Cookies & Gardens

I made some delicious chocolate chocolate chunk cookies tonight after dinner. I followed a Baker's Chocolate recipe from the box, more or less; I didn't add the extra flour, as suggested when not using nuts, and I used chocolate chips for the chunks. I thought they were very yummy. They clearly didn't match the chocolate chip cookies Brian had the other night, for him anyway, but I liked them. They tasted a lot like brownies. I'm planning to take them to work tomorrow, to share with some very stressed out co-workers. I'm hoping a little bit of chocolate might lift the mood just a bit, even if it's only for a moment.

...I took a test today for work--a test required in order to become a licensed auto claim adjuster for the state of Rhode Island. I am already licensed to handle auto claims in New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Connecticut. I currently handle one area of New York, along with all of Vermont (which isn't much but oddly enough has the most difficult test), but I will soon be handling a different area, so I'm up for some significant changes. Actually, I'm looking forward to learning something new. You probably don't care too much about that, however, so I'll move on...

-----------------------------------

I wanted to share some more gardening pictures. Ok, they're not from my garden, I admit (I almost fooled you, didn't I), but it's good to dream, and in my dreams this is almost as good as it gets:

Yes, yes, I dream big.

While my aunt was in college she lived in a guest house and care-took a beautiful place with amazing gardens that had once been featured in Better Homes and Gardens (no joke), and then my brother moved in after she moved out, when he was a struggling musician and college student (never a boring time in my family). Even my father moved in, after my parents' divorce, and care-took the place for a short while. If only I had digital pictures I wouldn't have had to search like mad to find a picture like the one above. Really, it took a lot to find the kind of garden I was looking for, and the above (particularly the top and bottom gardens above) are almost perfect, but not quite. (Yes, I repeat, I am picky.)

Like I said, I dream big.

There's a very good chance I will never ever have a garden 1/8 of the garden above, but hey-anything's possible, and while I certainly don't expect it, I still think dreaming (big) is a fabulous thing.

---------------------------------------------------

There are some other things I want to mention, but I don't like being pulled away from the Sox game, so I'll save them for another night. -Thanks for reading, and don't forget to check back!