tgif

12 years ago

Happy Friday everyone! I have absolultely no plans except to relax. Mommy is going to Decatur, AL to be with all her girlfriends from childhood,so she won't be around to go see a movie (like we often do, last week it was WarHorse), son is hanging out with his dad, sis is in LA, and the house is picked up. I have done all of the grocery shopping for the month. So I'm going to "rest". I might eat a bite or sew something (I have a blue million things cut out and even some basted together, so I could actually finish some projects!), but that's it. Ah quiet bliss. Raising my water and toasting to your weekend!

Comments (3)

KatieC
12 years ago
TGIF! That sounds like a perfect weekend, Robin.

Today's my Saturday...laundry, clean house. Later a snowy walk to the mailbox with cocoa and peppermint schnapps after. Ribs and baked beans slow cooking in the cookstove.

Tomorrow is work...it's movie day. We're showing the old and new True Grits, and having chili and fixin's.

Sunday, roads permitting, we'll head to Trader Joe's and drop off a load of the Kid's stuff at her new place.

Have a good weekend, all!
Lars
12 years ago
Happy Friday to you too! Nice that you have your shopping done - for what I've spent lately, I shouldn't have to shop for another week myself!

I've finally gotten my energy back from the virus I had, and I feel that I will be able to plant the trees that I bought two weeks ago! The semi-dwarf blood orange is going into a wine barrel planter, the semi-dwarf Kaffir lime is going into s 22" redwood planter (for now), and the dragon fruit cactus (Pitaya) is going into a very large decorative ceramic planter. I keep the citrus in planters on the concrete patio, which increases my growing space, and I think they do better there than in the soil that I have. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, but perhaps we can do our potting anyway. Last week-end Kevin moved a lot of overgrown succulents from the back yard to the front yard, and we repotted a couple of hanging pots in the apple tree.

Clinking with my styrofoam cup of green tea! Wishing everyone the best week-end - it's supposed to be cold here, and so I won't be going out much. I'm still trying to use up what's in the fridge and freezer anyway. I have lots of nice dill growing now, and I've noticed a bunch of new chilies on some of my pepper plants, which makes me happy. I also have plenty of parsley, thyme, and cilantro growing, but that's not very exciting. I'm starting some new oregano plants because the old one is getting stagnant. My basil plants only have a few leaves yet, and I will try to use the last of them this week-end. After that, I will have to buy basil at TJ's.

Lars
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tgif 1-31-2014
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Pea soup and ham sounds good, but I've been eating a lot of soup lately, as I have been under the weather since Wednesday of last week, which is why I did not post under TGIF last week. I'm much better now, probably at 95%, but I will still take it easy this week-end. It's gotten cool here (mid 60s) and I think we may have had rain last night, which might happen again this week-end, which would be wonderful. If I'm up to it, I will make tamales. I found corn husks at Sprout's, but they cost $5, which I found to be expensive. Last Saturday (when I should have stayed home), we went to what I thought was a Von's close to our house, but it is now a dollar (or 99 cent) store, and I guess corn husks are too expensive for them to carry! Before that we went to a grocery/liquor store that is even closer to our house, and its doors had been chained, as it is going through a change of ownership. The large recycling center in its parking lot was still open, however, but that was all that was going on. Kevin said that he had seen people who collect bottles and cans get vouchers for what they had collected and then used those vouchers to buy lottery tickets! I think they should have given them food stamps instead. There are too many dollar stores now, I think. The fruit and vegetable market that we used to go to is also now a dollar store. I will say that the dollar store that used to be a Von's is much cleaner than the Von's was, and I did not shop at the Von's because it was not very nice. It would be nice if a dollar store would reopen as a vegetable market. Maybe I'll make pizzas this week-end and put some of my Roma tomatoes on them. I've been mostly avoiding cheese while I was sick, as I think it makes congestion worse. I think I'll be fully recovered by tomorrow. I want to make something besides soup. I did make some very good cabbage soup while I was sick, and it was quick and easy and much better than I expected, although it did not have much of a cabbage flavor. I had Kimchee flavored soup yesterday. I turn the TV off whenever anything Superbowl comes on - it's just a lot of annoying noise as far as I'm concerned. Stay well, everyone and have a great week-end! Lars
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Sounds fun (Palm Springs). I'm in New Jersey. Flew here today for my grandmother's funeral. She passed away last week, at 105 y/o. Her life was very full and long, her last year had been in a sort of gently fading twilight, and her death was, it seems, pretty peaceful and painless, at home with no tubes or machines. So her passing was as gentle as it should have been. Life was kind to her, and at the end no less. Laying on the couch, lights off, thinking about this house and the things left over from fifty years of being my grandparents' home. There are photographs, my grandfather's calligraphy scrolls, my grandmother's needlepoint art. Those will be taken, I suppose many have already been over the past couple of years. Then there is the random daily stuff that has no value, but that I recognize from fifty years of visiting and sometimes living here. Old toys and books, dishes, things like that. I suppose it will all be disposed of, except for a few bits that people might take for sentimental reasons. Then the house will be sold, as a fixer because it needs a total remodel, although in a nice neighborhood with a good sized lot. And that may, I think, be it for New Jersey, for me. My aunt and uncle and one first cousin live here, but without my grandparents, my connection to this place, a place I never liked much, will be done. I think I'm going to cook dinner tomorrow at my aunt's. She has a nice Bluestar range and that is where most of the family will be. Her daughter, my other first cousin, is flying in tomorrow. She lives in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where her husband works for the United Nations. I don't think they like it as much as Switzerland, where they lived for the last several years. But the UN HCR (High Commission For Refugees) moves its senior staff around every several years. They don't get permanent cushy posts in comfortable cities; they have to go where the refugees are, so Ethiopia was, I think, better than some places they might have ended up. There isn't much scope for home cooking as an expat in Addis Ababa, I'm told. Especially with young kids who are adapting from their previous Franco-Swiss diet (and life). So I figure she might like a dinner at home, at her mom's home anyway. Menu undecided but I'm thinking about chicken marbela. I also have a hankering for ceviche. They may not go together, but tough. Otherwise, no interesting cooking recently. I have spent the last month on back to back to back business trips. So I've been eating like crap - airport food, hotel food, restaurant food. Occasionally a good ramen or other street food in New York, but mostly crap. As the weeks of this have dragged on, and I've gotten fatter and flabbier, I've started skipping restaurants altogether and going to grocery stores and delis to get "healthy" things to eat. So my diet has mostly dwindled to Greek yoghurt, canned sardines and tuna, bread and cheese, fruit, takeout sushi, and coffee. It's not a bad diet but there isn't much cooking or variety involved. Although I have discovered that canned tuna plus Greek yoghurt plus a little salt or soy sauce makes a creditable and oh-so-healthy tuna salad. And that chopped raw salmon, Greek yoghurt, and one of those super-miniature bottles of hot sauce that you can filch from restaurants makes a reasonable spicy salmon filling. When I get home on Monday, I don't have another trip on the calendar for months. I'm going to cook up a storm, enjoy being home on weekends, re-acquaint myself with bicycling everywhere, lose this travel flab, and appreciate springtime in Portland.
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Getting to a chore that I have put off too many years. Hope to finish it this next month. Finishing a tablecloth for a classmate of my son's. He found it partially done in his mother's house when he cleaned up after he death. It has proven to be a far more daunting task than I thought it would be, and my trepidation has led me to put it away too many times.
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tgif 11-22-13
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TGIF indeed, I'm clinking with a cup of peppermint tea. Johnliu, I really like turkey, although I'm not a fan of stuffing. In fact, we had smoked turkey for supper and will have turkey again next week. Are you having visitors, or only the family? I say make whatever they like best and they'll be thankful! Rob, that IS exciting, mostly the visitor, I'll be watching to see who it is. I had to smile at the thought of The Boy, dropping parachutes off the deck. Ashley climbed up onto the roof and dropped eggs, her project was to make something that would protect the egg from breaking when dropped from varying heights. Yeah. Bubble wrap worked really well when I sent that dozen farm eggs to dishesdone in New York, and it worked pretty well for the project, but she eventually made a foam rubber "nerf" type container. What will that contribute to her knowledge as an adult? Darned if I know, LOL. Dedtired, good luck on those walks. Of course, walking in snow up to your armpits does burn a lot more calories. (grin) Lars, I'd definitely go for the free fish. I thought my herbs were finished here, we've had snow a couple of times. I knew the sage would grow through the snow and I'll have rosemary for some time, but parsley and thyme are both green and growing too, I didn't realize they were that cold tolerant. Diane, the second week of deer camp is the most wonderful time of year. (With a big nod to Da Yoopers, LOL) It's cold here and we're supposed to get anything from an inch to 9 inches of snow this weekend. A woodstove would feel good. Alexa is probably partying right now, I live a boring life... Today we raked the yard and cleaned the house well, we have our first potential buyer looking at the house tomorrow. I have all my fingers and pretty much everything else crossed. So, we're going to the farm to check on the calves in the barn that are being weaned and we'll insulate the pump house before it gets too cold. I'm hoping to negate the problem of the pump freezing if it gets more than 20 below zero without running a drop light out there. I don't know if it will work, but if nothing else the insulation will help the light keep it a bit warmer. It's completely underground, it'd make an awesome root cellar if I didn't have a well in there. Tomorrow we are projected to have a high of 24 and a low of 18, plus snow. I guess it's time to break out the hats and gloves... Annie
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annie1992
12 years ago
It's cold here too, Lars, it was nearly 0F when I went to work this morning, but it got up to almost 15F this afternoon. We have some snow, it didn't snow here until about 2 weeks ago, so I was wondering if it were ever going to come. The ski resorts were wondering too, I think!

Katie, I've seen both True Grit movies. I liked the first one better, the ending of the newer one sucked, IMO. Plus, I didn't think they needed to shoot the horse, either!

Robin, enjoy your weekend, sometimes it's nice to just have a couple of days to do whatever we want. And with kids, those don't come that often either!

Tomorrow I'm roasting a bunch of soup bones and canning beef stock, I want to get my smaller freezer cleaned out and just run one. Sunday I'll go to the farm and play farmer for a while.

Next week is my last week at work, I'm retiring, so my first day of retirement is next Saturday, which I'll spend at Lowe's with the grandkids, building wooden dinosaurs at their free "clinic" for children.

I've got to get my house ready to put up for sale and then find a part time job, I think. I've worked full time or more since I was 14, and I've never been unemployed, so it won't take me long to get bored...

Well, except both the girls want me to babysit, the grandkids want me to come and play more, Dave says he needs someone to keep books at the garage, Elery would like me to spend more time at his house and steopmom just wants....everything. All the time. So maybe I'll have to go back to work just to get away from all of them!

So, clinking with my Diet Coke, to all my friends here.

Annie

tgif

Comments (3)

KatieC

Lars

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