Life with the Three Crazy Dogs

These are pictures taken with SD’s camera. The pictures turned out good compared to our old 1.5 MP camera.

The crab apple tree a week ago filled with flowers, and…….this is what it looks like today. We had 55 to 60 mph wind last weekend and we lost power for about 45 minutes. Dakota Electric was quick to fix the power lines.

Here is DB riding his can’t-live-without toy. It was a nice day to mow the grass. He sure looks like he’s having a fun time out there.

Last couple of days the temp went up to mid 80s. Took the boys for their walk at 7 p.m. and this is what they look like when they got home.

Coopster begging to come in. He can never decide whether he wants in or out. Ranger waiting for his dinner.

I was getting sick of the blue on this blog…so, instead of editing my papers, I’m putzing with the looks of my blog. Finally, I’m satisfy with this color. In addition to the colors, I managed to widen the margins on the sidebars where now they are not eaten up like before.

Now, I’m getting ready to “keen chau koong”.

I bought this pancake mix couple of weeks ago. We had a craving for pancakes and didn’t want to go to IHOP (International House of Pancakes) down in Apple Valley. I drove to the organic store by our home and bought this mix. (The picture is not the best.)

We have not had anything with buckwheat before. I thought it would be nice to start adding more healthy food into our daily diet.

The texture of the pancakes came out great. I forgot to take pictures of them. We were too hungry and walloped them down pretty darn quick. I also added chopped walnuts, dried cranberries and raisins into the mixture. It was delicious.

We both had 3 pieces with our usual maple syrup and the last piece I had I added organic brown rice syrup. I was very surprised this syrup has a great taste to it. Not too sweet and the consistency is the same as the maple syrup.

Needless to say, after we stuffed our face with pancakes, I skipped lunch and dinner was salad and left overs of brats and burger. The pancakes took care of the carbs for the day.

I made this herbal jelly yesterday. Mom sent several packets to me from the last care package I received.

I could not remember when was the last time I had this. This herbal jelly was manufactured in Hong Kong by the famous Eu Yan Sang Chinese herbal store.

The herbal jelly in this powdered form is easy to make – especially my type of person!

Pour the contents into a bowl, add 250ml water, and mixed it up. Boil 1 liter of water (I only boiled half of what they asked for) and pour the mixed concoction in, add sugar, stir well, and pour it into a container to cool. I put in honey and some Splenda instead of regular sugar. I don’t have any fancy-mancy containers, so poured it into a Rubbermaid container.

DB saw the packet as shown above and the first thing that came out from his mouth is, “What is this?” I told him he will not like it as there is a hint of bitterness to it. He did not say a word then.

For me, I ate half of what’s in that container and stored the rest in the refrigerator. Yummy!!

At last, she’s in an office.

We need to get a cake to celebrate!

We don’t have to listen to her loud conversations anymore. Conversations that sounded so condescending.

“LISTEN TO ME.”
“NO, YOU CANNOT DO THAT…. NO YOU CAN’T! HUH!!”
“CAN YOU HEAR ME?” Yeah, we can hear you loud and clear, clear across 4 offices away.

We don’t have to listen to her shouting from her cube to couple of cubes next to her or across her.

“ABC, ARE YOU READY FOR COFFEE?”
“ABC, ARE YOU THERE?”

We don’t have to listen to her telling her husband or her kids what to do.

“ARE YOU PICKING ____ UP? ….WHY NOT?”
“YOU HAVE TO FINISH YOUR HOMEWORK BEFORE I GET HOME.”

I’m so glad she‘s out of our area. This co-worker of mine whom I shall call Ms. Patronizing, can never talk or speak in a softer tone. Her volume is constantly set on high. Ever since I have started with this company, she is always sitting at a close proximity within my work area. The only one time I don’t have to listen to her was when I moved to the new File Room on the third floor. I was all by myself. Happiness was short lived. I moved out from the File Room after a year to a cube which was two cubes away from her. I could hear every single word in her conversations. Conference calls and Webex sessions were the worst. Sometimes other colleagues of mine would stand up, look at each other, and shake our heads.

When we knew she was going to move to an office, we were counting the days for when she will move to her office and shut that damn door.

Now, we are hoping she won’t yell from her office to speak to her co-workers 2 cubes outside her office.