After participating in BooMama's Blog Tour of Homes, I was inspired and I had this idea. I conspired with one of my best blog friends, Melanie at Plaid Toaster, and we are now going to co-host a new food event called Blog Food Expo. What is it? Well, on August 12th, we are going to have everyone post one of their favorite recipes.

This can be done in several different ways. You can post your favorite recipe without much fanfare, or you can choose to tell the story of how it came to be your favorite, or what is interesting about it. Or you could go the extra mile and actually post the recipe with a photo of the completed item. Better yet, you could do a full step-by-step photo journal of how you make the recipe, kind of like I did in my recent chili post. Just pretend you have your own cooking show and take photos throughout the process. Good commentary is essential too, of course.

So, if you are interested in participating in this event, you would simply post your recipe on your blog on August 12th, and then head over here or to Melanie's blog, Plaid Toaster and we will have a little "linky thing" up on each of our blogs for you to add the address of your food post to. Then the fun begins, as everyone can go and see the wonderful foods everyone else has made. This is a great opportunity to pick up some new "family favorites" too. I know I am always at a loss as to what to make for dinner.

Doesn't this sound like fun? And as a little added incentive, I am working on some prizes for the best recipe, best photos, and so on. Melanie made the wonderful buttons to advertise the event, so please copy them and use them to link to this post and tell all your friends. And please leave me a comment if you think you want to participate.

So, I haven't posted much this weekend. At all really. I had a great time participating in the Blog Tour of Homes Friday, and spent a lot of time visiting all the other blogs that partcipated. Then yesterday I went to volunteer with the poodle rescue at an event at the mall where we took some dogs and had a display table set up. There were all kinds of dog rescue groups there, out introducing dogs up for adoption and talking to the public. They had some agility demonstrations and other things going on there too. I met acouple of people who seemed like good prospects for adopting poodles, so that was good.

Saturday morning, I had four inches chopped off my hair. My head feels so light now, but it is strange. My hair is still long, just not two feet long like it was.

And then yesterday was Blogathon. I sponsored Melanie at Plaid Toaster and TJ at Zazzafooky. They both did a great job and made it through the 24 hours of blogging every half hour. Congrats to them both for raising lots of money for their charities. Remember you can still choose to sponsor them for 48 hours after the Blogathon.

Today we spent the day hanging out around the house, cleaning and swimming. Most of the dogs went in the pool with us or on my raft to float around, and needed baths, so Andy and I split up the duties this afternoon and we each washed three. You can really see how very many dogs there are when you have to wash them all. I hope everyone had a great weekend; it is back to work now for me.

So it is time for the Blog Tour of Homes. Actually it is a little early, but since I am an evening blogger, I figured I'd better go ahead and get my photos up. According to BooMama's site, which is where the tour of homes is being hosted, the photos should be first your front door, second where you blog, third your main living area, fourth, your kitchen, and fifth is your choice. I have adhered roughly to that order, but I threw in a few extras.

Here's my front door, and the front porch of my house:

We have a wireless network, so I do my blogging all over the house on my laptop, but my actual desk is here. You can see Charley, my parrot sitting on his playgym right next to where I sit.

Here is our living room, and of course it is full of dogs, just like we like it.

The next two photos are of the kitchen, which Andy and I remodeled in 2003.

This is the little attic room that serves as Andy's office.

This red wall is in our hallway upstairs and is our pet portrait wall. I need to do some paintings of the newly adopted dogs, but I will probably wait till we get to the new house.

And here is the focal point of our backyard, the pool we put in a couple of years ago. The landscape is all our own; I designed it and Andy did all the large plantings. I planted the small plants.

I hope you enjoyed the tour. Stop by BooMama's site for the full listing of the blogs participating in the tour.

My poor little dog, Michaela had a bad day today. While I was at work this morning, Andy said she was playing with the other dogs and then she sort of collapsed on her side and when he went to check on her, she was all rigid and drooling. She was having a seizure, but don't worry, everything is fine now, she came out of it okay. Andy said she drooled all over him. Of course shortly after she came around she puked her tiny little guts out, but she is feeling much better now.

So it is a good thing that we adopted her rather than adopt her out to another family, because we had a dog that we put to sleep four years ago that was epileptic and had sporadic seizures for most of her life. Michaela's seizure didn't really phase us too much, because we have been through it before. But imagine if she had been in her first couple of weeks with a new family and had a seizure. They would probably be pretty freaked out about it. So it is good that she is here, with us.

I saw this little guy walking around near one of our buildings at work today; isn't he cute? Well, I say "little guy" but actually he is an endangered Gopher Tortoise and is quite large at around fourteen inches long. I love working in an area surrounded by so much wildlife!

Last week Andy discovered that we had a resident rat in the garage and spent the whole day while I was off volunteering for the poodles emptying the garage trying to find him. he cleaned out all the rat turds and removed the bag of bird seed that the rat had been munching on. During the week I heard the rat once, early in the morning when I got in my Jeep, somewhere in the garage chewing on something. He was still there. Friday afternoon I saw where he had nearly chewed the lid off a large plastic paint bucket we keep wild birdseed in. By the next morning, he had chewed a rat sized hole in the lid. We had to do something, so Andy set out a trap and got him the first night it was out. I felt really terrible about it, but the rat was tearing everything up. I couldn't look at it.

As for the other part of my Rats! story, Andy put my new stereo in my Jeep along with the iPod adapter, and it is great. It works beautifully. But alas, now my iPod is on the fritz. It keeps locking up, freezing, skipping, etc. The bright side of this is that I purchased a three year extended warranty from Target where I got it, but I have to send it in for them to test to make sure it is really defective, and then they will give me a Target gift card for the full purchase price. I don't know how long that will take, but I can't complain too much, as it will all be covered, and if I get the full purchase price I will be able to upgrade to a video iPod. So Rats! for having an iPod that isn't working just when I finally get the equipment to play it properly in my Jeep, but hooray for warranties!

...Denny could really use some, but actually I think his terrible underbite is one of his cutest features. He always has sort of a funny look about him, though, because his bottom teeth stick out so darned far. Precious!

Okay, so this isn't a cooking blog, but I make a mean chili and I am pretty proud of it, so today I would like to share. This is my very own super easy recipe for crock pot chili. It is something I concoct slightly differently every time based on the availability of ingredients and I swear that every time I make it, it turns out better than the last time.

This time I was lucky and there was a large variety of peppers at the store. I chopped a selection of Anaheim chilis, jalapenos, and serranos. For the base of the chili, I use a large container of tomato juice. here you see a plastic jug, but one of the large cans is fine too. Then I add a large can of fire roasted tomatoes, although any crushed or diced tomatoes will do if you can't find the fire roasted. Then I add all of the chopped peppers.

For some color and flavor, I found some lovely yellow tomatoes and diced them up. Then I kind of cheated and added pre-diced onions and green peppers from the grocery store to save myself a little chopping. Oh and a small can or two of chopped green chilis is always in my chili, because I usually can't find so many interesting peppers.

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I found some coarse ground chili meat and browned it up first, then added some packaged chili seasoning to the meat. Right at the end when the meat is alost done, I add some minced garlic, just to brown it up a little, without letting it get burned.

After I add the meat, I throw in a nice pile of chili powder, and a few generous palmfuls of crushed red pepper flakes for some heat. I also stir in some light red kidney beans that I have set to soak the night before and then boiled until soft. I let the whole concoction cook in the crock pot on high for about six hours, and the result is spectacular, and the best part is that the leftovers taste even better. When it sits in the fridge for a couple of days, the flavors combine even more.

The chili is best served with cheese and sour cream on top, and some chopped green onions make a nice topping too, but I don't have any today. Don't forget the oyster crackers, and a nice cold beer also goes well with this chili.

So if this sounds appealing to you, feel free to steal and/or adapt my recipe. I have made it many other ways including one with a splash of tequila in it, and so far all of them have been good. Do you make chili, and if so, what special ingredients do you use?

I got to see something pretty neat at work today; a waterspout, which is basically a tornado over water was right in our area so I grabbed a camera and got a shot or two. Amazing, isn't it?

Here's something fun that I plan to do on the 28th of July. It is called Blog Tour of Homes and is hosted over here at BooMama's. I saw this over at Green Apple Martinis and I think it is a fun idea. On the planned day, participants will post five photos of certain views of their homes. Posting more photos is optional. Check out the full plan at BooMama's. It is supposed to be a way to look inside the lives of the bloggers we read about everyday. I hope everyoe will join in on this; I would love to see everyone's homes.

Just a couple of updates today- UPS found the package with my stereo after doing a trace today, and actually got it to me this evening. I am amazed as I thought it was lost forever.

And finally due to lack of interest I will not be participating in Blogathon this year. My time can be better utilized volunteering for the poodles here locally at an event. I will definitely plan to try it next year and thanks to all three of you who were interested in sponsoring me. You guys are the best!

Early last month I did something nice for myself. Both Andy and I drive vehicles that are completely paid for, and we plan to keep driving them for quite a while. I drive a six year old Jeep Wrangler Sahara, and while I still absolutely love it, the sound system leaves a lot to be desired. Even when I first got the Jeep the speakers in the front always crackled really badly and I took it back to the dealer to have them replaced, but the new ones were just as bad. The stereo has no inputs that will allow an iPod to be hooked up to it, so I have been using a little cheapo windsheid mount to hold the iPod, and an iTrip FM transmitter to play it through my stereo. The results leave a lot to be desired. There is a lot fo crackling and static and it is an inconvenient set up because it iis a Jeep and can't be locked up due to the soft top, so every time I stop somewhere, I have to take the iPod out of the mount and lock it in the center console.

Anyway, back to the nice for myself part. I ordered nice new speakers for my Jeep along with a new Pioneer stereo and a Pioneer iPod adapter that will allow me to connect the iPod and leave it locked in the glove box while I control it through the stereo. I am pretty excited about getting the new setup, but these Pioneer iPod adapters are pretty popular, and I had to wait almost five weeks for my order to ship because they were on back order. My shipment was supposed to arrive via UPS today, but sadly the package is missing in action. It disappeared somewhere between Washington and here, so it could be anywhere. The last tracking info on it was when it departed Redmond, Washington six days ago, so chances are slim that it will be found. I have already talked to UPS and the company that shipped my order, and they are handling tracing the package and claims and everything, but the iPod adapter is still on backorder- they are getting them in periodically in small batches, and if my original package is not found, it seems my order could be delayed for a long time again. Pooh.

You may have heard of it, you may have not, but Blogathon 2006 is coming on Saturday, July 29th. Blogathon is where bloggers sign up to blog every half hour for 24 hours to benefit their favorite charity. Bloggers are supported by sponsors, who go to the Blogathon site to sponsor them, and then make their donation online through Blogathon, so that they really know that the charity is getting the money. I really want to participate, but I have a bit of a dilemma. The weekend of Blogathon is the same weekend as an event that I will be helping at to benefit Coastal Poodle Rescue, which we have now adopted three poodles from. I would be blogging to help that same charity. So, if I am to participate in Blogathon, I need to know if I can get any support from you, my readers, otherwise the time would be better spent at the other event on both Saturday and Sunday. I read the rules of the Blogathon, and team blogging is allowed, so Andy would be helping me through some parts of it because we will still be participating at the other Coastal Poodle event on Sunday. This is your chance to ask Andy anything! It could be fun, right?

Coastal Poodle Rescue currently has over sixty dogs in foster care and the vet bills are astronomical. The whole charity is volunteer based, so any money donated goes straight to caring for the dogs, most of it towards veterinary care. All donations are tax deductible and you can learn more about the group by clicking here.

Anyway, I am willing to offer forth a few bribes to get sponsors. If I get any interest and decide to participate, I would offer the following items for the following amounts of sponsorship. For a pledge of $10, I would send you a Space Program Mission sticker such as the one seen on the left in the photo, although stickers may vary from that design. For a $25 donation, I would offer an embroidered Space Shuttle Mission Patch, similar to the one seen in the photo on the right. And finally, for a pledge of $150, I would send you a Boyd's teddy bear with "Space Shuttle Team Member" embroidered on his sweatshirt- colors of the sweatshirt may vary. This bear is nearly impossible to find anywhere outside of employee sundry stores on the Space Centers.

So, if you would be interested in sponsoring me for this event, please leave me a comment so that I know if there is enough interest in this to tear me away from the other poodle charity event that weekend.

Today I went to help out with a little fundraiser thingy for the poodle rescue, and in the process, I made a new friend. A bird friend. The poodle rescue was joined up with a lady who has started a new pet limosine service and was showing off the limo to get people interested. It was all decked out and set up for anything a dog or cat could need or want. She was taking photos of people's dogs in the limo for them and having them make a donation to our rescue in exchange for the photos. It was pretty nice of her. We- me and another volunteer- sat out there under a little tent and talked to people about the poodle rescue and such.

And I got the opportunity to meet an amazing bird that belonged to the pet limo lady. The bird is a Moluccan Cockatoo, and was amazingly calm and very sweet. She would go to anyone to be held and then climb all over them. The bird, named Cuddles, was a rescued bird that had been through a lot and had a feather picking self-mutilation problem, so she had to wear a little clear plastic sort of Elizabethan collar thing so that she could not reach her feathers to tear them up. What a neat animal. She was the highlight of my day.

I can't think of anything good to post today, so I am leaving you with some photos I took this afternoon of the tropical plants around the pool. Have a great weekend!

There was just this story on the evening news about how a former worker in the cafeteria at work, the one in the NASA Headquarters building, is suing the food service company over making her serve food that was "unfit for human consumption" every day. Her stories were horrendous- of chicken that sat out for days raw and then was cooked after it was starting to stink and served to unsuspecting customers. The lady said that all of the leftover food that went unsold was chopped up and put in the chili! Anyway, I am super cheap and both Andy and I always bring our lunches, and now I am glad of it. That cafeteria is ridiculously expensive anyway. Gross.

Is it just me or is anyone else experiencing a change towards healthier, all natural living? It is funny because it seems like it is just in the past few years that I have started caring about things related to health. Things like flossing, sunscreen, and whole grains. I might have done some healthy things in the past, but they were only to gain superficial results. Things like exercising to acheive weight loss, but not because I actually cared about the healthful benefits. I used to think that I would live forever in perfect condition, but now I realize that good health is something to strive for.

I have found it within myself to have cut out caffiene, bad carbs like white sugar, flour, rice, etc., anything containing aspartame- Nutra Sweet- and so on. I am moving more and more towards natural foods and skin products as time goes by. If I keep going at the rate I have been I figure that I will be on a weirdo macrobiotic diet soon. The more I read and learn about the dangers of different chemicals in foods and cosmetics, the more it drives me towards things that are all natural. Am I alone in this, or are you going through the same thing yourself?

While perusing the aisles in the grocery store yesterday, Andy and I happened upon a package of "Olive Loaf," which if you are not familiar with it is basically baloney with slices of green olive with pimiento centers embedded in the meat. I said, "ew yuck," but Andy fully summed up the nastiness of it by commenting that it was not so much the fact that there were olives in the meat that was so icky, but the fact that the meat had at one time been in such a state that olives could be "stirred" in; that fact paricularly made it so unappealing. That it had been sort of a "meat slurry" in order to combine with the olives. We talked about how it was probably the same process with baloney, but at least you could pretend that the baloney was never in a liquid state and fool yourself into thinking you weren't eating all of the nasty meat crap scraped off the floor of the meat packing plant. We think so much alike, Andy and I, aren't we just perfect together?

The adoption of Denny and Michaela, our former foster poodles was made official on the July 4th, when we filled out the paperwork and sent it all in to the Poodle Rescue along with a large donation check. They are really and truly our dogs now, and everything is going really well with them. Michaela has finally learned to use the dog door, and I am so proud of her. They are perfectly integrated into the household, and they even enjoy playing together. It is cute because Denny is the biggest dog in the house at about 16 pounds, and Michaela is the smallest at about seven pounds, but they have a great time roughhousing and wrestling.

I have bought new collars and ID tags for both of them, and some other cute accessories so that they are just as spoiled as the other kids. Michaela actually cleaned up very nicely after being groomed professionally, and doesn't even look like the same mess of a dog that we took in. I took her on a little ride today down to a cute little local dog boutique to socialize her a bit. We picked out a cute little bitty red bandana thingy for her neck with white tropical hibiscus flowers on it.

Here is a video of the two of them playing- I know, I know- I am going nuts with the videos already, but humor me, they are fun.

Both of these sweet little dogs have been through massive transformations. I mean just look at these "before" photos of the two of them. Denny was picked up as a stray with his broken foot and was hopping around and shaggy and filthy. He has changed so very much since then, even his fur has a different texture after a couple of months of getting good nutritious food. He has discovered dog toys and playing and is a happy little guy. He is a completely different dog.

And then of course who could forget the mess that was Michaela when we first brought her home. She was just a ball of matted fur and scabs and sores. What a tremendous difference from the pretty little girl she is today. It has only been a little over a month since we have had her, so she is continuing to improve still after gaining some weight and having her allergies treated. It is amazing what a little love and care can do.

Yesterday afternoon, I drove out to the property where we will be buiolding the new house, and met the prospective builder there. We haven't signed a contract with him yet, but we arecertainly moving in that direction and are just negotiating a few more details. We should be starting the house plan drawings very soon. Anyway, I went out to show him the site so that he could get a better idea of the elevation and how much dirt it is going to take to prepare the site, among other things.

I hadn't been out there for over a month at this point, and I couldn't believe how much it had "grown up." The trails we used to get around the property were almost grown over with new vegetation. I guess in the last month when we finally got some rain all the plants just took off growing like mad. The thing that always strikes me when I go out there, though is the absolute SILENCE. I totally love the fact that I can't hear anything out there except the wind in the trees and the birds chirping. It is the only place I have been in YEARS that is quiet. No road noise, no neighbor noise, no nothing. It is fabulous.

So, anyway the builder is doing a little more work on our estimate, and we should be able to come to an agreement. The wetland permitting is still in work- we have about two more months to go in that process, and our road improvement/watermain extension project is still in the engineering phase. Slowly but surely we are getting there.

Charley, my Eclectus parrot, has decided to share today's bath time with my readers. He loves to take baths, and if you have never seen a parrot take a bath, it is sort of interesting. Andy built the perch he is sitting on in the tub out of pvc pipe and some rubbery gray non-skid stuff so the perch isn't too slippery for him.

My oldest dog, Ollie, who is now eighteen and a half years old, hasn't been doing too well lately. The dogs are only home alone for about two hours a day, from around two o'clock when Andy leaves for work until about four o'clock when I get home from work. They have the run of the downstairs of the house, the stairway is gated off, and the bedroom doors are closed, but they also have a dog door that leads to the privacy fenced backyard for them so they can go out and play or pee and poop, or whatever.

Normally, Ollie sleeps most of the afternoon, and when I would get home he would just be waking up from his nap in his little bed. For the last week or so, he has been wandering around outside whenever I get home as though he went out but forgot how to get back in. It was starting to worry me, because it is hot out there.

Yesterday, I nearly had heart failure, because I got home and I couldn't find Ollie anywhere. I ran frantically all over the house and yard looking for him, calling him- in vain because he is completely deaf- and freaking out. I got on the phone to Andy, and right as it was ringing I spotted Ollie in the yard, stuck halfway through one of our ginger plants, almost completely camouflaged and panting his ass off. Oh the poor baby! I brought him in and cooled him off and babied him, but I have decided now that Ollie is going to have to be put in the large indoor dog pen we have when we leave the house, from now on. I can't keep coming home and freaking out like this. I know that ollie will not bewith us too much longer, he is very old, after all, but I don't want him to suffer a horrible death either, so we will keep him safely indoors from now on.

Here is the little video of the launch yesterday that Andy took with the small digital camera we have. Notice how people cheer a little at the beginning and then are quiet until near the end which is when the solid rocket boosters separate. Memories of Challenger are the reason for that.

You probably already know, but we successfully launched Discovery today, on the fourth of July. It was a beautiful launch and I felt more pride and accomplishment with this one than ever before, knowing that the work I did with my own hands, such as wiring and welding, left the earth and traveled to space today. I will post more about this later along with a video Andy took, but I am going swimming now- it is freaking HOT here! In the meantime, here are some close-up photos I took out at the space center right next to the press site. The dark line you see in the sky in the last photo is the shadow of the plume of smoke- it is really cool looking.

If all goes well, today we will be launching the best Fourth of July display possible, Space Shuttle Discovery. Andy was out there almost all night last night preparing for the mission, and has to go back in a few hours to support the launch. The delays to launch mean working a lot of overtime for him. Where I work, all of our work is done well before the shuttle even makes it out to the launch pad, so there is no scrambling around for us. The photo above is one he took last night with all the lights on the vehicle. Keep your fingers crossed that it goes today, and if it does I will post photos.

So yesterday I wrote about the applications that come in to the poodle rescue from people wanting to adopt a dog, and today the strangest one EVER came in. In the section that asked about the applicant's previous dogs, it said:

"We have (between 1974-79) owned 2 female poodles which had to be given to other
families as we moved overseas. My husband was in the military. While in Taiwan
for 2 years we rented a male mini black poodle which we had to leave when we
returned home."

Rented a poodle? People actually rent out dogs? I told Andy we have a real cash cow on our hands, we'll just rent them all out! Kidding, of course, but is that not the craziest thing? Has anyone heard of renting dogs before?

As a member of the poodle rescue group, I get to see all of the online applications for adoption. I was especially looking at them a lot when I was trying to find good homes for Denny and Michaela, the two foster dogs we took in, before I found that the best home for them was our home. Anyway, the application asks about previous dogs that the applicant has owned, and it is truly amazing that people will put down things that absolutely do not inspire me to give them a dog EVER. Actually there are two basic camps of applicants. There are the ones that are pretty good dog owners, evidenced by the fact that they just lost a dog to old age, and it lived to be 15, 16, or 17 years old. So very often, these people are looking for a very specific color size and gender of dog, just like the the one they lost. I feel sorry for the dog that has to fill those shoes, because they are all so very different. Most of these applicants are encouraged to adopt a different dog in order to get away from the whole "replacement" idea.

The other group of applicants nonchalantly mentions all of the previous dogs they had but gave away to friends, neighbors etc., or all the ones that died when they were run over by a car, and so on. No offense to anyone, but the rescue group is looking for "forever homes" for these dogs so that they will not have to go through the agony of being placed in a new home again later. An applicant that has freely given away dogs in the past, is not what we are looking for, and then there are the ones who have had their dogs killed at a young age due to being run over or something equally horrible. I mean, I know dogs get out at times, sometimes through no fault of the owner, but it still doesn't exactly inspire confidence in that applicant to keep a dog safe. What do you think?

Okay, so by now you must know that the space shuttle launch was scrubbed due to weather. Looks like "the big day" turned into "the big delay." The weather was actually good everywhere but right over our own Shuttle Landing Facility which would be needed in the event that the shuttle had to turn around and make an emergency landing. Rats. Anyway, on the brighter side of things the traffic was a breeze; I sailed right onto the center and found Andy at the Operations Support Building 2 or OSB 2. It is a new building with a huge observaton deck on top and the secret service people were crawling all over it because the vice president and his entourage were up there. Here are some photos:

Andy was actually there working, but I was able to hang out with him and his co-workers as they prepped to go back to the launch pad after the launch. Here's a photo of Andy checking out an ELSA (Emergency Life Support Apparatus) bottle.

So it is only a few hours away from the next scheduled launch of the space shuttle, weather permitting. Andy has to go out there to work as he is a part of a group called "red crew" which is there to deal with any issues that might arise after thye pad is closed out for launch.

I am probably going to drive out there to the center to watch. Normally if a launch occurs during a day or time when you are not scheduled to work, you are not supposed to go out there, but this time I think they realized that the people who make the launch happen should be able to go out and see it close up, even though it is on a Saturday. I am sure the traffic will be horrendous, so I will probably head out pretty soon. Andy has to leave for work in about an hour and he will call me on his cell phone to let me know what the traffic situation is looking like.

So far the weather is looking okay. Not great, but okay. It is pretty cloudy, but we may still be all right. We also have to be concerned with the weather at the contingency landing sites around the world as well. Zaragosa, Spain and Istres, France are two of the Trans-Atlantic Landing sites or TAL sites available in the event of an emergency. For more information about contingency landings and abort modes of the shuttle look at this website that gives an explanation.

Anyway, I am arming Andy with our small digital camera to take a video of thhe launch, and I will take the digital SLR with me to take some photos. More posting later, hopefully. Pray for a safe launch.