The Attack

It was 3:00 o'clock yesterday afternoon. The Valentine candy was completely gone. Not one cookie was left in the cookie jar. This was an emergency situation.....
So I ran for my cupboard and grabbed the quickest, easiest recipe I could find under "desserts", in the little recipe file.

This recipe has saved many lives in our family. It's quick and within 45 minutes your sweet tooth will start to calm down and life returns to almost normal and..., the house will smell wonderful.
Just preheat your oven to 350 degrees; mix all the above ingredients together in a bowl; POUR the mixture into a buttered( or Pam'ed) pie pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes.
Cool slightly. Get a fork and "Mangia".
If you want to maintain some sense of dignity or you're having company.., or you don't want to set a bad example for your kids.., you can serve the wedges with whipped cream or sprinkle the torte with powdered sugar after baking it. But.., for an emergency just get a fork and dig in.
Now, I know this is not CANDY, but folks, it's time to start making the transition to "better choices". (OMG! That sounded like my doctor.) The purpose of all this is to give you quick, almost immediate relief from the stark realization that the holidays are done and the candy is gone.
This was a rather bad attack..., I even removed things from the freezer and checked the corners, thinking that I might have stuck some candy in there under the mistaken notion that the frozen candy would be eaten more slowly. Sound familiar?
For the moment I'm in ll cielo dolce (sweet heaven) and my grandmother's words are coming back to me from across the years...
"Chi s'aiuta, Dio l'aiuta."
Which translates to...God helps those who help themselves.

Bon Appetito

Non sequitur

Can you see this? You are looking up through the skylight in my kitchen. Annabel got up on the roof again and won't come down. She has been there for 2 days. I guess she gets some warmth from the window up there. Carl doesn't like it. When he sees her in the window he has a barking fit.
She looks so pathetic up there but, as you will notice, she has gone to sleep in the middle photo. She will cry and act like she wants down but she won't come down on her own. We ALWAYS have to go up and get her. I don't know why she does this. It drives us crazy...

Murphy has been dancing again. I caught him the other day trying to show the other goats how good he is. Actually , part of this dance is to find another goat partner and play the MOUNTAIN GOAT STOMP. They rear up and charge each other and then they push each other back and forth until one of them gives up. It's a big game. But Murphy does the "rearing" the best. He's a pro...

This is the strangest thing. That chewed up old dog bone is standing almost strait up on that rug. I came in the front door last night and practically fell over it. I think the dogs have too much time on their hands.
Maybe it's a secret dog trick. Gary Larson could have done a great cartoon on this. It would have been two dogs sitting under the table watching a human fall over the upright bone and the dogs would be rolling on their backs laughing hysterically. It's kind of spooky to see a bone standing straight up on the floor in front of you. The Prospector and I were talking about this at dinner . Could it be that the dogs don't have anything better to do? We have decided that Maggie probably didn't initiate this little game. She's so old. She can hardly move anymore and she can't see very well. Carl, on the other hand, is always causing trouble and chewing on things..., so we're pretty sure that this was his idea. We gave him TWO walks yesterday. He had no reason for this little act of domestic mischief.
Neither of them are talking..., and Maggie threw up on the living room rug this morning. Poor thing..., she's getting too old for all of this drama.
The Prospector got the ladder and the cat has been saved from another night of roof sitting and cold overhangs.
Murph' is not dancing today. The fog returned this morning and the sun has disappeared for the day so he and the other goats are standing near their house looking like something awful is going to happen.
The dogs are asleep, but I'm keeping an eye on them....

Making My Own Heaven

My oldest grandchild and I are making traditions. We are making the memories that will be a part of him long after I'm cease to be a presence in this world..., and we are having so much fun. Like Burger King says on their cups: Have it your way. "Maybe you want a lot of ice. maybe you want no ice. Maybe you want your lid securely fastened, or maybe you want to go topless. Hmmmm? Maybe you want to mix Coke* and Sprite*....," That's what the Bean did. He wanted some Sprite* with a little Coke* in it. I like my Coke* straight.
Grandmas have lots of options. I get to "spoil" my little grandchildren. I get to have all the fun. It's like the "reward" for all the hard work of raising your children and sending them out into the world. It's like icing on the Valentine cookies.

Spiderman came with the "kids" meal and he got way out of control. We tried putting him in The Bean's back pocket but he escaped. Then he got in Bean's hair and tried to hide inside Bean's shirt. We couldn't even eat our lunch. It was like having Carl, the pupster,with us. Finally we put him in a zip locked bag and left him in the car. He was just fine in there. No wonder Spiderman likes to climb and jump from building to building. He's got a "puppy worm" inside of him.
After we had lunch we drove over to Martinez and went to the Marina. It was a beautiful day and we had so much fun. I was feeling kind of bad that we didn't take Baby Bean with us too but one grandchild is about all Noni can handle in one afternoon. So we will have to work on building memories with him another day.
The Bean threw sticks, retrieved branches from the lake, looked for duck eggs, ran a lot and kept saying, "Come on Noni, lets go down this trail." and " I want to go this way, Noni. Can we go here?" and Noni is saying.., " Bean! Wait! .., wait for Noni." , "Bean, you're getting you shoes wet.", "Lets sit down for a few minutes.", "Oh, Bean. Do we have to walk clear to the River? Can't we play right here?"..,and he would say, "Sure Noni, but where does this place go?" and he'd be off again.
If I took care of my grandchildren all the time, I would be skinny and I'd take a lot of naps. But we had a great time and I love this little boy. We are making memories and I wouldn't trade any of this for anything..., ever.

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Valentine's Day to All

Wherever I May Go


You’re in my thoughts and in my heart

Wherever I may go;

On Valentine’s Day, I’d like to say

I care more than you know.


By Joanna Fuchs

On the Road Again

I'm leaving for a few days. I'm going down to my son's house. It's time to see my family and get my "bambino fix".

When I went to Stockton a few weeks ago the mustard was starting to flower inbetween the rows of dormant grapes. Today I'm sure there will be an abundance of yellow in the vineyards.

Winter on Lower Sacramento Road. Lodi, Ca.