I had to get up yesterday and make a number of phone calls-not my favorite way to start the day. The countertop guy called at 8:15 am and Brian forgot to hang up the phone the night before, so he was the first one I called. They are coming today to glue a piece of wood to the underside of the countertop where the dishwasher mounts will be attached. I then had to call for Brian’s car to get repaired and inspected. A spring in the back went and he has a recall for the ones in the front. He got new tires Sunday and the guy put on the incorrect size and the broken spring gave him a blow out about half a mile down the road! Needless to say, he turned around and got all new tires in the correct size.
I said I’d make up two flower containers for Bri’s dad’s upcoming birthday on the 23rd. I haven’t seen the man since Dec. 28th and he hasn’t been here either. I’m not holding a grudge, I just feel uncomfortable going to his house because I don’t want to say anything that will set him off like I did in December. My mom said not to go there again. Him getting as angry as did was so uncalled for and what he said was mean too. Sean is still hurt by this episode. He says he’ll never forget it. I really don’t mind if Sean says this because that taught him that is not how you treat someone who is kind to you, brings you food, helps you paint your porch and programs your cellphone that you still don’t use properly (he tries to use it on the casino bus or inside the casino-can we say interference?)
Sean and I went to one of our favorite greenhouses and I carefully picked out a nice array of white, oranges, yellow and green(asparagus fern). We ran to the home center and I got two plastic pots for the flowers that I planted when I got home. They are really lovely! I’ll take some photos tomorrow.
I just cut most of the leaves off my poor hollyhock. It’s blooming the prettiest salmon/pink too. Bummer.
Sean got a phone call for an interview at Big Lots, the local discount store. He’s going today at 1:30 for an interview. Now he has two options. He doesn’t have to dress up here and there are guys his age to talk to-not at Peebles. We are worried about his lifting heavy boxes too. It’s up to him.
After dinner we had to follow Brian (Sean drove his own car) to the dealership to drop off his car. We decided to go to Borders. I bought 3 magazines-two cooking ones-one from Italian and one that deals just with veggies. I got a polymer clay magazine too as I like to fiddle with clay and really haven’t gotten into this. I think it would be cool to do people and pets in clay.
We were naughty and went to Baskin Robbins (we had a low cal pork roast and wild rice dinner).
Yum!
I decided to watch a documentary on Bravo called ‘Three of Hearts’ about a tri-relationship between two bisexual guys and a woman. The one guy married her, but they were all in a relationship for 13 years and each fathered a child. I found this interesting, but very risky. If you decide to watch this 8 yr documentary, you’ll see what happens. The guy the woman actually was married to reminded me in a way of Richard Simmons!

No snake was harmed in the writing of this post. : )

Brian was tying up the tomatoes yesterday and found this guy under a pile of leaves out in the veggie patch. We are taking down an old fence and there are probably plenty of snake hideaways. Brian just had to show me knowing how much I love snakes. Behind ‘them’ is the doomed hollyhock.

I spent the entire afternoon grouting the tiles. It took a good 3 hours to grout the two walls and then a while to clean up all the dust doing it created. All this while in the pangs of a tummyache. Sean didn’t feel good all day yesterday, so I wonder if he had something or I am just PMSing? I ate some yogurt and had ginger tea and feel better. Anyway, I have to let the grout cure for 48 hours and then clean off the surface to remove grout residue and to make them all shiny again. They I seal them. These probably look a bit hazy if you click to enlarge.
BTW, Lee asked me if I was a leftie and I am.

The last two days I’ve been trying to finish up planting things, etc. Brian put up that new piece of chicken wire fencing and he kept needling me about putting in the green beans. I went out there yesterday and because Bri decided to plant more peppers, I could only put in about 4-5 foot rows of beans. It looks like a garden for little people because they could surely move around in it better than me!
I got quite warm and since it was close to dinner time, I came in to try one of Rachael Ray’s recipes from her magazine I had purchased recently. I chose a simple lemony pasta dish created because Rachael’s mom Elsa loves lemons- Mamacella. I had to improvise a few ingredients- I had to use sour cream instead of heavy cream. I had the white wine with no corkscrew, so I had to leave that out. But I was able to put in fresh basil from my herb bed and I had to cut up the lemon as my grater was missing too (I so need to unpack the rest of my kitchenware stored in the basement). We all enjoyed the pasta, esp since half of the pasta I used was lemon pepper flavored.
After dinner I went to load the dishwasher and it really tilted out. That was it! I got on the phone and left a message with the kitchen installer. He called me this morning and said he couldn’t do anything unless the countertop installer come back and but the inserts into the granite. I had to call them this morning and am now waiting for them to call me back to schedule an appointment.
Brian just told me my cousins’ furniture store Dane Decor was in a 5 alarm fire that caused over 2 million dollars damage. This is so sad to hear. My cousin Gloria started the business in the 70s. I was telling my mom what a great thing this was as it has provided employment for her children and grandchildren it is such a popular establishment. I have a teak tea cart Gloria gave Brian and me as a wedding gift. I read that the family is rebuilding and I wish them lots of luck.
~Update-I don’t know if any of you clicked through the above link, but the fire happened late at night, so the store was closed and no one was there. Also, my cousin Gloria passed on a while back. We don’t really keep in touch with her kids, though her son Drew was doing a search and happened upon a blog entry of mine where I mentioned his mom. He wrote me a comment about trying to remember who I was.

My guy Sean just got a call back up from a local clothing (and a few home furnishings) store called Peebles. He starts next Wednesday night with 3 hours of training. He has to wear dress clothes which he doesn’t have a lot of. Lucky for him he found a good sale at Macy’s yesterday and got three shirts and a tie. He got some really nice referrals from a family friend and a high school friend who goes to Cornell. Sean could roll out of bed and be to work in about half an hour as the store is about 2 minutes and 1/2 mile from here. How lucky is he with the price of gas! He’s worried about being bored as it’s not a jumpin’ store like say a Wally World. I told him not to worry as they’ll find stuff for him to do! I worked retail as one of my first jobs and it really helped me get over some shyness. I’m sure it will help him too. : )

This was taken out my front window yesterday morning. I think some critter had the blood rushing to his head while he gorged himself on sunflower seeds. I guess I’ll have to grease that pole!

Do you collect charts by one particular designer, yet have never stitched anything by that designer? If so, which designer and why do you collect the charts but have not yet stitched any of them?
I do collect The Prairie Schooler and The Cross-eyed Cricket charts, among many others, but I have stitched a few of these. Wow, I’m trying to remember what I have and have wanted to stitch but haven’t. I have a designer who does lots of florals and I have most of them. I have quite a few Cross My Heart leaflets and haven’t tackled any of them. I plan to go through my charts soon so I will definitely update this post.

What is your favorite specialty stitch? Which one is your least favorite? Why?
I am pretty good at doing French knots-is it a left-handed thing? I will try any specialty stitches and seem ok. I haven’t tried Hardanger yet but want to.

My work in progress ‘A Walk in the Woods’ by The Cross-eyed Cricket

The back of it. I still have a thread tail issue.

My favorite stitching spot-the end of the sofa on the right. It just happens to be right in front of the tv too! Notice my WIP and basket of stash.

Now I like cooking shows as much as the next person-well…those of you who like to cook that is!
I just finished looking through Paula Deen’s magazine and found some yummy recipes I want to try like Lime Coconut muffins. Or you can look on her Food Network site to find the recipes that she shares on her show there. She’s a pretty Southern Belle, but I just can’t stand all the y’alls. It’s like people think we say ‘yo’ all the time because we live near Philly.
There are some expressions that Rachael Ray uses like EVOO-just say extra virgin olive oil girlfriend! I like her ‘sammie’ for sandwich though. Should I dare try those muffins in the next few days? My beef stew with Bisquick cheddar drop biscuits was pretty good tonight.

I was watching a local chat show from Philly called ’10!’, it’s a live show with an audience. Sean and I were thinking about going sometime. I bet we’d have to leave here at 7:30 or so. It’s almost a straight run from here, believe it or not. Anyway, a lady that helps to run a website called Daily Candy was on. She showed these babooshka shorts:

She said ‘how cute’ these will look with a tank. I guess she is referring to gals in their teens and 20s? Sean happen to see this in the picture section on the computer and thought they were some weird boxer shorts. I will say I like the waistband as it looks like it would hide a few rolls. : ) I was happy to find stretch demin shorts on the internet that I had to wait for!