The Tea Party and other happenings

The Tea Party today was so much fun! I adore my older friend and wanted to do something for her b/c her mom went to Heaven just recently. It was a great time to eat, laugh, reminisce, and act goofy (i.e. wearing hats). No one seemed to notice the lingering blueberry stains in my kitchen, that's b/c I hurried everyone thru on the way into the dining room. I had planned on getting out my mom's gorgeous Battenburg Lace tablecloth. After yesterday's blueberry fiasco, I nixed that plan. Instead I used a tablecloth that is awesome. Water, even blueberry tea, just beads up and is wiped off easily. It's user friendly, to be sure.



I HATE squirrels and chipmunks. Don't give me that junk about cute little Alvin, Theodore, & Simon. They are complete nuisances and if I had a gun and could use it, I'd be free of those pests. I've resigned to using the more expensive safflower seed for my many birdfeeders. Squirrels don't like safflower. But I have two feeders that are large so I put the inexpensive regular bird seed in those. To keep squirrels from these two feeders, I put an umbrella-like contraption which prevents the critters from climbing the pole and they can't maneuver around this "umbrella". This has been wonderful for the past few years. Until today. Just yesterday I filled all the birdfeeders (I must have 10-12). One of my favorite looks like a church with stained glass windows. I looked out the window today and lo & behold there is a stupid squirrel gorging away on the birds' food. I'm thinking, "How did that crazy squirrel get up and over the 'umbrella'?"
THE UMBRELLA! It's gone! That piece of slime squirrel had completely eaten away the underpinning of the umbrella and the umbrella was sitting on the ground. I HATE SQUIRRELS! The idea of that squirrel stealing from my church birdfeeder! Heathen. And those chipmunks. . . yuck. They have ruined several of my plant beds. So annoying. Someone told me that if you put a stick of gum and/or an unwrapped Hersey Kiss in their hole, it would kill them. I've tried both. I still see chipmunks and I don't smell any foul odor indicating death. I think Alvin, Theodore, Simon and a dozen of their friends have enjoyed a chew of gum and a Kiss from me.

"The Devil's In My Kitchen" or "The Misadventures of Cooking"

Before I begin the saga of the kitchen, I'll update my medical problems. I do have a broken finger (actually it's been broken since June 28) and I have torn cartilage in my knee. The painful cortizone shot really helped. I can actually walk today w/o grunting with every step. Next time it pains me, though, I will be going under the knife.

Ok, my kitchen woes........ I'm having a Tea Party tomorrow for my dear friend who's a couple of decades older than me, plus four of her friends, plus three friends my age. We're wearing hats, too. (quit laughing....) Today I did a lot of precooking. There was a dark cloud in my kitchen today. To begin with, I was probably trying to cook too many things at the same time. Mistake numero uno. Then I decided to try Blueberry/Lemon Iced Tea from my Southern Living Magazine. Sounds good, but believe me, not sure it's worth the trouble. It requires cooking a potful of blueberries (and right now those are pretty darn expensive). I decided to make half as much as I would need in case I didn't like the taste - rather than waste those pricey blueberries. The first batch went ok, except I was unaware that my pretty red KitchenAide saucepan would be permanently stained on the OUTSIDE of the pan. There was a long drip mark that made me sad. Then I had to drain the cooked blueberries in a meshed strainer to keep all the gunk out of the tea. What a mess! I had blueberries juice/gunk splattered all over me, my sink, my countertop, my stove, you name it - it had blueberry juice on it. My t-shirt looks like I was stabbed and bled purple (that's another thing - blueberries are actually the color purple). I did indeed like the blueberry/lemon tea so I decided to go ahead and cook another batch. Unfortunately, during the boiling process, my ADD kicked in. I walked into my dining room and ZAP I completely forgot the blueberries. My sweet daughter called while I was away from the kitchen. As I often do, I walked around the house while I talked with her. I probably caused her some hearing damage from my screams when I found the pot over boiling with blueberries! I had blueberry juice all over two eyes of the stove not to mention in the drip pans and also below the cooktop. Jeepers. What a mess. Of course, I could not clean up until everything cooled down - including my temper. Now my saucepan has blueberry stains almost completely covering the outside of it. It looks horrible. So I go on to the next project........cooking fried green tomatoes, as an experiment for tomorrow's tea party. Someone, who shall remain anonymous but I'm married to him, tilted the cooking oil bottle when last used (causing oil to collect in the large screw-on lid). As I poured oil into my hot frying pan, I spilled oil all over the remaining two clean eyes of my cooktop, drip pans and below the drip pans. I tried to clean up the oil before it started a fire and I burned my index finger (the opposite hand from my broken finger). Man, oh man, was I frustrated. I finished the fried green tomatoes w/o any fire alarms going off and they were quite good so I will keep them on tomorrow's menu.
Thank goodness my sweet daughter (the one who's hard of hearing in one ear) invited us to supper tonight. It was a relief to leave my possessed kitchen and go to a sane kitchen to eat. Supper was very delicious. Good time had by all. Then I returned to the Kitchen from Hades. Next up was a dessert that required a cooked chocolate topping. Of course, I had to clean up my blueberry mess and my spilled cooking oil mess before I could use my stove. That took a while, believe me. So I was getting the chocolate topping ready to heat up. I used my whisk to stir it all together. I propped it on the side of my saucepan, turned my back and the whisk flew out of the pan with sugar and chocolate flying everywhere and fell on the rug that my dear husband had just vacuumed. To make it worse, I hated that chocolate topping b/c it was bitter. I tossed it out and started over with another recipe. Right now I venting on my blog before I burn my kitchen down . . .on purpose.

"Oh, ye of little faith" + Where can I order new parts?

My sweet husband. He graciously offered to help me paint an old piece of furniture. It's his grandmother's "flour bin" or cupboard. I'm going with "Quite Red" and I must say, it's quite red! I love it. When he began painting, he said, "Are you sure this is red?" Now, admittedly, straight from the paint can, it did look dark fushia, but I have complete faith in the little red dot on top of the paint can. I gave the gal at Lowe's the paint sample and I saw her put that little fingerprint-size dot on the paint can top. I know it's red. I told my husband that he didn't have enough faith and that, yes, it was red. By the end of our painting afternoon, he agreed with me and say I was right. Mark that down - it doesn't happen often. I'm also a very messy painter. By the time I was finished painting, I looked like the victim from a slasher movie.

Then we decided to go for a walk. As we began our walk, I showed him my ring finger that is still discolored and swollen from a fall about a month ago. (Did I mention that I'm clumsy?) He gave me a little sympathy. Near the end of our walk, I experienced terrible pain in my right knee/leg as if someone had sneaked up from behind and stabbed me with a sharp knife. For a moment I had to stop walking because I could not put pressure on that leg. After I hobbled home (I did get more sympathy), I took some Advil, took a bath and went to bed. I could not sleep on that leg and it hurt all night long. Today I bought a knee support wrap for stabilization. While it feels better in the wrap, it still hurts all the time. Does anyone know where I can order some new body parts.......................ring finger and right knee? I'm falling to pieces - body part by body part. It's sad and painful to get old.

Yard Angel

I've got to tell you about my yard angel. The other night we had one of the worst storms that I remember since I've lived here. Unfortunately, we were also dog sitting our granddog who is completely terrified of storms. But that's another story for another blog entry! The morning after the storm my yard looked like the remains of The Battle of Trees. Leaves, branches, sticks and huge limbs were everywhere. You could barely tell that I had a driveway b/c it was covered with debris. I was volunteering at our church's new Call Center (where seniors and others can call for help with minor house/yard work). A new member of our S. S. class called the center to see if anyone needed assistance in cleaning up yards after the storm. Oddly, no one had called the center. I commented that my yard looked like a war zone and I was sure everyone else's did, too, and was surprised that no one had asked for help. Would you believe when I returned home, that man was cleaning my yard! Mind you it was around 100 degrees that day. He hand-raked almost the entire front yard. I helped clear the driveway, but he did the rest. I refused to let him work on my back yard. I figured ole Tommy needed something to do when he returned from out of town! I was completely blown away with his generosity - especially on a HOT and HUMID day. Terry is my Yard Angel. I will never forget that act of kindness and I will try to be that generous to others - however, my generosity probably will stop when the temp is over 75 HA HA

My First Blog

Since I love to talk so much, I thought if I blogged a bit several times a week, then my dear husband would have to listen to me blab that much less. So, this is my first official blog.

I am about to be a grandmother for the very first time - hence the name of my blog site is "The Circle of Life". My son and his wife are expecting in less than 2 weeks and my daughter and her husband are due in November. Both are expecting little girls. I've already decorated my baby room and, of course, I have begun to clean up my three children's old toys and books. I can't wait for this new chapter in my life. I am so blessed to have three children who still love me and love each other plus all their spouses. With the addition of the new granddaughters, we're just continuing the Circle of Life.