Hot times in the city!

Ladies and Gentlemen it has been a fun filled week at Chez Jersey. Monday was obedience school. Madison seems to be doing well. We haven't practiced very much this week, which is totally my fault. I have a feeling we won't get good grades tomorrow. After obedience we went out for Cinquo De Mayo dinner with our friend Stephen. the folks at Sol Azteca were so kind as to give us the drink special and to let us close the place down. I thoughroughly enjoyed my chicken chimichunga.

Wednesday night was the Paws Rescue meeting. We got together to discuss the puppies and kittens we are currently housing as well as fundraising, advertising, and other issues. There are several new pets taken in recently - check them out online. I have several favorites - I just hope someone takes them into a loving home. After our meeting the Leigh's, Alissa, and I met JR and went out to dinner. Always a fun time! I think JR enjoys looking like a pimp at a table wtih 4 women ;-) I don't blame him!!! I definitely owe JR and Alissa for watching the girls when I went to Philly - I think I'll be returning the favor and watching their cats when they go to NY next week.



Thursday I hit the town! We went to the Warehouse Lobby for a drink to celebrate the safe return of Julie and Tommy from their recent deployment to Iraq. Unfortunately one of the guests of honor couldn't make it, so we plan to repeat the fun next week! After the martini bar we wandered over to the sports bar to grab a bite to eat. Apparently the lounge serves food, but it is more along the lines of meat and cheese plates rather than FOOD. The sports bar continues to increase their menu. I'm happy to see these things happening in our tiny town!


Friday night my friend Vern came to town, so I joined some of our friends and we grilled out. Vern used to work with me until he decided to return to his native land of Slidell, LA. He is really happy to have made the change, but I still miss him. This is how small town we are: Vern's best friend from college is Will. Will is married to Carolyn. Carolyn was the college roomate of my coworker Haley. Will's brother Chase is also good friends with Vern, and works with me now. 3 Degrees, if that! Gotta Love it.

Saturday was a fun day! I pulled out the old lawnmower (I really need to give her a name- any suggestions?) and hit the lawn. I also did some hedge/bush trimming and sprayed some poisonous bushes. I brought Stephen's dog, Astro, over to play with the girls while he was out of town. They played, and played, and then played some more. I think that it will take about a week of sleep for them to catch up! Later in the evening I headed over to Al and Christina's for the annual "it's not hot yet" cookout. True to form, it was warm, but not hot yet. The others brought their dogs, but I decided to keep the girls at home since they were tired from a day of play. It was a good thing I left the dogs at home - 8 dogs in the back yard would have been a bit much! For my contribution to the potluck i brought Golden-lemon crusted tomatoes. They turned out pretty darn yummy if I may so. It was the first time I made them, and I enjoyed! I've decided that since I'm an eating right kick - I'm only allowed to bring things to potlucks that I will be OK with bringing home and eating if there are lots of leftovers. Gone are the days of pans of brownies.

Golden Lemon-Crumb Tomatoes
½ cup plain fresh soft breadcrumbs
2 tbl snipped fresh parsley
½ tsp dried basil, crumbled
½ tsp gated lemon zest
2 ounces fat free feta cheese crumbled
Vegetable oil spray
2 large tomatoes. Halved crosswise
1 ½ tb fresh lemon juice
1/8 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. In a small bowl, stir together breadcrumbs, parsley, basil, and lemon zest. Toss gently. Add the feta and toss gently
3. Spray bottom of a pan with vegetable oil spray. Place tomato halves in the pie pan. Spoon lemon juice over the halves. Top the tomatoes with the breadcrumb mixture. Liberally spray with vegetable oil spray.
4. Bake for 30 minutes or until tomatoes are tender when pierced with a fork and beginning to brown lightly.
5. Sprinkle with salt. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Bowling for Something

This man is my new hero. He is blind and bowled a 300 game! how awesome is that. I have my sight and can barely bowl a 30!

Grass, grass, more grass, and lots of weeds

Good news!
Yesterday I "fixed" my lawnmower! I use the word fixed very loosely. It wouldn't work. Eventually I replaced the air filter. That did the trick! It works! It was a good thing that I did it - the air filter was nasty and the yard was starting to look like the Amazon Rainforest back there.

After mowing out the rainforest I stopped to talk with my neighbors. Luckily they are like me, and prefer to wait to mow until their neighbors mow! We had a nice little conversation. I had a great compliment - apparently the thug dogs who terrorize the neighborhood bit a girl - hence they were hauled off 3 weeks ago. She was asking if it was me - and the girl was rumord to be 18 yrs old. That made me feel so nice :-) She also confirmed that they struggle with the Poison Ivy/Oak on a regular basis. I guess it is a group battle.

Mermaids in the Basement

Apparently, in looking at my blog history I have forgotten to post some of my reading. Last month our book club read was Mermaids in the Basement by Michael Lee West. It was pretty amusing. It was a stereotypical type of chick lit - the story of a writer who is discovers her hot filmmaker boyfriend (He's Irish!) is cheating on her with the latest Hollywood Hottie. She is reeling for her loss and heads off to her grandmother's place on the Alabama Coast. Hilarity ensues as she goes through a sort of regression therapy - learning about all of the things she missed/forgot from her childhood. One of my favorite characters had to be grandma's best friend who would drop drugs of some sort in the food at a party! Be careful there could be laxatives in the sweet potatoes or viagra in the chocolate covered strawberries.

A Model Summer

This weekend I ready A MOdel Summer by Paulina Prokzkova. First off, this was the book of the month for my Book Club. We'll be discussing it Tuesday night. I am curious to see how the discussion goes. The author was a model, formerly the face of Estee Lauder. In this book she gives us a fictional account of breaking into modeling in the 1980's, which cannot be much different than it is now. If anything, it is probably worse now than it was then as society continues to become more accepting of this lifesyle rather than less. This is the story of Jirina, a 15 year old gil from Sweden. She spent 15 years in Sweden being made fun of as the "ugly imigrant cow" as her parents were Czech. Apparnelty the little Swedes didn't like her much. She is found and travels to Paris for the summer to become a model. The story details her exploits. She starts off with the best of intentions, reading Kafka and exploring the culture of Paris. It does not take long for her to join the true underbelly of Model Society- getting introduced to sex, drugs, and rock and roll. If analyzed the story has lots of moral undertones and leaves the reader wiht many good questions and introspection. However, I felt it was a bit trashy, and too full of sex and drugs. It saddened me to see the changes in Jirina and the encouragement she recieved from the modeling industry.

Luncheon of the Boating Party

I recently read Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland. She takes the painting by Renoir and constructs a rich story surrounding the painting. The novel is written through the point of several of the models views. It was definitely interesting - they were all quite up in the whole "vie moderne' (modern life). The models were comprised of friends, lovers, and business acquaintances of Renoir. Obviously, the story is primarily told through the eyes of Pierre Auguste Renoir. It is a few years into the impressionist movement and the group is getting nowhere. Émile Zola writes "The Impressionists are inferior to what they undertake. The man of genius has not yet arisen." Renoir takes the challenge and the result is the Boating Party. I found this to be an enjoyable read, but it was difficult to read. There were lots of characters, and sometimes I had a little trouble keeping them all straight. However, I enjoyed the commentary on la vie moderne and the society that was Paris in the 1880's. I wonder what was truth and what was fiction. Perhaps I need to venture into some nonfiction.

A Really Rad Rash

Poison Oak is such fun! I had never had the pleasure before. I had also never really known what it looked like. I can't believe I am just now getting it - my yard is totally INFESTED. I don't know how I am just now showing reactions. I took a bottle of Roundup to the yard this afternoon, but it is definitely going to require more treatment. I knew I should have bought the big bottle. Wish me luck. If you have any suggestions, I'm all ears. If I can't get rid of it the dogs won't be allowed in the princess pad, and how horrible is that?