Today seemed like a good day to run around

This was the cost of gas when we left Coquille this morning. We dropped off the Bravada at the local auto repair place to put in a new hood latch assembly.



This is a Cozy Corner restaurant where we had breakfast this morning. Bathroom rated a 7.5, cost two breakfasts 16 dollars plus tip. This 60's style diner was formerly a "Little Richards" and sat empty for quite awhile. We had to wait a bit as a busload of kids were ordering everything on the menu. Here's a tip, if you pull up to a restaurant and you see a big yellow school bus...drive past to another spot.



I had one of the specials; cinnamon apple pancake with whipped cream, crispy bacon and scrambled eggs. It was pretty decent but I will skip the cinnamon apple part next time...too sweet.



Bye the time we got through running around to pick up the repaired Bravada (92 bucks!) and later pick up my scrips, the price of gas had jumped yet again. Can someone please pass the Kleenex...my nose is bleeding.

got 'er done.

The porch/deck is done. Um,except for needing a paint job but that my friends will wait until the eager young man who repaired the porch gets back from vaca in California, broke and wanting to be paid for replacing the basement door and perhaps that pesky paint job. It is built for sturdy and he left the boards sticking out on the left side of the deck about a foot, just right for a planter box or some of those ubiquitous cacti.



It sure is sturdy.



But it ain't purty.

Gas, deck, etc.

Just for the record...in case you have awakened from a 20 year coma, the price of gas in Coquille has leaped to 3.95 per gallon JUST in time for Memorial Day Weekend.



I have been considering deck repair ever since Unca Bush's tax rebate. Yep,that is daylight you are seeing through the boards. This is our melted deck. The non pressure treated members melted.....



This is a shot from below. We haven't actually USED the deck but ya never know when the urge to go out the upstairs back door will strike, like when those lovely blackberries are beckoning.



This is the initial effort, trying to save as much of the older pressure treated lumbar as possible. The stairs are okay. The other stuff was dry rot, not eaten by carpenter ants.



Oops, didn't get quite enough. Tomorrow will have to make a quick trip to the lumber store to get a few more sticks. Then I shall contemplate paint, etc. Oh and if I gave the impression that I did any of this stuff? Nope. Got it hired local.

The price of gas in Coquille.

Tootled downtown to purchase some "cool" food. Liter bottle of 7-UP, 4 yogurts, Rocky Road ice cream and a couple frozen dinners (Swedish meatballs). I stopped to top off the tank and took a picture of the latest gas raise. The attendant asked me if I was pretty full. I told him it was about 3/4 full so he manfully shoved 21 dollars worth of gas into the buggy. Feed back from Auto Clinic on buggy check up; the hood latch broke so he had to order another one, will get that installed next week. He looked at the spark plugs etc and said they were platinum (what EVER that means) and were good for 100k miles. Sweet! New air cleaner and the whole trip cost 44 bucks. Of course if any of us were at all mechanically inclined we could have saved the 30 dollars for 30 minutes of labor......

Breafast at Tiffany's it ain't.

Lovely border of blue flowers at C.V.H., any small dumps of dirt are provided free by the many gophers.



We had breakfast at Fraziers this morning. My guess for the Trivia question was "I". That ain't it and I don't know the correct answer, sorry.
I had the French toast, two crispy bacon and crispy hash browns and a scrambled egg.

Husband had veggie omelet and cottage fries. Both dishes nummers. Cost 18 bucks plus 3 dollar tip.

Bathroom rating .25 off this time for noisy plumbing.

Left the Bravada at the local car repair place with orders to change the air filter and check the spark plugs. Ralphs motto is "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". My kind of Car Talk.

I'm melting!...melting...what a world........eeeeeeeeep

Weatherman warned it would get hot today here in beautiful South Coast Oregon. Boy howdy! The AC failed in half of the building at the hospital today. I am MOST thankful that it was not in MY half of the building.

When I got off work and fired up the buggy the temperature gauge read that outside temp was 102 degrees F. By the time I had slithered home the outside temp had dropped to 98 in the shade at my house. Oh dearie me.

We have the appropriate doors and windows open and a couple box fans circulating air. Much too hot to sleep upstairs tonight, will crank open one of the beds downstairs and pant, pant, pant, pant, gasp! Day dream about a big assed swamp cooler...yeah that's the ticket!

Supposed to be hotter tomorrow! Yowie!

Cooking on Saturdays

This is my favorite frying pan, I purchased it at a yard sale in Dillingham, Alaska for the low low price of five dollars. It is the BEST five bucks I have ever spent. Bottom label says it is a Platinum cookware item. I googled for the name and it turns out to be Canadian based home party sales only outfit. I e-mailed them to ask how much this thing cost brand spanking new. Apparently they all come with a lid with a special knob that lets you know when what ever you are cooking is done. um...okay.



"Put the jam in the plate!". Family reference, please excuse. Start with drizzle of olive oil, proceed to the wet team.



Wet team consists of wilted chopped onions, frozen hearty turkey meat and stock, halved black olives, coarse chopped walnuts, salt and pepper, celery seeds, oregano, garlic. Need about 2 1/2 cups liquid. Oops almost forget handful of fresh chopped Cilanto. (..it was in the fridge..)



Dry team consists of large package of bread cubes, do use the enclosed herb packet, crack in one egg, melt one stick butter, toss ingredients.



Combine wet team into dry team, mix well, pour into well oiled casserole dish, bake at 350 for 45 minutes and baste with egg wash, bake another 15 minutes. On second thought forget the egg wash, it tends to clump up in the crevasses of bread cubes in a most unattractive manner.

Cinco De Mayo

I jacked a recipe from the 'net for Turkey Mole'. I cooked the turkey on Friday, deboned it and also cooked a bunch of rice. I made the Mole' on Saturday. The recipe was labeled "simple" on the net but anything that calls for more than 12 items is complicated. The recipe didn't call for chilies of any kind other than a QUARTER OF A CUP OF CHILI POWDER!! I really should have made the sauce without the chilies or chili powder first and at least tasted it before adding as I do like mole'. Anyhoo, I added the freakin' quarter cup of chili powder AS WELL AS A SMALL CAN OF CHIPOTLE CHILIES IN ADOBO SAUCE. MAN! HOT!! So I dragged it into work and asked the ladies to plug in my crock pot. Dr. Ivanitsky is the only one who liked it and even asked for the recipe. He said, "If Cubans made Mole' this is what it would taste like". Now we know why Castro lived so long, he never ate Mole'.

Two houses for sale in Coquille

This house started out as a rather old cruddy looking manufactured looking home, it looked like a little old cottage. When it was first listed, as little as I know about Real Estate, I knew no one would finance it because it had no foundation, nuthin but dirt. So construction began, I watched the crew all last summer gut the thing right down to the studs inside and the first thing they did was jack up the house and put in cinder block foundation. It now has new EVERYTHING. Superb landscaping, very nice drive way, with portico, little storage shed, (nicely put together). I don't know the price of this one but it is listed somewhere. The only thing I would not like is that it is at the bottom of the hill at the foot of the hospital on 5th street. It is just across the street from a park. I have never seen an open house on the place but I am guessing it is no more than a bedroom, 1 bath place.



This one is kitty corner just up the hill across the street from the gray house. This is for sale by the owner, I watched the crew shovel out a couple dumpsters worth of stuff. It is a two story, parking in front, narrow parking on the downhill side to a long narrow backyard goes back at least a hundred yards. The downhill level has sliders front and back. The picture is crappy the house is what I call a mid-century 50's style house with modern over tones, it has a huge fireplace. No idea how it is configured inside. Owner selling for 149 K. Not bad, parking is tricky. You would have to be very careful pullling into and out of the drive, no parking possible on the street which is EXTREMELY steep.

Arborists arrivee'

We got our bushes trimmed yesterday. The bushes under the windows were ABOVE the windows blocking out lots of sunlight. The tree guys came and trimmed those bushes, did a very nice job of saving the Lilac bush on the right and rooting out the nasty holly sprouts over there as well. The bushes along the fence on the far left that are NOT in frame were trimmed to the top of the fence, and now the satellite dish has a clear view of the more or less southern sky. Perfect. We also got the very tall fence line Holly tree branches trimmed back away from the house and the chimney. Next project back porch and the roof. And Uncle Sammy's tax rebate hasn't even arrived yet,dang! Oh yeah gas is still $3.73 and 9/10 per gallon.