ahhhh...spring is in the air

Yes, Spring is upon us, and all that comes with it. The grass (and weeds) starts growing, trees are budding, flowers hold promise, and garage sales start popping up.

This week has been special, because my rain gutters have been installed. Let the rains now come, I'm ready. Well, sort of. You see, I've been wanting to get some planting beds around the house, but didn't want to tackle that until the gutters were up. And I couldn't get the gutters up till I got the eaves and chimney painted. I didn't want a ladder propped against new gutters so someone could get across the roof to paint, so that was a priority. I got a fellow to take care of that a couple of weeks ago, and I painted the eaves myself. Still have the front eaves to do, but they didn't need gutters, so they weren't a priority. Anyway, I can check one project off my list.

Hopefully I'll soon get a start on the planters. David will be putting them in for me, I just need to get the materials. Woo hoo!

Today on my lunch hour I stopped at a garage sale. You can go to quite a few, and may or may not find anything, but this one was good. I found several pairs of jeans for little Ashlynn, and one pair of capris. She'll look really cute in them.

But the very best thing I found was a wonderful little Christmas clock! I know, I know, Christmas is still quite away off, so why am I so excited about a Christmas clock you say? Well, this one is special...each hour will play a couple of chords of a Christmas song! Jingle Bells, O Come All Ye Faithful, Deck the Halls, Joy to the World, and more. 12 total to be exact. As it happens, I have a clock with birds that chirp on the hour, and Robert especially always has a comment to make about it. I can't wait for the holidays to roll around and he gets to hear my songs! I say it's worth the $2 it cost me for the hoot factor.

revisiting the past

I recently joined the facebook site, and within a very short period of time I heard from a friend of long ago. Janet and I still keep in touch here and there, but it's always nice to hear something fresh. The "something fresh" this time was actually "something old". Back in the day she had the little Polaroid Swinger (I talked about it here), and today she scanned some of those old pics, preserving them for posterity and passing them my way. What a hoot! Things have definitely changed over the years, especially when I see these reminders that I once had no gray hair, and still had a youthful figure. What hasn't changed is that friends are still friends, even though many years have gone by without a face-to-face visit. Priceless.

meatballs

If you read my post about Meals on Wheels (mow's) you may remember that one lady gave me her meatball recipe, and I hoped to try them. Well, time has a way of slipping by, and Friday I had to tell her I hadn't tried them yet. So, she gave me directions again, and I wrote them down this time. Yesterday afternoon I picked up some meat and breadcrumbs, and gave it a try. It was good! I'm going to list the ingredients as she told me, so I can't guarantee it will come out the same way twice, but I plan on making it again. The main thing I did different was use it on a meatball sandwich...I had neglected to get spaghetti, thinking I had some at home but I didn't. Anyhoo, this is how Pia makes her meatballs:

"How many you cooking for?"

I told her since it's just me at home, let's say for 2 -4 and I can have leftovers.

"Okay. You put a some olive oil in the bottom of your saucepan. You know what olive oil is? You got to have it in there."

Use your imagination to provide the wonderful lilt in her voice...

"Then put in a can of tomatoe paste," this as she showed me the small 6 oz can. "Add about 2 or 3 cans of water, and a bit of salt, and let it simmer.

"Now get you some good ground meat, about 1 pound. Put your meat in a bowl, and add in an egg, salt, pepper, some parmiagana (parmesan cheese), plain breadcrumbs, a little bit of fresh garlic, and one or two parsley. I usually use a fork at first to mix it in, then get my hands in to mix it up. Make sure you use plain breadcrumbs, you don't need that seasoned stuff.

"Pinch off some of the meat and roll it in little balls, about so big (indicating about 1 1/2 inches). Drop them into the sauce and let them cook for about an hour or so. You don't need to cook the meatballs first, they cook in the sauce.

"Come back when you're ready and cook your spaghetti. Layer your spaghetti, with the sauce and meatballs next, and some parmiagana on top. You're going to love it. Try."

Thanks, Pia. I did, and I do.