Back from Boy Scout Camp

James returned from Boy Scout camp on Saturday. We got a call sometime on Saturday, early afternoon, telling us that the troop would arrive at the American Legion around 2:30 that afternoon. At 2 pm, Hannah decided to make some signs to hold up as the bus pulled into the parking lot.


Here she is with her signs.


And here is my tired and grimy boy!

It rained a lot while they were at camp. All of his belongings were damp and smelly. I had to throw out his pillow - I washed it a couple of times and it still smelled pretty bad. I bought him a nice, new down one to replace it. He said he showered once while at camp. He said that he thought he received the most letters in his troop. (Thanks to everyone who sent him one!) He had a great time, but missed his family. (and his x-box!)

Roasted Cauliflower

After the success of our roasted Brussells Sprouts, I decided to try roasting another vegetable. I selected cauliflower this time. Usually, we microwave/steam cauliflower and it is "okay", not great, just okay.

I found a recipe for Roasted Cauliflower on SimplyRecipes.com. The main reason for selecting this recipe over the others that I found, was that I had all the ingredients. It also looked easier than some of the others I read.


I started with a head of cauliflower.

I cut the cauliflower into pieces and put in a bowl. I poured lemon juice, olive oil, minced garlic, pepper, and kosher salt over it and stirred. I spread it into a baking dish, then sprinkled parmesan cheese over it.


Before baking for 25-30 minutes at 400.

After baking.

We were in hurry - we were hungry! I didn't do a very good job of timing our dishes. I only roasted it for 25 minutes. If I had planned better, I would have roasted a little bit longer until it was more golden in color.

The final results, the family liked it. It was better than "okay". We liked the roasted Brussells Sprouts more, but it was definitely an improvement over our usual microwaved cauliflower.


When Chris and I were in California (after typing the word cauliflower, I really had difficulties spelling California!), we drove past several cauliflower fields. Many of them had recently been harvested and you could smell the raw cauliflower scent very strongly. Here is a picture of a cauliflower field for those of you who don't get to see them in that stage.



Now I need to think of another vegetable that needs rescuing from my usual methods of preparation!

A Hair Cut for Snickers!

Snickers got her annual hair cut after we returned from our California trip. I tried to make an appointment before we left, but I waited too long to call and there were no appointments available for her. So she didn't get her hair cut until almost the middle of June!



Here is a before picture of our beautiful dog. Doesn't she look happy?


And here is the after picture. We interpret this look as embarrassed.


Before we had her shaved the first time, we did research it. Supposedly, dogs don't need the hair cut to stay cool during the summer. With this being said, though, I have noticed a huge improvement in Snickers since she has been shaved. We have had 90 degree days since early May this year and she was always panting, lethargic, and wanted to spend as little time as possible outdoors. She was even sleeping in the dining room instead of our bedroom because it was a cooler room. Since her hair cut, she is more active and has stopped panting. The added bonus is no more shedding for the time being! Yay!!

I've also read that sometimes a dog's hair doesn't grow back well after it has been shaved, but we have never had any trouble with that.

Another plus, it's easy to spot nasty ticks on her after being in the woods! Not so easy when she has her long fur.

We think she looks a bit like Gizmo from the movie Gremlins now.

Fun in Sandy Springs

Recently there was a Facebook Deal for a kids play area in Sandy Springs. The place is called the Sandy Springs Funhouse, located off of Roswell Road. The deal was for 2 games of laser tag and 2 play passes for $15, regularly priced at $30. My husband works in Sandy Springs, so I thought it might be something fun we could do, then go out to lunch with Dad.

One thing that I liked about the Sandy Springs Funhouse when I checked out their website was that they were geared toward kids of all ages, not just little ones. I was a little concerned with James since he is 13,but the play area was open to all ages, even adults. They have a separate area just for toddlers. I did warn both of my kids to be careful of smaller kids when they were playing.


This is a view of the play area.


James & Hannah

I love it when you can disguise exercise as fun!!!



This reminded me of a place called "Blockbuster Block Party" that was open in the mid 1990's in Indianapolis. It was a play place for adults - with a few restaurants, an arcade, motion simulator rides, and a "play place". Kids were allowed during the day, but in the evenings you had to be 21. Nothing like drinking beer, then riding a motion simulator! If you have ever climbed around in one of these play areas, you know that it's not the most comfortable thing to do. Block Party had knee pads that you could borrow to climb through. The highlight of the play area was the huge ball pit in the center. My husband and his friends would get in trouble for throwing the balls at people. The arcade was huge and had a nice variety of old and new games.

Anyway, I am finished with my trip down Memory Lane. Back to the Sandy Springs Funhouse.



The kids played some games and earned a few tickets.

There were some older games, such as an original Tron. The website said that they had games to appeal to the parents as well as the kids.


This was Hannah's favorite game. It was called Lazer Frenzy. You had to climb through the lazer beams without making contact - like in the movie Entrapment or in episodes of Kim Possible.

You had to get to the other end of the room and touch a button, then make your way back to the other side and press a button on that side. There was a time limit and it kept track of each time you made contact with a beam.


They played a game of Air Hockey.


Overall, we enjoyed the Sandy Springs Funhouse. It was a little smaller than I expected it to be. It wasn't very crowded when we got there at about 11am. There was a small daycare group there and a birthday party. By the time Chris arrived, close to 1:00, it was getting more crowded. There was a parents area, but it was just tables and chairs. I've been to some play places and they've had sofas and comfy chairs for the parents. There was one "bouncy" type slide/castle. The arcade games took tokens, not quarters. There was a small snack bar with a limited menu. Hannah wanted some goldfish crackers, but they were out of those. We did get bottled water.


I didn't get a picture of their lazer tag game. From what I could see, it was a nice arena. Chris came and joined us around lunch time, then we went to our favorite Sandy Springs eating place, Jason's Deli.


Then, as if that wasn't enough fun in Sandy Springs, we went to Whole Foods after lunch and bought a few items not available in Powder Springs grocery stores! Chris & James made a tub of almond butter (like peanut butter).
And that concludes our fun in Sandy Springs.

Boy Scout Camp

My baby boy is at Boy Scout camp this week. He left early Sunday morning. It hasn't been as quiet around the house as I thought it might be. My 10 year old daughter has been more than making up for it.



Gathering the troop together.


Boarding the bus. Usually, the parents drive their own kids to camp, or they carpool together. But this year, the troop chose to go to summer camp in Tennessee. It's about a 3 hour drive, which would make for a long day just to drop off a kid at camp. The American Legion that sponsors James' troop, paid for the coach bus transportation, which was no small fee.


The boys getting ready for the comfortable 3 hour ride to camp.

My baby comes home tomorrow! I've missed him.

One of My Favorite Things

In my quest to be healthier these last few months, I have been consuming dark chocolate when chocolate is needed. And you know that chocolate is sometimes needed! Anyway, I've been reading labels and looking for products that do not contain hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils. Milk chocolate, my favorite, usually contains those hydrogenated oils. :(

I've never really liked dark chocolate before, but now I have come to the conclusion that I just hadn't found the right dark chocolate. If you haven't already met, I would like to introduce you to "A Touch of Sea Salt Bar" by Lindt.



The description from the Lindt website: The complexity of the dark chocolate is enhanced by the addition of Fleur de Sel, a premium French sea salt in this premium new chocolate bar from Lindt Masters Chocolatiers.


Pure bliss! It still has sugar, calories, and other not so good things, but doesn't everything! With dark chocolate, I can just eat one or two pieces and my chocolate craving is satisfied. Milk chocolate always leaves me wanting more. It's a large bar and usually lasts me several days. Mmm.....chocolate!

What am I Reading?

My reading has slowed down a bit. I hardly read at all while we were in California. I read 1 quick HQ (Harlequin) Romance book and that's it! I usually read a couple of those a month, but I don't include them in my blogs. It's a little embarrassing to admit that I read them, but I love that they are quick & light reads.

Before we left, I read "How Nancy Drew Saved My Life" by Laura Baratz-Logsted. It was a bit slow getting into, but once into it, I couldn't put it down. A friend of mine suggested that I read and lent it to me.


I read Kristan Higgins "Catch of the Day". Another quick, fun read. I was comparing Kristan's books to another favorite author of mine, Katie Fforde and I have come to the conclusion that their style of books is very similar. Kristan's are just an American/East Coast version while Katie's are Great Britain. I love them both!




I started and finished Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. I blogged a few weeks ago about how I was going to start reading one classic a month because I felt that I was lacking in that genre. The first half of the book was quite slow moving. I could only read 1 to 2 chapters at a sitting. I kept looking at the bottom of my Kindle to see how much I had read and it was under 20% for the longest time. Once I got about half way into it, I couldn't put it down. I was very familiar with the story line since I had seen several movie versions of it, but this was my first time reading it. In the end, I LOVED it! Last night I started watching the Colin Firth version of it. It is much easier to keep up with all the characters after reading the book. My husband is watching it with me (sort of - while playing games on his droid) and he made a comment about the large number of characters.

I am putting an image of Colin Firth instead one of the book cover. Why? Do I really need to answer that???? Enjoy~




After Pride and Prejudice, I read yet another Kristan Higgins book, called "All I Ever Wanted". I read it in a day. It saddens me that I may be running out of books by Higgins to read!


Happy Reading!

California Trip {Days 6 & &7}

We started our morning with breakfast at David's Delicatessen , which was a few doors down from our hotel. (It's the blue sign in the picture below.)


We drove to the North end of the Golden Gate Bridge to park our car, then we walked across the bridge and back. It was a 3.4 mile walk. The walk lane was not too big. We had to deal with lots of bikes. The most frustrating thing was the people who didn't follow the "walk on the right side" signs.



After our walk across the bridge, we drove to Muir Woods. We had been to Muir Woods before. My grandfather took Chris & I to San Francisco in 1997. I had just found out that I was pregnant with James before we left. We did a lot of the touristy stuff on that trip, but I was suffering from morning sickness for most of it. Muir Woods was one of the places that I wanted to revisit when not dealing with nausea.

This little deer was not bothered by all the visitors watching.

We ate lunch at the restaurant at Muir Woods and I did not take a picture of that.


Our last timer shot of our trip!


After Muir Woods, we went back to the hotel to recharge. My legs were killing me from all the walking we did that day. So after we rested, what did we decide to do? We walked to Chinatown!


We bought a few gifts for the kids in Chinatown. We didn't have a whole lot of time to wander around because we had theater tickets for that evening. We couldn't stay in the theater district without seeing a play.


We went back to the hotel after Chinatown to change for the theater. We grabbed a quick dinner at Lori's Diner which was across the street from the theater. We didn't have time for anything else.


The night before we were looking for a play to see. The play at Stage Werx sounded interesting and it was just a couple of blocks from our hotel. The play was "Juno en Victoria" and was described as "Jane Austen meets Mythology". It was a very small theater and there were only about 10 people in the audience, including us. But we enjoyed the show and would recommend it to anyone who was in the San Francisco area.

That is the end of Day 6. We did not take any pictures on Day 7 - it was time to go home. We woke up, then grabbed a quick breakfast at another chain - Starbucks. Then we walked a few blocks trying to find a post office so we could mail postcards to the kids. We first stopped at a store that had a sign that said "we sell stamps", but they were out of US ones. The guy at the store gave us directions to a real post office, but we couldn't find it. We also looked online and got directions to another one that did not exist. Frustrated, we decided to try to find one on the way to the car return and airport. We found a post office, but it was closed. I went inside to use their machine to get stamps and they did not have a self serve kiosk. So we had to find another post office, this time we had success. We were able to mail the cards.

Our flight was delayed, but our connecting flight ended up being delayed, too, so we were able to make it. My parents picked us up at the airport around midnight. We headed back to Georgia the next morning.

We had a wonderful trip and hope to go back sometime soon with the kids.

California Trip {Day 5}

We checked out of the Dolce Hayes Mansion and started our "Geek" tour. We mapped things out on the GPS. Our first stop was 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, CA.


For those readers who are not familiar with this address, this is the Apple headquarters.

Maybe this image is more familiar.

It was amusing to people watch here. We were behind a metro bus that stopped and let off dozens of Apple employees. They were mostly young, casually dressed (jeans or khakis and button down shirts) and nearly everyone was wearing a backpack. The Apple campus was HUGE! Apple has a Company Store open to the public. Chris bought a polo style shirt there. We also picked up some little things for the kids, too. While in the store, Chris played around with an IPad on display and found a little place for us to eat breakfast. So that's where we went next.


Breakfast was at Bobbi's Coffee Shop. I had a delicious veggie omelet. Yum!


Our next stop on our Geek tour, was 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA.

In case you aren't familiar with that address, it is the headquarters of Google.
The Google headquarters (Googleplex) also encompass several buildings. There were yellow bicycles with baskets outside the buildings for employee use in getting from building to building.


The Computer History Museum was next. This is the largest computer history museum in the country.

This is a PDP-1 computer. It is significant because of the the control panel on the lower right that students built for playing a video game. The concept of video games didn't exist before this, so for video game fans out there, this was a crucial moment in history.


An original Pong video game machine.

This is a Cray Super Computer.


This is one of the first personal IMB computers. Chris had one like this in his dorm room at college.


This is an Apple 1 computer. You had to assemble the computer yourself and it did not come with a case. This one is signed by Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak.


The first Nintendo video game system. We received one as a wedding present in 1991 from my sister.

Then it was on to 367 Addison Ave. in Palo Alto, CA to take a look at this garage.

In case you're wondering why we would stop to look at someone's garage, it is the Hewlet Packard Garage - the birthplace of Silicon Valley.


Now finished with our Geek Tour, we made our way back to San Francisco, our final destination.


We checked into our hotel, the Warwick San Francisco, then went walking and exploring.

In all the excitement of our geek tour, we forgot to eat lunch! So we stopped at Annabell's Bar & Bistro for an early dinner. It was happy hour and all drinks & appetizers were on sale. So we feasted on a some bacon wrapped prawns, sweet potato fries, and an arugula pesto pizza.


We went to bed early, we were tired from our geeky adventures. I wish I could say we slept well, but we are not used to sleeping in downtown areas. There were whistles blowing (hailing taxis), horns honking, and lots of loud, drunk folks in the streets of downtown San Francisco.