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Borrego Springs, CA

Thursday, September 19, 2013

This and that

I was off early this morning to get the new tires on the toad.  I only had to wait about an hour or so, and I was back in business.

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One of the forecasts I read said it would be bright and sunny today.  So much for the weather guessers.  This is Balsam Lake that is a pretty good size, and you can normally see the treed far shore.  I took care of several other chores in town, and then headed back home.

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By the time I got back, it was noon and those sunny skies surely hadn’t shown up yet.  Believe it or not, there are five trumpeter swans and a couple of ducks on this pond.  They’re hard to see, but they’re there just right of center.

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Can you see the visitors center and headquarters through the fog where I was watering the sod last weekend?  I kind of enjoyed this softer view of the refuge.

About a week ago, while I was out checking signs for painting, I came upon some trash at one of the boat launches.  It seems some boaters left a six pack of glass bottles of Miller Lite Beer behind.  Three were empty, one was half full, and two were unopened.  It made me think of Sam Weibel when I saw it.  Winking smile  I don’t drink beer, but I do use it occasionally for beer battered shrimp.  I don’t know of any place where you can just buy one can/bottle of beer, so I put those unopened bottles in my fridge.

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Yesterday, I decided to fix some shrimp, but wasn’t interested in having them in batter.  I just wanted cold cooked shrimp to be dipped in my homemade cocktail sauce that leans heavily on Hellman’s Mayo, a squirt of ketchup, and a scoop of horseradish.  A cookbook I have from the Mississippi Gulf Coast suggests boiling the shrimp briefly in beer for added zest, so I used up one of those bottles of beer.  The shrimp were delicious, but I sure didn’t taste any difference over using boiling water.

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I got an email today from my son, Dan, telling me I hadn’t made my picks yet for this week’s football games.  He’s the one that talked me into joining a fantasy football pool.  I’m not doing very well, but that’s to be expected since I don’t follow football.  It does give us something to chat about weekly though, so it’s worth it to me.  Anyway, that email surprised me since I made my picks yesterday while chatting on the phone with him.  I needed some clarification of the statistics that were showing up on my pick list.  He didn’t know where I was getting these statistics from, since they didn’t show up on his pick list. 

After his email warning, I decided to check it out.  It seems I was making picks on the CBS network as opposed to our football pool, and was competing against four of the top football announcers and analysts.  Ha!  What a hoot!  I hadn’t made any picks in that pool the first two weeks, so I am in 71,400th place.  I don’t know how I ended up in that guessing game.  I finally got back to the right fantasy pool, after writing down my picks from all the ‘analyzing’ I had done.  Open-mouthed smile  I’ll see how that goes.  I’d just like to beat him one week, but I doubt that will happen.

Tomorrow, I’m slated to be the ‘Laminating Queen’ on the refuge after cutting out pictures of birds with a scissors.  Now there’s something to look forward to!

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy

18 comments:

  1. I hope you can beat Dan, just once! Wouldn't that be a hoot :) Football aside, that is one beautiful area!

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  2. Good luck in thepool. its always nice if just once as a novice you can beat the 'pro'

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  3. Good luck on the football pool, you obviously have some luck after finding the free beer... ;c)

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  4. I love the foggy pictures so peaceful looking.

    Foot ball pool. Yeah I couldn't tell you anything about that so not interested. But who knows you may just win.

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  5. I like the pics. They look quiet...ahhhh.

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  6. the mist does soften up the place a bit. . .really nice. . .would have never seen those ducks and swans had you not pointed them out. . .

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  7. I think fog brings about peace. I am not thrilled to have it all day, but it looks so quiet.

    We are in TX a ton. We can go into any grocery store and buy one bottle of beer at a time. In the gas stations, they have big tubs with ice and individual beer bottles taking a bath.

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  8. Another vote for the foggy pics - very nice. Since you're in 71,400th place, I'd say you have a pretty good chance of improving your standing with the picks you make for this weekend - it sure helps to be in the correct pool though.

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  9. Those are some of the best fog pictures I've ever seen. Really beautiful. Hope you have some beginners luck and can beat him just once at least. I think the whole thing is a riot and you are a great sport. Pun intended.

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  10. I used my laminator all of the time when I did art shows. Cann't think of any use for it now, so it is in the garage with all of the other yard sale stuff.

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  11. Lovely photos. You get such interesting jobs Judy. Your resume covers such a wide variety of experiences.

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  12. Yes, I did see the swans....I always enlarge your pictures. Beautiful pictures!

    We can't tell the difference in boiling shrimp in water or beer either...do you use the crab boil packet? It adds a nice flavor.

    I loved to laminate when I was teaching. But I didn't like cutting it all out when I got done.

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  13. Howdy Judy & Emma,

    If that was Miller Light beer IT WAS WATER !!! How anyone can drink LIGHT, LITE beer and call it BEER I'll never know; it has NO FLAVOR AT ALL... That's why SHINER-BOCK DOESN'T MAKE LITE BEER !!!

    You didn't say what you were arm-twisted $$$$-wise for the 'toad-shoes'......

    Those 'foggy' pics make me sweat, because it looks like HUMIDIDITY !!! FOG AIN'T PRETTY!!!!

    Hope you and Emma have a restful, peaceful week full of HAPPY DAYS !!!!

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