After having my site reopened for a good six months it has become abundantly clear that the country community is gone. It has become overrun with line art and tubes. This is unfortunate because I personally enjoyed decorating my website with original graphics. So I have decided to eliminate my personal website and just keep my blog. My new blog can be found at www.countryroads.me
I have a question for all my wonderful baking friends. I am having the worst time getting bread to rise. I can’t seem to get it to rise like it should, it either doesn’t rise at all or it’s too dense. I know this has something to do with the yeast but what am I doing wrong?
Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
In other news, happy Good Friday to everyone. I can not believe Easter is already upon us. I know I sound like a broken record but time is just flying by these days. It’s the last full weekend in April. Where does time go? Everything and everyone is just so rushed now days, life is getting away from me. I wish there were some way to just slow it down a bit. Yesterday, I completely forgot that it was Thursday’s Top Ten. Duh! So I’m going to do mine today.
“What are your Top Ten favorite things about Easter?”
Well, I’m not sure that I can come up with ten but here’s my list.
1. The reason for the season. 
2. Family time
3. Dying Easter Eggs with Jay. This has been a tradition every year since Jay has lived with us. He enjoys doing it and I enjoy watching him. He likes to make a ‘special egg’ by dipping the egg into all the colours to see what colour he comes up with. It’s almost always brown. lol
4. Making Easter Baskets. I don’t know why but I have been doing this for Dave since we got married and then of course Jay when he came to live with us. So every year I make everyone an Easter basket. I fill it with Candy and other stuff that they would like.
5. Easter dinner. It’s always such a formal dinner for us. Very much like Thanksgiving and Christmas. Everyone gets dressed up and the table is set very formally. Though this year, we will not be eating Easter dinner in the formal dinning room because someone did not get his computer stuff picked up like he promised. So instead we will be eating it in the kitchen but I will still put a nice white linen tablecloth and use our good dishes.
6. Making bunny cakes. It’s a tradition that has been carried back from my family. I remember my grandparents and aunt always making bunny cakes. Then my parents started making them and now it’s my tradition. This year, sad to say, with everything going on. I did not make a bunny cake. *sniff* Hmm, it’s only Friday. Maybe I will make one. 
Have a wonderful weekend everyone and Happy Easter!
*WARNING* DO NOT READ THE FOLLOWING IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED AMERICAN IDOL OR SURVIVOR YET. *SPOILERS*
Survivor. I had to watch it today because my silly DVR didn’t record my show last night for whatever reason. Dru and I comment back and forth a lot on Survivor. She’s a huge Boston Rob fan and I’m rooting for Ralph or Steve but since neither of them will be going to the final (only stating the obvious!) I’m switching for Rob. If you’re watching the show, then you’re probably just as fed up with Phil and Matt as I am. I did do some web research today and found out that Phillip was never a special agent but he was an investigator. He worked for a government agency as an investigator who investigated backgrounds on people who needed special security clearance. Apparently, some co-workers came forward or people who knew him/know him. Of course, you can’t believe everything that you read but I do believe this. lol Isn’t it against the law to impersonate an officer? I mean, can he and will he be arrested after the show for impersonating an officer if he was indeed never an agent? Matt, UGH. I am so sick of hearing and seeing Matt. I’m sick of him constantly bringing religion into the game. There is nothing wrong with religion, I simply do not feel that it belongs on Survivor.
Julie hiding Phillips shorts was the funniest thing I’ve seen on Survivor to date. Oh my gosh, I laughed so hard. I just wish she never confessed.
American Idol: The talent this year on American Idol is just crazy good. All these kids deserve mad props for their talent and it’s a shame to see any of them voted off. Last night, my least favorites were Casey, Jacob and Stefano. I think Haley and James were the highlights of the show. Haley, in some parts, oh my gosh, she sounded just like Adele (whom I love!) and James singing Muse was just out of this world. So backtracking a little bit here, in the beginning of the show they brought out all the contestants that have been voted off so far to perform a group song. Wasn’t that horrible? I just realized why ALL OF THEM (including Pia) have been voted off. Who will be voted off tonight? My guess is as good as yours. This year has been so unpredictable. Who are your favorites?
In non-TV-world lol. Today has been quiet and laid back. I’m taking it easy today due to an old foot injury that has flared up and the big blister on my foot that I got yesterday from working so hard.
We received a wonderful Thank You card in the mail today from one our friends who just recently celebrated her 40th birthday. The card was so lovely and had such a sweet note inside. So should I put my foot in my mouth now or later? Though, she has made my day and regained my faith that manners are alive and well there are still those who don’t acknowledge squat. So with the beautiful Thank You note sitting on the shelf next to Toni’s very thoughtful card (thank you again, Toni!) I retract part of what I said yesterday and learned a bit of a lesson. Sometimes it takes people time to send Thank You’s. Patience is something that I need a little bit more of.
So, today was a bit of a busy day. The weather warmed up quite a bit, the sun was shining and the smell of fresh grass being cut was in the air. Yard work galore today! I weeded the flower beds, picked up sticks and branches, hopped on the tractor and cut the grass and even managed to clean the freezer out. Now on with the funny stuff. I HAD CRACK! Plumbers crack that is. Oh dear lord! Everyone who knows me knows that “I’m not one of those 100 pound salad chomping sisters. I have hips, thighs and don’t discriminate against pies.” (stole that from the movie Beauty Shop lol) Jeans today are low risers and hug your hips real low. So while outside in the garden today, Dave says, “There’s a crack.” I jumped up and probably turned a thousand shades of red. It was only him but still. Ugh, I don’t want to see anyone’s crack and I sure don’t want anyone seeing mine! lol Another lesson learned, wear really long shirts while working in the garden. lol
Why is “thank you” so hard to come by these days? Have manners gone out the window? I was raised to always say please and thank you. Dave and I had three birthday’s in the past month and all three of them were sent gifts. Not a single one of them said, “Thank you.” Two of them have yet to say, “thank you.” Is it wrong of us to expect it? I understand that people get busy. Lord knows it has taken me a couple of days to send a thank you email but at least I send one. It honestly makes me want to wash my hands of it all and not bother anymore. I feel like if you can’t bother with a “thank you” to show some acknowledgement or appreciation than I can’t bother with acknowledging your birthday or event. Is it wrong of me to feel this way?
I enjoy doing things for others but I don’t think it would kill anyone to say, “Thank you.” That’s all.
Before I forget due to my above rant. Happy Passover everyone. 
It’s been a while so I thought I would do The simple woman’s daybook. This is my Sunday night for Monday version
Outside my window… It’s dark, chilly, cloudy and breezy.
I am thinking…of a good place to get blinds. I’m searching for a nice wooden vertical blind to hang over the new patio door (when we have it next month)
I am thankful for…being able to finally replace our back door. It is so leaky that the curtains move when it’s windy and sometimes rain even comes in.
From the kitchen…it’s dark. All the dishes are done and the coffee maker is set to brew bright and early in the AM.
I am wearing… my pink and yellow PJ’s and my pink fuzzy slippers.
I am creating…nothing atm. I’ve been so busy that I don’t have time to create anything. 
I am going…to get my dinning room nice and spotless for Easter dinner. Right now it’s home to Dave’s new computer (he’s working on it) and some of my candle stuff. It’s super cluttered at the moment.
I am reading… my new food network magazine
I am hoping…to go to bed very soon. My eye lids are weighing a ton.
I am hearing…A Mighty Wind. It’s a cute movie about folk singing. Staring Jane Lynch, Eugene Levy, Cathrine O’Hare, Parker Posey and many more talented actors.
Around the house… It’s quiet. Dave is already sleeping. He worked this weekend on top of doing some projects around the house. He has to get up at 5am to head down near Washington DC.
One of my favorite things…the soda sitting in front of me. It’s one of my great weaknesses.
A few plans for the rest of the week: I’m going to get the house cleaned up, I have to finish shopping for Easter Dinner.
Here is picture for thought I am sharing: Instead of a picture, I thought I’d share a cute song clip from A Mighty Wind.
My poor little old guy Pep (named after non-other than Pep Streeback from Dragnet) passed away last night. He was over 3 years old which is really old in Betta years. I will miss him. Poor little guy.
They came out this afternoon and as we suspected it was something stupid and easy to repair. The installers accidentally put a staple through one of the cables running to the sensor. Luckily the guy found it fast and it took all but 2 minutes for him to replace it and now the garage door is working flawless. I wish I could snap a picture right now. I am sitting in my chair with my bunny ears on (head band that I bought at Micheal’s craft store) and Porter is sitting behind me (in between me and the chair lol) trying to steal them off my head. He is such a sneaky little runt. lol
Due to the lovely world of spammers. My comments will now close on post older than 2 days old. :/ The spam is out of control on my blog , I’m deleting 10 spam comments a night. :/ I’m not even sure why the spam is so bad, I think it was for one of those nifty little widgets that I signed up for. It’s not like I have a popular blog by any stretch of the imagination. Well, it’s popular with the pesky spam bots.
The door bell rings bright and early this morning with two people standing at our door letting us know they have arrived to install the new garage door. Let me say that they deserve a meDal! It started pouring down rain about an hour into the install and they worked hard installing our garage door out in the rain. I felt bad for them! It only took them about 2 hours to do the install and what a difference! The old door was the original garage door (installed in the 70′s!) and it was really dangerous. It had no safety features and would slam down to the ground when it closed. Not to mention it was the source to our mouse problem and the snake that I found in the garage last summer.
Garage door before:
New garage door: (we decided to go with no windows to match the detached garage door plus the garage already had windows)
So now for the bad news. The garage door was working great all day long until we opened it up tonight to take the garbage out and now it won’t close remotely. AHH!! Dave had to close the door manually and we have to call them in the morning. I’m sure it’s something really simple and stupid.
Yesterday while on our way to a friends birthday party, Poor Jay got very sick in the back seat of the car. The Dr. gave him a new antibiotic for the cough that he still has and I really think that’s what made him sick. So today I called the Dr and he faxed a prescription over and hopefully this one does not make him ill. Poor guy! I’m crossing my fingers!
The company that is installing our new garage door called today and they are ready to install so they will be here bright and early tomorrow morning to do the install. I thought it was going to cost a small fortune to have a new garage door installed but this place was really reasonable and I know that they do good work. Not to mention the salesmen was very honest and upfront with us about certain products not working. That’s something you don’t see every day! Usually they want to try and sell you the moon. Honesty is the best policy in my book!
Projects have been coming along slowly but they are coming along. It won’t be long before I scratch patio door off the list as well. We buy 10% off coupons from Ebay so we used one for a new patio door. Has anyone ever had a Home Depot contractor install anything? I’ve never had to deal with them but the installation price was reasonable so we thought we would just use them to install it since Dave isn’t sure how to install one. We both figured it would be easier this way and probably save us money due to fixing mistakes. lol
The weather here today is beyond beautiful so I’m going to head outside and do as much yard work as possible. I also want to take pictures of the old garage door.
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