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.

new way home

Several years ago, K.T. Oslin was one of my favorite singers, and a song I especially like included the phrase, "I've got to find me a new way home." I've thought about that quite a bit lately, as road work is going on just down the street. With the road blockage, I've been forced to go a different route, to step out of my comfort zone so to speak. Actually, it's been a nice change in the routine.

Over the 9 months I've been here, I've seen street signs with the same name in places I hadn't thought about connecting. One day last week I decided to try that road for my detour, and was pleasantly surprised. It added a couple of miles, but I actually saved time! There were no signal lights to contend with, and no traffic. Just pleasant country side views and one fellow stepping out in his longjohns to pick up the newspaper (boy, was he surprised to see me!). With a new school opening up in the Fall on my now previous way to work, Newt Patterson Road will be part of my morning drive for sure.

Life's all about change, isn't it? May we always welcome it and look for the best.

weekend rolls around

Ah, another week rolls by. Been busy, and not a whole lot accomplished, all at the same time!

We've been working on that data entry project at work that has allowed me to get some overtime, which is very nice. But it sure makes me appreciate those people who work 2 jobs to make ends meet. I can do this since I know it's for a short duration, but sure couldn't imagine doing it long term. And I'm only putting in 5-8 hours a week. Kudos to those who regularly put in the extra 15-20+.

I did take off this afternoon since the temperature was up there around 70. I needed to paint the eaves on the house before new guttering goes on. I know, I painted shortly after I moved in last year, but I wasn't totally pleased with the color. So, the new is a putty color that was matched to the guttering sample. I made good progress, and got most of the area that allows the project to move forward. Just need to call the guy and arrange a time. I've got one little area where the old guttering is by the front door, and they'll remove it and I can paint that little strip. I can tell I'm not as young as I once was! I'm sure it was all that fresh air this afternoon that had me knocked out on the couch early in the evening. Yeah, that's it.

Other news this week, I've been wanting to paint another art project, so I started on this. I'm not an accomplished artist (can you tell???), and it's been probably a year since I did my last little project. I got as far as the sky, although on one of the cd's it looks more like an ocean. I'll have to see where it goes. Just not enough time to do all the little things I want. Here's the picture I'm using as inspiration, it's one brother Carl took in Idaho.

Guess that's it for now. Have a good weekend...

ahhhhh....casual Friday

My favorite workday of the week is Friday, hands down. Aside from the fact that the weekend is on the horizon, it's Casual Friday at work, and we can wear jeans and a logo shirt. The main restriction is no tennis shoes, and we still have to maintain an appearance suitable for meeting the public. We've been doing this a number of years now, and I have to say I enjoy it every bit as much now as when it was first introduced.

I'm not a dressy person, and I don't spend high dollar amounts on my clothes...work or otherwise. But my work clothes are just that, meant for work. I occasionally wear them other places, but for the most part, my wardrobe of choice is jeans. Casual. Comfortable. No hose.

So, on Friday, I almost roll out of bed pretty easily. I think I've got a better mind-set, look forward to the day, and get a lot accomplished.

Yea, it's Friday!!! Doesn't take a lot to please me, does it???

It's been awhile

Looks like it's been a couple of weeks since I last posted. Time does manage to slip by, doesn't it?

I've gotten several hours of overtime in the last couple of weeks. We have a project they'd like to get done involving data entry for all the employees in the department, and we're just up to the C's. It's going to take awhile, but that's okay, the extra money is always nice.

I got out this weekend for a couple of hours geocaching with Elizabeth, David, and Lily. Lily did well, and even found a couple of the caches. For those not familiar with the sport, it involves using your GPS to find the longitude and latitude coordinates of hiding spots. Check out geocaching.com (link on the sidebar) to learn more about it. I hadn't been out caching in a couple of months, so it was fun. I think I'm up to 80 finds now. Some people have well over 2000! I didn't have my camera handy this time, darn it.

Oh well, guess that's it for now. Catch you later.