Brain Dead

This is my brain.  This is my brain after finishing gardening, cooking, hosting and cleaning.  Any questions?

Well, they're going to have to wait.

We made it through and had a really nice party - with extra guests and lots of good conversation and great food.

So - a no plan party plan includes 19 hours of heavy work on the day of the party?  Perhaps I should plan next year.

Next year's plan:

1. Talk DH out of having a party
2. See step 1

Refreshing

It may not look like much, but this is the best drink I've had all day.  It's just Diet Coke with some ice - nothing fancy, no liquors and herbs or fruits to spice it up.

It has just the right amount of fizz in it - cleans the palate without being cloying.  The ice hasn't diluted it, it's just kind of chilled it to the perfect cold temperature.

I put it in one of my summer fun glasses - that's what I call those plastic glasses that you can get, well pretty much anywhere.  I use them in the summer since we carry drinks outside and if we drop them there won't be any broken glass to clean up.   They all have some type of hokey design on them - loud flowers, wild stripes, strangely colored olives.  They're fun.

We started working around 5am this morning - the gardening, the party, the puppy - everything needed attention today.  It's 19 hours later and we've just about finished up for the day.  We're not finished setting up for the party, there's still more gardening to do and the puppy always needs attention.

All of it is going to have to wait, though.  First I'm going to just sit here a moment in front of the fan and enjoy my Diet Coke.

Stressing

We're having a party!  On Friday!  We've invited lots of people!  And they're going to come to the party!  Ack!!!

I should explain.  Every year my DH and I have a party during our town's July 4th fireman's parade.  It goes right past our front door.  We stand out on the front lawn and cheer them on.  They are volunteer firemen - they deserve cheers.

We send out invitations in May.  It's a large party and requires a lot of planning and coordinating and time to pull it off.

This year, because we are so involved in the Garden Club's tour, we decided to NOT have a party.  We sent no invitations.  We did no preparation.  There was no planning.

Last night, my DH decided that we should go ahead and have the party.  We sent out invitations.  People responded - they are coming.  In 2 days.

I get that this is his favorite event of the year.  I get that people look forward to our party and they have a great time.  I fully understand all of this.

But this gives me only 2 days to put the party together.  Yikes!

Step 1 - Menu

  Hot Dogs
  Potato Salad (homemade)
  Baked Beans (homemade)
  Chips
  Brownies (homemade)
  Ice Tea
  Lemonade
  Beer

I think I must have been temporarily insane when I agreed...

Top of the Mountain

Somehow during the course of my day, I ended up at the top of a little mountain overlooking grazing horses.  Today started out rather normally for a week spent gardening.  I weeded.  Then I weeded some more.  Then I planted some plants.  Pretty normal.

But then there were errands to run and charity events to attend to - and during the course of that, I ended up at the top of the little mountain watching the horses.  They're very friendly and did not mind sharing their space at all - as long as I stayed up at the top and they stayed down in their plateau pasture space.

Unfortunately for all of us, I had to come down from the mountain - and pass through their space.

Let's just say that there are no pictures of what was a very fast event in my life.

All is forgiven, though, and I think we can still be friends. (I bribed them with treats...)

So the lesson for the day apparently is - if you're going to weed in the garden, make sure you leave some wild carrots and clover that you dug up in one of your pockets so if you end up at the top of a mountain, you'll be able to get back to your truck.

Tomorrow I'm staying home.

Light and Dark

I was sitting on the porch of the carriage house this morning, just looking at the church across the way and I thought how interesting it was that the church was like this beacon of brightness and "nature" was  all dark and looming.

Then I thought about the conversion of Europe to Christianity from naturalist beliefs and how the church used the contrast of dark and light, turning light into goodness and dark into evil.

Then I thought about the Egyptians and how they also switched from a night worshipping society to light, worshipping Ra.

Then I thought that I was spending way too much time thinking about early religions and their effect on societies.

But then I thought that these things should be thought about and contemplated. And that there was no better place to do this than sitting on the porch of the carriage house where symbols of both were right in front of me.

Then I realized something...

I was really just avoiding doing more weeding in the garden.

Color Scheme

We finally got the annual flowers in for the gardens.  This year I'm going for reds to golds to yellows for the main color accents as you come through our bucolic manor.

In a way it seems really late to be putting in the annuals - I feel as though we should have had them done weeks ago and I really feel a bit behind the gun on getting everything done for the tours in July.  But when I stop to think about it, it's not really late at all - it's actually exactly on time.

Our last "killing frost" was only 3 weeks ago even though it has been really warm for the most part.  A lot of our friends lost their early plantings.  And our late frost date was only 11 days ago.  So it's not really that late.

At least that's what I'm going to keep reminding myself.

This weekend is going to be a major planting time.  I think if I can get the south drive planted and the rest of the vegetables in I'll be pretty happy.  My DH will be dealing with the new beds - which is only right and proper since he's going to have to break ground and spend quality time with the tiller to make it happen.

But everything is here and ready to go.  It seems like a lot of plants to put in, but I know that they will all just blend into the perennials as soon as they are in the ground.

I'm going to hope for gentle evening rains and warm sunny days for the next 6 weeks before the tours start.  Just enough so we don't have to water and the flowers start popping out all over the place.

6 weeks.  Plenty of time.

Right...

It's An Honor Just To Be Nominated

My friend pointed out that I have been nominated for the Bloggers Choice Awards in the categories of Best Blog About Stuff, Best Food Blog (they must not have tried the chili!), Best Hobby Blog and Best Humor Blog.  I'd love for you to vote for my site - if you think it's worthy - if not, you can vote for other worthy sites!

Cool!



Thank you and Happy Valentine's Day!

Quit While You're Ahead

Basking in the glow of my disastrous marmalade escapade, I decided that nothing would help me lick my wounds better than a nice bowl of chili.  I should have known better.

I couldn't find my mom's recipe, but I had made it 100s of times.  I had to know the basics and since I wasn't going for anything fancy, I thought I'd just dive right in.  How hard could it be?

Just sauté up some chopped onions in a little olive oil.  Smells good.  I am on the right track.

Add in some spices.  Salt, pepper, chili powder, garlic.  I'm feeling the recipe coming back to me like it was yesterday.

Toss in the ground beef and brown it nicely.  That looks good!

Add in the tomato.  Lots of tomato makes for lots of chili.  2 big cans should do the trick.

And we can't forget the kidney beans.  It wouldn't be mom's chili without the kidney beans.  But it looks a little soupy.  I was holding back on this, but I think it needs one more thing...

Tomato paste.  A whole can of tomato paste should thicken it right up. (Where were you to stop me!?)

Left to simmer on the stove until it was nice and hot.  My version of chili.  Doesn't it look cute with its' little dollop of sour cream?  It must be good!

Nope! Nasty!!! I''ve done it again.  This time it is edible - just barely.  It tastes like tomato paste with meat and vegetables throw in for texture.  Even adding more spices doesn't make a dent in the thick tomato goo that I thought would be chili.

Kill me now, I've made enough for a week.  It's not nasty enough to throw away.  I can't feed tomato to my pup.  My Dear Honey won't eat it - he laughed so much he dropped his spoon.

It's awful.

I should have quit while I was ahead - or in this case, while I was behind.  2 recipes.  2 strikes.  I think I'll make oatmeal for awhile just until I get out of this slump.  It happens sometimes.  Must be the full moon or something.  I'll just have to wait it out.

In the meantime, I have some chili to "enjoy".

Ewww.

Back It Up

I should have known better.  There is over 47 gigabytes of data on my computer and none of it is backed up.  That is 20,614,200 pages of information and none of it is backed up.

This past Thursday my power adapter died.  By Friday night I had entered the realm of "stealth computing"!  Figure out what you want to do.  Power up.   Type as fast a possible.  Power down.

I was 21 minutes away from total power loss.  21 minutes away from losing access to all of my data.  21 minutes away from digital death.

Had I backed up my data, I would not have had to shell out massive amounts of time and money to get my power problem fixed.  I could have just switched over to another computer.  If only I had backed it up.

So a word of caution to all.  Back up your data.  In a form that you can get to if you computer dies.  You'll be so happy you did.

Chocolate Inspirations

Perhaps I should file this under "what was I thinking", but here is what I have gotten myself into.  This Friday I am going to a - I guess I'll call it a pot luck dinner.  I'm bringing dessert.

I have no idea who likes what, who is allergic to what or what any of the rest of the meal will be.  I just know I have to bring dessert.

Stupidly, I said I would bring something chocolate.  At first I thought - chocolate! so easy! But then I really thought about it.  Cakes take a lot of time to decorate.  Cupcakes - same as cake. Pie - too Fall/Winter for pie, especially chocolate pie.  Ack! Argh! Wahhhh!

So I surfed for inspiration and here's what I came up with.

Chocolate dipped dried apricots with almonds.  Simple, 3 ingredients, 15 minutes.

Cocoa meringues.  Simple, 5 ingredients, 10 minutes - then 2 hours cooking, but really only 10 minutes.

Pound cake petits fours. Simple, 2 ingredients, 15 minutes.

Chocolate with crushed pistachios. Simple, 2 ingredients, 15 minutes.

So here's the plan.  I got all the ingredients from the store tonight.  Tomorrow I'll spend an hour putting it all together.  Then I'll just pop the goodies into some cupcake foils and toss them in the freezer.  On Friday, I'll rush home from the train, grab the stuff from the freezer, toss half into a bag, toss the other half into baking boxes for take-home treats, toss it all in another bag and drive like a mad woman to the pot luck.

I'll only be an hour late to the dinner, but since I've got the dessert, it won't matter so much.

Good plan, right?

What was I thinking!?

Hitting the Roof!

A little explanation here.  We have a watering tank on the back of our truck to water the town plants during the year.  Normally we would be watering into the beginning of November and then remove the tank, cleaning it out and storing it over the winter.  Since we got an early snowfall, we were unable to take the tank off and put it into storage - we'll have to wait for the snow to melt before we can do that.

So - we had a seminar over in Poughkeepsie after work.  And you don't park on the street in Poughkeepsie.  There just aren't any parking spaces.  So you have to park in a parking garage.  A low ceilinged parking garage. 

The ceiling clearance was 6'6".  Our truck with the tank is 6'2".  I thought I would be stuck - fer sure!  Needless to say, I drove extremely slow and avoided all bumps in the parking garage.  Whew!  What was I thinking!?