Scanning the news headlines this morning I noticed this curious title: “Government shuts down NetBank.” Hmmm, we have an account with them… So I read the story and find out the FDIC (the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) has shut down the bank due to excessive mortgage defaults. Basically, they ran out of money. Since our savings accounts were “FDIC-insured” we don’t lose anything, and our money will be transferred to another bank. The FDIC symbol on the right is so commonly associated with banks that it is something we usually take for granted but today we’re pretty happy that they are around!

The Office premiered last night and it was so worth the wait.

There were many funny lines including the above quote, Michael claiming that he was not superstitious but was more reasonably “slightly-stitious,” and Angela explaining how to deliver meds to her sick cat.

For more laughs, see what the cast did over the summer break by watching this 3 minute video on YouTube.

(ha ha!)

Eric’s dad helped him hang our new light fixture over the weekend and it looks much more modern and reasonable than the old one. We will probably sell the candelabra on craigslist because it’s still in wonderful shape and solid brass… just because we don’t like it doesn’t mean it won’t go perfectly in another home.

We’ve been fortunate to have largely avoided delays in our travels this year – even our non-compensated delayed return from Halifax wasn’t too bad. However, plenty of other people have had horrendous problems from the airlines, and it doesn’t seem like any of the airlines really care to fix their problems. Due in large part to these indifferent attitudes people are beginning to push much harder for a federal passenger bill of flyer’s rights. If you’d like, you can sign the online petition urging this legislation forward. I think this is an important issue and I’m hoping that a version of it is passed in the near future.

I’m guessing that my grandmother was younger than I am today when this photo was taken… but today she turns 88.

I have many fond memories of my gram while I was growing up. We vacationed in Florida with my grandparents every year and as a special treat I would get to spend the weekend with them for my birthday which usually meant shopping at Water Tower Place (when they lived in the Hancock building), sewing practice, and eating lots of sweets. :)

She and I lived together in college as her condo was a mere mile from Eckerd. And even though we are separated by almost 60 years, we managed to become very close during those four years.

Through many boyfriends (me), a broken hip (her), and countless fights about laundry, we still remain good friends.

I love you, gram… happy 88th.

Today while Eric and his parents were scoping out the farmer’s market, I spent an hour sweating in the hot sun painting with chalk on the ground for groundSPARK, a street painting festival in downtown Raleigh.

There was supposedly a record number of participants and it was certainly crowded enough!

Here I am demonstrating my flexibility by adding more highlights to Riesling’s eyebrows while not stepping all over my painting. :)

See the finished product on Flickr!

Although I was absolutely soaked by the end, I had a wonderful time and we saw a lot of beautiful works.

It made the beer sampler at the Flying Saucer even more earned. :)

The beauty (and the problem) with online shopping is that you wake up in the morning and have no plans whatsoever to buy anything and then your husband sends you a link from SlickDeals about Amazon’s discounted light fixtures and four days later you have a new chandelier for your dining room.

For example.

The good news is that we badly needed to replace this fixture, it’s pretty ugly. But we never go in there except to lift weights and mix drinks so spending a small fortune on a new light was at the bottom of our list of spending ideas.

The current chandelier…

(The Phaaaaaaantom of the Operaaaaa is theeeerrrreee, insiiiiiide your miiiiind…)

Eric’s parents will be here on Friday and I’m sure his dad will be delighted to help us hang the new light (*waving hello*), because otherwise it will sit in the box until we can scrape together some time to do it ourselves. Which may be never.

At least Riesling got a kick out of the box it came in. :)

So, I mentioned a week ago that I decided to donate a custom portrait to the schnauzer rescue fundraiser in a few weeks. I also decided to have business cards made up with my latest painting…

I plan to give these out at the dog park, my dog groomers, my vet, and at the schnauzer meetups. With any luck (and some perseverance), I’ll have some more dogs to paint!

Please spread the word, there’s more info and pricing information here.

Also, visit my art blog to see the process behind the toy fox terrier, Haus, painting.

My mom loved this stuff and every so often, she would make up a batch that lasted approximately three hours in our house. While shopping at Whole Foods last week, I happened to see some fresh chicken livers and they were surprisingly inexpensive. So I bought the smallest amount (a half a pound) and started looking around for recipes.

It seems to me that you can get as complicated as you want (I’m talking to you, Emeril), but I choose an easy recipe from Bon Appétit with minimal ingredients and a fraction of the butter of other recipes!

Liver and Blue Cheese Pâté

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
1 1/2 cups chopped onions
1 pound chicken livers, halved, trimmed
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
2 tablespoons brandy
4 ounces blue cheese, crumbled

Line a 2-cup dish or mold with plastic wrap, leaving overhang. Melt butter in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions; sauté until beginning to brown, about 6 minutes. Sprinkle livers with salt and pepper. Add livers and thyme to skillet. Sauté until livers are no longer pink in center, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Add brandy; scrape up any browned bits. Place contents of skillet in food processor. Add cheese; blend until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Pack pâté into prepared dish. Cover; chill 1 day. Unmold to serve. Makes about 2 cups.

I’ll tell you one thing, the dog was my best friend while this was cooking. I tried a little bit last night and it was absolutely delicious. Eric won’t touch it, so I have a week to eat a cup of pâté on my own. Poor me. :)

After Riesling’s portrait was finished, I started looking for other dogs to paint. My in-law’s yorkie, Jeter, was a natural choice as we have a ton of photos of him.

Take a look at my art blog, to see how this painting came together.