T Stands for the Prettiest Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

 

The traffic in Worcester at 4 pm, when my class lets out, is brutal. We decided we would go out to dinner at a restaurant not too far away from the museum.

We stopped at the Oak Barrel Tavern. Good food, lively, but not at the early hour that we couldn't hear each other across the table. 

Dessert was something else. On special, they had Pineapple Upside-Down Cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Since the temperature had hit 90°, it definitely was an ice cream day for me.

I was surprised with the presentation as I didn't expect anything so fancy. Yellow cake with crushed pineapple, a scoop of vanilla ice cream on a pond of raspberry coulis. Attached to the ice cream as if it was a fascinator was a very thin slice of fresh pineapple, candied as if it was a piece of glass. A mint feather completed the chapeau look.

The cake tasted as good as it looked. In the background, you can see my Arnold Palmer with a slice of lemon.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

Monet and Me

 

finished the weight panel for the baby gift

How Does Your Garden Grow?

 

With No Mow May underway the yard has become a field of wishes.

Make a wish!

Happy, Little, Time Wasters

 

Ode To Joy

The Friday Five Good Things

 Five good things that happened this week.

1. Himself's birthday dinner courtesy of Outback

2. I saved some of the coconut shrimp and salad from dinner and had it for an awesome lunch.

3. While Himself was out gardening, I watched Remarkably Bright Creatures starring Sally Field.

4. We went out to dinner after my class and got home before the thunderstorm hit

5. Another weekly visit with Teague and not so cold that we couldn't enjoy our visit in her sunroom

How was your week?

TBT Reprints from CJ's Whine and Cheeze

  In 2003, Ma had a stroke. Dad was her full time caregiver until he he had a car accident that totaled the car. So in 2006, I became their chauffeur among other jobs.

At the time, to deal with the stress of running two households and working, I kept a blog entitled CJ's Whine and Cheeze. Egged on by some friends who enjoyed the first read through, you'll see your part when it comes by.

Sunday, October 07, 2007

Just Say No

Usually children pit one parent against the other. If the child wants something and one parent says "no", the child goes to the other parent to try to get his way. At odd times while dealing with my weebles, I have become the parent.

Ma had a stack of letters to be mailed. There must have been a dozen or more. All were being sent to some sort of contest, psychic, or bogus charity. No doubt each envelope contained a check for a small amount, $5 or $10. A dozen letters and this was just one days' mailing.

She asked me to stop at the post office downtown on the way to the doctor's office. I said no. If these were bills to the electric company or property taxes, I would have stopped. (Well, in all honesty, not without a bit of whining. I hate driving downtown.) I thought "no" would be the end of it, but I should have known better.

A short time later, Dad approached me.

"Mother has some letters she needs to mail. She needs you to stop at the post office on the way to the doctor's office."

"Mother" when he's in the "I'm the Father you will do as I say" mode.

I would have used a very common, Bostonian expression, but it isn't politically correct, not that it ever was. I will substitute. What are you on, crack? She just asked me, and I said 'no'. I'm not going to enable her. She's only sending out things to the scammers. She can put the letters in the mailbox for your letter carrier to pick up. Though you should take them, tear them up, and throw them away." End of discussion, though I should have known better.

"She says you always do things for me and not for her." There was a note of glee in Dad's voice.

"Well, you can abuse of her of that notion. I just shot you down too. You can also remind her, she did not push her walker the two miles to the emergency room, or the eleven miles to Market Basket, the twenty doctor's appointments or the million other shuttle runs where my Toonerville Trolley takes her."

Thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother. Easier carved in stone than done. Help me, Lord, I'm trying. There should be a corollary to that rule. Except when they are doing something stupid like flushing their income down the commode. Than thou shalt just say 'no'

Doodling for Stress Reduction

 

On Mondays via Zoom, I participate in a class where we spend a half an hour doodling our stress away. 

The suggestion for the class was to draw a border.  Inside the border to draw arches. In the arches to draw some lines, and then to doodle inside the arch. I used circles or bubbles and then colored in the larger circles.