Always Watching

Hi All!

Well, it is Tuesday and that means that I will soon be hitting the road to make the 45 minute trip to the college to work on school stuff. I have all of my homework completed but there are other assignments that I can get a jump on so . . . I plan to spend some time doing just that!

Before heading to school though, I plan to contact one of the agencies to see if I can get some observation time in for tomorrow. I am a bit nervous about calling. In fact, my stomach is in one big knot just thinking about it!

Talking on the phone has never been easy for me. You can't see the other person and I am always worried I will sound like a big dork! Then there is the whole talking to someone I don't know! Yikes! Yes, I am always good at talking to strangers but that doesn't meant that I actually enjoy it at first! I ALWAYS have that knot in my stomach! I wish I could do something to just loosen it up a bit!

I think that I am just going to pause a moment and make the call now. Like ripping off a band-aid - faster is better, right?

Hold on . . .

Okay - it is done and I survived! Yes, I am pretty sure that I sounded like an idiot but . . . it is done!!!! Now I just have to wait and see if I get any assignments. Keep your fingers crossed since I need 200 hours this semester and that means a lot of assignments!

On to other news . . .

My walk/swim was nice this morning. Well, to be honest, the walk wasn't too fun since there was 81% humidity. The swim however, was refreshing and relaxing! I still can't think of a much better way to start the day off!

While I was swimming I noticed a proliferation of HUGE dragonflies. They were at least four inches long! Yes, there were some puny one and two inchers flitting around but those four inch suckers were pretty impressive! Until they started to dive bomb me while I was floating in the water! Talk about a bit un-nerving!

Luckily, none decided to become suicide bombers and they all "pulled up" at the last minute! Whew!

Now let's talk zucchini bread!

Last night I decided to make zucchini bread. I had been planning it for a while and had gotten some nice big zucchinis when I shopped on Sunday. So - out came the recipe and off I went. The first item on the recipe was 3 cups butter - or so I thought! While I was thinking that that was an awful lot of butter, it never occurred to me that I had read the recipe incorrectly. Deciding that I would only make a half batch since I didn't have three cups of butter in the house (!!), I slopped in one cup and went on with life. Until I thought it was odd that there was no sugar in the recipe.

Taking the card in hand once more, I looked at the recipe carefully. The first item was NOT 3 cups of butter but in fact 3 cups of SUGAR! Oops!

I glanced into my mixer bowl and the cup of butter happily co mingling with the eggs and the oil. Now what do I do????

Deciding that I could do nothing but soldier on, I kept mixing. Now I needed to make some adjustments to the recipe because a cup of butter is a LOT of butter - even for two loaves. I put in all the other ingredients on the recipe but fudged the amounts a bit. More flour was added to hopefully offset the melting of the butter while the loaves baked.

Then I scooped the stiffer than normal batter into two pans and . . . crossed my fingers as I put them in the oven.

After an hour (maybe a bit less), I took the loaves out and they looked good. Fifteen minutes later I turned them out on the cooling rack and they still looked good even though the centers had sunk a bit. Fifteen more minutes later I sliced into one loaf, took a deep breath and took a bite.

My first thought was that the bread wasn't sweet enough. Then I thought that it was too sweet. For some odd reason, there appears to be a crust of sugar on the loaf which, while tasty, was totally unexpected.

This morning I plan on trying the bread again to see if it is really edible or not. Then - if it is edible - I hope to get rid of some by taking it with me to school.

No - I don't have a picture of the bread - it is a sore subject!

I do have a picture of Skor for you.
Lately, Skor has become almost obsessed with bug and gecko hunting. He is always sniffing around the edges of the rooms and around furniture looking for something to chase.
sgh
To be fair - he is a very good bug hunter. He almost always gets a bug -which we then take from him - and that helps keep our house bug free.

In this picture it isn't a bug he is focused on.

It is this guy - the squirrel sitting in the seed that the birds are rejecting and Hubby is hoping to get rid of.

sfh

The squirrel dug through the seeds to find the sun flower seeds and then sat right in the bowl and ate them. Skor wasn't happy!

sfh

I tried to get a video of Skor "scolding" the squirrel but he wouldn't "talk" for the camera! Rats!

sfg

I hope your day is full of fun things to chase and new information!

fg

Trisha

Voice Update: Doing remarkably well. I am sort of waiting for the other shoe to drop - so to speak - but, even if/when it does, I am confident that I know what to do to get my voice back in shape. I was reflecting this morning about how lucky I was to have been diagnosed quickly and sent to Susan quickly. Some people go for years bouncing between doctors and therapists before they find help. Me - I got help right away and I am certain that is one reason I am doing so well.

sfg

That does bring up a different topic - one which I have been struggling with. Do I continue trying to keep the SD support group together? AND do I go to the SD convention near my hometown? Currently I am thinking the support group will go and that I will attend the convention just as a "regular" person and not a leader. Still pondering though.