What a Show!

Sunday, August 3rd, was a really nice day.  Warm but not too uncomfortable.  I shot this pic of the clouds around 8:30 or 9 that morning.

I went downtown to cure my weekly 'Sunday blues' with retail therapy and did a few errands before getting home in the early afternoon.  As the day wore on, the light was changing so much in the house that I kept going outside to shoot photos of the beautiful clouds.

I heard some rumbles of thunder out this way, which is west.

Meanwhile the eastern sky looked like this.

Then the west clouds changed within minutes.

And we had a downpour.

Then a rainbow

With more dramatic cloud shows for another couple of hours.

Raindrop reflecting trees, clouds and sky.

Cloud reflection in the shed window

This was what was reflecting in the shed.

Then finally at sunset, a totally clear sky but for this bright pink cloud.

Fin.

Stormy Day

We had a very stormy day at the end of June, which, fortunately, ushered out a period of very hot & humid weather we'd had the week earlier.  The skies grew dark by 10:00 a.m. and I had to shut down my computer as the thunder and lightning started.  Pepper and Sagan were keyed into it, so I tried to do my best to act like there was nothing out of the ordinary going on, even though I don't like thunderstorms either.  It was the perfect opportunity to finally clean the fridge and give the kitchen a good cleaning too.  And vacuum.  And dust.  Both puppies stayed glued to me and were somewhat underfoot as I was back and forth to the sink as it stormed outside.

It was raining so hard that water leaked over the top of the kitchen a/c unit, hence the towels.

After I finished cleaning by about Noon, I logged back onto the internet, only to hear more storms headed into the area, so off went the computer again.  I tried to watch TV, but Bean and Boo were so terrified that they were trying to climb on me, whilst panting and drooling.  I thought about heading into my craft room but the last time we had thunderbumpers, they were jockeying for positions under the craft table, which wasn't optimum and I knew would be difficult, at best, for me to craft with them under the table.  I'd thought about colouring, but I was too busy trying to keep them out of my lap, so that wouldn't work either.  At this point, there was a very bright flash and immediately thereafter, a thunderclap so loud and so long that all the window crystals rattled against the windows.  It scared the crap out of me, and it sent Boo and Bea right over the edge.  I remembered that I had Rescue Remedy  so I put some on biscuits and gave them to the pups, in the hopes that it would work.  

I decided to cook, since that would keep me busy and keep them from climbing on me.  I made my new fave chicken recipe, (which doesn't include the vanilla icing also seen in this photo).

Spread mayo on boneless chicken breast tenders.

Cover them in panko bread crumbs and parmesan cheese.

I cook them for 25 minutes in the NuWave Oven.  I assume the cooking time would be the same in a conventional oven.

While the chicken cooked, I also mixed up a batch of Suddenly [Pasta] Salad.

Added my own veggies to the pasta and dressing mix.  Yum!

While all that stuff was cooking, I also decided to make funfetti cake.  I split the batter between a cupcake tin and a small cake pan.

The thunderstorm finally moved on and the rain was stopping too.  Pepper went into the livingroom to have a snooze, but Sagan was still assisting as my Sous Chef.

"Kiss the Cook"

YUMMMMMMM!!!!!  I like my chicken nice n crispy!

A delicious late lunch!!!  I added some feta cheese to the pasta salad on my plate, but not to the main batch in the fridge because Russell's not a huge fan of cheese and I want him to be able to eat it too!

And for dessert.......cupcakes!!!  (Left a few unfrosted for my honey bunny).

Have I mentioned how much I love being a domestic goddess and stay at home "wife"?