COOKING ON A DIME

I'm all about improvisation, people. So once I realized that July has pretty much passed me by and I still needed to whip up a meal from a new recipe for this month I got to brainstorming. I'm on a very, VERY, tight budget at the moment so I decided to look around the kitchen and figure out what I might be able to make with ingredients that I already had lying around. And after conferring with the Pillsbury "Breakfast & Brunch" recipe booklet that I got on the $1 aisle at Target awhile back I created a yummy improvised version of one of the recipes. Behold what I like to call the 'Scrambled Egg and Veggie Breakfast Sandwich':

APPLICABLE WORDS

__

"Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely." ~ unknown

ONE WITH NATURE

If you're at all curious about my trip to Denver, here's the gist of it: I hit a deer somewhere in Montana while driving on the freeway (but miraculously managed to drive away unscathed -- both my car and the deer); saw a fair amount of bison, as well as some elk and moose in Yellowstone National Park;

and ripped my pants in the midst of trying to escape a cicada while dining out on my first night in town (what can I say, I'm afraid of bugs/insects). On the whole, in between driving long hours through seemingly endless lands of wide open spaces, this trip brought me that much closer to nature and strengthened my love-hate relationship with it. What more could you ask for on an excursion such as the one I just completed?

R.I.P. (YET ANOTHER) CAMERA

Either I'm jinxed or I'm just not cut out to be an owner of electronics.

I was hoping that my digital camera might be salvageable but after calling around I've found out that: 1. camera repair people are pretty outspoken about their feelings towards Samsung cameras, and 2. it'd cost near the same, or maybe even less, to just buy a new camera as it would to try and fix it. And so, after a short life, it looks as though I'll be parting with the 2nd camera that's been in my possession in the past year.

And while we're looking at the numbers, it's also worth noting that I'm currently on my 3rd computer in 2 1/2 years, and now that my phone is going a little nuts [which when I took it in to get checked out I was told by the salesperson, "now I remember why we stopped selling these phones" -- great.] I could very well be on to my 3rd phone in 1 1/2 years here soon enough. But, 3rd time's a charm, right? Right? I'm hoping so. If not, I may just have to move to Amish country and swear off all technology -- it sure would save me a lot of money.

I COULD GET USED TO THIS

Camp with some great kiddos. . .

Tasty cupcakes and macaroons from an open-air bakery in a quaint neighborhood. . .

Yummy lunch in the sun on a rooftop in a neat district of downtown . . .

Beautiful sunsets . . .

In addition to many other things (i.e. wonderful people, sense of community, other fun places to explore, etc.). . .

All this to say, if my life in Denver turns out to be anything near to what I experienced in the past week that I was there then I think that I'll be one lucky person. I guess I'll find out soon enough when I move there for good in a couple of weeks.

*disclaimer: I cannot take credit for any of the above pictures, they are all courtesy of the trusty old internet seeing as I dropped my camera multiple times while at camp and it now is pretty much useless -- c'est la vie