Brief wrap-up of the Utah trip

Also known as 1935.4 miles in under 10 days.

My husband and I took a beautiful trip to Utah at the beginning of September. And for all of my friends who aren't on Facebook and haven't seen any of the pictures, here's a sampling. Amusing stories to come later (and given how often I update this, it could be a lot later).

Zion National Park


The view from the Angel's Landing Trail.


The horrifying Angel's Landing trail.


Bryce Canyon National Park


More hoodoos


Hoodoos seen from below.


Grosvenor Arch in Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument (Can you find the person?)


Capitol Reef National Park


Natural Bridges National Monument


Monument Valley


Needles district of Canyonlands National Park


Arches National Park


Delicate Arch at Arches


Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands National Park

Why I love Georgia, part 5

Subtitled: Your educational system at work

So, I'm sitting at a traffic light two days ago and happen to glance over at the used car dealership on my right. (It's a LONG light, I have to find something to do.) Most of the cars sitting there have the usual model year and price written on the windshield. But sitting right in the middle of the row, facing the main street, is a minivan with something a little different. On its window, and this is as exact replica--at least as far as blogger will allow me, it says "7 pasanier." Now, if you closed one eye, squinted the other, and tilted your head at a 34 degree angle, you could barely make out where someone had tried to write the letter "g" over the "i." But it still came off looking like and "i." I've looked it up, and it does not appear to be the word "passenger" in any currently spoken language. Apparently the ability to spell fairly easy words is not a requirement to work at a used car lot (or in many other professions, from what I've seen). Yes, this is just one sign of how great a Georgia education is.

Domesticity

So, I go through these phases from time to time where I get all domestic. I'm not even sure what brings them on, and eventually they tend to go away. But I've been on one since about April. It all started while I was checking out some of my old links and ran across a recipe for "No-Knead" bread on the Vegan Feast Kitchen blog. Now, I love bread. Especially homemade bread. But I hate kneading. So this was right up my alley. Of course, being me, I decided to modify the recipe the first time I tried it. It came out fine, but not great. For my second attempt, I thought I'd follow the exact recipe, and this is what I ended up with. Very yummy.



My next attempt, I added some whole wheat flour. Still good, but not quite as pretty.



For my fourth attempt (not pictured due to tragedy), I tried a slightly different recipe with a secret ingredient. Ok, it's not so secret. It's beer. This loaf turned out the best, but there were some technical issues. The recipes suggested baking it on parchment paper. So I did as directed. BAD idea. We had to hack off the bottom crust to eat it. But it was still yummylicious.

But then it got hot. And having the oven on at 450 for any length of time just lost its charm. So I moved on to ice cream. (I can actually partially blame this on the library. I had been considering buying an ice cream maker, but hadn't actually done it. Until the day I was browsing the library and ran across the homemade ice cream book.) Darling hubbie thought plum would be a good first flavor, and there just happened to be a recipe for that.



Yes, it really is that shade of pink. And it is unbelievable! Over the weekend, I made Super Lemon ice cream. Also very good. Sorry, no picture. It's just the palest yellow.

And once we eat the rather large collection of ice cream in our freezer, I'll be making more (thank you Kroger for the sale on Ben & Jerry's).

I have also started sewing again, but that can be a subject for another day.

Irony in Action

So, I was driving in a pretty nice area of Lawrenceville today and saw this marvelous sign. One of those small ones on the metal posts that you stick in the ground. It was obviously hand made. The background was some sort of white board, with lettering on it. But let me describe the letters. They were black, and appeared to be stenciled. And I say appeared, because I'm not sure how you can stencil something and make it look so bad. The letters' edges were all blurry and drippy. And, of course, the letters in each word weren't exactly what you would call lined up.

Here's the irony. The sign said "We write professional business plans" with a phone number. Well, I don't really have any intention of starting my own business soon, but if I ever do, they will not be writing my plan. Your sign looks like an 8-year-old did it with a can of spray paint. Who's going to write the plan? Your goldfish? No thank you.

On an only vaguely related note (that being signs), I do have a favorite sign that I see (far too often) in my neighborhood. And these people at least put up the cash to get them professionally printed. The sign is for "Who's the Daddy? DNA testing." Cracks me up every time I see it.

Why I love Georgia, part 4

Anyone who works in Georgia knows that the child welfare system is seriously messed up. Words can't even describe it. But now we're hearing that, in at least one major county, there appear to be quotas on how many children can be removed from their homes and placed in foster care. Exceed your quota, and your job could be at risk. The state's former Child Advocate has come forward in the local paper (after the death of a toddler who was left in her biological home), talking about the unbelievable mismanagement of the very system that is supposed to keep our children safe.

It's only the tip of the iceberg, folks.

Too Many Books, continued

I went to the library today and am happy to report that I took back a bunch of paperbacks that I'm just not going to read any time soon, and I only checked out 8 items. The two items I had on hold (one a DVD), 3 other movies, a book on CD for in the car, and two non-fiction books. I probably would have ended up with far more, but I had to park illegally due to some random festival in downtown Stone Mountain today. I figure that I'm at the library often enough to count as an unofficial library staff member as far as parking goes:)

My cat is a bigger freak than your cat, Part III

I suppose that technically this is a continuation of Part I, but oh well.

Thrasher will, apparently, drink chocolate soy milk if he is thirsty enough. Enough said.