Day Off

I took a vacation day today. DSH had to work so I revelled in puttering around the house with only the dogs for company. I slept in (of course) then trimmed the dogs ears. The hair grows so long on their ears that it gets in their food when they eat and then their ears get crusty! Very unattractive. Bailey doesn't appreciate being groomed. She rolls over and makes it difficult. Buck, on the other hand is quite foppish. He sits quite nicely and loves the attention. After the dogs were prettied up I did office work and budget work. My favorite things, believe it or not. My DSH calls me the "Budget Queen". Or if he is feeling nasty about it, he calls me "Scottish" (which I am), but he doesn't mean it in a nice way, he means a tight fisted, cheap, penny pincher! But, it is only relative. I just don't like to spend as much as he does.

I did some yard work, the weather is quite spring like. I'm going to have sore muscles tomorrow. Some was left for DSH. I don't have the endurance or upper body strength to do it all. At least I cleaned up the mess I made. I usually trim, dig, cut, hack and trim some more and then I'm so pooped I can't clean up and leave the mess until the next day. That is frowned upon for some reason! Sorry, honey :D

I did laundry, too. We are having chicken fried pork steaks for dinner. Kind of fattening but good.

Weeds and rain

Today was a weeding day and it started to rain. We came in and had lunch. It is starting to rain pretty hard. Not just a sprinkle. Nope, I did not vacuum or dust yesterday. That's ok. It is still there waiting for me. DSH did mention the dust bunnies everywhere so I will vacuum sometime soon. We will be visiting Margaret, his 90 year old mother this afternoon. She is in a skilled nursing facility and we go just about every week. Sometimes we miss. She has Alzheimer's so she doesn't remember us ever visiting. Very sad. It was supposed to rain late tonight, not now. It is going to be messy running the dogs in the rain. They won't mind!

Spring

HAPPY SPRING!!

Today I am going to do NOTHING. What that really means is I will go grocery shopping and I might, only if I feel like it, vacuum and dust. I am exhausted for some reason. It has been a very hard week at work. I slept until 9:15 this morning and it is 10:30 and I'm still in my jammies. We are having date night tonight instead of last night because DSH has a class for three Thursday nights and he gets home too late to go out. Well, we could but I really don't like going out to dinner at 8:30 and getting home at 10:30. So, I made mushroom chicken last night and we ate as soon as he walked in the door. I am so glad I didn't have to work this morning. I was supposed to work half a day but it has been a little slow at work (hmmm, bad economy?) so no one worked. I am thankful. I needed the day off. Bad part, less money.

Disaster (on a small scale)

Yesterday morning I went grocery shopping for the week and for company that was coming for dinner later that evening. I planned to make chicken enchiladas because our guests requested Mexican food. I make it pretty much from scratch (read: lots of work). But, it is worth it because they are so yummy.

After lunch I made cookie dough so we could bake cookies for dessert. I started the chicken cooking, chopped the onion, minced the garlic then warmed the oil for sauteing. I got the cream and chicken broth warming. It was all coming together nicely. When the onion and garlic was soft, I added tomato puree and chilies. I shredded the chicken and added it to the mix. The filling was kept warm while I heated the oil to soften the corn tortillas. OOOH, it all smelled so good. The table was set for dinner with my good china (actually, the only china I have!). I started cooking the tortillas slightly, dried off the excess oil, dipped them in cream, added the chicken filling, roll, place in lightly greased baking dish. Next one, next one, ouch- burnt my finger, next one, next one, next one, (boy, I'm getting hungry), next one, next one, check how much filling is left the, HEY! What's this????? THAT'S MOLD ON MY BRAND NEW PACKAGE OF TORTILLAS!!!!!! I can't serve this! I don't want to eat moldy food! I have nothing else to serve. They will be arriving in 30 minutes!!!! WHAT am I going to do????? I am soooooo upset. What a waste of food, time money and it's embarrassing to boot.

I call my DSH and tell him we have to change our plans for dinner and when is he coming home (I thought he would be home by now). He knows I'm upset because I'm crying (I NEVER cry).

Now, these guests are very special people. The couple have know my husband's family for over 40 years. We support them as missionaries. He is the president of OC International. I am MORTIFIED!!! The gentleman they are bringing with them is housing them for the weekend. He is 94 years old and his wife recently passed away. She is home with the Lord.

I know they will understand but I still feel horrible. That said, I blow my nose, dry my eyes, change my pitiful attitude, thank the Lord that we can afford to go out and get on with it.

Fast forward a bit. Hugs, kisses, greetings, explanation and then off we go to El Burro for Mexican food. We all had a lovely time except it is hard to talk at El Burro because it is so loud in there and one has to shout to be heard.

End of story: this morning I took my dinner receipt, recipe book, casserole dish of half made enchiladas, molding tortillas and cash register receipt to Safeway and told the manager my story. I came away with a Safeway gift card that covered dinner for five at El Burro and money back for the tortillas and an apology.

DSH said he won't invite anyone over again for a long time! I told him it wasn't his fault. Moral of the story: it's not about me, it's not about my cooking. It's about hospitality and making guest feel comfortable and welcomed. It's about connecting and catching up. That can be done at home with canned soup or at a fancy restaurant. It's the people that matter and giving the glory to the Lord.

Weeds

Today was a day for weeding the garden in preparation for veggies! We have had a good amount of rain this year (PTL!) so the weeds are lush and large. I weeded a small patch under the office window and then weeded the soon-to-be vegetable garden. DSH weeded next to the fence on the outside of the yard. It was looking quite ragged. I won't plant the veggies until May 1st at the earliest. I will put flowers under the office window or maybe a boysenberry bush or two. I haven't found a boysenberry plant yet so that will be the deciding factor.

We took the dogs for a run at the school which was well received. They love to run! We walked around the school quite a few times to keep our muscles loosened up after all the weeding. I know I will be sore tomorrow.

Tonight we are having corned beef and cabbage, early, but that's ok. It will still be good!

Cranky

After a long day taking 90 year old mother-in-law to the doctor, eating lunch in five minutes, taking myself to the doctor (nothing serious, PTL), then going grocery shopping at Lunardi's I stopped at Safeway for things I don't buy at Lunardi's. I found everything I needed and wanted except for one item. During checkout, the cashier asked me if I found everything. I said, "No". She said nothing. She rang up my sale, handed me my reciept and said thank you. I said, "Can I ask you a question?" She said, "Yes". I said, "Why do you ask me if I found everything and then say nothing?" She said, "Do you want someone to check on your item?" I said, "Yes". The person who came to help me said they might get my item in in a few days. I don't get it. Why ask me if I found everything if they aren't going to do anything about it when I don't? Why not check in the back for me? Why not offer to check on the shipping status? Why not order it for me? Why not know if it is discontinued or not carried at Safeway anymore? Don't ask if I found everything if you are not going to follow up! I'm still cranky :( My attitude will improve! I promise.

Hunting

DSH is hunting pheasant today. He got up early and took Mr. Buck, our English Setter. Miss Bailey did not get to go and she is moping around today. She knew something was up yesterday when the hunting gear came out. She didn't get to go because it takes a long time to hunt both dogs and DSH and friend didn't have time today to hunt both dogs. They don't have the same hunting style, one is a flusher and one is a pointer so they don't work well together. They have to take turns. She will get to go next time and so will I.

Tomorrow is youngest step-daughter's birthday party. She turned 25 last week. We are having Monkey Brains (aka stuffed cabbage), spinach salad with hot bacon dressing, fruit salad, rolls, smoked pheasant (hmmm, I wonder how that got on the menu!), smoked pork, smoked sausage, baked brie and poor white cake with 7 minute frosting for dessert. Step-daughter requested most of the selections on this menu. DSH added a couple of meat items because he hates Monkey Brains! This morning I assembled the MB, cooked the bacon and washed the spinach for the salad and later today I will make the cake but not the frosting. The frosting tastes best fresh so it will be made tomorrow while the MB are baking. 11 guests coming over and we only have seating for eight. Folding table is coming out!