The Dackel Princess

Sweet Cherry Jam

Sweet Cherry Jam

3 lbs. fully ripe dark sweet cherries

One 1-3/4-ounce pkg. regular powdered fruit pectin

1 tsp finely shredded lemon peel

1/4 cup lemon juice

5 cups sugar

Sort, wash, stem, pit and chop cherries. Measure 4 cups chopped cherries.

In a 6- or 8-quart Dutch oven or kettle, combine cherries, pectin, lemon peel and lemon juice. Bring to boiling over high heat, stirring constantly. Stir in sugar. Bring to a full rolling boil. Boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat. Quickly skim off foam with a metal spoon.

Immediately ladle jam into hot, sterilized half-pint canning jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Wipe jar rims and adjust lids. Process jars in boiling-water canner for 5 minutes (start timing when water begins to boil). Remove jars from canner; cool on racks.

Savannah!

On Friday I got to have lunch with my daughter, Mandy and my granddaughter, Savannah!

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I have not seen them since Savannah’s birthday party on June 1st. Too long.

Today we met at Applebee’s and had lunch, and I took a bunch of pictures.

She is so adorable and such a ham! She doesn’t love the camera, but she sure does take a good picture!

She flirted with everyone, and was full of smiles and funny faces too. It just made my entire day!

So, Friday was the very best of days and I thank Hubby and Mandy for doing all the driving involved!

The End Of The Week

Hubby and I are unhappy to announce that the cherries on our trees all rotted! Yes, because we have had such terrible wet weather, the poor cherries didn’t stand a chance. They started to redden, and then turned soft and brown and so rotten that even the the birds didn’t want them!

Meanwhile, we picked our first cucumbers today. 2 slicers and 3 picklers. I think that Hubby should make his German Cucumber Salad.

With the vast amount of rain that we have had, the bees have not been doing their work, and the garden is not overflowing as it usually is! Hopefully the rain will subside a bit and once again I will be complaining about too much zucchini and summer squash!

After nearly ten years of life, guess who has discovered ice cream? Fritz! He absolutely loves vanilla ice cream! Since I only give him a little (people ice cream isn’t good for him), I plan to get the doggy ice cream for his birthday on July 26th! After all, a ten year old doggy deserves what ever he wants!

Thursday Thirteen

Here are thirteen things happening right now.

I had the first reconstruction of my nose done on Monday.
It’s looking good, but he isn’t kidding about taking things easy.
I say this because I was doing things around the house today, and my nose began to bleed.
Doing things too early…bad!
I lay down in my recliner and pressed the area that was bleeding for 10 minutes.
It stopped, but when I tried to move again, the bleeding started.
I think it is a bit more swollen tonight.
I guess it is to be expected.

Thank goodness for ice packs and pain medication.
I am so hopeful, really I am!
I remind myself over and over…patience!
Mom will be moved to Hospice Care soon.
Then I begin the process of saying good-bye and allowing myself to grieve.

Mom, in the center with (from left to right) Me, Melodie, and cousin’s Larry and Janet. This was just in April, before Mom was diagnosed.

Wednesday Hodgepodge

1. What’s something people might ask you for help with?

Usually it is anything dog related although lately it is skin related. Remember that sunscreen and a hat everyone!

2. What’s something you might ask someone else for help with?

Right now almost everything. Between my nose and my foot I am only functioning at about a 75% level.

3. Did your family take summer vacations when you were a child?

No. We lived on Cape Cod, literally 5 minutes from the beach.

If so, where did you go?

One summer we did go to Washington DC. I was very young.

If you’re a parent, did/do you plan summer vacations with your own family? Did/do they resemble those you took as a child?

Yes, we took the girls to Cape Cod often when I was still married to my ex-husband, and also to Canada and Disney in Florida.

4. Pool-lake-ocean…which one is most appealing to you on a hot summer day?

Ocean, but I don’t get there often. We did have a pool for 6 years, when we lived in Florida and I used it often. Now we live across the street from a lake. I love to look at it, but seldom swim there.

5. Have you ever justified using the expression, ‘you gotta be cruel to be kind’? Was it really necessary or were you rationalizing?

More likely joking.

6. The Journal of Psychology recently mentioned the results of a survey identifying the ten most hated foods as-liver, lima beans, mayonnaise, mushrooms, eggs, okra, beets, brussel sprouts, tuna, and gelatin. Of those foods, how many do you actually hate? Anything you’d add to the list?

I don’t hate any of those things. In fact I love them all. Recently, I tried Kimchee and I hated that!

7. What’s your favorite book or movie set in a beach or lake town?

On Golden Pond. It was filmed in the next town over from us. Every time I watch it, I see places I know. I also love the story.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

I woke at 5 AM on Tuesday morning. My nose is swollen and sore, but I am not allowing this to get me down! I really cannot believe how much better it looks already!

After

Monday was the big day. I’ve been stressing about it for a while, but in the end, I really didn’t need to. Dr. P. was wonderful. He explained everything he was doing and we also talked about life, planes and dogs. It put me at ease.

During the operation one of the nurses exclaimed “Oh Dr. P.,this looks so beautiful!” He laughed and said, “Ah, you like my work!”

Frankly folks, I like his work! I have taken pictures and compared them, and my nose has gone from a big lumpy, bumpy, mess to a profile line. Nice and straight!

See, here we are before and after.

Isn’t this amazing?

I do feel tired tonight and a little bit in pain, but emotionally, I am feeling worlds better! You see, I will have a nose! A real life, normal nose!

Hubby is warming up some spaghetti sauce that I made last fall, and although I don’t feel like spaghetti he’s cooking me some cheese ravioti with sauce. Good!

It’s nice after you have gone through surgery like this to feel so positive, and to lie your doctor even more than you did before.

Life is once again, good!

What I Did This Past Weekend

Our host is Gattina. Come join us and tell us what YOU did this past weekend! After all, you never know when you will need an alibi!

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This past weekend I worked like crazy to prepare the house for the next week or so. Today, Monday July 8, 2013, I am having the first of my reconstructive surgery. I am excited and scared all at the same time.

The good part is that I think I have healed pretty well in the last 8 weeks and I think the surgeon has more to work with.

May

July

Anyway, all weekend there was laundry to be done, a guest room to be cleaned and gardens to be watered. Busy, busy, busy!

One of my best friends from Florida is coming on Saturday. We haven’t seen each other in several years. I have not met her husband. So, I am excited, so is Hubby.

So, we leave here by 10 AM, and head to Boston. As usual I have hired a doggy sitter to take care of the beasts! I am always happy to now they will be well cared for.

Flying

As many of you know, Hubby was once an Airline Pilot. When I packed his bag and sent him off, I never really thought too much about ‘if’ he would would come home, just when.

I really had a lot of confidence in his ability to fly an airplane, and having flown with him all over the Americas and Europe, I just never gave it any thought, that perhaps the plane might crash. I knew how well trained he was, and how serious he was about his work.

Oh there was one day in the early years of our marriage when I was out doing errands and Hubby was off on a trip. I was listening to WBZ Radio and they did a typical news tease…”Pan Am Flight Crashes…Details In A Moment”.

My heart skipped several beats (Hubby was off on a trip) and I drove home as quickly as I could. I raced into our house, put on the big satellite dish we had back then and there is was, a 747, blown to bits in Lockerbee, Scotland.

Hubby called me to let me know that things were crazy in New York and he was staying down there for the night, but he was fine.

We did lose a few people that we knew, and it was a bad time for many Pan Am families.

A little bit later Hubby was flying out of Barbados when there was a problem with an engine. He and another pilot we know very well, turned back, landed safely and waited until the next day until the plane part from New York arrived and all was well.

Meanwhile, Hubby called me to tell me he was fine, and in this case going wind surfing. When he returned home, he had the sunburn to prove it!

Hubby said the closest call he had was flying over Germany back in the 1970’s. He was sitting in the Engineers seat, and had turned to speak to a cockpit pass rider. Just then, out of the corner of his eye, he caught site of another large aircraft. He hollered at the Captain, who put the plane in a nose dive, but Hubby said he held his breath, as he was sure the tail of the plane was gone. Thankfully it wasn’t.

I guess things happen. All you can do is hope that on that day, when something like this happens, that it is not your day to go and meet your maker.

Meanwhile, at this point, I’m happy that Hubby has retired and is home with me. When something like this happens, I have my own airline expert to give me his personal opinion.

Ben & Jerry Are Not My Friends

Have I mentioned that I decided to stop feeling sorry for myself and get back to following the Weight Watcher’s diet?

Well, yes, seems I am a ‘stress eater’ and with all that’s been going on Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia Ice Cream, has made far too many stops at my house!

My weight really became problematic, when I no longer could zip up my pants, even with the assistance of Vaseline and pliers!

So, last Wednesday I not only returned to class, but started to act like a newbie! I stayed after class, listened to my Leader, Pam explain the program and went through all the literature again.

It’s amazing how sloppy I got. Not writing things down, sort of cheating by not writing things down and then saying on Monday, oh, I’ll be better Tuesday and then Tuesday would come and so did the ice cream container of Ben & Jerry.

I need to knuckle down, eat healthy foods and most of all…WRITE IT DOWN!

I also need to stop feeling sorry for myself, which is the main cause of my depression fueled eating.

Now, Monday will be my next operation. Dr. P. will start working to redo my face. He will start with the bottom of my nose and work his way up. I keep telling myself to relax and not expect miracles. I know this will take a long time and I must have patience.

Just like I need with my weight loss.

So stay tuned!

93 & Nowhere To Go But Up!

Thursday was a weird day. I mean any holiday that occurs during the weekdays always throws me off. For instance, all day I have thought it was Saturday and wondered why some of my favorite Saturday shows are not on!

So I keep trying to acclimate myself to the day at hand. Since it is so sunny, humid and hot, 93 degrees, I decided that my day would be spent close to all the good working air conditioners in the house. And since Hubby has fixed them all, the house is wonderfully cool!

Our Fourth of July ‘special meal’ is barbecued ribs (my secret recipe which can be found HERE. I kid you not, these are the best way to prepare baby backs ever! Print this recipe out and you will use it over and over and over again!

Don’t these look good?

Good Ribs from Dackel Princess Maribeth on Vimeo.

Since tomorrow is Friday (I am writing this on Thursday night), I plan to do laundry and prepare for next week. Monday will be my first surgery in Boston, with Dr. P. Hubby is driving me, as I cannot drive to my cousin’s or Mandy’s house on the relay. We have hired a dog sitter for the day.

So Happy Fourth of July, belatedly on the Fifth!