Friday, February 18, 2011

Mountain Lions and Zombies

Earlier this week Mr. Gill and I went hiking in a gulch. This place was built by the community and has little informational signs along the way telling you about the area, the wildlife and also weird random poems. I was kind of weirded out by all the poems.....mostly because I assumed these little signs were strictly for information, you know-like at the museums or something.

In the Gulch

Anyway, we were hiking along and it was beautiful and we are just talking about whatever.....probably me talking about what recipe I want to try next and Mr. Gill giving me a history lesson on how the gulch was developed or rambling on about quantum physics.
So....we are walking and we come upon this sign that says there are wolves and mountain lions in the area.......which of course I get all freaked out about! Just a little bit, you know....I ask Mr. Gill what is his plan to save us from mountain lions and wolves, because I know that I don't have a plan and someone needs to HAVE A PLAN!
Thankfully he has a plan. He says if we run into a mountain lion we are supposed to stand together and raise our arms up so we look like a big scary monster thing and freak out the lion. ok-cool. I can do that. What about the wolves? "Oh, I don't know about wolves."
THAT WAS HIS ANSWER-I don't know how you save you my precious wife against a wolf attack-I guess I'll be the one that gets away because I'm faster than you and the wolf will pick up the slowest of the pack.
Which is me-it's ALWAYS ME!
But, I was not ok with this-Mr. Gill has a plan for a Zombie attack-why does he not know how to save us from wolves? So I told him-the likelihood of a zombie attack in Boise Idaho is MUCH smaller than the likelihood of a wolf attack in Boise Idaho. Just sayin'. Get YOUR GAME ON GILL!
This was about the time that I saw a white streak RUN across the path in front of us. So....I slow down....and look around....and I saw it again-and it stood up on a rock!
so CUTE!
It was this adorable weasely ferret thing. It leaped in front of us on the path and ran around from hiding place to little rock to patch of grass for about ten minutes. Mr. Gill and I felt like we were on a treasure hunt almost-like he was going to lead us to a pot of gold or where the unicorns are or something equally as awesome. (or I thought that.....Mr. Gill probably just thought he was cute)
It totally made our hike more like an adventure, a nice one-not a "I might get eaten by a wolf because my husband has no plan" adventure.....which, really is more like a nightmare than adventure.
At the Top
We lost our little buddy after about 10 minutes....I like to call him Alfred. Alfred left us after 10 minutes because he must have decided we weren't special enough to meet the unicorns. Maybe next time we'll be able to impress him. Because I bet the leprechauns are hiding in the SAME PLACE! I mean, they probably have to watch out for the unicorn hooves to not crush them, because the leprechauns are so little you know....but it totally makes sense they'd all be hiding together.

Us almost home
We did finish our 7 mile hike with no wolf encounters. We didn't see any mountain lions either-OR zombies! Mr. Gill still has a little bit of time I suppose to come up with a plan for when wolves attack! 
Although, I think maybe his zombie plan might need some tweaking too now that we're out in the mountains....I feel like you only see the dumb zombies in large metro areas, not so much in the wilderness. We will be attacked by the smart and fast zombies, you know when it will happen I will be attacked first because they always get whoever is at the back of the pack and it's ME! It's always ME!


*Jenny

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Should I be scared?

So yesterday....
Only YESTERDAY!!
it was 60 beautiful sunny degrees here in my new place of residence; Boise Idaho.
I went for a jog, played in the park (with my friend's kid....I wasn't all creeper and there alone) and generally soaked up as much sun as I could because seriously....it's February.
A full twenty four hours ago I felt the warmth of 60 degrees on my cheeks and NOW?

NOW???
HAIL





































It started HAILING along with a healthy dose of thunder and lightning, as if randomly hailing was not intimidating enough, they had to pull out the light show too! The wind started to pick up and rattle my front door.
 Now, I'm sorry but I'm from Indiana and when weather turns that violently on a dime it means RUN FOR THE BASEMENT!!!!
BUT-we have no basement.....and we're surrounded by mountains. Do valleys often experience the fun of a tornado? What should I do?
My first instinct is to call Mr. Gill....but he's working AND his cubicle buddy would hear me be ridiculous and give him a hard time because of it.....yet I want to be consoled AND to warn him of the danger that is violent thunder & lightning hail storm massacre....or.....whatever it is.
Then I want to call my mom because you know.....that's what you do (well, what I do) when I'm scared and Mr. Gill is not available. She's in Indiana though, and I'm 2000 miles away....and, if I do get swept up into a funnel cloud, she'd hear it on the phone and what an awful way to say goodbye right?

So instead I took a picture so I could share with YOU dear reader my fear of this crazy Boise weather.
My backyard






































Now it's just softly snowing.


OK.


Well.....it is February I guess.


*Jenny

Friday, February 11, 2011

Sweet Things


I have not disappeared-I'm sorry.
It has been a little busy around here lately.
AND Mr. Gill took my camera to work and LEFT it there for a couple of days. We did some fun things like-a beautiful hike that I didn't have my camera w/to take pictures...but it's true, we did it.
I have not been baking like a fool as I thought I would here w/my no job and limited transportation....but I have made some fun things. So, I'll give y'all a photo rundown of the stuff I've made.

I got a bag of flour from my parents for christmas (along w/other awesome things like a TEAL dutch oven) because they rock and know what makes me happy.
Yay Flour and my cute blue mixer
So I decided to make some whole wheat bread.
mixing it up

getting ready to rise

nice thick bread

YUM and those cute little espresso cups are from my awesome sister-in-law Heather! Adorable:)


For the superbowl I decided to make a football/Packers themed dessert and I started looking around on my blogs...and found this! I knew I didn't have the gumption to have a flaming cupcake...so I just made larger versions of the cute little footballs!
Cake footballs!

Soo good
And the Pack WON!! Not without Mr. Gill getting all upset at some missed throws. I though he was going to cry at one point.

Finally yesterday I made some cupcakes for church. Since it's almost Saint Valentines Day and I'm slightly obsessed w/cupcakes and their overall cuteness I made this recipe. My good friend Pdoi made them for me back in Indiana and they ROCKED so I thought I'd try them too!

Mmm Frosting

Red Jimmies! Who doesn't love sprinkles?
I did deviate from the recipe because I kind of ran out of sugar and oil :/ what kind of baker am I? And I just made buttercream frosting because I LOVE IT! There were a bunch of cakes left over so I am sending them with Mr. Gill to bribe his co-workers.

In other news I had an interview for a PRN Therapist position! It seems like a nice clinic, and it would be good to have something to do besides....bake :)

Mr. Gill and I on our first Valentine's Day in 2009

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and a great Valentines Day! 

Jenny

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Today

I've found something amazing.
I think I stumbled across a treasure trove. Really!
Today is world Nutella Day.
Seriously. I love nutella.....it is a rival for my love of peanut butter, which is a deep deep spoonful right before bed kind of love.
I was looking for a recipe with nutella in it for dessert and I found this.

So


many




recipes



(!)

Today is the day to try those recipes my friends-and then send me some samples :)

*Jenny

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Proof

This past weekend Mr. Gill and I went to the Boise Library to get all signed up and start utilizing the beautiful thing that is the library. I wanted to get some books on photoshop to start honing my skill...
or....
you know.....
figure out how to start using photoshop on my own.
Anyway the people of Boise are VERY excited about their libraries. 
It's TRUE! They are and I have evidence. 

Example 1
The sign on the downtown library















They use an exclamation point behind Library. Here is the definition of !

An exclamation markexclamation point, or bang (!) is a punctuation mark usually used after an interjection or exclamation to indicate strong feelings or high volume, and often marks the end of a sentence. Example: “Watch out!" OR this mark sometimes used without accompanying words in writing direct discourse to indicate a speaker's dumbfounded astonishment: His wife just gave birth to quintuplets.” )
Example 2
My new Library Card




















When you sign up at the library they let you choose from a variety of cards. I think the Boise Library wants to respect the individuals right to self express. 
Anyway I chose the goldfish card because of the blog :) 
Maybe he's yelling LIBRARY ! in his head....

Example 3
Me!





















I got my fishy card and checked out a book about Nelson Mandela......
That I haven't opened yet. 
But on the way home I was so excited and overwhelmed by the awesomeness of all the free resources that the library has to offer that I wanted to yell LIBRARY!

But instead I took a picture of how I was feeling......





which was.....




dumbfounded and astonished. (!)

*Jenny