Saturday stuff

Mr. Gadget and I decided to take a ride up to the new condo for another look-see. Were we ever surprised to discover that Mary Kay has staked her claim to one whole building.

This is the view from our upstairs guest bedroom. I wonder who will move in to that nicely-poured foundation. They will be our next door neighbors, so I hope they're friendly. Maybe I'll bake some chocolate chip cookies as a welcoming gesture. Looks like I'll have plenty of time to shop for the ingredients.

Here is Mr. G's office. There are still a few lingering orbs. See that metal tube hanging down? There was lots of warm air coming out of it, and maybe a fresh supply of orbs. We like to check on the construction progress every couple of weeks or so. It's really just an excuse for Mr. G to grab a few chocolate candies from the sales office. They're really good....or so he tells me....

So Thanksgiving was fun, not to mention tasty. Tech Guy and Big City Girl dressed for the occasion.

They insisted their father play along.

Yes, they did make one for me too, but too bad it's on BCG's camera.

We carried on the usual family holiday traditions. We passed around the telephone when the relatives called.

Some of us took a nap in the chair.

And Mr. Gadget made his annual proclamation by declaring it officially Fruitcake Season.......

A Macaroni Thanksgiving

Big City Girl arrived a day early to make some festive wall decorations.

Mr. Gadget will soon begin his once-a-year cooking effort.....the giblet gravy.

Tech Guy will arrive shortly to keep us entertained during dinner with his traditional hang-spoon-on-nose trick, and his talent for creating artwork in his mashed potatoes.

I am thankful it will just be the four of us.....

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

More decorating

It seems Mother Nature doesn't just do winter window decorating.

She's also quite talented at carving Halloween jack-o-lanterns. When I got up this morning, Mr. Gadget, who had already fetched the newspaper and made me a nice cup of coffee, broke the news. We're pretty sure it was racoons because just a couple of nights ago we heard what sounded like someone rattling our front door.

We rarely have racoon visits, but several summers ago we happened to turn on our back deck light to find one lounging around on our chaise. In fact, he was stretched out in much the same pose as Mr. Gadget on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Of course, he wasn't holding a glass of wine, nor was he perusing a gadget magazine. We offered him an apple so he'd stay around long enough for me to take pictures. Which he did. But that was before I had my digital camera. I took a whole gaggle of cute racoon pictures, only to discover later than my camera was without film.

Here is a picture of the treehouse in its present condition. I've done some organizing and de-cluttering, but I know it doesn't look like it.

Exposed table surfaces are an indication that I've done some cleaning, and that has always been pretty much the case all over our house. I like to have my stuff handy at all times. Right now there is one knitted sock on the table next to my chair in the family room just waiting for me to do that picky little kitchener stitch to finish it off. Those of you who don't knit are probably wondering why a stitch used to close up a sock's toe would be named something that related more to the cooking world. I have no idea.

Maybe it's because the first woman sock knitter had to do just what I do. Tell the hubby to shut up for a few minutes so we can concentrate. And that's a perfect time for him to go into the kitchen to grab himself a snack and a beer....if he knows what's good for him.....

Gardening season

I remember my growing-up years in southern California and how exciting it was each Christmas season to sponge a certain window-cleaning product on our windows in an effort to duplicate this icy look. Here on the east coast, Mother Nature does the decorating. Mighty convenient.

So my trip down to the big city to visit BCG was fun, and the highlight was our 67-story non-stop elevator ride up to the Top of the Rock.

While there's no end of noise on the sidewalks of New York,

from this vantage point, the city whispers. This is a view of Central Park.St Patrick's Cathedral is in the lower center of the picture. If only I were taller.

Here's the Empire State Building. It was a mostly overcast day, but you can see a few rays of sun shining down on it.

We had a lovely lunch, after which we shared a piece of pumpkin cheesecake.

So I was indeed fortunate to have a loss at Weight Watchers this morning. I'm back tending my little container garden again.

What I've learned over the many years of dieting stops and starts is that it's really just a matter of staying on the main road with a destination in mind. There will always be bumps, detours, and the occasional road construction. But if you have a road map and you don't veer off the interstate too far, you'll get there eventually. Meanwhile, find some fun and interesting things to do so you won't fret over how the trip you expected to make in 3 months is ending up taking a year. Just a little flower-pot wisdom for ya......

Jack Frosting

Here he is.....Jack Frosting. I almost named him Jack Frost, but Jack Frosting reminds me of those little cans of frosting I used to buy to decorate kid birthday cakes. I was always careful to only use 7/8 of the can so I could enjoy the last 1/8 on a spoon. Be forewarned if you happen to be thinking of trying this. It can get you into quite a fix. Personal downsizing may be required.Jack was supposed to have a ruffled clown-style collar, but applying it was frustrating. As I was tightening up the ruffle, his glued-on head popped off and I lost patience. After all, I was planning this as a quick project between moving-prep chores. So I weaseled out and made him a scarf instead. I roughed up the bottom of his head and tried the glue again. So far, so good. But Mr. Gadget has offered a fallback position if this glue fails to hold. It involves an electric drill and a long screw. I hope, for Jack's sake, it doesn't come to that.

And speaking of clueless folks (yesterday's post) how about the folks who live down the street?

They erected a full yard display with Christmas trees and blow-up figures on their lawn early last weekend. This is in addition to at least 8 pumpkins and several corn stalks around their front door. These kinds of things are the reason I don't watch reality TV. There's plenty of reality reality to keep me entertained for years to come.

And tomorrow morning I'm leaving on the 11:16 train to spend the afternoon in the city with Big City Girl. I'm so excited! There was a time when I feared BCG and I would never again have a pleasant conversation. But I never gave up faith. My friends with older daughters assured me that better days were ahead. They were right. We'll have lunch and do some crafty shopping. Then we'll go up to the Top of the Rock for a wonderful panoramic view of the city. It should be a beautiful day in the city but very cold, so I'll be sure to wear my warmies.

You don't suppose BCG would invite me down to the city just because I promised to bring pumpkin muffins, do you?

In training

Mr. Gadget loves to sit down at the computer, after a hard day of retirement, and play a game of Tetris. He's very good at it, and so is Big City Girl. I guess those Tetris tiles don't fall far from the Tetris tree. Turns out Mr. G has been in training all these years for the big move.

I'm sure he'll pack our rented truck with the utmost efficiency.

I do remember how his father used to accompany his mother to the grocery store, and then insist on putting all of the groceries away. He had a system and shunned all offers of assistance. I can only wonder if BCG has inherited this trait. If so, it's a dormant one at this point, except for the Tetris thing. Although she has included a weekly planner on her Christmas wish list, so I'm wondering.....can spread sheets be far behind?

My craft project is coming along nicely. I know my state-of-mind has benefitted from taking small creative time-outs from the sorting, packing, tossing, and dust overdoses. My sewing machine, fabric scraps and glue gun will be the last to go.

Meanwhile, we visited the new condo last weekend and noticed some real progress. The wood floors are in and installation has begun on the kitchen cabinets.

The builder seems to be a man of his word, so we're expecting an on-time arrival.

Mr. G and I have been making steady progress on our house de-cluttering project. This past Sunday we sent our dining room set out the door to a new owner. The story of its departure is worth telling, since we were baffled by the clueless-ness of these folks. The table was large and heavy, with six sturdy chairs. I emailed a picture. They arrived in two cars, took a look at the set and scratched their heads. "I guess we shoulda brought a truck, Honey," the Mr. said to the Mrs.

They loaded up the chairs with no problem, two in one car and four in the other, but realized they'd have to take the table apart if they hoped to get it home in one or both of their vehicles.

Here's a picture of the decapitation. I apologize. I should have covered this grisly scene with a white sheet. At least it was their table at this point because money had changed hands. It took them two more trips....one for each half. It's kinda nice to have the dining room empty now. I have a feeling there's going to be more Tetris.....

Couch potato

It's a good thing I found this wonderful website, because Pierre is turning out to be a lazy bum.

Last night I fixed salmon fillets for dinner.....in my crockpot! Who'd have thought? I didn't have the ingredients on hand for the crockpot lady's jerk rub, so I just doctored it up as per my usual....a little olive oil, salt and pepper, and some garlic salt. I wrapped them tightly, each in a little foil packet, and put them right in the pot. After two hours on low, they were melt-in-your-mouth yummy. I also had my rice cooker going. My kitchen gadgets were keeping each other company. Mr. Gadget was most impressed.

I have managed to sneak in a little crafting time. Here's what I have so far.

There might be some paper mache involved, but you'll have to wait and see. Did you know that kneading up a batch of paper mache is a good stress-reliever?

Well, gotta run. Mr. G is busy cleaning up his clutter in the basement, and he hates to be alone with the dust bunnies....

The two number fours

Here's something I won't miss after we move.

Our's is one of two houses on our street with this address. I will now briefly explain how this came about, and the reason for the peeling paint. After construction was started on this street long ago, the builders decided to number the lots. Since ours is the fourth lot, we became #4. But this wasn't the city's plan, and apparently there were no telephones back then so people could discuss such things.

In recent years, as people have sold their homes, the new owners have been required to take the official address. For a long time, there were two number twos. But one of those twos was sold and then it became a number four.

Since the mailman is coming down the street when he gets to our house, we usually end up with some of the other number four's mail. And since the package delivery people come up the street, the other number four usually gets our packages. I will not miss this situation, and I do plan to order lots of stuff on line--to make up for my years of reluctance to do so here. You know, like if I wanted a little something from Victoria's Secret....

So now, with all this free-stuff give-away we're doing, I've resorted to this:

Which is why the paint is peeling. But it works like a charm. Today someone is coming to pick up Mr. G's old golf clubs. I tried to get Pierre to do this chore for me. After all, it's getting nippy out now, and since he put dinner in the crock pot, he's pretty much got the day off. But he refused, saying it wasn't his job. I insisted he come along with me anyway.

I noticed a nice comment on the blog yesterday from Tech Guy.....a complimentary one that did not require deletion...heh...heh.... He suggested I mention a little something about Pierre. He is one of my creations and was a gift to TG, who had recently taken a cooking class. I found the pattern in a magazine--something rare these days. Now you'd have to pay extra for a pattern like this. I had been thinking about making a chef of my own to decorate the new kitchen. But TG said I could have Pierre, since his kitchen is small and what he mostly makes for dinner these days are trips to the corner deli.

Here are a couple more of my creations, circa 1950's.

These were gifts for my folks. A ceramic ashtray I made in school, and a plaster-of-paris dog I made in Brownies. BCG says it's a pit bull. In hindsight, maybe I wasn't such a loving daughter after all.....

Man of my dreams

Meet my new personal chef, Pierre.He's going to be living with us for a while to help me stay on track with my diet program.

He says I can learn to love lentils.But he did reluctantly agree, after I had a tantrum, not to ever make me eat peas.

I begged and pleaded for a nice chocolate dessert......low cal, of course......but he held his ground.I continued my begging, and even offered a bribe, but it did no good. Pierre said I was giving him a headache.When I asked him if he had a recipe for leftover Halloween candy, he very sternly told me no, and that there would only be Halloween candy over his dead body.

I must say, I'm a little concerned about Pierre. He likes a little nip now and then, you know what I mean?

Shhh! Don't disturb him. I saw where he hid the chocolates......

Pumpkin parade

Large fabric pumpkins

Small fabric pumpkins

Paper mache pumpkins

Painted rock pumpkins Bucket pumpkin

The real deal
Pumpkin pie (eating may necessitate trip to gastroenterologist)

My special little pumpkin wearing her new crocheted scarf.

Road work ahead

Tuesday I had my ballot scanned. Today it was my neck. My turkey neck.....although the technician was nice enough not to mention it. Once a person starts the march toward elderlihood, doctors start scrutinizing. Mine wants to make sure my blood is flowing through a highway system that's relatively free of road construction with a minimum of pot holes and detours.

It always tickles me when the receptionist puts that little plastic wrist band on me.....just in case I might happen to expire from the pressure of that scan thingie. But I suppose they have their procedures and their rules. I've learned it's best not to cross these folks. I'm diligent about filling in my paperwork, even though they already have my info on file, and I remember to say please and thank you. This way they won't try anything tricky like waiting till I sit down and then yelling across the waiting room, "Tell me again what is it you're here for?"

Now back to the downsizing project. Next up on the list of things to get rid of is Tech Guy's old college dorm fridge. It's not a pretty sight, even though it works fine and has managed to keep several years' worth of Thanksgiving pumpkin pies cold.

I may have to think up a clever way to sweeten this deal too, although we do live in a college town so that should help. And based on my parental knowledge of college dormitories, I think this will nicely complement any sort of current dorm decor. I guess I could promise some old cans of spray paint that could be used to pretty-up this sad-looking little fridge. But then I'd worry about it falling into the wrong hands. Mr. G and I wouldn't be happy to find graffiti on the side of our garage--the work of some disgruntled student with warm beer.

I'm going to try to squeeze in a small sewing project in the next few days. I think I mentioned a while back that our Wichita family members are cloth-napkin users--napkins that have been produced on my sewing machine over the years. But lately I've been negligent and they gently pointed out to me, during our visit last spring, that their supply is getting threadbare. I promised I'd do better.

So I'll be sending them some new napkins with Christmas kitties soon. Why yes, it does look a lot like Henry.

Maybe I should make these for Henry's family. Maybe I should look for some different fabric for the prairie relatives. Perhaps something more prairie-like. Maybe with cows and corn. I mean wheat....