A barking dog is often more useful than a sleeping lion

Today's title is a quote from Washington Irving, adapted from a verse in the Bible. It just jumped out at me. Sometimes I feel my life is too frivolous, that I need to do something more useful in my life. But it's difficult for me to know what to do.

Anyway, this week was a little less hectic but still we had a lot of fun.

Monday was the anniversary of our first date. We had some ideas how we wanted to celebrate the day but unfortunately best laid plans and all that. We did eventually get to spend some quality time together and we went to Olive Garden for dinner.

Tuesday morning we decided to be brave and go to Denny's for the free Grand Slam breakfast promotiion that they had announced during the Super Bowl. The people were out in force but I was really impressed with how fast we got seated and how quickly we were served.

Tuesday was Sheri's birthday. I asked her what kind of cake I could bake for her and she came up with an Almond Joy cake. I had never heard of one, but it sounded delicious. After some Googling, I found a recipe that sounded good and whipped it up.









We had a nice little get together over at Bonnie and Gayle's place. Everyone seemed to enjoy the cake.












Wednesday we went to Donna to the flea market to try and find a frame for my house numbers.
Being me means I had to buy a set of numbers unlike anyone else, and now I can't find a frame that will fit them. They didn't have one at the flea market either. We had decided to go to Gonzales' for their famous burgers, but the place was so packed you couldn't even find the line to stand in. I did take a picture of the charming little place.










We went to Rudy's BBQ instead. Now you have to realize that, being a Virginia girl born near the North Carolina border, there is nothing like North Carolina BBQ. I've tried Kansas City BBQ, and now I've tried Texas BBQ at Rudy's. It's not bad. Rudy's was better than the Kansas City BBQ I tried, but still not as good as North Carolina BBQ, in my opinion. I'm sure that it depends on the region you grew up in and are accustomed to, also.

I cleaned Thursday instead of Friday because I wanted to be able to go to George's Excel class on Friday.

Saturday I wasn't feeling all that great; allergies, I think.

Sunday we went to a party for Larry's birthday. It was terrific! Some of the girls even dressed up for him. Larry is such a good sport.














The week not being as full did allow me to get in some reading. Here are a few of the interesting stories I read this week:
Fur bras... for cows! http://www.yakutiatoday.com/news/society_00056.shtml
Now this caught my eye for some reason:) Those poor cows! And who decides what color fur? What kind of fur? Questions, questions!

The next story was "Do we want a ruling class?" http://www.stolinsky.com/news/news/news_item.asp?NewsID=571
I do a lot of political reading and this article grabbed me.

This next one I thoroughly enjoyed. I love war stories and war movies. John Wayne will forever be the epitome of what a man should be like to me. This is a list of five men who did unbelievably brave acts during war time.
http://www.cracked.com/article_17019_5-real-life-soldiers-who-make-rambo-look-like-pussy.html
I had heard of Sergent York and Audie Murphy but not the other three. All I can say is "Wow!"

This next story is just to cute to believe.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-510452/The-hero-bear-went-war-loved-smoke-beer.html
The 250 lb. brown bear, standing more than six feet tall, was possibly the most remarkable combatant of the Second World War, seeing action amid the hell of Monte Cassino in Italy.


Books this week: Lioness by Shirley Palmer. I really wish I could find a good mystery story that wasn't full of romance. Ick! I live a romance novel every day, or at least I've been deluded into thinking so; I don't need to read about it. I do like reading about blood and mayhem though. :) The one thing I did like about this book was that it was set in Africa, and dealt with animal poaching. It had some beautifully described scenes. I've always wanted to go to Africa. Maybe one day I will.

Movies this week: Lakeview Terrace starring Samuel L Jackson
Hitman starring Timothy Olyphant

I enjoyed both of these. Hitman was based on a video game and typically those types of movies aren't very good but this one wasn't bad. Anything with Mr Jackson in it has to be good. He is just a blast to watch.