Deadly Halloween Chili

Happy Halloween! I made chili last night for tonight. I listened to the “Phantom” soundtrack while making it.
I used the crock-pot liners. They rock! How many times have you tried to clean a non-submersible crock-pot!
As always, I had supervision by Ozzy. Nevertheless, he did not do a very good job because I think I might kill the family with how hot I made it. I like it very spicy. I added too much chili sauce and jalapeños for the rest of the family. I will have plenty of sour cream and cheese. I will have to buy some milk too. And I had better find something to make for Alex to eat, mac and cheese at least.
I know what you are thinking too, Dillier boys add beans…disaster. Well it will be deadly chili for that reason too. It is not my elk chili but it will do. My true food critic is JP, he will tell me if it is okay.
Then Heidi asked me to make her a little veggie chili. I tasted it and thought, what is missing, it tastes weird…oh MEAT.
Just a little small batch for her, you know a bowl or two….well it turned into another crock-pot. I used my smaller one, which is big! Yep, there will be leftovers. Chili anyone?

I Voted Early

It only took 40 minutes with wait time too. Not too bad I guess.

The sticker should say I voted for a "Douche Bag or a S#it Sandwich". It is a South Park Episode reference. If you haven't seen it I highly recommend it. I am sure John will let you watch his copy.

In Pure Spite of Jay Leno

I have dressed up my loveable 10 year old black Labrador Ozzy. Jay Leno would be purely annoyed. But I did it for my enjoyment. To top it off, I took pictures and I made it into a Halloween card.

His papered name is Ozzy Dogbourne of Black Labbath. He IS the Prince of Darkness, I mean Dogness.

I could not help myself after I took the pictures (2 separate shoots). I realized I really wanted to use some of the same things in the metal star Ozzy pics for a pirate picture. I even printed a pirate map to put in it but I forgot to put it in the picture.

I had a blast doing it and Ozzy was so good the whole time. He was very bored though. He is the best dog ever!
See his photo shoot here http://flickr.com/photos/89746220@N00/sets/72157608494840900/

Happy Birthday 68th Dad

I miss your stories and you.

Weekend of Cats, Witches and Reese’s

This past weekend I went with my cousins (Carolyn, Susie, Barry, Jon, Ali, Emma & Dylan - oh and my cousin Giraffe is in the family pic too) to the Hogle Zoo on Saturday. It was “Boo at the Zoo” and was it ever a zoo to park, get in and get around!
We had fun in spite of some misadventures. Like ordering food at one of the concessions, waiting 25 minutes to find out they were out of rice for our rice bowls and it would take 30 minutes more OR 20 minutes for a corndog. We got our money back and walked around some more.
There are three people you do not want to let get too hungry: my daughter-in-law Stephani, Ali and of course, I have been known to get really ornery if I do not get to eat. (Sorry Steph and Ali, but we know it is true about ourselves)
We finally got to a concession where we just ordered fried food, so much for trying to stay healthy but it kept Ali and me from eating a zoo animal.
We saw a lot considering the bigger picture was to let the kids “Trick or Treat”. All of the kids were so good! We had a lot of fun with the cats. The leopard was lying down and when we walked up to the window it came right up and paced in front of it. It was a blast watching Emma and Katie squeal as it passed them. Barry got video of it.
We walked to the tiger, he was up on the bridge, and he walked back down to where the water window was and swam right up to us again! He then proceeded to pee (spray) right at Jon. We were grateful for the glass between us and the fact that he could have eaten us!
Barry went to go get the car that was on Sunnyside Avenue, he returned with a parking ticket. Where in the H#LL do they expect people to park for such a large event if they do not provide for it? EVERYONE parked on the street got nailed with a ticket. Both sides of the street, to above the zoo down to Foothill! Tell me again why I need to vote to renew the zoo? Perfect to do this a week and a half from Election Day.
I took a lot of pictures and yes, I know, I know, I am behind on posting to FlickR but I promise to catch up this week! (THEY ARE ON THERE NOW!)
When I got home there was a huge black cat watching me from the border of my neighbor’s house and ours. (I took a really cool picture you will have to check out on FlickR too)
As if Saturday was not eventful enough, Carolyn, Susie, Katie and I dressed up again to go to Gardner Village “Witches Night Out”. We met up with Lezlie and her granddaughter Grace. We had a blast wandering through the witches and some stores. Katie and Grace were darling and very good! I am excited to go back there with Alex, Max, Jamie and Steph tomorrow! (I will get all of the Gardner Vllg pics on FlickR soon!)
Yesterday I had some sort of black out due to Halloween candy. I had been avoiding getting the good stuff but I gave in and bought Reese’s Peanut Butter cups (my Kryptonite). I guess it is fortunate for me that it was a smaller bag. I ate all but 1 serving! The totals: 78 grams of fat, 1320 calories and hey, 6 grams of fiber! I just ate the last serving after lunch today, what the heck huh?

Once In A Lifetime Chance To Say Yes

Eleven years ago today, Joe and I went down to our little Fish Lake cabin for the weekend. It started to snow and the closer we got to the cabin the deeper it got. This was back when Joe’s truck was a Toyota T100. By the time we made it up the road to the cabin the snow was above the headlights. We were plowing or pushing through the powdery light snow.

It was nerve racking! Even with a couple of road-trip drinks in my system, the mountain by the cabin looked extra treacherous. The thought of rolling down the steep mountain and wondering how long it would take people to find us or even know we were missing!

As Joe prepped the cabin, turning on the power, propane and lighting the fire, I completely unpacked the truck and put things in their place.

Everything indoors, I took off my soaked jeans and I put on my dry red thermals. I was wearing a seafoam green sweater. I stirred the fire, wiped my hair out of my eyes. Joe finally came in. He laughed, “What is all over your face?” I ran to the mirror and wiped off the fireplace soot.

Sitting in front of the fire, Joe bent down on his knee. He said a lot of sweet and mushy stuff I wish I could remember. I do not know if that it is time that has made me forget the words or if it was that I was in such an excited state of shock then those they didn’t stick.

As I glanced at his pants pocket with a square box he brought it out in to view. A gorgeous princess cut diamond ring bigger than I could have imagined him buying for me. Now mind you, we had looked several weeks before at this stone and some others but I had no idea that he was serious. I thought we went in for a watch battery. It seemed so ridiculous at the time.

I used his cell phone back when an analog cell phone could be used in the Fish Lake valley. I had to stand on a chair to get reception. I called my Mom and told her, I handed him the phone to talk to her and he said, “she hasn’t answered yet so I am not sure”. We made some other calls too like my Dad.

The other surprise was that in the truck he had somehow smuggled a bottle of Moet and Chandon champagne and two Mikasa crystal glasses…I unloaded the truck, how-huh-uhh?

I am so lucky to have such a romantic guy. He has been so wonderful and great to me. We have seen and done so many things together. Each time we would go do something we would just say to ourselves, “this is a once in a lifetime chance”, I can’t believe we get to do this, people only dream of doing these things”. Times have slowed down and our Rock-n-Roll lifestyle is not as jet set or funded nearly as well, but on the other hand, we are still having fun and I would still say yes.

Side note:
The next weekend we had a Halloween bash to celebrate which was a wild and crazy party. In addition, two weeks later we decided to go back to the cabin to celebrate. We brought Susie, Barry and Tyler. We brought cross-country skis and Tyler was going to hunt with Joe. When we got there – ZERO snow. It was fun anyway!
I also still have and wear those red thermals.

Too Busy, Feast or Famine

It seems everyone I know is so busy. We all have so much going on lately. Everyone has so much going on you can hardly get together to do anything. The family will be getting together tonight to celebrate Jamie's birthday that was yesterday (also Max's 4 month birthday).

Life is certainly not boring lately. I am not complaining…? I have not even written thank you notes for my birthday last month!

Things have picked up with the massage gigs, in fact, I had a conference last week, plus two of my regular accounts. Next week I have one of my regular accounts and a 3-hour gig. But then I do not exactly have a lot going on after that. There are my regular accounts then one conference next month. It would be ideal to have one larger event a month.

Everything seems to happen at once, we are trying to rent one of our houses. It is not going as well as I thought it would. We have been cleaning, working on the yard, repainting, and doing repairs all weekend.

Joe and I did take time out yesterday morning to do something fun; Ozzy, Tyler and him went hunting then Heidi and I went to the downtown Farmer's Market. Then for the evening, we went to dinner to visit our out of town friend Holly. We had a late night out to dinner, it was fun catching up.

We do not even want to talk about what needs to be done at home! What a mess! Well, I must be off now to my landlord job. I guess my house will suffer one more day.

Jumping on the "Random Thought Of The Day" Bandwagon

There is a strange parallel in the fact that Ozzy did not like hunting and John does not like hunting. But JP loves it and Griz did too. Is that why you have 2+ kids/dogs, it increases your odds?

Thanks Stephani for the idea of "Random Thought Of The Day".

My Cookie Bakin’ Dog Is Now A Real Hunt Dog

Back when we first got Ozzy as a pup, we took him to this kennel where these lesbian-bull-dykes “trained” him. It cost a fortune and we really did not like their techniques. They seemed cruel. Ozzy came back from hunting school he seemed crazier and not at all interested in bird hunting. In fact Joe took Ozzy and Griz hunting and Ozzy ignored the birds.

Frustrated, Joe decided to leave Ozzy behind and take Griz who was a natural. He needed no training. He was Mr. Perfect the duck hunter. I did not care I had Ozzy to protect me and keep me company while Joe was gone.

In the fall I have this bizarre desire to cook and bake, nesting if you will. I would always bake cookies while Joe was gone for the weekend. Ozzy would sit in the kitchen and either beg or lay at my feet. Joe asked me what I did and I would reply, “Ozzy and I baked cookies. So we started to call him the cookie-baking dog.

Since Griz passed this last spring we have been debating on getting another hunting dog. We have not wanted to replace Griz. There is no replacing him. Joe has been bugging John to see how Fancy would do. He had this brilliant idea to try Ozzy at it again. Joe went to Idaho last weekend I told him no, you cannot take him and leave me alone.

However today, he was going up to Ambassador Duck Club that Tyler is a member of. Reluctantly after kissing Ozzy like he was going to kindergarten, I said goodbye to them both. Today was a drizzly and rainy day, ideal for duck hunting. Ozzy did really well; he brought back 14 birds and only missed 3. In fact Oz did so well that Tyler kept calling him Griz.

Joe and Ozzy enjoyed their hunting afternoon with Tyler. They are all planning on it again tomorrow. We will see how tired Ozzy acts tomorrow.

I can't believe Joe is stealing my dog after all of these years! He has been MY cookie-baker for 10 years now!

My Memory Loss Problem

I used to joke that I forget because of all the drugs I did in the 60s. I mean really, I was at a Jefferson Airplane (yes, before Starship) concert at the Terrace Ballroom in 1968….granted I was not born yet.

I had a conversation on the phone with Jen yesterday. This was part of it, something like it anyway, since I cannot remember details.
Jen – I think I am going to print that cute picture of Lily and Fancy I took with your camera.
Me – No, I thought I took that
Jen – No I did, but if you want credit for those, I took them with your camera, no big deal
Me – I swear I took them

Well for that matter, there are many pictures people took with my camera in the Family 9 2008 set. I know Jen and Jessie both grabbed the camera here and there. So I should not take credit for them either. I do admit that I have taken way too many pictures. I haven't even posted all of my pictures taken last month to FlickR.

Therefore, I am imposing a new rule, if you take a picture with my camera, you have to write me a sticky note and post it to my forehead. OH and part two of that, if you are taking pictures with my camera… take some freakin’ pictures of me….preferably with me and my husband or grandkids!

One of the reasons I take pictures is something to remember by, I would like to at least look back at a couple pictures of me. That is also the reason I started the blog too. I want to keep track like a journal.

I do have some sort of memory loss problem though. I forget so many things. I sometimes wonder if it is because I am so busy or there is a real problem. It is not age as I have been having this problem for quite a few years now. I wish I could remember more things. The good things, but some of the bad, it makes you appreciate the good.

Oh Babies!

My cousin Rebecca had her little boy on Monday. His name is James Michael. Her Mom Sue called our Aunt Ellen to tell her. Ellen had no idea she was pregnant. Hum, that is a funny story on both sides. I mean, they have talked at least once a month in the last 9 months.

Today, my girlfriend Danette had her little girl. Her name is Madeline “Maddie” Lucille. Danette had the long labor of 4 hours, I hear a collective green (with envy) gasp.

Everyone is healthy. The babies and their moms are doing great.

Our Baby Nate who is married to Jen had his birthday today, he is 27. Happy birthday Nate!

Now if I can get over to see them all in the next week that would be great!

Oh "MY" Weekend Fun?

Joe went with JP to Idaho for the opening of Duck Season-Wabbit Season-Duck Season-Wabbit Season-Duck Season-Wabbit Season-oooh sorry a Looney Tunes flashback...it was the duck opener in Idaho.
I thought I could get some overdo organizing done, some visiting with friends, etc...nope...I got to clean our duplex rental. It was just as fun on Sunday as it had been on Saturday for me.The joys of being a landlord. What happened it that my ultra-super-duper, extra nice guy husband let these 3 early 20s boys rent it and th last 3 or 4 months, they couldn't pay our rent so he worked...and worked with them until finally they couldn't pay so we ended up using the security and pet deposits up for rent. I adore my husband and his kind heart. He tried to help them out and I don't know if they learned or appreciated anything he did for them. Because I KNEW I didn't want to rent to the little creeps! Anyhew I am back in charge of who rents.

We celebrated Mike's birthday on Saturday. He is just like Joe (sorry Heidi)he is a total kid and enjoys life. Oh and Doobs birthday too.

In other weekend news Christian and Gina got engaged in San Diego! Congratulations!

Promises, promises, promises...I will have MORE pictures on FlickR late this week. I hope to catch up soon!

Fancy Missing You Here

We dog sat Fancy Face Bennett Dillier for John & Jamie when they went to California.

We drove John and Fancy back to their house after tailgating last night. Joe went on and on about how we could keep her during the whole ride. John told us that he more or less he would be in deep crap if he let us have her.

She is a darling dog. I am delighted they have her for so many reasons. I can imagine how much love she gave Diane. I tried to give her as much attention as I could, that is dually as Ozzy was demanding his share.

I got her a new id tag with Jamie and John’s numbers (her full name wouldn’t fit on the tag). I could not bring myself to take off the one with Diane’s number.
Ozzy and Fancy got along very well. Except we think maybe the first day we missed some sort of scuffle. She has an inch long scratch on her nose. I hope her new parents let me watch her again and don't think I didn't watch her good enough!

As a Dog-Grandma I do not have favorites and love them all…but Fancy is a real sweetheart. We will miss little miss Fancy Pants sleeping on our bed.

Again, I have a poop-load of pictures to post on FlickR so bare with me, it will be worth it!

Utes Pelt Beavers 31-28

We went to the Utah Utes vs. Oregon State. I don’t like Thursday games for tailgating. Everyone is so rushed to go tailgate, you get stuck in traffic and you have to scarf down your food then scurry over to the stadium to see kick-off or as like to say for football “tip-off”. You do not have time to enjoy your beverages and you have to chug. Also now (I haven’t been to a game/tailgated for 3 or 4 years) at half time you are not allowed to leave and return! This is just directed at those of us who like to partake in alcohol at halftime!
John, JP, Stephani, Heidi, Mike, Russ, Joe and I tailgated at a different lot than we used to, not as many people. I made baked beans and a couscous salad, Heidi picked up wings from Fiddler’s Elbow, Stephani made a pasta salad & cupcakes. John made a b-double e-r –r-u-n. Steph left us to go babysit...and with all of the delicious (and cute) cupcakes she made.
John and JP sat in another section so Heidi and John were texting the funniest beaver jokes. I think it is best I don't post them.
Look who we found at halftime.
The game was a good start but the 3rd and most of the 4th didn’t look so good. People were starting to leave the last 2 minutes. What the… with 1:48 left in the game, 20-28…even a football dumb-dumb like me knows it could happen! Well it did! Thanks to Louie. That was all fun until we waited almost an hour to get out of the parking lot. More pictures will be on FlickR later this weekend. I still have a bunch from last month I am going through. I will try not to eat the remainder of the cupcakes now but no promises.