Rich Mullins I'm Not

However, I did just buy a hammered dulcimer and am learning how to play it. I'm catching on pretty quickly. I bought the dulcimer the Saturday before Christmas, and by Christmas Eve I had memorized and could play 8 Christmas songs! It was fun playing for the family...they were all pleasantly surprised.

In the photo below, I'm explaining the string arrangement to my grandson, who is barely in the photo, on the right.

Now I'm working on some Rich Mullins songs. You can find instructional videos on You Tube--yippee! I appreciate the guys who went to the trouble of making those videos.

I also joined EverythingDulcimer.com so I can get acquainted with the dulcimer-playing community. I'm sure I can learn a lot from them.

This has been a lot of fun, as well as quite a challenge, especially for someone over 50! And it gives me something to do while Tim is playing Call of Duty. :-)

Pumpkin Stew

Had fun with the grandkids this weekend making pumpkin stew. Make a beef stew, then put it in a pumpkin and bake it! Yum-yum!

Here's granddaughter cleaning out the inside of her pumpkin.

Grandson washing the pumpkin seeds.

Pumpkin seeds ready for roasting.

Our favorite is to mix them with Worchestershire sauce and garlic powder.
(Pumpkin seeds are not part of the stew recipe, lol.)

Grandson dredging the beef in flour.

Granddaughter dropping the beef into the hot oil.

Brushing the pumpkin shells with vegetable oil.

Looks like the beef stew is done.

I used a very yummy recipe from Giada at the Food Network.

Rosemary, thyme, and garlic make a really flavorful broth.

You do need to simmer the stew in a pot for 1 hour or so,

whatever your recipe calls for, before putting it in the pumpkins.

Spooning the stew into the pumpkins.

Ready for the oven!

Bake 1-2 hours, till pumpkin meat is soft but skins are still firm.

P.S. Use the smaller, sweeter, pie pumpkins, not jack-o-lantern pumpkins.

The kids declared this a winner!

They enjoyed eating out of the pumpkins and scraping

the sides to make sure to get some pumpkin meat in each spoonful.

Awww.....

Ever since Spike II died, we've been holding out for a baby Foxface to arrive at the fish store. Today they had three babies! We selected the smallest of the bunch...he's barely over an inch long. What a cutie! (He's the yellow one in the photo. To the left you can see our orange Aussie Dendrophilia. The colors are much brighter...the camera flash doesn't do it justice.)

Spike III didn't take long to acclimate, and he seems happy, although Dory (the blue hippo tang) is picking on him a bit. For some reason he doesn't seem to mind. He's managed to find a hiding place if he needs to get away. One of the clowns also tried picking on him, but Spike III showed his spikes! Such a baby and yet he knows how to defend himself.
　
Oh, guess I didn't mention...we put Dory in the main tank a week ago. At the same time, we took the bully Flame Angel out and quarantined him. That was so Dory would have a chance to feel comfortable in the main tank without being picked on.
　
We're a little glad that Dory feels assertive enough to pick on someone. Perhaps she's ready for Flame to return to the main tank. We'll put Flame in a little later today. His presence might give Dory something else to think about besides picking on little Spike.

Another look at Spike III, along with Rebo and Zootie, the two clowns.

Here he is, schooling with the chromies (aka The Three Stooges) and showing his spikes.
OK, the right term is "shoaling." Here he is, shoaling with Larry, Mo, and Curly.

New Guy

Just picked up this pseudochromis porphyreus (the purple one in the photo). He's listed as "semi-aggressive," which is good for being such a little guy. Already he's held his own against the bully Flame Angel, so now Flame is leaving him alone.

Oh, and we named him Inigo. ("Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.") We chose that name cuz it sounds like indigo, which is kind of the color he is.