Monday, November 11, 2013

Overheard at The Drayer


From someone I know telling the group a story about a woman who is having a hard time as a single mom with one of her children.

Someone:  It's so sad.  She's just really having a hard time with him.  And she's tried everything?

Me:  Well, what about her husband?  Where is he in all of thise?

Someone:  Oh, I didn't tell you that part?  Yeah, it's so strange.  One day he went out to buy a book or something.....

[insert pause, in which of course I immediately finish the sentence in my head with: he was hit by a car, keeled over of a heart attack, ran away with the cashier, etc.]

                   and he came back a Muslim.


Huh?  

Is the local Muslim community down at the Barnes and Noble recruiting?

Were they running a special, "By the NY Times best seller and get a lifetime Muslim membership for free?"

oh, I could go on and on with this one!

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Note to self...

must.  wear.  glasses.  to trim fingernails.  [sniff, sniff, Do we have any band-aids?]

Yep, my total denial came crashing to a nail quick nipping end as I was clipping my nails today.

First, it must be said that I view nail trimming as a sheer compromise to my otherwise unwillingness to submit to the pain of permanent nail removal, else they serve little purpose in my life.  I am not one of those women who enjoy manicures or nail color changes every other week [which, now that I'm thinking about it is strange, since I do enjoy a fun hair color change every 10 weeks.]

Yeah, I pretty much prefer to keep all routine maintenance as low maintenance as possible.  So fingernail trimming in my world follows the same gardening theology of the man from whom I bought my last house.  The old foursquare house stands on a corner with a double lot.  Many years ago, in an effort to provide some backyard privacy, a hedgerow of privet bush was planted.  Privet is a fast growing hedge, meant to provide......yep, savvy reader, you are QUICK.  Privacy.  It grows fast and it grows in every direction.  As a result, you can have a very nice and thick privacy green screen.  And the privet is happy, happy, happy.  The fellow who owned this house for a long time, however did not see eye to eye with the growing habits of the privet.  His solution?  Cut them low and cut them square and top those suckers with a table top trim!  The tighter the cut the better because that meant fewer trimmings.  Nothing wrong with that!

So my nails?  Yep, you got it.   Cut them low, cut them square, the tighter the cut, the fewer the trimmings.  I have no patience to trim and file and snip and nip and round and buff.  Nope.  Nadda.  None.  When I'm finished trimming my nails, like a nicely mowed lawn, you can see exactly where the clippers have been.  Who has time for rounding and filing?  For about the first three days, it's pretty much inconsequential because the nails aren't long enough to see the Toro like tacks.  But once those suckers start growing [why can't we control that growth by the way?  There should be a dial somewhere in which we could dial up/down hair and nail growth, don't you think?]  oh it's crystal clear where the grounds crew has been.  Like a 7th inning stretch, my 10 digits show clear evidence of a grounds crew gone awry.  A clubhouse party gone bad, with a late night double dog dare you to try the 2nd setting on the zero turn mower behind second base.  There are points and edges.  Uneven white with a jagged turn back to quick.  It's not pretty, friends. --This I know.  Yet, for some reason, I just don't care.   [It should be noted that this is a habit that drives Sweet Sarah crazy!  She can't understand how I can be so anal about so many other things, but not my nails.  I absolutely agree with her by the way.  Why am I so anal about other things, but don't care about my nails?  I don't know.  And I don't care....even when it's pointed out to me.]

But I digress.  Today, I learned that if I'm going to be able to maintain the 'cut 'em back until 2014 philosophy', first I must commit to wearing my glasses.  Because DANG if it doesn't hurt when the quick begins to bleed.

Sigh.  Is this a sign that I am indeed, less than one month from the big 4-0?

Let it commence that today begins the day whence I shall be stashing readers in every room of The Drayer, less I get the urge to buff and file.



Friday, November 1, 2013

Chopped, Surprise Date Night and an Anniversary

Around here in these parts, we LOVE to watch the tv show Chopped.  We even DVR it.

Well it just so happened that our two year wedding anniversary was coming up AND I needed to plan a surprise date night.  I had been wanting to do a Chopped Surprise Date Night, but wasn't exactly sure how to pull it off.

After extensive research, menu planning and preparation, multi-store shopping, re-arranging the kitchen cabinets, fully stocking the pantry and fridge and buying new knives......ok, seriously, none of that happened.  I did a quick google search, totally copied a few ideas of other Chopped parties and put together a shopping list.

I gave myself an hour to shop and set up before Sweet Sarah arrived home from work.  And I think I pulled it off pretty well.  More importantly, Sweet Sarah rocked it out in the kitchen and we had a blast.

This was waiting for her when she arrived home

Yes, you can read the reaction, "What the H?"

Sweet Sarah's instructions


Opening the Appetizer Basket

Pretzel Rolls

Water Chestnuts

Pepper Jelly

Brussel Sprouts.  And this is where she began thinking!

She's rockin' the stove here

She roasted those almonds.  [from the freshly stocked pantry, of course!]

Pan Fried Brussel Sprout with water chestnuts, cranberries and roasted almonds.
[and yes, points were deducted for not transforming the pretzel roll.
Oh come on!  It's a competition!!!!]

Round 2.  The Entree Round.  Still smiling!

Not Smiling.  Whole Bean Coffee

Oats

Longboard Lager

Fresh Filet Mignon

Check it.  The beginnings of deconstructed sweet potato casserole.
Chopped apples from the pantry!

Chef Sarah presenting her entree plates.

Coffee crusted, grilled filet, deconstructed sweet potatoes and spiced corn.
She killed it.

Pure exhaustion.  She kept saying she blew her creativity in the appetizer round.

Yes, yes.  the photographer stinks.  FOCUS ON THE SUBJECT PEOPLE!
Ice cream topping

You can read.

Aaaannnnnddddd Dragon Fruit.  [muwhahahaaaaa]

Dare I caption this?



There she is.  The beautious dragon fruit.

Hot chocolate was the 4th ingredient

Chef Sarah OWNING the dragon fruit



Tossing strawberries and dragon fruit in a brown sugar glaze.



Plating her creation

A little topping for the shortcake

Check. It. Out!  Dragon Fruit and Strawberry shortcake with hot chocolate compote.

So proud.  And oh, by the way.  It was delish!

It all wore her out.


Overall, I'd say this was a two thumbs up for SDN.  We had a lot of fun.  And it was a great way to create some memories.

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Backyard photos and technologically blogger/mac challenged

Ahhhhh, I really need to figure out how to get my COOL [it's cool because I said it is, so there].

But I can't.  So that also means, that no one has really seen the updated, final pics.

So without further adieu, here are the before and afters.

Enjoy......we have!

I grouped them in before and after format.  [Again, this is a schoosh of technologically non-advanced, combined with lack of patience to get really good at the cool stuff of photography editing on a mac.  Tutor anyone?]

Front Yard.  The Fence here existed.
But could it be any more yawn inducing?
A nice symmetrical bed, to fit the time period of the house.
I planted 90 tulips behind those boxwoods a few weeks ago.
NINETY, PEOPLE!!!!
I'm sure I'll be getting a phone call from the Dutch in the Spring asking me for my secrets.







 Our driveway is single car wide until you get past the house.
We also had no way to close off the backyard to make it pet friendly.
Aaaaannnnddddd. Voila!  Look at this beauty.  An aluminium framed gate.
No it's not remote.  Yes, we have to open/close it every time we leave.
No, we haven't regretted it yet.  [No, don't ask us in the throes of winter.]
Moving on!



This is opposite side of the drive.
A wasteland of bad grass and terrible drainage.
And what was more or less shared side yard with our neighbors.

Now brace yourself.  It's starting to get good!

The rock garden will be a pondless water feature.
Sweet Sarah and I will build that next year. Sidebar:
As we were going through the design process she said to the landscaper,
"Well if you do everything, what the heck is Holly going to do?
She'll be bored!"  Enter projects on my to do list.



If you look at the above picture you can get perspective of the spot of this shot.
One thing we really like is that all of the barnstone and sandstone was recycled into the new project.

Looks like a different yard!








Man, how I miss that little deck and steps, said no one at The Drayer EVER!

There she be!  She's a beauty.




Sweet Sarah's fire table.  This is pretty sweet.




The ceiling and screening turned out better than I had even hoped.

We replaced a patio door with a french door.
Now I can't wait for spring/summer


The final project.

Raise your hand if you can envision a Sunday nap out here on this bad boy?