Two men, a truck, and one mom

Good morning! Happy Labor day! I hope that you are enjoying the last day before the summer officially ends. Rather than sleeping late, I woke early to make cupcakes for our neighborhood party. The party is called "drinks and dessert". I love my neighbors! Two of my favorite food groups are being celebrated....
(By the way, this famous photo is Gopher's Granny).

Anyway, I am actually ready to return to the classroom. last week, I had a taste of it when I had my first 4 hour class. I set my tempo at low and took my time rather than rush through the class. They still had questions as I have noted multiple times in my inbox. "Just one more question, professor...."...they are so polite. It makes up for the other times when the class is texting the answers to the tests to each other.

Anyway, on to the big kid.....we delivered the aforesaid sofa and easy chairs on Friday after loading a large Dodge Ram. Praying that it did not rain, we took the trip to the mountains with the sofa jutting over the edge of the truck. Tink kept her eyes on the furniture the entire time. She was ready to tell us if the furniture fell out of the trunk and onto an unsuspecting motorist. Yeah, this was fun.

Once we arrived, I assumed that the big kid would have his posse waiting for us to take the furniture up the stairs...wrong....








 

We had to do it ourselves, but once we looked at the opening of the door, we knew what was inevitable...that's right. We had to make a trip up two flights hoisting the sofa over the deck with a rope. Uh huh...that was me with my hands on the rope and pulling it over the gutter and the deck. We broke a little bit of the deck molding but otherwise made it safely. Can anyone say "herniated disc?"

On Saturday, I had a massage to work out the kinks in my back after lifting the sofa. Believe it or not, I was more sore after the massage. She was doing something much more than kneading the muscles. I felt certain that she was trying to squeeze my internal organs. I had to hobble out of that session.

OK, let's look at this....one mom...one dad...a sister....a large athletic brother with big muscular friends. How does Momma land up lifting the sofa? Huh? Where were the boys? Partying at 4pm? Huh? I ask you....

With that, I have to frost the cupcakes and work on a few more projects before class tomorrow. In the meantime....enjoy the day...eat dessert!

Hi Y'all

Good morning! No rain...yet....Believe it or not, I got up for a 6 am yoga class. That's right....the last few wonderful days of vacation and I am out of bed at 5:30 to sweat.  Let me tell ya....I was not the first one up. The big leftie was long gone and working out at the Y. His back is feeling better and at this moment, he is in hour 4 of his work out. I pampered myself with a Starbucks grande pike after the session and am ready to travel to campus to finish the apartment. By the way, I was out of it this morning, I knocked over the Starbucks staff's tip jar onto the floor. Can anyone spell: "spaz?" I would have thrown more money into it as I picked up each coin and dollar, but I had no money in my wallet. At 7 am, the tips were a bit light. There were lots of pennies and nickels....early morning cheap skates!
 

By the way, the people who get up before dawn to work out are CRAZY! That's right. The Y's parking lot was half full at 5:45 and the people who were there are in amazing uber-shape. In fact, doughy me was the dough-iest of the yogis today. The teacher sighed when she saw me walk into class. Can anyone say: "remediation?" "Special ed"? Actually, she was nice and only had to move my poses twice. The girl next to me was a bit more 'challenged' than I was...no comparison....no competition....just being objective :-)

Ooops. Before I begin....Happy Birthday Scooby! Yeah, little sis is hitting a land mark. I won't divulge her secret but she looks like she is 21 and holding strong. Enjoy your day with the family. I'll catch up with you over the weekend......

OK, yesterday, I mentioned that I would share the trip to Paula Deen's restaurant with you....Here we go....On Saturday, we were scheduled to fly out of Savannah airport at 6 pm, so we took the opportunity to visit Savannah. Now, back up to PD's recent issues....her words were uttered 30 years ago. She is still being persecuted and prosecuted. As far as I am concerned, 30 years is a long time. Thirty years ago, I was a stupid, naive person. Now I am just stupid....but to work this woman over the coals for something that she said so long ago is torture. Do I condone it? Absolutely not. But there is a point with apologies that you let it go....

And so, I made reservations for the Lady and Sons restaurant. Naturally, we were late but were finally seated. The restaurant is three stories and the set up reminded me of the restaurants in Lancaster Counties Amish country. The people were polite. The wait staff was slow (a southern thing?). The way that they made money was through volume and they really moved people through their meals EXCEPT the people (us) who had to catch a plane.

Back to the meal.....After we sat down, I was thinking of a glass of wine...no wine list..no bar...no liquor...HUH?

After getting over the wine faus pax, one of the servers brought over cheddar biscuits and some sort of flat and fried (greasy) corn bread. Both were de-lish! Although the greasy corn bread was a bit gross. I still ate it.

Buddy ordered the buffet which was full of fried chicken, corn bread, buttered green beans, beans, mac and cheese, and other southern treats. He was satisfied although not really crazy about the chicken. Dad had a meatloaf sandwich that he hated but ate with the help of ketchup. Tink and I ordered shrimp and grits. I downed the entire plate while she shoved hers away...too much salt....I never noticed. After banana pudding, we paid and were escorted into the PD store adjacent to the restaurant. Everything and I mean everything had "y'all' plastered on it. There were y'all tee shirts, hats, beer bottle openers, mugs, chapped stick, hand lotion, seasonings, cook books, cook ware, forks, knives, and so on. It was at this point where I could not purchase anything with that phrase. It was overdone and over-branded. My take is to let the food do the talking....Would I return to the restaurant? Nope. One and done.

Would I use her recipes? Absolutely. I love her cobbler recipe and have made a few others. Her son Jamie has recreated her fat-laden recipes and made them lighter. I will try some of those in the near future.

OK, on to today....the big kid and I are going to campus to buy furniture and finish the place.

 

He gets an apartment. Tink gets a new car. I get the bills. It's only fair, right?

With that said, it's time to point the car and head north. Peace!

Recipe for success

As the pre and post Christmas fog begins to clear, I have discovered that I also forgot to bring the pineapple stuffing for the Christmas ham on Tuesday. The double recipe that I made on the 24th was found in the garage refrigerator. This makes my holiday blunder 4 for 4. In other words, since I did not have the potato concoction, appetizer, pineapple stuffing, and dip, I failed in my holiday effort to contribute to Uncle G's party. Fortunately, I did remember the ping pong tournament trophies. That sort of got me out of trouble....actually, once again, I think that no one noticed except me. But....

that's not the way that I roll....I try to live up to my promises and I actually thought that I did until yesterday when I found the casseroles (stuffing) in the fridge, What the heck? Is this early dementia? If it is, then what do I expect next? OR.....

is my life too complicated? In the old days when the kids were younger, I contacted a caterer and had her make the main meal and side dishes. That was pretty nice and a holiday gift for myself. Do I take on too much? Or too little? OR....

is it multitasking? I might be doing it wrong. Research suggests the brain is not designed to multitask, therefore, Do I think that I am any different than the subjects from the research studies? I am no Einstein or Steven Hawkings therefore, why do I think that I can have six balls in the air and not let any pineapple stuffing drop? Anyone need a side dish for ham?



OK, on to my big kid. On Christmas Eve, he walked into the bedroom at 5:30 am after a late night working in the bakery. "I am going to throw...then going to work..."

How are you going to throw in the dark?

"Going to the high school, turn the car head lights onto the mound and throw..."

Coming from him, I believed it. Anyone else, I would have had their head examined. But that's exactly what he did...off to throw baseballs in the 20 degree temperature in the dark guided by the car's head lights. And so baseball fans, this is what you have to do to make it in division 1 baseball....

The recipe for success is as simple as the pineapple stuffing recipe. It consists of ambition, drive, motivation, a bit of crazy, and a car battery from Sears. That's it. let's see how it works in the new year.

With that said, I am going to try NOT to multitask today....My mantra is to take one thing at a time....finish the first project...go onto the second...then the third...the fourth....fifth..and so on...have lunch.....

Later~