I'm My Mother's DAUGHTER

 I'm not sure if I need glasses, if I'm oblivious or if everyone else is using Botox, but I've lost the power to read people's faces and determine their age.

I don't mean like 25 vs. 26 or 50 vs. 55  I mean I can't tell if someone is 30 or 50.  40 or 60.  Sometimes, I'll look at someone I'm sure is 24 and think maybe they are really in the 40s?

The people I see on a regular basis become so familiar to me that I'm often beyond shocked when they have a birthday and I find out they're much older than I thought.

I always seem to err on the side of thinking they are much younger than they are.

Maybe it's wishful thinking as I head toward another decade marker?  Maybe I'm hoping that people will surely think I'm only 24 when I'm not.

But I don't think it's working yet.  There have been a few strange comments lately by people who seem to think we are of a similar age and yet I know they are in their late 50s or 60s because of their children's ages, or things they reference that I did not live through (Sputnik, the Kennedy assassination, Woodstock, Reganomics).

Ok, I was alive for president Regan.  I was just checking to see if you were paying attention.

People will make a reference to something and go "you know, like we would do/watch/say when we were kids" and I'm like "no, I only know that reference because I watched it on Nick at Nite or my parents talk about it."

I'm not that old.

A few years ago, this guy made a stupid guess at my age but I thought it was a fluke.

Then there was a TERRIBLE discussion at lunch with my lunch buddies (the people who got moved from my former school to my new school with me- we ate lunch together every day because we were just about the only people who had lunch at that time).  Someone said something like "and it's hard to believe you're 40" and I lost it.  I'M NOT 40!

And then it came up a few more times, possibly as a joke but possibly not.

A few weeks ago, someone who used to camp here came to check out the place and started talking to me about how nothing has changed and it's so much fun to come back and reminisce.  Because he remembered coming as a kid and how we had a horse.  You know, like about a decade ago.

A decade ago?  No, sir, that was my mother's horse and that was more than 4 decades ago!  I never knew that horse.  It was way before my time.

And then about a week later, it all came to a crashing end.  This youthful glow that I thought I had? 

Completely extinguished.

Because I had this conversation with another guy who has been camping here since he was a kid.  Like in the late 60s.  Again, way before my time.

"So what are you, like a sister in law or something?"

"You mean K-ster's sister in law?"

"Yeah, are you her sister in law or sister?"

"K-ster's??????"  I was speechless.  "I'm her DAUGHTER!"

"You're her DAUGTHER?"

"Yes, her DAUGHTER, not her SISTER."

No apology.  No "wow but she looks so young she can't have a daughter your age".  Nothing.  Just a look of shock.

So I charged him double the week's rent and spit on him.

Amazing Salsa Recipe- From The Grocery Flier!

Being an avid fan of saving money, I cannot go to the grocery without reading the circular to see what I should buy.  I seriously have trouble walking in to the store and buying something unless I know every single thing that's on sale.

Which is absurd because it's not like they don't have signs all over the store showing what's for sale!

Sometimes, our Stop and Shop circular has recipes.  I've tried a few over the years and other than the amazing Mediterranean Burgers, nothing else has been that outstanding.

Until now.

Stand back.

Prepare to  be blown away.

You thought the Salsafication of a Watermelon was amazing last summer.

That's nothing compared to this.

I'm pretty lazy, so I didn't type it out for you.  I think if you click on the picture you can get it large enough to actually read it.  If not, leave a comment and I'll do something.

Basically, it's peaches, tomatoes, avocados, jalapenos, vinegar, lemon, lime, onions and probably something I'm forgetting.

We ate it with these Late July quinoa and chia seed chips and it was fantastic.  Have you tried them yet?  I like Late July and they are literally just down the road from me.  Their stuff is super expensive because it's non-GMO and real, but I had a coupon for the quinoa and chia chips and OMG.  Fantastic.

I also ate this salsa for lunch with a different chip and it was just as spectacular. It's one of those salsas that's so amazing you could just sit with a spoon and eat a bowl full of it!

I'm not big on spicy food, so I didn't do much with the jalepenos.  I think I put in two small, canned jalapenos. I know, why canned?  I don't have a good answer.  It was just enough for me.  You could probably add more and have your head blown off but I like to remain intact when I eat salsa and sweating out the bridge of my nose is not something I enjoy.

Good job, Stop and Shop!

Did you link up your smiles?  There's still time!

I'm linking here:
http://www.skiptomylou.org/2014/07/07/made-by-you-monday-211/
http://www.flamingotoes.com/2014/07/think-pink-sunday-172/
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2014/07/clever-chicks-blog-hop-94-with-chicken.html
http://www.sewcando.com
http://www.sparkling74.blogspot.com/2014/07/amazing-salsa-recipe-from-grocery-flier.html

Super Sunday Smilefest #3

Welcome to another Super Sunday Smilefest!  The rules are simple:

1.  Follow me in some way.
2.  Write a post that tells about what  made you smile this week.
3.  Share your post (just one per week) in the linky at the bottom.
4.  Go visit a few other people and enjoy their sharefest too!

Link  up at the bottom of the post.

Here we go!

So, we got a little visit from Hurricane Arthur.  I was really concerned that the wind and rain were going to destroy my flowers and gardens which have just started to look really good.

We got a lot of wind and some rain, but everything seems to be ok!  My pin wheels blew off the fence in the garden, but otherwise, things look pretty good.

And the gardens love a good soaking from real rain.  There's always a noticeable difference after it rains, compared to just the drip irrigation watering.

Always a smile for superb growth in the garden!

It was time for a new gas grill and I've spent months trying to decide what I want to do.  I had some gift cars to Sears from my credit card points, so I finally made the big leap this week.

I expected that I'd just get it in a box and k-ster would have to put it together, because that's what it said online.  To my great surprise, when I got there, the only thing they had were preassembled grills!  K-ster was pretty happy not to have to put it together and I was glad not to have to wait.

Smiles all around!

Because my car looked like this, it took some serious rearranging in the parking lot to make it fit, though!

And speaking of saddles.  After a years long search for a saddle that works for both me and for bony Jackson, I've found the magic fit!  I found this saddle on ebay at the beginning of June and because it was identical to one that someone has at the barn, and which the saddle fitter liked on Jackson, I bit the bullet and took the risk of buying it on ebay.

The planets were aligned from the moment I searched for it because it wasn't very expensive, it happened to be at a barn about 45 minutes from my sister a-ster's house and I was going to visit her like 2 days after the auction ended.  When I said I could pick it up, the girl refunded my shipping charge.

I tossed it into a suitcase and brought it home on the plane and rode in a few times before the saddle fitter came.  It seemed to fit well and Jackson wasn't acting like it was torture, so that was a good sign.

Getting this saddle fitter to come is like trying to find a needle in a haystack- completely impossible, but by some stroke of luck, he was in town on Monday and I was available to go check it out with him.  There's a correction pad that I have that allows shims to be added to the front or back to raise the saddle if it needs to be.  He fiddled with it a little bit and pronounced it a great fit and off we went.

Since I only use it on Jackson right now, and I'm the only one using it, it's made things one step simpler in getting him ready.  It's not the most comfortable thing for me yet, but it's not agony.  It's a feeling that I'm pretty sure I will get used to very quickly.

And it puts me in a better position than the saddle I was using, and that puts a smile on everyone's face.  It's like I can finally get out of my own way!

I will never comprehend potatoes.  You put one in the ground and somehow lots of others come from it.  This year, I have some accidental and some deliberate potatoes.  The reds are deliberate and yes, they were really that red. 

I have a wheelbarrow in the greenhouse where I've been growing potatoes for years.  The part that mystifies me is that I think I pull them out in the late fall and then in the spring, up pop some more green plants and low and behold, there are potatoes!

I pulled these out to make a potato salad and they were fantastic.  The plants are going completely crazy, I expect a lot more.  The part I never understand is what happens if I pull out the big potato that the plant actually grew out of?  How will I know?

And I read something about waiting until the plant dies back before harvesting but I paid no attention to that carefully removed these and then pushed the soil back up.

Smiles all around for potato salad from my own ground!!

Now link up your own smiles!

Breaking And Entering

I get a lot of flack from people because I don't always lock my vehicle in parking lots.  Depending on where I am, I might leave all of the windows down, GASP, or I might roll them up and lock it. 

I grew up in a pretty rural area where we didn't even lock house doors and it took a few break ins (not in my specific house, but nearby) for me to get it through my head that locking the house is necessary.

And even though something was once stolen from my car, I can't remember to lock it 99% of the time.  To this day, I don't think the thing was stolen, I still believe I put it somewhere weird and forgot about it.

And really, I don't worry.  Because at any give time, my car looks like this.

No, I haven't packed for a trip.  This is just the normal, run of the mill scene in my car.

A suitcase, a dehumidifier, a yoga mat, a saddle, t-shirts from the run.  And that's just in the way back (didn't you grow up with a station wagon and call it the way back?)    I figure if someone breaks in, they won't even know what to take first.  Would you?

If I Wanted Tropical, I'd Move to the Tropics!

"The Tropics" .  Does anyone even say that anymore?  Is it even politically correct?  It sounds like a word of the past.  A phrase we can't say anymore because people who live in tropical areas took offense that we lumped them together.

Or something like that.

I can't say I've heard someone under the age of 60 say "the tropics" in recent years, so I'm thinking it might not be a real phrase for today's generations.

Just as everything is looking gorgeous around here:

...we're getting warnings about a tropical storm due to hurricane Arthur.  Hurricane worries in the summer are nothing new around here, but early July is way too early.

Tropical storms for us are usually filled with lots of rain, sometimes really hard rain, and windy gusts that move patio furniture around and break some sticks off of trees.  And, while we probably won't get a hurricane, lots of wind and rain will just wreak havoc with all these pretty flowers!

My favorite right now is this one.

This purple/blue is some unnamed flower that I bought just enough of to make 2 baskets.  It spills out over the basket and every morning has amazing color.  By evening, the flowers seem to die off and then it regenerates in the morning.

I bought it at the grocery store and when I went to get more there was nothing even close to it.  I was pretty crushed because when I saw how it behaved, I wanted to put it in all of my baskets.  There was something kind of like it, but it was too purple, the flowers were smaller and it already looked like it had a lived a whole summer and it was only June.

If you think about it, blue isn't really a color we see in flowers, naturally.  When I was in Belgium one summer, everyone seemed to have tons of this color and their window boxes were like calendar pictures everywhere we went.  I've been on a quest to find it ever since but I don't usually succeed.

I also don't usually do hanging baskets well.  I usually don't put enough plants because I always think they will fill out but then for like 2 months of summer they just look thin and scraggly.  This year, I had to force myself to fill the baskets and they really look much better.

There's another flower in there called Wee Willy and the 6 packs came with a variety of color mixed in. White, pinks and some deep fuscia.  They seem very hardy and happy to be in baskets.

I still have my gardens to deal with, but if you've seen one tomato plant, you've seen them all.  I don't usually do much with flowers, so I thought I'd share that.

And fingers crossed that Arthur doesn't steal all this beauty!

Who Doesn't Love A Package?

A couple of days before school got out, a student and a his special education assistant walked into my room with a small package.  This boy is OBSESSED with UPS and FedEx and waits every day to see if they will come and deliver something.  Sometimes, he gets to deliver the packages to teachers and it's a huge thrill for him.

In they walked with a small box.

I wasn't expecting anything, so this was quite a surprise. 

Not wasting a moment, the student grabbed some scissors and handed them to me to open the mystery package in front of him. 

The address was the school's but instead of my full name, it just said Mademoiselle.  That's very unusual.  And I hadn't ordered anything, so I couldn't imagine what was in there.

As I started to cut it open, I started envisioning anthrax and bombs and anything else that has been sent by mail since 9/11 because really, I hadn't ordered anything.  I wondered if I should just wait.  But where and when would I open it that it would be any safer?

The boy was just about panting with anticipation. 

So, I finally got the box open, and out popped this:

Ummm, what?

No packing slip.  No note.  And the return address wasn't something I'm familiar with.

Just a random box of Kleenex.

The boy was so very disappointed and the assistant was just about wetting her pants.  She said it was the best, most anticlimactic box opening they'd had all year.

My life continues to be so weird.

Discovering My Old Sewing Machine

You might remember that I am a big fan of my Bernina sewing machines and that every so often, I figure out something new about them.

I had a fitted sheet that had lost its elasticity, but otherwise was totally fine.  I decided to make some pillow cases out of it.  As I was folding down the big hem for the open part of the case, I thought maybe that would be a good time to try one of the decorative stitches on  my machine that I've never really used before.

I probably could have put some tear away stabilizer or paper towels beneath it so that it wouldn't look puckered, but I didn't really care since they are just for me.

Then I decided to make a pillow cover for a pillow that I don't like.  It's supposed to be a "chillow" that has some weird cooling substance inside. I thought it would be wonderful because I love nothing more than a cool pillow.  Instead of being refreshing, it's kind of creepy.  The cool never gets warm.

What makes that happen?

And the weirdest part is that there is some sort of echo that happens within the pillow, so I can hear every breath I take, every swallow I make.  I can't use it.

I decided a chillow on the hammock would be perfect and since I don't really sleep out there, I'll  never have to listen to my breathing.

Remember this fabric?  I still have lots of it and thought it would be good for the hammock pillow.

I made an envelope cover which is the only way I think anyone should ever make pillow covers.  They are easy to make and easy to take off for frequent washing.

I used that same decorative stitch here because I was on a such a roll!

All set for chilling out with the chillow!

Linking here:
http://www.skiptomylou.org
http://www.flamingotoes.com/2014/06/think-pink-sunday-171/
http://sewmanyways.blogspot.com

http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2014/06/clever-chicks-blog-hop-93-with.html