Stream of Consciousness

-One day last week I curled my hair. I thought I looked like David Cassidy.

-As much as I love TV, I'm really looking forward to having time in the evenings.

-If I could sew all day long, I would be the luckiest girl in the world. But my back would hurt.

-I'm trying to plan a trip to an All-Inclusive to the Dominican Republic but I'm terrified of having diarrhea for a week.

-One of the reviews I read about a resort touted how quickly the staff removed drunk people from the pool area and cleaned up vomit. This is not a selling point I had previously considered.

-Last week I had a return to make at JoAnn's. You do not know how difficult it was for me not to purchase fabric. I have a serious problem.

-I could polish off a bottle of wine in an evening without really trying. I'm not sure whether to be proud or ashamed.

-Some days I think I don't need to lose any more weight. Then I call my doctor to subscribe crazy pills.

-The two chocolate bunnies John and I received for Easter were supposed to be melted down for dipping strawberries and other things. Only half of one remains, and none of them were using for dipping.

-Yesterday, I discovered cake from my birthday in the freezer. It was the happiest moment of my week.

Recipe Re-blog #18

Lemon Cranberry Scones: My love for scones is no secret. They are so delicious but thus far, I've only made two varieties. Time to start branching out. I made these for a Mother's Day tea. Not that I'm a Weight Watcher, but these have 4 points, say Gina (see link). Only, I got 16 smaller scones since the menu at aforementioned tea was lengthy, so that would be even fewer points, no? These were so delicious! Sometimes I forget how much I love lemon. Maybe it's because John is not such a lemon fan. Anyhoo, give these a try.

Happy Mother's Day!

I am only a dog mother. I wonder what Sadie will bring me.

Clara and Mr. Tiffany

Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland was recommended to me, I believe, by my librarian aunt. She always has good suggestions as she is surrounded by books all day long. Oh, what a life! It is a piece of historical fiction set in the late 1800's-early 1900's in New York City. Mr. Tiffany is not the famed Tiffany of Tiffany and Co., but his son, Louis Comfort Tiffany, of the famed Tiffany windows, lamps, etc.

Clara Driscoll and a number of women work in the stained glass department for Mr. Tiffany, designing, painting, selecting and cutting glass, and creating beautiful works of art for display and sale. In a time when well-paying jobs for women were scarce, Clara has carved out a creative niche for herself and those under her tutelage. She loves the work she does and only wishes to be recognized for her efforts and the efforts of the women around her but Mr. Tiffany tends to take all the credit at exhibitions and with clients. Clara's husband is deceased which is what allows her to work for Tiffany, no married women allowed here. She lives in a boarding house with a rather interesting set of tenants.

In addition to not receiving creative recognition, Clara also finds herself at the cennter of a womens' rights battle with the male glass departments. They believe the women are stealing their jobs and none too pleased about it. Not wanting to take steps backward for women everywhere, Clara holds on as tight as she can to the artistic independence her stained glass department has attained over time. She also falls in and out of love but I won't ruin that part for you.

This was a lovely read. Even if you think you're not interested in the topic or don't find yourself a womens' libber, you will still enjoy this book. The characters were painted wonderfully, the story intriguing. It moved along at a good page-turning pace. About halfway through I found myself looking up pictures of these works of art so I could see them for myself. This really helped while reading as Vreeland described them well but it was nice to put the words together with a visual. Pick this one up if you're so inclined. Two good books in a row, I may be on a hot streak!

Em.Barr.Ass.Ing

For easily a couple weeks, I complained to John that the CD player in my car was broken. Prior to this, it was working on a sporadic basis. Sometimes my clock doesn't work either. I guess this is to be expected on a car that is 6 years old, has more than 100,000 miles on it and wasn't very expensive in the first place. Good old, Blue. I lamented to my sister that I wouldn't be able to listen to my Glee CD's on my 45+ minute commute each morning and evening. Sad, indeed. I was also devastated that whatever CD was in the player would not or could not be ejected and was lost forever. Each day, without fail, I pressed Eject and waited. Nothing.

One day I decided to try to put in a CD. I'm not sure what prompted this but nevertheless, I selected a CD to shove in the slot. Lo and behold, it went in and started playing. You guessed it. My CD player wasn't broken, it just had no CD to play. In my defense its playing is still hit or miss and totally unreliable but it does, in fact, work.

...

I mentioned that we finally met our neighbors after living in the house for 6 months. They are a younger couple (like us!) whom we wish desperately to befriend. Making friends is tough so you might as well start close to home. Well, I think we made a good impression on Saturday while we chatted during the garage sale save for one small thing.... John had made us peanut butter and banana smoothies (yum) just before this meeting. He delivered this smoothie to me in a cobalt blue stemmed glass. A glass that you could definitely drink wine from. It's actually my sangria glass but we also use it for smoothies. I was holding said glass and sipping said smoothie when we met them. It wasn't until later that I had a terrible thought. What if they did think I was drinking wine? It was 1:30pm. How embarrassing to be pegged as a daytime drinker whilst not at a winery or barbecue (two acceptable places for daytime drinking, a third is on vacation -- where all bets are off). So, hopefully they dont't think me a lush and will accept our open-ended invitation to "get together sometime." See what I mean about it being hard to make friends? I'm given an opening for friendship and instead, give off the impression of alcoholic tendencies. (Drinkin alone, and during the day)

I'll just crawl in a hole for awhile.

Garage Sale A-go-go

This past Saturday was my big debut garage sale in our new development. As I mentioned last week, I had very high hopes and John had no hopes at all. I got up extra early because I was so excited, much earlier than I should have for a Saturday. I readied myself and then readied the sale. The forecast was calling for 70 degree temps and wall to wall sunshine, a welcome change from the deluge we've been experiencing. One of the items I was really hoping to sell was a giant corner desk that had previously been in the 3rd bedroom (soon to be guest/sewing room). Due to its gigantor proportions, the entire thing had to be dismantled to get out of the room and down the stairs. That was John's job. While he sweated over the desk, I set up my wares.

Two card tables and a sad looking blanket on the ground later and I wanted to cry. My sale was looking sad. I was going to take a picture but I was far too embarrassed to show even my faithful readers. John, seeing my distress, raced around the house to try to find more things for us to sell so it wouldn't look so piddly. Anyway, I had my first couple drive by's while I was still setting up. This would become a very familiar sight throughout the day. So, not only did my sale not look so hot but it was also cold outside. Things weren't starting out so great. The rest of the day shall be presented to you in timeline format.

9:00 am - Sale officially opens

9:23 am - Count is up to 4 drive by's of which I know they intentionally came down my street to check out my sale because it's a cul-de-sac, easy loop away from the crappy looking tables.

9:25 am - First sale! $13

9:38 am - Second sale, a whole dollar! And my 5th drive by

10:30am - Drive by total hits 13. Ashley takes call from sister lamenting about how her tables look but happy about the $14 earned

10:41 am - Still cold but sun showing slightly

All of this time I'm also reading a great book.....more on that later this week. Sadie was my selling companion until she had to go get a haircut. For the next few weeks, she'll have a triangle head.

11:30 am - Desk sells! Day deemed a total success
1:30 pm - Desk picked up. 50 cent sale and up to 40 drive by's
1:41 pm - Topped $100, may stay open past 2:00.
2:00 pm - Decide to pack it in as planned and we meet our neighbors!

Despite being passed over by more than 40 potential customers, I made $107.50! The desk is gone and we met the neighbors we really want to try to hang out with. Even though I didn't get any sun and wore a blouse, hoodie and jacket for most of the day, I reached 3 out of 4 goals!

I hope this sale is an annual thing!

Vino Adventures -- South America

I almost forgot to post about this! Out little wine club met again a couple weeks ago for another vino adventure. This time, we headed to South America! I had a good time coming up with a menu that may or may not have featured South American cuisine. See all of those recipes I used here. I sought out the advice of my friendly wine shop owner when selecting my wines. He suggested a cab/something else blend from Argentina and a carmenere from Chile. If you haven't ever tried a carmenere, you must! It's a great red that's not too terribly dry. All of them that I've had thus far have been smooth and delicious, very accessible.

Here we have our appetizers. Bread and seasoned oil and three yummy cheeses. Blue d'auverne that I read pairs well with Chilean reds, Havarti and Manchego. All cheesy, all delicious! The d'auverne was so spreadable. Growing up I wouldn't have touched blue cheese with a 10 foot pole. Now, I can't get enough of it. Amazing how your tastes change. If I had to live on bread and cheese alone, that would be a-okay with me.

I didn't take any pictures of dinner or dessert so I won't re-hash those here but all recipes were worth another shot and obtained sleeves in my recipe binder. I love when that happens. Recipes that aren't worth eating, or making, are oh so disappointing.

Now......the wines!

Except, is this terrible or what? It's been too long since the tasting and my posting that I have completely misplaced all my notes on these bottles. I can only recall that the blend from Argentina was called Intimo and retailed for $16. What is happening to my memory? I know we liked all of them. The Carmenere was especially delicious. The Sauvignon Blanc from Chile that our guests brought was a very mild and delightful white. Well, after we strained out the broken glass that is. We're not sure how it happened but our trusty Rabbit wine opener broke the neck of this bottle. Not wanting to waste good, glass-infused, grape, we used a little ingenuity.

No harm, no foul.

I promise to do better at my reporting skills next time. We have another wine night in a few weeks so I have a chance to redeem myself. Until then, may the grape be with you!

Recipe Re-blog #17

After last week's new recipe bonanza, I dialed it back a few notches and tried just one new recipe this week.

Baked Spaghetti: I found this on the How Sweet It Is blog. I was drawn to it because it looked tasty and also, would feed us for 3 nights. Eating the same meal 3 nights in a row has its drawbacks but you also only have to cook 1 of those nights. That is the positive thing. This came together quick and easy, which is a good thing because I made it for dinner on Easter Sunday after having driven for 3 1/2 hours from our hometown. Our dinner plans had been foiled with the grocery store was closed. How dare they deign to celebrate the holiday! Luckily, I had the ingredients for this all ready to go. It wasn't super exciting, it's just baked spaghetti, but it was pretty good. It got a sleeve in my recipe binder.

Happy May, everybody!