Tangled Yarns

On the weekend I spent some time with my nieces, who were at my parents' house for a few days.  The weather was lovely, and we even had a weiner roast on Saturday afternoon!  Although a lot of snow has melted over the last couple of weeks, there's still a lot left...but in a bit of dirt under a big tree in the backyard, my niece found a ladybug!  She was quite excited. 

It sounds like our spring-like weather will be interrupted by the 5 - 10 cm of snow that is forecast for tomorrow, but by Friday it's supposed to be 8 degrees, so that snow won't last long. I'm sure I'm not the only one looking forward to green grass and budding flowers and leaves, but it's a bit too early for spring...we need a few more weeks of snow so that it's not another dry summer!   

So I made my muffins, a day late, but done nonetheless!  I couldn't find the recipe I was thinking about, but I found another one that looked good.  It's actually a recipe for a loaf, but I have a wonky oven and have never had much success making loaves.  It seems to be at least 25 degrees off and has a really really hot spot, so I never know how long to bake things, and loaves are just one of those things I can't seem to make good guesses on.  Anyway, here is my finished product!

I got the recipe from allrecipes.com.  After reading a bunch of the comments with the recipe, I altered it to increase the peanut butter to 1 cup instead of 1/2 and used 4 bananas instead of 2.  The main comment I based my changes on suggested baking them for 25 minutes at the same temperature as with the loaf directions, but with my oven, I had it around 25 degrees lower and they were ready in about 18 minutes.  Oh I also added some chocolate chips instead of walnuts.  I found the flavors on the mild side, and not overly sweet, but they are tasty!  I used organic peanut butter, so had I used regular peanut butter the taste would probably be a bit stronger and maybe a little sweeter.  All in all I'm happy with them and will probably make them again!

I feel like I have been neglecting my blog.  It's not entirely true, I do check in at least once a day to see how many visitors I've had and whether there are any new comments.  What I don't do a lot of is post.  After a little umm..verbal altercation, let's call it, a couple of months ago, I feel like I need to censor what I say so it won't get taken the wrong way or out of context.  At the time my initial reaction was to think I should stop posting altogether, but after a few days I told myself I wouldn't let it affect what or how often I wrote, but obviously I have.  I guess I could still pick topics to write about that have nothing to do with me or what I might be up to, but I don't really think that would get me to post more often right now.  I seem to lack the motivation for that, and for a lot of things really...haven't been leaving the house other than when I have to, no trips around town to do some photography, no walk around the block for fresh air...can't seem to finish (or start, for that matter) a baby blanket I'm making as a gift, and it couldn't be an easier pattern so that's no excuse...there I go being a ball of sunshine again.  I suppose pointing out the things I'm not doing isn't really going to help me feel any better about it! 

At least I'm looking forward to the coming weekend, hubby comes home, photowalk on Saturday, and I think the weather is supposed to be pretty decent.  What's a photowalk?  Check out the info on my hubby's website, and feel free to join us!  A few people have asked me what kind of camera I use, it's a Canon g10.  As I'm getting more comfortable taking pictures off of the automatic setting, I find myself thinking about borrowing Jared's camera to try out a DSLR, but I have yet to do it.  I  haven't used my own camera for a little while, so I have to re-learn what it was I thought I understood from our last photo forays first :)

I think one of my tasks tomorrow will be to do some baking.  I used to bake a lot, but haven't done much for quite a while.  I mistakenly thought we were low on bananas for the bunnies so I bought more yesterday, and now there are a few too many!  I came across a recipe for peanut butter banana muffins last week so I might give that a try, if I have everything I need for it.  If I don't, I probably won't feel like running to the grocery store for the third day in a row!  Unless of course, I use it as an opportunity to stop at Timmy's for an iced capp on the way home! 

I am watching the last of the Olympic torch relay and waiting to find out who is going to be lighting the cauldron!  I think out of all of the upcoming events, I am most looking forward to women's hockey...but I'll be cheering Canada on in every event!  Go Canada go!

Gotta little change in my pocket going jingalingaling....

The sun is shining and the skies are blue...

Why I'll just put on my sunglasses...

Ooops! Those aren't my sunglasses, they're my 3D glasses from seeing Avatar.  Scratch that.  Get in the car and go for a drive...

Oh look, slurpee machines!  That's handy!

Look how that snow is melting!  Subaru!

Look at the pretty colors in that environmentally unfriendly puddle...

Ick.

In other news, I came across a couple of fortunes I saved because they worked well with the 'in bed' rule...

and

I don't remember who the fortunes are referring to, but it was either me, Jared, Graham or Jae.  Or perhaps all of us?  Excellent.