The Heart of the Home

Morning Minion wrote on her Blog about the kitchen being the heart of the home and I agree.  I love my kitchen, it's probably my favorite of all the ones we've had through the years.  It's not very big and I'm sure that if HGTV brought some House Hunters through they'd complain that it was too small and not really gourmet, but then what don't the House Hunters complain about.
But I like it, the lovely maple cabinets, the granite countertops, the 3 columns, the table by the sunny windows and the way it opens into the familyroom.  It's always full of sunshine and since we've been here it's full of lovely cooking smells, for retirement has given me the time to really learn how to cook.  I've always liked cooking but working all day leaves you less than inspired in the evening when it's time to cook.  Now I have that time.  Using Mario Batelli I make pasta and raviolis (which I haven't quite mastered yet), Giada has taught me to make homemade fish sticks, with the breadmaker my daughter gave me I make our bread and recently I've started making jam.
There are stools on two sides of the kitchen, just right to have people sit and talk while I cook.  The cat enjoys her perch up there too, not very hygienic maybe but very homey.

I've had bigger kitchens but this one is perfect for me, the triangle between sink, stove and refrigerator is just right.  I could use a little more room between the refrigerator and the counter and each time Mac and I bump into each other here we say we'll have to sell the house and get a bigger kitchen, then laugh because he too thinks it's about perfect.
When our daughter comes at the holidays she cooks in there too and I help or get out of her way and just enjoy seeing here there.  It's such a warm, happy place.

OMG---My Worst Nightmare

I'm a dental phobe, it took my dentist in California years to calm me down enough to be able  work on me.  His office  wouldn't tell me when my appointments were because I'd make myself sick worrying about them, they told Mac instead,  and he'd let me know at the last possible minute.  And even then I had to take a valium to get through it,  I lay there quietly crying  and shaking  the whole time.  His poor hygienist had to keep wiping the tears off, and he was the kindest, gentlest dentist I'd ever had.
My phobia dates back to my teens when our family had a dentist named Dr. Chew (truly, he was Oriental and I'm probably spelling his name wrong, but that's how it was pronounced) and he didn't believe in anasthesia for dental work, and Lord it was painful.  I hated and feared dentists after that.  But as I said our dentist in California had me pretty much cured, then we moved down here to Georgia.  Not knowing anyone I picked the closest dentist and we began seeing him.  Actually seeing his dental hygienist who'd clean my teeth, he'd whiz in at the end, look at x-rays and say see you next year.  Not very chatty, rather hyper and young, I ignored him.
Well I was reading my local paper on-line this morning and guess who's had dental license suspended?  That's right, my dentist.  Suspended because,"of actions, conduct and conditions that pose a threat to the public health, safety and welfare such that  emergency actions had to be taken".  He is being charged with abusing controlled substances, obtaining controlled substances fraudulently, and appeared to be impaired when questioned by the police and still seeing patients.  That's all I need, a dentist higher than a kite flying around in my mouth. Going out to buy a years supply of dental floss!

Earl and Friends

Hurricane Earl, isn't he lovely!

Earl's Track


I don't mind Earl but the way the storms start to line up out in the Atlantic does make me nervous.  The little yellow circle is, if it gets organized, going to be Gaston.  Happy hurricane season.

It's that time of year again, no not back to school, but rather hurricane season.  Danielle passes by and we hardly noticed her, but Earl is coming closer.  Though he won't come very close to us he is "whipping up a storm in the bay" as they say.  We've had an easterly wind for the last couple of days, high surf (shoulder high to the delight of surfers) and rip tides.

Reconnected!

Saturday at 4 PM Eastern Standard Time our modem died!  We tried everything, but after talking to Tech Support for our DSL  and noting that the brand name on the modem was CSA (Confederate States of America) we knew we were lost----no connection to the internet.  Our Techie put in a work order for us and told use we could go into town Monday----Oh God! Monday! and pick up a new modem.
We moaned and groaned, slept poorly, and Sunday morning Mac remembered that we had a laptop that our daughter had given us and it had an internal modem, so we called up our Tech Support again, they gave us a number for Dial-up Service and we were reconnected, sort of.
The laptop is an old Mac and is slow even when on DSL, on dial-up it gave snail mail a run for its money, it was agonizing waiting for pages to download.  Finally I gave up, sent an e-mail that had to be sent and shut it down.
This morning, early, before breakfast---I left Mac in charge of the kitchen, I flew into town and picked up the new modem, Mac could not believe how quickly I was back, and I said that if I hadn't had to wait for a train and a driver doing 40 in a 55 mph zone I'd have been back even quicker.
Well I sat out in the livingroom drinking orange juice and listening to mumbles and mutters coming from the computer room and finally heard those 2 special word, "We're on-line!"
You could take away my tv--watch very little of it anyway, take my phone, h**l I'd even give up the air conditioner, but I have to have the internet and Mac is just as bad--talk about addictions.  Now we need a need router because the one our daughter gave us (she's always trying to drag us into the 21st century) is definitely getting wonky.
But I'm online and I'm smiling!

New Painting

Mac's been busy again, look at this little gem, I just love it.  It's small, 9/12 on a masonite board.  Have to find a frame for it because no etsy for this one I'm keeping it!

Turtles in the mists

Every year in June the female turtles come out of the lagoon at night and dig a nest and lay their eggs, mostly on wet misty nights. Sometimes I find their nest, but most of the time, I only find their nest after a raccoon has dug it up and eaten all the eggs, and has left the eggs shells  scattered around. In years past upon finding an  unmolested nest I have covered the nest with screen wire, but nothing has ever hatched, this has happened three times. So this year I was going to remove the eggs and put them somewhere safe. I managed to find one egg in good shape from a dug up nest, and eventually found two more viable eggs, in the front yard of all places. I put them in a cardboard box and covered them with soil, and watered them every other day or so. Yesterday I went to water the eggs and there was this little guy, A Georgia Pond Slider.

 The other two eggs are still covered in soil, and this little guy spends most of her time tucked away in the dirt. It remains to be decided if I will keep her at all, if she begins to eat I may wait until she much larger to release,  giving her a much better chance to survive, if she doesn't start to eat after a month or so, I will release her into the lagoon.

Wedding Anniversary

Our 45th Wedding Anniversary is coming up, that's our sapphire anniversary, but I've already told Mac I don't want a sapphire.  He gave me a very special one about 7 years ago and I don't need another one.
For about 7 years ago we found some old love notes we'd written each other when we were teenagers and rediscovered that we'd met on the 17th of March.  Then in September of that year Mac had given me a little stuffed elephant with his class ring on a chain around its neck.  So to commemorate that  he gave me another little elephant with a sapphire ring hanging around its neck.  You can't top that, and anyway, I'm not much of a jewelry person, though I haven't taken this ring off in 7 years.
So I don't want another sapphire, can't really think of anything I want,  and I haven't a clue as to what to get him.  He's so hard to buy for, it's not that he's fussy, he's not, it's just that he's not a very material person and doesn't collect a lot of things.  He loves books but mainly reads nonfiction and I spend a lot of time on Amazon looking for books for him.  Several years ago he picked up a Fred Archer book while we were in England and he loved it, he's now read all of them.  Then I discovered Beverly Nichols  and his garden writing  for him and now  he owns all of those.  Lately I found Mollie Harris, another English author, and he's just now finishing up the last of her books.  We're going on a trip to England for our anniversary and I'm hoping I'll find something for him there, we plan on hitting as many book stores as we can.

My Daughter Has a Job!!!!!!

Nearly 5 months ago our daughter lost her job for doing what she thought was the right thing. In August of last year she passed the grueling process of getting a job with the U.S. Consular Service and began the steps to get a Top Secret Clearance.  Now getting on the list doesn't guarantee a job, just a spot on the list of those who may be called to start training for a position.  Your place on the list is determined by your final score from the all-day oral interview, anyone scoring higher, and they assess all the time, goes ahead of you.
Well my daughter is too honest for her own good, she immediately let the company she worked for know that she'd made the list and that hopefully, someday, and probably not until the following year that she might be leaving.  She'd been with this company 10 years and she thought she owed them that. HA!  They immediately put her job up for hire!  She convinced them to find someone internally, she'd train them and move laterally in the company.  They agreed.  Well she got her security clearance but didn't move up the list at all, in fact moved down and it began to look as though she might spend the alloted 18 months on the list and never move on, but did her company care, no.  In January they informed her that in February they would decide whether to continue to fund her position for the next year, and of course they decided not to and as of mid-March she was out of a job, and at first she wasn't going to get unemployment because they said she'd given notice.  Well they changed their minds, admitted that they'd ended her position and she was then eligible for unemployment.
Since then, like way too many other Americans, she has been looking for a job.  She has had a temporary one that had no benefits and paid for less than she had been working, but it was a job.
Today she went for an interview for a 6 month position that paid well and left the interview feeling she hadn't done well, but she had, when she got home she had voice mail telling her she had the position!
So she has 6 months of breathing room, to find a job she likes, that pays what she wants and is permanent. Hallelujah!

TIMBERRRRRRRR!

Yesterday this tree was standing, all 75-100 feet of it, we walked right past it.  Today it was laying in 2 yards and you could see where it had been cut up in the road.  We thought at first someone had gotten permission to cut it down, which is not easy to do here, but we looked closer and saw the roots and knew that it had fallen down.  Looking at the inside of the tree we saw that the core was rotten.  It must have made a h**l of a noise when it hit the ground.
One day when we were walking we saw and heard a much smaller one fall so I know this one must have shook the ground!

It had stood next to these trees and was at least as tall as them, glad it happened after our walk.  We had storms yesterday afternoon and I'll bet that's when it came down.

Birds of a Feather

Good  walk this morning, though we just walk through our subdivision you never know what you might see.  Today we saw 2 different birds.  The first was a hawk, it flew about 10 feet above our heads and then landed in a tree and Mac snapped a picture of it.  We think it's a Red-Shouldered Hawk.  They like wetlands and boggy areas and that's a pretty good description of where we live.

Then as we headed for home we saw this bird, a Heron fishing in the shallow waters of our lagoon.  He frequently fishes out behind our house, but Mac encourages him to move on down the line and not eat his fish.

Key Lime Pie

I got this recipe from Southern Living magazine and made it for my daughter's birthday instead of a cake.  It was so easy and tasted wonderful, even my husband liked it and he's not a big fan of pies or sweets in general.  I need to pick up some egg substitutes this week  and I'm going to make it again.

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Photo: Beth Dreiling Hontzas; Styling: Amy Burke Key Lime Pie Don't be tempted to substitute bottled lime juice—it doesn't compare to fresh. Other Time: 4 hours 27 minutes minutes Yield:  Makes 8 servings 1 (14-oz.) can fat-free sweetened condensed milk 3/4 cup egg substitute 1/2 cup fresh Key lime juice* 2 teaspoons Key lime zest* 1 (6-oz.) reduced-fat ready-made graham cracker crust 1 (8-oz.) container fat-free frozen whipped topping, thawed Garnish: lime peel strips 1. Preheat oven to 350°. Whisk together first 4 ingredients until well blended. Pour mixture into piecrust; place pie on a baking sheet. 2. Bake at 350° for 17 minutes or until pie is set. Remove pie from baking sheet to a wire rack, and let pie cool completely (about 1 hour). 3. Chill 3 to 24 hours. Top with whipped topping just before serving. Garnish, if desired. *Regular fresh lime juice and zest may be substituted. Try it with Lemon! Substitute fresh lemon juice for lime juice and lemon zest for lime zest. CALORIES 301 ; FAT 4.3g (sat 0.7g,mono 0.2g,poly 0.4g); CHOLESTEROL 7mg; CALCIUM 142mg; CARBOHYDRATE 55.4g; SODIUM 194mg; PROTEIN 7.7g; FIBER 0.1g; IRON 0.9mg  Southern Living, JULY 2010