Secret Number One

I love to cook. And lately, I have been working on Mac and Cheese. Last night I made some, and it came out quite good. Suzanne even took some to work today for lunch, which is high praise in deed. I didn't use a recipe and not too many seasonings so I was actually a bit baffled as to why it was so good. Here's the technique that I used.

Cook two strips of bacon in a pan. (I intended to add them to the dish but forgot to, so go ahead and eat them if you wish.) To the bacon drippings, brown two chicken breasts chopped in small pieces. Remove the chicken and in the same pan, cook a large handful of baby portobello mushrooms and some leftover asparagus that i'm sure you have laying around the kitchen.

In the mean time, make a béchamel sauce with butter, flour half and half. Season with salt and pepper and some nutmeg. Add this to some cooked elbow macaroni, and then add the chicken, mushrooms and asparagus. Stir in a generous supply of grated medium cheddar, put in a baking dish, cover with grated parmesan cheese and breadcrumbs and bake for 15 - 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

And now for the secret...... It's the bacon drippings! I cooked everything in the bacon drippings! Really. It was very good. Try it.

Next week, secret number two.

I love springtime

Because that's when the wisteria blooms.

Rubies

Suzanne told me on Sunday that the fortieth wedding anniversary is the Ruby anniversary. So, of course, she gave me ruby colored candies. Forty of them. I wasn't fast enough to take a picture of them before most of them got eaten.

And I got her this swell snow globe, because you never have too many snow globes. (her words, not mine.)

Forty

Forty. Four zero. Closing in on half a century. That's how long Suzanne and I have been married. A long time. So, to celebrate our anniversary, we of course, went to Disneyland. Wahoo!

We watched Bug's Life.

Suzanne ordered a giant breakfast pizza and then ate three pieces. (We put the rest in a locker for later. That evening, we threw it away before it made anyone sick.)

We watched the Mad Hatter lead a dance.

...and I had to ride California Screaming.

Suzanne took a picture of me with Mickey Mouse ears, sort of.

 We rode Star Tours.......

And Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.

Since it was our fortieth anniversary, we had to go to Mickey's movie barn and take a picture with the Big Man himself.

 We had a Pineapple Whip at the Enchanted Tiki Room.

 This is actually quite a unique photo. It contains both ships and three canoes in the same shot. Harder to get than you might think.

 We found Billy Hill dressed as a (really ugly) heroine.

We rode the train which had engine trouble. They broke a 'D' ring which connected the timing rod to the piston. It made a lot of clunking, they rocked the train back and forth, before finally having us all get off and walk back to the (Tomorrowland) station.

We watched the cheerleader parade.

I took this picture to show the two giant pinwheels that appeared above each side of the castle. They were huge!

We found the new tribute to the Sherman Brothers. Of course you know that they wrote many of the famous Disney songs including It's a Small World. The door says, 'We'll write your tunes, for a song.' Richard Sherman, RIP.

Costco

Oh boy, oh boy. Today is a Costco run. We are going to get a picture blown up and framed to put in the Relief Society room. A couple of weeks ago, Suzanne decided that the RS room needed a makeover. It had slowly evolved into a hodgepodge of pictures and charts scattered here and there. Not the pretty place in which women can feel special. We redid it last weekend and need one special picture for the back wall. In our discussion with the Stake President (whose office Suzanne is also doing) we told him about a special picture of the temple that we had. He loved it. So today we are getting it printed and then it will get framed and hung in the RS room.

This picture was first taken as a gift for Kelli. Ryan dreamed it up, Allyson took the picture, McKay enhanced it and Suzanne got it matted and framed. We love it. Time to get it copyrighted.

The job search is going well

It's been a month now since I was laid off and the job hunting is going well, although slower than I had expected. I must say, it is very stressful, and a lot harder that having job and doing real work, so I wouldn't recommend doing this as a lifelong career goal.

In the mean time I thought I would show you some pictures from my recent trip to Hawaii. It was spectacular. I'm going to me happy place now. Inhale. Exhale. Ahhhh!

The end of the Birthday Weekend

Sunday Afternoon, after enchiladas and before the super chocolate cake, Suzanne opened her presents. It was nice to get together with a part of the family. Desh showed off his walking skills. Suzanne showed off her table decorating skills. and I showed why I shouldn't be in charge of the food. We tried some of our food storage refried beans. I guess I haven't been out of work long enough. They didn't taste very good. I have a case of them if anyone wants to complete their food storage.

A day of rest

Today I have taken a break from looking for a job so that I could shop for Suzanne's birthday. She wants new bedding. Here are some of my choices. Let's see how well you know me. Which one did I choose to giver her?

That's right. I gave her the gift card. Happy Birthday, Sweetie.

It's Saturday!

That means kicking back and doing nothing, right? Not if you are married to Suzanne. Today we cleaned the closet. At least, we cleaned my side of the closet. Other than having to try on a dozen pair of pants and parting with some of my favorite T-shirts, it came out great.

No picture today.

The last two days I spent looking for a job in earnest. And I have had three call backs and two email responses. A couple of interviews should pretty promising. I'm still feeling pretty optimistic. Stay tuned for frequent updates.

A Quick Trip

My Brother Ray is in the hospital with lymphoma which is pretty bad news. Judy and I took a quick trip to Orem to see him. We found him in good spirits and even though he was receiving massive doses of chem, the doctors were guardedly optimistic.

Yesterday, when I got home, I was pretty wasted and did nothing. I'm doing better today.