New Job

I am a cook for the Holiday Inn that just opened up here in Orange Park.

I work evenings, and like it so far. I work with a great group of people, the ones who were not so great, were fired or quit...mostly fired.

I went in with the boss saying "this will be easy" That is quite the understatement. I am the prep cook, I prepare the salads, and desserts, set them out for the buffet, and help on the line for the restaurant if they are busy. We haven't been busy, but that's expected for only being open 3 weeks. The preparation is minimal... with all the prepackaged items that can be bought, it's just putting the boxed salad in a bowl and putting it out, cutting the frozen sawdust cake and putting that out. My immediate supervisor and I just couldn't tolerate such grossness. So upon formulating a plan, I have made fresh pies, rice pudding, bread pudding, cream puffs, crepes, and many more desserts from SCRATCH... We have gone from just having premade potato and macaroni salad, to having broccoli, carrot, cucumber, apple salads, and jello available.

We are striving to make the Holiday Inn restaurant and buffet healthy... if it's at all possible.

New Year's Eve Prayer flags for 2008

It's not quite like the ones here:http://www.prayerflags.com/ but the premise and intent is the same. "Prayer flags are inscribed with auspicious symbols, invocations, prayers, and mantras. Tibetan Buddhists for centuries have planted these flags outside their homes and places of spiritual practice for the wind to carry the beneficent vibrations across the countryside. Prayer flags are said to bring happiness, long life and prosperity to the flag planter and those in the vicinity"
We all did a prayer flag or two, Cameron did two, and put them out in a quiet area in the back yard. They are heartfelt and positive. Granted they are just paper and the prayers are just written in pencil or pen and they are taped to string and hung in the yard, I am sure the wind will be happy to carry our prayers and wishes across our yard, and hopefully bring positive attributes to us.
I have wanted to do a prayer flag for many years. I would like to have authentic prayer flags, written and inscribed by us, on cloth and hung in our yard. It is a project I must put forth more effort into producing. Getting everyone interested in putting their thoughts, prayers, and well wishes onto a piece of paper, just didn't have the same significance, but the desire to have them heard is what counts.
I think this too will become a new years eve tradition, a creation of a new prayer flag each year.

I need a muse

I have all this material, all the necessary tools to make something wonderful, beautiful, inspiring. However, I lack that desire to adhere two pieces of material together and have a creation that others would oooh and ahhh over.

I need a muse.

Someone or something that makes my senses come to life and want to pour out my creativity into,

intertwining threads and fabric with the fine art of a needle,

but no muse. Being a bit down and not too happy about things hinders my muse. I need a light unto my path of creativity, but it has been extinguished for now. Hopefully soon, in the very near future that light will shine again

Planter boxes now...

Have been overtaken by the marigolds, well one has, I actually pulled the marigolds out of the other planter box to put in brussel sprouts, broccoli, and cauliflower. The heavy rains we had really made the marigolds bud up. There are so many flowers on there. I don't know what variety of marigold these are, I saw them at a park, and picked the flowers to plant. They are quite tall, and really sprawl out a lot. Just a few plants filled up this 3'X5' planter box, and then some hanging over.

I still have the peppers growing, as they are still producing, some lemon balm, self heal, onions are buried by the marigolds, as well as chives, and I have another herb that I cannot remember what it is in there. A stray tomato plant has come up, and I'm debating on letting it grow or not... we will see.

Freddy

My cat Freddy.

He's an interesting sort of fellow. Doesn't like to cuddle, but likes to always be near whatever we are doing. Everytime I'm in the back yard he's right there, watching, or underfoot.

He was born the day after Christmas in a paper bag, we came home from Disney and there was Freddy with three other kittens. He was the pick of the litter, the smart one, the healthy one. And now at almost 7 years old, he's still a great cat. I love my Freddy Cat!

Herbs

This is the basil I planted drying out in the sun. It bolted so I also have a lot of seeds!!!I haven't "processed" it yet... so funny, processing is pulling the dried leaves off the plant, and putting the leaves in a jar, simplicity...
I clipped the Stevia a few weeks ago and dried it and it came out surprisingly well. It was quite intense with sweetness when fresh, but so much more when dry! I am very happy about that! I decided to chop it dry and use it as a tea additive infusion with a few other herbs I grew... peppermint, a bit of lemon balm, and some red raspberry leaves that I pinched from the woods behind our house. It's a great way to squelch my sweet tooth, and also brew it with some chamomile flowers and it's a perfect late night tea! Peppermint, chamomile and stevia... yum
this is the jar of my herbal tea mixture... there is quite a bit in there, probably about 4 cups, and only a half of a teaspoon is really enough for a cup of tea.

weird stuff I keep

I have a variety of odd collections. I have the normal stamps and coins that I collect, and Mike has comic books and action figures to go along with those comic books. And then I have some stashes... I will not even go into those, I'm seriously weeding my fabric stash, as it's too much stuff to maintain. But here are some of my more "off the wall" collections:

Sharks teeth, mostly collected on the shores of the Gulf Of Mexico in Florida, either in Venice Florida, or Englewood Florida. The two large ones on the bottom right are only partial teeth, sure wish I had found a whole tooth! They also come from different kinds of sharks, and that is usually determined by the shape and color of the tooth. Some are new, some are old (fossils) but all are COOL

Shells, but only ones I find, and only these spiral type shells, any other are not interesting....
Rocks or shells with holes in them. there is a parasitic bug that will drill a hole into a shell of a mollusk and eat the mollusk. Sometimes the creature thinks a rock is a shell, since they both are hard, and the bugs aren't really smart enough to distinguish between rock hard and shell hard, so they drill away into the rocks, hoping for something to eat, and many times drill right through. There are two I like more than the others, one is a small rock with a partial hole, and looks a little like a bowl, the other looks like PAC man.
Other rocks that are smooth in shape, textured, or pretty color.
My box of other rocks... these are long and textured, bumpy, and actually make a nice sound when knocked against each other, and I would think make a nice wind chime...

So that's it... other than the many different cigar boxes, and a few skulls I have found... I only have three and don't really consider that a collection. Maybe if I find a few more skulls then I'll show a pic of my skull collection. So far I only have a dog, armadillo and mouse skull. So there it is.. you now know I have boxes of rocks, and bowls of sharks teeth, and skulls hanging around in my home.