Was feeling a little restless today.....

...so I drove downtown to the Emporium, its' a new "antique" shop that just opened. Lots of fun stuff to look at. I then walked to "The Oddity Shop" and found some books as well as the above piece. It is Anchor Hocking and it about half the size of the jar/canister pictured below, but I thought it looked nice. It is priced less than nineteen dollars.





I decided to drive to Coos Bay and purchase this if they still had it. Parked in front of "The Antique Mall" and it was still there. I paid $19.95 for it. The body of the piece is only 8 inches tall but it is round enough to easily hold a five pound sack of.....flour. The little black box weighs a little less than 5 lbs so there should be plenty of room. The lid has a nice rubber seal on it as well.

Sour dough pancakes !!!!!

The Big Brown truck stopped yesterday with the delivery of Ellen's promised sourdough starter!!! It's here! She had warned me that the starter was inside a container within a container and might blow the top off. Yep, it had blown its top.
Side note: I wonder if the starter would travel better in the mail if it started out frozen? Just a thought. Thank you, Elfin!!!




I added two cups of warm milk and two cups of flour and stirred and let it set over night. Oooooh just look at all those bubbles!




This little container went to the freezer as back up starter dated 01-29-10.



I used one cup of starter for my pancake batch, husband is more of an omelet person, the rest went back into the fridge to rest up for next time.



All the ingredients Mise en place (French "put in place" for das pancake makings.



Pre-heat frying pan to medium. It is hot enough when the sprinkle of water hisses into mini bubbles and evaporates quickly, if the water bubble just sits there, WAIT the pan is not hot enough. If you are more familiar with non stick pans, go ahead but we Berglund kids were raised to the regular fry pan method, BECAUSE THEY HAD NOT YET INVENTED NON STICK PANS BACK IN THE DARK AGES.

One more cooking tip, the batter is thick, takes longer to cook, wait until bubbles form and pop on the surface then flip. Cook until golden brown and delicious!



Ah, a short stack of three, butter and Colorado honey. Yum! Side order of coffee and morning medications. erp....



Clean up was a cinch. Husbands boy kitty, BB (Bodacious Boy).

McCoy Cookie Jars

Let us discuss the possibility of McCoy Cookie Jars.

The above picture is a picture of my cookie jar sitting in the dining room. I think it is a little small and the lid is not well sealed. Any cookies put inside the old car will dehydrate in a matter of hours.

I did google a couple sites for McCoy cookie jars and I am firmly convinced that Mom selected the best looking ones for her children. The pieces I saw were all smiling trains, various colored Mammies and not appealing. I have forgotten what the siblings cookie jars look like, please share.

Upon further reflection.....

The above is a Jim Beam decanter. One of my co-workers purchased one similar to it to hold some of her father's cremains. The rest of the cremains were sneaked to the cemetery (the grandparents plot) and a white plastic conduit was pounded in about two feet and the ashes were deposited sans permission of the cemetery managers.



This one is also a Jim Beam decanter and one similar to it was chosen for her mother's cremains. Another length of white conduit was also used to inter the remains at the cemetery sans permission of the cemetery managers. She keeps the decanters on display and when her son's come for a visit, they will invariably greet the grandparents.

Thinking along those lines, I am submitting the following possible choices.



I couldn't find a craps table or a Texas hold'em table but you get the idear.



Mom had eclectic tastes, so this Chinese pagoda treasure house might fit the bill, or not. Just kidding.

Round two and three....NOTHING PURCHASED YET.

The "urn" above is actually a white ceramic grape vine covered canister. Found it at the local Antique Mall in Coos Bay for 20 bucks. Excellent seal on the lid..it IS a canister after all. Whattya think?






These are real urns found at the Oregon Connection Myrtle Wood factory. I believe I mentioned this place as the first choice for a place to look. They do not have any round or vase like urns, all box shaped or hexagonal shaped. The big hexagonal shaped one was $190.00, the smaller ones ranged down to 75 dollars and were too small. I looked them over very carefully, I could NOT get them open. So I would imagine one would have to pay someone to open, deposit and reseal. Hmmmmm. Well, they are made of Myrtle wood and are very pretty.

Oh yeah, I went to the Pony Village Mall to look in the Hallmark store to see if they carried the ruby red glass ginger jar with top? Nope they not only did not carry it, they went out of bidness. Dayang.

How does everyone feel about a McCoy cookie jar?

My submission for the URN contest

Okay you may have to sit in a darkened room as the background is so light. The Urn is a modified modern take on the ginger jar. It is white ceramic with a lid. And looks like it will hold stuff.



I have commissioned my beading friend to make a Cleopatra type "necklace" to put on the Urn for a little bling. Lots of ruby red beads, and gold beads and sparkling gold beads. I am also thinking about leaving bits of chain hanging down with rings on the end to hold charms. Good luck charms, spoon charms, sewing machine charms, etc. And if it is too beautiful I will keep it and go to plan B which is shop for that ruby red ginger jar on sale at Hallmark for 20% off.

Next!!!

Sunday School Lessons, sort of.....

On Thursday I was sitting at my desk as I usually do. The room is very crowded. To my left there is a rolling cart of various books, puzzles and games that are used for our Swing Bed patients. Swing bed means that they are not healthy enough to be discharged but need more intensive care than that provided by a long term care facility.

I noticed that there were two Holy Bibles in the racks. I opened one up and flipped it back and forth to check to see if anyone had hidden money inside. This is a practice handed down from traveling religious and it either tempts people with the deadly sin of greed or redemption by reading the Holy Word.

I glanced down to see what chapter was open and read that King David had worn a linen ephod. Linen ephod...what exactly is an ephod? Well, it is the little dress thingy printed above. King David had the Ark of God brought to Jerusalem and it was a big deal. All the tribes were appointed certain tasks; one tribe played the harp, one tried played the drums etc. There was much celebration and King David was noted to have danced with his whole heart in celebration and he wore a linen Ephod.

Hmmmm,sartorial commentary in the Bible would seem to be rare. However, the spot I googled explained that by stating that King David wore a linen ephod, it simply meant that he dressed like all the other guys making happy in the streets.

The Best Duct Tape Story ....EVER!!!

During a private "fly-in" fishing excursion in the Alaskan wilderness, the chartered pilot and fishermen left a cooler and bait in the plane. A bear smelled it. This is what the bear did to the plane.










The pilot used his radio and had another pilot bring him 2 new tires, 3 cases of duct tape, and a supply of sheet plastic. He patched the plane together........








..... and FLEW IT HOME!


A friend of mine emailed this to me from...Alaska...for true.

Happy Fifteenth Wedding Anniversary, crystal I believe.

We spent Saturday night and Sunday morning at McMullen House in Myrtle Point. This lovely old Bed and Breakfast was built in1902, it is a craftsman. Coffered ceilings, painted angels, antique furniture, spiffy kitchen. There is an enclosed porch; one end was devoted to plants,the other end was set up for intimate dining for two next to the spoon collection. The front room has a fire place, pocket doors separate the dining room. There is a small office/library/studio next to the tiny balcony for two. Upstairs is a nice landing, chairs and writing desk for jotting off notes, or shopping lists. There are four bedrooms upstairs each with their own en suite bathroom. A narrow stair leads down to the kitchen and the main floor master and en suite. There is a huge basement where you can sneak down to watch TV or do laundry. Outside are two cabins and a few outbuildings, a very nice stack of firewood and lovely plantings. Breakfast was apples, bananas, oranges, dried cereal, coffee, tea, fresh home made bread, banana cake, blackberry scones, tomatoes and avocados. Yummy. That is far more than I had expected.

Unfortunately we probably won't get another chance to stay there. The owners are moving to Los Angeles to be nannies to their newest grandchild and have made other arrangements and will be closing. The house will remain in their family but they just won't be in the hospitality business anymore. Speaking of hospitality, there was a very nice gift bag waiting for us in our room; it contained champagne, two flutes, squeaky cheese and crackers. Yum! We saved the wine as we don't drink. But it was a lovely thought. We actually took some sparkling apple cider and my 18 red roses.

Cooking again....sort of...not quite yet....

This is a picture of sourdough starter. While The Colorado contact is preparing the original starter for delivery, I dug out Mom's recipe from the purple notebook cookbook that she sent out for Christmas about ten years ago.

Sour Dough Starter

1 package active dry yeast (Not rapid rise). Extended rumble through shelf where most of my spices and condiments are kept. Ahah! I do have some. I ignored the use by date.
2 cups lukewarm water. I looked all over the store for Lukewarm water, they didn't have any so I ran some room temperature water from the filtered tap. (Very old joke will explain if you so wish).
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 cup milk.

I gathered all of my ingredients and stirred them together. I re-read the recipe and groaned. I was only supposed to mix the yeast, lukewarm water and FLOUR together and let sit at room temperature for 48 hours THEN add milk, sugar and more water.I can hear Mom shrieking in my ear,"Follow the directions!".

....hmmm....I will let this set for 24 hours on the stove top and check for lovely yeasty smelling bubbles. If it flopped I will start over.

However rest of recipe goes like this:

Dissolve yeast in water, add flour, beat until smooth, let stand over night at room temperature.

THEN cover loosely, refrigerate for FIVE FREAKING days,stirring each day.

ON THE FIFTH DAY, ADD sugar,water and milk. Refrigerate,stirring daily FOR ANOTHER FIVE FREAKING DAYS before using.

If the Frankensourdough monster lives I will attempt the SureFire Sourdough Hot Cakes recipe. Lordy.

RECRUITING......

A couple of weeks ago, I was asked by a local CVHS student, N.H., to speak in her health class about Health Information Management. Sure, I can yammer on for about 20 minutes before people start to nod off.

I dug out a few old "AHIMA Journal"s and some "For The Record"s so they could look at those high paying technical jobs out there in coding land.

I drove to the high school and parked near the fence and walked towards what I thought was the entrance. A sign said, "All Visitors Sign In At The Office".
Um, Okay, I would if I could get the door open...so started walking around the building and about a half a block further found the main entrance. Signed in and was escorted down the hall.

Nice bunch of students, asked polite questions, got a few prompts from Miss S. I was hoping to spread the word to more people but eight is a good start. I don't think any of them will be inspired to jump into HIM but I managed to inform them that the degree was very portable and practically recession proof and the pay is "comfortable".

I should have told them that the job opportunities at CVH will be open by the time they graduate from college and come home looking for a job as we older folk will be looking more seriously at retirement and I have almost 3,000 books, only 7,000 to go in order to minimally stock my book store.

Anyway below is the pictures I took of them. Eight students, six ladies, two gentlemen. Maybe someone will mention the career to a friend or relative......

How much is a greek urn?

It's so pretty.....

I googled a site for price ranges for Greek urns. The prices were from 21 to 4900 dollars.

I then googled the exchange rate, which is currently 1 US dollar equal 238.09 Greek drachmas.

That works out to 4,999.89 to 11,666.41 Drachmas. Now we're talking. I better start saving my Drachmas.

...here's some more urns....

This one above is from Overstock.com and is made of Acacia wood and is 9 inches by 8 inches in size, cost 36 dollars. I think it is a little small.






This one is Overstock.com also. Cost is 40 dollars, is 7x 5.5 x 10 inches. Still seems small. I'll have to look again it is either metal or ceramic.


So many choices. Still looking for ruby glass with lid about 10 to 11 inches tall.

I been shopping around for urns...yes URNS....

I did look briefly at some goods at the Myrtlewood outlet in Bandon, nuthin'.



These are all glass except one is wood, bet you can't guess which one is the most expensive. It lists for 7600 smackeroonies online at Neiman Marcus...of course.





I also visited one of my favorite spots in Bandon today "Benjamin's Attic", the lady there will keep an eye open for any large ruby glassware.