Vote! Vote! Vote!

My cousin's daughter has authored a series of books called The Sports Princess. I submitted a few photos of Agnes and one photo of Laura (but she's not wearing a skirt, so I don't know if it really counts as a princess).
There's a contest happening right now and I really want Agnes to win, so please send an email to sportprincesses@gmail.com with the subject title "Photo Contest" with the Alpha Letter of the photo you're voting for in the body of the email and vote for Agnes! There are three photos of Agnes (A, F, and N) but if we put our votes together and vote for the "N" picture (because Karen decided she liked that one best), maybe we have a chance!

So go to that email address, put "Photo Contest" in the subject line and put "N" in the body of the email, please!

The rules are that you can only vote once a day (hurry and vote today!!!) until June 10th. Please vote everyday! Thanks!

Another Cheap Date

On Saturday we spent the night at the University Marriott. Here's the lobby, with its version of what I call Medusa's hairball. Bud says they were all introduced because of the Olympics.
This was the view from our room. Beautiful.
Typical room.
We went to dinner at Market Street Grill on 13th East just off 5th South. I like this particular Market Street because they put the baby shrimp on the salad without you having to ask for it.
Bud is ready to dig in.
Here's mine. A bit healthier than the last meal we ate from out.
Well, almost.
It's almost Bud's birthday, so we had a buy one get one free dinner coupon. Nice.

After dinner we went to Red Butte Garden, since it was just a minute away from the hotel.
With the money we saved at dinner, Bud bought himself a book on gardening, and flowers.
Back to the hotel, here's the workout room. We didn't use it. Neither did anyone else, obviously.
Here's the pool. Small, but warm. We sat in the hot tub for a few minutes.
How about the carpet? I thought it was better than most hotel carpet I've seen, but Bud thought it was too busy.
I didn't like this paper in our room, but at least the ones on this paper were the only ones we saw. No real life ones! Hate them!
And our view in the morning, out the other side of the window.
We went to the Marriott because we had a free voucher from a patient of ours who works there, which included a free breakfast.

The only bad part was that the a/c unit in the room hummed all night long so we didn't get much sleep for most of the night! Total cost of the entire deal? $22 for dinner, $26 for the book, $4 for the tip on our free breakfast, $0 for the room. Nice. Happy (almost) Birthday Bud!

Inspiration

My bishop told me this tonight-

"The valiant cheerfully do all they can, even during times of trouble."

Quoted from Teachings of Presidents of the Church- Joseph Smith, chapter 30, page 352.

Thanks, Bishop.

Overcoming...

Autobiography in Five Short Chapters by Portia Nelson

1. I walk down the street There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I fall in. I am lost…I am hopeless. It isn't my fault. It takes me forever to find a way out.

2. I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I pretend I don't see it. I fall in again. I can't believe I am in the same place. But…it isn't my fault.

3. I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I see it is there. I still fall in…it's a habit. My eyes are open. I know where I am. It is my fault. I get out immediately.

4. I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I walk around it.

5. I walk down another street.

—©1993 From There's a Hole in My Sidewalk

A Matter of Degrees

Look what I learned how to do...
I can make the degree symbol now. Look... ° isn't that great? It's amazing what you can learn when you do a smidgeon of research.
Now I just have to remember how to do it next time I need it.
Heat oven to 350°... just practicing!

And just for fun... ® ™ ¢ © é ñ ÷

Okay. That was enough fun.

Karen, Don't Even Read This

Sunday afternoon I knew it had been way too long since I'd baked anything. While Bud was home teaching, I randomly pulled out one of the many cookbooks from the shelf, let it fall open to wherever it wanted and I decided that was good enough!
The cookbook is Favorite Brand Name Recipes, but I never knew that until just now because the name on the book just says Old Fashioned Cookies, Illustrated by Debbie Mumm. Of course, the reason I bought the book in the first place was because of that! Love Debbie Mumm.

Karen? Are you reading this? Or did you see the coconut on that cookie and throw your computer across the room vowing never to look at my blog again?

Well, this recipe is just a straight oatmeal cookie. It was my own whacky brain that added the coconut. That's just how I am. Karen? Are you sure I'm your mother? Are you sure you're my daughter?

These cookies were excellent. Even if you left the coconut out, since that's how the recipe goes, they're still very good. But the coconut makes them excellent. Unless you hate coconut. Karen?

Old-Fashioned Oatmeal Cookies

3/4 cup butter-flavor Crisco shortening (Samuel, don't judge!)

1 1/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar

1 egg

1/3 cup milk

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3 cups quick-cooking oats, uncooked

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon (I used 1/2 tsp)

1 cup raisins

1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (okay- YUCK! this is where I substituted the coconut, 1 cup of it)

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Combine shortening, brown sugar, egg, milk and vanilla in large bowl. Beat at medium speed until well blended.

Combine oats, flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Mix into shortening mixture at low speed just until blended. Stir in raisins and (coconut) walnuts (yuck).

Drop by rounded measuring tablespoonfuls of dough 2 inches apart onto baking sheets sprayed with non-stick cooking spray (seriously, can't I just say Pam?).

Bake one baking sheet at a time at 375 degrees (does anyone know a keyboard shortcut to make the little circley degree symbol?) for 10-12 minutes. Do not overbake. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheets. Remove cookies to cooling rack to cool completely.

You can see that some of the cookies are plain, some are topped with the Almond Joy Pieces (they worked well here!) and some are sprinkled with even more coconut.

Sorry, Karen. I'll try not to talk about coconut for the rest of the month. Oh wait, that only means until next Monday! I think I can do that :)
P.S. On a Mac, the circley degree symbol is made by pressing shift + option + 8. Like this °. On a PC it's alt 248. Now you know.