I, On The Other Hand, Didn't Get A Single One

 

When we returned from our cruise, one of Baldur's second graders gave him this.  It evidently has been riding around in his backpack since the 14th, as there is a badly smashed piece of candy taped to the back.

It's the thought that counts, right?

Caturday!

For Him The Glass Is Always Half Full

image from Pinterest

Several of us have gone out to dinner.  One of the waitresses – not the one at our table – is a young woman of impressive superstructure, and the buttons of her shirt are holding on in defiance of any known principle of structural engineering.  There are certain...ahem....gaps through which one can ascertain that she owes it all to Mother Nature and not to Maidenform™.

This has not escaped the notice of the volunteer sitting next to me.  He is a massive good ol’ boy everyone calls after his home state.

Me:  Tucky, I know you’re just waiting for one of those buttons to pop.

Second Volunteer: And when it does, it’ll put your eye out.

Tucky: Yeah, but I’ll go blind happy!

Stretching Exercises

An uninvited guest is worse than a Turk. ~ Bulgarian proverb.*

My mother was an excellent cook, although her culinary efforts when I was growing up were mostly focused on feeding nine people on an assistant professor's salary.  She was pretty good at making things go just a little bit further when, as often happened, there were a few extra mouths waiting at the dinner table.

(It may have been the pool table my dad kept in the living room, or it may have been my four sports-mad brothers, but our home was a magnet for kids of all ages. When I was in college, I once conned a friend into baby-sitting for me on a weekend when my parents had left me in charge.  I returned to a full house and a dazed-looking pal who asked me, "How many brothers and sisters do you have, exactly?")

This is one of my mother's more elastic dishes, recreated from memory, and it's also very good.

Keilbasa and Lentils

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 onion, chopped

1 or 2 sticks celery, with leaves, chopped

1 or 2 carrots, chopped

1 clove garlic, mashed

1 bay leaf

1 package of keilbasa, sliced very thin so there's enough to go around

2 cups lentils, washed and picked over

1 can of diced tomatoes 

6 cups of water

Salt to taste

Heat the oil and saute together the onion, celery and carrot until they begin to be fragrant.  The celery and carrot are optional but add a nice flavor.  Add the garlic, bay leaves, keilbasa, lentils, tomatoes and water.  DO NOT ADD SALT YET.

Bring to a boil, turn it to low and let it simmer for 45 minutes or so.  Check it after half an hour and add another cup of water if need be.  You want to keep the water just above the lentils.

When the lentils are tender, remove the bay leaf, add salt to taste, and serve with bread and butter, a big pot of rice, and some kind of green vegetable.  This will serve six amply.

If Turks or a bunch of hockey players show up, add another cup of lentils, another can of tomatoes, and two more cups of water.  Make a bigger pot of rice.

*I imagine the Turks have a similar saying about the Bulgars.

Nu, look!

A shout-out to the lovely Michelle from OCS Design, who not only laughs at all of my stories but also gave the blog a nice new header.

Eye Candy

There's a lady who has crocheted one of the vintage edgings posted here, and put a photo up on Flickr.

Her other work is gorgeous.  I wish I could crochet but right now I don't have the time to learn.

And Some Birthday Wishes

For Amy.

IwonIwonIwonIwonIwon!

I've been entering the weekly pattern giveaway at The Hem Line and this week I won two terrific vintage 50's patterns, one of them a hot jacket!


(A great big thank you to Lisa for this early Christmas present).

I've been tagged

I’ve been tagged for my first meme by GDad. These are the rules:

1. Link to the person that tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

Well, I have #1 and #2 out of the way. Now for the six non-important things.

1. I can play the dulcimer.
2. My right arm is over an inch longer than my left arm.
3. I skipped a lot of grades in school and started college when I was fifteen.
4. I know exactly how many Union Army quartermasters resigned their commissions in the first six months of 1864, and why.
5. I am right handed but knit and eat German-style, with the left hand.
6. I have six brothers and sisters, and I married a man with six brothers and sisters.

I would like to tag the following:

Julie – for leaving the very first comments on my blog.
Nurhanne – for being an inspiration both as a needlewoman and as a human being.
TMom – for letting me be her evil twin.

I would have liked to tag the following people but they were already tagged:

Valerie – because she inspired me to start my blog
Alison – for her encouraging words AND her alpaca.

And I would really like to tag this guy but he's up to his eyebrows in challenges right now and won't have time to participate.

William -- because his blog makes me think and makes me laugh (don't read this post while drinking coffee!)