"Blame it on Paul Newman"

With my first Mother’s Day without my mother upon me, I have been doing some reflecting on our years together.  The first thoughts are still of the last years spent nursing and caring for her, time that I am grateful to have been able to have given her, even though many of the actual tasks involved were not ones that I had ever had a desire to do in my life.  Often, while in the midst of performing some undesirable task, usually ones that involved many changes of disposable gloves and vast amounts of baby wipes and household cleaning supplies, I would start muttering “This is God’s answer to your having been the president of the Future Nurses of America in high school.”  That memory always was enough to make us both start laughing and would make the task at hand easier to accomplish.

Now, first of all, you must understand that from the beginning of my school years I suffered from a few very chronic and debilitating learning disabilities.  This was before the days of testing and labeling such things, so those of us who suffered just had to do the best we could without the benefit of counseling or special help.  My mother, who understood all of her offspring very well, was quite aware of these conditions, as I was not the first one in the family so afflicted.  Hence, I found myself delivering many a note to the school nurse which read as follows:

To Whom It May Concern:

Please excuse Mary Lynn’s absence yesterday as she was suffering from a severe case of schoolitis, coupled with an acute outbreak of homeworkatosis.

Very truly yours,

Mary G. Ferry

This was further complicated by the fact that, as far as I was concerned, if I could get B’s and C’s without studying, why waste a lot of time just for an A?  Luckily for me, in those days marks were based more on your test scores than on homework and notebooks.  Therefore, in June of 1977, I found myself standing with my classmates in my cap and gown receiving my Regents Diploma in Math/Science/French in preparation of taking my stellar academic attitude on to the next level.  Of course, I was paying strict attention as they were handing out the special awards and not at all concerned with the fact that maybe I had a surplus of dates in attendance, so I do not know why I missed when they called my name until I got an elbow in the ribs.  But there it was, I had to go up again to receive a special award for being the outgoing President of the Future Nurses of America.  Crap, but wait a minute the envelope contains a picture of Ben Franklin, cool!

When we got home for the party afterwards my oldest sister, who had been Valedictorian of her class (needless to say, she had had a very different attitude from mine for her school career), started grilling me about the events of the day.  “Who was the really smart guy that the class gave the standing ovation to?”  Oh, that was Mark, he likes school and has been a senior for years but decided we were the class he wanted to graduate with.  “Humph”“Why did you all sing when that other boy got his diploma?”  He is the son of the head of the math department and the mastermind behind the smoke bombs that went off in school last week so we sang “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes”.  “Humph”“What was that disgusting song you got your diplomas to and why did they play it?”  It is what we chose as our class song, “FREEBIRD!!!!” “Humph!”  I can tell she is not at all happy with any of the answers and is building up to the question she really wants to ask.  “WHY do you want to be a nurse?!?!”  I don’t.  “If you want to go into medicine be a doctor, not a NURSE!!!”  I do not want to be either one.  “Then why are you PRESIDENT of the Future Nurses?!?!?!?!”  Paul Newman.  “WHAT?!?!?!?!”  Blame it on Paul Newman.  Our mother, who up until now had been struggling to maintain a straight face through all of this, suddenly needed to check on something in the kitchen.  Something must have been burning in there as she immediately started to choke.

In our high school the students who planned to go to college took Regents courses, while those who were not going to further their education had a different set of classes.  Most of my classmates in the Regents courses considered themselves superior to the non-Regents students, and would not associate with them.  I also found that most of these people were fond enough of themselves that it did not matter what I thought of them.  Most of my closest friends were in the other classes so I was well aware of the fact that they did not have the amount or degree of difficulty to their work as we had.  This gap widened as the years went on until Junior year when the non-college bound mostly spent half of their day at trade school and the college bound had the toughest year yet, as the majority of our State Regents Exams were upcoming that spring.  Towards the end of the winter, we had an unexpected new source of excitement go through the school.  There was to be a movie filming in some nearby locations and they wanted busloads of students as extras!  Could this be?  Yes, it will be a hockey movie and they are going to film in several nearby locations and whole classes will get to go!  Then, the biggest news of all, you guessed it, it is starring Paul Newman!!!!  It seemed that every time we met up by our lockers another friend or two had found out that they were going to go.  Many of them were going several different days.  English classes, history classes, business classes, the hockey team, all were going.  Surely, my teachers would start saying when we were going to participate.  I asked the teacher in our next class, only to find out that we needed to stay in school and work, we had upcoming Regents Exams.  Say What?!?  My sense of injustice kicked in full force, we have the harder work load and our reward is to stay in school!  They are going to see Paul Newman!  Who are the “smart kids” now?

Being a person who never meekly submitted to authority just for the sake of authority, I may have mentioned this to every teacher, but was repeatedly met with the same response.  Then I got the idea that French Club should go, after all, many hockey players are native French speakers from Canada.  I was informed that they spoke “Canadian French, sniff” and we were studying “Proper French”.  I continued to press my point, only to hear, “Assez toi, et ferme la bouche!”  Now, for those of you who do not have my benefit of four years of high school French, I will translate.  I heard this phase often and it puzzled me until I realized it meant, “Thank you very much for your thoughtful input, you are one of my favorite students.”  I never did get to go and see any of the hockey scenes filmed, but if you watch the movie “Slap Shot” many of my schoolmates are in those crowd scenes in the hockey arenas.

Meanwhile, my previously mentioned learning disabilities had made me realize that lying down in the nurse’s office with a headache was a legal excuse to not be attending a class.  This whole Paul Newman thing was giving me many headaches.  One day while I was there a meeting of the Future Nurses was being held and they were planning upcoming field trips.  I came to the realization that this was a school organization that did nothing but go on monthly field trips during school, there for providing a legitimate legal excuse for not being in class.  Sign me up!  This was at least a small step towards getting even with the system for not sending us to see the “Slap Shot” filming.  At the conclusion of the final field trip of the year, it was announced that we would be having election of officers for the following year.  The offices of President and Vice President had to be held by upcoming Seniors, and there were only 2 of us at this meeting.  Having been a 4-H member for years I had already figured out that the perfect office to hold in any organization was Vice President.  It looked great on resumes and applications and there was no work involved.  I quickly nominated the other candidate for President, leaving me the gravy VP job.  I was feeling quite proud of this quick bit of thinking, a feeling which lasted until the next December when the President opted for early graduation.

Blame it on Paul Newman.

Return of the Blog

 After an absence of what looks to be 3 years I am reviving this.  I have been writing lately, a habit I never really cared for but have found therapeutic during the past year.  Since I last used this blog, life has changed a great deal.  As Grandma took more and more of my time and attention the farming had to go bit by bit, until all of my beloved livestock was gone.  We then decided to move from upstate New York to southern Maryland 2 years ago, thus no more farm at all.  And the biggest change of all was last summer when Mom left us for the Heavenly Pastures with their Jersey cows.  I still miss her constantly.

Meanwhile, I will be adding more to this in the upcoming days that will fill you in on any other changes.

Husband for Rent - Cheap

While talking to my sister Betty yesterday she mentioned that cleaning up her yard was going slow as her garden tractor and wheelbarrow were both not working. I mentioned it to Mike when he called me a few minutes later and he said why don't we go up tomorrow and I will look at them. So, today we packed Grandma up in the truck with a bunch of stuff for Betty and Mary, including birthday presents for both of them and went up and Mike was able to get the wheelbarrow working, but unfortunately not the tractor. We had a pleasant day visiting with Betty and Mary and celebrating Mary's birthday on Melanie's birthday. Hopefully, Mike got a few things done to make things a bit easier for Betty. I know that I feel blessed to have him every weekend to do the things that make it that much easier for me to accomplish more during the week.

I am now feeling too tired to have this make a great deal of sense so I had better quit for tonight.

Sappy Post

After another full day of lawn work I can barely move my fingers on the keyboard tonight, but am finally making enough progress that it is noticable. Several sections of lawn are now ready for summer, the flower bed that we have been working on is done for now. It will get some more in it later. Polly worked up the bed in the walkway and I put a few pansys in there, it will get more annuals later. At least I feel like progress is being made now.

I was working next to the road today, cleaning up where the snowplow had made a mess all winter when the town highway supervisor stopped to tell me that they would be sweeping the road in about half an hour so I might want to get the clothes off of the line before they kicked up all of that dust. I thought that was very nice of him. Then, when they swept the road, they took the extra effort to sweep it all over to the other side where I had not cleaned yet, and not make a mess of this side of the road which I had almost all done. I could almost have kissed the old guy who drives the sweeper for that one. But only almost.

It was actually warm enough that we got Grandma outside this morning. Polly and I were down to our t-shirts and Grandma was bundled up for winter, with a blanket over her too, but she was comfy and napped in the sun for a couple of hours. I had to wake her after Tony told me that they would be sweeping to get her in then. It seemed to help both her mood and her mind. She has been much better the rest of the day for it.

Now, for the really sappy part. Last night Mike told me that he would not be done until late so he would not be home. Normally I say "yeah, I get the bed all to myself" and have no problem. It had been a hard day yesterday so I was disappointed but did not tell him. I just said OK, I'll see you tomorrow. I went to bed and at about 10:30 was awakened by my dear hubby climbing into bed. I asked him what he was doing home and he told me that he could hear in my voice that I needed a hug. (All together now, aaaawwwww.) Not only that but as tired as he was he had taken a shower when he got home, just because he knows that Eau du Minging Trucker is not my favorite scent. I felt kinda guilty that he drove 65 miles home to only get 4 hours sleep before driving back just because I sounded down on the phone. Mike said he was just happy to do so for me. I definately have a keeper here.

This is the middle of nowhere, where do these people come from?

Polly was helping me rake the lawn today and took a radio outside. I usually like peace and quiet when working outside but was really enjoying the radio today and was singing and dancing with my rake. I was really rocking out with my back to the road, having a grand old time, when I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned around to find that a man from the electric company had driven up and was standing there watching me. He had to go out into the field and check the poles out there, but seemed to be finding me amusing. I felt like trashing his muffler while he was gone so he could not sneak up on people so easily.

It is the time of the year where I have to get used to traffic again as the road is seasonal past our house and is not plowed all winter long. It does not officially open until April 1st. Some years the snow is all gone on it before that but this year they had to go up and open it with the grader. We have not had traffic go past since November, except for the snowmobiles, but they are over the bank in the field and it does take a bit of getting used to again now.

Of course, I did not have that excuse when I mooned the Amish family a few years ago. I really did not mean to. It was the middle of the summer and I had been outside working all day. I got into the house that evening, ate supper, and took my bath. I was then heading straight up to bed so just put on my tank top and underwear to go upstairs. The Pomeranian, Foxy, whined at me when I went past the front door so I looked out and her water dish was empty. Living here you get very used to hearing any cars going by, so I did not look up and down the road, just did not hear an engine. I opened the door, stepped outside, turned around and bent down and picked filled her water dish. As the water is pouring I realize that I am hearing clip-clop, clip-clop, clip-clop. I looked back over my shoulder and there is a buggy full of an entire Amish family, all of whom are staring out over the field across the road with very big frowns on their faces. Oops.

I have learned that one little accidental mooning is enough to get you shunned by the whole community. They will no longer drive past here, even though it is 3 miles more to go around the other way. Many more families have moved into the area on both sides of us and still none of them drive past.

I do see many of the men up at the feed mill and they are very friendly up there. I do not think that they recognize me from that angle, and with clothes on. Or else, they are friendly because the women and children are not there, I am not sure which.

A different Easter

This year Easter fell the day after the end of the spring cattle show in Syracuse so Flip's family were tired out from that. Then Betty went to Prague so obviously would not be coming for dinner. When Easter is early and there is still snow on the ground it is not so bad to spend the week before cooking and cleaning, but now I am so ready to be outside that just cooking a daily meal and keeping the dishes somewhat done up is more time than I want to spend indoors, never mind a holiday meal. So, we decided not to do the big Easter this year. Polly and Mike went to the store and got fish which Mike cooked on the bbq grill, we baked some potatoes and had some stuffed clams for an appetizer. All the cooking I had to do was to throw the potatoes in the oven. I found it to be the most relaxing holiday that I can ever remember. I took a long nap in the afternoon, Mike and I brought up more manure for another section of the flowerbed and Mike worked it in. It was so cold and windy outside that that was enough for the day, so I puttered around cleaning up the house for the rest of the day.

Yesterday and today I have been planting. I hope that it comes out looking good, but if it doesn't I will blame Betty for being out of the country when I needed to consult with her on it. hehehe The section I did today has iris, gladiolius, roses, lily of the valley, and pansys at the moment. There will be more annuals for sure, and maybe some more perrenials, and spring bulbs.

I was being good and alternating working cleaning up the lawn with working on the flower beds until I got to be able to plant. Now, planting is so much more fun than raking up more sticks and dead leaves. Tomorrow, I do have to get back to the raking part though.

I have found that I probably will not be able to do pictures on here for another few weeks. Polly needs to repair her computer first, as they tell me this one will not work to do so, and that will not happen until after she goes to visit Jessie. So, it will be the middle of May before I am able to do pictures.

Playin' in the dirt

Mike and I accomplished a lot today. He rototilled in the lovely organic matter that I had dumped into the flower bed all into it, plus worked up where I decided that we needed more flower bed. It will look pretty and it is a spot that I always try to tip the riding mower over on myself all summer. Then he assembled the arbor and table and chairs that we brought home yesterday, and I got the patio area swept off for the table. We put the arbor in at the bottom of the stairs and it was time to start planting.

My darling husband will not plant flowers, except he will dig the deep holes for the roses or other bushes. So after he dug the holes for the 2 climbing jacobs coats that are going on the arbor he decided that he would cook dinner while I planted. I got half of the iris back in, in over twice the area that they were taking up before, and some other plants as well, before I gave in to the freezing wind. I came into the house to find that my wonderful husband had steak, homefries and eggs all ready to go on the table as soon as I got out of the bathtub.

What more can you ask for at the end of a fun day playin' in the dirt? Now I am clean, my tummy is full, I have taken the pain pills for the bursa under my shoulder blade that does not enjoy playin' in dirt, and I have my ice cold feet warming on my nice warm hubby. Life is good tonight.

Ew, ew, that smell, can't you smell that smell...

OK, so I have to prove once in a while that I am a product of the '70s. I'll even admit that I am still a Skynard fan, I think that they would work well on a mixed tape with my man Trace.

But I digress before I even start.

Our Suburban Propane driver has been wanting us to have our tank moved for years so that he does not have to illegally drag the hose through the garage to fill the tank. The problem is it is a job that needs to be done in the spring, when there is neither snow nor overgrowth to deal with. I remembered to call for an appointment last week and the service man was here bright and early this morning to get 'er done. While he was moving the tank he noticed that the tube was pinched where it comes into the house so he replaced it. He naturally had the gas turned off for this procedure, and before he left he came in and relit the pilot lights on the stove and made sure that it was working correctly.

I noticed a gas smell at the time, but Mike says I am overly sensitive to the smell of propane or diesel. I know when the tank has been refilled if we have not been home at the time by the smell, before I find the slip that the driver leaves. I figured it was just from the pilot lights before they were lit, and that it would dissipate quickly. I continued with my morning routine of washing dishes and laundry, going outside to hang up clothes, etc. Every time I came in I still smelled the gas. I went upstairs to my room for a little while with the door closed. When I opened the door I was really hit with the smell. I was now convinced that the odor was getting stronger, so figured that I had better call Suburban Propane back, and if I was just imagining things, oh well. I decided that being paranoid was better than being blown to smitherines. A different repairman came out and as he walked in the house he said , wow, I sure do smell gas. It turned out that there was a nut that was completely undone where the gas goes into the stove that had not leaked before, but when the guy this morning fixed the crimped part so that the full gas pressure was now coming in, plus moving the stove out and back into place in the process of his work, it started to leak.

I guess it is true that you are not being paranoid if the problem is real.

After that was taken care of I took Grandma out for a ride and spent some of Polly's bonus check that had come in the mail today. Most of the bonus money went to exciting things like car payments, insurance payments, Sallie Mae, and the electric company, which I mailed, along with the money for some more dollhouse furniture makings, hehe. Then we went and picked up the arbor that we are going to put climbing roses on, and a new patio table and chairs for eating outside this summer. Tomorrow we plan to pick up a new gas grill. Due to Betty being in Prague, and Flip's family being involved in the spring cattle show up in Syracuse we are not having a big Easter dinner this year. (Slight pause while I do my happy dance that I do not have to cook said meal, and instead can spend the weekend playing in dirt outside, I mean doing yard work.)I have not minded the fact that I have not spent this entire week cooking and baking, I do not mind in the cold weather, but now I have too much spring fever. I told Polly and Mike tonight that instead we will have our first cookout of the year, where we eat will depend on the temperature. This is a brilliant plan on my part as they will fight over which one will cook on the new grill, which will leave me with nothing to do but eat. Well, and carry everything back inside and do all the cleaning and washing up, but I won't have to cook.

I have been quiet, but now am back

I did not have much good to say through the winter so I said nothing. It seemed that my days were filled with shoveling snow, cooking, shoveling snow, washing dishes, shoveling snow, washing clothes, shoveling snow, dealing with husband or mother in pain, shoveling ...... You get the idea. 2009 started out really shitty as far as I was concerned. It was cold and snowy, Jess moved to Virginia, Mike had heart scare which turned out to be medicine reaction, Mike got hit while driving tractor-trailer by a pickup truck so hard that Mike got greenstick fractures of 3 ribs ( The pickup hit Mike's passenger side of cab which had already made the RIGHT turn by running through snowbank so hard that burst the fuel tank. He said that he saw Mike's turn signal. Mike got ticketed for an illegal right turn, and a DEC ticket for the spilled fuel on the road. He is still fighting it, but every time he goes to court they postpone his case.), Grandma broke her back again, sold the last of the farm animals, and it was winter.

I did accomplish a few things these past few months. I got 4 people their Grandmother Remembers books, 4 more are almost done, and then the last 4 are alot closer to being done than they were before. I am getting royally sick of that project, but Grandma really wants all of her grandchildren to have them so I am trying to finish them for her. They are all written now, and all of the pictures that go into all books are in them, it is just the individual personalized pages that I am finishing up.

I tore down the wallpaper in the very back bedroom, and am now working on repairing the plaster. Well, it is at that point now, but to be honest, I have not mixed any plaster in quite a few weeks. When that room is finished it will be set up as the guest bedroom, then we will do the room next to it (the office) as Polly's sewing room, the hallway is going to be set up as a sitting-room/guest sleeping, and the nursery is going to be my craft room. We also cleaned Jess's room and it now seems like a shrine to the life of my baby. Polly and I have been sorting books and working on the never-ending job of trying to declutter this house.

Since the weather has improved, slightly, we have been working on cleaning the garage, hauling more of grandpa's never-ending scrap-metal piles to the scrap yard, cleaning the lawn up, and getting the flower beds back into shape. They suffered greatly with goats running around, and not getting as much attention these past couple of years. Jess did have them looking very good 3 years ago, but has not had the time to give to them since then.

Grandma gets slowly worse, and there seem to be more days when it is hard to get too much accomplished, except the basics. I am so happy that baseball season started, the Yankees are the only thing that seem to settle her down some days, other than giving her a couple of pain pills, which put her to sleep. There being too many days where I cannot leave her alone at all is why we realized that the last animals had to go. I still miss them terribly, but did not like not being able to care for them as I like to. I am dealing with it better than I was. I made myself go into the barn for the first time last week, and today was in and out several times getting wheelbarrows of manure for the flower beds and did not even cry once when I was in there. That cannot be said about the first trip last week.

I am going to try to be better at keeping this up, and learn how to put pictures in it of what we do, as I find that it helps me to get more accomplished in a day. That is my resolution of the day.

Spoiled rotten pets

I was awakened this morning, as I am most mornings, by sudden pain in my bladder as the cat, who weighs a good 10+ pounds, landed with a loud yowl, which was not hard to translate the meaning of, "FEED ME!" Being the morning person that I am, I rolled over onto my stomach. Minerva promptly started jumping on my kidneys, still demanding to be fed at the top of her lungs. She knows that this works, as no matter how much I want to ignore her, I cannot ignore the fact that I now have to go very badly. I get up and she does her best to trip me all the way to the bathroom and back to make sure that I am totally awake. I manage to trick her out of my room when I get back to it, most of the time, so that I can dress in peace, well, except for the cat cursing outside the door, that is. She has a very, very dirty mouth on her too. I then go downstairs, and, if I have a large armload of dirty clothes or other things to be taken care of before I feed the cat, I hear more cursing until I get her taken care of.

The worst part of this almost daily routine is that is someone else is up before me they cannot feed her. She will not eat until I shake her dish. She will go and get me out of bed to shake her already filled dish. She is also getting to be a very fat cat due to the fact that she has figured out that if she trips me up enough all day long I will put more food in her dish to keep from getting a broken neck, and to get her to leave me alone.

Then there is the 6 pound feng shui loving pomeranian, Foxy. Once the cat is fed I need to get this little pain in the butt outside as fast as possible or she will decide that I deserve a present in the middle of the carpet. She prefers to be let run loose outside so that she can cover about a mile on her short little legs before coming in and gets quite mouthy if she is put on her run. Now that the weather is better she can spend the whole day outside on her run, but she complains bitterly every time she sees a human. Now, tonight, I was bringing the laundry off of the clothesline as the sun was setting, and she thought it was definately time to get indoors, so she was complaining the entire time. Mike got home right as I was getting finished so he let her lose to walk with him to the door to go inside. She whined and complained to him the whole time, obviously telling him how bad I was, and how mistreated she is.

We got inside and her food dish was empty, so she stood by it and whined until it was filled. Then the water dish was empty, same routine. I, meanwhile, was trying to take off my muddy workboots before I tracked anymore mud around the house. The little furball is still whining, so I look back and she is standing on the throw rug, which had been moved to about a foot away from her dishes, looking at the dishes (that she had just been on the linoleum next to) and whining. There are 3 throw rugs in the back kitchen and she has places where she thinks that they all should be and will not settle down until they, and her bed, are all in their proper places. Next month, she is moving down to Virginia and it Jess will have to make sure that her trailer meets Pomerain Feng Shui standards.

Polly has her darling spaniel, Brittany. Usually, I do not have to wait on her, Polly does all the spoiling of her. The exception to this is on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday when Polly is sleeping after having been at work all of the night before. Then, the princess thinks I should give her the same treatment she gets out of Polly.

Why am I missing my goats so, who used to see me or hear my voice and bust through their fence to come find me? This was sort of cute when I had the original 6 mama goats, but by the time I got up to 100 mamas with all of their babies, most of which were twins or triplets, it was a bit too much lovin'!

Our predecessors had faith in our brainpower

Polly came home from work this morning with her arms full of karo syrup, molasses, chocolate chips, brown sugar, and powdered sugar which were 6 months old so were being thrown away. Now, these all happen to be things that I currently am well stocked on anyway so I thought that I would look for a spice cake recipe and see if I could use up some of the molasses anyway. Plus, it is so frigidly cold out that I need to have the oven on anyway, and Grandma will eat cake 3x a day if I have it baked, so....

I found this recipe that gave me a good laugh. It is Grandma Fish's recipe written in Aunt Polly's hand writing. In this day and age of describing every step in detail, often accompanied by pictures of each step, this really strikes you in its lack of detail. It is written assuming that you know how to bake a cake and know when it is done, etc. The following is the recipe exactly as I found it.

Ivy's Molasses Cake

2/3 cup molasses
fill cup with brown sugar

1/2 cup shortening
fill cup with hot water

1 egg

sift together
1-1/2 cups flour
1 tsp soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp ginger

That was it. I made it up, yum. When I make cookbooks of Grandma's recipes for her grandchildren I will have to include a copy of this page as it is written. There is another recipe on there for a sponge cake that I have to mess with to figure out as the corner is torn off which says how much flour is called for, oh details, who needs them.

Of course as I made my icing for the cake, I realized that my own recipes are such exact things of science.

My Icing of Choice

When cake goes in oven put 1 stick of butter and 1/2 package of cream cheese in small mixing bowl and set on top of stove to soften while cake is baking because it should have been taken out of the fridge earlier to soften but I did not think that far ahead. Now, if there is anywheres from a half to somewhat more than a stick of butter soft use that, same with cream cheese, if there is an open package, that is probably the right amount. When it is soft, or Grandma has said 10 times "Is the cake ready?" so you figure you had better get making icing, mix at whatever speed the mixer wants to work at today until light and fluffy. Add a dollap of vanilla that you think is about a teaspoons worth (at least) and a much smaller dollap of almond extract (more like a 1/4 teaspoonish). Then pour in powdered sugar until you either use up that bag, or a few really small part bags that you just discovered in the back of the cabinet, or you think it is enough. If to moist pour some more, if too dry add a few drops of milk/heavy cream/half and half or whatever is in the fridge. Ice cake. Cut Grandma a slice and pour her a glass of milk and politely hand it to her, even though by now she has asked 20 more times and you are beginning to feel like stuffing it down her throat, but you are a good person so you do not do that.

There, now wasn't that just so much more precise?

By the way, the cake is very good.

Sea Kitten

There was an item on the news this morning that PETA wants fish to start being called sea kitten because they feel that it shows the warm cuddly nature of fish better. I want to know what type of fish the PETA people have seen that are warm and cuddly, as those are not the primary adjectives that come to my mind for fish, but this is not the first time that I have felt that PETA has never been closer to an animal than the Bronx Zoo. I must say that PETA has won on this one though, when asked what she would like for lunch, Grandma said that a sea kitten sandwich sounded tasty. We will no longer eat tuna in this house, from now on it is sea kitten all the way!

Actually, we will be picking up Oscar and Cindy (our pigs) Monday from their extreme makeovers and personality adjustments, so sea kitten will become a rare treat around here. What would PETA think about the fact that we had Goose's trophy (Best of Show Poultry at our county fair in August) sitting right next to her on the Christmas dinner table?

Nothing happened today!

It may sound strange but after the last few days today was blissfully uneventful. It was wonderful! Sometimes it takes a bit of trauma to make you appreciate dullness.

Last night this stomach bug that we have been suffering with here was making noxious odors emit from every possible part of my husband. I was so happy to have him home safe and well that I was still able to cuddle him and not even mind. I just snuggled down with him and listened to the storm blow outside and pulled off half a dozen different things that they had left stuck to him in the hospital. They were even so nice that they left them stuck to lots of hair for me to pull too. hehehe

Today, I spent a nice boring day tackling the disaster that the house has become. I got the tree down, and it is only 2 days after Epiphany too! I packed all but one box of decorations up correctly, the last box I will get done tomorrow, then I need to get them put in the closet. I cleaned the back kitchen and the bathroom/laundry room, including washing almost all of the laundry. At least there is no laundry in there from before today. I hit a few high spots in the kitchen, it still looks like it has been looted, but I got a start on it. I washed 3 drain racks of dishes, by no means all of them, but at least now the dirty ones fit on the one part of the counter next to the sink.

Now, the next most important thing on my list is to bathe me. I did talk smelly hubby into the shower earlier, between collapsing on the feed mill floor, all the stuff they smeared him with in the hospital, and topping it all off with last nights bug he was slightly odoriferous. Now I think that I am the one who stinks to bad to sleep with me tonight. I hate it when I crawl into bed and me and myself try to kick I out of bed because she stinks too much.

Ain't boredom great!

Another Day, what more can I say?

I am extremely exhausted right now, but need to do some stuff before I go to bed, but sat down for a minute and the laptop jumped onto my lap, so of course I started reading, now writing a post seems better than dishes and laundry. I know that the phone will be ringing so if I go upstairs to bed I will have to run back down.

Polly finally made it home after bringing the ice storm up from Virginia with her at 3 this morning. I managed to say hello to her and give her a hug before I stumbled up to bed. The ice blowing against the house and my bladder woke me at 8:30 and I tried to call Mike but could not get through, it turns out he was having his stress test then. Polly was naturally dragging, and not knowing what was going to be happening in the hospital we decided that I would go into Albany alone and she would stay here with Grandma and get chores done. The trip to Albany was terrible, icy nasty roads all the way, even the Thruway was bad, so I spent over 3 hours going 70 miles but arrived safe and sound. Mike was in his room awaiting the results of the stress test. They finally came in at about 4 this afternoon all fine. So the doctors decided what I had figured out yesterday that the new pill he started on Sunday is not his friend and said he could go home. I was impressed as they had the paperwork all done and the machines unhitched and the wheelchair there in less than 45 minutes, I wish our local hospital could figure out how to do things that quickly. Mike had been more than anxious to leave for quite a while to put it mildly.

We got on the way home and he told me that he thinks that he is coming down with the stomach bug now that we have been having here, and that is one reason he wanted out of there, he was afraid if he started throwing up they would not let him leave. So, we are all home, his heart is fine, he has been told to not take that pill ever again, like you could force it down his throat, and everyone but me is in bed. I think I am ready for a nice supper of dry toast and chamomile tea, if that tells you how my tummy feels, then for desert I will have a cup of Sleepytime Extra.

While I sat at the hospital all day the dishes and laundry unfortunately did not decide to run away from home, but I am thinking that if I ignore them maybe they will decide that they have been neglected here and run away overnight. I did get as far as bringing some of the boxes downstairs yesterday to start undressing the tree, but that is all I did, and unlike Grandma it did not strip when I was not looking. Oh yeah, I came downstairs this morning to find Grandma stark naked with all the bedding completely stripped off of the bed and strewn all over the floor saying it is cold in here because someone had left the windows all open. I think that all of this will be dealt with tomorrow, and my sense of humor will be a bit more restored on the whole idea.

Goodnight everyone.

Two Bad Days

I have not blogged in a while with the Christmas festivities and business. No it is all settled down and I thought life would get calmer but these last two days have disproved that theory.

Yesterday morning at 7:30 Polly and Jessie drove out the driveway and down the road with the pickup full of totes loaded with Jessie's essentials for living. Her clothing, bedding, a small selection of books (two totes full, I believe), some knitting supplies, the violin, and of course all of her riding equipment, which had to be packed on top and easily accessible. I watched the truck leave with my baby with a quivering lip and moist eyes which spilled over completely as the truck went down the road. Grandma and I were both having a bad time with it, it came out in Grandma with her not having a good day at all and escaping the reality that she did not like. She was pretty out of it all day long, today is better for her, thank God. I kept feeling worse and worse all day which I was chalking up to being upset about Jess and then Grandma on top of it. I got a bad headache and then got sick to my stomach. Somewhere in the night I realized that Polly had not wanted me to miss her to much while she was gone and had left me her stomach bug to remember her by while she was gone for a few days. Children are so thoughtful and considerate of their Mommy.

This morning, while I was once again hugging my porcelien new best friend the phone rang. I struggled my way to the phone to hear that a Mark from the Cargill mill was calling me to tell me that Mike had had an "episode" and the ambulance and EMTs where there and that they were taking him to Albany Med with chest pains after he had collapsed in the mill. Yeah, that really settled the stomach right down. I had not had any problem with being here with no car until that moment, but here I am with this phone call and no transportation. I knew that Mike had to be feeling really bad if he had them calling me. I had no clue what to do until I thought to call Sandy who headed down there to see what was going on. Mark called me back after a while and said that Mike had gone to the ER but they had given him oxygen and an iv before they left and he was feeling better and arguing that he did not have to go, which made me feel a bit better about how he was. Sandy found her way to Albany Med and found him in there and they called me. He was feeling fine as long as he was lying down but Sandy said it was quite fascinating watching the interesting colors he turned if he stood up. They took his blood pressure lying, sitting and standing, and when standing he had a whopping 77 over 57. They are keeping him overnight for observation and to run a stress test tomorrow. I think the problem is the new pill that the doctor gave him for his blood pressure which he started taking on Sunday so he had taken it twice. He already was complaining about that pill giving him a dry throat so I know he will throw these as far as he can. I think that they are going to change his blood pressure meds, hopefully they will not take him off of the one that we just paid $140 for a 3 month supply of, (it was not on Walmarts list of $10 presciptions).

Polly had finished getting Jess settled in and was just waiting to head up in the morning to get another nights rest before repeating the 9 hour drive. When I called her to tell her what was going on she headed home. I am not able to go to bed until she finally gets here, as she is calling me for moral support as she drives through PA in an ice storm. Last call she had crossed into New York so she is now only about 2 hours away. Yeah, I am starting to feel like I have been through the wringer a couple of times today.

Jess, on the other hand, sounds so happy. She loves the people and the horses and the barn and the riding arena and everything else down there. Mommy just has to keep reminding herself that she is happy for her baby, even if she misses her. I kept waiting for her to come pounding upstairs last night, or to find her cereal dish and oj glass next to the couch this morning, or to sit on a knitting needle Grandma's recliner, or stub my toe on her riding boots, or...

Tonight her friend Virginia came and picked up the ferrets, which I will not miss at all. Now, to just take out the garbage bag tomorrow where I dumped their litter boxes and febreeze her room well and hopefully I will be able to forget they ever were here.

It is now another day, so here is hoping that it will be a better one.

todays medical news

Neither Grandma nor I went anywhere today, but the vehicles were busy. Polly had to take her dog to the vets early this morning to have the pin removed from her hip which has healed from her adventure with a car this summer. She left the dog off, came home and left again for a meeting in Fort Plain. Jess had to go turn in a final paper, collect her cap and gown and boyfriend, have a riding lesson, and whatever else in Cobleskill. Polly got home and left with Mike to take him to have his knee drained and get a cortizone shot in it. Jess came home by way of picking the dog up from the vet. Vet said Brittany, the dog, is healed well, Doctor said he now thinks maybe Mike's problem is more scar tissue from a high school basketball injury than he thought before. He was not able to drain much out of it. I know from experience that it takes a couple of days to think that those shots were worth getting, there is more pain at first than before getting shot.

Everyone is home and settling in for the night now. I think each went to the correct medical professional too.

My daughter Betty, er Jessie

Grandma and I have always called Jessie "Betty" and for good reason. Jess has many interests and traits that are so much like her Aunt Betty. She loves flowers and nature and crafty things. She is a very intelligent girl but took a while to figure out that it really is better to just do what the teachers want than to argue with them if you do not think that they are correct. She is in her own world, and has a tendency to not know what is happening in the other world that the rest of us live in, even if it is happening under her nose. Her picture is in the dictionary under the term "oblivious".

Why am I saying this? The telephone just rang and it was my darling daughter. She had just gone to pick up her robes for tomorrow's graduation and was quite surprised when they also handed her honors cords. She would not have known what the pretty gold rope was for if the woman had not congratulated her on obtaining honors as she handed her the cords. Now, let's see if she actually remembers to take the cords to wear tomorrow....

Those of you who know Betty better than Jessie does this all sound like someone you know?

Chocolate lovers utopia

I have been busy baking Christmas cookies, fudge, candy, etc. All that good dietary stuff. Polly has been helping and Jess is going to get making fudge as soon as she becomes a college graduate on Friday. Grandma is our chief test-taster. I just took a batch of cookies out of the oven that is soooo rich and good and chocolately. It may be partly due to the fact that our local WalMart did not have any cheap bakers chocolate, only had Ghirardelli. A double batch took 3 bars but is worth it. I will share the recipe if anyone is looking for a true chocolate nirvana.

Chocolate Mint Creams

1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
6 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon water
6 ounces semisweet chocolate (I used bittersweet, any diff?)
1 egg, slightly beaten
Pastel Mint Cream Kisses ( the mints that look like Hershey Kisses, picture showed green ones, I had white ones)

In a small bowl stir together flour and baking soda and set aside. In a medium saucepan combine butter, sugar and water. Stir over low heat until butter is melted, add chocolate and stir over low heat until chocolate is melted. Pour into large bowl, cool for 10 minutes.

With a wooden spoon, stir egg mixture into chocolate mixture, stir in flour mixture until combined. Cover and chill for an hour or so until dough is easy to handle.

Preheat oven to 350F. Shape dough into 1 inch balls and place 2" apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 8 minutes, immediately place a mint into center of cookie, pressing down slightly, bake 2 more minutes until edges are firm.

It says that you can then swirl mint with knife, that made a mess for me, but hot mint on knife was tasty. It says that it makes about 4 dozen cookies, but that is what I got from a double batch. I made one major error in baking these without realizing that there was only a swallow of milk in the frig. They are a huge Got Milk ad. Grandma, Jess and I were trying to share one swallow of milk after each having a cookie and we all felt rather gipped.

Bake yourselves some and pretend I sent them to you.

La la la la

"White paper packages tied up with string,
These are a few of my favorite things,
When the pig bites,
When the sow squeals,
When the cold turns me bluuuuue,
I think of a few of my favorite things,
Annnnd Then I don't feel sooooo baddddd"

George, the trucker, arrived at 8:00 AM and Cindy and Oscar walked up the tailgate very nicely. They will return home in a few weeks after they get their haircuts and makeovers. I have been really getting anxious for them to make this trip as my mouth has been watering for a nice fresh pork roast for quite a while, to say nothing of a good bacon sandwich. They also were starting to really get mean and showing a desire to have a bite of human on a regular basis, luckily they never got more than rubber boot. I have my homemade applesauce down cellar just waiting. I am not sure just where they will fit in the freezers but I will make room somehow. If I actually went out and hung up some suet for the birds that would help out, we got alot from the last cow but the birds don't seem to eat it well in the freezer.

Adding them to the beef and poultry, and hopefully soon goat, in the freezers we should not need to have tasteless store bought meat for quite a while. There are still some chickens to be processed, along with Goose and ducks, but goose is being invited into the house for Christmas, we need to do ducks before Jess leaves, as she likes duck, and the chickens need to be squeezed in there too.

Why I will keep buying bread

Every so often I get a thought, usually when I am in the bread aisle of the store, that I could save a lot of money if I baked my own bread. All it takes is a meal like tonights to make me realize that it would not save money in this household, and we would all become much larger people. I do not know if I have baked bread or rolls yet that have ever manage to get cold around here. Tonight I made spagetti and meatballs with homemade garlic rolls. I have found a new roll recipe that is quite tasty and quick and easy for a yeast bread, which I brushed with garlic butter prior to baking. When the vultures flew away I had some nice clean bowls and pans to wash. Then I remember why we got rid of the bread machine, that is the most dangerous threat to a waist line that was ever invented. We got into a very bad spell of poring the ingrediants into that demon contraption and waking up to a fresh hot loaf of bread in the morning, which then caused the vultures to have an early morning feeding frenzy and squabble. At least making it by hand takes a bit more work and is not as tempting to be repeated several times in a day.