Fun Friday

I might be a very fortunate girl in June.  This photo holds the clues to the cities I might get to visit.  One is booked already the other is in the works.  

Seven

The cases at 3 dog bakery

Foxy's Birthday Cake

Can I please eat it now?

These presents smell and taste good. 

Foxy's 7th Birthday was last Thursday but she got spoiled with a cake and presents on Saturday. 

stage 7 part two

Here are some more photos from Saturday.

Foxy on the red carpet - she didn't stay long due to the fact it was really dirty and smelly, I was afaird she was going to do something on it.  

This photo speaks for it's self...they were in the press area if you can believe it. 

I was waving the flag of Flanders for the riders when they rode by.  I believe it was Serge Pavwels that pointed at me as he drove by. (he is a Belgian rider)

Lance getting swarmed by people

Foxy was ready for a nap a couple hour into our waiting. 

comments

o.k. I have adjusted my comments please see if that works now.

Stage 7 part one

Saturday we saw the sign in of the stage 7 tour of California. The sign in is where the riders walk up or ride up to a stage/table and sign in right before the start of the race. Sometimes they sign autographs on their way up to sign in.

Bright and early Joe, Foxy and I headed down to get a good spot for this activity. We did think that the crowds would be a heavier than a normal US cycling event due to the fact Lance Armstrong was racing again.

After 3 hours of patiently waiting we got to see all the top riders up close and personal.

Here are some riders photos from the day. 

Tom Boonen, The fastest rider from Team Quick Step - the Belgian Team we wanted to see

Riders sneeking in the back way.

George Hincapie (he rode with Lance years ago)

Carlos Sastre - he won the Tour de France 2008

Lance Armstrong - He came in the back way and went down the other side of the stage so we didn't get to see him up close or get him to sign Joe's book. 

Levi Leipheimer's bike

Levi Leipheimer going to sign in. He won the Tour of California

Frank Schleck or Andy Schleck 

Tom Boonen walking to the start. 

Comment problems

I found this web site after some concern that people can't leave comments. 

Mom call me and I can help you with the issues.  I hope this helps everyone if not...I don't know what else to do. 

Issues with the embedded comment form? click here to see the web site I got this from.

Yesterday a few readers emailed me to explain that there were issues with Blogger's embedded comment form.

The issue was that the "Comment as" drop down menu was empty, preventing readers from choosing an identity for their comments which in turn prevented comments from being left.

As yet, the Blogger team have not acknowledged this issue on the Known Issues (or any other blog), and as far as we can tell, the problem should now be resolved. It could have been a browser-related issue, or perhaps Blogger was making some improvements to the embedded comment form which caused this temporary glitch?

Software Testing Zone wrote about this issue in detail, and has since updated this post to explain that this issue appears to have been resolved. I personally did not experience any problems with the embedded comment form for any of the Blogger blogs I viewed over the past few days, but I am interested to learn more about this issue in case something similar happens in the future.

For anyone still experiencing this problem when reading Blogger powered blogs, try refreshing your browser (press F5 for most browsers, which completely refreshed the page), or clear cookies and temporary internet files to ensure you have a fresh version of the page.

If you were affected by issues with the embedded comment form, please do leave a comment below with some information, such as the browser you were using (Firefox, IE6/7, Safari), whether the blog was using a custom domain or a customized template, etc.

Thank you all for keeping me informed about any Blogger issues you are experiencing! Even though I am not officially affiliated to Blogger, I will do my best to help the Blogger community in any way I can.

Guess What

We did on Saturday?

 These pictures are a clue but I don't think they are a give away. Click on the words palm trees at the end of this post to leave your guess.

Yes I'm talking to Sylvester, Bugs and Daffy.

Bugs Bunny is giving the thumbs up to you all.  Sylvester is waving hello to you and Foxy is thinking what is going on with all these big animals around me. 

Freezer Friday

Goodies in our freezer - Brussels sprouts, green beans from France and eclairs with Belgian chocolate.  Who knew we import green beans from France?

Finds

Since leaving Begium we haven't gone shopping for "finds".  Sunday we just came across these wonderful finds.  However I just got done polishing them and I'm tired.  Good news is they are all shiny now. 

Before the polishing

I just can't wait to use this

Almost done polishing

I had to polish this 3 times.  This is after the first time.

Cleaned up very nicely, not bad for $2.99

other blog

Hello - just a quick note I have my other blog back up and running again. 

click below on the highlighted words.

 JacketandJill  

It's Chili Outside

For the record I have never been a fan of chili. I have been invited to chili dumps in Chicago that entailed driving to Wisconsin, which I think are gross. (never ate the chili) Then when I was dating Joe his friends would make chili for the football games. Being new to the circle I would try and eat it (actully the first time I have ever tried chili )

For some reason I decided to make this chili the other night. I think it was the "mole" ingredient that looked good to me. I first tried mole sauce in NYC when I was attending FIT that one summer. A girl from one of my classes introduced me to it. But that is another story for another day.

Page from House Beautiful Magazine

Mole sauce - you can get it in the mexican section of the grocery store

It's cooking 

Yum Yum Yum! 

Congressional Chili - from House Beautiful Magazine Feb or Jan 2009
Serves 8 to 10
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 medium yellow onions, diced
2 green bell peppers, diced
2 cloves garlic, pressed
2 ½ pounds ground beef, preferably sirloin
16 ounces canned tomato sauce
3 tablespoons prepared red mole
3 tablespoons chili powder
3 cups of water
32 ounces canned kidney beans
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
Shredded cheddar cheese
Diced green onions

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions, peppers and garlic. Sauté until the onions are translucent and the peppers begin to soften. Season with salt and pepper and set aside. Brown the beef in a soup pot; drain off any excess fat. Add half of the sautéed onion-pepper mixture to the meat. Stir in the tomato sauce, mole, chili powder and water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Adjust the seasoning by adding additional salt, pepper, mole or chili powder to your liking. Simmer for 30 minutes. Add the beans and the remaining half of the onion-pepper mixture; cook for 15 minutes. Serve topped with cheese and onions.

Travel Guru

I believe that anyone thinking of traveling to Europe, anyone who watches PBS or anyone who is/was an expat in Europe has heard of Rick Steves. The other weekend I saw in the paper that the LA travel and adventure show was going to happen on February 14th & 15th at the LA convention center and one of the speakers would be Rick Steves.

His books got me, and I know a lot of other friends in Brussels through many cities in Europe. I didn't use his tips on hotels (they didn't usually allow dogs) or restaurants but his simple step- by-step of how to catch the train from Florence to Pisa Italy, his quick-guide map of the Louvre in Paris, the hours of the Sistine Chapel and many many more have tips have been very helpful in planning my trips.

Once we got to the Convention Center we went to Rick's booth just to check it out before we went to listen to him and take a photo of him for the blog. Surprise! He was at the booth getting ready to go get ready for his lecture. He looks so different in person than on TV or in his books, Joe and I were debating if it was him or not. Finally someone had him sign a book and we ran back over for me to get my book signed and a photo op. Joe was just laughing cause I was smiling so big in the photo. He is not as goofy in person as I was hoping for, maybe because he was trying to get to the area to give his speech on budget travel. He did let me take a photo of him so that was good.

So since we saw Rick we didn't go to his lecture (oops sorry) we just walked around the expo and got good info on Hawaii, California and Fiji so I can start planning trips again.

My signed book 

Rick & me - did I mention he is really really tall.  I even have heels on. 

The Flanders booth was next to Rick's so we visited for old times (with things like this popping up, how am I going to get over not being there any more?).  Chatted with the lady-of course she asked if we visited Bruges when we were in Belgium.  You know I'm not a fan of Bruges and thought Rick was going to ask me about it but, no, someone from Belgium that had Bruges brochures brought it up.  I connect very well with Colin Farrell's character in the movie "In Bruges".  I'm rooting for the film at the Oscars Sunday (original screen play) or Brad Pitt.  Click here for my movie review. 

Guest Room

As promised here a couple photos of the house...more to come but Joe didn't like the way my camera works since it was dropped so I got a new one for Valentines day. (thanks Honey) These photos are with the old camera that is why they are fuzzy.

Hand towels and vintage mirror in guest bath room.

Shower curtain - since this photo was taken I have ironed the curtain.

Goodies for you to enjoy! 

Happy Valentines Day!

This is the only year I have ever asked for jewelry.  My gift is wrapped in an ad for Cartier diamond necklace.  I don't think that is what is inside, but I did get some pretty paper diamonds.  

We haven't open presents yet but I do know what it is...stay tuned. 

Below is the google image for today - I love it!  

Frank Friday

Hot dog stand in the Helms Bakery area (by Father's Office)

Father's Office

Sunday we took a much needed break and drove to Culver City (Samy's Camera) to pick-up Joe's flash from his camera that was being repaired.  Wanting to make more out of the side trip than just crossing an item off the to do list, we had dinner at Father's Office. 

Everything I have read about Father's Office says it has the best burgers ever.  So I wanted to check it out for myself. 

Burger dripping with caramelized onions, arugula leafs, Gruyere cheese mixed with  bits  of bacon and blue cheese with a side of small fries. (Three of the fries put to together = one fry width.) They have a strict no customization policy - I wanted no blue cheese but was giving  a speech about if you don't like it we will take it back. I couldn't even see or taste it.  We both agreed the burgers were good.  

Fun coaster for Joe's Beer.

With 72 beers on tap Joe went with one he knows a little something about.  The Bartender wanting to share his knowledge of Belgian Beer or impress us one of the two. Obviously he did not know our knowledge of the subject so we just kindly smiled and said "thank you".  

The red tap was my choice. Water! how funny is that it comes from a red hydrant.  I thought is was so clever I need a photo to share with you all. 

Rain Rain Rain

With all the rain we have been getting streets and highways are flooding. Also our house is flooding...we discovered this Friday night our carpeting was soaked on the one corner of the house. So I still don't have my house all up to par. Maybe be one day soon. On the plus side our landlord now said we can get new blinds in the house!!!! (I didn't even ask he just offered...maybe cause I have been putting up curtains everywhere.)

Damages

Top of our patio umbrella 

Present from Kate...Sorry Kate I'm trying to glue the pieces back on

Minneapolis painting - back torn

Book end from China Joe got last summer

Glass