Trying to make plans

I know,I know--"man plans, God laughs".

 Cathy, when is Sandy's baby due and are there any shower type events planned, that I might be able to contribute to, even in spirit?

I would like to see the FAN show when it's in Neepawa, which means within the next two weeks.  When does it go up?  A little bird told me that the beads are falling off one of my pieces, so, if there is a chance, I could maybe take five minutes with a needle and thread.

I would, also, love to be able to pick up some poultry while I'm there, if at all possible.

 Perhaps there might even be a chance to visit with my sister for a bit--maybe over lunch at that little bistro you recommended, last time I was up?  Maybe even deliver the horse race game.

And I want to do it all in one day, during daylight hours.  Wadda y'all think?

Family

Sometimes it is so nice to know that even though we all have our disappointments and regrets in life we are all still silly. It is great to know that there are others in the world that take pleasure in enjoying the possibilities and "what ifs" in life.  Wouldn't it be awful to "grow up" and not enjoy imagination anymore.  I may grow old, but I will never grow up.

Planning my visit already

As long as one "makes plans" I hope it counts!  I can't wait to visit and of course, use my Owl mug. I logged on to get Lottery numbers and was so thrilled to see your message and picture of the threesome sitting nicely on your counter. Will there be a special spot for Cousin Faith to wait until my arrival -whenever and however long it may take?  I agree, this is lots of fun!!!

More silliness--

Did you know that Spirit, Faith and Joy have some remote cousins?  And that they are identical triplets?  I ran into them at the grocery store yesterday and invited them home with me.  A couple of them are quite interested in visiting with their cousins, but ask that you come and pick them up as they aren't used to travelling alone.

It is complete then....

The Fellowship of the Owl is now complete. It certainly is a special feeling for me and by all accounts from your messages, you two agree!  I took a moment to come inside to check for messages - we have been tracking the box through Canada Post and knew it should be in your little hands today Cathy. I shouldn't say "it" though and I'm glad you referred to her as "she". Pati told me there would be no doubt- just like her sisters. Wonderful feelings for me - enough to keep my "Spirits" up  hahahaha Take care

Spirit

A wonderful name, Cathy!  There is love from both of us within her.

She Arrived!

Thank you so much.   I feel like I belong to a very exclusive club.  I want to have the right name, so I am still thinking.   Her name is Spirit.  It has lots of meaning within the one word.  I am so looking forward to a reunion of the  "3 sisters"  (In more ways than one!)

No pancakes with apple syrup for me today....

....but thanks for the encouraging comments. I reboiled the juice and added another certo and I have rock hard jelly now. No happy middle consistency I guess.  Also made a big batch of hot pepper pickles for Harry. Then headed outside to start cleanup. Gorgeous day - just like summer although I guess in this case, the summer we didn't have!  If all goes well, I should be able to go outside again tomorrow but I have to watch not to do too much. I really notice my diminishing tolerance levels of exertion - can't because I'm getting older ?? haha. I can only do what I can do, Take care

Think of it as a U -turn

It's not thick juice....It's apple pancake syrup!  (been there... done that)

Very,very nice....

...it looks wonderful and very bright, and as you said, "pops" !  You will be so glad to be done with all the work. And be able to take a book, and sit on your new, and somewhat higher throne, and no more trips downstairs in the middle of the night! What ever will you do with no more such excitement?
Ever have one of those days/few days/weeks when it seems nothing will go right?  There is an inspirational saying that reads When nothing goes right, go left.  Maybe I should be going left? haha Anyway, I shall keep on keeping on and see where it takes me.
Today we went to Midland to the Auction/Antique Store. Harry had some things to pick up from the auction that ended Sunday - he has been buying coins etc. While he does his business with owners, I wonder around and look at all the many vendors and their stuff. I have had my eye on a Tim Horton's coffee tin. It is the first edition numbered 001. I have 002, and 004 and use them in the kitchen, but can't quite justify buying this one empty only because it is the first one. So I make a game out of seeing if it is still there every time we go.  There is one vendor selling the white Pyrex mugs with flowered edging at the top for $5.00 each. I see the same mugs in Habitat ReStore for $1.00 each --go figure!
Yesterday I made two batches of Apple jelly and one batch (five jars) did not harden so tomorrow I will try to reheat it, add some more certo and hope it will set. If not I'll have five jars of very thick, very sweet juice to drink. (Is this called going left??)  Take care

Bathroom floor

Everything is finished.  The floor is better than I had expected.  It has a slightly rough surface so as to minimize slipping, but even more, the colour brings out the coloured tile and makes the whole room "pop".  I am very pleased, as I was unsure about the pattern, having been forced to pick from a very limited selection.  This picture is before I added the white shower curtain and bath mat.

Just your average day---

Up at the crack of dawn ( not really but we did have to set an alarm),  hurry through breakfast ( good thing it's Monday and the newspaper is so thin), and get dressed  ( Say What?  dressed before noon!!)and wait for the construction person to arrive.  Some fuss about the size of the board for the floor, and he had to have someone pick him up and drive him somewhere else to replace it.  He and David were outside while the board was cut to fit, and had quite a conversation.  Turned out that the young fellow, readily admitting to a mis-spent youth, recognized the smell coming from next door as belonging to a grow-op.  A little more conversation, attempts to discuss everything further with the other neighbour who has been concerned about this for almost a year, sneaking into the yard next door, ( since when do they have a lock on their gate?) and taking pictures of the contents of their garbage bin with a cell phone.  The young fellow ended up calling the authorities, and leaving his information rather than ours. That part of the day finished.

My friend Shirley phoned and invited me over for coffee.  Taking the opportunity to go by Walmart on my way over, I was in line to check out when the cell phone rang.  David was reacting to the glue being used in the bathroom and had to get out of the house.  So home, and thinking up a couple of errands he could run, while I sit in the house and breathe fumes.  Called and alerted poor Shirley and we were able to re=schedule for Wednesday.

So it is now 2:20.  The young fellow should be finished in the bathroom in about half an hour.  Then we will have to open the windows, put on all of the fans, and desert the house for the rest of the day.

And I had hoped to spend my day quilting!  But I did get my Quilting Arts Magazine in the mail today, and that is a joy.

Lots of work for you...

Your bathroom, and your class. But most of all I feel for you and your trips down those stairs. Even I have trouble now going up and down, and when everything seems to be "in the basement somewhere" it becomes a regular event.  Pumped water during night and so I too had almost no sleep. There is so much to do outside to get ready for winter, but the weather has been freezing, or rainy, or a combination of both. This week they predict some sunny days so here's hoping I can get out. Today I have tomatoes to do, and they are dwindling, but still cover most of two card table in front room. Yesterday I made a batch of banana muffins to get rid of ripe banana but mostly to sooth my soul haha I love these muffins - so good.
I must ask about the duvet in the freezer Pati. I expect it is to prepare the down feathers to be warm? I just put on my duvets yesterday after freezing a few nights, but I have never put them in freezer - please tell me more. Although having said that, i would never have room anyway!
Well, time for my second coffee, and then the day begins. Take care

"Tis done!

Today I taught a mixed media class to members of the local art club.  I joined this club to learn from these artists, and sure never thought that I would ever be able to teach them anything.  The class went well. I worried that there were slow sections, but the feedback was that it was well paced.  I have had problems in the past trying to include too much in my classes.

I have spent a lot of time and energy over the past few weeks preparing for the class.  It is the last thing I have scheduled before my surgery next month.

The bathroom renovations however, went South quite quickly.  They were to be completed in a few hour on Thursday.  The plumber had arrived Wednesday to remove the toilet and the make repairs to the problem that necessitated replacing the entire floor, and that was done.  However the sub-floor proved wetter than anticipated.  Lots of urgent phone calls and a re-visit from the original project estimator.  The small bit of mold we had has been treated chemically,and we have had industrial fans going in the bathroom since Thursday afternoon. We expect the flooring fellow back on Monday, and I believe he'll be here, as he left all of his tools in my spare bedroom.  We were then told that the plumber would be back Wednesday to install the new toilet.  David raised a little hell, and we have a tentative appointment with the plumber for Tuesday morning, provided the flooring is finished.  We are lulled to sleep by the sound of the two industrial fans in the next room.

This all means that the only toilet we have is off my studio in the basement, and when I need to use it, day or night, I have to get down those horrible stairs. They terrify me.  I prepare a Thermos of tea, and pack food and then spend the day down there.  Thank Goodness for my little bar fridge.  But at night, the trip down wakes me up, getting back to sleep is difficult--and this happens four or more times every night.  I am exhausted.

However, after a week in the freezer we now have our new duvet on the bed--just in time for the weather to improve.  I also have a bed skirt on my bed--a huge improvement--IMHO.  We are both rather liking it!  The duvet cover is a dark taupe, and the bed skirt dark brown, which matches my sheets.

So, we have had supper, such as it was. I have no intention of washing dishes tonight, and David has just delivered the last two chocolate chip cookies.  At this point what more could I ask?

You gotta see this!

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxoUUbMii7Q

Found it on Not Afraid of Color today.

" Curse you, Red Baron!"

You had to mention Oatmeal Raisin cookies.  Turns out that David would rather have those than chocolate chip.   Not going to happen any time soon.

The renovations start tomorrow, with the plumber coming to remove the upstairs toilet, and fix the flange under the floor.  He has to get at it from the basement, so David was clearing things up for him today.  Thursday the floor gets fixed, and Friday the plumber comes back to install the new toilet.  Two days without a toilet, and me having to go down to the basement in the middle of the night.  I plan to live down there during the day.

In our talks about your little owl, I never asked her name.  I plan to put her picture next to Joy so they can talk, but would like to be able to introduce them.

Did someone mention chocolate chip cookies?

Shame on you to get me all excited....so I just had to make a batch. I'm still in process of testing them - the first six seem to taste OK!!  And since I had a bag of Oatmeal Cookie Mix from the Village Bin store here in town, I made them up as well with added raisins. I'm all set. Earlier I made a batch of crabapple jelly - it was an easy task as I used the juice from two jars we made the other day that did not seal. We went this morning to the park in South River to check for chokecherries - but alas, someone had beat us to it and the trees had been stripped. (what a shame !) There was an artist from southern Ontario set up doing sketches and preparing oil paints to put sketch to canvas. Very interesting to see and to have a fairly long conversation with him. Never know when an adventure will present itself?  Well, more work to do so better go and test a few more cookies before I get at it  haha   Take care

Poor Cathy.....

Do not be disappointed Cathy - I expect she will come flying into your hands soon (if not already)  Happy she came so soon - it must have been those funny misshapen wings you pointed out. Truth be told, I stuffed them a bit too much and then sewed the seam rather awkwardly so I had to hide the the unsightly seams under the lace - thus they are sort of sticking up at a weird angle haha  I think she is cute, but she was also a bit cheeky with me throughout the entire construction period. Lots of "oh, no's" from me but persistence paid off.   I tried to email the picture but of course, that effort failed me as well. So this is why the pictures flew to you both!  Besides, I still like to send written notes (and I like to receive written notes as well!)
I was up to North Bay on my own today - shopped for groceries and also visited with both boys. Harry won tickets to see a live show of the Trailer Park Boys in Sudbury Sept 26 so I had to pick them up at the radio station. I left them at Mike's because he thinks one of his friends may be interested. If no one wants them, Harry and I may end up going. Mike can't go either. I enjoyed the day - a bit of a break for me. It keeps Pati's so called "cat's paws" at bay for me and I make the most of it (as much as I can that is) Tomorrow back to the grind. This will include cleaning up a real mess. Today the cat jumped on the dining room table and knocked off three bottles of liquor. A quarter bottle of Wisers, an eighth bottle of creme de menthe, and an eighth bottle of Galiano. They all landed upside down into a box and the whisky bottle broke (of course the fullest of them all) Ugh!
So off to bed. I just read about the young couple in Orillia who won the $50 million in Lotto Max. I won $2 on the Encore number ....yeah!! Take care
ps when does the construction start on your bathroom Pati?  Are you ready?

What Owl?

Am I missing something?

An owl flew in--

She's lovely, Beth, and I say "she" because only a lady would wear lace.  How did you do her wings so that they were raised like that?

Ar-g-g-g-h!

I OD'd on chocolate chip cookies!

The mind goes first---

Today I needed a boost, and offered to make a blueberry cobbler for supper.  Turns out that David isn't fond of cobbler, with the biscuit topping.  I suggested blueberry crisp and he countered with chocolate chip cookies.  Got everything out and started and suddenly had a brain fart.  I know that a single batch needed 1 tsp of something, but could not for the life of me remember if it was baking powder or baking soda.  I had to check the recipe.

I have been making those suckers for 60 years, and haven't needed a recipe for most of that.  Just shoot me now!

Why did I need a boost?  I seem to remember a poem that has a line that refers to "night creeping in on little cat feet"  or something like that.  With the cold fall weather, I could feel depression "creeping in on little cat feet", and I'm not going there.  Of course, a good discussion on how to slice a leek, gets the blood stirring, and I guess that should help too.

Enjoy your stories...

My oh my Pati, you have some interesting times and best of all you share them so we can all enjoy. I just had a bath... but it was made interesting for me because I took Cathy's idea and made it mine including the glass of wine !! This is a nice end to a busy week and a busy day today. I made my 6 th batch of tomato ketchup trying to use up the tomatoes adorning the card table set up in the front room. Yesterday we picked all the tomatoes as the nights are cold now. Also I was able to get all the house plants cleaned up and back into the back room. Still have all the geraniums to do- we strip them to the roots and then wrap them in newspaper and store in cardboard boxes over winter. I was outside all day yesterday cleaning up. I stripped out the small greenhouse totally so only have to clean the inside walls, tape all the seams and door, and install and tape the electrical cord inside ready for the spring when I set up the electric heater. I want to wait for a warmer sunny day to do the taping as it is easier and sticks better. I will make my outside Fall TO DO list this week - having a list makes it easier for me to get all the necessary chores completed. The one I do not look forward to is winterizing the big greenhouse - have to cover the roof and its hard for me to do on my own - getting harder each year haha! Well, time for bed and listen to Randy Bachman's show. I wanted to watch the second in the series of  City Beautiful on the WFP web site. It is available for a week so I have to do it another time as I'm too tired to watch for the almost hour?  Take care

Interesting Day

but an adventure??  Maybe not.

Up early to go into Hakim Optical for a 10:00 appt.  I have not been happy with the glasses I got there three weeks ago, and had been in to speak to the optician, about a week ago, She then arranged a conference between herself, and optometrist, with me available if necessary, for today.  She evidently is an optometrist, but only working as an optician because--as she says--she much prefers the face-to-face customer work.  She has an obvious Eastern European accent, and I have to wonder if she may have had a problem with her license, but that was just a vague thought at the back of my mind.

After discussing the options available, given the problems I'm having, which appear to be with focal length, she got permission from the optometrist to alter the prescription, provided she first did a thorough focal length assessment.  So she brings out a big suitcase full of supplies and does the assessment in the middle of the store on a Saturday afternoon. The end result was that we purchased a third set of glasses with a focal length specific to my studio work.

Now, each step of this was a "hurry-up-and-wait" process, as the optometrist was seeing a steady stream of patients at the same time.  So we took a break and went to Tim's for food, and then stopped at a bedding store to check out a new winter comforter.  Ended up buying a duvet, but then ran out of time and had to head back to Hakim's.  Did more business there and back to buy a duvet cover.  Then came home and over to the church across the street so I could have a hot dog as it was "Children's Games and Hot  Dog Day".  Ate there and then home and into the house, only to realize that we hadn't gone back to Hakim's to pick up the paper work that was pending.  By this time, I had taken my diuretic , so David went back on his own, but the paper work wasn't ready, after all.

So it's now 2:00pm, and the real part of the day hasn't yet started. I'm "pooped".  But have yet to find a place in the freezer for a duvet and duvet cover.

sometimes life is good

Today, at work, my brain was mush.  I was totally burned out.  I know I shouldn't have done it, but I took 2 hours of my overtime and left at 1..  By the time I should have gotten off of work I had had a bath (with a glass of wine) and was curled up in my jammies..  Ir left only 2 people in the office, but I was too tired to think.  It is only 7 pm but I will probably be in bed before Jim gets home from meat draw.  It is really weird how you can tell when you know for sure that your brain is too tired to work

Bracing myself for downpours tonight?

Weather warnings and alerts for lots of rain tonight - sometimes we don't get what is called for but then you never know....hoping for the best.  I think I am being positively influenced by the blog Not Afraid of Colour  Today we went to Huntsville and in the Habitat ReStore they had a table of Hallowe'en decorations . Right in the middle of the pile I spotted a piece of cotton fabric- bright orange, with black spiders and spider webs all over. I grabbed it without thinking..oh no... have I been taken over by the "fun" side ?  No idea what I will do with the piece- probably it will go into my stash to be taken out and fondled once in awhile haha  It was pure indulgence but I feel great. I measured it when I got home - 42" wide and 84" in length. And it cost me $1.00.
We are still at the vegetables and actually making some headway. Going to come close to freezing tomorrow night and over weekend so probably will have to bring in all the tomatoes. It is the apples that are piling up and still so many more to pick. And I still do not have all the houseplants into the house yet!
I have read and reread your power cooking entry Pati and have written down some ideas. I found it and Cathy's entry all so fascinating. I could never be as creative as you both nor as cost effective, but it has made me bring out my slow cooker books again and hopefully I can make something. But you have to have all parties "on board' so in that regard you both are at a definite advantage. Well, I bought a ticket for tonight's lottery draw - so will have some fun dreaming and distributing the money! It is in this way I figure I'm getting my money's worth and if I win , say a free play, then it's a bonus haha  Take care

Catch up

Cathy. I never answered your question about what I power cook.  I think you probably have more variety than I do.  I know you freeze such things as potato dishes, and you even gave me a recipe for one.  
I freeze things, including Daddy's Ribs in two serving portions.  From what you've told us, you often have no idea how many people you will be feeding at any given meal.  I very rarely have a surprise guest, but it's easy enough to pull out a second package, if I need to.  I seldom make only one meal when I'm cooking ( except stir fries--only make enough for two with those).  There is usually enough to freeze for another day. Yes, I used to buy a good roast, and then cut it up into slices for Swiss Steak, chunks for stew, chunks to cook off and freeze in gravy, and leave enough for the two of us to enjoy an oven roast plus with a couple of slices of left over roast for a sandwich for lunch.  Although, with the price of beef, I may not being doing that for awhile.  

I like boneless chicken thighs.  I brown them off and then put them in the slow cooker with a gravy I make with a can of condensed mushroom soup, a packet of French's Mushroom gravy mix ( two for $1.25 at Dollarama), and a soup can of water.  I will also put the browned off thighs in Safeway Select Honey Garlic B-B-Q Sauce, either cooking them in the slow cooker or as a simple casserole.

One pork tenderloin will feed us for two meals.  I cut it into medallions, brown it off, and cook with French's Mushroom Gravy, and a can of mushrooms--then freeze half of it. It's not half bad with the Honey Garlic B-B-Q sauce either.  I sometimes make a slow cooker ful of meatballs in French's Ragout Sauce, and then divide it up into single meal portions.

Left over roast turkey slices are often frozen in gravy.  When I make the turkey gravy, I make if thinner, than if I was going to serve it immediately, and add a package of French's Turkey Gravy for extra flavour.  Left over turkey scraps are frozen to use in stir fries or casseroles or French meat loaf. Left over white rice is frozen in 1 1/2 cup bags for casseroles or rice pudding, or even fried rice.

Okay, too much information??

Fun on computer

Last evening I spent some time enjoying articles on the computer. First it was the initial story on Wpg Free Press of City Beautiful. It was long but very enjoyable with video of the Golden Boy and city Then I watched The Quilt Show and got caught up on shows. Today I spent cleaning. Was glad to see your entry Pati, knowing I wasn't the only one toilet cleaning haha ! Harry went to garage sales. One thing he bought was DVD movies. Often they are not interesting to me, but today one was a movie I have been looking for: Don Juan deMarco with Marlon Brando, Faye Dunaway and Johnny Depp. I had seen it years ago and had wished I could find it again. So I just watched it before logging on tonight and was not disappointed. Tonight was the last time I had to log onto Nielsen to record all our food and drink every day for the last week. It was time consuming to fill in the survey for both Harry and I - about an hour each night. We are supposed to get a Visa card for $25.00 for our efforts but still have not received anything for the last one I did. I wonder about the postal service - I mailed in the benefits papers for Harry's glasses the first of August and by the end of August nothing had come back. So i phoned, and Great west had no record of having received the paperwork. so I had to resubmit using only the copies I had kept. (always keep copies as you never know when you need them)  Time for bed... ..and dream of winning the lottery tonight.... yeah!!  Take care

A day I've been dreading

Yes, it's time to scrub out the bathroom again.  The only joy I can see here will be in getting the job finished.  Applying the principle that work expands to fill the time allotted to it, I expect this will take all day.  I knew it would have to be done before the work starts on the bathroom floor, ( next week) but we suddenly realized that my stitchery group will be here on Tuesday.

The jam worked well.  Thank you again Cathy.  Now we have to eat the stuff.  What a chore! LOL

and here I am...

.....wish I had some wonderful exciting news the likes of which I am reading from you both, but alas....more tomatoes, cucumbers  and now apples haha  Apparently we are to pick every apple off the trees and make juice!  And it has been a really good year for apples. Thank goodness we have a good juicer machine.  And thank goodness when I emptied the huge shelf downstairs I actually threw a lot of old preserves into the compost - I now have lots more empty, clean jars to use.  Today the big cat knocked my clock radio off the table in the bedroom, and this was also my CD player that I listen to often at night. The top broke off and parts were all over. The clock part still works but the CD player will not. I do have another radio that also has a CD player but I have never figured out how it works. I guess that will be my amusement tonight before bed ! Hope I can get it going. My music is special to me. Take care

Found a bit of joy

Yesterday, my friend Gail and I, drove out to Pinawa for another artist's "play day".  We had a wonderful time, each of us doing our own thing, but the bonus was in  the active discussion we had about art and artists.  This sort of interactive discussion is why I hang out with artists.  Additionally, one of the two pieces I was working on, worked well.  I was so excited, that I actually bounced a bit in my chair--not pretty in a woman of my size and age!  I have been working on this piece for weeks, slowly moving along, as I wasn't really sure what I was doing, and the techniques I was using weren't reversible.  Now, at least, I have a sense of direction.

When I got home we decided that 7 out of 23 jars of jam hadn't sealed, and will need to be re-done.  Sounds like one whole batch to me.  Thank you for the suggestion, Cathy.

Jam

If your jars don't seal, just empty them into a pot and reheat the contents and try again.

Wow!

Both of you sound like it has been quite a week.  Beth, regardless of the exact details of your time at the fair, you spent a good chunk of time in social contact with your "neighbours".  I believe this sort of thing is critical to the well-being of retired people.  There is such a tendency to slowly withdraw from society.  Now, Cathy, from your blog, I'm betting you can't conceive of the idea of of having too little social contact!  It sounds like you would "kill" for the chance to withdraw a bit and have some time to yourself.  Somehow, we need to find a "happy medium", and it doesn't appear to happen as long as we are working.  And then we retire and are so happy to have a bit of time to ourselves that we lose a lot of our contacts--sometimes for good.   ( Sometimes this is a good thing, but not always) 

 I guess I am thinking about this sort of thing as it looks like my Ravenesque group is going to fold.  This group has been a lifeline for me over the past few years, but there is a natural life span to such groups, and I can see the end of this one.

Cathy, your "power cooking" puts me all to shame.  And I was so proud of what I did!!  I did the math and  converted the figures into meals--I was still stunned at how much you had accomplished.  And Beth, putting down all of the produce--Oh My!!  What do you do with it all?

My accomplishment this weekend was 23 jars of Rhubarb/Pineapple jam, a batch of blueberry muffins, a Rhubarb Cobbler, and gaining 3 pounds.  By this morning several of the lids on the jam have not "popped".  Does this mean I have to throw it out?  This has never happened to me before.

It has been ages since I made muffins from scratch, and as soon as I bit into one of them I appreciated the difference between muffins made from scratch as a "quick bread" and the cake-like crap we buy at the store.  The other difference was shelf life.  I could manage to eat the muffins the second day, but not the third.  It was great to be able to use some of the blueberries I froze last fall.  But it was a bit of a shock to realize that the rhubarb that came out of the freezer was not last year's but 2012!  For the jam and cobbler, it worked just fine.

Today I am planning to "gird my loins" and head into Hakim Optical to complain about my new glasses.  I can read with them but with difficulty.  I get the best results if I put on my dollar store readers over top of my new bi-focals.  Not a good thing.  The sunglasses appear to be fine, but then I only wear them outside and rarely read with them.  I'll let you know how it goes.

My Week......

was not the best of weeks, but it is over.  My gout came back, this time in 2 toes.  Does this mean that once a year I have a gout attack and each year it doubles in size?!? Not something to look forward to.  So, I limped through the week.  I was supposed to work meat draw with Kellie (Jim's goddaughter) on Friday, but she never showed up until 6:30.  Jim worked it with me.  She said Tyler needed her for something.  I told Jim not to be mad at her,but to let her know how disappointed he was in her.  I think that hurt her more than any yelling would have.  This weekend was our power cooking weekend.  I didn't get the chicken casseroles done, but I have 4 lasagnes, 24 hamburger patties, 2 meat loafs, 4 large stews, 4 quiches, 81 meatballs, spagetti sauce and 11 garlic logs in the freezer. Jim made the patties and the meat loafs and helped me with the stew.  I want to do a couple of chicken & brocolli casseroles, too, but I am kind of worn out.   Tomorrow, after work, Rrain and I are going to Dennis's to make salsa for him.  Lynne is still in Barbados.  (Since June)  I don't think either of them planned on her being gone this long.  I am going to take my junk recipe too.  It is great for using up tomatoes, peppers, onions etc.  And you can use it in so many dishes.  The trouble with power cooking is that you just don't feel like eating anything and by the end of the day, you haven't had any food.  What sort of things do you make when you power cook, Pati?? I know in the past you have mentioned ribs, and meat in gravy. At work, the powers- that- be have agreed to have our student continue as a casual until Patty returns from Mat leave.  She will be working Tuesdays and Thursdays.  He course is Monday, Wednesday & Friday until November.  She wants to do manicures & pedicures and fancy nail polish designs. She is a really good worker and always jumps in to help where she can.  She has trouble with numbers (Not a good thing when everything we do has a registration or title number) but she knows it, and checks the numbers before she starts and ALWAYS asks if she is unsure.  I am going to take some down time today and maybe sit and read for a while.  My foot is feeling much better, but not 100%  It is still swollen and purple, but I can touch it now.  I know I should have rested more, earlier, but when you have only so much time to get things done, you have to do them.  Oh well.   Today I rest.  Hope your long weekend was (sort of )  relaxing and the week ahead is great