ever get here) and it is now on to summer.

Hope you are having a good week. What is the weather like in your neck of the woods?

This is a very easy recipe that can be found all over the internet, but, until recently, I had never happened upon it. Just in case it is new to you, to, I thought I would share this recipe for Butterscotch Cake.  I am all about easy and I loved this recipe because it takes so few ingredients, is so so easy to make and is so so yummy!. (BTW – Please forgive my terrible photos. The cake is way more lovely and delicious than these photos show.)

1 yellow or white cake mix

1- 3 1/2 oz package cook and serve butterscotch pudding

1 cup butterscotch chips (or more, many more)

2/3 cup chopped nuts (more or less to taste)

Make pudding according to package directions. Let cool. Add pudding to dry cake mix and stir until incorporated.

Grease or spray a 9 x 13 pan and pour cake mix into pan. Spread around evenly.

Sprinkle with buttterscotch chips and the chopped nuts. (Feel free to use more butterscotch chips. I did!)

Bake in a 350 degree oven  for one hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Serve warm or let cool before serving. I think a dollop of whip cream on top would be lovely!

And that is it. Feel free to add some butterscotch chips to the batter as well. I did that and it was yummy. After all, you can’t have too many butterscotch chips, right?

Just about 10 months ago these little guys appeared.

The black one weighed 14 ounces and the orange one weighed 1.3 pounds.

Now, Nox, the black one, weighs 11.6 pounds and Lumos, the orange one, weighs 14 pounds! Hum, that would imply I have invested in quite a bit of kitten food these last 10 months!

It is over. Crazy season is over. No more birthdays (well, except we are helping a cousin celebrate her birthday next week.) No more major holidays until 4th of July. No need to decorate the house. Nothing. Nada. Whew!

Our crazy season is slightly less crazy than it used to be because I have less family to worry about and the girls are grown up now. But, starting in October, it just feels like it is go go go. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of that go go go is fun fun fun. But, by the time Easter arrives, I am over celebrating and ready for some normal days.

Tomorrow I will gather up the Easter decorations and at least get them out to the garage. Then I will put some order to the kitchen after all the Easter eating today. Then I think I will do a little shopping and return some things I need to take back. I may even stop by the library and find a good book to sink into.

Spring has arrived. My crazy season is over. Bring on regular life!

Spring has definitely arrived in my yard. The flowers are looking just beautiful. When I pull into my driveway and look to the left, here is what I see – purple, white and pink flowers.  The photo is too small to do it justice, I am afraid.

My front door is on the side of my house. To get to it you have to cut across in front of the house from the drive way. This is also what I see as I pull into the driveway. My walkway lined with white roses and my beast of an orange tree. I love how the front yard looks this time of year!

Everything is particularly happy because of the hard rain we got a couple of weeks ago. Plants always love rain more then they love the sprinklers, for some reason.

I hope you are having a great weekend! If you are celebrating Easter, I wish you wonderful day! Alleluia!

I went shopping with Youngest Daughter and her friend today, at the massive mall near by. They were looking for matching shoes to wear in the upcoming wedding they are going to be in. While they perused the clearance section of Forever 21, I needed to use the ladies room. At this mall, no store, no matter how big, has a restroom. You have to go out into the mall and use the mall restrooms.

I had to go down a long hallway to get to the entrance to the restroom. As I entered, I noted everyone in front of me (all women) were going to the right. But the restroom, like many I have seen at places like Disneyland (and, after all, wasn’t this mega mall like a Disneyland of shopping?) had two doorways, and I thought you could go to the right or left to get into the restroom. Since everyone was going right, I went left. Left into the men’s restroom! Haven’t done that in years!

I can still see the startled face of a young Asian man as I popped in the door. This mall is popular with foreign tourists, and I bet he was a visitor to our fine country. So glad I could send him home with yet another story of the crazy people in the United States. Sigh.

I shook off the embarrassment and went on to help Youngest and her friend find shoes to wear in the wedding Yay! And they were only a little over $18 a pair, tax and all. Double Yay!

I both love and loathe trip planning, all at the same time! I love it because the anticipation is one of the best parts of the trip. I loathe it because putting all the pieces together can  be such a pain!

In case you haven’t guessed, I am in the midst of planning a trip. Hubby and I haven’t gotten away for more than a weekend in a year or more. Our anniversary is coming up and we decided that was as good excuse as any to plan a trip. I bought Hubby a map of the United States for his birthday and all four of us put flags in each state we have been. It became clear that we really need to get our act together if we are going to see all fifty states. With that in mind, we decided to do something we have never done before, take a trip on a train! An overnight trip, that is.  Amtrak, here we come!

We will be taking the train from Los Angeles to Kansas City, Missouri. Why Kansas City, you may be asking. Why not? Actually, I looked into that fine city and discovered they have lots of things to see there. Besides, they have barbecue in Kansas City. Yum! It is also a two night trip from Los Angeles, which we thought would be just about right for a first train trip.

We are getting a sleeper, which comes with all our meals.  We will also have our own bathroom, which I feel is a must. No traipsing down halls for me in the middle of the night!

The trip is still over a month away, but I now have our train reservations going and our airplane flight coming back.  Now if I can just find a hotel we will be all set! I think I need to make a trip to AAA to get the travel book for Missouri. I find looking for hotels and things to see easier if I have the trusty AAA book in hand.

Hope you are having a great week. Do you have any trips planned?

Photo courtesy kcmo.gov

I joke that Honey’s nose is the only thing on her head that still work’s perfectly. Well, it got her into trouble yesterday. She really has been a good dog over the years, but her doggie dementia is causing behaviors that are new. Yesterday she decided to get into the bathroom trash (which she NEVER does) and she followed her nose into a bedroom, where she discovered some chocolate covered cranberries in a bag up on a chair.

I discovered her mid snack on the candy yesterday morning. However, I thought she just had part of a small bag. I took a wait and see attitude. However, last night about 6:30, I discovered that she had actually eaten two bags of the stuff.   Two small bags, but still much more than we had previously realized. She started acting a bit off a little later, agitated, primarily. I looked up “signs of chocolate poisoning in dogs on the internet, and agitation was a primary sign. So off Hubby and I went, with Honey in tow, to the emergency vet. We all think Honey will be fine but she needed to stay overnight to get some treatment to help get the poison out of her system.

My credit card is screaming from the pain and, as God as my witness, no one in the house will ever again leave chocolate within striking distance of the dog, or they will have to deal with the wrath of Mom.

Eldest Daughter is off on a spring break trip to visit friends today. I am so proud of her that she was able to fit all her things on a carry on bag. It is amazing what you can do when you want to avoid luggage fees!

She is off to Salt Lake City, Utah. It is snowing there. Apparently she inherited my ability to insure bad weather while on vacation.

You didn’t know that about me? We have friends who consider me a weather witch. It is particularly bad when camping is involved. They go camping, weather is fine. I go camping with them and it turns cold, it snows, etc….

Happily, this is not something that happens all the time with me. Generally, the weather cooperates, or at least does what it is supposed to do. You know, you can always expect rain in England, for example.

OF course, the snow just adds one more thing for me to worry about while she is gone. It is supposed to clear up tomorrow. Here is hoping!

We had an unexpected car problem over the weekend. Those are so annoying, aren’t they? In this instance. a bolt on the exhaust system got caught in the expansion joint at the crest of our driveway. When all for of us hopped in the car and Hubby tried to back up, the exhaust system folded like a piece of paper.

Happily, the nasty project from Porter Ranch is over, so Hubby didn’t have to work all weekend. He did have to go in some, as the fall out from that project on the rest of his business isn’t over. But, with the folded exhaust system, much of his free time was spent dealing with that. Since he had to truck home from work  to haul home car parts, we did use that as an opportunity to haul a recliner from mom in laws house to the friend we promised it to  A YEAR AGO. Call it procrastination, call it Alzheimer’s, but finally call it done!!!

Meanwhile, Youngest Daughter and I hit the garage again. Seriously, why is all that stuff in there? The next step, before we do any thing else, is to haul away all the stuff we have identified that can be donated. Once that is out of the garage we will have more space to sort and a better idea of what is left that needs going through.  It feels so good to be making progress, however small, at our house and Mom in-laws.

We are having lovely weather here, although in typical spring fashion it can’t quite make up its mind. Some days are a little cooler, some days a little warmer, but what ever it is, it is lovely!

Eldest Daughter heads off to Utah tomorrow to visit friends. In a lucky coincidence, I made lunch plans with a friend from high school I haven’t seen in over a year. That will help distract me from any concerns I may be having about a daughter in an airplane going far away. Yay! Happily, Eldest will be back the day before Easter.

I hope you are having a wonderful Monday, where ever you are.