Happy New Year to My Friends and Family!!

Lists

We make lists. We make lists for groceries, make lists for chores, make lists for work related tasks. We list our professional goals, our personal goals, our relationship goals. We list our needs, we list our wants. What does it all mean?? Do we have a need to see all of these things in writing? Is it a visual confirmation of our wants, needs, thoughts and innermost desires? I believe that some people need to make lists just to cross off what they have completed. I personally do not have that need. I am blessed with the ability to take pen to paper and remember exactly what I wrote down. Rarely do I need to take out my shopping list in the grocery store. I will admit that as I get older it takes alittle more concentration, but it can be done................
What would be on your list for 2010? It is a new decade.........10 years since Y2K....who ever thought we would survive that fiasco?? The year 2010 marks 20 years since I left New jersey and moved to North Carolina. That would mean that almost two-fifths of my life I have lived in this wonderful state which is now my home. The year 2010 will be the year my daughter Emily will be married. It will be the year I will officially have a son-in-law. And it will be my last year of saying I am in my forties..................but that is another post for another day...................
On my list I would say that I want to pay more attention to me. More time allotted for working out, doing yoga, being creative. Am I comfortable in my skin? What do I need to make a priority this year?
On my list would be time made to learn something new. Stepping outside my box......
At the top of my list would be making more time for Jim and I to get away whether for a weekend, a week, or a lifetime................it has been far too long since we had a true vacation. I love this man more than I ever thought possible. The pure joy I feel just being with him is always enough........it is so easy to not prioritize the need to get away from the norm............but I will add that to my list for 2010.
My list for 2010 will be simple, but meaningful. I have a friend from many years ago that I just found out is dying of bone cancer. My heart is hurting terribly for her and for her daughter. We have a past history that is oddly intertwined, and I am now feeling like I wished I had spoken to her more often. We live 500 miles away from each other, so it is not feasible that I could visit her for a few hours before the inevitable............but would love to make a list of things that I wished we had talked about................if for no one but myself.........
What kind of list would you make??? Would you share it with others or keep it for yourself? Would you write in ink or pencil? Would it be on lined paper or a post-it? Would you number your entries or write them at random?
Lists...............friend...or foe???

Earl says Merry Christmas!!

Unwrapped

I love the show "Unwrapped" on the Foodnetwork. I have watched the show for years. It is an easy retreat from all of the other shows that we subject ourselves to usually on a daily basis. Reality shows--cooking, dancing, singing, racing, fishing, truck driving, fire fighting, crime fighting...............you name it, it's out there. Then there are the crime shows--enough said. Then there is the news.....it goes on and on. When I turn on Unwrapped, I get an hour of entertainment. An hour of Marc Summers, getting older and more gray, but still a pleasure to watch. Marc can make something as simple as a cracker seem magical. I love learning how candy canes get their stripes............How PEZ characters are chosen and what flavors of Jelly Belly Beans flopped. I love the history of the companies that manufacture our favorite candies. The other thing I love to watch are the machines that are used to accomplish the task. Who on earth comes up with some of this stuff? Right now they are showing a company that makes gingerbread houses. What a cool job.........
My point is, with so many shows on tv that are so full of reality, the reality of learning where Harry and David came up with their cheesecake flavors somehow relaxes me................
Maybe someday someone will come up with the Good News Network. The Foodnetwork is close.................but I am sure that there is alot more good news out there to be had....................

Pumpkin watches TV

Sadie

Sadie was ready for her walk around our beloved Lake Lynn this morning

I made biscuits

Years ago I made biscuits. I worked in a Texaco gas station that had a kitchen. I was originally hired to work weekends, fri, sat and sun nights. The station had a cook that made biscuits every morning but Sunday. Sausage patty, sausage link, steak, country ham, chicken and cheese biscuits. After I had been there for several months she quit, leaving an opening............I had been cooking on Saturday mornings and had a bit of a following..................I got a call, "Patti, if you want the position it's yours...." I was in Florida visiting my parents..had to cut the vacation short. But it was worth it...............I began a journey that ended too soon, a journey that has created great memories, and created the desire to go back to the basics of baking and cooking for people who lined up at 6am to grab a biscuit, a cup of coffee and a smile from the girl in the kitchen who was up to her elbows in flour.........


I loved the job. Loved getting to work at 5am, long before most people even thought about getting out of bed, especially on cold winter mornings But get up I did, at 4am. I loved being up and out and brewing coffee, mixing and patting each batch of dough as if it was a fragile newborn. I made an average of 120-140 biscuits every morning by 7am.......in addition to doughnuts....For a special treat every once in awhile I would whip up blueberry biscuits dipped in a sugar glaze........they flew out the doors.

Lunch would bring pork barbeque, either chicken, meatloaf, salisbury steak, fries, two vegetables and more biscuits.............I made ham sandwiches, turkey sandwiches, bologna sandwiches. And hotdogs, the good german kind. Up to 6 dozen every day
I loved getting up earlier than most people would be willing or able to, knowing that I would be the first person most of the people coming in would see. Coffee, a biscuit, a smile, a kind word, I loved it.. My daughter was young, 3,4,5 years old. She was our official little mascot for the station She would sit with the customers, I believe that her exceptional people skills were born in that little place.
Life went on, a single mom needed to make more money......but over the years, as I get older I realize that my heart belongs to that little kitchen that I called my own all those years ago. I am successful in my field, and I don't regret any path I've taken.
But I do know that if I ever get a chance to get back to the simple joy of baking for the masses, or maybe just for a small following, I would hang up my hat in a minute and move on.............
I made biscuits...........and I am proud of the biscuits I made.....................

Cool pic off my NASA app

Totally geeky and fun!!

Decisions, decisions.

So here I sit, trying to decide what to do for Thanksgiving....
It's not that I have too many invites and can't decide what to do
It's just that the options have presented themselves to me in a way
that I want to sit and do nothing.............
There's option A---Brunch with Jim (my sig other), daughter Emily
and her fiancee Steve. Steve works at noon, so if we choose option A
he could join us............
Option B----Make a small quiet dinner. In atttendance would be Jim
Emily, my Mom (she doesn't like brunch......) and the plethora of dogs
and cats that allow us to live with them. Come to think of it they would
attend the brunch as well. And let's not forget Wallace, the beta that sits
patiently on the kitchen counter watching me bake, cook, brew, chop and
grill my way into Jim's heart.
Option C---MARGARITAVILLE Myrtle Beach. Parrotheads would jump
in the Ram and chow down to the Island Tunes at Broadway at the Beach
A mere 3 hour drive, and we could undulge in some early shopping at the
gift shop as well as have a Buffett style Thanksgiving watching the big blender
blend the perfect Margarita...................
I am not good at decisions...........not that any of these are any more appealing
or torurous than the other, it's just that I am not good at making decisions that
involve the comfort and happiness of the people I love. They will all do any of
them (except mom and brunch, I got nothing on that)
So what to do???????
I am going to put this out in the great void of cyberspace and see what I get back.
Happy Thanksgiving........I am thankful that I have the opportunity to have these
choices............but damn, I still can't decide what to do......................

Sunday morning "office"

Sunday so far

I love weekend mornings. Our Sundays usually are low key, either getting up and out early, bagels, newspaper, coffee, people watching no matter where we decide to have breakfast. Seeing where the day takes us.

Today was a little different. Jim got an early (7:30) phone call from a friend who is sick with the flu. Can he cover a gig for him (they are photographers, more on that another day :) )

Out the door he went to shoot an 8:00 soccer game.

So now I find myself home on a Sunday morning, dogs running around in the yard. It is 36 degrees. BBrrrrr............

Made coffee, lit some candles, pulled up the blinds. Let the sunshine in!! Decided to listen to Holiday Tunes on Sirius.............getting into the holiday mood. Time to bake something. Pumpkin bread sounds good. I love to bake. Anything and everything. I jump on any excuse I can to bake something for someone, for an occasion, anything. I listened to two girls in the nail salon yesterday talking about last year, when the husband of one of the girls was deployed in Iraq. She made the statement that she sent him cookies. Homemade, from scratch. She had never done it before, probably wouldn't do it again. There are generations of people who don't have a clue how to sift flour, measure brown sugar, or fold eggwhites into batter. I am happy to say that my daugher, now 21, can tackle a recipe and produce a hell of a peanut butter cookie,........I wanted her to know and hopefully grow to love the art of baking. It saddens me to see commercials about home baking, when all that it really takes is tearing off the wrapping, transferring the premade dough to a cookie sheet and setting the timer. I know people are busy, lives are filled with too much to do, too little time to do it.... ............but still, it saddens me. I am guilty of falling for convenience myself. But the fact of the matter is, I know how to do it from scratch...........

Well, where did that tangient come from?? I guess it is just having a Sunday morning to reflect.

What do other people do on Sunday mornings? Do tell.......................

Magazines

I love magazines. I love all types of magazines. National Geographic, Real Simple, InStyle, Our State. I subscribe to some and buy the others. The thrill of opening the mailbox and seeing my new publication waiting for me to unwrap it from it's plastic cover never fails me. I love reading the last page first. Most magazines have a little something special saved for the very end. Kind of like a little sweet something right before you go to bed. I love to sit and read a magazine like a book. I don't like to browse through it haphazardly. I won't open it until I have the time to spend perusing through the pages. It is only after I go from cover to cover that I decide what to read first. Sometimes I wait, for days, until the time is right.
Holiday magazines are the best. I find inspiration galore, from shopping to cooking to just appreciating a simple story. It is a gift in itself.
That being said, I love books as well,
but we'll save that for another day

Something new

So I have a new toy, or I should say two new toys. I am the proud owner of a netbook, those cute little mini laptops ("I'll have a hard boiled egg and a cherry lime rickey....") that are so totally portable. I am a Mac user, but I broke down and got one anyway. If they come out with one, however, this baby will be on Craig's List in no time!
Anyway, I also just got an internet card so I am totally portable and ready to go....where? I could look cool sitting in Starbucks or Panera..........lol. Come to think of it, with my Iphone in hand I am hooked up to everything. Facebook, email, news, life is good.
Anyone else out there new to the netbook craze? I got a Toshiba and so far am loving it.

Spam

What is spam? Who chose the name? I grew up eating Spam and loved it. I haven't indulged in the salty mystery meat in years, but it is still on the shelves..........No really, SPAM. It clogs the arteries of our information superhighway. I have an AOL account that I no longer use as I realized that 99% of the mail I received was Spam. Unrequested emails from sources unknown that are generated to annoy, taunt, sometimes embarrass (don't ever use the word erect........) and generally waste our time deleting. My fear is always when I choose "delete all"--what if there is one email that has some importance that I missed that was buried in the other 258 spam emails that I am deleting? What if someone is reaching out to me after all these years......what if..........but my finger lingers over the delete button......now? No wait, let me peruse the offending correspondences one more time....NO I do not want to cleanse my colon......NO I do not want to spend 5 days and 4 nights in beautiful Bermuda for $99.00....NO I do not want to know who is searching for me to award me my villa in Spain........NO I do not want to earn $5K per week from home (well, yes I do, but really?? In my spam folder??) Ok.....hhmmmm that email from jjones392@___.com who claims to know my mother's sister's next door neighbor's cousin who knows that I need a new laptop....nah, it's spam. And where does it go after I delete it?? Into the void of my hard drive...infinite space?? Words and letters unread by me......Am I being wasteful or am I avoiding a deadly virus that would send me into the bowels of the unknown world of someone telling me my motherboard is fried.......I feel like I am in a world of Star Wars.......

I feel self righteous.....no unread mail.....no spam.....a clean slate waiting for that unexpected email from a past friend......a cool website.......but alas.....a new day......more spam.......here we go again.....

Not to mention the time wasted on unsubscribing to emails.......

Now that is another blog entry for another day!! 

I must go...time to purge my inbox........

Earl

I have a dog named Earl. He found us while we were at a wedding in Black Mountain, NC a year and a half ago. I say he found us as he was the puppy of the owner of the inn where we stayed. At the time Earl was 9 weeks old and already weighed 24 pounds...........do you see where this headed?
Earl is half rottweiler, half a combo of dalmation and bassett hound. So we were told. You can't tell he isn't all rottweiler, except for the fact that he has a tail..............a tail that could take a small family if needed. Earl now weighs around 90 pounds. And he isn't done growing.
Earl. What a name, right? It suits him so well. We also have Sadie, who is 8 years old, the sweetest dog in the world, I believe that she will be a saint someday. She puts up with Earl to a certain point. Then the teeth start getting bared, and a low gutteral growl starts. Earl likes to "herd" Sadie where he wants her. We always say with Earl, it's all about Earl. He is an attention whore, but in a good way. In so many ways he is like a child, a child that needs reassurance and also needs discipline..........just last night I had some chopped cooked chicken on the counter waiting to be used for quesadillas, I sat down for 2 minutes (no doubt to do something on the computer) and there's Earl, on his hind legs chowing down on the chicken. He normally doesn't do stuff like that, but I guess the smell of roasted chicken was too much. He knew, the minute I said his name that he had overstepped his boundries............in the crate he hid.........Jim got him out, but he managed to slide past me to get outside, and it took an act of Congress to get him back in the house. There wasn't alot of eye contact made for the rest of the night. I guess it just sucked the life out of him and he passed out on the couch until it was bedtime. Earl can be very emotional............................(I know, it's a dog, but once you meet Earl you understand!!)
I'll save more Earl stories for another day.
Until then.........peace out!!!

Sunday at the flea market

So today we went to the flea market at the local fairgrounds. The usual fare, snow cones, hot dogs and fresh squeezed orange ade. The flea market hasn't changed much in all the years I have lived here. What has changed is the venue itself. It can accomadate several different events, all going on at the same time. Today was a Greek Festival (the food is to die for!!) A Hispanic Festival, a Dog Show, a Military Vehicle and Memorabilia show, and what looked like some kind of Pagan Festival. Something for everyone.............My big purchase? A beautiful bouquet of fresh asparagus which will meet their fate being either grilled or broiled with olive oil and sea salt....and two pair of fun funky earrings. There was a trailer full of fun weathered hooks and wall decorations at $5.00 per pound. Sitting on top of the pile of horseshoe hooks, mermaids, stars, and so many other handmade shapes was a frog. He looked like he was ready to leap into someones purse...take me!! take me!! I didn't buy him, but in hindsight I should have. Maybe next week. The flea market will soon be closing for about 6 weeks. The state fair happens here the second week of October.....that will be another post, I'm sure.

We made friends with an English Mastiff, where at 8 months he already weighed 110 pounds. He proceeded to slime my purse and Jim's pants, but no worries. He had a great personality and he will grow into a great friend for his owner. On the flipside we also met a puppy that couldn't have weighed 3 pounds soaking wet. It was some time of "something-poo" and we were told she weighed less than a pound at birth. She also will grow (not much more!!) into a loyal friend.

That's it for now.............Happy Sunday!