I’ve recently watched two movies that were total opposites but both deserve two fine thumbs up.

First - It’s complicated.  Starring Alec Baldwin, Meryl Streep and Steve Martin.  It’s a movie dealing with above middle-aged relationships.  Meryl Streep plays a divorced woman of 10 years who has a love/hate relationship with her ex-husband, Alec Baldwin.  Things start to get really complicated when they start sleeping with each other and all of a sudden Meryl’s character has become the mistress!  It gets even more complicated when Steve Martin comes in the picture and she finds herself really liking him.  What can I say, it’s complicated! ;)  It’s witty, funny and romantic.  Super cute movie!

Second - The Runaways.  Starring Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart.  I loved this movie because it was about one of my favorite bands that came out of the 70’s.  Their most popular song was Cherry Bomb from 1975.  The movie is all about Joan Jett and Cherie Currie.  It vaguely touches base on Lita Ford and the other two girls in the band.  The movie tells all about how The Runaways were formed and what it took to get to the rise and fall of this 1970’s all girl punk band.  Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart shined in this movie.  Kristen Stewart played an amazing Joan Jett.  She really looked like her but she sounded more like Cherie Currie. lol  Dakota Fanning, this little 15 year old girl is so very talented.  It’s easy to predict that she will be a huge star!  This movie isn’t for the kids by any means. It deals with sex, drugs and rock-n-roll, of course.

I’m sick and tired of being treated like I’m a moron.  When the truth is I’m a pretty smart cookie!  Yes, my spelling isn’t the best nor is my grammar but this doesn’t make me a moron. This just makes me bad at spelling and grammar. My brother n law is a surgeon who couldn’t spell his way out of a peanut bag. My husband’s best friend owns his own successful company and accidentally called his wife ugly because he didn’t know the meaning of homely.

I got an email from someone asking me to do something for them.  No big deal but then they include in the email the obvious of what not to do.  Something that a 2 year old would know! I really wanted to reply with, “Really, I didn’t know that I couldn’t do that!”  This kind of nonsense gets under my skin. Really gets under my skin.  Being a woman doesn’t make me stupid or less educated than you.  What ever happened to all men/women created equally?

Another record breaking hot weekend!  Wow! Dave had to work this weekend so I decided I would tackle some outside chores.  Even though the thermostat was once again reading 100+ degrees I thought that I would just bite the bullet and tackle the tree trimming.  Talk about hot!

Saturday morning - Dave had a friend drop by and pick some of his stuff up out of the barn.  We noticed that you could just about put your hand through the barn wall.  It has been completely destroyed by termites.  Luckily it’s about an acre or so away from the house but the barn needs to be completely knocked down, the ground treated and a new barn needs to be built.  So while he was getting his stuff out of the barn, I started trimming the pine tree’s.  I worked outside for about 2 hours because that’s all I could take. It was just too hot.

Saturday evening - Dave and I started looking Craigs list for a “new” tractor.  We found one 77 miles away! So I called the guy up and offered him a little more then asking price if he would deliver it to us.  To my surprise, the man agreed!  Around 9:30pm, the man and his wife show up with the tractor.  Very nice couple! We must have stood out there for an hour and half talking to them about random stuff.  This must be a country thing! When we lived in the city everyone was in such a hurry.  No one stopped to talk to anyone and if you waved at someone they would look at you like you’re crazy.   Here, people are just so laid back, friendly and will talk to you for hours about country living, farming, tractors, whatever..  It’s quite the change of pace but we both like it very much!

Sunday - Dave was finished with business work but not work. ha! Poor guy! Early Sunday morning we tackled the rest of the tree’s.  All the pines are now completely finished!  I even started knocking down the rest of the old fence.  While I was trimming the rest of the pines, Dave just had to drive around the “new” toy.  lol He cut the grass within the fence.  So today I will cut the rest of the grass.

We have a window air unit in our bedroom because Dave and I both like it cold when we sleep.  Last night, while “watching” TV and reading The Works Of Edgar Allan Poe Vol II (The Purloined Letter) I noticed a green flashing light on the wall.  A lightning bug managed to make its way into the room through the AC unit.  I knew that I would not be able to sleep knowing that there was a bug crawling around the room and flashing.  So I caught the lightning bug, walked into the family room, opened the door and blew it off my hand.  As it started to fly away Porter jumped up and ate it! I went through all that to save the this poor thing and Porter eats it.  I know I shouldn’t laugh but some things are just lol moments.

It’s funny how it takes something like a social networking site to reunite family.  You may or may not recall me writing a few weeks ago about an Aunt who found my brother on Facebook which ultimately made me sign back up for Facebook.  Last week I decided to search out some more lost relatives when I found another Aunt of mine that I have been looking for for years!  We lost contact quite a few years ago from moving and switching numbers.  Plus, I wasn’t the most organized person (still aren’t!) back in those days.  Last night I spoke with her and found out my Uncle died back in December.  I used to be so close to my aunt and uncle when I was a teenager and most of my young adult life.   I was so shocked to hear that he died.  April of ‘09 he had an accident and hit his head.  He had to have brain surgery to remove a clot but my aunt said he was never the same after that. She said he couldn’t feed himself, walk or even sit up by himself.  It’s so hard to envision someone who was so full of life in that situation.  She said in December he gave up and passed away just 2 days before Christmas.  So very sad.   I just wish I found them sooner so I could have told him how much I missed him and long I have been looking for them.

R.I.P Uncle Gerald

With all that has happened and with the loss of my uncle.  It was still wonderful to be able to speak with my aunt. I am so glad that we are finally reunited and I can’t wait to get to actually see her again.  She and my cousin live in Texas so I’m hoping we can make some sort of arrangement to see each other.

Yesterday evening I walked down to the mailbox, opened the door and there was this box in there for me from Amazon. I thought, “what did I order?” I go back to the house, open the package and there are six not one but six Glade plugins! haha  What in the world was I thinking?  The good news is that our entire home smells like candy apples now.

Last night I created a food blog and called it Foody Call.  How original, right? lol  The link is over on the right. I made Banana bread last night and that’s my first recipe entered into what I hope will be many.

A few days ago I emailed Dave and told him that I think he forgot to hook my DVD ROM back up after he finished replacing my HD. He sent me an email back with the following image:

Now in case you have no idea what that means it stands for Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair. Ha! Normally, in my case, this is so true but this time it isn’t and I let him know that it wasn’t. I argued the fact that he were the last one in my computer case so therefor it’s his fault.  So last night, I kindly reminded him again that my DVD ROM wasn’t working.  He popped the DVD out of the ROM, looked at it and said, “come here.”  I walked over and the darn DVD had a crack!!  *Sigh* I can never win! lol

So, the jeep is still NOT on the road and trying to get Dave to find the time to teach me to drive a stick is like trying to get a politician to tell the truth. It’s not happening!

Since Dave wants absolutely nothing to do with taking Sadie to the groomers, I decided that I can’t take it any longer.  So scissors in hand, I decided that I was going to tackle this job myself. I mean, how hard could it be, right? Ha!  Let’s just say, what started out to be just cutting her face (the hair was in her eyes) turned into being cutting her hair from head to toe.  Thank God that it will grow back! In mean time, I will just hide poor Sadie under a doggie t-shirt and call it a day.  Poor thing!

Sadie before:

Sadie after (It’s hard to see but it’s bad, believe me lol):

Dinner tonight: Roast Beef, potatoes, corn on the cob and homemade potato bread.  My mouth is watering already!

We have an 11 year old cat that can still be very much like a kitten at times.  Today he decided that he was going to stalk Porter, attack him from behind and have Porter chase him through the house knocking everything down in his way.  Then proceed to make his way to me, constantly meowing until I gave him what he wanted.  A kitty treat!  You can see mischief in his eyes! He’s our brat cat and we love him.

Today, the man came and fixed my TV.  I can actually watch TV in the bedroom now. It took him a big 10 minutes to fix it. lol It turned out that it was the power supply that went up in it.

I’m so glad that most of you are willing to try Ina’s asparagus recipe. I’m telling you, you can’t go wrong with it. Today I made her roasted potatoes that were sooooooo simple and yummy!

Oh yeah, half way through July already! Wow!  Wasn’t it just July 4th?

I love to cook and I especially love Ina Garten’s recipes. So today I broke down and ordered the Back to Basic’s book! I can not wait to get her book, she is one of my favorite cooks on Food Network. I have to record all of her shows. lol  Ina is the one who taught me how to cook French foods and make the best asparagus in the world.  I’m not obsessed with her like Julie Powell was obsessed with Julia Childs but I love her cooking!  In celebration of my autographed book coming, I’m going to share with you the secret of success. Well, the secret of successful asparagus. lol! I hope you enjoy this as much as I do and it’s super easy to make!

Ingredients

• 2 pounds fresh asparagus
• Good olive oil
• Kosher salt, plus extra for sprinkling
• Freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Break off the tough ends of the asparagus and, if they’re thick, peel them. Place the asparagus on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, then toss to coat the asparagus completely. Spread the asparagus in a single layer and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Roast the asparagus for 25 minutes, until tender but still crisp.

Thank you for this awesome recipe, Ina!

Speaking of thank you’s…Thank you all for the well wishes! My knee is starting to feel much better.  The ache is only a little bit there now verses the constant ache.  Thank you all again!