Usborne Famous Women 550 piece puzzle

Hedgehog again was up for more of a challenge so we completed most of this 550 piece puzzle without using the picture.  However, with the last hundred or so pieces we needed more help to fit together the word sections.  So we did use the picture during the last few days.  The puzzle incorporates quiz questions in the puzzle and we knew some of the answers but definitely not all of them.  A fun and informative puzzle about strong, brave, creative and pioneering women inspiring a new generation of women to be pioneers too!

Bountiful Baskets December 2012

Total of $15 and we received multicolored carrots, Fuji apples, a personal watermelon, a cantaloupe, bananas, Roma tomatoes, a papaya, broccoli, romaine lettuce, mushrooms and very, very ripe persimmons.

Sunday Randomness #65 Double meaning

Look, it's two beaters; they must be Fred and George!

300 Piece Search and Find Puzzle

We completed this Walter Wick 300 piece puzzle back in October but I'm behind on posting about it.  I figured it was time for another puzzle post since no one ventured a guess on the mystery plant.  (A one dollar incentive apparently doesn't go very far these days.)   The Walter Wick puzzle was fun but it actually got a bit confusing with all the beads, especially the blue beads winding throughout the puzzle.  We're currently working on an Usborne puzzle about famous women.

Sunday Randomness #102 Mystery plant

This has been growing in a crack in the backyard.  I identified the plant in general but I don't know the specific type.  Anyone else care to venture a guess?

If more people read this blog, I had even entertained thoughts of a prize for the first person to correctly name the plant type in the comments but then I thought I'd be too discouraged at the total lack of comments.

This is where one must be willing to take chances.   If I do get some comments I will mail out a crisp $1 bill to the first correct guess at the type of plant.  I know, not much of a prize, but hey, a dollar is a dollar.  It's still enough buy a small treat at most grocery stores.  If by chance you want to comment, feel free-just be sure to leave some sort of contact information if you'd like a chance at that one dollar bill.

Sunday Randomness #161 Speed Trap

This past month we had a day that started with a police car in our neighborhood.  Further up, and out of sight on account of the bushes, was a second patrol car.  The two police officers, standing across the street, were catching speeders.  The street  goes straight through for a few blocks and is a prime spot for people wanting to  go a bit faster than the traditional 25 mph residential speed limit.  We  talked briefly with the officers and they related that they stopped 4 people going over 40 mph in just the first 20 minutes (plus others also going over 25 mph but the 40 mph people were definitely speeding excessively).

But the catch of the day for shooting these fish in a barrel?  A motorcyclist clocked doing more than double the speed limit at 51 mph with the added irony that the motorcyclist also happened to be a doctor.  One would think a doctor would know better than to be speeding in a non-emergency situation but turns out that at least some doctors go a tad above the speed limit just like a number of other people who zip down this neighborhood cut through.  The officers mostly gave out warnings but a few (like the motorcyclist) got tickets if their speed was deemed too excessive.  So if you come to our neck of the woods, don't speed down the cut through-you never know when a speed trap might be waiting!

Pearls Puzzle

Our most recent puzzle completion: An Anne Geddes design in a small 100 piece puzzle that I picked up at Deseret Industries for $.75.  It only took Hedgehog about 15 minutes to piece this together.   Hedgehog remarked occasionally about finding matching pearls. We had a 1000 piece woodland otter puzzle out for months that we finally just put away because everyone had stopped working on it.  We do better with completing the 500 or less piece puzzles.

More Summer Chalk Art

 Violin music and a starry city night

Tardis

Daisy has added art to the front walk but we haven't always taken pictures.  I did take some pictures and thought I should put them up before the rain (that's suppose to come this week) washes away the latest works.

Sunday Randomness #273 Candy Vitamins

Step right up, step right up, Get yerself and yers family sum of these here delishus L'il Critters Gummy Vites!  Full of good fur ya multi-vitamins and mineeerals!  Shur to help whatere ails ya! Tho' these mite look like them candee ones, these little bears are packed with good stuffs!  Gots natural colors and flavors-none of that ther' artificially stuff in these here vitamens. Yous gots your cherries, tropical punch, orangeey,  lemony, and  fancy white grape flavors all in one bottle!  And for thos' of yuh that's got allergees?  Ther's no gluten, milk, eggs, peanuts or soy to be fohnd in any a one of these!  Plus they's got that ther' seal of approoval from those three fellers from the Chef's Best for BEST TASTE 2011.  Yous can take 'em with mama's approvin' of these l'il beasty candees!

So get yerself some squishy, squashy, chewy, gooey, chomp smackin', chewy, beary, goodness today by buying yur very own bottle of Gummy Vites!

Our opinion: They're an easy and yummy way to remember to take vitamins on occasion.

(Disclaimer: We bought the vitamins on our own and have not been paid, compensated, rewarded,  punished or even acknowledged for our opinion on this product.)

Bountiful Baskets September

Bountiful baskets share for $15: 4 corn, 2 heads green leaf lettuce, 5 lb. bag red potatoes, 4 tomatoes, 7 peppers, 3 grapefruit, 7 plums, 5 pears, 1 bag black seedless grapes, 2 avocados, 6 limes and we got an extra bag of potatoes for volunteering.

Fajita pack for $5: 3 green peppers, 3 red peppers, 2 yellow onions, 1 head garlic, about 1/2 dozen assorted dried hot peppers.    Tortilla pack for $10.50: 3 dozen large flour tortillas, 2 dozen small flour tortillas and 2 dozen small corn tortillas.

Orders are taken starting Monday at 10:00 a.m.  Go to www.bountifulbaskets.org for more information.

Sunday Randomness #14 A lone Wookie

More notes left around the house.  Wookies are pretty popular right now.  We've gone through kitty phases, manatee spells, puppy past-times, turtle musings and other various animal interludes. (And yes, Wookies are not animals but I still think they look like giant intelligent nice bears.  So I'm lumping them with the animals for looks only.)

Summer Fruit Tarts

Daisy made a Fourth of July Tart with raspberries and blackberries almost entirely by herself.   I helped a little with baking the crust.  We used PanNan's recipe at:  http://www.food.com/recipe/fresh-summer-fruit-tart-122364

This assorted fruit tart we bought from a local bakery.  Verdict?  They were both delicious and we would buy the local bakery tart again and we would make the homemade version again but Daisy's homemade tart did edge out the local bakery.  Maybe it was the brown sugar in the homemade crust or the difference in the fillings but the local bakery tart lasted about three days and Daisy's tart didn't even last one day before it was finished off.  Plus I loved the design on Daisy's tart.

Bountiful Baskets July

 Plum variety pack-this was one box worth of plums for $13.50

 Rainier Cherries 18 lb box for $22.50!  (Just saw Rainier cherries at a grocery store for $6.99 a lb.)

Share for $15 with two summer squash, 6 plums, 1 box raspberries (I got an extra box for volunteering), 1 box strawberries, 2 pkg. carrots, 1 cucumber, 1 bag green grapes, 1 large bunch broccoli, 4 red corn, 1 cantaloupe, and 1 head of living butter lettuce

Order every Monday, pick up on Saturday.  www.bountifulbaskets.org

Sunday Randomness #19: McDonalds Rebuild part 12

 Finished!  They did open on the 27th of June but we didn't make it up until June 30, 2012

 Cars lined up going through the Two Lane Drive-Thru

 View of the south east corner

 Left side of drive-thru menu as of June 30, 2012  Happy meal with 4 McNuggets is $3.45, hamburger happy meal $2.99 and cheeseburger happy meal $3.35. 

 Right side of drive-thru menu as of June 30, 2012  Big Mac meal is $5.25 and just the sandwich is $3.65

 We got a chicken McNugget happy meal, chicken wrap, strawberry banana smoothie  and

 a two cheeseburger meal, a big mac meal and a wild berry smoothie

It's been fun and interesting to watch them rebuild this McDonald's from the ground up over the last few months.  I just wanted to see if they would really be open by June (as advertised) and they did it. We went and tried it out but I admit we're not frequent customers of McDonald's or any fast food place or restaurant for that matter. 

(For dinner tonight we had baked top round steak, wilted spinach, imitation red lobster cheddar bay biscuits and mashed potatoes-we try to make homemade food when possible.  For dessert we're eating leftover cookies made by hedgehog: peanut butter/honey cookies and chocolate chip/coconut cookies. )

Sunday Randomness #19: McDonalds Rebuild part 11

 Now there's trees and bushes outside on pretty planted terraces-south west corner

 South side planting bushes while inside they must be working on refrigeration

Almost all the construction evidence is  gone-but there's that lone blue wheel barrow off to the right
                                                                           June 25, 2012

Sunday Randomness #19: McDonalds Rebuild part 10

 Parking lot getting closer to completion on south side but there's still the giant mound of dirt

South west corner still a fair amount of construction materials to be seen    June 23, 2012

Sunday Randomness #19: McDonalds Rebuild part 9

 Front "Welcome" facing west

 Installing the drive-thru signs by the south east corner-the "M" is facing east

 Still have some scaffolding up on the south side

 South west corner                                      June 19, 2012

 Two drive-thru lanes

 New digital marquee-reading "Opening June 27th"

 Partially poured parking lot

 Front facing west

 Still have a backhoe working on a few things by the north west corner  June 21, 2012

Sunday Randomness #19: McDonalds Rebuild part 8

 Front south west corner still with the old marquee

Below is the south side-notice the white sections on the top two pictures.    May 29, 2012

 What a difference a week makes!  Above is the north side, now painted red.

 South side painted red with the white brick

Below is the front of the McDonald's facing west

And here's the south west corner with the new digital black marquee.  June 10, 2012

Sunday Randomness #19: McDonalds Rebuild part 7

 Front facing west

 Back facing east-note the stone work going up

 South side

Front south west corner-the McDonald's sign still has the old white background with black plastic lettering                                                          May 23, 2012