Today's Topic is Cheese.....Kind Of.

Melty cheese! I'm thankful for melty cheese....it makes anything taste better. We were having a conversation the other day about Oklahoma Joe's. I can't remember who I was talking to (I'm old) but they were saying they'd never been to Okie Joe's. Are you kidding me?! Then someone else said "Meh. It wasn't anything spectacular." Are you SERIOUSLY kidding me?! I said well you haven't tried burnt ends obviously. They said that was what they had. So someone else said "You've got to try the Z-Man". I've never had the Z-Man. Had never even heard anyone rave about it. So I looked it up. You know what it has on it? Brisket with melted provolone and topped with onion rings. Oh, Lord.....I have GOT to try that. (See picture and tell me that doesn't intrigue you...I dare you.)

Christmas Lights

I adore Christmas lights. I live in Kansas City and the prettiest lights in the whole world are right here. Two blocks from my house. See that picture? That's them. And they are BEAUTIFUL.

Purses, Purses, Purses!

PURSES! I Love to shop for purses. Kate Spade is my favorite but I don't ever go in a store without venturing through the purse department. I have some really cute bags; I don't know why I keep them though because once I'm done with a purse, they never come out of storage again. I only want new purses. Although my vintage Kate Spades are to die for. See the picture? That's one of mine......and I got it on clearance!!!! Even better. :)

Visiting Museums

I've been to some kick ass museums in my life. Off the top of my head, I'd say the top three are the Smithsonian (duh!), the City Museum in St. Louis (seriously....it's one of the best museums evah! See picture) and the Toy and Miniature Museum in Kansas City (it rocks plus I just know that those toys and dolls come alive at night).

There's also the Nelson Art Gallery and the National Gallery in London..... I could spend hours in both of them.

Kansas City used to have a cool museum that had a fake igloo that you could crawl through....we went there when we were little for field trips. Oh, yes, another good Kansas City museum is the Steamboat Arabia.

The Experience Music Project in Seattle is pretty fun but better than that is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.

Museums are not my first choice in filling the time when traveling but some of them are awesome and you always feel like an expert afterwards.

Unused Textbooks

This is seriously on the list! I.love.it! I have spent so much time hunting down textbooks for each of my classes for the last couple of years that if I never see another textbook, it will be too soon. I am brilliant though because I find the very cheapest prices and then either sell them to someone else for the same price or better at the end of the semester.

The best part though is when I don't even crack the book the entire semester. It makes me feel incredibly smart. So far, in this nursing school gig, I have barely done any reading at all. I find the answers to the objectives and skim right over the material. I'm doing fairly well so that's really all that matters.

Unopened textbooks....what a delightful concept!

Warm Cookies...Yes. Cold Milk....Not so Much.

I have all of about 2 seconds before I need to stick my head back in my notes to cram for my assessment test tomorrow but I couldn't let the day get away with alluding to the happy stuff. Next in line was warm cookies and cold milk. I have never been a milk and cookies girl but cookies by themselves.....yes, please. And I like almost every kind with the exception of anything with raisins or dates. I love chocolate chip cookies with nuts. Yum, yum, yum. And I need them like I need a hole in the head. In fact, as I write this blog, I'm thinking of all the things I can't wait to do after this stupid nursing school gig is over. Cookies.....warm from the oven....seems like a good choice. And, considering my poor Kitchenaid mixer is gathering dust, it will be nice to get it running again. Just 11 more months. :)

Carving Pumpkins

It's not quite Halloween although I'm positive it's in the stores already. In fact, there's probably Christmas stuff. Nevertheless, carving pumpkins does make me happy. I guess I should clarify that.....sitting with someone else carving pumpkins makes me happy. I don't actually care to do the carving; I'm always afraid I'll cut my finger off. BUT, here's what I do like......reaching into the pumpkin and pulling all the goop out. I LOVE that part!

When we were little, my dad did all the carving. I scooped out all the guts and then my mom put the candles in. My dad did a really good job on our pumpkin. When the kids were little, I attempted. Rich might have done it once or twice. Finally we got one of those kits that you can cut out on those fake pumpkins at Hobby Lobby and Tucker did it. Tucker is really good at it, plus I got to save the pumpkin he did.

Now that Tucker works at the pumpkin sales lot for Boy Scouts, I usually get good pumpkins and just leave them whole so I can have them on my porch through Thanksgiving. This year, though, I think we'll all carve pumpkins. Because it's a happy thing and we can never have too many happy things.