It’s My Birthday and I have a few Wishes

I’m getting older-today.

Not too old, mind you-but older. I still have my original teeth, hair and eyesight-so, I’m still doing pretty good.

And, since it was my birthday today, I’d thought I’d let you in on a few wishes that I have:

1. I wish I could eat these without gaining an ounce-every day of my life.

2. I wish some rich super distant uncle I had never met bequeathed this sweet ride to me.

3. I wish kittens never died. Instead, they would be whisked up into heaven just like Elijah.

4. I wished these people….

5. …and these people lived closer.

6. And above all, I wish I never disappointed this guy, made him mad or ticked him off. Fat chance, but I’ll sure as heck try.

I have many more wishes, but I’ll keep it to six. I need time to go party!

There’s a Hummus Among Us!

Yep, the title for this recipe is pretty lame. But I’ve had a weird week dealing with terroristic threats and what not, so anything that amuses me is rushing out quicker than I can close the dam.

I absolutely love hummus-I could eat hummus slathered on sandwiches, by the heaping spoonful, or with veggies if I feel like being a little more sophisticated. What I don’t love is paying $3 or more dollars for a tiny container that’s full of hard to pronounce ingredients.

So, off to the kitchen lab! And, within a few minutes, I had fresh hummus at my fingertips.

Here is what’s needed to make this Hummus Among Us Recipe-without tahini:

3 Cups Drained Garbanzo Beans (reserve juice if desired instead of the water)
3/4-1 Cup Water or bean juice (more or less depending on how tender/cooked your beans are)
1 TBS Lemon Juice
2 TBS Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 tsp Toasted Sesame Seeds
3/4 tsp Chili Powder
1 tsp-1 1/2 tsp Garlic Salt (depending on your taste)
1/4 tsp Onion Powder
1/4 tsp Salt (not pictured, sorry…)
Food Processor/Blender

Pour the 3 Cups of Garbanzo Beans into the blender. Add 1 Cup of Water and hit the puree until the beans are smooth.

The Hummus should have this type of consistency-thick but still pliable.

Add the 1 TBS Lemon Juice to the mixture.

Next, add the 2 TBS Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Add the 1 tsp Toasted Sesame Seeds and blend again until smooth.

Now for the spices! Add the 3/4 tsp of Chili Powder-(or if you like things a little spicy, take the plunge and add a full 1 TBS).

Add the 1 tsp to 1 1/2 tsp Garlic Salt.

And finally, add the 1/4 tsp Onion Powder and the 1/4 tsp Salt. Blend again until all the ingredients are mixed thoroughly.

Put the hummus into a cute bowl and then add a little more chili powder that will show off your awesome hummus.

Serve with fresh cut veggies and enjoy the Hummus that’s Among Us!

Linking up here, along with other parties:

Remodeling and Regrets-the Living & Dining Room Debacle

Dear Readers:

I have been dragging my feet for quite some time on an issue I normally attack with my ninja skills. I want to repaint and redecorate two rooms in my house:

The Dining Room

And the Living Room.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with these rooms and I do feel rather American wanting to redo a perfectly good room. The idea when we first chose this light gray paint was to have a very minimalistic, clean look (Bicep’s desire) but with a little color (my desire).

However, it just feels cold and blah.

I am determined to do it with no money out of pocket. This means selling things I own to buy new decor and paint, making deals and waiting for sales. I have been patient, grasshopper.

Here’s what inspired my color choice originally. While on tour, I came across this unique cinder block fence. I loved the turquoise color and filed the color in the back of my little creative brain.

Months later, I put together my case for change and presented this color board to Biceps. Lo and behold, the minimalist man liked the idea and enthusiastically supported it.

He has become a big supporter of my decorating prowess after I redid the Master Bathroom and Master Bedroom while he was on tour. I think he became this aforementioned big supporter mainly because he didn’t have to do any of the work. Heh.

So, dear Readers:

Here’s why I am writing to you. I have the inspiration, the go-ahead, the non-budget-budget and the time. It’s getting to the ridiculous point of just needing to pull the trigger and I can’t seem to do it. I think I’m afraid to paint a color so bold and possibly trendy. Should I just jump in, no regrets and slap that paint on the walls?

The Whole Hacking Story

The terrorism began last Saturday morning. The day started off lovely enough. Biceps and I were enjoying the cool morning, windows down, radio pumping while we drove to a large, local church to deliver a watermelon bowling alley we had been hired to build over the weekend. Pretty normal stuff for us.

I received a notification on my phone that I had a new email. Opening it, the innocent looking email warned me that my homepage was all in Arabic. The emailer even mentioned one of my projects that they liked and they had a legitimate looking yahoo email address.

I opened my site, thinking surely this person was mistaken. They weren’t. Poop. Crap. Dang.

The background to my site immediately turned black. And, then I saw something rather similar to this at the top of the page.

Photo Source
Striped colors decorated the fist in green, white and red. The hacker’s name was proudly scrolling across the tab bar and the top of the page. (I don’t want to give this moron any satisfaction, so I’m not going to tell you who it was.)

Photo Source
Almost everything on the page was in Arabic-very similar to this. (But, joke is on you, you funny hackers-this is the Lord’s prayer in Arabic. Boo yeah.)

I scrolled down even further to read a few sentences in English, touting how horrible America is and how great Syria and Palestine are. (Since when did they become friends?)

The hacker made death threats to all U.S. citizens, collectively and individually. Turds.

I called, texted and emailed my wonderful web guy. Sorry, Cole. I might have been freaking out a little.

But, just a little.

My web guy had his hands full dealing with terrorism and a crashing server on one side and this on the other. I wonder which he would have preferred?

The rest of the weekend my site looked like this. What’s that? You don’t see anything. Yep, that about sums it up.

I would like to say that my immediate reaction was enjoying the forced blogging vacation and casting my cares on the Lord. The reality was-it took me about 5 hours to get to that point and actually believe it.

And a glass of red wine.

But, hey-that’s down from the 5,000 hours that I freaked out when my site took a nose dive in 2011 with absolutely no recovery option. So, I think I’m doing pretty good…

I contacted these guys, and I will admit, I felt a little Nancy Drew about the whole matter. Side note-did you know the FBI actually emails you back when you email them?
The FBI had real people that cared about this bizarre midwest blogging wife. They aren’t just some vest sporting, coffee drinking, cool sunglass wearing, entity driving around in a bad sedan and hanging out at the White House.

 

And that’s where I’ll leave you. My web guy jumped through several hoops and I am back up and running. The FBI has probably moved on to bigger fish.

But, if this joker gets caught, you will be the first(s) to know. Thanks for sticking this out and seeing me through this.