Tater salad rerun

Spent Sunday at work, it was kind of slow due to Labor Day weekend. I decided to make potato salad and stopped at McKay's to pick up some ingredients on the way home from work.

8 to 10 small to medium Yukon gold potatoes.
6 eggs
1/2 Sweet white onion.
6 to 8 small midget dill pickles
1 can black olives
dash red pepper flakes
dash Paprika
salt and pepper to taste
sprinkle celery seeds
1 tbsp chopped garlic
3 hefty squirts yellow mustard
1 cup of mayonnaise.

Bring large pot of water to boil,drop in potatoes for ten minutes.
Add eggs to boiling water at 10 minutes, continue to simmer for another 10 minutes.
Turn off heat, remove pot from heat and let cool another ten minutes.
Drain and let potatoes and eggs cool.
When cool, peel potatoes and eggs. Cube potatoes and coarse chop the eggs.
Dice the onion, half the olives, add the remainder of ingredients and mix until coated. Refrigerate; the taste will blend nicely by tomorrow. If you eat it now all you will get is potato, mustard and mayonnaise taste.

If there is a hurricane headed your way, pack up and git!

Gas prices and an all day MEETING

Price of gas is dropping just in time for Labor Day weekend. I shall track the upward direction once the holiday is over.



This is a picture of two of the three guys running the Strategic Planning and Development meeting today. I got drafted as my boss lady is out on medical leave. So I got to sit there from 9:30 to 3:30 and listen to some fairly comprehensive marketing and finance speeches. There was a lot of interacting and that exercise was fairly decent. I was aghast at the agenda but it was a nice surprise, got free lunch too. The meeting was at the Oregon Credit Union building in a very posh board room. We should have more meetings. There is adequate parking there. In a nutshell, it looks like we may have an 18 million dollar, 38,000 square foot facility built within the next four years to replace the current 38 year old hospital.

The hope is that we will add new services and the most important one is to recruit more physicians.

Price of Gas and Wildlife at work

This was the price of gas the other foggy morning so I thought I had better take a picture before the price went the wrong direction.




I have been seeing deer nibble on the tender vegetation and today was a good opportunity to snap a picture out the back door of the hospital. It is said that deer like blackberry bushes, however, we have too many dogs in the neighborhood to attract deer to our delicious, abundant black berry bushes....sigh....must go pick more blackberries.....

Silver Dagger

I am such a musical ignoramus. I have been listening to Got Radio on the net in particular Celtic music. Every once in a while I would hear this song about a silver dagger. The singer is asking her lover not to sing love songs because her mother is sleeping by her side with a silver dagger in her hand.

Hmmm. So I googled Silver Dagger Lyrics and got a nice link to Wikipedia. Jeez Silver Dagger has been around a hundred years or so. Joan Baez sang her version and here it is. You will have to make up your own tune in your head. I don't want to violate copyright laws. Go ahead be creative, plaintiff, musical and if at all possible acapella harmony wouldn't go astray.

Joan Baez version of Silver Dagger:

Don' sing love songs; you'll wake my mother

She's sleepig here, right by my side

And in her hand, a silver dagger

She says that I can't be your bride.

All men are false, says my mother
They'll tell wicked lovin' lies
The very next evening, they'll court another
Leave you alone to pine and sign.

My Daddy is a handsome devil

He's got a chain five miles long

And on every link a heart does dangle

Of another maid he's loved and wronged.

Go court another tender maiden
and hope that she will be your wife
For I've been warned and I've decided
to sleep alone all of my life.

WARNING! BOOK REPORT!

I just completed book 2 in what I hope is a series of 13 total by the author, Kathryne Kennedy.

Her first book "Enchanting The Lady" is set in Regency England. The ruling class possess very strong magic. In fact the only way anyone can inherit property is to prove their magic in the Court of Mages. Felicity has a problem, she has no magic and she is the dependent of very powerful magical relatives. Nope,not one itsy bitsy bit of power. However, it seems that her power is being held in check by one of the relics of Merlin. It is up to the good guy to free her from this relic, find and destroy the relic before the bad guys get to it first. There is another layer in society that of the were people. People who are were hold rank no higher than Barons,however magic does not effect them. There is tension between the ruling high society and the lowly were people society...and the good guy is one of the were people.

The second book, "Double Enchantment" is about Jasmina who has been designated by her parents as the dutiful daughter who will take care of her parents in their old age. Her mother has a very bad habit of borrowing things from friends and forgetting to return them. Jasmina has to dress in chimney sweep clothing to sneak the pieces back to whom ever her mother has stolen them from. One evening she is returning a particularly hideous piece and she needs to make a twin spell and have her twin occupy her bed while she is out. Unfortunately the piece she is returning is one of Merlin's Relics and her twin spell is augmented by the relic and makes the twin real. Jaz takes off and does scandalous things that Jasmina would not think of doing. Jaz meets the good guy who promptly marries her. He is a were animal,he turns into a black stallion. Jaz disappears. It quickly becomes apparent that Jasmina must find Jaz and reverse the spell. Throw in a couple of pesky garden gnomes who love chaos and you have a very good read.

Fruit cocktail cake and a little history thereof

My recipe for Fruit Cocktail cake is about 40 years old. I got this when I worked for Fairchild Semiconductor,which was located near San Rafael, California in an industrial park just off Hwy 101. It was a poly cultural work force. Many of the black ladies drove over to Marin county from Contra Costa county. The oriental ladies were married to men who were stationed at the air force base just north of there not too far from Petaluma. There were potlucks and this recipe stems from one of those happy gatherings.

FRUIT COCKTAIL CAKE

1 and 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup nuts
1 can fruit cocktail and juice

Mix all ingredients well, it will be very moist. Sprinkle 1/4 cup brown sugar on top of mixture prior to putting in the oven to bake.

Bake in 350 degree oven for 30 minutes, if the middle still wiggles, close door to oven, turn oven off and let cake continue to cook until done. (I had to guess at this because there was no temperature or time on my little file card.)

When the cake has cooled prepare a sauce for topping the cake.

In a sauce pan, combine and melt 1/2 cup margarine or butter, I prefer butter, 1/2 cup milk, 3/4 cup sugar. Bring to boil and boil for two minutes. Pour over top of cake. I added a handful of shredded coconut at the last minute.

This tastes like one of those stick toffee puddings that you hear about. Delicious.

awRIGHT awREDDY

This is my newly purchased (second time, I lost the first one) glass finger nail file. I have officially given up on the Amazon.com/Knife Store people actually sending me an unbroken file. I shall muster the strength to attend to returning the most recent broken product and totter off to the post office to mail it back and demand a return of my funds.

I got tired of waiting for the third promised product to arrive and after working Google pretty hard, found www.zamborg.com and at that site typed in Zinger. I knew the darn thing was on the net SOMEwhere and now I can once more attend to nail filing with a simple touch up.

I actually scheduled a manicure (No I don't want polish, I just CHEW it off!) to get the cuticles under control and the nails approximately the same length and shape. Also got a very nice hand massage, that and the local gossip was worth the price of the ticket. And the really weird thing? The manicurist had never heard of glass finger nail files.....

Black berry cobbler, the price of gas and bead work

Last evening about 8 pm in the cool cool of the evening just when color starts to disappear and the neighborhood dogs have finished their 8 o'clock bark. I walked down the newly painted deck stairs (blinding in full sunshine!) to pick about a gallon of juicy ripe seedless blackberries. The deepest color stands out at this particular time so you do not run the risk of picking unripened berries. I froze them on a cookie tray, not having quite decided what to do with them.



The next morning between washing dishes and processing a couple loads of laundry, I dug out husbands family recipe for blackberry cobbler.

2 cups of black berries (that's just plain STINGY, dump in the whole cookie sheet!)
Mix 1 cup of sugar and 1 tbsp of flour, gently mix and set aside.

Mix 1 and 1/2 cups of flour with 1/3 cup of shortening or butter (I used butter).
Mix together until butter is smaller lumps but not fully incorporated into the flour.

Add 1 cup sugar, 1 tbsp baking powder, 1 tbsp salt, 1 cup milk and 1 egg. Mix together until wet. Pour berries into baking dish. Spoon dough on top of berries. Cook in 425 degree oven 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown and delicious. It actually took 35 minutes at 80 feet above sea level here. It was deeply darkly yummy upon completion. Husband prefers to top his cobbler with the family preference canned milk, um which is an acquired taste. I like mine either plain or with whipped cream.




And the price of gas continues its' schizophrenic impact upon our lives.



This is a very blurry picture (if you click on the picture you will get a larger blurry picture...) of a necklace and bracelet that my coding buddy from Roseburg made for me. Earlier in July my sister, Gale,gave me a tourquoise colored necklace that she purchase on her Mexico trip. I really liked the color but it was a very tight fit around my fat little neck. So I asked my friend to rework them into a larger piece and to please PULEEZE put on the magnet closures. And she did, I thank her, my fat little neck thanks her.

itzikel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_zLkKXXga0

If you can get this link to actually work, I have been listening to Got Radio and Celtic music. Every once in a while this little piece would play. It doesn't sound Celtic to me, more like Fiddler on The Poteen. I Like it.

If the link doesn't work try You Tube and type in Itzikel, click on the young man playing the fiddle all by himself.

29th Olympiad

Holey Moley, They flew this guy around the stadium to light the torch which until the last 30 minutes of the opening ceremony had not even been in sight. Phew!

I agree with the television commentators, this was absolutely spectacular! Fireworks beautifully done. Dramatic scenes depicting 5000 years of Chinese History. I think my favorite part of the floor show was all of the boxes that rippled up and down,made splashes and were all done by PEOPLE inside the boxes, perfect coordination.

The only boring bits was waiting for all the athletes to march in. The Americans were dressed in very dark blue or black sport jackets, white beret, white shirts and shorts designed by Ralph Lauren. Hmmm.

On the other hand, the costumes worn by the 15,000 actors participating in the show were beautiful things.

I shall watch what little coverage we have here courtesy of the network. Wonder who the Eddie Eagle will be this time?

Another colorful dream

It's about 4 am, I woke from a combination sky diving, geo-treking, puzzle solving dream. I actually leaped off a very high place with a companion jumper. I was not afraid but I was worried because I couldn't see the ground through a layer of clouds. So off I went. I touched hands with whom ever I was diving. So naturally I consulted my dream site for which I got the "you can't go there now" message and consulted an alternative dream interpretation site. Remember, you must not take things literally is the advice given. So the only topic I would find was sky. I didn't look up diving, falling, etc. here ya go.

Sky: To dream of the sky, signifies distinguished honors and interesting travel with cultured companions, if the sky is clear. Otherwise, it portends blasted expectations, and trouble with women. To dream of floating in the sky among weird faces and animals, and wondering all the while if you are really awake, or only dreaming, foretells that all trouble, the most excruciating pain, that reach even the dullest sense will be distilled into one drop called jealousy, and will be inserted into your faithful love, and loyalty will suffer dethronement. To see the sky turn red, indicates that public disquiet and rioting may be expected.

Wow I seem to have dreamt of one of the signs of the apocalypse. Weird. The sky was not red so I do not have to worry about public disquiet and rioting.

I think I will make pancakes for breakfast.

UPDATE ON BROKEN GLASS FILE

Well, Heck! I was all set to give my gentle "let me help improve your customer service" speech to the Knife Store people. I called about my second broken glass finger nail file shipment and after some poking and prodding the lady on the phone told me they would send out a third glass finger nail file and don't worry about anything, they will make sure it is packaged properly.

Well...gee...thanks...but,but I was all set to blow off some steam y'see an..an..

gulp. Thank you Knife Store. (Hope the mailing gods are feeling efficient).

The rest of the blooming cactus

I took this picture this morning, the remaining blossoms have opened up amongst the several ( I would estimate between 6 and 10) other small cactus. I wonder if they need pollinators in order to reproduce, if so perhaps there is a non carnivorous spider species that will take care of that.

We decided to run away to Coos Bay today and of course ate out at Pancake Mill. Breakfast for husband consisted of veggie omelet, scrambled eggs and rye toast. I had the Strawberry waffles. Um!

We also went to Freddy's to purchase more paint and a ladder. We have two already; a small step stool and one that extends clear up to the roof, needed an between size.

Amazon.com, The Knife Shop and UPS hmmmph

A few weeks ago I decided to try to replace my lost glass fingernail file (It went with me to Idaho but I couldn't find it when I got home). I went online to Amazon.com and could no longer find the German Zinger glass fingernail file which was QUITE superior, I might add. I then clicked on a single rather dainty looking glass file from The Knife Shop people via Amazon.com. It came by way of UPS in a very large bedraggled padded mailer. I opened the very large envelope, found many inserts,ad inserts and the glass finger nail file snapped into three pieces...sigh.

I mailed it back by wrapping some of the padded mailer about the remains of the glass finger nail file and sending it back two ounces first class utilizing the handy dandy return mailing label. I also called the nice 800 number somewhere in Georgia to let them know the broken glass finger nail file was being returned. Thank yew.

In the meantime my finger nails were getting a bit raggedy so I again ordered some glass finger nail files and five very colorful ones came within a couple of days. EVERYone in my house now owns a glass finger nail file. I am not really pleased with the new ones as they don't rongeur off enough nail like the very nice Zinger did.

Today,I received the above raggedy envelope from The Knife Shop by way of Amazon.com and UPS. I opened the envelope and found the replacement glass finger nail file snapped neatly in half. OY!



I called the nice 800 number in Georgia and the nice whiskey tenor lady was very apologetic and asked me if I would call Monday to speak with the lady who handles the Amazon.com customers.

Yep, I shall make my point clear, the Knife Shop people need to scream really LOUDLY into the ears of the Amazon.com people to pack their shipments a little better and perhaps add "Fragile" to the package so UPS won't drive their trucks over the package before delivery. Pant! pant! pant! gasp! pant!

I think I shall print off this portion of my blog and send it with my return this time as a pro-active consumer.

Blooming cacti Gas prices and Stuffing

Came out this morning to hop in the car to go to Fraziers for breakfast and there were these two HUGE blooms coming from the rather smallish cactus that have been perched in the same spot for about three years. The blooms are so big I'm afraid the blooms will suck the entire bodily parts of the cactus into producing the flowers. Hey, First Nation, you know anything about blooming cactus? Will my little cactus now shrivel up and die? Will your alien cows come and eat them? Just curious.



The price of gas has dropped from a high of $4.35 to $4.19. Oh the dizziness of it all.



Felt like cooking, so after breakfast at Fraziers, stopped in local market to pick up onions and a couple ribs of celery. Went home and drug out a bag of croutons, a frozen block of very hearty stock. I melted the stock, chopped onions and celery and threw them in to simmer. Added black olives,halved to find those pesky lurking pits and then added the cubed bread bits. Combined in a large mixing bowl, let sit for a few minutes to cool and cracked in two eggs and stirred some more. Poured into lightly oiled casserole dish, put in oven 30 minutes at 350 degrees. The above is the before picture as the after picture while golden, brown and delicious was out of focus.

Oh yes, Breakfast at Fraziers consisted of one special for husband consisting of Country Fried Steak, scrambled eggs, country potatoes,gravy on the side, rye toast, blackberry jam. My breakfast consisted of one slice (HUGE) of French toast, two slices of crispy bacon, one scrambled egg and a side of country potatoes, maple syrup for the French toast. Cost 20 bucks plus 15% tip for a very attentive waitress. Business was brisk for a Friday. Yummy. Must take a nap now.