I put him in the bathtub to see if he could swim.  He drank up all the water, he ate up all the soap.  And now he’s sick in bed, with bubbles in his throat.

So, I have a new pet (pretty sure it’s a boy).  He’s actually been here for a couple of weeks now, but I’ve been hesitating to post about him!  His name is Tim Little – it started as Tiny Tim, though, because of this song.  I’ve been hesitant to post about him for a few reasons.  After he arrived (as some of you may be aware, Tina tends to take in strays – I’m probably the number one example of a stray who won’t leave, but there’s also the cat, and now the turtle, and at various points over the years her nephew, her son’s friend, her friend, and so on.  The cat’s the only one who has outlasted me…), I started researching.  I found, among other things, that it’s illegal to sell tiny turtles (under 4 inches) due to a big nasty salmonella outbreak in the 70s.  I also found that tiny turtles kept as pets have SUPER high mortality rates.  And lots of other scary things.  Oh yea – and Grover tried to eat him on his first day here. 

Through further research, though, I found that it’s not actually illegal to OWN a tiny turtle – just to sell them.  And the high mortality rates were probably due in large part to these turtle bowls they used to sell with them, which helped contribute to them not getting the best quality of care, water, light, etc. 

So… now, this little guy has quite the setup.  A ginormous aquarium with a filter, a heat lamp, a floating platform for him to bask in the light, and for the time being at least, lots of natural sunlight.  We got lots of good advice from the folks at Petco and PetSmart.  Tillie’s got a vet appointment in a couple of weeks too, and we’ll be able to get even more info from Dr. K.  We’ll have to move him when winter shows up, and buy him some new lamps.  So, I’m feeling pretty good about his chances!  (Knock on wood!)  And he’s eating well, and he might have even grown a millimeter or so!  Pretty exciting stuff, huh? 

Here’s another shot of him running around in the grass:

DAD!  WE ARE OUT OF BISCOTTI HERE!  HELP!

Yea, in theory, I could be out in the kitchen right now baking some more.  But yours is so much yummier! 

Guess what I made yesterday!  Homemade fresh strawberry ice cream.  Yum! 

I begged for an electric ice cream maker for Christmas a couple of years ago, so that I could make Alton Brown’s banana ice cream.  (I saw an episode the other day where he made avocado ice cream!  Sounds bizarro, but now I’m dying to try it too.  Maybe I could halve the recipe or something in case it’s horrid.).  I’ve used it approximately twice – I made banana ice cream (yummy, but kind of gluey texture) and peppermint ice cream (yummy, and very minty!).  So yesterday I decided to try out some other flavors.  I followed the recipe pretty much, except for changing the heavy cream and whole milk for some lower fat variations.  It was delicious, if I say so myself!  But next time, I will add WAY more strawberries (it probably didn’t help that I kept sampling them).  And maybe some other berries.  And call it Berry Berry Extravaganza Ice Cream, or something fancy like that.  Yum.

That’s such a bad title.  But I just finished folding it all for this week.  Then I remembered that I’ve been slacking again on the blog.  It’s been a busy few days!

Mom & Dad came to visit over the Memorial Day weekend!  Yay!  We did some shopping, did some eating, even did some baking.  Dad did most of the baking (I just handed him the supplies).  Right now, I’m enjoying the fruits of our labor – some delicious lemon-anise biscotti dunked in Tension Tamer tea.  Yum!  We played a LOT of my new Trivial Pursuit game too!!  In spite of his vocal objections to playing a game where he supposedly never gets a turn, I think Dad secretly loves the game.  He suggested several rematches on Sunday night.  I got the 25th Anniversary game for my birthday – I thought it would be a good one, since they say in the ads it has easy, medium, and hard questions.  I thought I’d have an easier time talking people into playing with me if they thought I might have to have the harder questions.  Plus, I figure that the more random facts I can learn and remember, the better I will do when I get on Jeopardy (my life’s ambition!). 

…to Grandmother’s house I went today. 

Tina and I headed for Denver today to hang out with Grandma Hope for a while!  She is always such fun to visit with!  We went to lunch at House of Windsor and had some delicious food and tea and desserts, and then bought some English marmalades – some ginger and some lemon.  What a fun little place!

After lunch it was back to Grandma’s house.  We chatted about lots of things – names, families, sprinkler systems… We went out to the backyard to see where Tillie might have jumped the fence to the neighbors yard last time I was down there – it’s a wonder the silly dog didn’t kill herself.  She definitely didn’t look before she leaped.  Then we went to the garage, where I tried to figure out a way to talk Aunt Susie out of her cute little VW Beetle that’s parked in there right now (I want one!  I could pull it behind the motorhome that I think I need!), and Tina checked out all the “antique” power tools (and hand tools, of course).  As with every other room in Grandma’s house, the garage holds lots of treasures, not the least of which are the very well organized cans of nails.  We also checked out the ski rack that was used to hold the infamous boat on the roof of the car during the camping trip that ended before anyone did any camping… but not before Grandpa & the boys got to hang out in the boat with some beers and a French Horn! 

After that, we showed Grandma some stuff on her computer – fixed the date column on her emails, and showed her some of the games that can provide hours of entertainment (and procrastination and time-wasting…) like the jigsaw puzzles Mom introduced us to.  With enough practice, maybe we’ll get her on Twitter and Facebook! 

But I planted a vegetable (and berry) garden today!  With help, of course.  I don’t know what put this bright idea into my head, given my history of growing dirt (especially on my multiple attempts at growing herbs), along with my great love for yardwork.  I went to a plant sale yesterday with a local grower, and got some tomatos, basil, thyme, lemon balm, and jalapenos.  Then Tina & I went to Home Depot today to get some new dirt, and I bought even more plants – some more (and bigger!) basil, sage, cilantro, cucumber, zucchini, and strawberries.  We’ll see how it goes.  Yea, I sometimes have a tendency to go a little overboard.

So, keep your fingers crossed.  Soon I hope to be eating homegrown salsas and salads and bruschettas!  Yum!

I got asked a funny question the other day.

Someone asked me if Grover had been to training classes.  That question was particularly funny, because at the time, Grover and Tillie were wandering around the backyard making googly-puppy-eyes at anyone that had a burger in their hands, looking like they hadn’t been fed in weeks.  Little beggars.  So, I giggled and said that no, Grover has not been to any type of training. 

The reason they asked?  He prances!  He prances around like a little Schnauzer version of a Lipizzaner Stallion!  I’ve always thought that he had a very cute little prancing way of walking around, but it never struck me as any particular skill or anything – I just thought it was cute!  Extra cute, cause his crooked little ears are always perked up when he does it, one standing higher than the other.  I’m a sucker for crooked-ear dogs. 

Both dogs were pretty happy with the whole barbecue thing.  They had lots of scraps to pick up off of the grass, and Tillie had a few little kids just dying to throw toys for her.  That way she could show off her mad jumping and catching and flipping skills to her audience.  Cause you know everyone was there just for the dogs.

I spent a good part of today trying to clean up my email inbox, responding to things I’d been putting off, responding to things I’d just forgotten about, deleting things I didn’t need to be keeping, and catching up on some of the jokes I hadn’t read yet… and I still have a lot to do!  But… I found one of those fun quizzes from JP that I hadn’t replied to.  I remember Shannon posting one of these on her blog, and thought that was a cool idea, so I’m totally stealing it now.  And as always, I’d SO love to see what your responses might be!

Here goes:

1. What time is it?  10:39 PM
2. What are the full initials of your name?  SAM  (cool, huh?!)
3. What are you most afraid of?  Looking like an idiot
4. What was the last movie you saw in a theater?  I think it was Rachel Getting Married, at the super cool Kress Cinema, with a cocktail and a tasty wasabi tuna appetizer.
5. Place of birth: Rock Springs, WY
6. Favorite food: Lindt dark chocolate with chili (thanks for the introduction (and unavoidable addiction) to that, Mom & Dad!)
7. Natural hair color: light brown
8. Ever been to Alaska?  Nope.
9. Ever been toilet paper rolling?  Yep!  But I didn’t then spray it down with water in sub-zero temperatures like some people may have…
10. Loved someone so much it made you cry?  Yep!  But I am kind of a big crybaby…
11. Been in a car accident?  If we stress “a” car accident, then I can answer no, right?
12. Croutons or bacon bits?  Yes!  And blue cheese dressing.  Yum.
13. Favorite day of the week: Sunday, if I finished up most of the laundry on Saturday…
14. Favorite restaurant: Gosh, I have no idea.  There are too many that I love.
15. Favorite flower: Lilac.  Or calla lily.
16. Favorite sport to watch: Hockey, if it’s in person and there’s a good fight.
17. Favorite drink: Diet Coke
18. Favorite ice cream: We’ll just say Cold Stone and cover all my bases.
19. Disney or Warner Brothers: Um… no idea. 
20. Ever been on a ship?  I think so… does a ferry count?
21. What color is your bedroom carpet?  Hardwood floor!
22. How many times did you fail your driver’s test?  ZERO.  Can you all say the same?  Say, for a motorcycle test??
23. Before this one, from whom did you get your last email?  Since I got this back in February (yea, it’s been a while since I caught up on email!), I have no idea.  Tonight, my last one was from the corporate controller, talking about a journal entry for project systems.  Fascinating, I know…
24. What do you do when you are bored?  Geez.  Facebook games, online jigsaw puzzles, read a book, read a magazine, take a nap, …
25. Bedtime: Should be 9:30 or 10:00.  Usually works out to 11:00 or 11:30. 
26. Who will respond to this the quickest?  If it were email, I would have no clue.  Since it’s here, probably Mom!
27. Who is least likely to respond?  99% of my incredibly vast readership.
28. Who is the person that you are most curious to see their responses?  Everyone!
29. Favorite TV show: Depends on the day and season!  Good Eats (not that I cook or anything…), Project Runway, House, Burn Notice, The Office…
30. Last person you went to dinner with?  My team at work.  Only it wasn’t so much going to dinner… more eating delivery sandwiches in a conference room tonight.
31. Favorite colors? Green and red.  And orange and pink.  Not necessarily all in the same outfit.
32. How many tattoos do you have?  none
33. How many pets do you have?  3 – Grover (mini schnauzer), Tillie (Australian cattle dog), and Dog (cat)
34. Which came first, the chicken or the egg?  Chicken, I think.
35. What do you want to do before you die?  Live.
36. Have you ever been to Hawaii?  Nope.
37. Have you been to countries outside the US?  Yep!  Mexico, Canada, China, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Germany, UK, and Netherlands.  I want to go to Australia – maybe that should be my answer for #35?
38. How old are you today?  Let me do the math… hmmm… awfully damn close to 37.
39. Time this survey ended?  11:00 PM.  Sheesh, see what I mean about bedtime???

Sunscreen would be it.

Classic graduation song!  At least classic since 1999.  But so true.

This weekend has been full of graduation activities for Tina’s family.  One niece (Jessica) graduated from CU with a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in engineering – civil, I think…  Another niece (Maya – she hangs out with us a lot!) got her master’s in psychology (clinical counseling?) from UNC.  And Jimmy graduated from UNC with his bachelor’s in psychology!  I didn’t make it to all the festivities, what with the whole job thing… but I made it to Maya’s ceremony, and of course Jimmy’s.  Maya’s made me want to go to grad school – especially for a PhD - cause they get all the full-on academic regalia, and the PhD candidates get those fancy hoods too!   AND – people would have to call me Doctor.  “That’s Doctor McConnell to you, thank you.”  How awesome would that be?!

Jimmy’s ceremony was outdoors (Thank goodness for sunshine today!  Yay, Mother Nature!) this morning, then we had a big barbecue in the backyard.  Hence, the sunscreen.  I did use it, but still got a little sunburn on my chest.  Bah.  My legs are still bright white, though… we’ll call it “alabaster” – that sounds flattering, right? 

And so is my desk!  Mostly.  My desk at work finally got to the point where I just couldn’t do any more work until I got it straightened out.  It happens every few months.  So I spent today cleaning stuff up, and got really crazy.  I went through all these old binders I had, going back to when I first started, and completely filled up my recycle box with super old documentation.  The fun thing was seeing just how far we’ve come in that time, and wondering what I was thinking with some of those old processes.  Sounds like a fun day, huh?  The stuff that I did decide to keep, I scanned, so that I can keep an electronic copy in a little tiny space, instead of keeping folders and binders and files full of stuff that I only look at every 4 years or so.  I feel so organized now, even though we all know it’s not really true.  We’ll see how long it lasts.