7 Quick Takes (Vol 131)

Whoopee! It is Friday. TMO and TSiL are coming for a visit. AND there are 7 Quick Takes to amuse the heck out of you. What could be better. So, after ingesting all of my blather make sure that you click on the picture above to be whisked, at the speed of fast approaching Fall, over to Conversion Diary to see what all the others have been doing.

1.
Max the Wonder Dog is now the most expensive pound dog in the world.

Last Friday he began his 6th week of antibiotic treatment for Chryseomonas Luteola. He had been doing very well. Back to his old self.

And then I heard it. A sneeze. And then I listened more closely. And I could hear that he was a bit on the snotty side in his mile long nose.

And sure enough, by Monday he was back to having nasal congestion and sneezing and GRRRRRRRRRRRR.

And so we have had to go to the “nuclear option”. Which costs about as much as a small nuclear warhead.

Here’s hoping this works. If it doesn’t then I am not sure what the next step is.

2.
I am making these things today.

Key Lime Yogurt Pies In A Jar.

You cannot see my face but I am already salivating. Thank you Pinterest for bringing these to my attention. I will take a picture or two to show next week. I actually went out and spent MONEY on these stinking cute little canning jars that I saw at Wally Mart.

3.
As we all know I walk with friends three days a week out at the local lake park. 2 miles around and we have lovely views, Great Blue Heron and stinky geese.

And there are others that walk as well. We generally see the same people at various times of the day or week. And when you see people, whether you know them or not you always say hello. You stop to pet the dogs occasionally. We are all neighborly.

It is the unwritten rule of Sunny Lake.

But it would seem that there are SOME that are unaware of that rule. This morning we encountered a fellow who was obviously there to take pictures. How do I know? The tripod and big ass camera were a dead give away. And he had on hiking boots and heavy socks. This isn’t the Himalyalas buddy. At any rate, he was walking towards us and as we drew even we all said hello, all friendly like.

He looked at us and walked on past. No hi howdy. No smile. Bupkiss.

If he had said hello I might have pointed out the Bald Eagle that had just glided overhead.

PFFFFFFT! Find your own dang Bald Eagle!

4.
The garden is really producing at the moment although some things are dying down. I have pictures but they haven’t been edited yet so that will be coming next week. I think that we have harvested all the cucumbers that we are going to. The vines are slowly dying. In fact LookLeap pulled up a good portion of them and planted spinach.

Ummmmmmm, Spinach.

And the Sunflowers. Oh they are gorgeous. I will show you later.

But we are picking a boat load of green beans every other day or so, there are loads of tomatoes, the beets are just about ready to be harvested, the basil continues to grow out of control, the broccoli is sending out side shoots and we have more new plants in the ground for Fall harvest, the carrots are sprouting, the acorn squash is squashing, the new zucchini plants are growing but we aren’t sure if they will produce anything yet. We are hoping.

If they don’t produce anything does anyone have some big overripe zucchini that I can have to grate up for Zucchini Bread?

And finally the parks department, which overseas the Community Garden, came in this week and mowed all the plots that had been leased but never planted. We think they got to the plots before all the weeds had time to send out seeds. However, that doesn’t help when one of the plots that is planted nest to you has almost spent corn stalks in it and is overgrown with weeds.

GRRRRRRRRRR.

Those people had better not be able to lease plots next year. The parks department SAYS that is what is going to happen but we will see.

5.
I am trying to set manageable photography learning goals on a weekly basis. This coming week I am confining myself to using my new 85mm lens.

Oh I love that thing. Love. Love. Love.

But it really makes me aware of what I am doing because I have to be the one to move and reframe shots. I can’t just stand there and zoom in and zoom out.

And I continue to shoot only in RAW at the moment to hone those skills when editing etc.

Man I love photography.

Oh and I finally am figuring out pre set actions for Elements. There are a boat load of them that you can download from the internet.

If only I didn’t have to stop doing photography stuff because I need to do those pesky things like laundry and cleaning.

6.
In the mail last Friday there was a package for me.

I knew it was coming. I had been haunting the mail box for days.

I grabbed the box, clutched to my ample and heaving bosom and ran inside.

I think I scared the neighbors.

I opened the box and there they were…….

It is so nice to have friends that are cooks/bakers/bloggers.

What are those luscious squares of gooey goodness you are asking yourself.

They are Raspberry Blondies made just for me by The Mom Chef.

The Mom Chef and I have known each other for a LONG time but I have to confess that we really hadn’t communicated for quite a while and then, I think, our mom’s said to each other, “Hey did you know my daughter has a blog!” They sent the links to their respective daughters and that was that.

We are bonded for life. BBFF (Best Blogging Friends Forever).

And I might have indicated that these bars looked particularly drool worthy (oh THEY ARE) and so she sent me some. I love this woman.

And in the interest of total honesty here.

I have to confess that we ate all of them in 36 hours.

And they were SO GOOD.

Go and get the recipe and make them right now. I am making them next week after I pick some raspberries.

7.
And just in case you missed it. This weekend is Labor Day weekend. And that means that Monday we will, along with TMO and TSiL, will be going to the Great Geauga County Fair.

And you know what that means…..

You do don’t you? We have talked about this before.

COW BUTTS!

And I seem to be getting a reputation because several friends who have already attended the fair have sent me pictures of said cow butts.

I am not sure how I should interpret that. And I know that there will be increased traffic on the blog afterwards because for some reason people seem to like doing Google searches with the words “cow butts” in them. I am not even going to contemplate why.

And we will also be ingesting our yearly dose of Elephant ears, gyros, onion rings and 4H milk shakes.

My arteries are hardening already.