And the long day comes to an end...

 

I have been busy busy busy today.

  In the past 2 days, I have made 8 dozen meatballs, 4 loaves of Italian bread, 2 Foccacias, and cleaned about half of my house. I scrubbed all 3 cat boxes and changed litter. I did laundry. I made regular sandwich bread (honey whole wheat  oatmeal). I cooked breakfast lunch and dinner. I am whipped tonight and don't know if I can even string together sentences. lol

This chest cold is knocking me down. I am coughing like crazy and it is to late (of course) to not have this party.  Today I bought some Dayquil (and I almost never take this stuff!!) and it made me sick to my stomach. And I'm still coughing.

I will get up early tomorrow and make sure everything gets done. I even made an errand run first thing this morning and got the rest of the ingredients for the Trifle, a couple of plastic Valentine's tablecloths, 2 pounds of my Starbucks Sumatran coffee. I think I will run to Dollar General in the morning and get some kids Valentines, if they have any left, and make one for each person that is coming. Just for fun.  I also bought a helium balloon that says I LOVE YOU on it for my sweetie.

  Guests are expected starting at 4:30, so that gives me a window to get everything done.  The pasta won't be cooked til last minute. I will get the sauce going first thing and the aglio e olio is a very last minute prep. So.....If my house isn't clean enough, I have to live with that. I'll light lots of candles and turn down the lights.I'll play romantic music and light some lavender incense. My biggest worry is not having enough bread. sigh....  High class problems....

I'm going to bed....Goodnight all. I will post party pictures tomorrow night and I will be thinking of each and every one of you...and wishing you were here too.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Early Fridays...

  OK, all...here it is, Friday again. Where does the time go ?? Write  flashing piece of fiction , 55 words only, and then go taunt G-man with it!  hahahahahahaha....Here's mine!

The strains of a piece of melancholy jazz wafted through the empty apartment. Resisting the urge to change the station , he understood instantly why she’d gone.  The jazz was speaking to him…subtly, seductively. He started to nod, imperceptibly, to the sounds. Nothing here but music now, Charlie Parker washing the dirt from his soul.

Love...

The Claddagh. An Irish symbol of Love, Loyalty and Friendship.  Associated with the Joyce Clan and County Galway, this symbol is indicative of the pride of Irish heritage . I bought this beauty (it's painted on slate) at a gift shop in   Hendersonville, North Carolina.  I also have a silver ring that was given me by a girl who worked for me as a bartender. Her father brought it back from Ireland to give his daughter, Maggie. She was showing signs of drinking problems and in a huff, threw it at me and said--"...here. I don't want another one of these damned things."

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  Love is a lot of things. It's that overwhelming emotion that consumes you when you look at your newborn baby the first time.  Full of promise and hope for a better life.  Overflowing with grace, as you count all the fingers and toes, and look him over to make sure all the right parts are in the right places, and marvel at the miracle of it all.  Feeling that tiny heart beating against your breast, hearing the suckling sounds and feeling the grasping of  tiny fingers. as you feed him for the first time.

  Love is that comfortable, all's right with the world feeling you get from sitting with an aging parent and talking about family.  And looking into those eyes that have looked into yours for all your life.  Tracing the lines on a face that is as familiar to you as your own.  Being able to finish a sentence for them and hold their frail hands.  To see the continuity of family. The foreverness of DNA and history.

  Love is that insane rush of adrenaline that overtakes your senses and makes your heart pound. It makes your pupils dilate and your face flush.  Your body temperature rises and your respirations increase. That feeling that nothing can ever be as good as this moment and no one has ever loved like this before, ever, in the history of the world. When you can't live without  that face, that touch, those eyes. It makes you giddy. It robs you of decorum, of common sense.  And you couldn't  care less.

  Love is that place in your heart that makes you reach out to the people in Haiti or in New Orleans. It is a commonality that opens us to immense compassion and caring. It makes us want to make a difference. It makes us feel so good when we do, that it opens yet another horizon for us and makes us want to do more. It helps us to know that we are all one, all brothers and sisters in this world, on this planet.  To know that what happens to one of us, happens to all of us.  It lets us put things on the backburner for a while and look past the pettiness of  our daily lives, and take actions, however small, that enable us to feel like we can make a difference.  Somewhere, somehow.

  I have seen Love.  I have seen it in airports and parks and Red Cross Blood Drives.    I have seen it on television and at concerts and in the most unsuspecting places.  I have seen it in nursing homes and in backyards and on the ocean beaches.  It wears a lot of different costumes, this thing called love. But I have seen it, and I have come to recognize it everywhere I go.  It is the Divine Mystery, it is God, it is Buddha and it is Gaia.   It is the angel bending over a blade of grass, whispering "Grow....grow."  It is the uplifting dance of swifts in flight, a red maple in all it's glory, the smell of lilacs across an open field.  It is a little brother holding a little sisters hand as they cross a street.

  Today, look for love. You'll find it everywhere you go, and when you know this,all the hopelessness and despair will fly away from your heart.  And your heart will grow, bigger and bigger until finally it cracks wide open...and then more love will rush in to fill it up again.

  And then...then you will know God. You will know peace.  And your life will never be the same....

  Namaste.
 

To sleep...perchance to dream....

  Here are a couple of my dreamcatchers.... I'm always on the lookout for new ones from different nations.

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  I woke up this morning crying in my sleep...I was having a crazy dream that involved me being married to Greg Montgomery (from Dharma and Greg)  and people were trying to keep us apart.and we had just somehow gotten reunited and he was telling me how sorry he was that our life was like this....and I was crying and crying...

  Yikes.

  I have been feeling crummy all day, and never got dressed. Just stayed in my jammies and robe and slippers, and went form couch to bed to couch, with a little computer and kitchen in between. lol Feeling a tad better this evening, and hoping to be back on my feet tomorrow, as I have some grocery shopping to do.There's a potluck to morrow night that I will probably send the Irishman to and stay home myself. I'm sending along a quiche (it's a vegetarian potluck, at the Ecological center)...I may go, but I doubt it...

 Tonight for supper, I tried my hand at Carnitas.  It's one of the Irishman's favorite dishes and I haven't made it before...I had some chunked pork stew meat in the freezer, and thought I'd give it a whirl. The secret is apparently caramelizing  the meat. You season it, put it in  a big pan, cover it with 3 cups water to 1 cup orange juice.  Only, of course I didn't have any orange juice.  After careful and thoughtful deliberation, I decided that the sugar in the orange juice was the catalyst for the caramelizing process, so why couldn't I use ginger ale (which I did have) in it's place?  2 great thoughts at work here: Ginger and Pork are perfect complements, and second, sugar is the key anyway, and ginger ale has plenty of it. It turned out beautifully and the Irishman was ever so impressed.  I served it on a plate with Spanish Rice and a simple salad and warm tortillas.  It has to cook for about 3 hours, but it was worth every minute of it.

  The party plan continues...one friend emailed and said she wants to come, but would have to bring 4 of the kids and husband and her making 6.  Would that overwhelm me? LOL  She doesn't know me very well...I said if they can take it, I can take it. lol  I have some kids dvds and several kids board games. bring 'em on...She and her husband have adopted 5 children...I love it. Not counting them, the tally so far is 9 yeses and 2 probablys and 2 noes.  WooHoo!!!  Let the games begin!!

   I'm all tuckered out from all the resting today.  Gonna mosey on off to bed and let the healing commence. I need to be much better tomorrow... Have had Vit C, echinacea, and Zinc now.  I'll go slather my neck all up with mentholatum too...that always helps.

  Off I go..............

Namaste

All snowed in...

 It's quite beautiful out there, as long as you don't have to go anywhere. I slept late, stayed in most all of the day, and ventured out only to check on the chooks and get the mail. Which, BTW, was a big mistake. I slipped a little on the driveway hill, but didn't hurt anything. Could have though... Chastised myself thoroughly.  lol

  It never got above 15 today. That's a bit cool for my taste. To counteract the cold, I did laundry and ran the dryer. lol  And then I made a chicken and vegetable curry for supper, served over aromatic Jasmine rice. It was great.

 We had some excitement out here on Detour Road today...around 11AM, 2 firetrucks came roaring down the icy road. Followed by a sheriff car and an ambulance.  Couldn't tell what was going on and didn't really see any smoke, but it was so cold out there I didn't hang around looking all that long.  The the electric company came  to change out the meter. All 3 dogs, of course, had to run out and welcome him, lol.  When he was finished, he backed his big giant heavy truck out into the road and then spent about 10 minutes trying to get up the little hill  that is the road in front of our house.  It would have been almost comical if I hadn't been so concerned that he was gonna take out my mailbox...

  A couple of hours later, another ambulance went screaming down our road. This never happens out here...we live such a quiet existence out here and when anything with a siren comes along, we're all a bunch of lookyloos.   Talked to a couple of neighbors up at this end and nobody knew anything. hmmm...

  I haven't felt good all day-woke up with a scratchy sore throat, and it keeps getting steadily worse. I am SO not coming down with anything!!! NOOoooooooo!!!!!!!!   Chilly off and on, so I spent a lot of today on the couch with my leg up on pillows (still sore and tired from yesterday) covered with an afghan, reading and sipping teas. Mint, chamomile, you know.  Covered with sleeping animals...the Jack Russell Terrorist on my feet, cats across my chest and lap, little baby dawg on the floor at my hand and Lucy the lab wherever she can sneak in.  All of us snuggled up like a pack of hibernating chinchillas.  LOL

   The dinner party is shaping up...so far I have 5 positive yeses, 2 maybes and 2 can't do its. I am going to make a regular spaghetti with putanesca sauce, and meatballs on the side, and then a dish called Aglio y olio, which is really just a simple pasta with a garlic and olive oil dressing on it. And shredded parm and romano, of course. I'll make a big salad and dress it with some kind of a vinaigrette, and I'll bake Italian Bread. I think I can bake it and freeze it ahead of time. Then pull it out and finish it off in the oven. One of my friends is going to bring heart shaped cupcakes, and I will make something else for dessert, I was thinking a beautiful Trifle would be good.  I have a perfect dish to put it in, a cake plate with a lid that turns upside down and makes a pedestal bowl. I love a good party....

  Well, enough babbling for tonight. I just took some more echinacea and am going to head for bed soon. It's already past midnight....sigh....

  Be Blessed!

Namaste.

Happy 50th, Honey

                  

 I am always glad to see pictures like this. Good to know I'm not the only person in the world who has cats sleeping in the most inappropriate  places....

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   I spent a good part of the day cooking. My knee is feeling it too...too much standing.  But by the time the Irishman got home from work, I had his favorite meal cooked, the house all lit with candles, and some soft jazz playing. I oven roasted a Boston Butt pork roast, with onions, carrots,  potatoes and celery all cooked with it.  I served a simple salad of mixed greens and pistachios, topped with a  home made mustard vinaigrette and gorgonzola bits crumbled on top. I made yeast rolls served hot with butter and a peach cobbler made with peaches from our own trees and a soft sweet biscuit topping for dessert.  It was delightful, and he was very impressed.  He's my biggest fan when it comes to cooking, and I am blessed to have a man who will try anything once. He's not a picky eater...rather adventurous, actually.  I love cooking and he loves eating...it's a match made in heaven! lol

   The snow started first thing this morning and then stopped, just to tease us I guess. At about 8 PM, it started again, in earnest this time.  They're predicting 4-6 inches and there must be 3 out there already.  I don't care. I have nowhere to go.  The kerosene heater is in place in case the power goes out, and I have hurricane lamps and candles.  I have books to read,  batteries for the radio, and am charging the cell phone even as we speak.I have a gas stove, so I can always cook and heat water for tea.or coffee. I have the equipment to make coffee without electricity if I have to. It's cold enough in the mudroom that if the power goes out for an extended time, I can store foodstuffs out there from the fridge so they won't spoil.  My big freezers are in my unheated garage, so they'll be okay too.  Bring it on, Mother Nature...I'm ready!

   Went out to read the electric meter (we belong to a rural  electric cooperative , and we read our own meters.), because hubby read it on the first (I was laid up, post surgery) and when I was paying bills this morning, I looked at the numbers he wrote down and thought--That doesn't look right.  Out I go, and the meter was sitting dead still. AND, the numbers had rolled back from last months final reading of 00595 to before the month befores reading of 99768.  IT read 99742. I watched it for a minute and realized that it was not running at all. I came in and called them and they said they would come here and change out the meter, that this stuff happens, and for me to make a note on my bill receipt saying I had called in the problem..  So, I guess I'll be getting a shiny new meter any day now....hopefully it will be easier to read than the current one.  lol

   The furnace has not worked for several days, I tried and tried to get it running but the pilot would not ignite. This morning I asked for some help and it started the first time I tried. It has been running just fine all day.  I went to town and picked up our taxes. We are getting money back from state and Federal-yippee. Not an exorbitant amount or anything, but it will be enough to pay for furnace repairs and a few other things we need.  Mostly I am dancing because last year we had to pay the state some money, and that hurts me.  lol  

 After supper tonight we watched The Milagro Beanfield War.  If you haven't seen this gem, do.  It's charming and funny and a  wonderful. Thanks, Robert Redford. It was made way back when...1988...his directing debut, I think.  (Guess I should check that fact...)  Stars Ruben Blades, Sonja Braga, John Heard and Christopher Walken  Big time thumbs up~!

  Time for me to consider  hitting the hay. It's late and I am tired in a really good way. The dishes are done, the floors are clean, and not enough sleep can make me mean.  (Hey! I'm a poet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)*snork

  On that note, I'm outta here.......

Namaste.

These are a few of my favorite things...

  What makes your heart sing??

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  The simple things in life that I love...things like homecanned food lined up on pantry shelves.  Compost piles. Perfect large brown eggs under a hen.  The look on my grandsons face when we find the turtle eggs in spring.   The soft snoring my husband does when I come to bed late at night.  The smell of lilacs wafting across the yard. The sight of forsythia, when nothing else has started to bloom.

  Things like this make me happy. The sounds of silence out here.  Bubble gum. The way my youngest dog lays her head on my knee and watches me. The sound of my son's voice on the phone.

  Today has been a loving and peaceful day. The Irishman and I went to lunch after the morning fellowship, then went to see a John Travolta movie called, From Paris, With Love.  It was great.  We came home and read and later made some guacamole with the 39 cent avocados I bought. It was marvelous.  I had some very stale whole wheat wraps that I sliced up, sprinkled with olive oil and salt and baked to use as chips with the guac.  Heated up some tomato soup and called it supper.

I'm turning in early tonight, have a couple of errands to run tomorrow before the snow comes, hopefully. Have to pick up the taxes, go see my sister, stop by and see a friends new granddaughter and then hurry home. lol 

 Need to run over to Enchanted Oaks blog and see how the Haiti fundraiser went.

  

 Am having a brainstorm of an idea to throw a surprise bd party/Valentine's Dinner for the Irishman. His bd is tomorrow,  We have a few single friends who always feel left out on this goofy holiday, and a few couple friewnds who cannot afford to do much...sounds like time for a party to me!!!  Will be short notice, but....it will be how it will be.  He's turning 50...he needs a party!

  Gonna go make some Evites to get out tonight.

  I'm on fire, baby....

Namaste.