Wow!! I thought I made good pancakes!!

When my children were younger I would sometimes use the decorative cookie cutters to make pancakes. I would spritz them with some  non-stick spray and pour the batter in the cookie cutter.

I’m not talking small cookie cutters either. I am talking the huge cookie cutters with the rubber on the top. We had teddy bears,flowers, butterflies and whatever shape I could get one in to make pancakes.

I lacked creativity. Shame on me.

Three of my Favorite things….

….talking on the phone, snow, and cooking or grilling.

It is not very often that I get to do all three at the same time.  The south was hit with a wonderful snow storm. One we have been anticipating since November. My family and I happen to love, love the snow. We are into all that snow fun type of stuff. Of course homeschooling provides more time to play in the white stuff if we ever happen to be fortunate enough to get any of it.

It finally arrived!!  Much to the joy and anticipatory pleasure  awaiting all. I had to share in my joy over all this white stuff falling around me. I called a friend.

I called my friend in Texas. I had to call the only person I know who has all ready started her garden. She has put in 24 tomato plants all ready.  Plus some fruit trees. She wanted proof or just a picture of me  outside in the snow grilling our wonderful T’Bone steaks.  We are equal opportunist grillers. Our motto is much the same and more reliable than that of the post office.

We grill come rain,shine,snow, sleet, hail, lightening, hurricane and blizzard. We keep three tanks just for this purpose.

Here is the not so flattering photo of me on the deck, talking to my friend and grilling steaks.  Oh…they must be rare to medium rare.  I cannot over cook a good piece of meat. I have tried and failed. Much to the chagrin of those of my acquaintances who have the poor taste to like dead, overdone, tough as leather meat. I cook it to perfection and you can ruin it yourself by throwing it in the microwave. I’m not doing it for you…..

If you ever visit and I prepare  my special grilled baked potatoes and a yummy piece of steak…it will be done to perfection….Mine!! You can do what you will after I remove it from the grill. 

By the way…we are expected to get somewhere between 8-12″ of snow.  Not a good snow but I guess it will suffice. My husband and I were discussing our idea of a great snow.  At least we are on the same page in our thoughts of snow. That could have been a marriage disaster!! To our way of thinking…at least two feet.  That would make it a great snow.

I know…we are in the wrong place. I can remember when Virginia would get snows like that. I am afraid we will have to move to a more Northern climate.  Hopefully before I am too old and frail to enjoy the stuff.

Zoo Part 3 ( Yes, I’m sorry…more pictures.)

I did mention in part 1 that we got lost trying to find the Zoo. We somehow managed to get turned around in the Zoo and never made it to the top half. I am not going to admit to being lost in the Zoo, but my husband would tell you so.

Due to our parking situation we entered the Zoo from the bottom entrance. The Zoo is a giant hill. Take my word for it. We ended up leaving the Zoo from the bottom entrance. The rest of the photos are dealing with exiting the zoo and trying to leave D.C.

For my chocolate loving friends, you will be pleased to note, that the Zoo has an M&M vending machine. Next to that is the Dippin’ Dots freeze dried ice cream. I tried that once. It is yummy but very odd eating ice cream that reminds you of styro foam beads.

You will also note the rather tired look on my daughters face. She thought we were lagging behind and she was…..tired!

Zoo Part 2 (Picture Heavy)

This old girl is actually 30 years old. In captivity, they can live up to 35 years. In the wild they may only get to about 20 years of age. She was donated to the Zoo by the Dept of Navy. She was all ready trained to throw a frisbie and fetch. She left the stage though and didn’t stay around much to play with the spectators. Her partner was swimming around and showing off for us.

Pictures from the Zoo….(Picture Heavy, added more to this post)

Here are some of the pictures we took while at the Zoo on Tuesday. I will be posting them as I get them gimped and scaled. This was an interesting trip. We got lost trying to get into D.C.( nearly 2 hours of driving around the outskirts) then finally made it into D.C. The total time spent just trying to get to the Zoo…was 3 hours. I only live 40 minutes from the Zoo. I ate humble pie and called my husband. I asked him to take the metro to the Zoo when he got off work and help us get home. He did. We would not have made it home had he not been gracious enough to help us. We might have still been in D.C. looking for our vehicle had he not come to our rescue.