Latest Photo of our Adirondack Place

This was taken after the Husband weed whacked our lawn, lol.  We've got our 25 year old Coleman "Crawdad" jonboat in the water and the gas motor is being serviced at a local marina to get it ready for this summer.  I think we've pretty much already carted up the few additional furniture items we wanted to bring up, so it's a huge relief after the endless truckloads last year, to just be able to bring our clothes and food each time!!  So our little place is ready for a summer of fun and relaxing.  :-)

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Father's Day, German Style

Decided to have German food for Father's day because...well...German food is awesome! :-)  That's a platter of bratwurst, weisswurst and leberkase from the Karl Ehmer store.

My favorite is leberkase on rye with sauerkraut and mustard!

The only bad thing was that my dishwasher broke last week, so I had a lot of dishes to do by hand the next day (my gracious guests of course offered to help, but I wanted to visit and relax with my company instead).  The good news is although I had to wash all those dishes, my handy husband has already picked up the new dishwasher and installed it for me, hooray!  It apparently wasn't even too difficult, he didn't even need to bring out the blowtorch or Hypertherm Powermax 30!  :-)

I hope you all had a nice Father's Day!  Do you like German food?  What's your favorite?

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Panera Bread in Queensbury, NY FAIL

The description of the sandwich my husband ordered (Italian Combo) said that it included onions and pepperoncini.  My husband ate the first half of his sandwich and thought that it seemed like he hardly tasted any onion and pepperoncini, so he opened the other half of his sandwich to take a look.  I don't know whether Panera is so ridiculously cheap that they deem that an acceptable amount of onions and pepperoncini, or if whomever made the sandwich doesn't know how to make a sandwich or what?  Isn't that ridiculous??

I can see gypping you on the cold cuts, which are expensive, but seriously, you'd think they could spend the extra 5 cents to put enough onions and pepperoncini on your sandwiches so that you can actually taste them!  Normally I love Panera but that is a major fail.

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We Eat the Best Crap at the Cabin

I almost needed photographer insurance getting so close to this sizzling pan, but mmm, did they smell good!

These were sandwich steaks fried up with a slice of cheese melted on top.  What you don't see is the vidalia onions the Husband fried up to go with these.  I can't remember the last time I had fried sandwich steaks but THEY WERE SO GOOD!!!!  I would never think of making anything like that at home, but you know, when you're on vacation, you gotta splurge, right?  (Not that this was a monetary splurge - those were some cheap-o steaks, lol!)  And I must give credit to the Husband - this meal was entirely his idea.  :-)

Also, while we were at the store where we bought the sandwich steaks I found these:

We haven't tried them yet, but they seem like they could be really good...

Do you have a favorite, totally unhealthy "splurge" meal or snack that you just know takes months off your life every time you eat it?

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The Best Kind of Bouquet - the "Just Because" Kind

The "vase" is the jar that the little shrimp cocktail 

from the supermarket come in. :-P

The Husband hand picked these just for me from our yard, no special occasion - "just because" and surprised me with them.  Awesome!  I'll take these over a $50 bouquet of roses from the flower shop any day - they're much sweeter!

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More Thoughts Too Short for a Whole Blog Post

Angel Kitty lounging in the window.

Did you know Dallas is coming back on tv?  Are you going to watch?  I'm going to.  I remember watching it in it's "heyday".  It premieres this Wednesday at 9pm on TNT.   I've been following Dallas on Facebook and it's been really fun - "J.R." has been posting lots of tidbits and flashbacks.

Tonight the Husband has Pandora streaming music (through our Roku) on the tv.  I think this particular playlist must be called something like "crusty old classic rock songs", lol.  It's ok, I like it.

I left my headlights on the other night and drained my battery.  Whoopsie.  Had to call the Husband to come and give my truck a jump.  Luckily I was only about 15 min. away, at church of all places.  At least I felt safe while I waited! :-)  I was thankful for that.

Seen on Facebook:  "The best way to get the last word is to say you're sorry."

When I become insanely rich, I am hiring a personal chef.  Also, someone to follow my dog around 24/7 with a vacuum cleaner to suck up the dog hair before it even hits the floor.

I don't think Instagram is all that.

Do you ever wonder if, at the factory, they have all these different varieties of shampoo bottles made up (extra body, extra volume, Psoriasis Shampoo, 2-in-1, smooth and sleek) and they're just putting the same shampoo in all the bottles?  Is anyone checking on this?

Our daughter is excellent at math, and she loves to sort things - even now that she is 13.  (In fact, here is a picture of one time when she was little and sorted her lollipops.  Another time I remember she made a bar graph with fruit snacks.)  We got some candles on Freecycle the other night, and she had to sort them by color.  What is a high paying job that uses the skills of math and sorting??

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I Learned From Being an Avon Lady That the #1 Thing You Can Do To Prevent Wrinkles Is...

PROTECT YOUR SKIN FROM THE SUN!

This is a picture of a 69 year old truck driver who drove a truck for 30 years.  You can see what having one side of his face exposed to the sun for 30 years has done to it.

The photo is from The New England Journal of Medicine and this article.

The New England Journal of Medicine, people!  Not some aliens-abducted-me type of newspaper - this is for real!

Always, always wear sunscreen - especially on your face, and even in winter!
Make sure that whatever moisturizer you use on your face is at least SPF 20!  All the wrinkle creams in the world can't fix a lifetime of sun damage!

You're welcome.

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My Thoughts on the Book "Restaurant Man"

Image from Vanity Fair

I had seen a short interview with Joe Bastianich on the Today Show.  Mr. Bastianich was talking about his newly released book, and I was intrigued.  In case you don't know, Mr. Bastianich is a partner with Mario Batali, and together they have opened many extremely successful restaurants.  I usually love books (or tv shows!) like this where you get to look "behind the curtain" at what really goes on in an industry or lifestyle that I don't really know much about.  (I think that's partly why I love the show Gold Rush so much, because I know nothing at all about gold mining.  Heck I'd probably watch a show or read a book about designing plus size ball gowns or washing the windows on a skyscraper - I guess I'm a naturally curious person.)

It's been getting somewhat mixed reviews on Amazon, so I wasn't even sure I was going to read it, but, I searched for it at my local library and was able to get a copy quickly, so I figured what the heck.  (I have a little secret way of getting newly released books faster - I look and see if they have a large print copy and I request that - there are usually far fewer holds on the large print copy, or in this case, none at all!)

I didn't really like it much at first, although I still felt compelled to continue reading.  In some ways, I felt like it had been poorly edited.  Too much sentimental rambling on about his trips to Italy and too much superfluous language.  (I don't care if that's how he really talks - this is a book, and I didn't think it read well.)  He seemed like a guy with a real big ego and the book was just too self-indulgent.

In addition, I thought the book was going to be more about the day to day workings of a restaurant, and more about Mario Batali - maybe also more of an "expose".  But it's really a memoir, and it's quite philosophical.  And he talks about wine A LOT.  Like, it seems like it should almost have been called "Restaurant and Wine Man".   I'm not sure why I seemed to have an incorrect expectation of what the book was about after seeing the Today Show interview and reading the description on Amazon.com.

However, what surprised me is that a little over halfway through the book, I really started enjoying it.  I think it's because I really started to feel like I understood Mr. Bastianich, and he was growing on me.  By the end of the book I really felt as though I "got" him, and "got" what he is so passionate about.  I actually really liked the guy.  And the book.

If you like autobiographies, and you can deal with some language, "Restaurant Man" is a quick and interesting read that provides an insight into a lifestyle that most of us have never experienced.  Mr. Bastianich is an intelligent and very interesting and successful fellow.

Have you read this book?  What did you think of it?

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Wordless Wednesday: How the Hubby BBQs in the Rain

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More Thoughts Too Short For a Whole Blog Post

Instead of shells and the usual, the beach we went to on Mother's Day in Kingston, NY had washed up pieces of bricks at the shoreline.

I think Michelle Obama has great style.  She always looks classy, fashionable, and her outfits almost always really flatter her figure.  When I become a celebrity, I will seriously consider hiring her stylist.

The is so much I don't say on this blog.  There are times when I fantasize about writing some scathing post about someone or something going on in my life.  Sometimes I wonder if maybe one day I'm just going to snap, and I'll write a post calling out everyone I ever wanted to tell a thing or two.  The whole blog will go down in flames, and that's how Carole's Thoughtful Spot will come to an end.

Speaking of that, I feel like God keeps putting before me encouragement to NOT DO THAT.  This verse in particular keeps coming up:  Proverbs 15:1 A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.  Then today, a lovely, Irish elderly woman that I take shopping every few weeks just happened to say that this was her mother's motto: "Less said, easily mended."  (My motto is, "Better to be safe than sorry!" in case you were wondering.)  Then, just tonight I saw this one on Pinterest as part of a candy bar gift idea:  "Speak sweet words, you may have to eat them later!"

I think Discovery Channel's next new show should be, "Cat Boss".  I'm not exactly sure what the premise would be, but it would have cats.  And it would be bad ass.

One thing I love about my ipad is the great games!  (I'm surprised Apple hasn't come out with game accessories for the ipods/ipads - or maybe they have them and I just haven't seen them?)  Have you played the ipod/ipad game app "100 Floors"?  First of all, it's really fun.   Secondly, much to my surprise, it only came with 40 floors.  More are "coming soon".  Nice.  If I was the designer of a game called 100 floors, call me crazy but, it would have 100 floors!  (FYI I see there is an update available and I believe now you get 55 floors.)

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Hot Cats in the City

Q-ee chillin' in the cat tent.

In the summer months while I am sweating my butt off, cursing the sun, the cats instead seem to thoroughly enjoy the heat.  When I see them laying around, all stretched out, luxuriating in the sweltering temperatures, I sing (to the tune of "Hot Child in the City"):

Hot cats in the city

Runnin wild and lookin' pretty

Hot cats in the city

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