Wrapping up the end of the year.

I’ll start at Christmas because nothing out of the ordinary happened, especially after the invitation for worlds 🙂

I took down the Christmas tree and packed up everything pertaining to christmas and decided to move some stuff around and clean..  getting ready for the New Year..

Friday, My friend and I went down to Aiken to go trail riding..

this place was awesome, they have a steeple chase track, a sand 1 mile race track and all these jumps randomly throughout the trails..

then when we were going into the woods there was a sign that said the hounds will be in the woods Saturdays at 9am and Tuesdays at 1:30pm… I was excited..  I haven’t fox hunted in a LONG time…  I need to bring Kismet down to those trails and see how she does in the woods.. then go to a fox hunt..

Now, I took Ragnarok (Streakature) there, because of the race track…   which is where we headed straight too.  

I took off just cantering.. and I passed my friend… then I kicked and kicked and kicked and this horse was just running.. he ran so fast my eyes were watering… it was awesome.. I think I might have missed my calling as a jokey….

then we left the track and went onto the trails, we found some quick sand with a sign that says “danger quick sand after heavy rain” well, no heavy rain there… at my house… yes.. but a couple of hours down the road, it was dry….  so we crossed the quick sand… my friend and her horse went first.. then Ragnar and I…. and right before the end… Ragnar just laid out in the sand.. I screamed like a little girl because he startled me… my friend turned around and she was like.. what the hell…. I started laughing and kicking my horse telling him to get up.. the joker was going to roll with me…  we laughed pretty hard for a while after that..  I couldn’t believe him…  I really love this horses personality..  

But, when we got back to town, I got my horse loaded on my trailer and we headed home, and when I got there.. there was this big box that said perishable sitting on my table…   So, I open it.. and what is in there…… Lobsters.. from Maine… they were alive.. looking at me with those cute little eyes and moving their little legs around….  They were a Christmas Present from my friend Sandy in Georgia…

I’m staring at these little critters…. and just the other day.. I had made lobster tail.. and it was fine and good.. but, It wasn’t attached to the cute little thing when I cooked it….

So, I got out a big stock pot and filled it up with water and got it boiling… I was totally having a girl moment trying to kill these lobsters…  I had heard they scream when you boil them…..

So I called my mom.. and I told her what was in front of me… and she explained to me that when she was a youngun’  she used to be up at her grandparents house in Maine and they would catch the lobsters then take them home and cook them and they would scream…. that didn’t make me want to kill them…  but I sucked it up… threw them in the boiling pot while I held my eyes closed real hard.. because for some reason.. that would have made me not hear the screams… but…. after I dropped the last one in the boiling water I threw the lid on… and tried not to listen.. but, it dawned on me that they didn’t scream.. so I opened one eye and looked at the pot.. then the other eye…. and I was confused… so I called my mom back.. and explained how I threw them in there and they didn’t scream…. she said hmm and I said hmmm and we hung up….. but, we had an awesome supper..  I made a Butter Roux and got out nut cracker thingies.. they look like crab crackers hahah…  and we had a good ole meal 🙂 Lobster, Steamed Broccoli and Saffron Rice..

Since I’ve been on vacation since 12pm on Christmas Eve, most of these days are blending together… haha…  

So since we are talking about food.. I’ll stay on the food subject.. The parks and recreation people called me and wanted me to participate in the first chili cook off… So I said sure, and the lady told me we needed a football theme, since it is Super Bowl weekend.. and it had to be healthy chili… meaning made with Turkey.. I was all excited because I have a kick butt turkey chili recipe!  and My assistant I decided that we will go with Texas as our state… then she explained that her husband would be pissed if we went with the Dallas Cowboys… so, I went home and told my cowboy and he put us hot on the trail of the Houston, Texans.. haha.  So we are calling ourselves the Lonestar Ladies.. and  we got ourselves some Texans shirts, and aprons.. then we will decorate with the Texas flag and stuff… It’s going to be great 🙂

Oh, and I went to a supermarket like 45 minutes away from me.. and they had Lamb… so Monday night, we had lamb chops and I made Ratatouille.. which I had never made before… let me tell you what.. it’s a lot of work…  but, the Ratatouille has thyme in it….  so I made a paste for the Lamb out of dukes mayo, about 2 cloves of garlic minced, some of the fresh thyme and some rosemary… then pasted it on the lamb, crushed up some ritz (like 4 of them) and spread that on top of the paste…. then baked them for 20 minutes…

One night I also made cranberry orange chicken…

Sunday, went to my parents house, my mom made chicken and veggies…  then that night, I was were so tired form staying up the night before until about 2am.. watching the UFC fight…. which brings me to another thought bubble popping up in my head…. HOLY CRAP the UFC fight was amazing… I was watching the girls fight.. and I got to thinking while we were driving sunday…. I really need to take kickboxing and judo lessons…. 

I might have also missed my calling as a cage fighter…..  and I think i’m going to make it a new years resolution that I’m totally going to find somewhere to take kickboxing…

ok detour over… back on track…  well, sunday… really monday morning.. Zeus woke me up puking…. I heard him dry heaving, to which i come to.. to see him throwing up my underwear.. so, after cleaning that up I was awake… wide awake… and didn’t get back to sleep until 6am.. when it was time to get back up.. then I had to go to the office to finish the obamacare bs…. and that lasted until I had to go back yesterday… and I was there until 5pm finishing it all up… and now I gotta go back to work for real tomorrow…  🙁  I want a longer vacation… but, alas.. my patients need me….

Last night was fun…  I went to a friends house and had a beaufort stew… I had no idea what that was until I saw it….. It’s a low country boil… I guess it’s a south carolina thing to call it a beaufort stew… but, I watched the ball drop and then hung out for a little while longer and I drove home… to where I t-totally crashed… I didn’t wake up until about 10:30am….  we got to sleep about 2:30-3am…..

I woke up to zeus he was all snuggled up with me… I rolled over and went back to sleep… I have no idea what time that was.. but, I woke up about 10:30.. and I was still groggy… 

I did put a ham in the crockpot with coca-cola…. cut up my collards, washed the black eyed peas that I had soaked over night… and got everything ready to go…  after shooting some skeet and completely falling in love with my dad’s Winchester 870tb shotgun.  I made Cornbread and, we all sat down to a mighty good meal…  Collards for luck, black eyed peas for wealth and ham for who knows what.. and the cornbread just for the collards 🙂  we had a great meal.. and a great way to start the New year…

I have a good feeling about 2014… the past few I haven’t had good feelings about… I hope this one is great for everyone..  

that was long winded.. but, here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.. 🙂