Seeds From Last Year

Not quite sure what these were, but I'm guessing they were thistles from last year. They grew along the edge of our soccer field.

Wild flowers grow everywhere and anywhere, and they hold on to their shape quite amazingly throughout the winter.

Flowers are not the only pretty thing in my eyes, since I find others that have the same or equal beauty in them.

Lavender Sea Breeze Daisy

Lavender Sea Breeze Daisy

The tag on this flower said "Sea Breeze Daisy", and it needs more than 6 hours of direct sun daily. If you do a search on this flower name, you will see different variety of daisies. It also known as Fleabane daisy!

Sea Breeze Daisy at young growing stage

If the Sea Breeze Daisy and the Fleabane Daisy are in the same family, then these gorgeous flowers are perennial and grow wildly, including in my yard. I have the white ones, not this lavender color of daisy.

Mosaic of Lavender Sea breeze daisies

I have mistaken them for New England aster in the past, or maybe they are related too. Whatever these beautiful daisies really are, they are just very fantastic!

Linking this post to Macro Monday, and  Mosaic Monday!

Thursday Two Questions #37-Window Or Apple?

My laptop is going on five years, and it starts to show signs of aging. Yup, just like a human being, computer also has its own years of wear and tear! Everything takes long to load, and there are "freeze" moments.

The most annoying thing to me is the constant "updates" for Window, browsers, and software! It usually takes forever! I've learned tips and tricks trying to bring it back to its original stage but to no vail! It's a bit better but not like what it used to be.

So I have been visiting Best Buy very often, and eying on the Apple laptop. Everyone I know suggested this Operating system and told me that Apple is smart, very smart, little trouble, etc...Thus, my questions for this week are:

1) Would you switch from Window to Apple?

2) Do you have any recommendation to what is the best operating system to use?

Join others at Thursday Two Questions!

Let It Rain

Violets are growing profusely after the rain, and this year they take over my back yard. They spread everywhere from front to back.

They are beautiful, especially after the rain, and the water drops are still on them. The funny thing is, I have this periwinkle color in my yard, while neighbor has the white ones, but we are only separated by a fence.

Nature has an amazing way in designing and choosing what would grow where, such as the neighbor's back yard is full of white violet flowers while his front yard is full of periwinkle color, and I have none in the front.

Joining Three Or More Tuesday and Watery Wednesday!

Chicken Breast With Mashed Potato and Brussels Sprout

What You Will Need:

• chicken breasts, boneless, skinless
• egg mixture to coat chicken breasts
• cooking oil
• potatoes, cooked and mashed
• bacons, chopped into little bits, and rendered
• brussels sprout, cooked with bacon bits
• apple vinegar
• salt and pepper
• panko mix
• roasted sweet red pepper slices

What to Do:

• Bring cooking oil to hot temperature
• Dip chicken breast in egg mixture, and coated it panko
• Cook it until golden brown on each side
• Set your cooked chicken breast on paper towel to soak up the oil

Cooking Brussels Sprout

• In a different pot, rendered bacon bits until done and crispy
• Take the bacon bits out and set aside
• Cut your brussels sprout in halves, and cook them in the bacon pan
• Add about 2 tablespoons of apple vinegar
• Season with salt and black pepper
• Allow the brussels sprouts to cook until tender

This was a dinner plate that my oldest son made for me. He loves to cook, and serves fancy dishes, but doesn't want to be a chef.

Have a feast at Foodie Friday, Food on Fridays, and Food Trip Friday!

Thursday Two Questions #36-Which Platform?

First off, I apologize to those bloggers that left comments on my last Thursday Two Questions if I have not returned a visit. As you all know, we all lost comments since Blogger went through a big hiccup last week.

It was a scare and frustrating as well. However, I had to remind myself of a life before blogging, and I had other work to keep me occupied. All right, confession time: I check into Facebook account many times, more than I normally did, to see if anyone else had the same problem.

Here come the questions for this week:

1) Have you backup your blog just in case something went wrong?

2) Are you tempted to have a WordPress or Type Pad blog after what happened last week? Or are you a loyal Blogger account holder?

Join others at Thursday Two Questions!

Water Drops

What you see in the water drop above is a bug that was caught. It tried very hard to break through, and swam frantically around and around.

The same type of bugs were caught in these drops. I was fascinated by its movement since the water drops seemed to be much stronger than the bugs themselves.

This last water drop held my tulips and hyacinth flowers. It is such a stress reliever to go on a photo hunt around my garden.

Joining Three Or More Tuesday and Watery Wednesday!

A Timeless Present For Dad

Having just celebrated Mother's Day, my children are now thinking about what to get for their father. I don't have to worry about this issue since two of my kids are older now, and more than capable of planning a special day for their dad.

They often go in together to purchase a good present for him, and this year they are decided on a Tritium watch, which has the best reputation for precise mechanisms. Since they have to order this gift on BlueDial.com, I had a sneak peek at it. Well, let me tell you, they have good taste with their choice.

I'm very impressed with the website also, since it has a variety of different brand names, designs, colors, choices, and have been in business for over 11 years. You can find watches for men, or watches for women by price, by top sellers, by categories, or by closeout specials and matching sets. Whether you're looking for diamonds, strap, dive, flight, digital, or kinetic watches, they have them all on this site.

My children got a good deal, with free shipping, and I'm glad they are planning ahead. Their father is one lucky guy this year, since both children have steady jobs to afford a great present for him.

Check Out Online Degree Programs

Online Degree Programs are offered all over the United States, and they are more popular now than ever before. Many of us are busy with our daily life and responsibilities, thus going through traditional school some time are impossible to attain. Thanks to the internet, earning a degree is possible and can be completed online.

If you've set your mind on going back to school, you can even use the Federal Student Aid College Finder http://studentaid2.ed.gov/gotocollege/collegefinder/advanced_find.asp to help locating the nearest college or university in your area. Moreover, you don't have to worry about the limited programs ; there are plenty of different ones to chose from.

Find out what you want to study, and check the various programs that they are offered. If you are passionate about health issues, the online degree programs in nutrition maybe for you!

Quick and Easy Stir Fried Noodle With Shrimp

What You Will Need:

• rice noodle (cook according to package)
• shrimps, shelled, and deveined
• salt and pepper
• La Choy soy sauce
• bean sprout
• green onion, chive, or cilantro
• ginger pieces or slice onion (optional)

What to Do:

• Add about 2 Tablespoon of cooking oil in a hot medium deep pan to hold all the ingredients.
• Stir fry shrimps with pieces of gingers, or onion slices
• Add in your cooked rice noodle, and mix them up
• Sprinkle some La Choy soy sauce on the noodle just so it has a bit of color
• Season with salt and pepper to taste
• Turn the heat off, and add in bean sprout
• Give it a quick stir, and then serve with green onion or cilantro, or chive

Forget about the problem with Blogger that we all have experienced these last two days, and go feast your eyes at Foodie Friday, Food on Fridays, and Food Trip Friday!

Thursday Two Questions #35-Email Providers

Have you noticed how many email address accounts you owned? I have from Hotmail, to Yahoo, to Gmail accounts for various reasons and purposes. The reason is each of these providers required a secondary email address in case password is forgotten. Now, they even asked for your phone numbers.

Our privacy is slowly getting squeezed. Anything comes across our mind, we can just Twitt about it and let everyone knows straightaway, or you can update your Facebook status. Every now and then when my email address receives more spam than just business or friends' email, I deleted it.

I used mainly Yahoo and Gmail as my providers but I like Yahoo better, because they keep each email by itself, and not bunched all in one like Gmail. However, Gmail spam filter works much better for me. So, here are my questions for this week.

1) What is your favorite email provider: Yahoo, Earthling, AOL, Hotmail, or Gmail?

2) What are the best features from your favorite email provider?

Join others at Thursday Two Questions!

Caught In Rain Drops

When I was a child, I ran out in the rain to have fun jumping in the puddle and splashing about. Now, as an adult I came out to look for rain drops caught between the leaves and branches.

I wasn't disappointed to see these two drops on this small pine tree that my son planted on Earth's Day. They were pure and fresh with reflections of life around them.

The tulips and daffodils are almost gone now. Squirrels around here made sure of it, as they destroyed them one by one. I found the flowers scattered all around my garden. Sad...very sad!

Joining Three Or More Tuesday, and  Watery Wednesday!

Celebrate Mothers

If I was damned of body and soul,
I know whose prayers would make me whole,
Mother o' mine, O mother o'mine.
~Rudyard Kipling

Quick Noodle Soup

What You Will Need:

• 1 box of Toi San Imitation Noodle (you can find this at Asian market, and Meijer)
• 1 lb of lean pork, or shrimp
• A few slices of ginger root
• Green onion, or cilantro
• A handful of pea pods or bean sprout (optional)
• Lemon wedges
• Salt and pepper to taste

What to Do:

• Slice your pork loin into small pieces and coarsely grind them up. If you cook with shrimp, cleaned, shelled, and deveined before coarsely grind them. Since I don't have a grinder, I used my knife to mince the meat or shrimp
• In a deep pot, add some cooking oil with ginger pieces
• Fold in your meat and quickly stir fried
• Add about 5 cups of water to make the broth, and allow it cook while preparing your noodle
• Make sure you season your broth with salt and pepper
• In another pot, cook your noodle as directed on the package

After your noodle is cooked, put it in a serving bowl with your meat broth, top with green onion or cilantro, and serve it with bean sprout, or pea pods and lemon wedges on the side.

Participating in Foodie Friday, Food on Fridays, and Food Trip Friday!

Thursday Two Questions #34-Winning Is Great

Imagine my surprise when I checked into my email and received a notification about winning a contest. Nope, it was none of those scams! It was real as real can be. I don't often enter any contest, and if I did, I don't ever win anything.

My contact is no other than Joanne, known as Poetic Shutterbug in cyber world, and I known her as Jo. We have been friends since Today.com blogging time. She is a wonderful poet, and a multi-talented lady.

 Picture Courtesy of Poetic Shutterbug

I get to pick one of her beautiful plates' collection her store. Have you seen them? She has so many different patterns and sweet designs that would melt your heart.

So here are my questions for this week:

1) Have you ever won any contest in the blogging world and what was the item that you won?

2) How often do you enter in blogs' contests?

Join others at Thursday Two Questions!