Yet another very colorful dream...

I woke up completely bemused this morning from a fairly amusing and colorful dream.

It was one of those "I don't know where we are but it looks familiar dreams".  We, by we, the whole family all the brothers and sisters and some friends were at a Casino.  The Casino was huge,  we all scattered out.   I was stopped by a group asking directions to the Family Room.   Uh, okay, lets take a look.  Finally found them a nice hotel lobby looking place and left them there.   I wondered around some more.  I headed for the registration desk to try hook up with anyone.   No one there, then I looked further along where it turned into cashiers desks and saw the back of Mom's head.  As I approached her she turned about and her arms were full of two great big casino chip boxes.  Wow, she had won big time.  Then we walked to some jackpot machines, by then one of the brothers had caught up with me.  We watched her play a bit and she kept hitting jackpots.  One was for 138,000 dollars.  Time to go.

So I consulted the dream interpretation web site:

To dream that you are in a casino signifies the risk-taker within you. If you are a reserved or passive person, then the dream suggests that you should take a chance. If you are not, then it implies that you need to make a more informed decision instead of relying on fate.

To see your mother in your dream represents the nurturing aspect of your own character. Mothers offer shelter, comfort, life, guidance and protection.

Hmph, how vague.  Should have looked up "cash".

Idle Googling on my day off...

We have books, not quite as many is above, however, the living room has become a quasi-library, there are books in the upstairs hallway, there books in the dining room,and there are several book shelves of my "keeper" books in the bedroom.

 

 

We have cats, not quite as charming as above, Jubilee is elderly and lives in the basement close to the running dryer. The other three would love the following.

 



 

Naturally there should be cat shelving, they could dust the books as they tread daintily amongst the literature.  Not sure how to avoid the tendency to scratch on wood, perhaps some discretely positioned carpeting, eh?

Christmas dinner review:

I had decided to skip baking the all night ham until it fell off the bone this year and decided on steak. Not only steak but Gorgonzola steak.  Purchased two nicely marbled steaks cut off the fat.

Purchased some Gorgonzola cheese and a pint of cream.

Purchased Brussels sprouts, I already had some divine Balsamic vinegar. 

Also cooked some fresh packaged three cheese tortellini and Oseago sauce.  That worked very well.  Husband had seconds.

The steaks were cooked twelve minutes for well done and six minutes for medium.  Well done should have stretched to another five minutes I am afraid. 

The Brussels sprouts baked in the oven a bit too long and were not gorgeous green but more of a steak like appearance but with the Balsamic they were very tasty.

The Gorgonzola sauce was a bit salty, I should have used unsalted butter but it was the right consistency.  Meh.

Dessert chocolate chip cookie and piece of pumpkin pie left over from Thanksgiving.

I am thankful I got the day off,  I had scheduled myself to in because I knew that we had an OB admitted for an induction and visualized doing a birth certificate.  I called med/surg about 8 a.m. was informed that she had not delivered yet.  Ok, I will probably do one tomorrow then. Bye Bye

Called Charles and wished them Merry Christmas, they were having leg-o-lamb.  Yummy!

Merry Christmas everyone! 
 

Plates

Mom went through a period in the late 80's or and she mentioned that she had finally dug out her plates and hung them and asked each of us what we had done with our plates.

Seattle Sister donated the Sound of Music series to a Gay Pride fundraiser and brought in 300 bucks.

My set was oriental, perhaps Japanese.  I will have to Google the name of the series. I think the plates are in the attic and would look good in my alleged used book store (I am leaning towards calling it Bookity Books and I don't care if someone else has a bookstore named that already).

I do not remember the themes and disposition of their plates for the other siblings; Colorado sister? Oregon brother?  Emmett Brother?  Wyoming Brother?  Were some cowboys and construction equipment themes involved?

Anyhow I had face booked Emmett sister that I had always associated her with "The Shiner" as above.  Then I started Googling because senior moments have set in and I could not remember Norman Rockwell's name, so I googled American Illustrators and about four pages in there he was.  I then googled Norman Rockwell's girl with black eye, nuthin'.  I then googled Normal Rockwell names of pictures...Ta Dah!  There is was..The Shiner.

The plate will be parcel posting its way to Monroe street. Hope it gets there in ONE piece.

Dooms Day

Um, I rather prefer my own "long count" on the dooms day calendar which consists of two arguments; one that the universe will keep expanding until it goes entirely dark, or two that the universe will expand until it reaches the point where it will start collapsing.  Either view will not have a large impact on Spaceship Earth.

In addition there are several billion human dooms day calendars counting down as we speak.  Somewhere millions will meet their doom TODAY through unfortunate or entirely natural means including crimes.  The dooms day preppers can relax and still obsess about beefing up their security and
firearms/food/water/livestock/toilet paper preps in case of (Insert your disaster of choice).  Now it is only sensible to be somewhat prepared for power outages and huge weather related occurrences. Do stock up on bottled water, at minimum a three day food supply, alternate heat source (fireplace neatly rolled logs of old bills) and keep the car in repair in case the roads are NOT impassable and you know you can drive to the local pizza parlor and sit basking in  the relative warmth of their ovens.  See?  Not so bad.

Was reading a few blogs about the Mayans, fascinating people who really liked numbers and astronomy.   The NatGeo has a snippet
showing a discovery of additional numbers that calculate some more and imply further dates.   Keep studying people.

I am sure someone will come up with something.

...And the winner of the wreath decorating contest is...

The folks working in the Emergency Room whipped this together and took first prize.  The little daisy looking flowers are actually constructed from various kinds and colors of vial tops and covers for needles.  Very clever.

There was also a wreath hung near admitting that was designed by a hunter.  The wreath is wrapped in Camo and Hunter Orange ribbon that had been fashioned into a nice large ribbon on top.

There was a mighty stag on one side of the wreath and there was a GI Joe type hunter on the other side.

There were fuzzy pipe cleaners in camo colors bent into candy canes and sprinkled liberally ( never use the word liberal in the same sentence as "rifle") were empty brass casings from a largish caliber rifle.

Well made but a little creepy.

Christmas Letter...sort of...

This is a picture of our department's Holiday Wreath that came in FOURTH place.  Well.  Thought we were being clever by making ourselves are part of the ornaments.  Okay, medium to clever idea, execution....meh.

Now on to the rest of the year in summary:

I seem to have blogged approximately 50 or so entries mostly consisting of recipes old and new; Tamale pie, various kinds of dressings, one Turkey.  Ate out at our favorite Italian place a couple of time simply for the New York Steak with Gorgonzola sauce.

I posted lots of pictures of the hospital build.  Grand opening was in April and the move was killer.  Personnel wise our then manager left in February as well as another associate who should never work for a living unless the fellow associates understand her extreme devotion to time off.  Replacements were two ladies from a temp agency and one transcriptionist I tracked down when everyone went on vacation and I was the only pumpkin on the vine obviously doing only priority stuff for an entire endless week. Ultimately one of the temp ladies moved to Bend and we were able to finally offer probational to permanent status to two of hour associates and part time clerical work to our long time guy who schleps stuff from hospital to various clinics.  (My memory is going to Heck in a Hand basket - I find myself using substitute phrases to describe things such as expediter...no that's not the right word..oh well it will come to me.)

We haven't traveled much unless it is routine shopping in Coos Bay mostly due to gas prices.  Gas finally settled into the $3.25 per gallon range a couple of weeks ago.  I did take one mini vacation in that I spent the weekend in Roseburg with a friend and we went shopping at the mall, the cheapie mall and Costo.  That was fun.
We down the freeway to spend a couple hours at the Casino and for once I left TWENTY CENTS to the good. 

My book collection grows.  I am at 3000 books and counting.  Carla drove down to bring me Mom's quilt that Grandma Lattimer pieced for her for her birthday 09-07-26, I had ordered a special acid proof box and and acid free paper to preserve the textiles and it will wait to be owned by a descent who loves quilts.   Carla also brought several boxes of beautiful books that mostly sit on the old school bench that Mom kept her African Violets on for years.

This summer was a financial adventure..sort of.  Husband insisted that we get the mortgage refinanced from 7% to 3. what ever.  I agreed somewhat reluctantly because I felt that if the fiscal cliff resulted in the loss of the deduction for mortgage interest we were pretty much doomed.   So away we went to visit the bank and go through the application process, signed tons of paper work and waited for the assessor to come inspect and make recommendations. And the bank lady calculated we would have a mortgage about 92K at 3. sumpin sumpin.  Depressing.

In the mean time we had contacted a contractor to come fix the sun room and paint the house.  Um, I had withdrawn an amount from savings that very closely matched their quote for work and away we went.  Very nice crew, they demolished the rotten bits, hammered and sawed the replacement bits, painted the rest of the house in what turned out to be a BLINDING WHITE.  I made sandwiches for the crew every day they were there. I must say the Italian meatball subs were wonderful. 

While all of this was going on, we developed a leak in the plumbing.  It was not a fill the basement type leak but it was significant.  So several plumbers came out to assess and we wound up being without water for about a week, we actually stayed in a local no tell motel a couple of nights.  Running water is one of my favorite modern conveniences.    Plumbers replaced the interior major pipes and stacks and told us to flush very carefully and that they would send another crew with heavy equipment to dig up the outside the house connection to the sewer main in the street.  Really??  Yeah.  That took a couple more days with gigantic hole in lawn and street. 

THEN, we got up one morning and the hot water wasn't.  Great neither one of wanted to mess with changing elements on a ten year old water heater so we called the family plumber to come replace the thing.

Also I would get the occasional phone call from the bank wanting to know when were going to finish the repairs called for by the inspector person who had recommended that we do ANOTHER THIRTY THOUSAND dollars worth of work; windows, and so on. I told the nice lady how much we had spent so far and she gulped sympathetically and allowed that the bank could not finance that much the house didn't have that much equity or what ever magic financial calculation determines those kinds of decisions. Bye! Bye!

So I told the nice lady at the bank, thanks but no thanks, we cannot afford to refinance.  Yah! That means that we will either live here forever, sell it as is or will it to my descendants who will STILL have trouble selling a house built in 1929.  Oy.

We maxed out the plastic to pay the various bills for services rendered.  That stung. 

And one last build item...the gutters...a nice outfit came and replaced the current gutters and added gutters to the front porch for under a two hundred dollar bill.

Oh wait I am not quite finished.  My friend came to visit and I had to back out for her to follow me to work because it was dark and she is direction challenged.  I backed out right into my neighbors very large black truck and scraped and dented the back panel. Safeco stepped in to tune of 650 bucks and fixed it.   I am getting dangerous and spendy.

One last comment on Senior Moments.  Husband and I were shopping at Freddy's and he was trying to remember a specific product.

"What is the same of that stuff you told me your sister uses?"

"What stuff?"

"Oh that stuff you take in a capsule that regulates your bowels."

"Oh jeez I don't remember, maybe we should get some of that memory stuff, too."

A nearby shopper then muttered, "That doesn't work".

Giggle.

"Oh you mean probiotics!"

"Yeah, here's a bunch but they don't have it in capsules, like I want."

"Well you can always order on Drugstore.com"

"Yeah, lets go to lunch."


Merry Christmas every body!  I am truly thankful for the good stuff that happened this year.

Fruit cake

Before

After.

This years fruit cake consists of candied cherries green and red, candied pineapple, dried apples, dried cherries, raisins soaked in Balsamic vinegar, walnuts, cashews, eggs, flour, sugar and vanilla.
It turned out pretty nice. There is just enough batter to coat the fruits and nuts.   Time for a nap.

Prepping for the Holidays

While I have a small fascination watching "Prepper" for Armageddon, world financial catastrophe, a series of F-5 tornadoes, world wide pandemic, melting of the Iceland ice caps, nuclear strikes, oil shortages and terrorist attack via the American infrastructure, there really ought to be a show called "Holiday Preppers".  Oh, wait that was Martha Stewart.

Okay, feeling much better about that now.   I purchased eight smallish cans of sweetened condense milk, coaxed off the labels, inserted them in plastic sandwich bags and gently dunked them in a water bath (crock pot) for ten hours.  The sandwich bags are to preclude rusting and making nasty rust marks inside the crock pot.  This makes the most glorious Dulce De Leche, which can be opened, eaten with a spoon, glopped over ice cream, used as icing on a cake, go be creative it is delicious. I shall create some labels and present them as gifts to my associates at work.  Yes, associates is the politically correct term, just like Waltz-Mart.  Meh....

Next project perhaps later today, Fruit Cake. Not your traditional fruit cake but  free wheeling think outside the recipe version.  I have collected a variety of dried fruit, nuts, candied cherries and pineapple as well as some raisins that I have soaking in very ancient Balsamic Vinegar.  I have eschewed brandy this year. 

I will take a picture and post.  Be pleased I am NOT mailing them to ANYone I love and cherish.

The freezer was delivered

 

 

 

The freezer got delivered today, it has a light and the delivery man had to um, remodel, the wall plug.  But it works. It is about a foot shorter than the old one but seems very roomy on the inside.  I think we can hold off on storing up quite so much bread, bagels and such.

 



 

This the motorized hand truck the delivery man used this to drag the freezer inside.  It was cool, the little motor on the bottom has a chain apparatus with little feet on them that raise the whole thing up a couple inches to get over the edge of the bottom of the door.  Cool.  

Oh and the freezer works very well.  Yay!!

Town Home Obituaries

I posted this picture thinking I might change my profile pic...
nope, this coy little number was my attempt at looking wryly skeptical about some deep thoughts.  Deep thoughts to follow:

I went to Messenger Index web site, perused the obituaries when a name caught my eye. Danny Green was listed, it is always a shock to see one's contemporaries thusly, the thinking there but for grace...etc.etc. Anyway I had not thought of Danny Green or Tom and May for decades. 

For those of you who may have forgotten, at one time the Green's and Berglund's were part of a very social circle of working family's more or less loosely involved with the Idaho Power Company. 

The Greens had two kids to play with so we sort of considered them poor because there was such poor pickin's for playmates.
Pat was a couple years older and sneered at the thought of associating with the little kids.  Danny just joined in and bossed everyone around because he was maybe a couple months older than me.

I have never told anyone this, but I got him in trouble at school once. It was 6th grade of so at Parkview Junior High school.  It was during lunch and he got into some fisticuffs with another boy and I ran to the school office and snitched on him.  The appropriate authorities dragged themselves outside to break it up.  By then most of the participants had scurried off.  Mr. Green did not thank me for interference.   Hmph.

Then everyone grew up and went their separate ways.  He is survived by his sister, Pat, his mother May and his wife, four children, a bunch of grandchildren and step-grandchildren.

Fare thee well, Danny L. Green.

Dead Freezer

The freezer is dead, long live the freezer, sob, sob, sob.

Another major appliance bites the dust in the household.

Got several calls at work from husband declaring imminent death of the freezer, what are we going to do on a Sunday, not only a Sunday but Black. Friday. Sunday. Weekend.  !!!!

Okay call around. 

The only place open is Sears who are booked solid for delivery until next Friday.  Can we fit a small freezer in the back of the van?

Um, not really.

Um, okay, wait until I get home we will save what we can.

Got off at 3 pm, started examining the alarmingly softening contents.  Went directly to refrigerator and jerked out everything to make room for several pounds of butter, and some boxed frozen things until packed completely full.

Pulled out several bags of frozen fruit, allowed them to thaw.
Dragged out the picnic cooler and put in the freezer bag things with some other semi-frozen goodies.

Pulled out several packages of bagels, well out dated, not worth saving.  Pulled out items that can actually survive nicely on a shelf,they were just taking up freezer space.

Net loss, lots of well aged freezer burned bread.  Am currently creating more croutons for dressing by drying three loaves of bread in the oven.  

I pulled all of the dried fruit and nuts I have on hand and put them all in a nice container. From this I will make several loaves of Christmas Fruit Cake.   It's all good.

Husband will call a local appliance store tomorrow and depending on whether the local guys are willing to haul off the empty freezer, we will be freezing sometime tomorrow afternoon.  Oy!

I am eyeing suspiciously anything electrical that may suddenly become the halt and the lame.  Wait...there's nothing left!!  Um, is that a good thing or a bad thing? 

One good thing, you should clean out your frost free freezer once each time the appliance dies on you.  Meh...

Thanksgiving dinner and how it evolved (personal)

Thanksgiving has long been my favorite holiday.  As a kid it was a four day holiday from school. Invariably we would have dinner at either of the grandparents homes or maybe both.  The gatherings consisted of a gathering of aunts, uncles and cousins.  We cousins would play marathon games of Monopoly.  We dined at the kids table and giggled and choked our way merrily through dinner.

My absolute best remembered Thanksgiving was way WAY back in 1963. I remember the date because Kennedy had been assassinated and the folks and kids had all moved to Westwood California following one of Dad's jobs. I had stayed home to continue school and was moping around Grandma's house when some old family friends showed up to drive me to Westwood.
So off we went,  I was all of fifteen or so then and had my driver's license, quite unused don't you know. I cheerfully offered to help drive.  I was very politely refused. Armed with the address from one of Mom's letters we tracked down the house, their presence confirmed by the blue van vehicle parked outside.  I knocked on the door and Mom's eyes bugged out and she shrieked,"What are you doing here?!"  The friends drove to Susanville to visit some of their relatives and the next four days were mine.  My brother and I got into a tussle over a piece of pumpkin pie which landed on the floor.  We didn't care, we ate it anyway.

Today's menu and story as follows:

Turkey.   My place of employment (thank you Mr.Z!) hands out certificates for turkeys and they usually run about 10 to12 pounds.  Mine is nicely thawed and will go into the oven stuffed with whole lemon, whole orange and lots of whole garlic.  I will use the dripping for gravy, will slice up the orange and lemon yumm.  Darn I forgot to purchase Rosemary.

Dressing:  Using some of last years frozen turkey broth, grilled onions, garlic, celery, salt, pepper, sprinkle red pepper flake. Mix well with bag of croutons, add couple of eggs, pat into baking dish, bake at 350 for 45 minutes or so.,

Golden Potatoe Casserole:  4 to 6 whole potatoes, boiled, cooled, shredded.  Two cups sour cream, two cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese, chopped green onions, salt, pepper,1/4 cup butter.  Mix well, pour into bowl, pat down, top with 1 cup buttered bread crumbs 45 minutes 350. This is decadent.

Cranberry Orange Jello Salad with walnuts and celery:  This is a recipe that is either well received or heartily hated.  Generations of my family have eaten this, well since Jello was invented.  Mom's preparation method involved grinding the cranberries in one of those metal food grinders which was clamped onto a large breadboad upon which one of the larger children would sit to hold the whole thing in place.  Since the fruit was very juicy and dripped down the apparatus, another child would be given the job of holding a container to catch the dripping juice.  It was quite an ordeal. My method involves a blender, grind up orange and cranberrys, use juice to prepare jello (black cherry, which is fast becoming a rare commodity to purchase), chop walnuts, chop celery. Go back one step macerate berries in one cup sugar.  Sets up nicely, use only half the liquid called for in the jello instructions.

Pumpkin pie:   Okay this recipe has been in the family since my Grandmother Horn received a Home Comfort wood cooking stove many years ago. The pie recipe came in a small cookbook that accompanied the range. That cookbook now resides with my sister as a treasured family heirloom.  The original recipe called for one tablespoon of melted butter.  It was left out several decades ago and has not harmed the pie at all.  Recipe is simple; pumpkin, sugar, milk,eggs, cinnamon and allspice.  The crust is another story altogether. Grandma Horn had a very light hand with pie crust made of lard, flour, dab of water and there you go.  Her cholesterol was well within normal limits and I thankfully have inherited the same trait. My pie crust is the peel and stick kind, love it! OH yeah I forgot, Cool Whip is optional.

Crescent rolls:  Hmm, more peel and stick, follow directions on can.  Easy peasy.

Condiments:  Green tomatoe pickles (I have raved about these before), black olives, celery maybe.

Activities:  Maybe watch the parade and snooze between fits and starts of cooking. If there is a football game on I may snooze through that.  Drive/walk/fly/hop/skip/jump carefully

Thanks:  I am very thankful for the blessings of the land. I am thankful for my family extended though they may be.  I am thankful to be gainfully employed and in reasonable good health for the shape I am in.  Bless you all!



 

French toast croissant

Ahhh, Saturday morning, a lazy day to drag out the on sale frozen croissant and a bag of out dated frozen strawberries for Croissant Pan Purdue with Strawberry compote.  Mmmmmmm.

It wasn't exactly a Chopped episode but the croissant slices nicely when frozen and since they have a great whacking amount of butter in them they brown nicely in a hot pan.  Um, the extra butter on top is purely for over kill.

I dumped the icky strawberries in a sauce pan, added three packets of Splenda and let it boil merrily away.

It was delicious!

The rest of the croissanst will feature as part of tuna salad sandwiches. I use a can of water packed albacore, one chopped apple, scant handful of chopped walnuts, half chopped onion, couple tablespoons of Mayo, couple squirts creamy horseradish and spread it on.  Not bad at all.  Of course Tuna can be substituted or if you wish vegan, leave it out and add another crunchy veg.

Bon Appetite!
 

The passing of an era and other food memories

I, personally, have not been overly affected by the closing of Hostess due to finance/labor/etc troubles.  I always found the Twinkies to be a bit bland and such commercial goodies were never much available at our house as dinner consisted of meat, potatoes and dessert.  No Twinkies.

However, husband saw the news and immediately went to the store and purchased 10 blackberry pies (hand size?) and he got me some chocolate sumpin' sumpin'.  He would eat the blackberry pies as a youth for a Sabbath treat.  Now his mother would have prepared the traditional blackberry cobbler but there was just something about this forbidden snack that appealed to his blackberry starved soul.   He mused that he would freeze them and savor them on a yearly basis.  According to the news, Hostess may have been sold off to the money brokers of Wall Street but some of the brands may mysteriously reappear on the market in the future.  We plan to use a box of the Hostess cupcakes as a gag gift at the auction at the next Christmas party and see if there is a lot of turn over before it is finally claimed. 

Since I am remembering other food memories, it was not that unusual for Dad to announce to all to get in the car, we're going for a drive.  This usually involved getting a gallon of root beer in a jug, a dozen maple bars and a couple cans of Vienna sausage.  Thus stocked, we would drive the bench, the valley and Mom and Dad would argue about who lived where and then that school was closed and what Power line Dad may have worked on for the Power company.  Pure boredom for us ravenous omnivores sitting the back seats (station wagon, lots of kids).  Occasionally if the finances were riding more generously Dad would pick up an oven roasted chicken and we might even have been let out of the car at a park to consume the food and being thorough little omnivores even cracked and chewed the well baked chicken bones. 

As a final aside, to this day I do not particularly care for root beer, maples bars or Vienna sausage.  ......

Ooh shiny new gutters

The gutters guys came today to install new gutters front,back and all around the front "porch".  Theoretically this will keep the rain out of the basement unless we have a tsunami, then all bets are off.
 

Chrismas Cactus

Just started blooming this week, very pretty.  It is more of a succulent and looks cactus-like with those spiky things but they were soft, not thorns.  Grandma Horn had one like this.

She kept a garden and I loved her sun hat, I found one almost like it, huge round brim, small cap, strings to tie beneath ones chin.

There was a gooseberry bush that grew on top of the root cellar and if I begged her for a gooseberry pie, she would let me go pick enough berries to make a pie. She would then shudder when ever I took a bite.  She apparently did not like gooseberry.  She also indulged me a young beggar to eat way more cherry pie than I should have with disastrous gastrointestinal results. Haven't liked cherry pie since. Ah me.....

Mockingbird Lane Review..LOVED the show.

REVIEW 'JACKED FROM BIG SHINY ROBOT BLOG:

I’ll be completely honest, when I first heard about a Munsters reboot, I was pretty dubious, especially since they were going to take the series in a much darker direction. Then I learned that Eddie Izzard was not only cast as Grandpa Munster, but he was completely behind and in support of the project, and that definitely piqued my interest — which waned again upon learning that Jerry O’Connell was to play the lead of Herman Munster. Finally, it was announced that NBC decided not to option the show and were only going to air the pilot as a special in front of a Halloween episode of Grimm. Needless to say, I approached the airing of Mockingbird Lane with a lot of apprehension, not only because I was on the fence as to whether it was going to be good or not, but mainly because if it WAS good, there weren’t going to be any more episodes. Well, this emotional roller coaster finished with my latter fear being fulfilled, and I am rather sad that it is very unlikely we are going to see any more episodes of this wonderful show that really captured the comedic elements of the original, all the while updating it for a modern audience.

As Mockingbird Lane begins, we see a Boy Scout type group of young boys camping in the woods, when they get attacked by a werewolf who we soon learn is young Eddie Munster (Mason Cook) who wakes up in the bushes not knowing what has happened. Days later, in a hope to hide Eddie from the reality of what he is becoming, Marilyn Munster (Charity Wakefield) buys a decrepit house on 1313 Mockingbird Lane (the home of the hobo serial killer, whose victims are still buried inside the walls of the house). As the family settles in, it becomes apparent that Herman and Lily Munster (Jerry O’Connell and Portia de Rossi) are at odds with Grandpa Munster (Eddie Izzard) regarding how they should inform Eddie about the changes he is going through, with Grandpa insisting on telling him the truth, and Herman and Lily wanting to keep him in the dark in order to retain his innocence for a little bit longer. Not to mention that Herman’s (very much the Frankenstein’s monster as in the original) heart is starting to give out, and Grandpa’s idea to fix this problem involves Eddie’s new scout master, who is not only a match for Herman, but also a future tasty morsel for himself as he has decided to start ‘drinking again’. The episode ends with Eddie coming to terms with being a werewolf, being given a pet dragon to watch over him, and a sense of disappointment knowing that we probably won’t see any more of what could have been a really fun and excellent series.
Mockingbird Lane is VERY much the Eddie Izzard show, as he is given the best lines, and definitely comes across as the main character. Anyone who is a fan of his stand up should be familiar with his sarcastic and pitch perfect timing in delivering his one liners, and he delivers here in spades. The rest of the characters are fun and are presented well, and, thankfully, Jerry O’Connell has a muted presence and, ironically, seems very human, in his role.
The writing is sharp and witty with plenty of quotable sound bytes you’ll find yourself repeating days later, the special effects, while nothing spectacular, are pretty good for a basic TV series, and Bryan Singer does a fine job of directing. In short, this show is really fun, interesting and a hell of a lot better than a lot of the crap the networks have spewed out so far this season, so it’s really frustrating that this pilot might be all we ever get to see, as the writers and actors should be given a chance to see where they can go with these characters and story. I have heard that there is a slight chance that the network execs might decide to give the show a second life if the ratings for the one-shot are good, but I’m not putting much faith in that.
Instead, I will very happily visit my DVR every so often to watch what could be a great series, and hope that NBC sells off the rights to SyFy or FX and we get the continuation of the misadventures of what should be America’s new favorite creepy neighbors.

Very odd colorful dream, eesh.

MALL PRINCESS DREAM:

I woke from the most colorful busy dream last night.

I was walking in a largish city that looked familiar. I crossed the road at a green light and avoided traffic as much as possible.

I finally came to a mall, it was very large and again looked familiar. Inside I walked to a food court/entertainment center. I purchased my Chinese dinner (General Tsoa) and sat in a largish booth along with 8 or 9 other diners.

Suddenly there was a line of majestically dressed men wearing costumes of brilliant colors like they wear in certain Italian cities on feast days and toss flags in the air before the horse race. They blew their horns to summon other guests from the mall. Many people came to watch the spectacle.

There was a group of a dozen or so ladies dressed in fancy Medieval style, pointed hats, veils, long dresses and long hair.

I seemed to know the young lady playing the part of the Lady Princess. She had been picked out of the audience and was rehearsing her part and she waved merrily at me. She also wore Medieval dress but her necklace was a gorgeous very high choker made of ruby and diamonds and draped down over the front of her gown.

This assemblage went on for some time as we finished our dinners. Eventually the Lord Prince arrived, there was more rehearsal and then I woke up. Very colorful, dunno know what happened.

Now I am compelled to go to the Dream interpretation site and plug in several words for their meanings; Mall, Rehearsal, Royalty, eating. How very odd.

To see a member of royalty in your dream represents spiritual strength, grace, power,extravagance, as well as ruthlessness. Alternatively, royalty represents your desires of dominating and commanding others. (Oooh ruthlessness oh my,not so much the command part. Ew.)

To see a princess in your dream represents the object of your affections or desires.

To dream that you are at the mall represents your attempts in making a favorable impression on someone. You are trying to establish your identity and sense of self. ( I haven't actually been to a real mall in several years, obviously making no attempt to make a favorable impression on anyone.)

To see food in your dream represents physical and emotional nourishment and energies. (go check out some Oriental literature, take up Kung Foo?   Watch Kung Foo Panda again and weep when the old turtle turns into peach blossoms and floats away? ...oh dear so many choices.

Rehearsal – You are making sure that you know exactly what you need to do.  (well work wise I know exactly what I need to do but that requires about a million bucks, am hoping Power Ball hits. Personal wise I am striving mightily to ignore remaining bits that need fixing on the house (gutters, Trane etc) so. There you go. 

  

Plants, cooking, book storage.

The cactus have blossomed briefly this late summer. Very pretty, no discernible scent, however.

Our holly tree is loaded with berries, they are not quite fire engine red but soon they shall attract a traveling band of Robins who while wintering here will strip the tree bare in an afternoon.

I had the urge to bake some chicken, so I did on a bed of chopped onion, quartered new potatoes, sliced of squash and an orange for flavor. The bird and veggies have since been deboned and are in Ye Olde' Tupperware bowl.

OH yes went to a yard sale today. One of my co-workers is moving to Bend and she had a book shelf that fit nicely in a corner of the dining room.

Then I got a call to go to work, the lone transcriptionist is sick with the flu so I went in for a couple of hours.....I still have one very large box of books and one small box of books.  I would estimate there are 1000 books unlogged at present. 
 

Visitor!

My sis came to visit today on her way north to visit Elkton and points north to Seattle.  She brought family treasures for which I shall be the treasure master.

Grandma Latimer hand pieced this flower basket quilt for Mom when she was born.  Mom was born in 1926 so that makes the quilt  86 years old.  Grandma Horn kept the quilt in a chest for years and Mom did the same until she decided she was going to finish the quilt.  She set the turkey red dye in a vinegar rinse, she backed it with cotton and cotton batt filling. I remember she hand quilted the thing using very thick white thread.  I am not certain but she might have done this in the 1980's, just not sure. It has held up well over the years, has never been used and I have on hand an archival box and archival papers to store the quilt in.  I am thrilled to hold this lovely family treasure in trust.  I wonder if I should get it evaluated.  May on Antiques Road Show...nahhh.

Oh the school book bench is part of the treasure trove, Mom and Dad had it for years sitting in the living room. It held plants for the longest time.  Since I have so many books.......

I was also gifted with books and some china. 

Thanks Carlah Dee Dah.....
 

Senior Ciizen Goals

 

 

I have been contemplating the vagaries of aging.  One thing my parents always discussed about their aging and/or dying friends was the comment "He was just a bright as a penny right up to the last minute!"  or something to that effect.  Being clear headed was a valued attribute.  Now a days I find myself wondering if I should start making lists for myself; name, address, phone number. We don't have any history of Alzheimer's in my family so that may not become a problem. However I have noticed an increasing disconnect with the media, for instance,  last night I was watching one of those fashion shows who dish the dresses at the Emmy's.  I

recognized only two people on the panel; one man was on Project Runway and one of the women was a winner of Shear Genius, the other two ladies, no clue.

 

The show covered the gowns, jewelery,hair and make up of many of televisions Emmy nominees.  Guess what?  No idea.  If there were any stars from HGTV, Cooking channel and the odd reality TV show I would have been all over it. 

 

I have been noticing that the only celebrities I recognize at the check out stand by way the magazines are nearly dead ones!

I have NO idea who cheated on who.  Nuthin'.

 

Therefore I would like to Propose that there be a special setting on the cable box for Enhanced Subtitles.  These enhanced subtitles will list the famous persons name, the things they are famous for and to whom they are related.  I would find this highly informative if I ever want to be able to participate in a conversation requiring awareness regarding celebrities.   OR someone could combine THE HISTORY CHANNEL with any Celebrity New Show with enhanced subtitles. 

 

Or I could just stick to reading my very sparkly e-reader.  You know someone in telecommunications needs to figure out how to send out emergency notifications over the G4 networks or what ever number we are up to. Oh, wait!  We have Twiddle, no Twitter.

 



I hab a code in by dose......'choo!

Spent most of the day consuming OJ and tissues.   The usual.  I like to blame the virus of the world. O goodie an immune challenge.
I shall snivel now.

LAST DAY OF BIG DIG.

Done!  New concrete curing, dirt placed back on lawn, hope it kills all of the non-grass species.  Please no more broken ANY thing.

Our neighbor has new shingles on his roof and a new rain gutter over the porch.  Very nice. I must contemplate a new name, perhaps using the Acronym GOW.  C'mon lets here some suggestions. 

DAY TWO big dig

More digging,  everything seems to be hooked up.  Everything flushing nicely.

Putting the dirt back where he found it.

Buttoned up for the day, most holes filled, tomorrow, cement the sidewalk and fix the road.  I pray earnestly that nothing breaks for at least ten years.  Thank you.

Day one of The Big Dig

Husband warned me that I might want to park in back when I came home today.

The plumbers/diggers came today to excavate a deepish hole to locate water and sewer hookup.  That is some nice looking dirt, not a rock to be had.  Since half the lawn is dug up and the other half is buried under some fine dirt, we may consider a little sprinkle of grass seed.

 

Had to go to court today

I had to appear in court today as a witness.   We had dutifully sent off copies of records to the lawyers and all however they released all of the physicians from the case so they were forced to drag in custodians of the records to swear they were the real deal.

Raise yer  right hand....

Do you so swear?

Yes, sir.

Be seated.

Lawyer introduced me, presented the copies of the medical records and asked me if they were the records of name, date of birth etc.

Yes.

Please examine them.

I fluffled through them and commented that I saw records from another hospital mixed in with the Coquille records.

Then an argument developed between the three lawyers and the judge.

Consensus reached, the Court will accept the records from CVH with the records from SCH redacted.

That means they took out the wrong hospitals copies and gave them to the court.

You may be excused. 

Thank you!  (Big cheesy smile)

Um, hospitals do not ordinarily release OTHER Hospitals medical records because they are the property of the other hospital y'see.
Learnt that in HIM101.  Yeppers.

FIRST ANNUAL BLOCK PARTY

Today was the First Annual Block Party.   Which implies there will be one next year. Yeah!  Invite brother from Elkton to pick and grin.   Lets have T-shirts!  Lets have silly contests. Lets do Iron Chef Coquille.  Lets invite all of our friends.  The weather was perfect.   The pickled green tomatoes went over well.  People really liked the crab potato salad.

Didn't have to drag much home.   About 20 to 25 people showed up.  The local constabulary dropped off some traffic cones and yellow barrier tape. 

We met lots of neighbors and chatted, it was nice.  

Look back up at the first picture, the "Grapes of Wrath" house is the red one on the right, chatted with the owner.  Asked him what led him to purchase that property.  He said had been looking for a fixer upper and was attracted by the lot thinking of demolishing the house and putting in a modular home.  The more he looked at it, the more he saw worth saving. They have shingles going up on the roof and it is vastly improved.

Oh and we met Miss Chicken. She is very social, loves hot dog buns and vodka tonic. She even took a little nap by my chair but left when the kids began playing on the water slide and playing hop scotch in the street.

 

Interesting week, crab, halibut and all

Well,well, well!  Look it's Mom's old Sears Catalog oak table that Dad purchased at an auction in the 70's and which she refinished using Homer Formby's refinishing products.  She put new seat covers on the chairs and had Clair Harden  carve a new crossbar foot piece.  The table and chairs have served well as nearly to ceiling vertical filing space for various empty boxes, food stuff and other items. The rebuild of the store room has allowed for most of those goods to be stored in there.  Hazzah!  Played lots of Pinochle and Scrabble games at that table. 

I had commented to my neighbor across the street that with all the neighborly sprucing up we should probably have a block party. It went from there, if you are in the neighborhood, drop in noon to five tomorrow, there will be burgers, bring a side.

I am making three kinds of potato salad; crab, halibut and plain.
We had an HIM student from Bend here this week for directed practice. Her whole family came with, rented a beach house in Coos Bay, she came to work every day and her family took the boat and brought back large amounts of fresh crab and a halibut. She brought in a dozen or so cooked crab, we cried thank you! and I brought home two and I picked out the meat. The halibut was cooked also and I will break up the steaks into one of the other salads.  Should be good weather.  I will take pictures of the "Grapes of Wrath" house. The owner has had a crew putting on a new roof. 
Will report later tomorrow.

I must live in intersting times.

Finally have the last bit shoehorned into the storage wall.   The book case that husband purchased fit perfectly in the corner. We did some re-arranging to make things fit in, have most of the dining room cleaned out.  Will take a picture of that event.   Ooh look an empty spot!!

We have HOT water, the family plumber came by and installed a made-in-America hot water heater and is energy efficient! 

Also had a short term crisis, the heat pump was not pumping heat this morning until husband took a closer look at the electric panel and flipped a circuit.  Heat!!  Warm those toes right up.
 

Got the storage units banged together

That was interesting, fills the space nicely,can now drag more goods up from the basement.  Yay!  And yes I washed my clothes in cold water this morning...at least I have water with which to wash.