A Day Out

Yesterday realizing we were starting to succumb to cabin fever we decided we needed a day out and decided to head into Savannah for the day.  Mac had been looking at antiques online and said we should visit some of the shops in Savannah, just to look around.  So that's what we did, except we ended up buying, not what we'd planned on at all.  Unfortunately we'd gone to Savannah in our Miata so there was no room to bring our purchase  home and I'll tell you more about it tomorrow.
I'd rather talk about where we had lunch, it was at Clary's a kitschy little cafe that was used in the movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.  It's usually full of tourists because they've seen it in the movie, but today there was only a table full of New Yorkers.
Mac had  homemade black bean soup followed by homemade  corned beef and eggs and I had a turkey, bacon and ham club sandwich.  We shared a dish of ice cream for dessert.

A short walk around the neighborhood finished off our day.

Things to Do on a Rainy Day

It's been raining all day and isn't supposed to stop until late tomorrow, so what are you going to do, besides press your nose against the window and ask the rain to go away?

•  Clean the oven, high on my list of least favorite activities

•  Make a new clothes pin bag

•  Read, like I wouldn't do that even if it were sunny

•  Play the piano, fighting with Bach, I don't like him even when I play him well, which isn't often

•  Make a loaf of honey wheat bread and it turned out delicious

*  Read Blogs

*  Exercise,  which hurts even when I'm through

And if you're Mac

•  Paint on a new painting and sneak upstairs and paint on the "finished" one

*  Put more drawer and door handles

*  Start the taxes, time for all wise folk to head to the hills

•  Track the weather on the computer

If you're the cat

•  Yell at me

•  Sleep under the bed

*  Walk on my keyboard

*  Sit on the printer

*  Sleep some more

And all of us are hoping for better weather.

Better Than Real Life

When we were in Spain last September I took this photo of Mac outside the flat we were staying in, I threatened to make him play for dinner money. Snark!
This winter he decided to make a painting of the photo, and though it has taken quite awhile he finally finished it this week.  Or at least I thought it was finished.  When I went upstairs (that's where we had hung it)  last night to watch tv I caught him with a tube of paint and a paint brush working on it.  I guess an artist's work is never done.

It's Official

Yes, it's official, my elbows HATE me.  They've informed me that if I crawl around cleaning the stairs one more time they're out of here.  No more rug brushes, no more scrubbing, nada, they're history.  And if my arms then look like penguin wings they say that's too bad, I've been given fair warning.
We're waiting for a call from someone who is to give us an estimate on new carpet for our stairs, but in the mean time I couldn't stand how bad they looked, so I brushed, sprayed, scrubbed and really ticked my elbows off.
Do they look better?  Marginally, unfortunately they've passed the stage where cleaning does much good, their nap is gone and they just look woeful.  Hope the man calls soon.

Cheese, Cheese, Cheese

So ok, I don't love cheese, I like it, but I don't love it. I prefer it as a snack, a small nibble of swiss, monterey jack or manchego with a chip or cracker.  The only time I use it in cooking is in Italian food, in chicken parmesan, pizza or chicken cacciatore.
  So when I go hunting for recipes and everything , no matter what the main part of it is, will invariably include cheese, making for totally unnecessary calories.  I don't want cheese on my broccoli, on my steak, in or on my hamburger, on my fruit, in my cake or pie, on my potatoes, in my soup or in my salad.
When we go out to eat, and I hate to be one of those fussy customers, I don't want cheese put in or on my entree.  If that's weird I can live with that.  What I can't do is live with lashings of cheese all over the place.

Catbird Seat

Miss Kitty has seats in two different windows, one in the family room and one in the computer room.  The covers on both of them were getting a bit worn and soiled so today as I was flitting around (it's been one of my ADD days--I swear that if I were in school nowadays they'd be wanting to drug me and slow me down) and decided that I should get at least one of them recovered.  So Miss Kitty and I trundled upstairs, looked through my fabric stash and picked out one that looked like it could take the day to day wear and tear of an active kitty lounging around on it, cut it out, stapled it on and voilá  a new look for Miss Kitty's seat.

Pure Delight

The ribs tasted even better than they smelled or looked.  I served them over mashed potatoes and they were delicious.  Just the perfect meal for a cold, and it was cold here only in the 40's, February day.  Next I'm going to try a pot roast and I've found a recipe for Crock Pot Chicken Teriyaki that I want to try.  I love trying new recipes and finding what works and what doesn't.  Pinterest has been a lot of help in finding new recipes, very addicting.

Home Cooking

For years I ignored crock pots and slow cookers, I really didn't like the idea of something cooking in my kitchen while I was gone.  Our daughter uses one and cooked us an incredible Easter meal one year.  Then there's Pinterest, I troll its pages looking for new recipes-- and I've found some wonderful ones, like Baked Chicken with Chorizo-- and I started seeing tons of recipes for crock pots.  So I gave in and ordered one.  It came in this week and as we went grocery shopping yesterday  I looked for something interesting to cook in it.  What I found were some lovely, and very pricey---but what the hay, you only live once, short ribs.
This morning I found a Pinterest recipe, added some ingredients of my own, browned the meat and onions, put in beef stock, added the meat, onions,  some carrots  and turned it on.  Does my kitchen smell like heaven?  Yes it does, can't wait till time to eat.

Happy Valentine's Day

Mac and I met 50 years ago on March 17, I fell for him right away, took some time to convince him though.  We'll have our 48th wedding anniversary this year and it doesn't seem possible.  He's still the pretty boy I fell in love with, my best friend and who I love even more now than then.
We've lived through 21 years in the military, more moves than I can remember, the lose of both our parents, some illness and more happiness than it seems possible.
People say you have to work at a marriage, but we've always said that what you need to do is remember why you fell in love and married in the first place.
He is my Valentine, today, and always.

Westminster Dog Show

Banana Joe the Alfenpinscher

We don't have a dog, but we watch the Westminster Dog Show every year, and this year, like many years we ground our teeth in disappointment.  A teeny, tiny Alpenpinscher named Banana Joe won best in show.  He was cute and I guess he was a good example of his breed, but he just barely qualified as a dog as far as we're concerned.  He looked like a fashion accessory, something to carry in your purse.  He represented the Toy class and that's exactly what he looked like, a toy.
We're tired of these minute examples of the canine family winning, I'm not even sure they should be in the same show with real dogs.
When I say dog, I mean a DOG, something substantial like a Boxer, a Bernese Mountain Dog, a Malamute.  We like Working Dogs, Hunting Dogs, Herding Dogs, Sporting Dogs.
The runner up to the Alpenpinscher (he was titled Reserved Best) was an Old English Sheepdog named Swagger, now that's what I call a dog.  I'm very partial to English Sheepdogs, the last dog we had was one.  His name was Charlie and he was a love, he patrolled our yard, herded the cats and was full of love for everyone.  You couldn't carry him your purse or have him sit on your lap, but he could run and romp and keep the place safe for all the critters.  He's been gone more than 20 years, but he still holds a place in my heart.

Swagger the Runner-up

Scary!!!!

Our daughter is out of town on a business project this week,  I'll name no names and tell no locales, but shortly after she and her co-workers got to work a former employee of the company they'd come to do the work for showed up in the downstairs lobby and committed suicide.  As horrible as that is it could have been worse, for he was armed with 3 guns and multiple rounds of ammunition.  She and her co-workers were on the 3rd floor with their door propped open.
Except for severely wrecked nerves she's ok, but she has to stay there working till Friday and return there next week.  Her whole team is beyond stressed.
I'm saying a prayer of thankfulness that she is well and as I've said before, this is a very unhappy country.

It's Done, It's Done, Oh Lord It's Done!

Doing the happy dance and singing the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah, it's done.  The thingy I've been crocheting forever and ever is done!  Depending on how you look at it's either 2 months late or 10 months early.  It's a Christmas present and it has haunted my life for months, but yesterday I finished it off.
It's in the closet and I don't have to think about it, time to finish  some other lingering projects.

The End of Saturday Mail

Beginning in August the U.S. Mail will no longer deliver first class mail  on Saturdays, packages will, be delivered but not letters.  Do I care?  Not one bit.  In fact they could cut it back even more and I wouldn't care.  I pay a lot of bills online and with  automatic deduction, I could pay all of of them that way.  In fact if first class mail costs much move than 50¢ I probably will  pay more of them that way.
Another thing about Saturday delivery is that when I get something on a Saturday that's a problem I'm never able to get hold of anyone to deal with it, most offices are closed on Saturday.  I'd be better off if the letter came on Monday when people are in their offices instead of me worrying all weekend.
Some people have pointed out that the U.S. Mail should be charging by distance on first class mail just like they do on packages.  Right now it's 50¢ anywhere in the country, whether it's across the street or across the nation.  Of course if they charged by distance I really would pay more bills online.
Does it bother you that Saturday mail is ending?

I guess the satellite dish be-
comes a casual hazard.

General Beauregarde Lee be d****d!  He saw his shadow Saturday on Groundhog Day and that should have meant 6 more weeks of winter for us here in the South.  But it's 70º here today and supposed to be warmer tomorrow, it's glorious, I almost feel a bit guilty we're having such nice weather.
Mac has resurrected our putting green, we'd rather let it lapse the last couple of years, but golf watching the last couple of weeks convinced us we needed to dig it out again.  If Phil Mickelson can live in the rough so can we.  Have to say that after reading that he's contemplating leaving California because taxes on top earners, that each time he sank a putt this weekend I thought I could hear the taxman giggling.
I worked in the garden clearing weeds and debris off the Hyacinths and Crocus that are getting ready to bloom.

It's starting to look like Spring in the garden.

Think we're going to go fishing tomorrow.

It's Monday

My sympathy to the workers of the world, been there, done that, now sleep late.
Enjoyed the Super Bowl sort of, we're from the San Francisco Bay area so we were rooting for the Niners, but our daughter's favorite team is the Baltimore Ravens so we're kind of glad they won.  Exciting game, 30 minutes with no lights and some pretty awful commercials.
Finished The 1900 House, they should have called it The 1900 Whine House, that lady should be forced to sit and watch herself, I'm surprised her family doesn't run away from home.
Downton Abbey was better this week, O'Brian is her truly awful self again, boy is she setting Thomas up.
Been cleaning house to include waxing floors, I'm really getting too old for this stuff, need a cleaning lady or a smaller house.
Mac and I made jam today, it went really quickly, don't know how I use to do it before he started helping me. Now there are 10 lovely jars of peach jam sitting in the kitchen.
Now I need to take a leaf from my cat's notebook and find myself a patch of sunlight.

First Impressions

We're big fans of the House series, we've seen the Manor House, the Regency House Party,  the 1940 House and enjoyed them all.  We started the 1900 House last night and it looks to be as good as the others, with a few quibbles.
We loved the opening episode where they searched for a period house to fix up and the work involved in getting it furnished and habitable.
The family picked seemed really keen for the adventure, particularly the Mother who said she's always had a passion for history.
Well her passion lasted less than 3 days before she threw a hissy fit because things just weren't going like she thought they should.  The rest of the family seems to be trying hard, but in my opinion, she's really letting them down.  I mean, boo-hoo, Dad gets to go out to work and I'm stuck here with all the housework and cooking.  Who did she think was going to do it, had she read up on this period at all?
I hope she gets "over" herself and throws herself into the experience or she's going to make her family miserable and we had the feeling they were going through this to make her happy.
As for me, I'd cut down on food and other supplies and use the money to hire a maid of all works..