Enjoy! After that, I am going to bed. Good night!

The first batch of chick pea home made veggie burgers was a smash success.

They were extremely delicious. I didn't go into the whole meal with burgery or meat-like expectancy and walked away with a clean plate as well as being surprisingly pleased. The consistency is correct, I feel as full or more so. The flavor is subtle and worked kicked ass with my favorite burger toppings: thinly sliced red onion, tomato, dill pickle chips, lettuce and a teaspoon of spicy cajun mayo.

It's a good taste, not overpowering. I am almost 100% sure it wouldn't matter what you put on the burger, bbq sauce, ketchup or mustard or avocado and sour cream it would mesh well. The patties were not too spicey, nor were they so light weight there was no flavor at all.

If you like veggie burgers already and are having a tight time of it, try the recipe out in the link above. Over here, a can of chick peas are about 1$ and the recipe ended up making six excellent sized burgers. For the two of us, that's three days worth of meals for the cost of a can, buns, tomato, lettuce and cheese. Pretty cost effective.

In other news, Operation No White Bread/Noodles is also a hit AND a success. Wheat noodles are exceptionally tasty and hardly drop in the pan. The texture is a bit more fiberlicious but the taste is awesome. I thought I would fatpanic without my white bread, but wheat--especially the honey-wheat is really, really good. We're able to drop beef entirely, drop white breads/buns/noodles/sweets/chips/pop, pick up salads, greens, veggies, unsweetened ice tea for drinks for about 60$ a week (food stuffs only. No counting shampoo, coffee, soap, razors, fabric detergent and cleaners.)

My ideal amount would be to see if we could go so far as to cut it to 50$. In the distant future now that Shawn's purchased new dirt and compost for the backyard garden and we can start soon on planting our own lettuce, herbs and veggies, eventually cutting those out of the grocery list for a few months when they're grown.

Now to just get ourselves back on the wiifit three or four days out of the week and I think this year's amazing turn around would be complete.

"Most of the people who drive trucks in Florida are douche bags."

"That guy's driving a truck." Point as I watch some guy in a truck drive by, with half a disassembled bar in the truck's bed. "He must be a douche bag--wait. Aren't we driving a sorta-truck? Wouldn't that make us douchebags?"

"Nah," as he watches traffic and said truck go by."We don't drive a truck, we drive an SUV. And we don't even drive a real SUV, we drive a sporty SUV. So we really just drive a tall car."

( BUTT TON MORE CELL PHONE PICS THIS WAY )

1. Love notes sent now via cell phone to Shawn.
2. Last weeks supply for making Lolsagna (lasagna)
3. Our sexy Saturn. God I love the color!
4. Raven, our cat.
5. The ferrets at the pet store.
6. Ferrets at the pet store.
7. Chinchilla.
8. A tiny cemetery in the middle of a lawn right before a gas station.
9. I F'N' LOVE COLORIN'
10. A view of our Star Bucks from far away.
11. Star bucks drive through!
12. Star bucks green tea latte. Shawn says it's his truest vice.
13. The new Vivanno which I ordered which is the most delicious filling thing evar.

"Do you want me to heat up the left over rice?"

I turn around, half the way to look over at Shawn. "Yeah, that'd be good. And while you're at it, grab those corn tortilla shells you just got. Might as well, makes the food stretch."

"Psshht, look at you, eating my tortilla shells."

I narrow my eyes at him. "Yeah, about that--I went to go get some cheese to put on my salad today. You know, from the bag of cheddar cheese you brought home?"

Shawn rubs his belly. "Yes. Look at what happened. Look what the cheese gave you. I'm going to have babies--cheese babies."

---

Earlier this afternoon the cat, the Shawn and I went outdoors to meander about. It was an unusually cool day today for this time of year and windy. I took a few pictures of the garden, but wasn't terribly impressed by any of them until I took this one and threw it into Photomatix and made it an "HDR".




I also took it into lightroom to adjust levels and clarity.

He said, "This movie is horrible!"

I heard, "Shit monkey is whore-able!"

Yeees, horizonchaser I've cleaned my ears out!

Shawn and I visited Turkey Creek Sanctuary a second time this weekend, we went last weekend. Last weekend, I forgot to put the card in my camera (oi) so I wasn't able to take hardly any pictures. Internal memory of most digital cameras suck so hard.

This weekend, I went back with my digital camera and card and took a lot of pictures. It's a very nice little park/nature preserve with board walks that seem to go on forever. There are moments within the park that Shawn and I felt as if we had walked into a time where we'd see a brontosaurus wandering by; carpets of ferns and tall, tall untouched jungle.


On the board walks, there are dedications carved into the wooden planks beneath feet. Some of them are dedicated to people passed, some of them are just 'shout-outs,' some declaring unending love, and I saw several of them dedicated to beloved pets. Names and dates of families and people, I felt a little warmed and a tiny bit odd walking over them.

The only complaint I had was the width of the entry to the board walk. These shoulder-high rails to either side of us were terribly narrow, and we are terribly fat people. This prompted this question:

Me: "Why are these paths so thin?"
Shawn: Without a seconds worth of hesitation he replies, "Because thin people enjoy nature. Fat people eat it."

Everyday with my husband is like a day with the learning channel!

First, an e-card for those of you too afraid to share your actual real-life address with the crazy cat lady and thus; missed out on the splendidness which is sparkly Christmas cards:



Second, I know that on every street corner there seems to be a charity asking you for a moment of kindness, and I'm afraid I'm going to add to the list.

Please don't forget your furry four-pawed friends this Christmas. If you could donate a dollar to your local Humane Society, Shelter, and No-Kill Shelter I would be so happy. I might even pee a little, that's how happy I'd be. Okay, maybe I made up the last part because I am still in full control of my bladder so far--but still... If you do so, consider my single biggest Wish-List item done and fulfilled.

Last BUT NEVER LEAST:

Happy birthday to eve_dot_com!

So four or five months ago, much to my ultimate horror and several tears shed, I broke my engagement ring.

And by break, I mean--completely lost the entire diamond and setting the diamond was in. It was raised away from the ring and snapped off, leaving me with a shiny white metal band and a giant gaping whole in the ring and my heart.

It was my first official as well as only engagement ring and while Shawn said not to worry about it--hey. Yeah. I was worried. And a lot upset.

In fact, I'm still choking up a little right now.

A few months before that, Shawn shattered the silver Celtic wedding band.

So there we were, I had a band, no engagement ring--he had no band.

We decided to order something that was function over form. I wanted something he wouldn't break, or I wouldn't break, or something that would bend very easily.

Matching set of Titanium wedding bands it is. They arrived today.


Maybe we can stop being klutzes, together.

Thank you mister joecifur, it is beeeauutiful. I showed it to my bebe.





This is a pen Shawn brought home from work, for me. Freakishly huge pen is awesome.

Last night's hothothot bedtime sexy talk:

Shawn: Attempts to angle his cold feet onto my warm feet.
Me: Pulls my right leg as far as it would go to the right, folding and tucking my left foot behind right knee, thus foiling his clever plan.
Shawn: "Ohgoddamnit."
Me: "I DO NOT WANT YOUR COLD FEET ON ME."
Shawn: "BUT THAT'S WHY I BROUGHT YOU HERE. I IMPORTED YOU FROM CANADA TO WARM MY FEET."