Shrimp dip

I don't generally post more than once a day. My life just isn't that exciting. Tonight you'll find something else you won't see often, a recipe. The reason being is that I'm not a cook. I'm not even very good at following a recipe. You may remember that from last weekend when I told you about making banana pudding.

So, tomorrow night is book club & I'm bringing shrimp dip as requested by Allison. I always make it the day before because it taste better after the flavors blend. If you're like me & can't follow a recipe it's ok if you don't layer everything in the same order. Here goes....

2-8oz pkgs. Cream cheese
2 tablespoons Worcertshire
2-4 tsp Tobasco
Fresh garlic minced to taste

Mix all of the above ingredients together & spread on a platter.

Second layer is a bottle of cocktail sauce. I use Louisiana.

Third layer is 1 1/2 lbs. Chopped boiled shrimp.

Fourth layer 8 oz to 1 lb. Shredded mozzarella.

Fifth layer chopped bell pepper & Roma tomato.

Sixth layer shredded Parmesan cheese. Whatever amount you want.

Seventh later chopped green onions to taste.

It's really a great dip!! I'll take a picture tomorrow. I forgot earlier & now I'm in bed.

Speaking of food, we went to Monjuni's for dinner tonight. It's Italian food & one of my favorite places. I had the veggie lasagna. It's sooooo good! They also have a great Italian house salad.


Doesn't it look great??

This is another of my favorite things at Monjuni's,


A wedding cake martini!! It's fabulous! You should try one!

Toodles!!

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Are we going to need a plumber??

Yesterday, I was on the phone in the living room & Dean was in the kitchen cooking when he yelled at me to look out the window. I took off  to see what it was. This is what I saw.

It's just a truck right? WRONG!!! Apparently, it's a meat market on wheels. I know the picture is awful but remember I'm taking it through a window with my iPhone & I was trying to hurry. The side of the truck says something about buying steaks.  I was on the phone with my mom when I spotted it & when I told her what it was she immediately says "Well, don't buy any. I've heard people say they're tough". Hmmmm. Tough meat is only one of a myriad of reasons I wouldn't buy steak out of a truck driving down my street. I'm pretty sure there's some sort of ordinance against this type of thing too. Thank goodness Dean wasn't out cutting the grass or I probably would've had to deal with "Mobile Steak Mart". Why you ask? Well, once when Dean was cutting the grass a guy stopped to tell him that he could restain my front door if I'd like. What does dear Dean do with this information?? He tells the guy to talk to me & he brings him to the front door. REALLY?!!??  I politely took the guys card & told him I'd let him know if I decided to do it. I hope God forgives that little lie. Here's a piece of advice for the guy if he happens to have come across this....DON'T GO TO SOMEONE'S DOOR WITH A CIGARETTE HANGING OUT OF YOUR MOUTH if you want them to hire you. Not that it would've mattered. I'm just not hiring someone off the street. People do that & then end up kidnapped or dead.

It appears we could have a plumbing issue. I hope not. Dean's shower & my tub decided that they didn't want to drain last night. The sinks & toilet work fine & all the other bathrooms are good. This meant I had to take a bath in one of the other bathrooms last night. Either my whirlpool tub has me incredibly spoiled or the other tubs are made for extremely tiny people. I swear I didn't have room to move. Hopefully, Dean can fix it.

I had a visitor at work today.

It's Emily! Her mom, Wendy & I grew up together and are great friends. Wendy also works with me. She had the afternoon off so she brought Emily to visit. Isn't she adorable??

Have a great weekend!!

Toodles

Outdoor Wednesday

Saturday morning Dean bought 2 new palm trees. These are to replace some that died. When I say died, I mean murdered by the ridiculously cold winter we had. Seriously, since when does it get cold enough in Baton Rouge to kill palm trees???

We bought a Queen Palm & a Windmill Palm. We have a Windmill that did fine in the weather. You can see it to the left of the picture above. I really like the look of it but it's not as tall as I want.

This is the new Windmill. I'll be transplanting those iris's to my mom's new yard when they move in. The palm will show up better then.

This is the Queen Palm. I hope it lives. I just love how it looks. You can see in the middle of the picture the little stump thingy from one that died. We're not convinced it's dead, there was still a little green so we decided to just leave it & see what happens. 

It was cloudy Saturday thank goodness because it was still really, really hot. It would've been awful if the sun would've been out. While Dean dug the holes & planted the palms I pulled weeds. I did about half the backyard & then got in the pool & cooled off. This is the pool cooling contraption Dean made. You can also see the new palm.

I know it's not pretty but it works! It's amazing what you can do with PVC pipe & a noodle! If people come over we take it out. The pool was a perfect 88 degrees!

We have a big ditch thing behind our house & that's where we dump the weeds that we pull. When I went back there I saw this.

He was just hanging out, looking around.

I needed a new pot. I have a Begonia in a small one on my patio that apparently doesn't drain well & it's not doing very good. Since I didn't go with Dean to get the trees,  I asked him to just pick out a pretty one. Those of you that know me know I don't ever do things like this but I thought he could handle it. This is what he came home with.

I thought it was really pretty! I haven't repotted the Begonia yet. I was exhausted by the time I finished weeding. It never occurred to me when we did all that landscaping that someone was going to have to pull the weeds! Once we were both finished working we hung out in the pool awhile & then Dean grilled & I had a Pina Colada!

Looks good huh??

I'm linking to Outdoor Wednesday.

Outdoor Wednesday

Toodles!

Thanks to Bonnie we woke up to a serious storm!! Thunder, lightening & a whole lot of rain. My ultimate sleeping conditions!! Sadly, it wasn't to be. When I rolled over & looked at the clock it was 5:25, only 35 minutes until I had to get up. I think it started raining harder! We went to Mass & then did our grocery shopping. By that time the rain had stopped. We had almost 4 1/2 inches in 3 hours!!!

We're going to a pool party at my neighbors tonight & I volunteered to bring banana pudding. Technically, Dean volunteered but anyway. Banana pudding is easy. For most people. I've been known to have a few issues with it. I may have put 2 oz. of milk instead of 2 cups once. Today I had some "folding" of the cool whip issues but it's done, with Dean's help of course!



- I think it looks pretty good. We'll see how it taste!

To reward myself for my culinary delight I went & had a Mani & Pedi!






Off to the party now!

Toodles!

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Friday!

It's Friday!!! That always makes me happy. Today Dean & I only worked a half day & then we met for lunch. We went to Sammy's. I wanted one of their lunch specials, seafood stuffed ravioli, but they were out. Now, how you're out of a lunch special at 11:45 is beyond me, but they were. I had to settle for a shrimp poboy & fries. It was delicious!

After lunch we went to a couple of Nurseries in town. The ridiculously cold winter we had killed 2 of my palms & we wanted to see about replacing them since they're on sale. That wasn't our smartest move being that it was 97 degrees today & it felt like about 150! Needless to say no palm tree decisions were made. We stopped at a couple of places to look at patio furniture too. I'd found a set I liked awhile back but we were waiting to see if it would go on sale. No such luck.

When we got home we spent the entire afternoon in the pool. Dean has this crazy contraption that he made to re-circulate the water so it doesn't get too hot. I'll have to take a picture. I didn't think about it earlier.

Since we'd been in the pool all afternoon neither of us wanted to go get anything for dinner so we ordered from Pluckers & had it delivered & we sat on the patio & ate. We had a great day!

Have a good weekend!

Toodles!

I'm Bored.

Well, you can certainly tell it's summer because of all the weird stuff on TV! Tonight we've watched "Wipeout" which really is funny & now we find ourselves watching something called "Downfall". It's a game show. Has anyone seen it? I haven't figured out the rules except that the participant is wearing something that looks like a Nomex uniform & he's hooked to a pulley or something & they keep speaking of "going over the edge". It's really pretty interesting. One of the categories was "TV Families". The contestant guy didn't know "Leave It To Beaver"! It's not like he was some young pup either. He was definitely of an age to have known. I got all but "The Waltons" which is shocking as much as my mom likes that show. I was never a fan but she always watched it. I managed to get all of the answers to the "NFL MVPs". Aren't I a good wife??

Speaking of the NFL, it's probably time to start our research for our fantasy team. I plan to do better this season & be better prepared for the draft.

In my last post I mentioned that I have some things from my childhood that I was hoping to give away. Thankfully, Wendy is willing to take the NKOTB dolls off my hands. She plans to save them for when baby Emily gets a bit older. As Wendy said, "I'm not sure how Emily will feel about playing with boy band dolls but they're a good alternative to Ken". That they are. It's only appropriate that Wendy takes them home because our entire high school career was spent loving those boys! Yes, I said high school. Wendy was always partial to little Joey Joe while I loved Jordan. Never were we more excited than when we were able to touch the boys when we pushed our way to the front row during a concert!! Those were the days!

Speaking of TV & my childhood. I was a huge 90210 fan & I loved Donna Martin!! That of course has turned into me loving Tori Spelling. I watch her show & read her books. I wish she would come to B.R. for a book signing but sadly that hasn't happened. Nobody ever comes here. Anyway, I'm looking forward to Kristin's post tomorrow. She's going to Tori's book signing tonight in Florida!

Anyway, that was all really random so I'll go now.

Toodles!

Another One Bites The Dust!

It's Sunday night again & I'm blogging while listening to Dean snore. Where has the weekend gone? Yes, I know it's 9:30 which is technically past my bedtime but I just don't want to go to sleep because then the weekend will officially be over. sigh...

We had a low key weekend which normally I like but after having such a busy few weeks I kinda missed all the stuff going on. Friday night Dean & I had dinner at Zea's. They had a special summer menu. I refrained from my normal selection of some sort of fried seafood & ordered the Aegan Trout. OMG soooooo good!! It was grilled & had tomatoes, olives, almonds & feta cheese & was served with fresh snap beans. DELICIOUS!! I didn't eat it all either so I get to enjoy the tasty goodness again at lunch tomorrow.

Saturday I spent the day at my mom's. I still had some stuff in the top of the closet in my old room so we got all that down & went through it. WOW, the stuff I've kept. I got rid of a bunch but there was a bunch I couldn't part with. Why I don't know, but I couldn't. I'm hoping some of my friends with little girls will take some of it off my hands. Hint hint Wendy! When I got home & told Dean, he made a comment about me being just like my daddy & rolled his eyes. I guess he just doesn't understand my attachment to my New Kids On The Block dolls.

Amelia-Ann came over to show me her ribbons she won in her horse show & we got in the pool & played awhile. Then it started lightening. Why does it have to do that if it has no intention of raining??? We got a few drops & that was it.

Today was a really lazy day. It was raining when we got up. We went to 7:00 Mass & grocery shopping & I took a little nap. I spent the afternoon catching up on the DVR. I don't know why I say "catching up", I don't think that will ever happen but I watched the stuff I need to watch so I can discuss with Wendy & Allison. 

Toodles!!!

Katie's Wedding Day

Last weekend when we were in Texas we stayed at the Marriott in Sugar Land. It was really nice & in a great area. The hotel was in the middle of a little shopping area that had restaurants & coffee shops. Dean & I went to walk around when we got up Saturday morning. This was in the little town square area. We had a view of it from our room.

Before the wedding I'd looked off & on in Baton Rouge for a dress to wear to the wedding. I even looked in San Diego but I never found anything so I was just going to wear something I had. While we were walking around Dean told me about a store that he'd seen earlier that was having a 50% off sale. Off I went. Now seriously, do you really think I'd find a dress 50% off 4 hours before the wedding that went with a pair of shoes that I had with me?? I DID!!! I was SHOCKED but so excited!

After dress shopping we met a friend for lunch. Joe lives in Sugar Land so he came & met us at a Mexican restaurant. It was nice to get to visit with him. We hadn't seen him in awhile. Then it was off to get ready for the wedding.

Here's the bridal party. The pink dresses were so cute & Katie was beautiful!

After the wedding, we went back to the hotel. Most of the out of town guests & the bridal party were all staying at the Marriott so Sean & Katie arranged for a shuttle to pick everyone up at the hotel & bring us to the reception. That was great! Kudos to Sean for coming up with that.

The reception was really nice & fun. After cocktail hour, where hors d'ouvres & wine were served, we moved into the main dining room to our tables. The food was really good! There was a salad bar, a pasta bar, a carving station & an open bar. I never made it to the carving station. I was too busy with the salad & pasta! Here we are with the newlyweds.

None of my pictures are fabulous because the dining room had so many windows & it was 5:00 so there was lots of evening sun. It was a beautiful day but none of the settings on my camera were just right.

Isn't the cake beautiful? It was delicious too! I had a small piece of white cake with Bavarian cream & a small piece of carrot. Soooo good!

I really expected Katie to smash the cake in Sean's face. I was surprised when she didn't. Then it was speech & toast time. Everyone had a glass of champagne.

This was the highlight of the night!

Sean's entire family did the dance from the "Thriller" video! It was AWESOME!!! I know you can't tell the level of awesomeness this was from the pics, just trust me!!

I had high expectations for this wedding after seeing pictures & hearing about Sean's wild dance moves & crazy friends. I was not disappointed.

I told Dean that we need to get him a seer sucker suit for summer events. There was a plethora of them at the wedding. It was pretty funny during communion watching them all parade by like they were advertising them. You can see one of the guys in the above picture.

Katie has a wide array of musical faves. It's actually very similar to mine. Where she loves Justin Bieber, I love New Kids, we both have a strange affinity for rap as well. Here everyone's doing the bunny hop.

I'm not part of this group because I'm taking the picture. DUH!! No sseriously, I'm not in the picture because of my "cute over comfort" mantra. The shoes I had on were KILLING me. I even went to Charming Charlies Saturday morning & bought these little innersole comfort things. Lord knows how bad I would've been hurting without them. The Footgloss I bought awhile back helps but only when you remember to put it on.

This is Dean & I with Sean & some our other friends that were at the wedding, Haley, Nick & his fiance Julie.

We had fun catching up with them.

A lot of Sean's family is from New Jersey so naturally they're Bon Jovi fans. This was "Livin' On A Prayer"

Here's Dean & I & a view of my new dress.

I think a pair of hot pink heels are in order the next time I wear it!!!

Katie had such a unique ending to her reception. The last song was the Charlie Brown song. I'm pretty sure she chose it because that was always the last song played at The Stadium Club "back in the day". For those of you that don't know, The Stadium Club is a college bar that everyone hung out in. Some of us before others!! 

After the reception, the shuttle brought us back to the Marriott & off to the hotel lounge we went. Everyone was there including the bride & groom. After nearly passing out when I gave the bartender a $20 for a beer & a Cosmo & only getting $1.50 change I was done. $10.50 for a Cosmo? Really?

 It was a great weekend & fun was had by all!!

Toodles!

Friday Fun

Last weekend was jam packed full of fun. Friday we went to Houston. Our friend Katie was getting married Saturday afternoon. We got tickets to the Astros game & toured the stadium. It's been years since I've been to a big league game & now I've been to two in ten days!

After getting the news that Logan was okay & would be going home from the hospital we headed out. We stopped in Beaumont at Chili's & had lunch. This is the first trip that I didn't sleep at all. I ALWAYS sleep in the car so this was a shocker.  We made it to Sugar Land, checked in our hotel & headed back downtown for our tour.

I had really high hopes for this thing. I enjoyed the tour of San Diego's stadium so much, I expected this to be the same. Not so much. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't great. I think part of the problem was that it was before a game & the teams were taking batting practice so we weren't able to go on the field or in the dugouts. We did, however, get to sit in Drayton McLane's seats for B.P. His seats are leather & he has a granite end table. I guess that's an advantage of owning the team! Doesn't Dean look like he could be an owner??

Batting practice is going on behind us.

The Diamond Club is the area set aside for the really rich people. There's a 30 yr. commitment for these seats & the price is $3.5 million over 30 yrs.

It's very nice but I like the Padres Home Plate Club better & you don't have to commit for 30 yrs.

I hope Chick Fil A pays their marketing people well. They are so creative!!

This is a view of from the upper deck of Minute Maid. This isn't even the very top.

I just thought this one was cool looking.

Thankfully the roof was closed for the game. We learned on the tour that if it's above 85 degrees they keep it closed. I'm really confused as to why they even built a retractable roof. The only time it's cooler than 85 is in October. The Astros don't play in October because that's the postseason & the Astros are bad. Like really really bad. Consistently bad.

One thing that's been disappointing about going to these games is that I'm not getting to see LSU guys play. There was only one former tiger playing in this game, Nick Stavinoha & all he did was pinch hit.

We were lucky enough to see a future hall of famer hit a home run. Albert Pujols absolutely hammered the ball.

Everytime he came up to bat I was taking pictures & I managed to catch the HR swing

and the HR trot.

Our seats were good but not quite as good as in San Diego. After the game there was a fireworks show. I was really glad the roof was closed because we got to watch it open. It takes 13 minutes.

Pretty cool huh?

I think this was the best fireworks show I've ever seen!

Fireworks don't photograph well. Or maybe, it's my photography skills. They were really pretty though. 

When we got back to our hotel the wedding party & some of the guests were hanging out in the lounge area. We had a drink & visited with everyone. Believe it or not, I didn't take any pictures!

That was it for our Friday.

Toodles!

Goodbye San Diego!

Our last day in San Diego turned out to be a day spent in airports. Our flight out wasn't until 2:30 but we were told all the flights were overbooked & people were being bumped. Off to the airport we went at 11:00. Remember here when I talked about packing?  On the trip home I wanted a light carry on so I put as much stuff as I could in my big suitcase. They didn't weigh it on the flight to San Diego so I didn't think there was anything to worry about. Well, I thought wrong.

50 pounds is the limit. Lucky for me the airline peeps said it was ok. Otherwise I was about to start digging stuff out to put in Lydia's suitcase. As usual I overpacked. It's really ridiculous the stuff I bring "in case". We were able to check in so we were good to go. We ate lunch & then found these great rocking chairs.

 I've never seen rockers at an airport. They were also right next to an outlet so we were able to charge our phones & play Words With Friends while we rocked.

The week we were in San Diego, the NFL had their Rookie Symposium where they teach the guys how to transition in & out of the league. Needless to say NFL players were everywhere & the majority of them seemed to be on our flight. I was crossing my fingers that I wouldn't have a big lineman next to me. Those plane seats are small & I didn't want to be crammed up next to someone I didn't know. I'm funny about that stuff.  Lucky for me this was the guy I got.

I know it's not a great picture but I was trying to be discreet. His name is Riley Cooper & he was Tim Tebow's roommate & one of the Wide Receivers at Florida. He'll be playing for the Philadelphia Eagles. He was very nice.

Then we got to Dallas & that's where all the problems started. Between the time the Pilot announced which gate we needed to go to & getting off the plane, the gate changed. That was the first of either 5 or 6 gate changes. I lost count. Everytime we got to the correct gate they were changing it. We ate at Chili's & then proceeded to go to yet another gate. Somewhere during all the gate changing the flight was also delayed. NOW we have a problem. We were scheduled to get to Baton Rouge at 10:05 pm. I was scheduled to go to work the next day. I am a MAWMAW. I need a MINIMUM of 8 hours of sleep. When I don't have it, I'm cranky, have a headache & my stomach usually hurts. Combine all that with actually being at work & we're talking EPIC FAIL!! Thank you American Airlines. Everytime I looked at the screen or heard an announcement I was scared it was going to be another delay. Luckily, it didn't happen & we got to Baton Rouge at 11:10. I think I was asleep for 1:00. I slept until 6:00 & pony tailed it to work. It wasn't a good day.

And THAT was our San Diego trip!!!

Toodles

San Diego Tuesday

Yes I realize that I've been home from San Diego for almost two weeks. I'm almost finished wrapping up. Tuesday I hung out with Laura, Lydia's boss' daughter. We went back to Seaport Village to ride the Seal. When I posted that on Facebook it created a lot of confusion. Apparently, some people thought I was literally riding a Seal. These are people that know me well. I have no idea what they were thinking.  I guess they thought it was some sort of swim with the seals like you do with the dolphins. Anyway, this is the seal I was riding.

It was fun! We got to see all sorts of stuff.

It didn't smell very good out here. Those boxes the birds are standing on are "bait boxes" & it's full of fish. My favorite part of the tour was this.

I loved seeing all of the sea lions. They were so fun to watch. This one was putting on a show for us. He jumped on & off of the buoy. That black looking thing in the right corner is another one that was swimming around. They're very graceful! A lot of them appeared to be very lazy. Like these.

They just laid there using each other as pillows. I learned something on the tour too. The reason that these are light colored is because they're dry. They have some sort of oil like substance on them & when it dries they're light. These two were having a big conversation. See they have their mouths open?

I wonder what they were saying??

More birds. They were everywhere!

 I know this picture looks black  & white but it only looks that way because it was so cloudy.

There was a boat having an issue with these guys.

That would be a gun strapped to his leg.

Once we got back to Seaport Village we had lunch at a cute little restaurant called Edgewater. The one problem I found with San Diego is the lack of Dr. Pepper. Nobody had it. At this particular restaurant I ordered unsweet tea. I always order it unsweetened & add Splenda. Well, I should've had my camera ready because the waitress looked at me like I'd lost my mind. Apparently, the South is the only place that drinks sweet tea. Oh well. I got my tea, filled it up with Splenda & was happy!

After lunch we took the ferry to Coronado Island. This was the view of the Convention Center & downtown from the Island.

I was a little disappointed that this was the only beach I saw the entire trip.

Apparently, we should've taken a taxi or something to another part of the island & we would've seen the Pacific Ocean. The island was bigger than what I thought & I didn't realize people lived there but it was a little city. There were some shops & restuarants at the ferry landing. As we were walking around we saw this outside of a little museum.

I love Dr. Seuss. I think his books are so funny! We went in & looked around.

There was a whole little Dr. Seuss section.

Then we decided it was time for a snack. There was a little cupcake place that we thought about. There was a Cold Stone on the island!! I was really excited! While we were waiting these guys joined us.

I'm so not a fan of birds. At least not this kind that are everywhere. While we were walking around we found a little place that rents bikes  & things. We decided to do this.

Y'all can stop laughing now. It was fun but harder than I expected. I have a whole new appreciation for the Pedi Cab Driver/Pedalers. We had 2 people pedaling this thing & it wasn't easy. I was the official "driver" which meant I did the steering. I did fine. There may be a curb or some bushes that would dispute that but nobody was hurt. We thought for a minute or two about riding over to the other side of the island but after a bit we realized that 30 mins. on this thing was going to be more than enough. We did have a little incident. We thought we were in the right place when a man very rudely said that we weren't supposed to be on the sidewalk. Well, we'd just seen a sign that said "Bike Path" so we told him & he snippely (that's probably not a word) pointed us to the bike path. I didn't say anything but I wanted to tell him "I'm from Louisiana & we don't have bike paths because it's too freakin' hot to go outside!" I bit my tongue. The bike path turned out to be between a lane of traffic on a busy road & the lane where cars parallel park.

Not to mention the fact that the bike lane just ends. Yes ENDS. We were approaching a red light & boom, no bike path! I had to make a left turn across traffic. That was no easy feat. I don't even like making left turns when I'm in a car.

After our little ride we headed back to the city. Lydia & I had tickets to the Padres game Tuesday night. We had soooo much fun! The Concierge was able to get us great seats! We were 7 rows behind the visitors dugout. The Padres were playing the Rockies.

Tony Gwynn Jr. was just called out at home. See how good the seats were!

The only former Tiger on the teams was Brad Hawpe. This was the only glimpse we got of him. He was hurt & also didn't play because of the whole righty lefty thing.

We walked back to the hotel & decided to have a snack on the walk back. We spotted a Ghirardelli Ice Cream Parlor in the Gas Lamp District.

I had a chocolate shake & Lydia had a banana split sundae. It was sooooo good!!!! Okay, enough of that. It's making me hungry.

That was all for Tuesday. Good thing cause this is probably the longest post in the history of the world! Slowly but surely I'm catching up!

Toodles!