Name that Movie Monday

It's time for the second installment of Name that Movie Monday. And this time I actually did come up with a prize for all participants! Well, okay, for all participants who live in a REDBOX market. I've decided to share my free Movie Monday code with all of you, you lucky readers you. (see, sometimes reading my blog does pay off)

Okay, ready? Here's your quote:

"There's a shortage of perfect breasts in this world. 'twould be a pity to damage yours."

It's more fun if you play along. So go ahead, give it your best guess.

And, as promised, here is your free movie code: LA45W7
It's good until midnight tonight. Watch, enjoy. But remember to return it on time or it's no longer free. :)

From fabulous to flat in 1 week

If you'll recall I wrote last week about my new fabulous bread recipe. I made it again on Monday this week with the same fabulous results.

Yesterday I made it again, and it was a complete disaster! It tasted like sand. I figured I must've accidentally left out an ingredient. So I threw that loaf away, washed out my bread pan and started another loaf. With similarly disastrous results.

What went wrong? I'm using the same recipe! I'm so confused!!!! Just when I thought I had it all figured out, I'm back to square one again. Sigh.

Anybody actually tried my recipe? Is it working for you? It is user error I have going on here? Or is my recipe somehow flawed...even though I used it twice with perfect results? sigh. Now what?

Summer of Cement

Apparently we started a new trend in the neighborhood. We were the first on the block to be visted by a cement truck.

About the same time a neighbor around the corner poured a new patio and pad for a shed, requiring another cement truck to come rumbling down our quiet street.

Then about a month later the house down the street wanted one of their own.

And this morning the neighbor just across the street had one just show up at their house to re-pour their RV parking strip.

And as long as it's the neighbors paying for it, I say bring it on! It's cheap entertainment for my kids. Right now they refuse to come down and eat breakfast because they are still watching the show.

Got to love the summer of cement!

How I love thee, let me count the ways.....

What you are looking at is a Vita-Mix. And if you have never heard of a Vita-Mix you are missing out. Don't make the mistake of thinking this is a blender. This is so much more!!!

Let me give you an idea of why I SO love mine. I'll do this by outlining my day for you.

First, you must understand that my kids are picky eaters. (Which they DIDN'T get from me, no matter what my mom says! She used to call me picky niki because I didn't like sweet and sour. Oh, if sweet and sour were the ONLY thing my kids didn't like.) Anyway, I have a hard time convincing them to eat fruit or vegetables. It's quite frustrating, to say the least. But, if I make them a milk shake they will drink it in two seconds flat. And here is the beauty of the Vita-Mix: it liquefies everything so I can throw in anything! This morning I threw in: An apple, seeds and all (the seeds have all the live enzymes that are SO good for your body!) Strawberries with the green stems still on. A handful of carrots. A little cabbage. Some spinach. A banana. And a little bit of protein powder for good luck. Try that with a regular blender! You'd have little chunks of apple and carrots floating in your drink. And I don't even want to think about putting spinach in a blender and trying to it homogeneous with the rest of the ingredients. But in my Vita-Mix, no problem. Everything is completely liquefied and you end up with a delicious and nutritious shake that my kids love!

After a quick rinse I filled it with wheat which I ground into flour so I could make a fresh loaf of bread.

For lunch I used it to whip me up a cup of Dr. Oz's Green drink. Which, by the way, tastes much better than you think it's going to. I actually enjoy it. Unlike green drinks I made in the past that I had to plug my nose to drink, all the while reminding myself that it was good for me.

After lunch it was onto fruit leather. I have Asian Pears rotting in my garage and I needed to do something with them. So, I pureed them in my Vita-Mix (once again, with seeds and skin) which is right now in my oven dehydrating. (post coming soon!)

As an afternoon snack we pulled out some frozen peaches and some fat free yougurt and the kids and I enjoyed a nice cold Peach Gelato. Yum!!!

And yes, I really REALLY did do all that just today! (and worked out, and went to Costco, and did laundry...wow!)

The point is that I'm NOT domestic and so if I did all this in one day you KNOW it's got to be easy, thanks to my Vita-Mix. Because there is no complicated clean up in between projects. And it just works so effortlessly. It's seriously the most used item in my kitchen.

Because that was just today. Tomorrow I may use it make fresh salsa and guacamole.

Or Pesto with fresh basil.

Or Pureed food for the baby because he still only has a handful of teeth.

Or Strawberry ice cream.

Or Tortilla soup.

Or a fat free vegetable dip with fresh garlic and dill.

Or fresh, homemade Peanut butter. (Choosy moms don't choose Jiff!!!!)

The list goes on and on and on.

And I'm not even getting paid to say this!

So, do yourself a favor if you haven't already. The next time the Vita-Mix guy or gal is at your local Costco go watch the demo. And after you've watched the demo and sampled all the yummy, fresh food do yourself a bigger favor and buy one. Yes, they are expensive, but YES it is SO worth it! Plus if you buy it at Costco it's cheaper and you get an extended warranty.

And I promise you will love it as much as I do.

Name that Movie Monday

So, I've decided to start a new weekly feature here on this little ol' blog of mine. Because, well, I thought it would be fun. Plus, Monday is Movie Day Do I need any other reason?

I like to watch movies. I mean really REALLY like to watch movies. Mostly because I wish I was making movies. And because I like to watch movies I also like to throw random movie quotes into my normal conversation, just to see if people notice. And because script writers work really hard to create witty dialogue and I sound funnier when I use what they have written.

So, here's how it works. I'll give you a movie quote. Some will be easy, some will be hard. (okay, who am I kidding, they'll all be easy.) Try to be the first to correctly identity the movie and leave your answer in the comment section. Don't cheat by looking at other people's answers. See if you can figure it out on your own.

Now, I'd love to say that there will be some fantastic prize for whoever is the first to correctly identify the movie. But, I'm not one of those bloggers who actually makes money off of my blog, so you'll just have to settle for feeling really special if you are first.

So, now onto the game! Here is your first every Name that Movie Monday movie quote.

"The thing is, a person's life is like a TV show. I was the star of The Will Show. And The Will Show wasn't an ensemble drama. Guests came and went, but I was the regular. It came down to me, and me alone. If Marcus' mum couldn't manage her own show....if her ratings were falling, it was sad, but that was her problem."

This one will be really easy for anybody who's been reading my blogs since the beginning. But don't cheat. Don't go look at the answer until you've made a guess!

Genius

No, not me. Well, maybe me. But that's not what this post is about.

I just downloaded the newest version of itunes and it has this new "Genius" feature. Has anybody seen this? It's supposed to create playlists from your music library of songs that it, the Genius, thinks "go great together." And then, as if that weren't enough, it also suggests new songs from the itunes store that would also go great with said playlist.

I haven't tried it yet because, well, I haven't purchased a song from itunes for awhile and, well, I can't really remember my login info. So I was wondering if anybody had tried it out yet and if it was worth tracking down my login info. Because I'm a really busy mommy/blogger and can't be bothered if it's not really REALLY worth my time.

Oh, and as long as I'm getting all geeky here....have you seen the new "I'm a PC" ads?

I'll admit, I'm typing this blog post right now on a Dell laptop....but I still think the Mac ads are WAY better. That's just my humble opinion.

Okay, enough geeky blogging for one day.

The grass is greener, but at what cost?

The house next door to me is for sale. In preparation for this they pulled out the weeds and laid all new sod in the yard a few months ago. At the time it was really really hot and they were trying to get new grass to grow so they watered it a lot.

Now the weather is cooling, and the grass is well established. But in the past few weeks I've begun to notice really how much they are watering the lawn. The sprinklers come on EVERY morning AND EVERY night for several hours. Now I am by no means what you would call a tree hugger. (much to the dismay of my younger brother who just spent 2 years in Seattle where everybody is a tree hugger) But even I think that so much watering is this desert state often plagued by drought is a bit excessive. Not to mention expensive!

So I keep thinking I should call the real estate agent. The house is vacant and part of me believes that it's an accident that the sprinklers are coming on so often. But then I try to play out in my head the conversation I'd have with the agent and I really don't know what I would say. Because what if they really do want to water it that much and they just think I'm a nosey neighbor who should keep my tree hugging opinions to myself. And I always talk myself out of calling.

But sitting here tonight, listening to the sprinklers running yet again, I'm trying to convince myself to get up the nerve to call the agent in the morning. What do you think?