CAN YOU GUESS WHAT THIS IS?

                                    

   How about an Albino Frog?

NOTHING LIKE MICHIGAN SWEET CORN

While our compadre was visiting we served him corn on the cob.  This is the first time he ever had it served with butter, salt, and pepper.  We cook the corn in water with sugar and milk.  Normally in Mexico one can get elote (corn) from a vendor in the jardin.  They normally smear the elote with mayonnaise and sprinkle it with parmesan cheese.

After having the Michigan sweet corn, our compadre asked for corn every night for dinner.  We think we had it five nights in a row.

UPDATE ON MAKING BABIES

On July 23rd we posted about making babies on our anniversary.  That is, making baby zucchini's.  We are happy to report that we did have one more zucchini!  That was it for the season.  The plants are dead and pulled.  This is the second year that we haven't had a good crop of zucchini.  Many years we have had so many that our neighbors and friends say...STOP...WE CAN'T HANDLE ANYMORE.

We hope to have better luck next year.  If you have any ideas on what we can and should do, please advise.

A SPECIAL TREAT FROM A SPECIAL FRIEND

Earlier in the month, we did a good deed for a special friend.  We prepared a small section of her yard and planted some grass seed, trimmed some trees, pulled some weeds, and patched a hole in the outside brick.  It was great to be able to do something nice for someone else. 

In return, she invited us over and prepared some delicious hors d'oeuvres and served some wonderful wine.  We were over and did a few more chores and of course she invited us once again for food and drink.  This was such a great treat and totally unnecessary and unexpected.

A few days later, she stopped by our home and brought us a special treat.  It was a box of Allen Brothers prime steaks.  We had never heard of Allen Brothers and were very excited to try them.

So, last night we fired up the grill and decided to try some of the steaks.  We grilled the sirloin strip steaks and the filet mignons.  As you can imagine, they were delicious!  We also had a good bottle of Malbec.  A special thanks to our dear friend, Ruth.

SAM'S DUCKS

Here is an update on Sam's ducks.  She has been feeding about 25 ducks twice a day.  The past two weekends we have been gone and when we get home on Sunday, the ducks are so happy to see Sam.  Some of them come up on the patio to greet her, nibble on her toes, etc.

There is one family of ducks that follow Sam all over.  She now has them feeding out of her hand.

OHIO GROWN

Here are a couple of beautiful tomatoes that were from Jim and Karen's garden.  They were perfect in every way...size, taste, and beauty.  Great for slicing.  We were very lucky to get a basket of these beauties to take home.

LOBSTERS, LOBSTERS, AND MORE LOBSTERS

This past weekend we went to visit our friends in Ohio, Jim and Karen.  Friday was Jim's birthday and we celebrated in style with lobsters.  Karen purchased the lobsters from a local store on Friday afternoon.  They were on special for a low, low price of $5.99/pound.  The lobsters were a little on the small side so Karen made an executive decision and purchased two lobsters for each of us.

Of course, there are always some people who have to play with their food!  Didn't their mother's teach them anything?

The devil and the angel lobsters talking to Bob
Eat me...no, don't eat me!

Karen and Bob dancing to "Dancing Queen" except they changed the words to "Lobster Queen"

Normally when we get together with Jim and Karen, Bob and Jim always have to have a cook-off.  This trip was no exception as they each cooked four lobsters.  Here is Jim looking up a recipe!

Jim being dignified on his birthday!

Bob knew exactly what he wanted to do and started butchering.

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Jim decided to steam his lobsters while Bob's were grilled.

A very Happy Birthday Guy!

After dinner, we all enjoyed another glass of wine by the fire. 

Once the fire was done we went inside for a delicious birthday treat...a key lime pie.  A perfect dessert for a perfect evening.

A VACATION ABOUT NOTHING

Many of you have watched the TV show, Seinfeld, a show about nothing.  Well, our compadre was here to visit us for 9 days and it was a vacation about nothing.

It was a last minute invitation and trip.  We purchased the airline tickets on Friday and he arrived on Monday evening.  We didn't have anything planned but very quickly all 9 days/evenings were filled with activities.  It was a very casual and relaxing time.

Here are a couple of our favorite dinners.  The first is a homemade tomato sauce with the tomatoes, peppers and basil from our garden.  The second is lamb chops with fresh green beans from the garden; the salad fixings were also from the garden.  Both were very delicious and everyone was a member of the "Clean Plate Club".

CULPRIT...GUILTY OR NOT GUILTY?

This morning we got up and it was drizzeling on and off.  Our master bathroom looks out over our back yard.  We saw a young deer wandering around and sniffing our geraniums.  Then we saw that something had eatten the flowers off my geraniums (you can see the lack of flowers on the right bucket).

Just the other day we had commented how nice our geraniums looked this year.  We also commented that we hadn't seen any deer either.  So, we think he is the culprit.  What do you think?

CICADA

A couple of weeks ago we went to our mail box and saw this Cicada bug.  The bug just came out of its shell.  This has been a long hot summer.  The cicada bugs bring music to our ears.  We sit out on the patio at night and listen to them.  It's the sound of our childhood reminding us that late summer is here and coming to an end.

The link below shows a cidada coming out of its shell.  We have seen a few shells around this year.  However, this is the first time we have ever seen the actual bug and shell next to each other.  Perhaps another time we will see it hatch.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cicada_molting_animated-2.gif

GUILTY

We enjoy the various wild life in our backyard. We like to sit on the patio and watch the birds. There are beautiful cardinals, blue jays, finch, etc., especially this time of the year because of all the baby birds. We usually fill the bird feeder and the seeds will last a couple of days. However, lately that has not been the case.

This squirrel was caught in action. Sucking the seeds right out of the feeder and dropping a lot on the ground. We think the squirrel and the ducks are working together because the ducks will eat whatever the squirrel drops.  It's always something...and we love it.

A SAD MORNING IN THE BACK YARD

We know we haven't written in some time, but a lot has certainly been going on in our lives and we promise to post the happenings soon.

In the meantime, this morning we were enjoying our coffee and reading the paper with our compadre, the father of our Mexican godchild, Robertito.  It is a beautiful morning.  All of a sudden, the ducks started crying.  We looked down to the stream and saw a big hawk on the bank.  A minute later the hawk flew away and we saw in his talons a baby duck. 

We know it is nature, but it is still sad.  We will have to wait for the families to come up to feed to determine who is missing.  : (