How I spend my summer vacation

My Thursday nights over the summer are spent teaching. Not in a classroom, but outdoors, and not with just people, but with dogs, too.

I have been involved in the Erie County 4-H program for the last 17 years. I started as a member joining when I was 13 and then as a leader when I was too old to be a 4-H member anymore.

Our end-of-the-season show (our Round-up) is coming up on August 9th at the Waterford Fairgrounds. The horse show is the following day, but the majority of the events happen that Saturday. Not only will there be our dog show, but all of the other projects are judged that day as well. There will be cows, pigs, rabbits (and possibly guinea pigs this year - I'm not sure), along with the other non-animal projects including small engines, bowling, sewing and cooking, just to name a few. There is also a small carnival to benefit the MDA, each game booth is run by a 4-H club.

If you don't have plans for that Saturday, please come check us out! I'll be the one running the dog registration table (usually under a blue tent) with the camera attached to her hand if you want to say hello!

pomegranate ice cream

This was by far one of the easiest things I've ever made - and it's absolutely delicious! The original recipe called for freshly squeezed pomegranate juice but I couldn't find a pomegranate, so I bought a bottle of 100% pomegranate/blueberry juice when we went shopping last night. That worked out perfectly! I will definitely be making this again.

Also, Teresa is giving away a cupcake scented gift set by Embrace Bath & Body, over at her personal blog. The contest is for USA and Canada only. (I had to add that to the blog entry - what better for a cupcake themed blog than the chance to win cupcake-scented bath things?)

I'm sure it's a fine product...

This falls in to the "I'm sure it's a fine product, but ..." it sure made us all giggle.

We were at the grocery store tonight when I realized I forgot to grab a lime for the ice cream I planned to make (and did make, I'll let you know tomorrow how it turned out) from the produce section and we were already halfway done. I gave Dave the cart and told him the next thing on the list to get and told him I'd be right back. I got my lime and headed back through the store and found the three of them standing there in the middle of an aisle laughing so hard. The Connor started to hand me (what I'm assuming is) a candy bar and then quickly took it back and told me I couldn't have it.

I want to know what would happen if I did eat the candy bar! *LOL*

Another product name that made us giggle, well, mostly it made ME giggle is this:

Again, I'm sure it's a fine product, it's just the name that strikes me funny!

Here's a sneak peek of the ice cream I made tonight (it's a no-churn recipe, it's a good thing because I don't have an ice cream maker!).

just venting, nothing important

This isn't going to be much of a post but I just need to vent a little.

WHY does it seem like every time something good happens with me, 198 other bad things have to happen at once to cancel out that one good thing? Seriously, wtf?

My oven has been on the fritz for a while now, only wanting to work when it feels like it. I was finally able to call and schedule someone to come out and fix it today but now I have to cancel because we had to (somewhat unexpectedly) get two tires put on the one car we have (that was a big mess all in itself) and now I don't have enough cash to get the oven fixed. Kinda funny because that oven is how I am trying to supplement my income this summer (that's been slow going though) since I'm not back to work until the end of next month. Not funny "ha, ha" though, because I'm certainly not laughing this morning. (Don't worry Tammy - I will get you your s'mores cupcakes come hell or high water!)

I never thought I'd rush summer vacation, but is it the end of August yet?

I'm sorry for the whining but I just had to vent somewhere.

blueberry crumb cake

Inspired by bojosmom's post about the blueberries she picked, I went and got some when we went grocery shopping today and made a crumb cake.

I'm sending a thank you to my sister, also, because my oven died right in the middle of baking this and she allowed me to use her oven to finish baking it.