'Cause that's how I roll

Today I have a special treat for my loyal readers. After much begging and bribery, Sharkdog agreed to grace us with a post. So sit back and enjoy the musings of this little dog. I promise, it's time well spent.

The life of a miniature beagle isn't always easy. Sure, I have good looks and people area always fussing over me. But emotionally, it can be trying when people question whether I'm 100% beagle because of my small stature. Or when people think I'm puppy just because I'm small. But every once in a while a product comes along that seems like it was designed just for someone my size, just for a miniature beagle.

Last week Brian and Alisha bought this miniature computer. They said it was so Alisha wouldn't have to carry around her heavy laptop when she needed a computer on the go -- remember what happened to her last laptop? -- but I know what it's really for. Me. It must be for me. It's just my size.

Ah, yes. Now I can finally keep up with my stories on my own computer.

It may be small, but like me, it's packed with charisma. It has Skype pre-loaded and with it's integrated webcam I'm able to talk to my friends around the world without running up a huge phone bill for Brian and Alisha.

Why, hello there. Aren't you looking fine today.

To give you a better idea of the size of this miniature marvel, here's a photo of Alisha's Dell and my new laptop. Isn't it magnificently mini!


Alisha says it's too small to use as a main computer, but I think it's just the right size for me. For those of you interested in the specs, it's the Asus Eee PC and you can a nice quick guide on their website. (The page has music, so make sure your volume isn't too loud if you're at work.)

PhotoHunt: View

I'm participating something new. PhotoHunt, hosted by tnchick. Each week there is a theme and on Saturday tnchick and all of the participants post a photo along that theme. So, here's my first.

This week's theme is view and I've selected a photo of the view from our balcony. Brian actually took this photo, but I edited it. We make a good team.



Technorati Tag: PhotoHunt

Let's call this a learning experience

So. I was planning on harvesting the sweet potatoes a few weeks ago and was reviewing some websites about what exactly I was supposed to do. While reading through the troubleshooting section I noticed what seemed like an odd warning: if you give the sweet potato plants too much water, the sweet potatoes will be long and stringy. One website discouraged "luxurious growing conditions", which, I guess, includes daily watering.

So what does it mean that the sweet potatoes will be long and stringy? Well, here's an example:


I realize that there's nothing there to judge scale, but each of these sweet potatoes is about the length of a finger. And these are the large sweet potatoes. I found several roots that were the color of a sweet potato but otherwise looked just like a root -- no thickness at all.

So what's a girl to do? I decided to stop digging around in the dirt and let them grow a bit longer. I have potatoes growing in two containers and I only dug up one of them. I have no idea whether the other potatoes will continue to grow, but I can wait a few more weeks before I have to harvest them. Don't worry, I'll let you know.

Finally fall

Yesterday was the first day of fall. And for Vienna, that means chestnuts roasting on an open flame. Well, not really an open flame. More like chestnuts roasting on a grate that's on a metal barrel that probably contains a flame. I don't know the specifics of how it works. But I do have a photo. It's from one of last year's Christmas markets.


See those two black barrel-thingies? That's where you'll find the chestnuts. And potato wedges. The potato wedges always look yummy, but I've never tried them. I did try the chestnuts last year and I wasn't a big fan. They're ok, just not something I would seek out or crave or whatever. But they do smell tasty, so I like having the stands around.

It's only September!

Do you know what happens in countries where there are no major holidays in October and November? Christmas candy starts appearing in the stores in September! September! Surely it's not for sale in the U.S. yet, is it?

To the dark side -- and back again

I have a problem. An addiction, some might say. I like coke. A lot. In the U.S., it was Diet Coke and nothing else. Mainly because the only other option in the dark cola category was Pepsi. And if you've ever had a meal with me, you probably know that Pepsi isn't really an option. I didn't really mind regular Pepsi back in my pre-diabetic youth, but Diet Pepsi is vile. I would drink it maybe once or twice a year and only in dire situations. Like when I ate at Hideaway Pizza because you have to drink cola with pizza.

In Vienna, things are a little different. Diet Coke is called Coca-Cola Light and it has a slightly different (some would say better) taste. Plus there's Coke Zero, which I believe is (or used to be) available in the U.S. The problem here is the price. A 2-liter bottle of The Real Thing is almost $2.50. We just can't afford to support our habit at that price. So we made the switch. Not to Diet Pepsi (Pepsi Light), but to a generic brand from a local grocery store. Now I know you're probably thinking that a generic brand of soda couldn't possibly be better than Pepsi Light, but I tell you, it is. In fact, I believe that this generic brand has stolen the recipe for Coca-Cola Light. And a 2-liter bottle is about 85 cents (U.S. dollars).

But a few weeks ago, something awful happened. The store that carried this generic brand closed. So I was forced to try all of the other generic grands to see if I could find anything close. And eventually, I was forced to buy Pepsi Light. Let's have a moment of silence.

I had just about reached the point of despair -- the point where I suck it up and make the 15 minute walk to the next closest store of this chain -- when the clouded parted and the good news fell upon my ears. The store across the street from me was not closed for good, it was just closed temporarily for remodeling! It's opening again tomorrow.

And just in time too. I'm running low on coke.

Staying current

In case you haven't heard, Rickrolling is out... Barackrolling is in.

Almost here

Can you believe that fall is only about two weeks away? One of my favorite things about fall is baking. I've been bookmarking a lot of recipes that use pumpkins or sweet potatoes. I was hoping to be able to use the produce growing on my balcony, but it looks like I'm going to have to purchase the pumpkins. It's still unknown whether there are any sweet potatoes buried under the soil in my containers, but the vines have enveloped about half of my balcony and I'm taking that as a good sign. There's one rogue vine that is growing up and around a post on the balcony. That's my favorite vine. There's another vine in the left corner of the photo that's thinking about climbing the pole. I think that's a pretty cool vine as well.


Do you see the rogue vine there in the back? Here's a close-up.


I was planning on harvesting the sweet potatoes this weekend, but during some last minute research on what to do with the potatoes after I pull them from the dirt I discovered that you're not supposed to water sweet potatoes for two to four weeks before harvesting them. So I'm going to wait another week or two.

In the meantime, I bought a couple of sweet potatoes at the grocery store and made sweet potato bread over the weekend. It was really good. I think it would make a nice cupcake with whipped cream cheese frosting. Yummy!

An alternative disposal method

It happened again. I found a moth in my bag of flour. I'm convinced that the moth was in the bag when I bought it, but I guess there's no way to be sure. I used to keep my flour in the freezer, but there's just no room. And just for the record, this is a different brand of flour from a different store than the last time this happened. But instead of throwing the flour out, I decided to use it. And now I'm going to share the recipe, PW style.

Homemade Playdough, or How to Use Moth-Infested Flour

This is a fun and simple recipe. Let's take a look at the cast of characters: Flour, salt, cream of tartar, water, vegetable oil, and food coloring.

Oops! There should be some food coloring there as well. Unless you want to make beige playdough.

Toss 1 cup of flour, 1/2 cup of salt, 1 tablespoon of cream of tartar, 1 cup of water and 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil into a pot.


Stir and then place pot on the stove over low heat.


Keep stirring. I stirred for about 10 minutes. Eventually it went from this:


... to this:


You want to heat it a little more. It shouldn't stick to your fingers when it's done.

Now set the dough aside to cool. Once cool, divide the dough and add food coloring. The food coloring may get all over your hands when you're first working it into the dough, but it shouldn't be messy once it's all worked into the dough.


Now play to your hearts content. Store in an airtight container.




Homemade Playdough

• 1 cup of all-purpose flour
• ½ cup of salt
• 1 tablespoon of cream of tartar
• 1 cup of water
  
• 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil
• food coloring

1. Mix all ingredients except food color in a pot over low heat. Continuing stirring until a dough forms.

2. Remove dough from the pot and set aside to cool. Once cool, divide and add food coloring.

3. Store playdough in an airtight container.