What I Did This Past Weekend

Miss Marple 2

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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The weekend was a quiet one. The heat was almost more than I could stand, so I spent most of it hugging my air conditioners. That made the 100 degree temperatures bearable!

Since the garden is still over producing, I have spent time picking vegetables and giving them away. Last night, I made a new recipe with some of the eggplant, and although it was edible, It wasn’t really what I had imagined. Sort of soggy eggplant rollatini. Needless to say, with more eggplant growing, I just tossed the leftovers, as they were not very appetizing for me and Hubby is not a big eggplant fan anyway.

Tonight I’m making Hubby Shish Kebabs! We have so many vegetables to use up, I thought it would be a great dinner. Shish Kebabs with potato salad!

I tried to catch up on sleep this weekend, but Greta woke me early both days! I will attempt to catch up during the week, as I am still feeling over tired from the sinus infection.

I will close by mentioning the beauty of the day on Sunday. Hardly a cloud in a very blue sky and 82 degrees. When I watered the garden I could hear the children laughing and playing on the beach and that made me smile!

Contemplations

I could complain about the heat, and humidity that we have had the last few days, but when I started to think about what is important in life, I decided that our “Heat Wave” didn’t really matter too much in the big picture of life.

A few days ago a friend of mine lost her boy-friend. He was taken far too young, and I know that my friend will be truly challenged in her life as she goes on.

I know. I do. It is so difficult to see that, as time goes on, the pain lessens. Right now it feels so overwhelming and strong, to her.  I know she will always love him, but I do know that one day, she will smile again.

Then the catastrophe happened in Oslo and three of my dear blog friends are Norwegians. Their country is a small, safe, loving country. In some ways it is an end to the innocence. The Norwegian government has said that it will not change the country…but all of us here in the USA know, that the day after 9/11, we were all different.

So why are we challenged with these difficult things? Perhaps so we can truly appreciate the goodness when we have it. I do not know.

I do know that when I lost my own daughter 26 years ago, I thought I would never make it, never be happy again.

But here I am. 26 years later, and my life is happy. I still love Katie. I still miss her terribly. I still do not understand why she died. I still hate it.

But…my life is good. I have my family, both human and fur, and I love and in turn I am loved!

Life has gone on!

And I’m okay!

Friday Fill-Ins

Friday Fill Ins

And…here we go!

1. Life is Good.

2. The beach is one of the best places to people watch EVER because people are usually relaxed, and on vacation and having a good time There are usually a lot of laughs and smiles.

3. if I was going somewhere, the one thing I have to bring is my toothbrush.

4. One must live every moment, for life is over soon enough.

5. Next year, I want to be sure to make plans to see my friends, Uschi, and to go to the beach.

6. I stopped looking for love and I found that it found me.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to hugging an air conditioner, tomorrow my plans include another slow day of drinking lots of fluid and staying inside away from the 100+ degree weather and Sunday, I want to try a new recipe for chicken!


I’m Melting…Melting

Thursday was an incredibly, hot, humid and hazy day. Out temperature was over 100 degrees (F), and the humidity was so high. You could see the air!

I’d told Hubby we needed to get up early and go shopping for food, so right after breakfast we headed out to the shops. We got hot-dogs, hamburger, and eggs and juice and all the other items we might need to get through the next 10 days. The stores were surprisingly full, but the temperature inside wasn’t so bad, but coming outside after doing the shopping was like walking into a furnace!

Hubby and I stopped just briefly to have some lunch, as all perishables were safely in ice coolers, and then we came home and quickly put it all away.

Tonight I am just exhausted. It is supposed to be like this on Friday and Saturday too. Looks like me and the air conditioners will be spending a lot of time together!

Thursday Thirteen

Thursday Thirteen

It’s official. We now have a heat wave going. It is also due to stay over 90 degrees during the day for the next week. My checking account will not be happy when we get our electric bill, but…I am ever so thankful for the air conditioning. Now onto my feels about how to stay cool in this heat.

  1. I start each day with a couple of glasses of my sugar free lemon aid, and make sure to keep drinking. Hydration is the key.
  2. Alcohol is not hydration! In fact it can actually cause you to become dehydrated!
  3. Dogs and kitties need extra water too, so be sure to change their water or fill their dishes often. I give the dackels ice, as they love that!
  4. Wear light colors or white. These colors don’t absorb the heat. (Why on earth was I in black slacks today!)
  5. If you do not have air conditioning, drink, and take a cool bath several times a day.
  6. Eat cold meals. Salads, sandwiches with cold cuts and try not to do things inside which will heat up the house.
  7. Grilling can be a way to escape the hot stove. Hamburgers, hot dogs, and even your vegetables can be tossed on the grill!
  8. I must add that this might be a great time for a snow cone or an ice cream.
  9. Don’t wear socks. Letting your feet free in the air will help you to cool off. Really!
  10. Do not leave you children in the car for a second! They can overheat quickly and die.
  11. Do not leave your dog in the car for even five minutes. See # 10.
  12. Check on your elderly neighbors. Make sure they are eating and drinking and staying cool.
  13. Other than all that, enjoy the sunshine!

Wednesday Hodgepodge

Hodgepodgebutton

1. July 20th marks the anniversary of the first time man stood on the moon. Flash forward 42 years to July 8, 2011 which marked the start of the final Space Shuttle mission. Should we continue to explore space? Should nations devote more or fewer of their resources to exploring space? Would you want to go into space if the opportunity arose?

Yes, I think we should continue exploration in space. So many things have been learned from all the trips on the Space Shuttle, etc. I feel badly that basically Washington has shut it all down now, all the while building bridges no nowhere!

2. What are three things in your freezer?

Blueberries, Norwegian Haddock, and Weight Watcher Dark Chocolate and Raspberry ice cream bars!

3. If you could see any band/artist perform live tonight who would it be? It has to be someone living…no Beatles, Elvis, etc.

Since I cannot select the Beatles, I will select Paul McCartney. Truly, the Beatles together or separately were the most influential band in music history. At least in my humble opinion!

4. Ice-cubed or crushed? Or are you one of those people who don’t like ice?

I guess I do not like ice. I like my drink refrigerator cold. I have very sensitive teeth and so if things are too cold I am in pain.

5. The owner of a small restaurant outside of Pittsburgh recently announced he was banning children under six, saying they regularly disrupted other customer’s meals. You can read the story in more detail here but isn’t this a perfect topic to discuss in our Wednesday Hodgepodge? Have at it friends…what are your thoughts?

This would not be a problem if parents taught their children how to behave in public places. Now that I have jumped in, let me also say, I raised two girls. They were taught from an early age to sit quietly in restauransts. No they were not perfect and early on we had a few meltdowns, which meant I took the offending child into the ladies room and spoke to them, to regain control. We never brought them to “fancy” places in the early days, but as they grew we did. I also brought with us coloring books and crayons to keep them occupied. Most of all, I never allowed them to disturb other diners. That is just plain rude.

Unfortunately, many of today’s parents do not teach manners, and let their kids run wild! I’ve been out, trying to enjoy a lunch when kids have been literally jumping off their chairs and running around the restaurant. As much as I love children, when I am paying good money for a nice meal, I want to do it in a pleasant atmosphere!

6. What was your first car? How did it come to be yours?

It was a 1966 Chevy Impala, and I traded my 10 speed bike for it. It was not the best car, but it got me places and back in the day when gasoline was cheap. $5.00 was food and gas and perhaps a movie!

7. If I had a nickle for every time I cried I’d be rich.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Since I am going to the beach soon (two weeks) I simply must get a little sun on my pasty white skin! So today, I will have Hubby rub some sunscreen on me and then go out and mow part of our back yard. That should do two things. 1. Give me a little exposure to the sun. & 2. Give me a little exercise.

When You Grow Up At The Beach

Monday was a day that found me feeling a bit nostalgic. I was thinking about my brother and sister and growing up, the youngest in my family, on Cape Cod.

We lived a 5 minute walk from the beach and each sunny day in the summer we would walk down to the beach with my mother, her beach chair, a cooler/picnic and my mother’s book. Mom would sit and read her books, and my sister would watch me, making sure I did not try to swim to Martha’s Vineyard. My brother would swim as well, although he didn’t really want to do too much with his baby sister. (I was younger than him by 7 years.)

I loved the beach. I loved the smell of the salt water, the warm sand beneath my feet and the sun on my face. My cousins would come, usually in August and then we would all go to the beach. This was even better because Janet was there, and she and I played in a world, all our own!

Mom loved the beach so much. As did Janet’s parent’s, my Aunt Betty and Uncle George. In fact my Uncle George taught me to dive, and swim distances and most importantly, what to do if I got tired in the water…float.

Uncle George was also sort of my Hero.

You see, one day I was playing at the edge of the surf, when I stepped down and had one of my toes nearly cut off! I stood there crying watching the blood flow! My Uncle picked me up, wrapped a towel around my foot and carried me home, then drove me to the emergency room where I had 4 stitches to sew my toe back on.

The picture below was taken when I was five years old. That is my late brother, Dickie, my sister, Melodie and the  scrawny little thing at the end is me.

1963 Falmouth

I’m feeling very nostalgic because in 2 weeks, Janet and I will be going back to Cape Cod for my High School Reunion. Hubby is staying home, to care for the dogs, and once again it will be Janet and me going all over town, remembering…

What I Did This Weekend

Miss Marple 2

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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The weekend was a busy one for me. I started it off writing my report for the Library and then going back and making revisions. There are some new items to be written in and I am still unsure at the format the other Trustees may want me to use. Oh well, I’m sure they will tell me.

I also spent time water the garden, picking vegetables and then giving them away. My garden is over producing to the point that I simply cannot eat it all, so begging people giving people my vegetables is a perfect solution.

The weather has be HOT, HOT, HOT! the last few days. In the nineties with a lot of humidity. Have I mentioned lately how much I love my air conditioners?

I tried a new recipe for Summer Squash Fritters. It looked good, even the batter looked good, but….it was terrible. In fact, it was so bad I wouldn’t eat it, and neither would the dogs.

Sunday I was determined to work in my office. I worked in there for 2 hours and have gotten a lot done. I think I can get it finished this week. I’m so excited! Finally, I will have my office done!

I will leave you with this picture of me when I was 10 years old. I found a stray cat in our yard and brought her inside. (It was very cold!) The next morning we woke up she had delivered three kittens and died. So we bottle fed the kittens and found homes for one of the kittens and I kept two of them. Ebony and Endora.

Falmouth 1968