Dead Head

I wish this was a posting about that stinking Nutria! He is still around and after my lettuce!
This isn't a posting about the Grateful Dead, although Jerry did make a few stops in Eugene back in the day. This is about Rhododendrons.
Now if you are like me a few months ago you will be like...Rhodowhat? They are a VERY popular flowering bush that grow in just about every yard in Eugene. We have at least 6 in our yard alone.
When we bought the house they were just plain green bushes and this summer I was delightfully surprised to see flowers all over them. Pink, white, purple. Oh, they were so pretty! Then the weather got slightly warm and the flowers dried up and began to fall off.
My super helpful neighbor explained to me that it was time to "dead head" them. I think I looked at him sideways for at least a few minutes before he walked into his yard and gave me a demonstration. You pluck off the top "dead head." However, you must wear gloves and bring a bucket to fill. When you pick them they are sticky like sap and will cling all over you.
Today I ventured out to the front yard and managed to "dead head" three of the bushes.
Now, why would we do such a thing? Why not wait for a heavy rain or wind to knock them off? Well, for one they look kinda depressing once they are dead. Second, and more important...they won't flower anymore if you don't! Every year that you don't take the heads off they produce less and less flowers. If you do take the heads off then you get EVEN MORE gorgeous blooms the next spring. We will see next spring if it was time well spent today.
My gloves are sappy and it's time to listen to some dancing teddy bear music... or not.

EVOO what the?

So, I am mostly a non-tv watcher and my house doesn't get a million channels. (I would prefer not get any but the cable company insist it cost the same for internet with or without the tv.) I don't get Food Network. Maybe I am out of the Rachael Ray loop but for this should I suffer when trying to find a good recipe. Should my family suffer when I force them to eat this dried out thing once called a zucchini?
I had a recipe swap with some friends a couple years back and after flipping through the book we had created together I saw a recipe for baked veggies. One in particular for Zucchini. Looking at the recipe pretty much everything was a spice except one I didn't recognize called EVOO. I figured it must be a spice as well so I spiced up the zucchini and stuck it in the oven. What I got was a very dried out, flavorful, but odd textured thing that my kids refused to eat. (oddly enough my children actually like zucchini.)
Today I decided to make it again, only this time I was going to google search EVOO and figure out where to buy such a spice. Well, for non-food network watchers like myself. It stands for Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Rachel Ray said it one day and apparently it's all the rage among the cooks to say EVOO instead of the longer version. I don't have anything against Rachel. She seems nice enough, I saw her live on a taping of the Tonight Show when we lived in LA. I'm sure she didn't mean to ruin my dinner.
Come to think of it, I hate acronyms in general. My husband used them a lot when we were first chatting online (yes folks, we met online) and it just made me crazy! I finally told him about my hatred of acronyms and now he uses them even more. Nice guy eh?
Anyway, back to the Zucchini problem. Cooking the new improved recipe as we speak. Baking in the oven. La la la... this is what we do while we wait. We shall see how the recipe ends up with my new knowledge.
Here is the recipe for those of you wondering, and everyone who could care less too.

Oven Roasted Zucchini
---------------------
Preheat oven to 400
cut your zucchini into inch thick rounds
mix in a bowl with Extra Virgin Olive Oil (that wasn't so bad to type out really)
sea salt, ground black pepper, rosemary, and garlic seasonings.
lay zucchini out on a baking sheet
bake, uncovered for 25-35 minutes
check often for your desired tenderness.

Swamp Rat

If you have ever watched Aladdin you may remember him being called a street rat. Well, I sometimes call Ted a swamp rat since he was born in Louisiana. It was a joke, he claims to be a Texan and I like to remind him that officially he is not. I thought I had made up the term "swamp rat" being the clever lady that I am.
Now the point of this post isn't to OUT him as a non-texan or prove that I am a mean horrible wife who makes fun of her husband's origins. The point is, that I met an official SWAMP RAT! It's living in our backyard, it may have friends, and despite the fact that we have given it a name it will be relocated soon.
Her name is Peggy the Lawnmower and she is also known as Nutria. Looks like a groundhog with the tail of a rat. She enjoys munching on grass, taking long dips in the pond, and living under our shed. Her habits have led to making my koi pond look more like a potty and everyone tells me that she will be tearing apart the garden next.
Now, these critters were brought into the USA (Louisiana to be exact) for the fur. Apparently they make a fantastic hat! The rule here in Oregon is that you can't catch and release, you can't shoot in city limits. So grab a cage, drag it to the country and fire away!!!! yee haw!
I plan on breaking the law and releasing it into the wetlands area. If you see me on the 6 o'clock news please come bail me out of jail. I don't like killing things, even if they are pests. I even catch mice and release them far away. I do kill spiders though, so WATCH OUT nasty little spiders!!! I will smush you in a second.

Fairy Festival

There was a Fairy festival last weekend and I took Zionna. Last month she drew what she wanted her dress to look like and then I went to work sewing it. I made it out of a pillow case, a valance, and some sheer rainbow fabric. I am thinking of making these dresses and trying to use 100% recycled material from thrift stores and then maybe sell them on etsy.
We had a lot of fun at the fairy festival wandering around the life size Candy Land board and playing with our friends. For our wings we used coat hangers, and tights that Zionna outgrew. Then we painted designs on them. I didn't get a photo of mine but I was wearing some of course!

Don't eat the leaves!

While in my garden area I discovered a very large plant that looked familiar. Turns out it was rhubarb growing from the past owners of our house. My grandmother always grew a ton of rhubarb and made the best pie. I made a strawberry rhubarb pie with mine hoping the kids would eat it. Liam and Ted loved it, but Zionna decided it was too tart despite the heaping amounts of sugar I put into it. I meant to take a photo of the pie when it was finished but I got so excited about eating it that I totally forgot to take the finished photo. I could show a photo of my tummy now that I consumed almost an entire pie, but that is just gross!

Oh Oprah..what have you done???

I just received an email about Oprah and her new church????
I was very confuses so I watched the YouTube video in the link to see what was going on. I mean, I don't watch TV so I can miss things like this if I'm not careful. Or maybe I am being careful by missing them.
Here is the video... and if you don't have time to watch it makes Oprah look like a cult leader and then at the last 2 seconds throws Obama in the mix.

My response:

My thoughts on this would be that Oprah is like so
many people today, she is searching. With her busy
life I would guess that she is very lonely and so it
makes since that she would be searching for a deeper
spirituality.  I know she was hanging out with a bunch
of Scientology people awhile back. She is lost.
 As far as the Church of Oprah, well yeah she is
teaching a web class.  She does that sort of thing
with her book club.  I think she is just excited to be
feeling something and wants to share it just like
anyone would.   Of course she is Oprah so she is
sharing it with millions.  Is she evil? Trying to
corrupt Christians and others? Nah, she is just trying
to share her experience in her personal search for
enlightenment. 
Hopefully those Christians watching will have a faith
strong enough that this won't throw them off course.
Perhaps those unbelievers who watch will continue
searching and eventually land upon Christ. 
Ok, and the Obama thing at the end was just silly.
That had nothing to do with the entire show so I'm
guessing a McCain or Clinton person put the video
together.   Oprah endorses Obama, not to be racist but
it sorta makes since.  First black president seems
like the kind of person a woman who so proudly
recognizes her heritage would endorse.  Obama wasn't
meditating or on the web conference so why stick his
name on the end? 
Did Fox news make this?  LOL!
:) 

Robotic Baby "Care"

Do you wish that you could afford a Nanny take care of your baby for you? We all know how expensive a nanny would be, especially a night nanny. Well, now you are in luck! For only 24.99 you can have your very own robotic baby timer. No longer will you have to wonder or care why your baby is screaming. Simply check the timer and it will tell you if the baby is wet, needs food, or should just be ignored because clearly it isn't TIME for it to need anything yet.
It even has a little night light to keep your baby feeling safe when you don't come in.

Why bother listening to your baby or reading the clues that it gives. You know that little uncomfortable wiggle and cry when the diaper is wet. Well, don't bother yourself with that. In fact, with a little luck you won't have to even look at your baby for most of the day. Just make sure the timer is close enough to hear it go off and enjoy your day.

I saw this product when I was cutting through the baby section to dodge the toy aisle. I must say that I was horrified and then just really sad because I am sure a million of these things will be sold. When you think about how babies are born today it makes since as the next step.
The entire pregnancy and birth is timed and measured and women are told when they should be dilating, when they should be pushing, and when when should be cut open since it's taking too long and dinner is getting cold. It only makes since that someone would try to continue this pattern of technology intervention.