Humor

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Friday Dance Party – Tonight Tonight With Hot Chelle Rae

This is another edition of Friday Dance Party on Acorns On Glen.  It’s the time where we give thanks for making it through another week and for being alive and present here on Earth.  How do we celebrate another week of living?  We dance.  So, are you alive this Friday?  Are you and your family safe and sound?  Take a few seconds now to be in the moment and realize what a great life you truly have.  Did you give thanks for that?

Good, now let’s dance.

My company has summer hours.  This means that people who work at my company are able to leave every Friday from now until Labor Day at 1:45 in order to enjoy a little more time at home with family and friends.  I’ll be honest, most Fridays I don’t get out of the office until much later, but even leaving early by an hour or two seems like such a big deal.  It gives me the extra time to run a few errands, get home and take a little disco nap with the Yorkie and then wake up and get ready for some Friday night fun.  Summer hours are such a great way to start a Summer weekend.  So given that I’m able to catch up on a little sleep each Friday before I go out, I seem to be in much more of a party mood these last couple of Fridays…..meaning I don’t want to go home and be in bed before 10:00 PM!  So this week, I’ve decided to celebrate the start of Summer and summer hours by partying on top of the world.  So be happy for living and shake your money maker to this new song by Hot Chelle Rae (again, sorry for the pop up ad – just hit the ‘x’ to suppress it.  Anyone know how to get rid of these annoying things?).  This is a tune where dancing hard and wild is just the ticket.  Go ahead and let loose….you deserve it.  Do you get summer hours where you work?

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Another Post About Legal Pot

This is another legal pot here on Glen Road that needs to have plants placed inside of it.  It is one of a set of planters that are new to our collection.  I had to have this set because I am in love with faux bois finishes, which is French for “false wood”.  A fitting name for items that appear plucked from the forest, but are actually made of cast stone, cast iron or cement.  Faux bois items can also be painted to have the same woodsy look and feel.  We were struggling to come up with the perfect mix of plants to put inside the pots, but once again, our friends at White Flower Farm, www.whiteflowerfarm.com, were there to help us with our decision.    On their website, White Flower Farm has a large assortment of annual collections for sale.  All you need to do is find the assortment of annual plants that you like and they will send them to you along with relevant planting instructions.  Their instructions even tell you where to position each plant in the pot that you will be using.  There is little room for a mistake when you purchase one of White Flower Farm’s annual collections.  Since our faux bois pots are going along the swimming pool, we decided to select a collection that is a little more on the exotic side.  Something that contained some large, tropical looking plants mixed along with more traditional plants like begonias or coleus.

Our first selection is named the ‘Sunny Summer Annual Collection’.  In this collection, the plants include an Ornamental Grass (Pennisetum purpureum ‘Princess’), a fancy-leaf Geranium (Pelargonium ‘Indian Dunes’), some unusually colored Coleus, Henna and Lancelot Velvet Mocha, a dark-leaved Ipomoea ‘Blackie ‘, a long-blooming Calibrachoa superbells saffron and a trailing Sweet Potato (Ipomoea sweet heart light green).  Here is a copy of the detailed planting instructions, what the collection should look like at maturity and what the collection looked like after we finished our planting.

Our second selection was the ‘King Tut Annual Collection’.  Ancient Egyptians used the leaves of Cyperus Papyrus to make paper, but here that sedge’s foliage creates a sensational display, rising 4-6 feet tall above the trailing blooms of Begonia Dragon Wing Pink and Calibrachoa Cabaret Deep Blue.  Again, here is a copy of the detailed planting instructions, what the collection should look like at maturity and what the collection looked like after we finished our planting.

So, as you can see, there is a lot of growing that needs to get done in a rather short amount of time.  With some regular watering and fertilizing, we should be able to grow these pots into some eye-catching arrangements just like the pictures above that show the collections at maturity.  Nothing is guaranteed, but gardening in planters and pots is pretty risk free….and legal.  What are you planting in pots, planters and containers on your patio, yard or garden?

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Funky Italian Stuffed Peppers

This is a cubanelle pepper.  I’ve seen them in the supermarket many times and always wondered what you used them for in cooking.  Well, I know now!  The Brooklyn Italian Grandmother is back, fully jeweled, and is making her version of Italian stuffed peppers using cubanelle peppers.  She tells us that this is her own creation that she has come up with over the years through trial and error.  What is unique about this dish is that you actually start by mixing and frying the stuffing.  Once cooled, the fried stuffing is then placed in the peppers and baked until the peppers are tender.  These are one of those dishes that seem to taste better the next day after all the flavors have settled and melded together.  So let’s join our Brooklyn Italian Grandmother and make some funky Italian stuffed peppers…the cubanelle way.

Ingredients:

  • 5 cloves of garlic, chopped into small pieces
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/4 cup of seasoned bread crumbs
  • 3/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese
  • 4 thin slices of Italian sopressata, chopped
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon pepper
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons paprika
  • 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar
  • 6 cubanelle peppers, cut in half and cleaned

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix garlic, eggs, bread crumbs, cheese, sopressata, salt and pepper in a bowl and combine well.

  Bling and stuffing!

Heat the olive oil in a skillet until hot.  Put the mixture into the oil and fry it until it becomes golden brown.

  Hot stuff and I’m not talking about what’s in the skillet.

Take fried stuffing out of the skillet and place it into a bowl.  Let it cool until it can be handled.

Stuff each pepper half with the fried stuffing and place stuffed pepper halves into a 9″ x 13″ baking dish.

  Always wear a ring that matches your baking dish.

Sprinkle each stuffed pepper with paprika.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake for about 25 minutes.  When pepper begins to get tender, remove foil and continue cooking until pepper feels tender when pierced with a fork (about 10 more minutes).  Remove from oven and drizzle balsamic vinegar over each pepper.

You can be the judge here on how you want to serve these wonderful peppers.  They are great as a side dish and they can stand alone on their own and be a wonderful lunch.  In fact, make enough so that they can serve both–side dish and lunch.  I love the savory aspects of the stuffing along with the little flavor punch that the pepper and balsamic vinegar give this dish.  If you are a stuffed pepper lover, this is the dish for you.  What great Italian side dish recipes do you make and serve at your house?

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Friday Dance Party – Streisand With Duck Sauce

This is another edition of Friday Dance Party on Acorns On Glen.  It’s the time where we give thanks for another week of living.  We give thanks for making it through and for being able to celebrate this fact.  How do we celebrate another week of living?  We dance.  So take a moment and be proud of the fact that you’re here and you’ve made it to another Friday.  Not only you, but your family and friends as well.    So, to that end, are you alive this Friday?  Have you given thanks for this?

Good, now let’s dance.

I’ve decided that life has no real rhyme or reason anymore.  You can work so hard to create and plan something for yourself and then it can be over in just a few freak seconds.  Think of the people who have been victim to the tornadoes of this Spring.  They can devise intricate plans to accomplish things like having a large family, saving lots of money or working their way up the corporate ladder into their dream job and then go home one night and have disaster strike out of the blue that ends it all.  There seems to not really be a sure-fire way to plan your entire life.  There just seems to be too many variables.  Is living a long and prosperous life just luck?  I don’t think so.  I’ve decided the one thing that you should decide to build is happiness.  Happiness is the one true thing that can create a life that is fulfilling and rich.  A life without regrets.  I believe that if you are true to yourself and work to be happy, then you are destined to attract the same type of energy from the universe.  This melding of happy energy flow manifests itself by giving you things like a great family and friends, a job that you wake up excited to go to every day and a just a sense of gratitude for being in this world.  Happiness is the key to unlock all doors to success.  I need to work to be more happy….then the rest will come.    No rhyme or reason…just happiness.  So that’s why this week’s song is ‘Barbra Streisand’ by Duck Sauce.  Duck Sauce is an American-Canadian DJ duo consisting of Armand Van Helden and A-Trak.  The pair aim to produce disco house tracks that will appeal to club DJs.  In a recent interview, a member of the duo said there was no rhyme or reason behind their new hit.  “There really is no relation or rational reason behind the lyric in the title, Barbra Streisand,” said A-Trak.  “It’s just something that we thought would make people laugh….We just came up with this idea that it would be funny to say someone’s name.”  Be careful.  This song is habit forming.  After you listen and dance to it a few times you’ll be walking around humming the melody or walking up to people and saying ‘Barbra Streisand’.  People will think you are a little bit weird, but you’ll be happy and that’s what is important these days.  So reward yourself for another week of living and shake it to a little Duck Sauce.  You deserve it…and get happy.  Are you a little disgusted with what’s going on in the world these days and what do you do to get over it?

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A Snake Sighting And Then A House For Sale

This was my surprise waiting for me in the garden.  Every time I screamed, it would slither off into the woods.  I would then run into the house, gather my courage and slowly go back outdoors.  There it would be–back in the same place in the garden.  We completed the same screaming, running, returning cycle about three times.  Remember, I don’t really like critters.  Remember the beaver, the chipmunks, the birds?  Why is God doing this to me?

I finally decided to be a man and go out and garden and pretend it wasn’t there.  I would even take pictures of the garter snake (see, I knew what kind of snake it was).  I would name it.  Lenny, that’s a good name.  I’ve read that if something has a name and a face, it is less threatening.  I decided I would even do some research to find out more about my reptile friend.  Here is some of my research:

The Garter snake is a Colubrid snake genus (Thamnophis) common across North America, ranging from Alaska and Canada to Central America.  It is the single most widely distributed genus of reptile in North America.  The garter snake is also the Massachusetts state reptile (I no longer like Boston).  Garter snakes are widespread throughout North America.  The common garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis) is the only species of snake to be found in Alaska and is believed to be one of the northernmost species of snake in the world.  The genus is so far ranging due to its unparticular diet and adaptability to different biomes and landforms, with varying proximity to water.  Garter snakes, like all snakes, are carnivorous. Their diet consists of almost any creature that they are capable of overpowering:  slugs, earthworms, leeches, lizards, amphibians, birds, fish, toads and rodents (thank God that Yorkies weren’t on the list!). When living near the water, they will eat other aquatic animals.  Food is swallowed whole (similar to how several of my friends eat).  Garter snakes often adapt to eat whatever they can find, and whenever, because food can be scarce or abundant.

By the end of the day, Lenny had slithered off and I didn’t see him again.  I know he is out there, but I haven’t seen him.  As long as he is out there eating mice and bad bugs, I’ll get used to knowing that a garter snake slithers among us here at Glen Road.  I don’t like it, but I’ll get used to it.  I mean, it’s not like Mother Nature issues restraining orders.  I’m calm now.  I’m going outside to pull the ‘For Sale’ sign out of the front lawn.  Do you have any ideas on how to keep snakes as far away as possible from you, your house and your garden?

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Friday Dance Party – Price Tag With Jessie J

This is another edition of Friday Dance Party on Acorns On Glen.  It’s the time where we give thanks for making it through another week of living and for being alive and present here on Earth.  How do we celebrate another week of living?  We dance.  United in our love of life through music.  So, are you alive this Friday?  Are you and your family safe and sound?  Take a few seconds now to be in the moment and realize what a great life you truly have.  Did you give thanks for that?

Good, now let’s dance.

We’ve been doing Friday Dance Party every Friday since Acorns On Glen was born on February 13th.  This is our 15th dance party.  Some weeks, FDP gets a lot of hits and other weeks, not so many.  OK, we will attribute that to the music we selected for the weeks with low hits.  Since the beginning, FDP’s intent was to celebrate our lives through music and dance.  We know of very few people who actually stop once a week and give thanks for being alive and on this planet.  There were so many times here on Glen Road where our day was all about complaining about our lives.  Too much work, too many bills, this person didn’t call us back, this person calls too much.  These examples were  just the tip of the iceberg.  So when we started Acorns On Glen and wanted to try to get back to what is real and great about our lives, we decided to make it a ritual every Friday for us to stop and take a moment to think about how lucky we are in our lives and to give thanks…and then dance to celebrate another week of living.  Our idea seems to be catching on.  ‘Price Tag’ by Jessie J asks us to simply realize it’s not about the money, the bling or the ching.  It’s about life and how we just want to make the world dance.  A great idea!  So enjoy the song (if you get a pop up ad just close it by hitting the x — sorry) and enjoy the fact that for 15 weeks you’ve joined us here on Acorns On Glen to think about your life and how lucky you truly are to be alive and well and then you’ve shaked it to celebrate.  Remember, we just want to make the world dance (and live life to the fullest).  Have a great Memorial Day weekend!  Have you spent more time giving thanks for your life and all your friends and family that make it up?

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Friday Dance Party – Revenge Wanted With Adele

This is another edition of Friday Dance Party on Acorns On Glen.  It’s the time where we give thanks for living another week. We give thanks for making it through the journey and for being able to celebrate this fact.  How do we celebrate another week of living?  We dance.  Sometimes life gets so hectic that you forget that you are so lucky to be on this planet.  Friday Dance Party just wants to make sure that you take that needed second to realize this fact.  We want to make sure you are truly living in the moment.  So, to that end, are you alive this Friday?  Have you given thanks for this?

Good, now let’s dance.

We want revenge on the weather this week.  OK, we did ask for some rain this week so that our newly seeded lawn could grow, but this is ridiculous.  All week, we have seen a downpour of rain.  Enough already.  Do we seek my revenge on the Weather Gods, the Weathermen and Weatherwomen on TV, Spring or maybe its evil cousin, Winter?  We don’t know exactly who we need to get our revenge on, but we do know that it needs to quit raining.  There is a garden to plant.  There are plants to trim and flowers to pick.  We can’t do any of this if we have to stay indoors and worry about building an ark or not.  We need to see some sun.  This crazy weather needs to stop.  While we’re plotting our revenge, we thought it would be perfect for us to dance to the revenge-tinged hit from Adele, ‘Rolling In The Deep’.  Whether it’s a love gone wrong or an overdose of bad weather, we need to get even with somebody.  Not sure we can outsmart Mother Nature, but we’re putting our money that Adele is more than capable of getting the revenge she is looking for from her ex-love.  So let’s celebrate another week of living with Adele.  Get to shaking and clapping and be happy that you made it through another week.  You deserve it.  Has it been crazy weather in your neck of the woods too? 

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Friday Dance Party – Sheila E And A Glamorous Life

This is another edition of Friday Dance Party on Acorns On Glen.  It’s the time where we give thanks for making it through another week and for being able to celebrate this fact.  How do we celebrate another week of living?  We dance.  So, are you alive this Friday?  Are you and your family safe and sound?  Did you give thanks for that?

Good, now let’s dance.

During the Winter, we have been giving the house on Glen Road a major makeover.  If you remember from my first blog post, our house was getting a new beginning.  The good news is the addition we have been working on seems to be almost complete.  Yes, there are some odds and ends that need to be finished, but for the most part, we have attached our house to our garage and have created several new rooms.  The place is pretty big now.  We walk around and think how are we going to afford enough furniture to fill this new addition.  Trust me, we’ll figure out a way.  A friend that came over to take a little tour told us that we were living the ‘glamorous life’ now that we had increased our square footage.  So, if this is true, why not give us a moment to think about it while dancing to a song of the same name by that oldie but goodie singer Sheila E.  Remember her?  She was an early Prince protegé.  So put on something purple, rat your hair up big and get down with Sheila E and her ‘Glamorous Life’.  Dance because you have made it through another week.  Dance because you are alive.  Dance on over to Glen Road and help us clean up our new addition.  Have a great weekend.  What other songs would you like to hear on Friday Dance Party on Acorns On Glen?