Easy Vacation Day

Vacation Day one was a no rest for the wicked kind of day. As we were so exhausted when we pulled in last night we did not bother to do the shopping. So we woke up early this morning and went to Atlantic Baking where we bought good bread for Russ and gluten free for me. Bread is something I definitely miss as so far gluten free has been not so great.

Then we went to Walmart to do our stock up shopping. Normally I am not a Walmart shopper, but since it is the biggest store near us and toilet paper is toilet paper that is where we went. Russ declared it not a horrible experience.

Our first guest of the summer was arriving at noon today. Russ’ great friend Gary from Wisconsin was bringing his daughter to college in Maine and came to spend one day with us. It was a quintessential Maine Day so we enjoyed time on the deck overlooking the water. Gary and Russ talked a lot of business and after lunch I took the first of my vacation naps. It was lovely.

We went to Claws for dinner. They have gluten free rolls so I had my first lobster roll of the summer and the gluten free part was quickly discarded and I had my first lobster sans roll of the summer.

After dinner we drove Gary around Owls Head, showing him our general store, post office and lobster pound. It was too late to see the light house as the park closed at sunset.

It was a Great Maine Day. Ending with wild Maine blueberry ice cream. As I write now I hear the ocean lapping on the rocks and feel the cool breeze though the open windows of our room.

Sun will be up bright and early so it’s off to sleep now, in spite of my much enjoyed nap.

A Little Brown Puppy Goes to Maine

What a good girl Shay was in the car for two whole days. She was very despondent when her parents were packing up in fear she was being left behind. But when her mommy asked, “Do you want to go in the car?” She bounded to the door and sat at attention as her daddy put on her car harness.

Shay jumped in the back seat and was delighted to find, not one, but two Princess beds. She gladly let Mommy attach her seat belt to her harness and she stood at the ready for the adventure to begin. For the first hour on the first day of the very long drive she scratched at her Daddy’s shoulder begging to be allowed to ride on his lap. Mommy had already had this discussion with Daddy that he was not to let her ride on his lap for two days because that meant that Mommy would have to drive the whole way.

Eventually Shay settled down and looked out the window for eleven states. Only once yesterday in Pennsylvania did she she another dog with his head out his window did she get a little excited. Thankfully she did not ask to have her window open.

Yesterday she spent the night at her Daddy’s childhood home. That meant she slept in his child hood tiny bed taking up a majority of the space. Her Daddy let her do that. Her mommy had her own tiny bed.

Today she jumped right in the car bright and early. “ How much longer until we get to Maine?” It was a very long day. Mommy ended up driving the whole day because Daddy had a lot of work calls. The traffic was very bad, but we missed most of the horrible weather. Finally at 6:00 PM we arrived at our little Owl’s Head House. Shay ran right to the front door and said, “I’m so glad to be back.”

She carried her blue baby up to bed. “I’m ready for vacation. When are we going to walk the breakwater?” Tomorrow, sweet girl, tomorrow.

No Cars is a Bad Sign

People talk s#$t about the pandemic, if there was one thing about it that can’t be beat…the traffic. Two weeks after the lock down I convinced Carter to let me drive up to Boston to bring her home. I made the normally 14 hour drive in 10 hours thanks to NOT ONE CAR being on I-95 for long stretches.

Was it eerie? Damn right it was. There were more than a few apocalyptic moments. As someone who spent years driving up and down I-95 daily I was much more used to traffic jams than no jams due to no cars.

So today when Russ and I were driving north it took me a few minutes to realize that something was amiss as we were in bumper to bumper traffic and not one car was coming south. I altered Russ, who had his head down in his computer, that something was very wrong because I had not seen a car going south for a while. I had a brief pandemic panic, but my own traffic brought me back to 2023.

The bad news was the lack of southbound traffic was due to a terrible accident with at least three cars, one on its roof and cops in every lane all the way across the road. The traffic going south had been stopped long enough that people were out of their cars talking on the side of I-95. The backup went on for miles. The poor slubs who were trapped on the entrance lanes. Imagine turning on the the ramp and coming to a dead stop ten cars in.

Seeing all empty lanes is just never a good sign. Either the world might be ending, like in a pandemic, or an absolutely terrible accident has happened. Neither is good. Be safe out there.

Guilt of Over Abundance

In winter, if I have a small store bought basil plant I carefully dole out it’s precious leaves one by one. If a leaf has a brown spot, I cut it out so I can still use the good part. The scarcity of fresh basil in January makes each fresh leaf a treasure.

Today I asked Russ to cut down all the basil in the garden so I could process it while it was in its heyday. He gathered the lanky and bushy plants in a giant old beach towel left over from a commercial shoot I did thirty years ago. He lay the armload on the counter. I was over whelmed with the work ahead.

I pulled one branch at a time, washing the leaves while still attached. Ripping them from the stems, placing them in my giant colander. Washing them again. When the colander was full I took a handfuls of leaves out and put them in the salad spinner, this being the triple wash. Eventually those dried leaves went into the cuisineart with olive oil and were puréed. The mash going into plastic containers and into the freezer. Ready to be made into pesto or dolloped into soup in the winter, or drizzled onto tomatoes I oven roasted and froze from this summer’s harvest.

As is the case when met with an over abundance of basil I am, at first, careful about stripping all the leaves from the stems. If an edge has turned brown I cut that part away, much like I do in the with the precious winter leaves. Then as the hours go one I become less finicky.

The small leaves that don’t come off on the initial strip I leave on the discarded stem. The leaves that might have a bite out of them from an innocent pest I toss out, the leaves that cling to the towel I ignore. I have so much basil. I know that the perfectly good leaves I don’t bother to process will not be missed. I still have pesto in the freezer from last summer that must be eaten first.

After making two quarts of basil purée I stop. I gather all the spent stems and discarded leaves and throw them away. I have a small twinge of guilt.

Having too much of something cheapens it. This over abundance is under appreciated.

It is a real struggle in life to know how much of anything we actually need. Too much is just as bad as too little. The time that it would take to carefully honor every leaf has value too, so I don’t do it. Happiness is found in the balance. I am working on that.

Stay Home

I was standing at the front door looking out at the storm when I felt something. I think the power went out and came right back on. I tried to text Russ at his office only to discover that the internet was out. I checked the TV and the cable was gone too.

The trees were whipping hither and yon and Shay was crying up on our bed, which serves as her home base. I went to my room to console her. She never likes my explanation that her home base is not the safest room in our house. She insists on hunkering down there no matter the storm.

I called Russ on our trusty land line, which I keep for exactly these scenarios. My cell phone does not work well in our house without the boost from the Wi-Fi. No internet – no Wi-Fi, no texting, emailing or calling. If I walk out to the front of the house I can get two weak little bars and something can go through.

Russ told me he was glad I was not teaching because there was a 32 car pile up at our exit of I-40. I told him to be careful combing home. Turned out that most of Durham has lost its power and apparently no one remembers the rules of the road concerning traffic lights that are not working. Russ pulled up to the light at Marin Luther King and Old Chapel Hill road and he said the cars were flying through the intersection as if MLK had suddenly tuned into the Martinsville Speedway. So much for stopping and treating the intersection like a four way stop.

About then my cousin texted that her daughter was in the hospital in Greensboro and she wanted info on Duke doctors. I told her to stay in Greensboro. Turned out that was a good call because I got a phone call from the Durham emergency response center advising everyone to stay home that the police can not respond to all the wrecks from the lights being out.

I thought the automated call should also have told people what the rule of the road is for lights being out. Maybe that would cut down on accidents.

I hope no one we know was hurt in that big I-40 pile up. Since we don’t have TV or Internet I can’t get any info on it. Stay home people.

Obsessive Cleaning

I hate to go away, even for the weekend, and come home to a dirty house. When I come home I want it to be like a hotel with clean sheets and towels. I want the fridge to not contain anything spoiled and the floors to be dust free. It doesn’t always work out that way because dust happens.

Today I did some deep deep cleaning that probably should have been done months ago. We have a six burner gas stove and though I love to cook on it, it is a bear to clean the star shaped burners. I am the only one in the house who notices if they need to be cleaned so I never expect anyone else to attack them.

It took me a good two hours, dawn, power wash, bar keepers friend, a tooth brush and steel wool to clean these things up. At the two hour mark I deemed the job good enough. There was still a bit of baked on blackness on a couple or burner. If I had gotten the Dremel tool put I probably could have got those last bits, but I needed to move on to cleaning out the refrigerator.

If I cleaned the stove extensively every week this job would not get so hard, but it is enough for me to clean the flat surface every night and not get out a speciality dental tool to clean between the burner fingers. There is something so satisfying about doing this though cleaning, but not compelling enough to want to do it weekly.

I would much rather be with friends, or creating or teaching than cleaning. But I would rather clean than come home to a dirty house. Somehow I notice if something is dirty if I have not been home for a few days, as opposed to be able to walk by it and ignore it if I am home all the time. Thank goodness I go away regularly.

Gladys Kravitz in My House

If you walk by our house I want to give you fair warning you are probably being watched. See, we live with the dog version of Gladys Kravitz. If you did not watch Bewitched in the 1960’s this reference is lost on you.

Shay loves to sit on the pillows in the sunroom where she is well camouflaged peering out the windows taking note of all the neighborhood goings on. She will alert me if another dog walks by or a child on a bike. She doesn’t do it in a way that they know she is watching them. She is not a ferocious guard dog if you are out on the street. But come down our walk way and you will think she is a much larger dog.

Her Gladys qualities are just about being nosy. She just likes to spy on beings, human or animal, and make sure the nothing nefarious is afoot. That is unless you are a deer and then she never rats you out. I have no idea what deal she has struck with the various bucks, does and fawns, but she quietly watches them and never makes a peep.

That is her downfall as a Gladys. I wish she would make all the noise in the world when the deer are eating my plants. They must have paid Shay off somehow. Perhaps they have some dirt on her. For now she only good at spying on the innocent. Just like Gladys.

No Fair

When Carter was little she used to beg us to go to the state fair. The rides, the food, the animals, the games, mom winning her a stuffed animal at whack-a-mole. I on the other hand was less enamored with the fair. The rides, the drug addicts who put the rides together, the calories, the diseases that spread from the animals, the over-priced games, winning a stuffed animal which could easily have bed bugs. Still we went to the fair.

Today I saw in the news that the Iowa State fair is going on and it has something so much worse than vermin and meth heads running the Ferris wheel. They have people running for President wandering the grounds trying to get noticed, flipping pork chops and talking as if they are the reason people came to the fair.

If Carter were little and we lived in Iowa I would have to go pull the spark plugs out of all our cars so we couldn’t go to the fair. It would be child abuse to subject a child to presidential candidates at the fair. Nothing could be worse than being trapped in a long line to see the butter cow and have a candidate stop to shake hands and talk to people.

We didn’t come to the fair to see them, we just wanted to see the full size cow made out of butter. The cow might get more votes than some of the crazy candidates. Is Marianne Williamson running again? Hasn’t she learned her lesson yet. No matter how much love she preaches she is not feeling the love in return.

Today I am thankful I live in North Carolina. I am also thankful that my child lives in Boston. I never have to go back to the fair or my fair ever again, politicians or not.

Who Edits Sign Makers?

As a writer and an accidental editor I know the benefit of a good editor. I was an art major. As a blogger I have no editor. I don’t even have a proof reader, or reread this blog myself before it is published. But blogging for me is a stream of consciousness at the end of my day and not meant to inform people about important of life saving information. I apologize now for any spelling or grammar mistakes, not for any opinions.

I am a stickler for correct grammar and spelling in signage. Last week Russ and I went to Carrboro for dinner. Russ dropped me off and went to park. After dinner I walked back to the car with him. He was parked right in front of this sign that read. “No Parking. End Permitted parking.”

“What exactly does that sign mean?” I asked Russ. Since Russ was parked before the sign I knew he was not in the No Parking area, but was the spot where he was parked one that needed a “Permit,” or was it a spot where parking was Permitted? If it was the former and he got a ticket for not having a permit, I felt like one could easily argue that the sign says the parking is allowed where he was since allowed means the same thing as permitted.

Thankfully, for some poor magistrate or low level judge, we did not get a ticket because I would have loved to go in and argue our case with that sign as evidence. I looked around to see if there was an additional signs that mentioned Permits being needed to park and did not see one.

Back to my title. Who is it that checks the grammar on government made signs to ensure that the meaning is clear? There must be someone at the federal level and the state level, but I am not sure at the city level there is someone double checking the sign makers. Maybe there is a book of standard signs, but if there is I would think this one would be in there. Well, I say that, but since I am unsure of what that sign really means, it might be hard to lookup.

Am I the only one who thinks about these things? Please tell me I am not alone. Mary Mundy I’m looking at you.

Farewell Coral Bay, For a While

Today was my last class of the season at the Coral Bay Club. As the club is being torn down to be rebuilt I will not be teaching there next season. Thanks to the amazing Reba Huckabee I have had five great summers teaching at CBC. It would have been six, save the pandemic. I have made some of the most wonderful friends there and have enjoyed teaching so many students I met there back in their home cities.

The staff at Coral Bay has always taken excellent care of me and I am so appreciative of all they have done to grow Mah Jongg at the beach. All clubs could learn from them. I am hoping to fill those Coral Bay spots at other beach clubs next summer. I am already scheduled to be at Dunes club in June.

After my last class of beginners I had lunch with my beloved friends Kristi and Ann and my new friend Francis. I have no fear of not seeing them as they all live in the beloved Kinston. I had to sneak out of the club just as Thursday play for Mah Jongg was starting because if I didn’t I would have been there for another half hour talking to Mah Jongg players.

I had to rush to Raleigh because Mr. Carter (no relation), the upholsterer had my first needlepoint game chair finished. He kindly kept his shop open an extra ten minutes since I was late. I was so excited to get the chair home. I promised him I would be back in three months with my next needlepoint ready to cover a second chair.

There is nothing so exciting at making your own furniture and having it turn out exactly like you envisioned. I should pass out exhausted tonight, but I need to needlepoint.

Sublime Blue Moon Bistro

When I stay with a friend I always want to take them out to dinner as a thank you for hosting me. I believe in consumable gifts and a yummy dinner out means no one had to do any work.

Since I am in Atlantic Beach with my friend Kristi I thought it would be a good idea to visit one of my favorite Beaufort restaurants, Blue Moon Bistro. Our friends Elizabeth and Doug Townsend are owners so I called Elizabeth to help me secure a reservation.

Kristi and I arrived on time and were promptly seated. We had the lost lovely waitress who went out of her way to make sure everything was was safe for us to eat since both Kristi and I are Gluten free.

We ordered all apps that fit the parameters for no gluten. There were so many fabulous choices and our waitress said that most everything could be adapted. Kristi commented that Blue Moon is one of the best restaurants in the area for really making sure that you are safe eating there.

After we ordered, the hostess arrived at our table with two complimentary appetizers, a gift from Elizabeth. It was such a sweet and generous thing for her to do. Unfortunately one of them had gluten and the hostess wisked it away and brought back some mussels that were perfect. I enjoyed the shrimp on a grit cake which I have to say is one of the best things I have eaten.

What fabulous food, atmosphere and hospitality we had at Blue Moon tonight. I was right to bring Kristi there as my thank you because it was perfect. No surprise, everything Doug and Elizabeth do is wonderful. When in Beaufort go visit Blue Moon, get the shrimp and grits. You will be happy

The Teacher Becomes the Pupil

The best part about being a Mah Jongg teacher is the friends that you make while teaching. Kristi Blizzard is one of the tops. She is hosting me at the beach this week for which I am eternally grateful. It is not just because she has a beautiful house that happens to be very close to the club I am teaching at. Or that she made us a delicious dinner tonight. Or that she just finished reading The Covenant of Water when I got here so we got to have a big discussion about it.

The big bonus is that Kristi has been Gluten free for over ten years so she gave me a huge tutorial on what are the good Gluten free products and what are not. She bought me some gluten free cheese straws and cookies for take home gifts. And she gave me test tasting of many different things so I could figure out if I liked them or not.

I may be her Mah Jongg teacher, but she is my gluten free guru. I am so thankful to have her as the best resource so I don’t have to waste my time or my money buying things that I just end up throwing away because I find them inedible. I had no idea that many of these products existed or that Food Lion and Aldi had such good gluten free selections. That’s what I get for not ever shopping at either of them.

Thanks Kristi for all you do for me, especially giving me this excellent education.

Hysterical

When I was younger I thought Democrats (not individuals), but the party, did not have much of a sense of humor. Every issue was very serious and they probably were, but they couldn’t seem to take a joke.

Then something changed. When Republicans created “Let’s go Brandon” as the clean cover for “F#*k Joe Biden” rather than get his dander up in public Joe embraced it and made a joke about being Dark Brandon. He turned the tables.

Well today Trump included a photo of Dark Brandon drinking from his mug in his legal response To Jack Smith’s request that Trump not release any indictment information to the public. I love that Trump is whining about Dark Brandon as being mean to him when he celebrated the creation of “F#*k Joe Biden.” Joe posting this is not a veiled threat and any lawyer who uses that as justification is not worth what he’s paid. (Oh yeah, he might not get paid, Right Rudi?)

I also love that there are flags that Trump people fly out in public with the F word on it and then they whine about books in school that might be dangerous to kids. Are you kidding me? Stop flying the F word making parents have to explain what that word is to six year olds.

That’s all, no more political talk.

How to Get it to Rain

This summer we planted 15 flats of mondo grass in a section of the front yard that is too shady to grow grass and on a slope where the top soil would wash away. The mondo was well mulched but since they are new planting I had to make sure they are well watered for the first six months.

This last week I drove my black car to the beach and when I got home it looked like a reverse leopard full of spots. The Salt air and spitting rain we had over the four days had left a distinct and I think beautiful pattern on the car, but it had not come off on its own.

After church Russ spent a good hour positioning and repositioning the sprinkler watering the new mondo. Then he took my car to be inspected, got me new wiper blades and washed my car.

That was enough to cause it to rain hard tonight. I am not sorry. We need the rain. My grass and other gardens need the rain and it certainly does not hurt the mondo to get a deeper soaking. The car will survive. It does not have to be pristine for me to drive back to the beach.

So many times I look at the weather forecast and think, I don’t need to water because rain is coming and then it never does. I should know that if I want it to rain all we have to do is water outside and wash the car. It’s guaranteed.

No Southern Hospitality

My friend Shannon came back from Morehead with me to spend the night at our house. My plan was to show her as much southern hospitality as she showed me last month. Best laid plans.

Our power went out at 5:30 this morning. Not that I knew it as I was passed out hard from my grueling week. When I finally woke up at 8:00 Russ alerted me to the news that a car had taken out something major, but the power was scheduled to be back on at 8:30 AM

I know better than to believe those predictions so I asked Shannon if she would like to go out to breakfast. She alerted me that her flight was now delayed an hour so we had all the time in the world.

Russ suggested we go to Press for breakfast and we could show Shannon his office and water his plants. It was a good plan. I suggested we should unlock a door. Russ thought it was a suggestion.

Off we went to a yummy breakfast since Press has lots of gluten free options. We toured Shannon around the ball park, and Russ’ office, downtown and Duke on our way home. We arrived home to no power and a notice that it was going to be 5:30 PM for power.

Just as we pulled up to the garage door Russ realized he had not brought a key and we left no door unlocked. Since we usually go in the house through the garage we were locked out since the garage door opener needs power.

We needed to get into the house to get Shannon’s bags and get her to the airport. I said no problem, I will get the hidden key. Well, the hidden key was not exactly in it’s normal place. I called Carter to see if she had moved it. No and she suggested going in the window she used to use in high school when she snuck back in. Then she remembered that she locked that window when she no longer needed to sneak in the house.

Russ called a lock smith while Shannon and I searched for the key. I kept saying I knew it was there, but as we pulled more and more dead leaves up we did not find it. After about a 20 minute search we did find the key and got in the house. Thankfully it was still in plenty of time to get Shannon to the airport.

She made her flight and went home to 109°temps. At least I can say we gave her cooler weather. On my way home from the airport Russ told me it was now going to be 8:30 PM for the power. I stopped and got ice for the freezers and refrigerator.

We went out to dinner so as not to need to open any appliance. While we were out we got the notice that the power came back on at 6:30PM. Thank goodness I was not having a guest tonight. There is no southern hospitality without air conditioning in the summer.

Morehead City Mah Jongg Madness

Following the spirit of my whole week I had to pack as much as possible into today as it was my last day in Beaufort and teaching Mah Jongg in Morehead city. So Shannon, Annette and I were up early and in our kayaks before most civilized peoples had finished their first coffee.

Shannon and Netta were in the tandem kayak and I rode solo. The tide and wind were against us as we paddled out past Carrot Island with the plan to go into an estuary. It was tough getting there and once we did we changed our plan so we could stop fighting the water. Basically I decided we had paddled hard enough. So we turned back and it took one quarter the time to get back thanks to a favorable tide and the wind at our backs.

So we spent a lovely hour on the porch over looking the water watching other kayakers suffer the current. This was our last morning there and we still needed to clean up and pack, but once we did we had plenty of time to walk the 100 yards to the Front st. grill to have salads for lunch. Then we meandered through the fabulous maritime museum before I had to go to work and Shannon and Netta went to Play Mah Jongg at Coral Bay.

I had my final class at the Morehead City country club with 20 new Mah Jongg enthusiasts. There is nothing more exciting than making your first Mah Jongg. Congratulations to all the students. My friend Mary Jo came to fill in for a missing student. She had a fabulous quints win, which I think was a first for her.

After class Shannon and I made our get away to Durham. On our way we stopped in New Bern and had a yummy seafood dinner. Our only real dinner of the week since we had been in class at dinner time every night. We got back home at nine and Shannon finally met Russ and Shay.

It’s been an action filled week. I am ready to sleep, maybe all weekend. I need to rest up to go back to the beach next week. Mah Jongg never sleeps.

Mah Jongg Day and Night

I’m trying my hardest to get to bed before midnight, but there is so much packed in the day today I am not having much luck. It’s nothing but fun so I can’t complain.

I started with breakfast with my friend Shannon sitting on the porch on Annette’s Nest house on the water in Beaufort. What could be bad. Then we went across the street to see Page and George’s renovation which was almost more fabulous than their Durham house. In Durham I had been Page’s vegetable garden advisor and she show us her vegetables Head and I practically cried I was so proud of her tomatoes.

After Page, Shannon, Annette and I went to Beaufort Grocery for lunch from I went to work at Morehead City. They are the cutest group of women who are catching on fast. I am thrilled to have yet another place where Mah Jongg has taken hold.

I rushed back to Annette’s for the last night with the Beaufort girls class. Everyone passed the class with flying colors and now Annette will have plenty of friends to play with. I can’t wait to come back and continue their education and get to hang out with them.

Now I have to sleep because we are going kayaking in the morning before I finish up teaching at Morehead city. It’s been a wonderful week, but I need some rest.

Burning the Candle on Both Ends

I’m having way too much fun to be working this much. This morning we all got up early to enjoy breakfast on the water, before going out on Annette’s boat for her boating lessons with her instructor Jose. It’s just hard to beat an early morning ride along Carrot Island. We didn’t see any wild horses, but the day was devoid of the normal summer humidity and it made the ride magnificent.

After we got a tour of Annette’s new house, which is across the street from her guest house we are staying in. I am in heaven in her house. We had lunch and I had to leave Shannon and Annette for my first class at Morehead City Country Club.

I drove in and thought I had come in the wrong entrance because although I could see a giant new beautiful club house in the distance I was unsure if I was on a road that got me there. Eventually driving past the cart barn and the giant pile of sand trap sand I found a tiny lane that got me where I was needing to go.

I had a huge class of new players who were a delight and caught on quite quickly. I had one short hour between classes to get from the Country club back to Beaufort, eat dinner and start the second class for the Beaufort gang.

It is Elizabeth Townsend’s birthday so there was a little celebration for her and she proceeded to win all three games at her table. It was not like her opponents were giving her a present and letting her win, she did a great job learning.

Thankfully most other tables had multiple winners and I was especially happy that Page also won since she has been dying to learn.

Everyone left sometime after nine PM and Annette and Shannon and I told each other stories until I realized I had just a few minutes left in the day to write this blog. I am exhausted and have to do it all again tomorrow so it’s off to bed.

Beaufort Bound

Last month I got a call from a woman who wanted Mah Jongg Lessons for Morehead City Country Club. I had just this week available and she took me up on it. Since I was coming to Morehead I thought I should get another class going. You know I hate to travel anywhere and only teach one class a day.

Before I could even think about another class a friend from Durham, Peggy called me about teaching in Beaufort, then another Beaufort friend, Annette called. Seemed like Beaufort was going to be my other class.

Annette jumped right in planning the Beaufort class and invited me to stay with her. I first learned of Annette from my friend Shannon from Fort Worth, because they have been friends since childhood. Shannon told me Annette had gotten a place in Durham and I should meet her. She also lives in Beaufort. So when Annette and I were discussing the Beaufort class, I suggested we get Shannon to come too.

This morning I picked Shannon up at RDU and we drove down to Beaufort. We are staying in Annette’s beautiful guest house and this is where we had Mah Jongg class tonight. Half the people in the class are friends of mine from Durham, including Peggy and at last Page. Page has been trying to take Mah Jongg for the last year and never could get into a class and now she is in one that is across the street from her house. Elizabeth is also in the class and she used to live down the street from me in Durham and now she lives exactly across the street from Annette’s guest house. How fun to have Mah Jongg here. It all just seemed to work out in a wonderful way. I am very grateful for Annette’s generous hospitality and that Shannon could come from Fort Worth and be here!

Soft Hands

This Blog is not about advertising. I purposely don’t except affiliate marketing on my blog and make no money from it. When I write about a product I do it just because I either love it or hate it, but I am not beholden to anyone. If I write about a friend’s product I always say they are my friend so people can take what I say with a grain of salt.

It is well documented that I don’t like to shop. That is, I don’t like to wander around stores and just look at stuff. I know plenty of women for which shopping is their occupation and I make no judgements if that is how they want to spend their time. It’s just not for me.

That being said, it does not mean that I don’t buy things. I am a sucker for a good Deal and Steal on Good Morning America. Recently my hands have been very dry. I think all the needlepointing and hand washing from gardening and cooking have taken a toll on my hands.

So when a hot hand mask came up as a product on GMA I thought I would go ahead and try it. When the box arrived I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the mask I bought was a four use item so I felt like I got a huge bonus.

I tested the mask today. The box suggested you do one hand at a time and reuse the same glove twice. I went with their suggestion and microwaved the glove. It had a little heart on it to tell you when it was safe to put your hand in the hot glove and not burn yourself. I kept the glove on for the required ten minutes. Wow, my hand was so soft. I was left with a bunch of essential oils on my hand which I rubbed in the best I could before re-microwaving the glove to do the other hand.

I can see I could become very addicted to this product. My right hand pinky had been especially dry and now it is back to normal. I have been putting on so much hand lotion of various kinds over the last two months and nothing has worked until this mask. Now I wish I had ordered the feet mask. Too bad there is not a full body mask, but I I would need a much bigger microwave if there was.

Fun With Carter

Much to my delight Carter has taken up needlepoint. She is working on a pillow which is beautiful. So while she was here we made a stop over at Chapel Hill Needlepoint and she found a coaster set to stitch. Needlepoint Nancy knew Carter was a horse girl and produced the perfect canvas of four coasters. She suggested a monogram go in the center, which was brilliant.

Carter and I decided that a simple “C” was the way to go. We looked at some monograms on Pinterest and ended up designing our own font. I worked it out on graph paper and then did a test run up in the corner of the canvas so Carter could decide if she liked it. It was just her style.

This morning Carter and I pulled threads from my extensive stash and I stitched the blue C so Carter would have a template of where to put the others. Counting tiny canvas holes to center anything is hard. At first I out the letter too far to the right. I pulled out the stitches I had done and restarted. Carter liked the placement and now she is set.

Repayment for my needlepoint advice was that Carter cleaned out her bathroom drawers and cabinet and some cabinets and shelves in her room. Three garbage bags later she no longer has any bathing suits from middle school, base metal necklaces from lower school or sunscreen from high school. I so appreciate her tackling this job for me. She promises her closet will be her target on her next visit home.

There is nothing better than having an adult child you love to spend time with. It was a quick four days, but so much fun, even cleaning out the cabinets.

Great Idea Carter

When Carter asked if she could come home to see her Grandmother, she threw out another idea. “How about having our local family for dinner?” What a brilliant idea!

My cousin Leigh and her family live in Durham. We rarely see each other and we actually love them. Leigh’s Mom Janie Leigh lives at Carol Woods now. I have seen her once and that is all my fault. Leigh’s sister Sarah and her family live in Raleigh. We never see them and Sarah used to be Carter’s nanny. My Mom lives at Croasdaile.

It took Carter coming home from Boston for me to invite everyone for dinner. Amazingly everyone was free. Sarah’s son Sam just got home from camp yesterday. Leigh’s oldest Eva literally flew in from her summer job in Buffalo tonight. Emerson, Leigh’s youngest came back from her exchange trip to France. The stars really had to line up for this miracle dinner to happen.

It was 13 people and I didn’t want to have a kids table so we all squeezed around the dining room table. I made a dinner that seemed to satisfy everyone. Cousins and Aunts and Uncles and grand mothers visited and everyone got along. What a brilliant idea! We must do it again soon.

Eva said on her way out the door she would have to read my blog to see what I would say about this dinner. She wanted to know what the lesson would be.

Eva, this is for you. I am thankful to have such a wonderful family made up of such fun and interesting people. I know we don’t see each other enough, but when I do see you I am always happy. I really appreciate that all the young ‘uns didn’t mind spending their Saturday night with their old relatives. I loved spending it with all of you. The lesson…spend more time with your family.

Barbie with My Baby

It’s a joy when your adult child comes home for the weekend just for fun. Carter recognizes that there is not enough time to spend with her grandmother or her dog and the only way to rectify that is to come home when she can. The bonus is I get to see her.

Today Carter had to work, but planned a movie date with me to see Barbie. Carter had already seen it on opening day, technically the day before opening. She said that it was something she wanted to share with me. I realized that I have not been in a movie theatre since 2019 so I welcomed this adventure with Carter.

I was not much of a Barbie girl which I was young. I had a Barbie and a round carrying case with shoes and clothes. Back in those early Barbie days you did not have multiples. Maybe you had a Skipper, but never a Ken. It was more about collecting outfits and shoes. I did sew a few Barbie outfits, but I never quite managed the “fit” because you had to make the waist big enough to go over her boobs, but then it was much too loose around the middle.

I loved the movie, but as far as I am concerned Greta Gerwig is a genius and I knew she would deliver. I must have missed the map scene that caused the Ted Cruz brouhaha. Then again I believe being called woke is a compliment.

Carter wore an outfit In homage to the last scene in the movie, dressing as Barbie did in the real world as a real woman. It was wonderful to be in the theatre full of people of all ages, most dressed in pink, including the men. Hooray for celebrating strong women.

An Unwelcome Visitor

Carter came home today for a short visit. She had to work all day attending a training on Zoom. I got to have a half hour lunch with her during her break. Just as we sat down the door bell rang and Shay went and actually opened the door. Not wanting to spare any of my Carter time to this intruder I went to the door saying, “I’m in a meeting.”

That’s my way of saying, “I don’t care who you are, I am not giving you any time.”

The young man at the door was wearing a DeSantis shirt, hat and lanyard with some badge.

He was polite enough and asked if he could leave me some materials.

“DeSantis Material? Not on your life.” I followed up with something to the effect of he was wasting his time and should go. He wished me a blessed day.

I was saving DeSantis’ money by not taking his collateral material and binning it. I thought he had let a bunch of staff go. Canvassing in Durham at this time of year was interesting since we are not an early primary state. If we are going to start to have a bunch of political people going door to door for the next 18 months I am going to have to get a big sign telling them not to waste their time walking down my walkway.

Breaking in a New Canvas

Most of the time when I needlepoint I am stitching on a painted canvas. It’s mostly coloring with fiber since the artist painted the canvas. In doing the seats for my game table I am free hand needlepointing. I drew a life size picture of the flower I am doing and use a white blank canvas I stitch one section at a time.

I can lay the canvas on the drawing to make sure my size and perspective stay true, but I am having to evaluate each stitch on its own.

I started this flower yesterday. The hardest party about it is breaking in a new starchy canvas to make it more pliable and easier to hold. Today the tips of my fingers on my left hand are a little raw from scrunching up the stiff canvas. I hope that by the time I get to work on the petals of the flower the canvas will be softer.

Until then I suffer so I can continue forward progress. Always my motto. Just keep moving forward.

New Content

As the Sag-Aftra Writers and Actors strike continues I am getting more and more worried about what I am going to watch while trying to finish both the quilt for my mother and my second needlepoint seat.

I am delving deeper and deeper into unknown territory as I try out little known and unrated on rotten tomatoes shows. I have found I am particular to British Female led police procedurals. I loved Happy Valley which was very much in the style of Vera.

This weekend I stumbled upon Janet King, an Australian legal thriller. Usually I don’t like Australian shows half as much as British, but this is how desperate I have gotten.

Janet King is a crown Prosecutor who is calm and bad ass at the same time. Sadly I finished all 24 episodes that make up the three seasons. Since the show ended in something like 2017 I doubt there will ever be another season, which I find very disappointing.

I am tired of waiting for the weekly one episode of many shows I follow to come out. I much prefer to binge many episodes of many seasons of the same show at a time. So I welcome any and all recommendations for old series or favorites.

Because I loved rewatching Ted Lasso right after I watched the last episode for the first time, I am considering rewatching all of Breaking Bad since I loved it so much years ago. I should have no compulsion to reruns since I watched I Love Lucy every night of my childhood. I must have seen each episode at least a dozen times, to the point that I could recite the dialogue, “It’s so tasty too. Just like a candy. This stuff is pretty good once you get used to it. Vitameatavegiman contains Vitamins, Meats, Vegetables and minerals…”

I’m not looking to learn the dialogue to any shows, but if there are some really good odd ones you have been keeping to yourself, please share. It doesn’t look good for new content anytime soon.

Shrimp & Rice, Paella Like Dinner

Russ invited two work colleagues and their spouses for dinner tonight. One of the couples is pescatarian so I was tasked with a fish centric dinner menu.

As it is the height of vegetable production from the garden I was determined to use as much as I could from my own hand. We had some crab salad on cucumber rounds with cocktails.

Then I made an eggplant, cherry tomato, onion, feta and basil bake. A green salad. And a big paella like dish with onions, red peppers, celery, garlic, cherry tomatoes, olive oil, saffron, smoked paprika, bay leaf, rice wine vinegar, shrimp stock, shrimp, grilled okra and lemon juice. Sorry for the list. I did not take a photo and I want to remember what I put in it because it was a yummy dish. I know I should write out the actual recipe but I am too tired tonight.

Dessert was a key lime pie, made with a ginger snap and coconut crust. The pie had more lime juice than normal which made it slightly softer and much tarter.

If I don’t keep notes on what I serve I will never remember it and this was a very good party menu as it was easy to prep in advance.

Thanks to Carolyn, who washed the dishes and cleaned up. I was thankful to have her be one of the spouses who was invited. Since our husbands are going on a work trip tomorrow she can come over and eat leftover with me. I can do the dishes.

If I Start It…

I am a finisher. If I start something, I finish it. I was not always like that. As a child I often would start some craft project, not be pleased with how it was going and abandon it. As I aged I learned that practice makes perfect. So I trained myself to keep at things to learn how to do them better.

I have always liked production work. I like to make all kinds of things and make them in bulk. That was one of the reasons silk screen appealed to me. I could make many prints of the same thing. This served me well in college. So many friends told me at our 40th reunion that they still have a print they bought from me in college.

When I got in my head that I wanted to make needlepoint seats for my four game table chairs I knew it was a huge undertaking. I had a fabric that was on a Martha Jefferson Chair in my living room that was the perfect inspiration for my needlepoint chairs.

So I bought 110 inches of canvas. That alone was enough of a commitment. I drew out the design for the first chair and I started stitching. I had thought I would paint the canvas, but I realized that step was unnecessary since it was a fairly simple design. Each chair will be one flower from the fabric.

April is my busiest month in teaching, but I started stitching then just the same. I set a goal to be done with the first chair before the middle of August. I finished today more than three weeks in advance.

I might have stitched a much bigger background than necessary because the upholsterer told me to add 1 1/2 inches extra around the whole seat template. That’s a boat load more. This is by far the biggest single canvas I have ever stitched at 26×28 inches.

I am hoping to take the chair over to the upholsterer and have him tell me the next one can be slightly smaller.

Tomorrow I will draw out the design of the next one. I am setting the goal of being done before Thanksgiving. I hope that I can beat that goal well in advance too since I still have three chairs to do. See I have to finish what I start.

Shay Loves So Hard

It’s hard to believe that Shay turned 12 last month. To us she is still “the puppy.” On his way into the office yesterday a woman who works in the daycare in Russ’ building stopped him and asked where the puppy was. Russ used to be able to slip into work unnoticed, but not now that he is associated with Shay. Even the ladies at the dry cleaning drive up want to know where she is when she is not in the car.

We have discovered something about labradoodles recently that is true to Shay. The older they get the more attached and needy they are, as well as the more anxiety ridden. This is not a good thing, but we endure her need to be with us at all times, especially with Russ.

We never have a moment when we wonder where she might be, because she is as close to you as she can be. No complaining about being so loved. It’s the best thing in the world. I wish everyone felt this much love.

Happy Harvest Friday

The heat and the squirrels have been rough on my garden. Today I did have a good harvest. Eggplants have come into their own. Zucchini are failing. I am picking tomatoes while they are free to keep them from the squirrels. The peppers are thriving. Cucumbers are slowing. Okra is King

Thank goodness I am going to Maine in a few weeks so I can pull out whatever is spent before I go so I don’t have to come home to total failure. I may have to put in a fall garden this year just to redeem myself.

Mah Jongg At Work

Russ invited me to share Mah Jongg with his team at work. The only catch is I only had a few hours to tech them how to play the game. They area bunch of smart strategy consultants, mostly young, so I took the challenge.

I sent them a pre-read to learn what the tiles were before I got there and One team member took notes on the white board as I taught them the rules. They were playing their first game in less than an hour and a half and most of them caught on fast.

Russ and his partner Rich were at the same table together and were mor like the old men in the Muppets in the theatre, but they caught on too. This is the first time I have ever gotten Russ to play Mah Jongg.

It was a great team building event I just hope everyone is going to actually do their work and not play Mah Jongg during working hours.

Gluten Free Advice

My doctor has asked me to go gluten free for a while. I had already given up enriched foods due to my MTHFR. Now no wheat at all. When she suggested no gluten her follow up was, “You can still have rice and potatoes.” I have never made a potato BLT.

So I turn to all my gluten free friends and ask for your recommendations. What is the best bread? Is there a bakery in or near Durham you like? Which GF pasta is your favorite?

Russ is not thrilled with this recommendation so I am going to probably make two versions of things until I can figure out acceptable gluten free options.

I am open to any and all ideas from those of you who have gone gluten free.

Sometimes I Play

Had such a fun night of Mah Jongg with the Holding girls. Kelsey is only in Raleigh for a few more days so I am thrilled they invited me to come spend the evening playing.

It was a fairly balanced night with everyone winning their fair share. I made a terrible mistake and no one called me dead. That’s what I get for not playing with a card and needlepointing. It’s not usually good for the teacher to do that, but it does prove I’m human.

I love hearing about who is playing with whom and who is doing well. All the Holdings can hold their own and play with the sharks. We played at a great speed and I did not get as much needlepoint in as I wished.

I am getting to play again on Friday. There just is not enough time in life to play all the Mah Jongg you want.

Thursday I am teaching Russ’ company how to play. Mah Jongg is good practice for strategic thinking. That and it’s just fun.

Reading Hotel Reviews is a Life’s Work

I’ve spent a good part of today booking travel for up coming trips all the way out to October. I miss the days when I called our wonderful travel gent Barbara Crane and just tell her where I needed to go and she would take care of everything. Barbara always knew the best places and the best deals. Now I have to do everything myself. Reading reviews is about the biggest time suck I can find, but it is how I figure out if I am ever going to stay some place.

As I was comparing one hotel to another I had a terrible flashback of a Holiday Inn in Charlotte I stayed in my first year working out of college. I was there to sell some mail opening machines and my company’s standard hotel was Holiday Inn. It was back in the day when the rooms opened out onto the sidewalk.

This particular morning I had calls to make to customers so I ordered room service for breakfast so I could work. I should have known better than to order a bagel in Charlotte in 1983. The tray came and there was a little paper cup of “cheese” next to the non-toasted bagel.

I was still making phone calls and I let the tray sit on the table for a while. When I finally got around to thinking about breakfast I was furious to see that they had sent blue cheese instead of cream cheese. What did they know about bagels in the Queen City back then.

I called to the restaurant to say they had sent blue cheese and the hostess said, “Miss, we don’t have blue cheese.”

Well that was about the worst thing she could have said. You can bet I never stayed at that Holiday Inn again. How I wish there was an internet to leave a review at for that place.

Everyone Was at Nana Steak Tonight

Russ and I had to take his smart car to Cary to drop it off for service. At the last minute we decided to go out to dinner after dropping the car off. Russ looked at Open Table and saw that there were plenty of reservations at Nana Steak. Oh, I love July in Durham. Thankfully no one is in town and you can get reservations at the last minute.

We got there and there were plenty of empty tables. The Pottenger’s came in soon after us to celebrate Sara’s birthday. Then we saw the Spratt/Tendlers, then the Rands. Seemed like we weren’t the only ones who thought a summer Sunday night was a good night to go out.

Some of the only people we didn’t know at Nana’s tonight were the table of seven Russian young women at the table next to us. They got up from the table to go outside to smoke between ordering and the first course coming and between the first and second course.

It was such a throw back to see people smoking at dinner. I could not imagine how terrible the food tastes if you are smoking right up until the moment it arrives and then that you must have another cigarette right after you finish.

Thankfully people can’t smoke inside and ruin our dinner. I wonder if they can smoke inside restaurants in Russia.

I can’t imagine what is going on in Durham that is drawing large numbers of Russian women in their 30’s to town, but I am certain it’s not to go to the center for smoking cessation.

Not Such A Fun Saturday

Today was the worst kind of hot soup like weather day. Russ came out to work in the garden with me. Now the squirrels are just taunting me. They are eating the stolen tomatoes on the top of the garden gate and leaving enough evidence for me to know what they are doing.

Most of my zucchini plants have gotten boring worms and the stems are eaten out rendering the rest of the plant useless. I pulled them out and Russ composted them. I had okra that had not been picked while I was at the beach so it had grown to baseball bat size and hardness. There were plenty of peppers and one beautiful eggplant.

After pulling weeds and picking as many almost ready to not be green tomatoes as I could we had to stop. Both Russ and I were blind from the sweat pouring in our eyes. And this was in the morning. We gave up on outdoor pursuits and went inside for cool showers and equally boring indoor work.

I had been noticing that the shelves in Russ’ office were not only full of the most random things, but also a king’s ransom amount of dust, if dust were valuable. I decided I would take everything off his selves on two book cases and clean all the stuff and the shelves. It was not Russ’ idea of fun when I asked him to look at the accumulation of things and see if anything could be tossed, recycled, given away, moved to a better location or filed.

He did a good job with all these treasures, like three old flip phones, a bobble head likeness of himself that his team had given him, old metal piggy banks and mementos from Carter, which I put back on the shelves. We pared the books down to ones he loved and did away with odd balls that people had given him and he had no interest in. It took an inordinate number of dust rags to clean everything, but I think his lungs will thank me. He still has his eccentric collection of mechanical toys and wind up moneys, but it will be much easier for me to dust.

The good news was it was so much cooler and not so sweat inducing inside that I didn’t mind working on this project. Please just don’t make me weed in this weather.

Tomato Heaven

Yesterday my friend Lee Vann gave me a few of her husband’s special zebra tomatoes. Since it was over 90° out I didn’t want to leave these babies in the car to bake. So when I got to Kate’s last night I brought the bag in her house.

This morning when I went to class I carried the tomatoes in with me. After class I went to do a private lesson at a friend’s and I brought those tomatoes into her house. I drove those tomatoes home tonight. Carrying these tomatoes around like a baby I just had to have one for dinner. I offered Russ one for his dinner, but he declined.

I got some pesto out of the freezer, sliced up one of the gorgeous globes, put some fresh mozzarella and balsamic vinegar on along with a strong amount of freshly cracked pepper.

Was carrying that bag of tomatoes around worth it. ABSOLUTELY. Thank you Lee. Thank your husband. There is nothing better than a gorgeous vine ripped tomato fresh from the farm.

Mah Jongg Many Ways

Two classes, one private lessons, shopping for Mah Jongg note pads, and four games played after dinner, I’m not sure I could have squeezed more Mah Jongg into the day. Boy was it fun.

As always I have had the best students at Coral Bay this week. The strategy class finished today and they pushed themselves to learn lots of new ways of thinking.

The beginners have one more class in the morning and they all will graduate with honors.

After classes my friend Lee and her sister Lynn stayed after class to learn how to play Siamese Mah Jongg. In return Lee brought me some very special tomatoes from her farm. I am taking good care of these tomatoes until I can get them home tomorrow.

Tonight Phyllis and her husband Stuart had Kate and me over for a yummy dinner and to play a few games of Mah Jongg. Phyllis has taken to Mah Jongg in a big way. She says that she can remember things better now that she has been playing Mah Jongg. I’m just glad she is having fun.

Beach Mah Jongg is always the best way to spend the summer. I loved seeing some of my previous students sitting out under the umbrella in their swim suits playing Mah Jongg all afternoon. Can anything be better?

Good Day at the Office

Normally a day I get up at 5AM in order to get to work by 8:30 is not a good day, except when work is at the beach.

It’s Mah Jongg week July style at the Coral Bay club. Two big classes of beginners and beyond beginners. I often wonder when is the day going to come when I have already taught everybody Mah Jongg, but it’s not today.

After a fun day of classes with some fabulous students, especially mother’s and daughters or sisters and friends I got to retire to my friend Kate’s. Kate is the very generous hostess who has had me stay so many times I have lost count. She provides a spa like room, two entertaining dogs and good light for needlepointing. The view can’t be beat.

In return I take her to dinner which is hardly a fair trade. The good news is she did have a very yummy drink which also was pretty to boot. On the way out of the restaurant we ran into Kate’s friend Phyllis who has taken to Mah Jongg is the biggest way. I can’t wait for tomorrow when we go to Phyllis’ house for a cook out and a little playing on the side.

I don’t even mind getting up at 5am for these kind of days.

The Sauce’s the Thing

In the ever increasing need to use up garden items I made zucchini fritters for dinner. They are just shredded squash, feta, chopped mint, onions, flour, egg, Parmesan, red pepper flakes and black pepper. The amounts hardly matter. Just a sprinkle of flour to bind things together and as little egg as you can get away with. Cook them like pancakes in a nonstick pan.

The real reason to make them was to be able to make an herb sauce. I have many herbs in my garden and I like to use as many of them as possible while they are still young and tender. Tonight I cut a handful of chives, basil and oregano. I pulled all the leaves off the stemmed herbs and chopped it all up together. I had about a third of a cup of the minced greenery. To that I added a heaping spoonful of mayo and three spoonfuls of sour cream, juice of half a lemon and a good sprinkle of garlic powder.

Not only was the sauce good on the zucchini , but also on the leftover okra and lamb Russ ate. This sauce would make cardboard taste good.

Pepper Report

Earlier in the week I posted about my purple peppers. Many of you wanted to know what they tasted like. Today I made a Greek salad for lunch using the purple peppers, along with tomatoes, cucumbers and basil from the garden. I added store bought onions, olives and avocado along with feta cheese, so I can’t say I grew my whole lunch.

The peppers were mild, with a similar taste to green peppers. They were only purple on the outside with a light green interior. There was nothing surprising or interesting about them other than color.

I harvested more peppers today and I pan roasted some mild ones for dinner tonight. I wish I knew what variety they were exactly, but it is something similar to shishito. They were yummy. With just a sprinkle of sea salt they are the perfect snack.

I also had plenty of jalapeños and another similar green pepper that Russ says are good with his eggs in the morning. I have habanero out there, but they are not ripe yet.

Report on the squirrel front is not good. I had three large tomatoes that were almost ripe that the squirts got to before I did. The frustrating thing is they left half carcasses in the green just to taunt me. Damn Squirrels.

Micro Weather

When I was a kid my father would say that the job he really wanted was to be a rock and roll weather man on the radio. What kind of a stupid job is that, I thought. Who cares that much about the weather and who wants to listen to it in song format?

My father’s obsession with weather never wained. When cable TV came about his channel of choice was the weather channel. He constantly would tell me about the personalities who were on the weather channel as if they were his friends. Sometimes he would say that some outfit the weather girl was wearing would look nice on Carter. Like either Carter or I knew who this girl was, let alone wha she was wearing.

As I have aged I am beginning to see some of my father’s same obsession with weather, but just for the sole purposes of watering my garden.

Russ and I are constantly checking the radar, watching where a storm may be going and lamenting when rain just skates by us by just a smidge. You can’t listen to the weather on TV and have any certainty that what is predicted to happen will actually happen at your house.

When they say all news is local, what they really mean is all weather that is happening right at your house is all that matters.

I sleep through most night time weather events, but thankfully Russ is able to report in on any nighttime storms. Today we thought we were going to get rain in the afternoon and it amounted to less than a garden sprinkler on for two minutes. Anything under the trees stayed bone dry.

I guess I am becoming more like my Dad in my old age, just without the rock and roll part.

Faking Out The Squirrels

For the record Squirrels don’t like tomatoes. I have watched many a squirrel bite into many tomatoes and after one unpleasant bite after another they don’t learn that all those tomatoes taste the same and they don’t like them. This fact does not stop the dumber than a box of hammers rodents from constantly biting my tomatoes.

I have a number of cherry tomato plants and I have been keeping my eye on the the ripening fruit. I think that some tomatoes might be ripe tomorrow and when tomorrow comes the fruit is missing. Did I dream that there were almost ripe tomatoes? NO! It’s just that a squirrel has come and stolen the red ones.

So today I put two fake snakes up on top of my garden fence. As I was looking out the window tonight I saw a squirrel run along the top of the fence and stop and look at the snake. It stood there for a good five minutes. Long enough for me to take this blurry picture of it and to run down stairs and outside and scare it away with my voice.

I then sprinkled a bunch of cayenne pepper all long the top of that stringer. I hope between the pepper and the snake the squirrel will think twice about stealing my tomatoes. I am considering getting a fake owl and an ultra sonic noise machine.

I am happy for squirrels to eat the acorns and other food that grows on my property, but just biting the tomatoes and discarding them is maddening. I am not running a squirrel drive thru. Feeding squirrels is not my pleasure.

Big Sucky Day

On the Fourth of July I celebrated by ordering myself a new Dyson stick vacuum. My old stick would only hold a charge for three steps. Since the canister cap had also broken I decided that just replacing the battery was not the answer to my three-step failure.

Waiting two days for the arrival of my new vacuum was tough, but not as bad as waiting for it to charge after it arrived.

I unboxed the beauty to discover more attachments than I have on all my other appliances combined. I did get to test the stick out for one step and discovered one feature I do not like. I have to hold the trigger to keep the machine on.

While the vacuum was charging I went right to the internet to see if this lack of a trigger lock was actually true. Sure enough, thanks to “safety” regulations Dyson fears you might get sucked into your own vacuum if it is left running and unattended. As a professional vacuumer I knew I could withstand the superior suction.

Apparently I am not alone in finding this must-hold-the-trigger not a feature at all. There are many off brand trigger locks available and I ordered one right away. So tomorrow will have to be the big cleaning day.

I am most interested in how much I can get cleaned before the battery needs recharging. See, once I start vacuuming I want to clean everything. If I am interrupted by the lack of power it takes a day or two before the cleaning bug gets me again. I know that I could turn to a corded vacuum, but somehow that option never dawns on me.

Let the great sucking begin.

Surprise of Purple

When you buy vegetable plants you are taking the word of the tag saying what the variety it is. I can tell the difference between a tomato seedling and a zucchini. But I can’t tell a habanero pepper seedling from an ancho. Pepper seedlings tend to look like when they are little.

I bought six different varieties of peppers at the Durham Farmers Market in April. One plant of each from sweet to your-heads-on-fire hot. So far I have gotten some Jalapeños which are the most useful, so I’m happy with that.

I tend to like big sweet red peppers, which are just green peppers that you have left to turn red. I thought I had one of those plants, but imagine my surprise when I got three nice sized purple peppers. They glossy and beautiful. We have not tried them yet, but based on their size and shape I am assuming they are sweet.

Purple peppers are just one of life’s little surprises. They probably taste like green, red or orange, but they are so much cuter being purple.

I hope that life brings you some sweet purple surprises this week. A rainbow of colors is so much better than a monochrome of all green, even if they are beautiful greens. I celebrate the rainbow. The world needs purple peppers right now. We need to see beauty in all things that are different. They are still peppers, just a little different. Hooray for the surprise of purple.

Silent Fireworks Please

It’s reported that Americans will spend over $2.3 billion on fireworks this Fourth of July. I suggest that the fireworks manufacturers should give 10% of their profits for anti-anxiety meds for our dogs.

I don’t know anyone’s dogs who like fireworks. Shay is a quivering mess and it is not even dark yet. Some nimrod is setting off firecrackers on the street behind us. I really don’t know the appeal of fireworks that just make noise. Sparkle and glitter is wonderful, but why do we need explosions? And explosions alone… it’s just cruelty to dogs.

I can’t speak to cats. I feel like they can act disinterested, even if they are nervous wrecks. The sweetness of dogs makes them feel all the scary feelings that fireworks bring. Let’s not even get into the veterans with PTSD who might not like explosions.

So I am starting a campaign to get rid of the sound in fireworks. Who is with me? I’m not sure who the regulator is for them, but no one is enforcing the no fireworks rule in municipalities where they exist. I think most fireworks are made in China. Let’s get the conspiracy theorists in on taking the sound out of fireworks because they might be some communist plot to take down America by scaring our dogs. We are after all a country that loves dogs.

Let’s make July Fourth Happy for the whole family.

Visiting with my Aunt

I had a long overdue visit with my Aunt Janie Leigh today. She called me on Saturday and I invited her for lunch for today. I should have known my inviting her for lunch would mean she would pick up the check. Not my plan.

My cousin Leigh joined us, which was so fun. We talked all about many relatives and if you are one we probably talked about you. You will never know what nice things were said.

After lunch at Mediterranean Deli, thankfully my car not towed from the private lot I left it in, we went back to Carol Woods. I had not see Janie’s apartment so she invited me in to see it. Leigh did not join us, but we did promise to see each other more.

Janie’s apartment was a long walk from the door and she did say it accorded her many steps a day. Her place was very cute. Her kitchen was particularly large for the size of her unit. She said she had only turned her stove on twice in a year.

We had the best visit. I have no excuse for not visiting her sooner and vow to see her more regularly. Perhaps at the next MichiePalooza which we need to start planning. So all you Michie’s let’s start a group chat about it. There is not enough time to be together and it won’t happen without a concerted effort.

Shay’s Ground Crew

Earlier in the spring I ripped out our tiny courtyard garden. I was hoping to replant then, but the plan still haven’t gotten to me. So we await fall for planting.

In the meantime there are just a few volunteer plants and weeds that keep coming up. Not a worry because Shay’s bunny brigade come in to be the ground’s crew. They nibble away on most anything that is growing there in the comfort of the small space, protected from hawks.

I think Shay’s grounds crew nibbled away my whole zinnia garden before it had a chance to take root. Shay is a very bad supervisor. She rarely gets after those bunnies and they have no fear of her.

I may have to employ the hawks as my crew. Shay is not going to be happy.

The Big Fig Newton

I have no rhyme nor reason why a fig tree produces very few figs one year and a huge amount the next. I have had a fig tree that has been a lame producer for years. In the last few years I have hacked it practically down to nothing in the fall. Partly out of frustration and partly because it was growing into the Land Cruiser.

This year, for some unknown reason this lackadaisical producer has exploded with fruit. There are hundreds of figs growing all over this gigantic tree. Are they edible? Who knows, as they have not yet ripened.

Russ tells me the tree is teasing him since he looks out on it from his home office window. He has picked a few figs only to discover they were much too hard. I am hoping that these fruits ripen soon and that we can pick them all before they fall on the Land Cruiser which is currently engulfed by the tree.

I know the figs are not that close to being ripe because the birds have shown no interest. I am certain Russ will alert me as to their readiness. I am not sure if we have the right ladder to get all the figs, but there are so many on low hanging branches I am certain to get more than we can use.

I wonder if I can make homemade fig newtons? No worries, I do know that the best use for figs are on pizza with blue cheese and pistachios. Russ is going to be happy.

One More Quilt

There is not much my mother needs or wants, but she does love the quilts I make her. She wants a quilt that coordinates with the painting above her bed. She told my sister Janet that is all she wanted in life, another quilt. My sister’s response to her was, “Good luck with that.” Janet knows how busy I am and how long it takes for me to make a quilt.

My mother is 85. She may only look 65, but still I know she is 85. So when she asked me if I would make her yet another a quilt, what could I say but, “yes.”

I had purposely taken two weeks off from teaching around the forth of July so I could get some things done around the house. Now these two weeks are filled with my working on this quilt.

It will take me much longer than two weeks, but at least I have a good block of time to get the foundation of the quilt done. Russ and Carter are off in Bucks County visiting Russ’ family. So I cut and sew and figure out exactly how many blocks I need.

So much for projects around the house. At 85 I am not sure how many more quilts my mother is going to need. I have already made her three others. When she gets to 90 and says all she wants is one more quilt I am going to put my foot down, but not until she is 90.