Chipmunk - September 11, 2023

I am being driven insane by a chipmunk.

Not a real chipmunk, one I am trying to paint with watercolors.  I can't get him to look right.  

But I need him.  My goal is to paint some nature-based (flowers and wildlife) greeting cards and donate them to a local fundraiser that is scheduled for late October.

I finally got his physique somewhat correct and scanned the unpainted drawing so that I could print it and practice painting the watercolors.  Thank goodness for the unpainted scan, for after a little practice, I got cocky with the paintbrush and screwed up the original.  

Labor Day - September 4, 2023

The birthday girl was late to her own party yesterday.  Nanny had said we'd eat at 5, and we usually show up a little early to help with last-minute preparations, but come 5:15 or so, Nanny called and when Sis answered, Nanny said, "We're eating at 5!"  A few minutes later, Sis and her family showed up, and we dug in.

There were no ribs in sight, just chicken.

Everybody liked the coconut birthday cake.  :)

Son #1 invited us to his house for a cookout this afternoon.  The food was good; I ate too much!  

Birthday Dinner - September 3, 2023

Nearly every Friday night, The Sister-in-Law and her husband pick us up (they live just down the road from us) for dinner at a local Mexican restaurant.  We've been doing this for years.  The hostess knows we like a booth, not a table.  The waiters barely have to ask what we want.  It's a great time for a gripe session about whatever drama is going on in the family.  Nanny was the center of discussion this week.

The Sister-in-Law had been out of town this past week, so Friday morning, she walked up the hill to check on Nanny, who has been down with a cold or allergies or something for a month.  When Sis got there, Nanny was on a ladder, trying to pry the back porch ceiling down with a crowbar.  Sis nearly had a fit.  Made her get down, gave her a talking-to about doing shit like that (especially when sick and home alone), and promised that we (the kids and grandkids) will replace the ceiling as soon as the weather cools down.  

During the visit, Nanny invited Sis and the rest of us to a birthday dinner (for Sis) at her house Sunday evening.  She said she had some ribs that needed cooking, and she would be making Sis a German chocolate birthday cake.  Sis tried to talk her out of throwing this birthday dinner, but Nanny wasn't having it.  At dinner, over a jumbo margarita, Sis said, "I even told her that I'm not fond of ribs OR german chocolate cake, anyway, and you know what she said?  'Well, everybody else likes them.'  It's MY damned birthday dinner!" 

We laughed about that, then started planning the meal.  I said I had slaw in a bag to add to the fare.  Sis said, "I DON'T LIKE SLAW, EITHER!" and I said, "Well, everybody else does," and we laughed again.  I ended up promising to get her one of those good coconut cakes that a local grocery store sells so she wouldn't have to eat german chocolate cake.  Her eyes lit up.  

Saturday, when I went to get the coconut cake, I discovered that the local grocery store did not have one.  SHIT!  They had a bunch of other flavors, but not coconut.  Since the birthday girl wants coconut cake, I'd have to make one.  I don't make enough cakes to know exactly what goes in coconut frosting, so I bought one of everything that might be useful - eggs, whipped cream, butter, cream cheese . . . . On the way home from the grocery store, I wished I'd thought to buy coconut cream or coconut milk to go in the boxed white cake mix.  As it turned out, I had a can of coconut milk in the pantry.  No telling how long it's been there, but the can wasn't rusted and it smelled okay, so I put it in the white cake batter.  It had a thick semi-solid layer of coconut oil on top, which I used that instead of the oil, and the milky liquid under it I used instead of the water.  I have no clue how it will affect the texture of the cake, but who cares?  Coconut cake is all about the frosting.  

Sis' frosting is butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar, and coconut milk, with the coconut mixed in and more patted onto the cake after frosting.  Now that I think about it, she probably prefers a fluffy frosting, something with Cool-Whip in it.  And she might have preferred devil's food chocolate instead of white.

Ah, well....

Everybody else will like it.  ;)

Did you miss me? ;-) - August 30, 2023

Sometimes, getting what you wished for turns out not too badly.

You've seen my griping about needing a change of scenery.  The Husband has heard it (repeatedly) too, and he took me seriously enough to tack a couple of days onto a business trip to Nashville so that we could do some sightseeing.  We went to the Grand Ole Opry Saturday night.  Sunday, my cousin came to our hotel, and we visited the afternoon away.  

There were two other things on my list that I intended to do, visit the Tennessee State Museum and the state archives.  I wound up not doing either one, because one of the "side-trips" that the seminar provided was to the Goo-Goo Cluster store.  It was right smack in the middle of the day Monday, which didn't leave enough time to properly do either the museum or the archives, but this tour was a wine-and-chocolate-pairing tour (sanctioned day-drinking!); learning that we'd get to make our own Goo-Goo Clusters sealed the deal.  

The tour group was made up of people from all over the U.S.  It shocked me that most of them had never heard of a Goo-Goo Cluster.  

We listened to a short history of the candy, then donned aprons (which we got to keep) and gloves, and chose our own ingredients from little cups on a table - various flavored nougats, caramel, nuts, crunchy things.  We put them in a mold that was already lined with chocolate, then the candy person sealed the top with more chocolate and cooled it.  I left the store with a hockey puck-sized piece of chocolate, filled with salted caramel, brown sugar nougat, pecans, toffee, and pretzel pieces.  

O.M.G.

Monday night we went to dinner with the Tennessee group.  The food was ridiculously expensive.  

I could have gone to the museum Tuesday, but I didn't.  Ten years ago, I would have hopped in the car and driven myself, but city traffic unnerves me these days, especially in an unfamiliar place.  I might have plastered a few tourists doing stupid sh*t on electric scooters.  In broad open daylight, there were open-air buses full of drunk people, zooming around, thumping music.  Sensory overload!  I stayed in the room and painted.

Yes, I took my paints.

It is good to be home and sitting on the back porch, with only the sounds of bugs and frogs assaulting my ears.

So far, so good - August 24, 2023

This has been a pretty good week, so far.  Since The Granddaughters went home, I've been busy catching up the household chores.  What excitement!  ;)  In between chores and official on-the-clock work, I've done a lot of drawing and painting.  It is the art that has made it a pretty good week.

Another bright spot in my week was getting an official on-the-clock project to do.

Ended the workday watching Granddaughter #2 play volleyball while smooching on #'s 3 and 4 on the bleachers. 

Back to Normal - August 21, 2023

Whew...last week was a whirlwind.

Granddaughters #2 and #3 went home Friday after school.  Their parents made it home just in time to pick them up.  Later in the day, Son #2 came to get all the stuff they left here, including Duffy the Cat.  Friday was a hard day for the parents, leaving their child at a school so far away, but they were also missing the ones they left with us, making coming home a little sweeter.

I was delighted to be rid of Duffy.  He is not trustworthy and will misbehave the minute no one is looking.  His heart's desire is to leap onto the living room windowsill, where there is a row of African violets to knock to the floor.  To keep him from doing that, I started bringing him out to the porch with me, where he can see birds, listen to frogs, and chase lizards that find their way past the screen doors.  He loves it.

Friday while we were on the porch, I decided to vacuum dust and spider webs from the corners.  Duffy was on the other side of the porch, staring at something through the screen.  When I turned on the vacuum cleaner, I saw a flash and heard the kitchen screen door slam, and looked around, and Duffy was scrambling up the screen door, frantically trying to get in the house (which he could not do because the "big door" was shut).  I grabbed my phone and recorded a minute-long video of his unsuccessful attempts, until he finally gave up and jumped down to the floor and hid.  When I began to vacuum, the rumble of the vacuum cleaner across the boards set him on another panic, a few seconds of which I managed to record.

His big heavy butt just about tore the screen plumb off the door.

ROFLMAO.

Granddaughter #3's stomachache abated somewhat mid-morning on Tuesday when her other grandmother offered to come get her for the afternoon and let her help paint a picnic table.  I was somewhat relieved, as I had already tried (without much success) to keep #3 occupied.  The truth was that #3 was missing her parents and was sad that her oldest sister had gone off to college, and there wasn't much I could do about that, short of driving her across the state to be with them.

#2 had a volleyball game Tuesday afternoon at 4:00.  I picked up her and a teammate, delivered them to the school, and stayed for the game.  This was the first volleyball game that I'd ever seen in person, and it was kind of exciting to watch.  Not knowing the rules, I was a little bewildered, but some veteran parents and grandparents helped explain things.  After the game, we grabbed some fast food and came home.

By this time, #3 had decided that she was going to spend the night with her other grandmother, who would take her to school the next morning.  Again, this was a relief, for the next day was my "office day," and I was worried about how I would get everyone (including myself) where they needed to be on time.  Delivering #2 to school and getting to the office on time was easy.

Mid-morning, I learned that #3 had developed another stomachache and was crying, but her mother had insisted that she stay at school, anyway.  The other grandmother picked her up from school.

I had to leave work a little early to get #2 to another volleyball game.  She had ridden the school bus to her house, so I picked her up there and delivered her to school, then went to pick up #3 at her grandmother's house.  #3 and I went back to school to wait for the volleyball game to end, then all three of us went out for dinner.  During dinner, we learned that their parents were not coming home the next day as originally planned, as they wanted to stay and meet #1's roommate, who wouldn't be there until Friday.  This news sent #3 into another tearful disappointment.  

At home, #3 started crying again at bedtime, missing her family.  We cuddled on the couch until she went to sleep.  She slept on the couch all night.  I slept very little.  

This morning, I had to get both girls to their schools (10 miles apart), so we had to get up and get moving a little earlier than usual.  I was worried that #3 would have another meltdown, but she didn't.  I think that, by this time, she is pissed.  When her mother called before we left for school, she sort of flung the phone away when the conversation ended., and I didn't see any tears when I dropped her off at school.

Surely her parents will be home some time tomorrow.  

They may be crying by then.