The World's Most Unsuccessful Garage Sale

Well, maybe not in the entire world but it sure was close. //sigh// We advertised in the Victoria paper and locally, as well as Mum plastered signs all over town and I think we had 5 cars total in two days. We ran around for at least two weeks finding, identifying, sorting, bagging, pricing, and then sat around the yard for 2 mornings for about $50. My take was $7, I think Niko managed about $45, Selena made $5.50 and spent $5 (big surprise here). The advertising cost about $60. //sigh// Mum and our aunt gave us a few bucks for the advertising since they had some stuff out too. I guess we just live too far out in the sticks (between 7-10 min to downtown Duncan). Some days I think we don't live far enough out but this was not one of those days. The few people who showed up said we had cool stuff, so I guess location was the problem.

Now we are looking into alternate ways to sell our stuff with as few fees involved as possible. Ebay is time consuming and most toys don't seem to be moving right now. So the website is staying up and will be expanded a bit to make it more appealing, I think we'll run it like a store for the summer. Maybe try the flea markets. If you know anyone in the market for toys (see the website), a beer fridge (about 10 cu ft I think), a potter wheel, table top loom, rabbit with cage, etc, send them our way.

Well, That's That

The "in school" part of my course is over. Done. Our final written exam was on Friday, I managed 90% with hardly any studying, not to mention the test being at 0730 //ack!//. I should have studied more, there was just too much going on around here to concentrate properly. I still finished the term with 95% and it looks like I should finish the course with 93%. There was a lot of hugging in the parking lot and we all went our separate ways until September 2. It will be interesting to see what everyone thinks of working in a "real" restaurant. I will be at Vinoteca, a small restaurant on a local vineyard. It is a beautiful restaurant in a restored farmhouse with trees and a view of the vineyard. I can hardly wait to start!

Of Food and Wine and Grades, Oh My!

Of food - last week we had practice for our final cooking test, today was the final cooking test. Part of our mark was for how well we listened and implemented the points from our critique. We spent a lot of time thinking about food (I even dreamed about it), cooking food, examining food.

Of wine - last night I went to the restaurant where I will work this summer for a wine tasting. They are having a gala dinner in August and were choosing the wines before creating the menu. That was fun! I learned a little bit about wine, had some nice food (bbq lamb & ribs, mmmmm), and met some nice people. The evening also reinforced something I'd noticed when Rowena brought good wine to Niko's birthday dinner - I thought I didn't really like wine but no, I do like wine but only good wine. We sampled Zanatta's Taglio Rosso - very, very nice! From the website "this very deep red sparkler is done in the the traditional method of champagne. Using Cabernet Sauvignon and Castel grapes, Taglio Rosso is aged on the lees for 12 months to maintain it's youthful fruitiness." We also tried (just for fun) Merridale's Winter Apple. Holy Cow! Sweet and tart and cold and mmmm mmmm. I only had a sip or two of each wine (8 or 9), except the Taglio (I had the whole ounce) but I noticed this morning that I was pretty tired when I got home - I left my keys in the ignition. Hmm.

Of grades - Today after the test we got another critique and got our test scores. I got 95%!! We still have our final written exam on Friday so I'm off to eat the duck and sweet potatoes from my test while I study. (I got raves from Chef about the sweet potatoes, so I will add the recipe later.)

It's a Bird, It's a Plane . . .

No, it's a bird! Today brought yet another arrival at Chez Sucker, this time a rooster named Raven (mostly black oddly enough). He came from the same friend of Selena's that had Inu Yasha and five million other rabbits. They are apparently overstocked on roosters now and poor Raven was destined for the stew pot. Selena named him shortly after he hatched and couldn't bear to see him go, so she worked for 2 days straight to make our chicken coop habitable.

Anyway, now we have to finish up the outside run so Raven can have a harem, apparently he is lonely. How can she tell when he's only been here 5 minutes? Oh well, I do like having fresh eggs.

My New Favourite Song

Niko's post about what she is listening to (or not as the case may be) these days got me thinking about my own musicial inclinations. I too have not bought any new music for ages. I do listen to the radio when I am alone in the car but a.) have trouble finding something I like and b.) for some odd reason DJs never divulge the names of the good songs. //sigh// Anyway, I finally tracked down this one song that I think kicks aural ass. It's called "Reach for the Sky" by Social Distortion and is best listened to at a blistering loud volume.

Finally, My Birthday Wish List

I finally signed up for an Amazon.com wish list. They have all kinds of cool stuff so I was able to add a selection of books, DVDs, and kitchen gadgets. Of course, most of these items are available elsewhere, probably even in real walk in type stores, for much less $$ but this way I only have to click "add to wish list" instead of typing for 3 yrs. The kitchen gadgets don't have to be those specific items either, it's just an idea of what I'm looking for. I will add more over the next few days.

That doesn't mean I'm not open to other things either. I mean cash is good (although I'll probably spend it on food or gas or underwear //shrug//), so are gift certificates, or things people think I might like that are related to my interests or bizarre collections . You know - horses, greyhounds, lurchers, carousel animals, Islamic art, medieval tapestry, etc.

[edited to add - I just realized how bizarre "food or gas or underwear" sounds. //laugh// Um, I meant gas for the car, and underwear because it's the one thing I always mean to get and forget. And, . . . oh never mind . . .]

Recipes #3 and #4

At least I think that's the right number. It's one week to my Final Cooking Test Practice, so my brain chooses this week to not function entirely properly. These are seriously good potatoes! One local grocer sells a version in their deli for $3 each, now that I know how easy they are I will never buy them again.

Recipe #3 - Twice Baked Stuffed Potatoes

4 baker potatoes
1 green onion
3 slices crisp cooked bacon, crumbled
1/2 cup grated cheese
1/4 cup or so whipping cream

Bake or microwave the potatoes until soft inside. Cut of top, scoop out insides. Mix insides of potato with green onion, cheese, bacon and cream. Stuff back inside potato and heat again until cheese melts. You can mound the stuffing on top of the potato because like a shopping cart or deviled eggs, you can never get all the insides back where they came from.

This is NOT a diet recipe //grin// but you can thin it down by using other dairy products. The choice of cheese is all yours, we used Monterrey Jack and Cheddar. You may use more or less cream (or milk product of choice). The easiest way to get the stuffing back in is to use a pastry bag with a big tip, then you can also make fancy swirlies on the top.

Grilled Veggie Salad

1 bunch fresh asparagus, trimmed
1 ea yellow and orange bell pepper, quartered
1 basket cherry tomatoes
1 red onion, quartered
1 large bunch or small bag fresh spinach
7 or 8 button mushrooms
150 g feta cheese, crumbled
shallow dish of vegetable oil
pinch of salt & pepper

Wash the spinach, remove stems, put in bowl. Heat bbq to medium, oil grill. Toss veggies in oil with salt & pepper, place on grill. It helps to have a veg basket so you don't lose any down the grate. //ahem// Turn once. Asparagus takes about a min or two depending on thickness, mushrooms about a minute, peppers, onions & tomatoes about 2-4 minutes. Let veggies cool a bit, slice into bite sized pieces, toss with spinach, add feta. You can use any dressing, we didn't bother with one, but I think a nice balsamic vinaigrette would do the job.

Awesome Photo of Cuinn

I took this yesterday and had to throw about a dozen rocks before I got a good shot.


and this one show the size different between Cuinn and Skye:

Best Auntie Awards

Niko will soon have another feather in her Best Auntie cap (and I suspect a well earned one //wink//). She is going with Selena's whole school on their end of year field trip/nature walk/picnic to Bamberton Beach. The primary classes will be having a session with a marine biologist who will do a net sweep off the beach so the kids (and their aunties) can see the creatures. I guess I'd better find some suncreen and a hat for 'lene.

More Abandoned Blogs and 1 Funny Irishman

The other day while waiting for dinner to reheat I decided to surf around Blogger again. This time instead of using the "Next Blog" link I tried clicking on random keywords in my profile. Oddly enough, I had pretty much the same type of results as using the "Next Blog" link, except no porn this time.

Among the abandoned and neglected blogs I came across kosterblog, where an Irish guy named Greg Koster (who now lives in San Francisco) blogs his "random thoughts." The ones I read were pretty funny, like how everyone in his building seems to be having sex while he is home on Friday night ironing or putting together furniture. A funny link to visit is the Arcata Eye Police Logs page, where it notes all the police reports made in that community. Very funny stuff. He also has a link to Last Year's Pussy by ShannonK, which is worth checking out just to see why she chose that blog name.

A Dog's Day Out

I finally downloaded the dog party pics off my camera, so I thought I'd post a few here. It turned out to be a beautiful day, we had more people and dogs show than had RSVP'd so that was good. 'lenie was happy because she won a bag of dog food and collar for Skye and Niko won the t-shirt she had her eye on all week. We had enough prizes that almost everyone got something and Selena surprised me by taking charge of selling the raffle tickets. I think we raised about $200. Not huge but everyone had a great time.

Here is the wide shot of everyone, except those of us taking the pics


Kids trying to get their dogs in the pool (Selena and Skye on the right)


Murphy (black) and a buddy enjoying the pool


Angus making friends with all those fawn and brindle dogs


To see more pics, click on the link in the title.

My Chickie Kicks Ass

Selena was at a district track meet yesterday with her school and came in second place in the "ball throw". From what I understand, this is a younger children's version of shot put (something I was never good at). Apparently the kids from one particular school won all the medals because they trained and everyone else just tried out for what they were interested in trying. Selena says there were 20 kids in her division, so #2 is pretty darn good. Maybe this will get her interested in trying a few sports? Anyway, well done chickie!

One Down (Almost), Three or So to Go

The first of the summer birthdays has almost passed. We had Niko's birthday tea and present opening yesterday. Thank goodness for Bookcloseouts and their fast shipping! Both Niko and Ryan's birthday books have arrived. Tomorrow we are having a bbq for Niko's birthday dinner. Hopefully the weather will hold. We are having ribs, grilled veggie salad, grilled corn on the cob, grilled twice baked (grilled?) stuffed potatoes, and some sort of ice cream (not grilled) for dessert. Do you think I've been watching too much Licence to Grill?
Next up is 'lenie's Inu Yasha themed birthday party. She has decided to have her party a week earlier than her actual birthday, so again we have 2 days for one event. Now we have to buy little anime style things for goodie bags and construct a papier mache pinata of Miyoga (excuse the lack of proper accents, I'm too tired to go look up the codes). I can't believe my "baby" is 10 this year.