Fabulous to Frumpy

Not a great shot of red roses.

Well, Big Daddy brought me 2 dozen red roses so there are some in the living room and some in the dining room. The are not very fragrant but they are pretty.

Big Daddy made a delicious dinner and he bought an antique silver tray for our after dinner tea. We have a new tradition, we take tea in the evening while watching intelligent and thoughtful television programs. Well, the tea part is true. We have a wooden tray but BD did not think it was quite right and the new one is very nice. The reason for the new tea tradition is -tada- we are on a very strict diet regimen. Only protien, vegetables, and fruit with good fat and fiber. And I have given up alcohol and BD has given up bagles. After 2 weeks I have gained 2 pounds and BD is not allowed to discuss weight in any way, shape or form.

BD also bought me a robe and nightgown as he said mine are all ratty and I need something nice, even if I am fat. He did not say the fat part out loud. The nightwear did. It is granny wear. The lenght is below the knee and there is a zipper in the front. All I need are some hair rollers and a hair net and I will be able to officially scare the bejesus out of small children and animals. If I sprout a hair coming out of my chin I am going back to smoking and drinking.

It feels like it was just yesterday, nah.

Thirty six years ago today Big Daddy and I got married. It is hard to believe it has been that long, but in looking back there was a lot of water that went under that bridge. We only have the pictures my mother sent this spring and they are the old faded Polaroids. I can't believe no one took pictures that would last. It was my second marriage (first one lasted 10 minutes) so it was very low key. The reception was at BD's parents home and his mom put out flowers from her garden. The cake fell over so BD's grandmother just took her piece and said goodbye. No one told me about the cake and when grandma said goodbye she informed me there was no need to cut the cake, she took care of that chore.

The most memorable celebrations we had were the anniversaries after 9/11. We were supposed to go to New Orleans, BD had never been, and that was cancelled due to the flights being grounded. The following year we made it to Nola and BD had a huge bouquet of red roses waiting in our room. That visit was our first and only meal at Galatoires, we were not happy with anything to do with that lunch.

This year it is much cooler, we had really great weather on our wedding day. Big Daddy is making me a surprise dinner. I got him presents this year, we usually do but it is not a must for us. He got chips for the smoker, planks for cooking the fish, and a boning knife. He is not back into cooking like before but he is loving the smoker and the grill. I gave them to him as they arrived so he could use them this summer.

My mother-in-law sent us a card and I had to chuckle, BD's parents were not happy about the (gasp) divorcee status of his bride but it has worked out just fine.

Peculiarity

Odd things happen to me. They are never, so far, life threatening, just odd. Everything has been pretty normal since I got back from China and I think that is because I have led a very quiet life. Friday night we were eating dinner and watching television when I suddenly felt a stab in the upper part of my mouth. Feeling around with my tongue there was something hard there. It was a wire. The wire was about 3/4 of an inch long and very small diameter. I pulled it out of the upper palate and asked Big Daddy what the hell it was. He thought at first something from his BBQ brush, but this wire was way too small for that. And it was in the cole slaw.

Of course the first thing I thought of was the story of the needles in the airline catering sandwiches. But it was not a needle. We decided no more pre-cut cabbage as BD thinks it was something from the cutting or cleaning equipment that broke off. I always did think buying pre-cut cabbage was kind of expensive and a waste, especially as we have an expensive food processor. So I did not finish dinner as this was the first bite and had butter bean soup for dinner. Homemade.

 This is not the first time this has happened. In China I found a wire coil in my mouth. And it is not just my mouth. A couple years ago I pushed down the clutch on my car and popped a nerve by my ankle. Orthopedic surgeon said it was the most unusual thing he had seen. Just odd.

Saturday we were sitting here and heard noises that sounded like firecrackers. Lots of them and it did not stop. BD tracked it down, the Slavic half way house had an old fashioned rug beater and a saw horse set up in the back yard to clean their rugs. WTF. It took 2 people to beat the rugs.

Washer/Dryer running again, just a snafu from the furnace installers. I found a heart shaped spring form cake pan, a popover pan and a pie plate. Plus an electric soup pot and an electric burner. I cannot fathom where this stuff came from except the popover pan. That came from Williams Sonoma. And 2 huge turkey roasters. Why would we have 2? I also found the broiler pan, something I was actually looking for.

So this afternoon we are roasting 2 chickens (in one huge roaster) to save time and electricity. This means I will have to make soup stock tomorrow. And next Sunday will be popover day.

 

Snippets

Punkin Head is not well, I hope he is starting to feel better. A cold he thinks. One that put him in the bed with a fever.

Yesterday I received a welcome phone call from Blue Bay, the fish monger, she had whole Pompano. That is the most wonderful fish in the world. Grilled with a butter sauce, delightful. And there are 2 more in the freezer for when the spirit moves us to luscious fish dinners.

My washer and dryer don't work anymore. Something to do with unhooking the electric for the little furnace. So the furnace people are returning Saturday to fix this, more mess for me.

There was a murder/suicide at an assembly plant here in town yesterday. Killer supposedly jumped off his hilo and stabbed a guy then escaped and shot himself on Belle Isle. Rumors are it was a love triangle. That would not surprise me as it was quite common in the plants. So was just plain craziness.

The political bullshit is starting to drive me batty. I cannot understand how people can be so dense as to believe a snippet of conversation or anything written in the media at face value. My favorite tactic is the one that if "The Bad Thing Is Voted Down" there will be a miracle and in a burst of glory everything will be beautiful and we will have more teachers. This includes a bridge to Canada.

Political surveys are my favorite. How many people actually still have a land line besides me? Who are the people responding to the polls?

Figured out Netflix, just got Mirror Mirror in the mail for Friday movie night. Woo hoo.

Just in the nick of time

Just part of the mess from downstairs. Tall item is the little furnace.

Weather has taken a turn, we now feel like fall. Gray skies, wind and rain. Low in the forties and high yesterday never made it to 60. Perfect time for testing my new furnace.

This is the cast iron part of the original furnace.

Took 9 1/2 hours plus their small lunch break. Loud, noisy, and dirty are fair descriptions of the job. There is still a cement pad that needs to be removed from the second air conditioner.

When I got up this morning it was chilly in the house and when I checked the temp was 69. Normally this would not be a prompt to turn on the heat but it was a great time to check that everything is working. So far so good. Next check is how the bathroom heats up at what temp. Can't stand to be cold taking a shower.

Talking about not being able to take the cold with the wet, well Sammy dog is having a problem with the morning pee pee. It is cool and wet in the morning and Sammy seems to have very sensitive toes and feet pads.  Refuses to put his paw on the grass. Must be escorted to the lawn and physically deposited into to the grass. Think of it as throwing your kid in the lake. I can't wait to see his furry little face when it snows.

Temps all week cool and rainy so now we will be comfortable. Hooray.

Looks can be deceiving

Mushroom Pie

This is about an hour out of the oven and Big Daddy wanted a taste. He said it is scrumptious. It is not as pretty as the other food but it is tasty. The steel cut oats in the crock pot looked magazine perfect but I did not like the mushy apple texture and I think it needed a pinch of salt not included in the recipe. I will make the oats again with a revised recipe and maybe some slivered almonds on top.

We have to clean out the pantry today as tomorrow is furnace day. I think it is time to get rid of some of the vases and unused luggage. This should be interesting to find out what is down there. I never cleaned out the pantry when I got home.

BD is going to the fish monger and dinner will be a surprise. Next week maybe to the weird but clean meat supply place where they have tasso ham and buffalo and duck and other said edibles. I have not had duck since leaving China.

Off to get dressed and tackle the pantry.

Perserverence

I am going to try my new recipes today and past experiences be damned. I have decided it was the recipe and not me. Maybe if I was a more experienced cook I would have noticed something off or lacking. Well, like Wayne Gretzky would say, "I missed every shot I never took". Can't fail if you don't try.

The Elvis episode of Pawn Stars was hilarious, there were actually 2 different shows. One had a necklace and one had a contract. The contract was phony and that lady cried, she had it since around 1955 or so. The necklace lady said she was offered 400 grand at one time and the Pawn dude offered her 20 grand. Why would these people not go to an auction house?

I was watching this online and saw the ad for Honey Boo Boo that everyone is talking about so I watched that after the Pawn Stars. That is the most disturbing thing I have ever seen on television and I am sure that is because I never watched Toddlers and Tiaras.

Remember the goof ass that is accused of hiring a hit man to kill his first hit man? Well his new attorney went back to court for a bail reduction request, current bail is 15 million. Well the prosecution says he is friendless, his family is on the outs with him, and he is pissed they haven't offered him a plea. Plus he was harassing witnesses.  But the sprinkles on that cupcake is that he has a new girlfriend from the BDSM website and he is directing her to contact and harass witnesses. We know this how? He has a phone in his cell (he is in solitary in the county jail) and they recorded all his phone calls. What a dumbass.

An abysmal cook

That would be me. My Mole Rice was so disappointing it made the very plain, dry, boneless chicken breast seem not so awful. Quite a few people on the website commented that this was a swell dish. There are either many many people with awful taste buds or I am way too picky.  Though this does remind me of the time I made the pastries that even the squirrels would not eat.

I followed the recipe exactly. I toasted the spices and herbs. I chopped the chocolates. I added the minced garlic. It looked exactly like the picture. And it had absolutely no taste. No flavor. No essence of goodness. It was so bland it could not have been blander. And this was agreed to by Big Daddy. He did not say a word until I mentioned cardboard might have more flavor.

Now I have no interest in making the surprise and I bought all the ingredients. WTF, maybe I will feel better tomorrow.

So I am off the order The Price of Politics by Bob Woodward and then to watch the Elvis jewelry episode on Pawn Stars.

Back to abnormal

Trader Joe's rice and Mexican chocolate.

Once again I have a craaazy idea to cook food for others to consume. After getting my hair back to the proper shade of red and having a hair washing conference. I went to the store for supplies. I am making Mole Rice and another surprise dish. That Mole word needs an accent and I do not know how to do that.

Now Big Daddy tells me he has a mandatory 3-5 meeting with the design and product engineers over timing. This meeting could go to 7 as these engineers cannot make a decision which is why they have timing problems. They promise the moon and can't do a map to the nearest rest room. That is the loo, washroom, banyo, WC, or outhouse for those speaking other languages. I like to brag about my command of many foreign tongues.

Surprise of the day, we are the only ones in our little area with an American flag out today. Is it how soon they forget or how soon they get complacent?

No surprise of the day, I broke the radio in my car. I do not have time to figure this out today so no music or talk for me.

And Netflix is a mystery. I think we have an account and are charged for it. They sent us a movie in the mail. It is the same movie we watched on the television.  We really need to look into this.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf

I have no idea why a picture of one of the patio tables is on my computer. Those are the bells we got in New Orleans many years ago and the sound is sweet.

I am not sure why, I am tending to think that there is no real routine here, but sniping seems to be the flavor of the weekend.

I made soup for Big Daddy Friday afternoon and with the discovery of the slow cooker in the pantry I had a perfect place to cook it. He announces Saturday morning that he thinks soup and salad will be just great for dinner. I do not like soup as a rule and making a meal of it is not in my playbook. So that is how we started out.

Pick, pick, pick. Except when he got his new shoes and socks I ordered for him. Then he was all happiness and light. The shoes are waterproof and should work well in this awful environment this winter. I'll let you know if they get the job done.

I am also disgusted with men with gray hair and beards pretending to be in their 20's and wearing that shaggy look. Brad Pitt looked cute with day old growth on his pretty face. Old men with gray beards do not look so good. Actually they look like shit unless they are groomed within an inch of the lives.

And what in the hell happened to 2 penny Jenny at the convention. That woman looked like she stole the rest of Ann Romney's drugs and washed them down with a quart of Red Bull. She was never that excited about anything when she was here in Michigan. And by the way, as soon as possible she moved her family to California so a little disingenuous to claim to be from Michigan at the convention. (Born in Canada, raised out west, ruined Michigan, moved back to California.)  Also loved how she did not mention that all the non-union GM retirees were screwed out of their pensions. Surprised that Bob King did not chastise them for not joining the union.

Potty training for Big Daddy

I have no problem with Sammy Spanky Dog once we figured out how to communicate.  Vigilance is the key, I don't know his previous history but I know if you do not run a tight ship this little fucker will do as he pleases. He goes to the door and waits for you to let him out. This means you better know where he is every minute. And do not let him roam without supervision. As he is pretty laid back this is fairly easy.

I have noticed that this time with Big Daddy's return there is a bit of sibling rivalry. Really Sammy spends more time here than BD.  I told BD that Sammy is competing with him to be the Beta. They both agree I am the Alpha through sheer terror of mama and her happiness. Sammy does not want to let BD sit in Mama's chair. He does not snarl or grr, he simply goes limp and will not move. Sometimes he will not go out for BD unless I tell him to go.

Well this morning there was a cherry put on this competition sundae. BD insists on using his routine in the morning for when Sammy poops and pees and eats. (Another engineer re-inventing the wheel) So after a long and drawn out huffing and puffing and bitching I was tired of hearing about how Sammy was an ingrate and not DOING his job. Until, I heard the swearing and bitching about how Sammy shat in BD's room. And I am sure that was the dog giving his rival the finger.

I was so looking forward to fall

By the end of August there was very little on television or in the papers. Isaac was worth watching and the conventions were coming. We have 2 big trials coming to Detroit and assorted Michigan nonsense plus the new TV shows. I am learning this was misplaced anticipation.

Isaac showed that the Feds, as in Army Corps of Engineers, still have not figured out how to keep shit from flooding and people still insist on living where it is gonna flood.

Ann Romney looked like she was on speed and coached to be perky, perky, perky. Michelle Obama wore a cocktail dress and lavender nail polish to tell us that she and hubs are just plain folks like us.

There is nothing on TV. This is insane, there used to be stuff on TV that you waited for. Boardwalk Empire won't start for weeks, and some shows do not start until October. WTF.  And all the Dancing With The Stars contestants are re-treads.

Kwame Kenyatta, Detroit City Council, wants Mayor Bing removed from office because he ignored Kwame's emails. This is the same Kwame who would not vote on things he did not agree with. Kwame Kilpatrick, former Mayor of Detroit, is waiting for a jury to be seated in his trial. One of his co-defendants has threatened to tell all of the dirt because he cannot get a separate trial. WTH.

Well, we are 2 days into the week and no travel plans for Big Daddy yet, that is amazing.

This and That

Once again I am too boring for words. Sammy is trying to entertain me but it is a huge job.

Both my guys had very good trips last week. Punkin Head had a good interview and dinner with his cousin and her husband. She is going to Brandeis for a slightly similar career and they enjoyed comparing notes.

Big Daddy flew home Friday with a couple of baffling moments. First he was accused of having venereals as they checked his carry on bags. He thought they were searching for antibiotics, what else would you look for when venereal diseases are in question. No, they were searching for vernier calipers-about 4 inches long that he has had for over 15 years. They took his "venereals" and gave him a receipt. Fuckers. He got them in Japan in the 90's. Now I am wondering where my verniers are, I have not seen them since I quit my job.

Then BD discovered the difference between Delta and American Airlines. AA is very friendly and informative. When his flight was delayed about 15 minutes the flight attendant went on the PA system to explain that the slight delay was because someone noticed oil on the cement below the engine. In order to put their minds at ease she informed them it would be a short delay, just long enough to wipe up the oil.

Big Daddy scrubbed and shimmied all my windows and now I can see out of every one of them perfectly. I can see the rain.