Toiling Tina Takes on More than She Can Munch, er, Mulch

"Oh, fuck!" I heard it distinctly as I raked soil and mulch back onto the first mound in the front yard. It was a low hissing voice. Movement caught my eye.

Yup, it was Snakey above, moving away from the rake and expressing his displeasure. He is brown with yellow stripes. The picture is deceptive with no size ratio: he's only about pencil size. Because any of you who know me, know that I have an inordinate fear of snakes. But he's so small, I figured I could out slither him.

Of course, I'm thinking, 'Is he poisonous? What if he's a baby -- where's his mother?' Not knowing the answers to any of these questions, and feeling pretty tired from my hour and a half of weeding, digging, laying landscaping cloth and putting the soil and mulch back, I quietly picked up my tools and packed it in. So my efforts, while vigorous, don't show much progress.

Before

After

Yes, it's true: the weeds LOVE my soil/mulch mixture. I've got to get some real plants that will come up by themselves. There is 3/4 of this mound left and the other whole mound to the right and behind this one. Sigh.

*****************************************************
Thursday's Sammy Awards were great. The cocktail hour was held at the Mead Art Gallery at Amherst College. What a wonderful setting! At one point during set up, I wandered into one room where I spotted a Monet that I had never seen. I was enthralled. I will have to go back soon. 

Lisa, Sharon and I

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Sunday

Yes, I did shopping and cooking yesterday. You're used to that. I also washed the kitchen floor, which I just dripped meat juice on. Sigh. I'm waiting for some cauliflower to cook to go with my broiled London broil. I've got another quiche and stuffed peppers in the oven. The bacon is cooked. (This is just today's stuff.) I'm set for lunches and dinners for the week.

I went to Aldis today to buy some bacon and half and half. The eggs are 69 cents a dozen!! It's a special. Eggs are almost $3.00 at Stop and Shop where I was yesterday. Glad I bought them at Aldis.

So I went to church like a good girl. I come out and there is so much bird splatter on my side window -- I really think it was a cow that flew over my car.  It was feces brown and white ... gross.

I didn't want to go to the car wash because it's raining off and on and supposed to rain all week. So I kept dousing it with a watering can. Wow.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

I just saw the best movie! It's called "The First Monday in May."  

[Guess who just burnt the cauliflower and set off the smoke detector? I should know better than to blog while cooking.]

Anyway, the movie is about the Chinese Fashion Exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There is a big debate as to whether fashion is art, but if you see the display pieces in this movie, there will be no question in your mind that these fashion pieces are art.

The curator of the Chinese artifacts section of the Museum worked closely with Andrew, a fashion curator whose ideas created the exhibit of fashion intermingled with Chinese art. The fashion was designers' ideas of China, not necessarily fact.

Ann Minotaur (that name can't be right, but she's a trustee of the museum and Vogue's fashion editor -- she's the one they made the movie about which was called "The Devil Wears Prada") was mainly in charge of the whole thing. She's so detail oriented that they showed her auditioning table cloths and scrutinizing the seating many times. At one point, she asked an assistant, pointing to tags up in a corner, 'And who are these?' And the assistant said, 'Those are people we hope will go away.'  Hmmm ... 

It was an amazing spectacular with Rhiannon performing, many celebrities in attendance, and a fundraiser which raised over $12 Million! They did not say if that was after expenses or before. 

And we got to see a lot of the exhibits. I wonder if they are doing another gala tomorrow.

By the way, I learned something: Kim Kardashian's ass is big enough to be named a planet.

Ta ta. It's time to eat supper and watch Mad Men. I'm getting nervous because I think I'm getting to the very end and I don't know what I'll do. I might have to read that book I started ... 

Saturday Serenade

The birds are chirping and the bees are humming -- all in chorus of a New England spring symphony. Yeah, o.k., enough of that bucolic stuff. So when I had "my guy" doing so much weeding and mulching, it didn't occur to me to put landscaping plastic down first. Duh.

The weeds just LOVE the rich soil and mulch. I know, I know, weeds are just misplaced flowers. But the darn dandelions should stay in the grass -- that's where they belong.  So after an hour and a half of labor, this is what I can show:

Yes, you can see a line where I stopped. Give me a break! I laid down plastic, scraped the mulch and soil onto the plastic, put the pulled weeds into my yellow wagon, laid down the landscaping material, and put the soil and mulch back on.  Yep, that took an hour and a half. That's one bag (2 cu. yd.) of mulch. BTW, I can no longer lift the bags because we had a thunderstorm yesterday and they are sodden.

Don't ask -- there are two more mounds which are twice as big as the above to be done. I should be done by July. I did, however, deadhead the daffs and decided to put my bird bath in the front until I can get out back. It's still too wet -- that's my excuse -- to hit the back yard. No, I didn't fill the bird bath because it had clouded up and I thought it was going to rain. It still might.

The tulips are very happy this year. I think I need more for around the tree. 

My neighbor came by and said, 'You missed a spot.' My non-verbal reply was not ladylike. It was Italian though.

******************************************************
Lunch ...

It's shrimp, Miracle Noodles (fettuccini shaped) and spaghetti sauce with parmesan cheese on top.

******************************************************
If you can help it, don't go to two grocery stores on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon after everyone has been outside all morning. At Whole Foods, where I made a quick decision to go after seeing the line of traffic ahead of me, I got behind an old (o.k., older) woman who just stopped and stared at the bread. Her body was facing right, her head was looking left. I couldn't get around her, so I waited (im)patiently. When she did notice that I was right behind her, she jumped as if I had stuck her with a pin.

Surviving the above, I went to Aldis. I was in a funk because I couldn't find a couple of things that I wanted when a screech penetrated my fog. And every 8 seconds, the same child screeched. I could have strangled the mother. I couldn't get out of there fast enough, but since there was only one (count 'em) cashier, it took me a while. But looking at that poor young woman slaving away -- who still had at least 20 minutes of the screeching, I thought, "Let it go."

Since I grazed at the cooked foods at Whole Foods, I don't have to cook anything until tomorrow. I'm starting to feel that bending and kneeling I did while gardening this morning. I feel like the TinMan who needs a can of oil!

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
I have been binge watching "Mad Men." It's a bit depressing in spots -- especially now when they recapped the JFK assassination and ensuing murder and panic. But it is fun to see how accurate they are in wardrobe and social mores. The series does make me want whiskey and a cigarette. I sure couldn't drink at work the way they do -- I'd be asleep for the rest of the afternoon.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Slipped into Sunday

So, yes, it is true that I'm writing this on Monday morning, but you can pretend it's still Sunday.

After doing some of my usual weekend prep, Cyndi and her mother Natalie, picked me up and we went to the Springfield Armory.

Yes, the Springfield Armory is part of the National Park Service -- who knew?  We went to hear a portrayal of Lucy Stone by Ms. Black (no, I can't remember her first name). It was wonderful! Not only is Ms. Black a wonderful actress and raconteur, but she also did a lot of research and was able to give us a clear picture of the mores of Lucy Stone's time in the 1800's. I enjoyed the presentation thoroughly.

The first myth that she dispelled was that northerners were totally against slavery. She gave me a lot of facts that contradicted what I was taught. There was also the notion of "gradual" emancipation which held that as slaves were educated, they could gradually become citizens -- with the right to vote. Still the women of any color could not vote. I had no idea how completely women were treated like chattel. 

I have a zillion pictures on my phone, having forgotten my camera, but it is so difficult to download them that you only get a couple here.

As you enter the Armory and look up, you see this is how they lowered the manufactured guns down from the machining floor (using a block and tackle).

Before this, I had thought that an armory only stored guns -- I did not know that's where they manufactured them. This armory also reconditioned guns seized from the Confederates to be reused by the Union soldiers.

Who knew that, once again, Massachusetts was a leader? I will have to study up about Shays Rebellion. All I had been taught was that it was a tax revolt, but somehow I missed the "taking up of arms." Since they now call us "Taxachusetts," I'm not quite sure how that turned out.

More later. Am off to work!

My Kitchen Is a Disaster

You all know my parsimonious philosophy: if you're going to run your oven, it might as well be full!

Currently cooking: 
meatballs
bacon covered meatloaf
crustless quiche with zoodles (zucchini noodles)
eggplant and cheese (with homemade sauce) casserole
sliced chicken breast dusted with pork dust (made from ciccarones)
bacon strips

The coconut candy (home made) is setting up in the fridge. I'm very proud of that -- it tastes like an almond joy but with walnuts. No sugar of course.

I'm taking a bit of a breather, but I have to clean up the dishes before stuff starts coming out of the oven!! Oh, yeah, and I have to hard boil some eggs for my snack at work.

Yesterday I bought 10 bags of mulch (two trips), so that's yelling at me. The first guy at Home Depot said I need to have my brakes checked by the sound of it. And when I went back later, another guy said the same thing. So first thing tomorrow I'm going over to Midas. Scary, huh? You gotta love living in the country: mulch and sound advice to check on a safety issue.

777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777

Did you doubt my veracity? Huh, huh, huh?

So I learned the hard way that I should have used the mini cupcake papers -- I can't get the candies out of the pan! Darn!

Yellow thing is quiche, chicken on the bottom

Meatballs on the bottom

eggplant top right, meatloaf in the middle right.

And yes, thank you very much, I did  get the dishes washed.I do, however, figure out how to store all of this. Maybe I'll take a nap.

******************************************************

Darn! The sink's full again -- of the pots and pans from cooking. Sigh.

Okay, So It Has Been a While

Beginning with a week ago, on Saturday, I took a landscape quilting class with Betzi Sylvan. Mine is only half quilted ...

Above is a close up of the quilting

I call it "PS Night"

Yes, those dots are the pins on the bottom half. If I can finish it this weekend, I will.

The method is to lay strips of fabric and ribbon on a backing covered with batting. The puffy clouds are dryer sheets pulled apart. Then you lay royal blue tulle over the top and pin it like crazy so nothing moves. The final step is machine quilting.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

But today (I'm pretending it's still Saturday even though it is past Midnight), I co-hosted Murder by the Minute at the Library. There were 4 or 5 Sisters in Crime New England Murder by the Minute programs going on in various New England states. We had 21 people which was amazing because today was a beautiful sunny day in the high 60's. And there was a sustainability fair on the Town Common with many tents of vendors.

The cake is from Atkins Farms. It was a marble cake.

Dusty brought the cookies even though she was only supposed to bring drinks and cups. I particularly liked the habenero cheese that I had picked.

This is the panel of readers -- one is missing because she's setting up her books for sale.

I had a really good time: first 5 of us read for five minutes each. I read an excerpt from Jessica Speart's "Winged Obsession." Then we ate (of course!) and went to Special Collections. Cyndi Harbeson, Curator, had covered a table with "things that you can use to kill." It included harpoons, a mortar and pestle, busts that you could throw at people, Ray Stannard Baker's letter opener, and Helen Hunt Jackson's pen that she used to write "Ramona." Of course, the pen is mightier than the sword!

I had packed up the room (thank you so much, Cyndi, for helping to put away the chairs!) and my stuff (that was my knife in the cake) by 3 p.m. That gave me enough time to get some lunch at the Black Sheep before I walked over to the First Church.

At 4 p.m. "Earth Jam" consisted of a capella singers from Mt. Holyoke, Smith, UMass, a post graduate group, and a group of older men. The singing was fantastic! I admire a capella singers a lot!

Having vacuumed before I picked up the cake and goodies this morning, I only had to do my laundry -- 3 loads -- when I got home. Then supper and sleep. That's why I'm up late: my body thinks it's done sleeping. Nope, a couple of hours is not enough for me!

Supper, by the way, was yummy. I put homemade spaghetti sauce on the bottom of a baking dish. Then I added a bunch of zoodles. You know: zoodles are "noodles" made from zucchini. I love using my spiralizer!! On top of the zoodles, I put a bunch of mushrooms, some left over meatballs, and a nice layer of shredded cheese. Then more sauce and I baked it for about 20 minutes until it was nice and bubbly. :)

Meanwhile, I have to do shopping and cooking for next week, but I have Monday off for Patriots' Day. The Boston Marathon will be run on Monday. Yesterday they remembered the people hurt and killed by the bombs at the Marathon. It's an awful memory and a horrible experience for many. We are hopeful that will never happen again. Today, the runners picked up their bibs with their numbers. Many partied the night away.

They are predicting that the temperature will be in the 30's tomorrow morning at sunrise. I sure hope it warms up for the runners, but it probably will go up to the 60's and possibly 70's. 

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

It's Tuesday now. I had forgotten that if you lift five 25 pound bags of mulch -- and a lighter one of potting soil -- all of those muscles you never use, complain. So I never did get to weeding and putting down more mulch. I stuck with the cooking yesterday and some Netflix. The second five bags of mulch are still in the trunk of my car!

I surf FaceBook a lot and I play online games. My newest craze is "Puzzly" and you're playing against random people. I lose a lot, but it's a game to see how many points you can get for three words made out of the letters they give to you. 

So I'm off to Midas to have my brakes checked and then off to work. It was easy to pack my lunch, once I figured out what is in the containers, lol! I have a LOT of single serving parts to lunches. I'm now finishing quiche for breakfast. 

Home Again and More from Trip

Well, golleeeee! So I happily arrived 50 minutes after boarding in DC and collected my car in Hartford. I notice that it's snowing just a bit and there are a couple of inches on the ground and it's April 4. Okaaaay.

As I cross the line from Connecticut into Massachusetts, it begins to sleet and snow in earnest and I'm very careful. But soon, the traveling lane is filled with tractor trailers and trucks. So I ease into the passing lane and proceed with caution. After a while, my car slid left into the deeper (unplowed) snow and I began a slide to the left ditch. I was not amused but kept enough composure to not yank the wheel to the right. It was a good thing since there was a tractor trailer on my right. I managed to slip and slide home but it was very tense!
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

When I got home, I noticed that the suction cup hand holder that I had put in the tub was on the floor. I don't know who was taking a shower while I was gone but that was freaky.

###################################################

Oh, another vacation "fun thing": somebody hacked into my credit card and charged $141.01 from some "toy store." They are sending me a new credit card by UPS.  It was pretty funny to see "The International Spy Museum" on my credit card statement. I bought myself a mug that says "I Was Never Here."

On Saturday Jane and I went to the Silver Spring Farmers' Market. It was very pleasant.

You fill up a basket (small or large) and they weigh the salad greens for you. These people had lovely young brussels sprouts which roasted nicely.

So I had to Google the Muscle Bound Lummox (third from the left) and that's what 'Grandpap called the third generation of Wenks ...' I still don't what it is beyond "a sauce."

Fancy apples. Yummy too.

Good bread.

We bought these potatoes because we were missing Maria. They only look special; they taste ordinary.

How brilliant is this? They planted a salad bowl for you to grow! Of course, they didn't have snow on April 4th.  Mumble, grumble.

###################################################


On Sunday (yesterday) I made a roast stuffed chicken with roasted brussels sprouts and the Maria potatoes. Jane grilled eggplant slices. We enjoyed our Sunday dinner and then Jane and I headed out to watch "Hello My Name Is Doris" with Sally Field and Tyne Daly. I enjoyed the movie a lot and when Jane said, 'Do you want to go in here?' pointing to a shoe store, I said, "Heck yes!" Topped with a Starbucks, we had a very wonderful Sunday. By the way, there were 5 African men sitting next to us gossiping as if they were at a hen party. Don't tell me guys don't talk and gossip a lot!

*****************************************************
The Spring of Our Discontent

Here's the front yard around 1:30 p.m. today when I got home. I don't know if you can see any of the poor daffodils -- there is one near the light.

And here's the back yard as it is quietly snowing. We ended up with about six inches. I hope it melts because I didn't hear any snow plows.

Cherry Blossoms and Tired Tourist

David very nicely picked me up at 10 p.m. at Ronald Reagan airport in DC.

The next morning, my phone alarm went off at 7 a.m. (groan) and I hurried to shut it off so that I wouldn't disturb my hosts. I lay back and turned my head and I heard, "Meowrrf!" Apparently, Hawthorne and I had shared a restful night together. (He is a very friendly cat who likes to tell me how badly Jane and David treat him.)  David dropped me at the Metro in Silver Spring and I took it to Union Station where my Hop on Hop Off bus tour started.

There are 120,000 panels gilded here at Union Station. It's big!

 

Above is the Postal Museum, across the street from Union Station. This one's for you, Glen!

 Interesting pattern on buildings. (above)

 Impressionist effect (above)

 I know Sue would love this pay by phone. She could use her wrist!

 Even the Hard Rock Cafe has cherry blossom fever!

 

How tacky is this? It's across from Ford's Theatre where Lincoln was shot. I imagine if he had lived, he would have gone across the street for a waffle after the play.

 Above is the African American Museum. Oprah gave $12 Million toward its creation. See the woman with the hood? This is the second day with 30 m.p.h. winds.

 Sights leaving Union Station from the top of the bus.

 Below is the American Indian Museum with no square corners -- only rounded walls because evil spirits can dwell in square corners. There are, however, square corners in the rest rooms ...

 Below is the Natl. Aeronautics and Space Museum; astronauts on lower right. I have been there and seen Lindy's Spirit of St. Louis and some of the original space capsules (when they landed in water).

 Urban garden below. Do you suppose it was inspired by Mrs. Obama?

 

The digging here is to put in an irrigation system for the grass. I believe this is where people often congregate and it might be where they assemble for the Inauguration. However, I doubt the grass will be green in January.

 The National Archives (above and below).

 

Gold dome above one of the original fire stations. But it says Insurance Co. above the door. If you didn't pay them, they would let your house/shop burn down.

 International Spy Museum (a private business) was on my agenda for the day after this.

 

Sculpture from NYC was used for notes with people trying to find loved ones after Twin Towers attacks. It was removed to protect it from unstable buildings.

 

Very ornate building used to be a department store. It's empty but maintained.

 Above is a quick view on the right of St. Patrick's which was built for the Irish workers who came to build the original DC.

 Hey, Mom, this is for you: it's the Fed.

 I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed the Museum of American History! Below is the first exhibit on the first floor that caught my eye. Natch.

 Below you will see random photos that I took there. I did not photo Judy Garland's ruby slippers, or Ray Charles' spangled jacket, and so much more. I just enjoyed!

They wouldn't let me into the Archives, so I only pressed my nose against the glass door.

 Look at what I found!

 I also got to see Carnegie's note book and it was opened to the W's. He had noted "West Springfield, Massachusetts $25,000."

Not sure I would be good at using this toaster.

The Price of Freedom was very large beginning with the Revolutionary War.

Okay, I do my best, but ... the pictures garbled themselves when I uploaded them here. The larger captions are from the first day. Which leaves the small type for the second day. I think.

I decided to take today off. This is how I started my day: I scaled and cleaned fish! (David showed me how before he went to work.)

 Above is a walleye.

 The small fish are white perch. I won't show you the aftermath, because it's not pretty, but I'm sure they will be wonderful for supper.

Jane had said I could use a car today and I said, "Which one?" To which David replied, "The Corvette."  He was joking. Damn! Yes, he bought her a vintage Corvette. I get to drive the van with the shift stick (automatic) on the wheel.