Inspired

I have a few new sources of inspiration to keep life interesting on my side of the world. Most notably, The Pioneer Woman, aka Dee Drummond. Check out her site. She is funny, witty, entertaining, and informative. Her posts pair perfectly with a hot latte and an oatmeal cookie. I can't use most of her recipes as is since she subscribes to no way of eating other than great taste, but that doesn't keep me from trying them with a little modification.

Hence my second daily dose of culinary stimulation comes from Food Gawker . Man oh man, my mouth drools and my dishes get dirty just thinking about cooking some of these scrumptious submissions.

But when my belly if full and my plate is empty a gal needs inspiration in other forms. So I feed my next fetish (er - I mean interest) .... maps. As in Strange Maps . Maps are a wonderful invention. I love the feeling that you have it "all figured out" when you have a map. I like that feeling about anything in life, but rarely find such satisfaction with the myriad of people, ideas, and inexplicable occurances that drive me bonkers every day. Must...have...all...the....answers.....Yes, I love cartographic illustrations simply for what they are, but when someone can take the basic premise of a map - to put directions, relative position, defining features, and overall understanding in a visual form - and apply it to a concept, statistic, etc... something other than plain jane Texas is west of Louisiana and separated by a river... it just flutters my heart.

Well inspiration comes in all forms. My final obsession confession has four legs and a tail. The infamous Sam is now recovered from his bout with a terrible condition that allows me to role play as a CSI tech on cleanup duty. If you absolutely must have the gory details, ask away. But for now, lets just say its bad. And I didn't think my baby was going to make it this time. But alas, this morning he prances into the kitchen and chomps a few bites of dog food for breakfast before "remembering" that he was sick. Which means he needs momma to hold him and cover him up in her robe. I mean Josh's robe that we had temporarily borrowed because his is fluffier. I'm glad he pulled though and glad that he never ceases to create a bright spot in my day with some antic he has dreamed up in the night.

Ah.... I'm inspired.