Picture Sunday

Hello, end of weekenders, and welcome to yet another round of Picture Sunday.

A quick blog tonight, and it's finishing the kitchen cabinets. I only have one left, and it's a small one, so I'm bound and determined to finish tonight, since tonight's trash night. I want everything in the bag and on the curb.

But first, you need some pictures, right? Well, of course you do, and some pictures you shall have.

Imagine my surprise and horror earlier this week when I arrived home from a hard day at work only to find Sherman in his car. With this.

























Then imagine my surprise and horror this weekend when I got to Mr M's, opened up my overnight bag, and guess who was wrapped around Sherman tighter than a rubber band. Of course, Mr M's reaction was typically male, "That's my boy!" but I was shocked. Sherman's only ten years old! I mean, I know women go for guys with cool sports cars, but this is ridiculous. Finally, when I was back home, Sherman finally fessed up. She's Inga, his new babysitter. See, Peabody's been a little busy lately with some serious inventing work, and wanted to be sure his boy had someone to look after him and get him where he needed to be. Inga is a college graduate with degrees in philosophy and children's studies, and comes highly recommended by the Royal Family of Lichtenstein. So I guess it's OK.




















They seem to get along very well.

I thought you might like to see a little of the trials and tribulations I sometimes incur while trying to make the recipe du jour. Tonight I had a very specific idea. Teaming, Steaming Beans. I had lima beans, and was going to sprinkle them with baking soda, then douse them with vinegar. Yes, as Mr Science himself would tell you, that will get you some teaming, steaming beans. I started with the beans on a plate, then sprinkled and doused.




















As you can see, it just wasn't the slam-dunk I was hoping for. I wanted more of a volcanic effect.

And so I washed off my limas.

So why not make a volcano, I asked myself. And I did just that. I found something to use as a tube, put the baking soda in it, surrounded it with beans, got the camera ready, then poured the vinegar. All well and good, but my lima volcano was decidedly off-center.




















And so I washed off my limas again. Lima beans are amazingly durable, by the way.

I realized this just wasn't getting me what I wanted, and I was running out of ideas and time. Until! Until I remembered what I found when cleaning out the spice cabinet last week. Food coloring!

And so I went in a completely different direction. It became the recipe du jour. Coming from the "Eat Your Vegetables!" file in cardland, will you please welcome into your homes The Beans of Many Colors.





















Aren't they lovely? You show me a kid who'll turn up his nose at lima beans when they're served up this way, and I'll show you a weird kid. They're pretty, they're nutritional, and they'd make a lovely side dish on Easter. And simple? Those durable beans and some food coloring's all you need. I used red, green, and blue.

Happy week.

Betland's Olympic Update:
* My 2008 Movie List is now linked on the blog, over there at the right. Don't ask me what the strange characters are at the bottom of the list, for I do not know. Ask smart ftp.