Grandma's Kitchen Table

Thursday's Favorites Fare

       Photographic evidence that I actually suggested a shopping trip today.  Really.  I did.  I was running low on shown items and they were having a sale...five bucks each through the weekend (in case you want to make a trip yourself)...yes, indeed...my favorite vanilla scented items at such a nifty price on a rainy day seemed like a great deal.  What's not to love about smelling like a warm vanilla sugar cookie every day?  That, and Matt talked me into taking him to get a new pair of sunglasses which was right up the street from the warm vanilla sugar store.  It so counts as a trip to the mall this month. 

READING:  A Separate Peace by John Knowles...Matt has this on his reading list for Guerin for the summer and I have never read it, so I figured I would sneak in reading it while he was at swim team and/or otherwise occupied.  From now on when people discuss the "subtext" of this book, I will have read it and actually have an opinion.  Yes, I will have an opinion, one way or the other. 

LISTENING TO:   The sounds of silence...no, not the one by Simon and Garfunkel, but just the sound of silence here at the house (well that and the ceiling fan whirling about in the family room as I sit typing here, oh, and the sound of the keys as I type, oh, and the sound of Matt running water in the shower, oh and the sound of Pippin and Vash chasing each other about for control of a particular toy, oh, and the sound of Rusty barking outside, and oh, and the sound of Alex rattling a box as he is getting a snack from the pantry, and oh, the sound of Mark as he is puttering about doing odds and ends as it is rainy and NOT a golfing day...okay, it is not so silent around here, but probably as good as it gets for this time of day) as yesterday was so hectic and busy that for the next hour I am just content to sit and listen to nothing. 

COOKING THROUGH:  Le Cordon Bleu at Home (Le Cordon Bleu School of Cooking); Baking:  From My Home to Yours (Dorie Greenspan) 

FAV NEW FIND:  Okay, this is probably hard to describe, but it is a little quarter cup measure that is flat on one side with the measuring increments on the other and a little spout also on that side.  What, you say, is the use of this?  Well, when one is chopping things and you need, say a quarter cup, or less, (very common in a lot of my recipes), you can lay it down on its side and drag it along to pick up the required amount.  A regular measuring cup does not do a good job of this because it is round and the actual contact surface doesn't work for dragging along and scooping up things.  Oh, just trust me:  I love this little gadget...99 cents for such a great little kitchen helper.  Don't you love people who invent stuff like this?  You are so going to want one of these...I can feel the envy beginning now...okay, maybe not, but next time you are trying to scoop up a small amount of chopped something or other, you will think of this and say, "Maybe, maybe...." and I promise not to say I told you so.

FAV THING TODAY;   Watching the Olympic Trials in swimming each night.  CSC had two swimmers qualify, Trish and Jessie, both eliminated before finals, but still very fun to have them go to Omaha and actually compete!  Matt says it is difficult watching swimming...he just wants to swim, not WATCH.  He says that when he watches he can feel the tension in his own body when the swimmers step up to the block, get into position, etc. and that when they hit the water, he can just feel it like it was actually himself doing it and swimming.  It's just a lot of fun to watch swimming when you have a swimmer and you see those really great Olympic swimmers swimming the same strokes. 

GOING TO:    Carmel Fest starts today; Elwood for 4th of July family gathering of Mark's family on Friday and again on Saturday; Connor Prairie for Symphony on the Prairie on Saturday night; Buddy and Laurie's 4th of July Bash on Sunday; Indianapolis Indians game on Monday, and numerous places between times...what's up for the weekend there?  Happy 4th of July!

PRAYING FOR:  Unwed mothers, that they may be able to nurture their children themselves or that they opt for adoption, please join me. 

Whisk Wednesdays: Mayonnaise and Salade Messidor

      Whisk Wednesdays has rolled around again and this week we all (flash:  we are up to 7 of us now)  made mayonnaise (page 31) from the book Le Cordon Bleu At Home, using it in a recipe for Salade Messidor (Summer Harvest Salad), found on pages 30-31.  

     

 

      I had never made mayonnaise before, so I was eager to make this and learn something new.  It was so easy...I just followed the recipe from the book exactly and it came together just as promised, tasting very fresh with a little kick to it that jarred mayonnaise does not have going for it.  Very fresh tasting and nice...definitely a keeper.  I may never buy mayonnaise in a jar again.  Very simple to make: I still cannot believe how simple this was to make.  Who knew? 

       More artichokes...okay, now we are talking, as I am developing a new taste for artichokes. I cannot explain the difficulties that the others are finding with these artichokes (you won't be able to stop laughing at Shelley's take on the whole week's assignment on her blog today), as I am sailing through this artichoke business and loving it.  All I can think is this: artichokes are a big thistle...you don't eat much of it at all...most of it is "waste," but what is edible, and what you do eat, is heavenly when cooked correctly...a melt-in-your-mouth goodness that is addicting. 

      This recipe also consisted of several other vegetables, i.e. green beans, cauliflower, celery, and tomatoes, in a mayonnaise sauce and served in a prepared artichoke bottom (like a little cup).  A few chives from my herb pots sprinkled on the top, and we had one very excellent little summer salad, really, it was very good.  I would do this recipe again in a heartbeat.  (Thanks, Mary Ann for the lovely tea towel with the rooster and my initial "K" on it...it goes really great with this dish, don'tchathink?  So difficult to find tea towels, etc. in the wine color palate!)

      As there was no photo of the Salade Messidor recipe in the book, I did a web search to try to locate one and stumbled upon an excellent blog called Will's Eats by a Canadian gentleman who is cooking his way through the same cookbook we are using, albeit that it is only a sort of review for him as he has actually attended the Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris.  Hop on over and check it out sometime.  (He gave me permission to link his site for your convenience.)   And to Grant, thank you for the lovely email and thank you very much indeed for allowing me to skulk about both your site and your flickr photos...I learned so much! 

      Because this recipe made a lot (a whole lot) of mayonnaise, and I decided to be judicious in the amount I actually used in the salad, I decided to give it a go in some of the ways we use mayonnaise (from the jar) around here, i.e. a light spread of it on a sandwich, in deviled eggs, in American potato salad, and since we had a roasted turkey breast for dinner last night with leftovers, turkey salad for sandwiches, all on small plates and in small bowls if you are trying to gauge sizes...you have probably all figured that out by now, right?  The sandwich bread would be baguette slices.    

      Have to say, yes, I do, that it was all absolutely delightful.  May have to switch back and forth between the homemade mayonnaise and the big H with the blue lid, which you just can't beat for quick convenience.  Give it a go, see what you think. 

      You can check out the other Whisk Wednesdays' blogs if you would like to do that by clicking Shari, Shelley, Sara, Becke, Glennis, and Teanna.

      Next week's recipes are:

Class 13, Part 1 • Billy Bi aux Paillettes (Mussel Soup with Cheese Straws) on page 311-313 (Puff Pastry directions on pages 209-210 and technique photos and instructions on pages 542-543) 

      The Cheese Straws are actually optional as Shari has done them already in another part of the class that we missed, so while those aren't required for next week, I am planning on having a go at them as I have never made puff pastry from scratch before, and this is, after all, why I am doing this:  to learn these things just for fun!  Come and join us...who doesn't love a good soup?

Tuesdays with Dorie: Apple Cheddar Scones

       This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, from the cookbook Baking:  From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, is Apple Cheddar Scones, can be found on pages 32-33, and was chosen by Karina of A Floured Apron.        

      Scones...oh, boy!  The recipe was easy to follow, it all came together as described.  The only thing I changed was that instead of 12 of them (very large), I made 24 as that seemed like a nice size portion for a scone around here. I decreased the baking time by about 7 minutes for the smaller size.      

      Since we are using a great deal of "butter allowance" at Whisk Wednesdays with the French cooking, and the cheese in the recipe already sported a dairy fix, I decided to make some cinnamon applesauce to serve with the scones instead of the wildly liberal display of buttery goodness shown in the photo in the book.  The guys approved the switch and enjoyed the scones with applesauce and/or a little cheddar sprinkled on top for a melty goodness. (The cheddar on top was an idea from my friend Ulrike in northern Germany.)  For me, the scones stood well on their own without butter or any bits of accentuation at the end.   In the top photo, are pictured three of the small scones (this is a small dessert plate they rest upon):  one plain, one with grated cheddar sprinkled on top, and one with the homemade applesauce.  The recipe is a keeper.  Definitely. 

      Next week's recipe is Double Crusted Blueberry Pie, was selected by Amy from South in Your Mouth and can be found on pages 361-363 of the cookbook.  

      Click here and then click on individual bakers' blogs at the site if you would like to see more of this week's recipe and the various ways people interpreted their quest.  Or, better yet, you can click and join us!  See you there.

30 Days

        Lovely sunshine in the flower garden this morning.  Very pretty.

      Just a quick pop-in here as I have a busy day today and then MNO this evening with the girlfriends, which I am really looking forward to as we have all been going different directions these past couple of weeks and need a chance to just sit and get caught up with all the newsy bits going on with all of us. 

 

       Wow...June is ending already, 30 days passed in a flash. (Flash floods for some, unfortunately.)  I can see the summer melting away very quickly, how does this always happen when winter drags on and on?  I think I need to be living in a warmer climate...like say California.  Just the sound of it is mesmerizing.  I can't remember a June where it rained quite so much...more days than not...and it sure plays havoc with our backyard swimming and heading to the golf course on a regular daily basis. 

      Didn't go to Iowa to help this weekend...for one thing, it is very difficult to get in and out of CR at this point, some areas need special clearance, no hotels, sometimes no water, buildings being assessed, marked for demolition (like 400-500 of them), and everything pretty much clogged up enough without someone wanting to go and check up on her sister.  1400 blocks of the city have been affected by the flood.  It's sort of like entering a war zone, you need special clearances and all for certain areas and the rest is pretty much "on hold" also. 

      Karen's house had to be gutted down to the studs and is going to be rebuilt after it "dries out a bit" she says, so it will be months before she can get back into her home.  Everything in the basement and first floor was a total loss.  She is trying to be optimistic, but it is heartbreaking losing everything like that after all her hard work on the house, etc.  She is fortunate to have friends with whom she is living in the meantime, but she is eager to just get it all behind her.  As far as going out there, I guess it will need to wait a bit. 

      So, what did go on around here this weekend?  Well, laundry, always laundry, and some cleaning, some organizing, some yard/garden work, some pool maintenance, some grilling, some cooking, some baking, some knitting, some scrapbook organizing, some reading, some swimming, and the Steve Miller Band concert.  I will leave it to you to guess who did what when.  Everyone was home at one time or another, but not always at the same time, so it was just a big mishmash of activities around here.  How about there, what's going on where you are? 

      I'm on my way out of here...hope you have a great day...see you in July!

 

5 Swimmers Posing as 5 Skaters

      There have been some recent complaints observances by the younger set that I have been featuring "too much cooking and crafting" and not enough of "us" on the photo sections of this blog.  So, here's a post today featuring last night's street fun in front of our house. 

      Daniel, Matt, JJ, Michael, and Nick (back to front in photo) decided to take up skateboarding and learn "some cool tricks."  (If any of the parents and/or coaches are reading this, I went totally unheeded in my pleas for them to consider they had sectionals, state, and junior nationals all coming up and that a sprained ankle, wrist, arm, or broken anything, etc., was not going to be adding any advantages to the quest for swimming superiority.  I tried.  They ignored.  I tried again.  Deafness amongst them all.  They are all taller than me, so I pretty much just had to call it a day.)   

        Daniel making a run, Matt managing to stay on and stay forward, JJ figuring out the best way to get injured (indeed, the only injury of the evening, requiring admistration of Bandaids over bloody parts), Michael for the most part, at least at this juncture, just cruising nicely with not a lot of super fancy work, and Nick showing off some fancy moves zigzag fashion up and down the street doing way too many fancy bits for me to get anything close to a good photo.  Nick, I have to say, hands down, clearly the winner of any sort of award for daring, drive, and determination resulting in dazzling us all with his new moves out of the water. I say "out of the water" as he has been dazzling us with moves in the water for years...as have the rest of these guys.

      And, because he is a favorite among many of the young ladies who check-in here at The Table, a nice photo of Daniel cruising with a good deal of grace and ease. (For those of you who don't know Daniel, you might remember Daniel's blog photo from December when he and Matt went with Daniel's parents and sister to the Christmas Spectacular all dressed up in suit coats, etc.)  Daniel, also known as, "the blonde god of swimming," by many of these said young ladies, is quite a nice gentleman as well.  As are the rest of these young men.  Always proud to know them.

      No real serious injuries from the night, so let's hope they have that out of their systems and all stay healthy and injury-free for all their stellar swims in July.  You hear that, boys?  No?  Well, I tried.

     

26 Fancy Swimmers and 1 First Place Trophy for Team Indiana

         Okay, here are some fun photos (by request) taken at the Arizona Elite camp and meet last week. The first photo is Team Indiana, 12 boys, 14 girls, and the 4 coaches standing in the back.  Matt is first on the right side in the first row.  Lauren is second from the left side in the second row.  Mike is the first one on the left side in the third row.  (Those are our Carmel Swim Club swimmers that swam for Team Indiana.)  

      The second photo is of the pool at the Brophy in Phoenix.  They loved swimming here with the mountains in the background, really fun for them to see that each day. The temperatures were record breaking for the days they were there, between 110-118 degrees.  Matt said it was HOT.  He said the pool stayed cool, however, as it has some sort of system of sprayers that constantly keeps the water moving so the surface does not heat up from the sun.  The pool water was nice and cool the entire time they were there.  He didn't seem to think the rippling interfered with the swimming as it was "not like a wave pool or anything like that," and they shut the sprayers off during swim competitions.   He was very interested in this whole set up.

       

      While Team Indiana, boys and girls, brought home the trophy, I have not been able to locate a photo of the girls with the trophy, and so far, only this one of the boys with it...but please note that the girls had just as much to do with bringing that first place high points trophy home as did the boys.  I played around a little with this trophy photo so that there was not quite as much skin showing...it was originally body length, so I will post it as this, which basically shows a bunch of shirtless swimmers and a good portion of the trophy.  I know...you all wanted the full version, but my diligence says this shows the trophy and the boys enough to get the gist of it, Kevin wearing a drag suit over his Speedo brief, so that seemed okay.  12, you say...but there are only 11 in the photo...the 12th is Sam, who is taking the photo.  Reading from First Row, left to right, are Addison, Alex, Ben, Tyler, Mike, and Raymond; Second Row, left to right, Blake, Cameron, Joe, and Matt.  (Cameron was Matt's roommate.  Mike had Tyler for a roommate.)  In the Back Row, center is Kevin, yes, THE KEVIN himself, Matt's state swimming nemesis since they were very little, and the one who can swim circles around anyone else in the pool...you just stand back and watch with gaping mouth when he is in the water.  (He and Matt are on friendly terms, so we say this with the utmost respect.) They all had a fantastic time and will be seeing each other again at upcoming meets, so that will be fun for them.     

      The coaches were great...the kids learned a lot and they also had a lot of fun.  Here is one the bits of fun...each swimmer got a can of this to open on the day of his fastest swim.  What is in this lovely little can?  Fruit.  The boys, of course, just thought this was the funniest thing going.  Again...who can figure out guys and what makes them tick?  Obviously the coaches figured it out as the boys really got a kick out of toting their can to the meet the day of their fastest swims and opening and eating it before they swam.  Apparently there was just enough silliness to keep everyone happy without losing focus on the reason they were there...a good combination.

      All in all, Matt had a wonderful time and brought home five new best swim times.  Lauren and Mike were equally successful and the trophy just made it all that much sweeter.  Now, onto the sectionals in July and another try at that elusive 100 Back Jr. Nat. time.  Keep your fingers crossed!

 

Thursday's Favorites Fare

     Lovely bushes down by our pool with such fantastic color for this time of year. 

READING:  Le Cordon Bleu at Home cookbook...trying to work through some/most/all of the recipes and techniques that Shari has already started doing at Whisk Wednesdays by August...sort of a catching up to where she is so we are on the same track from that point onward.

POOLSIDE READING:  T is for Trespass by Sue Grafton...love to read mysteries around the pool waiting for Matt to finish swim practices.

LISTENING TO:  Steppenwolf, Born to Be Wild -- always makes me think of the National Lampoon's Vacation movie with Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold loading up the Winnebago and sliding this in his 8-track with his family in tow for their yearly summer vacation...usually worth a giggle.  Second giggle in that movie is the Marty Moose song.  Actually, you pretty much just giggle your way all through that movie.  May have to dust the cobwebs off that one and have a "goofy movie" night soon.  Let's see, better have Drop Dead, Fred also...my boys are way, way under-appreciative of DDF, however...they just don't see the humor in that one at all.  It's probably an acquired taste...don't have any idea where I acquired it.

COOKING THROUGH:  Le Cordon Bleu at Home (Le Cordon Bleu School of Cooking); Baking:  From My Home to Yours (Dorie Greenspan)

FAV NEW FIND:  Artichokes...who knew?

FAV THING TODAY;  Thursday morning swim practices are at an outdoor pool from 6:00-8:15 a.m., so I like to go a little early on the pick-up side of the run and watch the kids swim as usually there is a game or some sort of silly competition at the end.  Just a nice way to start the day, watching all the swimmers having a good time together at practice.  The girls always go nicely to the locker room afterward, wringing out their wet hair as they go, chatting quietly among themselves.  The boys at this age are a different story...lots of horseplay and talking in loud voices, hollering in the locker rooms, etc.  It's like chaos in there...I have no idea what they are doing, but it sounds like a big fraternity party on their side of the shower rooms.  Things come flying out the door, goggles and suits are thrown all over the place, water bottles go scuttling across the floor...I am sure you get the picture.  When they get into the car, however, I usually ask, "What was going on in there this morning?"  Answer:  "Oh, the usual."  Me:  "How was practice?"  Answer:  "Fine."  Fairly quiet most of the way home until Matt thinks about where he might want to try to talk me into going out for lunch...Thursdays being our "lunch out day" and all.  Guys...who can figure them out? 

GOING TO:   Everyone is going different directions this weekend, but I am staying home and really need to attend to my desk...let's just say I have a little pile here and there on it of things that don't seem all that important on the bright sunny days of summer, but that I really should file, tend to, and otherwise act upon.  Other than that, I hope to swim, get caught up on some of the LCBAH cooking techniques that Shari is way ahead of me on, do some scrapbooking, knitting, and quilting.  OOOHHH...I like the sounds of all of it. 

PRAYING FOR:  All the people in Iowa trying to put their lives back on track with the receding flood waters.  Please join me.  Maybe I should go out there and help instead of hanging around here...maybe I should do that.  Might, just might.

Whisk Wednesdays: Sauce Béarnaise and Coeur de Filet Henri IV

      Well, well, well, this week's Whisk Wednesdays meal, Class 12, Part 2 was • Sauce Béarnaise (Warm emulsified sauce derived from Hollandaise sauce) page 250; • Coeur de Filet Henri IV (Filet mignons with artichokes, and Béarnaise sauce) from the Le Cordon Blue at Home cookbook, pages 250-252.  I also included the Pommes Pont Neuf (French fries) on page 253 as they were shown in the photo and included in the directions. 

      This was all most excellent...even on the first go around, we are counting this a resounding success (well, except the part with Justin).  I am still amazed at how easily this all came together and how great it all worked.  A keeper.  Definitely.  (Except the part with Justin.)

      The featured part of the meal, of course, since we are learning sauces, was the Béarnaise sauce, and let me tell you, it seemed quick and easy since we made Hollandaise last week, working up to a few more ingredients in the Béarnaise, such as peppercorns, shallots, white wine and white wine vinegar, tarragon, and chervil.  I only made half the recipe as I knew that we could not be trusted to only eat half if the whole was sitting there...four tablespoons of butter between three people seemed much more diligent than eight, and if truth be known, four Ts would have worked with four people also...there was plenty to go around.  

      We bought only two of the four 7 oz. steaks the recipe called for as Matt was not here, and while Mark can put away a 7 oz steak, Alex and I can easily split one with leftovers for Pippin and Vash.  We guessed right on that.  

      I have never before shopped for, selected, peeled, or cooked artichokes, so this one was a new experience for me.  It went well...turns out artichokes are very easy to prepare with the Le Cordon Bleu instructions, and step-by-step photos on page 520.  While they look a little strange beginning to end, the taste is wonderful, and I will definitely be making artichokes more often, with or without sauce, and hopefully without Justin, more on that later.

      The potatoes were also very easy...who knew you could make French fries from scratch?  Okay...confessional gasp...I have only fried anything about twice in my life as we are not big on fried foods around here, but the guys do like French fries, so I am thinking this might be a skill I could use in the future.  (I am not a French fry person, but hey, if I cooked them, I figured I should eat one, right?  I ate three!)  I liked the idea of cooking those potatoes twice, once for 7 minutes to cook them and then again right before serving for 2 minutes to color and crisp them.  Works for me...a lot less to do at the end of prep time.  

      I made a little lemon/mustard/evoo/white wine vinegar salad dressing for the watercress. 

      Dessert you ask?  Sorry...our chief dessert eater was not home from Arizona when I made this meal on Sunday night, so we opted for Monday being a dessert day.  (On Monday I made the TWD Mixed Berry Cobbler as I could be certain that at least half of it would be gone that day with Matt home, the remaining half the next, which is a good thing with cobblers.) 

      If you would like to check out the other Whisk Wednesdays bloggers, click Shari,Shelley, Sara, and Becke...yes, we are up to 5 of us now...why don't you join us?  We'd love to have you.  We all sort of have our own little niche within the group...Shari is the researcher/writer/photographer/creative guru; I myself am just trying to follow the book nicely and learn as I go (something I have been always fairly good at in the past); Shelley is trying to hone more cooking skills which match how she enjoys eating and she is trying to do so in a budget-minded way that fits in comfortably with her family's likes as well; Sara is The Wine Maker's Wife and is helping to educate us all with pairings of wine and food; and Becke is a Foodie with a blog that would beg you to even try to disagree with that statement.  There's room for everyone at Whisk Wednesdays, so you needn't fear that you won't fit in, because you will! 

      Oh, and for those of you who want to know about cooking without Justin, I highly recommend it.  Justin is our plumber...apparently artichoke leaves, stems, and whatnot, are NOT a good match for garbage disposals...now you know, if you didn't before, like say, me.  As my husband said, "Maybe 'we' should have thought this through a bit before jamming those down there."  You think?  Yep, maybe "we" should have...so nice of him to use the "we" instead of the "you" form as I felt badly enough for not thinking that through...really, one little moment of thought would have been good here, hindsight and all.  So Justin and I recommend adding artichoke peelings to the list of "potato peels, apple peels, celery, onion skins, carrot peels, rice, noodles, etc., etc." that do not belong tossed into the garbage disposal.  I did ask Justin just why we have disposals if we can't put those things down there...his reply was something along the lines of "To keep me in business."  Hmmm...am thinking those "starch and string-related items" are probably going directly into the garbage can here from now on.  Hindsight and all. 

     Please note:  The photo shows the meal on a small salad plate, i.e. those are not the largest French fries in the world, but rather I like to use the smaller plates for myself, so if you are gauging size/portions, please keep that in mind, it is not a regular dinner plate.

      Next Week (July 2) from Le Cordon Bleu at Home 
                • Sauce Mayonnaise (Basic emulsified sauce) page 31
                • Salade Messidor (Summer Harvest Salad) page 30-31

Tuesdays with Dorie: Mixed Berry Cobbler

      This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe is Mixed Berry Cobbler and can be found on pages 416-417 of Dorie Greenspan's cookbook Baking:  From My Home to Yours.  It was chosen by Beth of Our Sweet Life.    

      This was fun to make.  I followed the directions exactly, no substitutions in ingredients or measurements.  It went together easily and quickly, baked for 60 minutes, and came out looking just like the photo in the book (well except for the star in the middle and the swirly fireworks design that I put on mine...4th of July coming up and all) with the rustic looking crust and the overflow of berry juices running along the outside of the pie plate.  

      The taste was wonderful, not too sweet, lots of berry goodness, and Mark and Matt declared the crust topping "just perfect" and thought the whole thing was a nice accompaniment to one or two scoops of French vanilla ice cream.  (Alex is hypoglycemic so he rarely eats more than ice cream for dessert now and again.)  If you don't care for crust, hmmmm...wonder who that could be....this one is easy to slide off so that you are left with just the berries and a little ice cream, really good also.  It is not at all wasteful if the husband of the house loves crust and will readily add that to his plate.  (It's good to marry the right kind of guy in matters such as these.)   A keeper.  Definitely...both the cobbler and the husband! 

 

      Next week's recipe is Apple Cheddar Scones, chosen by Karina of The Floured Apron  and can be found on page 32 of Dorie's book. 

For the 500th Time Today: There Will Be No Post

      You can stop emailing me and calling me and dropping by...there isn't going to be a post today as I have been very busy...too busy for my usual "throw something together in 15 minutes and get it posted" manner of blogging.

      Oh, okay...here's a bit of catch-up and then that's it for today, but I will have TWD ready to go fairly early tomorrow so you all can check and not have to keep checking back to see if I posted or not. 

      My sister Karen is back in her house in Cedar Rapids...sort of.  She has access to the house, but the water was flooded up to counter top level and everything on the main floor is pretty much ruined...and muddy.  She is working on getting all the utilities, etc. back in working order and when that all gets taken care of, she can have the inspection and then she will be allowed to live in her upstairs while she gets her downstairs back in order.  Yuck...what a lot of hassle.  She is, however, "surprisingly upbeat" (to quote the movie "How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days"). 

      Team Indiana brought home the First Place Trophy for the Arizona swim meet, and while they did take a photo of the boys with their trophy, they did it while the boys were still all in their drag suits and Speedo briefs, so I am just not sure I should publish that on this site as there is a whole lotta skin showing...but, they are swimmers, and they are all in really good shape...I mean it is not like going down to the local pool and seeing guys in Speedo briefs trying to LOOK like they are in shape...these guys really ARE in shape.  Still thinking.  I know...I am still a prude...but one of those boys is my son and I know the rest of them, so this is not an easy decision.  The guys all want me to post it.

      Oh, and by the way, the photo is of my Hollyhock garden...all purples and whites and a kind of pinkish purple...very pretty and lovely looking.  I just love Hollyhocks as they are so old-fashioned and remind me of my Grandma Ohl and my Aunt Minnie...both who had Hollyhocks in their gardens while I was growing up in Iowa.  Lovely memories.

      Enough...I have a great book waiting and bedtime is definitely 10 as my alarm goes off at 5:15 a.m. whether I am well rested or not.  Goodnight...hope you enjoyed your post!