What We Call Goulash

Bring large saucepan water to boil.
Brown 1-1/2 pounds ground beef.
Add 1 large can tomato juice to ground beef along with:
1T. dehydrated onion
3 t. Mrs.Dash
1 t. dill or oregano or rosemary or thyme or all three
salt and pepper to taste.
Heat through but do not boil. Keep on very low heat until pasta is done.
Add 2-1/2 C. pasta to boiling water and simmer 10 minutes. Drain. Add to tomato mixture.

Time to eat a quick and hearty comfort food.
Good with bread and butter.

The Journey of Life

Will Christina get that job at Taco Bell?
Will Megan ever make it home?
Will Randy's toe fall off?
Will the bathroom at Kara and Joel's ever be finished?
Will we ever hear from Jason and Leanne again?
Will Melanie ever hear from Megan?
My, my, my life is so eventful lately.

Christina just has to turn in her application to get the 3rd shift job at Taco Bell cause someone just quit. Just do it Chris! Just think, endless supply of tacos. Yum.

Megan misscheduled her flight times to and from Denver so had to scramble and reschedule. Now she won't have any time to spend with Melanie. Hopefully, she'll make it home without any more mishaps. Burned by a very difficult life lesson in LA. I'll let her update everyone with her own blog if she ever gets home.

Randy dropped a brick on his big toe. It swelled up and turned all red. He had to take vicodin to sleep at night and to wear his boots during the day. Would he go to the doctor? No-"they can't do anything for a broken toe".
He shoved a needle under the toenail to relieve the pressure from the swelling and it felt better for a day and a half. Then it swelled up again and the nail was looking black underneath. Downright yucky. The pain returned with the swelling so he gave in and went to the doctor. They gave him a big(he says 2 liters of fluid) shot in the butt and put him on antibiotics. Then took xrays to make sure the infection hadn't spread to the cartilage. Finally, it does not hurt so much(just don't touch it or breathe on it). The swelling has gone down. But the nail looks about 3 layers thick with the bottom 2 layers black. Really gross. He'll definately lose the nail. Thankfully, he'll keep the toe.

Sorry to hear about all the troubles with the bath/dining rooms. Just think Kara, you are getting two rooms done when you thought you were only getting one. I'm sure it hurts more that Randy's toe.

Jason and Leanne left a message on Randy's phone saying they arrived in the state of Washington alive and well. He sounded very upbeat. We wish them the best of everything and hope to see them again around Christmas time. (With lots of pictures and stories to tell)

Melanie, can't wait to see pictures from the 14er hike. Hint hint. We'll be seeing you soon.

I must go lay some bricks in the sand in as pleasing a manner I can.
The "design" so far is looking very patriotic. When enough bricks are laid I will send a picture. Ya git what ya git and ya don't throw a fit.

You have the whole rest of your life to use what you've learned so far.
I'm not done learning, are you?

Cecile

New patio

I was talking to Ken on the phone telling him about the bobcat. Alex was with him in his truck, and asked him what a bobcat was. Alex then asked him if I held the bobcat by the tail so it could claw the concrete.

I moved all the compost to the new spot in the northwest corner of the yard. All the sidewalk pieces (except the one I broke)that I took out in front of the garage are the two back sides of the compost site. All the topsoil from in front of the garage is now in the compost pile, and the sand we bought is leveled out in front of the garage for the new patio. Cecile worked very hard leveling sand and laying bricks. It will be colorful. We will be working on laying bricks for the rest of this week+. Someday I'll write a fun blog.

Randy is busy.

Randy is playing with a bobcat. Not the kind with claws and fangs but with a fork and bucket. He uses the fork to lift the old sidewalk sections out and place them in his new compost area to create a retaining wall. The bucket is used to haul huge buckets full of compost from the old pile to the new pile and so on.

You get the idea; he's playing in a big boys sandbox.
He's been out there at least 5 hours now. He trots by me with a grin everytime he comes in the house for a glass of water or a trip to the bathroom.
It's getting dark out now. He's going to put the toy in the garage in place of his truck so no one will "mess with it." Heeheehee.

Some People! AAARG!

My job requires trivial knowledge and lots of it.
I know which carrier delivers to which street for over 2000 street adresses.
I know the zipcodes of several towns and burgs in our state and some from other states. Name a town - I'll rattle off the zip. Ask me how much it costs to send a letter to Bangladesh or Nigeria. I know that too. What are the maximum and minimum dimensions of a postcard? got it for you.

But I don't know anything about passports. I've never applied for one myself. The people that process them receive several hours of training. I do however have a piece of paper that lists the names and phone numbers of the offices that do process passports. I even have the forms for you to take and fill out.

A lady came to the counter wanting help with the passport form for her newborn son. I gave her the form and the paper with general info and phone numbers on it and let her know that the people at the locations listed have the training and knowledge to answer her questions.
She looks at the front of the 3 page form and says it only asks for the date and name. I open it for her and show her the inside with all the info she needs to fill in and repeat that I have not had any training on passports and know nothing but that the people at these other phone numbers can help her.
She asked me how much it costs. ?!?! How long will it take. ?!?!
For the 3rd time I tell her she can contact the other offices and talk to knowledgeable people.
She tells me I am very RUDE! She takes down my name and goes off in a Huff. Pffff!

Spanish Rice

1-1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 green pepper, diced
1 pkg Rice-a-Roni Spanish rice mix
1 lg can tomato juice
2 tsp dehydrated onion
1-3/4 cups Minute Rice

Brown and drain ground beef. Add Rice-a-Roni noodles and brown them. Pour in the whole can tomato juice, dehydrated onion, green pepper and spice mix from Rice-a-Roni box. Mix well. Bring to gentle boil. Turn down to simmer and add Minute Rice. Let simmer 35-40 minutes until rice is tender. Add salt and pepper to taste.

We sliced the other half of the green pepper and ate it for the side vegetable.
Makes lots of leftovers for us to eat for lunch and dinner for a few days.

Bricks

Cecile had mentioned that we got some bricks from Paul & Tara. We also had quite a few in our storage rental that Paul & Tara had given to us years ago. We moved those over onto the front walk with the rest of them. We also moved all the bricks from around the pool. Cecile & I added them up - 1600 aprx. Saturday when I was unloading some from the pickup truck I dropped 1 on my big toe. No I did not have my usual steel toed boots on. I will lose the whole nail whithin a day or two. I broke the knuckle again also. The whole toe is purple. I poked a needle up under the nail to relieve the pressure.

We got about 3" of rain last night so I won't have to sprinkle for another day or two.

Jason & Leanne moved yesterday (Monday) A truck and 1 guy came to load them up. He had to call for some more help. We took them to the airport around 5 o'clock. What an adventure.

Randy

I am also moving my compost storage. I am moving it over into the back corner of the yard. It will be a square shape instead of a rectangle. I am hoping to double the size of it. When I take the concrete sidewalk out in front of the garage this weekend, I'll use the sections (already cut) to line the bottom 4' of the sides with then I will have to put 4 x 4's and fencing up for the back sides. I hope I'll end up with another 2' of depth to this compost pile also.

I just got finished picking all the cherries. I now have about 2o gallons of Cherry wine working. I got some rhubarb from Cecile's Dad & added frozen berries fron the freezer (and my rhubarb)
That is about 3.5 gallons that is working also. The grapes suck this year. I won't get much off my vines.

Melanie's bed is done, I am just fixing up some shelves for the headboard. They will be ready by the time we leave for Colorado. Jason & Leanne got a new kitchen table. Some place we have some pictures. Cecile wants one too.

At Home in Michigan

It was hot as heck today but there was a brisk cooling breeze to make the shade beareable.

We had fun at the family reunion.
Aunt Alta's daughter Melinda sat at the "girl" table with Tara, Valorie, Nellie, Rosalie and me. We got to see pictures of last years reunion and Rosalie's kitchen remodel.
Cousin RuthAnn brought beautiful socks she knit. They are made with such tiny, delicate stitches in beautiful colors. The socks are works of art. But at a cost, because she is wearing a wrist brace for carpal tunnel. She will have surgery soon.
After the official reunion, Nellie and Uncle Gabe, Valorie and Stan, Randy and I stopped by Grandma and Granpas for more chit chat. We showed Nellie what we (mostly Grandma) have been working on. The Autumn Leaf quilt for Carolyn and Michael, the fabric bowls and boxes, and future projects. Grandma showed her beautiful green and pink and yellow quilt blocks she is making in class. Then we walked out to commune with the soon to be butchered chickens. The big white ones are so obnoxiously huge. Their legs are super thick yellow tree trunks that make them waddle in a painful looking way. They walk a few steps and collapse with a flump.

Grandma will have surgery on her right hand on the 18th. Valorie will take her in and stay with her and Grandpa a few days to babysit :). Dupuytren's Contracture causes a thickening of the inner layer of skin in the palm of the hand. This pulls the ring and pinkie fingers in toward the palm so they lose strength and the hand can no longer lay flat. Surgery is unsuccessfull 10% of the time so they wait until at least 30% contracture has occurred. Quite often the condition recurs or moves to another part of the hand after surgery. We wish her luck.

Tara and Paul built a brick walkway from the driveway to their front porch with recycled bricks from the gravel yard by their house. It is a gorgeous walkway and took them about 2 weeks off and on.
They offered the leftover bricks to us. We took them of course.
We are making a brick patio in front of the garage. The sidewalk is coming out and a beautiful brick patio will be laid on a bed of sand. There we can sit in the shade of the dogwoods and watch the local traffic.

This is the first "blog" of mine.
Randy will add next time.
Happy reading
Cecile