• Bucket List

    Building A Bucket List

    Welcome to the newest category of my blog – “Bucket List”.  For the past couple of years, I have been adding things to my bucket list as I think of them.  I decided having a category for these items, would not only help me keep them in order, but give me a place where I could write about them as I accomplish them,  as well as record my journey getting there. Even though a Bucket List is a list of things you want to accomplish before you kick the bucket, it is not a morbid or sad list.  It is merely a list of things you would like to do,…

  • Adventures & Travel

    Hockey Night In Boise, Idaho – The Steelheads VS The Walleyes (Toledo)

    I am not a t.v. sports fan.  I do not really follow any particular sport.  I will occasionally watch a football game when it comes on, and I’m usually good for catching a few events during both Winter and Summer Olympics.  Otherwise, if I am not actually at the game, it just isn’t going to hold my attention very well.  I have found though, that most sporting events where I have actually been there, watching it, I have really enjoyed the sport – no matter what it was.  Whether it is a result of getting swept up in all of the adrenaline, excitement and yelling of the crowd, or the smell of…

  • Adventures & Travel

    Schweitzer Mountain – Sandpoint, Idaho

    2019 – HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!     2018 went out with a bang (and a bump, and a faceplant) on the ski slopes of Schweitzer Mountain in Sandpoint, Idaho! Learning to ski happens to be #2 on my Bucket List.  After a day of “skiing”, it is still #2 on my Bucket List.  I have not been on skis since I was a Freshman in high school – and even then, I spent more time laying in the snow than I did upright on skis.  Yesterday was a vivid reminder of my one time on skis in high school.  Obviously, the ability to ski does not just happen with age.  It was…

  • Food & Recipes

    The Christmas (Cookie) That Almost Wasn’t – Making Christmas Macarons

    The days leading up to Christmas are the best!  I have always loved how festive it feels – and smells!  One of my favorite times to be in the kitchen and baking, is at Christmas.  In addition to the list of cookies I would normally bake, I would always try to pick out a new cookie, or two, to add in to my holiday baking collection.  These cookies, when completed, would then be wrapped in a really festive way, complete with ribbons, bows and ornaments. They are then hand delivered, or mailed, to family and friends.  It is always such a good feeling to be able to do something you…

  • Something to Bark About

    Owl Be Darned!

      Found this little guy in Nevada!  He is a Burrowing Owl, and is about the size of my hand! A little Burrowing Owl trivia: As adults, they have a body length that only ranges between 8.5 inches to 11 inches. They have a wingspan of 20-24 inches. They only weigh between 6 and 8 ounces. They live approximately 9 years. They can be found at elevations ranging from 200 feet below sea level, to 9000 feet above sea level. They nest in burrows made by other animals, such as gophers. Their primary diet consists of beetles and grasshoppers, but, they will eat reptiles, birds and bats.  Pretty amazing, given…

  • Adventures & Travel

    A Quick Trip To SLO And The Pacific Coast Highway – San Luis Obispo, California

    Let me just start by saying, this is NOT pronounced San Loo-ee.  If you pronounce it San Loo-ee, you WILL be corrected – by EVERYONE, even people who do not live there!  🙂  FYI, just say “SLO”. Now that the pronunciation is out of the way, let me also say, I am so behind on my blogging!  I am going to catch up!  Between traveling to spots where the internet connection pretty much does not exist, and then prepping for Thanksgiving, and then eating Thanksgiving (Tryptophan 🙂 ), and now with the start of everything Christmas, I am falling behind.  I did not even get a picture of Scout with…

  • Adventures & Travel

    A Perfect Stay In Monterey – Monterey, California

    “…There between the hills and sea, I looked down and saw a Monterey morning, sprinkled upon the surface of the earth like dim fireflies in a shifting fog.”   View From The Hill – A poem About John Steinbeck’s Monterey, California I have always said that if I ever went to California, there was really only one place I would want to see – Monterey.  I guess I first heard about Monterey when I was a teenager growing up on the east coast.  I had a reading assignment in my ninth grade English class to read John Steinbeck’s Of Mice And Men.  We were assigned a certain amount of chapters each day…

  • Adventures & Travel

    Uncork And Unwine At Hall Winery In Napa Valley, California

    This has been a busy week! With, unfortunately, a LOT of hit or miss wifi and internet!  You know the saying – “when life gives you lemons…” in this case, it would have been grapes – so we decided to start the week off with a visit to a winery and do a little wine tasting!  Both of these were a first for me, and Napa just happened to be the perfect place  – since Italy wasn’t available ? My grandfather is from Italy, and, even though I have never been there myself, I feel like I come by my love for  wine, naturally.  I am not a wine expert…