Its been a very busy week what with building stuff .....

This is a picture of re-bar and stuff being made part of the foundation for the road that will eventually circle the hospital.

Well there goes the view, they are putting up metal wall studs.

The large opening is probably the second floor access for the emergency room, once the ground is all filled in and leveled up the road will branch to the second floor ER bay as well as the first floor ER elevator. 

This is a picture of the very large boom that is shooting concrete into the forms.  The gentleman in the middle of the picture wearing the white hard hat is also wearing a remote control device hanging from his belly, I admit it looks bad from this angle but there really are two little swivel sticks that direct the cement.

Uh huh that looks suspiciously like wall board. They also boomed concrete on part of the roof today.

And this my friends is my attempt at tomatillo salsa.  One of the OR nurses told me to come sample.  Good stuff!

My version is 6 medium sized tomatillo's chopped, two bunches of scallions, sliced, one smallish jicama sliced and diced, the juice of four limes, tsp chopped garlic, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes.  It would have been better with cilantro but I forgot to purchase some.
Very tart, crunchy and refreshing.  Be sure to get lots of chips.  Tasty!!

MORE BLOSSOMS AND MORE BUILDING

The second cactus blossom bloomed earlier this week.  It only lasted a couple of days, now its all back to desert.

This is part of the facade where the three story atrium will go, it will be glass and stone and first floor is where the cafeteria will be located as well as public bathrooms, seating and stairs and elevator to the second and third floors.

Today the cook made fried chicken, legs, thighs and breast.  Tasted almost as good as Grandma Horn's fried chicken.  We also had mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, biscuits, fresh salad, and fresh fruit salad.  Yummy.

Also this week I cooked a couple of dishes, I was playing what can I cook that I have on hand.  I came up with corn pudding.  I had a couple well aged loaves of french bread in the freezer, two bunches of scallions, 3/4 package of frozen corn, a can of mushroom soup and a variety of spices.  I emulsified the soup with about a pint of buttermilk, and a couple cups of milk, I soaked the bread in that, added four beaten eggs, half cup or so of shredded Parmesan, the chopped scallions, salt, pepper mixed well and baked in oven for about 45 minutes.  Husband gave me a thumbs up but is having a terrible time calling it corn pudding because it looks mostly like stuffing with corn added.  My secret ingredient was of all things a couple pieces of chopped fresh ginger.  Meh.  Next time I will leave it out. 

That same afternoon I noticed some meat in the fridge I had set to thaw and decided to make Swiss Steak.  So I pounded the meat into submission, coated in flour, buttermilk and Italian bread crumbs and fried it.  I then added some canned sliced white potatoes, made a milk gravy sauce, added more pepper, let it simmer for two hours and it turned okay, could have used a little more pounding actually but tasted good.  That's enough cooking for the week.

SUNDAY LUNCH AT WORK

For a few months now we have been blessed at work by a woman who gave up her restaurant business to come cook at the hospital.

No more 14 hour days, and today her shift is Sunday and the menu announced hamburger and fries and dessert.  Yummy, I put my order in early and opted for everything including grilled onion and fresh mushrooms.  Fries.  Heaven.

Dessert was strawberry pound cake with whipped cream.

FIRST:        I did not have to cook it.

SECOND:   I got a wonderfully polite call from the kitchen telling    me that my lunch was ready.

THIRD:      I didn't have to wash the dishes.

FOURTH:  Three bucks.

FIFTH:       Next Sunday she is making fried chicken, with mashed potatoes and gravy....stop I'm drooling here.  I'll take pictures of that, too.  

Several construction type things went on this week...

The cement was poured this week, cured and in honor of the County Fair one of the best carnival rides was the top heavy cement buffer dingus. The guy rode the thing around until he got dizzy and then they took turns.

This was right out the back door by medical records, they started digging out dirt by the bucket load and hauling it out, eventually there will be a connector lane from the up hill parking lot to the lower level. 

This guy was all suited up to spray on the insulation foam onto the steel structure, his hat was very fuzzy. Wish I could get them to come blow some foam into the voids in my house...it is also fireproof.

This is a view out my car window as I waited for a large piece of equipment to move.  This is where they removed the remaining pine trees that were just outside the emergency room entrance.  The trees had to go because eventually there will be a semi circular pick up and drop off drive around on both upper and lower levels. 

PS; Admidst all of this activity the little herd of deer; two does and two fawns picked their way daintly along the upper parking lot looking for greenery.  Eventually wiser heads prevailed and they headed back up into the forest darkness. 

A PETUNIA GROWS IN...THE PARKING LOT

This beautiful little purple petunia seems to have volunteered all by itself near the new sidewalk.   Not much has been done landscaping wise other than to save a few of the mature Rhodie's but here we have mother nature giving her blessing  Either that or some rogue gardener has struck with deadly intention.  We be green!!

Work and more work....

Look carefully, the guys in hunter orange are putting up a fence in order to keep deer from falling down the steep wall or to keep sports minded individuals from repelling down the cliff face.  See, MY plan was to plant black berry bushes all along the top, deer do not particularly like to eat blackberry bushes and neither do mountaineers...er to fall into, that is.

This is a view from the "Front", there has been a tremendous amount of banging of metal on metal, the men are putting re bar down on top of the flooring and tying it in place with pliers and wires.  Lots of stoop labor. 

Very colorful very brief dream

 This morning I woke from a very brief and colorful dream of one of those wing back chairs.

Covered in green plaid fabric. So I decided to consult the dream interpretation site as follows:

Chair

To see a chair in your dream, symbolizes your need to sit down and take time out to contemplate a situation before proceeding. Or you just need to relax. Alternatively, it indicates that your feelings or ideas are being dismissed or cast to the side.

To dream that someone is offering you a chair, suggests that you need to be open to taking and accepting advice. Nope no one was offering me a chair. It was just there.

Hmmm, I don't find that particularly alarming, I LOVE to contemplate situations for proceeding and I LOVE to relax.   Ah........relaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaax.