That's a Fancy Feast!

Fancy Feast Cat Food - Grilled Beef Feast in Gravy:  Meat broth, beef, liver, wheat gluten, meat by-products, corn starch-modified, artificial and natural flavors, salt, added color.... and a number of great vitamins...  Would you eat all that for

TWENTY DOLLARS?!?

I WOULD, and I DID.... Silly Ben for thinking I wouldn't take on such an easy bet!!  :-)

$20 richer and maybe, just maybe, a little healthier.  I think I should send this video in to "Man vs. Wild" as an audition tape. Come on Bear Grylls I ate cat food... bring on the raw deer meat, I can take it!!

A Cheese Surprise!

I am a terrible grocery shopper. I never find good deals. I always just buy what I am in the "mood" for and I apparently pay no attention to what I purchase. Case in point, a couple of weeks ago I bought a bag of string cheese. Now, the regular shopper would have noticed a few things on this bag. But the only thing I saw was - string cheese and light. That’s exactly what I need (I am sure I thought) and went on my merry way. As you can see from the picture above I tore a hole in my newly purchased bag of cheese and about every day for a week I have indulged in a mozzarella cheese stick (that’s the white cheese) as a snack. So, imagine my surprise (as the uninformed shopper) when I pull out a cheese stick today and it looks like this. “What the” I thought, “Why is there orange cheese in my cheese stick?” So I look at the bag. See the HUGE white letters that say VARIETY? It explains exactly what is included in my bag of cheese surprises, but I paid no attention because I am a terrible grocery shopper. Now that the bag is half gone I realize that I have a variety of cheese and it’s actually really yummy! If I am lucky enough I will find it again. Oh dear I hate grocery shopping.

The Troll Under The Bridge

My mom took trip to Seattle this weekend I was able to meet her up there. It was a quick trip, but lots of fun! We had the most amazing dinner on the water with such a beautiful view of the city, my mom was able to experience was it feels like to live without the sun and we found a big troll living under a bridge! Oh my heck, we searched high and low for this guy! Dan told me about it and my mom and I knew we just had to find it. I fall into the category of people who refuse to ask for directions because I believe that I have a superior set of navigation skills. Needless to say, we didn't find the troll until the second day of the trip! But we found him! The Troll under the bridge is made out of concrete and he has a (real) VW bug under his left hand. My mom loved the troll and was even more interested in the fact that there were people living behind the troll under the bridge.I wanted to sit by his nose, so I climbed up onto his hand - Oh so fun!It's always an adventure when we get together. Thanks for a fun trip Mom!

Those Are Some BIG Coons!

You know when you can just tell when someone is staring at you... well have you ever had a raccoon starring at you?! I have.

The other day I look out my sliding glass door and there are 3 GINORMOUS raccoons staring right into my house and looking at me! CREEPY! Naturally, I grab my camera and walk over to the door. This didn't phase them. They held strong while the human flashed pictures through the window of the door. My pictures weren't turning out quite good enough, so I decided to brave this strange adventure and open the door. Quickly, a few scattered across the deck, but one stuck it out. Here he is...

Isn't he HUGE?! He was a little nervous when I opened the door, as was I, so I clicked a few pictures and shut and locked the door - I don't know what these huge critters are capable of! After our stare down he scurried off and I haven't seen them since. Here are some little footprints they left for me though.

A Walk In The Park

This morning I was talking to my Dad on the phone when I hear a knock on my door. It was my landlord, Locky, and in his very awesome Australian accent he said, "Did you decide to go for a walk in the park?" I looked at him very confused and said, "Huh? I don't want to walk in the snow." He said, "No, have you seen your car?" We walk out and this is what I see.My car somehow slid or rolled into the park across the street from my house! Originally my car was parked a few feet above where it is in the picture and it was parked on the pavement. Locky must think that I am crazy cause I said, "WHAT?! How did that happen? I didn't park my car there!" He was laughing so hard and said, "Well it may have slid because of all the gravel on the sides of the road." (There is gravel ALL over the roads here from the huge snow storms back in December. Gravel is Oregon's solution to snow removal.) Locky determined that we shouldn't try to reverse out because the grass is so wet that my car would just dig a hole. Being a handy man and my father-away-from-home he hooked up a tow strap to my car and pulled me out with his.
I certainly am lucky it didn't roll into the trees that weren't too much further and thank goodness I turned my wheel to the right, other wise my car may have been in my neighbors yard instead! Once we successfully moved my car, this is all that was left. I guess it's time to get my emergency brake checked or maybe just time for a new car and a garage!

Poor Sad Plant

This is my plant. It is dying. I have had this plant for 2 years and 2 months and through no skill of my own, has it lasted this long. This plant was a gift from my friends Khrystie and Traci. The three of us worked together and the plant stayed at work. Knowing I knew only how to kill plants, Khrystie helped me keep it alive by reminding me to water it and bringing plant food in on a regular basis. Soon I moved departments and the plant came with me. The plant started dying. My friend Susan noticed the sad leaves and took on the project of helping me keep it alive. She would remind me to water it and when I would forget even after she reminded me, she would do it herself. Eventually she just watered my plant and left me out of the loop altogether. One day I looked at my plant and noticed how green and big it was getting (it looked nothing like it does now) and said to Sus, "WOW, my plant looks so great! I can't even remember the last time I watered it?!" She said, "Amber, that is because I have been taking care of it." Ha! When I moved to Oregon Susan offered to keep my plant and warned me that I might kill it, but I insisted on moving it 800 miles because it was a gift, and I NEEDED it in my office! The day I had my car packed and ready to head to Oregon I showed up and Bryce's house with the plant in the front seat - thinking he could hold it in his lap of course! He quickly told me there was no way he was holding my plant for 13 hours and Pat graciously found a safe place in my car for it to ride. It made it to Oregon, it has lasted 4 months, and now it is dying. I have tried to keep it from getting too dry. It sits by the window with plenty of sunlight. Why is my plant dying? Leaves are falling from it right and left, even the ivy is dying and I hear ivy is hard to kill. How is it possible that my mom has a plant business, a BRIGHT green thumb, and about 40 plants in her house and I can't even keep one alive? Poor sad plant.

Has anyone ever told you that you look like Jennifer Love Hewitt?

Yes, the answer is yes, and when did you see my backside in a bikini? (If you have kept up J-love 'fat' scandal then you got that joke. If not, the answer is just yes.) I have been asked this every once and a while for the last couple years, since I have consistently kept my hair dark. But, no kidding this last couple weeks I have been asked this 6 times! To be honest, I don't see the resemblance. Yes, we both have dark hair and eyes and we have bangs, but other than that? I mean, I do wish I had her gorgeous hair...



OK, so here is the situation... you are having a conversation with a friend, a complete stranger who you have watching stare at you for the last 10 minutes walks up to you, interrupts your conversation and says, has anyone ever told you that you look like Jennifer Love Hewitt? What is the proper response?? Typically I follow that question up with, yes, thank you. And leave it at that... I mean, I am not sure why a stranger would feel inclined to tell me this in the first place after they have obviously concluded that I am not her, do they want an autograph? Not to mention that I don't know this stranger so I am not sure what their stance on J-Love is. For all I know they think she is the ugliest person alive and has just paid me the highest insult in the book and I said thank you!

So, even though I don't see the resemblance, I think she is very pretty and I will take it as a compliment, whether or not a compliment is intended. I mean, if that is the worst thing I have to complain about I am not doing so bad.

And as for the J-Love getting fat situation, (this is a complete side note, but it's my blog and I can side note if I want), I think she looks great. Yes, she may have gained a couple pounds since she was a teenager, but who hasn't?!? Plus, the last thing I would ever want is someone showing up at the beach, taking pictures of me in a bikini and then selling them to People magazine. For heaven sakes, what has this world come to when we make judgements of someone else's beach body while we sit on our butts and read People magazine. Anyway, rock on J-Love, I think you look great! And thanks to all you strange little strangers for the completely awkward moment and the compliment.