Chai in 3-2-1

Every morning I take my time making a fancy drink since I have all day to make it and love sipping it on my balcony while catching up on how the golfers are doing and surfing the web. Well this morning I thought of YOU-MOM when I made an iced chai.  Trust me there is nothing fancy in this. But since you liked my hot one so much I thought I'd show you what the at home instructions are.


1. Purchase chai concentrate at your local supercenter (that's what they call 'em down here).  It is found right next to all the varieties of tea. Just remember Viking's colors.

2. Add a 1:1 ratio of milk and the chai concentrate.  I usually do 1/2 cup.  At this point you can add ice for cold and heat for hot.  Pretty simple and pretty tasty. 

3.  Sip away and it won't even matter that your teeth aren't brushed and your face isn't washed.

I survived round 5!

After watching 2 movies,  finishing my book, and watching the dopplers too long I decided that this storm I was going to cook/bake.  I made a batch of cookies which started out with a brick of butter.  I was expecting there to be 4 sticks of butter in here.  I was fooled!

I ate so much of the cookie dough that I yielded 6 big cookies.  I'm only half joking.

 Then I went to make some pico de gallo and realized I forget to buy the chips.  I improvised with my flour tortillas and now I don't know if I will ever buy chips again....They are delicious!!

Cut in 4's, spray both sides with cooking spray, and bake at 400 degrees for 8 minutes.  I also sprinkled them with garlic salt and lime juice before I put them in the oven. 

Good news is that we have sun in the forecast for the next week and a half!

I survived round 4!

I'm okay down here. I am still standing after more storms! I was NOT this happy when they were going on but now that they are over I am exhausted and going to bed!  We will see what it looks like outside in the morning y'all.  Thank God I am surrounded by brick.

P'mores

The only thing PEEPS may be good for in this world...

TJ Maxx is on the back burner

Right next to TJ Maxx is a store called Belk.  They are very common down south and can be compared to a Macy's or Marshall Fields.  I have recently found out that their clearance racks can make a girls knees go weak.  Take Exhibit A (below) for example.  

Yellow blouse was $40.00 paid $9.99

Blue/white shirt was $30.00 paid $4.99

Floral top was $36.00 paid $9.79

Best of all....Nautical blazer was $58.00 paid $7.39

I saved almost $130.00 and got some nice tops for work! Notice how they aren't black, tan, cream, or white?? I am trying to spice things up a little.  They have a fine collection of Sperry top-siders that I keep walking by.  

Another savvy shopping trip.

I got all the below jewelry for $4.78 after using sale coupons and such in the clearance section.  TJ Maxx better step up its game!

Storm Tracker in the making

It hasn't been 5 days and I already get to spend another 7 hours tracking a storm down here in the south.  Since all programming is moved to storm tracking, I spent some quality time making a nice dinner to prepare for "storm tracker 101."  When you combine a piece of potato and a piece of broccoli with each bite it is sooo good..  Of course italian seasoning and garlic salt is a necessity. 

The storm chasers call in and are put on the air when a funnel cloud or tornado has been spotted.  (about every 5 minutes).

 And this here is what we are looking at right now in central AR. (This is a picture of my tv screen). You can see Conway just took one hit and another one is coming soon as the winds are traveling at 60 mph. 

 I hope my little scoot can stay propped up nice and cute! It is my main squeeze right now (literally-like squeezing the throttle...) since my Jeep is having a sleepover at the dealership tonight and tomorrow night.  They offered to give me an enormous and gorgeous truck to drive around but  1. I didn't want to pay for the gas 2. I didn't want to worry about liability/insurance issues  3. could have potentially traded in my Jeep for it 


Just  in-more than 40,000 have lost electricity 

Uhhh Oops

Something happened today that I am not ready to talk about.  

Let's just pretend I was trying a new method of painting my nails. It didn't work well.  


On another note it is 60 degrees here and people are wearing winter jackets and ear muffs and by golly they are staying inside unless milk and bread is absolutely needed for dinner.

Mission Accomplished

Culprit:

Some of you know that I have been on the search to find the cookies that were offered to me when I visited HP in March.  It was the BEST sugar cookie, hands down.  The only facts I had was that it came from a local bakery in town.  Not very helpful since there are over ten. I could have easily called my manager and asked, but what fun would that be and how many cookies would I have missed out on?!  The 5th bakery I tried was the jackpot! It is called Ed's Bakery.  I bought three cookies but as you can see one didn't even make it through the parking lot.  This could be the next best worst thing.

Eric Church - homeboy

I seriously want to go to an Eric Church concert. I would be the hardcore chick fan there in my boots. This man could sing about a purple pillow and still grab my attention. He is so good at starting off slow and then rockin' it. Member "Smoke a little smoke" yea enough said.

Spring Colour Week: Tulips in Holland

A trip to Holland anyone? This looks so gorgeous!

Spring Colour Week: Tulips in Holland

Peiking Buffet

There was lettuce in it. 
Lettuce? Yes Lettuce.

Picture taken along Arkansas River

I'd rather stand or lay down, its quite alright.

On Saturday when I dropped Ariel off at the airport, I stopped by the worlds largest pedestrian/bicycle bridge in the US called very creatively, the Big Dam Bridge.  It was filled with people running, walking, and riding their bikes and I made sure to read all the posted information about the whens, whys, and hows.  I learned that the bridge was part of a 14 mile loop that stretched into downtown Little Rock and thought it would be neat to bike this.

That little hump is Pinnacle Mtn way off in the distance.

I found the sand bar on the riv where all the cool boaters go.

Here is more information and pictures. 


I gave away my bikes in Winona so I slept on the decision to buy one or not.  Well this morning I woke up after 4 hours of sleep.


Sidenote: I stayed up watching the MARCH OF THE PENGUINS on netflix.  


So I woke up and decided to buy this bike at a store that will remain unmentioned.  I figured the best way to test "ride" it was to go straight to the 14 mile river loop.  Well things started off great.  I was doing about 5 minute miles and just kept following the signs.  It all turned very sour when "Harpers Loop" signs started popping up with a bicycle on it.  I thought it was probably the route for bicyclists and followed the signs for the LOOP.  All of a sudden I was in what Chinatown is to Chicago. Needless to say "Harpers Loop" is not a loop, but rather a diversion into the thick ghetto of Northern Little Rock.    


Everything after this went great.  My goal was to not get off my bike the entire time as I feared my legs would collapse the minute they were on solid ground.  Then, on a hill at mile 10 my chain fell off of my bicycle.
To be very honest. I am planning on doing this again once I can sit on my bike. I am not quite sure when that will be as my bum is not very happy with me right now.  

Bachelorette Pad?

Is my place considered a bachelorette pad instead of a bachelor pad?  I don't have dirty dishes in the sink and couch or dirty bathrooms but I do have this for dinner a little too many times each week.  Cooking for one is just not as fun as slicing sharp cheddar and putting it between two wheat thins.  My fridge can barely hold another salad dressing choice-it is just plum full...

Truck collapses historic Conway Co. bridge

http://www.todaysthv.com/news/story.aspx?storyid=153099


Bummer of a day for this truck driver.

Arkansan

The best part was that ALL of the hassle was only $69.62 and just renewing my jeep alone in MN was going to be $140.00! 

There's somethin' women like about a pick-up man

Down here you honestly can NOT go anywhere or pass by anyone without having a conversation.  Even if you act like the most anti-social human being with your head focused on the ground.  Being that I know no one here I absolutely love this as it adds some flavor to my quiet days.  The place I notice it the most is the gas station.  (Mom remember when you got that guys detailing business card? So you know what I am talking about).  I also seem to be filling my tank every other day with all the exploring miles I put on the jeep but at least gas is still cheaper down here.  Well yesterday I found a new truck that tugged at my heart.  Don't worry Dad, the 51 chevy still has my all, but now there has to be room for a 1975 International.  It probably didn't help that the guy filling this beauty up was a farmer/rancher who was telling me he couldn't decide on whether to tell his wife he wanted have "FRIED TATERS" OR "BAKED TATERS" for dinner tonight after he trains his son on the till.  I had to tell him that this would be a very hard decision for me as well but if I had to choose it would be baked with some nice fixings on top.  Don't worry I was not in Conway but I wouldn't be surprised if I had the same conversation here in bustling suburbia.

Favorite spot so far- Greers Ferry Lake

This is not my photo but it is Sugar loaf mtn...same name as the one in Winona! But this one can only be accessed by boat as it is in the center of the lake and it is a 2 hour hike to the top.

There is Sugar loaf Mtn. again.

This is by far my favorite spot so far here in AR, the size of Greers Ferry lake blows me away. There are 11 marinas on the lake and 7 distinct swimming areas.  Here is more info on the area  http://www.swl.usace.army.mil/parks/greersferry/recreation.htm

Collins Creek and Fish Hatchery

Greers Ferry Dam

Collin's Creek

Supposed to be a great place to trout fish year round

It opened up to the Little Red River

There was a large campground to the right and campers were enjoying their morning coffee all along the stream

Greers Ferry National Fish Hatchery-Adult trout

When you walked by the pools, the calm water became turned into chaos like this...

They had nets on top to keep the circling vultures from snacking.

You can see all the crazy movement as they are packed in here.  This place distributes over 200,000 pounds of rainbow and brook trout annually into waters to mitigate the fishery losses from water development projects in AR and OK.