Author: Dackel Princess

This & That

Our weekend was a good one. I had hoped to sort of vegetate around, as I have been so busy lately, but it turned out that I was incredibly busy, all weekend long.

Besides the usual laundry, meal preparations and dog care, I cleaned and stored some home grown pears, made a double batch of chili, and made a peach crisp.

Mostly I had the US Open Tennis on the TV playing in the background. But I honestly can’t say I have watched much of it, despite the terrific coverage.

I’m enjoying the clear weather, but would enjoy it more if there wasn’t so much humidity. Still, robin’s egg blue skies, with no clouds, is a real gift. I need to reread this post in January when life is bleak, gray, and snowy.

I am quite amazed that I am 56 years old (almost 57), and yet in my mind, I still feel young, and I hope I think young too.

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I am enjoying the three dachshunds, and White German Shepherd, Lili. Lili has finally grown up enough that she is settling down, and it makes it easier to love her. You see, when she acted like the “Spawn of Satan”, it made it very hard to relax around her. Now she is growing and is understanding, more and more and best of all, calming down.

I’m reading all sorts of travel guides and preparing for our road trip. I’m glad we are taking two days to drive out and back. Long ago, Hubby and I would drive 500+ miles in a day, but we are both getting a bit old for that now.

Happy Labor Day to all of my USA friends out there. Enjoy your day off!

Exciting News!

My daughter finally gave me the go ahead, so here is the big announcement! Matt, Mandy and their daughter Savannah announce that a new baby is on the way. The due date is in March 2016! And the most exciting news is…

It’s a BOY!

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We are all celebrating and so very excited for them, and for all of our family. A new baby to bring more love and sunshine into our family!

Congratulations to Matt, Mandy and Savannah!

TGIF

Thursday found me pulling everything out of the linen closet and going through everything, piece by piece. Some things needed to be refolded, and stacked, while other things needed to go into the pile of things for St. Vincent DePaul.

It was so hot here today. I think I our highest temperature was 94 degrees, with really high humidity. Anyway, that end of the house is now air conditioned and I was just melting!

Why was I cleaning the closet after all this time? Well, with the house sitter coming, it suddenly dawned on me that if she needed an extra towel, she would need to open the door and then she would see the ultimate of disasters in my linen closet.

One thing I found was a bag full of puppy toys, from my breeding days. I pulled it out and handed each dog a toy. Well, Lili thinks she has died and gone to Heaven! Currently, she has all the puppy toys on her bed and is walking around with a different one in her mouth over and over.

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The dackels are not amused by her puppy dog antics and they are trying their best to ignore her. But oh my gosh, she is just too cute! Meanwhile, Anneliese just jumped down and stole a toy. I guess she had her fill of Lili acting like she owned them all!

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So, the closet is clean, the dogs are happy and I managed to get through the day without, quite literally, melting!

I also gave each dackel a bath, and they currently all need a good stripping of their coats. It’s amazing how much fur come off them after a good soapy bath.

Wednesday Hodgepodge

1. What’s on your September calendar? Anything fun?

Yes. We’ll be doing a road trip to Dayton, Ohio to go to an Army Aviators Reunion. We have found a nice house/doggy sitter, who will live here full time while we are off. I feel lucky because many people have to go off to work, and she will be working on her college degree from our home.

Anyway, the trip and the Reunion should be a lot of fun. We plan to stop at The Christmas Story House in Cleveland. I can hardly wait.

2. You might be described as a natural born _____________________?

Cook. I love to cook and I seldom have any real disasters. But….to be honest, every once in a while, I can cook up a real dud!

3. September is National Courtesy Month…what one act of courtesy would you most like to see more of in your home, town, or the world at large?

I would like the first words out of peoples mouths to be kind words. It seems now a days the first words are nothing but hate and criticism.

4. Eager beaver, chicken out, clam up, or let the cat out of the bag…of the phrases listed, which one have you related to most recently?

Eager Beaver. I have been enjoying the company of my daughter, granddaughter, and friends. I am so eager to be out and about!

5. What’s your movie theatre snack protocol? Do you chow down on snacks during the previews or wait until the movie begins? Do you buy snacks or refuse to pay those kind of prices? What’s the last movie you saw in a theatre? How many thumbs up would you give it?

Gone Girl. That was the last movie we went out to see. I did not think it was all that great.

6. Henry Ford is quoted as saying, “Nobody can think straight who does not work. Idleness warps the mind.” Agree or disagree? Why?

I think you need to keep active both in the mind and body, if you are going to stay young.

7. What’s the last job you completed or task you performed where you had to ‘work like a dog’ until it was finished?

I made a gallon of homemade Chili from my own garden tomatoes, and a gallon of spaghetti sauce, also from my own fresh tomatoes. Between all the chopping and simmering and then getting ready for the freezer, I worked like a dog all day long!

8. Insert your own random thought here.

I’m still on cloud nine after watching Savannah yesterday. I cannot explain how wonderful it is to be a grandmother. I just love it!

Savannah & The Tea Party

Monday was a totally awesome day. I drove down to my daughter’s house early, to take care of Savannah, due to a day of teacher’s conferences.

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I packed my tea set, and things to make tea sandwiches, and cookies to bake with Savannah. From the moment I told her what we’d be doing, until after we had our party, were we non-stop doing food preparation.

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The best, was when she climbed up on a chair, and helped me with everything, from cutting out the cookies into little hearts, to using the cookie cutters to  cut the sandwiches into various shapes and sizes.

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Soon we were able to sit down at the table and share our little tea party! What a wonderful time for Oma and her girl!

Our first attempt at a tea party was a great success!

End Of The Summer

The past weekend, the last in August, was simply perfect. The temperature was warm, and sunny with just a light breeze.

My town had an Artisan’s Craft Fair, and it was simply the best. My cousins, Janet and Dave were here on Sunday, and we three walked all over town, enjoying each and every Artisans booth. In fact they had the cutest necklaces with miniature maps under glass. And with the maps were something special about that place.

For instance, I bought two. The first is a map of Germany, and the small charm was a beer stein! It is amazing.

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The second one I got was of Barbados. That one came with a pair of leaping dolphins. Both these places hold a special place in my heart. 20150830_204005

We also had our end of the year, Lobster Party, complete with steamers and corn on the cob. Oh goodness!

It was amazingly good!
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The picture is courtesy of my cousin, Janet!

The dogs really enjoyed it too. You see after we are done with the Lobster, I get the tamale, the eggs and all the wonderful juices, and allow the dackels and Lili to slurp and eat away!

I can definitely say that by the end, we all were stuffed!

The Mail, The Fair & Parking Places

Another day spent making jam, and spaghetti sauce. It kept me busy, but once again, in a very good way!

I also left here about 11:00 in the morning to go to the Post Office. Usually it’s a five minute round trip. Today, they were having a Street Fair and Main Street was closed to through Traffic.

So I drove the back roads to park near the Post Office, but not on Main Street. I thought I was good to go, except the Police had closed that street off to parking! And there was a police cruiser with a policeman in it, so leaving my car for even a second, was not an option.

I drove all around, and finally, after finding the entire town parked up, I found an empty space. Well, not empty, exactly, but the car was just about to pull out and I waited.

Still it was a good 1/2 mile to the Post Office, and all of it was up hill! I didn’t care because Saturday was a really beautiful day! Sunny, warm (not hot), and dry.

The walk was pleasant and on my way back to the car, I walked through the fair and checked it out. Tomorrow, my cousins are coming so we can go to the fair.

Oh yes, this great journey to get the mail produced one add from Princess Cruises. Worst of all, it was for cruises I am not really interested in.

Oh well, at least I got out on a lovely day!

Greta The Badger Dog!

Poor Lili lost her red ball last week. After a heavy rain, the ball went into the gully and down the drain pipe. Every day Lili went out and looked into the pipe for her ball.

Sadly she had not found it. Until….Greta was outside with Hubby and she was over by the drain and she climbed into the drain and found the ball!!! She came running out with the ball firmly in her teeth!

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Big little dog

Ah yes, my little badger-dog, Greta!

The Friday Five

It’s been a busy week for me. Now that my hand has healed I can once again do housework, wash dishes and cook without gloves. Oh joy! Here are five things happening in my life.

  1. I had a disaster batch of Heavenly Peach Jam. I mean this stuff is so thick, it breaks your toast. At first Hubby wanted to throw it away, but I went online (from whence cometh all intrinsic answers to every problem), and discovered that if you open the jar, put the jelly into a heavy pot. Add a small amount of water and bring to a boil, the jam will become more pliable, and then put the jam in a clean jar, cover and put into the fridge. I tried this, and it worked. Still giving my cousin some, as she likes to use this as a glaze on her pork roast.
  2. I went through the entire week installing all my information on Internet Explorer. I have used Firefox forever, but recently, it started to freeze up, a lot. After 5 days of using IE, I am back to Firefox. Neither one is perfect, but Firefox has most of what I need.
  3. I think I have found a couple of house sitters for the dogs. One lives on our street and he will be great for the short times, like when we go to Mandy’s house for the day. The other is a graduate student, who will be good for all day and overnights, you know, the longer trips. This is so important, as I want to travel a bit more with Hubby this year!
  4. I finally got the ladder in and while Hubby steadied it, climbed up and cleaned all around the skylight. It was a good thing to do, as after a while, it really needed a good scrubbing!
  5. I’m babysitting for Savannah on Monday! Yay! Call me one thrilled Oma!