Man Breakfast

As I have said before, Mr. Lucas does not cook. But, when he does it tends to be breakfast food. Typically a fried egg. But, he has branched out folks and moved on to sausage gravy and biscuits. He has made it before and I bought the ingredients at the store. I typically get turkey sausage, whole wheat biscuits, and low fat milk. Yeah, not this time. He was at the store with me and insisted on fully fattening ingredients  So, I went with it. It was damn good.

Ingredients:

Sweet pork sausage (or turkey if you fancy)

2 cups milk

1/4 cup flour

salt and pepper to taste.

Fry your sausage in a skillet until brown.

Add salt and pepper

Add the flour gradually while stirring.

Carefully pour in the milk and let cook until thickened. 

Slice open the biscuits and pile on the sausage gravy.

Mmmmmm good! 

Happy breakfast eating! 

Cheers! 

Oh Happy Day!

After many many many years of hard work, my soon to be "husband" finally graduated! He is now degreed! Congratulations Jeff! You deserve it! We had a graduation party for him on Saturday. It was a lot of fun. Friends and family gathered to celebrate all his hard work. I am very proud of him and I know that he is very proud of himself.

After the party some dear friends of ours came back over to our house to hang out in order to continue our celebration. Jeff's little brother was staying with us this weekend too, so we all hung out for a few more hours. He is a good little house guest.

So, have you ever heard of anyone flushing keys down a toilet? Well, if not...neither have I, until recently. I have actually dropped my phone in the toilet 2 times and some co-workers of mine have dropped their pagers in the toilet at work. Maybe this is more common than one might thing? Now, for me, this raises the question, what is the strangest thing that has ever been flushed down your toilet?

Anyhoo, our very very dear friend who partied with us on Saturday night, accidentally flushed her hubbies keys down our toilet. She was well, pulling up her pants as she hit the flush. In the process of the flush, rather tragically, out came her keys from her back pocket and down they went. I guess I have a really powerful toilet.

We were all actually sitting in the living room sharing a rather hilarious story about her when she shrieked. We thought that maybe she heard us telling this embarrassing story but, when she threw open the bathroom door and said that she flushed the keys, we all soon realized that she was oblivious to this story we were telling. She felt absolutely terrible but, I mean, most things flush out to the sewer anyway so the toilet would be okay...so we all thought. On her husband's key chain was a rather special Disney World key chain she got for him during their first wedding anniversary vacation. So the chain has a lot of sentimental value to the both of them. They have been married for 5 years and together for 11!

Then, since they only had one set of keys with him, came the brainstorming on how to get them home and in their house! But, we figured all that out.

So, continue this graduation weekend saga, Jeff's little bro became terribly sick early Sunday morning. I guess he had some bad fast food on the way up here (they are from Kirbyville) because right before we went to bed on Saturday he mentioned having a stomach ache. Then, right about 6am on Sunday morning, I woke up to a "splat" in the hallway. He was really really sick! After about the 4th time he vomited, I called his mother and she came by to take him to CareNow. They are fantastic! They have a web check in so, when she got to the house we helped her check him in. Then, when they were ready to see him, they called her on her cell phone. They ran some tests and found that he had food poisoning. They gave him a pretty stiff shot of phenergan. This shot literally knocked him out for 16 SOLID hours and it is a good dang thing because late Sunday afternoon the toilet turmoil began! Jeff finally had to wake him up at 8am this morning to make sure he would be able to make it to the graduation! He did and he was a trooper!

Back to the toilet turmoil. It started to back up Sunday afternoon. So we called our friendly local plumber and left a message and requested a return call this morning. They called at 7:40 this morning, now that is service! They were out about 10:45, flushed out our mainline, and now we are back in business!

We all met up at my place this afternoon to go over to the graduation together. I am so proud. It was a lovely graduation and I am so happy for him!

After graduation, we went to Buttons for dinner. The food was amazing. I tried to get some good shots of the yummy food but did not do so well. I had the pot roast, delicious! I really was a lot better that this picture gives it credit for.

After dinner our dear friends, (yes the one that flushed her keys down the toilet and her husband) Jeff, and I continued our celebration. We all had a great time and Jeff was able to relish in his glory. Tomorrow I will be off of work to re-coup. I can't wait!

Happy Graduation Jeff, You Did It!!!

Cheers!

Birthday

Jeff is creeping closer to the big 3-0! He turned 29 on Saturday. My sister has been in town visiting and she got up early to decorate the table. I decorated the chalkboard as it only seemed fitting!

We grilled chicken with Stubbs marinade and Stubbs BBQ sauce. Oh, how we love Stubbs. If you are ever in Austin, you must, absolutely must stop by Stubbs. Hands down, the best BBQ anywhere! Stubbs is also a live music venue. So, really, you just can't beat a little BBQ and live music. We had BBQ chicken, corn on the cob, baked beans, and potato salad from Red Hot and Blue! Just like Stubbs has the best BBQ, Red Hot and Blue has the best potato salad.

I had the table all set and then,

It was time to eat!!!!

I also tried my hand at baking a very special cake. My mother grew up going over to a friends house and eating strawberry cake after school. It really is a cute little story! So, one day, after she was all married and grown up, she got that special strawberry cake recipe. There was lots of pressure to get this right because my mom has been making it ever since I can remember and when my sister grew up and had Violet, she started making it. So, it was my turn,

Might I say, that was a darn good cake!!



On Sunday, after all the festivities, Jeff and I did yard work.





I finally finished the kitchen window flower bed!

Before:




After:





I took an idea from Our Thyme Garden and put my old San Pellegrino bottles in the dirt as a border along with some tree branches.



I can't wait for the plants to start growing! I just recently planted jumbo jalapeno peppers and bell peppers. Yum!


I have a baby birdie update, they hatched! There are 2 of them. These are the biggest baby birdies I have ever seen! The mama bird is sitting next to them.




They are growing rather quickly and will leave the nest soon!


In other exciting news (for me anyway), I will be leaving for Santa Fe on Saturday!! Stay tuned for the first Santa Fe post of 2009!

Where Are All The Elves.....

...when I need them??? I think they are all drinking spiked egg nog and eating chocolate truffles while frolicking in the snow. This has been quite the weekend of Christmas crafting of production! If I worked like this all the time I would have a ton of stuff in my Etsy store. Hmmm, New Year's resolution maybe??? I feel like my little fingers are going to fall off! I finally finished up the project I was working on for my mama. She reads this so I can't say what it is or post pictures yet, but I will after she receives it! Come to think of it, I can't really say what I have been working on because for those who do read this little blog, it will spoil all the fun. Geez! All this hard work and I can't say anything about it. Well, since my niece can't type or even understand the concept of google....I can post the rest of the felt food, I introduce you to penne and bow tie pasta!

On Saturday, a friend of mine came over for some crafting (and wine :-)). I had so much fun! It was nice to actually craft with someone, a real person, and not Ziggy, Cedella, Millie, Luna, and Chica. Well, they can't craft, they are pets but you know what I mean. Man, if only my pets could craft, they could be my elves! I would have my own little sweat shop! O.k., I am going to reel myself back in and finish this blog and stop talking crazy.

I also made Jeff take a picture with me of the 2 of us together. I bet you can imagine how that went. At least he was a good sport and did it. Speaking of sports, ladies, never take a picture with your man when the game is on. If your camera is like mine, you will get 3 quick shots in a row on the timer. So, the first picture is Jeff looking at the T.V., the next picture are Jeff's eyes halfway between the T.V. and the camera, and the last is Jeff looking at the camera. Well, at least I got one good shot!

Happy crafting and Happy Holidays!