BakerBites

Two of my nieces, Catherine and Stephanie, came down Friday night so we could do a little shopping for school clothes. We closed down Old Navy Friday and then headed to the mall and other places on Saturday. It is so hard to stretch their budgets with the prices of clothes, especially at the Mall. But, they were able to find quite a few bargains and I think overall were quite pleased with their selections. Catherine regaled us with stories of her driving escapades (so far) -- now I know why her Daddy is a little more gray.

ROCKY IS BACK...that little furry devil. I was just about to nod off the other night when I heard these little tiny feet running up the wall and into the attic, across the attic floor into the netherlands of homeland infrastructure. Dang, that really bugs me. About 18 months ago I had squirrels in the attic and called the Critter people -- now those are some strange folks! I don't have enough time to share all my observations of this person, but let me just say he was a bit squirrelly. Of course, I was squirrellier cause I wrote him a BIG FAT check and now I've got the darn squirrels back. I think this is probably a scam of older, living alone women -- do any of you gals with a guy at home ever call the critter people.....nooooooooooooooo, you send your fella to do the dirty work. That's what they're supposed to do. Obviously, people who choose this career path are not necessarily college bound and probably find a business partner in their local bar while they talk about how they can overcharge for a service any idiot ought to be able to handle. I did go to Home Depot this morning and bought something that said it "repels" them -- I'll know more tonight.

It's really warm today -- can't get too excited about cooking. But a friend brought me a huge sack of tomatoes so I decided on a rustic and simple lunch...fresh tomatoes and cucumber with Fleur de Sel salt (thank you, Bev) and a touch of olive oil, a few slices of Ciabatta bread, a fine Manchego and a Roqueforte...Fourme D'Ambert...that I found at Whole Foods. A fresh glass of sweet tea with extra lemon and voila...I believe it's simply called perfection. Sorry my photo is not!

OK, remember no shoes, no shirt, no problem and the tale of flip flop masquerading as a bottle opener. I still think that is such a hoot. But, here it is -- sorry I didn't wash the shoe. As you can see, the little metal clip thingie is a bottle opener. It works, too!