The Steven J. Noto Memorial Flood

In April 2006, my nephew Steve came to visit us and it rained/flooded the entire weekend. This past weekend has been a replay of that weekend. It started raining non-stop on Friday evening and it's still coming down -- and it's just not a nice little sprinkle -- it's a flood. And in honor of Steve, whose birthday just happens to be today, I'm entitling this blog "The Steven J. Noto Memorial Flood." Happy Birthday, kiddo!

Playing with Food

Kelly Noto told me about these cute little "hamburger" dessert items that a friend of hers made for a Fourth of July party. I finally had the opportunity of making some for my neighbor Mitzi's birthday dinner. I did the baking and Scott did the decorating, and we were pleasantly surprised how cute these little hamburgers and fries came out. The hamburger bun was a yellow cupcake (made from a box mix, cut in half); the hamburger was a brownie (made from a box mix and cut in a circle) and the fries were sugar cookies (make from Betty Crocker's bag mix and cut in strips). I also had a chance to try out another dessert recipe that I cut out of the newspaper years ago -- and it was a whole lot easier and a big hit. Glad I bought those martini glasses at the Pier One after-Christmas sale. Here's some photos of the desserts and the birthday honoree.

Yes, We Have No Tomatoes.

One of my father's gardening goals was to pick a ripe tomato from his garden by the Fourth of July. Well, with less than two weeks until the Fourth, I just don't see that happening for us. Admittedly, we were very late in getting our Topsy Turvy tomato planted, and the first one didn't make it. This is our second one and we're happy to see that we have 3 yellow blossoms. Still a very strange looking way to grow a tomato, but time will tell. We're hoping for a ripe tomato by Labor Day.

Quack, Quack

It was a rainy day here in Big D yesterday. When the rain finally subsided, Scott went to check out the water level in the creek and discovered we had two visitors -- a pair of mallard ducks were having a great time in the creek in our backyard. So that was the big news from Ovilla, Texas, this past weekend. I'm also attaching a couple photos of some blooming plants in our yard. The weather was absolutely perfect today, but I know those 100+ temperatures are right around the corner.

The King Has Left the Building

With only two weeks left on the King Tut exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art, Scott and I joined our friends, Kay and Ivan Wilson, on Saturday, May 9, on a tour of the "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" exhibit. Unfortunately, the King Tut mask shown on the attached brochure was not a part of the exhibit, but there were lots of other artifacts on display. And there were still crowds. The King Tut exhibit has been here for several months but this past weekend was the last, and the King has now left the building. Kay and Ivan were in town celebrating their 26th anniversary, and it was nice to see them. We enjoyed celebrating with them at a nice dinner at Jasper's in Plano on Saturday night and for breakfast on Saturday before they headed back to Elgin, Texas.

LOOK AT OUR NEW . . . .

CEDAR FENCE, not the two-week old Corvette (that belonged to a friend who was visiting). The termites finally destroyed a lot of the previous owner's split rail fence, so we decided it was time for a new split rail fence and supposedly, termites do not eat cedar.

Our neighbors have done some beautiful landscaping in their front yard. I've attached a short slideshow of that as well.

Easter in South Bend

I had a wonderful time in South Bend, Indiana, on April 11 - 14. Of course, the weather could have been a little (make that, a whole lot) warmer. On Saturday, I attended a baby shower for my niece Lorri Schetgen from Charlotte, North Carolina. She had planned a "sugar and spice" themed baby shower as she is expecting a baby girl in early July. I hand carried two dozen sugar cookies decorated like baby carriages as part of the guests' favors. Her other Aunt (Janet) provided the other half of the favor -- two bottles of spices (Italian seasoning and sage) representing two of the favorite spices of Lorri and her husband Aaron.

I blog, you blog, we all blog . . . .

Inspired by Kelly, Steve and Sarah, I thought I would give this blogging thing a test, so here goes nothing. I'm only adding two pictures taken a week ago before the cold snap.