Biggest and Brightest - The Wolf Moon

Did you all get a look at that moon tonight? It's the biggest and brightest moon we will see all year. Tonight it will be about 14 percent wider and 30 percent brighter than lesser full Moons of the year, according to Spaceweather.com.


As a bonus, Mars will be just to the left of the moon tonight. Look for the reddish, star-like object.

Now I'm not a photographer. I don't have a super cool camera with zoom and telephoto lenses. I just have my little old Kodak EasyShare camera. But even with my camera I was able to take some pretty decent pictures. You can even see Mars which is to the left. I didn't believe it was really Mars, but I took several shots and Mars is always there! You can click on the photos to enlarge them so you can really make out Mars.

 I know Mars looks like a little red squiggle, that is because my camera isn't the greatest, but still it's pretty cool. I wish I had taken these pictures earlier when the moon was down lower, I almost had to point the camera straight up into the sky to get these, but I went out to enjoy a Friday night with my sister and we had a great meal and I had a well earned beer! I love Corona with Salt and Lime..Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

I know several of you out there are expert photographers so I hope you got great pictures (I'm talking to you JarieLyn and Stine!)

Did You Know?

I receive a lot of forwarded emails as I'm sure the rest of you do. But I had never received the one I got today and it was pretty interesting to me as a lot of the things on this list I DID NOT KNOW.

How about you? Did you know. . .

1. Money isn't made out of paper, it's made out of cotton.

2. The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp (marijuana) paper.

3. The dot over the letter i is called a 'tittle'.


4. A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top. (that makes my day!)

5. Susan Lucci is the daughter of Phyllis Diller.

6. 40% of Mc Donald 's profits come from the sales of Happy Meals.


7. 315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.


8. The 'spot' on 7UP comes from its inventor, who had red eyes. He was albino.


9. On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents, daily. (Just as I suspected))

10. Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine are brother and sister.

11. Chocolate affects a dog's heart and nervous system; a few ounces will kill a small-sized dog..


12. Orcas (killer whales) kill sharks by torpedoing up into the shark's stomach from underneath, causing the shark to explode.

13. Most lipstick contains fish scales (eeww).


14. Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear pants.

15. Ketchup was sold in the 1830's as medicine.


16. Upper and lower-case letters are named 'upper' and 'lower' because in the time when all original print had to be set in individual letters, the 'upper case' letters were stored in the case on top of the case that stored the smaller, 'lower case' letters.

17. Leonardo Da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time, hence, multi-tasking was invented.


18. Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.


19. There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos.


20. The name Wendy was made up for the book Peter Pan; there was never a recorded Wendy before!


21. There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with: orange, purple, or silver!


22. Leonardo Da Vinci invented scissors. Also, it took him 10 years to paint Mona Lisa's lips.


23. A tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion will make it instantly go mad and sting itself to death.


24. The mask used by Michael Myers in the original 'Halloween' was a Captain Kirk's mask painted white.


25. If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies, you have $1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar. (good to know.)

26. By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you can't sink in quicksand
(and you thought this list was completely useless.)

27. The phrase 'rule of thumb' is derived from an old English law, which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.


28. The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player for automobiles. At that time, the most known player on the market was the Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola.

29. Celery has negative calories! It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with. It's the same with apples.

30. Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying! (Now you tell me!)

31. The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher.


32. "Guinness Book of Records" holds the record for being the book most often stolen from public Libraries.


33. Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because passing wind in a space suit damages it. (I NEED TO REMEMBER THIS.)

34. George Carlin said it best about Martha Stewart. " Boy, I feel a lot safer now that she's behind bars.O.J. Simpson and Kobe Bryant are still walking around; Osama Bin Laden too, but they take the ONE woman in America willing to cook, clean, and work in the yard, and they haul her off to jail.

Iwanna Wednesday -

Ok, so by now everyone is well aware that I went to visit my daughter the weekend before the one that just passed. She has her own apartment now and I was expecting to see a BIG MESS with lots of boxes and eating out of paper plates and cups. I guess I expected it to look like her bedroom when she lived at home! But she's done a great job in setting everything up and making everything comfy and cozy for herself.

One thing I really loved was in her kitchen. Even my mom loved it cause she picked it up and brought it to me on the couch to show me. It was a kitchen timer that looked like this pear here.

Isn't that so cute? And the picture doesn't even show the true green color of the pear. I have a plain old ugly white plastic timer that I have had for about 12 years, so I probably won't ever get rid of it because it has a lot of sentimental value (I get sentimental over almost anything ).


But since it's Iwanna Wednesday I figure I can show you some of the ones that Iwanna if I could bear to part with the one I have :-)

Now in case I have any new readers, which I'm sure I won't have because I haven't had any new ones in a while :-( let me explain about Iwanna Wednesday. Bear with me those of you that already know what Iwanna Wednesday is about.


I love shopping! Whether it's window shopping, online shopping, actually plopping down some cash shopping...I LOVE SHOPPING. Shopping comes easy to me cause I find joy in almost anything. I can go into any store or restaurant or even someone's home and say, "Oh, I want one of those!" I do that so often that my sister started calling me "Iwanna", cause Iwanna everything.

That's where blogging really helps, because I can Iwanna random objects and blog about them and show you pictures and usually you all respond back with Iwanna items and ideas of your own...which makes it even more fun.

So let me show you the kitchen timers Iwanna this Wednesday.

This one is kind of cute. I like the way you set it with the little tabs at the top that look a little bit like Mickey Mouse ears. Plus the numbers are nice and big so that we visually challenged individuals can see them!

And speaking of Mickey Mouse ears...here's a Mickey Mouse timer. Awwww, isn't this cute?


Iwanna one of these. I was just at Disneyland recently, why didn't I buy one! Why, why, why!




 

And here's one fit for Princess Iwanna, the only thing is Iwanna one in pink, not blue. But still the blue is pretty. I love the different color blue balls on the tip of the crown.

I bet we all Iwanna this one. Have you ever seen anything so darn cute? I love the little mouse staring in at all that yummy cheese!


I don't know, I might be willing to lose all sentimentality for my ugly plastic white one if I could have this one!

And how about this one? Do you know someone that would love this one? I've never seen one like this. You pull up the measuring tape to set the timer!
    


Hungry? I know I would be if I had these next two sitting on my stove all the time.  

This hamburger one is unique isn't it?




 



And for dessert? Iwanna one of these yummy cupcakes with sprinkles and a cherry!

Iwanna any one of the above, but I guess for now I'll stick with my big, white plastic one. It does have sentimental value. You know how many times I've set it to time frozen pizzas? Baked chicken? Cupcakes? Set it to time the 25 minutes necessary to dye my hair? Yep, for now what I wanna is the one I have. 


What kind of kitchen timer do you have? What's the most interesting thing you time with it?

The Princess Named Chorizo

As you read in my previous post I went to visit my daughter last weekend. We had great fun and great food. But the high of my weekend besides seeing my daughter was seeing that gorgeous puppy of hers...Chorizo, or as I call her Precious!


Believe it or not; even though I had my camera with me, I didn't take one single picture of her. I think it was because I had too much fun playing with her. Luckily my daughter April sends me three or four or a hundred photos of Chorizo almost every day. So let me share some.

Here's the Princess herself, Princess Chorizo lounging on April's bed. 

Doesn't she look pretty in pink? I think she's getting used to being photographed now as she at least holds still. April had her coat shaved and so she looks really blonde now, but you can still see so much black on her head and I love the little white goatee. I know Princesses shouldn't have goatees, but it seems to suit this Princess doesn't it?

Here you get a really good look at her new haircut.


Look at that face!!! Don't you just want to eat her up!


And that bow! April has bought this little puppy way more hair accoutrements than I have!


Actually I don't wear bows, but if I did Chorizo would still have more than me!


And here she is on a car trip! She's sitting in April's lap here. Don't worry, I already questioned April about whether or not she was driving with a dog in her lap and taking a picture with her cell phone at the same time.


She wasn't, she was parked. I raised her better than that!
Isn't Precious pretty in purple as well?




Here's another picture of her with her owner wearing that beautiful purple Pea Coat.


I love that coat. In fact that weekend that I was there I bought a gorgeous coat at JC Penney that was almost like a Pea Coat. It was Black and White and I'll have to get a picture of it to show you.
Not as pretty as the purple though :-(







And it's been a busy and adventurous day for all of us and I'm going to take a cue from Chorizo and get a nap in before bed :-)
I hope you all enjoyed these photos as much as I enjoyed receiving them in email from my daughter April. Thanks April, keep them coming!

We Ate a Lava Flow

Last weekend my mother, my sister and I drove up to visit my daughter April in Turlock, CA where she lives and works. We had so much fun! Even though it's just a weekend trip I always come back feeling so relaxed and happy that it's almost like I took a two week vacation.

April does a great job keeping us all entertained. She knows all she has to provide for me is a thrift store and I'm a happy camper. She took us to two thrift stores. I didn't really find anything this trip, but it was fun to look and I did help April find about eight books which I hope she will be passing on to me to read soon. 

In order to keep my sister Lisa happy, April took us to the Mall in Modesto where they had a chair massager like the one pictured here. No, that is not my sister. I didn't take a picture of her or of my daughter April who also had one as I wouldn't want anyone taking a picture of me in such a vulnerable position. Actually I was too busy trying to find a bathroom and eating a Strawberry Sundae from Dairy Queen because we don't have Dairy Queen in Kern County! I just read that line again and let me clarify that I wasn't finding and going to the bathroom at the same time as I was eating my sundae. I went to the bathroom first, then on the way back I found Dairy Queen!

And in order to make my mom happy April let her cook even though my sister and I had told my mom that she wouldn't have to cook all weekend! But my mom lovingly made "Arroz con Leche" for her granddaughter. It's one of her favorites and it's true comfort food. 

Arroz con leche translated means Rice with Milk. I make it also but not as well as my mom does. Maybe I'll get her to make some this week and I'll jot down the recipe and take photos as she goes. It's basically rice boiled in water with condensed or evaporated milk (don't remember which right now), cinnamon and sugar. It's delicious. 

What would a weekend to visit April be without her taking us to our favorite restaurant to eat our favorite dish. The restaurant is Mi Casa which translated means My House. You've all heard the saying, "Mi Casa es su Casa" which means, My House is your House.

The last time I posted about this restaurant I used pictures that didn't do justice at all to the food and many people said they were glad I enjoyed it even though it didn't look very good. This time I took excellent pictures. I think it's because I took them before I had my margarita's! I'm just saying, that may be part of the reason. Or maybe the lighting was better, but doesn't that look delicious? 

Mi Casa will serve your food in a red-hot molcajete. A molcajete is the traditional Mexican version of the mortar & pestle. In it's natural state, it would look like this picture. The stone inside the bowl is called a Tejolote and is what grinds down the food such as corn for corn meal to make corn tortillas. Or it can be used to mash foods such as tomatoes for Salsa or Soups. Mi Casa restaurant heats up that stone molcajete until it's just a big hot rock and then pours the food into it and they add cheese right before serving so that when the cheese starts to melt right before your eyes at the table and it's bubbling because the stone molcajete is so hot it looks like you're about to eat a lava flow! It's a bit intimidating I have to admit. This was the first time I tried it.

Here's a close up of mine, which was made with Chicken. I believe my sister and my daughter both had the Beef one. The cheese hasn't quite melted yet in mine and you can see the broth underneath that has the chicken in it. I'm not sure how it's made but it's so good it makes you want to slap your momma! I'm glad my momma was on the other side of the table and too far for me to slap!  (Be sure to click on the pictures to enlarge them for a better look, but I must warn you...I and the blog, Titere con Bonete cannot be held responsible for you drooling on your keyboard!)


The onions and the oranges can be eaten, but mostly they are a garnish. They also bring you a plate with Mexican Rice, Re-fried Beans, Pico De Gallo, Sour Cream and Guacamole and some flour or corn tortillas, depending on your preference to eat this with.

Be sure if you go there that you aren't in a hurry because you will be blowing and waiting and blowing and waiting to eat this yummy dish for quite a while. Thank goodness they serve a mean margarita to sooth your burning tongue! 

My car is a junk magnet. Either that or it's possessed!

I've been pretty scarce on the blogging scene of late. I've been checking in on some of my favorite bloggers daily but haven't been posting too much myself. I guess it's been because the weather has been so cold and the last thing I want to do when I get home is sit in front of my computer (no, I don't have a lap top) and suffer the cold. So I curl up in a blanket on the couch and veg out on TV. 


This week though I had car trouble. My car is possessed! If you remember on October 30th I had a little incident where I picked up some duct tape that wrapped itself around my tire, see story here. I called emergency road service and had my car towed and everything and all that was wrong with it was duct tape around the tire!!!


This week on Thursday as I was backing out of my driveway I noticed my tires left a track, but since it had rained a lot all week and rained all that night I figured it was just rain water making the tracks. I thought nothing of it and just went off on my merry little way to work. At about 10am my mom called me at work and wanted to know what was wrong with my car as there was a huge oil spot where I park.


I texted my sister and she immediately texted me back that I was probably losing oil and I needed to leave work early at 3pm so that if my car did break down on the way home I wouldn't be stuck on the freeway in the dark, in the rain waiting for the tow truck. 


I left work at 3pm cause I always do what my sister says. As I walked to my car I noticed that the whole passenger side of my car was smeared with grease/oil from the front bumper to the back door. I called my sister and told her what I found, she told me to check the oil and the water levels first and if necessary add oil and water before I attempted to drive the 20 miles home so I wouldn't blow up my engine. I drove about a mile to warm the engine first, cause somewhere I remember someone telling me that was necessary. 


I then pulled over and popped the hood on my car and opened it up and stared at it's guts and saw lots of little things that looked like the oil dipstick, but I wasn't real sure. I pulled one out and it looked ok. I know my dad always wiped the oil off with a rag and put it back in and looked again, but I didn't have a rag so I decided one look was sufficient. 

Then I pulled out another dipstick looking thing and that looked ok too. I had no idea where you checked the water level so I check the windshield wiper cleaner level and that look good. So I knew that if I did get stuck somewhere at least I could have a clean windshield so that when the paramedics and firemen came to find my frozen dead body they could easily see it through my spotlessly clean windshield :-)


Realizing that I was totally out of my element when it comes to cars and realizing that I do belong to the GM Motor Club I called them and they said they would be more than happy to tow it for me. And sure, they would tow it to my mechanic in Shafter (I work in Bakersfield 20 miles from home). I've said it before and I'll take this opportunity to say it again, GM Motor Club rocks and I love them!


The tow truck guy came, he towed the car to my mechanic in Shafter. My mechanic is Carroll Winters from Winters Automotive and I've never known a nicer, more honest mechanic in my life! He walked around and stuck his finger in the oil and told me it looked more like grease than oil. (Aren't grease and oil the same thing?) He talked to the tow truck driver and they pondered what the problem might be. He told me to just leave the car and he'd take a look at it and let me know the next day what he thought.


My mom was waiting there to give me a ride home. I live two miles from the mechanic. We had just pulled into the driveway and were examining the oil slick in my driveway when my phone rang and it was Mr. Winter on the phone saying, "You know what your car needs?" I took a deep breath and prepared myself for him to tell me I needed a whole new engine or transmission or air compressor or a bog warmer or something like that and said, "What?" He says, "All it needs is a car wash, come get your car there's nothing wrong with it, you just hit something on the road that had oil and you carried it underneath your car."


Oh really? C'mon...even I'm not that gullible. He's just joking right? He's remembering the duct tape incident and just screwing with my head right? So I said, "Really, it's ok? Are you sure?" He says, "Honey, of course I'm sure...I wouldn't let you take it if I wasn't sure." How can you doubt a man that calls you honey?



So my mom and I go back to get my car. She drops me off and my sister gets there and she tells Mr. Winters that my car is possessed! And I believe it is, either that or it's a junk magnet and just likes to pick up crap in the road to freak me out! But the good thing is that even though the whole passenger side is caked up and mucked up with sticky grease...it's not broken, so I'm happy.

Spelling Bee

I once came in second in a Spelling Bee. I won 10 Silver Dollars. My mom has them saved somewhere. That being said, I suck at math. I can't make 2 + 2 = 4 for anything! Ok, so really I'm not that bad at math, but I'm pretty bad. I just don't see numbers in my head, but I do see letters and words, sentences and paragraphs. I love words.

Even so I only scored an A- on this online Spelling Test I took. Then again, it was a Twitter Spelling Test. It was fun though; so if you get a chance, go and take it and let me know how you did. Maybe I'll go find a Math Test :-)



Created by Oatmeal

Weekend Getaway!

I'm heading out of town for the weekend and I'm so excited because I'm going to be visiting that lovely little precious puppy in the picture!


That's Chorizo (I call her Precious), my daughter's little puppy that she got at Thanksgiving.


I haven't seen her since Christmas and I can't wait. I miss her so much. I'm also going to be visiting my daughter and I can't wait for that as well!


And...it gets even better! My mom and my sister are going with me and we always have a great time when we all get together.


It should be a great weekend. The only problem might be the weather. We get a lot of Tule Fog in this area. It usually goes all the way up to where my daughter lives in Northern California. So I hope the fog stays away until we get there. We're leaving tonight hoping to avoid it as its usually at it's worst in the early morning!


Great weekend to everyone!

Foodie Friday - Biscuits and Sausage Gravy

I was born in Arizona and I'm of Hispanic descent. My dad is from Mexico and my mom is from Texas. I now live in California, the closest I've come to being a Southern Belle is an online friendship with a dear friend from Alabama who has now passed away.

Yet for some reason, this past Saturday I thought I should make Biscuits and Sausage Gravy. I've only eaten Biscuits and Sausage Gravy once before and even then they were made by my friend Stacie who is Hawaiian and she used Portuguese sausage. Delicious yes but not exactly Southern right?

But I do live in Bakersfield, the Little Nashville of the West. Home of the late and great Buck Owens. Surely I can handle making Biscuits and Gravy.

Here's a picture of my biscuits. I used flour, baking powder, shortening, salt and milk. I think I should have sifted the flour one more time and not kneaded it as much.

The biscuits tasted ok, a bit bland, maybe I should have used butter instead of shortening. They weren't light and flaky...but they weren't exactly hockey pucks either. Maybe practice makes perfect? I'll just have to keep trying. Anyone with any tips out there they would be greatly appreciated.

I only had half a roll of sausage, this is Jimmy Dean sausage. I think maybe I would have preferred a spicier sausage but maybe that's my Hispanic side coming out. Tips of what type of sausage would also be appreciated.

All in all, they were pretty good. My mom who is a very picky and finicky eater ate a whole biscuit with quite a bit of sausage and gravy. I thought they were great and thought maybe they would be better with plain ole Grands store bought biscuits, but NO...I want to learn to make a light and flaky biscuit.

This next lovely dish is a meal my daughter prepared for herself in her own new little apartment and I'm so proud. She's really a pretty good cook, actually a pretty good baker, but she's turning into a pretty good cook. Doesn't that look yummy? The chicken is one I make that she loves. I call it Chicken Medallion, she calls it Sriricha Chicken and it's sauted with Sriricha Hot sauce. It's spicy and delicious. I just take the medallions of chicken and saute them in a pan with some oil, garlic powder, seasoning salt and pepper. When they're browned I add Soy Sauce and the Sriricha Sauce. Simple and spicy and tasty!

And that's my foodie post. I'm linking up to Designs by Gollum's Foodie Friday. Be sure you stop by and see what's cooking with everyone else! Happy Friday!

Iwanna Wednesday - American Idol Fever

To all my Iwanna Wednesday Fans:

Dear Fans,
I write this letter in hopes that you will forgive my not having an Iwanna Wednesday post for you to enjoy.

You see dear fans, it's time once again for my one addiction...AMERICAN IDOL!

Last night was the premiere TWO HOUR show! I meant to do my post before American Idol came on at 8pm, but I had to work late and didn't even leave the office until 6pm.

I was hoping I would be able to write it tonight and still keep my fans (all 6 of you) happy and satisfied; but alas...my sister wants to have dinner with me tonight and so I will barely make it home in time to watch tonight's episode of American Idol.

So I hope you will all accept my sincerest apologies and understand that I really still did sorta/kinda write an Iwanna post.

How you ask?

Well; what I really Iwanna is to watch American Idol, and I hope you all watch it with me so we can discuss who we love, who we hate and who we love to hate!

Sincerely ,

A Fun Fact about Disneyland!

Did you know that Alcohol is served at Disneyland? I didn't know that! But Disneyland has a full liquor license which they use when they close the park to the public and open it for a private party.

Ok, so maybe you knew that part. But did you know that there is one place you can get alcohol at Disneyland any time it's open to the public? Yes there is, but you have to be a member of a very private club called Disneyland Club 33.



This club is located above the Blue Bayou in New Orleans Square. Here's a picture of the front door to the club.


Club 33 has a limited membership of only 487 and it's not open to the public, but if you know a member of the club they can arrange a visit for family and friends.

But never fear! You too can become a member of the club. Of course there is an estimated 14 year wait once you get on the list and the fee to join ranges from $10 to $30,000 US Dollars. So let's see, if I wanted to save that much money during 14 years, lets see....14 divided by and then carry the 1 plus the square root of 6. Ack!! Never mind, kind of makes one realize that you don't need alcohol to enjoy Disneyland anyway, do you? I know I don't!

But there are several other perks so if you want to read and know more about this club, you can find more information at Club 33.

I just thought this was pretty interesting. Did you know about this club? Do you have any other secrets you can share about Disneyland? Do tell, I'm all ears...Micky Mouse Ears!

Mosaic Monday - My Sister's Christmas Present

I've been waiting to show this one to everyone since before October. But of course I couldn't because it was going to be a Christmas present from my mom to my sister Lisa and I couldn't post about it until after Christmas. Trust me...it was soooooooooo hard to keep this secret in the bag!

You will want to make sure to take a look at my Sunday Favorites post from yesterday before or after you read this one if you haven't taken a look at it yet. You can just click here to go there.

I really don't think I need to say a whole lot about this present my sister received for Christmas. I think the pictures pretty much speak for themselves.

First this mosaic including my favorite picture of my sister and my mother and three small pictures of her present which I include below so you can click on them to get more detail.

Here's the whole thing. It measures about 5 feet long by 3 feet wide. I'm not sure what my sister is using it for yet, but it would look great on a coffee table or as a table runner.

This is a closeup of the middle portion. You can click on the photo to enlarge so you can see more details. Doesn't that look complicated? I'm sure it was.

Here's a closeup of where the roses meet. Aren't they pretty. I'm astounded that you can put this together just using a wire crochet hook and a super long piece of twine...basically.

Here's another closeup, this time of the right side of the piece.

Here's another closeup of the middle part where the roses meet up.

And some more detail of the end of the piece. I don't know what to call this because I don't know what my sister is going to use it for. It's kind of big to be called a doily and I know there's a term for it, but I can't quite remember right now.

And a close up of the rose, in case any of you want to try to recreate it. I know there are some of you out there that could probably do it just from the photograph, right? I know my mom could.

And that's my sister's Christmas present. Lucky her! I know my mom is working on something else right now...Hmmmm, I wonder who that one is for? Any guesses?

Head over to visit Mary at Little Red House who is hosting Mosaic Monday.