Epicrey.

Normally, I log into Blogger equipped with apologies about how long it's been since my last blog, and how I'm not equipped with any photographs - whaa whaaa whaaaaa 

Well today, it's a slightly different wambulance. 

I've taken too many photos and have no idea what direction to take!!! 

And, if I do say so myself, 2 weeks ain't that long of a break for my blogging, gonna pat myself on the back for that part of it. *cough* 

Okay, moving on! 

I've decided to call this one "Epicrey" (epic, and ry, like other words that end in ry but I spelled it out the way I wanted it to sound, you see) because there was some Epic stuff happening when I loaded my photographs. 

Case in point: The Series Finale of Mad Men. 

Yeah, okay, fine, I know it's been a while. But, we celebrated! With food! 

(I knew you'd be shocked, Boswells? Theme-fooding? Never!) 

In honor of the show that reignited America's love affair with the 1960's, I made a very 1960's dish. 

Chicken a la King! 

Chicken a la King consists of chicken, of course, alongside veggies in a cream sauce and served atop rice or bread. Sounded easy enough, we took a shot! 

Chicken in one pan, cream sauce in the other, then, to be super authentic to the 60's we added a can of diced mixed veggies. 

Served up with a cocktail just in time to see how it all ended. 

Dining and entertainment, what else do you need? 

Next up on the Epic docket: Cleaning the rug! 

Yes, a time honored tradition for many a homeowner, parent, and pet owner. That poor rug, it is the center of everything! You eat meals atop it, chat with friends, play games, do exercise videos, the dogs roll around, the cats sharpen their claws, it catches messes, comforts tired feet, and ties the whole freaking room together - that rug works serious overtime. 

Step one when cleaning the rug is of course to clear everything off of it. 

That's when we found the home of Peggy's long lost treasures. 

She has a thing for the little tabs that come off of the half and half jugs. 

Yes, that's really all I have to share from the rug cleaning saga, but it's still epic. 

Moving right along! 

EPIC SCORES! 

We've been thrifting! 

It was a lovely Sunday morning, Dylan and I went out for brunch and then shopped around for a bit. We hit up a local Goodwill and came home with some serious treasures. I found an adorable dress for $5, no pics, you'll just have to see me in it. But we also scored these beauties! 

Mr. Bacon vs Monsieur Tofu. 

What else needs to be said?

Dylan nabbed this unique tie 

And on a separate excursion to the Habistore, we found love in the form of a lamp. 

You have got to see this thing!

It's like a perfect hybrid of a sculpture from Beetlejuice and a Don Hertzfeldt cartoon! It was love at first sight! 

And, it has this cool, wing...thing!

My new lamp makes me so much happier with the guest room

Our EPIC adventures hath not ended my friends, oh no! 

It's no secret, I love me some Spongebob. So, one day, after a mini Spongebob Marathon, Dylan and I had a serious hankering for a Krabby Patty. We tried to find some mock recipes online, but not a whole lot of luck there. We figured, a Krabby Patty is just a scrumptious burger right? So, that's what we made. 

While we don't know the secret formuler (say it like Mr. Krabbs, do it!)

We do know it needs to look the part! Starting with the perfect toppings!

 Add everything together in just the right order and ...

Ta-da! A Krabby Patty!!!

Yup. We cracked that code. 

Told you it was epic. 

EPIC TALES CONTINUE! 

I know, your heart is already racing, I'm sorry but I cannot stop this roller coaster ride. We most push forward! 

Now, I'm going to go into another food story here, because I'm saving the epicest of all epics for last, okay? Wait for it ... 

Next up: EPIC BARBECUE! 

We dusted off the crock pot for some pulled pork! (One of my all time absolute favorite meals!) 

It all started with this neat sauce that Dylan got from his Mantry box, which is one of those subscription services. Dylan's sister sent him one for his birthday, and we were waiting for the perfect opportunity to bust out:

I. Love. This. Sauce.

We let the crock go all day, and when it came time to eat we continued the epic meal-ing with diced potatoes and corn-on-the-cobb-on-the-grill

That was one tasty dinner! I mean, EPIC dinner!

Also, whilst our tasties were cooking - I got epically adorable photos of our epically adorable dogs! 

I know! The level of epic has already surpassed 11 - but we're going to continue. 

Here it is folks, the epic-est of the epic tales in the worlds most epic blog post 

THE EPIC HAIL STORM 

Now, you've all heard about this by now, the day before yesterday a storm ripped through parts of Tucson and left some serious damage in it's wake. We made out lucky, sure, but not untouched! 

When I got home, I heard some thunder in the distance. Went out with the dogs for a stent, and still heard that thunder rumbling. Went inside, fed the dogs, and collected come cleaning supplies to start cleaning the master bathroom. I picked up some things that needed to go into the recycling bin. On my walk from the master bath to the kitchen where the trash receptacles are - I started to hear pinging sounds. I looked out the sliding glass door and saw a couple pieces of hail. Rather LARGE pieces of hail. I thought "oh crap, I should move the car into the garage!" and went to my purse. Like many ladies purses, the keys had to be dug for, and in the time it took me to retrieve my keys the couple of pieces of hail had become Armageddon hail. There was no way I could go outside in that mess without some serious head trauma, so, I had to wait it out. I could no longer see out the sliding glass door! It was intense. But it was swift, and when it died down somewhat I immediately ran to the window in the guest room so I could take a peek at how my car held up being pummeled in the driveway. When I opened the blinds, this was my view:

uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... *slowly glance to the right*

*massive gasp* 

Yeah so ... the storm snapped our tree in half. 

I can't even tell you how GIDDY I was when I realized - it just landed in the yard. It maimed a cactus, slightly. THAT WAS IT. 

Had that tree fallen backwards, we'd have damage to the house. Had that tree fallen to the right, it would have landed on my car. But neither of those things happened! It just nestled itself right down in the yard. Thank you, old tree. 

When we walked outside after the storm it was like a garbage hurricane had rolled through. Cans got knocked over and there were newspapers hanging from trees, tv dinner boxes strewn about, soda cans, water bottles, junk mail - and all sopping wet! I took a moment to chronicle the damage before I started cleaning up. Check out these hail pits on the fence! 

On the wall we have tiles to show our address, this blew my mind. I saw the little piece on the ground first:

It took me a moment to register where it came from, but then I realized ... 

One big super fast chunk of hail must have hit that tile just right! Pretty amazing ... 

As I went around collecting garbage, I saw some flapping in the part of the tree that had gone down. We moved in for a closer look: babies! A nest had come down with the tree. We noticed that mama bird was circling the grounds, but didn't have her home to return to! Our neighbor said we could collect up the babies and put them in a box or a basket, and place the "new" nest near where the old nest was. That way, the mother could return, so, that's what we did. 

Dylan paid extra special attention to these little guys, and even gave them some water with an eye dropper a couple of times throughout the night. We were worried that mommy may not return, but as I left for work the next morning, there she was! 

Dylan stayed home the day after the storm so that he could be there for the tree guys, fix part of the fence that went down, and get the AC guys over for some damage our AC unit took.

Dylan made our bird family a fancy new nest right by the front door, across the way from another dove and her babies. Pretty darn cute, right? 

Bird Apartments. 

Now, our massive - epic - pepper tree that was in the front yard is gone! 

As the tree guys dealt with the carnage they discovered bark beetles, and there ain't no coming back from bark beetles. 

We've decided we'll keep the stump 

How handy will it come in for decorating?! Also, without leaves to gain its nutrients, the stump will die and harden. When it's hard, there's no home for the #@$%^*$@ Bark Beetle and it will no longer thrive. So, at least there's that. We're discussing a few different landscape strategies. 

There you have it, epic at it's peak epicness. 

See you next time!