Well, the rain has stopped for the moment. As I predicted, it did rain pretty much all day yesterday, coming down fairly heavy at times. That's good, we need it. None-the-less, days like yesterday are not my favorite. I would sooner deal with the intensely humid summer days. On those days, it is clear and hot all morning until the air finally reaches the point where it simply cannot hold anymore water and down it all comes in buckets. Of course, then it turns into a steam bath outside as all the water on the ground begins to evaporate once more in an effort to start the whole cycle over again. Many people don't care for that kind of weather, but I have been here long enough that I am accustomed to it. I do not care to live where it is dry and far from the ocean ever again and I prefer to take my rain in large doses, rather drawn out over long periods.
Yesterday's film party did not go off without its share of glitches. Shortly before anyone arrived, I managed to stop up the kitchen sink. Do these things always happen at such moments? The dishwasher broke not so long ago. Wouldn't you know, it was Christmas Day. Anyway, my little party was supposed to start at o1:00pm. So after the other guests had arrived and it drew close to 1:30, I began to get concerned about the absence of my initial invitee. I had originally invited Cat over to watch the film because I thought she might enjoy it, but also because it would give us a chance to ask her to babysit our girls. Inviting the others was an after-thought. Rich and I are hoping to take a Scandinavian cruise in June and we need to make a firm commitment of our ship reservations by today. Having pets always complicates our travel plans, especially the parrots (I am not naming names .. Dexter). We have gone through soooo many babysitters. One time when we had Cat over for dinner, Amy took an immediate liking to her. That told us a lot. It turned out that she used to raise parrots. During the course of our conversation the subject of the difficulty of getting a sitter came up and she offered to help us. Knowing that she is also a nurse was nice because little Phyliss has been through a lot and is blind. Both her and Melanie came from Cocker Rescue and have had their share of medical issues. So, when Cat couldn't make it yesterday Rich and I feared that our cruise plans might be down the drain, unlike the water in the kitchen sink. After our phone conversation we exchanged emails and it looks she will be able to sit for us. We will know for sure today.
Oh, look, the sun is peeking out :)
15 comments:
Hi PMT, Sorry not to have comment time this morning. We are off and running to do some shopping in Merced. Maybe I'll have relax time later before chorus practice.
Yes, I have had a stopped up sink when company was here. It was Christmas Day 2007 and all the pots, pans and misc. had to be shlepped to the sink in the laundry room.
Gotta go for now.
WM,
I couldn't help but think of you when I saw this one.
This one seems rather timely, too.
PMT...You so funny! Loved the CSI one especially.LMAO I'm checking in now and then will do again later with my evening glass of wine.
I can't believe that C.C. missed me not posting...smack me in the head.
How many parrots do you actually have? I always thought that they were very high maintenance birds.
Sounds great that you are taking a cruise. Have so much fun. One of the reasons that I so want this mural project is that I am hoping it will open things up to a bit more available cash so that I can travel a bit again...I really want to get back to France.
I haven't had a stopped up a sink, but probably my biggest fiasco was years ago on Christmas day I was finishing up decorating a really lovely dessert for the family Christmas dinner at my brother's house. My husband, thinking to be helpful, had bought some disposable pastry bags, which I wrongly decided to use. The whole pastry bag, full of whipped ganache, exploded all over the place, over me and the walls and the table...I used all my best Anglo-Saxon 4 letter words. My lovely eldest daughter very calmly started cleaning everything up(laughing the whole time) and packed a lovely basket of all the beautiful cookies and breads we had made. Everyone loved the dessert of cookies and breads and Jessie got to tell the story of the exploding pastry bag at dinner. They still like to bring it up every so often. This is what I meant by me providing a lot of entertainment for our girls! 80)
Happy day to you for now...talk later.
Check out C.C.'s blog today...not one single person answered any of her questions...Lemonade, sort of, and me...they are all sharing war stories...you can guess what is driving THAT discussion.
Just got a whole big box of paints delivered...gotta go play.OHHH...I am being SO petty ;0P
"I can't believe that C.C. missed me not posting"
Neither can I. Sometimes, you gotta do a little something get their attention. Maybe once you get your new site's blog up and running you could make a post with a hundred links to it your blog. That would get Dennis' attention, for sure.
We have two (believe me, that's plenty) parrots. Dexter and Amy are a handful. They are both beautiful but Ami is particularly pretty. While they are both, ostensibly, Yellow-Naped Amazons, she has more yellow than Dexter. Dexter is the BOSS of the house, though. You are correct, they are high maintenance. They need a lot of attention. This is a big part of the reason that Rich and I are always in need of a 'live-in' sitter when we travel.
"I really want to get back to France"
So do I! I had hoped to do a little side trip there after this cruise, but we have decided to spend a week in London instead. Ah well, maybe next time!
I am sure that was hilarious when your pastry bag exploded. It sounds like a scene from one of the better offerings on the 'boob toob'. :)
I had hoped to get back to C.C's blog today. I do not believe that I have, ever before, missed this many days in a row. I have not even done today's crossword and it's after six here already. I am also concerned that I am way behind in my reading of my bookclub assignment. Our next get together is coming up on the 24th. Until then, I might continue to be fairly scarce over at Star Tribune Crossword Corner.
Ciao for now.
Hi Folks, We're back from shopping and will have grilled cheese sandwiches for a quick supper. Sometimes those really simple things taste the best. I have to be out the door again in 1 1/2 hours to get to chorus practice.
PMT, I'm so glad to hear that you are a dog rescue person. It's the only sensible way to go. If people want a purebreed dog, there are so many that are available. If only people would check with rescue organizations. How old are Phylis and Melanie? Are they ASCOB, black or parti?
We called our first dalmatian "the Mercedes", because the money we spent on vet bills would have paid for a sizable chunk of a luxury car. Dals are well known for having skin allergies and he was allergic to a whole list of things. We finally had to have him on steroids to keep his "hives" to a minimum. Sadly the meds shortened his life.
Now we have Charley, the Schipperke. He's a native Floridian, having been fished out of a marina by my sister and brother when they lived there about seven years ago. They were "boat people" who were planning on sailing to Panama, so they didn't think it would be fair to keep the dog. They shipped him to us and he and my husband Fred have been best pals ever since. It seems my sister and husband really liked Schipperkes because they rescued another one and he lives with them on their 3rd boat in San Diego.
WM, I'm driving to chorus practice, so my glass of wine will have to wait until later this evening.
Tomorrow, I'll get back to basics and tell you my opinions about God.....Whooee!!
PMT, CA, WM, et al,
As someone said in a local LTTE yesterday, I'll be waiting with 'baited' breath for the God opinions tomorrow.
To answer yesterday's questions, I have not heard of USA lamb. I assumed they were an Omaha Beef type outfit, but it appears they are a quasi-cooperative. As you noted, we sell nearly everything locally and direct, although the definition of local has been stretched by some very effective word of mouth advertising.
Speaking of which (sort of), the luck of (or with) the Irish went well. Kind of Clintonesque, but no
pesky stains, IYKWIM.
Got to go, I think I hear that thin ice cracking.
Windhover
WE really need to get some other people back over here again...Windhover and Buckeye would be nice and I will sort of see how Elissa feels about checking things out...not that we can't entertain ourselves...but...
OK...I was just having a weapons discussion with hubby...we do have some interesting discussions. I just read that a judge overturned a Bush last minute law that allowed concealed weapons in State and Nat'l parks. Apparently about 50 Senators(I'm guessing mostly those elephant guys) and the NRA pushed for this. My understanding is that the current still allows people to carry a weapon with a permit, but it has to be out in the open. The park rangers and several groups protested it on the grounds that it would encourage poaching in the parks and a create a possible danger to the public.
Now, I can agree with the judges( I have watched DELIVERANCE several times and even read the book...scary s@#*) decision for the reasons given...but I would like to know why the CONCEALED weapon addendum when it was ok to have the weapons anyway??? I am not a gun person but I can understand when people want them for hunting. I personally don't care for the hunting concept, but being an omnivore, I can't fault someone who hunts for food and not for trophies. My husband, who was brought up with guns and was a military Marksman of the highest order was not a fan of hunting, even though his dad kept trying. So we basically agree on the hunting thing because the fees from licensing help pay for the protection of the animals and the environment that hunters like to use...same with fishermen. The part that I don't agree with is this protecting yourself excuse that the NRA uses all the time based on the Constitutional right to bear arms...when that was written, people were living amongst hostile "natives"(sorry..un-PC) that didn't like them taking property from them and the damn guns were muzzle loaders! I think if people want the right to bear arms, we should give everyone a muzzle-loader...at least it would really put paid to drive by shootings and workplace masacres...takes a bit to reload those suckers! OK...that's my rant for you...how far do you take the pro-gun thing or do you have specific limits like you do on abortion? I would really like your point of view as mine is always open to discussion...I'll let ClearAyes handle the God thing as I have some really weird-ass ideas about formalized religion...MM..MM..MM..don't get me started. 80)
I think I'll have a bit of wine now.
Windhover...missed you while I was typing. So good to see you...just curious where you got the recipes for your fresh chevre and are you renneting it? Thanks...whenever.
PMT...sorry to hog space but I forgot to tell you what a really lovely photo that is of the rain!
WM,
My wife (the Irish) is the cheesemaker. She started with a recipe from a Mass. Cheesemaker and author Ricki Carroll. We have an acquaintance Judy Shad who is an award winning cheesemaker. Her recipes are proprietary, but she's helped. We buy rennet. We have also made feta and Romano. I want to try Parmesano- Reggiano, but we'll need a cheese cave. We also have cows and draft horses(Percherons). We are actually rather poor financially, but we eat as well as any royalty. And, we owe no one (at least not money). We have lots of debt otherwise.
I like this group a lot. No autocrats. Yet.
Windhover
Windhover...I love your life style and I am definitely not a "money is everything" person. We live on my husband's retirement and he so graciously agreed with my request to go back to painting full time. So, good food is my mantra.Art is my pleasure and everything else is non-essential.
I have bought rennets from Ricki Carroll.The problem was locating non-ultrapasteurized goat"s milk. My friends a Redwood Hill Farm in Sebastopol are again...much to my excitement, producing and selling goat's milk. I am trying to track it down locally as I want to play around with making fresh chevre...
I would seriously like to see more people moving back to your kind of life style and have great hopes that the slow food movement in this country will continue to educate people about the care of the animals they chose to eat along with how their food is grown and handled. I try, as much as possible to support local farmers through Farmer's Markets and I think that it is important for farmers to connect directly with people who want their products. This country has gotten way too far away from the really important things. Maybe all this craziness will push some people to follow their dreams and start a movement back to the farm and out from under the agri-business crush.
For 2 years I worked here locally with the US rep for Neal's Yard Dairy (in the UK) and had the pleasure of spending some time with Randolph Hodgson in London, an amazing man who has worked tirelessly with small-batch artisan cheese makers to get their products to the consumer...he is a very visionary person and has done a lot of good in the UK. I think there is a future for that again in this country if we can educate people about what they put in their mouths...
Down off my soapbox here...so good to see you...we need to bring a few more free thinkers her for open discussions.
PMT...do we have a post limit??? I may have exceeded my welcome.
ClearAyes,
We are not sure exactly how old the girls are. I believe that we got Melanie six years ago last Christmas. A few days later we got Faith, Melanie was not happy. She had just come from a place where she was just another dog and now she had two guys fawning over her, then along comes this other dog. A saintly Norwegian women named Mona ran a Cocker Rescue outfit called 'Cockers-and-More'. After we adopted Melanie, she came around with adorable little Faith. When she asked if we might consider taking her also, Rich looked at me and I said, Of course!" Either that night or the next when it had become quite clear that Melanie had no use for her, Faith and I dreamed together. In the dream, I protected her form Melanie who bit her and drew a small amount of blood. After that, Faith was my dog. Despite the fact that I was gone a lot (often down in the mangrove forest playing my flute), Faith always came to me. She always wanted to be with me. Anyway, Faith's time with us was cut way too short. I didn't imagine that she would be gone so soon and I was crushed by the loss of her. I swore I would not get another dog. Then along came Phyliss. she is neither Black, Parti nor ASCOB. She is not black at all, unless you count her nose ... and I am not even sure about that. She is not ASCOB because she is two-toned. Yet, she is not Parti either. According to the Westminster Kennel Club, a Parti is two or more solid colors, one of which must be white. Phyliss is mostly dark brown with tan under her belly and chin and on her feet. She's adorable. She is like your Dalmatian. She started out as a $225 donation to Cocker Rescue but has now become the $10,000 dog. She had nothing but problems. She had a rough time in the pen. She was attacked and had half her ear torn off (you can't tell noe because her hair is left longer on that ear). She came to us with some sort of skin irritation that we were not sure was mange fleas or what. She finally was mostly cured of that. She still itches a lot, but at least she isn't tearing holes in her own hide anymore. Her worst problem was her eyes. Soon after getting her, we realized that she was basically blind in one eye and the other was pretty bad, too. She had numerous operations which did not help. Finally, the irises of her eyes had to be removed. She had prosthetics implanted and, surprise, one of them did not take. She now has one eye sewn shut and a prosthetic in the other. The thing is: Between the way that her bangs hang over her eyes and the fact that she, despite her problems, is the most high spirited little dog, one might never realize that she is blind ... at least not until she goes charging off and runs into something :)
What's a Schipperke?
You should know, I never took that photo of the rain. It is actually a picture of Hawaii that I kiped from someone else's. Shhhh...
Windhover, It sounds like the USALAMB people might be a conscionable group then, eh? Do you make any effort to conform to the strict rules established by the EU for Feta?
WM,
I'll have to get back to you on the 'Prog-Gun' thing. It is getting late and I am behind on everything. I spent much of the day making arrangements for our trip and much of the evening trying to decide which hotel to book us into in Stockholm. Maybe ClearAyes has a recommendation for that.
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