Let’s talk more about party food.  Seeing as how I ate an entire bowl of guacamole for dinner last night, just because I had the avocados available, party food is still on my mind.  Specifically dip.

At the Girls Gone Wild party last weekend, I was crowned the Dip Queen.  I can make a mad 7 layer dip and a mean guacamole.  Add B’s salsa into the mix and we have a pretty strong arsenal of dip.

I added two new recipes into the mix recently and those two additions are what earned me my queen title.

One was a corn, black bean, avocado mixture that was awesome.  I am sure most of you have had something similar before, but this was my first time making it.  And since I couldn’t find a recipe that made it simple enough for me, I combine about five recipes together, thus making it my own.  Being lazy and not the world’s best cook paid off!

Dip #2 was what really clinched the title and I owe it to my mother.  First, let’s look at Dip #2.

Doesn’t look like anything special right?  That is why I am the Dip Queen and you are not.  It is freaking special!  So special I don’t know if I should even tell you about it.  Just kidding.  I will tell you.

You see, my parents moved out of the suburbs of Dallas a few years back to live on a ranch.  Seeing as how they are retired and lived in Dallas for the last 40 years, ranching isn’t exactly what they are doing on their ranch.  What they are doing is growing vegetables.  Knowing someone with an awesome garden is, well, awesome!  I reap the benefits without having to do the work.  Last week B and I lived off of yellow squash.  Fresh from the garden, yellow squash.  You jealous yet?  No, ok, fresh from the garden, FREE, yellow squash.  Better?

My parents’ garden also has an abundance of jalapenos this summer.  This has forced my mom to get creative with ways to use jalapenos, which brings me to jalapeno jelly, also know as how to get crowned Dip Queen at a party.

Pictured above is homemade, fresh from the garden, FREE, jalapeno jelly smeared over cream cheese.  So very simple, and so freaking amazing.  The sweet jelly with a hint of a peppery flavor, minus the spice, mixed with the creamy goodness of cream cheese.  Excuse me while I wipe the drool from my keyboard.

I was just introduced to this heavenly combination over the Fourth of July.  I am now hording jalapeno jelly.  I have two and a half jars left at my house and I have already put in my request for more.  (Hey Mom, I think I just gave you enough ideas to get you through two Christmases and 3 birthdays. GIVE ME JELLY!)

Now unfortunately for all my readers out there, I am stingy and not willing to share my jelly.  You will just have to take my word on how amazing it is.  If you were at the party and got to try it, well that was a weak moment and you should count your blessings.  And Traci, don’t bother trying to call my mom begging for your own.  I already warned her about you.

Mmm, jelly.  I think I know what I am having for lunch today!

Monday, Monday, Monday.  It is so hard to come back to work and get in the swing of working when you had a fantabulous weekend!  What is better than hanging out with friends, hanging out with more friends, spending the day by the pool and napping all day Sunday?

Did I tell you Jenna is getting married?  Jenna is one of my dear college/sorority friends.  Meet Jenna…

Jenna is the one flirting with the camera.  Jenna loves the camera.

Anyway, Jenna is getting married.  So this weekend we had a bridal shower pool party in Jenna’s honor.  Marcie, Jenna’s bestie, threw the shin-dig together.  Have you met Marcie?

Marcie doesn’t love the camera as much as Jenna, but she is a good sport.

So Marcie threw the party for Jenna.  The girls reunited for swimming, sun, thousands of posed pictures with cheeky sorority smiles and food.

Can we talk about the food?

I love party food.  Hello tortilla rollups.  Do you want to come home with me?  No, then how about hanging out on my ass for the next 10 years?  I knew you would oblige.

Speaking of food and my ego, I was officially crowned the dip queen at this party.  Every party needs a dip right?  Ahem.

After some food and then some swimming and then some more food things got a little crazy.  The girls got a little wild.

That is the closest you will ever get to a picture of me in a swimsuit on the Internet.  Big kahonas, I do not have.  Well a big something, sure.  Ha!

And as the cocktails kept flowing the camera kept clicking.

I was the sober one at the party.  I was also the one behind the camera.  *Insert evil laugh here*

And finally, toward the end of the day, it came to this.

I am not really sure what is going on here.  I think Jenna was concerned Larissa’s heart had stopped beating.  Or maybe Jenna was just admiring Larissa’s breasts… with her ear.  I can’t explain it folks, I can just post it on the Internet.

If I possessed some mad camera skills I would have much more “wild” to offer you.  Unfortunately, when people are moving fast I just get blurry photos so the best moments were gone before I could focus.

I will leave you with the cutest chicky at the party.

Excuse me, ovaries, shut up!  I tried to take the kid home and she was having none of it.

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Hi, my name is Megan and I have a blog.  Not exactly the way you introduce yourself.  Most of the people who read my blog are fellow bloggers.  Bloggers that I read and converse with who in turn return the favor to my little ole blog.  Hi blogger friends!

It’s not that I hide my blog, hello google my name and you found me!  This website use to be our wedding website.  Our family and friends knew about sagowitz.com at one time, so they could easily find it again.  They might be reading right now. Hi friends and family.

But now I know friends know and the pressure is huge!

This weekend we had a girls’ party/reunion/bridal shower and word got out about my blog.  A few friends knew about it, only one actually reads.  Hi Jenna!

Everyone wanted to know what I blog about.  How do you answer that?  To me, I think my blog is hilarious.  I am my own best audience.  But seriously, I blog about nothing and everything.  My daily life, random conversations I have with B, my dogs, things I like, things I don’t like… really it is pretty mundane.  But to me, it is fun.

Now my closest friends all know about my blog and they say they are going to stop by.  Ahh!  Not that I have anything to hide or be embarrassed by, but it is just different (weird? awkward? totally awesome? I am not sure.).

So, hi friends!  Don’t judge me if you think I am just as unfunny online as I am in real life.  I will always think I am funny in both.  Maybe I am just overthinking it and everyone had too many club specials to remember the blog talk.

Stay tuned for girls gone wild pictures.  Except minus the gone wild part because one of us is a mother, one of us is married, two of us are engaged and we are all just old.

My danity little princess Zoey has really put on her big girl panties since the move.  Zoey is a bit of a scaredy cat like her mother.  She is scared of the dark, scared of piles of laundry in the hallway and scared of B when he is wearing unusual headgear, like a welding helmet.

Well since we moved, Zoey has had to overcome challenges that put her out of her comfort zone.  Like using stairs to get into be and a doggie door!  Both purchases B and I thought we were making in vain.  Like Zoey is every going to use them.  We thought we were just throwing money away.  By the way, Servo is our smart cookie.  He will do anything and figure anything out.  We knew he was not a concern.

Lucky for us, Zoey proved us wrong!  Both times!  The stairs were easy, we knew she was struggling to jump up and down on our gigantic new bed.  She almost had to use the stairs if she ever wanted to cuddle with us.

The real challenge was the doggy door.  We thought for sure she would never use it.  Big scary flaps and walking through walls, no thank you!  Fortunately for us, the urge to pee outside was greater than Zoey’s fear.  After a few days she quickly mastered the door!  Sure, if you are watching she acts like any moment the door is going to eat her alive, but don’t worry, I have witnessed her running full tilt through the door.  She can do it!  And I have picture proof!

She is thinking about it...

I see a nose!

I think she is going to make it!

A paw! Folks, we have a paw!

She did it!

And just so you don’t think I am playing favorites…

Servo can do it too!

The Little Boston That Could

Oh B. How do you always manage to wrangle me into your geeky world?

For days now, B had been pestering me to watch some online musical blog.

“But it is a musical, you love musicals,” he would argue.

Finally I caved. My argument that I have a life outside of the Internet was not sticking.

I watched the ridiculous musical video blog and IT WAS HILARIOUS!

Do you like Neil Patrick Harris? Do you like Nathan Fillion? Then go here and watch Act I? Yes, it is 13 minutes of your life you will never get back, but it is worth it.

The best part, Act II comes out tomorrow (July 17). Awesome.

http://www.drhorrible.com/

Mainly Victoria’s Secret is stalking me, but via email.

I am one of those people who obsessively checks her email throughout the day.  Just be glad I don’t have a Blackberry or iPhone.  Life outside of email would cease to exist.

(Can we all agree it’s email and not e-mail or E-mail or Email?  Has the dictionary caught up to modern technology terms yet?)

Back to my complaint with email.  It is stalking me.  Why is it that the day the underwire of my favorite bra snaps in two (while wearing it!  Don’t even ask me how that happened.), Victoria’s Secret is sending me an email announcing some great sale?  How can they know that I am now down to two acceptable bras and I desperately need more. 

I am now getting emails from tons of mommy/baby retailers.  How do they know I want kids and I am actively trying?  Stalk my blog much?  Wait, that can’t be it.  I don’t actively talk about that here.  Maybe my house is bugged?

I also hate it when the day after making an online purchase, that exact same retailer will send me a coupon.  Yes, I know that is called a marketing ploy, but it still pisses me off.  I just bought something, I have no plans on making another purchase there this year.  And, on the off chance that I do decided to purchase something from that store, the coupon will be expired by then.  Thank you Southwest Airlines, Overstock.com and of course… Victoria’s Secret.

So who is email stalking you?  I guess I should be thankful it isn’t an old boyfriend or worse, AARP.

Whew, what a weekend.

B did a little of this,

And some of this,

I did a lot of this,

And even more of this,

Our realtor/friend did this,

Install new electrical panel and circuits.  Check.
Run network cable throughout house.  Check.
Put hole in ceiling.  Crap.

Two steps closer, one step back. 

Don’t mind my small rant today.  These are just some recent things that I have come across that I just don’t get.  Feel free to add your own or defend your love if it made the list. 

The Jonas Brothers.  Seriously?  I don’t get them.  I don’t get the “hot” appeal, I don’t get their music and I especially don’t get why they are considered talented.  Maybe I am just too old to get it.  I get Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus.  Even though I completely understand if you want to use the same argument for her as I used for the Jonas Brothers. 

Whips.  According to urbandictionary.com, Whips are cars that someone thinks will get them laid…… but wont.  This word was coined by people with so much money (a.k.a. drug dealers, mindless celebrities, rappers, ect. ect.) that it causes there brain to become pickled and thus come up with totally ignorant words and phrases to describe the simplest of things.  That about sums up my feelings.  Thank Urban Dictionary, you never disappoint.

Google Reader.  Now in Google’s defense, I have never tried Google Reader.  I just don’t get it.  Call me old school, but I prefer good old clicking on each and every blog I read.  I just think Google Reader makes it too easy to delete everything without actually reading a single blog post.  Plus, I like seeing the layout and design of other sites.  It gives me ideas.  Besides, I am not quite sure how it all works.  Do I have to have a gmail account?  Does the email have to go to the gmail account?  Can I add non-Blogger blogs to my reader?  Maybe one day I will cave and check it all out.  I might have to if I keep finding blogs I love!

The above goes for Twitter too.  Though, I have about caved and will probably join the dark side soon. 

Gossip Girl.  I really don’t get this one!  I didn’t watch it in the beginning, but finally with all the talk I caved and watched one episode.  I didn’t get it.  I love a good guilty pleasure, don’t get me wrong (hello!  I have watched both seasons of Rock of Love), but this show is just cheesy.  And stupid.  I didn’t like The O.C. either so maybe that is my problem.

“Recording an album.”  Why is that the latest and greatest thing to do in Hollywood these days?  How come everyone thinks they can sing?  Do celebrities get access to some secret club if they record an album?  Why can’t anyone be happy with the success they have?  Don’t go and ruin it with some lame album that just makes me hate you.  I am looking at you Scarlett Johansson and Vanesa Hudgens.  Don’t get me started on Paris Hilton.  Hilary Duff, you qualify for this too.  This complaint does not apply to actors/actresses who actually have talent and I love.  A.K.A., Zooey Deschanel.

Vegetarians who eat fish.  What is the difference?  Fish is meat right?  Fish is an animal right?  Why is beef and chicken bad, but fish ok?  Do you think fish are dumber than cows so it doesn’t matter?  I am pretty sure cows are stupid.  (No, offense Henry.)  If you don’t eat beef or chicken, why not just say that?  I don’t eat a lot of red meat, but I am not going around claiming to be a Chickatarians or a Sushitarian.  (Dude, how awesome would that be.  Sorry I only eat sushi.  Please plan to spend $40 on me every meal.)  If I have a Fishatarian reader, could you please explain it to me?  Why is fish the go to meat?

 Happy Friday everyone! 

I just had to go mouth off to the Internets about how lucky I am and how I rule all things blog contests.  What’s that saying?  Oh yeah,

KARMA IS A BITCH!

Karma is putting my cocky self back in my humble place.  In the form of, “Oh my God, I can’t move my right arm.  Ouch, ouch, crap, ouch.  Breathing is too painful, just kill me now.”

And that was the PG version (you are welcome, Mom!).

It seems I slept funny or did something funny, because as I was brushing my hair this morning, pain shot up and down my back on the right side.  I think I have a pinched nerve just under my right shoulder blade.  The only comfortable position is leaning slightly forward, shoulder hunched at an angle.  Call me Granny!  To make matters worse, my neck is starting to hurt since I have been holding it in odd positions all day in an attempt to dull the pain.  It’s not working. 

Don’t worry about me though, B is taking great care of me, as he laughs and taunts me while trying to help me into my pants.  (Is that like an oxymoron or is it just ironic?)

*This whole post was written on Advil, just wait until I get the muscle relaxers tonight!

For someone who has never won anything in her entire life, this sure is my lucky month! I just won Sohobutterfly’s De-Lurk Yourself contest!

I rule!

Ok, so maybe this time the contest didn’t require any skill, but luck is just as important. Let me tell you, nonbloggers are really missing out on the free giveaways. I think one day I am going to have to pay this forward and come up with my own contest.

BTW, this is what I won:

Photo by sohobutterfly.

Pretty sweet, huh? I can’t wait to get it!