Merry After Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas Day! It was very casual and both girls brought amazing homemade cookies and "puppy chow."

Deb made the puppy chow which is Puffins (a Whole Foods cereal that is nice and puffy with a crunch) covered in cocoa powder and confectioners' sugar.

Emily had made habenero cookies -- which Paul can't eat -- so I got to keep them woo hoo! 

I had gone all out with dinner, so we ate until we were semi comatose.  I had even made jalapeno poppers for starters, not knowing that Paul doesn't eat spicy things. That just meant more for me and Deb! Besides there was a cracker and cheese platter and shrimp to munch on. The eye of the round roast beef was properly medium rare as requested (we even verified the temperature using the fancy meat thermometer system that Emily had given to me a couple of Christmases ago).  The bacon wrapped chicken breast is to die for -- that will be re-created.  And we had a half dozen veggies.

Today, Phyllis came for lunch and she brought the most amazing fruit salad and corn from last summer.  We all decided to take Emily up on decorating cookies.  Emily had brought everything to make the frosting.  After a while, it dawned on me that the habanero cookies might be even better with some frosting.  That's when Emily's brilliance shone through -- she "painted" a frosting pepper on the habanero cookies!

 Above is the beginning of Phyllis' cookie.  She added a lot more decoration.

There are a lot more decorated cookies, but I'm too lazy to take more pictures.  Besides, we're going to a movie.  Yay!

More later.  Maybe tomorrow ... I'm just having a good time here. :)

Farmers' Glass Holy Holiday, Batman!

O.k., I was going to cheat and pretend that what comes next is all from this weekend.  It isn't.  I just can't cheat.

Right now (at 9:15 a.m.), the kitchen is redolent of elephant garlic roasting in the oven.  It's being kept company by sweet potatoes, chicken in crumbs, and red and green peppers.  There's a load of clothes washing themselves and I'm contemplating coffee.  Coffee! That's what I need!

I have finished dusting the living room -- who knew there were so many freakin' surfaces to dust??  One of the joys of living alone is that I don't care if there is a nice layer of dust.  It's only when people are coming over -- and they might kick it up -- that I have to dust.

Which is why yesterday was devoted to washing every single piece of glass in the living room.  I decided to be organized and use a baking pan as a tray to ferry the pieces to the sink.

The crystal really wasn't THAT dusty, but for some reason, this is how it photographed on a cloudy day.

When they were clean, I decided to put these guys back together on a shelf.  You know, Christmasy.  :) 


Yes, that is tequila on the counter.  Cats get liver treats, I get tequila.

Well, of course, I couldn't stop at the glass.  This year I decided to add the belleek (I just had to look up the spelling).  Mom gave me these pieces and I really love them but they were hard to see where they were.  And they added some green.  The rest of the red is packed away from one of my rearranging sorties at another time.  It was too much.

I just put back the mini Lenox figurines (had to dust the wood first) and they are very cute.  That reminds me to wash the "good" dishes.

So last weekend, Ann and I went to the Farmers' Market which is held in the Middle School's cafeteria.  It was fun to see a lot of people that I know, including a former physician of mine.  (She moved on to another practice.)  Need I say more? (Ann made fun of me for taking pictures of veggies.  I do love me a good still life!)

This was really good bread (above) -- I bought some.

No, it's not only Canada who produces maple syrup!

So then on Sunday, Ann had a kit for chocolate/mint snowflakes.  It even comes with fancy bags and ties so you can give them as gifts.

See? What could go wrong?

Fail

But wait! There's more!

See how there's a beer can and Pepsi cans above the failed snowflakes?  We were supposed to make beer can reindeer and Ann cut the can open and everything.  Too late, we realized that the pattern in the book is too small and needs to be enlarged.  That is our project for today.  I've got enlarged patterns and as soon as I stow the food and maybe vacuum, I'm going over to her house.

I'm thinking we'll stick with the soda and seltzer cans.  Last week I said to Ann, who's gonna drink all of the beer?  She said she was sure somebody could take the hit.  I can just see me bringing in a six pack to work and saying, 'Excuse me, but would you drink these at home and bring back the cans?'  Actually, they might think that was normal coming from me.  You're supposed to use Bud (red and white) beer cans.  My friends who drink beer are snobs and don't touch that stuff.  Sigh.

I'll let you know how things go!

I forgot: John Grillo died and Mom wanted to see his mural which is hanging in the Library.  I took some quick shots.  He was born in Lawrence, MA 90 years ago.

Woo Hoo!

My Mystery Lovers Book Club has been funded by the Friends of the Jones Library System (so that I can give each author a pittance of an honorarium).

Beginning in January with Rory O'Brien's Gallows Hill, we will meet mid-month to discuss the first half of the book.  Then, two weeks later, we will meet the author!  This is Rory's first effort and it's set in Salem, Massachusetts (a couple of hours' drive from here). I'm privileged to call Rory a friend, having met him two years in a row at the New England Crime Bake.  He's also a mentalist and you can Google him as Rory Raven.  He is quite the raconteur in person and I like his book, although I have to admit that I haven't finished it yet.  

We end in May with Kate Flora (bless you, Kate!) and I have feelers (aka emails) to other authors.  All of the meetings will be at 3 p.m. knowing that some people don't like to drive at night, especially during the winter.  Unfortunately, it is now getting dark at 4:30 p.m.  We will serve tea and cookies to keep everyone's strength up!

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Jim Wright of StoneKettle Station blog has hit one out of the park again.  Unfortunately, it's his take on the torture scandal.  I am so upset because I, too, am one who cannot say in all honesty that, "I didn't know."  We all knew.  Am I the only one who noticed the prevalence of water boarding in so-called fictional TV shows? How can I reconcile my inaction and lack of involvement with seeing myself as a good person?  Too heavy for before work, but I'm thinking on it.

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I have heard of 3 people who fell on the invisible ice on the pavement yesterday. I am so glad that I was home with sinus pain! One ESL tutor called in and said she couldn't meet with her client because she couldn't get out of her car.  She was across the street in the parking lot.  Ah, the vagaries of weather.  

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The Town Employee Holiday Party is tomorrow and we get to close the Library at 3 p.m.  We will  play our own version of Jeopardy that the IT guys have constructed. It was lots of fun last year with our Finance Director as 'Alex Trebeck.'  Sandy wore a tux and he was very elegant and funny.  This year, my boss will be the host. We already told her to wear her gold sequined dress.  I told her to get a tiara.  It's what you would expect, right?

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So I made onion soup.  Yeah, yeah, I know that's not what most people do at 5 a.m.  But I was awake.  And now I'll have it when I come home from work and I'm really, really hungry.

I also made a "pot roast" using a London broil -- not exactly as thick as a pot roast cut.

Why, you may ask, is it so pale?  Well ... I used the traditional cream of mushroom soup plus dry onion soup.  Except that I am out of onion soup.  And, the more I thought about it, that soup is mainly salt -- which I do not need!  Yes, you do see celery in it.  I never thought I would do that (because I hate celery), but just carrots seemed lame.  I purposely left out the potatoes because I love them so much cooked this way that I eat too many! So I might make some rice or have a slice of bread with it.  My main problem now is getting it to cool before I have to go to work. This is a cool dish as opposed to the baking dish that is still around 300 F.  (The onion soup cooled enough and is in the fridge.)

I'm off to hit the showers.  Work is busy, busy, busy especially with donations.  That's a very good thing! Our budget depends a lot on fundraising. Most of the programming is paid for by the Friends of the Library.  What many people in Town don't understand is that even though the Town pays salaries, they pay $40,000 less than the actual payroll costs.  And the Trustees have reduced the draw from the endowment significantly under advice from financial experts who predicted the endowment would disappear with the former spending rate.

Saturday Night Supper

Tonight is ginger chicken at my house.  How about you?

The You Crack Me Up Scale

Apparently, my last blog post was a two on the "You Crack Me Up" scale.  You know how they rate chili peppers on the Scoville scale? Well, I'm rating my blog posts on the You Crack Me Up scale.  For the last one, two people emailed me beginning with, "You crack me up ..."  

And I'm glad for that.  We all need more giggles and more laughter. My problem is that I can't be funny on cue.  And sometimes I'm perfectly serious, not knowing I'm funny.  

Like right now.  I'm sitting here sipping decaf and writing to you, knowing full well that there are a couple of wonderful bread rolls with a dental floss flag sticking out of one of them in the living room.  It's not really a flag, but it's dental floss with a little handle.  And I stuck it in one of the rolls so I wouldn't forget to floss.  Eat bread. Floss. It seems perfectly logical to me.  But if you showed up now and looked at it, you might think it was funny.

Speaking of funny as in odd thoughts: today I saw an elderly lady with a walker with two tennis balls on the back feet (so they wouldn't scratch the floor).  I wonder if that lady had to buy a can? Because those cans have three tennis balls.  Does she save the third one for when one gets worn? Or does she give it to a friend who plays tennis?

Also, I have another question.  How well do I have to know a person before I can ask him or her to help me clean the bugs out of my kitchen light?  I can reach it and take it apart if I use my trusty mini ladder/stepstool.  But if I fall off and I'm alone, my goose is cooked.  Hence, the bugs have been collecting in this convex light in the kitchen since the summer.  There's a goodly amount.  In fact, if I were so inclined, I could make a meal out of them.  Literally.  I saw a guy who uses cricket flour exclusively in baking.  Yeah, I think he's nuts too.

A friend suggested feeding the nasty geese who plague northern cities to the homeless.  I wonder if 1) if they would like the taste, and, 2) who would pluck all of those suckers.  Maybe it would give rise to a new profession: itinerant goose plucker.  That person would go from town to town plucking the geese.  I have eaten wild goose once and I didn't like the taste.  Maybe if you dumped a lot of spaghetti sauce on it and added pasta, it would be o.k. 

O.k., I'm going to eat my rolls now.  But I might have to make more coffee.  I still love this Keurig! Talk about instant gratification!

Why Getting Out of Your Car Is Not All that it Used to Be

So I'm happily reveling in my stay-cation having had yummy pasta with Ann at Bertucci's and having distributed various and sundry Lindt truffles to my favorite people at the Library.

Light of heart, I resolve to do errands.  Now, usually, I leave that for a Saturday when I'm well rested and have nothing else to do for the day.  But I was in a good mood and wanted to stay on a roll and accomplish those things at a leisurely pace.  I got some cash, going into my bank because no matter how close I get to an ATM, my arms seem too short.  That was a good transaction.  Then I drive to the bank that holds my mortgage.

"Hi, I'd like to put this check onto this loan (handing her my mortgage bill with the account number), but I didn't know how to make out the check."

Blank stare. (I admit: it was a teller with training wheels on and her helper sat next to her.)

"So I make it payable to ... ?"  The trainer supplies the bank name. (I had thought maybe I had to put the loan number in the payable to slot.)  The trainer says, "You need a ..." and she never finishes her sentence, but she does retrieve a purple slip and tells the trainee how to fill it in and give me a receipt.

It dawns on me that if I want to prepay on the principle and mail it in, I might need some of those purple slips.  I'm surprised that the experienced teller didn't offer some to me.  But I get a stack and I proceed happily, feeling all virtuous, to Best Buy.

I can't tell you how frustrated I was yesterday to find that my Igo phone charger had disappeared from my car.  It has multiple tips so that I can charge my cell phone in the car and then change the tip and charge my GPS in the car.  The only problem is that I need a new tip for my new GPS.  But now, alas, the whole cord was gone, gone, gone.  Knowing that I had gotten the original with Emily at Radio Shit, er Radio Shack, I figured Best Buy would have the same stuff and I could enter without going into the mall proper.

This was my third exit from the car.  I spoke to the man stationed at the entrance.  He seemed to be very intent on using his phone.
"Do you sell Igo phone chargers?" I asked using my sweetest old lady voice.
"I dunno," looking around, "he might know but he's busy.  Oh, wait," and he accosts someone stacking shopping carts.

"Are you using a USB?" I look confused and reply, "It's a phone charger that you plug into your car and it has multiple tips for an Android phone and a GPS."  (I left out 8 other questions from the guy, but you get the idea.)  He stalks off.

"Is he going to bring it here or should I follow him?"
"I dunno."  I wait.

The guy comes back with two packages with usb ports the size of last year's tank.  No, thanks for looking.

Not wanting to move the car (getting in and out again) I walk over to Radio Shack, inside the mall.  I'm beginning to flag.

"Do you have Igo car chargers with multiple tips?"
"We don't sell Igo any more."
"What do you sell that is equivalent?"
"We don't sell anything with multiple tips."

And because it was close and I was at the top of my frustration meter, I walked across the way to JO-AN FABRICS. Yes, their sign really does yell at me.  I stayed near the front where there's only crap that you want but don't need -- no fabric.  I only bought two bags of Wilton candy melts.  Well, maybe I did buy some Christmas ribbon ...

At this point, I limp out of the door.  It's not really a limp, but my gait would only be appropriate on the deck of a boat in three foot waves.  And then I remember: I still need at least three driveway reflectors.  I had bought the last one at Walmart last week.  At this point, Target is only a few hundred yards away so I amble over there.

Luckily, the "service desk" is near the entrance I used. There were three people doing nothing.  (Their last customer left as I approached.)

"Do you sell driveway reflectors?"

With a whoosh of her head indicating the far corner, she says, "If we had them, they would be in automotive."  Now, I'm starting to get cranky from the pain in my lower back and I don't want to wander a quarter mile to find out that they don't have any.

"Don't you have a phone to call someone or a list that you can check to see if you have some because I'm having difficulty walking?"

Short head whoosher gets all huffy and speaks as if to a backward child saying, "Yes, we can call someone if I can find the walkie talkie."

She proceeds to pick up the walkie talkie and say, "Do we have any auto deflectors?"

"What?" 
  
I say, "Driveway reflectors."

"Do we have any auto reflectors?"

"Huh?"

I say, "Driveway."

Frowny face, "Do we have any driveway reflectors?"

"No."

"Thanks very much," I say as I'm walking away and she's telling me to try another store.

And they wonder why most people are buying online.  Hmpf!

I get back into my car, which is now three stores away, and gratefully drive into my garage.  Thinking that this would be a good time to clear the paper ads that never got into the house from the passenger's side of the floor, I do that.  And underneath is my Igo.  Now I just need a tip that fits my new GPS!

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Off to Worcester We Go!

So on Saturday after Thanksgiving, I went to Emily's house.  We had a lovely time hanging out and watching TV.  I made a stuffed chicken with gravy (of course) and some potatoes.  We were heavy into carbs because we had lots of work to do.  (That's my story and I'm sticking with it!)

The goal was to remove the grout from her ceramic floor tiles and re-grout them.

The blur is Lily who is camera shy but wanted to see what I was doing.

I had thought that this might be a lot of work, so I suggested we work in sections, starting the furthest from the stove and refrigerator.  Below, Emily is hard at work with the electric grout removing tool.  I had a hand tool that was like a big razor blade on a handle

It was really hard work.  After 40 minutes of hacking at the back of a small corner tile (about a 4 inch square), I thought, "This is why I went to college -- so I wouldn't have to do manual labor!"  Needless to say, we did not make a lot of progress. That is hard!  So when I left today, Emily was going to get an estimate from one tile man.  She had contacted three and I hope they all reach her with estimates.

Meanwhile, I had quite a visit with the "grandkitties."  I called Jackson and I was very surprised when he came right over to me.

 You talkin' to ME?


So I tried the same with Lola and this is what I got.

Actually, I think she's stalking the bandana.

Finally, I decided that I must get a decent picture of Lily.

Yeah, well no.  I do not want to stay still for a picture.

At this point, she has had it with the camera.

I couldn't resist this one.  I think that box on the left with the holes is to play "Whack a Cat," but Emily says no whacking.

After lunch, Emily and I made our usual pilgrimage to the shops which include a Lindt chocolate shop.  You can make up your own bags of truffles ($15/pound) with 36 to a pound.  The shop is staffed by a cute young man who gives you a free truffle to taste.  At least I think he's cute -- I was more focused on the chocolate. My co-workers are going to be happy that I went to that store!

I have one more day off from work.  I am loving my "stay-cation!"