ICE CREAM MAN

Showers and thunderstorms ending by 3pm. Mostly cloudy with temperatures steady near 75F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%

Saturday the start of the Memorial Day weekend. My neighbor and I have had big garage sales on this weekend in the past. This year she advertised and I was suppose to lug all of my stuff to her garage in case of rain. When I got up this morning I really didn't feel like doing it. So I just brought over a couple of bins of stuff. She has a whole garage full of stuff so I am sure if we get busy there will be enough to choose from. As it turns out it is going to rain so I don't think we will have much business.

We belong to a neighborhood social site. Correspondence is done through e mail. It's called i neighbor, there must been things like this across the country. We get news of various levels of information to local burglaries to someone celebrating an event. One of our neighbors decided to complain on the site about the ice cream truck that comes through our neighborhood every afternoon. He feels the little jingle it plays it much too large. My husband and I could not believe this. The ice cream truck is as Americana as hot dogs and apple pie. It brings back such memories. The truck comes up our street everyday and we don't usually buy ice cream and we only have one house on our block that has children and we look forward to the truck and the children who come running. One neighbor responded by saying it was a big rip off. He told his kids to call her Mrs. Rip Off. I say it's better for the children to come running on foot and bike to get to the truck and spend $1.50 for an ice cream, rather than walking from their computer to the house freezer to get their 50 cent ice cream. The young lady driving the ice cream truck is a college student just trying to make a buck to get through college. I say what the hell is wrong with these neighbors.

This little bit of musical "noise". is a lot less annoying than the people in our neighbor who decided on their own to clean up the abandoned cemetery behind our house. Chain saws, weed whackers and lawn mowers singing to us first thing on a Sunday morning. My husband had to go out to the cemetery and tell them it was absolutely ridiculous to be making all that noise on a Sunday morning. There has not been anyone buried in that cemetery since about the late 1800's. And as far as we could tell that have chopped down a lot of wild vegetation like berry bushes.

My daughter was suppose to return from CT on Tuesday evening and have Wednesday and Thursday off and go back to CT for Friday and Saturday and then return home at Saturday night for good. This has not changed, she is going to work straight through until Thursday evening and be home for good.

Sunday I put together a little luncheon for my brother and my cousin. My brother brought the steaks and I made Italian Style potato salad, macaroni salad and baked beans. I am going to try to start posting some recipes as soon as I figure out how to do that. We ate about 2 and everyone sat around on the porch until early evening. My cousin brought a delicious cheese cake with cherry topping and I made rice pudding, another family recipe I want to post.

MY SOLITUDE

Today was mostly sunny with tempertures into the high 70's. No humidity.

Today was a quiet day, thank goodness. Left work at 1, came home and puttered around doing some laundry and a little weeding. My husband came home and mowed and trimmed. We headed over to the daughter's house to check on the cat and then pickedup some Chinese food on the way home. We had dinner on the front porch. So a nice quiet day.

A CIVILIAN AT A MILITARY AFFAIR

Partly cloudy with temperatures rising towards the mid 70s. Winds light and variable.

Last night was the retirement ceremony for the Colonel I use to work for. The ceremony was to begin at 2:30 and the dinner at the Officer's Club at 5:30. So my husband had to come home early and put on a suit and tie, that was a lot of fun. When you don't wear a suit and time but once every couple of years it is quite interesting trying to get in all together. We got to the university about 2:15 parked and went in. There I saw some of the people I have worked with the last couple of years I was in that job. It was fun to reminisce. The ceremony was late getting started because the General, who was coming from the Pentagon, flight was late arriving. The ceremony was very beautiful without a dry eye. Then we went to the dinner, great cocktail hour and a delicious dinner with many more guests speaking about the Colonel's achievements. He married a Spanish women when he was stationed in Spain in 1980, brought her and her 4 year old son here to America. He had accomplished many great things serving his country and every one was very proud to know him. His family from Spain came to be here as was his family from Pennsylvania. I was so happy to be a part of that as a civilian.

WAITING FOR THE STORM

Partly cloudy with temperatures rising towards the upper 70s. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph.

I love thunderstorms and so does my daughter. We love to sit on the front porch and watch as they approach and then run in the house when the wind whips the rain around so much that sitting on the porch isn't possible without getting wet. Usually though we can sit huddled on the porch through the whole thing. Our storms usually approach from the west. I would love to have a more clear view to the west but there are so many trees we can only see down the street.

Yesterday they predicted thunderstorms in the late afternoon and I was so excited I might be home in time to sit and watch. I had taken my cousin and her husband to the airport at 1:30 and it was still sunny so I new I had enough time to get home. I waited for the storm, my husband came home from work and we had dinner, I waited for the storm, we went to visit my daughter's cat to see if she was all set with food and water, my daughter is away again in CT, I waited for the storm, I played a game of Scrabble with my neighbor, not on the front porch tonight, too hot, I waited for the storm, I waited for the storm, I crawled into bed exhausted, I waited for the storm, I heard from my daughter via a text message that she was safe and sound back in her hotel room after a two hour drive to CT and a long day at work, I waited for the storm, I started to doze off, THEN THE STORM!! It was a strange sort of storm. Coming at us directly from the north. I guess not too unusual considering weather all around the globe has been unpredictable. I have an i phone so I can click on the weather site and check the Doppler radar and I watched that storm approach. All the windows were closed in the house because the AC was on but I just had to open the window in the bedroom to listen to the sounds of the thunder and the crackling of the lightening. I must have been tired because in the past if a storm approached during the night I would still run downstairs to the porch and sit and watch, last night I watched from the bed. I fell asleep to the sound of the distant thunder.

BACK TO NORMAL

Very warm today and sunny. We broke a record at 96 degrees. Some thunderstorms may occur later in the evening.

This was the last morning that I would have my guest she will go home today on at 2:45 flight back to Florida. I love having her here, I just love having guests in general. This morning I went out to the bagel shop to get some fresh bagels to have with our coffee as we sat on the porch early and listened to the early morning sounds of the birds chirping.

We took our time getting going. We drove to my cousin's to visit them for the last time before my cousin goes home. We stayed long enough to join them for lunch and then I got my cousin and her husband to the airport by 1:30.

I stopped by to see my husband as his office where he is overseeing the reconstruction of a very busy road very close to the airport. Then I left and stopped by to get a very large container of cut up fruit at the market and some ham and cheese to make nice cool sandwiches for dinner.

My daughter made it bacK to CT in a very hot car. her air conditioning decided to stop running on the hottest day of the spring so far.

TUESDAY

It was very hot today and somewhat humid, high about 85 degrees.

It certainly seemed a lot warmer than 85 degrees outside around the pool today trying to get all of the guests fed who arrived after the funeral.

I got to my cousin's house about 10:30 and my helpers arrived shortly after. Everyone was due to arrive at 12:00 noon. So we got all of the food ready to be brought out to the pool and waited. My brother called at about noon and said that my cousin had requested that the funeral procession go by their house on their way from the church to the cemetery. So we all waited outside to see them go by and waived to Dom on his way by his house for the last time.

I got home about 3:30, and I was exhausted and very hot.

My daughter leaves tomorrow for CT again. She talked to the District Manager from CT on Monday by phone and everyone was in agreement that my daughter was not ready to take the promotion. The DM was going to offer her another position in CT but my daughter wasn't interested in that position. So they all agreed that she will go back to her old job on June 7th.

QUILTS

Sunny with temperatures warming into the low to middle 80s. Winds light and variable.

I told everyone at work I was going to take Mon, Tue, Wed off this week for the death of my cousin's husband. I am hosting out of town family tonight and tomorrow night and I felt I needed to have the time off. They were just ok with it. So yesterday I tried to rush around and get everything done with the hope that I could go into work this morning for my regular 8-1 shift. But last night when I went to bed I didn't feel like I was done. So this morning when I got up I decided to stay home anyway. I got up early and the first thing on my agenda was to get the guest room freshened up. Changed the sheets on the bed and put on a new quilt.

When I first married my husband his mother and grandmother introduced me to homemade quilts that were had tied. I have made a few of them over the years but nothing compared to the ones that my mother in law has made. I have them on all of my bed and they may not looked at put together as the comforter sets you see in catalogs but they are very beautiful. Besides were are not loves the the comforter. there is nothing like a cotton quilt for warmth and comfort. I made one for my parents a long time ago and after my father died I took it home when we finally broke up his apartment. It was the only blanket he had in his apartment. It needs a bit of repair right now but I am going to make it a point to fix it and use for a long time. My mother in law made my daughter a pink one that was different colors and patters of pink calico. I was able to match the calico to fabric for cafe style curtains for her bedroom. I still have that one. When my mother in law broke up her house she gave my daughter one that has Christmas colors throughout. So many of them have such memories. My daughter even had one for her American Girl doll that my mother in law made in a miniature version.

The third bedroom in our house no one uses either but the cats have sort of taken that room over as theirs so I wanted to wash the quilt on that bed. I don't think I am going to need that room but I wanted it to be free of cat hairs on the bed. The bathroom was just cleaned the other day by my cleaning lady so that was ok.


I had three baskets of laundry to put away. And sometimes I am a little lax when it comes to getting the laundry put away. It may sit on the settee in the bedroom for a day or two before I get to it. so I put all the laundry away. I got dressed and puttered around downstairs a little.

I got in the car and drove to get myself and ice coffee and then a quick trip to Walmart. I needed a couple of things in the health and beauty area.

Also, my cousins who is coming from Florida for this funeral, her mother is buried in the same cemetery that we are gong to be going for the burial. I promised her I would take care of placing some flowers on the grave site for Memorial Day and since we are going to be in the cemetery tomorrow I thought it would be nice to have the flowers there already in case she happens to wander over to her mother's grave. So I did that this morning. I also stopped by the husband's office and grabbed him ad took him to the men's clothing store where he shops. We are going to a military retirement ceremony and dinner at the officer's club for the Colonel I use to work for. This is on Thursday and he needed a new dress shirt. So we did that.

Then I stopped by my cousin's to drop off a change of clothes for me for tonight. I am wearing a dress to the wake and when get to her house after the wake I am going to change in to cotton pants and a top because it is going to be hot and I am going to be serving food. I want to be comfortable.

Then I went to the market again to get somethings I thought I might need for my guests. Some fresh bread from the bakery for breakfast, some fresh fruit etc.

Then I finally went home. I will be leaving for the wake about 3:30.

THE BUTCHER SHOP

Partly cloudy with temperatures steady near the upper 70s. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.

Got up early this morning and went grocery shopping. I had to pick up the ingredients I needed to make the dish I was bringing to my cousin's after the wake tomorrow night.

After the market we came home and I made a breakfast, cheese omelet and fresh bagesl. I also bought some fresh fruit.


I got the chicken and potatoes ready to be roasted. My husband peeled and cut up the 5 lbs of potates. I had to cook the chicken in two huge roasting pans and the potatoes in another roasting pan. After everything was cooked I realized that I could consolidate everyting to take to the house. I had the butcher at the supermarket cut the breats in half and I bought eight of them so I had 16 breast pieces than I bought eight drumsticks and 10 thighs. I coated evertying with EVOO and sprinkled a generous amout of seasonsings and covered the pan and cook it in a 350 oven for an hour then I took the cover off and broiled the chicken until it was nice and brown.

After I was done. I went to visit my cousin and everyone seems to be doing good. So many people have begun to bring food and they were telling me what to expect in the way of food tomorrow night when I get there to set things up.

Speaking of the butcher at the supermarket. When I was growing up we lived on block that had a butcher shop right in the middle of the block. My brother worked his way through school there as did many of the neighborhood boys. The butcher who worked there when that shop finally closed is now working at the supermarket where I shop in the butcher shop. When I get ready to make my homemade Italian sauce I got to the counter and say Bob I am making sauce and he just says ok and I go finish my grocery shopping and he has everything ready for me when I get back. All the meats ready to use to make my sauce. The meat for the meatballs, the broccila ready to be stuffed and the sausage links, everyting all packed and ready to go.

Because all of the young guys worked in the butcher shop in our neighbor when I was growing up, it was the thing to do for the girls to hang out around back so we could catch a glimpse of the guys maybe coming out to take a cigarette break or going to get lunch. We even would try to peek in the windows at the back of the store. We were yelled at so many times by the owner of the shop to get away from the windows. There were a lot of very good looking guys working in that butcher shop.

So my daughter made it back from CT about 6:30. She has Monday and Tuesday off so she will be able to be with us for the wake and funeral.

My neighbor and I were able to get two games of Scrabble in tonight on the front porch. It was a beautiful evening.

A TYPICAL SATURDAY

This was the rhododendron this morning. It is just about in full bloom one whole week ahead of schedule.

Today's high was about 81 with a hazy sun. A little bit of humidity.

I love Saturday mornings. We usually get out of the house early and do whatever errands we need to do. The area we live is getting really heavily populated so going anywhere on the weekends usually involves a bit of traffic. I am not saying that it is any ting like California, Washington DC or NYC I might just be saying my own way that we are getting old and don't have patience with traffic.

- I got up at 6 which is early for me on the weekend. During the work week the earliest I get up is 6:30. My husband is usually up by 5:15 and off to work by 6:00. Even on the weekends he is up early. I beat him this morning. I think a lot had to do with the fact that it was humid in the house and I kept waking up feeling sweaty, falling back to sleep with no covers and waking up cold.

- Our first stop was a local bakery/coffee shop, not a the chain type like Dunkin Donuts, but a family owned and operated bakery/coffee shop. Coffee and an egg and cheese sandwich.

- Then we went to Lowe's where I had to get a new lamp shade for the swing arm lamp on the front porch and a motion sensitive wall light for the back porch.

- Then we went home and installed the lamp on the back porch and put the new shade on the lamp on the front porch.

- Then we took a ride to our favorite garden shop. Or I should say one of our favorite garden shops. All of the garden shops in our area I love. This particular shop is owned by a couple who's wife my husband worked with at one time. We bought a hanging basket to hang on one of pillars outside the front porch. I will try to post a picture tomorrow.

- Then we stopped at the grocery store and got a fresh container of cut up fruit for out lunch with a container of cottage cheese. One of my favorite summertime lunches, fruit and cottage cheese.

- We came home and had some lunch and then jumped back in the car to run and feed my daughter's cat.

- Dinner tonight was pizza.

- In between all this I had my baby fix running next door to hold and cuddle my neighbors granddaughter's new baby. She is a bit fussy so every once in a while when grandma and granddaughter get tired of waling with her I take over. They are having a difficult time finding a formula that agrees with her. Now she is going on soy based formula.

- I talked to the daughter from CT. She is only scheduled from 6 am to 11 am tomorrow so she may be on her way home quite early tomorrow and we may see her for dinner. She does not have to return to CT until 1:00 PM on Wednesday. So she will be able to attend the wake and funeral with me and even help with the food. We talked for quite a while on the phone. As a mater of fact she had her first experience in an IKEA store and we talked while she browsed. Every once in a while she would say, oh wow wish I had one of those. We talked about IF SHE GETS OFFERED THE JOB. She doesn't think she is going to take it. She has only been in the store she works in here at home for less than a year. she is just getting that position up to her standards. She has only been living in the condo she bought for two years and there is so much she wants to do to it before she has to sell it and she is just getting ahead financially. A move would set her back financially. Even though the company will be offering a moving package, there are always unforeseen expenses when you make a move.

Tomorrow I will get the ingredients I will need to make the food I am bringing to my cousins for after the wake. Chicken breasts and chicken legs and thighs roasted in the oven and a large pan of roasted potatoes.

THE FUNERAL FLOWERS

Sunny with temperatures rising towards the low 80s. Winds light and variable.

After work today I went to a little shop I like to look for a couple of nice cool tops to wear with black pants for after the wake and funeral on Monday and Tuesday. A few of use will be going to my cousin's house before everyone arrives after the wake on Monday and the funeral on Tuesday. We will be setting up the food and beverages for the guests. It is going to be warm here each day and I wanted to be able to change into something cool.

I love the little shops I can find once in a while that are not in malls. The kind you can just drive up to, park your car and go right in the front door of the store.
I didn't find any tops but I did get a black cotton skirt with white embroidery along the bottom, but I could not find a top to go with it.

After that I went to order flowers for the funeral home. I didn't want the typical basket of flowers and I wanted something that could be brought home and placed perhaps on their dinning room table. When my father died a good friend of my brother's sent to my house a beautiful vase with cream colored roses. The vase was really not a vase but a cross between a bowl and a vase, short and wide. It was stuffed with short stemmed off white roses and short stemmed off white hydrangeas. It was so elegant. So I went to the same florist and she actually remembered the piece when I told her who received it and who sent it. So I ordered the same thing.

Then I went to my cousins house to see if they needed anything. My cousins and her son and one daughter were out getting hanging baskets to hang in their gazebo and the other daughter was just puttering around the house. She said they were all set put make sure I could come back later and have sandwiches with them. Someone had sent a large platter of cold cuts and a large platter of Italian pastry.

Then I went home caught up with the husband sat home for a while and then went to my cousin's again and believe me there was a lot more food there than the cold cuts and pastry. the people and the food just keeps coming. this is going to be a long weekend of much food.

My daughter had her interview for the job she has been doing in CT for the last three weeks. She said it went well and she will know next Friday the results.

A SAD DAY

This is a picture of my Topsy Turvey tomato plant this morning. I think it looks petty health.

WEDNESDAY'S WEATHER: Low clouds, fog and poor visibility conditions will improve around 11am. Partly to mostly sunny with temperatures warming into the mid to upper 70s. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph.

It was beautiful morning on Wednesday. I didn't have to go into work until 10, but it was still not warm enough to have my morning coffee on the porch.

Sad news on Wednesday. My cousin's died this morning. He was a coma due to a blood clot in his brain. they pulled the respirator today. Her brother and his wife are coming from Florida so I will be hosting them for Monday Tuesday and Wednesday next week. It may be too much for my cousin to have guests in her home right now.

After work I took a large bowl of cut fresh fruit to their house. Family members gathered, with a lot of other food. It was a beautiful night so we were able to sit around the pool and talk about some fond memories of Dom. The wake will be Monday and the funeral on Tuesday. The women visiting gathered and planned a strategy for who would be bringing what kind of food on what days. The tradition for us is everyone gathers after the wake on Monday evening at the deceases home so food will be needed then and on Tuesday everyone will father there again after the funeral so more food will be needed. A few of us will get to the house before the ceremonies are over and get the food ready to be served. It is suppose to be warm Monday and Tuesday so we will be able to have everything outdoors.

His son is a Roman Catholic priest so I am sure the services for the funeral will be beautiful.

When my mother died her service was held at the beautiful old Catholic church just down the street from where she grew up, met her husband, married him in that church, baptized her children there, where my brother and I attended elementary school and I baptized my daughter. The priests participating in that service were the pastor of that beautiful church, the pastor from the church where my parents attened after they moved out of the city, the pastor of the church I was attending at the university where I worked and my cousin who is the priest. I have never been to a service with that many priests on the altar. I was so overwhelmed. I hope Dom will be afforded the same beautiful ceremony that my mother had. I am sure he will, seeing that his son is a priest.

My daughter always said she would love to get married in that big old church with the big stain glass window above the choir loft. Unfortunately that church has closed.

The day my father died the same thing happened. Everyone started gathering at my house and bringing food and drinks. It was my favorite time after his death. I couldn't wait for everyone to arrive so I could here all the wonderful things that I knew everyone would have to say about him.

I hope this day was as cherished for my cousin as it was for me.

A PERFECT DREARY DAY

Today it was dreary with a drizzle type rain all day, only about 55 degrees.

No picture of the Rhododendron today, too wet to get a good shot.

I had a really nice day today. My daugther was on her last day off before she had to go back to CT tomorrow. so I drove to her house about 10 and we went to the bank to deposit her income tax returns then we went to the nail salon and she had a pedicure and a fill on her acrylic nails and I had a new set of white tips put on with a gel over them. They look really nice. I have to confess that I do have to have fake nails. Not because I enjoy going there every two and half to three weeks and spending the money to have my nails look nice but because I have a bad habit of pulling at the dry cuticles around my nails, so much so that I make them bleed. It is a very bad habit, worse even than biting. But if I have any kind of nail tips applied the tips are not sharp enough to grab the dry skin so my cuticles always look good.

Then my daughter and I went to the mall. I wanted to exchange a Coach bag that I bought right before I went to Florida in March and I never used it. It was a sling bag. A bag that you wear over your shoulder and across our chest. Ideal for shopping because you don't have to worry about a shoulder bag falling off your shoulder and you don't have s hold bag and carry a bag around when you are shopping. I had a sling bag that I liked better then the new one I bought. So we went to the Coach store and I brought the sling bag back and exchanged it for a bigger bag.

What do you think?



I always have a problem buying flip flops that fit me. I have a wide foot and usually the thing between my toes is usually too tight. Today I lucked out and found a pair at DSW in the mall. I am very happy I HAVE FLIP FLOPS!!!

Have you every seen that show on TLC called Hoarders? Well we have one of those people living on our block. She has stuff piled up in front of every door and window in the house. A pool in the back yard full of debris and dead animals and bushes and trees and grass over grown on the property. She has an abandoned camper parked on the side of the house full of stuff and two abandoned cars that are full of stuff also. The neighbors on each side of her have been trying to years to get someone to do something about it Well something was done today. I got a call from my next door neighbor about noon. She said that the power company was there to shut down the electricity and the city workers were there hauling out the camper and nailing a condemned sign her front door. The city told her she cannot go back in he house. We live within the city limits but in an area up on a hill overlooking the city that is somewhat suburban. Very nice neighbor of old Victorians. This type of situation must being going on in neighborhoods all over the country just like ours and I bet no one even knows. I am sure because the mess was spilling out of her house onto her front porch and in her abandoned vehicles is why it was brought to the attention of the authorities.

FARM FOOD

Cloudy with temperatures rising towards the upper 60s. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.

Growing up in an Italian family we very rarely strayed from a meal consisting of Italian food. My husband is from a little rural town, where he grew up on a farm and meat and potatoes were their staples. They milked cows and had chickens and a vegetable garden full of vegetables our family never had very much experience with. If my mother ever cooked a roast and mashed potatoes she would surely just serve either peas or cream style corn. Our garden consisted mostly of tomatoes. When my daughter was born she was greatly influenced by my family in the food area. There was even an Italian dish served at Thanksgiving before the turkey. My family lived very close by and my parents were key part in helping to raise my daughter. I still say to this day the reason my daughter is so good at math is because my father taught her how to play poker (for money!) when she was barely able to talk. My daughter never took a liking to the meat and potatoes thing that usually we were served when visiting my in laws. She called is farm food and still does at 26 years old. It certainly is not an insult, they were very good cooks and everything was fresh or canned from fresh out of their garden.

So, it surprised me one day when we were out shopping and my daughter says to me, mom I want to take you to this Dominican restaurant that her and her friend discovered. I was excited to think she was broadening her horizons and trying new foods. So we went there for lunch last week when she was home from CT. She so amazed at how clean the restaurant was that's all she kept raving about. The food was very good, we had roasted port and yellow rice with black beans and best lemonade I have every had.

COMING HOME

Mostly sunny with temperatures rising towards the mid 70s. Winds light and variable.

My daughter is coming home from CT today. She works from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM and then heads for home. She will check out of her hotel room before she leaves for work. It was a good week and I don't think she got terribly homesick. She will have Tuesday and Wednesday off this week and will head back on Thursday morning. I am not sure when she will be home again. She is very excited about this store and she feels she will be able to fit in there nicely. She is going to talk to the District Manager this week when she gets back there and tell her exactly that and we will see where things go from there. She reconnected with someone she knows from CT via Facebook and they got together on Friday night so that was a good thing.

STIMULATING THE SENSES

Mostly sunny with temperatures steady near 67F. Winds NNW at 15 to 20 mph.

I gave in today. I bought one of those topsy turvy tomato plant hanging things. We don't dabble too much in vegetable gardening but we have in the past planted a few tomato plants. Butsix plants grow a lot of tomatoes and they usually go to waste and last year we had such a problem with slugs we didn't get any tomatoes off our plants. We really only needed one plant and we thought about getting one patio plant and putting it in a pot and growing it on the patio but instead we got a Topsy Turvey.

I hope my grandfather isn't looking down at me from above and shaking his head and thinking my god what has my granddaughter done. I come from a neighborhood and family that were always very picky about their tomato plants. Fussing with them every day, tying them up when they got too big. My grandfather was very particular with what he used to tie up the plants so they wouldn't bend over and hit the ground. Usually he used women's nylon stockings.

My husband and I usually do our grocery shopping early on Sunday morning. All of the fresh produce is getting put out at that time along with the fresh bakery stuff like bagels. I love going to the market at that time. And generally I love going to the market. The sights and sounds and fragrances of the fresh produce are so stimulating to the senses. Even if I didn't have anything to shop for it is my favorite place on a Sunday morning. This morning it was bagels, fresh fruit already cut up and put in a nice container, you got to love that. We love Boars Head cold cuts and our local big chain supermarket just got the franchise to offer Boars Head in their deli. Use to be we could only get Boars Head at the Italian deli we shop at frequently. That's another senses stimulator the Italian Deli. So this morning we got fresh Peasant bread and sliced to order hams (I say hams because my husband picked three different kinds to try). I bought every kind of vegetable I thought would steam good and decided to have steamed vegetables over pasta for dinner. Broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, pea pods, greens beans and asparagus. The asparagus I will roast with salt, pepper and Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top.

So basically a lazy day of going from the front porch and sitting and the back patio and sitting with at least two large glasses of fresh made iced coffee.

SUMMER IS UNOFFICIALLY HERE

It was very windy today but a beautiful sunny clear day. The winds ame out of the NNW about 20-30 mph. So it made it somewhat unbearable to be out doors.

We were able to trim some bushes in the afternoon when the sun was high and warm.



The Rhododendron has popped. You can't really tell by the picture, but some of the buds at the top have some pink peeking through. I am going to try to post a picture everyday until it is in full bloom. It usually pops on Memorial Day weekend so you can tell by that how early everything is this year. My husband mowed lawn on Thursday. He like to do it on Thursdays because then it will look nice on the weekend. there is sort of a unwritten law in our neighborhood that no one mow lawn on Sunday.

I forgot to mention or maybe I did that my husband bought me a beautiful wicker basket made out of concrete. It is so heavy we could barely get it into position in the flower garden where we wanted it to go. This is a picture.



We have screened in porch on he front of the house and we have had wicker furniture for the porch for about 15 years now. We invested in good pieces, Lloyd Flanders. It's not really even wicker but a resin. The couch for the set cost more than my living room couch. But all in all it was well worth it because it lasted this long. The first set of cushions and covers came with the set and we kept them for maybe 10 years. Every year I would take the covers off and wash them and put them back on in the Spring. The second set of covers I mad myself by taking apart the old cushions covers and using them as a pattern to make new ones. They came out fairly well and served the purpose for about 3 years, but now it was time for all new cushions and covers because the bating inside had started to wear down and flatten. So two summers ago we bought new cushions in a new pattern. This is our third summer with them. Last year before we put the furniture away I took the coveres off and washed them. So today we got the furniture all washed down and the cushions put back together so now the porch is officially opened and ready for visitors. My friends and relatives all keep asking if the porch is open yet because they know that it is the official start of summer.

There is a big old Victorian style home across the street from us. When we moved here almost 25 years ago there was an elderly couple living there. He was a retired OB/GYN, as a matter of fact he delivered me when my mother was pregnant. He was alive for almost 10 years after we moved here. My daughter would love to go running across the street if she fell and got a "boo boo". He would bring out his old black bag and fix her up. The wife lived there for another 10 years before she moved to a retirement community. She sold it to a young couple, who believe it or not, I had gone to school with the husbands mother. Another young couple displaced from my old neighborhood. The older couple too was from my old neighborhood. They bought this house and practically gutted the whole thing. They pulled up all the carpeting and discovered hardwood in layed floors. took down the old wrought iron railing going up the stairs to the second floor and put in new wood railing. Pulled the csrpeting off the stairs and refinished the steps. The did a really nice job. The house sits on a piece of property that would normally hold three houses. Sadly they have decided to sell. They don't feel it is a sufficient style of house to raise a family in. The doctor and his wife raised two kids with no problem. When his lawn needs to be mowed he has to have lawn service and they seem to come on the weekend. It is very annoying if that lawn mowing day lands on a Sunday. Everyone else follows the unwritten no mowing on Sunday law, but I guess your at the mercy of the lawn service, they come when their schedule permits.

MILITARY CEREMONY

Today started out cloudy and then by noon the clouds gave way to a clear sky with the temperature rising into the lower 70's. Humidity increased by dinner time but no real rain storm and then the air pushed the humidity out this evening.

Today I was off from work. I only work four days a week with every other Wednesday off and every other Friday off. So I went and picked up my cousin and we had a day out. We did a little shopping. I bought something to wear to a wedding next month and a summery dress to wear to a retirement ceremony the end of this month.

When I worked at the university here in the city where I live, I was the Administrative assistant (can you say secretary) to the Air Force ROTC office. I was the only university employee and I worked for at any given time two enclosed people and five officers. The students took ROTC classes and drill and ceremony and the officers taught the classes. The ranged in level from Freshmen all the way to Seniors. When they graduated they had a Bachelors Degree in whatever field they studied and were committed to serve four years in the Air Force as an officer. It was a very interesting job. The Commander of the Detachment as they called it, was usually a Colonel and the Colonel that I worked for right before I left is retiring the end of this month and they are going to have a formal retirement ceremony at the school and a formal dinner at the Officer's Club at the base where the Colonel lives. So I bought a dress today to wear to the ceremony and dinner. A lot of the staff that I worked will be there and maybe even some of the cadets who have not graduated yet and officers that I have seen through the program, may be there.

We had lunch at a local pub that is famous for their seafood. It was very good and then we went back to her place where I helped her with some computer issues she was having.

I got home in time for dinner and luckily I was not able to eat all my lunch because getting something for dinner was a snap. My husband ate my leftovers.

Here's a question for all you bloggers. How do you remember what you have and have not blogged about? Do you have to look through all your old posts to find out if you have blogged about say, HOW I LOVE TO PLAY SCRABBLE?

MUSIC OF MY LIFE

Mostly sunny with temperatures steady or slowly rising into the low 60s. Winds light and variable.

I hope last night is the last night we have to cover the plants. It is a real pain in the neck.

My husband surprised me and stopped by my office for lunch today. We have a little cafe just off the lobby of the nursing home and the chef that cooks for the residents/patients also cooks for the cafe. I think the food her is surprisingly good and my father never had a complaint while he was here for two years. They just so happened to have my husbands favorite, mac and cheese.

My husband was on his way back from the consulting firm that he worked for last summer. He retired from the NYS Thruway Authority a few years back and now he works as a consultant in the civil engineering field for bridge and road projects. It usually means that he works every summer and has the winter off. He wanted to check on the design of the road he worked on last summer and see if they could modify the one he is working on this summer to work the same. So we had a quick lunch and off he went to either go home or back to work he had not decided yet.

We will check in later with my daughter's cat. Coco or Coco Chanel as my daughter calls her. She tells everyone that she is a designer cat. I just call her Coco Bean. She is a very shy cat and when my daughter rescued her from the animal shelter she almost passed her over because she just sat crouched way in the back of the cage. She was either abused or had a lot of different homes. But my daughter saved her and she acts a lot differently when my daughter is home, but with us she is just so fearful. Initially we thought we would bring her home to our house while my daughter was gone, but I think she would literally have a heart attack in a strange house, with strange people and two other cats. So even though we feel she may be lonely, we think she is better off. When we first arrive there she must hear us coming, either she recognizes our car or our voices as we approach the door. We find her behind the couch. The first chance she gets to bolts to the walk in closet. If she could she would run under the bed, but my daughter has brand new bedroom furniture and bedding and she doesn't want to come home to any accidents. Coco has a tendency to wet on anything new or anything new on the floor. One time my daughter was packing for a trip and she had the suitcase opened on the floor and Coco decided to pee in the suitcase on the clothes that were already packed. That was a disaster. My daughter had looked in a lot of stores before she found the suitcase she wanted and she refused to use the one the cat peed in so that meant another far and wide search for the same suitcase. There she sits in the closet until we leave. We scoop her box, give her fresh food and water and then sit on the couch just calling for her to come and play, but she won't have anything to do with us. I feel so bad for her, I don't' tell my daughter, she would be very upset.
My daughter and I recently took a cruise with family, an all girls trip. My husband went to visit Coco everyday while we were gone for 10 days. He did say that she eventually would come and sit with him and let him pet her so I am hopeful that she will get use to this routine because my daughter has work in CT for at least 3 more weeks.

The musical me comes in just a few stages.

- When I was a pre-teens and discovered 45's and had a record player. We would listen to the top ten on the AM radio and beg our parents to buy us the 45's, probably the Beatles.

- When I was in high school in the late 60's it was the Beach Boys, Herman Hermits, The Rolling Stones.

- In college it was leftovers from Woodstock.

- After I was married I listened to Kasey Kasum every weekend for the top 40, who I might mention, my husband disliked immensely.

- Then I had my daughter and music was more or less gone from my life.

- When I got back on the music wagon I was amazed at the differences in music. At least I could understand the words in the songs when I was younger, everything was rap.

- So my last and I hope final stage is Country Pop. I can understand all of the words and OMG are those country male singers good looking. They all love their mothers and their wives, according to the music they sing. The complete opposite of what those rappers are singing. I can sing along, in the privacy of my car driving alone, and I can understand the words.

GARAGE SALE

Rain, becoming more intermittent by 10am. Cloudy with temperatures steady near the upper 40s. Winds light and variable.

Poor weather day today. I get out of work at 1:00 PM won't be able to work outdoors in the flower gardens.

We still have not put the porch screens us, but I guess that is ok because we would have been able to sit on the porch all week. This weekend is suppose to be better. I would certainly like to have them up for Memorial Day weekend.

Just about every year since we have lived in the house we are in now we have had a garage sale on Memorial Day weekend. We started it when my daughter was small and she helped and the proceeds from the sale either went to her (depending on how hard she worked) or to our vacation. We always had a summer trip to the ocean whether it was Maine or New Hampshire and a winter trip to Disneyworld. This didn't happen every year, but if we had the time and money these were our favorite places. The garage sale usually had things for sale like outgrown toys (which sold the best) and out grown daughter's clothes (which was not usually the best seller). The garage got contagious after a while with some of our neighbors following suit. And I will tell you why this was so successful on our street on that particular weekend. Because we live on a dead end that leads directly into a cemetery you would not think traffic would be too good for a garage sale. This was one of the reasons why we liked the street so much, very quiet and hardly any traffic. But Memorial Day weekend, our street turns into a bumper to bumper traffic jam with everyone visiting the grave sites of family and friends. The is only one lane through the gates of the cemetery and our house sits two doors down from the gate so cars have to literally stop in front of our house to wait for traffic in and out of the gates. Garage sale our front lawn = major success. We have often thought about cooking hot dogs and hamburgers, the young children down the street usually set up a lemonade stand. My immediate next door neighbor is a big garage saler, she loves to shop at them and when Memorial Day weekend comes she is usually the one prodding me to to find some stuff to sell. As my daughter got older we started giving up the garage sale thing and usually just sit and watch traffic, this year she is bugging me again, so I think I will participate.

We have to cover the plants again today. We got fooled by the warm weather up until now. Our planting season here does not start until Memorial Day weekend and we should stick to it no matter how much Mother Nature tries to fool us.

Heard from my daughter tonight after she got done with work. She misses us and her cat. We miss her too.

OLD FRIEND NEW FRIEND

Mostly sunny with temperatures rising towards the upper 50s. Winds light and variable.

My daughter left this morning for CT at about 7:30 AM. I got a text from her at 9:30 that she was at work. Two hours, not bad.

When I was growing up we lived on the same block of the city with a family who had three girls. We weren't too close and they went to a different school. My family moved away from that residence when I was in college so lost track of the girls. After my husband and I married we bought a cute two family house on that same block where I grew up and made it into a one family. I loved it there. We sold it when my daughter was three and now that area isn't so nice. But anyway, after my husband and I had lived in the city house for a bit a single mother with a son the same age as my daughter moved into a flat across the street, this single mother was one of the girls that I remembered from growing up. We rekindled our friendship. She was a single mother so she worked everyday and her son went to day care. But we spent a good deal of time for a few years just chatting while the kids played. She worked at the university in the city we lived. After my husband and I sold the house in the city I lost contact with her. When my daughter started school full time I looked for a part time job working the hours she was in school so I could still drop her off at school and pick her up when her day was done. I found a job at the university. I vaguely remembered that my friend worked there but I wasn't sure if she was still there and what department she worked in. The added a physical fitness center to the building I worked in and they gave the receptionist job to one of the employees of the physics department. Guess who that was, yes, my old friend. When I was walking through the fitness center one day right after it opened I was shocked to see her at the reception desk. Needless to say we rekindled our friendship again and we had a lot to catch up on, her son was grown and my daughter was actually attending school at that same university. She took my daughter under her wings and helped her a lot making her way through the complicated stuff that goes along with being a freshmen at a large university. She helped her get a work study job in the fitness center and became her second mom. She even came to commencement with me to cheer my daughter across the stage. After my daughter graduated I wanted to find a job with less hours and as I told the story before, I took a job in the nursing home where my father was living. Again, my friend and I lost contact. I was going through the admissions for the nursing home yesterday and there was my friend's mother's name. I quickly called her and she said she was just looking for the number at the nursing home to contact me and said that they just found out she was coming here. I assured her that her mother was going to be very well taken are of here. I just now saw her when she came to visit. Now we have to catch up again.

Talked to my daughter tonight from CT. She is in her hotel room. She said the day was good and that she was going to unpack and make herself at home because it will be her home for the next seven days.

HOMEMADE ITALIAN DINNER

Sunny and windy. Temperatures steady near 53F. Winds NW at 15 to 20 mph.
We had to cover the delicate plants that we have already put in our flower gardens both in the front yard and in the back. A Clematis near the fence in the back along my neighbors house. One geranium, left over from the basket arrangement from the front yard. This one was in the flower garden along the fence that borders the garbage cans and sits with a lilac bush and a azalea. The impatients that we are going to plant along the back porch were safe because we moved them to the porch. Two plants that my neighbors granddaughter gave me in honor of Mother's Day. I have been helping with her baby when she leave her with her grandmother. They were safe because they have not been planted yet. My basket of flowers in the concrete basket in the front garden. A rose bush in the front garden and the assorted flowers planted in the front landscape mound. the hanging basket was brought in along with the fern. I hope we don't have to do that again tonight.

Every Spring we get tempted to put the front porch screens up because we have a warm spell early on and every Spring we have one week of cold weather which leads us to say, it's a good thing we didn't put the screens us yet because we would not be able to sit out on the porch or it's a good thing we have not put the screens up yet.

I am going to post this little survey that I got from Shelly at Scenic Overlook. I use to read these a lot on blogs that I keep up with and I was always in awe at how easy it seemed for the bloggers to come up with interesting answers to the questions. So I don't think mine are so interesting but it's my first one so maybe I could do better next time.

a. area code: 518
b. bed size: queen
c. chore you hate: cleaning the bathroom, I use to tell my father I would pay him to clean the bathroom my brother and I shared at my parents house because my mother said it was ours to take care of
d. dog's name: no dog two cats Bella and Buddy
e. essential "start of the day”: coffee
f. favorite color: cranberry
g. gold or silver: I love silver but wear all gold, go figure
h. height: 4:11”
i. instruments you play: I had a choir director tell me to stand in the back and move my lips
j. job: administrative/nursing home
k. kids: just one female 26
l. living arrangements: me, husband 2 cats as mentioned above
m. mom's name: Helen
n. nickname: n/a
o. overnight hospital stay: tonsillectomy, c-section, hysterectomy, carpal tunnel
p. pet peeve: a messy house
q. quote from movie: “Your killing me Smalls” from SANDLOT
r. righty or lefty: always righty
s. siblings: one brother , 54, single, never married, no kids
t. time you wake up: workday – 6:30 am weekend – whenever my husband gets tired of waiting for me to get up
u. underwear: the touch the feel of cotton the fabric of our lives
v. vegetables you dislike: brussel sprouts
w. ways or reasons you are late: never late
x. x-rays: Achilles tendon
y. yummy food you make: anything Italian
z. zoo animals you like: I try to pretend there are no such thing as zoos


My daughter had a change in plans for work this week. Instead of leaving first thing this morning she is leaving tomorrow morning early and work straight through for seven days. Depending on her schedule for Friday Saturday and Sunday this weekend, I may talk my husband into going to CT to see her and the area, since she may be living there some day. I have Friday off so it would work out well and I think my husband could afford a day off.

I am going to make the dinner tonight that I had planned for Mother's Day. Meatballs from scratch, Italian sausage and homemade pasta sauce. My doughier will come for dinner and my brother might stop by. The sauce usually has to simmer for hours, but tonight it won't be simmering too long before we dig in. I like it both ways, simmered for hours or very fresh. I have, I think, mastered the meatballs and they are beginning to taste just like my mother's. I think the more you make them the easier it gets. There is really no recipe, but I think the key is to give up on trying to make them not bad for you and go ahead and fry them instead of trying to bake them. If anyone reads this and would like my recipe let me know in the comments section and I will be glad to post the recipe.


Edited to Add: What a fun dinner we had. Of course I knew the homemade meatballs and and homemade sauce would get them here. My daughter was flying all over town today trying to get everything she needs at the last minute to be away for seen days and I called my brother and told him to come after work. We ate and talked and talked some more. No one left until almost seven.

I came right home from work at three and started cooking and we had dinner at 5, it worked out so good.

So my baby is off to CT again, this time for seven days. I am going to miss her.

MOTHER'S DAY 2010

We were invited to my cousins for Brunch at 2:00 PM today so when my husband and I got up I made a nice breakfast to hold us over until then. A cheese omelet to share and toast.
When I was called and invited to Brunch I asked if I could bring anything and she said absolutely not, but I was told growing up never to go anywhere you have been invited to eat with bringing something. So in honor of my mother I made her favorite dessert. I don't know if it was her favorite to eat but it was her favorite to make and we all loved it growing up. We thought it was so special. We have always called it Ice Box Cake but I am sure there are many other versions and names. In an 8 x 8 inch pan put down a layer of graham crackers. Poul on a layer of vanilla pudding. My mother always used cook and serve but instand is just as good. Another layer of graham crackers and a layer of vanilla pudding. Crumble graham crackers for the garnish on top and viola Ice Box Cake. A little squirt of whipped cream when you are serving it. Everyone at the brunch thought it was very good. My daughter brought my cousins a potted plant. We sat down to eat exactly at 2 and I got home at 5:30. There were 13 people around the table and we had such great laughs. The menu included waffles, french toast, bacon, sausage, sliced ham, fritatta, scalloped potatoes, home fries, fresh cut fruit. Dessert was my pudding cake, lemon coffee cake, bundt cake, pastries. Oh I forgot to mention the mimosas and coffee.
The most excitement was when my cousins grandson let his do out for a little run around the yard and apparently he fell into the pool trying to get a drink He is just a little Schnauzer and when they pulled him out he was shivering. He could have been fine except the little black "people" looking shirt weighed him down and his paws got caught up in the shirt as he was trying to paddle. I guess that is a good reasons not to put people clothes on animals.
My cousin's daughter is opening a restaurant in our city and talk around the table was a lot about her plans we are all very excited.

BELLA AND BUDDY OR BUDDA AND BELLY

I have been wanting to post a picture of my cats. It took me a while to figure it out but I did it. The tabby is Buddy and the Calico is Bella. They try to pretend they hate each other but this is what we find occassionally.
It is a very cold and rainy day here in the Great Northeast. I had my hair cut and colored this morning, boy does that make you feel good. Then I came home and went to the market for ingredients to make a Mother's Day dinner tomorrow I was going to have the usuals come for dinner; my cousin will probably come, my brother, my husband and my daughter and her best friend. My daughter may also invite one of her friends that is a male I say it that way because he is not her "boyfirned". As I was coming int he door with the groceries my phone was ringing. It was one of my other couseins inviting us for Mother's Day brunch at her house. Her sone is going to cook. So husband and I will go and my daughter and my brother, but not the daughter's two friends, of course. So now I don't have to cook.
The daughter came for dinner tonight nothing special just tacos, her request and I made oatmeal raisin cookies.
It rained on and off all day and was very cool. the wind will be very brisk tonight and tomorrow no higher a than the 50's. Not such a nice Mother's Day. but the good news it can't get any worse, it can only get better.

Snack Time

The daughter made it home safe and sound from CT. She had a really good two days and is actually looking forward to returning on Monday. She has a closing shift on Monday so she can drive there on Monday morning. We are sort of talking tentatively about IF gets the job and moves there. Like where to look for places and what mode of transportation I will take to visit, drive myself, bus, train, etc.
Our two cats have gotten into such a ritual for there feeding times it's scary. They have a bowl of dry food each upstairs in the hallway by the bedrooms. It was recommended by the vet that we put the food on the top floor because our one cat was getting to fat and it would be best if she had to climb a flight of stairs to get to her food. At 3:30 PM when my husband comes home they get vet a small dollop of canned food, this is known to them at their snack. Two different kinds of course, the one cat won't eat the less expensive we had been feeding the both of them for years. All of a sudden one day he just decided that he didn't like it, any of the different flavors for that matter. He is our hunter and the only one of the two that goes outdoors, so if he is outside when my husband gets home from work he comes running because he knows it is time to eat. If he doesn't come running we call to him, Buddy, Buddy come on its time to eat and he comes running from whatever hunt he is on. So the other cat........Bella she knows the cue for her to get fed is when we call for Buddy. The next thing that happens is about 7:00 PM they get a small handful each of Temptations cat snacks..........this is known to them at their treat and if we forget it's 7:00 pm they will let us know. The little hunter Buddy could care less about the treat, if he is sleeping this time of the night could go right by him, but when the time comes fat Bella, will definitely let us know. If we are watching TV she starts to pace and give little mews to let us know she is getting anxious. Last night she was pacing and mewing and I just kidding said to her, go get Buddy and you can have a treat. I knew Buddy was fast asleep upstairs on a bed and I knew he could care less what time it was. My husband and I looked at each other and laughed and then looked again at her and she got up and walked out of the room. Neither of us felt like getting up to see where she went and we knew it was not possible that she understood, but two minutes later, there was Buddy. We cracked up. So treats were given
Got done with work at 1 today and I was so happy to get out it was a beautiful day. Met up with the daughter and we did a few things. She has been wanting to take me to this little Dominican restaurant that her and her friend discovered, so we went there and had lunch, it was very good. I had roasted pork and yellow rice and she had the same with plantains.

FLIP FLOPS

The day before my daughter left for CT she had the morning off from work so she went to get a mani/pedi. She was going to call me when she was done because I was getting done with work at 1 and we were going to get together for lunch. Instead of callING she stopped by my office. I wasn't expecting her but as soon as I heard the flip flop of her flip flops coming down the hall I knew it was her. Some people herE do where flip flops to work so it could have been anyone but I just new instinctively it was her.
It so reminded me of the four years that she was in college. I work in a university right in the city where we lived and when it came time for her to apply to colleges she pleased us to say t hat she was going to attend the university here in town, it is a private university so after four years we saved ourselves over $100,000. Free tuition was a benefit for the children of employees. Her freshmen year was very hard. The program she was accepted in ended up being no her thing, so luckily she was able to change to another course of study not soon after her freshmen year started. But during the first weeks I would often hear her coming down the toward my office and I just wanted to run and hide, because I knew it could only be bad news about a class or a teacher. So needless to say hearing her coming would strike terror in my heart. I was almost as painful for me as it was for her. So what a pleasure it was the other day when I heard her coming, new it was her and was so elated. She sped through those four years effortlessly and is so happy in her field of work right now.
I did hear from her last night when she got back to her hotel room. She said her day went well, the store is a mess but she is going to get it into shape. She isn't going to let the way the person in her job before her did things sway her. She is going to do her job by the book. She knows the "Standards and Operating Procedures" by heart and she is going to work hard to get things up to standard. If they let her go because they don't like the way she does things BY THE BOOK, that's ok, she has job to go back too. She works by the book at that job and management is happy with that there. If they may say to themselves, hey this is what we need here, that's good too because maybe they will offer her the job.

BEAUTIFUL DAY OFF FROM WORK

When I started the job I am now working at two years ago, I wanted to work less than 30 hours a week. I had been working 30 hours a week for more than 15 years and I was ready to reduce my hours. So they offered me 20 hours a week so I took it. After just a few weeks they realized I think that they got a good worker with me and wanted to know if I could work 30 hours instead of 20, I really didn't want to but I agreed to do it for a while and then they wanted me to work 32 and I am such a pushover I said yes. I did that for about a year and half until just recently I told them I wanted to go back to 20 hours a week four days a week, they agreed. I am so happy with this. So today was my day off. I get every other Wednesday off and Every other Friday, sounds more complicated that it is. It was a beautiful day. I was able to get my front porch cleaned up and my wicker furniture cleaned hosed off. We have screens that go up on the front porch in the summer. So now everything is all cleaned up and the screens will probably go up this weekend. I thought I was being really clever and I bought a rag mop from he dollar store thinking I would use it just to wash the porch floor and then probably throw it away, but guess what the stupid mop fell apart with the fist stroke of the mop. I had to end up using my regular mop, I guess I will be getting a new one of those soon. I only found one dead mouse on the front porch. My yellow tabby is our hunter mice, frogs, snacks whatever he can catch.
I have been in touch with the daughter on and off all day and things are going very well with her job in Ct. The staff is nice and she is doing well.
I also got the car serviced and washed today. I had an appointment for 8 so my neighbor met me there and we had breakfast at our local greasy spoon, but the best breakfast anywhere, she got raspberry pancakes and I got blueberry pancakes. They called from the car dealer just as we were finishing so that worked out great.
A very productive day off.

WOW THE FIRST STORM OF THE SUMMER

The daughter left this morning for Connecticul with a stop today in Springfield MA for a meeting. She had to work until 11:00 PM last night so I expected a call from her aboout 11:30, just to bounce things off of me to make sure she wasn't forgetting to pack anything. She will be back on Thursday night for two days and then back to CT for five days and this back and forth will go on for 4 weeks or longer if needed. She have her booked in a nice hotel in CT. The company is paying mileage, per diem and the hotel and a little bit of an increase in her pay because the position is higher than the one she is in now. She asked me to call her at 6:15 AM to be sure she was awake. Naturally I could not get to sleep, my mind was racing and then the alarm went off at 6:15. I called her and as long as I was wide awake I told her I would shower real quick and run over to her place to say good bye. I got there about 7:30 after of course a quick stop at *bucks. She left at 8:15 to meet up with three other girls who were going to the same meeting. I am nervous as a mother and excited for her at this new adventure so my amotions are crazy. My cousin and his wife live very close to where the daugher is going to be working so she has their phone number and e mail address just in case. They have also offered for her to stay with them at any time during this whole process.
Our contractor is at the house this morning doing a couple of small prjects and getting the informaiton he needs to give us an estimate on a couple of bigger projects. We used him about three years ago to gut out our full bath upstairs and remodel it. He was maticulous and took a lot longer than we expected because of this. Today he will be installing a new light over the dinning room table and a new ceilling light in the front foyer. Then he will be looking at the kitchen. We want to remove the ughly drop ceiling that I have been living with since we moved there 23 years ago and taking the soffits out on top of the kitchen cabinets. Hanging drop lights over the sink and over the island. We are getting new counter tops and new hinges for the cabinets. When we moved here the cabinets were a dark color and I wanted white. The cabinets were a better made cabinet so we didn't want to replace them so we painted them and they look great but they have the old fashion hinges and we want to put in the sleeker looking European hinges. We have an old run down looking back porch that was actually enclosed when we moved here. We took the enclosure off to revele the old fashion railing and posts. We have lived with it like that for 23 years and now we are ready to tear it down and build a new one. With the long term idea that eventually we will close it in and and are planning to put the washer and dryer in the enclosed porch therefore elminating the need to go up and down two flights of stairs to accomplish a load of laundry. I think the newer homes with the laundry room on the second floor where the bedrooms are is a wonderful idea. After all where is all are all of your dirty clothes found. I would love to have my laundry there but eliminating one flight of stairs is going to be great.
I was just getting ready to leave work when the storm clouds came over. I got home just in time to get the windows closed. It was quite a storm with a lot of wind, wires down and trees broken, We lost power for about three hours. The husband had gone with our contractor to the daughter's condo, there was a couple of things that needed to be addressed there so we asked the contractor to do it while he was here. The new lights are hung and he has the information he needs to give us an estimate for the work in the kitchen.
The daughter made it Connecticut tonight about 7, checked into her room and was going to check out the mall where she will be working. Her company did good. A nice room in the Hyatt with a little kitchen area and a sitting area. I am a little more relieved.

HHH in the Great Northeast

Well, it was very Hazy, Hot and Humid this weekend. Much too soon for me. I hate the Big H's and I certainly am not acclimated yet for this. We had to turn on the AC in the house last night just to take off that humid feeling and make it easier to get to sleep. I took a nice cool shower before getting into bed and lay there under the ceiling fan falling asleep like that.
We had to water the lawn yesterday, so this tells me that our rain total for this Spring is not what it normally is. the lawn looks so lush and green and it won't stay like that without water.
On Saturday we went to the Brick Yard (a place where they sell all kinds of bricks, pavers and materials for decorative walls). We had gotten some bricks to use as a border for our flower gardens and we wanted to make another garden in the back yard along the fence that hides the garbage cans, but we ran out of the bricks. We got there and discovered they don't carry those bricks anymore. BUT!!! If we wanted to drive way out back in the "bricks that are dejected" area, they may have left over getting read to go to be crushed into stone. We did drive out back and there was about a quarter of a pallet left so the guy gave us as many as we wanted for $10 we got way more than we needed so now I have some extra in case another flower garden pops up somewhere. As a matter of fact we used them to border the new sensitive clematis that we planted by the fence that borders our yard from the neighbors. I didn't want the husband to mow over these little babies. At the brick yard I saw this most beautiful piece of what I would call concrete art. It was made out of concrete but looked just like a wicker basket, a big wicker basket. So my husband got it for me and we had all we could do to pick it up and put it in the car. I filled in on Sunday with an assortment of flowers and we placed in the one of the flower beds in the front yard. It is so cute. As soon as the flowers bloom I am going to post a picture.
I love the game of Scrabble and so does my neighbor. She is widowed and retired but four kids and and 10 grandchildren keep her busy. Plus her son owns a deli and pizza place so she helps out there. I may have mentioned this before and that is something I have to learn how to do. How to remember what I have posted her so I don't sound like a blubbering idiot repeating myself. So, anyway she loves Scrabble too so we try to get a game in as much as we can. We actually played three games during the course of the day yesterday between everything we were trying to accomplish on a hot Sunday. I beat her two games our of three. We keep a notebook with all of our games scores and every time we fill a notebook we tally the wins and loses for each of us and it never fails but in the ends we are always about equal.
The daughter is leaving fort Connecticut on Tuesday morning with a stopover first in Springfield, Massachusetts for a meeting. She will be working there for four weeks or more doing what they call a "stretch" assignment. The person who has that position is on maternity leave with a chance that she will not be coming back. So along with the fact that she is doing a "stretch", which means she keeps her position and goes to another location and does a job which is level up from her current job so the company can see how she does and uses that when it comes time for promotion. She will have to do a number of these before she gets promoted. However, if she does well in the position and the person who is on maternity leave decides not to come back and they like her there, she may get offered the job permanently. This is not the first time she has ever travelled alone, but it is the first time she has travelled to a location and stayed in a hotel by herself. She will be there until Thursday night and come home for two days and then back again. They will try to give her two days off in a row so she can come home.
Yesterday I went to her house and helped her prepare for a four week stay away. she has a cat so my husband and I will try to visit with the cat everyday. She has a good friend who is a neighbor of hers so she will probably also help with the cat. We cleaned out her refrigerator and made sure that all of the food that was in the cupboards were not open and ready to call all kinds of little insects to come and enjoy while daughter is away. She did all of her laundry so it would be easier to decide on what to pack, she cleaned her bathroom and vacuumed the house. It is always nice to come home from a stay away to a nice clean organized house. I am going to miss her and worry the whole time, but this is so good for her and her career. She never went out of town for college so this is the first she will have ever been away for a long period of time and if she gets the job and wants to move there, oh my, it is hard for me to comprehend. So is a little stressed and has a tendency to have a little bit of anxiety so I expect some text messages she will be bouncing off of me before she actually gets there and starts work. Her first day is Wednesday and then I am sure she will be fine.
The humidity stayed in place today until about 1:00 PM when it poured rain. We spent the evening in the back and front yard, mowing and trimming and the breeze felt so good. It reminded me of when I was little and we would spend the day at one of the many lakes located in our area or at some one's pool all day. It would be humid and hot and the water was so refreshing, then a storm would brew in the late afternoon, we would take cover and then the cool air would come and our skin would be so warm from being in the sun all day and the air would be so cool and the sweatshirts we would then have to put on in order to stay outdoors would feel so good.

Dad/Poppy

Today is one year since my father died. It wasn't as bad of a day as I thought it would be, maybe because I kept busy.

As I have mentioned in past posts, I work in a nursing home, the same nursing home that was my father's home for two years. I had every intention of describing his death in great detail. I thought I would have a need to go over every minute of his last breath but I don't and I think that is a good thing. All year long I kept wanting to tell everyone over and over again about those last minutes and wondered why I Felt like no one wanted to hear it or maybe it was because those last minutes were not as important to anyone else but me. I had never been in any one's presence when they died and I think it was very traumatic for me. I think the trauma is easing up. I got into work that morning and someone came to me and said that my father wasn't doing well. I went to his bedside and sat with him to the ends. I am so grateful to the Hospice staff they were there by my side to the end. My father kept calling my name like he really didn't want to go and I just kept tell him to go to sleep, I was there and I wasn't leaving.

He was a wonderful man, always there for my brother and I doing the best he could for us with what little he had in knowledge and wealth. My daughter was his only grandchild and he was so in awe of her. I tell everyone that she is good in math only because my father taught her how to plays cards when she was so very young.

One day during her high school years, she called me at work and said that we had forgotten she was going on a field trip and couldn't go unless she had the fee. I called my father. Luckily my parents lived very close to the high school. My daughter tells this story so often to her friends and brings it up almost every holiday. I have to tell it like she saw it. She was in the middle of changing classes and was coming down the hall toward the principals office. There was her Poppy still in his slippers heading for the office with a sealed envelop with the money for her field trip. He must have though it was important that he get there quickly, no granddaughter of his was going to miss a field trip. He rushed out of the house with his slippers on.

There are so many of these stories I could write a book. WE MISS YOU DAD/POPPY.