We got tagged.  Tagged like a railcar.  I think have have used that before… need some new material.

Our friends over at 2Dolphins tagged us on a meme and as much as we think they are lame… when someone calls you out – you have to take care of business.  So this post is going in that direction… the taking care of business direction.

So if you want to play, feel free – we will not be tagging anyone… because it creates so much pressure and the last thing we need at the moment is more pressure right?  I mean we are in a Recession!  haha

I (James) will be taking this one for the team… giving you 7 things you likely didn’t know about me, and will likely forget upon reading this.  If you want to play along, link back to us and well… you know how it works.

1. I have a tattoo of a the Speedo logo on my hip.  I was a decorated swimmer (literally) in high school and the day I turned 18, my Mom went with me to hold my hand while I got the logo etched into my skin.  It may or may not be a bit longer at this point.

2. When I leave a room, I tend to slap each pocket on my pants to ensure I have all my belongings.  OCD much?

3. I wear two bracelets on my wrist.  One is a Livestrong bracelet in memory of my Brother that died of cancer.  The other is a “Riding With Barbaro” bracelet in memory of the racehorse that stole America’s heart.  I haven’t taken either off but maybe once in the past 2-3 years.

4. I live by the philosophy of “it never hurts to ask“.  I will likely die by it to be honest.

5. I have tried to build my life around the movie Scarface.  Take away the drugs and loose women, replace them with blogs and loose network cables… I just hope that I can go out fighting like he did.  The ultimate story of coming up from nothing.

6. After high school, I went to the school of life.  I major’d in… paying the bills.  Minor’d in… whatever kept me out of the oil industry.

7. Shala & I want to make a difference.  Online & offline.  We are working hard to figure out where it is we are supposed to be making this difference.  It seems like lately, that vision is becoming crystal clear.  Stay tuned.

Like I said before, feel free to participate.  We joke about these things all the time – but seriously, thanks Rob for giving us some blog fodder.    Have fun with your meme-ing folks!

Tags: Funny, James Is Wrong Too, Link'age, Make A Difference, Nerdy Stuff, Personal, Read Blogs by James
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Ok… so if you saw our last post, and thought we must be some Southern food junkies, your right.  This one probably tops it even more-so in southern-icity.  I just made that word up.  Thanks.

This meal is meant to replace a big meal at an eating joint.  Eating joint?  Did I just revert back to the 50′s or something.  Not sure where that came from.  We are suckers for going out to eat (that is why we are doing an intervention on ourselves) on the weekends.  We work hard all week and because of marketing in our lovely USA… we think that the reward is going out to eat to spend that hard earned money on FOOD!  They totally brainwashed us at some point in our lives.  So we knew the weekends were going to be the hardest and so we planned a big meal for the weekend.  It just so happened to be BBQ pork ribs. (go figure, since this is a gardening and BBQ blog).

We also put on some Opa’s sausage (jalapeno & cheese) & armadillo eggs (you seriously haven’t seen our recipe/how-to?) since we had the fire going.  We actually thew some Opa’s on the grill for lunch, wrapped them in wheat tortillas and had a few armadillo eggs as well.  Nice 3$ lunch.

Shala had put on a pot of beans when I put on the pork ribs (view the walk-through), I’m not a bean person – but Shala loves them and they will last a few meals this next week for her.  SUPER CHEAP of course.  Anyone who is familar with this merky water will know what’s in the picture below…

And what good is a pot of beans without some cornbread eh?  Nothing… apparently.  Like I said, not a bean guy – so I wouldn’t have a clue how to eat them.  Everyone around here (Texas) eats them on top of cornbread crumbled up.  We love cornbread and for some reason we didn’t really make it all that often – but we have changed that recently.  Cornbread is cheap and with some butter… oh man.

Since we are an equal opportunity lender, Shala got beans… I get a side to make it even – potatoes.  I love fried potatoes, with onions, garlic – bacon… cheese.  Yeah, I eat it mostly because it is so healthy.  I’m all about health.  Fried health.  Speaking of health, we picked a fresh salad from the Aerogarden – once again, the aerogarden is kicking butt and the salads are awesome.

Tomorrow will put us at 1 week without the monster we call eating out (or fast food).  We planned out our week while eating dinner tonight.  We have so many leftover ribs – so that will be peppered in throughout the menu.  $12.30 for the ribs (13 ribs on the rack – so $1 each is fine).  We ate a total of 3 ribs, so $3 in ribs, 1 potato ($.20), beans ($1 – but probably two more meals out of it), salad (free), sausage ($2.99 – we actually ate it at lunch and saved the ones from dinner for lunches… so we aren’t going to count it in this total), armadillo eggs – $2.  So our total… $6.20

Not bad.  Considering if we went to Outback or something like that locally – it would have set us back $50 easily.  One week almost done with… bring it on!

Tags: Barbeque, Cooking, Eating At Home, Food, Make A Difference, Money, Pictures, Recipes by James
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Happy first day of Spring to everyone!  We have had Spring like weather mixed with a few wintry days for the past month or so, but it is nice to know that Spring is now official.

In honor of Spring our Lime Tree opened it’s first bloom yesterday.  Citrus blooms smell amazing and are beautiful as well.

view the fullsize picture on Flickr (these are super crunchified)

I snapped this picture after the tree got a good watering.  Citrus trees like a more humid climate than what we have here so we always make sure to water the entire tree.

  

view this picture on Flickr

We went to a couple of places to look at plants last night and when we got back we found this ladybug in the front yard.  James picked him up and gave him a new home on the lime tree.  We have an issue with afids so hopefully he will find some food and stay awhile.

 

view this picture on Flickr

This little girl (Izzy) is loving the nice weather.  She had completed a round of ball fetching and was laying down for a little rest.  Right after I took this she was right back up and ready to play.  She never rests for long!

Let’s welcome Spring everyone!  Hope it is nice and springy in your “neck of the woods“.

Tags: Gardening, Living Green, Personal, Pictures, Springy, West Texas by Shala
3 Comments »