Birth-DAY

No old gray mares here!

This Saturday is my birthday.  Nope I’m not fishing for birthday wishes, just saying.  I come from a long line of birthday denouncers.  My mom never had a birthday that I know of and due to this fact she remained 40 for 20 years. 

This year is particularly distressing for me because I reach a new decade.  Not telling which one… but you can rest assured it’s not 20. Ironically I received invitations to two parties that day (darn birthday has to be on a Saturday this year) one for my friend whose birthday is at the beginning of October and one from my High school celebrating my classmates who all reach a new decade this year.  I don’t want to sound like a party pooper but I don’t plan to attend any parties.

Here’s the thing.  I don’t really like cake.  And I’m not comfortable being the center of attention. I have doctor’s appt. on Monday.  I look really stupid in a party hat.  The birthday song is sort of hokey and no one ever sings on key.  And can you visualize me beating a piñata? 

Ok, so I admit it, I like gifts, but then again who doesn’t?  Oh well I guess I should just relax and enjoy the obi-wan like wisdom that comes from having another one of those…well you know-- days of birth. I mean it’s called a birth-DAY, not a Birth YEAR…. so I’m just going to open my presents and celebrate the Day and we will all forget about the year.  Sounds like a plan to me. 

Be sure and visit after I get over this milestone birthday for more of my sort of--travel log of California. 

Keep smiling

Crystal --not-so-- clear

Finally found the swallows at Capistrano

California is full of fun things to do, but it’s a very big state. My husband and I like to explore on our vacations and we had a list of places we wanted to visit but finding them, well, that was tricky. 

I have no sense of direction.  I can’t read a map. (And folding it back up is out of the question.  I have a GPS on my cell phone but I can’t figure out how to set it.  My husband on the other hand is usually pretty good in that department.  His only problem (which I believe is a common male ailment) is that…he refuses to ask directions.  This habit translates into all aspects of his life.  He walks in a Home depot looking for a certain item and will walk around for an hour looking for it, bypassing employees right and left.  So it comes as quite a surprise to me that he does depend upon the other woman in his life, let’s call her GPS.

He trusts her.  He is under the impression that all he has to do it type in the name of a location and she will take him there, turn by turn.  The guy loves his devices.

Warning:  She is a fickle female and the famous mission with the swallows in Capistrano isn’t the only mission in that particular area.  In fact there happens to be an industrial park that shares the name. 

So we drove around in the middle of nowhere following GPS’s directions and every time we turned because it just seemed wrong, her familiar sweet voice piped up.

“Re-routing.”

Hubby is nothing but persistent and we chased her wild geese till someone pulled up beside us in a pick-up truck and asked if we needed directions.   A human.  And he asked. 

We discovered that GPS took us quite a ways off course and a real live person steered us in the right direction, so much for technology.  Words to the wise, when depending upon GPS, use the address not the name.

We finally enjoyed the mission.  You should go!  

Fall has finally…arrived!

The last couple of nights have been heavenly.  Temperatures have lowered during the day to the upper 70’s or low 80’s with very little of the hated humidity.  The nights are crisp and feel very fall-like. 

I get up early and walk the dog outside before anyone is awake.  It is barely sunrise.  This is the best time of day.  It is quiet and relaxing.  In the ground cover on the street the spiders build little slings to capture unsuspecting insects.  It seems that all they are collecting this morning are droplets of dew.  How fairy like they look with the morning sun shining brightly on them.  It is great day. 

I will be taking my vacation starting this Sunday in Southern California.  I am looking forward to the trip although I will miss the early autumn mornings.  Perhaps when I return in a week the leaves will start to begin their colorful transformation.  Red, burgundy, yellow, gold and orange, I can’t wait.  

Painting on glass and paint party friday

I know it's been a while since I have participated in Paint party friday due to personal issues, mainly carpal tunnel surgery on my painting hand!  It's getting better daily although my thumb still hurts sometimes and my pointer has a bit of numbness.  I still think a tiny numbness is a good trade off for waking up with my whole hand numb.

To the point, Crystal!  Ok, this week I finally tried a bit of painting and I must admit that my hand hurt a bit afterwards but it was a good hurt.  (The doctor told me that it could hurt for up to a year)

This weekend is my step-daughter's birthday.  In my family I always allow the birthday honoree to choose a menu for dinner.  Anything goes and through the years, there have been some really unusual requests.  My husband always chooses eggplant parmesan and strawberry shortcake with real whipped cream. Once my son chose hot dogs and enchiladas.  For my daughter the menu consisted of potato soup, london broil and fun-fetti cake.  This time, (remember I said anything goes?)...it's Bang-bang shrimp tacos, orzo, and angel food cake.  Not exactly a go together meal is it?

I thought it would be nice to paint a wineglass to set on the counter with the odd culinary companions.  Since she loves cherries, well, that was the theme.  

Painting on glass is not hard if you haven't tried it give it a go.  You will need enamel paint specifically for glass and when it has dried for at least 48 hours you need to bake it in a home oven for a 1/2 hour at 325 degrees to set the paint.  Most of the time this allows you to put it in the dishwasher but I recommend hand washing...I mean do you ever put your wine-glasses in the dishwasher?  I don't.

I thought a fishy one would be cool so I did that too

I will try and visit throughout the weekend and hope you all have great one!

Crystal

Paint Party Friday

I'm Ready, Fall's not

What is up with the weather?  It’s September for crying out loud and the heat and humidity has not retreated one bit!  This summer is just plain crazy!  Last month a rabid beaver attacked two girls. I’m sure the victims (who had to undergo painful rabies shots) will not think it’s funny, but seriously, imagine a visual of a rabid beaver and try to not find some humor there.  Today, the news announced another beaver attack.  Like I said crazy summer, mad, crazed, rabid beavers, what’s next a rabid cow?

Two weeks ago, in August I started pulling out my autumn decorations and setting them around.  I guess in my heat induced delirium I thought that if I thought hard enough about fall... it would arrive.  This is so unlike me.  Usually I’m lucky if I get my Halloween pumpkin in time to make a Thanksgiving pie.

I realized I was confusing my loved ones when my daughter came over and casually asked me if I was all right when she noticed the Thanksgiving display on my kitchen counter.

“It’s only August Mom, I think you may be rushing things just a bit.”

So I'm clicking my ruby glittered slippers together and saying…

“There’s no time like fall, there’s no time like fall,” and hoping I wake up to a crisp autumn morning…not likely but hey, at least this year I'll be ready.

Spider time-- or Swipe before you step

I know it’s getting close to fall because the other day when I went out on my deck and started to descend the stairs into the back yard, I walked smack dab into a spider web.  How creepy is that?  I screamed as if I was being murdered and my husband, rushed to my defense only to discover me flailing about brushing and shaking like I was having a seizure. He just kind of laughed until he went to take the trash out a day later and did the exact same thing. 

I don’t know the scientific reason but it always seems that in the fall the spiders go on a web-building frenzy. I don’t even have to decorate for Halloween; the spiders do it for me.  They are busy weaving their webs everywhere but their favorite places always seem to be right across any pathway that humans will use.

Maybe it’s because of my porch light being on and attracting tasty morsels for them.  Or maybe they just want to get their act together before the first frost.  Maybe it’s because I live where there are a lot of trees and woods behind my house.  Maybe they set their sites on  large game...really large game. Whatever the reason, anytime I exit any door I must be vigilant and swipe before I step, preferably with a broom handle and not any part of my anatomy.

Hopefully soon their obsessive web building will subside and I will be able to exit my home any time of the day or night without fear.

If you would like to make a spider out of a recycled K-cup like the photo above just visit my other blog at   Recycled K-cup Halloween Spider

Is it a grape?

The other day while I was in the grocery store, I spied a clear plastic container of what appeared to be teeny tiny grapes. Of course I just had to have them. 

It’s no secret that I don’t have much of a green thumb and it seems that every time I plant a vegetable or fruit they always grow stunted.  Once I actually harvested a fully ripe Barbie sized cantaloupe—a one-bite wonder.  But putting all my agricultural failures aside, what were these amazing wee grapes?  Were these grapes some happy accident?  Were they the result of someone’s poor abilities in farming? 

These little jewels of fruit sometimes called champagne grapes (another advertising moniker) are actually Black Corinth grapes.  Have you ever had any baked goods with currants in them?  If so you have tasted Black Corinth grapes. (Gee, I never knew what a currant was) Yes, the dried miniscule raisins called currants are actually an ancient Greek variety of grape.  In their natural state they don’t produce fruit any larger than pinheads and take a lot of finagling to encourage them to an edible size. They must girdle them and shoot them full of hormones.  Sounds like someone whose going through menopause, don’t you think?

All I know is Black Corinth grapes are yummy!  So if you see some in our local grocery store you better pick them up.

Oh baby!

The other night while dining at my favorite Chinese restaurant I noticed that one of the veggies in my stir-fry was a tiny ear of corn. Even as I ate the teeny ear whole my mind wandered to visions of Ton Hanks in the movie “Big” as he tried to eat the kernels off of the mini ear.  I wondered-- what do these itty-bitty little ears look like while they are still growing?  Being of an inquisitive nature, I just had to Google it.

I discovered the “baby” sometimes called candle corn (it does sort of resemble a candle doesn’t it?) really is “baby corn.  It’s the same corn that you eat at backyard Bar-B-Q's in steaming bowls of butter.  And you can even grow it yourself.  As soon as the silk forms and the ear is fertilized you pick it! Believe it or not at this point the corn stalk is about 4 feet high!  Let it stay on the mamma stalk too long and oh baby it turns into a real ear of corn!!!  Bet you didn’t know that.

My inquiring mind (and honestly I don’t work at Enquirer) wasn’t satisfied with baby corn because when I got home and opened my fridge, what was right there in the veggie bin to greet me but baby carrots?  So back to my good friend Google to discover that baby carrots are not really babies at all.  Technically they are baby-cut carrots.  Yuppers! An enterprising California carrot grower got a bit tired of discarding carrots because of slight imperfections and figured out how to use an industrial bean cutter to cut regular old adult carrots into lengths and then peel them!  Voila, baby carrots!

Now, what can explain this?  Stay tuned!!!

 

The back is back

I’m not going to lie.  This summer for me has not been one of my best.  First it was the hand surgery, then a power outage lasting 5 days in record-breaking heat, followed by a 3-week bout of bronchitis.  I thought the worst was over and then last Thursday—I decided to polish my toenails.  I bent over, not really very far and I felt something snap. 

For two days I was unable to bend, stoop, or sit comfortably without grimacing from pain. The pain in my back steadily got worse and almost had me in tears, so Saturday I visited the doctor, who prescribed muscle relaxers and pain meds. 

Unfortunately, demands do not stop when one is in pain.  Since I am the first one awake every day and cannot sleep past a certain time, mornings were a difficult.  Everyone knows that I don’t operate that well without that first cup of coffee, but that must wait while I attend to four legged demands. That is when I have to feed the dog and cat and attach the dog’s leash and take her out to do her business.  Ever try and attach a leash to a squirming, hyper, and super excited Jack Russell terrier?  It can be daunting even with a healthy back!

Additionally, since the dog eats the cat’s food if it’s on the floor, I feed her on top of a shelf in my laundry room.  And while she doesn’t have a problem jumping up there, in the mornings she expects me to place her daintily in front of her bowl.  She twists around my legs and meows waiting for her human domestic to do her duty.

I sink to my knees, gritting my teeth at the knives stabbing in my back from each and every slight movement. In a robotic and ungraceful way I manage.  These simple chores, take much longer than usual.  I eye my aromatic cup of coffee that is sitting un-sipped on the counter as I finish the tasks at hand.  Finally I am through and I greedily swallow a few gulps of the semi-warm brew.

The next day and the day after that it is more of the same. And then on Tuesday, five days later, just as quickly and mysteriously as what I like to call the back attack occurred, it was gone.

From now on, however, lion tamers will tame lions, trained athletes will run marathons, and in my house at least, professionals will do pedicures. 

Are you Chaos, or are you Order?

The other day I noticed that my son was eating each item on his plate one at a time.  So that is when I took a look at my own method of eating and I realized that I take turns.  I eat one item and then go on to another.  (Not at the same time of course, we’ve already discussed that)  There is an order to the way I eat.  I work around my plate in a clockwise motion.  My son, on the other hand, while still in an orderly fashion, will completely finish an item before he takes a bite of the anything else.  And he saves his favorite for last.  Now what do you think both our styles of eating say about us?

While we are talking about eating styles, how do you eat your corn on the cob?  Do you eat across like a typewriter?  Or do you work completely around starting at one end and finishing at the other?  Or…. are you like me, a haphazard corn gobbler, biting from wherever the mood hits?