Ten years and counting

Today is a special day.  Not only is it my dear hubby’s birthday, but it is also our ten-year wedding anniversary!  Ten years of glorious wedded bliss   I know that sounds like it could be a cliche` but for us, it’s the real thing.  Glorious wedded bliss.  I can count the arguments we’ve had on one hand — honestly.  I am one lucky woman, to be spending her “later years” with such a kind and understanding man… someone who is so thoughtful and loving and willing to give.  It’s actually a great cycle of happiness we have — he is loving and caring and thoughtful, I want to be the same to him, and he’s pleased that I am loving and caring and thoughtful, and he continues on being loving and caring and thoughtful…..  You get the picture.

Way-back-when I knew I had a “winner” when a very simple event happened.  We were on a weekend getaway and leaving the hotel to do some sightseeing.  About a mile away from the hotel I realized I’d forgotten an essential – my camera.  For a few blocks I pondered if I should even mention my oversight, fearing how he might react.  Finally I decided that I wanted the camera bad enough to face an outburst (this was unfortunately what I was used to in my ‘former life’).  I gently said… “you know sweetie, I’ve forgotten the camera back at the hotel….”  and his reply was, “Okay, no problem, we’ll just pop back there and grab it”!  I was seriously stunned. I’d made a silly oversight by forgetting the camera, and HE wasn’t ticked off!  To me, that said volumes about his personality – and it was all good.   I thank God for my wonderful husband and feel like we are as well suited as any two people can be.  I pray for many more years with this special guy, before we all head up to Heaven.

I love you sweetie – more every day!

A bit of disappointing news

This week dear hubby went to the doctor.  He’s been having nothing but trouble with his knees for months now.  We know that he’s got arthritis in both knees and actually has had one total knee replacement done.  The pain he has had lately is under his kneecaps, so we (amateur diagnosticians that we attempt to be) decided that maybe it’s tendonitis.  He’s also had pain in his right upper leg that comes and goes.  The good doctor examined hubby and proclaimed that he probably had pulled a muscle in his right leg, and that physical therapy should help both that and the under-the-kneecap pain he’s been having.  Just to be sure, the good doctor said, “lets get a baseline hip xray on both sides”.  “Okay”, replied dear hubby who just loves medical procedures of all sorts (not).   After the bilateral hip xrays, out we went to finish our tasks for the day.  While at the grocery store, DH’s phone rang and it was the nurse from the good doctor’s office, telling him NOT to schedule the physical therapy after all.  No, instead he needs to make an appointment with an Orthopedic surgeon.  “Severe hip arthritis” was the proclimation.  Bummer.

We haven’t made the appointment just yet, but will of course.  Dear hubby has personally had his fill of orthopedic procedures, but on the other hand, he sure doesn’t want to hang out in a wheelchair if he doesn’t have to!  So… it may possibly be time for a total hip replacement.  We shall see.  Maybe they can try a cortisone shot first (I know it’s just a bandaid and fixes nothing) or maybe an injection of “Synvisc” – which might put off the inevetible a year or two.   Shoot, I’m already married to the “bionic man” – might as well add some more plastic to him!   More updates on this when they become available.

On a more pleasant note, we are going across the mountains next week to visit Gramps and the family for a couple days.  Gotta get over there before the nasty winter weather closes the passes for days on end.  If I was feeling super energetic, I’d cook a big ol’ Thanksgiving dinner for everybody!  So what if it’s a little early!  I’ve invited my boys and their girls to come for Thanksgiving, since I am off work this year, but it looks like that isn’t going to happen.  Sigh.  Ahh well, what can I do but hope for better luck next year?  No worries, we will most likely get together with our wonderful neighbors (as is the tradition here in the past several years) – everyone bring a dish or two – gather around Candy’s huge table and give thanks that we live in this beautiful place, surrounded by fantastic neighbors that we honestly couldn’t have hand picked any better, had we had the chance!

We had a really wicked storm blow through here last night.  Plenty of wind and plenty of rain.  About 11:30 pm we were tucked warmly in bed, both reading away as we are known to do, and suddenly heard a very loud …  CRAAACCCCKKKKK  — thinking for sure the huge “THUD” would sound next – hoping and praying it wouldn’t land on our rooftop — but the thud never came.  This morning we went outside to try and figure out which tree it was that very definitely cracked last night.   Strangely enough, we couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary!   It’s a mystery.

If you celebrate, “Happy Halloween” to you!  If not (like us), then do-do-do enjoy that extra hour of sleep we’ll get tonight as we turn the clocks backward!

Autumnal hodgepodge

You knew we lived in the midst of a forest.  You knew that there are mostly evergreen trees in the forest up here.  But did you know that some evergreen trees lose bits and pieces of their needles/branches?  Here’s a snap of a nearby Cedar tree… each fall, all the cedar trees have sections that turn a rust color and eventually drop off – normally during the wind and rain storms that come in November.   There.  An autumnal bit of etcetera.

Hey, it’s great living in a forest!  You get to see lots of wildlife… like these very tame and laid back deer, lounging in our next door neighbor’s back yard a few days back.  Some days I think the deer are cute.  Some days I’d like to make them all into deer jerky. 

This happy little photo is of the mommy deer and twins that have spent the entire summer going from home to home, devouring every edible flower, tree, and plant  in the vicinity.  They look so content, don’t they?

Last week, on one of our truly glorious autumn days, we took a drive with our neighbors Irv & Elaine over to Anacortes, WA.  They took us to the top of a large hill where Cap Sante Park is located.  We’d never been there – and on a nice day (like we had) the view is stunning.  Here is a photo of our good friends with Fidalgo Bay in the background. 

Irv and Elaine are now back in Florida, where they live most of the year.  You may remember we went to see them last March and had a fantastic visit!   Today we woke to 32 degrees and saw that it’s in the 70’s in Florida.  I’m going to try not to think too hard about that.

Here are a couple of shots of our cat, Jinx.  He wanted to show off his Halloween “Beastie Bands” collar so I told him, “just turn your head the other way so we can see it, Jinx”.  And he did.   By the way, in my humble opinion, “Beastie Bands” are simply the nicest (but definitely NOT the most expensive) cat collars.  Jinx likes to change his neckwear as the seasons change  

I absolutely love Autumn.  It means I can start making more homemade soups and stews, roasts in the oven, and baked goods.  So far, I’ve made a pot of chili and an apple crisp.  I’m thinking tonight might be a great night for my homemade potato soup.  Lots of evenings in the fall and winter, we’ll make our dinner on soup and bread.  I still am intimidated at the thought of making my own bread… not so much in the technique exactly, but in the time it takes.  Ok, I’ll admit it, the technique scares me a bit also.   At any rate, I love to buy (at Costco in a pack of six) the small sourdough baguettes that are not completely baked.  They need about 20 minutes in a 375 degree oven to finish them off to perfection.  This time of year I keep them in the freezer to go along with the soups and stews.

Here is a snap shot of an open-faced sandwich I made for lunch a few days ago.  I got the idea out of my favorite “Everyday Food” magazine – I think it was in an issue about 5 years ago. 

They are cheese, apple, and bacon on a nice whole grain brown bread.  I cooked the bacon first, then assembled the sandwiches and baked them in the oven at 350 for approx 12-14 minutes.  Long enough for the bread to get sort of crispy and the cheese to melt.  I used extra sharp cheddar and golden delicious apples.  You could use any cheese that you like and even change the fruit to thinly sliced pears.  Yep, that would be soooo good too!

On the subject of food, I’m pretty sure you’ve heard of The Pioneer Woman and her website, and all the great food she makes.  Well, she’s started another website, the Tasty Kitchen- described as: “Favorite Recipes from Real Kitchens Everywhere!”  – where anyone can submit recipes that are tried and true family favorites.  It’s a great website and if you enjoy cooking like I do, you may discover a great recipe or two there!

The final subject for todays “Autumnal hodgepodge” is painting. An eight-letter word that describes perseverance and determination.  We moved in to our new home (yes, it was actually new when we moved in) in 2003.  The builder, bless his heart, painted (with a spray gun I am sure) every wall and ceiling in this house the famous off-white color.  Five years ago we ventured into the world of color and painted the guest room a sort of ‘whole-grain-mustard’ gold.  Sounds horrible doesn’t it?  Well, it looks okay and goes well with the “African” theme we sort of have in there.  It took two coats of color to cover the off-white walls.  Fast forward to 2009.  Finally, hubby and I agree that we absolutely must update the walls in our “great room” – which encompasses the living room, dining room, and kitchen.  I kid you not, we made FIVE trips to Home Depot and Lowe’s before deciding upon the two colors.  The painting has been in process for much of this past week.  It is not yet done.  But here are a few shots of the prep and beginning of the debacle!

Taping in the kitchen

The big wall in living room area

Let the painting and 'cutting in' begin~

Obviously, I’ll post some “after” pictures once we are done.  Having the house in total chaos is a yucky feeling, but it was definitely a must.  All I’ll say is we are very happy with the outcome — so far!

Home Sweet Home

We recently arrived home from our 18 day trip to hubby’s homeland, Great Britain.  To be perfectly honest, we were ready to hop that plane and come home about a week before our scheduled flight, but in the end we were very glad we stayed and got to see and do all that we did.

This photo is of our guest house in Penzance, Cornwall (the house with the green sign).  It’s called the Dunedin and was a great place to stay!

Just for fun, here are a few general thoughts about life in England and Wales.  Obviously these observations are from this American’s viewpoint only.

Bathrooms:  Bathtubs are skinny!  They’re about 2/3 the width of our typical tub but significantly longer.  Showers are S.M.A.L.L.   Many have the “instant” hot water system that actually works quite well – only once did I end up having half my shower in cold water, and I’m pretty sure that was user error.  The toilets, well… I found that the majority (but not ALL) just didn’t flush very efficiently.  The ones that did flush well used massive amounts of water.  I was pleasantly surprised that  the toilet paper (called “loo roll” over there) was two-ply and soft.  The biggest inconvenience I experienced was the fact that there are virtually NO plug-in’s in any bathroom for your hair dryer.  I had to find an outlet somewhere else, and only twice was it close to a mirror.  So, HOW do English women blow dry their hair????????

The B&B’s were great for the most part.  We really enjoyed staying in most of them, but…. if you travel around Britain for a couple of weeks or so, and plan to stay in B&B’s, also plan to be served essentially the SAME breakfast at each and every one.  Now hubby loved the traditional “Full English Breakfast”, but me, I hate eating early in the morning anyway, so there is no way I could have choked down the beans, tomatoes, mushrooms, black pudding, sausage, bacon, and eggs every day.  I had toast, sometimes an egg, a few times some bacon with it, or cereal.  Some places offered fruit.  Some, like the place we stayed in York said on their “menu” that they offered fruit and yogurt – but we never saw any the two days we were there.  Guess I will admit that I REALLY missed a bagel.  Or a pancake.  Or a proper hashbrown.  Or an omelet.  Or a donut.  Or a muffin.

Also on the subject of food, there were some odd (to me and probably most Americans) foods listed on menus at both pubs and restaurants.  I just cannot imagine eating:  Roast Wood Pigeon; Gammon; Mackerel; Bream.  I’m not saying these things are bad, I’m just saying they sure seemed odd.     It’s the custom “over there” for the dinner hour to start much later than here.  There were more than a time or two when we entered a pub for an evening meal at 6:30pm and the place was deserted!

Beds:  I will fully admit that I am spoiled rotten when it comes to my bed.  We’ve had our king-sized bed now for three years and I LOVE IT!  I knew it would take some adjustment for us at bedtime.  Guess what?  I was SO wrong!  At the end of each day, we were so very tired that it truly didn’t matter that we fell into a regular double bed at night.  I slept soooo well, and again, it didn’t matter what size it was!!  The largest bed we snagged was a queen size and honestly, it felt huge. Most folks don’t use sheets and blankets on the bed, they use a duvet with a cover, and no top sheet at all.  That’s fine.  I just hope they clean the duvet covers between guests!  (I’m sure they do)

When entering a store, or taking your purchase to the checkout counter, you hear:  “HeyYa”, “Allright”, of “YouAllright”.  They don’t really want to know if you are okay.  It’s just a greeting I guess.

Unlike here in America, newspapers and magazines are alive and well in Britain.  There were “newsagents” everywhere.  I think it’s kind of sad that so many of our daily papers have gone by the wayside, or are going.

Cars:  I was surprised to see quite a few SUV’s in England.  I expected everyone to be driving sub compact cars.  The price of petrol is high however … about 1.08 pound per liter.  There are 3.8 liters to the gallon, so converting the pound to dollars and the liters to gallons, it is well over $4.00 a gallon in US dollars.  However  it seems like there is no crazy push to get car manufacturers to stretch the miles per gallon — they already have!  The car we drove got 47mpg!  That was an average between city and highway driving and it was NOT a hybrid!  To get mileage like that here, you have to have a hybrid.  This makes absolutely NO SENSE at all to me.   It makes me think is that car manufacturers  here in the USA (or even Canada) have some sort of “deal” with oil companies.  Otherwise, why the heck don’t we have cars that routinely get great gas mileage over here?  I think there is a lot of stuff we, the general public, don’t know.

Clothes:  They tell you not to wear white tennis shoes (“runners” over there) or you will be spotted instantly as a tourist.  Shoot, you pretty much see it all in the way of clothing… but the big fashion trend right now is leggings or very tight jeans/pants.  Now that may be all the rage here too, but I sure didn’t notice it like I did in London.  Heck, I remember not so long ago (back in the early 90’s) wearing leggings and then long sweaters or tunics.  Well, the leggings are back, but make them black, and wear boots – knee high boots, and make it all black.  Black, black, black.  You can’t go wrong if you go to London and wear black.  You’ll blend right in.

I think I’ve rambled on enough about my perception of life in England.  We had a fantastic visit, but like I always say, there is NO place like Home Sweet Home.

Across the pond

Tomorrow is finally “the day” we fly to London and begin our travels around Britain.  Today is full of last minute packing… emptying the fridge… setting up kitty supplies for our wonderful cat-sitter (thanks Karen!),  moving the fish to our fish-sitter’s home (thanks Susan!), checking and re-checking our lists of what to take.  Tomorrow will be a VERY long day, but somehow we’ll survive it.  It will all be worth it – I hope!  Yes, of course it will!!

For those who may be interested, we did start a travel blog that we hope to keep fairly current while we are in Britain.  If you’d like, go check it out at www.buzzingaroundbritain.blogspot.com

The above picture is one I took back in September 2004, of Warwick Castle.  What a great place!  We won’t be going there this time, we’re off to find new sights and new adventures

I’ll be back to this blog when we get home!  See you soon!!

August delights

I think this time, more pictures and less verbiage!  First off, some of my FOOD pictures.

I do love to try a new recipe from time to time, and this one I found I had many versions of.  Italian Bread Salad, or “Panzanella”.   We thought it looked yummy for a warm summer’s day, so I gave it a try.  Seen in the picture are large bread cubes from what the recipe called “country” bread, but it was actually a round loaf of Italian rosemary bread that I picked up at Trader Joe’s.  English cucumber, red onion,  provolone cheese, plum tomatoes, cannellini beans, and fresh basil.  I made a simple vinaigrette as the recipe suggested, using red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt & pepper. 

I tossed it all together, waited the suggested two hours (for all the flavors to mingle and the bread to soak up some of the dressing), and then served it up.  Dee-lightful!!  You can see the recipe I used by clicking here.

Recently (this past week) we took our motorhome out on another adventure.   Each time we go we learn more and more about the features of our newest acquisition.  This time we stayed away two nights and I got the chance to try out the microwave/convection oven.

The motorhome does NOT have a “regular” oven, so I needed to see what baking in a convection oven might be like.  Well, here is the result!  My version of a Plum Tart.  It was nice and brown and properly baked – and was so tasty.  I only wish we’d had some vanilla ice cream to go with it.  I got my idea for this dessert here. 

Yesterday we stopped by our favorite farm stand and picked up a HUGE bag of these “Romano” green beans.  We buy them every year and LOVE ‘em!  This year I decided to buy A LOT and freeze some for wintertime.  So here they are, just out of their blanching, then ice water bath, waiting to be packaged for the freezer.  YUM!

Now for some motorhome  pics from our last trip.  We headed a little further away this time and ended up at an RV park on Willapa Bay, very near the open ocean.   We were able to park waterside, and this is the view we had!The little island you see in the above picture seemed to attract a very large amount of seagulls–Guess there really is something to that old saying… “birds of a feather, flock together….”

More  scenes of  “camp life” – just hangin’ out in our fold-up camp chairs…

Dear hubby enjoying the campfire and the sunset.

We had a nice time and would have loved to have stayed longer.  Someday, yes someday if we are truly lucky and blessed, we’ll get to take a three-month trip around parts of the USA and Canada.  That dream is still way off in the future…. but there’s nothing wrong with having a few dreams!   Hoping you are enjoying your own “August delights”!

We’re going to Britain

York Minster, York, UK One of the places we hope to visit!

In just a little over two weeks, we are headed “across the pond” to visit my dear hubby’s homeland, Great Britain.  Five years ago we took a forever memorable trip to parts of England, Ireland, and then did a tour (bus tour through Insight Vacations) of Europe.  This time it’s just Britain, and for the most part, England.   We are heavily in the planning stage of this trip (yes, I know it’s kind of late to still be planning!) and are finally beginning to get excited about going.     With that in mind, we decided to keep a blog, strictly devoted to our journey – so we started one over at Blogspot.com.

So, if you don’t see much on here for a while, it’s because we are:    A) away   and   B) blogging on a different site!  Please check it out and follow along with us on our trip at:  www.buzzingaroundbritain.blogspot.com

Of course I’ll be back here after the trip – this blog is NOT going away.   There will be more to come… and if you know me (like I know myself) I will be SO ready to come home by the time our 2+ weeks in England has come to an end.   I do love to travel, but I also LOVE the comfort of home.

Ninety-five years and counting

It’s been way too long since I paid some attention to my blog!  I guess it’s the busyness of summertime.  For a wonderful change, we’ve had some real summer weather here this year… it was warm enough last week for me to seriously wish we had air conditioning!  Happily, those “too hot” days are past, and we have temps only in the 70’s forecast for our future — I must be a true “westsider” now because 72 feels like heaven to me, compared to last week’s 100.  For those who may not be familiar, Washington State is divided by the Cascade Mountain Range…  the mountains separate our state into two distinct climates.  Eastern Washington – where I was raised – is warm and very dry.  Western WA is quite the opposite most of the year, cool and damp.  At any rate, last week we made the trek to Eastern WA to help my dear Dad celebrate 95 years of living!

Obviously, it’s not everyday that someone manages to reach the age of ninety-five.  That said, in my family (on both sides) we have a great history of hanging around into our ninetys and sometimes into the hundreds!  Guess you’d call it “good genes” — but whatever it is, we are SO thankful that we had Mom till the age of 91, and that we still have Dad – at the ripe old age of 95.   Certainly a celebration of sorts was in order!  It wasn’t a big affair, just a small gathering of family and friends at Dad’s home.  We decided to do a simple barbecue on a warm summer day, have a nice cake, and make some homemade ice cream.   After a lot of thought….. “what kind of cake would Dad think is ‘cool’?” … I came up with the idea of a crossword cake!  Every morning for the last umpteen years, Dad sits down with his newspaper, a cup of coffee, and his crossword to start the day.  My dear husband found a website where you could pick some words that were applicable for the situation and the program would automatically put them into crossword form.  In this way, we created a small crossword puzzle with words that we thought described Dad.  Then I gave the crossword and the clues to my friend and neighbor Karen (also the world’s best cat sitter!) who is the head cake designer for a large grocery chain in our area.  She is ULTRA-talented!  I knew my idea was in good hands, and that she would come up with a really cute cake to help make Dad’s big day even more special.   Yup, that’s Karen—>

She worked very hard on the cake and here’s how it all turned out in the end

Some of the words we chose were:  Worlds Greatest Dad; Gramps, Happy Birthday; ninety five; sportsfan; reader; tireshop (the business he used to own); and Hob – Dad’s nickname.   This picture shows the crossword all filled in… but when we opened the cake box, the crossword was empty, with the clues printed on rice paper on top the cake….  Dad had to fill it in, using edible ink pens!  We were all eager to help!

This shot shows my brother on the left and my son on the right, helping Gramps with the crossword

Another picture of us, cheering Gramps on as he gets another clue right!!

He worked hard to figure out all the clues and get the words filled in.  In fact, the rule was NO cake till the crossword was complete!  It was good fun!

I love this pic!  It shows three of the great men in my life!  My precious son, my dear husband, and my fabulous brother.   Oh, and don’t forget the RETRO barbecue…. we used that thing when I was a kid – and heaven knows that was a LONG time ago.  It was fun to dust it off and fire it up again.

Yes, there were some family members who couldn’t make it for the big event – my oldest son, my oldest brother, my dear daughter in law – we sure missed them all, and I know Gramps missed them too.  Still, a good time was had by all, despite the very HOT weather and the fact that the bbq food had to be brought back inside due to the heat.   Here’s a final shot of  the Birthday Boy.  We are so thankful to still have him, and with God’s grace, we’ll do it all again when the old guy hits the century mark!!!

Flickr fun

Just for a bit of fun, I made a Flickr mosaic.   I typed my answers to the following questions into Flickr to see what pictures would appear.  Above are some of my favorites.   Here are the questions & my answers, starting from upper left:

1. What’s your favorite drink?   COFFEE

2. What is your favorite color?   PINK

3. What is your name?   SUSAN

4. What is your favorite type of food?   MEXICAN

5. Where is your dream vacation?   AFRICA

6. What is your hobby?   READING

7. What would you have liked to be when you grew up?   A DANCER … like a Rockette in NYC 

8. Name something you love.    THE OCEAN

9. What word best describes you now?   CONTENT

Make your own Flickr Mosaic at www.bighugelabs.com    It’s a kick

A happy birthday

The older I get the less excited I am about birthdays.  In fact I’ve begun to dread them, ignore them for the most part, and simply sweep them under a rug.  This year it seemed like we had a lot of stuff transpiring on and around my “big” day, and as it happens, people in our neighborhood decided that I got one HUGE present on the commemoration of my 54 years of life.  Contrary to popular belief, it wasn’t really a birthday gift.  Here is a snap shot of “it”:

It’s our “new to us” Winnebago Journey motor home.   This thing looks huge, and it sort of is!  We hoped to find one that was 32 to 34 feet long, but ended up with this beauty which is 36.  What an adventure we had… or should I say journey … to get it home from Olympia WA.  We navigated rush hour traffic through Tacoma and Seattle… trucked on through Everett, and then up the narrow, winding roads to home – where it barely fits in our driveway.  We’re not allowed to keep it at home for more than three days (homeowners association rules), so it will be moved to it’s home away from home on Saturday.  We are planning our first outing in July – can’t wait!

One of my goals is to get our cat, Jinx acclimated to the motorhome, so he can become a real RV cat!  The previous owners had two RV cats that went along with them.  One was an indoor/outdoor cat like our Jinx, and we were told that he adapted very well to the RV lifestyle.  I’m still not convinced that Jinx will truly adapt, but we are sure going to give it a try.  Here’s a picture of Jinx getting comfortable with the new RV. 

He actually had a great time exploring every possible nook and cranny!  On the counters, the sofa, the dash, the bed, and everywhere in between.  I do worry a bit the first time he is inside and we start up the big ol’ diesel engine…. he may go WACKO!!  Again, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that he will adapt to the sound of the engine, the movement, and also the fact that he will most certainly have to stay INside while we are camping.   That’s a lot for a kitty to have to learn to live with, so we shall see.

What I really got for my birthday was this gorgeous bouquet of flowers from my precious husband – the best husband on earth (well, I think so!!).  Then we went out to dinner at Anthony’s, a popular seafood restaurant here in the Northwest.  I splurged and got the fresh Alaskan King salmon, and ohhh la la, it was delish!

Having a birthday at my age has lost it’s thrill, but there’s still something to be said for just plain happiness and contentment.  I’m lucky because I’ve got them both…. and great kids and step kids, the world’s greatest husband (oops, already mentioned him), fabulous neighbors & friends, a great job….  well, you get the point.  I’m a lucky girl and I really DO know it.