Happy Bastille Day!

Today is our annual Bastille Day celebration! It has been a tradition in the small pharmacy satellite where I work to celebrate with tasty French treats- it started over 10 years ago with just myself and the technician I work with- and now is celebrated annually by our little group. We have fattening treats and invite people to stop by our office for a croissant and jam, cheese, fruit and crackers. Bastille day is also called  La Fête Nationale and is basically 4th of July for the french. None of us our particularly interested in french culture, it just happened to be an odd tradition that we find fun- another excuse for a mini-pot-luck of sorts. So, grab a croissant and celebrate the liberation of France!

Hungy Hippos!

Buffalo Chicken Dip

2 large cans Chicken breast meat (or 1 rotisserre chicken shredded)

8 oz package Reduced-Fat cream cheese

1 c. Frank's hot wing sauce

1 c. Blue cheese or Ranch dressing (I like the Blue cheese)

(optional) 1/2 c. shredded cheese or blue cheese
celery and carrot sticks

crackers (Breton or wheat thins)

Drain and rinse the canned chicken and then mash/ shred it to break it apart. Mix in the next 3 ingredients in a bowl and microwave for a minute or two to get the cream cheese soft enough to mix. Then either put it in a crock pot and simmer it to mix together, or put it in a casserole and bake on 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. I have seen it with melted cheese on top, or mix 1/2 cup of cheddar or blue cheese into the mix- I dont do either since I like it spicy and think it has enough fat already, so I skip extra cheese. Serve warm with celery, carrots and crackers for dipping. Delicious!

My email address has changed!

Newsflash! The name of the hospital that I work at has changed, and therefore so has my work email address. If that is the only contact you have for me, please let me know and I will give you my personal email and my new work email address. My work email account will continue to work for about 3 more months, then voila! Dont you love marketing and PR people? A hospital known by name and reputation for over 100 years will be changing their name. To me it is like rebranding "Coca~ Cola" or "Tiffany's" - but hey, that is just me. I just work here.

Follow by email

Oooohhh.. check out this snazzy little gadget I added to my sidebar. You can plug in your email address and it will send you an email update of what I have posted on my blog. I tried it out yesterday and it sent me an email with the pictures included in it. Pretty spiffy! You might have to try it out and let me know what you think. On second thought, if your email updates you with my blog posts, will you ever come to my blog again?? You might have to check it out soon, if I dont think you guys are coming to visit me I might just have to ditch it! (heh heh heh- evil laugh here heheheh).

From what I can tell, it only emails you once a day and only if I have posted something new, it is annonymous (no one can see that you plugged in your email), and you can unsubscribe at anytime. If anyone tries this, let me know if you like it. :)

Chop Stick Training Wheels

I dont know what these things are called- but at sushi restaurants they give Lauren this little clip to hook her chopsticks together so she can use them (without stabbing out an eye). I call them "training wheels." I carry one in my purse just in case they dont have them someplace we go. Too cute, right?

To the sushi naiive- yes that is a fish tank at our table. Oh the irony of the sushi restaurant- they usually have many beautiful tanks full of fish....

Candy Land!

Lauren loves this game! We keep it up in Winter Park so she doesn't see it too often, but still always remembers how to play. She was talking to my mom on the phone last week about her upcoming visit to Denver with Aunt Susie and she told grandma V that she can play CandyLand with her, but Susie cannot because their aren't enough "guys". She is certainly too big for her britches sometimes- she is only 2 1/2 - I cannot believe she would think about their not being enough game pieces! There are 4 pieces- and usually Jeff, Lauren and I play- so she knows there is only enough for one more- WOW! Kids are much smarter that I ever gave them credit for.

Anyone else have little kid board games? I was thinking Chutes and Ladders was for little ones too? We never go to the big toy stores (out in the 'burbs ya know) so I am not sure what the options are. She definitely likes board games though.

Coke Bear at Winter Park

If I wouldnt keep loosing my harddrive I would have a ton of pictures of her with this bear throughout the years and seasons.

Rained out...

I am really trying to be better about exercising and getting back into running. Tonight after a very long Saturday at work I really didn't want to run. But, I got on my clothes, ponytail holder in, and fired up my music. As I was walking out the door, the sprinkles turned to a downpour! Oh darn, I changed into a sundress, cracked a Coors Light and played with sidewalk chalk under the covered back deck with Lauren. Can't really run in the pouring rain, can ya? Glad to know us chics got each other's backs- thanks Mother Nature!