Oh no ! We have a stowaway!

We.ve made it to Maine safely and here's what I found last night in my bag....

HENRY!

Well I guess it's going to be a week of elf fun!

Faucet Blues

I bought this faucet about 5 years ago...

It was cute and on sale!

It started dripping about 18 months after I got it; so I went to the hardware store and a friendly salesman told me it was very frequent with th ekind of faucet I bought and sold me a washer and spring.

I changed it and we were back in business!

About a year ago it started dripping again, I changed the washer and it continued to drip....I let it be. I didn't know what to do and didn't feel like explaining my woes at the hardware store.

So it's been dripping for a year. Last weekend since I'm already in an hardware store buying a kit to close the pool so I bought more washers and springs.

Wednesday between trying to apply for that job and closing the veggie garden, I tried my hand at changing the washer again.

Guess what?

It

is

still

dripping!!!

So I check out the Peerless website (yes it's a Peerless faucet) and they tell me if changing the washers doesn't work, I need to change the stem....Ok now I'm swearing...oh yes big juicy swears.

So i go to Canadian Tire and buy 2 different stems (we never know) and I peddle back home.

I worked on it for 3 hours! I kept changing the stem, the washer and still dripping. Turning on the water, turning it off...!"/$%?&*(

At one point I decide to try the other stem and I forget to turn off the water, yes you read right!

It was like a freaking GEISER in my bathroom, everything was wet! The ceiling, the drapes, the cat liter, INSIDE THE DRUG CABINET! OMG!

Of course I was drenched! So I manage to close the water and dry everything off with towels. Now I have 10 wet and dirty towels.

So I decide to do a load of laundry....The washing machine DOES'T WORK! WHAT THE F****???

 I try all the breakers and still it doesn't work, I'm about to cry.....

Then I think of reseting the protected outlet and guess what? the washing machine is on the same circuit!

So now the faucet has a new waser, and spring and stem and....

it's

still

dripping!

I guess I need to buy a new faucet....  

TGIF!

OMG what a crazy week! I feel like I ran around like a chicken without a head all week long! I know some of you are a lot busier than I am, but by my standards..whew! BUSY!

I had the basic chores around the house, preserved,dried,froze,vaccum sealed garden bounty, tried to prepare for a vacation and tried to apply for a job.

By trying to apply here's what I mean: One of my dear,dear friends, whom I've had the great honor to work with sent me an email for a job posting at the new company she works for. Being 2010 everything is ONLINE...!"/$%?&*( !!!

So I'm filling out all the fields and I press save and I get an error message that I didn't filed the Sources field....funny I'm sure I did! So I fill it again and save and same message! So on the first day I must've filled that online application 10 times (no exageration). Nest day same thing, I contact the online support...something about my cookies, I fix it, same story....I re-contact them, they say they've fixed it, same story....Ok you get the gist!

So tomorrow I have to find an internet café and try to fill it from another computer.

And admist of all that chaos...the doorbell rings and I see the friendly postman's face and he gives me a box. I wasn't expecting anyhthing.

   I open the box and I find these goodies sent by Linda from A La Carte . All for my B-Day! Two darling au gratin dishes from FireKing, a Betty Crocker cookbook, a sweet card and ...and....and....a Pyrex Autumn Harvest gravy boat! You can't go wrong with Pyrex!

I'm very touched by her gesture and couldn't have arrived at a better time!

Thank you Linda you're a sweetheart!

Now this is what I've been working on in the veggie garden...

I kidd you not this collard is about 5 feet across! I actually sowed it last summer and it didn't amount to much. This spring much to my surprise it showed up again! So I'm not a southern girl and I know nothing about collard greens, ok except the bacon/pork thing and cook it a really long time. So I'm blanching some so I can freeze it and enjoy it this winter. I don't have time to process it all so I hope the plants are sturdy enough to last until I come back.

I was lucky enough to spot this Blue Heron on wednesday while running errands. I'm always in awe whenever I spot them. It's like I see a great treasure, a miracle, which it is by the way.

It's friday night, time for Supernatural (season premiere) and then Triple D (Diner's,Drive-ins and Dives).

Have a great night! :)

  

 

Retro Tuesday: Eat & Stay Slim!

Hello everyone! So yesterday I made the blackeberry jam and it took FOREVER! I am telling no lies good people of bloggyland! FOREVER! lol

I made 14 jars and I enough to fill another 2 cups jar and a small fridgie. That is a lot of jam!

Now on to Retro Tuesday! Today's installment is brought to you by Better Homes and Garden's Eat and Stay Slim lifestyle cookbook. I found this book in the church basement last week.It was published in 1968.

Some illustrations are hilarious!

I remember GranMimi (my paternal grandmother) had one of those butt shakers in her basement...I would use it every chance I got!

We all know that those machines are the BEST way to loose weight!

I had a major gag reflex when I saw this spread...

Tuna salad on an Iceberg Ring! EEEEEWWWWW! That definitely takes me back to my mother's side of the family dinner parties!

 The red drink on top is called Glistening Beef-O-Mato Soup, it's a cold soup. Might be delicious with vodka on a hot summer day...The other one is Cuke-Buttermilk soup, it's cold as well...Pass the barf bags!

If you feel you need more torture you can exercise as well with the help of this book!

I only scanned one page...and if you need to see more write me!

Have a great Retro Tuesday! Go visit my pal Tracy HERE she might not do Retro Tuesday, she might be blogging about her super exciting cooking experience at the Unilever test kitchens, but it's still highly entertaining! 

Monday Mish Mash

I've been having this....

On my mind lately....

and

this...

Yep some fried seafood....It would do mama some good!

Next week at this time I will be walking on the beach...Oh yeeeesssss!

But right this minute I'm making blackberry jam, yum! And running around trying to get everything ready for fall. Like close the pool, pool girl was busy this weekend! And ripping up the vegetable garden, this was a bad season for tomatoes! I have only a dozen and they're still green.

The edamame yield was better than last year and it's all frozen for future meals and snacks, I have 3 batches of pesto in the freezer and a last one on the way. The cukes were great and so were the cherry tomatoes. The lettuce was terrible, oh well! It happens!

I realized that I had a photo album full of recipes I have never tried! So I read them all yesterday and decided to chuck the book and make some room for all the free ones I found.

I'm catching up on No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain  and I must admit he's not as bad as I first thought, in fact he's quite entertaining and makes me travel cheaply! Thank you for visiting Dubai, it's certainly a curiosity and now I know I will never go! Too hot,dry,dusty and I would spend the whole trip saying that they wasted their money on stupid things like the indoor ski resort. Imagine all the money and ressources wasted to operate this place!

I give nicknames a lot to people, sometimes it's upfront and sometimes it's nasty business behind their backs it depends on the case. Now my latest creation is 'Plastic Face' and the recipient of it is Leah Miller host of SYTYCD Canada. Leah is 29 years old and between seasons she had so much plastic surgery she looks frozen in time. I think it makes her look like an older Holywood actress trying to hold on desesperatly to her youth (Read that Mary-Louise Parker? with you vending machine nose?). Leah you ARE young, lay off the plastic surgery! You will so regret it later in life.

Ok about the vending machine nose...it seems that ALL the actresses go to the same plastic surgeon and he only knows how to make one nose! Watch tv and you will agree!

As you may or may not know; I take country line dancing lessons. It is great fun and great exercise!

 Since we learn at least one dance each week, sometimes my brain turns to mush and I get all the dances mixed up; so I turn to Youtube as a learning tool. Yep all the dances I've learned so far are in there; so I watch them and learn and unscramble my brain.

Of all the videos I've watched most are of all asian women dancing, line dancing must be really big over there....Here's a taste!

That is a fun dance but a terrible song! Tennesse Waltz surprise, shhisshhh! Most of the words are in german, the rest in english and every body LOVES that song. So I didn't sleep well last night all I could think of was that stupid song! LOL

And last but not least let's celebrated fall with this....

Pyrex, fall and pumpkin; how cute is that???

Have a great week, faithful readers! :)

1.25

1.25 is what I spent at my fave church basement....for these goodies!

And these...

A whole lot of cook books! Vintage cook books, you know how much I love them!

So I got 6 cook books, 3 small Mason jar (the perfect size for homemade pesto), a unopened bag of peat pellets (perfect for next spring seedlings) and a brand new still wrapped Wrebbit puzzle (I will be taking that one on vacation with Dad).

Not bad for 1.25$ !

Ok now for a SDM tidbit: When I was working there, I didn't just mann the postal counter...I did that while EPM was on lunch break. After she would send me to 'the floor' and she would say it like it was a disease; you know with a disgusted face...

What I did on the floor...I checked the expiry dates on the products. Remove the expired ones and place sale stickers on the ones that would expire in 30 days.

Now I don't want to bad mouth the lady before me (she was really sweet and trained me) but while I was there I threw out so many products the manager was flabbergasted, so it makes me wonder just what she did because I found some that were expired since 2008 ( that is ANCIENT for lube!)

Ok enough for now! Off to grocery shop I go!

VTT: Those jars AGAIN!!!

As I was telling my dad that I got some more Mason jars today… He told me: You really have a thing about Mason jars don’t you?

I read your blog and these beautiful old jars reminded me of my childhood. I used to see them all the time!

And I commented : They must have been exploding all over the place! I recall hearing about peaches and exploding jars (was it in I love Lucy?).

Dad said: Oh yes I remember the explosions! We used to buy maple syrup that usually came in tin gallons, but this one time the maple syrup came in mason jars….We didn’t have room for a cold room so your grandma fix a closet as a cold room. And that summer it was so hot that all the maple syrup jars exploded and there was a sticky mess all over!

I really love hearing stories from my dad’s childhood; he seems to remember all the day to day things that I love so much; so I wanted to share this one with you.

If you want to read the original post...here's the link right HERE!

Happy VTT! Of course I'm linking to Colorado Lady super fun vintage party right HERE