She’s Home!

I hate to say this in case I jinx something, but Carter spent the last six weeks in Europe and all her flights were on time. This is a big happy dance at our house after her nightmare of canceled flights home from Germany four days before Christmas year before last and her canceled flight to the Dominican Republic in March. I have not had as many canceled flights in my whole life as Carter, and I used to travel for twenty years of working.

Carter had a fantastic month in London studying the Scientific Revolution. Of course she inherited the Anglophile gene from my family and now she is more determined than ever to go back and work there. At least she was before she went off traveling to Stockholm and Copenhagen all by herself. She loved them both, but I think Stockholm was the winner.

In March Carter made a PowerPoint presention to me and Russ asking if she could go traveling by herself after she finished her courses in London. She had researched the cost of flights and youth hostels, made a budget for food and the cost of sight seeing. It was well laid out. I don’t think she was thinking we would give her the answer we did.

“Of course you can go travel by yourself. You just have to earn all the money to pay for it.”

So she did. She worked hard the first half of the summer and made more than enough. Not only was the trip a fun adventure of her own design, but it was of her own making. That part makes me so proud. She really took advantage of every minute and went and did and saw as much as she could. She also met and made new friends from Australia, Switzerland, Holland, Denmark, the UK and Austria.

So her trip was a balance of introverted things of getting to go at her own pace to only what she was interested in and then spending time talking to new people and learning about them and sharing meals and drinks with them. What a wonderful growing experience.

And she flew from Durham to Boston to London to Stockholm to Copenhagen to London to Atlanta to Durham all by herself and didn’t have an issue. Thank goodness for all that.

Shay, Russ and I went to get her at the airport and now we have her home for 36 hours before she is off again. I am going to make the most of the few hours she will be awake.

Travel Toiletries

As a life-long, practically professional, traveler I have learned some lessons, yet there are still things I can I improve on. I keep my travel drop kit packed and ready to go all the times. It is filled with the normal toiletries and some speciality ones for travel, like mole skin for foot boo boos, and band aids and little neosporin packets for all other boo boos. The travel sewing kit in there provides the needle to help remove a splinter on more than one trip.

A small old prescription bottle filled with baby powder is just what you need for chaffing skin in a hot climate and another old pill bottle holds more than enough Eucurin cream to take all your mascara off and soothe chapped lips.

I have travel sized tooth paste because TSA loves to take your Crest that just happens to be over the 3oz.limit. And travel mouse can make any hairdo in any climate.

The one mistake I make over and over again is I continue to buy travel sized deodorant because I want as small a container as possible, to fit in my small dopp kit, to fit in my carry-on only one suit case, as is my rule for air travel. Travel sized deodorant has approximately 1/2 an inch of deodorant in the tube when it is new, although the container is 2 1/2 inches tall. The mechanism inside the tube that cranks up the 1/2 inch of deodorant takes up an inch and a half. Why in the world do we need a screw type deodorant mechanism to push up half an inch of deodorant. It could just be a push-up thing we do manually. At least then we could have an inch and a half of product in the same sized package.

After being away this week and running my travel sized deodorant down to the nub I vowed to make room for a full sized deodorant in my kit. It is only 2.3 Oz so the TSA won’t take it away, but it is three times the size of the travel one. My only problem is something else in my kit is going to have to go. As a person who hardly uses any products anyway I am not sure what I can drop from the basics I already carry. I guess it will have to be the powder, but never the Eucerin. I can chafe, but never chap.

Coral Bay Mah Jongg

Teaching Mah Jongg right is a three day production. The first day you teach people what all the tiles are and how to identify patterned and read the card. The second day you start to let them play and it takes three hours to play two games. By the third day if they are going to “get it” they have. From a teacher’s point of view the third day is the easiest to teach, the first day is the second easiest and the middle day is the hardest.

Today was the middle day. I taught for over six hours. “Can you help me?”…”I have a question.”…”Am I doing this right?”…”Can you tell me what to do?”

It is a good day for getting all my steps, but they are in a very small room. Thankfully I have had two dozen very good students, but I am looking forward to tomorrow’s class since it will be the easiest on me.

The Coral Bay club has been a lovely host to me as a teacher. They take good care of us with drinks during our classes and by 2:30 in the afternoon class they show up with a plate of cookies because the students need to keep their blood sugar up.

I have had a one hour break each day for lunch that the club has given me. Today I had a treat of seeing a bunch of old friends from all over at Coral Bay. I saw Diane Wade who was taking a bridge class. Lucy McLeod who served me tea at lunch who had been working here as her summer college job. I saw Cynthia Barnes who was playing bridge with Lou Uzzle from

Durham and two Moorhead friends and I saw Katherine Kruger who lives in Charleston now, but who was visiting her sister here.

I think I saw more people I know at Coral Bay than I see in a Durham on a normal day. Of course I also was with Reba, my host and all my new students, who tomorrow will be my old students.

This is a friendly place.

Beach Mah Jongg Day One

My life as the NC Beach Mah Jongg teacher continues. This week the Coral Bay Club hosts me teaching two beginner classes. When I first got the call that they were interested in offering my class the woman from the club asked what my minimum was I would come for? She was worried about getting enough people since the only days I was available were the same days they were having a big bridge class. I hate to compete against a bridge.

I told her 8 was the minimum, but 12 was ideal. She called me the next day and had 24 and asked if that was OK. I told her we could do one morning and one afternoon class along as they fed me lunch. It was a deal.

Reba has again been my most generous host to take care of me while I am here for three days teaching. She came to the beginning of each class and introduced me. It was more like a way over the top commercial for my class and it was unneeded as all the students were already there. I can’t thank Reba enough for her great promotion of Mah Jongg at the beach.

Before Reba started having me down here to teach, I had not done two classes back to back three days in a row, now I am addicted to it. The students here are so enthusiastic and fun. I have taught six classes in total here in the last 14 months and I am told there are others who want to learn who could not get in these classes. I am certain I will be back.

If you and your friends ever wanted to learn a really fun game I am happy to do travel Mah Jongg teaching and come to you. It combines many things I love to do; travel, make new friends, share my favorite game and visit with old friends.

No Sleep For Mothers

Before I had Carter I heard lots of stories from friends who were already mothers about how when they were away from their baby and they heard a random baby crying their milk would let down. (If you don’t know what that means look it up.) Suddenly women who had no particular interest in children would cry at random Cat Steven’s songs. When another child was mean to your child on the play ground it was all you could do not to take that child out. That motherly instinct was strong and fast and it made you do and feel things you never contemplated in your life.

Your friends told you about these things when you were a new mother, but they stopped warning you about how being a mother would make you lose sleep after your child started sleeping through the night. They didn’t tell you that when your baby was an adolescent you would lie awake at night because you suddenly didn’t know what happened to your sweet child now that she had hormones. They didn’t tell you that you would not be able to go to sleep when your high schooler was out late at night and you would sit up waiting for them to get in the door safely before you could actually close your eyes.

Even though no one told about those things you understood them. You lived through each stage and you eventually were able to sleep again. You didn’t blame your friends for not warning you. It was just part of being a mother.

Well, I’m here to tell you that sleepless night never end, no matter how old that baby has gotten. Carter was flying from Stockholm to Copenhagen last night. It wasn’t night her time, but early morning, which made it the middle of the night my time. Carter is a good traveler and like me she is always early, so I wasn’t so worried about her getting herself up on time, walking from the hostel to the train station, taking the train 45 minutes to the airport, going through security and making her 9:00AM flight. I wasn’t worried about SAS airline being safe. She didn’t have any connection so no problem if it didn’t take off on time. If I wasn’t worried about those things why did I wake up in the middle of the night to check on her?

Why could I not go back to sleep between 1:00AM and 5:00 AM while all this was happening? I had a busy day planned today since I had to drive to the beach to teach Mah Jongg this week. I had to sleep, but I couldn’t. Even if I knew Carter was fine, capable and an excellent traveler the mother in me made me wake up and make sure and stay awake.

No one tells you that once you are a mother you always are a mother. You are losing sleep for the rest of your life and there is just not anything you can do about it, except train your children well. Even if they learned all those lessons your u taught them, you still will not sleep.

So Sick

Mitch McConnell will do anything not to have to discuss gun control. After two horrific shooting in El Paso and Dayton in less than 13 hours, many members of the congress want the August recess canceled. They called for law makers to discuss what can done about our national stain of more mass shootings in one year, than days. McConnell conveniently fractured his shoulder at home in Kentucky.

Did this guy throw himself down the stairs to get out of possibly going against the NRA? Did his wife perhaps wack him with a golf club so the money train of NRA supporters won’t stop funding their life. I have no idea, but I find it incredible timing. How bad can a fractured shoulder be? Get up McConnell. Face the American people and work on real gun control.

We can’t seem to do anything about 45 spewing hate over twitter. He acts like he has nothing to do when people shout out, “Send her back.” He needs to be held accountable because he is complicit in creating a culture of divisiveness.

A study out of the University of North Texas just came out that showed that hate crimes were up 226% in counties where Trump held a rally in 2016 compared to similar counties where he did not appear. I wouldn’t call the Univ. of North Texas a liberal holdout.

I have called for love over hate. Trump says the words, “Hate has no place in this country.” But clearly the man has no idea what hate is. Please let’s love him right out of office. He will hate that. Then and only then when it is about him he might learn the difference.

While we are at it, please you good people of Kentucky, love McConnell out of office too. He is much too fragile to represent you.

Adventure

Carter finished her London based study on the scientific revolution and is off traveling on her own. She made a power point presentation to me and Russ in March asking if she could take this extend vacation. It was well thought out, researched and illustrated. We bought in, but at the 90% level. We agreed she could go, stay in hostels, travel alone, but she had to pay for the whole thing herself.

She had two months off before her study in London and she worked hard at multiple jobs, but earned more than enough for her trip. I think she is enjoying it more knowing that she did this all on her own. I’m just glad that now kids have phones, and post things on social media so I can keep up with her while she is away.

My first “alone” trip was right after I had graduated from high school. My parents had moved to London, but were renovating a house so my family lived at the Selsdon Park Hotel in Surrey. I had to share a very small room with my two younger sisters. It was not ideal, so I told my parents I was going to go off traveling. They were happy to be down one child.

My boarding school friend Jennie Hetzler’s older sister had a college friend, Sally Barnes, who was coming to the UK to travel and we met up in London one day decided to go to Scotland together the next day for a month. No planning. No internet. Just a Brit rail pass and a Let’s Go England and Scotland book.

Carter was able to make reservations at her hostels. Sally and I would get off a train someplace and using the book as our guide would run to the hostel with our back packs to try and secure beds for the night before all the other travelers on the train took them. Once there was no space in the hostel so we ran to a close by B&B and got a room. It cost a little more, but it was a nice change.

Carter has filled her days with visiting every palace, church, museum and attraction that she had read about, traveling via tram, bus, boat and scooter. We would wander around trying to figure out if a bus was going the right direction and pray that we got off at the closest stop to a castle we wanted to visit. Often we walked some ways in the opposite direction before we figured out our mistake.

We had to take our back packs with us almost everywhere because there was no way to lock your belonging up in the hostel if we were staying there multiple nights. We also had to bring our own hostel sleeping bags, which were sheets sown into a bag shape. Carter has a locker and a lock to leave her stuff when she goes out and the hostel provides nice sheets and a duvet.

When I went, my parents had no idea where I was for weeks. I think I called them once from the road, but they couldn’t find me if they needed to. Carter and I have had wonderful FaceTime conversations, one because she is able to and two because she doesn’t like to talk to strangers like I do so sometimes she just wants to talk to some one. It was really big that she asked someone to take her photo in front of this church.

Student travel has really improved, but one thing remains the same, it is one of those things that stretches you. The younger you are that you learn to navigate the world on your own, the better off you will be. I am thrilled that Carter proposed this trip for herself. As I remember my trip 40 years ago like it was yesterday, she will remember hers and know that she can do almost anything on her own.

School Supplies

It’s the beginning of August and the T.V. is full of ads for back to school shopping. It is a time of year I loved as a child. I waited patiently until my mother would take me to Boyd’s the stationary, toy and office supply store in the village of Wilton. I would pick out my light blue cloth covered notebook. It was a classic and I wonder what happened to those durable notebooks.

I would fill a pencil pouch with all kinds and colors of pens and pencils. New wide ruled paper filled the rings. I would carefully write my name on the inside cover of the notebook in the little square provided with the prompt: This Book Belongs to:. It was a free for all on what we bought for school supplies. I got everything I could convince my mother I needed.

When Carter started going to school we got class lists which were prepared by her teachers with the precision of a scientist. They tried to keep it to exactly what the kids would use that year, nothing more, nothing less. Carter, like me, loved our trip to Staples to buy her supplies. She had to go to Staples because they had color extra sturdy notebooks with black rubber corners that could make it a whole year without ripping. They were top of the line, much like my cloth covered notebook.

Carter may still be in school, but I have nothing to do with supplies other than provide her with a laptop that she uses year after year. Instead the back to school shopping I am doing this year are for things like “Renters Insurance.” Russ is in charge of determining which WiFi provider is the one Carter should sign up with. Instead of making her a smock for art class in pre-school I am sewing her throw pillows for her sofa.

The cost of back to school supplies this year will over take all other years combined thanks to the need for furniture and stocking her pantry. Now I think of things like toilet brush and plunger combos as a school supply.

I am not complaining because I realize the number of years I get to spend this back to school shopping time with Carter is closing in. Although, when I was talking to her as she was finishing up her summer school program in London she said, “Mom, you can help me move into my place when I move back to London to work.” So I guess I will transition from school supplies to apartment supplies. It just might not be in August.

Sales Training

The other day I got a call from a young man in the neighborhood. He was following a very familiar script I had heard kids tell me over the last twenty five years. “I have an opportunity to get a scholarship. Can I come see you tomorrow?” I told him I did not have time. He never got to telling me what the actual product he was selling was, he never even got to actually tell me he was selling anything.

I hung up. I felt badly because I knew he was following the instructions he was given, but they were flawed. I have spent my life selling things. I started selling jaw breakers in third grade. Then I sold Burbee seeds, Girl Scout cookies, Avon, Electrolux vacuums, cable TV, Mail Opening Machines, I taught people how to sell telephone, and on and on. I. Was fairly sure this kid was selling Cutco knives. They are great knives. I have had them for over twenty years. He could sell them if he could get in to tell people about them, but his cold calling needed improvement.

I felt bad enough to call him back. “This is Mrs. Lange, you just called me.”

“Yes, hi, thanks for calling me back.” I think he thought I was going to give him a chance to come see me. I was, but not for the reason he thought.

“I’ve been in sales my whole life and your call to me needed lots of improvement. I would be willing to give you twenty minutes to help you improve your cold calling technique.”

Now, if some middle aged lady told me I did a bad job on a phone call I’m not sure I would want to go talk with her. This kid did not take the easy way out and said, “I would appreciate that.”

So this morning he came to my house. I spent an hour giving him the most condensed sales training I could. I had written down exactly how his call went with me so I could be very specific with hi. He took notes, he showed me his materials and asked questions about how he normally does his presentation. We talked about all the ways he could change to be more successful.

He has had success at selling when he was able to sit down with someone, but getting more prospects to give you may time is the key to really being successful. He asked to see my Cutco, I think to make sure there was something I didn’t have that he might sell me. He discovered I really did have everything already. In the end I did buy my favorite product from him to give as a Christmas gift to someone.

Selling is a great skill, especially for a young person to do. Helping people become better sales people is the one thing I really miss about not working. I wish him luck and if you have bad knives, let me know and I’ll have him call you. Hint, you probably have bad knives.

So Glad We Live Here

This morning I was getting ready to host Mah Jongg and a few minutes before the game regularly starts there was a ring at my door bell. The Mah Jongg ladies don’t ring the door bell, they usually just come on in. I peered my head out from the kitchen to see who it was and I caught my plumber John leaving me a big bag of home grown okra.

I don’t know about where you live, but this is the only place I have ever lived where first,

I know my plumber and electrician by first name and they always come within a day of my calling them. Second, these guys stop by with gifts of food from their garden.

Then my friends showed up to play. One friend was talking about how she went to visit her sister and the only thing the women talked about were the brands of things people were wearing. Not here. You can show up in just bout anything and the only thing people will say is, “It is so good to see you.” No one cares what you a wearing.

Then another friend showed up to play and she had a bad reaction to a cortisone shot yesterday and was swollen. We were sorry for her discomfort, but no one cares if your hair is not done, you have a black eye or you haven’t put make up in weeks. We are happy to have you come play and enjoy the fellowship.

Then I stopped by the Harris Teeter and there were two elderly ladies trying to get from the handicapped parking space across the driving lanes into the store. There was a big sign truck parked right in front of the store blocking one of the two driving lanes. The old ladies could not see around the truck to see if there was on coming traffic. Two teenage boys came out of the store and saw what was going on and went out into the driving lane and stopped all the traffic so the old ladies could make it into the store safely.

It’s a good day in Durham and I think I will stay.

Novice Yes, But No Push Over

After a great day at bridge last Friday my partner asked me if I wanted to try a different game today that I had never played in before. Flush from our big 62% win (62 % is like an A in duplicate) I agreed to try this new game.

We arrived at the bridge center to discover that we were in a three table round with very good players so we had to play something called a Howell movement where you play every other pair in the room. After three round we moved to the fourth round and an opponent questioned us if we were sitting in the right seats. We were sitting in the seats were instructed to go to, but my very accommodating partner said it was fine and we would switch seats.

The rude opponent, whom had never seen me before decided I was fair game to bully. She might have known I was a novice player, but she did not know that I was no shrinking violet and not bulliable. She turned on me and said something rude. At first I apologized to her and then she continued and that is when I gave it right back to her. You can get away with one comment, but the hammer comes down on the second.

Some game players use this type of tactic to gain the upper hand psychologically. This intimidation doesn’t work on me. My partner and I had an excellent round against this bully and went on to win the whole game, getting another 62%! The best part is this supposed expert we played against, who felt like she knew so much more than us and couldn’t say anything in a nice way, came in last.

Nothing makes me happier than when the rude person does not benefit from their poor behavior. I hope she learned her lesson with us and doesn’t try and cross me again. I’ve got her number.

I’m Running Out Of Things to Clean

July here is boring. I don’t usually spend July at home. Normally I am on the road visiting friends or off somewhere other than here. This year I did my road trip in April so I could paint my kitchen in July. Since I was chopping at the bit to do that job I got it finished by July 14 leaving me the rest of the month with a fairly free calendar.

I have continued to use the month in the home improvement spirit which I started. After de- cluttering, cleaning and organizing the kitchen I moved on to the storage room. That did not take as long as I thought and I got that done. Then I did the linen closet, my bedroom, the gift closet. Today I deep cleaned the tile in my shower. It’s actually worse than that, I studied Pinterest to find the best homemade shower glass cleaner as well as the best homemade grout cleaner and made them.

Don’t get me wrong there are still places, (uuuhum, the attic) that could use attention. I don’t think Russ would mind if I reorganized his tools. But, quite frankly, I spent two weeks in the garage painting the kitchen cabinets and I am not thrilled about going back in the garage.

I have lived my whole life with a really big list of to-do’s. It was a reason to jump out of bed in the morning, so many things on the list. I worried if I watched an episode of hoarders that I was not making enough headway on clearing stuff out and I could suddenly have my house full of things in plastic bags piling up to the ceiling.

Now I have made significant progress. My list is so much shorter. I am worried that I am not going to have enough purpose without a long list. Don’t get me wrong, I still have things to do, like build a new fellowship hall at church, and play bridge and Mah Jongg, but I don’t get to check those things off a list. There is not that satisfaction of looking at an old envelope with a bunch of things all crossed through.

The highlight of my day today is that my plumbers came and installed a new disposal and cleaned out a sputtering shower head where a washer had given up the ghost. I probably could have done both those things myself, if I had known it was a washer, but I like my plumbers and Russ told me it was a valve problem. Thank goodness he was wrong.

I should be glad that things are in the right place, nice and neat. I have gone through a box of disposable rubber gloves this month as proof of my work, as if I need proof. I am just a little worried that if I ever actually finish that attic what I am going to do. Of course, that probably won’t ever actually happen, I can keep mopping the kitchen floor instead.

Processed Food

Now that my kitchen has been completely cleaned up and out and reorganized I am committing myself to running it more like I did when I had a catering business just out of college. I was poorer and smarter. Like working in a restaurant, when you cater you don’t waste anything. Regular humans are terrible about wasting food, sometimes because they don’t know what is food. Those cilantro stems actually have more flavor than the leaves, but I digress.

One habit I am trying to get back into is that of processing food at the right time. Processed food you say? You don’t eat processed food? Processing just mean preparing. For instance, if I bring a cantaloupe home from the farmers market and it is the perfect ripeness, which I can tell from the lovely smell it is emanating, then I should not just put that whole melon right in the fridge. Instead, I should cut it open, pull out the seeds and cut it into chunks and place it in a Tupperware. That is processing.

It is much easier to eat some melon if it is already cut up and ready to go. If I open the refrigerator, looking for a snack an encounter the beautiful melon ready to eat I am more likely to chose that than something less healthy.

If fruits and veg are not ripe, the way to processes them is to put them in a bowl close at hand on the counter so I can check on them everyday. When I feel the time is right I need to either eat them, serve them to others or put them in the fridge to slow down the ripening process.

Today I found one cup of buttermilk left in the quart bottle I bought for another recipe. Buttermilk stays good for a long time, but not forever. So I decided to bake a loaf of buttermilk bread to use up the leftover. Once the buttermilk has been processed into bread I can be frozen if we don’t eat it all up tonight. See, in this case process meant cooked.

So don’t look your nose down at processed foods as long as you are the one doing the processing. Think in terms of prolonging the shelf life of your food or not wasting it. With just two of us in the house it is easy to have more in the fridge and pantry than we can eat. Thinking in terms of making all meals with at least half of the ingredients I already have on hand is the best way to use up my surplus. It also makes for more interesting meals. So pull out a can from your shelf and find a way to use it in your next meal. Just don’t be afraid of processing food.

Introducing The Durham Farmers Market

You know you are getting old when your highlight of your weekend is a breakfast date with friends. At bridge yesterday Deanna mentioned she was thinking of going to the Raliegh Farmers market Saturday morning. I convinced to come to the Durham Market instead since it has more interesting offerings and was so much closer to her Chapel Hill home. So we made a double date of it and our husbands came along.

It was great fun to show our friends the market they had never been to. It was a cool morning for July and plenty of people are out of town, making the market less crowded than usual. As I pointed out who had good melons, or tomatoes I made sure to introduce Deanna to mushroom lady so she could try our favorite lion mushrooms that taste like lobster when sautéd in butter.

One stand had squash blossoms so I bought four of to make for us for dinner. I also picked up three spicy red pepper to make a sauce for the stuffed squash blossoms. After we had made the complete circle of vendors and run into friends along the way we took Deanna and John to Grub for breakfast which we enjoyed on the roof under the canopy.

A morning outing with friends is just our speed these days. This left us with most of a day at home to do just as we pleased.

Since we ate a big breakfast we skipped lunch and made an early supper. I stuffed the squash blossoms with ricotta, Parmesan, egg and nutmeg. I dredged them in flour then egg then a coating of flour, panko and salt and pepper and sautéed them.

The red peppers from the farmers market I roasted over the flames of the stove, then peeled and seeded. I added 12 oz. jar of drained roasted red peppers to the spicy ones I made myself to the bowl of the cuisine art, along with the juice of a lemon, a couple glugs of olive oil, and two handfuls of almonds I pre-toasted in a dry frying pan. I whirled the whole thing up and added salt and pepper to taste. That is all you need to do to make a red pepper sauce.

I smeared the sauce in a soup bowl, added two squash blossoms and dolloped a bit more of the thick red sauce on top. It was the perfect farmer’s market dinner after a fun day.

Happy Dance Day

Excuse me, while I do a little happy dance. Two good things happened in our family today. Carter texted me that she got a big promotion at her University Job. She is a Coordinator for the Explore Program, which is the place that I decided majors go at her school. She has been a mentor and a TA and getting the coordinator job is something she really wanted so I am very happy for her.

My news is less momentous, but very exciting for me and news my mother will appreciate. My bridge partner Deanna and I came in first in our section at bridge today. I know it does not sound like much but I am by far the most novice player in the room of 56 players. We were second in the whole room, beaten by a couple who are a retired bridge teacher and both life masters.

We also got 3.2 points each today. To put this in perspective I have 17 points total. I was playing against people who have thousands of points. It’s big for me. Of course I win no money, just pride. I also didn’t make any major mistakes, just a few minor ones.

Bridge is a life’s work and one I don’t work at half as much as the people I play against. I am lucky if I play twice a month and I play against people who play many times a week and go to tournaments and play morning, noon and night for five days in a row. For me, my goal is just not to embarrass myself or Deanna who generously plays with me when she is sought after by better players. getting anything over 50% on any of these roles is huge. For me to get over 50% in all of them has never happened before.

Sorry for the celebration. These things just don’t happen that often. I had to do a little happy dance.

Summer Heat in London

Twenty four or five years ago when I first went to work in London they had a summer heat wave like they had never had before, they said. We spent a summer in the nineties in a country not prepared for that. Our temporary first office was in a building next to St. Paul’s cathedral. Although it was a new building it had no air conditioning. We called that space the newspaper office because we only had one giant room with all our desks pushed up against each other like the Washington Post in the movie “All the president’s men.” The only place to find a cool spot was to go into the cathedral. I sometimes brought my very early version of a lap top, my mac book, and would sit in the pews and work.

I was lucky because my job involved me visiting sites of our client all around the UK. I was sure that escaping London would be better. One of my first trips was to Bristol, England. Bristol is a lovely seaport town, even though the sea is the river Avon that eventually leads out to the River Severn that goes to the Atlantic. All that water had to have a better breeze that London.

I took the Great Western Train out one late afternoon and rolled my little suitcase to a Hilton Hotel. I was certain that a name brand hotel like Hilton would have air conditioning. I was wrong. My tiny room was hotter than my london digs. I called down to the front desk to see if they had any fans. “The weather is not ever like this,” was their excuse for the unbearable room. “Well, it’s like this now, go buy some fans.” I never stayed there again. Thankfully I found the Swallow hotel which was better at climate control.

The next summer the same heat wave came and the Brits were just as unprepared. Thankfully we had moved our office to a new air conditioned building so we spent many hours working just to avoid the heat.

Carter is in London now. She is staying in a lovely student housing building in a South Kensington and for that I cannot feel sorry for her. Except that it has been crazy hot in London, reaching almost 100° today. She has no air conditioning in her apartment, nor in her classroom. She brilliantly bought a fan soon after she arrived from a store with a thirty day money back return policy. She will return the fan just before the thirty days are up. The shop will have no trouble selling it since it is so bloody hot.

The Brits Carter has talked to about the weather say, “This never happens here.” Well, if a Lange is in London it will happen. I spent four summers working there and it was hot for almost all of them. This one has been crazy hot for Carter. When are the air conditioning sales people going to wake London up and make some sales. Global warming has been happening for a while and it is not going away. At least London is not as hot as Paris.

Let Us Focus On Russian Interference

The Mueller testimony was painful to watch. I had played Mah Jongg this morning and taped the testimony. After my friends left I tried to watch it. Mueller sometimes appeared off his feet a bit. After watching a while it seemed that the huge room made it hard for him to know who was talking. On TV we had a split screen and could see the congressperson who was talking, but they did not make it easy for Muller. They should have had some light that would glow in front of the speaker so he could look at them and focus on the questions.

As is the way in our country today the questions were divided to either exonerate the President or condemn him. There was one major thing that both sides could agree on which was largely overlooked, that the Russians did interfere in our election. This was, is and will be the most important issue.

The question of Trump’s involvement with encouraging the Russians seems fairly straight forward. I don’t think he did that, but rather benefited from the Russian’s fear or dislike of Clinton. I think Trump wants to believe and for us to believe that he was elected fair and square so he doesn’t want to question the results or what part the Russians played too closely.

Did he do things that were wrong in regards to obstruction. Probably, but more out of ignorance of the law, or arrogance of the office. He thinks being President is more like being king, so “off with their heads” is more his mode of operandi.

It is time for legislators to ensure fairness in our elections, in every way. They should fear that the Russians can also sweep them out of office too. The Russians won our election, not that they put Trump there, but that they have us taking our eye off the ball by having us fighting each other. Please try and all be Americans and not Republicans and Democrats. Focus on the real enemy.

Bettered my Klutz Average

To say I am a klutz is being unkind to klutzes everywhere. I am way along the klutz spectrum. July has been my month of dirty jobs. Carter flew off to London and I have basically been in my house cleaning, painting, reorganizing, hauling, building anything and everything I can get my hands on. With two half day exceptions I have worn rubber gloves all day, everyday because what I have been doing is too disgusting not too.

Today is day 23 of my 8-5 dirty job life and is the first day I have had a work place accident. That is really a good average for me. Unfortunately, it was one that hurt like hell.

The job was defrosting and cleaning the garage freezer. This is a job I hate! It should be done twice as often as I do it, so putting it off is par for the course for me. The reason I hate it is that the freezer malfunctions all the time and ice builds up in the bottom of the freezer. This requires a chisel and a hair dryer to remove.

While I was getting out one of Russ’ many 1 million foot orange extension cords a WorkMate, work bench fell over on my foot. The thing weighs at least 30 pounds and I screamed so loud it made Shay cry two floors away.

At first I was just worried about a broken bone, but realized I had avoided that disaster. I went in the house, took double the amount of Aleve and put my foot up with an ice bag. Thankfully I stalled any major swelling. After half an hour of rest the supervisor in me told the worker bee in me to get back to work.

I was able to finish the freezer and I think I figured out how to capture the water that drips inside the freezer before it hits the bottom and creates an iceberg that could be used to combat global warming.

My foot was not so bad that I couldn’t spend three more hours going up and down the ladder so I finished cleaning out the glass cabinets. I officially have enough dinner plates to feed more friends and their significant others than I ever will have.

Shay kept making me take breaks to protect her during the many thunderstorms we had today. I was happy to accommodate and put my foot up. All in all I think going 23 days, up and down many ladders without more accidents is a record for me in the klutz department. I think I need to go do some sewing room work the next few days and take a break from rubber gloves. Thank goodness my foot accident was not my sewing machine foot.

Come For A Drink

In my continuing job of redoing the kitchen I started cleaning out the glass fronted cabinets I did not paint. These hold my “good China and crystal” and some serving pieces. Since I did not encase the cabinets in plastic while I worked on the other side of the kitchen some dust migrated into the glass cabinets.

It was time to remove everything from those cabinets, access if I am keeping it and wash everything I want to keep. That was too big a job for one day, especially since I washed all the glasses by hand. So I got five shelves out of twelve done today and was wiped out. I will do the rest tomorrow.

Between reorganizing all our wine and liquor in the storage area and washing all these glasses I determined that I need to have more people over for drinks to use it all. If you are in the area and want a drink drop me a line. I may open a speakeasy.

Heat Related Cleaning

With a heat index way north of 100° today we opted to just stay home all day. Feeling a little guilty about missing church I did my own penance to make up for it, I cleaned something out. The attic remains the number one thing on my cleaning it list, but you can bet I was not going up there. If it is 100° outside it is 130° in the attic.

Instead I chose the second biggest thing on my clean out list, the storage room. The storage room in the back of my house is where the backside HVAC/furnace is and since it is half underground it is nice and cool. This is the place I store all my party equipment and large seasonal cooking items. Over the years many things have been put in the storage room which should have been given away then.

Today was the day to move them, reorganize and clean everything. It was quite satisfying and checked one more thing off the clean out list. Amazingly, it is still quite long. I looked at my glass front cabinets in the kitchen and realized I need to clean them out, but decided cleaning one major thing in a day is enough. Maybe tomorrow, it will still be hot then too.

Fish Tacos

Wednesday I served fish tacos for Logan’s birthday. I batter fried the cod fish and it was the most successful I have ever been at making the fish so I want to document it before I forget how I made it. The batter would be good for anything you want to fry, chicken strips, onion rings, shrimp. It was perfect for cod.

In the past I have not been happy with the crunch of the batter, or the lightness, or the outside would get cooked before the inside. I have tried different combinations of things and I finally hit on the right one.

1 1/2 pounds of cod fish

To make the batter

Mix the dry ingredients

1 c. Flour

1 c. Panko bread crumbs

1 1/2 t. Baking powder

1t. Garlic powder

1 t. Cumin

1 t. Chili powder

1 t. Onion salt

Sprinkle cayenne pepper

Few grinds of the pepper grinder

1 egg beaten

1 beer

Cod fish cut in inch strips and dried off with paper towel

Oil to go up 1 inch in small Dutch oven

Put the oil in the pot and cover it and heat on medium high heat for at least five minutes. Use a thermometer to check the temp. You are looking for 375°. If it gets too high, take the lid off and turn it down.

Mix the beer and the egg together and pour the mixture into the dry ingredients.

Get a cookie sheet of it and put a wire rack on it and turn the oven on to 275°. You will put the fished fish on the rack in the oven after you fry each piece.

Put one piece of fish in the batter and use a fork to lift it out and put directly into the hot oil. I fried only one piece of fish at a time so the oil kept its temp. Cook on one side until golden brown and then flip over and cook the other side. It will be about three minutes per side. Using a strainer, pick the fish out of the pot and place on the rack in the oven, sprinkle with a little kosher salt.

Repeat until all the fish is done

Serve the fish in corn tortillas with any of the following

Cabbage slaw

Spiced Mexican crema- I made mine with Greek yogurt, Mayo, chili powder and lime juice, since I didn’t have sour cream

Cotija- Mexican cheese crumbled

Pico de gallo

Cilantro

Lime wedges

The left over fish reheated beautifully in the toaster oven the next day. The outside was still light and crunchy.

Painting Again

After 14 days straight of painting my cabinets so many people said to me, “I bet you are never going to pick up a paint brush again.”

Well, it took less than four days for me to feel the need to paint again. So yesterday I picked up that brush and roller and got to work.

See, I had only painted my cabinets and not the walls or soffits. They were a wheat color which I loved with my pine cabinets and hated with the white. The lower walls are going to be tiled as all back splash so I have been less bothered by the old color knowing the new blue tile will come in a couple of months. Yes, I am picking a tile that has to be made so I must wait. The soffit is another story. That wheat color was all I could see when I looked at the fresh white cabinets.

So I painted a coat yesterday and another coat this morning. It may need another, but I am going to let this one fully dry before I make that decision. Russ might like it to be a different color, but I like the one color look to make the cabinets look taller. We will vote again after the tile is done.

It wasn’t so much space to paint, so the time commitment was not much, but cutting by hand up by the wood trim so far above my head was hard and reaching over the refrigerator to paint a steady straight line was not the easiest. For now, I am happier. It wasn’t so painful to paint again. I am looking around at what else needs touching up. As long as it is not a whole room of cabinets.

Mexican Corn Salad For Ellis

On July Fourth we ate some fantastic corn salad that Chef Paris made. That got our mouths watering for all things corn. Russ then bought corn for Mexican street corn. We actually never ate Mexican street corn in Mexico because we try and not eat anything on the street in Mexico. We happily watched Rick Bayless do it and tried it at his restaurant in Chicago, about as far from Mexico as you can get, but boy is it good. So when I was making up food for Logan’s birthday I settled on a Mexican street corn salad with a twist from chef Paris of adding fruit. Ellis loved it and wants to make it for her new roommates back at UGA. So here is the recipe before I forget.

Six ears of corn or two bags of Trader Joe’s roasted corn

Two nectarines diced

1/2 red onion thinly sliced

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

2 T. Sugar

Big bunch of cilantro leaves chopped

1 c. Greek yogurt

1/3 c. Mayonnaise

1/2 c. Diced Colina Mexican cheese

2 t. Chili powder

2 T. Lime juice

Put the onions, vinegar and sugar in a small jar and bake it up and put in the refrigerator for about an hour. You are making a quick pickled red onion. You can do this is advance as they are good a day or two later.

If you are using fresh ears of corn, get grill going to a medium heat. Pull back the husk of the corn, leaving the leaves attached to the cob and pull off all the corn silks. Put the husk leaves back up in their original place and run the whole ear, husk and all under cold water. After you have prepped all the corn place on medium grill in the husk, close lid and grill on one side for five minutes. Turn the corn a quarter turn and grill another five minutes. Continue doing until you have grilled all sides of each ear. The kernels should get a little black.

Let the corn cool in the charred husk. When cool enough to handle pull the blackened husk off the corn and then cut the kernels off the cob into a bowl. If this was too, much work for you buy the Trader Joe’s fire roasted corn kernels In The freezer section and warm them up in the microwave. Let them cool.

Drain the onions from the vinegar and add them to the corn along with the nectarines.

In a smaller separate bowl mix together the yogurt, mayo,cheese, chili powder and lime juice. Pour it over the corn mixture and stir. Add cilantro. Enjoy!

“Arguably the Best Wednesday Ever”

Those were the words uttered by Logan Toms as he, Lynn and Ellis left our house tonight. Today is Logan’s birthday. It also happens to be the day that the first of many moving vans came to their house to take some of their possessions to storage. The Toms are moving out of their house, which they sold, to a rental while their new house is being built across the golf course from us.

The best support I could be was to have them for dinner to celebrate Logan. Logan is not just a wonderful friend, but easily one of my favorite people to cook for. He is an adventurous and appreciative eater. He savors every bite and peppers me with questions about ingredients, cooking methods and inspirations for dishes I make.

Russ suggested I make fish taco for Logan’s birthday and it was the perfect choice. I decided to go Baja style tonight which meant frying the fish. I think the batter I made was my best effort ever and the fish was good and not at all greasy. I will post this recipe sometime later this week because I don’t want to forget it. Along with the fish we had fresh corn tortillas slaw, homemade Pico, spiced crema, cortina cheese, cilantro and fresh lime wedges. As side dishes I made spiced black beans, a yummy corn salad and the pickled squash I just put up.

Ellis loves the corn salad best so I also have to post that recipe because I certainly will forget it by next week. After dinner I taught Ellis how to made homemade crispy taco shells. She is getting ready to move off campus when she goes back to college and needs more dishes in her cooking repertoire.

Logan loved his raspberry birthday cake even with the terrible singing by Lynn, Russ and myself. Ellis declined to sing. Shay listened well.

All in all, it was a fun, fun night, a yummy dinner and a great celebration with sweet friends. We can hardly wait until they live mere steps away from us. I hope Logan knows I don’t cook dinner like this every night.

Cooking is Easier Than Painting

The entire two weeks the kitchen was out of commission I did not cook a thing. I missed being able to create something new. Now that the cabinets are done and everything is so clean I was able to do some big time cooking today.

I made a birthday cake for my friend Logan whose big day is tomorrow and will have dinner here with his family, as they are moving out of their house. I also made some quick pickled yellow squash. I may not have a garden this year, as an gave up fighting the deer, but the farmers market has beautiful stuff. Russ and I had some pickled squash at Acme and Russ liked it so much I promised him I would make it. Couldn’t be easier and no canning involved.

Pickled Yellow Squash

4 small yellow squash, washed and cut into thin rounds

1 sweet onion cut into very think slivers

1 red pepper diced into 1/4” squares

1/4 cup of kosher salt

2 cups apple cider vinegar

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 t, ground mustard

Put the vegetables in a big bowl and sprinkle all the salt on them. Add ten ice cubes and enough cold water to just over the vegetable and set aside for 30 minutes.

When the time is up pour the vegetables in a colander and rinse with cold water. Pack them into two jars. After five minutes Drain off any liquid still in the jar.

Put the vinegar, sugar and mustard in a small sauce pan and heat up, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Once the sugar is dissolved, take off the heat and let cool for five minutes. Pour over the vegetables in the jars. Top up with more vinegar if needed to bring liquid to the top of vegetables. Cover and place in the refrigerator. Can be eaten in a few hours and will keep in the fridge for three weeks.

Painting Was Easy

Now that my painting is over I am on the big search for the most important part of my kitchen, the back splash. All my most discerning friends have been chiming in with advice. Kelly suggested painted glass like she had in Vienna. Suzanne spent the better part of the day going through old house Beautifuls and sending me links to showrooms and tile manufacturers. I combed Pinterest and other internet sights.

Then I went to two tile showrooms. One in Durham and a better one in Raleigh. The Durham one did not have anything that spoke to me, but since I went there first I took three sample home and I was right, they didn’t speak to me more at home.

Since I had a Food Bank meeting in Raleigh I went to a tile show room I used when I redid my bathroom years ago. They happen to be on the same street as the old Food Bank headquarters and that was the only way I knew about them. When I walked in the door I was certain they were going to have something I loved.

I found the porcelain version of a cement tile I was considering. Online it looked like something I wanted. When I saw it in person it was wrong. Flat and dull. Not the sparkle I need in my flat white space. I looked around and saw somethings I liked, then I round the corner and found some things I loved. Textured, shinny, good colors.

My time was running short so I told the nice woman running the showroom I would call and make an appointment with a designer. This is getting serious now.

As luck wold have it my plumbers made a visit at my house today. They had okra and tomatoes for me. I asked them who was their favorite tile guy. Plumbers and tile go together. They gave me his name. I am going to call him to and discuss this small job with him before I go back and make a commitment to tile. I want to get all the right trims,boarders, corners and the such.

I am so thankful for all the advice and work on my friends part. Tile is something you r ally need to see in person. One step closer…

The Blank Canvas Completed

Exactly two weeks! That is how long it took me to do away with my knotty pine kitchen cabinets and turn them in to my blank canvas. It all started because I hated my pulls almost more than I hated my cabinets. After years of looking I finally found a pull I didn’t mind with my stainless counters.

Now my kitchen is white, at least the cabinets. The floor is black and white tile. The walls, what little of there there is is a wheat color and that is going to change. Now that I have a blank canvas I get to find the right back splash which will be like the jewelry of this outfit. Once that is determined I will paint the little bit of wall that if left above the cabinets.

For now it is all clean white. Rehanging the doors took me all afternoon. I have a few dings to touch up and some sanding of where doors meet, but it all has to wait for a little more curing of the paint. I am happy with the cabinets, but am anxious to find the tile because I need color.

What I really need is a rest and to do a bunch of laundry. Since my paining was going on in the same space as my laundry I didn’t wash anything not wanting to add humidity to the already humid conditions.

In a kind of juxtaposition of finishing my kitchen, today was our farewell for our fellowship hall at church. We are tearing down the over 50 year old building to make way for a new and improved one. The congregation was invited to go write on the walls of building to pay tribute and say goodbye. I wrote in the kitchen, the place I spent the most time in the fellowship hall.

Hopefully in a year I will be able to cook in a greatly I proved church kitchen. I should know, I got to help design it as chair of the building committee. For now I am going to have to be satisfied with my brighter home kitchen. I will be, as soon as I finish it.

I tossed and turned all night with bad dreams of my streaky kitchen cabinet doors. I had sprayed them with the fourth coat of paint two days ago and they were drying in stripes of shinny and dull. That part was not in the dream, but in real life. I awoke early, just to get out of these horrible dreams and studied the Internet about possible remedies. Still in my night gown I went down to the garage and tried the magic eraser tip. It did nothing.

About this time Russ woke up and questioned me on what I was doing in the garage in my night gown. “I’m going to have to do another coat of paint, but I am going to roll it.” I got dressed and went back to Ace Hardware and purchased a new roller cover that was made for smooth surfaces. I was not about to let this project beat me.

It only took me a little more than an hour to roll the fronts of all the doors. At last I finally had achieved the look I wanted. Now more drying!

I retreated to the kitchen where I was just finishing up with the last few boxes of kitchen ware that needed to be sorted and put away. Finally all the kitchen items I am keeping were in a cabinet or a drawer and were neatly organized.

I turned to the dining room that had acted as my storage area and cleaned it, and I cleaned the kitchen. Finally everything was in its place, except for the doors. With everything in the cabinets in plain sight I gave Russ a tour of where things go from now on. I need to take photos inside the drawers so he has a reference.

Even though they appear dry I am giving the doors one more day to cure before reinstalling the hardware and rehanging them. Then voila! Now I need to clean out the storage room and go donate all the stuff I don’t want. Of course I haven even started on the back splash. Maybe Monday. This is what happens when you pull that thread.

So Close

Russ has been a really good sports about my destroying the kitchen. I have not cooked or even bought any food for the last two weeks. As I dismantled the whole kitchen I also took over the dining room to store everything so two rooms were out of commission. Then there was my unavailability. When I wasn’t working, I was sleeping and I was gross from dust of sanding something, I feel like I have sanded everything multiple times.

Today was the first day I only sanded brass hinges and not big cabinet doors. I made great progress putting most everything away. I have one big box of kitchen utensils I have to work on in the morning. Since I am claiming one drawer for knives and doing away with my big knife block I am losing that drawer which used to hold utensils. Now I will be down to two.

I should have no trouble weeding out spoons I never use and putting grill utensils down closer to the grill. It was easy to dispose of cookie sheets I have had since college and a spring form pan who had lost her spring. Why do I need two rolling pins? So far I have not seen a tandem rolling competition I want to enter.

I declared to Russ this morning that I thought I would be able to cook tomorrow. With that announcement Russ asked if he could take me out to dinner tonight to celebrate. I needed a good reason to get clean. So off to Acme we went to have the tomato plate. We stretched our dinner out over two hours which was the most time we have talked to each other since Carter left for London.

The best part of having this project completed will be that I will feed Russ and eat meals with him. Hooray for that.

No End In Sight

Three days ago I proclaimed the end was in sight. I never should have said that. I totally jinxed myself. Yesterday I looked at the cabinet doors that I had been letting cure in the garage and I decided they needed a third coat of paint, that is really the fourth coat if you count the primer. So I donned my disgusting painting clothes one more time and I sanded, vacuumed, tacked and sprayed all the doors one more time. The only good news is the previous three coats were dry. That took me all morning. I just looked at them five hours after finishing and they are still wet. I guess I am going to have to give them three days to cure.

My original time line of this job taking two weeks is coming true. I have only finished 1/4 of the hardware so I will need every bit of those three days to get that done. I might have moved faster on it if I would commit more than one card board box to use as my spray box, but honestly prepping the hardware for spray painting is my least favorite job of all the horrible jobs I am doing. Spreading it out is the only way I can endure it.

No worries that my kitchen has no no doors or drawers. After a morning of painting I finally got to work putting somethings back in the cabinets. I had throughly cleaning the insides of the boxes yesterday.

A big part of redoing the kitchen is my desire to reorganize my kitchen. Most everything has stayed in the place I first put things 25 years ago, when it was not as much stuff. Twenty-five years of collecting kitchen wares really added to an already professionally outfitted kitchen.

I want to only put things in the kitchen that actually get used regularly and the specialty stuff can move down to the storage space. Doing that weeding has still not been done. Instead today I reorganized all my spices and vinegars. That could have been a two week job in itself. Both have new homes that I hope will make seeing them easier. I also moved where I keep storage containers.

I put my daily dishes away in the same place they have always been since it is closest to the dishwasher. By then my back went into revolt so now I am in recovery on my bed. I figure I can rally in an hour and get back to work. My short term goal is for the doors to get dry enough that I can take my spray tent down and move a car back in the garage. I also need to clean my garage so I can get to my laundry station. Maybe this job will take three weeks. I have just thought of all the cleaning around the house that is needed after my neglect during the painting phase. Oh lord, what in the world made me think the end was in sight?

Sip and See All the Cuteness

I know I am of grandmother age when my younger friends become grandmothers, but I am not there yet. Perhaps because I am still paying college tuition, or that I didn’t make my mother a grandmother until I was 37. It is just going to be a while, or maybe never for me. Carter will do what she wants to do and I will just go along for the ride.

My friend Shelayne, mother of five grown children, who is younger than me, is a grand mother three times over. Tonight she had a little sip and see to meet her two newest grandsons. Her twin daughters Michelle and Natalie, both had boys just moths apart. It was the perfect thing for twins to do.

Tonight we met Cousins Perry and Seth, who are two lucky boys. They will most certainly grow up with a lot of love around them, especially from their beautiful grandmother Shelayne. The boys could not look more different even though their mothers look so much the same. Perry takes after his Cuban father’s side with a head full of dark hair and Seth looks like a bald Sutton, even though his father is Cuban also. Oh yeah, did I mention that the twins both married Cuban men.

The babies couldn’t have been cutter or better behaved with a gaggle of women holding them. Shelayne was not outdone by her daughter’s and had a new toy poodle puppy named Jasper who is only seven weeks old. I say they are a full house of cuteness over there at The Sutton’s. And grandmother Gigi is in heaven.

The Right Gift

Normally I look down upon surprise appliances as a birthday gift. Fine, if you ask for a vacuum, to be given one, as long as it is better than the one you might buy for yourself. For my birthday this year I asked for nothing, as this is my year of not consuming. Russ and Carter thought otherwise and surprised me with a Nest video door bell. It is an appliance of the sort, and one I did not ask for, but have been terrifically happy with it.

Besides giving me the doorbell, the best gift was that Russ and Carter installed it. If it weren’t for that gift, it probably would still be in the box. I once had a terrible man as a boss of mine. He had an automatic garage door opener on his side of the garage, but his wife had to open her garage door manually. When I went to their house for a dinner and discovered this I gave him hell. Later he told me he had given his wife a garage door opener for Christmas.

Around May that year I had to go back to their house for another company dinner. I asked his wife how her garage door opener was. She said it had not been installed yet. I asked my weasel of a boss what the story was on that and he said, “I am giving her the installation for her birthday in August.” I told her she should leave him.

Thankfully Russ is nothing like that old boss of mine. Today I especially appreciated my Nest. While I was in my hazmat suit spraying paint on my kitchen cabinet doors the doorbell rang. I was able to look at my Nest camera and see it was a solicitor who I didn’t want to talk with. I was able to tell the person that I was on a conference call and they left my front porch.

After working for eight hours a day for the last nine days I am hitting the wall of physical exhaustion. After working and getting cleaned up I had a church meeting and came home and flopped on my bed. The doorbell rang. I looked at the nest and it was the same solicitor from this morning. I just lay on the bed, too tired to move or even respond via audio. Watching the camera on my phone I saw she eventually went away. Nest saved that poor woman from what I might say to her.

Sometimes an appliance is just what you need. I am happy Russ and Carter don’t always follow the rules.

The Painting End is In Sight

I feel like my painting days are almost done. Today I sprayed the fronts of the doors and did one last touch up coat on the cabinets all before my friend Hannah showed up with lunch. Tomorrow will be my final coat on the front of the doors and then I go to work on the hardware. I am reusing the hinges, which have to to cleaned and sprayed and putting new pulls on the doors. I want the doors and drawers to cure for a few more days so the paint gets hard enough that I won’t mess it up when I reinstall them.

Now I am turning my attention to cleaning the insides of the cabinets and reorganizing all my stuff. It is amazing how much I store in my kitchen. What I am realizing is most of it does not get used that often. Because I would like a less cluttered look I am going to weed out all the speciality items and move them to my storage room. That means I have to clean that out and reorganize it. I’m just pulling that thread, fix one thing and then you have to fix all things.

I have also started my search for the right back splash. Since I really, really cook I need a tough back splash. I looked at some today and decided they were too precious. No marble that can’t stand up to having tomatoes splashed on it. I am open to suggestions.

I see that once the painting is done is just the beginning to all my future work. Right now I am looking forward to just being able to clean the house and do the laundry. Russ will probably be happy to get to put his car back in the garage. Right now I have to search for the perfect spice storage system. Maybe this project will be done by September.

Best Support System

Since everyday is the same for me I did not take into account that Russ would have a four day weekend with the Fourth of July holiday. Russ works all the time, so he never hardly has any weekend. Four days of not having to go into the office does not mean he is not working. That being said, my plan of redoing the kitchen over his four days off was probably not the best for him.

True to form, he has not complained one bit. In fact he turned into my best support system, not to do any painting, but to feed me and shop for me so I could keep my head down and keep working.

Everyday he makes my breakfast, the only meal we can possibly rustle up in the destroyed kitchen. I do clean it every night because I can’t stand to go to bed with a dirty kitchen, even if you can’t use it as a kitchen. This is helpful since Russ gets up at five in the morning and makes his own breakfast. He wouldn’t notice if the kitchen were dirty and I wouldn’t want to kill him with paint dust.

As a meal time approaches he asks what I would want. Apparently painting makes me not care a wit about what I am going to eat. Unfortunately it doesn’t make not want to eat, just that what I eat as sustenances keeps me working. So we have had grocery store sushi and sandwiches and salads. Nothing exciting, but I welcome his effort.

Today Russ provided a totally new and wonderful lunch. He had read about a Zambian restaurant that opened in the Oak Wood shopping center. We love African food of all types and when he asked me if I wanted Peri-peri chicken, I said of course. The place is called Zwelis and our chicken, vegetables and rice were fantastic. I will definitely be going back, or sending Russ back to try this place again. He said they had a papaya and avocado salad on the menu. Sounds like the perfect, “I’m only three days away from finishing the kitchen” food for dinner.

I know Russ will be glad when this job is done so I can go back to cooking. What I haven’t told him yet is the next project is the back splash in the kitchen. I haven’t even started to find the right tiles and it won’t tear up the whole kitchen, but it might take it out of commision another day.

I’m So Dirty

I could never be a pioneer woman. Going days in the dust and dirt without any running hot water would kill me. I need a good long shower everyday that I get dirty and I have been very dirty for the last week. Today, I was definitely my dirtiest, so dirty that I was able to rub my dirty skin off me.

The great kitchen cabinet painting project is going on day seven tomorrow. So far I have emptied the kitchen, taken all the doors off and removed all the hardware, cleaned every surface with Kurd Kutter, sanded every surface, vacuumed every surface, filled every unneeded hole, crack, dent or diver with wood filler, taped everything I didn’t want painted, sanded again, vacuumed, wiped with a tack cloth, spot primed all knots, sanded again, vacuumed, tacked, taken all the doors to the garage, primed the cabinets in the kitchen, primed the back of the doors, primed the front of the doors, sanded everything, vacuumed everything, tacked everything, and today I finally began painting.

I bought a spray gun and a painting tent. The tent came with instructions that said it took five minutes to set up. After thirty minutes I called Russ and he spent twenty minutes but got it set up for me. I am thankful I have it.

I got into my hazmat suit and sprayed the inside of the doors and the front of the drawers today with their first coat. The drying rack Russ and Carter built me is working great. That took half a day. While they were drying I sanded the cabinets and tacked them and then I brush painted the small parts and corners and rolled the big parts.

After all that I felt as if I was covered in a thick layer of grime. I had taken my hazmat suit off to paint the cabinets since it was a brush job and I didn’t want the flapping of my hazmat suit to get in the way. What I realize now is I should have worn my hazmat suit while I sanded because that is what made me the dirtiest, like a pioneer women driving a covered wagon across a dusty prairie dirty.

Thank goodness I have a shower. Just clean enough to sleep and then I get up and do it all again tomorrow. It will be like ground hog day because I have to spray the second coat on the back of the doors and drawers and then do the second coat on the cabinets. At least I think I have crossed the halfway mark. Only maybe six more days of being this dirty. Much less time than crossing America by wagon.

Deer, Deer, Everywhere

I have given up planting flowers and other deer dinner items in my yard. The deer population in my neighborhood has exploded. It used to be that a deer might have one foal a year, maybe two. In the past couple of year it seems as if there are foals year round, meaning mothers are birthing two to three times in any given year.

In the last few weeks I have seen a mother and a new baby in my yard a couple of times a day. The baby is as cute as she can be, but I am not looking forward to more and more deer. I thought it was strange that I was seeing the foal out the front window of my house and then out the back window at virtually the same time. Then yesterday while I was looking out my bathroom window I discovered the answer to my question, TRIPLETS.

The mother was standing up nursing two foals while the third stood aside about six feet away, no room at the dairy bar for her. Yes, those babies are cute, but are you kidding me three more deer at a time!!

I got to thinking about the mother. First of all, do deer know they are pregnant? If she did realize it after one baby came out did she realize there were others yet to be born? I can only imagine her surprise when the third one made its way into the world.

I can’t imagine I will ever have another flower at my house. If this mother has three at a time, three times a year we will be over run by next year.

Pie on the Fourth of July

For the last four days I have been mainly alone, working away as a painting contractor. Today I spent my eight hour shift in the dehumidified garage priming 37 drawers and doors. My only break was baking my peach pie for the fabulous Fourth of July party and pie contest we were going to at the Teer Farm.

I planned ahead for this party and made my pie five days ago and put the unbaked pie in the freezer so I only had to bake it today. I think the pie did better being baked directly from frozen, but I didn’t win the contest.

After priming and sanding all day I was an exhausted mess. I took a very satisfying shower and was so looking forward to leaving my house and seeing friends. Russ had a wonderful day being alone and although parties aren’t his favorite, he gladly went to Kristin and Paris’ because they throw one hell of a good party. Tonight’s did not disappoint. Russ loved the fried chicken, but I have to say the corn, peach and blueberry salad was my favorite.

After all the guests had eaten platter sized plates of ribs, chicken, green bean and potato salad along with the corn salad we gathered at the pie shed. Many guests had brought homemade pies and a few entered store bought in the “purchased category.” Kristin asked me to be the “celebrity” judge to determine the winner of the most creative pie. I am not sure how I qualified as a “celebrity,” but I took my job seriously. The top three winners were chosen by guest votes.

Kristin had a box of 3,000 tasting spoons and everyone circled the thirty foot table taking small spoonfuls of pie with a clean spoon at every pie. Each guest had six tickets to place in jars of their favorite pies. I had to chose multiple “most creatives” in case my number one choice won an audience favorite. No one could win twice because they were getting one of Kristin’s original trophies which are works of art like no other.

This year a child won with a summer berry pie. Angie Duty came in second with a chocolate pie and Amanda Ballew came in third for a salted Carmel apple pie. Cindy West won most creative with something called a calypso pie. Pie on the the Fourth of July is as good as it gets. Thanks to Kristin and Paris for getting me out of my house for a night of pure fun.

Nice Job Durham

My dad called me the other day to alert me to something he had read in the news, Durham, NC was ranked fourth by Wallet Hub in their survey of best run cities in America. Fourth out of 150! I asked my Dad what was last and he told me Washington, DC. Since I lived in Washington for ten years and made the decision to leave and come to Durham I am glad I moved in the right direction.

I went to Wallet Hub’s story about this study to see what the criteria were to judge the validity of the study. Wallet Hub wanted to judge the effectiveness of leadership in cities and I agree that is important. They determined six key categories: 1) Financial Stability, 2) Education, 3) Health, 4) Safety, 5) Economy and 6) Infrastructure & Pollution. They came up with 37 metrics and weighted each one. The things with the most weight were the Moody’s Credit rating of a city, the infant mortality rate and the average life expectancy. Lowest in the weighting categories were things like transit and access to the internet. Those are still important, just not as much as how long you live and if your city might go bankrupt.

Since the number one and three best run cities were in Idaho and the number two was in Utah I am unlikely to every move to those places, so I will just have to be satisfied with being number four. Considering we are a much more diverse city than Nampa, Boise or Provo I think speaks volumes for our city leaders. It is much easier to run a city when all the people are homogeneous. Running a city well when you a population that is 40% white, 38 % black, 13% Latino and 5% Asian, 4% others as Durham is harder. But that diversity is also one of the best things abut Durham.

When we first moved here one thing I noticed right away was the friendliness of natives to people who were not born here. That welcoming attitude has served Durham well.

So congratulations to Durham City Leaders past and present. It is nice to be recognized on a national level for doing what all citizen want their government to do, run things well, be efficient with our money and keep your heads down and work hard.

It’s All About the Prep

Yesterday I left Carter at the airport and was home by nine to start the “great kitchen painting project.” After months of study, watching You Tube videos, reading blogs, looking at Pinterest and buying supplies I started the clean out of the kitchen.

I am just painting the outside cabinets and the inside and outside of the doors. Experts differed on whether I needed to remove everything from the cabinets to do this project. I decided to err on the side of caution and remove every little thing. I figure it all will get very dusty and this gives me an opportunity to weed things out and perhaps change where things are stored.

It is amazing how much a kitchen can hold. I moved almost everything to the dining room which is a bigger than the kitchen and it overwhelmed the room. I can really pack a cabinet to the max.

In the last two days I have unloaded the kitchen, taken seven drawers and 27 cabinet doors off the boxes, removing all the hardware, cleaned every surface to be painted with a special treatment and begun the sanding process. I labeled all the doors and placed the hardware for each door in it’s own ziplock bag. Since I am changing the brass hardware to brushed nickel I have to boil the hardware in vinegar for 30 minutes and then scrape off all the junk. Since I have to keep the individual hardware with each door I could only do one door’s worth at a time. I am only half way through the hardware cleaning.

Working eight hours each day at this physical job is introducing me to muscles I did not know I have and have not exercised in years. I will sleep well tonight. I figure I have at least one more day of prep before a single drop of paint can me used.

After reading all that I have on the subject I am trying to do the most thorough job on prep since it is the key to longevity of my paint. At least I have been able to do all my work in the air conditioning. I am not looking forward to hot garage painting.

Off To London

I knew I was in trouble the first time I took Carter to London when she was 13. She immediately fell in love with the city, so much so I took her back the next year. She asked to go back every year after that, but I convinced her there were lots of other places to visit besides London.

She comes by this Anglophileness naturally as London is my parents favorite place and I have lived there two different times in my life for a total of seven years. My last time I was pregnant with Carter and she feels a little robbed that we didn’t stay there when she was born.

It was no surprise that she lobbied us to go on a Northeastern summer program in London. The London program in her major didn’t work out since she had already taken the classes they were offering so she chose the next best thing, an engineering program. She is not majoring or minoring in engineering, but they are studying the scientific revolution in London, something both Russ and I thought sounded very interesting. Oh, to be in college again.

Since all her classmates are flying out of Boston Carter wanted to go with them. Not wanting to risk possible summer afternoon flight delays she took a late morning flight to Boston and is hanging out at Logan until her night flight. She asked me to drive her to the airport this morning, but just to drop her off at the curb. No need for me to come in to hug her goodbye.

After all the international flying she has done alone I know she doesn’t need me, but it is always nice to have those last few minutes with her.

So Shay I dropped her off and came home and got to work on our July house project. Something mundane to keep me very occupied while she is off learning interesting stuff.

Crying at Church

I am a Presbyterian, although I come from two long lines of Episcopalians. Either way, both denominations are not known for showing great emotion at church. We don’t raise our arms up in the air and sway, or call out “Amen” loudly when we agree with the preacher. For the most part we sit quietly, stand when told and are fairly good at praying in unison if the words are printed in the bulletin.

I diverge from most of my brethren in that I laugh loudly. My preachers have told me it is good and they like the feed back. About the only time we speak back in church is when someone from the lectern says, “Good Morning,” and pauses. Most everyone in the pews says “Good morning,” back.

One of the best parts of our church is the music program. Being unmusical myself I am very appreciative of those who share their gifts. One of my favorite singers is Davis Bingham. As a spry almost 90 year old he sang a solo today in church.

A solo from Davis is about all anyone needs as a way to celebrate the glory of God. Davis brought it on home today and as soon as he finished the congregation broke into a huge applause and then stood up and continued the ovation. This was an unheard up display of emotion from the frozen chosen. We rarely clap in church, no matter how warranted it is.

Of course, this spontaneous out pouring of affection was warranted. His singing brings me to tears. My friend Sarah High was sitting behind me and she was crying too. We remarked that we could just gone home after that because that is as good as church gets.

We didn’t leave though because our friend Rebeca Mattern was visiting and guest preaching. Davis was a tough act to follow and Rebecca did great. She had been our interim youth leader years ago and is finally going off to seminary. We wish her good luck.

After I took a photo of Davis and his sweet wife Joan after church, Davis told us he is doing another solo on July 21. If you ever wanted to visit Westminster that is a good day to come. I can promise good singing from Davis. I’m bringing tissues to church that day.

“I’ll Gut You”

On my way to do errands this afternoon I was listening to a show on NPR about why politicians can’t apologize. Joe Biden has had the “non-apology” spot light on him with Kamala Harris calling him out about bussing. His defense was that he said he felt like it was a state’s rights issue, but sometimes just saying, “I’m so sorry that effected you negatively and for whatever role I played in it.”

It’s not just politicians. We all have difficulty actually showing others true remorse rather than being defensive. The radio show talked about how parents try and get siblings to apologize to each other and mean it. I can remember getting in trouble for hitting my sister and having to apologize. I am certain it just made me do something worse to her after the “apology.”

I finished listening to the radio story just as I pulled into the Costco parking lot and parked behind a white Lexus with a sticker in the window that said, “I’ll gut you.” I thought it was an odd sticker. There was a loose shopping cart right beside of my car so I took it into the store with me rather than let it stay there and possibly ding my or other cars.

After getting Shay’s chicken I went back to the car and two attractive young women were loading their groceries into “I’ll gut you” car. They were just finishing and the driver pushed her cart into the space in front of my car and behind hers. What the hell? We were six cars from the cart corral. So I spoke up, no surprise there.

“Are you leaving that there?”

She didn’t like my asking her that question and tried to deflect her bad cart manners by saying, “I don’t know where the carts go.”

I pointed in the direction of the corral and said, “It’s six cars that way.” I tried not to sound accusatory, but I must have and the woman went off on me.

“Mind your own business.” I think it was my business if she was going to push her unneeded cart into my car. I just stood there and looked at her. I didn’t say a thing. She didn’t like getting caught and didn’t like getting called out. Rather than apologizing for being a bad citizen she went into attack mode. She had started with the “dumb” defense and then went postal.

She was still screaming at the top of her lungs as she pushed the cart to it’s rightful place and I got in my car. All she needed to do was say, “Sorry.” An apology for attempting to leave her cart against my car, which is a real driving no-no, was either easy thing to do. Not only could she not apologize, she couldn’t even acknowledge it was wrong in the first place and instead threw a fit. Her friend stood by with an embarrassed look on her face.

Her prophetic window sticker of “I’ll gut you” is not something to be proud of. Too bad she missed the NPR story. It probably wouldn’t make a difference since even nice guys like Joe Biden have trouble apologizing.

It is a story that stuck with me though so I just want to say “I’m sorry.” If I ever did something to you that warrants an apology, you got it. Just let me know what it was so I won’t do it again, after I apologize to you. We all do things we have no idea are hurting someone, just learn and make amends. Stop trying to justify your wrongs.

I Need to Go to Community College

The other day I way browsing the Durham Tech course offerings. I was looking for something for someone else about becoming a notary, but once I started browsing I just kept at it. Most things didn’t interest me, like “gathering crime scene evidence” in the criminal justice department, but then I came upon “basic home electrical” and I thought I should take that. Russ knows that stuff, but he is at work when I need to fix something or just diagnose a problem.

Today I really wish I had taken that course. I relate this story for your own future protection. Last December we had to get a new HVAC system. It was after getting a new sewer line and new roof and I was just over home repair.

When I compared HVAC units I decided to go with the more robust two stage systems which were more energy efficient and had a ten year warranty. I lived through the installation and had heat up and running when the installer left. The unit worked and the city inspector came out to verify that he installed in such a way that it would not kill us.

So it has been getting much hotter this week and of course Russ was away. Last night I noticed that my air conditioning was not keeping up. As my bedroom got hotter and hotter I called my HVAC company so they could come first thing this morning. I hardly slept a wink as I tossed and turned in my sweaty sheets, and I was all alone.

Without a warning call, a tech rang my door bell at 8:00 AM. Even though I was still in my nightgown I was thankful the tech was there so early. I threw on my clothes and showed him to the furnace room. He looked at the unit and declared that it was a frozen block of ice and would have to thaw most of the day before it could be looked at.

I waited home all day for a tech to return. At 3:45 another did and he declared that the problem was due to poor installation, by his own company, and that a warrantee tech had to come out. After some choice words he got his boss to find me one who was here by 5:30.

He looked at the unit and the water in the pan and gasped. Never a good sign. After an hour he told me he found the problem. My two stage unit had only been wired for one stage, in both heating and air conditioning. So all that energy savings I was supposed to get had not been happening and when it got so hot the unit was incapable of keeping up.

Now is when I wish I had that basic home electrical course. I knew enough to buy a two stage unit, but not enough to know to even ask if it were wired correctly at installation.

I finally have air, but you can bet that Monday I’m going to be having quite a conversation with my HVAC people. I’m tempted to go walk in the office to have it because I am so much scarier in person.

Oh, the life of the home owner. Russ did get in from airport right after I got the air working.

Test Sanding

There is a scene in an old movie, perhaps, The Sting, where some guys are contracting painting a large number of chairs. They paint the sample chair with a brush to see how long it takes in order to determine how much to charge the chairs’ owner. The owner stands by watching the painting with a brush and notes that it took nine minutes and agrees to pay the painters based on all the chairs taking nine minutes each.

After the owner agrees to the price he walks away and the painters throw down their brushes and pick up a spray painter and do the job at two minutes per chair. It made a big impression on me about pricing a job.

Today I am not only the painting contractor, but also the chair owner. I wanted to do a test about how long it would take me to clean the cabinets and do the first sanding. Since I am not ready to totally tear my whole kitchen apart I tested on the sides of the cabinets and shelf around the stove and the sink cabinets.

I used Kurd Kutter and wiped away years of grimy build up even though I had cleaned all the wood surfaces with Murphy’s oil soap last year. Then I got out my mouse sander and sanded every surface and edge. Then I wiped then all down again with another wet rag. The whole job took less than an hour. This gave me great hope about how long prepping 27 cabinet doors will take. I figure taking the doors down will be the longest and hardest job. I wish I had someone to charge for my work.

After finishing that test I cleaned out a cabinet finding things at had not seen in at least ten years. They all got thrown away. If I haven’t needed them for the last ten years I don’t need them now. This project is so much more than painting the cabinets!

Duke, Mah Jongg, Steel Magnolias

Some days you just can’t pack more in. Today was that kind of day. My Dad needed some tests at Duke so I took him over to the hospital at six in the morning and stayed with him until my Mom came and took over later in the morning. One test he was having required him to have someone with him in case he freaked out. Despite that requirement I just had to stay in the waiting room.

Thankfully he did not freak out and when it was over he came out a happy man praising his techs who did the test. I got him a wheel chair and rolled him from the radiology clinic over to Duke North to the 7th floor to the cath lab. “How do you know how to get from this place to the next?” he asked me on our long walk through the various hospital buildings.

“I spent 12 days here with you at Christmas and I have been all these places with you then. You just don’t remember.” Thankfully his tests were good.

It was nice of my mother to come and trade off with me because I had Mah jongg today. I really wanted to play because I am not going to get to for the next two or three weeks depending on how long the kitchen projects takes. My Mah Jongg group is like a therapy session and you shouldn’t go too long without one.

Morgan brought her flowers in from the car while we played so the flowers cold stay cool. It’s amazing how much Shay looks like those chocolate Queens Anne lace.

Tonight Mary Lloyd, who is my young friend and Carter’s old friend came over to watch Steel Magnolias with us. It is part of my great movie education for Carter. She had never seen it and I wanted to share it with her. Mary Lloyd pointed out that when it first came it she felt like “Shelby, the daughter” but now feels like “Melynn, the mother.”

I never felt like either, but more like Wheezer and Clairise. Carter loved Steel Magnolias, more than Gone with the Wind. She felt like Wheezer and Clairise are the future Carter and Ellis. I can see it. Those women friendships are so important.

Tomorrow I am planning less. Maybe that means I will get more done.

Woodworking Child

As I unsuccessfully tried to drill a big ass hole on the inside of my kitchen cabinet Carter stepped in. “You have the drill going in the wrong direction.”

Thank god that those engineering and love-of-wood-working genes got passed on from her father. As Carter drilled three large holes in the cabinet for me she asked, “Did Dad approve this project?”

Why in the world would she think that I needed Russ’s permission I do not know, but I reassured her just that same that he was in on this. “This” being, moving our microwave from the kitchen counter to the cabinet above the oven and taking the doors off the cabinet and having open shelves above the microwave.

The thing about moving the microwave was where to plug it in? I solved that problem by drilling two big holes, one from one cabinet into the cabinet next door and another on the bottom of the second cabinet so the cord could run to the plug under the cabinet.

Once Carter got the drill going the right way it only took three of four big holes, two chisels and a hammer, a rasp and a sanding block to get the whole thing done. I wanted to do this before the painting because I knew it would be messy and I am not looking at adding large sawdust to my kitchen when the cabinets will be wet with paint.

I am certain Russ will be happy with the whole thing because, one, the microwave works and two, he didn’t have to do it.

The next wood working job is putting a knife insert into a drawer so I can do away with my counter-top knife block. I wonder if Carter could make this for me before she leaves for London? I guess I should ask her.

Chomping At The Bit

In my younger years when I got a wild hair to try something new I would jump right in, often without the required preparation. In college I got an off campus house in the summer of my sophomore year. It was in rough shape as the previous tenants had been, let’s just say, not the cleanest people.

Since I was going to be living there with three roommates for the next two years I wanted to make the place as nice as possible during that summer before everyone else moved in. Our land lord was letting me live rent free during the summer and was paying for the materials if I would do all the work fixing the place up.

I started with the kitchen floor. The original floor was something so gross that I had to rip it out. Being impatient and not that knowledgeable I did not put a new sub floor in before I laid down red and white linoleum tiles with mastic. Why red and white? They were the colors of Dickinson college. I could have used with a lot of advice from a professional, but I was too excited to get started to bother with it. Needless to say it was one horrible floor job.

You would have thought I learned my lesson from that one job, but I did not. I was constantly tackling projects for which I was unqualified for. Sometimes they worked and sometimes they didn’t. Over the years I have gotten much better at DIY. Thanks to being married to Russ I have seen every episode of the 40 seasons of This Old House, at least twice. Now with You Tube I am able to find an expert to teach me how to do almost any project I dream up. I learned to quilt by watching it.

This winter I decided I was going to paint my kitchen cabinets myself. This is a huge job, done right, but one I wanted to do. Thankfully I knew that the right time to do it is in July when Carter is in London. Given that I had so much time I have been able to study the right way to do this job. I have watched countless videos, read many blogs and practically became a professional member of the website, “top coatings” where house painting professionals share advice with each other.

I have ordered equipment and planned out the job. Russ and Carter crafted me a drying rack to hold the cabinet doors where they will dry between spray coats. Even though July is a week away I am chomping at the bit to get started. I have been moving things around in the kitchen, trying to figure out better configurations for all my small appliances in the hope that I can have less stuff on my counters when I am done.

For now I am just praying that all my studying will pay off and I will not repeat my college floor fiasco. At least I am not winging this project.

Surprise Sunday

For the last seven years Lynn and I have been wanting to watch “Gone with the Wind” with our daughters. It kind of blew our minds that they never had seen it. So we set today as the day we would finally do it, but did not tell the girls.

Then my sister called to say she was going to have two hours before a flight out of RDU and wanted to come surprise Carter and have lunch with us. So I had to tell Carter that she needed to be free without giving away the surprise. So I told her we we going to watch the movie.

After church Russ and Carter were busy in the garage building me a drying rack for the cabinet doors I am going to be painting. Carter loves doing wood working so she gladly volunteered for this project. It was perfect because it kept her busy while I waited for Janet to drive up and surprise her.

True to form, when a big grey GMC Tucson pulled in the driveway Carter said, “Who in the world is stopping by now?” She might have used saltier language which also would be in keeping. It totally threw her off when my Sista J emerged from the driver’s seat. SURPRISE!

It was a short visit with a quick stop at Eastcut for lunch. They have a lovely seating area for dogs in the back and brought a dog bowl of water for Shay. I wish we had more time, but the surprise worked well.

As soon as Jan was off for the airport Lynn and Ellis showed up the movie. Not surprisingly Ellis and Carter found it too long and at 3 hours and forty five minutes I agree. But they didn’t love it like Lynn and I did, as we could recite practically every line in the movie.

After GWTW, we decided they needed to see Steel Magnolias as it is the 30th anniversary of that. I hope they like it as much as we do. I can’t promise another good surprise before the movie.

Puppy Protection Program

Shay is a pro at growing hair. Bald men around the county would like to know her secret for growing hair, fast and thick. The issue with such superior growth is it takes lots of grooming to keep it presentable. If she doesn’t get a regular coif it can get matted or in the case of very long growth turn into dread locks.

A doodle in dreads is fine for undercover work, but not very princess-like. Therefore, regular hairdos are a must for Shay. She is not a “pamper me all day” kind of girl, so grooming day is not one she looks forward too.

It used to be worst when she had to go to the groomer, but now she is so fancy she has a concierge groomer who comes to her. Since her hair was on the dead lock side and being summer, she got a close cut today. Her beard had also gotten a little long so I asked for it to be taken down a bit.

What emerged from her beauty session was a totally different dog. It is amazing how a change in hair cut can totally change one’s appearance. Shay is ready to go into the puppy protection program because she is practically unrecognizable. She might be moving to Indianapolis and getting a job at Walmart.

Thankfully she is the same lovable girl who adores her snake and blue puppy. I am just not going to walk her by and big plate glass windows because she might scare herself since she looks so different.

Good Neighborhood

The toughest commandment is not “thou shall not kill.” Not killing anyone is fairly easy. The truly hardest commandment is “love your neighbor as yourself.” Loving your neighbor is one thing, but as much as you love yourself, now you are talking impossible.

To help you follow that commandment you should follow the old saying that “good fences make good neighbors.” Let’s add one more cliche, “familiarity breeds contempt.”

Consider we have lived in the same house for 25 years we have seen our share of neighbors come and go. Some sadly, many happily. In the last ten years we have not gone one day without at least one of our neighbors doing major work on their house and along with that work comes the noise and annoyances of contractors around.

Suddenly, for the first time in a decade things are quite around here. My last backdoor neighbors have finished a major indoor and garden renovation. They have been very kind during their project, being aware of noise.

Now that they have finished they had a party last night to thank the neighbors for patience during their work and show us their glorious garden. It was a thoughtful way to end their project and one that was so fun for us neighbors. I didn’t have much time last night as I was running from one meeting to the party, but once I got there I had such a good time I stayed much longer than I had planned.

The gardens are so gorgeous and the neighbors had so much fun we told our hosts we are planning on gathering there at least once a quarter. It makes such a big difference to have such nice neighbors.